This weekend we’ll be in Atlanta for our CrossFit Level 1 certification. Our meals/snacks will have to eaten during breaks. The last thing I want to do during a fitness certification is rely on fast-food to nourish and hydrate our bodies. We pack all our food in a cooler with ice and there’s need for a fridge if you’re doing a weekend trip. So with a little effort and planning, we can have 80% of our food packed and ready to eat whenever we need it. The other 20% or so is coming from Kevin Gillespie, you know, Mr. Bacon from Top Chef! We’ve got a reservation Saturday night at his restaurant Woodfire Grille, and I am ridiculously excited.

Hard Boiled Eggs

• Boil a dozen eggs, peel them and place in a zip-top bag. Make sure to put some salt and pepper in a snack size bag and add it to the egg bag.

Smoked Salmon

• Wild smoked salmon can be found at Publix! Sure, it’s not the best smoked salmon in the world, but it’s affordable and an amazing source for fat, protein, and fatty acids. I doctored it up with lemon juice, vidalia onions and capers. If you don’t like/can’t find smoked salmon, I’d highly recommend wild, boneless, skineless sardines or kippers with a pop-top lid. Make sure to pack a few plastic forks.

Nuts

• We’ve been eating a ton of almonds, so we’re almond-d out. We’re only bringing pistachios with us. Put the bag of pistachios in an a larger plastic bag and use that as the trash bag the shells.

Fruit

• I cut up mangoes, strawberries and peaches. Pack some forks for this and eat it straight out of the bag.

Dark Chocolate

• 72% mint and raspberry dark chocolate squares.

Protein Shakes

• Unsweetened coconut milk (from the carton) shaken in a MixerMate bottle with our favorite protein powder–Egg White Protein Powder, a no nonsense powder that’s sweetened with Stevia.

Happy Cinco de Mayo-nnaise day! Instead of posting margaritas and nacho recipes (although, we are working on the latter), we decided to discuss mayonnaise; how it’s made and what you can do with it. It is NOT hard and does NOT take long. Please don’t be afraid.

Store bought mayonnaise is quite tasty, but unfortunately, we haven’t EVER found a brand that didn’t contain canola or soybean oil. So we like to make our own. We either use bacon fat (click here for the recipe) or the only other fat that’s healthy and affordable enough to use at 1/2 cup intervals: olive oil. But first cold press, extra virgin is bitterrrrrr. We found and used the one on the right in the picture, it’s an unrefined, but mild olive oil. See the color differences? I have to say, if you made me choose, bacon fat mayo is the best in taste.

Mayonnaise is an emulsion of tiny drops of some type of liquid fat into egg yolk, along with a  bit of acid and some salt. Yes, the yolk is technically raw. It does get slightly cooked by the acid you add, but it is important that you source eggs that don’t have any cracks, are from pasture grazing chickens and are from a source you trust, preferably a local farm. The basic recipe below yields about 1 cup of mayonnaise and keeps in the fridge for about a week.

Ingredients

• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 c – 3/4 c olive oil or liquid, cooled bacon fat
• 1 t Dijon mustard
• 1 t lemon juice or vinegar
• 1/2 t salt

Method

In the smallest bowl of your food processor, burr the egg yolk and mustard. Slowly drip in the oil. Please look at the stream of oil in the picture for my definition of slow. It is very important to drip-drop the oil into the egg yolk at the beginning, making sure the yolk and the oil have thoroughly combined before adding more oil. Once you start to see the yolk thickening, you can add the oil at a slightly faster rate.

Once all the oil is gone, add the lemon juice and a good pinch of salt. Now the mayo is done! It should be thick, slightly yellow and incredibly yummy.

What else can you do with mayo?

Tartar Sauce

1 C mayo + 1/4 c chopped dill pickles + 1/4 c chopped capers + 1 T white wine vinegar

Spicy Mayo (think Spicy Tuna Roll)

1 C mayo + 2 T chili garlic sauce (spice to taste)

Mix-In Ideas

• curry powder (yellow, red or green)
• rosemary + garlic
• blue cheese
• chipotle peppers
• basil
• pesto
• caramelized onions

What do you eat with mayo?

Bread-less Sandwich Roll-Up

Using a piece of Bibb lettuce, smear mayo, add some lunch meat, crunchy veggies and roll up

Chicken Salad

shredded chicken + almonds + herb mayonnaise

Double BLT

bibb lettuce +  bacon mayo + bacon + tomato and roll it up

Sushi Salad

spicy mayo + sushi grade tuna or baby shrimp + avocado + green onions + cilantro

You can find lots of Paleo recipes for making your own mayo, but they mainly use coconut oil or olive oil. That’s some expensive stuff. So it got me thinking– how about utilizing a nourishing fat source that most people throw away? Cheap, resourceful and easy–who doesn’t like that?

Ingredients

• 1/2 c liquid (but NOT hot) bacon fat*
• 1 egg yolk (if you use local, pasture raised chicken eggs, you don’t have to worry about bacteria)
• 1 t Dijon mustard
• 1/2 t vinegar

Method

Put the egg yolk, mustard and vinegar in the smallest bowl of your food processor. Start the blade running and slowly add the bacon fat. Slowly means–take spoonful of fat and add a single drop into the bowl of the food processor. Once that has combined, add another drop. You should start to see an emulsion forming. At this point, you can add the fat as a slow drizzle. Continue until all the fat is gone. The mayo is finished when it’s creamy and a little thick. All in all, it’ll take about 6 minutes.

*Heat the oven to 350. Place 8 slices of bacon on a baking sheet and cook until browned about 25 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan and reserve it for another recipe. What’s left should be about 1/2c of rendered bacon fat. Make sure the fat has cooled down a bit before making the mayo.

Everyone buys tomatoes with the hopes that their texture is luscious and their flesh is fruity. Well, I recently bought some really, really crappy tomatoes (what was I expecting in January?). I sliced them open and they were pink and grainy looking. They were worthless. Or maybe not…