Old Fashioned Upgrades

Kid's Meals and Kale Chips

2012-02-25T09:45:00.001-06:00

This week I got a question, "Isn't it annoying to buy two sets of food so that you can feed both you and your kids?" No idea what you mean there? Should I feed my kids crap I know is not healthy for them just because they are kids? Should I feed them crap because they have healthy metabolisms and can handle it? Because it is easier, cheaper, less hassle?

These questions are all ridiculous. It is easy to feed kids a healthy diet that is fairly paleo without tearing your hair out, spending a lot, or buying two sets of food for the house. My kids for the most part eat what I do, healthy whole foods. The picture below is an average kid lunch in my house.

Orange sections, Kale chips with a bit of parmesan, cold chicken, and a dollop of cream cheese. What kid wouldn't love this? I'll admit the first time my wife made kale chips both the kids and I did not want to try them, but as soon as we did they dissapeared. Kale chips don't last very long in my house at all now. They usually don't even cool before they are gone.

Kale Chips:

Kale

Coconut Oil

Parmesan

Salt and Pepper

1. Wash and dry kale.

2. Cut into chip sized pieces and spread flat on a baking sheet.

3. Sprinkle with coconut oil and then parm.

4. Bake in oven at 225 degrees for about 40 minutes.

5. Devour.

Leangains

2012-02-22T11:21:00.002-06:00

About a month ago I realized I wasn't where I wanted to be in regards to recovery and feeling good after adding in a heavy exercise regimen. I made some changes to the amount of calories I was taking in and the amount of protein in my diet. Initially it went really well, but over time I was having more and more trouble with recovery after a heavy lifting session and I was feeling tired all the time.

I have done some googling around and came across a few things that may be contributing to what is happening. With my carbs being so low all the time I am not refilling the glycogen reserves in my muscles after heavy exercise sessions which can slow down muscle growth as well as contribute to DOMS symptoms. The ketogenic diet was great for me in regards to losing weight and I honestly think it is ideal for that. This is a process for me and I don't think I was wrong in starting there, but when my goals turned from weight loss to muscle gain then I needed to make some changes.

I'm still eating Paleo, that is not changing, but my macros are getting a big change. I am going to be trying out the cyclic pattern Leangains made popular so I will not be eating the same things everyday. On days I am not lifting heavy I am going to be eating less with about 1600 calories with the majority of that made up of protein (222 grams) with the remaining calories split evenly with carbs and fat.

On lifting days my intake will jump to 2050 calories with the same amount of protein, but the remaining calories split with 75% weighted towards carbs and 25% to fat. This will boost the refilling of muscle glycogen after a workout and promote muscle repair and growth. This is still under my maintenance calories so I should continue losing weight but it shouldn't impair working out for me.

I'm also going to try Intermittent Fasting where I get all this food in within 8 hours each day, leaving the remaining 16 hours as a nice fast. I have done this before and felt great, so it will be interesting to see how I respond now with the changes to what I am eating and the addition of heavy workouts. I'm still doing kettlebells on my off days and that is going great as well.

Making changes to your diet is a process, not right or wrong decisions. It is time to see how these changes make me feel. I will let you all know how it turns out.

If you want to play with the awesome macro calculator you can find it here.

Cheat Day?

2012-02-19T07:29:00.000-06:00

This post should have gone up on Friday, but I have felt horrible since then. Thursday I got some good news in regards to my financial aid so we went out to celebrate. I have tracked my calories and macronutrients for the last 5 months without fail, and have been in ketosis the entire time, no cheat days or anything. I decided to take my wife out for a meal and not worry about any of it. This post was originally going to be about how healthy and freeing it is to occasionally go nuts and have fun.

Unfortunately this is not how it turned out. I have been sick since leaving the restaurant. We went to a place that we love that serves great Mexican food. I had some chips and a great bacon and pineapple guacamole to start with and then had some fajitas with corn tortillas. It tasted amazing and I had a great time with my wife without worrying about amounts and macro ratios, but before we had even gotten home I knew I was in for something bad.

Within a few hours I was curled up in a ball with horrible stomach cramps and had dropped out of ketosis. I think my body was rebelling for a few reasons. I had a huge quantity of carbs when I have been keeping it around 20 grams a day. I am guessing I jumped to about 150 Thursday. I also had quite a bit of corn and even a bit of rice when they have been out of my diet for close to a year. I also tried to avoid anything containing gluten, but my wife had a bite of my fajitas and had a gluten reaction to them, so I think the marinade may have contained soy sauce or something similar. Lastly I also had some salsa, which I know contains chili and tomatoes which I react badly with, but I didn't want to think about it at the time so I ate it anyway.

I think I learned something though. I know food can cause those bad reactions, and I chose to eat them anyway. I am not sure what I thought would happen, because I knew it wouldn't be good but I chose to ignore that. I got what was coming to me and paid the price. Looking back the freedom from worrying about anything was definitely not worth the last few days of pain and it won't happen like that again. I would rather keep better track and feel healthy than go through that again.

Kraut is done!

2012-02-16T07:34:00.000-06:00

We started a batch of Sauerkraut about two weeks ago and it was finally done yesterday. It is now chilling in the fridge, but we got to break into it for dinner last night. It is incredible, but very different from what you get in the store. It has a lot more character, it is sour, but the sweet tangy notes are much more vibrant and it has so much more texture. The leaves are still crisp and have a good snap in your mouth, they aren't wilted little pieces of nothing.

Pair that with a bunch of nice locally stuffed brats and some stone ground mustard and you have a feast. I ate like a king last night and my stomach feels great this morning. There is none of those issues that show up if you eat greasy sausages sometimes, which I chalk up to the high quality meat and the probiotic happiness of naturally fermented kraut.

Sauerkraut is definitely going to stay in my repertoire and be made on a regular basis. We have also upgraded the fermentation corner to include a new 2 gallon kombucha crock as well as a new addition, ginger beer! Yeah, I know the ginger beer won't be low carb at all, but on a special occasion I think I can handle a glass with a nice pour of dark rum and a bit of lime.

Valemtime's Day!

2012-02-14T07:33:00.001-06:00

Today is Valemtime's Day according to my 4 year old. They get plenty of candy between friends and grandparents so we didn't feel a lot of pressure to do the traditional thing and load them up on sugar or chocolate. They were tickled with the double rainbow treats we made them for breakfast.

It is just red grapes, blueberries, green grapes, pineapple, orange sections, and strawberries. My two year old immediately got upset that I had covered his new stick with food and pulled it all off so he could play with it. Kids are weird.

Making Ghee!

2012-02-13T08:33:00.000-06:00

I'm bummed out. A few weeks ago I realized I'm not reacting well to tomatoes at all, so I have been cutting them out. This last week I tried something similar with one of my favorite things, chilis, and got similar results. It is looking more and more like it is nightshades, not just a specific food that causes issues.

I have been looking into what I've been eating and realized that some of the control I have has loosened up a bit since I've gotten things straightened out for the most part. I don't mean I'm out making sandwiches, but I have made a couple allowances like heavy cream or some EZ-Sweetz for tea. I'm going to go back to basics and refocus for a month, essentially doing a Whole 30 to get back on track.

I don't think it will be hard for the most part, it will just require a bit of thought. I started getting ready yesterday, but at the end of the day I realized I had put cheese on my delicious salad for dinner. /facepalm I need to pay a bit more attention I guess.

One of the fats I use a lot of for cooking is butter. I like coconut oil too, but it doesn't have the rich flavor of butter. I have been getting pastured butter for a few months now, and the difference is huge. I was looking around to see whether I would have to give it up when I saw that Whole 30 now allows ghee. I have never had it or made it before, but it looked easy so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I dropped a pound of butter into a cast iron pot and let it melt, then simmered it for about 15 minutes. It foamed like mad, but then I saw the foam forming into clumps at the bottom. Those clumps are the milk proteins clumping together. After the 15 minute simmer I just let it cool a minute and then strained it through cheesecloth into a jar.

It is beautiful. The gold color and the strong butter scent is intoxicating. I used it yesterday to cook up a bit of sirloin and it worked incredibly well. Even at high heat in a cast iron pan it didn't brown or burn at all and the butter flavor was very intense. This will become a regular addition to my kitchen even if I add butter back in!

Cooking, but not for everyone...

2012-02-11T20:23:00.000-06:00

Anyone ever run into the issue where not everyone in the house is eating the same things? Everyone in my house is on a pretty paleo diet, but we differ quite a bit when it comes to macro nutrients. The kids are pretty much on the "If it doesn't move, eat it" plan, while Candi and I are a bit different. I have been rocking the super low carb plan for a while and so far it has been working for me. Candi however did not deal well with her carbs that low so she has been upping them a bit and feeling a lot better.

Occasionally I'll get a request for making something that doesn't really fit into my macros for the day. One of the kids favorites, and honestly one of mine too was what we called magic potatoes. Picture fried potatoes topped with bacon, cheese, green onions, and sour cream. Delicious, but also severely over my limit today. That doesn't mean I can't cook them, it just means I get to be a bit more creative. In addition to everything I bought for the potatoes and a nice deal on a bit of top sirloin I also picked up a bag of mesclun.

Candi and the kids still got their potatoes, and I didn't go hungry either. I just omitted the potatoes from my plate and dropped top sirloin, bacon, and cheddar on top of a big pile of lettuce. It tasted amazing and it didn't require any sacrifice on my account or the rest of my family. All I had to do was make a simple change and everyone is happy.

If you want to make this its pretty simple and honestly amounts don't matter too much. I just eyeball it anyway.

Ingredients:

Bacon
Potatoes (I prefer something a bit waxy for frying)
Cheddar (If you want to be fancy use Gruyere)
Green Onions
Sour Cream
Chili Powder
Garlic Salt

Dice up your bacon and drop it in a deep bottom pot. Toss it around till it gets nice and crispy and then pull it out leaving the fat in the pan. Drop in your potatoes cut into about a half inch dice. Add your chili powder and garlic salt right now, it should turn them a nice orangey red color. Toss it until the sides get crispy and the potatoes are cooked through. Drain them and toss in bowls, top with bacon and cheddar while its still hot. Garnish with sour cream and green onions.

Yay for new pots!

2012-02-08T15:46:00.002-06:00

Friday morning I woke up and was paging through all the exciting things to pop up in my RSS feed overnight when I saw my own name. What? I won a contest! Not just any contest, but one for something the wife and I have had our eye on for a long time.

This is my brand new Le Creuset 10 1/4 inch skillet! We haven't had a lot of space for extra pots and pans in a while and actually don't have a skillet. All of our cooking has been taking place in one of our 2 soup pots or in the oven. As great as they are, there is no perfectly frying a good egg in a soup pot. These eggs turned out amazing, perfect crisp and brown on the bottom with runny yolks. Thanks Kelly for the great contest!

Now what else can I cook in this? I've had recommendations for bacon, but only heathens cook bacon in a pan on the stovetop. Bacon belongs in the oven! Maybe some fish though? Leave ideas in the comments!

Dietary adjustments check in!

2012-02-06T17:21:00.000-06:00

It has been about ten days since I changed up my caloric load and macro ratios and so far it has been great. I have had a lot more energy toward the end of the day. I haven't been feeling hungry and I have been recovering a lot quicker from heavy amounts of exercise.

I was worried that my weight would go back up with the increase in calories, but it has not. My weight has stayed the same since I made the change. I'm hoping it drops again soon, but I understand that with adding in a large amount of exercise it may stabilize for a while. I'm going to give this another month or so before I reevaluate how I am feeling.

Busy week... also Kraut!

2012-02-02T09:18:00.001-06:00

This week has been flying by. Between all the errands that came up this week, school, and getting caught up on things I've been putting off it has been so busy. I haven't even had much of a chance to write anything here, so I thought I'd at least go over everything I've been up to.

So far in the last week I've had my first 6 exams of the semester. I'm taking a heavy load this time, so I have a ton of classes. Luckily they are not too difficult, but there is a lot of work involved in addition to studying. My classes are weighted pretty heavily in the first part of the week though, so as the week goes on my load gets lighter which works for me. Other than school this week I've finalized my taxes, finally gotten the return processed for the crappy textbook I received a few weeks ago, and I've been working on getting into the new workout schedule.

I've also been doing a ton of food prep lately. We bottled our first batch of Kombucha with some cranberries and ginger yesterday before refilling it with a tad less sugar this time. Our first batch came out slightly alcoholic which is interesting (This is according to my wife, I haven't gotten up the courage to try it yet.) It looks interesting though and I may try it at some point this week.

I also got a good deal on some chicken in bulk yesterday as it was about to hit its sell by date. This doesn't bother me so much as we cook it up right away and store it shredded in the fridge. We will go through it pretty quick and it goes on anything. I love it on a salad with some avocado and some of the dip I made earlier this week. Cold chicken is delicious.

We also started something new yesterday. We made some homemade sauerkraut. It won't be ready for a couple weeks, but it looks amazing and smells delicious. It was pretty easy to prep too, so if you aren't afraid of something sitting on your counter fermenting for a few weeks before you eat it I would recommend giving it a try.

It is pretty easy if you don't mind getting your hands a bit messy and only takes a few minutes. It takes one head of cabbage (I used red for the color), 1 tablespoon of salt (Use sea salt here, not that iodized crap), and 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds (Not necessary but I was going for the traditional taste here). Dice up the cabbage into manageable pieces and toss them in a large bowl. Sprinkle the salt and caraway over it and knead it until the water is dripping off when you take a handful.

Once it is at that point start filling a jar, making sure you pack it in tightly. I used an old pickle jar that had been cleaned and sterilized for this. It takes quite a bit more than you might expect to fill the jar since you are packing it tightly. Once you get it packed up to around two inches from the top you should have the liquid coming up over it. Then you take the outer leaves you saved and making a nice layer to hold the kraut down. On top of that put a weight to hold the leaves down, I used a shot glass. At this point you want to make sure nothing is touching the top of the liquid, so if you need to then add a bit of water. Then just cover the top with cheesecloth to keep it clean and keep an eye on it.

It will take about two weeks on the countertop to turn this into kraut, but you should keep an eye on it. You need to watch the water levels and see if there is anything going wrong with it. If you see something on the top of the water then scoop it off, but it shouldn't effect anything underneath if it isn't touching it. After it is ready then just cap it and toss it in the fridge to eat whenever. It is a delicious side and is full of vitamins without being too heavy or carby to eat on a regular basis if you are worried about that.

Fish tacos!

2012-01-30T11:19:00.002-06:00

I had the most amazing fish tacos for lunch today. The fish was perfectly cooked and flaky with a nice crisp exterior. The romaine was bright and crunchy. The avocado was creamy and delicious. The homemade jalapeno ranch dip was spicy and smooth. It was perfect.

Wait, Jalapeno Ranch dip isn't paleo! How can I eat that? I'm not a paleo is a religion nut, thats why. Besides, its my own recipe and its not bad at all. If you don't mind a bit of dairy there isn't anything out of the ordinary here. If you have ever been to a Chuy's you may recognize the flavors of the sauce too.

Recipe:

Cilantro - 2 bunches

Jalapenos - 1 small can

Garlic - 4 cloves

Salsa Verde - 1 cup

Buttermilk - 1/2 cup

Ranch Dip Mix - 2 packages (I like the Hidden Valley one)

Mayo - 2 cups (Make your own, its better)

Sour Cream - 2 cups (Full fat!)

Put everything except the mayo and sour cream in a blender and give it a whirl. Then fold into the sour cream and mayo in a large bowl. It makes quite a bit, and the longer you store it the hotter it will get, so you may need to adjust your recipe if you can't handle the heat.

This can last in the fridge up to about a week if it lasts that long. My family loves it and goes through it pretty quick. It is not something I do all the time, but it is an excellent way to change things up and spice up a meal. It went on fish tacos perfectly for lunch, but for dinner it is going on top of a salad with chicken and avocado.

For all my Keto friends out there or people keeping track of macros this is how a tablespoon breaks down:

37.6 Calories

3.9g Fat

.4g Carbs

.2g Protein

1 week into the KB Challenge!

2012-01-29T09:13:00.001-06:00

I've posted a few times about the Kettlebell challenge we are doing and I thought I'd give an update. It has been a week now, and we've done 4 workouts so far. They have been incredibly draining but a ton of fun.

Kettlebell workouts are not at all what I was expecting. I was honestly expecting something more like dumbbells, with a heavy shoulder and arm workout. They are not anything like that at all. After a workout my arms and shoulders feel good, but not like they got a workout. Where I really feel it is in my thighs and core muscles. There is no lifting the kettlebell with your arms, the swing comes all from the hips and core muscles.

This was not what I was expecting and actually caused me to go buy a new kettlebell this week. Candi started with a 10 pound and I started with a 25 pound. This was actually way too light. Candi wound up stealing my 25 pound kb and I went and picked up a 35 pounder. The difference in yesterday's workout versus the ones earlier in the week was great.

I am not experienced at all yet, but it is an incredible cardiovascular workout. Yesterday after 5 sets of 30 swings with a 35lb KB I was shaking and huffing and puffing. The swings go by quick, but the workout is incredibly intense.

This next week should be a bit different because we are switching to 3 days a week rather than every other day to help accommodate the other weightlifting classes I'm taking. This week was crazy with KB swings, weightlifting, and yoga as well as getting a lot of mileage without thought of scheduling beforehand. I have worked out a schedule that should keep me from overdoing things as well as upped my calories a bit to compensate for the extra exercise.

If anyone is interested we have been using these kettlebells and working off this DVD. The DVD is great and has a lot of excellent information in it. So far we are only doing swings because the other exercises on here scare me. I can't wait until I get to the point that I would be comfortable doing them though.

Upping my calories!

2012-01-27T21:11:00.000-06:00

If you have read through my previous posts you will know that I track the food that I eat pretty strictly. I have been keeping my calories between 1600 and 1800 a day and keeping my macro-nutrient ratios at 5% carbs, 30% protein, and 65% fat. This worked great for me for the last few months. I wasn't doing a lot of exercise and was still losing weight consistently. I felt really comfortable at these levels.

As one of my New Year's resolutions I decided to add in at least a mile of extra walking each day. I have been going a bit over that but staying between 2 and 7 miles a day. When I added that in I started to feel a little ragged by the end of the day, but I didn't even think it could be exercise related. Two weeks ago I started a weightlifting class twice a week at my college. A week ago I started a three times a week kettlebell program through a Cheeseslave contest and I also started doing Yoga on the days I wasn't swinging kettlebells. This last week I have been beyond exhausted and my muscles felt like they were on fire. I have also been ravenously hungry by the end of the day.

It didn't click that the problem may have been the same diet while a tremendous increase in exercise until I ran across this amazing post at Counting to Infinity. Looking through his well tracked changes in his body along with the caloric restrictions made me rethink what I have been doing. I was trying to run in high gear while trying to feed my body like it was a Prius. I needed to make some adjustments.

I decided to make a few small changes to see if it would help. I upped my daily calories to 1800-2100 and changed my macro-nutrient ratios a bit, leaving carbs the same, but upping protein to 35% and dropping fat to 60%. The added calories should let me recover a bit easier while the increase to protein should help with building muscle. I actually started this 2 days ago and have already felt much better after exercise than I did before. I'm going to go with this for the next 6 weeks and see how it effects my weight loss, fitness levels, and overall well-being.

I did wrestle with making this change quite a bit. It feels counter-productive to up the amount of calories I am eating while still trying to lose weight. I know the increase in the amount of exercise I am doing will require a large increase in the amount of calories I need, probably to the extent that my caloric deficit is actually greater now than it was before. It feels strange though.

Has anyone else had to do this?

Bone Broth Redux!

2012-01-25T08:15:00.001-06:00

After my last post on Bone Broth I had a few questions sent to me that said it still looked really hard to make. I thought I'd go back over the steps to make an amazing bone broth and also go into a few of my favorite ways to use it. If you didn't read the original post I'd recommend starting there.

To properly make bone broth is going to take a long time, about 2,885 minutes all told. It sounds like a lot, but only about 5 of those minutes are actual work the other 48 hours is just waiting. The rest of it is just bubbling away in your crockpot. This only takes 3 ingredients too, and they are all fairly cheap so don't worry on that account. All you need is bones of some type, I prefer getting split pig feet and neck bones, some water, and a splash of apple cider vinegar. I really recommend Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar for this, it gives a better product at the end in my experience.

Once you have all the bones and vinegar in the crockpot you just add enough water to cover it and then put the lid on, the temp on low, and walk away for 48 hours. You may want to check it occasionally, but it is pretty hands off at this point. The hardest part of this step is the delicious BBQ smell that will be filling your house for the time it is cooking.

After 48 hours all you have to is a little cleanup. I use a mesh strainer to pull out all of the bones at this point. It is really strange at how different they look when they come out. All the cartilage and tendons have dissolved into the broth and the bones themselves have the consistency of chalk. The long cook time and the ACV will have dissolved a lot of the minerals and nutrients into the broth.

Once you have all the bones out its time to store them. I like to use some cleaned plastic jars as they will eventually go in the freezer. Once I have them each full I drop them in the fridge overnight to let them set up. Once they have chilled you will see that the broth itself has become a jelly with a thin layer of fat on the top. Once they are at this point I like to skim the fat off and toss it before freezing the broth. You don't have to, but I prefer the taste without it. At this point you can toss the jars in the freezer until you are ready to use them.

What to use them for you ask? Anything. I have used it as the base for soup a few times and it works great. It also mixes in nicely with cauliflower to make a nice mash. My favorite way to have it though is with poached eggs. I'll get it nicely simmering in a pot and then slowly crack in a few eggs. They poach up nicely and taste amazing when served with the broth. If you whipped the eggs first and then added some diced vegetables you would make a delicious egg drop soup. There are a ton of possibilities for bone broth and the benefits of the minerals are amazing.

Ow! Ow, ow, ow...

2012-01-23T20:30:00.001-06:00

I think I underestimated the workouts I've had over the last two days. Kettlebell swings yesterday were interesting, I thought I would wind up using my back and shoulders for most of it, but it wound up being my hamstrings and thighs where I felt it this morning. Then I went to my weightlifting class and wound up doing 3 sets of 10 on the leg press with 410 pounds along with a few other fun tortures. I think someone tore off my legs and replaced them with these...

Kettlebell Challenge!

2012-01-22T11:28:00.001-06:00

Today is the first day of the Kettlebell Challenge from Cheeseslave and we got started early this morning. Actually it was much earlier than I expected. I woke up this morning at 5:45AM to the dulcet sounds of a group of horny cats outside my window. Not the happiest way to greet the day. Luckily it woke me up in time to hear my toddler Fox stealthily opening his closet door to get out his toys.

By the time I got into his room not only were all the toys spilled onto the floor, but he was naked as well. I can't keep clothes on that boy. I remember this phase briefly from my middle daughter Panda, but I seem to remember it being over quickly. This boy can get out of a straight-jacket and has been doing it for months. I hope this phase is over soon. Anyhow, by the time we got him redressed and the room picked back up everyone was awake.

We decided to get up and stay up, it was only about an hour earlier than normal and the kids would never have let us sleep anyway. Once everyone got a snack we secluded ourselves in the living room to finish watching "Enter the Kettlebell" and then get started with our workout. The video is great and when we started I thought it looked pretty easy. The two-handed swing looked fairly simple and I thought I could pick it up quickly. The advanced exercises were a completely different matter. The Turkish Get-up looks like I'd wind up with a kettlebell shaped dent in my forehead and I'm pretty sure a snatch would tear my arm off at the shoulder. Those are advanced though, I think I'll be OK starting with just the swing.

Once the video was done it was time to get started. Well, actually first it was time to get a before picture. I'm only posting the front shot here as the others are embarrassing, well more embarrassing anyway. Hopefully the after shots will look much better. Maybe by the end of the month I'll be down 50 pounds and have rock hard abs, I can only hope.

OMG, swinging a kettlebell is hard! I don't think I have the movement down just yet either, it is a lot harder than it looked when Pavel was doing it on the video. I think I am still using my shoulders to pull it into the swing rather than using my hips to pop it up. It is seriously intense too, the harsh breathing I thought was just being overstated is not. It is a very demanding workout. I made it 25 minutes this morning and was about dead afterwards. It will be interesting to see if it gets easier after doing it 3 times a week for a month.

Anyone have any tips for not using your shoulders and back to throw the kettlebell and focusing on popping it up with your hips instead?

Tomatoes!

2012-01-21T09:25:00.000-06:00

I was planning on putting this post up yesterday, but unfortunately life was plotting against me. After I finished my classes yesterday Candi and I took our kids to the park. They always love it and it really gets their wiggles out for the rest of the day. Just as we were about to leave, our youngest Fox who is about two came running up and crying. He looked like he was covered in dirt, but it wasn't dirt, it was fire ants. We stripped him and cleared them all off, but he had about 70 bites already. My oldest daughter, Lili has a horrible reaction to ant bites, so we rushed him to the hospital in case he had a similar allergy. Luckily he didn't but the rest of the day was spent taking care of him and winding down, so this got put off until today.

Tomatoes are delicious. Up until a week or so ago I hadn't had them in a long time however. I've been keeping a pretty tight rein on how many carbs I'm taking in and tomatoes are pretty heavy in that aspect. The night we made moinkballs I gave in and had some marinara with them. It was delicious, but the after effects were horrible. I wound up in pain most of the night and worshiped the porcelain god a few times as well. No one else had that reaction so I wasn't sure what was up. I checked the ingredients on everything and the only two things that were out of the ordinary were in the marinara sauce. Tomatoes and chili peppers were something I don't regularly have.

I did a bit of research and found out they are both in the nightshade family and can give those type of reactions to people. I had never noticed a problem with them before, but I also used to think Imodium was a normal healthy part of your daily vitamins. Now that I am paying attention and tracking what I eat I have noticed a lot of foods that have different reactions.

Two days ago I tried another experiment. I got some more tomato sauce. This one I made sure just had tomatoes and not chili peppers. I had the same reaction to them. Grrrr! I like tomatoes, but they don't like me apparently. For most things I think I can do without, but one of my favorite parts of tomato season was getting those huge ripe heirlooms and sprinkling slices with salt and nomming on them.

Is there any foods you used to enjoy that you can't have anymore?

Date Night!

2012-01-19T07:58:00.001-06:00

As a poor college student with 3 kids I don't often get a chance to go on a date with my wife. When I do, I try to make it a special occasion. Last night we got a chance to go out and wound up having an amazing time.

We drove over to Allen and went to a great restaurant called Braza Dancante. I was impressed from the moment I stepped in the door. The decor is very relaxing and the live music really enhanced the mood. I was really enjoying myself and I had not even gotten to the good part yet.

What really made the night was our server Pepe. We have been to a Brazilian grill before when we lived in Austin and one of our favorite parts was the Pao de Quiejo, which are little cheese breads that are made with tapioca flour, not wheat. I know some places make them with wheat, so I asked Pepe if he knew what they used, as we can't have wheat. He didn't know, but came back 2 minutes later with the head chef who not only told us that they only use tapioca flour in their Pao de Quiejo, but also walked us through the entire selection of salad items and soups and told us which ones contained wheat as well as warning us to stay away from the Spicy Picanha that contained gluten in the rub.

It is not often that a restaurant even knows that people can be allergic to gluten much less takes the time to make sure the guest is comfortable and knows exactly what they can and cannot eat. I was very impressed by the fact that they took the time to really make us feel comfortable and explained things so well.

I know you are all waiting to see what we ate. The salad bar was incredible and had a huge selection. My favorites were the fresh mozzarella balls, the cold steamed asparagus, and the prosciutto. There were so many items on it I had to stay with my favorites because this is a meat eaters paradise.

Once you are ready for the main courses out come the parade of men with swords filled with the most amazing cuts of meat for you to try. One of my favorites was the Picanha shown above. It is an extremely flavorful cut of Top Sirloin that melts in your mouth.

You are not just limited to beef either. These bacon wrapped chicken breasts were so unbelievably juicy. Usually chicken breast winds up being dry and grainy, but these had the perfect texture and exploded with flavor.

I had such a good time that I forgot to take pictures of all the beautiful food, so I had to borrow the above pictures from their website. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough, it was an amazing experience I won't soon forget. We are moving away in May, but I hope we can get a chance to return before then. If you are in the Dallas area and want a memorable experience, I have to recommend trying Braza Dancante.

Braza Dancante
190 E. Stacy Rd. #1000
Allen, TX 75002

New Pet!

2012-01-16T09:54:00.000-06:00

I have a new pet jelly fish! I have also added pounds of sugar to my kitchen! OK, one of those statements is not true. Technically it is a mushroom, not a jellyfish. I have added sugar to the kitchen though it is not for me to eat, it is for the new pet.

That my friends is Kombucha in the making. What is Kombucha? It is a fermented tea essentially. The jellyfish floating in the top is what is called a SCOBY, or a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It is what ferments the tea. It takes the health benefits of natural tea and adds probiotics which help with digestion. We have been working pretty hard getting our diet to where it needs to be and have noticed a huge difference in our health. This is just one more step on the journey.

Starting the SCOBY was pretty easy. The easiest way to get started is to find someone local who has one already started as they grow pretty easy and occasionally break off babies that you can use to spread the Kombucha love or use to fertilize plants. We couldn't find anyone locally that had them available and weren't charging an arm and a leg for them so we decided to make one on our own.

On a trip to Whole Foods we searched the bottles of unflavored Kombucha and found one that had a visible culture and carefully brought it home. We took our glass jar and brewed up some super sweet tea and let it cool to room temperature before adding the whole bottle of Kombucha, culture and all. We covered it with cheesecloth and watched and waited. It has been pretty cool to watch it grow over the last two weeks. Today we refreshed the tea for the first time and this next batch should be drinkable in the next 7-10 days.

It does use sugar to feed the SCOBY, but the sugar is eaten by it. So what you are drinking contains trace amounts at most. You do have to use sugar though, the bacteria eats it but can't live on anything else. Once the Kombucha is brewed the cool part happens. You partition it out into jars and add a bit of flavoring, I'm looking forward to a few lemon slices and ginger. If you cap it tightly and give it a few more days the bacteria in the drink will keep eating the sugar and will actually carbonate it. You will wind up with a delicious lemon ginger soda without the sugar but with some healthy probiotics. How can you go wrong?

If you have tried this, let me know how it went! I'm just getting started but am pretty excited about this so far.

Moinkballs!

2012-01-15T20:00:00.000-06:00

I read a lot of blogs about food. Most of what I read is paleo-esque, but occasionally I run across something that looks delicious but doesn't come from a paleo site. Moinkballs are from such a site.

I saw these and knew my kids would love them. Combining meatballs with cheese and bacon, how could it not be a hit? In case it hasn't become clear yet, moink stands for moo-oink and combines beef, cheese, and bacon.

These were incredibly easy to put together. I combined fresh ground beef with some Italian seasoning and made meatballs with a cube of mozzarella at the center. Around each meatball went a strip of bacon that was secured underneath. Once they were all made they went in the oven. The only problem when they were in the oven is that you are combining two fatty foods, so you'll need to drain the grease or put them on a rack to cook.

Once out of the oven they were dropped into a bowl of cold marinara and topped with some fresh shaved parmigiana. The beef was nice and tender, the bacon was salty and delicious, and the cheese inside was soft while the cheese that leaked out was chewy and amazing. The kids loved it but we still made too much. Panda has declared we will combine them with eggs in the morning and make cluck-moo-oink balls.

Fish for breakfast?!

2012-01-14T09:38:00.000-06:00

We have been trying to get more fish into our diets lately for a few reasons. It is really healthy and is a good source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids. We will also be moving to an area where there is a lot more fish available so fish will become a much larger part of our diet. And finally, I really like the taste of fish.

I haven't always liked fish. For most of my life I thought it was disgusting. I grew up only a few blocks from Lake Huron in Michigan and really liked fishing. When I was a teenager I thought the taste of fresh fish was amazing. Then I left home and moved around a bit and the most common fish I could get was the frozen low end patties. I swore off fish for about 10 years and couldn't figure out why I had liked it before.

Once I made it down to Texas I started giving it a try again. The difference was that I actually tried the higher quality fish. No more cardboard boxes filled with fish bits mashed into a familiar shape, but actual fish. That is what I missed. It was still a rare treat because it is expensive, and I really can't afford it too often.

Candi and I occasionally pick up different types of fish as special occasion treats now. It is not a regular thing, but when we do its something we really enjoy. I've branched out too. I used to just like freshwater fish, as that is what I was used to as a teenager. Now I've found quite a few types of shellfish and saltwater fish I really like as well as a few more esoteric items.

Smoked Salmon is amazing. It has a clean salty taste and melts on your tongue. It goes so well with a variety of sides that you can pair it with almost anything. My favorite has to be what we had for breakfast this morning. Smoked Salmon with a nice piece of flaky dry cheddar and some capers.

The salmon just melts on your tongue and goes so well with the bright tang of the cheddar and the medicinal saltiness of the capers. I wish this was something we could have more often, it leaves me feeling satisfied and ready for the day. For now I have to be content with it as a special treat, but I'm looking forward to moving down to the coast and having access to local fishermen and fresh fish on a daily basis.

Busy day, 1/12

2012-01-12T22:19:00.001-06:00

So many things to do today, it was nonstop from the time I got up. Spring semester starts Tuesday, and today was the day my scholarship money finally came in. As soon as I was up this morning I was ordering textbooks online, people that get them in campus bookstores have issues. Amazon saved me over $500 this semester alone. I'm taking 19 credit hours this semester so I'm sure it will be crazy.

After I got all my textbooks ordered we went for a drive. Visited with the grandparents for an hour or so before taking a long trip into Dallas. The only class outside of the math or science department I have this next semester is an Olympic Weightlifting class. I already have the book that was recommended and have been slowly working through it. If you are interested I would highly recommend "Olympic Weightlifting" by Greg Everett. What I still needed was some clothes. I've been dropping some pounds since last year, and my clothes have been getting a bit loose. I needed to pick up some shirts and shorts that aren't going to distract me or get in the way in the gym. The shirts I was wearing are 3XLTs, and had gotten quite a bit big. I figured a 2X would be about right. WRONG. I fit in an XL with room to spare! YES!

I found some pretty good deals on some Under Armour shirts that normally run around $30 apiece for only $14 at Cabelas and some others at Dick's Sporting Goods for only $7. I was able to pick up quite a few more than the 2-3 I was hoping for. By this time the kids were getting a bit grumpy as we hadn't eaten lunch yet. We decided to try a new place called "Cowboy Chicken" that looked good and had a gluten free menu on the website. It was amazing, and felt pretty primal too as we wound up sitting right next to a huge wood-fired rotisserie with about 4 dozen chickens slowly roasting. Not only did it smell amazing it tasted that way. (Ignore the bread and the mac and cheese in the below picture. You can order it with just the grilled green beans.)

After that we had just one more stop. There is a great challenge going on over at Cheeseslave and Candi and I wanted to get in on it. It's a kettlebell challenge and the only problem was that we didn't have any kettlebells. Today was the day to fix that. I decided to go for broke and pick up a 25 pounder that is right on the edge of where I'm comfortable and Candi decided to make the smart choice and go for a 10 pounder that she won't have any problems with.

After all this we finally got home and I realized I hadn't gone for my walk today. It is 32 degrees out right now, but thankfully the rec center is finally open again after the holidays. It was only a quick run a few blocks and I knocked out a couple miles in a nice heated indoor track. Now I'm ready to crash, I need my sleep after running all day.

Wheat Belly

2012-01-11T14:30:00.002-06:00

This isn't the review I thought I would write when i picked up this book. I had heard great things about it, and I'm biased in the fact that I'm already sold on the dangers of wheat. I've been wheat free for 2 years now and have seen incredible benefits from cutting it out.

I just finished "Wheat Belly" and I'm torn. I'm sold on the message, but I've got to say the book itself is odd. It isn't poorly done, it is more like the author and the editor had conflicting ideas on what they were going for. Half the book is written for the average person and is full of jokes and puns, while the other half is pretty technical information that seems better aimed at nutritionists. It is full of great personal stories and a lot of recipes, but it seems like this would have made a better blog series than a book. If you cut out the recipes the book would barely be a pamphlet. I honestly can't see myself going back to it for any information later.

All the information available in this book is more easily found on paleo blogs or if you really need a book then I'd recommend going to one of Robb Wolf or Mark Sisson's books for the average person. If you know someone that wants more of the science and can handle a preponderance of personal stories, poorly done puns, and chapter titles based off pop culture movies then this book would be ideal. I can't recommend it for the average person however, it just isn't up to the quality of the other books I've recommended.

No Space!

2012-01-11T11:12:00.000-06:00

Today I am not using the stove. I suppose I could use it in an emergency, but that would require I no longer do dishes. While that idea sounds much better to my lazy self, it is not realistic with three kids and not enough plates and utensils to go more than 1 meal without washing up.

Living in a small space with minimal plug ins leads to hard choices. Today I have a pork shoulder going in the crock-pot. There are only two plugs in the kitchen, so I get to decide whether to block off the 3 burner stove or set it in my dish drying rack.

This is my kitchen right now. I have the crock-pot going on the old stove currently. The sink is full of dishes that need to be washed which I will get to right after I finish here, I swear baby! Then we have a dish draining rack, a container of knives which we have far enough back on the shelf to keep the kids out. Then we have our Kombucha experiment. We are currently attempting to grow a SCOBY from a bottle of kombucha we picked up on our last trip to whole foods. Then I have my two square feet of counter space that all the prep for every meal I make takes place in. Not a whole lot of room here.

This is the reason things move all the time. If I put the crock-pot where the dish rack is now, then the dish rack winds up getting stored on the floor next to the computer desk. You can't see it in this picture, but the computer desk is right across from the kombucha, while our refrigerator is opposite the stove. When I say opposite I don't mean a long way either, there is maybe five feet between them.

This picture gives a little more depth to our kitchen. The door next to the counter there is our pantry. It is only about 3 inches deep, enough room for spices, coconut oil, and a few cleaning supplies only. On the bottom right corner you can see our bed. Yes, we sleep in the kitchen. We have 3 kids and all fit in a two bedroom dorm apartment. The kids bedrooms and the single bathroom are in the doorway just off to the right side of the picture.

Above the keyboard there is our useless thermostat. The building we are in sets the heat for the whole building separately, and doesn't automatically switch between heat and AC. This leads to warm spells like the one we are in now frying us. It gets especially bad if I have the crock-pot going, like today. The one we have seems to put out a lot of heat. If anyone has suggestions for one that holds it's heat better I'd appreciate it. We have had all the windows open even though its dropping into the 40s at night and its barely tolerable.

This area is much bigger than the RV we spent a few months in, but when the weather gets bad it still feels too small for this many people. The kids tend to get stir crazy when it is cold or rainy and they can't get outside on a regular basis and honestly we do as well. There isn't much to do in this small town, and sometimes even a trip to Walmart when its nasty outside just to walk around feels like a treat.

What are some tricks you have figured out to help deal with small spaces?

Video post!

2012-01-10T11:07:00.001-06:00

I've gotten a lot of questions about how big the benefits of diet and exercise are for your life. I thought today I'd share a few videos that I've found really helpful lately and see what you think. It will take a little time to watch them all, but they are all amazing.

The first one is on exercise. Any exercise helps. You don't need to be rocking crossfit or doing heavy weight training every day. It helps, but just getting off your butt and going for a walk on a regular basis will give you serious benefits.

This next one is a talk from TEDx Iowa City in which Dr. Terry Wahls explains how she cured her MS symptoms by just changing her diet. Even doctors who rely on medicine as a cure-all can turn to nutrition and get amazing benefits when medicine doesn't work. This reminds me of the Wendell Berry quote "People are fed by the Food Industry which pays no attention to health and are treated by the Health Industry which pays no attention to food."

This last one is a catch-all. This is a series of questions people have asked Robb Wolf about the Paleo way of eating. It has a lot of good information for someone new to it, but may be old hat if you have seen it before. I've found it very useful to send to new people looking for more information.