As many of you saw from our previous post, Bill and I are spending this month really buckling down on our diet, stress levels, sleep, and recovery from workouts. Things have been going great so far, and we are definitely starting to feel a whole lot better. The biggest change for us has been the sleep. We have successfully gotten 9 or more hours of sleep each night in a completely pitch black room. This meant thumb tacking blankets over the windows, unplugging the alarm clock, and covering any other lights in the room with towels. This has made a huge difference for us. Bill always sleeps like a baby, no matter what daily life issue is currently on his mind. Me on the other hand, I have a lot of trouble falling asleep, and sleeping well, especially if I’m stressed out.
We have made a huge effort to really get the sleep under control. I said in the previous post that we were not particularly happy with the reoccuring splurges we were having with dark chocolate and some raw cheeses. However, the splurges were not grain filled, they all stuck to the guidelines of the paleo/primal way of eating, just a bit too much in excess. The thing that we really wanted to get under control was the sleep. Sleep really affects my hunger throughout the day. I can definitely tell when my body is looking to food to make up for what I didn’t get from sleep, and that is not a good feeling. Lack of sleep also affects my stress levels through out the day. I will have less energy for workouts, I will be moody and depressed, and my time spent on work will be less efficient. I do feel like my body is adjusting to getting the correct amount of quality sleep, but I’m okay with the adjustment period. This definitely is a good thing.
So, we have been cooking up some tasty meals along with our 30 + day challenge (the + for the fact that we don’t intend for anything to change after 30 days are over). One of which was another recipe using our new favorite food item, Red Palm Oil (YUM). We needed an easy night, being that we have been so busy, so we decided to keep things simple by grilling up some shrimp and serving them along side some pretty multicolored vegetables. Our idea of a stress free night of cooking is throwing meat or fish on the grill, along with a few chopped veggies in the grill basket. That is always a sure fire way to have a delicious meal in a quick amount of time!
This recipe turned out great. We decided to play up the warm flavors of the red palm oil by seasoning the shrimp with curry powder, coriander, garlic powder, and ground ginger. The flavors were amazing! Like many of the rubs/marinades/seasonings that we use, this one would be great on salmon, white fish, chicken, and I wouldn’t hesitate to try it out on beef either! This recipe was also great grilled, but nothing says you couldn’t cook the shrimp in a skillet or even bake it. Any of those cooking options would work just perfectly. I usually leave the grilling to Bill. Every once in a while I will take a stab at grilling, however the other day I had a slight mishap, and almost lost my hair in the process. Not good. Let’s just say that giving me the job to start the grill wasn’t the best idea. It resulted in a huge fire ball and singed hair. I’d like to thank my sponsor, CrossFit, for providing me with the reflexes to jump out the way of the flame in time to only singe a few of my hairs, and maybe a bit of my eyebrows. That could have been bad. I think it also gave Bill a few gray hairs (A few?! damn near scared me half to death!). So much for lowering stress levels…
Ingredients:
- 1 lb raw, peeled, tail on shrimp
- 1/8 cup red palm oil
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Process:
- Rinse shrimp under cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Place shrimp in a large Ziploc bag.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine red palm oil, curry powder, coriander, garlic powder, ground ginger, salt, and pepper.
- Pour spice mixture over shrimp, seal bag, and toss to evenly coat.
- Place shrimp in the fridge and allow to marinate for at least an hour.
- Preheat grill to high heat.
- Grill shrimp on a fish plate, or in a grill basket (grill wok), stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are opaque (about 6 minutes).
- Serve along side your choice of vegetable.
We enjoyed this recipe with our simple grilled veggies, but to complete the dish we recommend serving this over top spaghetti squash or cauliflower rice.
As always, enjoy!
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