How to eat paleo out

It's easier than you think...hubby and I went out to dinner on Friday in Nashville to an restaurant I've been eyeing ever since we moved here.  I'm sure some of you may have heard the terms "cheat days"...I'm more of the"cheat treat" or in the case of Friday "treats." 

Now when a restaurant is so named Flyte World Dining & Wine we of course had to each start with a red wine flyte.  Paleo or not it was delicious.  As my husband would say "If the cavemen knew about wine they would have totally drank it." So drank it we did.  In honor of the cavemen.  

My hubby is pretty daring when it comes to trying new food.  I can pretty much guarantee if it's different, he'll try it.  He ordered crispy pork rillette (which were like fried, pulled pork meatballs and no they were not paleo.) He also ordered pigs tail, which as much as I love bacon, I could not bring myself to try.  He, however said it was delicious.  I went with the Tomato Salad which featured delicious, in-season, local heirloom tomatoes, sliced cucumbers and red onion.  It also came with a chili vinaigrette and chevre cheese to offset the heat of the dressing (I asked for the cheese on the side and passed it off for the husband's enjoyment.)

 For our main course J.D. ordered the beef flyte which featured bone marrow (which I not only tried but loved) beef cheek (which was roasted and very tender) and coulotte (similar to a filet.) I settled on the king salmon which was served with sliced squash, zucchini and shaved radish.  When my plate arrived I was a little surprised to find my king salmon swimming in some sort of sauce.  I didn't panic, I didn't send my plate back..I adapted and ate my salmon and veggies out of the sauce.  

It's important to remember that when you're outside your own kitchen you can't control everything.  You can only try to make good choices based on your options.  Do the best you can.  It's not the end of the world if you eat dairy or grains.  

Perfecting pancakes

There seems to be quite a few paleo pancake recipes out there and I swear we've tried them all...ok, that may be a slight exaggeration but we've made quite a few of them.  Some have called for almond flour others coconut. Some claimed unsweetened apple sauce was the trick...no wait, it's a ripe mashed banana...no, no it's almond butter.  The pictures always look encouraging but when we execute they lack the fluffy texture so desired.  If the taste was on point we could abandon our fluffy notions...but it hasn't been.  They've all been too much of this and not enough of that.  Until today-we finally unearthed a paleo "pancake" recipe that tasted wonderful!  The first batch was a bit of a struggle to determine heat of the pan and the necessary thickness of the batter...I am sad to say, this said first batch went into the garbage as the centers were under cooked while the outsides were over.  The next batch proved edible and oh so tasty! The recipe is not yet perfected as they were very thin, more crepe like than pancake but we are encouraged!

Recipe via Koa Strength 

1.5 cups of almond flour

2t coconut flour

1t baking powder

1t cinnamon

1/2 ripe banana -I used a whole as it was on the small side

4 eggs-as I sit here typing this post I realize why the pancakes weren't thicker...I forgot to add the eggs...yup, that happened. Hmmm, now imagine how amazing this recipe is WITH the eggs! I will have a do over tomorrow morning and report back...I promised honesty and honest I am.  

1 C coconut milk-I used Trader Joe's light

1t vanilla extract

pinch of salt

2T of grass fed ghee-I subbed coconut oil

You will need 2 bowls.  1 for the dry ingredients and 1 for the wet.  The mashed banana gets added to the wet ingredients, don't forget the eggs!  Slowly mix the wet into the dry ingredients.  Pan needs to be set at a low heat. ..this is where I will leave you.  To be continued tomorrow....with eggs.  Oy!

Food Fast

Without fail towards the end of the week...we just don't feel like cooking.  Yesterday was that day.  By the time our day brought us back home it was close to 7:00 p.m.  I had pulled out ground beef that morning with every intent of making a Civilized Caveman creation but come the end of the day I just could not find the motivation.  The other problem we found was even our alternative suggestions of burgers...meatballs...just seemed too involved.  So I looked around the kitchen and saw we had a butternut squash on hand.  So we preheated the oven to 400 (time will depend on how big your squash is.  When it can time to eat we just poked it to make sure it was soft.)  Cut the squash in half, scooped out it's seeds and lay it on a cooking sheet and let it cook.  We had half a red onion leftover and a red pepper-so I diced them and threw them into a pan.  I added a clove of diced garlic and let those three ingredients cook until the onions started to soften.  To that I added the ground beef, s & p, and garlic powder, letting everything cook until the meat started to caramelize. We took the butternut squash out of the oven and turned the halves face up to cool some.  Then filled the hole with the meat, onion and pepper mixture and devoured it.

Let's talk eggs

Scrambled, fried, poached, over easy, over medium, hard boiled, soft boiled...
They're good for you, say some. Others say they're bad.  You may love them or you may very well hate them (in which case you won't agree with my next statement)...I happen to think eggs are pretty great.  They're easy to cook, relatively cheap and versatile.

Here are some of my favorite ways of cooking eggs:

Grab some nitrate free bacon next time you're at the store if you don't already keep it on hand.  Slice into bite size pieces and fry in a non stick pan (you won't need to add any sort of coconut oil as the bacon will produce it's own grease.)  Remove the bacon from the pan.  I drain out a little of the bacon fat and then scramble up the eggs, chop up some avocado, bacon and basil and throw it on top. 

 

 

 

Another super easy go to egg recipe is just to fry up an egg and layer it on top of some wild smoked salmon. 

Another one of my favorite ways to eat eggs is on top of whatever leftovers from the night before.  Try it with a leftover meat sauce, roasted veggies, a burger...go crazy!

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Chicken doesn't have to be a drag

If you're not careful chicken can get boring fast.  There are so many more ways to cook chicken than just grilling it, make sure you mix it up from time to time. 

Last night I made an Indian dish from Everyday Paleo's Better Butter Chicken. 
Now, a year ago I never would have thought I would be making Indian food in my own kitchen.  In my mind it was a lot easier to go out and eat Indian food verses make it.  But that's one of the things that has kept me cooking paleo, it challenges me to cook outside my comfort zone and keeps me coming back for more. 

Better Butter Chicken review via Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso

What you'll need:
2 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (sadly I am not much of a meat on the bone fan. GASP. I know, my husband is appalled.  We subbed chicken breasts.  Chicken tenders would work well too as you end up cutting them into bite-sized pieces.  It's my experience chicken tenders cook a little faster. 
3T coconut oil
1 red onion (adds great flavor)
2 garlic cloves, minced (take the time to mince up fresh garlic)
1/2t cardamom powder and 1t fenugreek powder  (didn't have either on hand, subbed 1.5t of curry powder and a dash of ground cinnamon and nutmeg.)
1t chili powder
1 (6oz) can of tomato paste (I use Muir Glen Organic)
1/2 can coconut milk (I use Trader Joe's light)
1t of sea salt (I use fine ground verses course but if you only have course use it)
4T of ghee or organic butter (I use kerrygold)
1lb red chard, chopped stems removed (I subbed organic, chopped, prewashed kale)

1. Cut thighs (or breasts) into bite-size pieces and set aside.
2. In a large skillet (I used one with higher sides so the coconut oil won't spit back up and bite me) heat the coconut oil on medium heat.  Add diced onion and sauté until translucent.
3.  Turn the heat to low.  (Before we added the spices, the hubby used the mortal and pestle to ground the spices together) To the onion, goes the minced garlic, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek, and chili powder.  Stir well to make a paste. Mine never came to a "paste" it did thicken though. 
4.  Add tomato paste--the mixture will be very thick.
5.  Turn the heat back to medium and add the coconut milk and salt.  Use a whisk to blend the tomato paste mixture and coconut milk together into a sauce.
6.  Bring the sauce to a simmer and add the chicken.  Stir well, turn down to medium low, cover and cook for about 15 minutes or until the chicken is done all the way through-stir occasionally during the cooking process. 
7.  After the chicken is cooked, add the ghee or butter and mix until melted.  Serve the chicken over steamed red chard (I sautéed the kale in a pan with a little bit of coconut oil and salt just until the color brightened.)

This was such an easy weekday recipe to execute! The sauce was absolutely delicious and the chicken was incredibly tender.  Next time I revisit this recipe I will be subbing the kale for some paleo nann :)









 

So, this is blogging!

After many failed starts, I am finally taking a huge leap and "blogging."

First off, by no means am I an "expert" on well...anything.  I have always loved eating.  It wasn't until this past year that I've taught myself to love cooking.

My husband was deployed to Afghanistan for the second time and I was determined to teach myself how to cook.  It was during this time that I (like much of the world) discovered, loved and became obsessed with Pinterest.  I started pinning recipes left and right.  Anything that made me salivate was pin worthy.  Hundreds of pins later, I realized I should probably try cooking something.  So I did...and it just so happened to be a paleo recipe AND it was delicious!  So starts my paleo love affair.  It was from that point on that I started seeking out "paleo" recipes, not really knowing what (or who?) paleo was.  All I knew was I could cook "it" and "it" was delicious!  I know...not nearly as cool as some of the more serious paleo-ers but it has worked for me and in my opinion makes the paleo lifestyle all the more livable.

My intent for this blog is to share with you the recipes I cook at home.  The good, bad and ugly.  If a recipe or one of my adaptations sucks, I'll tell you (after all, don't you think only one of us should waste ingredients?)  This whole "blogging" venture is a learning process for me so I hope you'll be kind and enjoy it along with me.