End of furlough

Back at work!! Woohoo! I'm so glad that the shutdown has ended. Although, part of me does feel that all the major issues have just been kicked down a road a bit. I wouldn't be shocked if this happened again in January...

But! I have pulled the together days 12 through 16. I made one last video this morning since technically I wasn't back at work until 10:00 am on day day 17.

I will admit, it was getting really difficult towards the end to think of up new songs! But thanks to all my friends (Teresa, Tommy, Tim, Michelle, Stefanie, Rich, Brittani, Lisa, Jay, and Dave) who supported my shenanigans and helped make my furlough not so bad. You guys are great friends, sponsors, supporters, singers, dancers and people. Love you :)

Furlough: Day 11

1.     fur·lough noun \ˈfər-(ˌ)lō\

a: a period of time when a soldier is allowed to leave the place where he or she is stationed

b: a period of time when an employee is told not to come to work and is not paid

c: a period of time when a prisoner is allowed to leave prison

2.     furlough transitive verb

a: to grant a furlough to (someone)

b: to put (a worker) on furlough

I am currently experiencing definition 1b. I haven't been to work since Monday, September 30th because of the government shutdown. I decided to use my first day off to bust out a bunch of errands and make a serious dent in my “to do” list. After spending way too much money on grain free dog and cat food, I was in the parking lot of Petsmart and I had the DAY-O BANANA BOAT song playing in my head. But instead of “DAY-O” I was singing “furlough” to myself. It made me laugh, so I figured it would give my friends a laugh as well. I recorded my 10 second rendition of DAY-O via snapchat and off it went. I remember thinking to myself, “Since this shutdown can’t possibly go on that long, it doesn’t hurt to keep it light and be funny about it.”

Then day two came with absolutely no resolution to the shutdown. I heard the PARTY ROCK ANTHEM on the radio and the inspiration was almost too easy: “Everyday I’m furloughing!” I snapchatted that genius and shared it for a laugh. Very shortly afterwards, I received a response from a friend that said, “You need to get a job” which was probably very true. But since Congress and the POTUS didn’t see NASA as essential personnel, I was furloughing it up.

By day three, I had enough of listening to the garbage politians were spewing on CSpan Radio. Listening to CSpan and reading the news did nothing but make me depressed about the furlough situation. So, I took a vacation to Austin for Austin City Limits (ACL). This trip had been planned months in advance and so the timing was purely coincidental but I called it my furloughcation. I decided to keep my head up about the situation. I thought it would be entertaining to make 10 second furlough videos and share with friends via snapchat. I would make one every day until I was called back to work.

I never imaged the shutdown would last this long and I’d make it through 11 songs! But it’s crazy how many songs there are that have lyrics where furlough can be substituted! The Cure and Lionel Richie both performed at ACL this year and I definitely used a couple of their songs as inspiration (which was kinda perfect). Around day eight or nine, I realized that I should probably just share all these funny videos on the Internet because the world needs some laughter, especially now. I went ahead and combined my first 11 songs into the video below. I am a terrible singer and have absolutely zero musical skills. But hopefully you’ll find them all entertaining and get a good laugh out of it.

Day 1: Day-O Banana Boat Song, Harry Belafonte

Day 2: Party Rock Anthem, LMFAO

Day 3: Firework, Katy Perry

Day 4: Friday I'm In Love, The Cure

Day 5: Hold On, Wilson Phillips

Day 6: Easy Like Sunday Morning, Lionel Richie

Day 7: Manic Monday, The Bangles

Day 8: I’m Different, 2 Chainz

Day 9: Low, Flo-Rida

Day 10: Blurred Lines, Robin Thick

Day 11: Creep, TLC

Looks like I’ll need at least 3 more songs to get me through the weekend. So if you have any requests or ideas, let me know!! And let's hope this shutdown mess comes to an end soon...

Special thanks to Stefanie for filming me during days 5-9 and to Dave for the inspiration on day 9 J

Beef Tacos Paleo Style

I had a craving all day for some old school ground beef tacos. Of course, almost everything about a traditional taco is anti-paleo so you have to get creative! Although there is no crispy outer shell or cheese or sour cream, I promise these tacos are SUPER tasty and bursting with rich flavors!

There is the extra step of making the taco seasoning. But I think it's worth it and you can store the extra and use the seasoning later for either more tacos or other Mexican type dishes. Plus when you make the seasoning, you actually know what's in it! The store bought stuff has god only knows what in it... I used the seasoning recipe from another blog and it was delicious!

Ingredients:

Taco Seasoning
1/2 cup dried minced onion, or onion powder
1/4 cup chili powder
1/4 cup sea salt
1/8 cup garlic powder
1/8 cup ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Put all the ingredients in a pint mason jar, shaking to combine.

Meat Filling
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 lb grass fed ground beef
3 tbsp taco seasoning
Juice from 1 lime

1. In a large skillet, heat coconut oil using medium heat.
2. Saute onions and garlic until golden brown, 7-8 min.
3. Add green peppers until soft, 3-4 min.
4. Add ground beef. Be sure to let ground beef brown and caramelize first before moving around. This is the trick to successfully browning your ground beef.
5. Add taco seasoning and lime juice and thoroughly mix with ground beef and vegetables. Break up any larger pieces of meat.
6. Cook ground beef until pink is no longer visible, 5-7 min.
7. Remove meat from heat when done and let rest.

Taco construction
1 head bib lettuce
1/2 tomato chopped
handful of cilantro
1 avocado, sliced

1. Place 1 piece of lettuce on a place.
2. Fill with a large spoon full of meat filling.
3. Top with tomato, cilantro, and avocado.
4. Eat and enjoy!

Beef Tacos Paleo Style

A paleo friendly Filipino dish, pancit!

For those that may not know, I am half Filipino. I was born in the Philippines and that's where my mother is from. My father is basically a mix of German and Polish. So as you can imagine, I had a very wide range of dishes while growing up. But my mother's cooking was always my favorite and still is to this day. Filipino dishes give me that feeling of home. I can remember when I was a little girl she would make lumpia, pancit, fried rice, adobo and these little whole fishes that always made the entire house smell! It wasn't until I was in middle school that I realized these foods were not things that my friends had for dinner everyday! Now that  live away from home, I only get to experience my mom's cooking during the holidays. Her lumpia is one of the best parts of Christmas! I also loved her pancit. It is basically the equivalent of Filipino comfort food; you can eat pancit for any meal, any time of day and it's still awesome!

With all that said, Filipino food is not exactly paleo friendly. But I have had a craving for it lately. Pancit is a dish that is normally made with rice based noodles from the Philippines which is obviously a paleo no-no. So, I did a search for "paleo pancit" to see if anyone had figured it out yet and the folks at Everyday Paleo came pretty close. They used shredded cabbage as the noodle base and also suggested adding a sweet potato to get a starchy consistency. The combination worked perfectly. I also modified their recipe slightly to add vegetables that better reflected what I remembered my mother using. And I gotta say, it turned out pretty awesome! I found myself eating two very large bowls.

My mother knows that I am eating differently now but I am curious if she'd like it. Might have to make it for the family next time I visit to possibly improve it with some secret mom tips. Now if only there was a paleo lumpia...

Enjoy!
*****

Paleo Filipino Pancit

Ingredients:
4 eggs (optional)

2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 teaspoons crushed garlic*
6 green onions, diced*
4 stalks celery, diced*
1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into small bite size pieces*
1 lb pork loin, cut into small bit size pieces*

2 tablespoons coconut oil
6 cups shredded green cabbage*
1 sweet potato, spiral sliced using a Spiral Vegetable Slicer*
5 carrots, diced*

1/4 cup coconut aminos
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons sugar free fish sauce
Juice from 1 lemon
Black pepper and Celtic sea salt to taste

*A tip for this recipe is to have all your prep done before you start cooking; the recipe comes together pretty quickly.

1. Boil your eggs. If you want to learn how to make the perfect hard boiled eggs, read this blog. Works every time!

2. In a large wok heat the first 2 tbsp coconut oil over medium to medium high heat.  When the wok is nice and hot, add the garlic, green onions, celery, chicken, and pork and saute for about 10 minutes or until the meat is done all the way through but still tender. Remove the meat from the wok and set aside.

3. In the same wok, heat the next 2 tbsp coconut oil over medium to medium high heat. Add the cabbage, sweet potato, and carrots to the wok and cook until the cabbage is tender, about 10 minutes.

4. Add the chicken and pork back to the veggies and pour in the coconut aminos, chicken broth, fish sauce, and lemon juice. Season with black pepper and salt to taste. Stir well and cook for another 5-7 minutes until well combined.

5. Slice hard boiled eggs and place on top of pancit. Serve in bowls with a lemon wedge.

Paleo Filipino Pancit

Paleo Veggie Stir Fry

You are going to love this recipe! I discovered something called coconut aminos which is a soy free substitute for soy sauce! It's all the flavor without the soy or high salt! Cooking with this stuff will change your life. I found coconut aminos at Whole Foods in the Asian food section but you can also order it through Amazon here. Coconut aminos is basically the “sap” of the coconut tree. The sap produced is loaded with amino acids, minerals, and is low on the glycemic index. You can read more about this amazing ingredient here.

Tonight, I decided to make a stir fry that was adapted from an Asian Style "Noodles" recipe. I had a bunch of vegetables that needed to be used, so a stir fry is always a good solution. The sauce for this recipe reminds me of a peanut sauce (but without the peanuts of course). It's VERY tasty and could probably be used on chicken as well. Hope you like it as much as I did!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large cooked spaghetti squash (you could use zucchini noodles as well)
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 large head of broccoli, florets cut off
3 carrots, sliced into matchsticks
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp almond butter
6 tbsp coconut aminos
2 tbsp Red Boat fish sauce (this is a sugar free brand)
Juice of 2 limes

Ingredients

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 deg.

2. Cut spaghetti squash in half and clean out seeds.

3. Place spaghetti squash in glass casserole dish filled with 1 inch of water, hollow side down.

4. Bake for 45 minutes, remove and let cool. Scope out squash and set aside.

5. While squash is cooking, heat 1 Tbsp of oil, in a large skillet, over medium high heat. Saute onions, 3-4 minutes.

6. Add the broccoli and carrots and sauté for 3-4 minutes or until mostly tender.

7. In a blender, mix together garlic, almond butter, coconut aminos, Red Boat fish sauce, and lime juice.

8. Add the sauce to the stir fry and mix thoroughly (you may not need to use all of the sauce).

9. Add the spaghetti squash to the stir fry or serve stir fry over spaghetti squash (see picture below).

Stir fry served over spaghetti squash

Shrimp and Tomato Sauté with Zucchini Spaghetti

So, my last entry was Shrimp and Tomato Sauté with Spaghetti Squash and I loved it so much! I wanted to try the same recipe using zucchini spaghetti. The recipes are very similar to each other, just basically served over a different vegetable. I also made some tweaks to the recipe for my own tastes. 

I just made this dish for dinner tonight and I must say, it's awesome! The zucchini had more flavor than the spaghetti squash and was closer to the consistency of al dente pasta. Might be my new favorite for the summer! To make the zucchini spaghetti you need to invest in a spiral slicer. I bought mine on Amazon and it works great!

Ingredients:
10 roma tomatoes
turbinado sugar
1 large zucchini
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed
coarse celtic sea salt and ground pepper
3 garlic cloves
pinch of red-pepper flakes
handful of fresh basil
juice from 1 lemon
fresh parsley for garnish

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cut plum tomatoes in half and arrange cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

3. Sprinkle tomatoes with turbinado sugar.

4. Bake for an hour, remove and let cool.

5. Cut ends of zucchini and place in spiral slicer. Slice the entire zucchini using the smallest blade setting.

Zucchini spaghetti coming out of spiral slicer.

Plate full of beautiful zucchini spaghetti.

6. In a large skillet, heat extra-virgin olive oil over high. Saute zucchini spaghetti for 7-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 

Saute zucchini spaghetti.

7. In another large skillet, heat extra-virgin olive oil over high.

8. Season shrimp with coarse salt and ground pepper. Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook until opaque throughout, 3 to 4 minutes. 

Cook shrimp until opaque.

9. Place garlic cloves, red-pepper flakes, fresh basil, and fresh lemon juice in a food processor and mix.

10. Add mixture to skillet and cook for 4-6 minutes; toss to coat.

Toss to coat.

11. Stir in tomatoes and cook until tomatoes being to break down, 4 to 6 minutes. Season with salt. 

12. In a large dish, mix shrimp and tomato sauté with zucchini spaghetti. Top with fresh parsley for garnish.

Yum yum!

Enjoy!

Shrimp and Tomato Sauté with Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients:
6 plum tomatoes
turbinado sugar
1 spaghetti squash
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
coarse salt and ground pepper
5 garlic cloves
pinch of red-pepper flakes
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
2 tablespoons fresh basil
juice from 2 lemons

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cut plum tomatoes in half and arrange cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

3. Sprinkle tomatoes with turbinado sugar.

4. Bake for an hour, remove and let cool.

5. Cut spaghetti squash in half and clean out seeds.

6. Place spaghetti squash in glass casserole dish filled with 1 inch of water, hollow side down.

7. Bake for 45 minutes, remove and let cool. Scope out squash and set aside.

8. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat extra-virgin olive oil over high.

9. Season shrimp with coarse salt and ground pepper. Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook until opaque throughout, 3 to 4 minutes.

10. Place garlic cloves, red-pepper flakes, fresh parsley, fresh basil, and fresh lemon juice in a food processor and mix.

11. Add mixture to skillet and cook for 4-6 minutes; toss to coat.

12. Stir in tomatoes and cook until tomatoes being to break down, 4 to 6 minutes. Season with salt.

13. Serve over spaghetti squash.