Roasted Cabbage with Red Onions

The 5K is done.  I did not do as well as I had hoped, but I still placed 2^nd in my age group and ran sub 8-min miles for 3.1 miles.  While I was running the race in the rain, I did realize how much I have been missing running.  I did not run with my iPod, but just took in all the scenery of the historic district in Savannah (most of which I have driven by, but it is always different when you are running).  With the weather getting nicer, I will probably be pounding the pavement a little more.

Beginning March 1^st, my gym is starting a Paleo Challenge.  It feels as though the other challenge was not that long ago, but I guess it was about 3 months ago already.  Time flies!  My gym is offering a lot of cool prizes if you win and there are a lot of different ways to earn points, such as posting Paleo recipes on Pinterest, daily entries on a food log, completing workouts five times per week, and ensuring at least one restorative activity per week.  In addition to the food guidelines, there are also sleep guidelines.  It has taken me awhile to realize how important sleep is to your overall health.  I try to sleep 8 hours per night, but sometimes it is less.  For the challenge, I will be tracking my sleep, not simply duration, but quality too.

And now on to the food part of the post…… I really enjoy eating cabbage.  This is a recent thing.  However, the cost of it and the nutritional value cannot be beat.  I have made chicken curry with cabbage, and cabbage soup, but this week, I simply roasted it in the oven with red onions, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  I let it burn a little, but that made it even yummier!

Roasted Cabbage with Red Onions

Ingredients

1 Small Head Green Cabbage

1 Red Onion

Salt and Pepper to taste

Olive Oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Chop the cabbage and red onion into pieces (big or small, doesn’t matter).

Toss the cabbage and red onion with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Place the mixture on a greased baking sheet and roast for about 15 - 20 min (keep an eye on it – you do not want it to burn too bad).

~ Savannah FitNut aka Morgan McNeal

Favorite Recipe Websites

I am always in search of new recipes.  My gym is starting another Paleo Challenge in March, and I need to be sure to have recipes in my repertoire.  I have recently started using Pinterest a lot more, even though I have been signed up for a while.  However, there are a few go-to websites I always browse because the recipes are always delicious. 

Here are 5 of my go-to recipe websites:

1. www.paleomg.com – Hilarious posts and wonderful recipes
2. http://www.health-bent.com/ - CF couple concerned with eating real food – mostly Paleo recipes
3. http://paleofood.com/ - Just recipes.  Everything from beverages to dehydrating.
4. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ - I read this more for the articles, but the recipes are good as well.  Every Saturday, there is a new recipe posted.
5. http://punchfork.com/paleo - Similar to Pinterest for recipes – And that is why the site is shutting down March 15, 2013 because they have been acquired by Pinterest. J

The one recipe I love is Roasted Garlic Red Pepper Pesto Tilapia from www.paleomg.com.  It is easy to make as long as you have a food processor.  There are always leftovers and if you do not mind stinking up the office, you can bring for lunch. Below is the recipe, although I did alter the steps a little bit.

Roasted Garlic Red Pepper Pesto Tilapia

Ingredients

1lb tilapia

½ cup blanched almonds (Check the baking aisle)

1 bundle cilantro, stems removed

½ 7oz jar of roasted red peppers

6-8 garlic cloves

2 zucchini, chopped (I usually use 2 really large zucchini to ensure I have lots of veggies)

1 red onion, chopped

1 orange pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon paprika

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons pepper

½ teaspoon onion powder

EVOO

Instructions

1. Season fish on both sides with 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper, and set aside.
2. Roast the garlic (try not to skip this step; it does give the dish a little bit of extra flavor).  If you are in a rush, just throw in some minced garlic out of the jar.
3. When your garlic cloves are done roasting, add the cloves along with your cilantro, roasted red peppers, and blanched almonds to a food processor. Once all the ingredients are incorporated, slowly start pouring in the salt, pepper, and onion powder.  You can add olive oil if you want, but there is usually enough liquid from the roasted red peppers, that I do not need to use any EVOO.
4. With the red pepper pesto done, add your veggies to a pan (I use my wok) with EVOO, toss with a bit of salt and pepper.  Allow the veggies to cook thoroughly.  Once they are cooked, add about half of the garlic red pepper pesto to the veggies. Cover, place on low heat, and let simmer for 7-9 minutes until veggies are soft.
5. While the veggies finish cooking, cook your fish. I always cook it on the grill, but you can bake it at 400° for about 15 minutes (or until it is flaky).  You also have the option to cook in a pan over medium-high heat for 3 minutes per side.
6. Once fish is done cooking, add veggies to a plate, top with your tilapia and add a bit more of the leftover garlic red pepper pesto on top of the fish.

In other news, I had grilled avocado for the 1^st time this weekend, absolutely delicious.  It was topped with a little bit of spicy salsa.  Excellent side dish!

~ Savannah FitNut aka Morgan McNeal

Bulletproof Coffee

I did it, I made the “Bulletproof Coffee.”  I used unsalted grass-fed butter, coconut oil, and added some cinnamon.  My initial thoughts were that it was okay, tasted creamy, but also tasted like coffee with yummy butter.  Well, I have had it for four straight mornings and I think I am enjoying it more now.  I do not love it, because I miss eating eggs in the morning.  However, it is a very quick breakfast.  It did keep me satiated in the morning.  I will continue to experiment with different spices to add, maybe some nutmeg, vanilla, etc.

In other news, I signed up for a 5K on February 23, 2013.  I ran the same race last year and I placed 1^st in my age group.  I am not sure that will happen this year as I have not been running nearly as much since recovering from the stress fracture.  It will be fun though to see what I can accomplish.

We are already 1.5 months into 2013, and here are the updates on my 2013 goals:

1. Read more books – Definitely reading at least 2 books per month – The nice thing about traveling, you read a lot on the plane
2. 2 Unassisted Pull-ups (No band assistance) – Consistently using purple band, would like to be using the pink band by the end of May (FYI in case you do not know - difference between purple and pink band is less assistance)
3. Prescribed weights on 90% of CF workouts – Judging from the workouts I completed in the last 1.5 months, only 55% of my workouts were prescribed – Room for improvement on this one
4. Cook 90% of meals at home (that equates to a maximum of 2 meals out per week) – Check! Hubby and I have been very diligent about making meals at home.
5. Maintain my blog – at least one post per week – I give myself a B+ on this one, I missed a week here and there

Overall, not too bad on the goals, still lots of 2013 left!

~ Savannah FitNut aka Morgan McNeal

168 Hours

Wow, I have been really busy lately, specifically with work. I had a huge event I led last week and then traveled to California this week. Not too much free time. However, as I write this, I just read an article on time management and it referenced the book “168 hours: You have more time than you think” by Laura Vanderkam.  It is a book about making time for the things we want to do, whether that's work, sleep, exercise, cooking, or iPhone surfing. I think I am going to put this book on my reading list. I will let you know the tips they give.

Along the same lines as time management, have you ever tried “bulletproof coffee?”  On my travels, I was in San Diego and was able to meet up with a cousin who told me about it.  It is organic coffee blended with grassfed butter and coconut oil.  He said he is not hungry until lunch.  It would definitely be a time saver for me in the morning.  No egg prep or trying to dig around the fridge to see what I can chow down 5 minutes before I have to leave for work.  I am going to try it this weekend.  Who knows, maybe I will have a new go-to breakfast?

~ Savannah FitNut aka Morgan McNeal