Paleo Shepherd's Pie - Yes, I'm doing Whole 30 again

Happy June. It's hard to believe that it's already June. We've had so much rain and so many stormy days this spring, I thought we'd never have sunshine and heat. Not that I'm looking forward to 100+ degree weather, but cold and rainy is strange for May in Texas.

So, I have gotten a bit off track with my eating recently. Yeah, right. I totally have derailed. My hip is better, thank goodness, so I'm not in pain all of the time anymore. The Airrosti doctor did a fantastic job on my hip and hamstrings. Not a painless treatment method, by any stretch of the imagination, and I was left with some interesting bruises after my sessions, but I'm not in chronic pain anymore. Yay!  The pain did a number on me mentally. I couldn't work out, I couldn't run, even sitting became painful after a while. Did I watch what I ate? No. Unless you counted watching it disappear in to my mouth. I have no excuses for what was available to eat. I do the grocery shopping and the cooking, after all. If there are Doritos in the house, I let them in. When The Sisterhood mentioned that they were starting a Whole 30 on June 1st, I took it as a sign to get back on track. This thought was reinforced by seeing how round I look in pictures. (We got our picture taken with two of the guys from Firefly at a recent fan con.) That's life. Time to move on.

Back to the Whole 30. When I tried this a couple of years ago, I went a bit crazy on the coconut oil wagon. Bad mistake. It does not agree with me in the slightest. I had so many strange reactions that I quit halfway through the 30. I am committed to following this at least through Fitbloggin. Hopefully I'll be back on track enough by then that I don't get too crazy.

Part of following this plan is thinking about what I'm eating. I can't rely on having some cheese when I get hungry or having a sandwich for lunch. I can't even rely on sauces or salad dressings to spruce things up because so many commercial foods have sugars and starches in them. That leaves me with a bunch of whole food ingredients, standing in my kitchen, trying to figure out what to make to eat that will make me happy. Today, it's shepherd's pie.  I was going to call this post "everything but the kitchen sink..." shepherd's pie, but then I thought, no, if the kitchen sink is paleo, it's going in there, too. It was more of a clean out the fridge shepherd's pie. I had half of a large box of mushrooms that needed to be used, a head of cauliflower, a partial bag of green beans, part of an onion... you get the picture. I think the only vegetables I didn't use were the beets, zucchini and the clam shell box of "power greens."

Paleo Shepherd's Pie (serves 6 generously)

1 T olive oil

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

4 celery ribs, sliced

¼ cup diced onion

1 cup fresh green beans, chopped

1 20 oz package lean ground turkey

1 T garlic powder

1 t ground thyme

3 T tomato paste

1/2 c chicken stock

1/4 t cayenne pepper

1 T no-salt seasoning mix

1 T parsley

1 t marjoram

salt/pepper to taste

Thickener: 

1 T kudzu (you can use cornstarch if you aren't making this paleo)

1/4 c chicken stock

Topping:

1 head of cauliflower, chopped and steamed

1 sweet potato, chopped and steamed

1 T ghee

salt/pepper to taste

drizzle of olive oil

parsley flakes

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a medium sized skillet over medium high heat. When pan is hot, drizzle in the olive oil. Saute the mushrooms until soft. Add in the ground turkey, using a spoon to break it in to small pieces. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until meat is no longer translucent. Add in the carrots, celery, onion, green beans, tomato paste, spices and chicken stock, stirring well to combine. 

In a small bowl, combine the kudzu and chicken stock, stirring until there are no lumps. Add this to the mixture in the skillet and stir. 

Let mixture simmer for 15 minutes to let the vegetables soften. While this is happening, chop your cauliflower in to florets and peel and dice the sweet potato. I use Ziploc steamer bags to cook my veggies in the microwave. Follow cooking times on the bags. When these are cooked, place the cauliflower and sweet potato in bowl, add the ghee and salt and pepper. Mash with fork or use a stick blender until fairly smooth.

Spoon turkey mixture in to an 8x8 baking dish, making sure the vegetables are evenly distributed and that the ground turkey doesn't have any large chunks.

Spread the mashed cauliflower/sweet potato mixture on top, smoothing the surface with the back of a spoon. Top with parsley, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. 

When it's piping hot and lightly browned on top, it's done! This really hit the spot today. I wanted something creamy, but I couldn't rely on dairy. It's meaty, but not too meaty, and it's full of really tasty vegetables.  This is so good, I'm kind of glad The Aussie isn't a turkey or veggie eater! More for me!

We're gonna need a bigger boat

Okay, maybe not a bigger boat, but certainly a bigger fridge. I was stalking Sisterhood of The Shrinking Jeans' Christy and Melissa over at Real Oilfield Wives recently, and came across a post mentioning a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. Curious to see if they had a location near me, I hopped on over to their website. Not only did they have one near me, the had one in my town! Unable to resist, I signed up and made a contribution for the weekly basket. Unsure of what to expect, I also contributed for an "Italian Pack" add-in and two "Juice Pack" add-ins. Remind me, next time I contribute, not to get so much. My fridge is jam packed, I've re-tasked my salad bowls to be fruit bowls, and I spent half of yesterday cooking vegetables. Part of that time was spent just staring at the counter, wondering what on earth to do with all of the stuff! 

This isn't even everything. Not pictured are the bags of carrots, all the fruit, including two pineapples. In no particular order (all packs mixed together), I got:

1 bunch of spinach
4 ears of corn
4 Asian pears
6 peaches
10 limes
4 lemons
6 apples
1 bunch of bananas
1 head of romaine
2 bags of carrots
2 bags of baby carrots
2 heads of celery
3 bunches of parsley
1 container of mushrooms
1 eggplant (donated)
3 avocadoes (donated)
2 bunches of beets, with greens
2 pineapples
2 bunches of kale
4 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 leek
1 head of garlic
several springs of fresh rosemary
several springs of fresh oregano
several springs of fresh basil
6 Roma tomatoes
2 yellow onions
1 red onion
1 hatch chilies
3 green peppers
2 chunks of ginger

So far, I've made an eggplant-less ratatouille, bacon braised kale, and kale with pine nuts, raisins and capers. The Aussie asked what I was going to do with all of it. My reply? Eat a !*&$% load of veggies this week.

Let's do this.

Let's see if I can't get back below my 10% level, shall we?

Starting weight:

This paleo/Whole30 thing seems to be working already.

10K A Day Wednesday Check In

I'm a day late, and more than a dollar short, with my 10K A Day Wednesday Check In. This past week I was only over 10K a couple of days. Saturday I was over, and that was without having my BodyMediaFit on during a 4.6 mile run. I'd love to know what it would have been if I'd been wearing it!

12.14 - 9.675
12.15 - 7,678
12.16 - 9,485
12.17 - 11,131 (plus 4.6 miles)
12.18 - 14,157
12.19 - 6,002 (awful storms, didn't get out)
12.20 - 8,783

10K A Day Wednesday Check In

I've been slacking on my steps the last couple of days. Cleaning and other chores needed to be done and I didn't make an effort to go for walks after dinner.

12.08 - 4,558
12.09 - 10,545
12.10 - 14,006
12.11 - 11,121
12.12 - 6,407
12.13 - 8,646

I'm already at 5,044 for today. I did elliptical and training at the gym. It's raining out, but I've promised The Boy that he'd get a walk today. Yup, it's gonna smell like wet dog...

Shrinking Jeans 10K A Day Update

Wednesday is the official check in day for the 10K A Day Challenge, so here goes:

Tuesday (12.06) - 8,235
Monday (12.05) - 3,721 (was not feeling well in evening, no doggie walks)
Sunday (12.04) - 9,098
Saturday (12.03) - 12,732
Friday (12.02) - 9,255
Thursday (12.01) - 7,973
Wednesday (11.30) - 10,285

Well the days over 10k are days were doggies definitely got walks. It's strange how my lower count days, with the exception of Monday night when I was sick, are strength training days at the gym. Saturday's count was really helped by the Zumba class that I took. Lots of steps! I'm planning on taking Zumba again on Friday and maybe a yoga class tomorrow. Add in the Santa 5k I'm doing on Saturday, and my numbers should be up next week. :)

Weight Watchers - week 4 update

Um, yeah, there wasn't a week 3 update. That's because I was +1.4 pounds week 3. (hangs head) I was active, I ate somewhat well, drank too much... the usual story. Because I didn't want a repeat of that so early in the whole Weight Watchers journey, I was pretty careful this past week. Well, with the exception of eating Chinese food with The Aussie on Friday evening. We split an entree and I had a cup of egg drop soup before. Good thing I did. General Tso's chicken is 17 points for 1 cup!!!! Shoot me now. I found this out as I was eating leftovers yesterday afternoon after I got back from my weigh in and meeting. So yes, I seriously went over my points yesterday and a huge chunk of my weekly points are gone and it's only Monday. It really tasted awesome, though!

So yesterday's results: -1.6 pounds. I've lost last week's gain and an additional -.2 pounds. Not bad for a weigh in a few days after Thanksgiving. The leader didn't have any 5k charms, which I'm bummed about, because I did share that doing a Turkey Trot was part of my strategy this week. My total down is -6.2 pounds. I have -2.8 to go until I reach my 5% goal. That would be a really great Christmas present to myself!

Last week I started the 10K A Day challenge with The Sisterhood. I've logged my steps with my BodyMediaFit.

Wednesday - 3,532 (wore arm band for half the day)
Thursday - 18,305 (yay Turkey Trot and dog walks!)
Friday - 13,094
Saturday - 10,493
Sunday - 1204 (I took the armband off after church to charge it, plus I didn't want the weight for my weigh in so I didn't wear it the rest of the day)

Steps and activity = happy dogs = activity points. Win/win situation.

10K A Day Challenge

Yay, another Sisterhood challenge that doesn't involve getting sent to Exile Island! This goal is to get up off our butts (my words) and log steps. Since I work from home, my butt spends a lot of time in a chair. I need to make an effort to increase my steps. Yesterday's Turkey Trot and the afternoon dog walks really helped. I logged 18,316 steps on 11/24/11. I put on my BodyMediaFit this morning. So far, I'm only at 755 steps, so I have a long way to get to my goal of 10,000.

Shrinkvivor: Outfit, Outlose, Outlast

I've got to hand it to The Sisterhood. They come up with some cool challenges. Today is the start of Shrinkvivor. I am a die-hard Survivor watcher, so this sounds like a really cool challenge. Go Tribe Yellow!

These challenges are good because they motivate you to accomplish something, but they also introduce you to new people. The support system you grow through The Sisterhood and through new twitter friends is so important. We all need support, I know I certainly do. The possibility/likelihood of being voted off by my tribemates terrifies me, but I'm just going to have to suck it up! The last challenge I joined, Burst Into Summer, I totally got off course on. The crappy 10K on July 4th weekend, and my trainer, Barbie's Evil Twin, moving away to Vegas, really threw me off. Clean slate time. New gym, starting with new trainer, and hopefully, a new improved attitude.

Starting weight: 174.0

Burst Into Summer - week 1

The Shrinking Jeans Burst Into Summer bootcamp challenge is in full force this week. We started last week with a mini-challenge: hydration. It's been so stinking hot in Texas that hydration is super important. This week's mini-challenge is to make sure we eat breakfast every day this week. Also super important.

I don't know about you, but I find that I really have to condition myself to make changes if I want to continue to treat myself properly. Maybe it's a helpful reminder to go fill up your water bottle. Or maybe it's a mini-challenge issued to make sure you grab something, a yogurt, a Larabar, just something, for breakfast. (No, just a cup of coffee doesn't count as breakfast). Since I started working out with my trainer, I find that I really need to eat every couple of hours. Sunday, I made the mistake, after doing 6 miles in the morning) of not having enough to eat and hit a wall when The Aussie and I were at Cabela's (the doggies gave him a gift card for Doggy Daddy Day). Luckily, they have a food area and I was able to get a salad that had smoked turkey and hard boiled egg. I was a wreck.

Another thing I've discovered about myself is that I really need to track what I'm eating. Some times I'll log the food into my BodyMedia account, but at the very least, I'm tracking what I'm eating and drinking in an excel spreadsheet. It's helping me see where I could fit in a few more vegetables with my lunch, or perhaps a piece of fruit along with some protein for a snack. And I've also discovered that my idea of breakfast is very flexible. Some days, like today for instance, a greek yogurt with a half a cup of granola is what I feel like eating. Other days, I feel like having leftovers from dinner, or a sandwich made with a bagel thin or sandwich thin, some smoked turkey and a Laughing Cow wedge.

Today is W1D2 of the bootcamp portion of the challenge. We're doing the kind of exercises that boost your metabolism and work your core. It's been a while since I've done sprint intervals, and I have to tell you, I forgot how much they kick my butt. In a good way. And the side plank dips and one arm tricep extensions are good and challenging.

I've needed to be challenged. I've needed to get out of my slump. I've needed to push myself off of the plateau I've been on for a very long time. I'm headed in the right direction: today's weigh in was 170.6. Definitely the right direction, and I'm going to keep moving forward. Go Team 10!

Burst Into Summer

I have to admit it. I need challenges to keep me motivated. Maybe I'll be successfull at them, maybe I won't be (Marathon Week), but I'll at least try. Last week I signed up for the latest challenge hosted by the kick ass ladies over at Shrinking Jeans. Good thing I did. I knew the birthday present weight of 169.2 was too good to last. (Thank you Benihana chef Buddy for all of the soy sauce saturated goodness that was my birthday dinner celebrated on Monday night) This morning's weigh in was 172.8. I totally forgot that today was weigh in day, so I'd already eaten breakfast (1 cup Fiber One cereal with 1 cup of unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze and a large cup of coffee with 2 ounces of 2% milk).

Let's rock this challenge, Team 10!