So too, with food.

I, and I suspect that many of you too, are creatures of habit. We’re disciplined enough  to never miss a WOD and compulsive enough to scribble with a shaky exhausted hand our times and loads and number of rounds in our workout ledgers, like 19th century accountants. It is a force for both good and evil, driving us to both new heights, and to mind-numbing monotony: “It’s 3 P.M, I get five almonds!”.

Just like our workouts, our meals should be constantly varied as well. Instead of eating the same breakfast that we can practically make in our sleep, we should mix it up and insert variety through varying quantities, contents, and mealtimes. The fact is, that many foods, even those we consider and know to be “healthy” can have deleterious effects. Just a few of these antinutrients to consider:

• Oxalates: This substance is found in high levels in many staple foods consumed on the Paleo diet, such as Spinach, Chard, Beets and rhubarb, and in lower levels in nuts and berries. Oxalates bind to calcium and and iron, preventing their absorption.
• Lectins: Although found mainly in grains and pluses (beans), many nuts also have high levels of lectins.
• Allergenic foods: These include nightshades such as tomatoes, which are tolerated but can still have ill effects in mass quantities.

The antinutrients in plant foods are defenses against being eaten, as the main method used by animals (running away!) is unavailable to them. Luckily, for every measure there is a countermeasure; our body does have pathways to deal with many antinutrients in foods. However, when we eat a monolithic diet based off on only 2-3 different foods, those pathways can get overloaded and operate much less efficiently.

The best way to keep them from happening is the same way we keep our athletic performance improving: constantly varying it! Consciously choosing different and novel foods to cook not only makes dinnertime more interesting, it also exposes us to a wider variety of nutrients and all the beneficial effects of different foods, as well as preventing us from overdoing it on the antinutrients!

The miracle of the modern supermarket has blessed us with a huge variety of verdant greens and bright colors! We should all strive to combine them in new, interesting, and beautiful ways every day. Our mealtimes are an opportunity to create works that appeal to all our senses; you can never go wrong by including as many colors and textures and flavors as possible.

Spaghetti Squash with Sauce

I based this recipe off a few different ones. The sauce and spaghetti squash prep (which is far better than the one I was using before!) are slight modifications of ones courtesy my girlfriend. I always make this along with the most excellent meatball recipe from Mark’s Daily Apple. However, the creative cook could easily make a meat sauce by adding in italian sausage and ground beef/bison during the sauté portion of the sauce recipe.

The nice thing about these recipes is that you can time things so they all complete at about the same time! Another note: I prefer a lot of garlic in my food. You can’t get too much, in my mind. Adjust accordingly…

Sauce (I make this first)

Ingredients:

• 2 small onions, finely chopped
• 6-10 garlic cloves, half finely minced and half chopped fairly coarsely
• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 14oz cans diced or crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
• 2 8oz cans of tomato sauce
• several stalks of fresh oregano, finely minced
• several stalks of fresh rosemary, finely minced
• Several stalks of green garlic, thinly sliced (light green and white parts only. This is optional, but amazing)
• cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
• Sea or kosher salt to taste (If you use something like Morton’s iodized, I will come to your house and thrash you!)

I learned something VERY valuable from chef Jason Donoho of Fino that has served me very well; one should always season throughout the preparation of a dish, not just at the beginning or at the end, as many of us tend to do. I chop up excess spices/garlic/aromatics and use some at the beginning, some throughout the cooking process, and some for the end. I find that it creates complex layers of flavors as the herbs express themselves differently throughout the stages of cooking.  For the same reason, I ALWAYS try and use fresh herbs as opposed to dried. It’s a night and day difference.

• Heat a dutch oven or sauce pot over medium to medium-high heat with a good 2-3 second pour of olive oil. I have also used bacon grease to great effect!
• Begin a sauté with the onion and the coarsely-chopped garlic (You can even throw a few whole cloves in). Add in about 1/4 of the chopped herbs and green garlic here. The reason we want coarsely chopped garlic is that as we sauté, the garlic tends to cook very quickly and often burn (We’ve all experienced that burned garlic smell and taste). The coarsely chopped/whole cloves will cook a bit slower throughout the sauté process.
• When the onions are translucent and soft, add in the crushed tomatoes, the tomato sauce, another 1/4 of the herbs and green garlic, and about half of the minced garlic.
• Bring all that to a nice bubble, frequently stirring. Keep sprinkling in small amounts of herbs and green garlic throughout this process.
• Reduce the heat to low, cover, and, you guessed it, add more aromatics and green garlic, and throw in the rest of the minced garlic.
• Cook on the lowest possible heat for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally. You should add in the remainder of the herbs and green garlic about 5-10 minutes before you remove the pot from the heat.

Meanwhile: The Spaghetti Squash!

Ingredients:

• 1 Spaghetti Squash
• Olive Oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

This is a delicious, wonderful food item.  I do believe that I like it better than real pasta at this point! The secret I have found for these puppies is that they need to be able to rid themselves of some of their moisture so that the resulting “noodles” aren’t too wet and mushy. If you have a V rack or a raised grid of some sort, break them out!

• Preheat your oven to 350′ F
• Cut the squash down the center, lengthwise
• Scoop out all the loose guts and seeds, and have a flashback to Halloween! (The seeds can be saved and roasted like pumpkin seeds)
• Rub olive oil on the exposed cuts and inner surface
• Sprinkle with sea/kosher salt and pepper, to taste
• Here’s the trick: place face-down on the raised grid or V rack for cooking. This allows the squash to drain as it cooks.
• Cook for 40 minutes, and face up for another 5.
• Rake a fork across the inside of the squash. Like magic, spaghetti noodles appear! you can add a tsp of olive oil if you like.
• For the especially lazy, the outer skin of the squash can be used as a bowl for the sauce and meatballs (hey, I’m a bachelor!). Don’t try and wash it or put it in the dishwasher afterward though!

Or so you might think…

Much has been made of the analysis of Grass-fed vs. Grain fed beef. Fat content, Omega-3/6 ratios, and the ethics of the two systems have been debated endlessly, with the grass-fed/pastured side coming out ahead on all counts except cost.

A wild-caught salmon filet. Notice it is almost red; not pink.

However, we seldom stop to think about the analogous situation that exists with our seafood.

The fact is, all manner of creatures live their lives under identical living and diet conditions as our cattle, and the resulting product isn’t any better for our health. The food industry goes to great lengths to keep that fact just outside our consciousness.

that salmon filet looked so plain. Let's take some fresh dill...

A salmon gets the distinctive color of its flesh from the algae and single-celled organisms in its diet which contain the natural pigments astaxanthin and canthaxanthin. These pigments linger in the salmon’s body fat, yielding the vibrant reds and oranges we all love.   Without this diet, the salmon would be as white as canned tuna.

The fish farms know that you wouldn’t buy a white salmon, so instead of attempting to feed the fish a proper diet, they instead give the salmon synthetic versions of astaxanthin and canthaxanthin. Sometimes they will substitute in red yeast instead. That’s right, the farmed fish that you’ve been eating (and patting yourself on the back for being “healthy” for doing so!) is dyed, and often not even the correct color (they aim for a pinkish hue, one probably dictated by their marketing departments).

Mince finely, like so...

In of itself, this isn’t necessarily horrible. What is horrible, however, is the fact that along with those beautiful colors, those tiny organisms also contribute all the healthy Omega-3 fatty acids and nutrients to the fish. Yes, that’s right. The fish farms feel that it’s more important to give you a fish that LOOKS nutritious than one that really IS nutritious. Indeed, the levels of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids in farmed Salmon and Tilapia are often lower than for beef! Worse yet, the Omega-3s that ARE in farmed fish are often in the form of the short-chain and worthless ALA.

The reason for this nutritional difference is the same as for our beef; farmed fish generally subsist on shrimp meal and our favorite substance: Grain. Yes, that’s right. We treat our farmed fish such that they live similar lives to their ancestors; roaming the plains, grazing on corn and wheat. Oh, wait a second…

The bottom line for us is that we need to pay as much attention to the purchase of our seafood as we do our… Landfood.

Let's sprinkle the dill on top of our salmon filets, and add a pat of grass-fed pastured butter. Broil or bake to satisfaction.

Braising is the perfect cooking method during Winter’s harsh reign. The steam rising from the broth formed from the braising liquid is enough to warm you inside and out from even the coldest of fronts, and the hearty flavor of the tougher cuts is the Yang to the weather’s Yin. As we in Austin are about the be victimized by such a front, I offer this recipe to counteract its ill effects.

(This is an adaptation of a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Seriously Simple: Easy Recipes for Creative Cooks).

Chop the leeks about like so.

Equipment Required

• A medium-sized dutch oven OR a crock pot
• A nonstick, or for the adventurous, cast iron skillet or very hot grill
• A good pair of tongs
• A nice sharp chef’s knife and a quality cutting board

Ingredients

• 5lb Beef Short Ribs (Note that there are two different cuts of short ribs: The ‘English” cut, which is individual sections ofribs, or “flanken” cut, which is a section of meat cut across multiple ribs.
  

  The Usual suspects.

  It doesn’t matter which you use for this recipe, although I prefer the English cut)

• 3 large, fresh leeks; thoroughly washed and finely chopped (light green and white sections only)
• 2 tbsp Chipotle Peppers in Adobo sauce (note: almost all brands have a very small amount of added sugar). This amounts to 1-2 of the small peppers in the can, along with some of the sauce. The remainder can be used as a most excellent marinade for meat.
• 1/2 cup Tequila, plus another few shots for the chef
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2 cups frozen mango chunks (or cut some fresh mango!)\
• 2 tbsp coconut oil

The Procedure

First, we want to salt and pepper the meat all over with sea or coarse kosher salt, and fresh-ground black pepper. Work the salt and pepper in with your fingers until it’s thoroughly embedded in the meat. Don’t be afraid to get in there! I also like to give a thin coating of olive oil to the meat before I start in with the salt and pepper.

Next, we want a heavy skillet heated up to searing temperatures (medium-high heat should do). You can choose nonstick for easy cleanup, or cast iron for a

A hot grill works wonderfully for the initial sear as well

superior sear. After the skillet has heated up, we want to brown each side of the ribs (even the edges). The Maillard reaction here is what gives meat many delicious flavor compounds, as well as the appealing burnt color, so don’t skimp on this step!

Ensure that you brown the ribs in small batches. If the pan is crowded, that is that much less heat being applied to each rib, so the browning won’t be as effective. We

are not looking to fully cook the ribs; this is why the hotter the pan, the better. We want a scorched outside, and a raw inside. Got it? As the ribs finish browning, place them lovingly in the dutch oven, or in the crock pot.

You’ll notice that a good amount of the fat from the ribs has rendered and melted into the pan’s loving embrace. This is perfect, just what we wanted! We are going to use this fat, plus a little more in the form of the 2 tbsp of coconut oil to brown or caramelize the leeks. So put the supplementary fat in, and throw in those leeks!

The noble leek is called "poor man's asparagus". I believe asparagus to be the "poor man's leek"

Leeks are a bit more delicate than onions. You will have to watch these closely and toss them about the skillet every minute or so. What we are looking for is that browned color which means the leeks are turning sweet and succulent. This should take between 10-15 minutes. If you have a while, I highly recommend a slow caramelization of the leeks over the lowest possible heat. It can take up to 6-8 hours, but is very much worth it.

While the leeks are browning in the skillet, we want to prepare the rest of the braising fluid. Simply combine the tequila, beef broth, coconut milk, Chipotle peppers and mango chunks in a blender and hit ‘liquify’. You might have to add more beef broth to get the mixture to a thin enough consistency. We then add this mixture to the browned leeks.

No, it's not queso. This is a Paleo blog.

Bring the mixture up to a light simmer, and let the flavors combine for a few minutes. Pour the mixture over the short ribs.

Let’s Braise!

If you’re using a crock pot, the ribs will be ready in 3-3.5 hours on high, and 7-8 on low. If you’re using a dutch oven, put it in the oven on 350 for 3 hours, stirring and shifting the ribs around every 45 minutes.

Bon Apetit!