Moroccan Meatballs

This recipe is essentially from the Well Fed cookbook by Melissa Joulwan of The Clothes Make the Girl Blog.

Chop a large onion, start to saute it in coconut oil.

Meanwhile, to 1 lb ground lamb, add paprika (lots, smoked!), salt (some), pepper (some), and cumin (more than some).  Mush it all together, and then form into 1 inch or so meatballs.

Add the same spices to the onions, then add dried garlic (sacrilege, I know), a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, and a can of tomato paste.  Add a little bit of water if you think it needs it.

Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, add the meatballs, cover and cook for 40 minutes.  Then uncover and cook for 20 minutes.

Lamb Meatballs, YAY!

Mustard Balsamic Onions and Chicken

Thinly slice several onions (I used 5 small ones).  Chop up 4 cloves of garlic.  Add a couple grinds of salt and pepper.
Saute in olive oil until the onions start to carmelize.

Add about 1.5 pounds chicken - I used tenderloins that I'd cut up into about 1" square cubes.  Added about 2 heaping tablespoons of dijon mustard (but next time will do more), and a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.  Cook until chicken is done.

Very easy and good.  Took about 15 minutes total.  I also think that adding some chicken broth would be good.

Cuisine mode!  Favorite Pan!

Scooter

Baked Basil Pesto Chicken

Pesto:
In a food processor whir together:
Olive Oil
Roasted Red Bell Pepper (about half a jar)
Couple big handfuls of basil
Couple garlic cloves

In a pyrex-type pan, pour it over chicken tenderloin pieces.  Stir it all together to make sure everything is coated.

Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes.

Really good!

Scooter

Soup - Veggies, Beef, Coconut Milk

This soup was inspired by:
The ingredients in the fridge.
A hot pot restaurant in California that you cooked thinly-sliced meat in a pot of hot soup in front of you.
Thinly sliced beef I had taken out of my freezer.
A soup recipe from a friend of TG.

Saute in oil (and add as completed during the chopping process):
a couple onions
a hunk of ginger
a small handful of peeled garlic
a big couple handfuls of carrots
a small sweet potato, peeled and diced
a couple stalks of celery
a red bell pepper

After it has sauteed for a bit (5 min. after adding the bell pepper), add some amount of broth, covering the veggies by about two inches.  (I used the Better-Than-Bouillon beef stuff.  Might not be strictly paleo, but it is gluten-free.)  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Bring it back to a boil - add the thinly sliced beef pieces.  Reduce heat, cover, simmer for 10 minutes.

Add a can of coconut milk, wait 'til warmed through, serve.

All in all, more delicious than I thought it would be considering the lack of spices in there.  I recommend it.  I also recommend cutting the thin slices of beef into even smaller pieces, or in lieu of that, using a spork to eat the soup - the beef pieces were a little difficult to get onto the spoon and into the mouth.

Scooter

Coconut Flour Waffles

These were pretty delicious, and basically taken from The Food Lovers Primal Palate.  Their book is awesome, by the way.

1/4 cup coconut flour
4 eggs
splash of milk (their recipe called for 1 T coconut milk, I didn't feel like opening a can for so little, so I just used some raw cows milk that I happen to be trying right now.)
little bit of baking soda
more than a little bit of cinnamon

Whisk it all together, cook on the waffle iron.

They were really, really good, more like regular waffles than the banana-almond flour combo.  (Which is also good, in it's own way.)

Recommended!
Scoot

Rosemary Baked Chicken

After some boring and failing adventures in the kitchen, this one turned out mostly right:

(If you're using frozen chicken, make sure that it is all the way defrosted before you try to use it.)

Brush some olive oil (I used a tuscan herb blend) onto four chicken breasts.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Add 2 T chopped fresh rosemary.  Add a whole handful of smashed garlic cloves.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

Yay, back at it!

Easy Delicious Applesauce

Gather apples from Grandma's yard.
Cut a variety of them up.
Put them in a crockpot with some water and some roasted saigon cinnamon.
Cook on low overnight.
Puree with an immersion blender.

Yes!

Mustard Pot Roast

Take a couple pound beef roast of something.  Mine might have been chuck.

Smear it with dijon mustard, crack salt and pepper on top.

Toss it in the crockpot with a couple cubes frozen chicken stock (or 1 cup not frozen cubes), a couple quarted onions, and a few handfuls of carrots.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

Yum

Scooter

Chicken Chile Soup

Based on the Chicken Chili Soup at Everyday Paleo.

Saute a couple of onions and some garlic in olive oil infused with cilantro and onion.
Add a couple cups of diced carrots.
After a little while
Add 4 cans green chiles (diced)
Some cumin, black pepper
Some chicken broth and water
Bring to a boil, simmer until the carrots are tender-ish
Add a rotisserie chicken, shredded
Cook for a little while longer.

Eat.

Chili (Epically scaled up)

Cooking chili for ~30 peeps:

10 lbs. ground beef, browned
7-8 onions, sauteed with garlic in chipotle olive oil
6 ish bell peppers
Thing of celery
4 ish sweet potatoes, cubed and par boiled
3 ish medium zucchinis
Unknown but many cans of diced or stewed tomatoes.

Used roaster oven from work to simmer the chili, it was filled to the brim.

Looks like around 16 ish quarts of chili, with around 5-6 quarts left over from 25-26 people eating, with plenty of other food/sides.

Oh yeah.

Scooter

Basic Dinner

Easy, basic, good:
Chop up two onions, start sauteeing in chipotle flavored olive oil
Once onions are almost translucent, add 1 lb. ground beef
When ground beef is no longer red, add a couple small chopped peppers and a couple diced squashes of some sort (mine were a combo of peter pan and yellow squash).

Cook until desired done-ness, sprinkle on salt and pepper.

Eat.

Easy.

Chicken Hash

This was basically pulled from Paleo Periodical because I had some leftover chicken.

Chop an onion and a couple cloves of garlic, saute in oil of choice.
Add half a shredded sweet potato.
Add some squash - I think mine were called peter pan squash.  I put in two.

Cook until things seem close to done - add a bunch of diced, pre-cooked chicken.

Good stuff.

Scooter

Baked Chicken

Got this one from Denver Paleo Eating who got it from Food Lover's Primal Palate.

Had a family pack of boneless/skinless chicken breasts.

Put into a pyrex-type glass pan.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle on: salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and smoked paprika.

Bake at 425 for 45 minutes.

Easy!
Scooter

One minute (+) muffins (gluten free, primal but not paleo)

I had purchased some creamed cinnamon honey on a recent trip, and that really just begs to be spread on some sort of bread-type product.  Chowstalker and Healthy Living How to to the rescue!

One minute almond flour muffins:
Melt a little pad of butter in a coffee cup (the recipe specifically called for 1/2 T)
Then add:
1/4 cup almond flour
2 T Flaxseed Meal
1/2 t baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg

Mix it all together, cook it in the microwave for 1 minute 15 seconds.

Yummy!  Highly recommended as a treat.

Honey. Is. So. Good.

Scooter

Rack of Lamb Roast

Rack of Lamb:
Got the basis for the recipe out of a magazine that a TG had copied - First, 4/25/11.

What I did (the actual recipe involved some parm cheese and a lamb crown roast).

1.5 cups fresh mint
a few good shakes of dried parsley (the actual recipe called for fresh parsley)
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts

Whir the above together in a food processor.

Spread it on a rack of lamb I got from Morgan Valley Lamb at the farmers market.  Also put salt and pepper on it.

The recipe called for roasting it at 425 for 30 min.  I ended up roasting it for over an hour.  Either the rack of lamb cooks very differently from the crown roast, or it was still partially frozen in the interior.

The mint pesto actually became somewhat dry and crispy on the outer edges, but the meat was delicious, tender, and juicy.

I do need to take some sort of how-to-carve-meat class, though.

Someone else carved this

Scooter

More Road Trip Food

In a cooler:
dozen hard boiled eggs
celery
carrots
grapes
beef jerky
deli turkey

Not in a cooler:
macadamia nuts
avocados
oranges
apples
various lara bar types

It worked out well.

Beef Jerky - The Coffee Rub

Eye of Round, sliced thin, dry-rubbed with (proportions, approximate):
Ground Coffee (2 T)
Ground Pepper (2 T)
Ground Cumin (1 T)
Salt (1 T)
Garlic Powder (.5 T)

I'm pretty sure this is going to be spectacular.

Update 8/18/2011:  This is spectacular.  And the rub was all Triangle Girl - it works well for steaks as well.

Pesto Burgers!

Or more like pesto patties, since a burger implies some sort of bun as well, which I'd completely forgotten to consider the other people involved in the bbq.  Ah, well.

Mash together:
1 lb. ground beef
2/3 cup (or more or less) garlic scape pesto

Form into 6 patties, hand to someone else to grill.  When they magically come back perfectly cooked, combine with a salad and some grilled zucchini.  Awesome.

scooter

p.s., the inspiration came from Paleo Gurl's website.

Re-hydrating lunch test

OK - I combined some of the sausage, sweet potatoes, and veggies, covered with about 2x water, and simmered for 10-15 minutes.

Review:
It's pretty good.  I need to slice the sausages smaller, add salt and pepper.  Maybe consider adding other spices or some sort of dried base (broth) to it.  Made enough for 2 servings, but probably not 2 trail servings.

The experiment continues.....

Zucchini-Sweet Potato Patties

These are really just another version of these zucchini patties.

Grate a medium zucchini and 1/2 of a medium sweet potato.
Mix half of this together with an egg, salt, and pepper.
Grease/oil/spray a skillet over medium high heat and spread the mixture out somewhat thin.
Cook for a while on one side (several-five minutes), flip and cook on the other side.

Ate it paired with some leftover salmon and blueberries.

Go breakfast!

Chili (Paleo)

In a large pot, heat up olive oil.  Add:
1 large chopped onion.  Cook until starting to turn translucent.
Then add 1 lb. ground beef.  Cook until not pink.  Add a little bit of minced, dried garlic.
Then add 1 chopped bell pepper, and 1 chopped yellow squash.  Cook for a few minutes.
Add 1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, a few shakes of cumin, and a few shakes of chili powder.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

Scooter

Dehydrated Stuff

More dehydrated stuff:

Tonight, I shredded about 3/4 of a peeled, uncooked sweet potato, and spread it out on a sheet for the dehydrator.  Cut out a piece of parchment paper to act as a another sheet and also did 2 trays of frozen veggies (about 16 oz. of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots).  

Decided to try dehydrating pre-cooked chicken sausage.  It was the andouille flavored Amylu (?) brand from Costco, I sliced up 4 links, about 1/4" thick (probably should have done thinner).  I cooked them in the microwave for 1 min, just to heat them up and help release some of the fat, which I blotted with paper towels.  I then put them in a colander, and poured very hot water over them a few times (a tip I picked up off the internet for people who were drying ground beef - it should help get out even more fat).  Blot with paper towels again, throw on the dehydrator, filled up one tray.  

We'll see how this turns out - I am planning on re-hydrating for lunch at work sometime this week to test this whole theory out.  I'll probably combine all the ingredients, plus a few spices.....

Scooter

Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon

Yeah, this is where it's at.  The planks impart an awesome, smoky flavor to the salmon.

Soak a cedar plank for 1-many hours.

Heat up grill, put cedar planks on for a few minutes to pre-heat.

On salmon: squeeze lemon juice, sprinkle salt and pepper, add some fresh chopped rosemary and sage.

Leave on grill until salmon flakes with a fork, something like 30 minutes for the piece we had.

Best.  Ever.

Scooter

More Beef Jerky and Dehydrated things

Pineapple-Ginger beef jerky:

Marinate thin slices of eye of round roast in a combo of:
pineapple juice
tamari sauce
dried ginger
dried garlic
salt

Delicious!

More zucchini chips:
One medium (in the sense it's not a huge summer one, but still quite a bit larger than the ones in the store) filled two trays.  Sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Experiment, potentially leading to me attempting to make my own dehydrated camping/hiking type meals:
Take ~16 oz. of frozen veggie medley (cauliflower, carrots, broccoli)
Place them on the other two trays of the dehydrator.

Go time.  Excited to see how this turns out.

Update 8/54/11: Dried them for about 24 hours.  The frozen veggies shrank way beyond expectations, to the point where they were falling though the trays.  Next time - put down some parchment paper on the trays.  Excellent.

Roasted Tomatoes with Pesto

This recipe essentially came from Barefoot Contessa's How Easy is That?

Slice some tomatoes, arrange on a cookie sheet covered with foil.
Brush Olive Oil over them (I used Tuscan Herb Olive Oil from Mountain Town Olive Oil)
Sprinkle with ground pepper, ground salt, and some tuscan herb mix (dried)

Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes.

Pull out of oven and smear with pesto (see recipe below)

Bake another 10-15 minutes.

P.S. - We roasted salmon, cauliflower, and the tomatoes at the same time and they were awesome!


Garlic Scape Pesto:
Big handful of basil leaves
Equal volume of garlic scapes
Glug of olive oil
small handful of walnuts

Whir in food processor!

Yummy.

Cauliflower "Hummus"

In my I-Love-Cauliflower mode lately, I borrowed this idea from The Cavewoman Cafe.

I was busy cooking multiple things at the same time, so the measurements are a bit rough.  I also have a small food processor, so it took a few batches.

Steam a head of cauliflower until it is fairly mushable.
Cut off the florets, add to food processor with:
Juice of a lime
Small handful of macadamia nuts
A bit of olive oil
Cumin
Smoked Paprika

Process!  Add olive as needed for desired texture.

It was really good - we had chips, carrots, red peppers, and cucumbers to dip into it.

How to make your own sparkling "soda" drink

This could also be titled "How to make you co-workers (continue) to think you're a freak."

Sometimes, you just need, er want, something sparkly to drink.  Bought some plain soda cans at the store.

Attempt one:
Muddled some fresh mint and fresh ginger, poured the soda water over with some ice.  Good, but not as minty and gingery as one might hope, considering the amount of mint and ginger in it.

Attempt two:
Muddled some fresh mint and fresh ginger, poured about 2-3 tablespoons of hot water over it, let it steep until cool.  Pour the soda water into it with some ice.  Much better.

Scooter

Eggs in a Nest

This was inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle book.

Saute half an onion in a little bit of olive oil
Add half a red pepper after a few minutes
Add a HUGE bunch of greens - mine was a mixture of spinach, kale, and collard greens.
Add a small head of cauliflower, whirred through the food processor.
Add a little bit of water, if you feel like it is needed.
Cover and let the greens wilt for 5-10 minutes.

Make little depressions in the mixture to crack the eggs into.  I put in 5 eggs, should have put in 1-2 more.
Cover again and let eggs cook for 3-5 minutes, depending on how firm you like your egg yolks.

Serve!
It was really, really good, even though there were no spices at all.

Favorite pan!

Scooter

Lamb Burgers!

Combine:

1 lb. ground lamb

two very small onions, minced (less than 1/4 cup)

two garlic cloves, minced

pile of mint, minced

couple shakes of: turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, smoked paprika.

one shake of nutmeg

Form into 6 patties, cook on the stove on the cast iron grill pan.....

V. good.

Scooter

Sweet Potato Waffles

This recipe is a riff on the paleo pancake recipe, subbing sweet potato for the banana, inspired by Stesha at the gym....
1.5 sweet potatoes, baked in the microwave, skinned and mushed
2 eggs
bunch of cinnamon
Enough almond flour to get a dough-ish consistency.  I'd guess maybe 1/8-1/4 cup.

Mix together, throw on waffle iron.  Yummy.

Scooter

Beef Creation

Found out that I had accidentally defrosted some beef stew meat.  Ooops.

Creation time:
2 medium onions, sliced, caramelized in chipotle olive oil.
Throw in a couple cloves of garlic, minced.
Add the stew meat, cook until browned.
Add sliced red bell peppers, some zucchini, and some bok choy stalks.
Saute for a few minutes.
Add about 3 cups of Bone Broth
Simmer until somewhat reduced.  (~20 minutes.)

Surprisingly good for something thrown together at the last minute.

Yet another photo of my favorite pan!

Scooter

Salmon!

It's fresh wild-caught salmon season!  Bought a couple huge fillets from Costco, and prepared them a few different ways:

I:
A Sesame-Ginger-Marinade:
Tamari Sauce (Or soy sauce)
A bunch of minced fresh garlic
A bunch of minced fresh ginger
Some Sesame oil
Some sesame seeds
Some honey or orange juice (Did it both ways - slightly prefer the honey)

Marinade for a few hours, bake at 400 for 20ish minutes.  (Until the salmon flakes when pressed with a fork.)


II:
Cover with red bell pepper pesto.

Bake at 400 for 20ish minutes.

III:
In a food processor, whir together garlic scapes, cilantro, and basil until it is chopped up, but not ground into a sauce.  Cover salmon with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, sprinkle with lemon juice.  Put the green mixture on top.

Bake at 400 for 20ish minutes.

Delicious!
Scooter

Turnip Greens Side Dish

Got some Turnip greens in my CSA box this week.  So, I:
heat up sesame oil and mongolian fire oil on the stove
Saute 3/4 of an onion in it for 5 minutes
Add 4 cloves of minced garlic
Saute for another few minutes
Chop the stems of the turnip greens, and add those as you go, saving the roughly chopped leaves
After all that has sauteed for a while, add the bunch of turnip greens, cover with a lid, and steam for 5-8 minutes.

Makes a solid side dish.

Scooter

More Beef-Broccoli-Ginger Stir Ffy

I had purchased some eye of round roast to make beef jerky, but apparently had a mis-communication with the butcher when I asked them to slice it real thin.  It was thin-ish, but not quite right for beef jerky.  I decided to cut it into chunks and stir fry it somehow.

So, here's a minimal ingredient stir fry.

Chop up two onions, saute with sesame oil and mongolian fire oil in a large pan.  Add some freshly grated ginger after 5 minutes.  When the onions are done, add the beef chunks, cook until don, stirring often.  Add a big head of broccoli, chopped into florets, and cook until the broccoli is tender crisp.

Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and serve!

Scooter

Tried to do a super close up shot with the camera.....

Grilled Stuffed Peppers and Salmon-Zucchini Rolls

Was going to a BBQ, wanted to bring a potluck thing to share and something to throw on the grill.

Potluck thing to share, from Sarah Fragoso's Everyday Paleo

Combine and mix in a bowl:
2 cans salmon
1 large lemon
Couple shakes of dill
Couple turns of ground salt
Couple turns of ground pepper

Take a couple medium zucchini and a mandoline slicer.  Slice the zucchini long ways.  I tried to use the thick side, which was just too thick, and the thin side worked well as long as I maintained downward pressure on the zucchini through the blade.

Plop some zucchini on the end of a zucchini slice, and roll up.  Secure with a toothpick.

Something to throw on the grill:

Saute some onions, add some italian seasoning, add a can of drained, diced tomatoes and let cook until most of the moisture is gone.
Whir some cauliflower in the food processor, then microwave for two minutes with a little bit of water.
Defrost some random meatballs from the freezer and chop up.
Combine the above, and put into a bell pepper cut in half, top to bottom.  Wrap in foil.  Cook on grill for 10-15 minutes.  Awesome.

Scooter

Dehydrated Sweet Potato Chips

These aren't quite done yet, but I needed to write down the prep steps before I forget:
5 medium sweet potatoes roasted in the oven at 400 for 30-40 minutes.
Let cool.
Peel, slice into rounds ~1/8" thick
Sprinkle with salt and (too much) pepper.  (Next time - just the barest of turns with the pepper grinder.)
Filled up all the trays of my dehydrator.
After 12 hours they were still flat out wet.
After 24 hours they were still moist and pliable
After 32 hours they were mostly dry, but not quite there.
They'd better be done by the 48th hour tonight, 'cause I'm slamming jerky back in there soon.

Scoot

48th hour:  Um, still not dry.  Next time, must cut even thinner, in spite of risk of mushing.

60th hour: Good enough.  They're interesting and good, but not the raging success I had hoped for.  Something to play with anyway.  Might try the mandoline slicer next time.

Chicken Tomato Pantry Concoction

Yes, I do go for the catchy, catchy names.  This was a creation when I was running low to nil on produce and thawed meat.  Time to raid the pantry, see what I could do.

I started as I start many of the things I eat - slicing up two onions.  Saute, in a large pan, with olive oil on medium high, until a bit translucent and/or a bit browned.  Added a few shakes of dried garlic slices (out of fresh - the horror!) and random italian spices - basil, marjoram, and thyme.  Saute for a few more minutes.

In the meantime, open the following:
2 large cans of chicken, rinsed and drained (12ish oz)
2 cans diced tomatoes, not drained (15ish oz)
1 can tomato sauce (6 oz)
1/2 jar roasted bell peppers, chopped

Close-up!

Add these all to the pan, mix it all together, bring to a low simmer for 10 minutes.

Garnish with sliced olives.

Really easy and good!  Probably 5 meals here.

In the background, you can see some of the garden where I will be pulling my own tomatoes and garlic soon!

Scooter

Bok Choy, Sausage, Squash Stir Fry

I pulled out the veggies that were about to go bad in the fridge for a quick lunch:

1 yellow squash, chopped
5-6 baby bok choy, ends sliced off and the rest chopped, including the greens
1 pre-cooked sausage, chopped (this version happened to be a hickory-smoked version from Costco.  Good, but ultimately not really worth the price, in my opionion)

Heat up some olive oil in a saute pan, add the squash and sausage as well as some salt and pepper.  Saute for a few minutes until the squash is soft, then add in the bok choy.  Saute for another 5 minutes or so until the greens are wilted.

Delicious and Easy!
Scooter

Beef Jerky, the wet marinade

I finally decided to try a wet marinade after the various dry rubs on the beef jerky.

FYI, this is not paleo.

The meat:
2.5 lbs. eye of round roast, sliced thin by the butcher

The marinade:
1 cup of whiskey
acouple Tablespoons of tamari sauce (or soy sauce if you are so inclined)
ground sea salt
ground pepper
garlic powder

Mix all the marinad ingredients together, combine with the meat in a plastic bag.  Let it marinate overnight.

Then dehydrate.  It's good.  Definitely tastes like whiskey.

Scooter

Boring dehydrator details:
Took ~14 hours.  One batch, filled all trays, including the bottom one.

Beef Bone Broth and then Onion Soup

I made the Bone Broth from Balanced Bites:

A package of frozen soup bones (didn't bother to de-frost), a splash of apple cider vinegar, a few grinds of sea salt, and a whole handful of smashed garlic cloves.  Put in a crock-pot on low for 24 hours.  Strain into a bowl, let it cool, and skim the fat layer off the top.

Later the next day:
Take some of the onions from the crockpot onions in Lemon Saffron Chicken, and some of the broth, heat up on the stove and let simmer for 20 minutes.  It's a kind of French Onion Soup, without the cheese and bread.  So, I guess that just makes it plain, old, delicious Onion Soup.

Scooter

Boring Banana Breakdown

Boring Banana Dehydrating Record:

6 large bananas.  Cut to ~1/4".  Filled 3 trays.  Dried for 30 hours, with racks towards the top.  May have cut them a little too thick.

Boring, but one of the reasons we created the blog - to keep track.

Saffron Lemon Chicken

My awesome co-workers had given me a jar of saffron (super pricey spice), so we made a saffron lemon chicken with it, from Kalyn's Kitchen blog.

The night before:
I decided to try carmelizing a bunch of onions in the crock-pot overnight, and freezing what I didn't need for the recipe for later use.

Slice up ~4-5 lbs. Vidalia onions, put in the crockpot with a stick of butter.  Cook on low overnight.

These smell divine.  They don't have the same texture as pan-carmelized onions, but they are delicious.  And I saved the "broth" to do as-yet-unknown things with.  This was much easier than pan-carmelizing.

For 8 people:
Cut up 4 lbs. chicken breats into maybe 2 in. pieces.  In a large pot that has a lid, heat up olive oil and a touch of butter.  Cook the chicken pieces until just brown on both sides, but not necessarily fully cooked, and remove to a plate if you have to do it in batches.

Meanwhile, heat up 2 pints chicken stock with a couple pinches of saffron threads in it.

When all the chicken is done, put it all back in the pan, cover with however many onions you want, and pour the hot saffron-infused chicken stock over it all.  Bring to a low boil, cover, and simmer at low heat for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, add 1 cup chopped parsley and the juice of 2 large lemons.  Cover and simmer at low heat for another 15 minutes.

Enjoy.

This was really, really good.  I still can't necessarily pinpoint the taste of saffron, but the whole dish had a floral and sweet essence to it.  If you happen to have saffron, recommended.  If you don't happen to have saffron, I think this would be delicious anyway.

Scooter

More Beef Jerky "Recipes"

Beef Jerky Rounds 3 and 4 involved an eye of round roast, cut to ~ 1/8" thick by the butcher.  The eye of round roast seemed to have less visible fat than the rump roasts I had been using.  They both spun for around 24 hours in the dehydrator, were probably on the over-dry side of the spectrum, and they were both dry rubs:

Curry:
Ground Sea Salt
Ground Pepper
Turmeric
Hot Madras Curry Powder
Other generic Curry Powder

This basically tastes like dry curry powder.  Which is good, but it's not my favorite.

Chili Powder:
Ground Sea Salt
Ground Pepper
Garlic Powder
Chili Powder

I like this one better than the curry, the spice is just a little deeper.  Although you have to watch out for pockets of intense chili powder clumping.

With both of these, I took an empty spice jar, filled it with whatever proportion of ea. spice, shook it all together, and used that to dispense the spice mix.

I think it is time to start experimenting with some wet marinades.  A couple combos I am considering:
Pineapple juice and ginger
Whisky and .....well, whisky.

Scooter

Herbed Chicken

Got this little gem from CFSCC: Eat This!

I had a package of chicken pieces, which happened to be boneless.  The original recipe calls for thighs with bone, I don't think it truly matters.

So, heat oven to 400 degrees.  Put the rack on the top one or two places it could be.  (You'll want the baking dish about 6-8 in. from the top.)  Bake chicken, with some salt and pepper on top for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile:
Combine some dijon mustard and olive oil (equal parts) in a small bowl.

In another container that will have a lid that fits tightly:
Combine approximately:
1/2 cup almond flour
2 T of parsley
Several Tablespoons total of some combo of favorite spices.  I went with a random Tuscan blend I have, thyme, basil, marjoram.  Dash of cayenne.  Put the lid on and shake it up to mix it.

After 15 minutes, pull the chicken out of the oven and change the oven from bake mode to broil mode.  Coat the pieces on one side with first the olive oil mixture, then sprinkle the spice mixture on top.  Try to cover the pieces, but don't make it too thick.  Broil for 5 minutes on one side, pull the chicken out again, flip it over with tongs, and  coat with the two mixtures.  Broil that side for 5 minutes.

Delicious!  Juicy, tender chicken.  The "crust" got deliciously crispy in some places, but in others was too thick to get crispy, but was still yummy.  Stamp of approval from TG and the Driver at work!

Scooter

Garlic Meatball Soup

This recipe was a conglomeration of what sounded good, the BEST Garlic Soup recipe EVER that I got out of Patricia Cornwell's Food to Die For (this stuff is magic if you are getting sick) and a combo of an Italian Wedding Soup that looked really good on CFSCC presents: Eat This blog.

Heat some olive oil in a soup pot.
Add the following as you get done chopping them:
Onion
Thumb size piece of ginger (completely unnecessary, but it was about to go bad so I thought I'd use it)
Somewhere between 10 and 30 cloves of garlic, depending on your preference, smashed with the side of a knife, peels removed.  (You can smash with the peels on, and pick them out easily apres-smash.)
Bag of baby carrots.  They don't need to be chopped too fine.
Saute all this for 10 minutes or so.
Add some italian spices
Approximately 6 cups of chicken broth and water
Bring to a boil, let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Blend the soup, using an immersion blender.
Take 1 lb. ground beef, form it into small chunks with your hands, and add to the soup.  Let it go on a low boil for about 15 minutes, then add some big handfuls of spinach.  Simmer until wilted.

Sooooo good.  If you like garlic.  And all the other ingredients.

Vampires beware!

Garlic Beef Stew - Crockpot

This is another one out of Sarah Fragoso's Everyday Paleo.

Combine and stir together in a crockpot:
3 onions (sliced), 1-2 lbs stew meat, a head of garlic (chopped), some chicken broth, some ground salt and pepper, and a few shakes of marjoram.

Then halve a butternut squash, scoop out seeds, and place skin side up on top of everything else.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

Simple, good, easy but could use either more or less spices.  (I suspect just salt and pepper would have been fine.)  I'd never cooked a squash in the crockpot before, and it worked well.  Next time I might also throw in a bag of baby carrots. 

Scooter

Road Trip Food - Meatballs and Beef Jerky

Meatballs as a dinner on part of a road trip:

20 oz. ground turkey
a couple handfuls of fresh spinach chopped finely
some powdered garlic
some dried basil
some dried thyme

Mush it all together, form into ~1" balls, drop onto a cookie sheet, tuck in any spinach ends that are sticking out excessively, and bake at 350 for about 22 minutes.  I put them on parchment paper to help minimize the mess on the cookie sheet.  But they do kind of end up sitting in a pile of their own fat, which is fine, but un-appetizing looking.  I've been wondering about baking these on racks above cookie sheets.  Maybe next time.

Dry-Rub Beef Jerky:

I was mildly worried about how long it would take - so I opted for a dry rub, which helps the meat dry faster than a marinade.

3 lb. of rump roast, sliced thinly, large patches of visible fat trimmed away.  (How thin?  Actually this batch was sandwich-meat thin - thanks to the awesome butcher counter at Harmons.)

Layer into a bowl, sprinklying salt, pepper, garlic, and cumin onto each layer.  Cover with plastic wrap to minimize contact with air, let sit overnight.

Put in dehydrator according to dehydrator instructions.  This took me three batches at about 10 hours each.  But, again, the meat was really, really thin.  I'm storing this in the fridge with a few paper towels in the bag to help pick up any fat or condensation.

Awesome!
Scooter

Mustard Beef and Veggies

This was based off a recipe in Sarah Fragaso's Everyday Paleo book.  Excellent book, by the way.

Chop onion, garlic, and ginger.  Start sauteing in olive oil.
Add sirloin steak, cut into bite-size pieces.  When the meat has browned, add 1/2 cup chicken stock, 1 Tbl dijon mustard, and 1 tsp of thyme that have already been combined.
Add a 1/2 bunch of kale leaves, torn off the stalks, and about 1/3 head of red cabbage.  Simmer everything together until the latest veggie entrants are wilted to your satisfaction.

This was really, really good!

Scooter

I've got some beef jerky spinning in the dehydrator right now, I'll let you know how it comes out!

Bison Stir Fry

Meat.  Veggies.  Spices.  Cooked in some kind of fat.  It's either a stir-fry, or perhaps a saute, or a soup, or a curry, depending on which spices and amount/type of liquid.  I almost didn't post this, but then I remembered that one of the reasons I started the blog was to keep track of some of the veggie-spices-meat combos and ideas I try.  Anyway, here it is: a stir-fry that almost became a soup.  Then didn't.

Chop up an onion.  Saute it in a combo of sesame oil and mongolian fire oil.
After 5 minutes add a chopped red bell pepper and some yellow squash.
Look in the spice cabinet and decide where this recipe is going.  Add several hefty shakes dried garlic, a good amount of chili powder, and some paprika.
After 5 minutes add 1 lb. ground bison (or beef, or ....)
In the middle of all this, decide that you want to make this more soup-like.  Add about 4 frozen ice cubes of homemade chicken broth.
While you are filling a container of water to also dump in, decide you don't want it to be soup-like.  Make hot tea with the water instead.
When the meat is cooked, add a chopped half head of red cabbage.
After 5 minutes, add the torn leaves off a bunch of kale.  Cook until wilted.

Serve with hot tea!

Put cheesy "taste the rainbow" comment here.

The spice level is fairly mild, doesn't hit you instantly, but has a nice follow through.  And now I feel like I'm emulating someone trying to give a review of wine.  Huh.  But there are no blackberry overtones.  Yet?

Scooter

Easiest Roast Chicken, Spinach-Egg "Bread", Apple-Cinnamon-Walnut "Cookies"

Warning:  all measurements are educated guesses.

Easiest Roast Chicken:
Heat oven to 350, put the whole chicken in the roasting pan with some onions, sprinkle olive oil, garlic, and salt on it.  Cover, cook for 3 hours.  Fall-off-the-skin moist chicken.  No chicken stock out of this one - my freezer is full up.

Pre-bake.  And upside down.  Whatever.

I was trying to plan this such that I could have all three things in the oven at once, and pull them all out at the same time, but I didn't quite get the other two things ready in time.

Spinach-Egg-Basil "Bread*"
based off of this on Mark's Daily Apple.  Planning on using it with leftover chicken in tomorrow's lunch.  Maybe in a sandwich-type way....

16 oz. package of frozen spinach, thawed, and drained as well as you can by squeezing out the liquid with paper towels or a cheesecloth.
Handful of fresh basil leaves.
Whir the green stuff together in a food processor.
Somewhere a little bit south of 1/4 cup of almond meal.

In the pan.

4 whole eggs, 3 egg whites, beaten, with a pinch of salt.
(I was hoping the additional egg whites and almond meal would make the thing a little bit stiffer and a little bit drier after baking.)

Slices

Beat everything together, spread it out in a pyrex 9" round baking dish.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.



As one might guess, this tastes egg-y and spinach-y.  (Which I like).  It ended up being still moist (which it's supposed to be), fairly stiff (which was good), but also fairly thick (~ 1/2").  Next time I make it, I plan on getting even more liquid out of the spinach, and divvying this out between two pans to make the slices thinner, and see how that goes.  Potentially only bake it for 20 minutes.  Maybe drop an egg.  We'll see.

"Cookies"
Based on Paleo Foodie
1 3/4 small gala apples, chopped
~ 1 cup almond meal
pinch of baking soda
lots and lots of saigon cinnamon.  Probably like 1+ Tablespoons (Or regular, of course).
Handful of chopped walnuts
2 eggs.  (I tried with just one egg, but it didn't seem moist enough, so I went with two.)
Mix everything together.
Plop onto a parchment-covered baking sheet.  Since I was trying to get all of this onto a small baking sheet, to only take up 1/2 a rack in the oven, I made 6 giant ones.  It really should have been like 10-12 smaller ones.  So much for space efficiency.

Yes, these are giant.  And more delicious than the picture indicates.

I like these a lot, but I like apples, cinnamon, and walnuts.  Depending on how sweet your tooth is, they are either just right, or not sweet enough.  (Or perhaps too sweet, but I don't know many people in that category.)  They could use some honey, if you like.  Or perhaps butter.  Which isn't sweet, exactly, but it is delicious.

Can't wait to eat one with some tea!
scooter

* I recently became annoyed at a local breakfast place that was advertising "scrambles."  The place is vegan and there are no actual eggs in the house.  The menu also included "chicken tenders" and other "meats."  I fumed (mildly) a little bit, wondering why that can't just call things what they are - tofu, some other form of tofu, and more other form of tofu.  (I don't eat tofu.)  At least use "chicken-like."  And here I am calling something "bread."  Ah, well, I didn't invent it.

Sausage and Vegetable Egg Bake

This will be breakfast for the next bunch of mornings:
Peel and dice a medium sweet potato.
Cut a head of broccoli into florets.
Bring a some water to a boil, drop the sweet potato and broccoli in, keep at a simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop an onion and a medium zucchini or yellow squash.  Saute in olive oil, when the onions are translucent, add some sausage (mine was ~3/4 lb).  I didn't add any spices, since the sausage was pre-spiced Italian-style.
Heat the oven to 350.
Drain the sweet potato and broccoli, add all the ingredients to a greased 8x8 glass pan. Beat together ~8-10 eggs or equivalent in whites.  (I think I used 7 whole eggs and 5 egg whites*.)  Pour over the other ingredients and stir a little bit.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, until it is all set up.

Somehow all the egg white appear to have formed up in the lower right of the pan.  Curious.  They might be plotting a take over of some sort.

Unfortunately, this did dirty a fair number of pans and bowls.  Blast.

Scooter

Recipe based on one that was found years ago in Chris Carmichael's Fitness Cookbook (the cookbook in general is very, very far from paleo) and recently re-inspired by a post at the Functional Foodie blog.  And in general, it's just a not-divvied-out-into-muffin-tins version of Egg bites.

* The reasoning behind using the egg whites only for some of the eggs is to up the protein percentage a little bit, as I plan on eating some of this with avocado, so the fat all balances out in the wash anyway, and some of it post-workout, and I like more protein post-workout.

Zucchini Patties and a Turkey Burger

I decided yesterday's breakfast, while certainly packing a protein punch, was lacking in veggies.  Decided to put zucchini patties on top of this round instead of just an egg:

I need to vary the colors of the plates and backgrounds in these pictures.....

Turkey burger:  Defrost overnight.  Cook in a pan on medium-hot, about 3 minutes on each side.  Let rest before cutting into or eating it so it can re-absorb some juices.

Zucchini Cakes:
Grate one zucchini.  (About 6-7" long.)
I grated it into a colander and sprinkled salt on it.  I then took the J-dog on a walk - I was trying to draw some of the water out.  When I got back, I squeezed the zucchini with some paper towels to get them drier.  I am making these again tomorrow, but this time I grated the zucchini at night and will let it sit overnight in the colander, try to get even more moisture out.
In a bowl, crack an egg and beat it.  I decided this didn't really look like enough binding agent, so I added another egg white.  This was probably unnecessary.  Add the zucchini in, mix it all together.
Grease the brand-new cast iron skillet with coconut oil, heat up, and plop the zucchini-egg mixture on.  This made 5 patties about 3" across.  The first three I made I probably cooked for 4-5 minutes each side, and the last two, which I deliberately made thinner, cooked faster and were a little better.  So take the time to spread the zucchini blobs out a little bit.

These were also delicious cold later in the day as a snack.

I'm thinking curry spices (turmeric, cumin, coriander) would be a really good addition in the zucchini patties as well.

Enjoy!
Scooter

Based on ideas found in Robb Wolf's forum here and here at Balanced Bites

Breakfast and New Toys

Decided that I wasn't getting enough protein with the paleo pancake kick I have been on, and I hesitate to call this a recipe exactly, but for breakfast I stacked:
A turkey burger (I had a frozen pack from Costco, defrosted one and cooked in a pan on the stove) and a poached egg

I poached the egg in the same pan and juices I had just cooked the turkey burger in.  Which kind of dyed the egg a turkey juice color, which looks slightly unattractive, and everything is kind of whited out in the picture.  Which is appropriate, because it was snowing again at the time.

Not lacking in protein here!

And new toys!  Just got some cast iron pans - a grill pan and a skillet.  What should I cook in them first.....hmmmm, probably meat and vegetables.

Watch out - my wrists are going to get HUGE!

Scooter

The basic idea of egg+burger came from CFSCC EAT THIS.

Baked Salmon with Herbs and Roasted Cauliflower

Well, this just might be two of the best things I've made recently.

Take a large salmon fillet (mine was about 1.8#), put it in a roasted pan on parchment paper, skin down, sprinkle with salt, ground pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice.  Let it sit for a while you do the rest of the prep.

Pre-heat the oven to 425.  Tear the leaves off of a bunch of fresh basil and cilantro.  I ended up with a probably a mound of around 2 cups (not chopped).  I then ran it very quickly through my small food processor with a little bit of lemon juice to chop it.  It was still pretty dry, I didn't process it long enough for it to become pesto-like.  Coat the salmon with the herb mixture.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, then take out of the oven, cover with foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes.  This might have been the first time I've ever followed any type of "let it rest" instructions, but it said it helped the salmon finish cooking.  Worth it.

Pre-cooking herb fest.

Meanwhile (or really, interspersed with all this):
Chop a head of cauliflower into florets.  Put on a cookie sheet with olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried garlic, and mix around to make sure all the florets are covered.  Roast for 25-30 minutes.

These were both absolutely delicious.  Especially the roasted cauliflower.  There is nothing like a little bit of char on roasted vegetables.

Yuuuum, char.

Enjoy!
Scooter

These recipes were based off of Ina Garten's How Easy is That

Tilapia Curry

Finally jumped on the coconut oil bandwagon.  I purchased it a while ago, but haven't quite used it yet.  It did smell really nice when I was cooking the onions.

Put a spoonful of coconut oil in a large saute pan.  Heat on medium-medium high.  Add a chopped onion.  After a few minutes, add a bunch of spices, for instance: cumin, coriander, turmeric, curry powder.  Some dried garlic and ginger (doesn't hold a candle to fresh, but one does what one can).  And a table spoon or so of red curry paste.

After a few more minutes, add some cut up zucchini and yellow squash.  After a few more minutes, add some tilapia fillets and break them into chunks.  (Luckily, these defrost really quickly).

Add a few cubes of frozen chicken broth.  Add a can of coconut milk.  Decide that it is too little liquid and add a mere half can of water.  Turn heat up, let it come to a near bubble, turn heat down and simmer.  Decide that is too much liquid, and look in the fridge for more ingredients you can throw in to help sop up the liquid.  Pull out a quarter head of green cabbage that probably thought there was no more chance for it, chop it up, and throw it in, bring it all back to a simmer again for 7-10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Scooter

Pancakes - 2 different paleo versions

Decided I wanted to try some new stuff and make pancakes.

Version A:  (Based off a recipe in Robb Wolf's book)
Mix together:
2 eggs
Some amount of applesauce.  We'll call it somewhere between 1/4 cup and 1/8 cup.
Then mix in some amount of almond flour, until the whole thing has a consistency you think will hold together.  We'll call it 1/4 cup.
Add a couple shakes cinnamon

Version B:  (Based off a bunch of recipes on the web, so I won't credit anybody.  Hah!)
Mix together:
2 eggs
a mushed banana
Some amount of almond butter.  We'll call it two heaping spoonfuls.

Both versions:
Pour onto a heated, greased skillet.  Cook for a couple minutes on each side.  Both recipes made about 6-7 pancakes around 3 inches across.

Review:
They are both pretty good.  The applesauce/almond flour version held together well and were thicker but were a little dry.  The banana/almond butter version was a lot thinner, but still held together well and were a little bit mushier.  Toppings: ate the b/ab combo with huckleberry honey.  Ate the a/af version with a berry sauce I made.

Berry sauce:
Take some frozen berries.  Heat them in the microwave until they are hot, which makes them mushy and syrupy, then mash them together.  Yummm.

Worth it as a treat every now and again!
scooter

More Egg Bites

This is another version of the egg bites, with a slightly different presentation:

Take sliced deli ham, and line the muffin tin with them.  Put in chopped up tomato, basil, and asparagus, and a little bit of salt if desired.  Crack an egg into each one, leave yolk intact, crack some pepper on top.

Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.  We did about 25 minutes, and the yolks were solid.  If you like them runny, maybe just 20 minutes.

These were really good, portable, went camping with me well, and have a much better visual impact than the other egg bites, if one were looking to impress for some reason.

It was based off the idea of Baked Eggs in tomato cups at Poor Girl Eats Well

Scooter

Fast and Basic Salmon and Kale

Salmon filets:

spray on some olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, broil at 375 for 15 minutes or until the salmon flakes and looks done.

Meanwhile:

Put a 1/4 inch of water in a pot, start to bring it to a boil while tearing leaves off a bunch of kale and adding them to the pot.  When the water is boiling, cover and turn the heat down to medium-low.  Add some salt, pepper, and/or garlic powder.  Done in about 10 minutes.

Fast, easy, basic, no-frills dinner.  And remember - always wash your hands after doing a bunch of pushups at crossfit.

scooter

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Every time I make a stuffed something I wonder why I really bother - it was be easier to just make the separate components and then combine them on the plate.  This, however, doesn't stop me from making stuffed things.  (Albeit not very often.)

Cut an acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Place skin side up in a pan with a little bit of water in the bottom, in a 375 degree oven.  Cook for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute 3/4 of a finely chopped onion in olive oil, brown some ground beef, and add some thin peeled parsnip.
Cook for a while, add salt, pepper, and italian spices, and a small can of tomato sauce.  Let it simmer for a bit, then take off the heat.

Beat 1 egg in a bowl, add some the meat mixture.  I was only able to fit about 2/3 of my mixture into the squashes.

Pull the squash out, turn over, and fill the centers with the mixture, put back in the oven for 35 minutes.

Enjoy!

Based somewhat on Cave man food's stuffed zucchini

Scotch Eggs - Baked and Paleo

I like eggs.  I like meat.  I like geodes.  Enter, Scotch Eggs:

Take 1 lb. ground beef
Add spices to taste - like garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, salt, pepper, and dried basil.  Mush it all together.
Take 1/5 of the meat mixture and spread it into a thin patty in your hands, then mold it around a peeled hard boiled egg.  Try to make it even.  I definitely didn't.  Some of them had cracks in the meat shell, but they are fine.
Repeat 4 times.
Bake in 375 oven for 25 minutes.

Revel in deliciousness!

scooter

based on recipe on The Clothes Make the Girl Blog

Shepherd's Pie - Paleo. Ish (has green beans). And is more of a Cottage Pie, anyway.

Contribution to work potluck:

4 parsnips, grated or peeled into small bits.  Put in a bowl with some chopped green onions, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and set aside.

In a big saute pan (or wok, in my case):
Saute some onions and garlic in olive oil.  When they are started to get carmelized and crispy, add 1.5 lbs. ground turkey, and some salt and pepper.  When the turkey is done, add a big package of thawed frozen veggies.  The one I chose was carrots, bell peppers, green beans, onion, and cauliflower.  I also added a frozen cube of chicken stock.  Simmer until it all seems done-ish, and the liquid is reduced a little bit.
Heat the oven to 400.
Put the veggie mixture into the pan.  Mix in a bunch of cilantro.  Mix an egg into the parsnips, then spread the parsnips on top.  Bake for 25-35 minutes.  It seems like I sprinkled dried parsley somewhere in this recipe, but I can't actually remember where......

Yum!

scooter

This recipe was basically a mish-mash of ideas I got based on several recipes I perused on the web, potentially including but not limited to:
Steve's Paleo Zone
Mark's Daily Apple
Crossfit Genius

Oh, supposedly a "shepherd's pie" should include lamb.  Cottage pies include other meats.  Or something like that.

Chicken Cauliflower Soup

Time for.....more soup!  Based off of this one on Orie Shafer's Eat Move Thrive blog.

Saute two onions and a handful of baby carrots in olive oil.  For like 10 minutes.
Add shakes of: cumin, pepper, turmeric, coriander, chili pepper, and cayenne pepper.
Add a chopped bell pepper.  Saute for a few more minutes.
Add chicken broth/water.  I think I added a total of around 8 cups of liquid.
Turn up heat, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer.
Add a head of chopped up cauliflower.
After 10-15 minutes or so, add some pre-cooked chicken.
After another 5 minutes, add a bunch of spinach.
When everything has been heated through, enjoy!

Basic but good.  Got to use the chicken stock I just made!

Onion, Peppers, Ground Beef - 4 ways

I made a huge pile of onions, bell peppers, and ground beef:
Slice several onions, saute for 15 minutes or so in olive oil, add sliced bell peppers, saute for a few more minutes.  Add ground beef, cook until done.

You might notice a conspicuous lack of spices going here....that is because this base is going to be coming back around at least 4 ways.  I mean coming back around in a good way, not in a revisited-my-lunch-in-the-opposite-direction kind of way.

#1: Season with chili pepper and some cumin, throw in some tomatoes and avocado, and voila! it's a fajita-type thing.

#2: Throw into a saute pan.  Add some eggs.  Eat the best breakfast ever.

#3: Add some thyme, marjoram, fresh basil, tomatoes, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

#4: Add some coconut milk and curry paste.

What else might happen?
scooter

Sweet Potato, Kale, and Sausage Soup. This stuff is GOOD.

TG and I decided it was time to kick back with some scotch and make something with kale in it.  Being on a soup kick lately, this is what we went with, based on this recipe at joythbaker's blog.

Dice an onion (or two), saute in olive oil in a large soup pot
Finely chop ginger and garlic, to taste.  Our test runs to quite a bit of both.
Add the above to the soup pot, along with some turmeric (guessing around a teaspoon) and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  Stir and cook for a couple minutes.
Add two peeled and chopped medium sweet potatoes, give them a good stir to get coated in spices and such. 
Add 2 quarts chicken broth.
Turn up the heat to bring it to a simmer.
Add a bunch of kale and half a bunch of collard greens, leaves torn and stalks removed.
Add a package of pre-cooked sausage.  (We used mild italian chicken sausages.)
Let it simmer for like 20 minutes or so, until the sweet potatoes are cooked through.  We actually let it boil away for like 30 b/c we get careless sometimes.
Add a can of coconut milk, let it heat through.
Salt and pepper, to taste.

Soooooo good.
Scooter and TG

Ginger, Greens, Garlic Soup

I like soups.  A lot.  This one is based off of one in Love Soup by Anna Thomas.

Ingredients and Methodology:
2 onions, chopped.  Saute in olive oil for a while.
Add a bunch of chopped ginger and garlic.  Saute for a while.
Add a chopped sweet potato, and some chopped carrots.
Add chicken broth and/or water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.
Add a bag of spinach, a bunch of kale, and some chard.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Blend.  It's good, but finicky people might not appreciate the color......

Makes a bunch.  Going to have to freeze some.
Scooter

Eggs Bhona

This is a recipe from Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express:
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
an inch of peeled and chopped ginger
2-3 cloves peeled and chopped garlic
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
a few shakes of turmeric
dashes of salt and red pepper flakes
8 hard boiled eggs, chopped

Saute the onions, bell pepper, garlic, and ginger for a few minutes.  Add the tomato paste, spices, and 1 cup or so boiling water (I kept adding a little more, depending on how thick/thin you want your sauce).  Stir it all up, add the hard boiled eggs, cover and cook for 5 minutes until it's all heated through.

Review: Love it.  It's a little time-consuming for a weekday morning, but works well on a weekend or as dinner.  (Peeling the eggs took me a while, it was a stubborn batch.)  And I've got enough for two more days of breakfast.

scooter

Crockpot Curry Soup

What a week!  I haven't really been cooking, more just assembling food or eating prepared-by-someone-else-food and leftovers.  Also on a curry kick, so here's my entry:

Crockpot Curry Soup:
Assemble the following in a crockpot
large onion, chopped
Bag of frozen stir-fry veggies
Handful of baby carrots
Big dollop of Thai curry paste
Meat - I used cubed round steak, probably about 1.5 lbs of it
2 cans coconut milk
Chicken broth cubes (from the paprika surprise! day), and enough water to cover everything, probably about another two cans worth.  This definitely tipped the balance from being a thicker curry to being more soup like.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

Review:  Good and super easy.  Not too spicy.  It could probably have benefited from browning the meat first, and definitely from some fresh garlic and ginger.  Keeper!

Tilapia, Fennel, and Tomato Stew

This was based off a recipe on the Whole Foods market website.

I defrosted a few tilapia fillets.  They thaw really quick when you cover them with cool water, which was nice.

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan.  Add two chopped yellow onions.  Saute for a few minutes.  Add a fennel bulb, chopped small and cook for another few minutes.  Add a few shakes salt, pepper, a can of tomatoes with the juice, a few cubes of chicken broth, a pinch of saffron, and a cup of water.  Turn up to high, when it comes to a boil, turn the heat down and add the tilapia fillets.  Cook for another 10-15 minutes, breaking up the fish into chunks if you'd like.

It would serve about 4.  It could use some additional spice embellishment, but the flavors are good.  It was my first time cooking with fennel.  And saffron, for that matter.  I can't say I could taste the saffron in particular, but the stuff I used was pretty old.  I mean, like my age old - it's been in my mom's spice jar for a loooong time.

Munch on!
scooter

Beef and Bok Choy Soup

After plowing through leftovers all week, I finally made something new.  Using mostly the vegetables that had been in my fridge the longest.
Add the following to a soup pot as you're preparing them:
Sesame oil.
Medium heat.
Chopped onion.
Minced ginger.  After two-three minutes add
Gound beef.  When browned add
Handful of chopped carrots.
1 large chopped and peeled parsnip.
3/4 head chopped cauliflower.
Chicken broth and water to cover, plus a little bit.
A bunch of baby bok choy.  They are about 2 inches long.  I rinsed these and just cut off the bottom of the stalk and threw them in like that.
Some salt, pepper, and dried garlic.  (Horror of horrors - I am out of fresh!  Something is not right in the universe.)
Turn up the heat, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.

So, if you photograph a steaming bowl of soup from directly above it, your camera lens will fog up. 

Good soup - simple tasting, easy on the spice level, very warm and filling.

Scooter

Zucchini and Parsnip Chips and Pesto!

Kind of a random day, but wanted to play with some stuff in the kitchen.

Zucchini 

First, using my mandoline for even slicing, I cut up a bunch of zucchini and parsnips, and threw them in the dehydrator overnight.  I didn't put any oil or seasonings on them.  They're really good.  The zucchini are really crisp, while the parsnips are more tough-chewy than crsip.  The parsnips especially are pretty sweet-tasting. I think I'll keep trying things like this.

Parsnips

 And then, using my  new food processor (it's a mini cuisinart something), I made roasted red bell pepper pesto. You throw in a couple cloves garlic, some roasted bell peppers from a jar, some olive oil, some walnuts, and of course, a bunch of fresh basil.  Yummerific!

Hooray, red mush!

Go packers!
scooter

Curry Casserole and Paleo Apple Muffins

The key word in the bi-monthly curry post was "average."  Anyway, decided to try a recipe based on Purely Primal's Thai Curry Casserole:

I took 4 turkey burgers (the frozen ones from costco), broke them up, and cooked them on the stove top with a bunch of turmeric, ground black pepper, and sesame oil.
The butternut squash I got was already cubed (I used about 1.3 lbs of it), and I chopped up some broccoli and cauliflower (probably about 1/3 head ea).
Tear the leaves of a bunch of kale.  I'd recommend a HUGE bunch of kale, 'cause it's awesome, mine was only small-medium sized.
Preheat oven to 350.
Meanwhile, in a glass mixing bowl, I whisked together:
3/4 can coconut milk
longer-than-thumb-long piece of ginger, minced
2 tbl thai curry paste
couple splashes of tamari sauce (wheat-free soy sauce)
couple shakes powdered garlic
couple shakes curry powder

The guy recommends getting a BIG mixing bowl.  He's not kidding.  Mix up 3/4 of the kale, the turkey, and the veggies, and pour over about 3/4 of the whisked liquid.  Stir it all up, and put into some pans for baking - this ended up filling an 8x8 pan as well as a 11x7 pan for me.  Add the rest of the kale and the rest of the liquid to the mixing bowl again, stir it up, put it all on top.
Cover with foil, bake for 35 min.  Take the foil off, bake for another 25, or until the squash is done.

Review:
Really good, especially the kale on top that got a little crispy in parts, but a little sweeter than I was expecting for some reason.  In general, with length of prep and baking, number of steps, and number of bowls etc. dirtied, not something that will enter regular rotation. I'll keep it in mind for occasions, though.  This made enough for like 5-6 more meals for me.

Paleo Apple Muffins!


I've been excited to try these, it's based on Everyday Paleo's Apple Muffins.

A note on measurements - I generally don't measure anything, so I'm guesstimating on this. Cooker beware!  (Caveat Coqutor?)
In a large bowl, add:
1 cup almond flour
1 cup almond butter (I had the maranatha or whatever it's called brand on hand.)
5 eggs
3/4 apple, finely chopped
1 ripe banana, chopped or mushed up
Lots and lots of cinnamon (I love cinnamon, to the point where people think I'm weird.*)
a few shakes of ginger
a pinch of baking soda

Mix it all up, divvy into muffin pans.  This made enough for about 14 muffins.  My muffin pan has 12 spots, so I also filled up some random tiny tart pans or something.  Bake at 350 for a little over 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

These were really, really good.  They look somewhat unappealing, especially before being cooked, with their medium brown color with lighter colored intrusions, but they were awesome.  They'd be even better with honey, either included or spread on top.

The final products:

Dinner and dessert, anyone?

The bird's the word,
scooter

*Everybody usually thinks I'm weird anyway, I'm trying to emphasize that in addition to my base, standard weirdness, they think I'm really, rather excessively weird about cinnamon in particular.  What can I say, it's good.  Especially roasted saigon cinnamon.

Curry Beef Soup

I've almost decided there should be a weekly (maybe bi-monthly, realistically, on average) curry recipe on the blog.  Yum, curry.  It could be like an homage to Bridget Jones - a blog version of a turkey curry buffet.  With other meats.  This one is based on this recipe from Everyday Paleo.

Shop:
1 white onion
1/2 red onion
thumb-sized piece of ginger
8 cloves garlic (yes, I love garlic.  I recommend scaling for many people.)

Start this all sauteeing with a slug of sesame oil, mongolian fire oil, and about a tablespoon of curry paste on the low end of medium-low.
After about 5 minutes, add 1 lb ground beef.  Add the following spices:
bunch of shakes curry powder
couple+ shakes turmeric
couple+ shakes cumin
couple shakes saigon cinnamon  (I've never added cinnamon to a curry, and the smell was divine!)

Continue chopping some broccoli into small florets, and add when the beef is pretty done.  After a few minutes, add a can of coconut milk, and enough broth, water, or more coconut milk to cover.  (I added water and some of my paprika surprise! chicken broth cubes.  What do you know, I found a use for them quickly.)

Chop:
1/2 bell pepper
1 zucchini

Add these to the mix.  Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and let simmer for 10 minutes.  I ate it as was, and didn't serve it over cauliflower or anything like that.

Reflections:  One might wonder why this is called a soup, when it's basically very similar to any other curry I've made.  The answer:  I usually make curries in my large, deep saute pan, and this time I made it in a soup pot.  It's a geography is destiny kind of thing.

Plans for the weekend:  I'd like to muck around with some old/some new kitchen toys.  The new: a food processor.  I'm thinking pesto to break the thing in.  The old: a mandoline slicer and a food dehydrator.  I'm thinking zucchini chips.  The old/new:  paleo muffins in my silicon muffin pan.  If I finally remember to bring the pan home from work, where it is currently acting as a block to anyone trying to put anything else on my desk.

Gherkin on a stick,
scooter