A new spin on some old faves

For the past two weeks, I've had the privilege of being part of an elite group of women chefs who spend one evening a week training a new chef in the ways of paleo cooking.  All the while, swapping recipes, taste testing our specialties, and laughing at ourselves.  Yep, I'm part of the CFNH (Crossfit New Haven) Cooking WOD group. 

And, last night we had a ball!  Our team leader and Mama Bear, Barb, created this site, http://cfnhcookingwod.tumblr.com/, to help us keep track of our recipes for each week.  Last night the theme was Cauliflower (and other things).  I'll bet you never knew you could make such healthy versions of some of your old favorites.  Check it out:

A new spin on PIZZA


Paleo/GlutenFree Cauliflower Pizza Crust



Primal/GlutenFree Pizza on the crust! (Primal due to cheese)



  



The newly named 'CFNH SisterWives' or 'Chefs'


A healthy Fried 'Rice'


Cauliflower Fried Rice- totally paleo and gluten free! (no actual rice necessary)

 And my favorite recipe of the night, Zucchini Latkes


Zucchini latkes (pancakes) in coconut oil

 


Because it helps if you dance to the latkes to get them to brown faster

 



Finished product... so good!


So check out our site and follow along as we try out new recipes and teach our sweet peach how to cook!

***Apologies for the formatting issues... not sure what happened here.

Yours in a food coma (in the best way),
whit

Captain Caaaaaaaaaaave Womaaaaannnnn!

Yep. It's day 2 of the challenge and so far, it's going well.  I made the trek to Costco this weekend to stock up on meat and veg.  I cleaned out the crap from the fridge and cabinets.  We did not restock our beer fridge (sigh), nor did we purchase any wine.  I did my assessment workout, Fight Gone Bad, and set a benchmark for myself.  I was assigned to Coach Ryan's team for the challenge with some of my favorite people from my gym.  So now it's all about maintaining and not giving in to cravings or weak moments where chocolate or wine would normally be the answer. 

I spent about 4 hours prepping food on Sunday afternoon.  Cutting veggies up.  Picking chicken for chicken salad.  Hard boiling eggs for breakfasts.  Prepping meat for dinners each night. It was good.  And now our fridge looks like this:



I think the most difficult part is going to be lunches.  It can be hard at work to always find time to eat, and to eat healthy things that require preparation.  Here's what I have for today:


my packed lunch bag



avocado for a snack



spinach for my chicken salad

Hydration- gotta drink 1/2 my weight in ounces of water each day!

YUM- tomatoes for my chicken salad

and my hard boiled eggs

It's not easy, but I feel good.  I guess that's why they call it a challenge.  Stay tuned... and keep your fingers crossed that I don't have any slip ups. 

Yours in meat loving,
Whitney

Back to the stone age... just call me Wilma

Today marks an ending of sorts.  Well... a beginning to an ending that will culminate on Sunday.  This Sunday.  On that fateful day, I will begin a 30 day 'Paleo' challenge.  Yes, Paleo, like cavemen. 

It's something that is preached a lot at CrossFit and it's something that I've thus far managed to somewhat avoid.  Sure, during the week I cook very healthy meals that are just about 95% Paleo, but we still have a beer or glass of wine or coconut macaroon with our meat and veg.

Our gym is launching their annual 30 challenge to jump start people back into healthy eating before we all hibernate in our caves for the long winter, living off of our fat stores and baked goods. Yep. That's what happens.

Here are a few useful websites that discuss the paleo diet: this one,  and this one,  and especially this one.

So this means BIG changes are coming. And I'm going to do my best to maintain and stay strictly paleo as long as I can. 30 days is a long time, though. I may have a few slip ups.  So I'll keep a food journal and I'll be honest in documenting my good work and my slip-ups (let's face it, there will be some). 

I don't have a specific goal.  Maybe I should set one. But, I would like to tone up a bit more and feel better during WODs. While those are generic goals, they work for me.  I'm not a scale watcher, I don't know how much I weigh, I don't know my measurements and I don't ever intend to know these things.  I'll judge my results by how my clothes fit, how I feel, my energy levels, and my performance at the gym.  I'll also document these things as well.  And- for the sake of honesty and accountability, I'll take some before, during, and after photos. It will keep me motivated if I have to put my sports bra'd self on the interweb for show.

At the end of the 30 days, I hope this is something that becomes our 'normal' and I can stick with it.  Sure, I'll still have the occasional beer or FroYo (duh, FroYo Fridays would suffer without me), but I hope that my primary eating habits are forever changed. 

And with that, I will spend the next two days tasting my favorites one last time, cleaning out the pantry and shelves of non-paleo snacks, and restocking with legit paleo foods.  Sigh. Farewell Lays Potato Chips... I heart you. So long coconut macaroons... you've been good to me.  And... ForYo, where do I begin?  I will miss you every Friday for the next month. Today I will have a large cup in solidarity.

Yours in chest beating and clubbing,
Paleo Whitney