StartBeingFit

Cauliflower Fried Rice

Tyson — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:32:21 +0000

Ashley and I have been experimenting a lot lately with cauliflower, mainly as a substitute in our Sweet and Sour chicken. Last night I got the itch to make some fried rice with it. I set out on a search of the Internet and found a few that I thought would be good but I didn’t have all of the required ingredients. So I did what I do best and improvised. The end result came out awesome and there wasn’t much left of it afterward. I figure there was probably enough there to feed a family of 4 but it was so good that I couldn’t resit eating most of myself. Here is what I did.

Ingredients

Head of Cauliflower
2 onions chopped
2 clove garlic
coconut oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of paprika
3 tablespoons gluten free soy sauce
1/2 cup frozen peas

Instructions

I started out by chopping the the cauliflower, onions, and garlic cloves using our Vidalia Chop Wizard. If you don’t have one of these, you need to get one. It makes chopping vegetables so much easier than by hand and the cleanup is painless. After chopping I cooked the ingredients in a large pain along with some coconut oil for about 5 minutes. At about 3 minutes into that, I added the frozen peas, soy sauce and paprika.
At the 5 minute mark I moved the mixture to the side and added 3 whole eggs. I made sure to break up the yokes a bit and allowed it all to cook. Once the eggs where cooked but still soft, I mixed them in with the rest of the cauliflower mixture that has been set aside in the pan. I let it cook for a few more minutes and then promptly removed from the heat. The key to all of this is to continuously stir the mix or it will burn to the bottom of the pan.

Cooking time (duration): 10

Diet (other): Reduced carbohydrate, High protein, Gluten free

Number of servings (yield): 4

My wife commented that it was really good and suggested maybe adding some chicken in next time. That is a great idea and would really add some protein to it and could really make it a meal by itself. I actually served this particular one with some almond encrusted tilapia.

I apologize for the quality of the picture. All I had was my camera phone.

Primal Guacamole

Tyson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:57:52 +0000

I had a few avocado’s getting ripe in the fridge so tonight I decided to make some dip out of them. I must say that I am quite proud of what I came up with. So much so that I cannot stop eating it!

Recipe: Primal Gaucamole

Ingredients

3 ripe avocado’s
half an onion
half a red pepper
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cilantro

Instructions

Saute the onion and red pepper in some coconut oil until both are soft. While that is cooking, begin on the guacamole by cutting them in half length wise, removing the seeds and scooping out the good stuff into a bowl. Begin to mash. Once mashing is complete, add in the onion, red pepper and the rest of the ingredients.
Blend well and serve!

Cooking time (duration): 10

Number of servings (yield): 6

My rating: 4 stars: ★★★★☆

Let me know what you think.

Food Won’t Control Me

Tyson — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:39:01 +0000

One thing that I really like about intermittent fasting is that I control food rather than food controlling me. If I can go 24+ hours without eating, then I surely can resist a piece of cake, candy, or anything else that could be deemed harmful to my health. I hate that feeling that I get when I eat something that I know I shouldn’t have. It’s the feeling of guilt that I have let myself down, that maybe I have not done everything I could have to resist that temptation. I know how much food controls my emotions. During times of high stress or fatigue, food is the first thing I think of when trying to “deal”. . Fasting gives that control back to me. To me, it’s a much better feeling to say that I have resisted all food for the last 24 hours than to say I resisted a bag of M&M’s. They are both huge feats but the fast gives me better control over the small things. It helps me break that viscous cycle that food has over me. It gives me back the power and I like that.

Quick Primal Lasagna

Tyson — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:02:03 +0000

Tuesday night is what my kids like to call “Fun Night”. Fun Night usually consists of the kids making their own form of pizza (English muffins, sauce, cheese, pepperoni, etc). My wife and I will usually make a gluten free version for ourselves. Lately that option has also been primal (consisting of almond flour). We missed last weeks fun night because of unforeseen circumstances so we decided to make up for it on Friday.

While the kids ate their pizza, I decided to do something different for the wife and I (mainly because I had no almond flour for crust). Since this was last minute and I was short on time, I put some ground beef in the microwave to defrost. A few minutes later, I took it out, drained the excess grease into one pan and threw the beef into another. While the beef was cooking, I cut up an onion and threw it into the hamburger grease and put a spaghetti squash into the microwave to cook.

After the onions, hamburger, and squash were all done cooking, I set out to make my lasagna. Since my spaghetti squash was small and my pan large, I decided to use a meatloaf pan instead of a typical 9×9 baking dish.

I put my first layer of squash down on the bottom.

I followed that with a layer of beef and onions

and then a layer of spaghetti sauce.

I followed it up with another layer of squash, then meat, then sauce and topped it with some cheese.

[singlepic id=93 w=240 h=240 float=center]

The end result was fantastic.

This would be considered Primal because of the cheese but not Paleo for the same reason. Lose the cheese and gain the Paleo tag. Easy enough.

Respect Your Body

Tyson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:43:20 +0000

Respect your body because its the only one your going to get. My opinion of my perfect body has really changed over the years. In junior high I wanted to be rail thin to match the other guys. In high school, college and many years afterword’s I wanted to be ripped and muscular. Just like Arnold.

Now I have a different outlook. I want to be healthy. I don’t care if my arms are busting out of my shirt or my abs could be counted in 2’s (would be nice but probably wont happen). I want to be healthy so that I can live a long life. A life where I can see my kids grow up and where I can have grand-kids. I want to be the cool Dad that is out playing soccer. I want to be that awesome Grandpa that can pull the kids in the wagon. This is the direction my life has taken.

I am a father and husband. My family relies on me to take care of them. They look to me for both financial and emotional support. I am the cornerstone of the family. With that said, I need to keep myself healthy. If I become ill and cant go to work; where does the money come from? If I am sick in bed and someone breaks into my house, who is going to protect my family? Is that extra dessert worth the idea of jeopardizing my families safety? That is an easy one to answer for me. Was it for you?

We all need to remember that our bodies and everything associated with it are the only ones we get. Modern medicine can only take us so far. We need to learn to take care of our gift of life. If you made unhealthy choices along the way and you are not at a point where you are happy with yourself; its not too late to change. I would be lying if I told you that its not going to take a huge commitment. You will be going against what society tells you to do: Super size fries, escalators, hot pockets, soda, etc. But the end result is worth it – LIFE!

Do me a favor and think about someone in your family that you love more than anything else in this world. If you cant do it for yourself, then do it for them. Do it for their life, a life that has you in it for a long time to come.