I feel like I just posted last year’s Easter Menu and I’m not sure what happened; but here we are again!!

My favorite things about this time of year is seeing the almond orchards in bloom and the foothills turning green and knowing that my kids are in the home stretch towards summer vacation.  I also love having holiday conversations with my kids; for example, our 4 year old Rowan asked me yesterday, “Mom, why does the Easter Bunny go “boing, boing, boing,” and my lame reply, “Well, because he’s a bunny??” Rowan pondered this for a minute, looked up at me with wide eyes and said brightly, “Oh, ok!!”  Sweet sweet innocence.

Now on to the eats! I think I’ll be making several things from last years menu but I wanted to share with you a delicious Tri-Tip Roast recipe that would be perfect for a Sunday dinner (if you want to avoid the traditional ham, or even in addition to) and also I’ll share a recipe for what you can make with the leftover ham and all those hardboiled eggs!

I hope whatever you decide to do or eat this weekend; Easter related or not, that it involves family, fun, friends, and delicious food!!

Tri-Tip Roast

1 (3 lb) tri-tip roast

1 onion, thinly sliced

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 cup coconut milk

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Coconut oil

1. Season the roast generously with salt and pepper on both sides.

2. Heat a spoonful of coconut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  When the pan is nice and hot, place the roast in the hot oil and sear on all sides until browned all over.

3. Transfer the seared roast into a slow cooker and pour the vinegar over the roast.

4. Drizzle the top of the roast with the honey, sprinkle with the minced garlic, and top with the sliced onions.

5. Cover and cook on high for 6-7 hours or until the meat is tender and shreds easily.

6. Remove the roast from the slow cooker and use a fork to shred the meat.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions from the juices in the slow cooker and spread evenly over the top of the shredded roast.

7. Pour the juices from the slow cooker into a medium saute pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer.

8. Add the coconut milk to the pan and whisk together.  Bring back to a simmer and reduce the liquid down by half, whisking occasionally.

9. Pour the sauce over the roast and the onions and serve!

Sweet Potato and Egg Salad

2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small 1/2″ pieces

2 tablespoons coconut oil

5 hardboiled eggs, peeled and diced

1 cup leftover diced ham

2 tablespoons diced chives

2 tablespoons home made mayo

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

1. In a large skillet, heat the coconut oil over medium heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the cut up sweet potatoes and saute until the the potatoes are browned and fork tender.  Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl add the diced eggs, ham, and chives.

3.  Add the cooked sweet potatoes, mayo, salt and pepper and mix well.

4. EAT!!!  YUM!!! GOOD!!!

Have a happy, wonderful, fun-filled weekend and as always, enjoy!

Easter 2012: Tri-Tip Roast & Sweet Potato Salad is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Wow, I can’t believe it’s almost here.  Christmas again.  I really do love the holidays but  I always find myself feeling nostalgic and a bit emotional as we head towards the 25th of December.  I miss the simplicity of how it used to be when I was little; when my mom was still with us and the innocence of not knowing that someday we would have to face Christmas without her. I miss when my grandma’s house in Huntington Beach, CA would be our warm winter escape from our old and drafty farmhouse in cold Northern California.  I miss the wonderful feeling of when the two week break from school would seem to last forever. And finally, I miss being really super extremely excited about everything in the entire world and how great it feels to wake up on Christmas morning knowing that it was a SPECIAL DAY!

Although these memories make my heart ache for the familiar, I am also grateful for the new memories that we are creating.  I can’t wait to cook a giant paleo feast to share with my family who will soon be spilling into our house, making the kids laugh and scream and the dogs bark and spin in circles. I am beyond excited to spoil my precious little niece who is such a bright light in my life. I love it that we will hold true to our goofy family tradition of singing our favorite Christmas carols at the top of our lungs.  I can’t wait to hug close my dear brother and sweet sister.  I know I can count on my dad and uncle to tell us hilarious stories in extremely loud voices, and that my boys will stay up way too late and run around and drive me crazy while I try to cook for 15 people. More than anything else, I know that at the end of the day on Christmas, I’ll snuggle up with John and soak up the warmth and love that comes along with the holiday season, and once again I will realize that what I have right now is amazing and beautiful. Although things will never be like they used to, I don’t want to live in the past because it’s up to me to make the most of right now, this moment, this second…

With that being said, my hope to all of you is to have the Happiest, Healthiest, and most peaceful of Holidays and I send you my deepest appreciation for your continued support of this little blog along with our warmest wishes from my family to yours.  Hold your loved ones close, honor those who are no longer with us, give gratitude to the brave men and women who are protecting us from harm, and revel in the beauty of what we have in each other.

Here is what I plan to make for Christmas dinner.

Prime Rib,  Everyday Paleo Stuffing, Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Pear Salad, and Bacon Wrapped Asparagus, with Pumpkin Pie for dessert.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus is super easy.  Wrap your raw asparagus tightly with a piece of bacon, sprinkle with some black pepper and grill over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the bacon is crispy, turning once half way through the cooking time.

On Christmas Eve I’m making a giant pot of Albondigas Soup.

My Holiday Ramblings and Our Christmas Menu is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

*Another budget friendly post by Erika Schuler!!

Thanksgiving it a time to celebrate all that we are thankful for: family, friends, good health and good old fashion paleo food! Last weekend I celebrated my first Thanksgiving of the year with my amazing college family…. potluck style. I roasted my first turkey ever and managed to stay away from burning it… it’s a MIRACLE!!! I am the only one of my friends who lives, eats, and breathes paleo, so when I sent out the invite for a Thanksgiving potluck party I wasn’t expecting it to be all paleo. With the amazing group of friends I have made at school they all respected my way of life and all cooked paleo dishes. With the exception of mashed potatoes, gravy and rolls

I was in charge of the turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. All my recipes came from Sarah’s Thanksgiving blog last year, with a few of my own twists thrown in here and there.

My posts are all about getting the best deal for your paleo meal, so even though these recipe’s are not my own, I can tell you how much it costs to cook a Thanksgiving meal for 15 hungry college students while not breaking the bank!

Turkey

12 lb turkey

Day before brine your turkey in:

2 cup water

2 cups kosher salt,

2 cups good whisky (optional)

¾ cup organic raw honey

Mix all the ingredients together. Make sure your turkey it defrosted and that you remove the giblets and rinse your bird. Put the turkey in a large pot and pour your brine over your turkey. Put a lid on it and keep refrigerated for at least 24 hours. Making sure to take your bird out of the refrigerator at least an hour before the cooking process so it is at room temperature when you cook it the next day.

Prep your turkey:

4 tbls grass fed butter at room temp

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary and Thyme (I personally used dried thyme because I couldn’t find fresh thyme)

Juice from 1 orange

Mix all the ingredients together.

Preheat oven to 400.  Wash and dry the turkey with paper towels.  Place the turkey in your roaster breast side up.  Pull back the skin from the breast and in between the skin and the meat, place the butter, rosemary, thyme and orange juice mixture. Save some of the butter mixture to rub on the top of the bird too. Sprinkle the entire bird with sea salt and pepper.  Cover and roast for 20 minutes.  Lower the heat to 350 and cook for an additional 20 minutes per pound, uncovering the bird for the last 30 minutes to brown the turkey.  Remove and let rest for 20 minutes before carving.  Make sure you use a meat thermometer to ensure that your turkey is done!

Total cost: $16

Cost per-person: $1.07

Appetizer

BBQ Bacon Wrapped Persimmons- made by Matthew Schupp

4 fuyu persimmons

8 pieces on bacon

5 skewers sticks

Cut persimmons into 8ths; cut pieces of bacon in half, wrap around persimmon slices and skewer (fit as many as you can on one stick). Put foil down on the BBQ so the bacon grease doesn’t catch on fire (learned that the hard way). Once the bacon is fully cooked take off the BBQ let them cool a little and remove from the sticks and put on your serving platter.

Total cost: $7

Cost per person: $ 0.48

Side Dishes

Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes

1 bag of small yams from Trader Joe’s (about 4 large yams from the grocery store if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s where you live)

2 tbls grassfed butter

1 tbls raw organic honey

1 tbls cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 350 line a cookie sheet with foil. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into cubes. Toss in melted grassfed butter honey and cinnamon. Spread them out evenly on the lined cookie sheet and roast in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown and tender.

Total cost: $5

Cost per person: $0.33

Green Beans – made by Alessandra Cappello

1 bag of French green beans (from Trader Joes, if buying then in bulk, about 1-2 pounds)

3 cloves of chopped garlic

½ cup extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

Salt and pepper to taste

Break the ends of the green beans off and rinse them. Once cleaned put them in a large pot fill with water until the green beans are covered, add a pinch of salt for flavor. Bring to a boil and cook for 4 minutes, until al dente (firm, yet tender). Drain the water and toss the green beans in garlic, evoo, salt and pepper.

Total cost: $2

Cost per person: $0.13

Mix Green Salad- made by Nicole Fillinger

1 bag of mixed greens

1 apple

½ cup sliced almonds

1 cup of cherry tomatoes

Oil and balsamic dressing (as much as you see fit, salt and pepper to taste)

Rinse green, tomatoes and apple. Core and cut up apple. In a large bowl put the greens, tomatoes almonds, apples and toss in dressing.

Total cost: $7.39

Cost per person: $0.49

Cranberry Sauce-Sarah’s Everyday Paleo Recipe with a few twists, made by Evan Garfeild

1 lb Cranberries (about 4 cups)

1 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice

½ tbls cinnamon

1 tsp fresh ginger

2 tbls organic raw honey (if you like your sauce tangy and a little sour leave out, it is just as delicious!)

In a large soup pot add the cranberries, orange juice, cinnamon, and ginger and bring to a slow boil.  Once all the cranberries have popped add in honey and simmer, stirring often until the sauce becomes thick, about 10-15 minutes. Pour your sauce into serving bowl, cover and refrigerate. (you can either serve warm or cold)

Total cost: $ 6.50

Cost per person: $ 0.43

Dessert

Everyday Paleo Pumpkin Pie

1 sugar pumpkin

1tbls pumpkin pie spice

Crust

½ cup hazelnuts

1 cup pecans

4 tablespoons melted organic grass fed butter

Pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 350. Place the nuts in a food processor and process until the nuts are flour like or almond meal like consistency. Pour into a small mixing bowl, add the butter and salt and mix into a thick dough. Using your hands, spread evenly into a pie pan and back for 10 minutes.

Note: buy your nuts in bulk it is cheaper this way!!!

Filling

1 – 14oz can of organic pumpkin puree (nothing added, just pumpkin) à [I made my own pumpkin puree by roasting 1 sugar pumpkin and adding in 1 tbls of pumpkin pie spice.. I will include the instruction below if you want to do it this way]

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon fresh grated ginger

2 eggs

½ cup raw organic honey

½ cup coconut milk

While the crust is in the oven, whisk all of the pie filling ingredients together.  Pour into the curst that has been baked for 10 minutes, return to the oven and bake for and additional 45 minutes

Roasted Sugar Pumpkin: preheat oven to 350. Cut your sugar pumpkin in half and remove seeds. Place the pumpkins in a glass baking dish cut side down and add about a cup of water bake for 45-60 minutes. Scoop out the inside of the pumpkin into a food processor and blend until smooth (add a tablespoon of warm water if it doesn’t smooth out) once pureed add in pumpkin pie spice mix well.

Total cost: $11

Cost per person: $0.73

The grand total for the whole thanksgiving meal is: $54.89

That’s a whopping $3.66 per person!!! Now that is a price we can all be thankful for this thanksgiving year  This price includes only the major item’s bought for the dinner, this doesn’t include items that I keep on hand at all times, such as grass fed butter, oil, spices and eggs.

I want to end my post with a BIG thank you to all my friends for sharing all their wonderful recipes. The paleo potluck thanksgiving party was a blast and wouldn’t have been possible without all of you I am thankful for having such amazing friends that I am proud to call family

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Paleo Thanksgiving Potluck Party For College Students! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Stuffed Pork and Salty Sweet Cravings

Time for another college budget friendly meal! On tonight’s menu; sun dried tomato stuffed pork, zucchini and for dessert salty sweet cravings.

I was feeling creative tonight and wanted to try something new and fun for dinner. I opened my freezer and refrigerator to find a pork tenderloin, sun dried tomatoes, minced garlic, and fresh basil.  The basil was home grown by yours truly (bonus point: free ingredient!). Put it all together and you get Sun Dried Tomato Stuffed Pork.

Sundried Tomato Stuffed Pork

2 pound Pork Tenderloin

1 8.5 oz jar sundried tomato haves

1 T minced garlic

7 Fresh basil leaves

Butterfly pork tenderloin. On one side spread the sun dried tomato and garlic. Lay the basil leaves on top of the tomatoes fold over the other half of the pork over and tie the pork with 3-4 pieces of string so that the stuffing stays in while cooking. Sear the pork on a hot BBQ for 5 minutes on each side and finish in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Feeds: 8

Total Coast:  $10

Coast per person: $1.25

Here is another cheap and easy recipe for those who are battling mid-day, late night, or anytime cravings for something salty, sweet and still paleo. This snack won’t break the bank and chances are you already having the ingredients on hand.

Salty Sweet Cravings

1 ½ cups unsweetened Coconut Flakes

1 tablespoon melted coconut oil

1 tsp sea salt

Melt coconut oil in a medium size microwave safe bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups coconut flakes and sea salt mix until all the flakes are evenly coated. Line a cookie sheet with foil and evenly spread out the coconut flakes. Bake at 350 for 4 1/2 minutes or until golden brown (make sure to watch them because they will go from golden brown to yucky burnt fast!)

Feeds: 12

Total cast:  $18

Coast per person: $1.50

Dinner and dessert together $2.75 a person!

Stuffed Pork and Salty Sweet Cravings is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Instead of doing a day in the life, I have managed to keep track of some of our random meals over the last few days.  You might see a common theme in some of our meals which is due to the abundance of seasonal veggies that I have been receiving each week from my CSA (can you say summer squash??)  So let’s get started!

Here’s an example of a typical quick dinner.

For this dinner I cooked up 2 lbs of grass fed beef and seasoned it very much like I seasoned my recent Stuffed Zucchini recipe but without the eggplant. While the meat was cooking I roasted at 400 for about 20 minutes some baby zucchinis, japanese eggplant and okra all tossed in coconut oil.  I also made a fast salad with diced cucumber, red onion, fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar and we finished off some leftover mashed sweet potatoes.

I don’t have a picture of it but the next day I scrambled eggs with the leftover veggies for breakfast.  We ate everything else the night before or I would have added in some of the leftover ground beef to the scramble as well.

This next meal picture is a brand new recipe!

Kale Meatballs

1 lb sausage of your choice (I used chicken Italian sausage that I buy from our local butcher who uses pasture raised chicken)

1 lb ground beef

1 bunch kale, tough stems removed and chopped finely in a food processor

1/2 red onion, finely diced

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375, mix all ingredients together by hand and form into meatballs a little larger than golf balls.  Fry the meatballs in a large skillet in coconut oil until all sides are browned.  Move into a glass baking dish, cover tightly with tin foil and finish in the oven for 20 minutes.

We ate these meatballs with my No Potato Salad with some broccoli added to it and with baked sweet potatoes.  All of us ate the leftovers the following day for lunch.

And now…

This dinner is yet again; roasted veggies in coconut oil but I added in some garlic cloves, and I sliced the eggplant thin like chips and I also roasted some cherry tomatoes and topped them with fresh diced basil.  The kids did NOT like the roasted cherry tomatoes but they will eat them fresh by the handfuls! Our protein was leftover rotisserie chicken (I had bought 2 rotisseries from our health food store 2 days earlier) that was shredded up and sauted in grass fed butter with diced leeks along with some of the leftover baked sweet potatoes from the night before and seasoned with just a little sea salt and black pepper.

Here’s dinner from 2 nights ago.  It was onions and cabbage sauted in grass fed butter with 1 lb of grass fed ground beef and 1 package of Applegate farms chicken apple sausages seasoned with a little bit of cardamom and caraway.  Again we had roasted zucchini and this time I roasted some sweet potatoes and we ate left over No Potato Salad.  This picture is actually form lunch the following day with the leftovers and some sauerkraut as well.

And here is last nights dinner!

Chicken and Kelp Noodle Stir Fry

1.5 lbs diced chicken breast

1 package Kelp Noodles

1 small yellow onion, sliced

4-5 small zucchinis, diced

3 celery stalks, diced

1 small red bell pepper, sliced

A few splashes of coconut aminos or wheat free Tamari

A few splashes of sesame oil

About 1 teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Saute chicken and onions in coconut oil until the chicken is almost done.  Add in the rest of the veggies and saute until veggies are tender and chicken is not longer pink in the middle.  Add the noodles and remaining ingredients, mix well until warm all the way through and serve!

Last but not least, here some school lunch ideas!

 Pictured here is carrots, cherry tomatoes, apple slices, plantain chips, raisins, salami and ham from Applegate Farms and home made mayo.

 Pictured here is ham from Applegate farms, carrots, tomatoes, and guacamole.

 Last but not least is Tanka Bites, cherry tomatoes, honeydew melon and celery with almond butter topped with raisins.

All lunches packed in Planet Box lunch containers.

I hope this is helpful and as always, enjoy!

A Few Random Meals and more School Lunch Ideas is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

John told me last night that this was one of the best meals I have made in a while so either my cooking has been really shabby lately or my stuffed zucchini was a step above our average dinner. We were given a few giant zucchinis from a friend and that was all the excuse I needed to stuff them, bake them, and watch my family devour them.  I used ground bison but you can use whatever ground meat you have on hand. I hope you enjoy!!

Stuffed Zucchini

3-4 large zucchinis

2 pounds ground bison or other ground meat

1 red onion, diced

1 eggplant, peeled and diced

8.5 oz sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil, finely chopped

1 cup fresh basil, diced

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon dried oregano,

A splash of balsamic vinegar

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 375. Cut a thin slice of the top of the zucchinis and scoop out the inside of the squash leaving the shell.  Drizzle the insides of the squash with olive oil and bake for 20 minutes.  While the squash shells are in the oven, start browning your ground meat, when the meat is almost brown, add the onions, eggplant, and diced excess zucchini, and cook until the eggplant is soft.  Add the remaining ingredients and cook for another 5-10 minutes.  Pull the shells out of the oven and stuff them all as full as possible with the meat mixture.  Put the stuffed zucchinis back into the oven and bake for another 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Stuffed Zucchini! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

As mentioned in a previous post, I am currently the June featured chef for US Wellness Meats! Below is one of the recipes that I shared with them for their site and the beef from US Wellness Meats was out of this world tender and delicious! 

Ginger Beef with Mango Salsa

2 beef inside skirt steaks (2 lbs of steak)

Lettuce leaves

Marinade

¼ cup coconut aminos or wheat free tamari

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

Big pinch of cayenne pepper

Black pepper to taste

Mango Salsa

1 cup green mango, finely diced

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 avocado, finely diced

1/3 cup cilantro leaves, finely diced

½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

Whisk all marinade ingredients together.  Cut each steak into three even pieces and toss in the marinade until all steaks are well coated.  Let the steaks  sit in the marinade at room temperature for 20 minutes and then grill for 1-2 minutes on each side.  Remove the steak from the grill and let it rest for 10 minutes or while you prepare the mango salsa.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, gently toss together all the mango salsa ingredients and set aside.   Thinly slice the grilled steak into strips.

To serve, place a few lettuce leaves on each plate, top with a serving of steak strips and finish with a large scoop of the mango salsa.

Serves 5-6.

Enjoy!

Ginger Beef with Mango Salsa is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

We had such an awesome time this weekend spending time with my sister and her family, hanging out in San Francisco, and playing, relaxing and just being.  It was such a needed weekend of rest and we all came home rejuvenated and revived.  John and I headed straight for the gym when we got home for a much needed workout and when we got home the entire family pitched in and made our Memorial Day dinner.  It’s kind of chilly and cloudy so we did not do the typical barbecue, but instead cooked up what was in the fridge and together created an amazingly tasty and easy dish.  Here’s what the family had to say about dinner.

Coby (age 15): Um, it was… I don’t know; a satisfying meal to come home to after a long time away from home.

Jaden (age 7): AWESOME!!!

Rowan (age 3): Good.

John (getting old): I thought it was a great meal to come home to after traveling all weekend and having to eat out.  I liked how the zucchini was sliced thin and noodle like!

Me (not as old as John): Super freaking tasty and I love that we all pitched in.

Sausage “Spaghetti in Creamy Tomato Sauce

1.25 lbs mild Italian pork sausage, diced (we used the precooked sausage from US Wellness Meats – I’ll be there June featured chef so be sure to check their site and mine for my recipes using their amazing products!) YOU can use whatever meat you like – ground beef, sausage, chicken, beef – whatever you have on hand.

3 small leeks, diced

½ red onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, sliced thin

1 – 14oz can of artichoke hearts packed in water, cut into quarters

1 tablespoon coconut oil

5 zucchini squash, sliced thin like noodles (We sliced our zucchini thin with a mandolin slicer and then used a knife to slice the thin noodle strips into “spaghetti” like noodles.  You can also make it easier on yourself and use a julienne slicer.

Sauce

1 – 14.5 oz can of organic diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons coconut cream concentrate from Tropical Traditions (or sub with coconut milk, or grass fed heavy whipping cream)

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced

Black pepper and sea salt to taste

In a large skillet or wok heat the coconut oil.  If you are using raw meat, brown the meat in the coconut oil and add the onion, leeks, and bell peppers.  If you are using pre-cooked sausages like we did, cook the onions, leeks and bell peppers first in the coconut oil until tender and then add the meat and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until the sausage is warmed through.  In a small sauce pan mix together the can of diced tomatoes with the juice with the coconut cream concentrate.  Bring to a simmer and add the remaining sauce ingredients and mix well.  To the meat and veggies add the zucchini and artichokes and pour the sauce over.  Mix well and cook for another 5-6 minutes, just until the zucchini al dente – do not over cook or they will turn to mush! Serves 5.

Enjoy!

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“Spaghetti” in Creamy Tomato Sauce is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

A nice beef roast is something I crave in the fall or winter months but I had a big ol’ grass fed chuck roast that was asking to be made; so I made it.  I wanted to try something different then the standard roast in the oven or slow cooker so after being inspired by watching a recent Food Network show called Chopped, when one of the contestants rolled a giant elk tenderloin in a coffee spice mixture, I decided to make my own version and try it on our roast.  The results?  So good, beyond description really, you’ll just have to try it for yourself and let me know what you think!

Smokey Roast

Coffee Spice Rub

2 tablespoons coffee grounds

½ teaspoon ground chipotle

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

Mix all spice rub ingredients together and set aside.

Roast

½ tablespoon coconut oil (I tried out a new brand of coconut oil called Kelapo and it’s very tasty, mild, and down right delicious!)

2.5 lb beef chuck roast

1 red onion, halved and sliced

¾ cup water

Heat your coconut oil in a skillet over medium to medium high heat, make sure your pan is nice and hot!  Take the spice rub mixture and rub the entire amount into and all over the roast – really rub it in, do not just brush it on!.  Using tongs, place the roast into the hot skillet and sear for 3-4 minutes on each side.  If your pan is not hot enough you will lose your spices, but if it’s too hot, you will burn your roast.  You want it to make a nice crust on both sides of the meat.  Place your sliced onions in the bottom of a slow cooker. Once the roast has been seared, put the roast in the slow cooker on top of the onions. Add the water, cover and cook on high for 5-6 hours or on low for 7-8 hours.  Serves 6.

Enjoy!!

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Smokey Roast is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Below you will find recipes for a complete meal!  As I mentioned in my Easter post, my family came over for dinner last Saturday night and we prepared for Easter as well as celebrated my birthday a few days early.  I made dinner because that’s what I do and below is what I prepared – enough to feed five adults and my three hungry boys!  My dad very sweetly brought over gluten free cakes from Trader Joe’s.  Yes, that’s right CAKES. Apparently I’m so old that it was necessary to have more than one cake in order for all the candles to fit.  I guess if two cakes is the worst thing so far about being another year older; I must assume that getting older is pretty darn awesome….

Steak Dry Rub

1/4 cup smoked paprika

3 tablespoons cumin

1/4 cup chili powder

2 tablespoons Mexican oregano

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Sea salt to taste

Olive oil brushed onto outside of steak

Mix all dry rub ingredients together in a large bowl.  Place each steak directly into the dry rub mixture and make sure each side is well coated, rubbing the dry rub into the stead.  Let the steaks sit for at least 30 minutes.  Coat each side with a bit of olive oil before the steaks hit the grill.  We used top sirloin but this dry rub is great on rib eyes and flank steak too!!

Avocado Salsa

4 avocados, diced

3 roma tomatoes, diced

1/2 red onions, minced

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and serve on top of your steaks!

Chopped Broccoli Salad

3 cups broccoli, finely chopped

1 ½ cups of carrots, diced

1 apple, diced

9 strips of bacon, cooked and diced

3 green onions, diced

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1 tabelspoon fresh dill

Black pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and serve!!

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A Dinner Menu: Steak Dry Rub, Avocado Salsa, and Chopped Broccoli Salad is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

It was mentioned in Paleo Talk 14 that I would finally get around to documenting and posting one of my food items. The first one I decided on is curry. Much of the information and ingredients are similar to Sarah’s green curry. We differ in a few of the prep steps and brands used so this will add another angle on how to make a super easy meal. I call this Red or Green because the steps are pretty much the same no matter which paste you have. The Red is spicier and has more chili and shrimp aroma. The Green is crisper and refreshing with strong Kaffir lime flavor.

I like to have my workspace set and items prepped before anything goes in the pan. Having your workspace set and things generally tidy before you begin is a good habit to get in to. This also cuts the risk of cross-contamination – remember folks, safety never takes a holiday!

Thai Curry (Red or Green)

Equipment:
Wok or large cooking device. Hot stove. Sharp knives

~1lb (500g) of meat. Pork, chicken or shrimp. I use pork country style ribmeat. No need to get fancy here.

~1lb (500g) of vegetables. Choose sturdy varieties such as broccoli, peppers, and squashes. When not using fresh I like to grab a bag of “store-brand” frozen stir fry veggies with asparagus. Most stores have this mix. Bamboo shoots optional.

1 can of Mae Ploy Coconut Milk (560mL) or Chaokoh (400mL) Both are great milks with loads of thick creamy good stuff. Mae Ploy has the bigger can. More is better.

.5oz (~14g) Mae Ploy Curry Paste. You can find the 14oz (400g) size for under $4 online or in stores. I get mine from Cash & Carry, a restaurant supply store. I find that Mae Ploy has the best authentic close to homemade flavor. Dried red chile, garlic, shallot, lemongrass, salt, galanga, shrimp paste, kaffir lime peel.

Fish sauce. This junk is FOUL. It smells like a bucket of fish that has been left out to rot in the sun. Oh wait, that’s exactly what it is. If you ever need to ruin someone’s day, spill some of this stuff in their car. In summer. (Squid and Tiparos brands are fine)

Start by preheating your cooking device. I use a cast ion wok. Duh. Any large pan or pot will work though. Crank it to high and get that thing smoking hot.

Slice your vegetables to manageable sizes. If using bell beppers, remove the seeds and white ribs inside as they can impart a bitter flavor. Set in a bowl

Next slice your pork or chicken in tiny thin strips across the grain. This will keep it tender and allow it to cook quickly. Set in dish and place out of the way. Wash everything.

Open the can of coconut milk. DO NOT SHAKE IT! You want it to be as separated as possible. Scoop the thick cream out (should be about the top half of the can) and carefully (stand back-make sure you’re wearing pants) place it in the red hot pan. By now your stove fan should be on and front door open because it’s gonna smoke like crazy. This step is called “cracking the coconut” and it is crucial to getting proper curry. Heat/boil/stir the coconut cream for a good 3 minutes. You want it to reduce and break. You will see a change happen where the coconut oil breaks out as the water is evaporated. At this time add your curry paste and mix well to blend it in. The hot coconut fat will do magic on the curry paste and cause the essential oils in the paste to break out.

Add the meat strips to the bubbling goo along with a few splashes of fish sauce and stir-fry until mostly cooked, about 6 minutes.

Depending on the size of your pan, you may need to transfer the meat out and replace with the vegetables. If you can keep both in the pan, great. With vegetables in pan, add the remainder of the coconut milk can. Simmer another 4 min or until everything is cooked. To get a real authentic flavor, add Thai basil and Kaffir lime leaves during the simmer.

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Red or Green Thai Curry is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

As promised, here is my recipe for Chili Colorado.  I would suggest this recipe as a great weekend project as it was a bit more time consuming then my usual recipes.  I like quick and easy meals but a dish like this warrants a little bit of extra love and care.  I suggest doubling this recipe if you want a lot of leftovers, especially if you have a larger family. We demolished this Chili Colorado on the night we made it and there was only enough leftovers for one person the next day.  John snuck the rest out of the house before I could tackle him and keep it for myself. 

Everyday Paleo Chili Colorado

4 cups water

7 dried New Mexico chilies (I use El Guapo brand for all the dried chilies, found at most major grocery stores)

3 dried California chilies

3 dried Chile de Arbol

1 yellow onion, diced

5 garlic cloves, minced or 2 teaspoons crushed garlic

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2.5 lbs beef stew meat

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons dried oregano

2 cups beef broth

2 – 6oz cans of tomato paste

Black pepper and sea salt to taste

Rinse the dried chilies and place them in a pot with the 4 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, turn the heat off and let the chilies soak in the water for 30 minutes.  While the chilies are soaking, dice your onion and garlic.  Heat the oil in a large soup pot and add the onions.  Cook the onions until they start to brown.  Add the garlic and the beef to the onions and brown the beef for 7-10 minutes.  Add the beef broth, tomato paste, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper to the beef.  Bring to a boil, turn down to medium low or low and let simmer. While the beef is simmering, it’s time to prepare the peppers.  Remove the stems from the peppers and place the peppers in a food processor with half of the liquid that the peppers were boiling in. Pulse the peppers until smooth.  Using a sieve, pour the ground peppers through the sieve and into the pot with the beef.  Use a spoon to help the contents through the sieve, leaving behind the seeds and any of bits of pepper skin.  Pour the remaining cooking liquid through the sieve as well into the pot.  Bring to a boil, turn back down to low and let the Colorado simmer for 2 hours or until your meat is tender. Serve with avocado and cilantro. Serves 6.

Enjoy!!!

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Everyday Paleo Chili Colorado!! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Pancit is a Filipino dish made with meat, noodles, and veggies and seasoned with soy sauce.  My husband’s grandfather on his mom’s side was born and raised in the Philippines and passed his cultural and traditions on to his family, especially through the food!  It’s been years since my husband has had homemade pancit and after talking about the dish yesterday we remembered how great my recent Sausage n’ Cabbage Noodle dish was and decided to try using the same method for pancit! So we went for it and well, it was good enough to blog about so I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did!!  Next time I make this for variation I will sub half of the cabbage for grated sweet potato to give it a starchier element.

Everyday Paleo Pancit

1.5 lbs chicken breasts, cut into small bite size pieces

1 lb pork loin, cut into small bit size pieces

½ lb shrimp, tails removed and de-veined

2 tablespoons coconut oil

8 green onions, diced

2 teaspoons crushed garlic

4 carrots, grated

6-8 cups shredded green cabbage

¼ cup coconut aminos or Tamari wheat free soy sauce

1/4 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons fish sauce

Black pepper to taste

Lemon wedges

In a large wok or skillet heat the coconut oil over medium to medium high heat.  When the wok or pan is nice and hot, add the chicken, pork, green onions and garlic and saute for about 6-7 minutes or until the meat is done all the way through but still tender. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.  Add the cabbage and carrots to the wok or pan and cook until the cabbage is tender, about 4 minutes.  Add the shrimp to the cabbage and saute together until the shrimps turn pink. Add the chicken and pork back to the veggies and pour in the coconut aminos or soy sauce, chicken broth, and fish sauce. Season with lots of black pepper.  Stir well and cook for another minute or two.  Serve in bowls with a lemon wedge.

Enjoy!!

Everyday Paleo Pancit is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Ever ponder where the heck Salisbury Steak originated from?  I’m always curious about life in general and especially food so with the help of our handy Internet, I gave myself a quick lesson regarding the origin of this timeless dish. Click here if you, like me, would like to know more about this classic diner favorite.

For me Salisbury Steak conjures up memories of what my dad would order at Perko’s; a lifeless hamburger patty with grey “home-style” gravy and lumpy mashed potatoes.  I remember thinking even as a little girl that that meal really did have potential, if someone simply gave it some thought and a bit of creative effort.  Well, tonight my boys and I went for it and what we created was pretty darn delicious and not at all the Salisbury Steak of my past.  I hope you and your family enjoys the Everyday Paleo rendition as much as we did!

Everyday Paleo Salisbury Steak

Steaks

2 pounds of ground beef

1 cup spinach, finely diced

1 egg

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon rubbed sage

¼ teaspoon ground marjoram

¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper

2 tablespoons grass fed butter, ghee, or coconut oil

Gravy

4 tablespoons butter

1 red onion thinly sliced

½ red bell pepper thinly sliced

2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms

1 cup beef broth

¼ cup coconut milk

Black pepper to taste

In a large mixing bowl place all the ingredients for the steaks and using your hands mix well.  In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium high heat.  While the butter is melting, form the hamburger mixture into thin oval patties (makes 7-8).  Place the patties into the hot melted butter, make sure it sizzles, you want the pan to be nice and hot!  Cook for 2 minutes on each side, the meat should be nice and browned on both sides.  You’ll have to cook these in batches so add more butter or coconut oil if necessary. Once all the steaks are done, place in the oven to keep warm and now it’s time for the gravy!

In the same pan that you just cooked your steaks in, melt the butter over medium heat. Saute the onions, bell pepper, and mushrooms in the butter until tender, about 7-8 minutes.  Add the beef broth and deglaze the pan (scrap all the bits off the bottom of the pan that might still be there from cooking the steaks).  Bring to a boil and add the coconut milk and pepper.  Mix well, bring back to a boil.  At this point you’ll want to turn the heat down until the gravy is just simmering.  Now you’ll want to reduce down the gravy by stirring frequently for about 10 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.

Serve the steaks with the gravy ladled over the top and garnished with diced flat leaf Italian Parsley.

Serves 5

We ate ours with some pressure cooked sweet potatoes.

Enjoy!

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Everyday Paleo Salisbury Steak is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Is it really only Tuesday?  I have crammed so much into the last two days that my body is screaming FRIDAY but my jam packed calendar is telling me otherwise.  Look forward to a post that I’ll put up tomorrow with more details about my book – including an actual release date!  Yes, I’m teasing you a bit but hopefully that means you will check in with me tomorrow for all the juicy details.

Now lets talk pork chops.  John made a meal last night that was so impressive that I had to share his recipe with you all.  I did not help that much except for to make a few small suggestions in order to keep the house from burning down.  Why do men like to cook everything on high??   Sorry babe, I couldn’t help it.  : )  Here’s John’s recipe proving once again that what you have on hand is usually all you need to make a delicious meal without a lot of time spent in the kitchen.

Dad’s Pork Chops

4 pork chops, 1/4-inch thick

Salt and pepper, to taste

½ cup Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon dried french thyme

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Preheat oven to 425°F. Season pork chops lightly with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, combine mustard, mustard powder, French thyme, and garlic; mix well and spread evenly over both sides of the chops. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the chops and brown for 2 minutes per side. Transfer your skillet to the oven and cook for an additional 5-8 minutes, until no longer pink and cooked through. Serve over sauted baby spinach.

Enjoy!

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I have had a few requests for a fish recipe so last night I threw this dinner together with what had in the house: some beautiful carrots from the GRUB farm, green onions, fresh ginger, and wild caught Mahi Mahi pieces from Trader Joe’s.  I wish now that I had made more of everything, it turned out to be more of a snack for me and the boys instead of an actual dinner but it was delicious!!  I’ll advise you now to double this recipe if you have a big family.

Oh, and my kids like fish but they LOVED this meal and I would bet that if you are serving fish to your kiddos for the first time; this dish could be the one to get them excited about eating seafood (remember to let them help you cook to get them really excited about trying it!)

Gingered Carrots with Mahi Mahi

4 carrots, sliced

3 tablespoons grass fed butter or coconut oil

5 green onions, diced

½ teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 pound of mahi mahi pieces or other white fish of your choice

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

½ cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon coconut aminos or 1/2 teaspoon of wheat free tamari

Fresh ground black pepper and sea salt to taste

Saute the carrots in 2 tablespoons of the butter or coconut oil over medium heat for 5-7 minutes or until the carrots start to brown.  While the carrots are cooking, mix the chicken broth, coconut aminos or tamari and black pepper together in a bowl and set aside.  Add the green onions to the carrots and cook for another minute.  Add the lemon juice, ginger, and garlic to the pan and sauté just until the veggies are coated with the ginger and garlic.  Sprinkle with a little sea salt, stir again, and remove the carrot mixture from the pan and set aside.  Add the remaining tablespoon of butter or coconut oil to the same pan and melt over medium heat. Add the fish pieces and cook for 1 minute on each side, making sure that your pan is nice and hot so that the fish sear and turn golden brown on each side. Now, pour the chicken broth mixture that you made earlier over the fish, cover and cook for another 1 – 2 minutes or until the fish is tender and flakes apart easily.  Do not overcook!!  Serve the fish over the gingered carrots and be ready to fall in love….  Serves 2-3 adults.  I recommend doubling this recipe!!

Enjoy!!

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Gingered Carrots with Mahi Mahi is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

The boys and I made this fast meal on  Monday night and it was delicious and easy enough that the evening did not feel as much like hectic Monday’s often can….

Oh, and check out Rowan chowing on spaghetti squash – it was like some sort of spaghetti squash nirvana!!

Now for the recipe!

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Bake

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in half (I used the organic free range chicken breast tenders from Trader Joe’s)

8.5oz jar of julliane cut sun dried tomatoes

8 garlic cloves, sliced thin

2 tablespoons dried basil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Place the chicken breasts in a large glass baking dish.  Sprinkle with the dry spices and mix well.  Sprinkle the sliced garlic on top and spread the sun dried tomatoes and the olive oil that it’s in the jar over the entire dish.  Seal tightly with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the tin foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.

I also made Brussels sprouts cooked with diced bacon and a spaghetti squash cooked in the pressure cooker and tossed with some grass fed butter.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

12oz of bacon, diced

1/2 lb Brussels Sprouts

1/2 teaspoon dried dill

Back pepper to taste

Dice the raw bacon and cook in large skillet until crispy.  While the bacon cooks, wash the sprouts, cut off the ends, and quarter.  Once the bacon is crispy, add the sprouts to the bacon and cook for 7-10 minutes or until the sprouts are tender.  Season with the dill and pepper and serve.

Enjoy!!

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Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Bake is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Fast Shrimp

I was so lucky to be at Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solution Seminar today, right here in Chico, CA! I met a wonderful group of people and of course the highlight being Robb’s seminar and hearing him make a whole lot of sense about this Paleo “Thang” (as Robb put it…)! After returning home to some hungry kids and a husband who so sweetly arranged a date night for us, I made some Fast Shrimp for the boys.  Actually, Jaden was really the one who did all the hard labor!  The point of this post is simple; good food, paleo food, can be fast food, right in the comfort of your own kitchen.  With simple ingredients and a bit of creativity you can make quality scrumptious meals without hardly even trying… This one took as about 10 minutes to put together.

Fast Shrimp

1 lb Wild Caught Argentinian Red Shrimp or other shrimp of your choice (I found mine at Trader Joe’s in the freezer section, raw, tails removed and de-veined)

1 bag frozen roasted red bell peppers and onions from Trader Joes (or 1 bell pepper diced and 1/2 yellow onion diced)

4 big hand fulls of baby spinach leaves

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons coconut milk

1/2 tablespoon curry powder (or more to taste)

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat the coconut oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and bell peppers and cook until defrosted and sizzling if using the frozen or until the veggies become tender if using fresh.  Add the shrimp and the spinach and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the shrimp curls up and is no longer opaque in the middle.  Add the coconut milk and spices, mix well and serve!  Serves 3-4. Delicious, fast, no fuss.  As Rowan said, “Good Shrimpies!”

Enjoy!

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Fast Shrimp is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Prosciutto Perfection

As many of you know who follow my blog I love to just grab what I have in the fridge and make a meal happen.  I don’t like to think too hard unless I have to, especially when it comes to food!  Here’s what John and I quickly threw together for lunch yesterday and we both loved it enough to blog about it.  The boys also gave their stamp of approval when they devoured the leftovers for an after school snack!

Prosciutto Perfection

3 oz prosciutto, diced

4 already cooked chicken breasts, diced

2 leeks, trimmed and diced

1 bunch kale, diced

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Black pepper and garlic powder to taste

3 parsnips

Peel the parsnips and cut into chunks.  Place in your pressure cooker with a cup of water, bring to pressure and cook for 7 minutes.  If you do not have a pressure cooker, hurry up and get one; or you can steam the cut up parsnips for 10-15 minutes. While the parsnips are cooking, dice your meat and veggies.  Heat the coconut oil in a large skillet and add the diced leeks.  Cook until the leeks start to brown, add the diced prosciutto and cook for another 4-5 minutes.  Add the kale and saute until the kale is wilted.  Add the chicken, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder and black pepper.  Saute for another 3-4 minutes.   Remove the parsnips from the pressure cooker and mash.  Serve the stir fry over the mashed parsnips.

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Fun-Burger!!

Last night’s dinner, if anything, was pure fun.  The boys did most of the work as I supervised and the mess was nothing short of epic!  I should have taken a picture of the “aftermath” but as I stated on my Facebook page last night, life’s too short to do anything but embrace the craziness!  I wouldn’t call this post a recipe but more of an idea of how to get the kids involved and an example that the typical Monday night paleo burger can be just about anything but boring!  What can your family come up with?

Fun-Burgers!

2 lbs grass fed ground beef

Sea salt, black pepper, and garlic powder to taste

5 eggs, fried

10 bacon strips

4 sweet potatoes, grated

1 pound of broccoli florets

Coconut flour drop biscuits

Lettuce mix, sliced dill pickles and tomato slices

Mix the ground beef and spices together and form into hamburger patties and set aside. Fry the bacon, remove from the pan and set aside.  Shred the sweet potatoes in a food processor or with a cheese grater.  Fry the grated sweet potatoes in some of the bacon grease.  While the sweet potatoes are cooking, pan fry your burgers, about 4 minutes per side.  Remove the burgers from the pan, set aside and fry the eggs in some grass fed butter or coconut oil.  Of course you should have several children helping with all stages of the process and somehow in the middle of the above madness, mix up and bake some of the coconut flour drop biscuits and throw the broccoli on a cookie sheet, drizzle with coconut oil and bake at 400 with the biscuits for about the same amount of time.

My kids stacked up their Fun-burgers like towers and dove in! Little Rowan wanted his burger deconstructed and ate all of his burger parts separately.  The point is, good food never has to be boring and getting the kiddos involved, although sometimes hectic and messy is well worth the extra few minutes spent cleaning up and the memories of being together and having fun will last a lifetime.

Enjoy!!

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The word “mole” translated means a sauce or concoction.  Depending on the region, family tradition, or choice of ingredients, mole can be made a million different ways. When I think of mole I think of interesting ingredients that when blended together somehow turn into a beautiful marriage of flavors.  I also think of hours spent in the kitchen, a list of ingredients longer than my arm, and I start to feel afraid as I realize that I could never do true justice to the amazing traditional moles I have been honored to eat over the years.

Well, today I put my reservations aside and decided to go for it and make a mole my way (fast, easy, and with not too many ingredients!!) and start a new tradition with my kids who love to help me but wouldn’t last the hours and hours typically spent in the kitchen making a traditional mole.  The outcome was well worth blogging about and I hope that you and your family enjoy making and eating this yummy sauce as much as we!  Jaden was a huge help picking out the spices that we put into our sauce and I think I have another budding little paleo chef on my hands!

Mexican Mole My Way

1 red onion diced

6-8 garlic cloves, smashed with flat side of your knife blade

7 raw almonds, soaked in water for 30 minutes

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

The juice from 1 orange

1 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons dried oregano

A big pinch of saffron threads

A small pinch of ground cloves

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon raw organic honey (optional)

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, diced into bite size chunks

In a soup pot, saute the onion and garlic in coconut oil for 5-7 or until the onions start to caramelize.  Add the tomatoes, chicken broth and orange juice and bring to a simmer.   Add all the dry spices and the honey, mix well and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the sauce to a blender or food processor along with the almonds and blend until smooth.  Add the chicken pieces to the pot, pour the mole sauce over and cook for 20 minutes.  We ate ours with shredded cabbage, avocado chunks, lime wedges and some hot sauce along with a side of kale sauteed in grass fed butter.  Serves 5.

Enjoy!!

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Mexican Mole My Way is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Five Spice Stir Fry

I love my CSA.  GRUB holds a very special place in my heart and I’m grateful to be a part of such a cool little co-op. I love to chat with the farmers while my kids jump on the trampoline.  I get to load up on the most amazing veggies and I know exactly where they come from. I love seeing the beautiful brown dirt which clings to the ends of the freshly pulled green onions and carrots.  The same dirt on those veggies covers the hands of the farmers who just pulled them, and it’s also sweetly smeared on the face of their cute little baby who was earlier crawling down the rows of veggies “helping” his mom and dad.I also love that today, a neighbor to the farm was visiting with his grapefruits and oranges from his few fruit tress and for $5 he was offering folks to take as much as needed to feed their families.  Thank you GRUB for giving me an hour out of my crazy Tuesdays to enjoy the day and to slow down for an hour or so and to simply be in the moment.  Check out this link to find a CSA near you!!

Now for a recipe.  If you have as many spices as possible in  your cupboard, you lack all excuses to be bored with your food and what before was “just meat and veggies” can be turned into an amazing and tasty creation that the whole family will love!

Five Spice Stir Fry

1 pound ground beef

1 pound medium sized shrimp

1 red bell pepper, diced

5 green onions, diced

3 cups purple cabbage, diced

3 cups broccoli spears, chopped

2 cups sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese Five Spice

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

2-4 teaspoons coconut aminos

2 teaspoons Thai Premium Fish Sauce

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 cup chicken stock

In a large skillet or wok brown the ground beef.  Add the onions and bell peppers and saute for 3 minutes.  Add the coconut oil and the remaining veggies and saute for another 5-7 minutes.  Add the grated ginger, Chinese Five Spice, coconut aminos, fish sauce, sesame oil, and chicken stock.  Mix well and add the shrimp.  Mix well and cook until the shrimp turn pink, about another 3-4 minutes.  Serve topped with sliced raw almonds.

Enjoy!!

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Pork Stew

If it’s cold where you are this stew is sure to warm you up over the weekend and your house will be filled with amazing smells of this slow cooked meal.  My friend Laura gave me a butternut squash soup recipe which I tweaked a bit and adapted into this satisfying stew.

Pork Loin and Butternut Squash Stew

2.5 lbs pork loin chops, cubed

2 leeks, trimmed and sliced

4 celery stalks, chopped

2 shallots, diced

7-10 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

4 cups cubed butternut squash

2 teaspoons garam masala

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 ½ teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

¼ cup coconut milk

1 cup chicken broth

Place the chopped veggies and cubed pork into your slow cooker.  Cover with the spices and pour in the coconut milk, chicken broth, and lemon juice.  Mix well and cook for either 5 hours on high or 7 hours on low.

Enjoy!!

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Caldo De Pollo

I recently posted about the endless soup options one can come up with from simply boiling down a left over chicken carcass.  Besides the chocolate custard that I made for my family on Valentines Day, I also roasted a chicken and the next day came up with this delicious and blog worthy soup.  The rain is back in Northern CA and having a warm and subtly spicy chicken soup for leftovers has been comforting and yummy!  If you do not have a chicken carcass to boil down, I would sub 4-6 cups of already cooked shredded chicken and 10 cups of chicken broth.

Caldo De Pollo

1 chicken carcass (place in a large soup pot and add enough water to cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours or until all the meat has fallen off the bone. Pick out the bones and discard.  Add another 4-6 cups of water to bring back to a soup-like consistency)

5 carrots, diced

1 red onion, diced

1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes

1 cup Salsa Verde (I like the Trader Joe’s brand)

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

After you have removed all the bones from the soup pot, add 4-6 more cups of water if needed back to the pot to bring to a soup like consistency.  Add all remaining ingredients, mix well and simmer for another 30-45 minutes.  Taste and add more seasoning if desired.  If you like it spicier kick up the cayenne pepper and cumin!!  Top with diced avocado and cilantro!

Enjoy!

Caldo De Pollo is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Chicken Dive In

My mom used to make Chicken Divan when company came over for dinner.  It seemed very gourmet at the time because for us it was so different.  My mom was a total “health nut” and our normal meals usually consisted of veggie stir fries, big pots of beans or split pea soup and home made whole wheat bread.  However; when we had guests she would bust out her Divan with big chunks of chicken and broccoli smothered with a mixture of cream of mushroom soup, mayo, and a touch of curry powder – and of course topped with slabs of melted cheese. It was darn yummy in a really good cafeteria food sort of way.

Yesterday I made my own version and cried a little bit in the process as I mulled over some happy childhood memories of hanging out in the kitchen with my mom.

I hope you can create some great memories of your own with your family while cooking together this weekend…

Chicken Dive-In!

1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, (or breasts)

4 cups broccoli florets, cut into bite size pieces

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup onions, finely diced

1 cup canned coconut milk

½ teaspoon sea salt (more or less to taste)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Sliced almonds

Pre heat oven to 350. Place the raw chicken in a pan, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper to taste, and add enough water just to cover it.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 12-15 minutes for thighs and closer to 20 minutes for breasts.  Remove the chicken from the water with tongs and set aside.  Add the broccoli to the same water and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Drain the broccoli but save the broth for later – now you have some awesome chicken broth to add to recipes or to make a soup!  Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and place in a large mixing bowl.  Add the broccoli, mushrooms, onions, coconut milk, and spices and mix well.  Spread into a 9×11 glass baking dish and sprinkle the top with sliced almonds.  Bake in your pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. Serves 5.

Enjoy!!

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Chicken Dive In! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License