Patty Cake? No, Patty Pan!

I love Patty Pan squash! Not only do they look super cool, but they have a nice firm and buttery flavor that makes them excellent for stuffing.

I was inspired by my box to do some squash recipes for October, and Patty Pan is quickly disappearing in lieu of winter squashes. I'm less familiar with those, so I thought I would start with a summer squash I knew and move on from there.

Stuffed Patty Pan Squash (w/ Paleo options)

avocado oil
3 cloves garlic
1 shallot
1 container cremini mushrooms
splash of white wine

1/2 cup brown rice (Paleo sub: cauliflower "rice", pulse fresh cauliflower in food processor till rice-like grain sizes are achieved)
1 cup veggie broth (Paleo recipe: 1/4-1/2 cup only)

sea salt and pepper
10 average sized patty pan squash (3"-4" diameter)
1 tbsp fresh parsley
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
(Extra Paleo ingredients needed - almond flour)
parmesan cheese (Paleo sub: vegan parmesan, link below)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prep the squash. Wash and trim off the stems. With a paring knife, cut off the top of the squash and use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds and flesh. You want to create a cup-like cavity that you will fill with stuffing like so:

3. Place prepped squash on a baking sheet and lightly drizzle with oil, salt, and pepper. Let rest.

4. Mince the garlic and shallots, finely dice the mushrooms, chop the parsley, and juice the lemon.
5. In a heavy bottomed pot or pan with lid, place 1 tbsp avocado oil and turn on to medium heat.
6. Sweat the garlic and shallots with a pinch of salt till fragrant, 2-3 minutes.
7. Add the mushrooms and turn heat down to medium-low, cook slowly, letting the mushrooms brown evenly for 10-15 minutes.

8. Once mushrooms are browned and have released about half of their liquid, add the brown rice and broth. Simmer 20 minutes till rice is tender. (PALEO: Instead of adding the brown rice, add in your raw riced cauliflower and 1/4 cup broth. Cover and simmer for 5-6 minutes till cauliflower is tender.) Simultaneously, bake your unfilled patty pan for 15 minutes, till just tender.
9. Remove baked patty pan from the oven and let cool slightly. In the meantime, mix the lemon juice and chopped parsley to the mushroom mixture.
10. Taste for seasonings and adjust as needed. (PALEO: Add almond flour 1tbsp at a time until stuffing texture is reached and the mixture holds together when pressed. Add remaining broth if it is too dry.)
11. When patty pan are cool enough to handle, use a teaspoon to stuff the cavity with the mushroom mixture. Press down lightly to ensure that there are no large air pockets.
12. Place back on baking sheet and lightly sprinkle with parmesan cheese. (PALEO: Sprinkle with vegan parmesan.)
13. Bake for 10 more minutes, until patty pan are heated through and cheese (if using) is melted.
14. Serve hot with a great salad!

 

So cute and delicious, this was excellent with a glass of Zinfandel!

Paleo Vegan Parmesan: It's just walnuts and nutritional yeast, this is my favorite recipe!
(Please note: Not everyone considers nutritional yeast to be Paleo... judge for yourself.)

Love/Hate Relationship

Hey bloggies! Can't believe it's been so long since I've written anything here!

Well, a CF friend just started a blog and I've been dying to come back, so I'm using him as inspiration to get back on the horse.

Thing is... I have a love/hate relationship with blogging. I love it because it's a great way to connect with others, keep track of big events in my life, and hold myself accountable for my health/fitness goals.

I hate it, because it does take a lot of time to do. Between shooting the pics, editing, uploading, and writing posts... it eats up quite a bit of time. That, and the fact that sometime I just feel like a really boring person, make it a lot harder.

Ah well, whine whine whine! In any case, after work I ended up at the box again today. :)

Warmup:
- 400m run
- Alt Tabata (L sits/hollow hold & KBS)

Skills:
- mobility, passthroughs
- snatch squat

WOD: 
A. 1 RM Floor Press
B. 5 RFT: 3 MU's/15 pullups, 5 squat snatches (12 min cap)

SCORE: 
A. 105#
B. 11:29, jumping pullups, 33#

I love Tabata! I've always been a sprinter type of person, so bursts of energy with small consistent resting is great for me. And my goal for the WOD was to make it under the 12min camp, which I totally did. 

The squat snatches were the hardest for me, as I have really tight shoulders, so keeping the bar from falling forward and squatting low enough at the same time is really difficult. 

The floor press was weird since we're more used to bench pressing, my partners and I kept failing at 110# so maybe that will be a goal for next month.

As usual, I was wrecked after I got home and I completely failed on meal planning for us this week, so out we went to Panera. 

I had some unsweetened hibiscus tea and their new soba noodle and shrimp salad, behold (my unfocused iphone picture):

It was a hot mess!!!

I can't focus on the shrimp because hey, it's my own fault for ordering shrimp at Panera of all places. (They were tasty, but waterlogged and soggy.) It was the noodles I was so disgusted by! Overcooked, soggy, clumping together in a big shaggy lump. The sauce was good, the spinach fresh, so I ate it anyway. Not a complete inedible disaster, but I will not be ordering it again.

Tonight's viewing was The Walking Dead 02x05, "Chupacabra". Ho-lee-crap! Daryl is such a badass and I totally called it on the barn full of walkers. This season may be considered slow by some, but I am still completely hooked.

Time for some foam roller and then bed. Tomorrow's a FF day!

I do!

Today I married the love of my life.

Evan, you are my greatest strength, my biggest weakness, and my most trusted ally.

I love you not only for who you are, but for who I am when I'm with you.

I strive to build a life with you in which independence is equal, dependence is mutual and obligation is reciprocal.

I promise to never be too old to hold your hand, to remember that there are 2 sides to every story, and to laugh when there is laughter to be had.

But most of all, I will try, to not leave the butter out on the counter overnight.

Recipe: Opo soup with Mushrooms and Spinach

I am so in love with my new bowl I just had to eat out of it first thing in the morning. It was cold and I was running late so oats it was!

In the oats:

- chia seeds

- water

- soymilk

toppings:

- pumpkin butter

- 2 bistro cookies

- a smear of Nutella

I added the Nutella as an afterthought and I am so glad I did. It's never too early for chocolate.

We ate lunch while we worked since Bryce has to leave early to teach in the afternoons. My plates were totally random but equally delicious.

 

Clockwise from left: dolmas from the deli counter of Super King, salad with corn and balsamic vinaigrette, leftover quinoa noodle spaghetti.

It took me over the course of a few hours to eat everything, I wasn't feeling too great today so I just nibbled here and there. I ended up leaving 15 minutes early because I'd been coughing all afternoon and starting to feel warm. I knew that running was not in the cards tonight and just decided to spend the evening in.

As soon as I set foot in the house I was suddently ravenous and decided to break bread with my own Grilled Cheezus. As I ate, I prayed "let me not be sick" over and over. We'll see if it works.

Since it was cold tonight, I definitely wanted soup for dinner. I had grabbed this Opo squash from the market and knew exactly what to do with it!

Opo is long and smooth calabash with a spongy white interior and thin green skin, it is often listed as "bottle gourd". Most people say it tastes like a cross between a zucchini and a cucumber which is pretty spot on. I've been eating it since I was a kid in my mom's Opo soup with shredded chicken and dried shrimp.

Since I don't eat chicken anymore and I don't keep dried shrimp on hand, I decided to give my own Opo recipe a try. I came up with this mild-flavored soup bulked up with hearty mushrooms and smooth silken tofu.

Opo Soup with Mushrooms and Spinach

- 1 med/large Opo calabash

- 1 container silken tofu

- 3 cloves of garlic

- 1" piece of ginger

- 4.5 cups broth of your choice

- soy sauce or tamari

- 6 white or shiitake mushrooms

- 2 cups spinach

- 1 tbsp olive oil

1) Prep your calabash. Peel Opo with a veggie peeler, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds. Slice it into chunks at least 1/2" wide.

2) Mince garlic and finely slice mushrooms. Thinly slice ginger as well.

3) In a large soup or stock pot, cook garlic and mushrooms in olive oil till the mushrooms have reduced in size, lost their moisture, and browned.

 

4) Add your broth, the Opo pieces, and the ginger. Simmer, covered, for about 25-30 minutes till Opo pieces are just tender.

5) Drain tofu and cut into cubes or crumble it directly into the soup.

6) Rip spinach into pieces and add to soup, turn off the heat. The spinach will cook in the hot broth.

7) Taste for seasonings and add shoyu/tamari to your liking.

8) Ladle into soup bowls and enjoy!

The Opo gives up its flavor to the broth gets so delicate and tender. I used white mushrooms this time but I think shiitake will be even better. Two bowlfuls down the hatch and I felt instantly better!

I also tried a new rice tonight, a "red rice" I found at the market.

All I have to say is "BLEH"! I was not a fan, it tasted muddy and stale to me. Time for a shower and early bed, hopefully this coughing kick will go away soon.

Question: Any tips on beating a cough or tickle-y throat?

Tea and tendons

Aloha lovely internet bloggers! Was your Monday as sunny and beautiful as mine was? It's still rather cold here in LA, but we've been enjoying blue skies today, a nice change from the dreary gray weekend.

Something is wrong with my breakfast picture and I just cannot get it to load properly. I did have a great hearty breakfast of 2 eggs with cheese and two pieces of toasted gluten-free bread, one with some guava jelly from my secret stash.

The cheese I used was goat's/ewe's milk Bulgarian "feta" and was much more sour than I would have expected.  It's definitely the most sour cheese I've ever had and I even searched online to see if it had gone bad. Turns out, that's just the way it is!

The office was cold this morning but I hate turning on my work heat because it dries out my skin. So I was sure to warm up with a cup of this (times two or three):

If you haven't tried this tea yet, you should go out and get some right now! I usually drink my black tea with a bit of milk and sugar, but this is so perfect on its own that you don't need either. The vanilla is strong and the cinnamon subtle, perfect combo!

Lunch took place in stages:

Creamy herbed polenta to start, leftover from last night of course. I only ate about half before the ridiculous amounts of fresh black pepper overwhelmed my senses.

Then I had a salad with 1 small romaine head, 1/2 can of corn, and a few tsp of balsamic vinaigrette. The sweetness of the corn really cuts through the acidic vinegar and is fast becoming one of my favorite salad toppers.

Sometime throughout the afternoon, I dug into this sweet Satsuma mandarin.

These things are so good and so small, I wish I had bought more than 4 this weekend.

I had a bunch of blogging things to do tonight, so I procrastinated on the computer as soon as I got home. I also might have watched 3 or 4 (read: 9-10) random useless funny videos on You Tube. The internet is, and always will be, a huge waste of time. :P

Though it was dark and cold, my body really wanted to go running so I laced up my shoes and headed out. About 10 minutes into my run/walk, my left leg started to hurt... badly. I stretched beforehand, but the tendon attachment point to my vastus intermedius was strained. Here's a nerdy diagram if you're unsure what muscle I am talking about :

The vastus intermedius sits directly underneath the rectus femoris (removed in the above photo). It's an upright muscle with a very long tendon running through/over the patella onto the tibia. Luckily, using all my body knowledge from my massage therapy courses, I could tell that it was just tight and not injured, so I kept going.

I powered through my run/walk, stopping a few times to stretch as needed. When I got home, I laid on some fascia balls and rolled it out along with my IT band, which was (as usual) also very tight. Pure painful bliss!

To my delight, Evan was cooking dinner when I got back from my workout, he's going to be a great husband! All I had to do was take a quick shower and then a hot plate of quinoa noodle spaghetti was placed in front of me. Plus my favorite: steamed broccoli with garlic!

We're still slowly watching Season 2 of the Vampire Diaries on Neflix. While those vampires don't sparkle, I am such a sucker for sappy vampy romance stories and VD certainly delivers.

Question: Are you stoked for Mondays or do you dread them?

Personally, I dread them. It's just a sad reminder that another weekend is long gone.

Don't forget:

1) You can list your own weekly mini goals on my Monday Minis post

2) Sign up for the 2nd annual Thankful Healthy Blogger (virtual) 5K

Monday Minis

Monica at Run Eat Repeat is so great at posting her mini-goals for the week, I was inspired to share mine with you! Here are my 3 mini-goals for this week:

1) 30 pullups every day

2) Eat green with every meal

3) No more than 8 hours of sleep per night

Now I'm sure many of you are scoffing at that last one. Let me explain.... I don't have any kids, my fiance leaves for work at 6:20am and I usually go to bed with him around 10:30pm, and I really REALLY like sleep. Unfortunately, over-sleeping is a big problem of mine and I've heard that it has been linked it to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. It was also something I did frequently during depression, so it's a very good 'bad habit' to break.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, many people are mentally and physically preparing for the annual gorge-fest. Not me though, I'm preparing for this:

This will be Alissa's second annual Thankful Healthy Blogger 5K, you can learn all about it and sign up for it here! It's a virtual 5K, so you can do it from the comfort of your own living room if you don't want to trek outside in the darkness.

And if the wonderful feeling that fitness brings isn't enough to get you away from the pumpkin pie, did I mention that there's a prize???

Do you guys have any mini goals this week? Do you find that little goals help you out, or are you a big daddy goal type of person?

Friday Favorites: Band Edition

Time again for Friday Favorites! This week, it's "Band Edition", focusing on a few bands at the top of my personal favorites list.

1) El Ten Eleven

ETE is a local band from Los Angeles that I've been following them for years. They only have 2 members, but they are my favorite band in the entire world.

They're best know for their looping, recording musical lines and assigning them to certain pedals. They're played over one another to create a song, adding an subtracting lines as desired and improvising as well. The drummer, who I am SO impressed with, accompanies with acoustic and electric drumming techniques. Sounds rad? Yeah, it really is. Not to mention that they use a fretless bass sometimes, producing the most amazing sounds.

Each of their 4 albums is unique and since I've been listening for a while, I have certain memories attached to each one. Some are inspiring while others are heart wrenching, but all of them are beautiful. They are also the band that Evan and I associate with our entire relationship since we discovered them together. Every time we hear one of their songs, we can't help but smile at each other like some kind of wonderful private joke.

2) Coldplay

There is nothing this band does that I don't love, it's my go-to feel good music. Not only is their front man is completely dreamy with an amazing singing voice, but their catchy melodies and interesting instrumentation always puts a smile on my face.

I first fell in love with Coldplay when I heard "Yellow" on the radio in college, I used to listen to it doing laundry in the dorms. After that hit they seemed to be everywhere. Their mellow and inspirational sound is so universal, I'm not surprised they're love the world round. Now if they would only stop touring Europe and come to LA.

3) Foster the People

FTP has been constantly on my playlist since I first heard "Pumped up Kicks", a.k.a the 'Ev, can YOU figure out what the hell they're saying?' song. I'm delighted to find out that they're from LA too! 

While I'm not really into the indie music scene, I can't resist the catchy dance-y rhythms on their Torches album. I am really looking forward to what this band turns out next.

4) Cursive

Cursive is one of those bands who's music is so honest it's painful. They have some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. "The Ugly Organ" is my favorite album with their relationship concept album "Domestica" close behind. I also had the pleasure of seeing them live in Pomona a few years ago.

While their style has changed through the years, my favorite period includes the cellist Gretta Cohn. The cello is very apparent throughout "The Ugly Organ", its deep haunting voice cuts through the other instruments and is a great accompaniment to the gritty vocals.

5) Phoenix

The first time I heard "Lisztomania", I didn't understand a single word they said. But these indie French kids have stolen my heart with their dance-y tracks and youthful melodies. "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix", released in 2009, is my pic for their most complete and polished sounding album.This is one band I don't mind hitting the repeat button for, it's great for long runs!

____________

Looking at my picks this week, it seems that I am really into guy fronted bands. What can I say, I am a total sucker for boy(s) who can sing!

Who are some of your favorite bands?