The Road to Ratatouille

Lisa doing some quality cutting of vegetables with the kids.

A Day of Volunteering and not Cutting my Thumbs Off

On the road to ratatouille (not the movie, the actual dish!), teaching kids how to use knives and make healthy food choices was my calling recently. Let me explain...

For the past 6 months, the new members of the Junior League of Santa Barbara have been preparing for our new member project: "Kids in the Kitchen." Although I was not a huge part of the planning process (I secured food donations) I was looking forward to a day of helping out my community by educating children and their families about healthy living.

Last weekend, the actual event went off without a hitch. In the morning a fellow crossfitter (Lisa Engel from Cross fit Pacific Coast) and I showed up to Franklin Elementary (the site of the event) to prep the food for the day. We mostly joked and talked and tried not to cut our thumbs off. After the prep work was done, we were assigned to the cutting detail. We would both be supervising children with knives while they helped us cut veggies to put into the ratatouille (the dish of choice). Good news; we all made it out, children included, unscathed with enough vegetables for our fine dish!

Overall, the day went well and our community appreciated our efforts to bring them information about healthy living. Not only did we cook an amazing ratatouille that everyone enjoyed, but the children and their families also came away with information about physical fitness courtesy of the YMCA and suggestions about good nutrition and ideas on how to prevent diabetes from the Santa Barbara and Ventura departments of public health.

What could be better than two crossfitters, volunteerism, knives, and good food? Not much.
Here is the recipe that we used for the ratatouille (for you crossfitters, this is PALEO! minus the white beans):
*courtesy of Chef Andrea Martin of s'Cool Food

Ratatouille (makes 8 hearty portions)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 medium onions diced
3 cloves of fresh garlic chopped
1 eggplant, 1/2 inch diced
1 red bell pepper, 1/4 inch diced
1 yellow bell pepper, 1/4 inch diced
1 orange pepper, 1/4 inch diced
2 small zucchinis, 1/2 inch diced
2 small yellow squash, 1/2 inch diced
2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary, chopped
2 pounds roma/plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup of dry white beans, soaked and pre-cooked (reserve two cups cooking liquid)
1 bunch of kale (was and tear into two inch pieces)
1/4 cup of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons of sea salt to taste
1 teaspoon of pepper

1. Heat oil in heavy bottom stockpot over a low-medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Add eggplant and continue cooking, stirring occasionally. When eggplant is lightly browned and tender, remove from the pot.
3. Add a little more olive oil and saute peppers until slightly tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Add zucchini, squash, and rosemary to the pepper mixture in the pot and continue sauteing until tender.
5. Add tomatoes, beans and bean cooking liquid, and the eggplant. Bring up to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Finish by adding the kale and cook until tender (about 5 minutes).
8. Add basil just before serving.

Two Months and Crazy

Two Months and Crazy

I must admit, I have gone a little crazy.

It has been over two months (almost three) that I have been eating Paleo and strange things continue to happen; new behaviors continue to emerge.

When I originally decided to eat like this (meat, fish, nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies only), I thought that it would be a neat experiment for a month. However, my life quickly changed (see previous post) and I have continued on this trajectory for much longer than I intended because it works for me.

First, my progression as an athlete has not halted. Although I have now lost about 13 pounds, my strength continues to increase. For example, I have improved 32 pounds on my thruster in the last four months (now my PR is 100#). The 34 second drop on my 5k since the last time I ran it at crossfit in April is also notable (now my PR is 20:26). My deadlift continues to increase (5 rep max has gone up 15 pounds to 190#).

Second, although I did SUPER strict Paleo for the first 30 days, I have surprisingly allowed myself to cheat once in a while. Take for example the day I ate ten chocolate chip cookies at Crossfit Ventura. Or the time I put almost half a stick of butter on a tiny piece of bread. And the night I bought two gourmet cupcakes, asked for extra frosting, then ate both of the cupcakes (along with the frosting) in my car on the way home. Or the afternoon I ate half a pack of gum...oh yes, I do mean EAT! I tend to swallow gum accidentally and the excitement that engulfed me upon ingesting so much sugar via gum caused many mis-chews.

And now to the strange...
I get monster headaches after eating any amount of sugar, so when I eat sugar I go BIG. The headache isn't going to hurt less if I eat less (I have experimented, trust me).

Dizziness overcomes me when I drink caffeine. I have found that this has not cured my addiction to soy chai lattes though. I have remedied this by taking the time to practice handstands and forward rolls after ingesting caffeine. These things make me dizzy independent of caffeine, so it goes along with the same concept as the sugar and headaches...I am already dizzy so why not get as dizzy as possible?

My eyes get blurry when I go off Paleo. I know I will not be able to see as well if I do ingest artificial sugar or complex carbohydrates, so I tend to indulge in sugar-laden luxuries in safe environments like moving cars (of which I am driving).

I once ate an entire jar of almond butter in a 24 hour period and promptly could not swallow for almost another 24 hours.

So folks, I am still doing Paleo and it still rocks. If you were wondering :).