Coming clean...

I have a confession to make, and it's not going to be pretty. I've been feeling like shit for, oh, way too long. Probably about a year, or two. And when I say feeling like shit, I mean physically, mentally, emotionally, the works. 2015 has been pretty rough, to be honest. And as much as I try to be "in the moment", I am looking forward to this year being behind me. So without getting too "Livejournalish", let me tell you a little bit about what has been going on. Maybe my story and experiences will help you, or someone you know. And that will somehow make it all worthwhile, right?

Sometime in 2011

First, a little back story. In 2011, I was the unhealthiest I have ever been. I was the heaviest, biggest, un-fittest version of Corey you can imagine. I have pictures to prove it. See? Pretty bad. I was in an unhealthy relationship, eating take-out multiple nights a week, drinking a lot of red wine, and very infrequently and very half halfheartedly working out. It was an extremely toxic situation. And one day, what I then thought to be a catastrophic event (read: breakup) occurred. What I didn't know was that that catastrophic event would be a turning point in my life. Possibly one of the most important "two roads diverged in a yellow wood" moments. One that would lead me down a path that along the way brought me to CrossFit and thus tuned me into the "paleo" approach to eating.

Fast forward 4+ years and this version of Corey eats pretty clean, rarely gets takeout, is in a much better place mentally, and is fit, for the most part. I hit a high point in June of 2013 where, in the middle of a workout, I thought about taking off my shirt and working out in my sports bra. I remember it clearly - it was stupid hot, we were doing some awful workout with burpees and I thought, "hey, I bet I would be less hot if I took my shirt off. It's completely soaked through and weighing me down anyway." I feel like this is my measurement of ultimate fitness - if I almost take my shirt off in a workout. Well, I didn't, but that was pretty much the last time I can recall feeling that confident in my body.

Since then, it has been a slow and slippery slide back to a not so great place for me. It really is amazing how everything is intertwined, isn't it? When so many things feel like they are out of control - work, relationships, eating, body image, fitness, health - it's hard to tell where one crappy emotion starts and the other one finishes. Maybe once or twice (or more than that, but who's counting), work stress has caused me to buy cheese puffs, which causes my stomach to freak out, which leads to a bad workout and an annoyed boyfriend because all I do is complain about how much my stomach hurts. It also leads to tighter pants, which means "surplus jeans" need to be purchased, which puts a huge dent in the ego, which leads to, you guessed it "cheese puffs", because if I already had to go out and buy "surplus jeans" I might as well make good use of them. Ugh.

You might look at that scenario and say "hey get rid of the work stress! That looks to be the first domino to fall that caused this chain of events". And maybe you're right. But then maybe something else might become the new cheese-puff-inducing stress event. The fact of the matter is, there will always be stress. And there will always be cheese puffs (yes!). But if I can break the link between the stress and the puffs, well, then now we're getting somewhere.

I once read that for some people, food can literally be as addicting as drugs. I truly believe I'm addicted to carbohydrates. And cheese. And if they are combined then forget it, I'm a goner. I've struggled with this for a long, long time. Turning my every day diet around and following a more  paleo approach has helped, but when I cheat, it's on a box of Cheddar Crackers from CVS. So random, but literally the best cheese cracker there is.

Six paragraphs in and I'm struggling to make my point. The point is really two fold. The first part pretty easy and obvious: I need to get "back on the wagon" of clean eating because I generally feel better. The first two weeks are brutal but once you get past that, it's smooth sailing. And I really do enjoy trying to figure out ways to make clean food interesting and delicious. Because let's face it, no one wants to eat grilled chicken and broccoli every day. And boring is my biggest enemy when it comes to food.

The second point is a little less clear, and is still in progress. I've suspected for a long time that I've had food allergies. Gluten was the obvious offender. Every time I ate it, I had significant GI "disruptions". Every damn time. But I continued to lie to myself and order gluten free at a restaurant and tell the server it was just a "preference". Sure, I prefer not having to run to the ladies room 30 minutes after eating a plate of pasta... And I continued to very consciously cheat with gluten items, a la the box of CVS Cheddar crackers. Knowing full well how that was going to make me feel. Which, in hindsight, was really dumb because I think it has done quite a bit of damage.

Dairy, oh sweet dairy was the next culprit to start exhibiting bad behavior. Much less consistently at first, but after a while there was an obvious correlation there as well.

Now you would think being an educated 32 year old woman, I would just not eat those things. But I'm stubborn (I'm Italian, a Leo and a middle child... give me a break). So I kept eating them, and kept putting my body through things I shouldn't have, all for the love of cheese.

I finally came to my senses and sought out professional help. Turns out along with gluten and dairy, eggs, tomatoes and potatoes (not sweet potatoes, thankfully) have been causing me issues. So the plan is to avoid those guys for 4 weeks, let my gut heal, and re-evaluate. The thinking is that I probably did a lot of damage over the last several years, and have created a not-so-friendly environment in my gut. So I may not actually have allergies or sensitives to all these things. But we'll see.

The thing is, for the first time in years, I now have a plan. A plan that someone else, a professional, has validated and is going to coach me through. Sure, people out there might not agree with the approach, or might not believe in food sensitives or allergies, or think that the gluten card is overplayed. But, to be honest, I really don't care. This is what I need to do, for me, to get physically healthy, and to get back to that 2013 Corey that almost took her shirt off in a workout.

Thanks for listening.

For comparison purposes... 2011 vs. 2015.

Creamy Almond Milk

So I'm currently on a four week personal challenge of sorts (more on that in another post, soon). I'm avoiding gluten and dairy, which were no-brainers for me. But also, surprisingly, tomato, potato and eggs. Lots of challenges with this combination when trying to cook delicious, un-boring food.

I think the most insulting to me though is the no dairy. I eat dairy in two forms: cream in my coffee, and cheese. Glorious, glorious cheese. I have the cream daily, and the cheese not daily, but frequently enough. Because, it's cheese. And cheese is delicious. Period.

But as it turns out, dairy is causing me some "distress". And we'll leave it at that. So out it goes for four weeks. The clock is ticking…

That being said, I absolutely loathe black coffee. And I need coffee in the morning to wake up. So now I'm in a peculiar situation. Almond milk is the natural alternative. But store bought almond milk is gross. I have tried so many brands. A lot of them have nasty ingredients in them, like carrageenan, lecithin, and other questionable things. Shouldn’t it just be almonds and water? I mean, why is it so hard? So without any suitable store-bought alternatives, I'm left to my own devices.

Let's go milk some nuts!

What you'll need

2 cups of raw almonds

2+ cups of filtered water

1/8 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon  (optional)

Other things you'll need

Nut milk bag: I have this one from Amazon

Air tight glass jar to store the milk in

Air tight container (I used a Pyrex) to soak the nuts in over night

Funnel

Blender

Colander

What you'll do

Measure 2 cups of raw almonds and 2 cups of filtered water. Place into air tight container and let sit overnight, or for at least 12 hours.

After their soak, pour the almond and water mixture into a colander and rinse the almonds well with fresh water. 

 

Add the almonds to your blender, and fill with fresh filtered water, so that the water is about 1/2 to 1 inch over the almonds. I personally like my almond milk to be thicker. The less water you add at this stage, the thicker your final product will be. Blend until the mixture is a pulpy white.

Here's the fun/annoying part. Now you're going to milk nuts! Yes, that sounds crazy. But that's what's about to happen. After you do this a few times, you will probably figure out your own system, but I'll walk you through my process. I take a glass measuring cup and put the nut milk bag inside of it. I then put about a cup of the mixture from the blender into the bag. Then squeeze out the milk from the bag into the glass measuring cup, starting from the top of the bag, working your way down to the bottom. Once you're satisfied that you've gotten as much liquid as possible out of the bag, pour the milk into your storage container. And BONUS! Instead of throwing the remaining almond pulp out, dump it on a baking sheet.  We'll come back to what you can do with that in a few. 

Repeat this process until you have milked all of your almonds.

At this point, you will have a delicious bottle of fresh, creamy almond milk. And you can high-five yourself because honestly, it is a bit of work, and I usually make a complete mess.

If you want to really kick it up and notch, now is when you can add the cinnamon and vanilla to elevate your milk to "nectar of the gods" status. That might be overkill, but, you should give it a try and make that call for yourself.

NOW, let's get back to that almond pulp! You should have dumped all that leftover pulp onto a cookie sheet, if you followed directions.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Spread the pulp evenly onto the cookie sheet, breaking up any large clumps.

Cook until the pulp feels dry, and no longer moist. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour plus, just depends on your oven. Honestly last time I did it I lost track of time and have no idea how long it took. I just ended up checking in on it every once in a while until I thought it was done.

Once it's cooled, you can put it in your food processor to make it fine, or keep it as is. Up to you. But now you have fresh, homemade almond flour to use in your favorite recipes! So really, this recipes is a two-for-one-er. You're welcome.

Cheers! 

Nut Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Everyone is freaking out about apples these days. Well, that is of course if they aren't freaking out about pumpkin spice. Maybe they're freaking out about both. Hey, go big or go home I guess right?

I'll admit, I too have some seasonal affinity for apples. Once those Honeycrisp show up at Whole Foods I'm all over them. I eat an apple every single day, around 4pm, with Justin's Almond Butter. When I'm being naughty, it's Justin's Honey Almond Butter... that stuff is incredible. I mean, so incredible that I may or may not be known to eat it straight from the jar... with a knife... after I've finished my apple... It's bad. But oh so good. There is some sugar in it though so when I'm being strict (which is when exactly?), I switch to regular.

Anyway, I've been trying to figure out a more consistent breakfast routine for the work week. I am weird about breakfast. Alright fine, I'm weird about a lot of things but let's just tackle breakfast right now, okay? I can't eat when I first wake up - it makes me feel nauseous. And I can't eat eggs unless I've been awake for at least two hours. I've tried to figure it out and I just can't. I just don't have an appetite in the morning. So when I find something that works, I stick with it.

I am currently obsessed with Applegate Farms Chicken and Maple Breakfast Sausages. I fire up 3 of those in the morning. But I need a carb. And since I'm already eating an apple later in the day, I need to be a little creative here so I don't get bored. Boredom is dangerous. The last two Sunday prep days, I have made some kind of muffin,  I made carrot and pumpkin muffins two weeks ago, banana chocolate chip muffins last Sunday, and Apple Cinnamon muffins this past Sunday, to keep the trend going. These little muffins seem to be exactly the right amount of food I need in the morning to keep me full until lunch.

For these muffins, I adapted a PaleOMG recipe that I've made before, with a few modifications for my preferences. I'll pop one of these into the toaster this morning and eat alongside my sausages. Knowing an apple cinnamon muffin is waiting for you makes going into work a little bit better.... right? RIGHT?

Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Original recipe by Juli Bauer, PaleOMG

What you'll need

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 2 apples, cored and chopped
• 3/4 cup applesauce (Make sure no added sugar hear. apple sauce can be sneaky!)
• 3 eggs, whisked
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons Kerrygold butter, melted

What you'll do

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together coconut flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, cinnamon.
3. In another bowl, combine the eggs, applesauce, vanilla, lemon juice and butter
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
5. Add the apples and mix.
6. Spoon mixture into muffin tin. I prefer to use parchment muffin tin liners but I ran out, so I greased the pan with coconut oil.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.
8. Let cool for 2 minutes before removing from muffin tin.
9. Cut open and smother in Kerrygold and enjoy!

I add an additional apple to the original recipe because why not? If you're going to have an apple muffin, you want the apple to be prominent right? The additional apple makes the muffins a little less traditional, with a bit of a "fluffier" texture. I also cut down on the original amount of coconut sugar. I might even try to make these again without it. It just seems like there is enough sweetness from the apple, applesauce, vanilla and cinnamon.

 

Corey's Famous Sausage Soup Recipe

 With the winter quickly approaching, as much as I was depressed about the end of summer grilling season, I am equally excited about the winter cooking season and the re-introduction of soups back into my life. Soups are one of my favorite comfort dishes.  Full of hearty meats and veggies and bursting with comforting flavors, soups are little pots of culinary wonder.

I've been thinking about making this soup since August, that is how much in love with it I am. The ingredients are fairly basic, and the prep and assembly straightforward. But the results are nothing near that. Every time I make this soup, it is dipped in to for "a sample bowl" before it is even done simmering, that's how aromatic and enticing this recipe is.

I started playing around with this recipe several years ago during my first foray into grain-free eating. The inspiration for this soup is Bertucci's Sausage Soup. If you haven't had it, you should. It is pretty remarkable. However, it is loaded with sodium and also, they make theirs with (gasp!) rice. So when I first started cutting out grains, and needed a soup, I thought this would be a good place to start. Nix the rice, up the veggies, and bam! You've got yourself a go-to paleo/grain-free/gluten-free soup to get you through the winter.

So without further ado, I give you my Famous Sausage Soup.

What you'll need:

1 cup of chopped onion

1 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped celery

6 sweet Italian sausage (I prefer pork but chicken has worked as well)

1 large can of San Marzano diced tomatoes

4 cups of chicken broth

4 cups of beef broth

1 teaspoon of ground thyme

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon of coarse ground pepper

Pinch of sea salt

2 bay leaves

A word on quality: Go for the good stuff here (and always, in general). No Johnsonville pre-packaged stuff. Hit up Whole Foods or Tilly's for the highest quality produce and meats. Whole Foods has their own in house sausage meisters - no I'm not kidding. I've made this soup with both pork and chicken sausage. My preference is for the pork, as it has just a bit more depth in flavor than chicken. But if your diet requires more lean protein than not, go for the chicken. You can also spice it up with spicy Italian sausage!

As I sit here to type this, I realize that I've never actually written a recipe before. I've written emails and texts to friends, but I've never actually taken the time to write intelligible, step by step directions for how to cook something. So this could be interesting… here goes!

1. Heat up some olive oil in a large soup pot

2. Chop up your onions, carrot and celery.

Two things to note here. First, did you know that this veggie combo is called "mirepoix"? There, you learned something today, if nothing else! Secondly, if you don't have a Slap Chop, or a similar device, I highly recommend getting one. I'm serious. These things are amazing. I have the Pampered Chef version, and I can't imagine not having it in my life. Such a time saver! Check it out. 

Anyway…. Chop up your veggies and put them into the pot. This is going to be a long recipe at this rate…

3. Add the sausages once the veggies are soft and the onions are translucent. 

You'll want to remove them from their casing. There is no glamorous way to do this (or say this really). Just squeeze the sausage out of the casing. Yup, there you have it.

4. Add your thyme, garlic powder, pepper and salt
5. Cook the sausage until it is no longer pink , breaking it up as it cooks so that it is crumbled
6. Add the can of San Marzano diced tomatoes. Bring the mixture to a boil.
7. Add the chicken and beef broth, and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil.
8. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for at least one hour. If you notice you're losing too much liquid, cover the pot.

I tend to simmer my soup for long periods of time. I love how it makes my house smell, and I usually am doing 800 other things so leaving it on the stove to cook until I'm ready to eat works well for me. This soup is also exponentially more delicious the next day, once all the flavors have had a chance to meld together over night. Note that the next day, there will likely be a layer of semi-hard oil on the top of the soup. You can very easily skim this off and throw away.

I serve this soup with paleo naan, another recipe I'll post eventually. It's great with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese if you allow cheese in your diet/can tolerate dairy.

I hope you enjoy this fall classic!