Crock Pot Roast

I am horrible at writing recipes. I'm true free spirit in the kitchen and hate to be bound by measurement and instruction. This recipe will be more conversational.

7-9# Roast- can be chuck, round, sirloin... The only thing I would say no to put in a crock pot would be a rib roast, which is better suited for a dry cooking method.

Stab the chunk of meat a bunch of times to make slits in the flesh. Insert slivers of a garlic into slits. Season very liberally with salt/pepper/garlic powder.

In a heavy bottomed pan (like cast iron!!) heated with a nice layer of grape seed oil or bacon fat or ghee (the shit should smoking!) brown the roast on all sides. You will need to stay near the pan and turn once a nice crispy crust has formed. Once that is done, place roast into crock pot.

With the hot pan on medium heat, add large dice of an onion, a leek, 2 celery, 2 carrot and 2 tomatoes. Stir constantly, scraping up all the good bits on the bottom of pan.

Turn heat on high. Deglaze pan with a 1/2 bottle of red wine or 12oz of a good stout beer. Scrap up the bottom pan for all the tasty bits. Once boiling, dump into the crock pot.

Add these final ingredients:

2 bay leaf
2 teaspoon peppercorn
1 whole head of garlic, peel and all
1 bunch parsley with stems
3 sprigs of thyme

Add enough water to cover a little more than half way up the roast. Cover and set crock pot to "Long Cook" or 10 hours or "Low" what ever the longest setting is on your dial is. Do not set to "High."

Come home from work/crossfit, take the roast out of the crock pot- let it be sexy for a minute.

Strain the cooking liquid, discarding everything, EVEN THE VEGGIES.

Bring cooking liquid to a boil and let simmer on med-low while you roast fresh veggies in the oven. The sauce should thicken slightly, making it an aus jus. 


Stuff the hungry hole in the middle of the thing you call your face.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

3 Avocados
1/2c. Dutch Cocoa Powder
1/2c. Raw Honey or Agave
2Tbs. Vanilla extract (no added sugar or alcohol)
Pinch of Salt


Beat until smooth with mixer... or with your beat it by hand, cause you have the guns to!

Put in fridge to "set" for about 2 hours. Or if you're impatient like me, just pop in the freezer for 15 mins :)

Then gorge like a crazy bulimic :)

PCF 30 Day Paleo Challenge **April 19th-May19th

For those who have been on the fence about committing or for those who are still having challenges with little "cheats" here and there, we are asking for a 30 day commitment to eat WHOLE FOODS, and an opportunity to JUMPSTART your nutrition!

From Paleodiet.com, Paleo lifestyle is defined as "a simple dietary lifestyle that is based on foods being either in or out. In are the Paleolithic Era foods that we ate prior to agriculture and animal husbandry (meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, tree nuts, vegetables, roots, fruit, berries, mushrooms, etc.). Out are Neolithic Era foods that result from agriculture or animal husbandry (grains, dairy, beans/legumes, potatoes, sugar and fake foods)."

The 30 Day Challenge will begin on Monday, April 19th and end Wednesday, May 19th. 

Borrowed from Melissa Byer's blog, we should follow the guidelines below:

1. Eat real food – meat*, eggs, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit, oils (like EVOO or coconut). Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re fresh and natural.
2. Do not eat dairy. This includes butter, cheese (hard and soft), yogurt (even Greek) and milk (including cream in your coffee**).
3. Do not eat grains. This includes bread, rice, pasta, corn (I count corn as a grain), oatmeal, and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains. That’s not real food, right?
4. Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds, lentils, and peanuts. (No peanut butter, kids.)
5. Do not eat sugars*** of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Truvia, Stevia, etc.
6. Do not eat processed foods. This includes protein shakes, processed bars (like Zone bars), dairy-free creamers, etc.
7. Do not drink alcohol, in any form.
8. If you have serious inflammation issues like arthritis, you may want to consider avoiding nightshades for 30 days as well.

• It is recommended that you keep a daily log of what you are eating. There are many online food logs that free, like Livestrong.com has an easy to navigate online food diary. 
• Also, it is a good idea to weigh yourself on April 19th and compute your body fat percentage so that you may be able to track the changes in your body composition through the end of the challenge.
• Optional: If you'd like, you can have photos taken of your body prior to start of the challenge- I'm sure Diso would be able to snap them for you. 
• I will set up a "tracking" sheet on the white board for those who want to participate in the challenge for all to see, so we can be a true community by supporting each other and keeping each other accountable. 

If you have any questions on what you can and can't eat please feel free to ask any one of the trainers or myself, Assassin!

Coconut Flour Orange Cake Recipe

Coconut Flour Orange Cake (gfcf)

Recipe notes: I give you a method for melting the coconut oil while greasing the pan, saving you a dish. You can certainly melt the coconut oil in one pan and grease the pan separately. Also, I add the coconut oil last just in case it is still pretty warm. Having the eggs already mixed with the other ingredients provides a bit of a buffer in case the oil is still too warm. Scrambled egg cake is not what we’re after here.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 6 Tablespoons raw honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (aluminum free)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• juice of 1/2 medium orange

Directions

1. Take your eggs out of your refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Measure out coconut oil and place in an 8"x8" pan. Place the pan in the oven to melt the coconut oil.
2. While the coconut oil is melting, whisk the eggs, coconut milk, honey, vanilla and orange zest together. Once the coconut oil is melted (probably around five minutes or less), remove the pan from the oven and let it cool while you mix in the rest of your ingredients.
3. Combine coconut flour, baking powder and sea salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Once your pan is cooled enough to handle, carefully swirl your coconut oil around your pan in order to grease all sides. Then pour the coconut oil into the batter and mix until all lumps are gone.
4. Pour the batter into your greased pan and place on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until browned on top and a toothpick comes out clean.Place the cake on a cooling rack. After the cake has cooled a bit, but is still warm, poke holes all over the top with a fork. Juice the orange half right over the whole cake, making sure to evenly distribute the juice