Recipe: Taco Meat

Hello again, my clean-eating, crunchy lifestyle lovin' food peeps!

In my last post, I talked about prepping to make clean eating easier during your work week. Did you try it? How did it go? I'm betting that it was a relief not having to scramble or even think when you are running around getting everyone ready for the day.

Anyway.

I promised this recipe, didn't I?  It's because I love you...no really.

Way back in the day, when I was a baby cook, coming off the Lawry's packaged taco meat seasonings mix
 (remember that stuff???  Have you looked at the SODIUM content in those things?!?!?!), I learned from my mom that she used Pace Picante Sauce as the main flavoring in her taco meat, and IT. WAS. GENIUS. I did it that way for years.  Just brown up some ground beef, throw a jar of Medium Chunky Picante sauce, cook it down a little and call it done.

And one could still do that, if one was pressed for time, couldn't one? I should really stop talking in the "one" person, shouldn't I?

When I started my clean food journey, I was a little leery of this product. How many chemicals did it have? Surprisingly, the ingredient list was pretty clean. Now, I don't have a jar in my pantry, so I can't say for sure, but honestly, you could do worse.  If you are just starting out, have minimal time, or are just not into prepping EVERYTHING when you are cooking, I say try it. The Pace website doesn't have the ingredients fully listed, but this is what it does say:

Amount Per Serving (serving size) = 2 tbsp (30 mL)
Calories:10
Fat Calories:0
Total Fat:0g
Cholesterol:0mg
Sodium:230mg
Total Carb:3g
Dietary Fiber: 1g
Sugars: 2g
Protein: 0g

% Daily Values**
Vitamin A 2%
* The nutrition information contained in this list of Nutrition Facts is based on our current data. However, because the data may change from time to time, this information may not always be identical to the nutritional label information of products on shelf.
** % Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

So, adjust for the jar, add a pound of ground meat, be it beef, chicken, or turkey, and call it moderately clean eating.

However, I also have a full on recipe for those of you who like to know exactly what you are putting into your bodies, and it's pretty yummy.

Taco Meat

• 1 lb ground beef, chicken, or turkey
• 1 quart canned tomatoes (I use my own home-canned, but store bought will do fine)
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1-3 bell peppers, all colors of the rainbow!
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• Chili powder
• Cumin 
• salt and pepper to taste

 Directions

1. In a large skillet cook the onion and bell peppers in a little drizzle of olive oil until mostly softened.
2. Add the ground meat and your spices
3. Cook the meat until brown, breaking up the larger chunks to get the flavor of the spices all over
4. Add the tomatoes and cook down to desired consistency. 

Serve with with lettuce as wraps or over shredded lettuce or cabbage as a taco salad.

Holds for a week in the fridge.

Note: for those of you on the Auto-immune protocol, omitting the tomatoes and peppers will not adversely effect the taste of the taco meat. I'd also omit the chili powder, but the cumin? it would break my heart to leave that out.  Cumin powder is ground up seed from a plant in the parsley family, so I don't know if that will effect your protocol.  I'm thinking not, but I'm not an expert.

Go forth! Eat your Tacos! And then come back here and tell me about it!

Recipe: Lola's Chicken Meatball and Kale Soup

Lola's Chicken Meatball and Kale Soup

Lola's been experimenting with kale lately, and here's one she posted to our Face Book group!

1. Cook until tender:

• 3 chopped carrots
• 3 ribs chopped celery
• 1 large onion diced
• red pepper flakes
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced

2. Mix together: 

• 1 package (about 1 lb?) ground chicken
• Garlic powder
• 2 palm fulls (about 1 1/2 oz?) grated Parm. Cheese
• Salt and pepper

3. Add 2 cartons of chicken broth to tender vegetables. 

 

4. When broth is very hot, with melon scooper (that's right!), drop chicken meatball mixture into hot broth. They will cook in the broth and they will float and be opaque when they are done.

5. Add several handfuls of cleaned, chopped kale, cook until tender.

Recipe: Sara's Bison & Pork Mini Meatloaves

Bison & Pork Mini-Meatloaves
  
Mini meatloaves (meatloafs?) made from bison & pastured organic pork from Whole Foods Market. Thanks go to Cavegirl Cuisine, for hosting the contest where I won a gift certificate that enabled me to buy the meat for this recipe. :)

These were AMAZING!

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground bison
• 1lb ground pork
• 5 baby bella mushrooms
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 egg
• 1/4c ground flax

Directions:

1. Blend the mushrooms and the garlic in a food processor
2. Remove from food processor and add to bowl with both meats, egg, and flax seed meal. 
3. Mix thoroughly. Shape into patties.
4. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.    

 
 This made exactly one dozen "muffins," or mini-meatloaves.
Nom nom nom!

Recipe: Lola is Paleo-fying Traditional Meals (Paleo Cabbage Rolls)

Paleo-fying Traditional Meals

by Lola Hammerschmidt

Recently, I decided to take some of my traditional non-paleo meals and paleofy them. (is that a word??!)


My first attempt was with a Stuffed Cabbage Dish. I had made a traditional Stuffed cabbage with ground turkey and rice filling and my family enjoyed it. My 13 year old son ate it and even requested that I make more!


I had some leftover cooked cauliflower in the fridge and thought, "Hey, maybe I'll substitute the rice with cauliflower." I'd read where Paleo people "rice" their cauliflower so I thought I would give it a try.


I changed the recipe from being the traditional stuffed rolls into more of a layered lasagna /casserole dish. The overall result was great however, I feel it could be fantastic with a little tweaking.


My issues were as follows:

1. Cabbage leaves, even when blanched and the woody stem removed is still not easy to cut a perfect square out of. Its not the texture of a lasagna noodle so it was a sloppy cut.
2. I cut the cooked cauliflower too small and it seemed to disappear into the meat mixture. I will not cook it so thoroughly next time or leave it chunkier for more texture.
3. Rice not only acts as a filler in the traditional recipe but also absorbs extra fluids during cooking. The paleo casserole was a bit wetter or looser than the traditional stuffed cabbage. I'd like to find a way to tighten it up a bit.

I've decided to tweak the recipe in the following ways:

1. Instead of using whole cabbage leaves, I will buy a bag of shredded coleslaw mix (with carrots!), blanch and drain the mixture.
2. Quickly blanching cut cauliflower and allowing it to continue to cook inside the casserole so its not overdone.
3. Layer more like a lasagna instead of mixing the cauliflower in the meat mixture. Shredded mix, meat mix, cauliflower, sauce, repeat.

Another option would be to make individual ramekins or possibly small casserole dishes?

Maybe mix all the items together and form a meatloaf, bake on a wire rack over a pan and allow the extra fluid to drain away from the loaf? 



Traditional Stuffed Cabbage vs. Paleo Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

• 2 pounds ground turkey
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 egg
• 1 cup rice (PALEO: Add Chopped cauliflower instead of rice!!!!)
• salt, pepper, garlic powder
• 1/2 chopped onion.
• 1 jar pasta sauce
• head of cabbage, cored and separated in hot water.

*after leaves are separated, cut out tough center stem from each leaf.

1. pasta sauce on bottom of glass pan.
2. place a spoonful of mixture in center of leaf, fold sides of leaves over to form a tidy package.
3. place seem side down into pan. 
4. Repeat until mixture is gone, cover with more pasta sauce.
5. Cover with tin foil.. bake at 350* for 60 minutes.

PALEO: bake "lasagna style" in pan..layered with cabbage leaves and meat. Finish top with pasta sauce.


As you see, the only main difference in the recipe was removing the rice!!!! The rest is just technique and making it more of a texture or presentation that I prefer. 

Recipe: Breakfast Egg-a-muffins

In my head, I actually call these "Egg-a-Mooby-Muffins" in my head, because of Kevin Smith's films, but I don't want to get sued for copyright infringement, so I shortened it to Egg-a-muffins.


But don't be fooled, there's no muffin-isms in these cute little breakfast beauties. They are baked in oven tins for the purpose of grabbing and going during the busy work week. Because if you are like me, you can't be bothered to make yourself breakfast every single day. Heck, I'm lucky to get out of bed in time to shower and get dressed before going to work.

I'm sure my co-workers mentally thank me for at least doing that. Heh.

Anyway, I promised to put up this recipe a few weeks ago, and I slacked.

*Hangs head in shame* 

But here you go, better late than never!

The original recipe is lost in time, in an old copy of The South Beach Diet. It's where I first read about it, but I'm sure if you dug up an old farm wife from just after the Depression Era, I'm sure they were doing something like this. I mean, yes, it's a light bulb moment when you realize you can (in one shot) cook yourself week's worth of a protein-packed hearty breakfasts in a compact little muffin-like disk, but that's personal. Especially when you really think of the ways to shake it up and add your own personal touches to each little one...

Egg-A-Muffins

What you need:

*6 eggs, scrambled with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of a liquid to stretch out your eggs.  This is dependent on your dietary restrictions and/or taste preferences. You can use milk, cream, unsweetened almond milk, chicken stock, or (bleh) water.

*Spices mixed into to you scrambled eggs: Salt, pepper, garlic, no-salt seasoning. What ever floats your boat. I won't tell anyone about your deeply perverted love affair with cardamon if you don't tell about mine with cumin. Srsly.

This batch I used sliced chicken, and bell peppers

*Any left-over meats you have laying around, such as chicken, beef, pork, lunchmeat, sausages, etc. Seriously, use up what's in the fridge and feel all smug that you put it to good use instead of letting your kid take it to school as a science experiment.

*Any veggies you enjoy in scrambled eggs or a quiche. Or again, any veggies you have leftover from a meal that you want to salvage into something else.  I've used bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, etc.  Get crazy and make a pretty rainbow concoction, because the colorful the more health beneficial, right?

*Optional: a pinch of shredded cheese for each muffin tin. If you are paleo or don't do cheese, don't sweat it, it's not integral to the recipe. It's more of a garnish than an ingredient.


What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Grease a muffin pan with coconut oil
3. Add a enough of your chosen meat to cover the bottom of each muffin cup
4. Pile the veggies on top of the meat, spreading them out evenly amongst each cup
5. Pour enough egg mix to fill each muffin cup 1/2 to 3/4 to the top. I find that a ladle from a gravy boat is pretty close to the perfect measuring device.
6. Stir the egg mixture thru to the bottom
7. Add the pinch of cheese if you are partaking
8. Pop in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops are starting to brown, and a knife poked in comes out clean.

 The eggs will rise a bit as they cook (they will also fall after you take them out of the oven, but it's not a souffle, so don't get depressed when they deflate).

let them sit for about 5 minutes after taking them out of the oven, then release them from their pan. Don't wait until they are completely cook to take them out, as they tend to stick.

I divvy them up into containers for breakfasts for DaMan and I. I found that 2 egg-a-muffins were a filling meal.

So, one 12 muffin tin equals 6 meals. Not too shabby!

Recipe: Joie's Eggplant "Happeh for your Mouf."

Eggplant: Wash it. Cut it into cubes. Salt and toss. Let sit  few minutes. (I kept the skin on. I like eggplant kind. Your choice to peel.)

Olive oil: you’ll need more than you think.

Onions and mushrooms: chopped.

Can of petite diced tomatoes: do not drain.

Basil, oregano, garlic, black pepper: to taste.

1. Dump eggplant into hot oil with onions and ‘shrooms and spices. Cook till soft.
2. Lots of stirring.
3. Add can of ‘maters, simmer and stir often till you get a pot of deliciousness.
4. Top with some shredded cheese (optional) and you have a Happeh in Your Mouf!

Rachael: Review of The Best Paleo Bread Recipe We've found to date

I think the one thing that most people miss when they go Paleo/Primal is bread. 

You just don't realize how much of a staple it is in your life, do you? Because what's easier than slapping a sandwich together for lunch, or popping a couple of slices in the toaster for breakfast??

AMIRIGHT?

On our Companion FaceBook page, we've been cheering over the "Best" and "Easiest" Almond Bread Recipe.

It started with Sara's blog post: Battle of the Breads! And has gone on from there.

We agree that the recipe for the best for bread-like consistency is this one from Cooking Caveman. 

(which I confuse all the time with The Civilized Caveman. I don't know why, but I need to stop it.)
 
Sara and I have both doubled our recipes for a more full-looking bread slice (there is baking soda in there, but no yeast, so there is very little rise.) A single recipe looks will look like a quick bread, such as banana bread or zuchinni bread. but it's yummier.

Trust me.

Or don't trust me....try it your dang self.  And then come back here and thank me.  Or thank Sara. Or thank Cooking Caveman, since he made the recipe what it is. I'm just crowing about that dude's success....

Being that it uses almond butter as it's main ingredient, it's a very dense bread. It's also pretty darn moist, and that works in our favor, because it means you can slice it vereeeee thin for toasts and sandwiches.

Mmmm....toast.  How I've missed you...

Sorry. Where was I?

Oh yes.

Bread.

Make it....and you'll never have to pine for toast again...

Recipe: Joie's Primal "Granola" or "Cereal"

Joie's Primal "Granola" or "Cereal"

Adjust amounts as needed or wanted.   (Use nuts that YOU like)

½ cup almonds. 

½ cup pecan pieces.

½ cup walnut pieces.

½ cup pumpkin seeds.

½ cup sunflower seeds.

½ cup cashews.

½ cup dried fruit – craisins, raisins, diced prunes mix

2 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut.

½ cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

¼ cup flax seed  (optional)

1-2 scoops of egg white powder (optional)

• In a small bowl, mix a large dollop of coconut oil
• Maybe ½ cup (more or less depending on taste) raw unfiltered honey
• A good splash of vanilla (or other extract as desired)
• Melt it down in double boiler or microwave to blend and liquify
• Pour over nuts.
• Mix till coated.   
• Taste for flavor and check for consistency, adjust as needed.
• Using a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper,
• Bake in oven at 350F for 20 min
• Check often to make sure you don’t burn it.  
• Allow to cool.  
• Crumble into an air tight container.

And a Word of Warning:
Take care to keep watch while baking, as this recipe can scorch easily. If your oven runs hot, lower the temp and check often. You might want to discard any charred bits as they get rock hard and milk won’t soften it up and you end up with a broken back tooth on the upper right side of your jaw.
(Yes, that happened to me recently. It’s ugly. I see $$$$ at the dentist coming up)

Recipe: Susan's Breakfast Casserole

Susan is a newer member to the Paleo Lifestyle in the Real World Face Book Page but she's been a friend for a lot of years. She's a mean cook, and she described her newest creation on the boards, which I'm sharing with you (with her permission, of course):

"This morning I found myself without a plan for breakfast, so I decided it was time to make a Breakfast Casserole for the week.

 I sautéed up:

·         an onion

·         bell pepper

·         zucchini

·         shredded sweet potato 

·         ground turkey 

 With copious amounts of:

·         cumin 

·         chili powder 

·         oregano

·         salt and pepper

 Spread it in a casserole dish and topped it off with:

·         10 eggs

·         a small can of spicy tomato sauce.

  

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes until cooked through.

 

This is key for me as I don't wake up early enough to make breakfast each day before work. So when it comes out of the oven, I'll go ahead and cut it into 8 squares and put each one in Tupperware, so I can just grab one out of the fridge each morning as I leave the house. It's ok cold, or I can heat it up in the microwave at work.

Picture from "What's Cooking America" website.

Thanks, Susan!

Recipe: Joie's Autumn Fruit Compote

Joie doesn't post much, but that doesn't mean she's not out there working the clean eating. We speak daily, and I'm starting to just take some of her ideas and post them here (with her permission, of course), because she has some *Rawkin!* ideas for clean-eating chow.

 Take this one for example: 

 Joie's Autumn Fruit Compote

·         1 very ripe pear or apple, diced

·         Several very ripe strawberries, sliced

·         A couple of shakes of pumpkin pie spice.

·         Stir to blend.

·         Put in a baggie and let marinate several hours for afternoon snack.

HOLY NOM!

*licks spoon*

 

Recipe: Primal Beef Stew in the Crockpot

I really, really need to learn to take more profesional pictures.Because this stew really deserves someone better than me snapping a phone pic of the stew in the crockpot.

No. Really.

This has to be the best stew I've ever made, and I've made plenty of beef strew before going paleo/primal.

 I ain't just whistling dixie here, y'all.

My hubby asked how I was going to make stew without potatoes. I said I just wasn't going to put any in, and he gave me the hairy eyeball.

Our blogging compatriot, Lola, asked me how I was going to thicken the sauce for the stew without using corn starch (normally I'd use potato starch anyway), and I said arrowroot powder. And got a thumbs up.

See?  These little things are easy to overcome.

So let's get on with the recipe, shall we?

Paleo/Primal Beef Stew

Ingredients

• 1 lb beef, cut into chunks. Use your favorite cut, or what you have on hand.
• 1-2 onions chopped
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper (colors of the rainbow, peeps! Get those vitamins!)
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 stalk chopped celery
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 2-4 cups beef stock or low sodium beef broth
• 1 cup red wine (I used Chiraz, because it was what I had on-hand) or 1/4 cup red wine or balsamic vinegar (don't go nuts with the vinegar unless you like things *really* tangy)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup arrowroot powder
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder and/or onion powder
• other seasonings to your taste: dried parsley, cayenne pepper, sea salt

Directions

1. put the chunks of beef into a baggies and dump the arrowroot powder and the granulated garlic or onion powder  in there as well.  Shake to coat. (great job for the kids, make them shake the bag and then get them to say, "And I helped!" in their best southern accent) (sorry, I couldn't help myself) If 1/4 cup of the arrowroot powder doesn't coat the beef thoroughly, then go whole hog and put in another 1/4 cup.
2. put a little bit of oil oil in a hot skillet and immediately throw in the onions and peppers. Cook until they start to soften and become fragrant. Take out of the skillet and put into the crockpot.
3. add a little bit more oil into the pan and place the coated chunks of beef into it. Don't crowd them, do it in batches if you have to.  Brown each side of the beef, and place them into the crockpot with the onions and peppers.
4. add the carrots and celery to the crockpot and cover with beef stock.
5. add the spices of your choosing, put on the lid, and cook for 2 hours on low.
6. after 2 hours, add the wine. Stir it well. Cover and cook for another 2 hours.

Viola!  Beef stew that's fit for a king. Or a caveman.

P.S. The only thing I could possibly add to this stew would be mushrooms. When I make this again, and oh yes, I will, I will add them when I add the wine, so they aren't cooked down to nothing.

Enjoy.

Rachael: Meal Ideas: What Do You Do With Scrambled Eggs?

Crazy egg chairs that I had to share. From www.wilwheaton.tumbler.net

Is it the breakfast of Champions? Is it a quick way to get some protein in your gut first thing in the morning? Are you getting sick of eggs for breakfast?

I go through bouts of eggs / no eggs for breakfast. My go to when I do want eggs is scrambed with cut up chicken, chopped bell peppers, broccoli if I have it, and if I'm feeling primal instead of paleo, a pinch of Parmesan cheese.

I put out the question on our companion FB page: What do you put in your eggs?  I didn't get much of a response, but here is what I did get:

• smoked ham, green peppers and sweet spanish onions
• whatever's in my fridge. The best things are usually leftovers. 
•  Almost anything, as long as it's topped with salsa/Shriracha!!
•  I was in the mood for something sweet today so my one son made a very thin egg pancake and topped it with apple slices, a few chopped grapes and a bit of cinnamon. Then he folded it over like an egg crepe and finished cooking it. It was very good actually because without spices the egg was basically tasteless. 
•  I'm pretty boring with my eggs, I think. Love spinach, sausage, onions, peppers, etc. Add a little feta, Romano or Parmesan cheese. 

Here's an article on Making Great Scrambled Eggs, from The Paleo Diet Lifestyle.  It's a basic tutorial on making the eggs themselves, and leaves you to your own imagination as to what to put in there.


So what do you think? Have you got a great way with eggs that you'd like to share?


For those of you that do not want to eat eggs every morning for breakfast (we all get tired of the same thing, trust me) here's 20 egg-less paleo breakfasts, a very thoughtful blog post from www.paleononpaleo.com.

Rachael's Recipe Review: TPM's Paleo Fudge

Hello,

if you folow us on the the Face Book companion page, you know that I've been talking a lot about this recipe for Paleo Fudge.

I was (and still am) a wicked sugar addict and a chocoholic from waaaaaay back, and I was hoping to find a recipe that would allow me to have a bit of the evil monster, and yet, not break the glucose bank, so to speak.

My fellow blogger, Sara, had found this recipe for freezer fudge (from The Paleo Mom), and tried it out on herself and her family. It was a hit. She's made it several times in the last couple of months, and every time cuts back a little bit on the honey. No one seems to notice.  She also adds things like almond butter, coconut flakes, nuts, etc.

I decided to give it a try myself, but I made it plain, no add-ins of nuts, coconut flakes, etc.  I am usually not a fan of fudge in general, especially not with nuts in it. Call me a purist. And that's my mistake.

Because I have to say that I at first I was disappointed. It tasted like eating chocolate flavored butter.

Alone.

The coconut oil was very rich, and with nothing to break it up, like the nuts I eschewed, it was really not very appetizing.

At first.

I kept the batch I made in the fridge.  I decided that I'd eventually melt it down and make something else out of it, but DaMan and I kept nibbling on it. Usually after dinner, when the sugar monster rears it's ugly head.

I found that in small pieces, it was tolerable.  And it did help me from craving the sugary stuff. I grew to appreciate the fact that a small piece would do me well for the night.

That same batch is still in my fridge. We still nibble off of it. And I still plan on melting it down and doing something else with it. I just haven't figured out what yet. But I'm happy with it, and grateful to The Paleo Mom for blogging about it.

Then my other compatriot who also is involved with this blog, Joie, tried it earlier this week. Joie isn't addicted to the sweets like Sara and I are. But I got this message from Joie after she made her batch:

Ok, holy crap. Did the Paleo Fudge/Chocolate thing. OMG.
Coconut oil, unsweetened cocoa, raw honey, a splash of vanilla, lots of unsweetened coconut, assorted chopped nuts and a little dried fruit.
This will take care of my dark chocolate fix!
Why didn't you force this down my gullet earlier?????

 So, I think that we can all safely say that the Paleo Freezer Fudge is a hit.

Picture from www.thepaleomom.com

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Wings

DaMan loves hot wings. Unfortunately, he prefers the breaded kind, not the buffalo sauced kind. He loves a spicy breading on deep fried wings.

This is so not compatible with the Paleo/Primal lifestyle that we are trying to emulate, but I thought that I might try to work something out as a "Once in a While" treat, while still keeping it gluten-free, and trying to cut down on the badness that happens when you deep-fry foods.

What I came up with probably isn't for day to day clean eating. Most certainly not when you are doing a cleanse, or a 21/30 day challenge, but it does boast to not having any wheat flour, and it was pretty delicious.

I was having a hard time coming up with an egg wash and "breaded" coating that stayed on the chicken wing through the cooking process. I had a moment of genius inspiration and decided to try tahini as way to  thicken the egg wash in to a more batter-like consistency, and it worked pretty darn well! If you don't have or cannot obtain Tahini, you might try an unsweetened almond or other nut/seed butter, but it might be more difficult to incorporate into the egg wash without using a food processor.

In an attempt to keep calories down, I only pan-fried the wings for a short time, just enough to set the coating, and then finished cooking in the oven. I wanted the breading to be crunchy, yet have the same mouth-feel as a deep fried wing.

*Note, work in batches. Fry a few wings at a time, then put on a cooling rack with paper towels or aluminum foil underneath to catch the excess oil.  Then carefully move the wings to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to finish in the oven. You might want to double line it.

So here you go. I hope you enjoy it as much as DaMan did:




Spicy Breaded Chicken Wings

(this recipe coated about 20 wings)

Wet Ingredients for the egg wash:

•  3 eggs
• Spicy Hot Sauce, a few dashes, to taste
• 2-3 Tablespoons Tahini
• 2-3 Tablespoons Almond or coconut milk (if needed to stretch the egg wash)

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 1/3 cup almond meal (dried leftover almond paste from making your own, if you keep it)

Egg Wash with Tahini (the secret ingredient!)

Spices, these are optional, but highly recommended for flavor and for beefing up the "breaded coating":

• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Mrs Dash
• Seasoned pepper
• Paprika
• Sea Salt
• Chili powder
• Cumin
• Cayenne Pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Put all the dry ingredients and your chosen spices into a gallon-sized ziplock baggie. 
3. In a large bowl, whisk all the wet ingredients well.
4. Heat a large skillet with your preferred oil. I ended up using veggie oil, because the coconut oil smoked too quickly. If you can make it work, great.
5. Drag your chicken wings through the egg wash, then coat with the dry ingredients by shaking them in the baggie with the dry ingredients.
6. Place in skillet and let brown for 2-3 minutes on each side. 
7. Place chicken on cooling rack with paper towels underneath to catch excess oil. Let drain for a few minutes.
8. Place drained chicken on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in the oven until the chicken reaches 165 degrees.



Fry in batches, don't overcrowd the skillet.







9. Let wings cool for a few minutes, then serve.

Enjoy!

Here's a Primal Ranch Dressing Recipe that you might use a dipping sauce,it's from Mark's Daily Apple.

place quick fried wings to a cooling rack before transferring them to the oven for finishing.

 

Recipe: Paleo/Primal Crockpot Chicken Chili

It's getting to be that time of year again. When the weather cools, I get to thinking about soups, stews, and chili.

Here's a super easy chili recipe that takes almost no time to prepare, and is yummy, and makes for great leftovers to take for lunches for a few days afterwards.







Paleo/Primal Crockpot Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

• 1lb of ground chicken, turkey, beef, or lamb
• One large onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped
• Green, Red, Orange, or Yellow bell peppers chopped, to equal 1 cup
• Large can of petite diced tomatoes
• Large can of crushed tomatoes or 1 quart of homemade tomato puree
• 1-2T of honey (to cut the acid in the tomatoes) 
• Chicken stock (I usually freeze my stock in ice cube trays, and I used 3 cubes = 6 tablespoons)
• 1 cup diced zucchini
• Spices: Cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

Here's the wicked hard instructions:

• Through everything into the crockpot
• Turn on low
• Wait 8 hours.

See?  I know!!!

And it really is yummy.

I topped with a pinch of mozzarella cheese and some pickled banana peppers. That makes the dish more Primal than Paleo, but it was definitely YUM!

Recipe: Quickie Greens Side-Dish

from www.dreamstime.com

I really wish I'd take pics more often, especially when I cook something I really like!

Here's an easy and quick side that has saved my bacon a few times when I'm faced with serving meat, and am getting sick of the ever present salad.


Bacon Wilted Greens

When I say "Greens" I mean whatever greens you have on-hand. Spinach, kale, Swiss Chard, cabbage, turnip greens, etc.  Whatever you've got down in the bottom of your crisper drawer. It's a great way to use up limp greens, because you're going to wilt them anyway.

• Greens, several large handfuls (You need to experiment to see how many feeds your family after it's cooked down)
• Bacon Fat
• Lemon Juice
• Shredded Parmesan (optional, for garnish)
• Sea Salt

1. Melt a tablespoon of bacon fat into a large skillet set on medium heat
2. Add Greens and coat them well with bacon fat
3. As the greens heat, they wilt. Stir and flip them constantly. They should be ready in 1-2 minutes.
4. Once wilted to desired consistency, turn off flame, sprinkle with lemon, cheese, and salt to taste.

That's it!  It really couldn't be simpler, and it's really yummy.  I served wilted spinach last night with chicken brats, and it required almost no thought, and took less than 15 minutes for the whole dish.

Recipe: Lacto-Fermented Pickles - Wicked Easy

Hey Folks!

I've been on a quest to make REALLY GOOD dill pickles.

I've done the canning thing, and I don't care what recipe you bring me, any pickle that is water-bath canned (meaning heated up to process) SUCKS.

Don't give me that "alum" and "grape leaves" bull-crappy...if they get heated, they get soggy.

I hate soggy pickles.

Do you remember those old fashioned deli style pickles?  The ones that were in a crock on the top of a deli counter? I do.  Big, fat pickles that crunched, and were sour and garlicky, and your mouth would water just by looking at them?

Dang, I need a napkin.

Well, folks, the secret is out. Those really good, and CRUNCHY deli-style sour pickles were "lacto-fermented."  This means they are made the same way sauerkraut is made - but putting them into a brine of salt water and spices, covered and left to ferment for about a week.

I've made one successful batch, and before that a not so successful batch.This was partly because the recipe I used had the salt to water ratio too high, so I adjusted it the second time to much better results.

The other reason is because I, um, sort of forgot about them, and they sat in the brine for 3 weeks before I tasted them. So they were infinitely salty, and basically inedible.

Live and learn!

I printed out the recipe I used, but I didn't save the URL, so I can't give the author credit. I'm sorry.  If you happen on this recipe, and it's yours, please tell me and I will give you all the credit you deserve.

Sour Pickles

These are a favorite of many and a lot of people miss them when going on a Paleo diet, but the naturally lacto-fermented kind is perfectly healthy, curncy and sour. This version is flavoried with garlic and dill. Your garlic will too lacto-ferment and can be enjoyed afterwards as it will be packed with flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 gallon (16 cups) picking cucumbers, unwaxed ( I didn't have a gallon of pickles, I just used what I had, which was probably 5-6 cups)
• 2 bunches of fresh dill (I didn't have any fresh, so I used dried, and way more, about 5-6 heads)
• 16 cloves garlic (I used about 8)
• 3T pickling spices (peppercorns, mustard seeds, bay leaves, cloves) (I used all but the cloves)
• 5 or 6 T of sea salt (I used 5)
•  12 cups of water (distilled if possible, but it's not necessary. I have city water, and they came out just fine)

Preparation

1. Soak the cucumbers in cold water for a few hours, then scrub them thoroughly to prevent any mold from forming during the fermentation process. (I also cut the tips off the cukes so that they wouldn't be bitter)
2. Place the cucumbers,  dill, garlic and spices in your fermentation jar and sprinkle a bit of sea salt as you go a long (I did not add any extra salt, only what was in the brine).
3. Prepare the brine of 5T of sea salt to 8 cups (I raised that to 12) of water, making sure to stir well to dissolve the salt and fill the fermentation jar with the brine so it covers the cucumbers.
4. cover the jar and place it in a warm spot in your kitchen and allow the cukes to ferment for 5 to 10 days.
5. A good way to know when it's ready is to taste it during the fermentation process. It's ready when you are satisfied with the taste.

Ok, so let's talk about a few things:

1. it's best to use a glass container or an old fashioned crock. Metal will interfere with the fermentation process. I did see (and will reference below) a YouTube video where the author used plastic containers, and he said his results were just fine. I'm not gonna get all up in your business about it. The important thing about the container you use is that you have to have a lid that covers well and makes the pickles stay under the water. In the olden days, hypothetical Grandma would put her pickles in a crock and cover it with a plate held down with a stone. I put mine in an old crock-pot crock and inverted the dome lid it came with to hold everything under the water. Worked like a charm.
2. Once the pickles taste the way you want them to taste ( and mine did after 3 days, so please test early and often), you can move them from your fermenting container to a smaller one with just enough brine to cover, and then refrigerate them.  This will slow the fermenting process, and keep your pickles from getting moooooooshy.
3. You cannot can these pickles. Well, I mean, you can, but that means heating them up, and they will get moooooooshy.  Just eat them.  And then make more.  Seriously. They are easy, healthy, and best of all TASTY! I took some into work with me last week, and got some pretty darn good reviews.
4. In my picture above, I also added some banana peppers to see if they tasted good lacto-fermented. they got bitter, so I'm not recommending them

 Here are a couple of YouTube Vids that I watched when I was coming to grips with purposefully fermenting food items that I was going to eat:

Recipe: Joie's take on Paleo Stuffed Peppers with a Pureed Cauliflower side

OMG these turned out so flippin' NOM! Who needs the rice filler?

I followed and tweaked this recipe... .The Caveman Gourmet's Stuffed Bell Peppers

I did a pound each of lean beef and Italian sausage

And my pic looks JUST like that one!! 

I served with pureed cauliflower.... (cauliflower, a bit of coconut milk, butter, garlic, chives, salt, pepper, some Parm cheese and a dab of coconut flour to tighten it up)

Recipe: Sweet-n-Sour Cabbage with Hot Sausage, updated with Pix!

There's a little back story on this recipe. My mother in law had a falling-apart diabetic cookbook from the 60s, and in it there was a recipe she found for sweet and sour cabbage. Either she or I (and it was probably she) came up with the idea to add the hot link sausage to it, and I've been making it ever since.  I've passed this recipe down to tons of people, and even had it privately published in a cookbook at my place of employment. So, it's out there.

Tonight I changes one ingredient to make it more in line with the Paleo / Primal lifestyle. I say that, but know that there is still a sweetener in this.  I have found that honey raises my glucose, but slower, and not as high as processed sugar.  Just keep that in mind if you are in the process of going off the sweet stuff.

That said, it was GOOOOOOD! I'm super-stoked that it worked as well as it did.

Ok, so now here's the recipe:

Sweet-n-Sour Cabbage with Hot Links 

• 2-3 slices of bacon OR one tablespoon of bacon fat
• one large onion sliced into half rings, or smaller if you like
• one large (or 2 small) red cabbage, cored and sliced, the thicker white parts removed (they tend to be bitter)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar (ACV)
• one lb. of your favorite spicy link sausage, going as pure as you can afford***
• large pot with a lid (I use a wok, but i don't recommend it, the vinegar will strip your seasoning off of it)

prep time: 10-20 minutes
cook time: approximately 20-30 minutes

1.  in a large wok or stock pot, cook you bacon until crisp, set aside and when cool, crumble. Use the resulting bacon fat in the pan to cook the onions until partially translucent. 
2. mix the honey and ACV with a whisk until incorporated in a separate bowl or glass (I use the measuring cup)
3. slowly add sliced cabbage to the pot, alternating with a splash of the honey/ACV mixture. Coat the cabbage well each time, otherwise it will turn gray and look very unappetizing.
4. once all the honey/ACV mix and the cabbage are mixed into the pot, re-add the crumbled bacon and put a lid on to simmer.
5. cook the cabbage down to desired tenderness, stirring it once or twice. The more you let it cook down, the more the sweet-n-sour flavor permeates the cabbage. This takes about 20-45 minutes depending on how much cabbage you are using.
6. cut up the sausage into 1-2 inch pieces (or cut each link in half) and mix into the cooked cabbage. replace lid and cook another 15 minutes, until the sausages are cooked thoroughly. You'll know when the skins have split.
7. plate and serve. 

Now, you might be wondering which ingredient I swapped to make this more Paleo, and it was the honey. The recipe used to call for 1/2 cup of brown sugar.  Other than the addition of the sausage, there recipe is still the same as the one from my MIL's 1960's diabetic cookbook.

It struck me that 50 years ago, there wasn't the stigma of Fat = Fat. There were plenty of recipes in that book that called for bacon fat or lard.  It's only in more recent times that "health officials" tell you not to eat the fat.

That tells you something doesn't it?


***as far as the sausage goes, I really haven't really found a spicy "pure" sausage yet. YET.  I would love to find a nitrate-free / sugar-free hot sausage. This time I used Scott Peterson's Pure Beef Hot Link Sausage, and yes, there were nitrates in it.  But I'm always on the look-out, so if you find some somewhere, send me a note.

Also, if you want to make and have it be spice, this but can't/don't use spicy sausage, I've thrown in a teaspoon of dried red pepper flakes to the pot and gotten great results.

UPDATE (06/09/13):  I made this again last week, and took pictures.  They aren't great photos, but it's better than nothing. I've actually had a few requests for photos, so here you go!

adding the cabbage, and coating with the liquid mixture.

Cabbage cooked down, adding the sausage.

Viola! Happiness in your mouf!