Thursday, April 10th, 2014

Modding My Chipotle Bowl With 5 Ingredients For Higher Performance

by Kristen Suzanne in energy, Kristen Suzanne, omnivore, sauerkraut, travel

Modding my Chipotle Bowl with ingredients for higher performance.

Modding my Chipotle Bowl with 5 ingredients for higher performance.

As you all know by now, I’m a wee bit picky when it comes to my food. I want the highest quality and most nutritious goodness for my body and for my family. I want high performance, longevity, and energy. So, to ensure I get all of those things I prepare all of our high quality foods from scratch. That’s no small task as you might imagine, but it matters to me.

Sometimes, I need a break, or sometimes we’re traveling and food choices are limited.

Chipotle Bowl with white rice, steak, and guacamole. It needs to be enhanced.

One of the places on our list of “OK to eat” is Chipotle. It’s by no means perfect; but, on the spectrum of fast casual restaurants, they get my vote. They try to source quality ingredients and they listen to their customers. For example, they changed their oil by switching from crap gmo soy oil and now use less-crappy-but-still-crappy rice bran oil due to customer complaints.

Recipe Orange Chicken & Yams Slow Cooker Gluten Free Paleo

by Kristen Suzanne in family, gluten free, omnivore, paleo, pastured chicken, recipe, slow cooker

Orange Chicken & Yams Slow Cooker Gluten Free

The easier and simpler a recipe is, the more attracted I am to it these days. Being a mom to a 3.5 year old is busy, but with easy recipes like this, then it’s a breeze.

Enter Orange Chicken & Yams. And, of course… ENTER: SLOW COOKER. I think my slow cooker will go from being my best friend to my bestest best friend. With a recipe as easy, delicious, and nutritious as this, I have so much time on my hands that I can read a book. ;) Speaking of books, I just finished Chris Kressers’ The Paleo Code, which is a good book detailing a Paleo diet with a Real Food spin which I like. I’m about to dive into Eat the Yolks (by funny gal Liz Wolfe) between chapters of one of my favorite authors, Diana Gabaldon. I’m on her 5th book in The Outlander Series, The Fiery Cross. The Outlander Series is soooooo fantastic and very popular (so popular that I believe a TV series is being made of it). I love to read. It’s one of my favorite things.

On to the recipe:

Recipe How to Make Bone Broth Stock (Slow Cooker, Sous Vide, Oven, Stove)

by Kristen Suzanne in apple cider vinegar, gluten free, offal, omnivore, paleo, recipe, superfoods

Beautiful clear bone broth made with the Sous Vide Supreme.

Beautiful organic grass fed beef bone broth made with the Sous Vide Supreme.

Bone broth (a.k.a. stock)… I love it.

One of the earlier foods I introduced into our diet after changing from vegan to omnivore was nourishing (and delicious) homemade grass fed bone broth (stock).

In culinary circles, stock (or as I’ll refer to it in my blog post, bone broth) is considered the foundation of cooking, and for good reason. A cup of broth seems so simple, and for the most part it is, but it can be used in so many ways. Bone broth really sets the foundational flavor for many recipes.

Michael Ruhlman writes about stock making, “It may be the most commonly avoided preparation in America’s kitchens, even though it’s the single preparation that might elevate a home cook’s food from decent to spectacular.” He also says, “If there’s one preparation that separates a great home cook’s food from a good home cook’s food, it’s stock.”

I hope those quotes inspire you to embrace stock (bone broth) making, and if you’re still on the fence, read on because I’ll show you how easy, fun, and wonderful it is to prepare.

*UPDATE – TODAY (10/25/13): Since writing this long post and scheduling it to appear, I’ve learned even more about making stock because I’m enrolled in a Classic Cooking school right now, and we actually learned about stock making today. I would say that my instructor would probably be intrigued with some of what I’ve written but he’d also probably be horrified. I had planned on adding to this post to reflect that, but I came home and saw that — oops — the post has gone live already. That being said… these are all still “pretty” legit and they make yummy bone broth. I will add to the bottom of this post what I’ve learned in school for the truly classical method, hopefully later today!

Warm bone broth going into a mug.

Making bone broth was something that really intrigued me once we ended our decade-long vegan journey. At the same time, I didn’t know much about it. If I remember correctly, we started our omnivore foodie life with organic, pastured-raised eggs, along with grass fed organic ghee and high vitamin butter oil, and then we added sardines (learn how you, too, can love sardines here).

Shortly after, I was mystically drawn to bone broth so I started playing around with it. Seemed weird, mostly because I was using the term “bone broth” yet I couldn’t help myself because it sounded wickedly fun. Bone broth is also referred to as stock (chicken stock, beef stock, fish stock), so when you’re talking to people outside the Paleo or Nourishing Traditions spheres, they might look at you like you have two heads if you say you make bone broth, which is really just good ol’ stock.

When I started the bone broth journey, I had no idea what to do or where to begin, but I quickly learned. It’s my hope to introduce this into your home if you’re new to it, with ease and excitement, because making bone broth (i.e., chicken or beef stock) is really fun and crazy easy. With a few simple tips, you will be well on your way.

Recipe Beef n Bison Heart Stew (Paleo. Slow Cooker.)

by Kristen Suzanne in coconut aminos, gluten free, grass fed bison, grass fed butter, MAC knife, offal, omnivore, paleo, recipe, slow cooker, tomato

I have ventured into unknown territory for me… into a land I never thought I’d enter. I made a stew that had heart in it. Yes, actual heart. It was grass fed bison heart to be exact (though you can make this recipe with either bison or beef heart). And, of course, I used my trusty ol’ slow cooker.

Grass Fed Bison Heart Stew

I bought the grass fed bison heart many months ago and it sat in my freezer. Of course, it scared the dickens out of me as I had images flashing before my eyes of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – pictured below. But, as my repertoire of recipes increased to include other unusual things for me (grass fed tongue and grass fed liver), the heart didn’t seem as crazy as when I originally ordered it.

Omnivore Food Journal

by Kristen Suzanne in food journal, ice cream, omnivore

Kamea has been weaning from breastfeeding for the past few months. As a result I’ve noticed my appetite has decreased a bit. It’s weird… I spent the past four years shoveling food in my mouth at every chance, and now I actually go more than 3 hours without food. You’d think life would be easier, yet I find myself spending more time in the kitchen than ever.

Homemade White Chocolate Strawberry Ice Cream

Breakfast

Iced Decaf Bulletproof Coffee (this time it was upgraded decaf coffee beans, Straus European grass fed butter, coconut oil, collagen and grass fed whey)
Paleo Double Chocolate Banana Bread (recipe coming)

Lunch

Poached Eggs and cooked carrots with grass fed butter drizzled on top
Homemade White Chocolate Strawberry Ice Cream (raw eggs, cacao butter, grass fed butter, strawberries, etc).
Iced Herbal Tea

Dinner

Slow Cooker Grass fed Beef Tongue (sounds so weird… recipe coming)
Cauliflower Carrot Puree (recipe coming)

Vegan to Omnivore Health Update and Foods We Eat

by Kristen Suzanne in Bulletproof Coffee, food journal, Kristen Suzanne, omnivore

There are three things people keep asking of me these days…

Recipes
Update on our omnivore experience regarding our health since blogging about our not being vegan anymore here
Foods we are eating

1) Recipes… they’re coming as you might see from the increased posting I’ve been doing. If you have special recipe requests (vegan, raw, or omnivore), I’ll try to hook you up… just tweet to me (or email) the kinds of recipes or cooking skills you’d like to see on my blog.

Food Journal: Omnivore, Gluten Free

by Kristen Suzanne in food journal, gluten free, grass fed bison, grass fed butter, omnivore, paleo

Here’s my food journal from yesterday. Although I wouldn’t call it a strict paleo diet, it’s paleo -like. I’d say I’m a cross between Nourishing Traditions type foods and Paleo. Basically, I do Paleo plus grass fed butter… and on rare occasion I have raw grass fed cheese.

I prefer Straus European grass fed butters because of the higher fat content, but I’m at mom’s and Kerrygold is what she had, which is also nice.

++ Please note that when I post a food journal it is simply a snap shot of a day in my life. My foods vary, with intention, and you can’t always see that when I randomly post food journals. Nonetheless, people continue to ask me to post my food journals. I’ll do my best to post them more often so you get a better picture.

A New Kind of Egg Salad Recipe

by Kristen Suzanne in eggs, omnivore, recipe

Eggs hold a special place in my heart. It was eggs that started my family on our journey of vegan to omnivore, and it was eggs that started my family and I on the road to healing from being depleted. Yeah, eggs are a big deal for me. But, not any eggs. They have to be pastured and organic, so when I can’t get enough of them from our local farmer, I buy Vital Farms from Whole Foods.

We go through a lot of eggs right now… it’s as if I can’t get enough. To read about the many ways we consume pastured eggs, check out my egg post here. I’d have to say the most common method is with my beloved Sous Vide.