DVF ♥ babyGap

I love all the idea of high-end designers partnering with mass market retailers. Missoni for Target, Jason Wu for Target, Marni at H & M. Diane von Furstenberg and BabyGap. I really wished DVF did something for the women's line, because I love the prints on the wrap dresses. Check out these dresses from BabyGap, super cute! 

 

Paleo diet flowchart

This is very helpful!

Source unknown

My jeans fit better!

I don't know if I'm imagining things, but I think my jeans fit better! It could be my new Paleo eating habits (I think I'm good only 50% of the time) or it could be the 3 sessions of Crossfit On Ramp? Either way, I'm happy and feel encouraged to keep going :)

I met the girls for our usual Thursday dinner yesterday. And it was very bad for me. We checked out a new Thai/Asian Fusion restaurant that opened in Valley Fair. I didn't hold back, I ate the pineapple shrimp fried rice, potatoes in the yellow curry, white rice and had a cocktail. We had so much catching up to do, we weren't going to make it to the movie we had planned to catch and we ended up having dessert at Cheesecake Factory. The three of us split a raspberry lemon cheesecake, yummy! Gloria was disciplined and refused to partake in the mortal sin, otherwise we would have ordered two cheesecakes ;)

Feeling bad about last night, I decided to be good today. I made breakfast this morning, it took me 5-10 minutes and it was a good breakfast. I was very busy today, so I made myself a huge salad at the cafeteria and ate at my desk. 

Don't you think Paleo meals look delicious? I do! 

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and parsley

A big salad for a cave girl! Yea!

Recipe: Paleo Spaghetti

I've never cooked spaghetti squash before. But I now know that this is a great substitute for spaghetti. I cooked the spaghetti squash with cherry tomatoes and basil pesto. I did all the cooking on Tuesday night and saved the pasta in a glass container. The sea scallops were already marinated (I ate them with strawberry argula salad on Tuesday). So yesterday night, after we were done with Crossfit class, we just heat up the pasta in the microwave oven and pan-seared the scallops, and we had a delicious dinner. I was worried Matt wouldn't like it but he thought it was very yummy. And the best part is, it's good for us.

My Paleo dinner :)

I didn't take any photos of the process of making it, but found some good pictures on Steamy Kitchen that I'm going to share here. It's so easy! The recipe calls for it to be baked for an hour, I was too lazy to do that so I stuck it in the microwave oven for 6 minutes. 

Cut the squash into half. Remove the seeds and scrape away the stringy stuff in the squash. 

Put each half in the microwave oven for 6 minutes. When it's ready, use a fork to scrape the stringy bits.

See? Looks just like spaghetti but it's actually good for you!

Next time, I'll try to bake it instead of microwaving it to see if it tastes better. And I'll just cook it with garlic, olive oil and top it with cut chilli or serrano pepper. 

My chilli red garlic press

My days of laboring over garlic is over! Meet my new friend, Trudeau garlic press!

Source: Amazon

I went to TJ Maxx yesterday. I love, love, love shopping for kitchenware at TJ Maxx and Marshalls. It was only $12.99, even cheaper than Amazon. But the garlic press that I'd really wanted is the Kuhn Rikon, the product reviews are amazing! But oh well, mine's cheaper, it's in a hot chilli red color and it works great! I'm happy :) 

Scallops with strawberry arugula salad

Eating Paleo is not cheap! Wild caught fish, organic herbs, vegetables and fruits, grass fed beef, cage free poultry. But as I get older, I'm starting to agree that we should take care of our body and (try to) only put the best stuff to care for our body. I went grocery shopping at Whole Foods today and stock up on some essentials. I now understand why Whole Foods is popularly known as Whole Paycheck. 

Having said that, even when you do shop at Whole Foods, do pay attention to the labeling. I've bought salmon filets that aren't cheap, only to find out, upon close examination of the fine prints on the price tag, that they are farm raised and not wild caught. Don't assume everything at Whole Foods is organic. It's only organic if they say so. And usually it's slightly more expensive. I remember almost paying $1 a lemon, an organic one. Thankfully, Mitch now supplies me with meyer lemons, for free! 

Ok, back to what I had intended to blog about. My second attempt at eating Paleo was great, I made myself a delicious dinner. 

Homemade pan-seared scallops served with
strawberry argula salad

Pan-seared scallops 

(Serves 2-4 depending on whether you serve this as an appetizer or entree)

Adapted from The Food Lovers Make it Paleo and Paleo Adventure

Ingredients:

• 12 scallops
• 1 tbsp olive oil (I still haven't transitioned to using coconut oil) 
• 2 shallots, minced 
• 2 garlic, minced
• 4 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped 
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• Juice of 1 lemon (I use meyer lemon)
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 

Preparation:

• Rinse scallops with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel, set aside.
• In a bowl or ziploc bag, place the minced shallots, minced garlic, finely chopped parsley, paprika, juice of 1 lemon and a dash of sea salt and pepper. Mix well. 
• Add the scallops to the marinade. Make sure scallops are well marinated. 
• Heat olive oil in a frying pan. 
• Add scallops to frying pan.
• Sear scallops for approximately 2 minutes per side. 
• Tip: Consider using a splatter cover. 

Strawberry argula salad 

(Serves 2)

Adapted from Laaloush's Pear, Quinoa and Spinach Salad (also very delicious, but I don't know if quinoa is Paleo)

Ingredients:

• 4 cups argula
• 6-8 strawberries, thinly sliced 
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped 
• 1 tbsp walnut oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp pomegranate vinegar (you can also use strawberry/raspberry balsamic vinegar)
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• Sea salt to taste (I cheated and used 1 tbsp fat free vegetable broth, probably not Paleo but I had it in the fridge)
• Optional: 1/4 tsp fresh chives, chopped  

Preparation:

• Whisk oil, vinegar, broth/sea salt, chives and black pepper in a large salad bowl. Make sure all ingredients are evenly combined. 
• Add strawberries and argula. Toss lightly to coat. 

Paleo Hacks...clever!

Just in the last couple of days, I've discovered a few Paleo or CrossFit blogs that I love! I've created a bookmark folder in Google Chrome. This is cliche and obvious, but I'm constantly amazed at the amount and relevance of information you can find on the Internet, on any given topic!

Here is the list:

• Girl walks into a bar(bell)
• The clothes that make the girl
• Mark's Daily Apple
• Paleo Adventure
• The Food Lovers' Primal Palate
• Robb Wolf

And of course, there's FitBomb and Nom Nom Paleo that I mentioned in my earlier post. 

I know I can't be 100% clean in my Paleo diet. I love cheese, bread, pasta and wine too much to give up completely. Instead, I'll strive for 80%. I've been wondering how I can follow the Paleo diet without my friends and colleagues asking if I'm on a diet and thinking I'm no fun to dine with. OMG, just thinking about passing on the bread basket makes me wince. 

Girl walks into a bar(bell) shares her Paleo hacks, which I think are very clever! 

Chipotle Paleo Hack: 

Source

I love Chipotle, who doesn't? What's a Paleo girl gotta do? I'm going to try this next time. Chicken/steak bowl, no rice (yes, not even brown), double lettuce, no beans, two scoops mild salsa (I love the fresh tomatoes), one scoop hot salsa. Like GWIABB, I'm going to pass on guacamole, but not because I don't love it but because it costs extra. 

In n Out Paleo Hack (Thank God!):

Source

I've started ordering my cheeseburger protein style, animal style. I'll try this next time, "Double Meat mustard fried with grilled onions, chopped chillies, and extra tomatoes portein style. Please hold the spread." Wow, this is a mouthful, I may need a pocket card to help me remember this. LOL. But this is awesome, I can still have my In n Out burgers! Yea!

Recipe: Paleo Korean bi bim bap

My 3 Paleo cookbooks arrived on Friday and I was ecstatic. There are so many good recipes that I want to try. Sadly, I don't have most of the basic ingredients that the Paleo recipes call for. I'll make a trip to Whole Foods this evening to buy coconut oil, almond flour (I can still bake, yea!), almond milk, good quality olive oil and grass fed/clarified butter. And most of the recipes are protein-rich, requiring 1-2lbs of beef, chicken, etc. So I'm going to finally make use of my Costco membership and make a trip there this weekend to buy some beef, chicken, salmon, eggs, etc. I'm hoping Costco has organic produce!

So yesterday, I made Korean Cauliflower Rice Bowl (similar to Korean bi bim bap which Matt loves!), based on a recipe featured in Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals cookbook. He's a liar, it took me more than 30 minutes to prep for dinner. All that grating and chopping (I need to invest in a garlic press!) took so much time. I was planning to have dinner cooked so we can eat after our workout. But that just wasn't possible. I did all the prep work and put the ingredients in ziploc bags and dashed out. I was 5 minutes late for our 2nd CrossFit On Ramp training.

We did the cooking after our workout, and that took less than 30 minutes. I guess Mark Sisson's reference to 30minutes is the actual cooking time. But it was a delicious, primal, carb-free dinner. How interesting, grated cauliflower to replace rice. Yummy and healthy. But we chased that down with a Manhattan (alcohol is very bad for Paleo diet...oops!)

This isn't a good picture. But this rice bowl is filled with microwaved grated cauliflower at the bottom and covered with sauteed shredded carrots, organic spinach and shitake mushroom and beef slices marinated in Tamari sauce, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil and chopped garlic.

My first Paleo attempt...success! :)