Someone asked me on my Facebook page to post more slow cooker recipes which was quite coincidental because yesterday, as I was reading that particular post, I was unpacking a giant pork roast that I intended to make into pulled pork.  This is about the easiest meal a person could make and so versatile.  This morning we ate the pulled pork with eggs and tonight I’ll make some Purple Cabbage Slaw to eat along with the pork and I’ll maybe even make a salad out of it for lunch tomorrow; if there is any left (which I doubt there will be….)

Beyond Easy Pulled Pork

4-5 lb pork butt roast

2 yellow onions, sliced

Dry Rub

3 tbsps chili powder

1 tsp coriander

2 tsps cumin

2 tsps onion powder

1 tablespoon dried parsley

¼ teaspoon chipotle powder

2 tsps sea salt

Mix all dry rub ingredients together.  Rub the entire roast with the dry rub (you should use it all.)  Place a layer of onions on the bottom of your slow cooker.  Place the roast on top.  Put the rest of the sliced onions on top of the slow cooker.  NO LIQUID NECESSARY!  Cook the roast on high for 5-6 hours and then turn down to low for another 3-4 hours or until the roast is literally falling apart and easy to shred.

Enjoy!

Beyond Easy Pulled Pork is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

I have several holiday recipes on the blog that you can find here, here, and here; but what’s wrong with a couple more!  My family and I will be traveling to visit my wonderful in-laws for Thanksgiving, so I thought I would come up with two fun side dishes that I can make and share while we are there.  Both are scrumptious and I’m looking forward to making both again in just a few days!

Holiday Brussels Sprouts

3 tablespoons grass fed butter, ghee, or coconut oil

1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced

1 lb Brussels sprouts, halved and then cut into strips

½ cup walnuts, chopped

½ cup dried unsweetened cherries, chopped

2 teaspoons raw organic honey

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet saute the onions in the the butter, ghee or coconut oil until they start to brown and carmelize.  Add the sliced Brussels sprouts and cook until the just become tender.  Add the diced walnuts and cherries and cook for another minute or two and remove from heat.  In a small saucepan melt the honey, add the balsamic vinegar and olive oil and whisk together. Pour the dressing over the Brussels Sprouts and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serves 5-6.

Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes

5 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

12 -15 whole cloves of garlic, peeled (cut the bigger ones in half lengthwise)

3 tablespoons coconut oil or bacon grease

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, minced

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large mixing bowl, toss the sweet potatoes and garlic with the oil, cinnamon, thyme, salt and pepper.  Spread the potatoes evenly in a 9×13 baking dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes, stirring half way through the cooking time. Serves 5-6.

Holiday Brussels Sprouts and Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

First of all, I must extend enormous amounts of gratitude towards Jason, Katie, and Dean who have been submitting excellent articles for Everyday Paleo in order to keep this boat afloat! Also a HUGE thank you to Dain who is back in action and helping to run things. It’s important to note that without Dain, there simply would not even be a boat – so thank you Dain, thank you, thank you, thank you….

With that being said, I obviously have not been blogging as much as I normally do because I have been hard at work on my next project.  I am dying to tell you all about that next project, but I can’t yet; but I will soon, so stay tuned.

I did however put the project aside and took a few minutes yesterday afternoon to put together a new recipe to share with you all here on the blog and let me tell you, this meal was good; I mean REALLY good.  So good in fact that it made Rowan dance.

Mango Chicken Salad with Chipotle Mayo

4-5 bacon strips, diced

½ cup red bell pepper, diced

1 jalapeno, seeds removed and finely diced

3 cups already cooked chicken, diced (I used leftover grilled chicken breasts)

1 cup mango, diced

1/2 cup homemade paleo mayo - mix in chipotle powder to taste (this stuff is spicy so start with a small amount and work your way up from there)

Shredded romaine lettuce leaves

Sliced almonds as a garnish

1) In a medium sized skillet cook the bacon until almost crisp.

2) Add the diced red pepper and diced jalapeno and cook until the peppers are soft and the bacon is completely crisped.

 3) Add the chicken and cook until warmed through (if you are using raw chicken, cook until the chicken is not longer pink in the middle)

4) Add the diced mango and cook until warmed through, about another 2 minutes.

5) Serve each plate with a pile of romaine, a scoop of the chicken mixture, and a drizzle of the chipotle mayo. Top with sliced almonds if desired. This served 2 adults and 1 hungry almost 4 year old so if I were making this for our entire family of 5 for dinner I would double it and so should you!!

Enjoy!!

Mango Chicken Salad with Chipotle Mayo and a teaser… is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Sometimes crazy summer days lead to late night hectic dinners and last night the sun was setting as we sat down to eat.  Although the food was delicious, the actual experience ended up being more of a fiasco then a relaxing evening together.  I suppose that’s what I get for trying to have meal time at bed time but despite the hiccups like Jaden dumping his entire plate onto his lap and Rowan suddenly deciding that he no longer likes chicken, or zucchini, or eggplant, or anything at all really, we all eventually filled our bellies and gratefully crawled into bed.

So, my recommendation?  Make this yummy meal while the sun is still bright in the sky and instead of cleaning up pesto off the floor or trying to remind your exhausted 3 year old that just yesterday he LOVED chicken and zucchini, you can maybe relax and really enjoy how truly scrumptious the food is.  At least today I can look back and laugh and at lunch I’ll actually be able to enjoy the leftovers.

Easy Skillet Rosemary Chicken

2 pounds of skin on chicken pieces (I used boneless skin on chicken breasts and bone-in skin on chicken thighs from local pasture raised chickens)

2 tablespoons coconut oil

4 rosemary sprigs

1 yellow onion, sliced into rings and halved

5-6 garlic cloves, smashed flat and cut into small pieces

Juice from ½ a lemon

½ cup chicken broth

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

In a large skillet, heat the coconut oil over medium high heat.  Make sure the oil is nice and hot!!  Season both sides of the chicken pieces with the salt and pepper.  Place the chicken into your hot pan skin side down and sear for five minutes or until the skin is golden brown.  Using tongs, turn the chicken over and add on top of the chicken the garlic, onions, and rosemary sprigs.  Squeeze in the lemon and pour in the chicken broth, cover and turn down to medium low heat.  Cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is tender.

Pecan Basil Parsley Pesto

I made my original pesto recipe but subbed the walnuts for pecans and used 1/2 basil and 1/2 fresh parsley and it was DELICIOUS!!

I also made Roasted Japanese Eggplant, much like my recent roasted summer squash but simplified.

3 Japanese eggplants, halved and thinly sliced

1/4 cup coconut oil

Black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450. Toss the sliced eggplant with the coconut oil, sprinkle with black pepper, place in a glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, stirring half way through the cooking time.

I also quickly sauteed some little zucchinis in grass fed butter and I had these amazing locally grown purple potatoes that I found at the health food store that I peeled and thinly sliced and cooked in the remaining chicken liquid, onions, and garlic in the same pan that I cooked the chicken in.  Yes, we ate some potatoes which we tend to enjoy now and then, especially if they are purple.  : )

Enjoy!!

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Easy Skillet Rosemary Chicken, Pecan Basil Parsley Pesto and more… is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

As mentioned on my Facebook page, we have been busy all weekend celebrating my dad’s 70th birthday!  My sister, brother-in-law, and my sweet little niece came to visit along with my brother and of course my dad and his wonderful wife Sandy.  This weekend was dedicated to my dad and filled with precious moments spent with my family.  We all did a lot of laughing, a little bit of crying, and a whole bunch of hugging and I slept soundly at night with a house filled with the ones that make my little corner of the universe bright. I am grateful to have a family that I hold so dear to my heart and trust me; I know how lucky I am.

At family gatherings I often think about how my mom would have made the occasion special with her laughter, playful spirit, and her uncanny ability to magically clean up any and all messes when no one else was looking.  So yes, I miss my mom’s presence at these events but missing her makes me appreciate the love she gave to us and that love continues to hold our family together.

For my dad’s celebration we ate a ton of food and played in the creek with the kids, which included my dad falling in the water fully clothed while playing “creek” volleyball.  He was not hurt a bit and it was actually the highlight of the weekend to see my healthy and active 70 year old father jumping up dripping wet from the creek bed and laughing jovially at his funny predicament.

Now on to the food!  Amongst grilled sausages, cabbage salad, watermelon, carne asada, and guacamole, I made a “No Potato” Salad following from memory my mom’s potato salad recipe. I made a paleo version using my homemade mayo with a twist, and cauliflower in place of the potatoes.  The result was out of this world delicious and satisfied my longing for the creamy comforting salad that used to be a staple at family gatherings. Everyone at the party gave the salad two big thumbs up!  I apologize for the lack of exact measurements in the recipe, but sometimes when food comes from the heart it simply happens, and I think when you make this dish, it will happen just fine for you as well.  I hope you enjoy!

Everyday Paleo “No Potato” Salad

2 heads of cauliflower

1 dozen eggs, hard-boiled and diced

1/2 a medium sized red onion, finely diced

6-8 celery stalks, finely diced

A lot of dill pickles, diced

About 1 1/2 cups of my Paleo Mayo with 2 tablespoons of dried dill and 1 teaspoon of crushed garlic added.

About 1 teaspoon of yellow mustard

Black pepper to taste

Cut the cauliflower into large florets.  I used my pressure cooker to cook the cauliflower by placing the florets in the cooker, filling the cooker with about 4 inches of water, locking the lid, bringing to pressure and cooking for about 2 1/2 minutes.  Remove from heat immediately and run the cooker under cold water to quickly bring down the pressure.  Remove the lid and pour the cauliflower through a strainer and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.  You want the cauliflower to be soft but not mushy!  If you do not have a pressure cooker, steam the cauliflower around 7-10 minutes, cooking until tender but not mushy.  Rinse the steamed cauliflower under cold water to stop the cooking process.  Drain the cauliflower well and pat dry with paper towels.  Crumble the cauliflower into a large mixing bowl, add all of the remaining ingredients including the mayo, mustard, and pepper and mix well.  Either eat right away or let chill for a couple of hours before serving.  This salad was HUGE and could serve at least 15 people so cut the ingredients in half unless you are feeding a crowd or want a lot of leftovers.

As always, Enjoy!!

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Everyday Paleo “No Potato” Salad is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Finally, a post about food!!  Hurray hurray, jump up and down but don’t get too excited because this post is a lesson – a very important paleo mayonnaise lesson and one that is worth learning for those folks who figured that their creamy white blissful days of mayo were over after hopping on the paleo wagon.  Most decent tasting mayonnaise options that you’ll find in the market are made with soybean oil and really should be avoided because soybean oil is only good for, well, nothing that I can think of… But I promise, if you follow my mayonnaise making directions very carefully you’ll be back to loving the creamy condiment for dips, sauces, spreads, and salad dressings for several of your paleo creations included but not limited to tuna salad, chicken salad, sauce for fish, or to spread on your mushroom sandwiches.

Ok, here we go!  I’ll list ingredients and directions below and feel free to watch paleo mayo making in action on the video as I add a twist at the end so it might be worth the few minutes it takes to get through it.

Also, as mentioned in the video, one concern that people have about making mayonnaise is the fact that you have to use raw eggs.  The reality is that getting sick from raw eggs is extremely rare, especially if you are using farm fresh pasture raised eggs, click here for more information.  If you are still concerned or if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, I would recommend pasteurizing your eggs.  Click here to learn the process of pasteurizing eggs which is a whole lot easier than you might think!

Paleo Mayo

Secret for better tasting mayo, do not use extra virgin olive oil but instead use a light tasting olive oil, or a mild tasting oil such as walnut oil.  Also, try using a hand held mixer instead of a blender if you blender gets hot quickly which can mess up the emulsification process.

2 eggs

2 cups light tasting olive oil or walnut oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon yellow mustard

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a blender, add the eggs, vinegar, and mustard and blend together well – leave the blender running and slowly slowly slowly drop by drop or very slow drizzle add the oil.  BE PATIENT!!  Do not dump all the oil in quickly and give up!!  When the mixture begins to emulsify or thicken, only then can you be a bit faster about pouring in the olive oil but still take your time.  Turn the blender off once all the olive oil is in and the mayonnaise is thickened to your desired consistency.  Add the salt and cayenne pepper and mix well or blend again for another few seconds.

Now for the fun part – variations!!!  Always wait until after your mayonnaise is thick before you add seasoning but here is when you can get creative.  Add dried of fresh dill, fresh basil, or cilantro, garlic and onion, hot sauce, or even curry powder to make your own spreads, sauces and dips for just about everything as mentioned earlier in the post. Now, watch my video to see the fun twist that I put on our homemade mayonnaise!

Homemade Paleo Mayo Cooking Demo!! 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

Creamy Tomato Soup

Hello dear friends!  I made a guest appearance on The Paleo Solution Podcast over the weekend with Robb Wolf and Andy Deas.  I had such an awesome time answering listeners questions so if you have a chance, check it out here.  My time with Robb and Andy is a preview of sorts of what topics and questions I will be answering during my future podcasts with Chrissy Gower of Growing Up Paleo.

Now a recipe!

Today I made tomato soup for lunch and topped it with some left over diced chicken breast alongside some left over roasted beets, carrots, and kale. The veggie recipe I made was the same as this one, minus the shrimp.  I loved how the soup turned out and plan to make it again as a side dish or by adding in some meatballs next time!!

Creamy Tomato Soup

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 red onion, finely diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 14.5 oz cans of organic diced tomatoes

1 can coconut milk

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Black pepper to taste

In a large soup pan, saute the onion in 1 tablespoon of the coconut oil until the onions start to turn brown. Add the garlic and saute for another minute or two.  In a food processor combine the 2 cans of diced tomatoes and the cooked onion and garlic mixture and blend until smooth.  Pour the mixture back into the soup pot.  Add the coconut milk, and spices and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 10 minutes and serve!  Serves 3-4.

Enjoy!

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Answering Questions with Robb & Andy of The Paleo Solution and a recipe… is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Chicken Soup!!

Here’s a fun food project for the weekend that’s sure to get you ready for the busy week ahead!

On Saturday make an Easy and Amazing Roasted Chicken and eat it!  Do NOT throw out the carcass or the juices from the roasting pan!!

On Sunday, put the chicken carcass and the pan drippings into a large soup pot. Add enough water to just cover the chicken and bring to a boil.  Turn down to low and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Now, remove the bones, making sure to scrape off any little yummy bits of meat that did not fall off in the simmering process.  You can either use a slotted spoon to remove the bones, or dump the whole thing through a strainer but DO NOT lose the amazing broth you just made; make sure you dump it through a strainer into another soup pot!  Pick out all the bones and add the remaining chicken meat back to the broth.  Next, cut up whatever veggies you want to. I made a super simple chicken soup with just carrot, celery and onion.  Add the veggies to the soup, and season with paprika, garlic powder, and black pepper.  This is the EASIET way to make this soup but the sky is the limit!!  Add kale, spinach, or collard greens.  Make a pan of roasted root veggies and add that in – delicious!!  Switch up the spices and add some cumin and cayenne for a zesty kick.  Have fun and best of all,  you’ll have soup left over for fast lunches or snacks next week!

Enjoy!

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2 for 1 Meal! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Warm Roasted Beet, Kale & Shrimp Salad

Currently, my entire life is revolving around the completion of the Everyday Paleo book – and I wanted to give you all an update!

First, I want to thank each of you so much for your continued support and kind comments: I wish I had time to personally respond to everyone so please know that this big THANK YOU goes to everyone who has posted who I have not yet had a chance to comment back to.  Your kind words are more motivating and appreciated than any of you could possibly imagine.

My book is nearing the final editing phase and although I do not have an exact release date as of yet, we are looking at late February or early March.  Here’s a quick preview of what you will find in the Everyday Paleo book:

“Getting Started Guide” for beginners which includes useful shopping and other tips that will be helpful for everyone – even experienced paleo folks!

A “What About” Section that answers many questions from “What About Yams” to “What About Cream for my coffee”

Section on the psychology of handling change.

Section on Getting the Family on Board

A “Paleo Relationship Section”

Kitchen Essentials guide

Survival Guide including eating out tips and much more.

A Section on Sleep, Stress, and how to survive in our crazy 21st century!

Over 100 recipes with full color photos!

An 80 page fitness section for you and the family, also with full color photos!

A 30 day Family Friendly Meal plan + 2 weeks worth of school lunch ideas.

And more…….

So, thank you for bearing with me as I have a lagged a bit between posts as I work to wrap up this labor of love.

Now, let’s talk food.

I made this salad for lunch today and wow, yum, so good – I can’t wait to hear what you all think!

Warm Roasted Beet, Kale & Shrimp Salad

1 lb medium cooked shrimp, tails removed and deveined

8 small beets, peeled, sliced and cubed

10 garlic cloves sliced in half lengthwise (less if you are not worried about vampires)

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 bunches of kale, tough stems removed and diced

½ tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Handful of crumbled pecans

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450.  In a glass baking dish toss together the cut up beets, garlic cloves, and coconut oil.  Bake for 35-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Remove the beets and garlic from the oven and pile the kale on top.  Put back in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring half way through the cooking time.  The kale will start to shrink down after that first 5 minutes, making it easier to stir.  While the kale and beets finish cooking, add the shrimp to a medium sized mixing bowl.  When the kale and beets are done, pour over the shrimp, add the balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper if you like, stir, top with crumbled pecans and eat!   Serves 2 adults and 1 child.

Enjoy!

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Everyday Paleo Book Update and Warm Roasted Beet, Kale, and Shrimp Salad is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Sharing a Coconut

As a general rule, our family does not eat out during the week.  Establishing this family “rule” has helped in many ways.  We save money, we spend more time together at the table than time at a busy restaurant waiting for a table, and we eat healthier.  On the weekends we will sometimes eat out once or twice and we have found a couple of places in our little town that really work for us. We particularly love a little Thai place called Cocodine.  Cocodine orders these amazing young coconuts straight from Thailand and the little boys LOVE having a coconut and we all enjoy the awesome curries.   The owners know us by now and they always bring us extra veggies instead of rice.

Another favorite spot we go to is a breakfast joint called Sin of Cortez. They offer this amazing sausage straight from our local University farm and they also offer several delicious veggie scrambles.

Sin of Cortez also serves up some yummy gluten free pancakes which is a great weekend treat for all of us once in a while – life’s too short to NEVER eat pancakes – and how great to find a gluten free option at a restaurant!!  Eating out is totally possible and should still be enjoyed once in a while and finding the right places to go is essential!  For more advice on how to manage eating out, check out this article that I recently posted to my Facebook page as well.

Here is a fun spaghetti squash side dish recipe that could also be made into a main dish by simply adding in some diced chicken, ground beef, or any other protein of your choice.

Scrumptious Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash

1 yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 zucchini squash, diced

½ cup sliced kalamata olives

1 tablespoon capers

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 tablespoon dried basil

½ cup chicken broth

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Cut the spaghetti squash in half, remove the seeds and cook the spaghetti squash in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes or bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Saute the onions in a large skillet in the coconut oil until they start to carmelize.  Add the garlic and zucchini and saute for another 4-5 minutes.  Using a fork, scrape out the insides of the spaghetti squash and add to the skillet. Add the remaining ingredients as well and cook together another 4-5 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Eating out and a side dish recipe… is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

I used to go to the gym with a mission.  A mission to fall on the ground in a heap, to crawl out of there with every muscle twitching, every fiber burning, every breath feeling like my last one, but it was a victorious feeling because I DID IT.  Then, I hit a big fat ugly wall and my entire life changed.  I will not bore you with the details but I went very quickly from being all or nothing – not only in life but in the gym – to barely being able to drag my tired, sorry, over-trained, under-slept, stressed out body out of bed.  It took me several months to recover from what I had done to myself, and during those months, I often asked myself – what the hell was I chasing??  I am not a competitive athlete and never will be, I am a MOM a WIFE a WOMAN and today I am happy to be strong enough to pick up some weights, wise enough to know when I shouldn’t, aware of my own capabilities and lack of capabilities, and most importantly; I have finally figured out what I am “going for” when I show up to work out.  I go to the gym to escape from the kids, to feel a sense of community, to hug the people that I love and call friends, to feel good about myself, to fit into my jeans, to discover what new and fun stuff my mommy of three body can do and be proud of whatever that might be.  I go to the gym to know that not every day is a good day and that for me, the stop watch doesn’t really prove anything, and I go to prove that I really have NOTHING to prove.

The moral to my rambling story?  I would like to introduce you to a person who without even realizing it, has been and continues to be an instrumental influence on my new and much more productive outlook on what fitness is for me; and that person is Andy Deas.  I am grateful that he has joined our Norcal family and I am grateful for what I have learned from training with him and from reading his blog, Chasing Capacity.  Most of you know Andy as the co-host of the Paleo  Solution with Robb Wolf and I hope you take the chance to know him further by reading his musings on fitness, and life in general.  Oh, and if you haven’t thought about it in a while, the next time you go to work out – ask yourself, “What am I chasing??”

Now, a recipe!! Dinner tonight seriously rocked and was ridiculously easy.  I have been rushing like a mad woman all day, came home, threw open the fridge and saw some chicken that needed to be cooked, a jar of sun dried tomatoes, some bacon, and some basil.  Hello dinner!!

Basil Bacon Wrapped Chicken

1 1/2 lbs chicken breast tenders or chicken breasts cut into 1″ wide slices

1 – 8.5 oz jar of julienne cut sun dried tomatoes

8-12 fresh basil leaves

8-12 bacon strips

Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400.  Grease a baking sheet with either grass fed organic butter or coconut oil.  Take a chicken piece, top with a large scoop on sun dried tomatoes, top that with a basil leaf, and wrap the whole thing tightly with a piece of bacon.  Place all the wrapped chicken pieces on the greased baking sheet, sprinkle them all with pepper, and bake for 15 minutes.  Finish under the broiler for 3-4 minutes to crisp the bacon.  I served the chicken with kale steamed in chicken stock and carrots cooked in the pressure cooker.

Enjoy!

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What are YOU chasing – and of course a recipe… is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Everyday Paleo Cabbage Rolls

I remember when I first heard about the paleo diet and immediately I began thinking up a hundred excuses as to why I couldn’t eat paleo.  My biggest excuse; I assumed that I simply did not have the time. In reality I did not yet have the DESIRE TO CHANGE.  It took hitting my own personal rock bottom of being unhealthy in order to decide that I could “fit in” a healthy paleo lifestyle. In reality, cooking any type of meal, paleo or not does take some work.  In order to fit cooking in general back into our lives, as a family we had to change some of our old habits that went hand in hand with being unhealthy.  Today we do not watch a lot of TV, play a bunch of video games, or spend hours surfing the net or on-line shopping.  We have made a commitment to not eat out during the week.  We plan ahead and use the weekend to shop and cook. Yes, I spend more time in the kitchen than I did during my pre-paleo days, but I have learned how to make delicious meals fast – thanks to my beloved pressure cooker, slow cooker, food processor, and my decisiveness to make this work!  If you haven’t yet added the above items to your kitchen tools, I suggest you do so!  Being healthy is a CHOICE, not something that simply happens to you.

Here is a recipe and a cooking demo for Everyday Paleo Cabbage Rolls.  Typically, cabbage rolls are made in a slow cooker, but yesterday we made them in the pressure cooker and after 10 minutes of prep and 12 minutes of cook time, we had an amazing feast!  We actually ended up taking the cabbage rolls with us to a Christmas Party – you’ll have to watch the demo to get the whole story.

Everyday Paleo Cabbage Rolls

Sauce:

1 can of diced tomatoes, drained

1 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon dried basil

Black pepper to taste

Cabbage Rolls

1 lb grass fed ground beef

2 cups diced fresh spinach

1 small apple, finely diced

½ red onion, finely diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons flat leaf Italian parsley, finely chopped

1 egg

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

12-15 cabbage leaves

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sauce ingredients and set aside. Remove the core from a head of cabbage and place the cabbage leaves in your pressure cooker with one cup of water.  Bring the pressure cooker up to pressure and cook for 30 seconds.  Take the leaves out and set aside to cool.  In a large bowl, mix together all filling ingredients.  Depending on the size of your cabbage leaves, place approximately ¼ cup of filling on the bottom edge of each leaf.  Fold in the two outside edges of the cabbage leaf and roll up the filling.  Place each cabbage roll seam side down in your pressure cooker.  Cover the rolls with the sauce.  Bring the pressure cooker up to pressure and cook for 12 minutes.  Serve immediately and as always:

Enjoy!

Cabbage Roll Cooking Demo and Making Choices! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Persimmon Love

First, I am so excited and thrilled that the Everyday Paleo book is nearing completion and I want to thank you all for your continued support and for your kind comments! Your feedback continues to motivate and encourage me to keep this think going.  Thank you so much!

Now – FOOD!

What would YOU do if you had a whole bunch of fuyu persimmons and 2 lbs of chicken thighs?  Well, I made a big skillet of what I’ll call “Persimmon Love”  and I hope you have the same response as Rowan did at the dinner table the night I made this meal.  He stood up in his chair and said, “Mom – more and more and MORE chicken PLEASE!!!”

Persimmon Love

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 red onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 fuyu persimmons, peeled and diced

½ cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

A sprinkle of cayenne pepper

1 ½  tablespoons coconut oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.  In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and sear the chicken thighs for 3 minutes on each side.  Remove the chicken thighs from the pan and set aside. Add the other ½ tablespoon of coconut oil and the onions. Sauté the onions for 2 minutes.  Add the ginger, garlic, persimmons, poultry seasoning, cayenne, and a little more salt and pepper if desired and sauté for another 3-4 minutes. Add the chicken broth and bring to a simmer, stirring well and making sure to scrape any yummy pieces off of the bottom of the pan.  Add the chicken thighs back to the persimmon mixture, cover and cook for another 12-15 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.

Enjoy!

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

Hangin' with the Boys!

I thought I would start this post by sharing a fun picture of the Fragoso family hanging out together…..

It’s been a while since I have done a Day in the Life blog and a reader recently requested I outline what a typical eating day looks like for us, so here it goes! I’m going to take you along with me for last Thursday’s meals, which is typically one of my busier days thanks to after school kid stuff and other obligations that leave me running round like a mad woman.

We should start where every morning SHOULD start, and that’s of course with breakfast! Pictured is my not so breakfast like breakfast but I for one could care less about what my breakfast looks like, just as long as it tastes good and has enough protein and fat to get me through until lunch.  I made bacon and scrambled eggs for the boys – but they ate it all of course so I ate some left over ground beef that we had the night before for lettuce tacos topped with some of my favorite Purple Cabbage Slaw, and some guacamole.

Breakfast!

I made Jaden’s lunch which consisted of nitrate free roast beef wrapped around broccoli slaw, some slices of fuyu persimmons, a Lara Bar, and some purple cabbage.

My lunch that I shared with Rowan was leftover roasted delicata squash which I roasted just like the butternut squash, along with beets roasted the same way and stir fried beet greens and some leftover chicken which is not pictured.

For dinner I made a delicious and easy pot roast that I threw in the crockpot before taking the boys to school.  Here’s the recipe

Cabbage Roast

1 beef chuck pot roast

1 yellow onion, sliced

10 garlic cloves

1 head green cabbage, sliced

6-7 thyme branches

1 cup chicken broth

Sea salt and black pepper

Sprinkle the pot roast all over with salt and pepper and sear in a skillet on all sides until brown (about 4 minutes per side). While the roast is searing, cut up the onion and place in the bottom of the slow cooker along with whole garlic cloves.  Slice up an entire head of green cabbage and set aside.  Once the roast has seared, place on top of the onions and garlic in the slow cooker, put the thyme branches on top of the roast, cover the roast with the cabbage, and add the chicken stock.  Cook on  low for 8 hours or until the meat is falling apart.

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As you can tell from this post, we rely a lot on leftovers, planning ahead, our slow cooker, and taking the time to cook real food.  Yes we are busy, but we try to make it a priority to never be too busy or distracted to be healthy.  I used to be miserable, unhealthy, and sick and although now I spend more time in the kitchen or planning our meals than I used to, I have MORE time to be productive in other areas of my life because I have the energy and good health that allows me to do so.  Is it hard?  Heck yes but totally worth it!

Enjoy!

A Day in the Life is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Today's Lunch

So, my site feels a bit foreign to me, and I feel as if I am intruding into someone else’s space!  With the original format suddenly gone, I feel as if I have lost an old friend. Please, a moment of silence for the old Everyday Paleo…. With that being said, do not get used to how things look now, we are searching for a better look for my site and hopefully we’ll have a more user friendly version up and running ASAP! I must give a huge shout out to my friend Dain S. who is the ONLY reason I ever figured out how to blog in the first place – he’s working his tail off trying to resolve our technical difficulties.  Thanks Dain!!

Now, back to the fun!  I often mention kitchen essentials that make paleo cooking a heck of a lot easier; such as a food processor, pressure cooker, and the oh so important slow cooker.  Check out this fun site for even more fun kitchen equipment!  My favorite suggestion is the fire extinguisher.  Now that’s some serious cooking!!

I would like to share with you today’s super easy lunch which includes my new favorite way to enjoy winter squash.

Today’s Lunch

Just some good ol’ grass fed beef

2 lbs grass fed ground beef

1/2 red onion, diced

5 cups fresh spinach leaves, chopped

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

splash of balsamic vinegar

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Saute the onions in the coconut oil until translucent.  Add the ground beef and brown. Add the spices and the spinach and cook for another 5 minutes or until the spinach is cooked down and tender.

Roasted Winter Squash

1 butternut squash

2 tablespoons coconut oil

Preheat oven to 400. Remove the skin from the squash with a potato peeler.  Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds.  Slice the squash into very thin slices.  Toss with the coconut oil and spread evenly on a baking sheet.  Roast for 25 minutes. Check our Rowan in the pics below trying the squash raw!  He liked it much better when it was out of the oven…

Roasted Romanesco

I received a beautiful romanesco in my CSA share this week and I roasted it exactly like the squash, first cutting it into florets and then baking for 25 minutes.  I cannot even describe the incredible taste of this veggie, a mild mix of broccoli and cauliflower.  Jaden called it, “The Best Thing Ever!!” I have never seen romanesco in the grocery stores but roasting broccoli or cauliflower is just as tasty!

Enjoy!!

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Kitchen Equipment and Today’s Lunch is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Thanksgiving Dinner - Paleo Style!!

My family all pitched in yesterday and we created an amazing holiday feast.  We ate a lot, laughed a lot, and stayed up way too late on a school night; but it was well worth it. We even managed to throw together a cooking demo for my Everyday Paleo Pumpkin Pie which we all had way too much fun filming, probably because of how blurry eyed and tired we were at that point!  As far as the meal was concerned, I personally am proud of how the stuffing turned out, and I am now forever in love with Prosciutto Wrapped Pears…  Jaden’s favorite was the Broccoli Casserole, and Rowan ate a pound of turkey before it even made it to his plate!

I hope that these recipes will at least offer a few ideas to make the holidays easier – and most of all have fun and enjoy!  This meal should serve 5-8 adults.

The Turkey!

I understand that the turkey is often an area of concern.  I have cooked a few turkeys in my day and I always end up freaking out and calling my mother-in-law to make sure I’m doing it right!  With that said, here’s what we did, and it actually turned out pretty darn tasty!

1 turkey

4 tablespoons grass fed organic butter

Several fresh rosemary and thyme stalks

Preheat oven to 400.  Wash and dry the turkey with paper towels – make sure you remove the giblets.  Place the turkey in your roaster breast side up.  Pull back the skin from the breast (as pictured) and in between the skin and the meat, place the butter, rosemary, and thyme.  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!

Appetizers

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

15 -20 white button mushrooms, wiped clean with a paper towel and stems and gills removed

2 cups cooked crab claw meat, canned or fresh and finely chopped (I used canned and it was surprisingly good!)

½ cup jarred roasted red peppers, finely diced

3 tablespoons minced chives

3 garlic cloves, minced

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

¼ cup paleo mayo

black pepper to taste

Mix together the crab and all remaining ingredients.  Stuff each mushroom with heaping  tablespoons of the crab mixture.  Bake on a baking sheet greased with olive oil for 15 minutes.

Prosciutto Wrapped Pears

½ red onion, very thinly sliced

2 pears

1 package of prosciutto di parma

Baby Spinach leaves

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400. Heat the coconut oil in a small skillet and sauté onions until they are carmelized.  (onions should be brown but not burnt).  Peel and slice the pears into thick slices.  Top each pear with a little bit of carmalized onion and one spinach leaf, wrap tightly with a piece of prosciutto.  Grease a baking sheet with a little bit of grassfed organic butter, and place the pears on the baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes.  While the pears are baking, add the balsamic to a small sauce pan, heat over medium low until the balsamic is reduced down to a syrup like consistency, stirring often.  Drizzle a small amount of the balsamic reduction over the pears and serve.

Side Dishes

Stuffing

1 lb mild Italian pork or chicken sausage, casing removed (I used chicken sausages from my local butcher)

4 ½ cups mushrooms, diced

1 medium yellow onion, diced

6 celery stalks, diced

4 carrots, diced

1/2  cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon diced fresh sage

½ tsp minced fresh thyme leaves

½ cup dried cherries, finely chopped

½ cup slivered almonds

½ tablespoon garlic powder

4 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. In a large soup pot, sauté onions in olive oil until translucent.  Add the sausage and brown.  Add the carrots, celery, mushrooms, chicken broth, cherries, almonds, sage, thyme, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Mix well, bring to a simmer, and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the veggies begin to absorb the chicken broth.  Transfer to a large glass baking dish, cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Paleo Holiday Yams

5 large yams, peeled and cut into 2 inch rounds

2 small apples, peeled and cut into large chunks

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ cup 100% pure maple syrup

4 tablespoons organic grassfed butter

1 cup chopped pecans

Cook the yams in a pressure cooker for 6-8 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, move the cooked yams to a large mixing bowl.  To the yams, add the apples, butter, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup and mix well.  Spread the yam mixture evenly into a 11×7 glass baking dish.  Top with pecans and bake uncovered at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Broccoli Cauliflower Casserole

2 ½ cups broccoli florets, finely chopped

1 ½ cups of cauliflower, finely chopped

1 shallot finely chopped

2 eggs

1/3 cup coconut milk

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon sea salt

4 garlic cloves, minced

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the shallots, broccoli and cauliflower.  In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, garlic, salt and pepper.  Pour the egg/coconut milk mixture over the broccoli, cauliflower and shallots and mix well.  Bake in an 11’ round glass baking dish, covered at 350 for 45 minutes.

Cranberry Sauce

4 cups fresh cranberries

1 cup water

1 cup unfiltered apple juice

Juice from 1 orange

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

½ tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons raw organic honey (make it 4 tablespoons if you like a sweeter sauce)

In a large soup pot add the cranberries, water, apple juice, and orange juice and bring to a boil.  Add the ginger, cinnamon, and honey and simmer, stirring often until the cranberries are broken down and the sauce becomes thick, about 10-15 minutes.

Dessert

Everyday Paleo Pumpkin Pie

Crust

1/2 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 a 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.

Filling

1 – 14oz can of organic pumpkin puree (nothing added, just pumpkin)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

2 eggs

1/2 cup raw organic honey

1/2 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.  I hope you enjoy the demo!!

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Thanksgiving Recipes and Everyday Paleo Pumpkin Pie Cooking Demo! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

After finally completing the recipe section for my book, which included cooking and photographing over 100 recipes in 3 weeks, I’m kind of tired of cooking….  But – we still have to eat, so tonight I made the simplest dinner that I could eek out and in fact it was so easy, it shouldn’t have tasted as good as it did.  This was however an important reminder that when eating paleo it’s actually really hard to go wrong.  Fresh veggies, meat, and fat is not all that complicated and one has to try pretty darn hard to mess up, especially when keeping it simple.  Here’s a “It Can Be This Easy” meal that I hope you all enjoy as much as we did! Also pictured is another school lunch idea: Turkey slices wrapped around organic broccoli slaw, a hard boiled egg, a Lara Bar, orange slices, and cut up dried all fruit leather.

Roasted Root Veggies and Chicken

2 lbs root veggies, diced into small cubes (I used pre-cut turnips, rutabagas, and parsnips from Trader Joe’s)

4 chicken breasts

2 tablespoons coconut oil

Garlic powder, dried basil, black pepper and sea salt to taste.

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large mixing bowl, toss the root veggies with coconut oil.  Add the veggies to a large glass baking dish and top with the 4 chicken breasts.  Season the chicken with the garlic, basil, pepper and salt.  Cover tightly with the tin foil and back for 45-50 minutes.  Take of the tinfoil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

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It can be this easy is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

This week in my CSA box from the farm co-op I belong to I received a TON (well about 2 lbs actually) of collard greens.  I also happened to have a giant ham hock in my freezer – the last remaining piece of the recent 1/2 a hog that we purchased from our favorite local pig farmers.  I have been wondering what the heck to do with the ham hock, and now that I had a bountiful amount of collards – I was suddenly inspired – Southern Style Collard Greens!  This is a dish I remember having as a child when we took a trip in a rented motor home and traveled from CA to New York, stopping at various states across the way. It was an incredible adventure and an incredible culinary adventure of sorts as well.  So, here is my take on Southern Style Collard greens as I remember them.  The end result turned out so satisfying, delicious and comforting – even good enough to hope for another huge supply of collard greens in my next CSA box!!

Southern Style Collard Greens

2 lbs collard greens

1 smoked ham hock (or 1 lb of diced bacon)

1 yellow onion, diced

2 tablespoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons hot sauce (I used Tapatio)

2 teaspoons sea salt (optional)

In a large soup pot add the ham hock, onions, garlic powder, hot sauce and sea salt.  Wash the collar greens and using your hands, tear the leaves away from the tough spine of each green.  Roughly chop the greens and place in the pot.  Add enough water to just cover the greens.  Cover and bring to a boil, turn heat down and simmer, stirring occasionally for 1 hour. When you serve the collards, shred some of the ham off the hock to eat with the greens and add some of the broth to the serving bowls as well.  The broth by itself is amazing.

Enjoy!

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Southern Style Collard Greens is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

First, I would like to announce the winner of the Name That Recipe contest for last weeks Lamb and Pumpkin Recipe.  I let my 15 year old, Coby, pick the winner and after much deliberation and deep, deep thought – he decided on: Halloween Hash by Stefanie. Thank you Stefanie and thank you Coby for picking a great entry – I loved all of them!!

Now, on to the good stuff.

Before you started eating paleo, did food rule your life?  It ruled mine. I had such a sucky relationship with food.  I loved, and still do love food but I was constantly trying to do things better, “eat right”, stay away from this, add that back in, eat more, eat less,so I  zoned, Atkined, South Beached, and Suzanne Somered, and what I did was I ate my way straight to the looney bin along with adding on pounds, health issues, and total confusion about what was good for me!  To  make a long story short, I finally was introduced to eating paleo and EVERYTHING changed, but, it was not an overnight light bulb moment.  I have been asked before how long it took me to, “get paleo eating down.”  The truth is, eating paleo is about the freaking easiest thing on the planet, it was getting my head right that was the learning curve.  Eating paleo is so easy in fact that I tried my darnedest to make it as hard as possible.  I freaked out over EVERYTHING.  I remember sobbing to Robb Wolf almost daily at the gym – Robb, is this paleo, is that paleo is THIS  OR THAT OR THIS PALEO until he looked at me one day and said, “Well, how do you feel?”  I thought for a minute and realized that I felt pretty amazing and before he even replied I knew the answer, all that I was eating was paleo and paleo for me, and today I darn well know it when I eat something that is not paleo for me – because my body let’s me know in often extremely vicious ways!  This whole “paleo thing”  is not a one size fits all program.  In fact, it’s not a program.  It’s life and a better life because eating paleo means eating food that makes you feel amazing instead of fat, lazy, unhealthy, and sick.  If you felt ok before, eating paleo might mean maximizing your potential and realizing that just feeling ok is pretty lousy compared to feeling VITALITY!!

Furthermore, what eating paleo looks like for me will look a whole lot different to someone with autoimmunity issues, allergies, or type II diabetes (to name a few).  I am relatively lean and healthy at this point in my life so therefore, my paleo eating includes a few more yams and apple slices then it used to.  When I was sick and fat, eating paleo for me meant very little fruit, only after a work out would I partake in yams and no nacho nights ever until I reached my goal weight and no longer suffered from the little health afflictions that I used to suffer from.  Eating paleo for someone with food allergies is very different then my eating paleo.  I’m ok eating a handful of nuts but a good friend of mine turns into an itchy, hive ridden mess so nuts are NOT paleo for her.  Am I making sense?  Now let’s dig a little deeper, what about vinegar, what about sea salt, what about the occasional use of a bit of raw honey, or baking soda, bananas, carrots, and coconut milk or God forbid red wine in my spaghetti sauce or a shot of tequila on Friday night?? Did cave people have an abundance of this stuff?  Most likely not but they also lacked cars, farmers markets, and Trader Joe’s, and the last time I checked, I do not carry a club, wear antelope hair tunics, or greet my children with an UGH in the morning (unless I haven’t yet had my coffee).  We could argue and debate for hours about how yams are a good source of carbs for post workout recovery meals (and healthy kids should eat them whenever), how baking soda is found in nature by mineral springs and is helpful in regulating blood acidity for endurance athletes, how vinegar probably won’t kill you if you toss some on your salad now and then, or that bananas, although of no real nutritional value, are nice to have around in case you are hankering for something sweet and it’s a better option then – oh I don’t know a donut??

Some of the stuff on that thrown together list is not paleo for some people and for some folks, now and then it’s about as paleo as you can get.  So, when you feel like you are suffocating or turning into a paleo junky – think about how you feel?  Are you lean, healthy, and continue to perform well in the gym?  Then you are probably eating paleo, and that’s what eating paleo means – to YOU.  If you feel like crap, gaining weight or not losing weight, or not coming close to reaching any of your fitness goals, it’s time to reassess!  Maybe you are letting grains or dairy sneak back in, maybe you’re living on nuts between meals, and “paleo treats” (like my awesome nutty cookies) are turning into mainstays rather then now and then’s.

I do not know a single person who can sit down and list everything that is or is not paleo for EVERYONE because the truth is we are all very different with very different health concerns.  The BOTTOM LINE IS, stick to the basics for this lifestyle, ALWAYS AVOID GLUTEN, and DO eat meat, seafood, veggies, a little bit of fruit, and good fats, but do not make yourself nutty – just eat what makes you feel good, and if you do not feel well, there’s probably something you are eating that’s not paleo – for you!  Continue to educate yourself – listen to Robb Wolf’s podcasts, read books, search the internet – we live in the age of information at our fingertips but the best “science” is how you feel, look and perform.

Here’s a fun recipe that I made for lunch today with what I had in my fridge.

Shrimp Loves Coconut

1 lb large shrimp, tail on peeled and deveined

1/3 cup coconut flour

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 egg whites

2 cups coconut flakes

Pre heat oven to 400. In a mixing bowl, stir together the coconut flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy.  In another bowl, pour the coconut flakes.  Taking one shrimp at a time, dry well with a paper towel and dredge each shrimp in the coconut flour mixture, dip into the egg whites and then roll into the coconut flakes.  Bake on a lightly greased (with coconut oil) baking sheet for 12- 15 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and the coconut flakes start to brown.

Enjoy!

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What does eating Paleo REALLY Mean?? And a recipe is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Hi Everyone!  Check out the latest Everyday Paleo Cooking Demo!!!

Purple Cabbage Slaw

3 cups purple cabbage, chopped

1 cup cucumber, chopped

1/3 cup purple onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup green mango, diced

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Cracked black pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

Taco Meat

1 lb grass fed ground beef

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp chili powder

1/4 cup green salsa

Brown meat, add seasoning and salsa, stir and eat on a lettuce leaf topped with the purple cabbage slaw, avocado, and fresh cilantro.

Enjoy!!

Cooking Demo – Paleo Tacos with Purple Cabbage Slaw is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

I’m tired as I type which reminds me to remind you that getting adequate sleep is more important than anything you might accomplish by staying up too late working on what “must” get done.  If we deprive ourselves of precious recovery time, life simply becomes less enjoyable as we continue to burn out emotionally and physically. Not to mention the scientific proof that lack of sleep is an underlying cause of many health issues and has been linked to the likes of increased cancer risk (especially in women) to fun stuff like depression.  So get your Zs people!!

Now for some food fun.  Check out this blog by Katie at Norcal – a recipe I have not yet tried but wanted to share anyway because it just sounds so tantalizing!!  Also, here’s a blueberry creation I just popped into the oven tonight for a fun bedtime snack for the kids.  Enjoy!

Bedtime Blueberries

2 cups frozen organic blueberries

1/2 cup unsweetened finely shredded coconut

1/2 cup sliced almonds

4 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat oven to 350. Layer the blueberries in a pie pan and sprinkle the shredded coconut evenly over the blueberries, followed by the sliced almonds. Drizzle the entire dish with the orange juice and bake for 15 minutes.  Finish under the broiler on high for another minute or until the almonds start to brown.

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

Fast forward three years and I now realize that eating paleo has changed way more then just my physical appearance.  Eating paleo has taught me the importance of knowing where my food comes from, it has brought me closer to my family because we now make cooking and eating together a priority, I have a better relationship with my husband because I feel good about myself and have lost the insecurities that used to shamefully plague me, I feel more connected to our planet and realize the responsibilities that we all have to live sustainably, most importantly I know how much more I have to learn about life, wellness, fitness and health as living a paleo lifestyle continues to bring the most amazing, smart, and fascinating people into my life to teach me.  I am more humble, focused, and relaxed and I simply enjoy life more because focusing on eating healthy has made me lose focus of other unhealthy habits that used to hold me back.

And yes, I am proud to be a mom of three who can rock that bikini…  BUT – the look better naked factor is just a bonus…

Here’s a recipe for Chimichurri sauce that we poured over roast chicken and paired with pureed turnips.  This sauce would make an old shoe taste good – so go wild!  Today I’m going to cook some thinly sliced sirloin over cubed butternut squash, topped with the Chimichurri sauce on low in my slow cooker for 6 hours.  I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Chimichurri Sauce

½ red onion

4 garlic cloves

1 ½ cups chopped cilantro

1 cup chopped parsley

juice from 1 lime

¾ cup olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

black pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process on low until the mixture is almost smooth but still a bit chunky.  Serve on everything!!

Pureed Turnips

4 turnips

3 tbsp organic butter

Quarter the turnips and cook in a pressure cooker for 8 minutes.  Toss the cooked turnips in a food processor along with the butter and puree until smooth and creamy.

Enjoy!!

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The Naked Factor is just a bonus… And a recipe (of course)! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

First – a big thank you to Manimal Wear for sending me one of their promo t-shirts.  I was able to give the shirt a test run yesterday and wore it out and about with the boys and during my workout.  I’m sure I’ll be purchasing a couple more once the product has launched.

Ok, on to the food!! This demo is a great example of just how easy this whole “paleo thing” can be.  I was seriously hungry when we taped this demo and was very grateful for the 10 min prep and 20 minute cook.  Quick tip – the “zucchini pasta” is extremely versatile and can be topped or paired with just about any protein source and kids tend to  love it.  I hope you all enjoy!

Paleo Spaghetti

Pasta

5 zucchini squash – cut long way with a mandoline slicer or potato pealer

Meat Sauce

2 lbs grass fed ground beef

2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp dried basil

dash or two of cayenne pepper

1 bay leaf

splash of red wine

3 heirloom tomatoes

1/2 red onion

3-4 garlic cloves

1/2 cup italian parsley

3 tbsp fresh rosemary

Brown the meat in a large soup pan.  While meat is browning, combine the onion, parsely, and rosemary in a food processor.  Process on low for about 15 seconds.  Add the tomatoes and pulse about 7-10 times or until the tomatoes are broken down but still chunky.  Once the meat is cooked through, add all of the dry spices and mix well.  Add the tomato sauce from the food processor, the bay leaf, and the red wine, mix well and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 20 min.

For the “pasta” bring about 10-12 cups of water to a boil in another large soup pan. Add the thinly sliced zucchini to the boiling water.  Cook for 3 minutes and drain.

Serve the spaghetti sauce over the cooked zucchini pasta.

Baked Green Beans

1/2 lb green beans trimmed and snapped in half

1/4 cup olive oil

sea salt and black pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 425.  Line a cookie sheet with tin foil.  Toss the green beans in the olive oil, salt and pepper.  Spread the green beans evenly on the cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  If you put the beans in the oven as soon as your sauce starts to simmer, both will be done at the same time!

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Cooking Demo – Paleo Spaghetti & Baked Green Beans is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Along with having a lot of fun with our cooking demos, I am also inventing new words, and if anything, giving my family yet another reason to laugh at me!!

In this demo we make Savory Cauliflower Fried Rice, Pork Chops, and my Walnut Pesto Sauce.

Savory Cauliflower Fried Rice

1 head organic cauliflower – steamed

1/2 red onion – minced

3 garlic cloves – minced

2 tbsp fresh basil – diced

1 egg

2 tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp sea salt

black pepper to taste

3-4 tbsp coconut oil

In a large mixing bowl, add the minced onions, garlic, and basil.  Place the steamed cauliflower in the bowl as well and add the egg, coconut flour, salt, and pepper.  Using a potato masher, mash the cauliflower down to the consistency of rice.  Mix all the ingredients well.  Heat the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add the cauliflower rice and saute for 7-10 minutes or until the “rice” starts to crisp up a little and the onions are tender.  Remove the rice and keep warm in the oven.

Pork Chops

4 pork chops (I used thin cut pork chops, they cook faster…)

2 tbsp olive oil

pinch of sea salt

black pepper to taste

2 tbsp coconut oil

In a large mixing bowl, drizzle the pork chops with the olive oil, add the salt and pepper, and let the pork chops sit (if you have time) in the fridge for about an hour.  In the same skillet as you cooked your cauliflower rice in (no need to even clean it), add the coconut oil and heat over medium high.  Sear the pork chops for 5-7 minutes on each side.  Slice and serve on top of the cauliflower rice and drizzle with the walnut pesto sauce.

Serve with a green salad.

Enjoy!!

How Hot is YOUR Kitchen?? – Another cooking demo…. is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License