Cauliflower Rice

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The other day on our Chicken & Shrimp Paella recipe, someone asked how it is that we make the cauliflower rice that goes with the recipe.  We realize that there are probably a million other cauliflower rice recipes out there, but I wanted to add my two cents into the proverbial arena.  (Google confirms 8.84 million results for “cauliflower rice”)

Beef Barbacoa

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When in a pinch, I will occasionally visit the local Chipotle for a quick lunch; their carnitas or barbacoa salad with extra salsa, hot sauce, and guacamole is extremely filling, and not too hard on the wallet when it comes to healthy eat-out options.  The other day, I wanted to attempt to recreate some of what I love about barbacoa at home.  

Mushroom Meatballs

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Meatballs were a favorite of mine growing up.  Just the other day, Heather and I realized that we have never actually made meatballs and pasta (zoodles or otherwise).  Having been together almost 3 years, I immediately found this unacceptable and wanted to make things better.

We probably all have a family version of meatballs, usually including some combination of ground beef, lamb, veal, or pork, but as I’m trying to make 2013 less meat-focused, I added mushrooms.  I “hated” mushrooms as a kid until I realized that I didn’t automatically hate everything my dad did (sorry, mom).  You’ll enjoy these meatballs with marinara, on their own, or in the traditional sense with the “noodles” of your choosing.

Jawbone UP: A Review

Since dialing in my diet, and finding what works and what doesn’t in a pretty large magnitude, I’ve been trying to take care of the other essentials of health: sleep and movement.  This could be considered a tool that falls within the quantified self movement, and while I’m not ready to go as far as Kamal Patel over at PainDatabase (though I love reading his material, I just know right now I’d drop the ball in terms of follow-through), this is a good start at being able to quantify your habits in order to enact change.  Working two jobs, I often spend a lot of time in front of a computer during the day, or up too late working.  It’s not always a perfect life, but I’m trying to be more aware of the time I spend idle, and the times when I don’t get enough sleep.

Since purchasing the Jawbone UP, I’ve been able to track how late I stay up and whether or not it has any tangible affect on my sleep quality or my overall mood over the next few days.  The UP is a really cool product that has a bit of a tarnished history because of it’s first generation attempt about a year and a half ago.  It had a great debut as a wearable fitness band, well before the Nike FuelBand, but the resulting product reliability took things downhill.

Steamed Mussels

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Mussels are something that I’ll get occasionally at a restaurant, but rarely have we made them at home.  Especially since changing my eating habits, I’ve found that mussels are rarely super contaminated with sugar, grains, or legumes, so they’re a standard go-to if we’re out to eat at an Italian restaurant.  What I never really connected the dots on was how easy they are to make at home.  I make littleneck clams for my mom and me on the grill, but this was my first attempt at mussels at home.  This will be a more regular thing from now on.

If you’re on the fence, know that this went from start to finish in under 30 minutes.