Recipe: Carrot Coleslaw

 

Carrot Coleslaw

Salad:
1 head green cabbage, shredded by your helper
1 lb carrots, shredded by your helper
1 bunch green onions, sliced on a bias
3 pieces celery, sliced on a bias
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup soaked and dehydrated almonds, sliced (can sub with regular almonds)
1/3 bunch parsley, diced

Dressing:
1/4 cup homemade olive oil mayo (can sub with yogurt)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T lemon juice
1 t. salt
2 t. mustard

Mix salad ingredients in large bowl.  Mix dressing ingredients in small bowl. Can dress salad in advance.

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Primal Lasagne

I don't do a lot of imitating pasta dishes, but my son had a lasagna at a restaurant the other day and went crazy for it.  So I wanted to try one at home.

First, the layers:
1. The sauce (tomatoes, peppers, basil, stock, onion, garlic)
2. The meat (ground grass fed beef 85%, kale)
3. Eggplant "pasta" (Peeled and thinly sliced eggplant sauteed in coconut oil until translucent)
4. Goat cheese (in dollops)- you could skip this

 

I got 3 rounds of each layer in, starting with sauce and ending with the cheese.  Note I also didn't salt it because my peppers in the sauce were poblanos and I didn't want to scare the kids away with too too much seasoning.

This cooked for 45 minutes at 350.

 

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Fresh Clams in White Wine Butter Sauce

My kids got really into making these. Plus, they ended up SO tasty.



2 lb fresh clams (1 lb per person, plan accordingly)
3 T butter
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 T chopped parsley
1/2 cup white wine

1. Clean clams (rinse all the sand out). Only use the closed clams.
2. Melt butter in dutch oven or similar.
3. Add garlic and wine. Bring to a boil.
4. Add clams. Cover.
5. Check often and stir until they open, which is about 5-7 minutes. Discard any which haven't opened.
6. Sprinkle parsley on top.
7. Eat with something to dip into the (delicious and salty) broth-- like broccoli or crusty bread.

 

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Birthday Cake Substitute: Baked Apples (Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Paleo/ Primal, WAP, Traditional Foods)

                

Was this five years ago already?  Has it only been five years?

My older son is five! Look at how big he is!

We have had an assortment of non-traditional sugar free birthday cakes (like watermelon cake, banana bread cake, coconut flour cake with whipped cream, and strawberry pie with whipped cream) - plus the ones I didn't blog about.

This time, most of what was served actually got eaten!

Baked Apples (makes 1 tray)

12 apples
1 cup diced walnuts
1/3 cup raisins
1 T cinnamon
1/4 t. sea salt
2 T butter
1/2 qt. bone broth/ beef stock

Preheat oven to 350. Core the apples, but do it wider at the top than the bottom, as if you are taking a cone out of the middle.  Set them in the baking dish.

In a small bowl, mix the walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, and salt.  Stuff this into the apples.  Put any extra around the apples in the dish.

Dot each apple with a dab of butter in the middle.

Pour the broth around the apples.  It should be about an inch or more up the sides of the apples.

Bake at 350 for an hour and a half to two hours.  Can be served hot, cold, or room temperature.

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Individual Strawberry Pies - Crustless

This is a mini version of this pie.  The kids love the gummies, and individual ramekins, so this is a nice extension of both for them.

Here it is with shipped cream on top.

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Recipe: Magic Mini Meatloves (aka Scotch Eggs)

Ingredients:
12 hard boiled eggs, peeled
1 bunch turnips, grated
1/2 cup cheese, grated
4 eggs
1 bunch spinach, grated
1.5 lb. ground beef
1 t. salt

Procedure:
1. Boil and peel eggs
2. Mix ground beef, eggs, spinach, turnips, eggs, and salt
3. Cover each egg with beef mixture. Place into muffin cups or onto cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until beef is cooked.
5. Enjoy the meatloves with the surprise inside each one!

 

 

 

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Recipe: Turnip and Zucchini Latkes GF

 

Turnip and Zucchini Latkes

1 bunch turnips, grated (+/- 4 medium)
2 green zucchinis, grated
3 eggs
pinch sea salt
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 small onion, grated or diced
1/4 cup grated fresh parsley, optional
coconut oil, lard, or bacon grease for frying (can I use pigs and latkes in the same recipe?)

Combine ingredients in large bowl.  Heat oil (start with 2-4 T) in a cast iron skillet on high.  Turn down to medium-high.  Take a small handful of batter and squeeze out any liquid.  Drop into skillet.  Flip when brown.  Remove onto an opened up paper bag or paper towel (to absorb extra liquid).  Make sure there is visible grease/ fat in pan when frying each batch.

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Paleo Meal Recipe: Skirt Steak and Israeli/ California Salad

 

Skirt Steak
Grill a grass fed skirt steak on high on a preheated grill with the lid closed for 4 minutes per side.  Let rest for 2-5 minutes before serving.

Israeli/ California Salad
4 small tomatoes, diced
2 medium cucumbers, diced
2 T fresh dill, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 T lemon juice
2 T olive oil
1 t sea salt
1 avocado, diced

Combine and mix to serve.  Add avocado last so it doesn't get mushy.

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Recipe: Not Your Mama's Spinach Pie (It's Paleo Pie)

One of my favorite recipes of my mom's is her Spinach Pie (you can find it in the cookbook my brother and I wrote).  It is basically a pie crust with layers of spinach, cheddar cheese, and onion/ mushroom/ garlic.

In this, the Not-Yo-Mama's-Paleo-Pie version, I used a bacon wrap instead of the pie crust, added a meat layer, and kept the onion and cheese layers, and replaced my mom's frozen Stouffer's Spinach layer with a fresh wilted spinach layer.  I think she would have loved it.

Actually, I think the bacon wrap needs to be removed and the cheese should be made into a crust (the bacon was too hard to cut - this is why there aren't any finished photos- it got too messy).  I'd put the bacon on top instead of cheese as the top layer.



Layer 1: Bake cheddar and parmesan at 350 for 15 minutes until it resembles a crust.
Layer 2: Wilt a bunch of spinach (using broth, if you have it). Put half onto cheese crust.

Layer 3: Combine leftover chicken, cut into cubes, with random CSA box veggies like beets and turnips (left skillet, below).  Other meat would also be fine.
Layer 4: Sauteed onion, garlic, and mushrooms- half.  Add salt or other spices to this layer if you want more salt than the bacon provides.  My guess is that you won't want to add any.
Layer 5: Cheddar cheese, shredded.
Layer 6: Other half of wilted spinach.
Layer 7: Other half of sauteed onion, garlic, and mushrooms.
Layer 8 (top): Either lay strips of bacon on top, or cut them and put pieces, or skip the bacon and do another layer of cheddar.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

And let me know how it goes!!

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NY Sours are Done! Cucumber pickles.

 

All of this talk about pickles (here and here), and I haven't even shared the recipe.

You see, it's not mine to share.

It's from a great pickling book, The Joy of Pickling (aptly titled). Other great pickling books are Nourishing Traditions and Wild Fermentation.

However, I just gave my friend a pickle from this batch and she asked for the recipe.  And I was going to give it to her, but thought posting it here would be similar to my sharing it with her...

Oh, and I just watched a Good Eats from Alton Brown about pickles so I may try some of his tricks next time; namely, using filtered water whenever it calls for water, and making sure to trim the end of the cucumber where it was attached to the plant.

Lower East Side Full-Sour Dills (from The Joy of Pickling)

4 lb pickling cucumbers, blossom ends removed

4-6 dill heads

2 small peppers, slit lengthwise (note to my friend- I didn't add these this time)

8 garlic cloves, sliced

1 T whole allspice

1 t whole black peppercorns

2 T whole coriander seeds

1/2 c pickling salt

3 qt. water

Layer cucumbers in a gallon jar with everything but the salt.  Dissolve the salt in the water, and pour enough brine over the cucumbers to cover them.

Put a gallon-size freezer bag into the jar, pour the remaining brine into the bag, and seal the bag.  Keep the jar at room temperature.

Within 3 days you should see tiny bubbles in the brine.  If scum forms on top of the brine, skim off daily and rinse the brine bag.

The pickles should be ready in about 2 weeks (note to my friend- I let mine go about 10 days but it was fairly hot- like 75 degrees inside- during that time).  They are ready when they are olive green and sour.  At this point, remove the brine bag and any scum, seal the jar, and store it in the refrigerator, where they will keep for several months or longer.

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Paleo Banana Bread - sweetener free

 

Primally Inspired posted a great recipe for grain-free banana bread, and we tried it and love it.  We made them as regular muffins (small and large) and as muffin tops (thin muffins in a flat baking pan) and like them both ways, but love them flat.  They were cooked more all the way through.  The second favorite choice was as big muffins, and third was as mini muffins.

The best part of these is the consistency- they have very little coconut flour in them, but feel like banana bread.  The kids and adults both loved them (both times).

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Pickles are Up

 

We did a lot of pickling last year, and cucumber pickles - NY Sours- were the biggest hit (see that link for the info).  So... we were excited to see pickling cucumbers at the Farmer's Market last weekend and had to put up the first pickles of the year.

My batch is in the big glass jar and my preschooler's batch is in the small glass jar next to it.  He wanted to make his own, but just like mine.  They differ in that he cut them up before fermentation, and mine will ferment whole.

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Homemade Olive Oil Mayo

 

I didn't really realize I liked mayonnaise until I was inspired by the great cookbook Well Fed and decided to make my own.  I have made it a few times now, and it is really easy.  We have used our eggs from our chickens, plus Meyer Lemons from the gorgeous tree the grandparents have, and the non virgin olive oil from Trader Joe's.  I even bought a squeeze bottle to store it in.  It is really good mayo, and without all the cr@p that store bought mayo has inside.  Super easy.

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Strawberry Harvest and Crustless Pie (GF SF) - Meyer Lemons Inside!

What a strawberry harvest!

So we are back to an old favorite with another new twist, the strawberry pie (here was our last one- with a crust).  This is a bunch of strawberries, rinsed and sliced and put into a pie plate.

Then we made Meyer Lemon Jello- 1 cup hot water- then sprinkle 1/4 c. Gelatin and dissolve.  Then add 1 cup meyer lemon juice and stir.

The the Jello goes over the strawberries and the whole thing gets refrigerated.  

 

  In addition to being delicious, it preserves the strawberries longer than refrigeration alone.

Mmmmmmm.

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Crock Pots Aren't Dull (Slow Cooker Recommendations)

We love crock pots. We have two.  A small and a large one.  They are both stainless on the outside and ceramic on the inside, so they are totally safe as far as BPA, etc. 

But I love the smaller one MORE.  Here it is.  For $19.99, it is an awesome little thing. I prefer it to the gigantic one because every time I cook in  one I want to fill it up.  Then, in the big one, we couldn't possibly ever eat it all.  The small one keeps me in check, plus we get 2 good meals out if it (and a lunch or two sometimes, too).  

If you don't like my recommendation, then I would look for one with a timer on it... so it switches to "warm" when the cooking is over (the one I just recommended doesn't, but I adore its simplicity). 

We just started doing stock in our (big) one, and making banana bread in the (small) one, and roasting a whole chicken w/o liquid in the (small) one.  Chili and stew are the best, though.... soup, too....

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Slow Cooker Banana Bread and Book Review: Paleo Slow Cooking

  This recipe is from Paleo Slow Cooking and I made it because I was curious how breads work in the slow cooker.

I was pleasantly surprised.  It wasn't pretty, but was delicious. And she quite cleverly used parchment paper to protect the crock and get it out easily.

The little guy liked it, too.

The rest of the book I am not too sure about. Many of the recipes make use of premade spice mixes or other premixed ingredients, which isn't all that helpful to me.  She also spends a lot of time on her story, and her family, which is fine but I would rather have more in the way of how to cook, not why to eat Paleo or why she eats Paleo.  It is pretty, though, and the glossy pages and photos make for a nice counter top book (though I would prefer one I want to keep using!).

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Recipe: Crock Pot Chili

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 lb. ground beef, cooked
1 cup beans, soaked overnight and then cooked on the stove (cover with water and a sheet of kombu seaweed, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for an hour, or until fork-soft, uncovered)
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 t. cumin
1/2 t. cayenne
1/2 c. beef broth

Place in slow cooker. Cook 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.

Served below with sauereuben and a roasted jalapeno (1 hour at 350 degrees with a little olive oil).

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