Okay — deep breath. Before I dive right into my eats for the day, I have a few PSAs for y’all:

• If you wanna hear me shoot the breeze about food prep with Stacy and Sarah, download the latest episode of The Paleo View podcast. Yes, I know my voice is squeaky.
• I’ve been nominated for a couple of categories in Paleo Magazine’s Best of 2012 Awards. Yay! But I’m up against a bunch of good friends. Boo! All the nominees are super-awesome, so no hard feelings if you don’t choo-choo-choose me. Just vote, people!

Now, where was I?

On my first night back at work, I kept my eats simple and portable: a can of Vital Choice Wild Red sockeye salmon…

…a LunchBots Dips filled with sauerkraut…

…and a couple of squares of Slitti 90% dark chocolate.

I was detained at the hospital for a mandatory training session and came home just in the nick of time to take Lil-O to his gymnastics class. By the time I got home, I was thisclose to abandoning my meal prep plan, but I soldiered on. The show must go on, right?

I seasoned some cubed chuck roast…

…softened sliced onions and garlic with some tomato paste and ghee…

…and simmered Mexican Braised Beef on the stove. Sadly, my oven is busted (AGAIN!), and that makes me want to smash things. (Not joking.)

I gave my mother-in-law instructions to turn off the burner when the beef was tender (in about 3 hours) and trudged off to bed.

When I finally stumbled back out into the kitchen, it was already dark o’clock. I reheated the braised beef…

…mixed in a big dollop of butter into a bowl of organic squash purée…

…and stir-fried a bag of baby kale seasoned with fish sauce and coconut aminos.

Dinner: Done!

I wasn’t exactly thrilled to once again transmogrify into a drug-dealing zombie, but I know the sooner my workweek’s over, the sooner it’ll be Turkey Day. Based on my work schedule, this’ll be the last year I have Thanksgiving off for the next seven years(!). It’s weird to think that Big-O’s going to be a gawky teenager the next time I celebrate Thanksgiving with him, so I’m really gonna try to savor my time off with the family. It’s almost been a year since Anna passed away, and I’ve made a conscious effort in 2012 to prioritize my family and friends above all else. Life’s just too short, yo.

I’m back on the zombie shift at the hospital. Hooray — I can pay for more bacon and cookbooks! I guess that balances out the sky-high cortisol levels caused by sleep disruption. Sorta.

At work, I ate leftover Damn Fine Chicken and veggies, and guarded the narcotics ‘til the sun came up.

I got home just in time to kiss Big-O good-bye for school and watch Lil-O prance around the family room impersonating Weird Al. I’d managed just two hours of shut-eye before starting my shift, so I needed to get horizontal pronto.

Alas, my sleep was fitful and abbreviated — which is fairly typical after my first shift of the week. Even after twelve years of working graveyards, it takes a day or two before I get back into the groove of sleeping during the day. With less-than-adequate sleep, I wasn’t about to prepare a fancy feast. Instead, I opted for a simple, no-fuss dinner: garbage soup and burgers!

I posted a different version of garbage soup yesterday, and I meant it when I said that you truly can make it with just about anything in the fridge.  After taking a peek in the crisper, I found a head of Napa cabbage…

…and some carrots, which I cooked with shallots in the pressure cooker.

I added a handful of crunchy dried shiitake mushrooms (they soften under high pressure)…

…chopped cabbage…

…and leftover bone broth to the pot.

I locked the lid in place and cranked up the heat ‘til the contents reached high pressure. Then, after lowering the heat to a simmer, I cooked the soup at high pressure for seven minutes. And then the soup was done. Really. That’s all it takes.

I rarely plan ahead, so a pressure cooker is the perfect appliance for a busy, disorganized mom like me — especially when I’m craving rib-sticking comfort food and I’ve only got an hour to get food on the table. I’ll definitely be visiting my buddy Laura’s site, Hip Pressure Cooking, to get more tips. (Her Morrocan Lamb Tagine recipe is on my to-cook list.)

As I waited for the cooker to naturally release its pressure, I seasoned a pound of ground beef with Magic Mushroom Powder and formed them into patties.

I fried them up…

…and plated them with leftover Oven-Roasted Tomatoes.

Before I ladled soup into our bowls, I cut a fistful of dulse into each one.

I got this idea from my buddy Diana, who’s been encouraging me to get more nutrient-dense sea vegetables into our bellies. I’m going to spike all my soups and stews with dulse ‘cause it also adds a bolus of umami (due to its high glutamate content!), too.

Speaking of nutrient-dense traditional foods…who’s heading to Wise Traditions 2012 in Santa Clara next week? I’ll be there with my pals Diane, Bill, Hayley, and Liz. Come say hello if you spot us!

With our trip to the snow-capped Rockies already receding into memory, I find myself reminiscing about it with the same fondness I feel for the one and only season of Freaks and Geeks. (I’d be such a proud mama if the Double-Os grew up to be Asian Sam Weirs.) Oh, well. Back to reality.

Since returning from Colorado, I’ve been making up for lost time in the kitchen. I hadn’t veered off-course too badly on this trip, but I’d experienced a bit of GI upset that I wanted to remedy with some clean eats. No, I’m not embarking on a full-blown Whole30 like Mel or a coffee-free protocol like Holly, but I did dial in my chow for a few days. I simmered steaming pots of meaty bone broth and chocolate chili, roasted a tray of sweet potatoes, and filled up my defrost bowl with meaty surprises from the freezer.

The payoff? I was Well Fed (punny!) on my first night back at the hospital after diving into a LunchBots Thermal filled with chocolate chili-topped microwaved spaghetti squash.

In the morning,  I put on my chauffeur cap and shuttled Big-O to school and Lil-O to gymnastics before coming home to pass out ‘til dinnertime.

Like a vampire, I skulked out of the bedroom after the sun dipped below the horizon, and headed to the kitchen to suck blood make dinner. When I’m groggy, I have to keep my dinner plans simple. I roasted a tray of green beans…

…coated with coconut oil, Red Boat Fish Sauce, and freshly ground pepper…

…and threw together some Asian Cauliflower Fried Rice using chopped-up dregs from my fridge. 

For the “rice,” I sliced the florets off a head of cauliflower…

…pulsed them in batches in the trusty Cuisinart…

…and set the bowl of “rice” aside.

As I waited for the coconut oil to melt in my cast iron skillet, I diced half an onion….

…and sliced a handful of mushrooms.

I whisked four eggs with pepper and fish sauce…

…and ladled it into my cast iron griddle to make thin omelets.

Then, I dumped the onions…

…ginger…

…and garlic into the skillet to soften.

I added the mushrooms…

…and dumped in the cauliflower once the ‘shrooms were cooked through.

I seasoned the rice liberally with coconut aminos and (more!) fish sauce before covering the skillet with a lid to allow the veggies to steam.

Once the cauliflower was cooked al dente, I added some thawed leftover carnitas (emergency protein from the freezer!)…

.

…minced cilantro and scallions…

…and the egg omelets, cut into ribbons.

When the rice was ready, I plated the roasted green beans…

…and liberally dressed ‘em with balsamic vinegar.

Not too shabby for a garbage meal.*

After putting the kids to bed, I rifled through mail and found a shiny gift addressed to moi from Sarah at Fashletics:

I’m gonna wear this necklace proudly all the time. Like a boss. That way, if I get lost at the mall, someone will be able to Google “Nom Nom Paleo” and figure out how to contact my mommy.

*Garbage Meal: gar·bage meal \ˈgär-bij·ˈmēl\ a portion of food made from ingredients that would otherwise be discarded

Just in case I encountered another crazy-busy night shift, I packed a no-frills lunch that I could eat without reheating: smoked wild salmon, leftover greens, tomatoes, and broiled summer squash. 

I hate being right. Work was non-stop.

After arriving home, I conked out for a solid 7 hours and 7 minutes, registering a whopping 99% sleep efficiency. How do I know? My FitBit told me so. Don’t worry: I’m not using this handy clip-on activity tracker to obsessively monitor my caloric intake/output. Instead, I wear it to remind myself to get my butt out of my chair and run around the hospital — and to go to bed at a reasonable hour. I’m determined to minimize the hazards of sitting at work and working nightshifts.

When I popped up in the evening, I took out leftover Slow Cooker Korean Short Ribs from the freezer, which was conveniently coated in a layer of protective ice. (Five points if you got that reference.)

I plopped the slushy stew in a pot…

…and as the beef thawed on the stove…

…I preheated the toaster oven…

…and prepped a kabocha squash for roasting.

(You can find the step-by-step recipe for Roasted Kabocha Squash here.)

As an additional side, I threw together a pot of Pressure Cooker Kale and Carrots.

When the squash was finished…

…I ran cold water over my pressure cooker to quickly release the pressure….

…and drizzled on some aged balsamic.

I ladled the stew into a serving bowl, topped it with chopped cilantro…

and brought all three platters to the dining table.

One more thing before I sign off: Colorado food lovers, I need your help! 

I’m excited to be joining Melissa and Holly in Estes Park, Colorado this weekend for our Paleo seminar…

…but where should we chow down?

I’ve had zero time to research dining options in the area, so I need you to fill me in on the best eats in Boulder. I know Internet strangers never lead anyone astray, so please leave your recommendations in the comments! Thanks in advance!

Graveyard shifts at the hospital are always unpredictable. Normally, the variety keeps things interesting, but every single night this week, I’ve been stomping out fires for ten hours straight. This old pill pusher’s tired. Calgon, take me away!

I knew I was in for another hectic shift, so I purposely packed food that I could eat straight from the fridge. But it wasn’t until daybreak that I finally had a moment to scarf down leftovers from my dad’s birthday dinner. 

I was ragged when I came home, and wanted nothing more than to conk out. But duty called; the meat in my defrost bowl demanded attention. Damned needy protein. 

I quickly seasoned a Porterhouse steak, lamb leg roast, and brisket with Magic Mushroom Powder before shrink-wrapping them in vacuum-sealed packages.

Don’t have Magic Mushroom Powder? No worries — just use your favorite all-purpose seasoning salts or spice blends. As long as you’ve got a reliable flavor booster in your kitchen arsenal, you’ll always end up with something you want to eat. It’s no fun eating blah food, right?

Once the water in my SousVide Supreme reached 130°F, I dunked in the meat.

Each packet will finish cooking at different times, so for easy removal, I made sure I stacked them so that the quickest-cooking are on top. As Lil-O likes to say: “I used my brain, because I have one. The zombies haven’t eaten it yet.”

Although snoozing’s preferable to cooking, the 10 minutes I spent on meat prep were well worth it. I now have plenty of emergency protein ready to sear off at a moment’s notice.

Less than seven hours later, I crawled out of bed to prepare dinner. I was itching to roast vegetables in my new countertop toaster oven…

…but it was too shiny and pretty to soil just yet. 

Instead, I cooked our whole meal in my trusty cast-iron skillet and griddle. Clean-up would be a snap; at the end of the meal, I just had to scrub ‘em with hot water. (Alternatively, I could just leave the dirty pans on the stove. You know, to add to the seasoning. Yeeeeah…that’s the ticket.)

I dusted a pound of pristine black gill rock fish fillets from Siren SeaSA with Magic Mushroom Powder (deja vu all over again!)…

…and pan-fried them in butter.

My kids aren’t big fans of fish, so I pulled the sous vide porterhouse steak out of the water oven and seared it on the griddle.

(The Double-Os ate half the steak for dinner. The rest was packed in their lunchboxes for school.)

Once the proteins were finished cooking, I stir-fried onions, broccoli, and shiitake mushrooms in butter.

The addition of bone broth and Red Boat Fish Sauce elevated this simple stir-fry into something that even our family’s pickiest eater (hello, Lil-O) devoured.

Before digging into dinner, I sliced a few cherry tomatoes…

…and piled them on my plate.

Part of me wishes my kids liked fish, but the other part of me is secretly happy there was more for me and my hubby.

Before I recap my chow for the day, I want to wish my dad a happy, happy birthday. I hope my two sons grow up to be just as righteous as my dad. Rock on, pops!

Plus, he has such a snappy sense of style — something that I sadly failed to inherit.

Back at the hospital, chaos reigned. I was almost too busy to eat my leftovers: meat from my beefy bone broth with Leon’s Miracle Sauce, cherry tomatoes, roasted eggplant, and broccoli.

As soon as I got home, I tumbled into bed. As much as I wish I could’ve attended Big-O’s blue belt ceremony in the morning, my eyes simply wouldn’t stay open.

While I snoozed the day away, the boys pinballed around Palo Alto with their dad, running errands and pretending the Arizona Cactus Garden on the Stanford campus was a hostile planet populated by aliens with sinus problems.

When I finally emerged from my bedroom in the early evening, we drove to Shalizaar — one of my parents’ favorite Persian joints — to celebrate my dad’s birthday.

As you can see from the photo above, Lil-O is a master procrastinator just like his mommy — he didn’t get around to making a birthday card for his grandpa until he was seated RIGHT NEXT TO THE BIRTHDAY BOY at the restaurant. Slick. 

The six of us started with a big salad with tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, feta, and dried dates (hold the croutons!)…

…and puréed grilled eggplant and garlic (kashk-e-bademjan).

After our appetites had been properly whetted, the meat parade began. Shalizaar is popular ‘round these parts among my meat-loving peoples (a.k.a. Asians) — so much so that Lil-O looked around at the other patrons and asked if we were at a Chinese restaurant.

We dug into a big braised lamb shank…

…and divvied up a couple of platters of combo meat platters.

Our plates were piled with grilled lamb chops and Cornish game hens…

…marinated prawns…

…and koobideh (seasoned ground beef kabobs).

We enjoyed everything with generous dollops of mast-o-khiar — yogurt mixed with dried mint and pepper, and topped with diced cucumber.

It would’ve been a perfect Saturday night…if I hadn’t had to pack up and drive off into the night for another graveyard shift. But hey — the bacon doesn’t pay for itself.

As a present to myself, I didn’t post my birthday eats. (Thanks for all your kind birthday wishes, by the way!)

As I get older and more decrepit, birthdays just aren’t as exciting anymore — especially when I have to trudge off to work at night. Still, my family made me feel special, with hand-drawn cards and hugs when I got home. My hubby got me exactly what I wanted — a new countertop Breville Smart Oven. (I’d like to think he’s psychic or we’re cosmically connected, but he probably just saw that I kept checking it out on Amazon.) And for dinner, I was treated to Japanese fare at Jin Sho. No, it wasn’t entirely Paleo, but our gastronomic off-roading was totally worth it.

After tucking the Double-Os in for the night, I drove to the hospital for another stint as the pill lady.

I paused midshift to reheat some leftover cheater beef stew (a cow version of this recipe) and braised cabbage. And then it was back to work.

After coming home and passing out for a few hours, I rolled out of bed to make dinner. My defrost bowl yielded a package of beef back ribs, so I quickly sprinkled on some Magic Mushroom Powder…

…and chucked it into my pressure cooker. (Yes, pressure cooking is my secret weapon for accelerating dinner prep these days.)

While the ribs were on the stove (on high pressure for 30 minutes), I washed some beet greens…

…sautéed it with some red onion.

When the ribs were cooked, I seasoned ‘em with a little more umami goodness…

…and briefly stuck them under my broiler to add some color and char.

Next, I halved some heirloom tomatoes and pan-fried them in butter.

And in case you’re wondering, they were seasoned with — you guessed it — more Magic Mushroom Powder. Why use plain old salt when you have fairy dust in your possession?

Here’s my beefy dinner!

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to work I go…

Once more, with feeling: I had leftovers yet again during my hospital night shift. I ain’t complaining —  I’m just happy I’ve still got braised shanks and Asian cauliflower fried rice from earlier in the week to eat at work.

Once I got home, I checked on my boys, and save for a few sniffles, the Double-Os seemed to be feeling much better.

Phew. 

Henry, on the other hand, is still sick as a dog. Nonetheless, he’d gamely dragged himself out of bed to pack Big-O’s school lunch of pastrami-wrapped sautéed mushroom roll-ups…

…held together with toothpicks.

Doesn’t everything taste better when skewered with a toothpick?

Big-O’s lunch was rounded out with a handful of baby carrots, strawberries, applesauce, and almonds.

It was Picture Day at school, so before leaving the house, we made sure Big-O was ready for his close-up. As we styled his hair into a miniature fauxhawk, my little guy asked me if I was sad that the only time adults have Picture Day is when we go to jail. I guess I’m reading too much TMZ around the kiddos.

After escorting my well-coiffed second-grader to his classroom, I staggered home and collapsed in bed — but not before announcing to no one in particular that I wouldn’t be cooking dinner. I’m on strike.

When I regained consciousness, I called in our usual order to Asian Box: five-spice pork over undressed Asian salad and topped with herbs, lime squeeze, pickled veggies, and a caramel egg.

I drizzled the housemade sriracha on my salad and savored the grub with my family.

It’s nice to know there’s a dependable take-out joint in the neighborhood, and that I can decide on a whim to ditch my kitchen duties.

We herded the children into bed, and I packed my stuff for work for the last time this week. As my feverish husband shuffled off to bed, my day was just beginning…

My week of hospital night shifts is coming to an end, and the anticipation is driving me batty. Fortunately for me — but not so much for the patients, I suppose — the medication orders have been coming in at a steady clip, so my nights are speeding by.

While doling out drugs in the middle of the night, I took a breather to down some leftover sous vide sirloin roast, cauliflower purée, heirloom tomato salad, and roasted broccoli.

At daybreak, I made like a banana and split. Wakka-wakka-wakka! Thank YOU, thank YOU, and thank YYYYOU!! I’ll be here all week, folks.

When I walked through the door, all three of my guys were mopey and complaining of congestion and sore throats. “It feels like there’s a knife in here,” Lil-O croaked, pointing to his neck.

Uh, oh.

The Double-Os were issued a staycation from school, and I immediately rummaged through our freezer for chicken skeletons to make a speedy pressure cooker bone broth.

I’d planned to go to the Women’s Class at CrossFit Palo Alto this morning (seriously: I was even wearing my workout clothes under my hospital scrubs like I was some sort of secret superhero), but this put a wrinkle in my plans. Being Dr. Mom meant getting less sleep, so I was doubly glad that I’d slow-cooked  Slow Cooker Korean Short Ribs overnight. 

While I waited for the short ribs to cool and the cooked bone broth to de-pressurize, the little guys and I cuddled under blankets on the couch — all of us dressed in pajamas.

By the time my in-laws arrived to watch the kids, the ribs were cool enough to store in the fridge and the chicken broth was ready to be strained. I ladled two bowls for the Double-Os…

…and filled a thermos for Henry to nurse at work.

It was definitely waaay past my bedtime by the time I finally hit the sheets, and I only managed a few winks. Again, I was thankful that dinner preparation would be quick and easy. All I had to do was reheat the short ribs in a pot on the stove…

…garnish the stew with minced Italian parsley…

…sauté baby kale in butter with Red Boat Fish Sauce and bone broth…

…and fry some pressure cooker crispy potatoes.

No, your eyes don’t deceive you. I cooked a bag of spuds that came in my CSA box and served them to my family. I. MADE. POTATOES.

“But…but…but…potatoes aren’t Paleo!”

Well, it depends on what you’re talking about when you say “Paleo.” There is, after all, no such thing as one definitive Paleo diet. Potatoes may not have been available to cavemen, but I really don’t care. (Besides, it’s not like our prehistoric ancestors snacked on dark chocolate bars, either.)

My personal template for Paleo eating focuses on nutrient-packed whole foods that don’t hurt me, and for me, potatoes fall into that category. After checking out Bill and Hayley’s post on the Paleosity of potatoes and listening to the safe starch debate and Mat Lalonde’s talk about nutrient density at the 2012 Ancestral Health Symposium (at which Mat pointed out that peeled potatoes are actually more nutrient dense than sweet potatoes, save for the beta-carotene in the latter), I’ve decided that an occasional portion of peeled potatoes are a-OK on my plate.

It’s not like I’ll be gorging on spuds, and I’m not giving you license to inhale endless bags of potato chips or French fries. But I do have a soft spot for starchy spuds. Even though my late (curmudgeonly) grandpa and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye, he and I always bonded over our shared love for meat and potatoes.

(Don’t hate. If you’re on a Whole30® program (or something similar), trying to shed body fat on a super-low-carb kind of deal, or if you just don’t like potatoes, feel free to do your own thing. Do what works for you. If potatoes are verboten, make some cauliflower mashed fauxtatoes or a big plate of bacon or something.)

Dinner!

And then it was time to get ready for another graveyard shift in the ICU. After all, drugs don’t deal themselves.

Halfway through my workweek, I’m steadily chugging along like the Little Engine That Could. My last night shift’ll be done before I know it, right?

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…

My mid-week, mid-shift meal at the hospital consisted of cold leftovers: sous vide sirloin roast, heirloom tomato salad, and roasted broccoli. 

Raise your hand if you don’t think this meal looks sufficiently filling.

Yeah — you and me both.

My stomach was grumbling something fierce when I got home in the morning, so I strong-armed my boys into motoring over to Bumble with me for breakfast.

Bumble’s a cozy farm-to-table restaurant in neighboring Los Altos, and it happens to be incredibly kid-friendly — parents can chow on organic fare with their kids or dump ‘em off in the supervised playroom for a set fee. We opted to eat with our kids because, well, no one was staffing the playroom at 8 am. 

Plus, we were armed with iPads in case the boys got antsy.

I’ll admit it: I lean heavily on these techno-babysitters when dining out with my kids. Hats off to breeders who don’t own mobile devices; unlike us, they must be great parents.

The four of us split three orders of the Farmer’s Breakfast platter. Each dish came with two eggs, two strips of bacon, and a breakfast sausage patty. In lieu of the toast and potatoes, we got big bowls of strawberries.

It was a satisfying meal, but to be honest, after enjoying a week of bona fide farmer’s breakfasts at Diana’s farm last month, nothing else stacks up.

At 9, the place started filling up with bright-eyed and bushy-tailed families, so we hit the road. Unlike everyone else, my day was winding down, and I was desperate for some shuteye. 

Seven hours later, I was rested and ready to tackle an ambitious kitchen goal: to prepare two nights’ dinners in less than an hour. I figured a little extra effort tonight would reap rewards tomorrow. I know how much I hate cooking by the end of my work week, so I wanted to get it over with.

Besides, tomorrow night’s protein — Slow Cooker Korean Short Ribs — can be prepped in a flash. 

I started by seasoning and broiling a big pile of short ribs that I grabbed from my defrost bowl in the fridge.

While the meaty bones were browning in the oven, I roughly chopped up the ingredients to make the braising liquid.

I didn’t have enough scallions on hand, so I substituted a couple of small red onions. 

Improvisation is key in the kitchen. Don’t let one missing ingredient be the excuse for landing face-first in a box of greasy Chinese take out.

The next ingredient? Sweet pears. The ones I received in the mail last week were finally ripe, so I peeled one…

…and scooped out the seeds with a melon baller.

Quick tip: A pear’s ripe when the flesh at the stem is tender. Per my pal Brittany, a.k.a. The Pear Lady, don’t wait until the rest of the pear is soft to the touch. If you do, the fruit’ll be overripe and mushy. (I always hated the mealy, squishy texture of pears, but it turns out I was just waiting too long for them to ripen. I guess I’m not a pear-hater after all!)

I added the rest of the ingredients to my blender…

…and liquefied everything.

I tucked the short ribs in a single layer in the slow cooker…

…and poured on the chunky sauce…

…and homemade bone broth.

I set the slow cooker on low for 11 hours, and tomorrow’s dinner prep was done.

But what about tonight’s supper? It was getting late, so I needed something that would take no more than 15 minutes to make.

After rummaging through my fridge, I pulled out some black cod fillets from Siren SeaSA and seasoned them with salt and pepper…

…before sautéing them in brown butter.

As the fish sputtered in the skillet, I assembled a tangy anchovy and caper sauce. The recipe was adapted from one I found in the newest cookbook in my collection, Leon: Naturally Fast Food.

I changed up some of the ingredients, but stuck with the main components: anchovies…

…capers…

…Italian parsley…

…lemon juice…

..and olive oil.

The authors call this a “Miracle Sauce” and I have to concur.

The fish and sauce were finished at the same time.

I chopped up a few plump, juicy tomatoes…

….and drizzled the sauce on everything.

I know I can, I know I can, I know I can…