Food – Page 28 – Simply Norma

Mustard Chicken with a Holiday Salad and Maple Roasted Carrots, Apples and Onions

There really haven’t been too many paleo recipes that we’ve tried that haven’t been good, very good or excellent.

This Breaded Mustard Chicken did not taste like “regular” breaded meat but it was close. The almond flour that’s used as the breading doesn’t stay as “attached” to the chicken though. This is something we’ll need to work on — unless anyone out there knows of any tricks that could be helpful in using the almond meal as breading?

The chicken was complemented with a Holiday Salad with a Cranberry Apple Orange Vinaigrette. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, it was! Â This is going to sound “old” to those who have been following my food posts but I have to say it again — make sure you serve the vinaigrette on the side so that everyone can add as much or as little as they like. There — I said it!

To make matters even better, we also hadÂ Maple Roasted Carrots, Apples and OnionsÂ as a “side.”

Don’t add too much maple syrup though or it will be too sweet. Yes, there is such a thing as something being too sweet, especially if you’re following a paleo diet. We use Kirkland’s Maple Syrup that we purchase at Costco.

All three recipes worked good together.

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Paleo Stuffed Acorn Squash

Many times, while walking through the produce section, I’ve looked at acorn squashes Â and wondered what to do with them. Recently my son made us brunch that included this Stuffed Acorn Squash. It looks quite interesting, don’t you think?

The original recipeÂ does include the sausage which gives it a lot more flavor.

The squash tasted very similar to a yam or sweet potato and was quite filling.

Very very good! Ya’ll need to try it!

Tuna Egg Salad

Now, if you want to talk about strange combinations of food (at least in my mind) then let’s talk about a Tuna Egg Salad. I wouldn’t have put these two ingredients together as it just wouldn’t have entered my mind.

The salad tasted quite bland to me and I’m not one who likes spicy food. It needed something and it could be the Cajun seasoning that we did not use (mainly because of my aversion to spicy food).

So — I’ll take the blame for the blandness of this recipe. Next time we make it, I can add the Cajun seasoning a little at a time to see if it tastes better than it did this first time.

Or — if you happen to try it, let me know how you make it and if you follow the recipe to a T.

Graze

Did you think I’d be talking about cows grazing? Â You’d be wrong. Â (laughing)

Since we’ve been on the paleo diet, we try to find healthy snacks that we can eat and my son came upon Graze.com. The company is based out of the United Kingdom and was started by 7 friends who wanted to make healthy snacks.

Here is what a recyclable Graze snack box looks like:

Each box comes with four healthy snacks and you can choose the types of snacks that are sent to you. Yes, they are mailed directly to your home weekly at a cost of $5 U.S. a week. There is no contract and you can stop the service any time (make sure you read the terms of service to be sure you know what they are). But, if you’re like me, you’ll look forward to your next box.

Here’s a closer look at the Oatbakes that you see above:

And here’s a picture of an actual item once I removed the plastic:

There are two different boxes to choose from — a light box or a snack box. The light box has lower calorie snacks.

Once a week, we get a box in the mail. I always look forward to what’s in the box. After trialling the snack, you go online and let them know what you think about it. Here’s the statement from the website.

“The food in your box is selected based on your own preferences. For each of our foods, you tell us whether youÂ like,Â love, or would like toÂ tryÂ them. We put together your box based on these ratings ensuring you always receive the food you like.”

Eventually, the snacks are tailored to exactly what you like. This isÂ an easy way to try different things like, say, peppered pistachio nuts. (I didn’t like them but my husband did.)

The idea is so simple and makes snacking a snap! Leave them in your car for a healthy snack while you’re running to and fro. No more McDonald’s french fries or shakes!

In order to try Graze, you need to be “invited” by a current member until the company “launches.” Members are given one “code” to give out.

Unfortunately, we’ve used up our one code. Â Awwww ….

Graze

Paleo Breakfast Casserole

It’s always refreshing to have a casserole for brunch, isn’t it? Recently we had thisÂ Tex Mex Hash CasseroleÂ that was quite tasty. Admitted, it doesn’t look very good in the photograph but don’t let that fool you. The old adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover” rings true with this casserole.

The combination of sweet potatoes and ground beef make this perfect for a paleo breakfast/brunch.

So far, we’ve had an interesting variety of foods — no boredom here.

Lamb Sausage with Squash

If you’ve been reading my posts, you’ll know that I really really really like lamb. And, also, that I really really really like squash. So — when you put those two together, you have perfection! (Well, at least in my eyes …)

The Peppery Herb Lamb Sausage had a little kick to it, i.e. spicy tasting. It does have 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper that adds a burst of flavor to it. But, don’t let that deter you if you don’t like spicy foods because I don’t like to use any spice in my food yet somehow this was a big hit for me.

The squash has cumin and coriander in the list of ingredients and made for a perfect combination.

There were no leftovers of these two recipes. Sigh! Next time we need to make a double portion.

What a great paleo dinner this was!

Salmon Patties, Onion Rings and Winter Citrus Salad

It is rare when we have the same meal twice on this paleo diet that we’re trialling. The variety of recipes that we’ve tried is unbelievable.

It reminds me of a friend I have in Seattle who got married and his wife told him that she would never cook the same meal twice in a year. So, for 365 days he had a different meal every time he went home.

Isn’t that extraordinary? It takes a lot of thought and planning not to cook the same meal twice.

Today we had Salmon Patties with Onion Rings and a Winter Citrus Salad. Â Yes, I know winter is technically over but the salad can be had any time of the year or whenever you can find pomegranates.

Salmon Patties, Onion Rings and Winter Citrus Salad

“You must not get out much,” I can hear people say, because the combination of ingredients in this salad again overwhelmed me with delight.

Oranges, pomegranate seeds, almonds, fennel … wow! And this was the first time I ever tasted pomegranates. Can you believe that???!! It’s true! Hmmm … maybe I don’t get out much. (laughing)

And I really liked the salmon patties. They were a little on the soft side — not very firm — but that didn’t affect the taste.

I didn’t expect my son to make paleo onion ringsÂ also. That was the biggest surprise to me. Granted they are baked and not fried so don’t have the same crispiness to them but they were good nonetheless. The recipe calls for almond meal instead of regular flour so the taste is a tad different but not much.

Paleo, paleo — so many new things to eat on this paleo diet.

Paleo Chicken Salad

Although most days I have leftovers for lunch, this time my son made a Summer Chicken Salad that was quite tasty.

Unlike the other chicken salads I’ve had, this one was different in that it had grapes along with chicken and slivered almonds, a combination of ingredients that I never would have thought would go together.

But this combination did work well together and made for a filling lunch. I didn’t have anything else to go along with it. Just chicken salad.

The older I get, the simpler I like things to be when it comes to food. Any older folks out there know what I mean? Or am I the only older one out here? Â (smiles)

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookie

I didn’t take a “pretty” picture of this Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookie because I don’t want you, especially if you’re trying to eat paleo, to like it too much. (smiling)

But, quite honestly, this cookie was delicious.

One ingredient, the sunflower seed spread, does have agave syrup in it so that probably made the cookie sweeter than most paleo people like to eat.

But this is a once-in-a-while dessert and not something that you will be eating everyday — at least, I hope not.

The recipe is really easy to make also.

Try it! You’ll definitely like it!

Chicken Marbella

You have to like chicken, prunes, capers and green olives in order to like this dish. Do I have your attention?

Yes — prunes. Before you pass on this post, let me tell you that the Chicken Marbella actually tasted very good with prunes. My problem with the recipe was with the green olives — they just didn’t seem like they belonged with this recipe. And, I LIKE green olives.

If I were to make this recipe, I would exclude the green olives but keep the prunes. They added a nice sweet flavor to the chicken. Very tasty!

The side dish we had was a Roasted Eggplant and Garlic Salad. Well, what can I say about it? First, I’m not a big eggplant fan although I have had eggplant parmesan and other vegetarian recipes that include eggplant that tasted okay. This one though — well, it was not my favorite. The eggplant seemed slimy. Seems like I use that term when things slip and slide in my mouth. (laughing)

To me, it was kind’ve like eating mushrooms and I’m not a fan of mushrooms either.

But you can try it and see if you like it, no? For people who like eggplant this will probably be a great dish!

Chicken Marbella with Roasted Eggplant and Garlic Salad

Another day — another paleo dinner.