Ham Hock and Cabbage Soup

With the weather cooling down, it's nice to warm your innards with some delicious fall soup.



6-8 small servings or 3-4 large servings

ingredients:
* 4 tablespoons bacon grease
* 1 nitrate-free ham hock (about 1 pound)
* 1/2 a large onion, chopped
* 3 celery stalks, chopped
* 1/2 a small-to-medium head of green cabbage, chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 bay leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
* 3-4 cups Chicken Broth
* 3-4 cups peeled and cubed pumpkin (or other winter squash)

Heat the bacon grease over medium-high heat. Add the celery and onions and cook til they start to wilt. Add the ham hock.

Add the cabbage, garlic, bay leaves, black pepper, salt, and cayenne. Stir and cook until cabbage is slightly wilted, 3-4 minutes.

Pour the broth in, bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

Add the pumpkin, cover, and simmer 1 hour.

Remove the ham hock from the pot and remove the meat from the bone. Shred the meat and stir it back into the soup. Remove and discard the bay leaves.

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This makes great leftovers and I think the taste even improves with age.

Goes well with a side salad for dinner.

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I adapted this recipe from Emeril Lagasse's Ham Hock and Cabbage Soup: http://www.emerils.com/recipe/2775/Ham-Hock-and-Cabbage-Soup

Mostly Paleo Muffins

I say these are only mostly paleo because they do use baking powder/soda and flavoring extracts, which I doubt our cavemen buddies had access to. They are very tasty however, and and make a nice breakfast alternative to eggs or leftovers. I don't make them all the time, because let's face it, a muffin is a muffin! So eat these with care. I was procrastinating on writing this post because I have not felt the urge to eat pans of muffins myself, but I decided to just go ahead and write it anyway and try to find some old pictures to show you.

Note: I use maple syrup or raw honey as my sweeteners of choice. I do not use agave nectar because it can be up to 90% fructose; fructose is processed in the liver instead of the bloodstream and has many deleterious effects.



recipe makes 6 muffins

PUMPKIN CRANBERRY MUFFINS:
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1 1/2 cups almond flour
3/4 cup pureed pumpkin (you can used canned, but make sure to get just plain pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1/4-1/3 cup maple syrup or honey depending on your sweet tooth
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped cranberries

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together all the ingredients except for the cranberries until smooth. Fold in the cranberries.

Spoon batter into 6 greased muffin cups (I use coconut oil) and bake for 20-25 minutes.

These are very soft and cakey muffins. I think that cutting them in half and toasting them is very nice since it gives it little crisp edges.

Variations:
Banana nut muffins - use pureed bananas in place of the pumpkin, chopped walnuts in place of cranberries, and omit the pie spice.
Flax muffins - replace up to 1/2 cup of the almond flour with ground flax seeds

Recipe adapted from Eating Stella Style by George Stella.

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recipe makes 6 muffins

COCONUT MUFFINS:
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1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/4-1/3 cup maple syrup or honey depending on your sweet tooth
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 T coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together all ingredients until smooth.

Pour into 6 muffin cups greased with coconut oil and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Recipe adapted from Eating Stella Style by George Stella.

*~*~*~*~*

recipe makes 12 muffins

LEMON POUND CAKE MUFFINS:
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I don't have a picture for these. This is an experimental recipe. The original recipe is from a low-carb book and uses butter and Splenda. I am 99% certain that you can subsitute paleo ingredients and end up with a tasty product, but I have only tried the original version and haven't made the paleo version yet. If anyone wants to try making these, let us know how they turn out!

2 cups almond flour
stevia to equal the sweetness of 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
scant 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coconut oil (original recipe is 1 cup butter)
1/3 cup maple syrup or honey (original recipe is 2/3 cup Splenda)
2 T lemon zest, or about 2 medium lemons' worth
1 tsp lemon juice
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together almond flour, stevia, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Meanwhile, melt the coconut oil.

In a food processor, process maple syrup or honey with the lemon zest until combined. Add lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla. Process until combined.

With the food processor running, add the melted coconut oil in a steady stream. This should take at least 20 seconds.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl and gradually stir almond flour mixture into the wet mixture.

Grease 12 muffin cups with coconut oil and distribute batter equally among the cups.

Bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 and continue baking til done, keeping an eye on it, about 20-25 minutes. The time can vary a lot so be sure to keep an eye on it and don't let it burn.

Recipe adapted from 500 More Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender.

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Happy eating!

Plans for November at Caveman Food

I just wanted to say hi to anybody that made it over here from Cindy's blog! Thanks for the shout-out, Cindy. :) I have some plans for this month to post about yummy paleo food that you can make for the holidays that is good enough that everyone will eat. I'll also try to post about those muffins everyone seems to want to know about. The problem with the muffins is that if I want to take pictures of them for you guys I have to make them! And then I have to eat them! Such a hard life.

Anyway, stay tuned!

Butternut Souffle

Sorry I've been a little MIA! My husband and I went on a mini vacation to the mountains in Asheville, NC to get away from work for a little while and enjoy fall in the mountains. Asheville was a real treat, too. They are very big into local organic food there and almost every restaurant we went to proudly touted the menu items made from local ingredients. My kind of city!

Anyway I'm back in the kitchen now. I gotta say it was nice not having to cook and do dishes for a week. :) Here is something I made today from leftovers that turned out exceedingly well.



BUTTERNUT SOUFFLE
serves 2-3 as a side dish

approx 1 cup of butternut squash puree (canned is fine)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp paprika
2 T coconut milk
handful of chopped pecans

Beat together all the ingredients except for the pecans. Spread into a small greased baking dish or ramekin. Sprinkle the nuts on top. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

This would work great as a side dish for dinner, but I was a little piggy and ate the whole thing for lunch today.

Paleo Meat Loaf

So this isn't really a recipe post. It's more of an idea of how to take some of your old comfort foods and paleo-fy them. :) For the meatloaf, the two bad ingredients that are in there are usually bread crumbs and ketchup. It's not great to just leave the breadcrumbs out because it really changes the texture of meatloaf for the worse. So what I do is substitute minced mushrooms, onions, and garlic for the breadcrumbs. Sautee them a little first to lose the raw onion taste. To get a nice sweet tomato topping without using ketchup, what I do is to take one can of fire roasted crushed tomatoes, add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, and simmer it on the stove until it thickens up. Then I smear that all over the top and sides just the way you would normally do with ketchup. All of the yum and none of the bad. :)

The mashed potatoes are actually half potato and half turnip. Rutabaga also works well. This way you get the potato taste, but with fewer empty carbohydrates and more nutrition. Instead of butter and cream, try some olive oil and a splash of chicken stock. Even better is if the chicken stock is homemade since the gelatin will make it especially smooth and delicious.

We had greens on the side as well, as you can see. Almost any green is great if you braise it with olive oil, garlic, and chicken stock.

Almond Crusted Chicken Fingers

Sometimes you just want some nasty old fried chicken fingers, but as a rule they are flour-coated transfat-laden monstrosities. How to enjoy the crunch without all the badness? Almond flour!

serves 2

ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced into fingers
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1.5 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp dry mustard powder
1/4 - 1/3 cup oil for frying (I used palm oil shortening, but I wouldn't hesitate to use olive oil or coconut oil either - or lard if I had it!)

Heat the oil a large pan over medium-high heat (but closer to medium than to high - you don't want the almond flour to burn).

Put the beaten egg in one bowl and the almond flour plus seasonings into another bowl. Dip each chicken finger in egg, then in the almond flour mixture.

Cook the chicken in two batches until it is golden on each side.

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Notes:

I've only ever made this fresh for dinner so I don't know if it would keep well for lunches or not. I suspect it might get a little gummy.

Crushed pork rinds also make a decent bread crumb substitute but they get soggy very quickly after cooking so you must eat them immediately. Also, some people are kind of squicked by pork rinds.

These chicken fingers are great for dipping too. Good options are ketchup or flavored mayonnaise. If you want to get super fancy, you can make something like date mustard, but I don't make this all the time because, even though it is amazingly delicious, it's also quite carb heavy. I might do a proper post on date mustard sometime, but here is the quick and dirty version:

happy shiny bonus date mustard recipe!
1/2 cup dates with pits removed, 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 1 tsp salt, and 2 T prepared mustard; put all the ingredients in a blender and let it rip until it's smooth; pour into a small saucepan and simmer gently for 10 minutes; serve warm or cold. I got this fantastic condiment from a cookbook called The Philosopher's Kitchen.

"Sam I Am" Eggs

Ok, so I can't take credit for these amazing scrambled eggs at all! I found the recipe here at the lowcarb friends messageboard.

They are an amazing bright green color and taste great. Use the proportions of 1/2 cup raw spinach and 1 T coconut milk to 1 egg. Put all the ingredients in a blender or magic bullet and puree. Then just scramble like normal in whatever your preferred cooking fat is.

Green Chicken

This is a staple for lunch around here. I'll make several days' worth at one time, slice it, and keep it in the fridge to toss on top of big lunchtime salads. It's easy and delicious! I can kind of tell you how to make it, but I don't have an exact recipe. It only takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.

ingredients:
boneless skinless chicken breast
extra virgin olive oil
salt-free herbal seasoning blend (I use "all purpose seasoning" from the Simply Organic line of spices, but any mix will work)
pinch of sea salt

Heat the broiler, line a baking sheet with foil, and position a rack over the pan.

Remove the tenders from the breasts and thinly slice them. You can slice the breasts into 2 or 3 slices depending on how thin you like them.

Take a small bowl and glug some olive oil into it. Add a pinch of salt and enough dried herbs to make a thick paste. Drag the breast slices and tenders through the herb paste and coat both sides.

Place the chicken on the rack and broil for 8 minutes on one side. It will cook completely through and the side facing up with get a crust.

Remove from oven, let cool, slice, and store.

Braised Peppercorn Beef Shank

Wow guys, thanks for all the feedback lately! I had no idea the saltimbocca would be such a hit. :) I hope some of you tried it out and found it as delicious as we did.

Today I have one of my favorite, no-fail, comfort food recipes. It's a slow cooked crosscut beef shank. I do most of my meat shopping at Whole Foods and they don't always have these shanks, so when they do I tend to stock up and buy 3-4 of them. I might buy even more if I actually had space for a big freezer. They usually weigh in at about 1.5 lbs a piece and they have a nice fat marrow bone in the middle of them. If you can't get a beef shank, I'm pretty sure any beef cut suitable for braising would work using this technique.



serves 2

ingredients:
1-1.5 lb crosscut beef shank with bone
1-2 T crushed black pepper
generous pinch of sea salt
4-5 peeled garlic cloves
4-5 rosemary sprigs
1/2 bottle dry red wine (I usually use an ~$8-10 cabernet sauvignon)

Preheat the oven to 225.

Place the shank in a casserole dish that is just large enough to hold it. Scatter the garlic and rosemary over it, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pour in the red wine.

Cover the casserole and stick it in the oven for 7-10 hours.

That's it! When you pull it out of the oven, it will fall apart at the slightest touch of a fork. Just shred it all together, mash the garlic cloves and bone marrow into it, and serve it with a slotted spoon so that it's not swimming.

I like to serve it with a green veggie and a squash. Tonight it was steamed green beans (eep! not entirely paleo I know) and roasted buttercup squash. This was the first time we've had buttercup squash and it was delicious. It's really substantial, almost like a potato, and has a lovely sweetness.

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Idea for this recipe came from here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/453908

Chicken Saltimbocca and Braised Escarole

serves 2

Chicken:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
fresh sage leaves
1/4 lb thinly sliced prosciutto ham
olive oil

for pan sauce:
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp arrowroot dissolved in 1 tsp cold water

Take your chicken breasts and slice them as thinly as you possibly can. If you can't slice them thin enough by hand or if your knife is not sharp enough, then just slice them as thin as they'll go and then pound them to 1/4 inch thickness or less. I got 4-5 thin slices out of each breast.

Lay your chicken pieces out and top each slice with several whole fresh sage leaves. Place a slice of prosciutto on top of each piece of chicken and pat it down so it adheres to the chicken.

Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. You want the pan pretty hot so that it will brown the meat without overcooking it (since it's so thin). Cook the chicken in batches, starting prosciutto side UP first. This will let the chicken contract a little without the prosciutto shrinking. Flip the chicken and let the prosciutto side cook until it looks crispy. Remove to a plate and finish up the rest of the chicken in the same manner, adding more olive oil to the pan if necessary.

Once all the chicken is done, add the white wine and chicken broth to the pan and deglaze by scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Once the liquid has reduced a little, stir in the arrowroot/cold water slurry and stir quickly to thicken. Serve the sauce over the chicken.

Escarole:
1/2 head of escarole, chopped and washed
2 T raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts
pinch of sea salt
1/3 cup white wine or chicken broth
olive oil
2 cloves of garlic

Heat a glug of oil over medium heat and add the whole garlic cloves. Once the garlic starts sizzling, add the escarole, raisins, pine nuts, salt, and liquid. Cover the pan, reduce the heat, and braise for 10 minutes. Remove the cover and let the liquid cook off. This results in plump raisins, but the pine nuts get kind of plump and soft too. If that's not to your taste, you can leave the pine nuts out and toast them in a skillet or toaster oven and then add them to the dish at the last minute.

Pan Roasted Cauliflower with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

serves 2

Cauliflower:
1/2 head of cauliflower broken up into medium sized florets
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and slightly smooshed
4 T (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste

You want to use a not nonstick pan for this in order to achieve the proper level of roastiness. :)

Heat the oil and garlic in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once the oil gets good and hot and the garlic starts sizzling, add the cauliflower in a single layer. Let it go without stirring for longer than you think you should. Peek under a floret and if it is nicely browned use a spatula to flip the florets and get a different side roasty. Once again, let it go until the other side is nice and brown. At this point, turn the heat to low, salt the cauliflower to your taste, cover the pan, and let it steam itself for 10 minutes. Voila! Perfectly tender, roasty cauliflower with the bonus of a few little roasty garlic cloves. Mmm.

This cauliflower goes perfectly with roasted red pepper sauce.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:
1 red bell pepper
1 T white wine vinegar
1 peeled and slightly smooshed garlic clove
1.5 T extra virgin olive oil

Preheat an oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with foil. Bake the bell pepper until the skin starts to blacken, about 30-40 minutes. Pull the pepper out of the oven and use the foil to wrap it up into a packet. Let it sit steaming in it own residual heat for 10-15 minutes. Unwrap the pepper. The skin should be very loose and quite easy to peel off. Peel the pepper and discard all the skin and seeds.

Heat the vinegar and garlic clove in a small pan until it gets fragrant. Discard the garlic clove.

Puree the bell pepper, garlic infused vinegar, and olive oil in a food processor. You can add a little pinch of salt and some red pepper flakes or cayenne powder if you want a bit of a kick.

Keeps well for a few days in the fridge and makes enough sauce to use several times for different veggies.

Marinated Lamb and Spicy Sweet Eggplant

Sorry for the hiatus. :) We got back from Alaska, but then 3 days later we left for another week and a half to go spend time with my husband's family at the beach. I'm just now getting back and getting cooking again! And let me tell you, I have missed my own food, lol. To make up for it, here's two recipes instead of one.



Again, I apologize for the crummy picture. There's no natural light in the room I take the pictures in and my flash is just awful. :(

serves 2

LAMB:
2 boneless lamb cutlets
red wine vinegar (if your version of paleo doesn't allow for vinegar, substitute a different acid such as lemon or lime juice)
extra virgin olive oil
fresh parsley
minced garlic
ground turmeric
crushed coriander seeds
sea salt

Stab the meat all over with a fork. Put it into a plastic bag along with all the other ingredients. I didn't measure anything when I did this...just eyeball it. A good glug of vinegar, two glugs of olive oil, large handful of parsley, a few cloves of garlic, a teaspoon or so of turmeric, a small palmful of coriander, and a large pinch of salt. Let this marinate in the fridge for at least an hour, and longer if you like. Preheat your broiler and then broil the lamb until it is pink in the center (I had 2 4-oz cutlets and I broiled them 5 minutes on each side). The flavors of this were really, really good. I mean really good. I can't wait to make it again good. Try it!

*****
SPICY SWEET EGGPLANT:
1 medium to large purple eggplant
1/4 cup olive oil
1 inch of gingerroot, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp ground cumin
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 T of honey or agave nectar
1/4-1/2 cup water
sea salt

Slice the eggplant into thick rounds. Using the olive oil, brown the slices in two batches in a large skillet. Remove the eggplant to a plate. It will probably have soaked up all of the oil, so add about 1/4 cup water to the pan and then throw in the garlic and ginger and stir until it is fragrant. Add the cumin, hot sauce, lemon juice, and honey and stir to combine. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and make it look saucy. Place the eggplant back into the pan, nestling them all in together. Put the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes until the eggplant has absorbed all of the sauce. You can flip the eggplant at some point if you want, but it's not necessary. By the end of cooking they should be very very soft. Let the eggplant cool slightly and salt to taste. This dish is good both hot and at room temperature. I like it so much that the paper I have it printed on is practically see-through with all the crud I've spilled on it in the kitchen while making this delicious eggplant. :)

*****

As you can see from the picture we also had asparagus with this meal, but all I did was snap the ends off and steam it for 5 minutes. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as my husband and I do!

vacation

Thanks to everyone to left me a comment recently! I haven't had time to respond to them all, but they do mean a lot to me.

My husband and I are leaving in about 15 minutes to go to Alaska for a week, so I won't be updating or commenting while I'm gone. Maybe I'll catch myself a paleo moose while I'm up there. ;) Mmmmm, mmmmmmoose.

Have a nice August to anyone who's reading!

Coconut Chicken Curry

serves 2

Coconut chicken curry over zucchini noodles. I used to do something similar using a prepackaged curry paste, but I tried making my own and it turned out even better and had no iffy ingredients. :)

curry:
3 T coconut oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch of ginger root, minced
2 T salt free curry powder
1 cinnamon stick
5 small dried red chilis
1 heaping T tomato paste
sea salt and pepper to taste
1 large carrot, thickly sliced
1/4 small head of green cabbage, chopped
1 can coconut milk
1 cup chicken broth
2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 cup frozen okra*
juice of 1 lime

Heat the oil in a deep skillet and fry the onions, garlic, and ginger until soft. Add the curry, cinnamon, chilis, tomato paste, salt/pepper and saute until fragrant. Add the coconut milk, broth, carrot, and cabbage and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes to thicken. Add the chicken, okra, and 1/2 the lime juice and simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt/lime juice.

*Okra seems like an acquired taste, but it's one that both my husband and I love. Okra has a unique thickening property though, so if you want to make this without the okra it might turn out a little runnier.

noodles:
2 small zucchinis

Put the zucchinis through a spiralizer (or julienne them with a knife or mandoline). Put in a microwave safe container with a lid and microwave for 2 minutes. If you don't use a microwave, you can steam them for a few minutes or saute them in another skillet. You just want to soften them a little.

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I based my recipe off of this one from the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/spicy-chicken-coconut-curry-recipe/index.html

Chicken Kabobs

Sorry for the blurry picture. My flash washes things out and sometimes pics without the flash don't turn out very well. :(

So this is more of a meal idea than an actual recipe. I had some tahini sauce leftover from our lamb meatballs from last night, and I had some bland old chicken breast sitting in the fridge, so I decided to combine them. I cubed up the chicken and tossed it in a plastic bag with whatever Mediterranean-y stuff I found in the kitchen...olive oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cumin. I didn't measure anything. I bet this would be great with just about anything you put in there. I let the chicken marinate for about 45 minutes and then I broiled it for 15 minutes. It was very good dipped into the leftover tahini sauce. For a side dish I put a zucchini through a spiralizer to make it like noodles and sauteed it in olive oil for about 10 minutes while the chicken was broiling.

Lamb Meatballs with Tahini Dipping Sauce and Cucumber Salad

serves 2

lamb meatballs:
1 lb ground lamb
1 small eggplant
1 egg
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp sea salt

Cover a small baking pan with foil and roast the eggplant for 1-1.5 hours at 375 degrees, or until the eggplant is soft. Remove from the oven, peel, and mash with a fork. Set the flesh in a strainer and let the liquid drain off.

Combine the mashed eggplant, lamb, egg, oregano, and sea salt in a large bowl. It will be pretty goopy. Form mixture into meatballs. I like to use a tablespoon measure - if made with heaping tablespoons you should get about 26 meatballs.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. If you use a nonstick skillet, no fat is necessary as the lamb will render out enough. If your skillet is not nonstick, you might want to grease it. Fry the meatballs on three sides until they are nicely browned.

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tahini dipping sauce:
1/2 cup tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup water
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin
handful of fresh cilantro or parsley or both

Toss everything in a food processor and let it rip til it's smooth. It's better to make this at least an hour in advance to let the flavors meld (I make the sauce after I stick the eggplant in the oven and then pull it out of the fridge at serving time).

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cucumber salad:
1/2 a large English hothouse cucumber
sea salt
red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

Score the cucumber with a fork and then slice it into thin rounds.

Put the cucumber slices into a strainer or colander and sprinkle with sea salt. Put something heavy on top and let it drain while everything else cooks.

Right before serving, squeeze out all the remaining water and drizzle on some red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

Peppercorn Crusted Porkchops

serves 2
4 4-oz boneless pork chops
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
bacon grease
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 tsp Dijon mustard
pinch of arrowroot powder, optional

Heat some bacon grease in a large heavy skillet over medium high heat.

Pound the pork chops to make them thinner. Coat each side with a little bit of sea salt and a liberal amount of black pepper.

Sear the pork chops for 2 minutes on each side and remove to a plate.

Add the wine, stock, and mustard to the drippings in the pan and deglaze. Reduce slightly until the sauce starts to thicken a bit. If you want it thicker, mix a pinch of arrowroot powder with a teaspoon of cold water and then add it to the sauce. Pour the sauce over the chops.

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These chops I served with pan roasted asparagus. I just put olive oil and bacon grease in a skillet over medium high heat and let the asparagus cook while the chops were going. They got a nice little bit of char on the bottom. This meal was a definite winner! I'll definitely be adding it to the repertoire. :)

Roasted Turkey with Caramelized Vegetables

serves 2

2 carrots, cut into chunks
1/2 a medium onion, sliced
1 small fennel bulb, sliced
fronds from the fennel bulb, minced
1/4 cup EVOO
2 8-oz turkey breast tenderloins
2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 425. In a large pyrex dish, toss the carrots, onions, and fennel bulb with the EVOO and a small pinch of salt. Roast for 15 min.

While it's roasting, trim the turkey if necessary. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Coat one side of each turkey breast with mustard, and sprinkle with paprika.

Take the veggies out of the oven and stir them. Push them to the sides of the dish and add the turkey to the center. Return to the oven for 15 min.

Remove from the oven and stir the veggies. Roast 15 more min.

Remove the turkey to serving plates. Stir the reserved fennel fronds into the roasted veggies. Serve veggies.

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The turkey was a little dry, but the flavors were really good, especially if you ate a bite of veggies with a bite of turkey at the same time. I served this with a small green salad made with spring mix, cucumbers, and walnuts and an EVOO dressing.

* I used this recipe as a loose guide: http://www.fbnr.com/Recipes/055/4154001055.htm

Non-meat, non-egg, paleo breakfast

Does such a thing exist?! Yep, and I've eaten it for the past two days.



A coconut muffin made with almond flour, dried unsweetened coconut, and agave nectar. Sliced strawberries. Earl grey tea.

I'll do a muffin post soon because I have several different recipes to share.

Stuffed Zucchini

serves 2

2 large zucchinis
1 lb ground bison/buffalo (ground beef will work too, but you want a very lean meat...otherwise it will give off too much liquid and your zucchinis will be swimming)
1/2 a large onion, minced
salt and pepper to taste
dash of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp of oregano
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 T tomato paste (optional)
1/2 cup chopped olives or olive tapenade (I used tapenade from Trader Joe's)
1 egg
coconut oil

Cut the zucchinis in half longways. Scoop out the insides to form a large trough in each zucchini.

Heat coconut oil in a skillet and saute the onion and the scraped out zucchini insides. Caramelize it and make sure all the water cooks out. Remove the zucchini/onion mixture to a large bowl.

Add the meat to the skillet and brown, along with some salt and pepper to taste, the cayenne, and the oregano. Drain it if there's a lot of liquid after the meat is done cooking. Add the tomato sauce and paste and stir to combine.

Add the meat/tomato mixture to the bowl with the onion/zucchini mixture, along with the olives. Mix well and make sure it's slightly cool. Beat the egg and mix it in.

Mound each zucchini half with the mixture and put in a large baking dish with a little water on the bottom. Bake at 400 for 40 min. You can make the filling and stuff the zucchinis in advance and hold them covered in the fridge until it's time to bake them.

Celery-Apple Slaw

This is a really nice simple side dish that goes well with any grilled meat.

All quantities are to taste:
celery, cut into matchsticks
apple, cut into matchsticks
parsley, minced
lemon juice
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt

Just toss everything together. This is also great if you add in some thinly sliced fennel bulb and then use minced fennel fronds instead of parsley.

German-ish Dinner?

Tonight we had bratwurst, braised broccoli rabe, and fried apples. I fried the apples in butter, which isn't really paleo, but you can do the same thing with coconut oil or lard or something and it would turn out equally yummy. :)


Sausages cooking. I simmered them in 1/4 inch of water for about 15 min, then drained the pan and let them get a little brown.


Apples frying. Just apples and butter, nothin' else.


Broccoli rabe before and after wilting down. I minced a shallot and sauteed it in olive oil until it just barely started to turn brown, then added a bunch of broccoli rabe, about 1/2 cup chicken stock, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Covered it and let it simmer for 20 min or so.


Dinner is served! I actually only ate one of the sausages. We had some mustard with it too.

Meal Photo: Breakfast

Just a photo for you. Roasted almonds, pear slices, black coffee, and braised red cabbage with two medium-boiled eggs. With a spread like this, you don't even miss all that sugary, grainy breakfast food that is usually the norm.

Veggie Hash

This is a concept more than a recipe. Just throw whatever veggies you have around into a big pan with some coconut oil or meat drippings and cook until everything is tender. My particular hash has onion, red cabbage, carrot, broccoli, and a very small amount of potato. I also put some chorizo in there. Top it with some eggs and you've got a tasty meal.

Pork in Pumpkin Mole Sauce

serves 3-4

note: the recipe contains cocoa powder, which is a questionably paleo ingredient - use with your own discretion

ingredients:
1 T of cinnamon powder
1 T chili powder or paprika
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp garlic powder or several cloves of garlic
1 14.5-oz can of pureed pumpkin
1/2 a large onion, thinly sliced
1 lb pork, chunked
2 chipotle chilis canned in adobo, minced
approx 1 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
2 T raisins
4 T fat (lard, coconut oil, etc - whatever you have)
sea salt to taste

In a large pot or Dutch oven, combine the spices, garlic, pumpkin, onion, pork, and chipotles. Keep the pumpkin can and add about 2 cans full of water to the pot. Mix well and bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust with salt. Cook for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

At this point you can refrigerate the mole to serve later, or you can continue.

When ready to eat, stir in cilantro, raisins, and fat and heat through for 5-10 minutes.

Serve with a green salad. Leftovers reheat well.

Recipe adapted from: http://forums.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=362685

Paleo Fruit Crumble

serves 3-4

ingredients:
fruit of your choice (I used one can of apricots canned in juice and about 1/2 cup frozen raspberries)
1/2 tsp arrowroot powder, optional
1/4 cup prunes or dates
1/2 cup almond flour
1 cup walnuts or pecans
1/2 tsp cinnamon
stevia to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place your fruit of choice in an oven safe dish of the appropriate size and sprinkle with the arrowroot powder (this will make the filling more syrupy/cohesive, but is optional).

Puree the prunes or date in a food processor along with the almond flour. Add the whole nuts and cinnamon and pulse briefly to combine. Taste and adjust sweetness with stevia. The mixture should hold together when you squeeze it, but be crumbly if you rub it between your fingers; if it's too dry add a little splash of juice, if it's too wet add some more nuts.

Press the nut mixture down firmly over the fruit. Place in the oven and bake for 30 min. Let cool for 15 minutes before eating.

This refrigerates well for at least one day and is excellent reheated for breakfast.



Recipe was modified from: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showpost.php?p=7315732&postcount=97

Easy Breakfast

Super easy breakfast. Two eggs over easy with some cantaloupe wedges. :)

Fennel Roasted Pork Loin

serves 2

ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 T rosemary, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fennel seed, cracked
large pinch of salt
black pepper
1/4 cup walnut pieces, coarse ground w/mortar and pestle (or you can put them in a plastic baggie and smash them with a meat pounder or a bottle)
zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 lb pork tenderloin

heat the olive oil in a skillet
saute the onions and fennel until they get soft, about 10 min
add the rosemary, garlic, fennel seed, walnuts, salt, and pepper and cook for 5 more min
add the lemon zest and cook for 2 more min
take off the heat to cool

butterfly out the pork tenderloin so it is flat
season both sides with salt and pepper
place the fennel mixture on the tenderloin and roll it up
secure with toothpicks

heat oven to 450F and roast the tenderloin until the thermometer says it's done (30-40 min).

I based this dish very loosely around this recipe: http://www.esquire.com/features/recipes-for-men/porkshoulder



Served with the pork tenderloin are mashed acorn squash (I just put a small acorn squash in the same pan as the pork and they roasted together, then I mashed it with a fork) and steamed asparagus.

Mixed Greens Salad with Smoked Trout and Cantaloupe

This is just a meal photo, not really a recipe per se. The salad is "spring mix" lettuce, celery, walnuts, and flaked smoked trout. It is dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Side of cantaloupe wedges.

Over Easy Eggs with Fennel Cucumber Relish

serves 1

ingredients:
2 eggs
1 T olive oil

1/4 of a large fennel bulb, finely diced
2 inches of cucumber, seeded and finely diced
3 kalamata olives, diced
small handful of parsley, minced
zest of 1/2 a lemon
pinch of salt
1/2 T apple cider vinegar
1 T olive oil

Combine all the relish ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Heat the 1T olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Crack the eggs directly into the skillet. Once the eggs have begun to set, carefully flip them and try not to burst the yolks. Cook for a further 30-60 seconds. Serve the relish over the eggs.

Inspiration for the fennel relish was taken from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/106594

introduction

This is a blog for people who are interested in or are following a Paleolithic style diet. My focus will be on providing delicious paleo recipes to inspire people and make this diet a practical reality. :)