Grilled Cheese Please…

It’s getting cold…it goes back to being warm and then it gets cold again. What can you do? Keep a few short sleeved/light shirts out to be on the safe side but have your boots ready because the sandals should be on hault. 🙂

I ramble to say…as it gets cold there are certain foods that you crave more…and a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup may be one of them. I’m liking some of the combos/video in this article: http://huff.to/tLGssE

Try out one of the recipes…I suggest using the Foreman Grill…you don’t even need to put butter on the bread!!! It’s perfect!

Enjoy!

Too Full to Speak (or Write)

Uuuhhhh I would really like to take a bloment of silence for all the food we ate last week! Paleo and non-Paleo. It was waaaay too much…and yes I am still eating leftovers from Thanksgiving, but whatever does not get eaten today will go in the freezer (but clearly there is only ham left).

I feel like I shouldn’t eat again for a week…until I get hungry again and think…who am I kidding?

Take it easy this week…recuperate because it’s beginning to look and sound a lot like Christmas (as the Christmas music was going on before Thanksgiving had come) and you know what that means. Another huge dinner and gift hunting…you need your energy.

Eat light and feel light!

Until next time…

Did someone say Thanksgiving????

With Thanksgiving around the corner…I can’t wait to have some sweet potatoe pie (not totally paleo…unless you get a pie crust made of something else like almond meal/cashew butter)  Well now that I think about it…here you go… http://www.primalfed.com/recipe-pecan-sweet-potato-pie/  A Paleo Pecan Sweet Potato Pie recipe…try it out…maybe this week before your guests arrive…don’t want to get your feelings hurt on Thanksgiving! 😉

In keeping with the Paleo theme, here are some other Thanksgiving recipes:  http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-thanksgiving-recipes/

Some vegan recipes that you might be able to throw in the mix:  http://thevegankat.com/2011/11/16/vegan-thanksgiving-ideas-turkey-replacements/

Have fun!  Travel Safely!  Don’t eat yourself into a coma!!

Mezze, Milkshakes and More

Hey!  Still haven’t had that allergy test…but I did end up having a cold and I did eat shrimp today and so far my throat is fine…who knows.

Well…I’ve been around eating.  I’ve been to Cava Mezze about four times within the last month.  I went to the one in Eastern Market and in Clarendon.  They serve greek themed mezzes.  They have a new gluten free menu also.  I have eaten the Lamb Kapama, Pork Belly (sounds scary but it’s not!!), Kokkinisto, lamb gyro and lamb burger.  All were very delicious!!!  It could be my imagination but I felt like I got more food at the Eastern Market location.  They have a happy hour from 5-7 p.m. with $3 specials…get the lamb gyro, burger and fries…hmmm…delicious.

I also went to Sweet Lobby last weekend.  The smores cupcake was really good…but I think I had eaten so many other things to eat that I really needed to clear my palate before trying their cupcakes.  The smores cupcake would probably be amazing heated up a little.  It had marshmallows on top, chocolate pieces in the cake on top and a graham cracker something going on at the bottom.  The mint chocolate frosting was light, fluffy and not too sweet.  The red velvet cupcake frosting reminded me of my own but I wasn’t crazy about the red velvet cake itself.  The toffee one had pieces of fruit or something in it…it was my least favorite.  I need to go another day when I’ve had less to eat and in the mood for sweets.  One of the owners was there and she was very nice to us. 

For the milkshakes, we went to Ted’s Bulletin.  They have adult and regular milkshakes.  I had a peppermint adult one (peppermint schnapps).  It was cool, but I should have tried the smores instead.  Seems like I’m purposely finding reasons to go back and get more food!! 🙂  My friend had a lamb burger and found it to be amazing!  The waiter was very nice and I like that he gave us water after we paid our bill and said…”let me get yall some more water, just cause yall paid doesn’t mean I stop serving yall. ”  I loved that, cause that’s how it’s supposed to be.

As you can see…my paleo spirit has been losing recently. 😦  But…for those of you who are pressing on, I found a cool paleo food mobile app that you can try called Diet 6: The Paleo-Caveman Diet.  The app provides a weight tracker for weight, meals and a daily journal, 24/7 forum, fresh diet articles, BMI calculator and more.

 

Urbanspoon is another great food app, it helps you find restaurants in your area with a slot machine technique.  You can download the app here:  http://bit.ly/eyQSjI

Here’s an article review on the app:  http://cnet.co/uFUDMj

Here’s a funny evaluation video about the urbanspoonapp: http://bit.ly/b4mxUM

Enjoy your meals and save me some!!! 🙂

My Throat is Swollen…

I am definitely allergic to something…it is either shrimp or a seasoning I am putting on my shrimp…or even the fresh basil I use with the shrimp.  Something has definitely made my throat swollen as if I have a cold. 😦 I need to go to take an allergy test. 

Anywho…I’d like to say I focus on one topic in my blog…but honestly…it’s like me…very colorful and all over the place.  Some days include Paleo Solution/healthy eating references and other days I’m a straight up sugar junky…as I do know sugar is not good for us…but it tastes so good…I’m telling you…it’s like legal crack!!!  So although I do have some acorn squash and bacon with me today to eat.  I definitely had some Frozen Yo and a Crumbs cupcake last night.  Frozen Yo tastes good to me, not every flavor.  🙂  You have to free sample all of them to be sure, but I love the free hot caramel….hmmmm.  With Crumbs cupcakes, to me they are too sweet.  I bought some in NY before and about twice out here.  The presentation is very creative and detailed but I’m not down with all the creams and fillings…just too sweet for me. I don’t need that much frosting.  I did however get the pumpkin cupcake last night and it was pretty good.  The frosting was pumpkin flavor also…so it may depend on what type you like. I like their dulce de leche and their red velvet but no one has thrown me off of the Georgetown Cupcake wagon.  I still have to taste Sweet Lobby’s cupcakes though, maybe I’ll do that in a few weeks.  I should definitely put myself on sugar punishment for a little while!! 😦

Here is a pic of some holiday cupcakes that a friend and I made about two years ago.   We stayed up all night making these…that was the night I really disovered food coloring.  Hmmm…and they were good…mint chocolate!!! 🙂

Based on my search results in Google Insights for Search, the top five search words for this post would be cupcakes shop, cupcake cake, cake shops, cupcake shop and cupcake bakery.

Meat Sauce and Spaghetti…squash that is

So I made the spaghetti squash and it was amazing with my ground beef meat sauce and mushrooms/onions!  It’s the season for the squash, I”m telling you!  I’m not alone on this thought http://bit.ly/riyF4u  I never thought to make it with avocado, but I do love avocado.

Below is an excerpt from this article http://bit.ly/pl29Iv   This is what the Paleo diet is about…very well explained!

The Carbohydrate Problem

Most people know that excessive sugar in the diet is unhealthy. Yet they are totally unaware that some foods act just like sugar, once the body breaks them down. Foods that if eaten in excess, can be just as catastrophic to the body as excessive sugar.

These foods are carbohydrates. Now before you swear off carbohydrates totally, you must understand, your body needs a constant supply of carbohydrates, especially your brain and spinal cord. It’s important that you consume carbohydrates with every meal. Carbohydrates supply the energy your body needs to function properly.

Here’s the problem. Your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose. If you’re not physically active enough to use up all the glucose you’ve taken in, your body then stores it as fat in your liver and muscle fiber, for later use.

Most people today, take in many more carbohydrates than their body can use. So their body has no choice but to store the excess glucose. Continual weight gain is the immediate result. If the situation is not fixed, things like diabetes, heart attack, and stroke are very likely.

Most commonly, when we think of carbohydrates, we think of breads, pastas, and potatoes (starchy carbohydrates). However fruits and vegetables, and some beans are also excellent sources of carbohydrates, and a much healthier choice.

The Carbohydrate Solution

Only eat starchy carbohydrates after a work out or heavy exercise. Otherwise, keep starchy carbohydrates to a bare minimum. Eat fruits and/or vegetables with every meal. This way you are not getting over loaded with starchy carbohydrates, yet you are getting a continuous supply of healthy carbohydrates throughout the day, keeping your energy level high and your body healthy.

I found this site using delicious.com  Did you know that there are bookmarking sites that can hold your bookmarks for you? Basically, this means that you do not have to store them on your desktop and you can access them from any computer…man…technology/social media is amazing.  There is just so much out there on the net…it’s a neverending search…  You should check out delicious.com  You can find some really great blogs, sites, etc.

Here are my stacks on delicious.com

http://bit.ly/pOkNfQ

Squash and Soup Season

It’s about that time of the year.  I guess it’s especially pumpkin season but I never made pumpkin before.  I do love pumpkin flavored foods:  muffins, cookies, breads, waffles, shakes (Good Stuff Eatery has an awesome seasonal shake going on right now), ice cream (Trader Joe’s has this on lockdown), etc.  I must say though…pumpkin pie vs. sweet potato pie will lose everytime!!!  Hands and feet down!!!

So I haven’t dived into the soup making yet…but I did catch a sale on squash for 99 cents a pound at Safeway last week.  I bought butternut and acorn squash.  Squash is soooo easy to make.  All you do is cut it in half and face it flesh down in a pan of a little water with a little kosher/sea salt.  The butternut I baked for about 30-45 mins on 425 degrees but the acorn called for 350 degrees.  Either way at the end I flip it back over (my mom taught me this) and put some butter on top and let it get nice and brown.  You may want to even take it up a notch to broil for about 10-15 mins.  It was really good!!!  You can even jazz it up with some garlic powder or go the cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar route.  It’s your thang…do what you wanna do!!!

Next up…will be some spaghetti squash to have with some ground beef and pasta sauce…aaaahhh goodness and it’s starch free!!!! 🙂  Paleo friendly…the butter is pushing it though so…that’s up to you to choose.

Until next time…

These Are a Few of My Favorite Tweets…

People use Twitter for all types of reasons.  The great thing about Twitter is that the posts are posts are done in real time.  So many of life’s events have been recorded first on twitter.  With the limited characters it helps you get straight to the point (which is sometimes hard for the wordy of the world…like me :)) 

GTownCupcake uses Twitter to share special deals on the cupcake of the day that is not posted on their website.  For example:  Today’s secret (not-on-menu) flavor is DC CUPCAKES CHOCOLATE SALTED CARAMEL!! Order it by name, and it’s FREE! 100/ location, 1/ customer 🙂  I never knew about this deal until I started following them on twitter.  They also stay in touch with customers and answer questions.  I saw on one tweet they shared that vegan cupcakes are coming out soon.  They also advertise their television show details and their book out in stores.  I have even seen them encourage tweeting fans to vote for them in Best Cupcake Awards contests.  They have 29,312 followers.

Bobby Flay’s tweets about his store openings and letting people know where he is and what events he’s attending.  He has a new Food Network series coming out, he is using Twitter to encourage tweeters to apply.  He is even advertising for their hiring efforts at his new location called Bobby’s Burger Palace in College Park, MD.  In addition to all of that he makes me hungry looking at his background and reading his tweets.  He does a lot of advertising…but still in a personal way.  His tweets make him seem very approachable.

Tweeting can definitely show the more human side of a person or organization.  Trust me…I’ve typoed a million times…has imperfection written all over my tweets. 🙂

Not Alone On the Journey…

Have I eaten sugar since I last posted?????…yes, but it doesn’t mean I should give up.  That is the good thing…I can start again…right after I have this ice cream tonight…ok…ok…I’m only kidding…   I’ll be having cookies hahaha…no, I won’t.  I’m not the only one trying to kick the sugar addition.  I found another blogger called flippaside who is going through a sugar detox.  I’m interested in seeing what my fellow blogger will say about how he or she feels while doing without sugar.  I definitely feel different when I’m not eating sugar.  Sometimes at first you still feel hungry after you eat/can start feeling a little lightheaded, but as time goes on you feel much better…lighter, more energy and in a better mood.  Most likely you will also lose weight…but cutting out sugar basically means cutting out starches also…cause that is what they eventually break down as…sugar.

Here’s a cool video on a child’s reaction after eating sugar… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8ezchj4wO8

This is also a good post on sugar-how it’s hard to give it up but very worth it http://bit.ly/o7dTH5

Ohhh…how we love sugar and it does not love us. 😦

Sugar…More Addictive than Crack

6 Scary Side Effects of Sugar

Could you give up sugar for life?????  I know…you don’t want to.  lol…but…could you????