Zucchini Pasta with Scallops and Bacon

Hope everyone is enjoying the super bowl. From the screams I hear coming from downstairs, it sounds like a good game.  I hated the thought of eating wings and junk to end the weekend, so I decided to try something new.  I bought a new spiralizer, which is AMAZING.  I think it's going to quickly become one of my favorite kitchen tools.

I used to love pasta, but it's been many years since I've had more than a taste of the kids macaroni.  People have told me about making zucchini pasta, and I've been thinking a lot about it, and today I finally gave it a shot.  I am so glad I did.  This was one of the most satisfying meals I have had in forever.

I found the recipe on meatified.com and made it exactly as documented, except I used large scallops instead.  So none of this credit goes to me, it's all to them.  But it was just too good not to share.

Ingredients

• 1 scallops, cleaned, rinsed and dried
• 6 slices bacon
• 8 zucchini
  
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 6 green onions, sliced with green tops reserved for garnish
• Squeeze fresh lemon juice
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Use a spiralizer or julienne peeler to make the zucchini pasta and set aside. You can do this way in advance.
2. In a large flat bottomed pan, cook the bacon until crisp.  
3. When the bacon is cooked, remove from the pan and set it aside.
4. Pour off most of the excess bacon fat and save for later, leaving behind just enough to coat the pan lightly.
5. Bring to high heat.
6. The scallops should sizzle as soon as you put them in the pan.  Sear the scallops until golden brown on the bottom, about 2 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Toss or flip the scallops and sear the other side for 1 - 2 minutes, until golden.  Set aside.
7. Put a little bit of the bacon fat in the pan, bring to medium high heat and add the zucchini noodles and garlic powder. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Saute the zucchini noodles until just softened, about 3 - 5 minutes. While the noodles are cooking, chop the cooked reserved bacon into pieces.
9. Add the scallops back to the pan for 30 seconds to heat them quickly, toss in bacon, the white parts of the chopped green onions and a squeeze of lemon juice.
10. Divide the noodles between plates and enjoy.

Dijon Pecan Crusted Cod with Roasted Broccoli

This was last nights dinner, and one I prepared the day before putting both the fish and the broccoli in the fridge, in the dishes I was going to cook them in.  When I came home from work all I had to do was take them out, turn on the oven, and stick them in.   If you have all the ingredients in your fridge and pantry, it's even easier than the stuffed sole. 

Most people think high-fats foods are bad for you and the reason many people are overweight in this country.  If not paired with a lot of unhealthy and processed carbohydrates, fat is actually an important part of a healthy diet that will help you lose weight and keep it off.  My diet consists primarily of lean proteins, good fat, and vegetables. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup paleo mayonaise (sorry, you have to make your own or use hellmans if you don't care about following a paleo diet)
• 1/4 cup of dijon mustard
• chopped pecans
• 1 lb Wild Cod Fillet
• Coconut oil
• One bunch organic broccoli
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Garlic powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For the fish:

- Mix mayo and mustard together.  

- Put fish in a coconut oil greased or parchment lined baking dish.

- Smear mayo/mustard on fish

- Spread chopped pecans on top of fish

For the broccoli:

- line a baking sheet with parchment paper

- cut broccoli into nice size pieces

- drizzle with olive oil and rub into broccoli so it's coated, just enough to coat but not make greasy

- sprinkle with sea salt

- sprinkle with garlic powder

Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  

Enjoy.

Kale Stuffed Lemon Sole with Lemon Caper Butter.

A successful recipe to me is one that's easy to prepare, quick to cook or reheat, low carb, and Paleo friendly.  This one hits on everyone of my criteria.  I usually buy my seafood on the day I'm going to eat it or the day before.   It can be prepared in advance on the day you want to eat it, or the day before.  If you prepare it on the day you buy your fish, you can freeze it that day and eat it during the week, so it really helps for those working cooks who don't have time during the week and are willing to prep on the weekend for the upcoming week.

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium Yellow Onion copped
• 2-3 cloves Garlic, smashed and chopped
• 1 lb Wild Lemon Sole Fillet
• Couple Tablespoons of Capers
• Organic Ghee (Clarified butter)
• 1 TBS chopped parsley
• 1 box baby kale (I used Oliva's Organic)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 TBS lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Sauté the onion and garlic in ghee until onion becomes translucent.  Add kale and parsley and sauté until kale begins to wilt.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and set aside until ready to stuff/role the fish.

Greece the bottom of baking dish big enough to hold all the fish, or line one with parchment paper (this option makes it a lot easier to clean up).   Rinse each fillet under water (I have no idea why I do this other than to just make sure the fish is clean).  Lay fillet flat, take stuffing and spread it over the fillet, roll and place in the baking dish.  Do this for all the fillets.  

Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  

Melt a tablespoon or two of ghee with lemon juice and capers.  I do this in the microwave because everything I do is about making my life easier and efficient.  Pour over the fish and serve.

Enjoy.

Paleo Cinnamon Raisin "no oatmeal" Cookies

The kids have been home for almost two weeks and getting bored to death.  We've baked Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies several times, and tonight my son wanted Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  I searched for a recipe, modified a bit, and voila!  The most amazing yummy cookies.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 c. almond meal (I use trader joe brand)
• ¼ t. sea salt
• ⅛ t. baking soda
• ¼ t. cinnamon
• 2½ T. melted grass fed butter
• 2 T. coconut nectar
• 1½ t. vanilla
• 2 T. shredded coconut
• 2 T. raisins

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the almond meal, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

Stir in the butter, coconut nectar, and vanilla.

Stir in the coconut and raisins last.

Bake for 10-11 minutes on a parchment lined cookie sheet until the edges brown.

Enjoy! 

Chocolate tahini "truffle" balls

Tis the time of year when we all want to snack on treats and indulge.  For me it's all about not going too overboard with it all.  To keep motivated I've been following Dr. Perlmutter on Facebook who keeps reminding his audience how awful sugar and carbs are for you.  There's no way to avoid it at this time of year, so here's a little treat you can make in about 10 minutes that was surprisingly tasty and satisfying.  The original recipe was given to me by sister in law, who believe it or not is crazier than I am when it comes to eating right, and I've modified it just a bit.

Are they really truffles? Well, no... They are sort of a cross between truffles and marzipan balls.

Tahini dough balls:

• 1 tablespoon protein powder, nut powder of choice or coconut flour.  I used Sun Warrior vanilla protein powder.
• 2 tablespoons coconut butter (Artisana is the best, but Maranatha coconut mana is also quite good)
• 1 tablespoons tahini
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5-6 drops liquid stevia (to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure chocolate extract (original recipe did not call for this)

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl
2. Add water if needed (I didn't need to)
3. Stir.
4. Batter will be thick.
5. Scoop and roll.
6. Roll in unsweetened coconut flakes, raw cacao powder or whatever...
7. Store in the fridge

Paleo Stuffed Peppers

Maybe it's because it's fall, and a good time of year for spending time in the kitchen, or maybe because my new kitchen is amazing, or perhaps it's motivating by my friend Gayle who's been paleo and eating home cooked meals for the past six week and having amazing results, but whatever it is, I am so excited to share this recipe with you.  

Ingredients

• 1 medium Yellow Onion copped
• 3-5 cloves Garlic, smashed in a pillon
• Olive oil
• 1 lb Ground Turkey 
• 2-3 links of sweet italian sausage, without the casing
• 1 Tbsp Ground Cumin
• 1/3-1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tsp Dried Parsley
• ½ tsp Smoked Paprika
• ½ tsp Sea Salt or to taste Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste
• 1 (14.5 oz) can Organic Muir Glen Diced Tomatoes - fire roasted
• 3 TBS Sofrito
• 4 large Bell Peppers, tops cut off and seeded

Brown the sausage in a skillet,  add onion and sofrito and cook until translucent.   

In pillon, smash 4-5 pieces of garlic with a little dried oregano and some olive oil.   

Add turkey to skillet and cook until no longer pink. 

Add all other ingredients.  

Stuff peppers tightly with mixture in the skillet.

Place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Serve hot.  Enjoy.

CrossFit 914, CrossFit Toronto and CrossFit LA

At the end of April I announced that I would leave my old position under the Omnicom Group of Companies and take on a new role with MDC Partners.  One of the luxuries this change afforded me was some time between jobs to explore a new fitness challenge that I've was dying to try out.  Ever since I had kids, the only way to fit in a good workout was in my home gym - my favorite room in my house!  I did P90X several times, Insanity, Insanity Asylum, TurboFire, Jillian Michaels, Biggest Loser, Spinervals, etc.  You name it, if it was a good hard sweat at home, I was into it.    My good friend Sage in Colorado kept telling me about CrossFit, and I wanted to try it out.

In come CrossFit 914 in Elmsford, NY.  I had no idea what I was really getting into, but in order to try it I had to buy 4 personal sessions of "elements" classes.  These are the classes that teach you the basics to make sure you don't really hurt yourself.  In one session I was hooked.  Coach extraordinaire Phil Itwaru met me at 5:30 in the morning to show me the basics, and introduce me to the MetCon concept - short metabolic conditioning workouts that build strength, endurance and metabolism.  I was hooked on the first class and after 4 there was definitely no turning back.

CrossFit has exposed me to all sorts of things I never even heard of before:

• AMRAP:  As Many Repetitions (or Rounds) As Possible – typically in a specified timeframe
• WOD:  Workout of the Day
• Box:  A CrossFit gym
• Box Jump:  An exercise where you jump onto and down from a 20 or 24" box
• Burpee: ouch
• Clean & Jerk:  I still have no idea
• Double Unders:  Two turns of the jump rope per jump. Another ouch, not to mention the pain of the jumprope literally whipping your skin when you miss.
• HSPU – Hand Stand Push-Up
• Kipping:  I still can't do this
• Muscle Ups: Muscle Up – A combination of a pull-up and a ring dip.  No I cannot do this.

And so much more...

These workouts I have to admit are amazing, and unlike anything I've ever done before.  Every day is a total body workout, and every single workout I've done in the past three months have been different.

So I found myself back to same question as yesterday, how do I keep it all going when I am traveling on business?  CrossFit 914 is my home "box", but I want to keep it up all week long when I am not in Westchester County.  

Last week I took a leap of faith and took advantage of the CrossFit cult that apparently is all over the country.  I called CrossFit Toronto and went to visit them. Twice.  Once again I encountered things I had never done before: Belgian split leg squats, split leg jerks, and snatches.  WTF?  Suffice it to say, I managed to get two amazing workouts and by the third day I was so sore I could hardly walk.  To me this is great!  CrossFit Toronto and coach John Vivian were amazing, welcoming and warm, and really patient with a person who isn't and won't be going there regularly.  John took the time to show me the new moves, correct me frequently, and cheer me on.  Thank you John!!  In addition to the general hospitality, the box itself was amazing - HUGE, had a store front where I bought a new jumprope, and had about 30 people working out at 5:30 in the morning. 

This week I was in LA, and decided to try out  CrossFit LA, and yet again I found a completely different experience again.  This time at 6am, there were two coaches welcoming me.  When I looked at the WOD (Workout of the Day) online it simply said:

4x4 100m Franklin Hill Sprints on :90. 
- 3 mins between sets. 

How bad could it be?  100m isn't far, and only 4?  Well as soon as I walked into the box I realized this gym was very serious.  They were all about competition - against each other, yourself, and the clock.  Go go go.... the people there, who really were lovely, were even competing about who had more gray hairs and who's skin was whiter.  Really?!  I could show you gray hairs people!!!  After our normal warmup we hit the road - up hill to the base of Franklin Hill.  It was steep.  Not only was it steep, but what I hadn't realized was that we had to do the 4x4 100m Franklin Hill Sprints 4 times.  Now I am not really into the competitive thing as it relates to CrossFit, and I've always been more of an endurance athlete than a sprinter.  So up the hill the first time I went.  Not bad.  I was last, but that's ok.  Up the hill the second time... still last, but I did it.  Up the hill the 3rd time - not last anymore.  A younger guy was hurting...  Now I feel better, but it's hard.  Up the hill the 4th time.  Still not last, and now I know I can make 4 in a row.  3 more sets to go.  In the end I did it, and I got to hear how "old" the person who I thought was the oldest person there was by turning 44, and got some praise at how I looked 10 years younger than I really am! Go me (other than the fact that I was the oldest one there).  Seriously though, I was proud of myself.  I finished all four sets.  It was hard, I felt nauseas on some, but I did it and some of the young people who were showing off in the beginning, couldn't do all 16 sprints.  

It took courage for me to start CrossFit, and even more to try out the two new CrossFit gyms.  I've learned it doesn't matter where you come from, how young you are, how strong you are, what your goals are compared to others.  All that matters is how you feel for yourself, what keeps you going, and how you move yourself towards your personal goals. If you've got a goal of your own, something you think might be out of reach, reconsider it.  All it takes is one step forward, one phone call,  one little question of "maybe?" in the back of your head.  Who knows what might happen if you take the risk. After all, it worked for me.