Okra GUMBO

Febraury...mardi-gras...New Orleans...Okra! This time last year I was in new orleans for Mardi gras and able to experience much of the rich culture in food, music, history the south has to offer. oh the memories..(reminiscing.... :)...some of which included gumbo & okra! ...and some of which didnt!( i.e. a whole lot of drinking, and eating beignets (french pastries, yum)..all of which probably shouldn't be written about in a paleo food blog haha. BUT in the case of world traveling I choose to categorize all this as "SOUL food", shit, good for the soul! ;)

Anyway, My recipe this week was inspired by this 'often neglected but favorite southern vegetable', OKRA. Looked up a couple recipes online and experimented in the kitchen, taking out/modifying anything that would make it non-paleo, and also just based on my own taste/veggie preferences, etc.
SO, check out the links below...and have fun experimenting on your own :)


http://nuttykitchen.com/2010/09/29/demystify-okra-paleo-gumbo-with-lotus-root/

http://southernfood.about.com/od/gumborecipes/r/bl00109a.htm

Also, tried cooking with Ghee (clarified butter) vs butter, olive oil, or cocunut oil for the first time. I liked cooking with it. I thought it was better at preventing sticking, and better for sauteing at higher temp's. As for whether there are increased health benefits, it remains controversial....but google it, and check it out yourself :) But one thing i must say is that is was wayyyy toooo expensive!! The jar of the stuff was $9.99! HOWEVER, you can easily make ghee yourself at home, save money AND get the benefits... if your really that dedicated.
HOW TO MAKE GHEE VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGBI4IKL58g


The 411 on Orka: its texture is unusual, so beware. ( I discovered this while making the gumbo. When its cut, okra releases a "sticky substance with thickening properties, often used in soups, stews, Gumbos"). According to web sources Okra comes from a large vegetable plant of African origin, brought to the United States three centuries ago by African slaves. Shopping for OKRA: look for young pods free of bruises, tender but not soft, and no more than 4 inches long.

health benefits: Okra contains vitamins A and C and is a good source of iron and calcium. Also a good source of many nutrients including vitamin B6 and
C, fiber, calcium, thiamine, riboflavin, and folic acid.


One more warning, this takes time, and can be very very messy.
which has got me thinking..I really need to get me a sous chef (aka kitchen bitch) to help me clean my messes. haha

Happy Cooking...and eating!

Fennel, Parsnips, and (2 weeks worth of) brocolli, oh my!

Fennel. What the hell is fennel? and how come when I googled it, webpages kept mentioning its "aromatic" characteristics.....and bringing up licorice and black jelly beans???? Well, I found an AMAZING recipe, and as I began to cut the fennel bulb in quarters as the recipe instructed....i discovered why: Fennel smells like black licorice! aka "anise" scent.

Fennel has soooo many health benefits, just to mention a few, (and im too lazy to write in my own words right now so im opting to copy and paste haha), According to eatdrinkbetter.com: "Fennel is high in vitamin C, and it’s also a good source of dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, and copper. Fennel’s distinct anise flavor comes from anethole, a compound that that has been shown to suppress inflammation and cancer." also, "1 cup of raw fennel has a mere 27 calories, but an abundance of vitamin A, folate, calcium, phosphorous".... and lots of other goodies.

Rustic Baked Fennel
(taken & slightly modified from wherestherevolution.blogspot.com)

Ingredients:

* 1 large fennel bulb, quartered
* 1 15 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
* 8-10 oil-cured black olives, roughly chopped
* 2 large cloves garlic, crushed
* 1/2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning (ours contains oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, and marjoram)
* salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
* 3 TB extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

* Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
* Arrange fennel quarters in small baking dish, spaced evenly apart
* Add garlic and black olives
* Top with the tomatoes (with juice)
* Sprinkle with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper
* Drizzle olive oil on top of mixture (to taste), making sure to brush the exposed fennel with oil
* Cover with aluminum foil and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until fennel is tender (note: baking time varies depending on size and thickness of fennel bulbs)
* Remove cover and bake for 10 minutes more

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PARSNIPS.

More commonly referred to as "white carrots"....at least that's what I always thought they were anyway! Here's the featured recipe. delicious!

Puréed Roasted Parsnips Recipe
(taken & slightly modified from simplyrecipes.com)
Ingredients
* 2 lbs parsnips, peeled, stringy cores removed,chopped (about 1 1/2 pounds after removing cores)
* 3 Tbsp butter, melted
* 1 1/2 cup water
* 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
* Salt and pepper to taste

Method
1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Peel parsnips, make a cut off the top of the fat end of each parsnip. This will show you extent of the inner core. Often this core is stringy and woody, especially at the larger end of the parsnip. When you are prepping the parsnips, cut around this core.

2 Place chopped parsnips in a medium sized bowl, add the melted butter and stir to coat. Lay out the parsnips on a roasting pan in a single layer. Roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, at 400°F, until lightly golden, turning the parsnips once half-way through the cooking.

3 Put cooked parsnips into a blender or food processor. Add 1 1/2 cups water, and pulse until puréed to the desired consistency. Add more water if necessary. Add nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

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Last but NOT least.....
a SHITLOAD OF BROCOLLI.

In last weeks box of veggies there were 4 full size crowns of brocolli, this week, another 4-5. ....they were starting to look a little "under the weather"...so I thought..."I need to use these up quick!"....thinking...thinking.....thinking....

BROCOLLI SOUP!
(taken and slightly modified from blog.modernpaleo.com)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp ghee or butter
1 yellow onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 crowns of broccoli
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper

Method:

Remove the florets from the stem of the broccoli. Cut large florets to a similar size as the small florets. Dice the broccoli stems.

Add the olive oil and ghee to a soup pot, and place over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, saute the onion and celery until the onion is translucent (about 5-7 minutes).

Add in the broccoli and garlic, and saute for another minute or two.

Pour in the chicken broth. Bring to a simmer. Cover the pot, and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

Puree the soup in a blender in batches. Cover the blender with a towel, as the lid tends to fly off when hot soup is being pureed due to steam pressure. Return the soup to the pot, Taste and season with salt and pepper. Once heated through, the soup is ready to eat!

FYI: YUM. Myself and the roommate, big fans of this one.

Valentines Day

A letter I came across today, & its message worth sharing.
Happy Valentine's Day :)

______________________________________________________

"In this time of romance, let us remember that the deep, authentic, pure love that our soul longingly yearns for is not with someone else.

It's with ourselves!

Loving oneself isn't about selfishness or arrogance.

Self-love is having a deep knowing that you are good, whole and holy. That you are worthy of deep regard, acceptance and all good things.

The reason most of us spend our entire lives searching for unconditional love only to come up empty, is because we've been taught to look outside of ourselves.

The TRUTH is, the source of love is actually inside of us, as we connect to that which is greater.

Studies show there are millions of people who suffer daily from self-hatred. Many pulled to addictive behaviors and substances to numb the pain, including, unhealthy relationship with their bodies, food, and weight.

some frightening statistics:

* The average woman worries about the size and shape of her body EVERY 15 MINUTES
* Over 50% of women say their body disgusts them.

* 92% of women say they want to change some aspect of their appearance, mostly body weight and shape.

*86% say they routinely avoid pleasurable activities such as shopping for clothes, swimming or having sex, until they lose weight.
If we are shaming and degrading ourselves, we're blocking the path to our highest and greatest love, joy, and peace .

It's only when we can truly love ourselves where we are right now, that true transformation can take place.
Self-Love, leads to inner peace.
and more confidence to
{live life fully, fearlessly pursue your dreams}.

Where does Self-Love begin?

It begins now, with you. Learning to love yourself starts with making a conscious decision, to SET AN INTENTION TO BE HAPPY, to be kind to yourself and to lead a fulfilled life.

When you make a decision to love yourself, you are really saying that you want to COME ALIVE.

You accept that
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
for the outcomes that you experience in your life and would like yourself to
SHINE FROM LIVING AN INSPIRED LIFE.

....Wishing you a beautiful Valentine's Day.

With love,

Bronwyn"

(if interested check out her website http://www.bronwynmarmo.com/)

________________________________________________________

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Rumi

“Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.” Sex & the City



"Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me." Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky. ~Hafiz

KALE chips. KALE muffins.

First off, im thankful for a new opportunity. I was approached by the owner of my current crossfit gym (having checked out the blog) to write about paleo recipes incorporating their weekly food co-op services. So, officially a part of the food co-op at my crossfit gym, each week I'll be bringing home a box full of fresh, organic fruits, vegetables and eggs (different each week), and Each week i'll experiment with & write about at least one new recipe featuring one or more of the ingredients in the weekly/paleo food box.

This week featuring: KALE.

KALE, KALE, KALE.
As i walk into the gym's office to pick up my box, the first thing I notice is a WHOLE LOT OF KALE. Uhhh...yummm???? I must admit, Kale was a vegetable, that until I took nutrition courses, i had never even heard about. It was one of those vegetables at the grocery store that I never even noticed enough to even wonder what it was. Fortunately, I now know enough about it to pick it out from a line up. Kale has a bad reputation with some folks (similar to that of sprouts 'n broccoli) but really, its not all that bad; especially when taken the time to prepare... with the right spices, herbs, etc... yes, Kale can taste good, and here are a couple recipe's to prove it!

First recipe I experimented with:

Kale OMELETTE MUFFIN
( adapted from Mark's Daily Apple- http://www.marksdailyapple.com/omelet-muffins/ )

I lightly boiled the kale in a large pot with water and some salt. Then, in a pan i lightly sauteed finely chopped onions garlic (I love these two together for a whole lot of flavor!), plus not-so-finely chopped portabella mushrooms (also included in weekly food box), then finally chopped the precooked kale and threw that in the pan, along with some salt and pepper. In a large bowl I added all of the sauteed ingredients with the dozen fresh, organic eggs then poured mixture into a 12 muffin, muffin pan. Placed them in the oven until they rose and were fully cooked. (you can check this by putting a toothpick in one, toothpick comes out clean when they are completely cooked through)

Having finished baking the "muffins" I then ate a couple,....and put the rest in the freezer. These are seriously perfect! For those rushed mornings before work, Just pop'em in the microwave/toaster oven...and voila! Breakfast is served. Wholesome, nutritious, delicious, to start the day off right.

KALE CHIPS:

My roommate actually found this fun recipe in a magazine article, and shared it with me when she saw me walk in with a box brimming with kale. The magazine instructed to toss kale with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and place in oven to make Kale chips. simple. The only change I made was to use my MISTO oils spray ( spray can for oils, which enables you to "spray" oil ..see picture below or check out online http://www.amazon.com/Misto-M100S-Gourmet-Brushed-Aluminum/dp/B00004SPZV) to lightly spray Kale strips with olive oil, salt, then place in oven. The kale chips were crunchy, krispy, and delicious. You can eat them plain, or use with a dip, like guacamole, hummus, salsa, etc. A great alternative for potato chips! and sooooo easy to make. When I googled the recipe, in search for variations I also came across this DIY kale chip video, check it out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/02/how-to-make-kale-chips-re_n_523185.html

well, even after these 2 recipes there was still kale left to use, but here's at least two options for this awesome and nutrient packed sea vegetable.

ABOUT KALE:
Kale is high up in the SUPERFOOD, food list. It is packed with potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, Beta-carotene, Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and fiber.

Kale, and other dark leafy greens (ie mustard, collards and turnip greens) are of very high nutrient density and very cleansing, but they are practically indigestible consumed raw or only lightly steamed. It is important to cook these greens to "maximize their benefits and minimize/avoid digestive distress". The values of vitamins and minerals are found to be nearly identical if cooked for 8 minutes at boiling temperature, so loss of nutrient value should not be of concern.

ABOUT LIFE:

“He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.”

William James