Being busy means less cooking, more eating out

This is turning out to be a pretty busy week combining activities, friends, and volunteer work. One of my best friends decided that she wants to live a healthier life without the prescription drugs for her auto-immune condition. So she is combining juicing with a paleo diet. Personally, I think juicing is overrated and usually leads to over-consumption of sugar (from all the fruit), but different things work for different people. She is also “shadowing” me and going to every workout/activity that I do this week. My other friend said, “I can’t believe she’s going from zero to Jeanna in a week… she’s going to die.” Haha.

It’s important to keep in mind that I was eating paleo for several months before I gradually added exercise back into my life. Now I am literally in the best shape of my life and feel absolutely amazing. I am in complete awe of how my body is responding to everything that I put it through. I can SEE improvement every single time I do something. Bouldering on Monday, I was able to get past the crux of a V3 I’ve been struggling with for the last week! I was SO excited. After only 3 hours of sleep, I somehow managed to get to Crossfit at 6am on Tuesday. The WOD was 5 rounds of 5 Dead lifts (95#) and 10 burpees after a warmup that included handstands, pushups, situps, and shoulder presses. I finished the WOD in under 6min, yay! Later that afternoon, I went to hot yoga and had my best class yet! I could never touch my forehead to my knee on some of the compression poses, but all of a sudden yesterday, there it was! My forehead. On my knee. Awesome. More bouldering today! I hope my friend is up for day 3! 🙂

I’ve been eating out a lot lately since I haven’t been home enough to really cook for myself. I think more and more of my friends are starting to try eating paleo or at least are very understanding of my choice to eat that way. I no longer feel like a social outcast because of my lifestyle! Not that I was ever casted out, it was my own personal choice.

 

Happy Hour at Peso’s Kitchen and Lounge in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood is amazing. So many food options for $4-6 each! And everything I’ve ever tried there has been super tasty! They claim to be the most visited HH in Seattle. I believe it, it was packed on late sunday night! The pictures are pretty bad, it was really dark and I had to use the flash.

My HH buddy and I ordered four plates to share. The Chevre-Stuffed Jalapeños wrapped in bacon are not pictured, but they were amazing!

5 Chile Seared Prawns
w/ Mango-Habanero Marmalade
ancho, gaujillo, New Mexico, de Arbol chiles
These were pretty spicy, but the mango came through to help with the heat. Delicious!

Ceviche
I couldn’t find this on the online menu, but I’m pretty sure it was rockfish and halibut ceviche. I love ceviche so much, but I find that it’s only good 50% of the time. This would fall under the good 50%. I did not eat the the little tortilla thing underneath the ceviche. I nibbled on it and blegh, oily corn crisps are not for me.

Ahi Tuna Tartare
Not sure what exactly was in it anymore since the online menu doesn’t have this one either, but it was delicious too! I love tartares. Raw fish is good, but raw steak tartares are even better with the egg yolk on top.

 

 

Modified Greek Hobo – Voulas Offshore Cafe, Seattle
Post-Crossfit breakfast! YUM. The Greek Hobo is “Greek sausage, onions, mushrooms, hash browns, and eggs
scrambled together and topped with Feta cheese.” I asked for no hash browns and no cheese while adding tomatoes. Voulas usually gives you gigantic plates of food, but without the hashbrowns or toast, it was a much more reasonably sized plate of food that I could actually finish. The Greek sausage is awesome! I wonder what’s in it though…

 

 

Holy Basil – Racha Thai Cuisine, Woodinville
I usually don’t like to eat after hot yoga, but my friend and I went next door for some dinner. “Racha stir-fries are cooked quickly over high heat in heated Canola oil seasoned with seared garlic.” “Oyster mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, fresh minced red chilies & fresh Thai Holy basil.” I ordered mine with chicken, which was super tender. The only non-paleo part of this would be the canola oil, but I could live with that. This tasted super fresh, clean, and was full of flavor from the chilies and basil! I would definitely eat it again.

I can stay paleo eating Paseo! *happy dance*

Back to posting about food! Yesterday was full of all sorts of food! I even deviated a little from being paleo!

Non-marinated Korean-style boneless beef short ribs

One of my favorite ways to eat beef since it’s so quick and tasty! Cut the meat and in a bowl, mix it with some salt, pepper, and sesame oil. The sesame oil adds a really nice flavor and is what makes it Korean to me. In a pan, I start cooking the garlic, onions, and mushrooms before adding the meat.

I ate it with a type of radish kimchi (musengchi).

Cuban Roast Plato – Paseo
Oh how I love Paseo. The Cuban Roast sandwich there may be the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my life. Yesterday was the first time I went since adopting the paleo way of eating. Since the best part about my beloved sandwich is the amazingly succulent marinated roasted pork shoulder, I decided on getting the Cuban Roast Plato entree. All entrees come with a “house salad consisting of crisp romaine lettuce, razor thin sliced purple cabbage, pickled julienne cut beets & cilantro sprigs drizzled w/ our house vinaigrette & extra virgin olive oil. Accompanied w/ fluffy jasmine rice, critically acclaimed vegetarian black beans & seasoned corn on the cob.” I asked for just the meat with extra salad. The guy taking my order looked at me like I was crazy to pass on their beans and corn. Apparently extra means gigantic at Paseo… look at all that salad! It’s SOOOO good with the cilantro and the beets! I didn’t miss the rice, beans, or corn at all! I did miss the caramelized onions and jalapeños that come on the sandwich though, I’ll see if I can add those next time! Their onions are pretty special!

Vegetable Delight – Djan’s Thai Restaurant
I suppose ordering one of the coconut milk based curries with steamed veggies would have been more paleo, but I was craving some stir-fry. I chose the vegetable delight from the wok fare section of the menu: “Choice of meat stir-fried with assorted vegetables: broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, carrots, napa and cabbage.” I went with chicken. It was a bit salty to eat without rice, but still very good with all the veggies!

A non-paleo treat that doesn’t make me sick!
Since I was in Wallingford, I could not keep myself away from Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream. Sometimes they have non-dairy coconut milk ice cream, but not yesterday. So I got a kid’s scoop of their thai tea ice cream. It was deeeelicious! Since I’m not 100% strict paleo, a little quality ice cream here and there is a welcome treat. By quality I mean as natural as possible without all sorts of chemicals added in. I find that I don’t get sick after eating a little ice cream like I do with cake.