Really?

Saw this commercial tonight -- I didn't realize that Lucky Charms are healthy and nutritious. Marshmallows? check. Sugar? check. Corn syrup? yup. And a bunch of other stuff that I would not normally have in my pantry.

This has got to stop. Really.

30 days, people!

{peeling thirty}

Ready to look, feel, and perform better in about 1 month? Click HERE.

My challenges: No 'paleo' pancakes and black tea for 30 days. I encourage you to start your Whole30..... NOW.

DFlood's Paleo BBQ Sauce. Oh. Yes.

1 small can tomato paste (organic/no additives)
1.5 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp red wine vinegar* (optional)
2 tsp chili powder,
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp of agave or maple syrup
3 tsp of liquid hickory smoke extract (found in ketchup aisle).

Stir altogether and simmer on low for 10-15 min

*the vinegar is fairly acidic, you can omit this and just add water instead

Give it up for Audrey!

This week is Food Allergy Awareness week. 3-5 million children have food allergies, and as many of you know, Audrey is one of them (dairy). I encourage you to join us this week in bringing awareness to this issue and 'giving up' a favorite food as part of the campaign (and beyond). We'll be giving up nuts this week (on top of our gluten-free/dairy-free paleo diet). Let us know what you're giving up! And do check out the Food Allergy Initiative. Thanks!

Mini Quiches

4 eggs

about 1/4 cup diced white onion

1 diced chicken sausage (Sweet Apple flavor @ Trader Joe's)

handful of chopped spinach

2 tablespoons salsa

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350; lightly grease cupcake pan w/ olive oil. Combine eggs, onion, sausage, salsa and spinach in a bowl. Mix well. Evenly distribute mix in cupcake pan and bake for 20 minutes. Makes about 6 mini quiches. You can also add peppers, mushrooms, bacon, etc. Best served with caffeine :)

Audrey enjoying her brekie

Comfort Food

Everyone needs a little extra love, right? Here's an easy dinner fixen' that will fill your tummy and warm your heart (trust me, it will).

Paleo Shepherd's Pie:

1lb Lean Grass-Fed ground beef

Cinnamon

Cumin
1/4 cup white onion, chopped
Fresh veggies (I use chopped carrots, sliced radishes, chopped white mushrooms, and chopped celery)
1-2 sweet potatoes
Organic Vegetable/Chicken broth (optional)
Olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 420. Heat up skillet w/ olive oil. Add onion and let simmer for 5min. Add meat. While meat is browning add in a dash of cinnamon and cumin -- begin to boil peeled/sliced sweet potatoe(s). Once meat is brown, add chopped veggies. Reduce heat and keep on burner for about 5min (you can add broth here for added juices... that's what she said). Once sweet potatoe(s) have softened, remove from heat and drain excess water. Mash potatoe(s) and beat w/ hand-mixer (you can add almond milk if you like a creamier consistency). Pour meat/veggie mix in casserole dish, distribute evenly. Using a large spoon, scoop the sweet potatoes on top of the meat/veggie mix. Spread evenly w/ spatula and then 'comb' with fork. Throw it in the oven for about 15-18 minutes. Serves many, great for left-overs!

No excuses!

Time and time again I am asked the question regarding the dreaded 'r' word: recipes. I don't mean to sound like a paleolithic elitist, but it shouldn't be that hard to figure out what to eat when you're dealing with REAL FOOD. This past weekend we attended Robb Wolf's Paleolithic Solution Seminar in Seattle -- Robb touched based on this topic of folks not knowing what to eat or getting bored/lost with their paleo options. As a group, we put together a paleo food matrix that provides years' worth of meal ideas (yes, YEARS). Click on the image above. There are 251,680 different paleo meal combinations right there, that's 689 years worth of different recipes. Just throw in the four groups (meat, veggies, fat, and seasoning) together in a pan, cook for 10-15 minutes, and voila! Easy, quick, yummy, food. And that's just for 4 combinations. You can add whatever fruit/additional seasonings/etc. you'd like. Be creative! No more excuses! Have fun and eat well for life.

Dan's Delicious Paleo Burgers

Ingredients:
1.25 lbs free-range, grass-fed beef
1/2 onion, chopped
Dash of Garlic powder (to your liking)
Dash of Paprika (to your liking)
Coconut oil
2 large mushrooms, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
Almond milk (unsweetened)
Fresh Spinach leaves
1 tomato, sliced

Mix beef with onions, garlic powder, and paprika. Form into patties. Heat a skillet and lightly grease with coconut oil. Sear each patty for ~60 seconds on each side. Remove patties from skillet and place in the oven on high broil, roughly 6 inches from the top of the oven, for 4 minutes. Remove from oven and leave on broiler pan.

Place remaining onion, mushrooms and bell pepper in skillet, and saute with a little almond milk. When veggies have absorbed the liquid, turn off the heat.

Lay spinach on the plate and place a burger patty on it. Top with sauteed veggies and tomato slices. You can add whatever other veggies you desire - pictured with steamed carrots here.

Recipe Catch-up

Those of you with facebook: you have most likely seen most of these under my notes, but thought I'd share the love nonetheless.

Paleo Pancakes

Quick (and delicious) Paleo Pancakes:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 C almond butter
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• olive oil

Mix all of the ingredients except the coconut oil in a bowl. Stir well, until you have a uniform batter. Next, use a bit of olive oil to grease a non stick skillet. Spread some of the batter into the skillet to form a pancake, then cook over low/medium heat. Flip after 1 to 2 minutes, being careful not to burn them!

Sprinkle w/ peeled chopped apples and cinnamon

Also, check out Steve's Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes -- soooo good.

Zone info: 3 servings at 1/2 carb block, ~1/2 protein block, 15 fat blocks

Crepes

These are pretty much the best things ever.

You will need:
4 eggs
4 Tablespoons Coconut Oil (Melted)
2 Tsp Agave
4 Tablespoons Coconut Flour - (I use Bob's Red Mill brand)
6 Tablespoons unsweetened Almond Milk
4 Tablespoons Water
2 Tsp almond extract (vanilla extract works, too)
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
fresh raspberries
organic maple-syrup (topping)

Heat coconut oil in non-stick pan. Add all other ingredients in glass bowl (excluding the raspberries and maple syrup). Mix well. After the coconut oil is melted, add into ingredients and mix well. Pour about 1/3 cup in the hot pan. In order to flip the crepe, use a thin spatula (or try flipping the pan). Once cooked, wrap crepe with raspberries inside and sprinkle a little coconut flour on top (both for presentation and flavor). Drizzle syrup or agave. ENJOY!!!

Chocolate. Brownies. Sauce.

Brownies
Time: 15 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking

• 1.5 oz unsweetened baking chocolate (get all organic chocolate, no added sugars/chemicals)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce (again, no added sugars)
• 1 whole egg plus one egg white
• 1/4 cup ground almonds (we use Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour brand)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut shreds
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup walnuts (optional)
Over low heat, warm the coconut oil and chocolate
in a small pan. Be careful to stir often, as the chocolate
can easily burn. Stir in the applesauce, cinnamon,
and vanilla extract. Mix well. Add the eggs, continue
to mix. Then, add the ground almonds and coconut
shreds. Once everything has mixed well, it is ready to
bake.
You will need a baking dish around 8 inches square. Line
the dish with aluminum foil, then grease the foil lightly
with coconut oil. Dust it lightly with ground almonds.
Pour in the brownie mix, and then place the dish in the
oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Be careful to not
over bake, check it at around 20 minutes.
Let the brownies cool before serving. As this recipe
avoids any of the typical binding agents, the brownies
will be very soft unless they are chilled.

Chocolate Sauce
Equal Parts Dry Baking Cocoa and Maple Syrup - 1/4 cup
Add a little Almond Milk (unsweetened) for smoothness - <1 Tbls
Add a little Vanilla Extract (optional) <1 Tbls
Scale to any amount you want - room temp is runny, put it in the fridge to thicken up

**Yes, these are paleo. No, you can't eat them everyday :)
***Big THANKS to Mike for these yummy treats!

Meat Pizza

For the 'crust':
2 cups Ground almond flour
2 tsp Olive Oil
2 whole eggs

Beat the eggs first, mix all the other crust ingredients together until doughy. Press into a pan (we just used a baking sheet w/ parchment paper). Bake for 12-15 min @ 400 degrees.

Meat Sauce:
Simmer some white onions first (in 1tsp olive oil)
Lots o' meat (we used about 1lb ground lean/grass-fed beef)
2 small cans tomato paste
2 small cans of water (use empty tomato paste cans)
Spices: Use what you like, we used about >1tsp of the following: cumin, oregano, basil, pepper, garlic powder, cinnamon (I use cinnamon in most everything).

Cook sauce on the stove until meat is cooked and sauce is thick. Once crust is done in the oven, remove and place sauce on top and add vegetables/fruits to your liking. We added 1 red pepper, 1 orange pepper, and some nice olives. Very easy to make. Very meaty. That's what she said.

Muscle-Up for Dan-o

No Farms, No Food

{Hillsboro Farmer's Market}

In honor of Public Health Week, I ventured out to catch a viewing of the documentary film, 'Ingredients'. The film highlighted on topics such as maintaing a sustainable/local food system and how local farms/farmers are becoming more and more scarce (this is not good). The U.S spends more money on medicine and less on food. Far too many 'foods' have become industrialized, so much in that they're not really foods at all. In fact, 17,000 new 'foods' are introduced each year -- more like processed crap, and not so much food. It's no wonder that by 2020, one out of three children will be diagnosed with Type II diabetes.

According to the film, one-fifth of fossil fuel omissions come from the industrialized growing, packaging, and travel of the food we consume. The beef industry in the U.S. has cut its operation costs in half since the 1960's with cheaper labor, cheap/low quality animal feed, and the process in which they use multiple (if not thousands) of cows for the beef contained in one package that you buy at the grocery store.

What can you do to help and be healthy? Buy local. Now that spring is here, the Farmer's Markets are a great way to not only contribute to the sustainability of local farms and businesses, but also to keep YOU healthy (no chemicals, no hormones, just happy, natural food). Another route to buy/eat locally is to take part in Community Supported Agriculture. Also, get your kids involved. Children will be more interested in eating their fruits and veggies if they take an active role in producing them (take them to a local farm, create your own vegetable garden in the backyard, etc.).

Although buying local may cost more, think of it as an investment for your health.

www.ingredientsfilm.com

Egg White Paleo Scramble

{local eggs 003}

I love dishes that are super easy to make. This morning after the WOD, we made a quick n' easy egg-white scramble that included the following: egg whites (obviously), sweet apple chicken sausage (Trader Joe's), red bell pepper, 1 mushroom (diced), and fresh spinach leaves. Throw in the veggies after the whites have been cooking for a little bit. Really good with salsa, too. We devoured it before I could take a picture, sorry (not really, though).

We go through eggs relatively fast, and try to switch it up with the egg whites which are less fatty. We get our carton of ew's at Trader Joes.

Broiled Maple Salmon

Dinner 3.29.10:

Salmon fillets
Lemon Juice
Basil
Pepper
Garlic Powder (not too much)
Maple syrup

Set oven to broil on High. Lightly drizzle fillets with ingredients listed above. Heat olive-oil in a pan on stove-top, sear each fillet for 60sec on each side. Remove fillets from pan and broil on a broiler pan on high for 5 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Easy!

We added a mixed green salad w/ avocado and raw baby carrots and used olive oil + lemon juice as a dressing.

Dairy & Food Allergies

{cow polaroid}

One of the main reasons why Dan and I opted for paleo-living is that it is a non-dairy diet. Why no dairy on paleo, you ask? Well, dairy was not readily available to our primal ancestors (I don't think they were domesticating wild cows, let alone milking them... maybe if they did have Fruity Pebbles, but I digress). For many, giving up dairy seems to be the hardest transition in going full paleo -- for us, this was an easy transition since we already lived in a dairy-free household.

Back track a year ago, we found out (the hard way) that our 11 month daughter has an anaphylactic response to dairy and milk protein (casein). Since then, we've learned (and enjoyed) a milk-free kitchen and lifestyle and have avoided any cross-contamination issues by nixing dairy altogether. I could go into more detail on why dairy isn't necessary, and is actually destructive -- not just to those with allergies like my daughter -- but to everyone, however the fine folks at Whole9 have already done the hard work for me so I don't have to. Check out their Dairy Manifesto (really, it's worth reading).

While paleo-living has allowed us as parents to breathe a sigh of relief with the no-dairy component, keep in mind that paleo is a diet that CAN include the consumption of nuts, eggs, fish, shellfish, and certain fruits and veggies that others may be allergic to. Make modifications where needed, ALWAYS read labels (if labels exist, ideally paleolithic foods do not need labels), and work with your doctor/allergist. Dairy alternatives we use when/if needed: almond milk (unsweetened) and water (works well with cooking, substituting in equal amounts, i.e. 1c milk = 1c water). Until our daughter is tested and cleared for nut allergies, she consumes soy milk (not Paleo, soy=legume).

So, with no dairy, where do we get our calcium? Carbohydrates in the forms of fruits and vegetables. The 'typical' American diet doesn't support the same fruit/veggie intake compared to that of the Paleo diet. Hence, the American diet/FDA compensates its shortcomings for calcium through dairy, as opposed identifying the real problem and upping the amounts of fruits and veggies. Who are they fooling?

Cow, if you're reading this don't worry -- we don't want to hook you up to a milk-pumping machine all day. We just want to eat you. [JF]

Certification Week!

{avocado}

In one week, I'll be taking the CrossFit Level I certification - a two-day seminar that lays the foundations of CrossFit training and instruction. There will be lots of preparation this week - including reading the 117-page training manual (yikes) and getting in a daily WOD between now and Thursday. But the focus of this post will be a breakdown of the food I'll be fueling myself with over the next seven days in order to maximize my performance next weekend.

Though one of the hallmarks of the Paleo Diet is not having to count grams, calories or meals; I still prefer to do some tracking to ensure that my intake is substantive (I'm lucky that I don't have to worry about eating too much, but rather not getting enough). For those of you familiar with The Zone (books written by Dr. Barry Sears), I prefer to use the blocking system for tracking my food intake. Though Paleo and The Zone do have stark differences, they both spring from the belief that we should be fueling our bodies with the food they are engineered to eat (where Paleo says, "don't eat that," Zone says, "eat less of that"). Zone blocking is built around the three macronutrients and essentially works like this:

1 block of protein = 7 grams
1 block of carbs = 9 grams
1 block of fat = 1.5 grams

A typical guy my size (6'2'', 174lbs), doing a standard workout routine (think running and crunches a few times per week) would eat 16 or so blocks of all macronutrients each day. Since my training regimen is relatively intense (CrossFit workouts 5-6 times per week, usually with a heavy lifting emphasis), and since my metabolism works relatively efficiently, I'll eat somewhere between 25-28 blocks of protein per day. My carb block count usually matches that. However, my fat intake is much higher - somewhere in the 50 block range. This is primarily to provide additional energy on top of what the carbs give me.

Protein examples: ground turkey or lean ground beef (JF and I prefer to season w/ garlic powder, paprika, cumin, chili powder and sometimes cinnamon - we typically throw this on some mixed greens w/ salsa and guacamole), lean chicken breasts, beef or turkey patties, salmon, tuna, tilapia, etc.

Carb examples: sweet potatoes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, salsa, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, apples, cantaloupe, banana.

Fat examples: avacados, olives, coconut and olive oil, nuts (almonds, walnuts and pecans), almond butter, and LOTS of sunflower-seed butter.

Lots and lots per day. I usually eat every 2.5-3 hours, w/ "big" meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Okay, time to go. It's now been 3 hours post-workout and I'm starting to smell. [DF]

So, what is Paleo?

This might be a cop-out, but it's a good, quick summary on what we're doing here at the Flood household. I included some other links that I frequent as well. Just watch it. [JF]

Welcome!

We're back. But, this time it's different. Sure we'll include some family updates, photos, and quirky you-tube links, but mostly the conversation will be focused on fuel (aka food). Dan and Julie (the Floods) have been living a paleo lifestyle for close to 6 months now. We get a lot of questions from friends, family, co-workers, and other CrossFitters at our gym on what this all means. We thought this space would be a good platform to share what we know, what we're still figuring out, and a place where you can join the conversation if you choose to do so (we really hope you do, we don't like wasted space and awkward silences... well, I do like awkward silences).... um, yeah. [JF]