Oven-cooked steak with mushrooms and zucchini

This is a real treat – possibly one of my favorite ways to cook beef and pork. My mom used to make something similar when I was a kid, but with mayo, cheese and other effing delicious but not paleo-friendly stuff. I am having this for dinner tonight and I can’t wait to come after a 10 miler so that I can shove this deliciousness in my face. Hopefully it will make me run faster.

Ingredients:

• 500 gr. beef steak or pork (I prefer beef to be not very lean, this way it turns out much softer and juicier)
• 2 cups chopped mushrooms
• 1 cup grated zucchini
• 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 onion cut in rings
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg yolk
• 3-4 tbsp coconut cream

Instructions:

1. Prepare your meat by cutting it into portion-sized steaks of somewhere around 1.5 cm thick, this way they don’t take ages to cook. Pound steaks to tenderize.
2. Mix oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and half the garlic, cover your steaks with this mixture and let them marinate for an hour or two (if you have time) .
3. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 F).
4. Take an oven-proof dish and start layering the ingredients – first onion rings, then meat, and finally mushrooms and zucchini.
5. Beat 1 egg yolk and 4-5 tbsp of coconut cream, and a pinch of salt, pepper and remaining garlic. Poor this mixture over the top layer of grated zucchini.
6. Cook in the oven till ready for 45-50 min, depending on the thickness of your meat.
7. Don’t be surprised when your neighbors start knocking on the door asking what is that delicious smell coming out of your kitchen.

Pumpkin and Berry Breakfast Smoothie

I am a total breakfast person – I need to eat in the morning. And I need to eat something substantial, meat being the best option. Give me a juicy steak for breakfast and you made me happy till the end of the day! I’ll eat steak for lunch and dinner too, thank you!

A lot of people hate eating in the morning and an idea of stuffing their face with meat will just make them sick. Well, then smoothies are the best option for you! Here is the one I had this morning – pumpkin and berry smoothie. I was in a rush after my morning run and was too lazy to make breakfast the night before, so smoothie it was.

I am having a pumpkin obsession period right now – everything needs to have pumpkin in it! You can add protein powder as well, but I haven’t yet found one that won’t make me bloat. Any suggestions will be most welcome!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup frozen berries
• 1 cup almond milk ( or more if you want your smoothie more liquid)
• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 1 tsp flax powder

Paleo and Vegan Banana and Date Muffins

I have a very tough situation at home. Like really really tough. My BF is vegan, And the kid is picky as hell about food. I also have 2 dogs and a cat, but those will eat almost anything you give them, so they are rarely a problem.

BF and kid, on the other hand, can be problematic, and it takes extra brain activity and imagination to cook something that all 3 of us will be able to eat. Normally I won’t bother as the man in my life is definitely a better cook than me, so he can easily feed himself without my assistance. But sometimes I am extra sweet and nice and decide to cook something that we all can eat. And this weekend these were muffins. Totally Paleo and Vegan friendly.  Don’t thank me, I know I am a genius.

Ingredients:

Prep time – 15 min. Cooking time – 20 min, Made me 9 muffins

• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 cup of pitted dates and raisins (soak them in warm water for 10-15 minutes to make them soft)
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil
• 4-5 tbsp almond butter or any other nut butter that you like
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• For topping – crushed nuts, raisins, chocolate chips or whatever your heart desires

Instructions:

1. Put bananas with  dates and raisins into your food processor and mix till smooth
2. Add other ingredients and mix well. You might need to stop your food processor several times and scrape mixture off the walls. Your muffin mixture should be fairly thick, but not dry.
3. Put your mixture into the muffin cups (fill 3/4 of a cup) and bake at 180 degrees C (350 F) for 15-20 min,
4. Don’t eat all of them alone! 

2 Minute Banana and Berry Ice Cream

I had a pretty crazy weekend – was alone at home for 4 days (just me, 2 dogs and a cat that needed me to entertain/ feed and walk them on a regular basis lol), ran around 50 km in 2 days, did 13.1 WOD and shaved off my calluses for the first time ever! This was quite an achievement by the way!

After all this I needed an ice-cream.

Ok, not a ‘real’ ice-cream, but it tastes just like one and takes literally minutes to prepare! So I call it ice-cream!

Ingredients:

• 1 frozen banana
• 1/4 cup of chilled coconut milk
• handful of frozen berries

Instructions:

1. Just 1 step – chuck all these into a blender, switch it on, wait for 5-7 sec, turn it off and your improvised ice-cream is ready.  The trick is not to put too much cream, or it will turn into a smoothie,  and try not to pulse it too much otherwise it will melt. And to have your bananas and berries dead frozen as well. Enjoy before it melts!

Post-run weekend treat – Coconut and cinnamon pancakes

Pancakes are definitely a guilty pleasure for me and well, too much of those don’t make anyone’s ass look nice. But what the heck, I totally deserved them this weekend after a brutal 4 hour trail run up and down the rocks that started before sunrise and finished in 28 degree heat!

These pancakes are made with coconut flour. Just a quick tip if you have never used it before – it is extremely hygroscopic and you need much less than you would normally think. If you feel that the dough is too thick – just add a little more coconut milk. Another tip – use 2 frying pans at the same time so you can make them faster and finally get down to eating a pile of this deliciousness!

Coconut and Cinnamon Pancakes

Ingredients:

Make around 10 pancakes

• half a cup coconut flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Coconut oil (or any other oil of your choice)

Instructions:

1. Whisk your eggs with cinnamon, vanilla and coconut milk. Add baking powder and coconut flour and mix well. You batter should not be too liquid and should have yogurt consistency. If it is too thick, add a little more coconut milk.

2. Put a pan with coconut oil on medium heat, if it is too hot the pancakes will burn on the outside and will not cook through.

3. Pour pancake mixture into the hot pan and cook for 2-3 min or till the bubbles start appearing in the middle and the sides start to firm up. I made mine around 10-14 cm in diameter – this way it is really easy to flip them.

4. Flip you pancake and cook on the other side for another 2-3 minutes.

5. Serve with fruit, berries, coconut cream or whatever your imagination tells you!

Word of caution: If you are a very strict Paleo devotee please note that baking powder contains corn starch and not exactly “Paleo”, so you should use other alternatives