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.