Paleo Update: My Quest for a nutritious, delicious, easy breakfast before work

UPDATE 8/19:  so I've been thinking about this for a week or so, and here's my conundrum... I now follow a paleo/primal lifestyle and I am very tempted to pull this post off of my site, as I no longer agree that Oatmeal is exactly as nutritious as conventional wisdom tells us.  But alas, I will NOT pull this off the site, because for people who are trying to focus first and foremost on pulling processed foods and transfats and sugars (the first step on the paleo path) out of their diet, this, in my opinion, is at least a first step on a winding path, but, I hope, will lead them eventually in the right direction.  For more info on why oats aren't so great for you, check out this link on Mark's Daily Apple. 


I'm totally a breakfast person.  I wake up early and rush to get ready for work and then I try to throw my lunch together and then I rush out the door and then I realize... crap, I forgot to eat breakfast.  I hate it.  It throws off my whole day.  I'm pining for snacks.  I scour the office for free donuts or try in a futile attempt to find a minimally-processed snack in the vending machines (fyi, the best option is usually salted nuts or trail mix).   With my mind completely focused on counting down the minutes until I can devour my lunch, it becomes quite difficult to concentrate.

Solution:  Oatmeal

I know what you're thinking -- Oatmeal?!  Everyone knows all you have to do is open up one of those little brown individually packaged oatmeal envelopes and pour it into a bowl and add hot water.  Old Hat, right?  Yeah, but once you start eating your reconstituted breakfast you decide that perhaps the maple flavor and brown sugar sweetness they added was actually to cover up the bland, pasty gruel they have tried to pass off as a healthy breakfast.   I mean, sure, it isn't the worst thing you could have for breakfast, but does it really make you feel like you're enjoying eating something that is good for you?

So here's what I do:  Steel-Cut Oatmeal.  The rumor is that steel-cut oatmeal takes too long to prepare.  Yes, but it tastes amazing.  If you've never had it before and you're a fan of oatmeal, you will LOVE it.  It has a really nice bite to it.  Instead of being a mushy bowl of slop from the afore mentioned instant packet, you can actually, sort of, CHEW your oatmeal.  You can even add your own toppings and mix and match your flavors.  I've done peanut butter, dried cranberries, raisins, fresh fruit cut up, jam/jelly, honey, cinnamon, almonds, sliced banana, pumpkin pie filling, or even just some butter.  It is completely customizable.

Also, totally cheap!  You can find it at most grocery stores near the other oatmeals, but for an even better deal, look in the bulk section (I know whole foods sells it in bulk).

Now, about the preparation.  DO IT AHEAD OF TIME.  Every other weekend, I make oatmeal.  For every cup of steel-cut oats you need 3 cups of water.  I like to do a 1.5x batch.

1.5 c. Steel Cut Oats
4.5 c. Water
Pinch of Kosher Salt

Throw it in a big pot on medium-high heat and wait for the boil.  Once it starts boiling bring it down to a simmer and set the timer for 30 minutes.  (I've also heard you can cut the cooking time down to only 10 minutes if you combine the ingredients the night before and let them soak.)  Stir occasionally, and when the timer goes off, turn off the heat.  Eat up!

Now, If you cook it ahead of time, here's the secret: freeze it for easy reheating.  Let it cool a little bit with the lid on.  Once it's not too hot to touch the pot, take out your silicone muffin pan and make some room in your freezer.  Ladle the delicious oatmeal into each little cup of your muffin pan, then throw it in the freezer.  In a few hours you can come back, pop out your frozen oatmeal cups and toss them into a freezer bag.

Then when you're ready to run out the door for work, grab 2 out of the freezer and throw 'em in a baggy to bring with you to work.  At work you can heat these up in the microwave: toss them in a bowl, microwave on high for 2 minutes, stir, 1 more minute, stir in your topping, and eat up.  Now that is a morning meal that will keep you focused and you won't be hungry again until lunch time roles around!

Chipped Roasted Beets & Being a Flexitarian

A few weeks ago, I was with some friends and one asked, "How would you categorize your eating habits?"  I hadn't thought of it too much before that time.  I think I eat a pretty healthy diet.  I shop at whole foods.  I go to restaurants with my hubby.  I bring my lunch to work a couple days a week.  I eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, meat, cheese; you know, all the food groups.  I try to purchase mostly organic, low processed, or grass fed/pastured.  I love good food.

My other friend said she thinks of herself as a Flexitarian.  Huh?  What the heck is Flexitarian - you may be asking (I sure did).  Flexitarians have also been referred to as "less-meat-aterians," "part-time vegetarians," "semi-vegetarians," or even "meat-eating vegetarians."  I know this seems a bit crazy.  Perhaps some believe you either ARE or ARE NOT a vegetarian.  I mean, you can't be kind-of pregnant, right?

Wikipedia uses this definition for Semi-Vegetarian: "diets that are not vegetarian but include less meat than typical diets. The term has no precise or widely accepted definition, but it usually denotes the following of a mainly vegetarian diet whilst eating meat occasionally."  


I thought that could be something fun and healthy to try.  I then read "The Flexitarian Diet."  You don't have to give up your favorite meat cravings.  You don't have to drastically change what you currently eat (at least for my eating habits).  The author, Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietician, says all you have to do is change a little at a time.  Instead of having meat as a main ingredient in your dinner, make it a condiment.  Add more grains, beans and soy (organic only - non-organic soy is said to have one of the highest concentrations of pesticides) products in to your meals.  Eat a wider variety of fruits and vegetables.


I've been a Flexitarian for about 2 weeks now.  It really only takes a little more work than before.  My hubby LOVEs his meat meals, but when I cook a vegetarian meal for dinner he tries it, then if he's into it, he'll eat it and get seconds.  He's even been seen heating up the leftovers in the convection-toaster oven in the morning for breakfast!  Can you believe it?!


In these 2 weeks I've lost weight.  I feel healthier.  Sure I've still gone out to dinner with my hubby a few times, and I even had meat during some of those meals!  But the majority of the time, I'm thinkin' like a vegetarian.  I'm even searching out vegetarian options when I first look at a menu when we are out to eat.  I've been cooking quick meals for dinner.  I've made a big vegetarian feast.  Sure I've made a terribly bland mushroom barley soup along the way, but the next day I was able to reclaim the dish into a deliciously creamy gruyere-parm mushroom risotto!  I also splurged and bought a few new cookbooks so that it would be easier to plan, shop, prep and cook for my new eating habits.  I got The Flexitarian Table, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen.


Although I'm not specifically changing my "diet" to lose weight, it is having that affect.  I feel better. I look better.  It's all good.  I've never been able to find a "diet" that was easy to do, but not only is this easy, but it makes me feel great.  I'm not hungry.  I eat less food.  I don't crave sweets as much.  Seriously, you could try it for two weeks and see results.  


This morning I went to Whole Paychecks and bought a whole cart full of groceries.  When I got home I started in on a recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  Super easy, super yummy and totally satisfying.  They call them Beet Chips - page 267, but I call them Chipped Roasted Beets.  Their version has the beets more browned and crispy while my version had more of a wholesome roasted beet flavor.  If you like beets, you can't go wrong with this simple recipe.  

I used 3 medium red beets.  I set the oven to 400 degrees to preheat, then washed and peeled (I used vinyl gloves so I didn't get the red dye on my hands) the beets and used a Mandoline to slice the beets into thin rounds.  I threw the rounds in a bowl, tossed 'em with some kosher salt and olive oil, then spread them out on a cookie sheet in a single layer on top of parchment paper.  

 I stuck them in the oven for 10 minutes,  took them out, fliped them over, another 10 minutes and they are done!  Enjoy!  

Hello and Welcome

So I've decided to write a blog.

I've been so inspired by blogs in recent years that I figured it is about time I created one of my own.  Not that I really need another thing to keep up with, but perhaps this will bring everything together.

One of my many hobbies is music.  I am a member of a Parody Band, you know, like Weird Al Yancovich.  Remember him?  Yeah, we have a lot of fun together.  We are "The Band of 1000 Names."  I play the bass and I also sing.  We have a show on April 1st at 9:00pm.  It's at Sylvie's Lounge.  We will be the second band up, playing at 10:00pm.  Come on out and join in the fun!