During the winter months, it’s easy to catch a cold and feel absolutely miserable for days. One of the best natural remedies that comes to mind is (thanks to heavy advertising on Campbell’s part) nothing more than a simple bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup.

But most of us are grown-ups, and a mass produced 80 cent can of soup with more sodium and water than anything else isn’t really going to take us very far.  So I’ve come up with this recipe, that emphasizes re-inserting the things that really make you feel better: plenty of fresh vegetables, and chicken broth.  You can always make your own chicken broth from scraps, but if you’re a little pinched on time, getting a tetra-pack (avoid cans) of low sodium chicken broth will do just fine.

I’ve also take enoki mushrooms and used them as a substitute for the pasta noodles normally called for in this dish.  You get a similar texture to regular chicken noodle soup, without the useless carbs, AND the added benefit of what mushrooms normally have to offer: potassium, B vitamins, and amino acids.

So with that, here’s my solution to helping you get over that winter cold.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of enoki mushrooms, with roots trimmed
• 1 cup of carrots, cut into 1/2″ slices
• 1 cup of celery, cut into 1/2″ slices
• 1 cup of red onions, roughly chopped
• 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth
• 1 cage free egg, beaten
• 1 tbsp walnut oil or olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Place a medium sized saucepan on the stove and turn the heat to high for 3-4 minutes.
2. Add the walnut oil, garlic, and then immediately followed by the red onions.  Stir the onions and let them cook until they’ve started to turn a slight golden color at the edges.
3. Add the celery and carrots, allowing them to cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add sea salt and fresh ground pepper at this point if you’d like.
4. Add the chicken broth to the saucepan.  Once the chicken broth begins to heat up and boil, reduce the heat to a medium-low.  Add the enoki mushrooms and cover.  Let it simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, which should give the mushrooms, celery, and carrots time to cook a bit.  Occasionally stir the contents of the saucepan.
5. Turn off the heat, uncover the sauce pan, and slowly add the egg to the soup, stirring a tiny bit so that the egg gets a bit of distribution.  Serve poste haste.

This recipe works wonders, and even travels well in a thermos.  You can add in any additional meat to meet any Zone requirements, or serve meat on the side.  If you’d like to make this vegetarian, you can always substitute vegetable broth, although you won’t garner the benefits of the chicken broth in fighting off colds.  Just the vegetables, which is still a good start.  Lastly, you can always reduce the about of oil to just 1 teaspoon, but make sure to watch your vegetables so they don’t get burnt.

Zone Blocks:

Protein: 1 block

Carbs: ~4 block

Fat: 9 block

I made this dish as one of the sides for our New Year’s Resolution Party over the weekend. There are two ways to prepare the sweet potatoes for this dish- as a mash or a hash, and I’ll go over both in this recipe.  As you can probably guess, the mash has a much creamier texture, and is a perfect setting as a bed for whatever protein you’d like to add to the meal.  The hash is a bit more along the lines of a traditional breakfast side starch, but either way, you’ll still get a great tasting dish.  It gives a little bit more of a variety than just eating your sweet potatoes straight out of the skin with some runny side up eggs, and you can always double or triple the recipe to save some for later in the week.  The reddish purple of the onion combined with the orange of the sweet potato has a nice color to it, and can make almost any ordinary meal look immediately more appealing.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 tbsp walnut oil
• 1 large red onion, roughly chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions for Sweet Potato Mash:

1. Pour 3 cups of water into a large pot over high heat and wait until the water starts to boil.
2. Carefully dump the sweet potato chunks into the water, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.
3. Drain the sweet potatoes in a colander, sprinkle the pumpkin pie spice on top, and set aside.
4. Place a large non-stick skillet over high heat, and add the walnut oil after the pan has started to get hot, about three to five minutes depending on your range.
5. Turn the heat down to medium-high and add the onions and sauté them until they have started to become translucent.
6. Add the sweet potatoes, mixing and occasionally stirring for another five minutes.
7. Serve immediately!

Directions for Sweet Potato Hash:

1. Place a large non-stick skillet over high heat, and add the walnut oil after the pan has started to get hot, about three to five minutes depending on your range.
2. Turn the heat down to medium-high and add the onions and sauté them until they have started to become translucent.
3. Add the sweet potatoes, mixing and occasionally stirring for another 10-15 minutes.  Your sweet potatoes will get a nice slight crust to some of the pieces, but won’t turn complete into a mash.
4. Serve immediately!

Not too difficult, right?  It’s a little more effort than just nuking a sweet potato for a few minutes, but if you’re like me and you eat them every day, a little bit of variety goes a long way.  You can also add 1 tsp of quickly chopped rosemary to the skillet, which gives the sweet potatoes a slightly more complex flavor.  You could also add 1 tsp of fresh chopped mint instead of the rosemary and get even more out of this recipe.

It’s a little difficult to ascertain the exact Zone amounts of this dish, but I’d say a cup of this is roughly 4 blocks of carbs and four to five blocks of fat.  Completely paleo, vegetarian, and vegan as well, although the hash will give vegans and vegetarians a bit more strengthening with their jaws.  Try some of the variants and let me know how it works out for you!

I consume anywhere between a dozen to two dozen cage free eggs a week, and in that time, I’ve found that I really enjoy my eggs with a cooked white, and a runny yolk (that I usually sop up with a baked sweet potato for breakfast).

So here’s a recipe that I’ve been using for a while now, and if you like your eggs prepared like I do, this one will do wonders to start your morning.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cage Free Eggs
• 2 Cage Free Eggwhites
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper, for seasoning
• Water

Directions:

1. Preheat a nonstick frying pan over high heat for 2-3 minutes.
2. While the pan is heating, crack open your eggs in a measuring cup or bowl, taking care not to break open the yolk.  Set aside.
3. You can test the heat by dropping a tiny bit of water on the pan.  If it sizzles and quickly evaporates, you’re ready to go!
4. Coat the frying pan evenly with about 1/2 a teaspoon of olive oil.
5. Gently add the eggs to the pan, which should cook, with the whites immediately losing their transparency.
6. Add 1/2 teaspoon of water to the pan, turn the heat off, and cover immediately.
7. Allow the eggs to continue cooking in the pan for three and a half minutes without heat, using the evaporated water to steam them.
8. Remove lid from the pan.  The eggs should be perfectly set, still soft, but not have a raw look.  If your eggs still look a bit too raw, recover the frying pan, turn on the stove to medium-high, and allow to cook for 45 more seconds or until set to satisfaction.
9. Add sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste.

The time spent covered and cooking is entirely up to you, depending on how runny you like your yolks.  I’d recommend at least two and a half minutes so that the whites have enough time to cook properly.  I’d say you could cook these eggs up to five minutes, but by then, you should prepare for your yolks to be pretty firmly set.  The other nice thing about preparing your eggs this way is that the whites tend not to have that rubbery texture to them.

Zone Blocks:

Protein: 3

Carbs: 0

Fat: 0 (Technically, there are two 2 grams of fat per egg when you include the yolk, but it isn’t necessary to count this towards your daily fat allocation.)

Kale has become my new palette crush.  It does take some preparation work, but it’s richly rewarding, and is available all year long.  This one’s just a tad bit different from the Wasabi Sesame Kale Recipe, but with a great crunchy texture instead.  Plus, this one takes a little bit less work, so it’s a nice one to use when you’ve got multiple things cooking. So, with that, andiamo!  (Italian for, “Let’s Go!”)

Ingredients:

• A large bunch of kale
• 2 tablespoons of walnut oil
• 2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes
• 1.5 teaspoons of habanero sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
2. Separate kale and break the leaves off the stem, discarding the stem and placing the chunks of kale into a colander. When you’ve separated all the kale from the stems, give it a good rinse to wash off any dirt or grit.  Shake off any remaining water on the kale bits to the best you can, but don’t worry too much about getting it completely dry.
3. Transfer the kale to a very large bowl.  Add the walnut oil, crushed red pepper flakes, habanero sea salt, and fresh ground pepper.  Toss very well to get a good coverage on the kale.
4. Spray a large oven safe pan with oil (I used extra virgin olive oil), and evenly distribute the kale on the pan.
5. Place the pan in the oven.  Let the kale cook for about 18-20 minutes.
6. Check the kale to see if it’s started to crisp up a bit.  The top exposed leaves should be turning brown, but not completely so.  If you like a little bit more crisp, you can leave the kale in for a few more minutes, but otherwise, you’re good to go!  Use an oven mitt to take the pan out and place it on a safe surface that can withstand lots of heat.
7. Serve and enjoy.

Now, this recipe IS paleo, and you can always reduce the amount of oil to just 1 tablespoon if you’re watching your fat intake.  You can also use sesame oil or olive oil instead of walnut oil, each lending a unique taste to this dish.  Just make sure that your oil can withstand high cooking temperatures, or you’ll hear the incessant beeping of that obnoxious smoke detector.

Zone Blocks:
Carbs: ~3 or 4 blocks, depending on the size of your bunch of kale
Protein: 0 blocks
Fat: 18

Enjoy!

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Kale's quite the extraordinarily intimidating motherfucker. I've spent years passing it by at the grocery store in favor of other vegetables or fruits. I know it’s good for me, but look at it. I mean, fucking look at it. It's got this presence, like a pigeon wielding a chainsaw. I shouldn't be scurred of the damn thing, but I still run off like a pansy all the same, off to the tubers and onions.

"Oh sweet potato, you'll never treat me wrong!"

Well no more. After shanking some Whole Payczech prepared Garlic Kale and putting it into my gullet with great satisfaction, I grew the resolve (see also: balls) to try and cook it myself. And you know what?

It's pretty damn good.

So here's my offer to you. If you don't like kale, you can go back to sucking on a tuber, or a banana, or whatever fruit or vegetable you'd like to insert into this phallic joke. No hard feelings.

This recipe was totally stolen from Epicurious, one of the best recipe databases out there, and slighly adapted to suit my masochistic needs. Ready?

Ingredients:

• A bunch of kale
• wasabi powder
• 1 tablespoon of crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon of wasabi sesame seeds or regular sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon of water, preferrably from the polar bear exhibit at the zoo
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• sea salt
• fresh ground pepper

1. Separate kale and break the leaves off the stem, discarding the stem and placing the chunks of kale into a colander. When you’ve separated all the kale from the stems, give it a good rinse to wash off any dirt or grit.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a very large pot at high heat, which should happen pretty quickly, maybe one or two minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of crushed garlic, which will pop, bubble, gurgle, and try to attack you. Do not let the garlic intimidate you in your own kitchen. The cups and plates are watching. This is very important.
3. Add the kale to the pot, which you may need to shove down a bit. Add 1 tablespoon of water, reduce heat to medium high heat, and cover.
4. After the kale has cooked for about a minute, stir the kale around a bit so all that delicious sesame oil and garlic at the bottom gets mixed up a bit. Re-cover the pot and let it cook for another three or four minutes.
5. Turn off the heat, and add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of wasabi sesame seeds, 1/4 teaspoon of wasabi powder, a few shakes of sea salt, and as much ground pepper as you like. Give this a good stir for even distribution, or you're going to get whacked in the mouth with a giant clump of wasabi. Or maybe that's what you want. In which case, I suggest half a teaspoon of wasabi powder.
6. Serve kale immediately! Goes great with a beef tenderloin steak.

A few notes…this recipe would be paleo, except soy sauce is not. Check the ingredient list. It's a shame. 1.5 cups of cooked kale is approximately a block of carbs, so you can totally go crazy with this stuff.

Zone Blocks:
Carbs: ~3 or 4 blocks, depending on the size of your bunch of kale
Protein: 0 blocks
Fat: 6

Enjoy!

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Here’s another recipe that doesn’t take too much prep time, but can be extremely rewarding, and extremely versatile. You can substitute in almost any vegetable combination you can think of, and they’ll generally work out great. For this one, leeks and peppers seemed to be the right combination for this recipe.

That, and it’s what I had in my fridge. So nyah.

What makes this a little bit more fun is the inclusion of Sriracha sauce. Legend has it that many centuries ago, a Thai farmer came across a magical talking catfish, who had inadvertently found its way onto the land, but was unable to get back to the pond that it lived in. The farmer, upon hearing the cries for help from the catfish, ran over to see what was causing so much noise near his farm.

The catfish said, “Please sir, help me! I cannot get back to my home in the water! If you help me, I will grant you any wish that you desire!”

The farmer, knowing that catfish are dirty liars and cheat at Monopoly, took the fish home and fried it for dinner in a delicious Sriracha sauce.

Okay, back to semi-seriousness. If you’re going to make a frittata, you need an oven safe pan. My recommendation is to get yourself an 8-inch Lodge cast iron skillet. Be forewarned that a great cast iron skillet is much like a Waffle House, the greasier it is, the better, just without the lingering aroma of truckers coming off an 18 hour meth-fueled drive to deliver crap to Wal-Mart. These skillets are also super cheap, which never hurts, either.

Ingredients:

• 1 organic red bell pepper (also called holland pepper)
• 4 cage free eggs
• 1 leek
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp tsp Sriracha Sauce
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to bake at 350 degrees Farenheit, with the cast iron skillet in the oven.
2. Cut and discard the bottom 1/4 inch and the top green leafy part of the leeks, then peel off the outer layer of skin, and discard that as well. Rinse well, and cut into 1/4 to 1/2 slices. Set aside.
3. Cut the top and bottom from the red bell pepper, and discard. Remove and discard the seeds and center inside, and then proceed to cut the pepper into 1/2 inch chunks. Set aside.


 

4. Dice the 2 garlic cloves, and set aside.
5. Take four eggs, beat well until bubbles begin to form, and set aside.


 



6. Remove the cast iron skillet from the oven and place it on a burner on the stove, with the heat set to medium high. Add two teaspoons of EVOO, and coat the skillet well.
7. Add chopped garlic and leeks to the skillet, cooking for about two minutes until leeks begin to caramelize.

 

8. Add the chopped peppers, and 1/8 teaspoon of sriracha sauce. The peppers will start to loose their color as they cook, and it’s okay if the leeks come apart in the skillet. Keep stirring the vegetables so they cook evenly for about five minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.


 

9. Push the peppers and leeks towards the center of the skillet a bit, so that you have about 1/2 inch of space between your vegetables and the edge of the skillet. Pour the eggs around the edge of the skillet, and spiral in towards the center. You can press the vegetables down so they don’t tower above the eggs too much. Let the eggs cook for about two minutes, until the edges start to slightly solidify, but you don’t want it all to cook completely through!
10. Using an oven mitt, place the skillet into the oven, and let it cook for 15-18 minutes, until the eggs have set.
11. Remove the skillet from the oven, cut into quarters, and tuck in!

A few notes about this one. Like I said, you can do any number of things to adjust this recipe to how you like. You can swap out vegetables, add cheeses if they’re in your diet, or even sliced almonds for a nice crunch. If you’re going to add cheese, I’d suggest waiting until just after you’ve added the eggs, and then evenly spreading about 1/4 cup through the skillet. Goat cheese and cheddar are two of my personal favorites. I’ve tried this recipe numerous times, and four eggs (or 1 cup of egg beaters) seems to be the minimum number of eggs to get this recipe to work well, although you could probably go up to six eggs in this skillet size. You can also serve this with a side of salsa, mustard, or any other accoutrement that suits your tastes. If you have other combinations that have worked for you, post them to the comments!

Zone Blocks:
Protein: 4 blocks
Carbs: 2 blocks
Fat: 2 blocks

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This is by far one of my easiest recipes, and one of the most rewarding. It’s simple, doesn’t require a ton of ingredients, and if you make enough, you’ll have plenty leftover for any unwanted or wanted house guests you may have.

Just sayin’.

So let’s get started.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. of brussel sprouts
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, truffle oil, or lemon oil
• 1 lemon
• fresh ground black pepper
• sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit, or whatever that converts to in Celsius. Let’s say, 90,000. 90,000 degrees Celsius. (It’s actually 204.4, just so you don’t set your house on fire)
2. Cut each brussel sprout lengthwise, and place in a large bowl.

 



 

3. When you have cut all of the brussel sprouts, add the 2 tablespoons of EVOO, about 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper. Toss the brussel sprouts with your hands until they have a fairly even coat of oil on them. Don’t worry if they’re not completely coated, just get them as even as you can.

 



 

4. Place each halved brussel sprout on a large baking pan face down.

 



 

5. Place the pan of brussel sprouts in the oven, and set the timer for 35-45 minutes. Temperatures may vary depending on altitude, climate, and whether or not you’ll likely be watching a really good show when the timer goes off.
6. While the sprouts are cooking, cut a lemon into quarters, removing any seeds that are visible.

 



 

7. Check the sprouts once the timer has gone off. They should have a slightly browned appearance, but you don’t want them completely charred! Take them out and place them on a surface that can handle hot temperatures, like the stovetop, or a granite countertop.

 



 

8. Juice and drizzle each of the lemon quarters evenly over the brussel sprouts.
9. Tuck in!

Now tell me that wasn’t easy. The lemon juice is crucial here, and gives the brussel sprouts a nice taste. Add more salt and pepper if you need to, but the lemon goes a long way. You can always top your dish with some lemon zest for a little bit extra something, you fancy devil, you. Look at you, cooking all fancy in your ascot.

Zone Blocks:
Protein: 0 blocks
Carbs: ~4 blocks
Fat: 18 blocks

Every 1 1/2 cups of cooked brussel sprouts should give you 1 block of carbs, and somewhere around 4 1/2 blocks of fat.

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I love this recipe because it’s filling and scalable to fit your carbohydrate needs. Feel free to experiment with the portions (1 cup of onions = 1 block carbs, 2 cups of cabbage = 1 block carbs) or even the types of onion and cabbage.

Well, not all types of cabbage.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sliced yellow onion
• 2 cups sliced Napa Cabbage
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 3 oz sausage
• 1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste
• Sea salt, to taste

Optional:

Cayenne pepper, marjoram, bay leaf, basil, rosemary, for garnish

Directions:

1. Cut 1 cup of yellow onion, making the slices approximately 1/2″ thick. Set aside.
2. Cut 3 cups of Napa cabbage, slicing the head vertically into 1/2″ to 1″ shreds. Set aside.
3. Turn on a stove burner to medium high heat.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pot, letting the oil heat up for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add 1 cup of sliced onions, tossing them in the olive oil for even coverage.
6. When the onions begin to turn a light gold color, add fresh ground pepper to your liking.
7. Add a pinch of sea salt.
8. Continue to sautee onions for a few more seconds, and then add 1 cup of stock to the pot. Once the stock begins to simmer, add the sliced Napa cabbage and cover the pot.
9. Set the heat to medium low, and let cook for approximately 15 minutes. Check the onion and cabbage at 10 minutes, stirring and mixing the two together.
10. Cut 3 oz of sausage into rough chunks, approximately 1 1/2″ thick.
11. Once the cabbage has started to steam and soften, add the sausage to the pot and re-cover. Continue cooking for an additional 8-10 minutes.
12. Stir the pot so that the ingredients are mixed evenly.
13. Serve immediately.

Zone Blocks:
Protein: 3 blocks
Carbs: 2 blocks
Fat: 9 blocks

Note: Protein blocks can be added or reduced to meet meal requirements. Red cabbage also works very well with this recipe. Add an additional cup of sliced onion for 4 blocks of carbs. Alternatively, add an additional cup of sliced onion and 2 cups of sliced cabbage for 5 blocks. Another option would be to reduce this recipe from 4 cups to only 2 cups of cabbage for 2 blocks of carbs total. You can reduce the olive oil to 1 teaspoon for only 3 total fat blocks.  Add a 1/2 teaspoon of Sriacha sauce for a spicy kick.

Enjoy!

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CrossFit has substantially changed the way I view a healthy lifestyle. For me, it seems that the three fundamental components of the program are the fitness, the rest/recovery, and the nutrition.

A vast majority of CrossFitters typically follow the Zone Diet, the Paleo Diet, or a hybrid of the two. I’ll save the discussion of these diets for another time, but needless to say I’ve found that they’ve been brutally effective for me. And what about diets? There always seems to be some mystery and confusion shrouding anything that has the word “diet” in it, so I figured it’d be a good time to give a bit of what a diet really means.

The word seems to have the connotations of a quick fix to shed a few extra Chihuahuas off the waist and get one extra notch smaller on the belt loop. Or maybe a cleansing program that requires you to feed on nothing but lemons and rageahol for a week straight. But really, a diet should be much more than that. A diet should be sustainable, and something more along the lines of a way of life. The vast majority of Americans are given the amazing option to pick and choose what they eat. The problem is that we’re given such little information about what proper nutrition is, and the nutrition we are all given through general primary education is so completely off target. If you look at the revised food pyramid that is distributed by the USDA today, you’ll notice that it’s a much better system than what I remember having as a wee little Norm so many years ago. It’s slightly more balanced, but it still needs work.

Both of these are way off. Click on the image for an expanded view.

The very first slice of the pyramid advises all of us to eat at least 3 ounces of whole grains a day. But why? What are the benefits of consuming grains that make them an essential part of our daily diet? It mentions the fiber found in the grains listed as a health benefit, but not much else. Why not?

The grains that we all so often eat, choose, and enjoy in our lives aren’t actually helping us all that much beyond that. While they are cheap, easily stored, transported, and give us the calories we need to burn to carry out our daily tasks, it provides none of the nutrition of natural carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables. But it goes even deeper than that.

A few people have heard of the terms glycemic load and glycemic index (especially if you have diabetes or are close to someone who does), but what does it really mean? Essentially, these are numbers that determine how quickly a food turns into sugar in your body, and the corresponding insulin response your body has to have to have to process this food. What does this mean? A diet filled with sugars (high fructose corn syrup, brown sugar, cane sugar, etc) and grains (bread, pasta, rice, quick oatmeal, etc) are known to be leading causes of obesity, and eventually from that, diabetes.

Grains (along with sugars) will send your glycemic levels absolutely skyrocketing (SKY ROCKETS IN FLIGHT! AFTERNOON DELIGHT!). The fact that grains are such a staple in our typical diets leaves me shuddering at the thought to those who are putting down slab after slab of bread without some sort of physical activity as recourse. It doesn’t even have to be as much of a hardcore fitness program as CrossFit, but something as simple as walking five miles or more a day can do wonders for your body.

So what am I saying here? Americans love their grains. A morning bowl of cereal. A nice deli sandwich for lunch. A few cold ones to knock back watching the game. Grains are intricately involved in our lives, as they are some of the most readily available foods that we live upon. Am I saying that we should get rid of grains altogether? Absolutely not!

Don’t get me wrong, I love a stack of pancakes with bacon, sausage, large three egg Western omelet and hash browns washed down with a hand dipped Cookies & Cream malt and coffee as much as the next person on a lazy Sunday afternoon (ask Jen sometime). But I don’t eat like that all the time. I know that meal is terrible for me and my body. I realize that meals like that are really something to be had once in a blue moon, because keeping up a pace of life like that would prematurely have me flying to that big buffet in the sky. So what am I suggesting? A reevaluation of diet sense from all of us. The more critical point is that moderation is essential. You could make the good and valid point that I talk about meals that don’t fit into what I preach. What I don’t mention here is that these meals I have of Indian food stacked with naan or pasta laden dishes aren’t the norm. I tend to limit myself to these extravagances up to 15% of the time, or about three meals out of the week. As far I’m concerned, that’s plenty to get your fill of what you want to eat, and maintain a healthy eating style for the rest of the week.

The Zone Food Pyramid, the right way to do it.

We definitely take the time to educate ourselves in our careers, to become more capable at performing our work and achieving our goals, which in turn, we hope will lead us to greater successes. A machinist will learn how to operate technologies to thread the bolts that holds our warships together. A cardiologist will learn about the available drugs to help save his patients from heart failure. An IT specialist will learn about the latest technologies to help him build better technological systems. So why aren’t we holding the same standard to being alive? Take the time to educate yourself on what a healthy lifestyle is. Take the initiative to learn how to more effectively and efficiently feed yourself, which in turn, I hope will allow each of us to experience a longer and better life.

Typically, I’m pretty allergic to raw, unprocessed apples. I’m not sure what it is about raw apples that sets me off, but I get a nasty, constricting feeling in my throat, and all hell breaks loose. I’ve never been able to enjoy the bite into a crisp Granny Smith or Fuji without wanting to completely claw my throat out.

Despite that, I’m totally fine with non-raw apples. Dehydrated apple slices, apple sauce, apple juice, apple butter, anything that’s not just a regular raw apple. So while fooling around a bit in the kitchen, I came up with this nice little recipe that’s a sweet variation on your typical scrambled eggs. This recipe hits the trifecta: it’s Paleo friendly, Zone friendly, and Vegetarian (ovo) friendly as well. Nice. Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 1 organic apple
• 1 teaspoon virgin coconut oil (extra virgin olive oil [EVOO] works too, but coconut oil has a better flavor!)
• 6 medium cage-free egg whites (or 3 whole medium cage-free eggs, or 3/4 cup eggbeaters)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup of filtered water

Directions:

1. Dice apple into 1/4″ to 1/2″ chunks. They don’t have to be perfect cubes, but try to get the chunks to about that size.
2. Place diced apple chunks into a bowl, and sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon over them. Set aside.
3. In a medium sized non-stick skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of virgin coconut oil over medium heat for approximately two minutes, or until the oil is starting to get hot. Try to get the oil evenly coated on the skillet as best as you can.
4. Add cinnamon apples to the skillet, and sautee the apples for three minutes, constantly turning the apples in the pan.
5. Add half the water to the apples, and let the apples continue to cook, continually turning the apples. The water will boil and reduce, and you’ll notice that the mixture will start to get a slightly syrupy consistency.
6. Add the remaining water, continuing to turn the apples. Let the water reduce again to a syrupy consistency, and should be almost completely evaporated.
7. Add the eggs to the skillet, evenly coating the apples. Push in the sides of the eggs towards the middle and try to get the apples and eggs to mix as evenly as possible.
8. Once the eggs have cooked evenly, transfer the mixture to a plate. Sprinkle 1/4 cinnamon over the scramble.

And that’s it! Tuck in.

While this isn’t really the prettiest of recipes, it tastes great, and is a recipe that I can make for Jen to enjoy. If you’re looking to make this a perfect 3 block meal, you can top the Apple Scramble with the fresh fruit of your choice, or 1/3 cup of organic unsweetened apple sauce (1 block of carbs).

Stay away from the maple syrup though. Heathens.

Zone Blocks:
Protein: 3
Carbs: 2
Fat: 3

As a final note, allow me to give you a little disclaimer. Not everything in your recipe has to be organic, free range, etc. You can substitute in regular ingredients instead, but I always feel that the higher quality your food sources, the better your recipes will taste. That being said, you should do some research into when you should buy organic, and when it’s just a rip-off at the organic market. A good rule of thumb is that if there’s not a skin to whatever fruit or vegetable you’re planning on consuming that you can discard, it’s probably a safe bet to say you should go organic. Organic apples? Yes. Organic grapes? Yes. Organic cantaloupe? No. Organic dish sponges? Get outta here with that.