Paleo Strawberry Ice Cream

The temperatures are on the rise. Summer is on Spring's heels. What's more delicious on a warm summer afternoon than homemade ice cream? My strawberry ice cream is Paleo and only involves four ingredients. As long as your ice cream maker bowl/base has already been in the freezer, you'll have delicious ice cream within 30 minutes. I store my ice cream maker bowl in the freezer all the time when I'm not using it. That way I can make ice cream at any time when the mood strikes. If you don't have an ice cream maker yet, I highly recommend the Cuisinart ICE-21. Easy to use. Reasonably-priced. Fast.

Paleo Strawberry Ice Cream

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

• 2 cans full-fat coconut milk
• 1 ½ pounds fresh strawberries, tops cut off
• ¼ - ½ cup raw, local honey
• 1 t. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a blender (I used my Vitamix). Blend until pureed.
2. Turn on ice cream maker per the manufacturer’s instructions.
3. Pour ice cream mixture into your ice cream maker. (You may have a little extra – I just pour it into a mason jar and store it in the fridge. You can always drink it as strawberry milk).
4. Let mixture churn in the ice cream maker for about 20 minutes (depends upon your ice cream maker's instructions).
5. Scoop out into an airtight container.
6. You can either serve it immediately as soft-serve or store it in the freezer for a couple hours so it’ll be more of a hard ice cream consistency. Either way, you’re in for a real treat! 

                          Beginning                                                       End Result

I am looking forward to trying out new flavors over the summer. Cookie dough, perhaps? Maple pecan. Almond butter/chocolate ribbon vanilla ice cream. Mango. Blackberry.

Question of the day: What is your favorite kind of ice cream? As a child, I loved Oreo Cookie Blizzards or Breezes from DQ or Bonnie Doon's Cookie Dough Ice Cream (made in northern Indiana where I grew up). I still have a fondness for cookie dough ice cream. I also love chocolate ice cream.

Whole30 - Day 24

If you read my previous post, then you know I wrote it this morning. It took a little longer than anticipated, so I rushed to make breakfast and get to work.

Today was rather uneventful. I took a break to run on the treadmill during lunchtime. I wanted to get in some speedwork. I didn't up the pace as much as I should have, but it was a good variation from the norm. I ran a half-mile warm-up, 8x200m (ranging from 7.7-8.2mph) with equal jogging in between (7.0 mph) and then ended up finishing strong to 3.1 miles. Finished the 5k in 24:59. I decided to continue, so I increased the incline to 2.0 and ran at 6.1-6.4mph until I hit 3.5 miles. I finished up with 100 squats and 50 sit-ups (will finish the rest after I post this).

I had to stop by the grocery store on the way home to pick up some food for dinner. This afternoon, I decided I wanted to make some Paleo pancakes w/ strawberry puree, veggies, meat and eggs. I'll probably make some quick Paleo chili tomorrow, so I bought some ingredients for that. I wrote the basic recipe and will finish it up tomorrow, so I can share it with you.

Breakfast: Bowl of blackberries. Green bell pepper, sliced beef hot dog, tomato and two scrambled eggs. Pure Wrap on the side.

Lunch: A bowl of Zesty Beef Stew from Mmm...Coffee (we bought extra soup last night), plantain chips, two diced kiwis and a banana. A little after lunch, I ate some dried mango and a Pecan Pie Larabar. I ate my soup and fruit too quickly to get a picture. After eating, I realized I forgot to take a picture. Oops!

Dinner: As I mentioned above, I wanted Paleo pancakes. Really, I just wanted breakfast for dinner. It sounded good this afternoon. I made these banana pancakes since I had ripe bananas. I pureed some strawberries in my Magic Bullet. I had assorted bell peppers, so I diced those along with an onion. I cooked them in a little olive oil. After they cooked down, I added a package of sliced mushrooms. In another pan, I cooked up some beef hot dogs and then fried the eggs in coconut oil. The pancakes were decent. I think they would have been better with more almond flour and one less egg. Overall, it was a tasty meal and satisfied my breakfast desires.

We're watching "Ocean's Thirteen" on TV. I'll probably get to bed at a reasonable time. I'm feeling a little irritable and tired tonight. If I'm not a happy/positive person, the best place for me to be is lying in my bed. I've already decided on a couple meals for the week, so I'll have to pick a few more. I plan on making a chicken minestrone soup (recreate the soup we ate at Mmm...Coffee). I also would like to make Paleo tacos and some type of burgers (on mixed greens or spinach). I think a chicken pot pie casserole would be a tasty treat. It's supposed to get chilly on Monday and Tuesday, so that would be a perfect dish.

Question of the day: Do you plan out your meals? Do you have a unique way of displaying the menu? Chalk board? I would love to display my menu in a creative way, but our kitchen doesn't really lend itself to putting a board on the wall (don't have any open walls). Also, our refrigerator isn't magnetic (it's stainless steel), so anything magnetic is out.

Whole30 - Day 16

I am over the hump. It's the second half of the Whole30 challenge. Amazing how fast time flies! I don't feel deprived at all. There have been a couple of times where I felt super hungry, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've been thoroughly enjoying the foods I'm eating. I'm doing my best to make different dinners for the entire 30 days. Variety is the spice of life. It keeps one engaged too. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get a great night's sleep last night. When the 5:30am alarm went off, I was still feeling a bit tired. Luckily, I was able to sleep until 6am. I did my 100 squats, 100 sit-ups and 25 push-ups while watching the local news. I made a quick breakfast before getting dressed and heading out the door. 

Work ended up being extremely busy. Meetings, phone calls, projects. As I look back on the day, I feel it was quite productive. I accomplished a major task before I left for the day. I just have to compile some data into one spreadsheet and then I check that off the list. It feels great to check things off the to-do list. Even with work being so busy, I took a much-needed break to run outside. I thought it was going to be 50 degrees today, but it ended up hitting about 40 degrees by lunch time. 40 is still warm enough for running in shorts and a t-shirt, especially here in Colorado where the sun shines so strongly. That sun felt so amazing. I ran for 31 minutes and then went into the fitness room to cool down. I ended up running at 8.6 mph for a minute and then jogged at a 3% incline at 6 mph for 4 minutes and then walked for a couple minutes as a true cool down. Of course, I stretched a bit before going back to work. Stretching is so important. I don't do it enough, but I'm doing at least the bare minimum after my workouts. I am also incorporating weekly yoga into my routine. That means tomorrow is a yoga day! Yay! 

Breakfast: The rest of the Banana Nut Porridge with blueberries and a bowl of sliced strawberries. 

Snack: Before running, I ate half a Cashew Cookie Larabar.

Lunch: Leftover salmon and garlic-lemon broccoli. 

PM Snack: Banana, the rest of my banana muffin that I nibbled on yesterday and the second half of the Larabar. I was hungry after running. 

Dinner: Cauliflower "rice". Grass-fed ground beef with a diced onion and orange bell pepper. Roasted Brussels sprouts. Cashew "alfredo" sauce. Mix it all together on your plate. Delish! Lots of flavors and textures in this meal. I drank about a third of a bottle of Strawberry Kombucha.

I'm going to end on an observation over the past couple days: The news world has been awfully strange lately. Have you heard about the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax? It's bizarre. Now today, Lance Armstrong is being brutally honest with Oprah in an interview about doping. This is really odd. What are your thoughts on Te'o and Lance? Do you think we'll be seeing Manti Te'o interviewing with Oprah next week? 

Whole30 - Day 10

Double digits! Day 10 is in the books. Less than 3 weeks left of no sugar. I must say, today was the toughest yet. I woke up with the intent of running at the gym before work. However, I had another rough night of sleep. I decided to sleep past the first alarm and sleep until 6am. No morning workout for me. I packed a gym bag to bring to the office for a lunchtime workout. I watched last night's episode of The Office while doing my squats, sit-ups and push-ups. That show is hilarious! Meredith actually looks pretty good with a bald head. I'm also anxiously awaiting Erin and Pete to get together. It'll happen before the show ends. It has to! Oh, so what made today so tough? I was constantly hungry! I haven't felt that way for the entire Whole30 so far. I snacked both in the morning and afternoon.

Work was productive for the most part. The internet went down around 2pm and didn't come back on at all the rest of the day. Not a lot of work you can do when you can't access any systems. Before that happened, I took a break to run on the treadmill. It was definitely not an outside day. It started sleeting this morning and then it switched over to snow. Temps hovered around 30 degrees this morning and dropped throughout the day. I decided on a 5k run with some sprints in the middle. I threw in 100m/200m/300m/300m/200m/100m sprints in the middle. My legs moved a bit faster today. I really think yesterday's yoga made a difference.

Breakfast: Leftover bell peppers and onions, one piece of crumbled sausage and two over-medium eggs. Handful of blueberries and strawberries.

AM Snack: Unsweetened Banana Chips

All gone... how sad.

Lunch: Two Pure Wraps with lettuce, tomato, avocado, Dijon mustard and sauteed chicken tenders (I cooked them last night in a little olive oil with sea salt and pepper). I crushed up some Pizza Flax Snax and sprinkled them on top. Added a nice little crunch.

PM Snack: Apple (no picture)
Dinner: I made my own version of a tomato-meat sauce and served it atop a bunch of shredded zucchini. I had some cashew cream leftover from the other night, so I added it into the sauce at the end, along with some nutritional yeast. I drank the rest of my Strawberry Serenity Kombucha (about half the bottle).

It feels good to be home. The drive home from work was pretty ridiculous. There was a dusting of snow at my office (which is 9.5 miles from home). As I drove in the direction of home, the conditions quickly degraded. Heavy snow, strong winds, icy roads. I was driving 20-25mph up a huge hill and suddenly started fishtailing. I couldn't get any traction on the roads. I didn't couldn't make the turn onto the road that leads to my street, so I kept going to the next road and drove around the block. I drive a rear-wheel drive car and it doesn't drive well in the snowy winters. I shoveled the driveway quickly but not until after I took my shoes off, so I threw on my Croc sandals. Yeah, Croc sandals + snow + 19 degrees = frozen toes. My neighbor was going to use his snow blower, but couldn't get it started (flooded engine, he thought). Even so, I like our neighbors. This is an awesome street. Great people. 

Pictures just don't do justice. Snow-packed road on the drive home.

That's all for today. Goodbye, Friday. Hello, weekend! Do you have any fun plans? Workouts, running errands/shopping, Broncos game (watching it at the neighbor's house) and cooking this weekend for me. Good night! 

Whole30 - Day 6

20% complete! I'm not noticing a big difference in the way I look, but that may be because I look at myself daily. We'll see what happens. I'm feeling great though.

With that said, I woke up feeling a bit drained. I had a somewhat restless night's sleep. I had some crazy dreams and just don't feel like I hit that deep sleep at all. After yesterday's workout, my body said take a break today. I did my sit-ups and push-ups this morning. I made a quick breakfast before heading to work. Since I took a rest day from working out and it was a beautiful day, I decided to take a walk during my lunch hour. After work, I headed to the doctor to get my allergy shot. I have to go twice per week for the next 9 or 10 weeks. Thereafter, I'll be in the maintenance phase, which will most likely be once per week for 3-6 months. Immunotherapy is a huge commitment! Hoping it'll be worth it in the end so I can rid myself of these severe year-round allergies.

View on my walk today

Breakfast: Leftover scrambled eggs w/ veggies/meat from yesterday. I added one fried egg on top and had a bowl of blackberries.
Lunch: Leftover yam & carrot cakes from last night, along with prosciutto, sausage and roasted veggies.
Dinner: Apple Dijon Burgers on lettuce with sauteed onions, fried egg and avocado. Strawberries on the side.

Left: Breakfast pictures (close-up and with blackberries). Middle: Strawberries after dinner. Right: Dinner from two angles. Delicious food day. Lunch is pictured in yesterday's post.

We're watching the National Championship game tonight (as I do my 100 squats). Roll Tide! I did grow up in Notre Dame Country, but for some reason am not a fan anymore. I'm a Purdue grad, so I love the Boilermakers. I'm also a Buckeye-convert (my husband is a huge fan). I follow the Colts and Steelers. Not big of hockey, baseball or professional basketball. I'll watch most college basketball games, especially when it comes to March Madness.

Who is your favorite team in college and/or professional sports?