Thursday, May 30, 2013

Paleo & The Bachelorette(recipes included)

The want ad basically writes itself. Who doesn't love Paleo and the Bachelorette?

I’ve ventured into the land of dino’s and decided to try the Paleo diet. I’ve been curious about it; my normal eating habits are not particularly different from it, but now I’m actually doing it. The only reason I tell you is I wanted to leave two new recipes I tried this week, one I made and one I modified (gluten free, dairy free & processed sugar free). I am a huge believer in modifying. So for some delicious healthy recipes, skim right to the bottom and there you have it, photos included.

Over a year ago when my Nana called me and left me a voice mail telling me she had concluded I should submit my name for the Bachelor, I was like “you’re crazy, no way.” An actual year ago when I blogged about Bachelor Woe’s and why I would be the worst contestant to ever exist on the face of the planet, I was like “I would have to be crazy.” Today, I’m like “A nice car, nice house overlooking the ocean, house full of eligible bachelors, a personal trainer and free trips across the world...” Maybe not so crazy.  Maybe my Nana had it right from the start.

Watching the Bachelorette this season has gotten this Madonna classic stuck in my head- Material Girl.  I wouldn't consider myself a material girl, there are the perks of some material objects, but for the most part I’m content with what I have and in need of nothing. I mean, I willingly shop at Goodwill, not because I need to but because I want to. I like the challenge of finding an ordinary object and making it something extraordinary.  I think the same can be said of people, we don’t always see the extraordinary within people or ourselves.
I kind of feel like this is what this season of the Bachelorette will be like with Desiree Hartsock. The Cinderella of Bachelorettes.

 Yes, a full post dedicated to food and the Bachelorette, throw in a glass of wine and some emotional women and it’s a full-fledged girls night.  Which as a side note, I told a good friend this past weekend that I've been way more emotional than I have ever been in my whole life these past few months (which has made me feel a bit crazy) and she looks at me and goes “ah, you’re finally a woman.” Ha, I guess so. It just took 27 years.

It’s interesting to me, not just because of the magical filming of a hoard of men fighting over one seemingly ordinary girl, but more because I bet she wasn't walking around her hometown last year having men fight to their reality tv deaths over her. There has been a value placed on her head, so now there is a value worth fighting for. That is what amazes me. We as a society are told a value, a beauty, a price that must be paid; and we pay it. The price might be our self-respect, an abhorrent amount of money, food, etc. but depending on the value we place or society places on the prize we will do it or not. Desiree has the value of what America’s Bachelorette this year comes with- beauty, material items, competition, romance, fame, excitement, etc. But if she wasn't the Bachelorette, she’d just be another of the thousands of cute & sweet girls working hard and living life. What a difference giving someone a value can make.

I think we, myself included, easily forget to see the value in the broken.  The beaten. The weary. Shopping the Goodwill aisles, sometimes all I see is something that looks broken, has obviously been used and might even have a weird smell to it; but then I see the value it could have. I see the ordinary in front of me and the extraordinary it’s destined to become.  I think we deserve to apply the same logic to ourselves and those around us.


Thankgoodness we serve a God who not only already see’s the extraordinary in us, but created us to be extraordinary.  A value has been placed on our heads, a price was paid in blood, so that we could be extraordinary. 

Spaghetti Squash Goulash: Modified from The PaleoMama
For my Spaghetti Squash, I preheat the oven to about 400, cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy bitter pieces and place directly on the oven rack (open side up) for approximately 20-30 minutes. Once out of the oven, allow to cool, then take a fork and run it over the “meat” of the squash, scraping out everything within the shell.
Goulash: This part you can make while you squash is baking away. I used ground turkey as a slightly healthier option, plus I just enjoy the taste better. As often when I’m cooking, I run to the store with my well organized list, get home and start cooking and realize I really don’t have most of the things I need and have no idea what I bought or why I bought it, so I just follow my gut and put random things in hoping to create something edible. So here you have it:

1 small can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes (roasted would be good too)
Diced basil leaves (I threw in about 4 stalks worth of fresh leaves)
3 spoonfuls of diced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste, and any other seasoning to up the ante (spicy, sweet)
Garlic powder
2 TBS soy sauce
Caramelized diced onions would be great as well (caramelized with water and the natural milky sugar of the onion)

Paleo Chicken Salad (with a controversial paleo addition of kefir):
1 whole roasted chicken, deboned and diced
2 strips bacon diced..because really, bacon makes everything better.
½ onion finely diced

“mayo”:
1 whole avocado
Plain, nondairy kefir
Garlic powder, Mustard powder, Salt and pepper to taste

 Blend all “mayo” items in the blender until a smooth, yet not runny, consistency and mix in with your diced salad. Voila! Chicken Paleo Salad with the questionable kefir.

Below: the Shirt my mom got me for my birthday. Chicken paleo salad. Goulash.                

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