Older Bolder Life

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Older Bolder Mark

The Older Bolder Life Avocado Monday: Bacon, Green Onion, and Avocado Dip

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Once again unintentionally dating myself a bit, I have to admit I grew up during what was probably the peak of the “French Onion Dip” era. You know, the dip recipe made using a carton of sour cream and the little packet of French onion soup mix. And while the ensuing mixture tasted like a little like a chemistry experiment gone awry, this dip showed up on the chip and dip table of many a gathering during my youth, and there was usually a crowd fighting over the best dipping chips and elbowing for prime position in front of the bowl. Oh my (deep sigh).

Just this past week we took a step back in time (to those French onion dip days) when Chef Libby in Austin shared this recipe with me, something she’d been working on for a catering event several weeks ago.

She is a huge fan of avocados, and had tweaked this recipe to serve with a big crudités platter for an event she’d done just after PaleoFx for one of the vendors. Sautéing the thinly sliced green onions in the bacon fat is a stroke of genius, and produces a flavor (in a real food way) very similar to the old-school dip recipe above.

Bacon is always good, no matter what, and the tartness of the yogurt (and the lime), combined with a bit of heat from a finely diced pepper (we favor serranos here) pack an amazing punch that’s surprisingly tasty. We dipped sliced raw vegetables in this recipe, and slathered it over grilled pastured-beef burger patties.

Wow, this one is good.

2-3 slices bacon, cooked crisp, drained, and crumbled
3 large green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 large or 2 small avocados, chopped
1-2 tsp fresh lime juice
3/4 to 1 tsp good salt

Optional
1 additional green onion, white and pale green parts thinly sliced
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, finely diced
2-3 tbsp chopped cilantro

Sauté the bacon until crisp, drain, then crumble into a medium bowl.

Using the reserved bacon fat, sauté the green onions until soft and just beginning to caramelize; add to the bowl with the bacon. Stir in the yogurt, salt, lime juice, and avocados, mashing the avocados up as you go, though we like to leave some chunks of avocado to add some texture. Add the diced pepper and cilantro if using.

Top with an additional scallion if desired, and go to it.

Enjoy.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 8 June 2019

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Somewhat of an eclectic collection again today; it’s been that sort of week…

Humans and Their Interesting Quirks

Metabolic limits for (extreme) endurance events.
The study behind the above article.
World’s oldest Homo sapiens fossils found in Morocco.
Weakness (upper and lower extremity) associated with depression in middle aged women.

Aging Well (and Living Forever)

So maybe we only need 7,500 steps per day as we age? Anybody routinely shooting for more than 10,000?
High LDL linked to early-onset Alzheimer’s.
So how old are your organs?
Does health in middle age predict late life health?
Live forever with temporal expansion? (This one made me giggle a little…).

Some of the Week’s Best Ideas

How to read 80ish books a year (and remember them).
Interesting read on “why we’ll look back at our smart phones like cigarettes”.
When ignorance is bliss.
What can we really learn about finger length data? Scientist delve in.

Food, Glorious Food

CRISPR gene editing for fruits and vegetables? Count me among the skeptics.

I’m just here for the spicy peanut sauce.
Turmeric Cabbage Coconut Stir Fry
Quick Cucumber Mint Salad

The Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: I’m Just Here for the Spicy Peanut Sauce

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Summer has arrived with a vengeance these past few days here in North Texas, prompting my lovely wife to ask me to put her favorite vegetable-packed gado gado bowl with a spicy peanut sauce on the short list this week.

We’ve had a favorite Spicy Peanut Sauce recipe we’ve used for years, and I even wrote about it years ago (2012) on ChiWulff.com, a fly fishing blog –

She was caught red-handed and she knew it.

I ran into the kitchen after the party had moved to the backyard and there she was in all her glory, emitting a moan of almost sensual ecstasy, leaning over the counter in what some might have considered to be very nearly a provocative pose.

My noisy entry startled our damned attractive friend (let’s just call her LB, and wife of residency training mate MB) enough to make her bump her 4-month pregnant belly on the counter and smear a streak of this Thai Peanut Sauce across her cheek.

We stared at one another wide-eyed for a moment and she simply offered up “I’m just here for the peanut sauce” as a matter of explanation. She then wordlessly reached into the drawer, handed me a spoon and moved the bowl midway between us.

We enjoyed a laugh (loudly enough to arouse her husband’s curiosity in fact) and stood at the counter and scraped just about every drop of this great peanut sauce from the bowl.

Haven’t seen LB in years, though we enjoyed yet another batch of this Thai-inspired (the coconut milk) peanut sauce with chicken satay hot off the grill this past week. There are a million peanut sauce recipes out there, for sure, but we keep coming back to this for its deep array of flavors and (for the most part) quick and easy prep…

It really is good enough to eat right out of the bowl, and it was amazing drizzled over a spiralized gado gado vegetable bowl (just zucchini, carrots, and daikon) with a piece of blackened mahi throw on top last night (image below).

2/3 cup + full fat coconut milk
2/3 cup chunky peanut butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 and 1/2 tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
2 Thai or serrano peppers, seeded, minced OR
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, minced
4 scallions, green and white parts, minced
2 tbsp. tamari or coconut aminos
2 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. + fresh lime juice

Optional
1-2 tbsp honey, maple syrup, sweetener of choice
1/4 cup (+) fresh chopped cilantro

Combine all the ingredients (noting the sweetener and cilantro are optional) in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine, bring just to a simmer, then reduce heat and simmer very slowly for 20-30 minutes, adding more coconut milk if needed.

Remove from the heat, let cool for ten minutes, and adjust the tamari/coconut aminos, fish sauce, and lime juice to taste.

Serve with your favorite pile of vegetables in a gado gado bowl as we did yesterday, or with your favorite chicken or beef satay. Or just a big spoon.

Enjoy.

Informed by History: Thinking About Ancestral Health and D-Day

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Those of us who invest time pondering the principles espoused by the ancestral health community often spend a fair amount of effort digging through what we can ferret out about the health, and feeding habits, of our humanoid ancestors.

We do so, at least in part, to gather pertinent intel to inform our own nutritional choices, with goals of optimizing our ability to face life’s challenges, and to prosper.

We choose to be informed by history, at least the best version(s) of human history we can derive and digest, and often work very hard to tailor the clues our ancestors left behind to fit our (seemingly) very different modern day.

The benefits we gain from choosing to be informed by history are often life changing (they certainly have been for me and my family).

Today on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, one of the most monumental human efforts and events in modern history, and yet one that is fading from our collective consciousness, I’d encourage you to spend a bit of time pondering what the young men and women of the world in that day faced, and the courageous choices made by participants around the world in the days and weeks leading up to 6 June, 1944.

By the way, one of the most moving accounts of that day I’ve ever come across was one published in The Atlantic in 1960; read it here, and the image below is sourced from their site.

Choosing to be informed by history isn’t necessarily the most popular activity these days, but there are lessons to be learned, choices and behaviors to be admired and emulated, and futures to be written.

Don’t miss the opportunity to remember and learn from D-Day.

the Older Bolder Life Vegetable Wednesday: Turmeric Cabbage Coconut Stir Fry

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Perhaps it has something to do with the fact my lovely wife and I grew up in the South, eating slaws and chow chows prepared lovingly by matronly grandmothers and diner / greasy spoon cooks during our childhoods – but I’ve confessed before that we enjoy cabbage prepared in a variety of ways.

We typically enjoy a simple cabbage slaw with this Chile Lime Vinaigrette at least once a week and add a bit of cabbage to many of our favorite salads. Though we don’t savor fish tacos as often as we once did, who doesn’t love a spicy fish taco inspired slaw (we have several in the rotation), and I’ve stockpiled a number of cooked and sautéed cabbage recipes over the years as well.

This Turmeric Cabbage Coconut Stir Fry has become one of our favorites this spring and early summer as it’s a little different than many cooked cabbage recipes we’ve seen, and when cooked for just a few minutes the cabbage maintains a delightful crunchiness.

Though optional (recipes are made to be adjusted to your own palate and interests anyway) the poblano chiles and fresh peas add a splash of color and interest as well, as do the coconut flakes and the sautéed mustard seeds.

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
2 tbsp avocado or coconut oil
2 tsp yellow or black (or both) mustard seeds
1 small-medium cabbage, trimmed and thinly sliced/chopped
1 poblano chile, stemmed, seeded, cut into thin strips or small dice
1-2 dried de arbol chiles, roughly crushed OR 1-2 tsp red chile flakes
1 tsp good salt
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2-3 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Optional: 1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until hot; add the mustard seeds, cover, and shake gently until they begin to pop.

When the popping slows, add the poblano and / or the dried red chiles, sauté for a minute, then add the cabbage, salt, and turmeric. Stir to mix well, then cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until the cabbage begins to wilt but still has some tooth (crunch). Add the coconut and peas if using, mix well, and cook another minute or so until heated through.

Remove from the heat, then stir in the cilantro and lemon juice; taste and adjust seasonings as needed (usually salt and lemon juice).

Enjoy.

Question of the Day 4 June: Target Heart Rates

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From Cyndie in Kentucky this week –

…A friend working with a trainer has been telling me that walking isn’t enough of a workout to help me drop some weight. Her trainer says that you have to get your heart rate up really high to make fat burn, and told her to take my age (42) from 220 to get my target heart rate. That sounds really high and is hard for me to do walking, this doesn’t sound right to me…

Cyndie, appreciate the opportunity today to answer your question, and you’re right, the information passed on from your friend’s trainer is actually not correct.

The rule of thumb the trainer appears to have suggested you use, the 220 – your age calculation, is a commonly used rule of thumb (for example, used here by the Mayo Clinic) to estimate an individual’s Maximum Heart Rate target. There are of course potential flaws in using a rule of thumb calculation here, as there are of course other issue that may modify the results, such as medications you’re taking (i.e. beta blockers), your overall health, your overall fitness level, your fitness history (how long have you been working out and what types of exercise have you done), your injury history, and more.

Using the rule of thumb above, your target maximal heart rate would be 178. But that’s not really the number you need to be thinking about…

You Really Want to Your Use Your Heart Rate Guides to Work Aerobically to Burn Fat

When you go through your day completing most of your routine tasks (clinically called activities of daily living), you’re not exercising anywhere near your maximal heart rate; your body is working aerobically to burn fuels efficiently using oxygen. In the right setting metabolically, that includes burning fat as fuel, which from your question is what you’re trying to do.

If you significantly up the intensity of your effort (exercise or really aggressive ADLs), there is a point at which your body is forced to change over to another fuel processing system – anaerobic work – think of this like the maximal effort you might make when doing repetitive sprints as part of a training program. That’s stressful, inducing the production of stress hormones (which among other things slows down fat burning), and can lead to overtraining, excessive inflammation, and injury.

So you really want to know your maximal aerobic training heart rate.

Thankfully, a host of smart men and women have done the hard work and derived some fairly easy calculations to discover that number. My favorite is Dr. Maffetone’s 180 Formula.

Simply put, you subtract your age from 180, and modify that number using the four criteria he’s listed at the link above. From what you’ve shared, it appears your calculations would be 180 – 42 = 138, with another 5 subtracted as you’re just getting back into training (Dr. Maffetone’s modifier [b]), making your maximal aerobic training target a heart rate of 133.

Note that’s the maximal suggested target rate, and brisk walking, or walking hills should readily get you in the range of 85% to 90% of your maximal aerobic target, and will very likely aid in burning fat, which you’ve stated is your primary goal.

These numbers are of course rule of thumb guidelines, and must be modified specifically to match your own unique and specific health and fitness. Keep up the good work and get out there walking – I’m a huuuuuge fan of walking as a fitness and weight loss tool.

the Older Bolder Life Salad Monday: Quick Cucumber Mint Salad

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Now that summer has arrived, or is at least knocking on the door for most of us, we start digging through the digital recipe box for cool, crisp, and interesting salads to accompany the grilled proteins that the summer season demands.

A friend served this Quick Cucumber Mint Salad to us a few weeks back, and my wife and I both pestered her for the recipe before the night was out. This one really is a quick prep; you’re mainly slicing and spicing, with an hour or so of resting the salted cucumbers and onions along the way.

The fresh mint adds a wonderful burst of flavor (and interest), and we like this one just as much without the honey or maple syrup – try it both ways…

3 English cucumbers, thinly sliced
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp kosher salt, more to taste
1 bunch (small) fresh mint leaves
1/3 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
2-3 tbsp avocado or extra virgin olive oil
1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tsp. Honey or maple syrup, optional

Combine the sliced cucumbers and red onion in a medium bowl; sprinkle with 2 tsp of salt, stir to mix well, cover and throw in the fridge for an hour.

Remove from the fridge and drain in a colander, pushing down gently on the mixture to express as much water as possible.

Place in a clean bowl, add the mint leaves, and drizzle with the vinegar and oil of choice; add the pepper, honey or maple syrup if using, and salt to taste, Stir gently and go to it.

Enjoy.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 1 June 2019

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Science News That Caught My Eye This Week

Is traditional medicine waking up to the benefits of IF?
Preventable cancer burden linked to lousy diet (in US).
Interval training lowers belly fat in obese 70 year olds.
7 key health measures predict risk of heart disease.
Rural communities are getting fatter faster than urbanites?

Your Gut Biome and Health

Antibiotics, birth mode, and diet shape microbiome maturation during early life.
Your poor diet may hurt your grandchildren’s guts.

Shaping a More Interesting Life

Want to make something, but have not idea where to begin? Inspiration from Adam Savage.
For people with strong life purposes, making healthier choices takes less effort.
A fascinating looks at an Olympian’s use of HIIT to dominate her sport.

Food, Glorious Food

Spicy Baked Popcorn Cauliflower
Chile and Sautéed Garlic Shrimp