Category: Food

The end of 2016 crept up rather quickly on me.  The beginning of 2017 did also.

For the past three months I have been troubled by pain in my right shoulder.  One night the pain was excruciating and I finally made it to the doctor’s office. Suffice it to say that I am in physical therapy now and recuperating.  It feels like forever since I’ve posted on this blog although it’s only been a month.

I am currently in downsizing mode ~ getting rid of things I haven’t used in awhile.  And so I went to the cabinet that holds all of my cookbooks and started going through them one by one.

One of my favorite books is Cooking Light and that’s where I found the inspiration for this recipe.  I have tweaked it a bit to make it more simple and have removed grapes from the recipe also.

The main ingredients are carrots, kalamata olives (or regular olives if you don’t like the kalamata ones), onion, chicken and spices.

Throughout my short cooking life, I have learned to substitute spices for what I already have ~ well, assuming I like them.  (laughing)

I chose to use the smaller carrots and sliced them in half.  Then I sliced the onion, added them to the carrots along with a tablespoon of olive oil and salt then mixed it all together.

I used a handful of kalamata olives that I added to the carrot mixture after it had been roasted for a little while.  I really like the taste of these olives ~ they make my mouth happy.

The spice mixture of cinnamon, red pepper flakes, coriander and cumin can really be adapted to whatever spices you like. Go ahead ~ be bold!  I also added a splash of salt and pepper in the spices.  It doesn’t look like a lot but it was enough to coat both sides of four chicken thighs.

Once I cleaned and trimmed the bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, I patted them dry with a paper towel then sprinkled half of the spices on them.

The chicken thighs will be put in an oiled skillet skin side down so they can become crusty-ish. While in the skillet, I seasoned the other side of the chicken thighs.

Once the veggies roasted a bit in the oven, I removed them and added the olives to them along with the chicken thighs to bake them together.

Sound easy enough?  Okay then, here’s the recipe for you.

Paleo Baked Chicken Thighs With Carrots and Olives

For additional paleo recipes, click here.

During the holiday season, I always try to make easy recipes so I don’t feel stressed.  Simple recipes take less time ~

I found this paleo recipe (although they don’t call it paleo) in a magazine called Real Simple and the only thing I changed on it was using Beef Short Ribs instead of Strip Steak.

The vegetables are tossed together with 1/4 cup or less of olive oil then seasoned with salt and pepper and anything else you’d like.  Some of the carrots I had looked a little sad but they were still good ~ no need to throw them out just use them right away, yes?

Side note:  My mother always said to do your best not to throw food away because there are people starving in China.  I believe the phrase was used in “the olden days” because at one time there was a famine in China and people were literally starving.

The veggies will be put into an oven to roast and while that’s happening, you can season the meat with a combination of coriander, cinnamon, cayenne, and ½ teaspoon salt in a small bowl.  Then you’ll be cooking the meat on a skillet to whatever “doneness” you’d like.

Here’s the final product which was quite delicious …

Oh, I see you noticed that the cloves still have the skins on them ~ well, that’s intentional.  When you go to eat the garlic whole, the skin will peel right off.  Pretty cool!

Now ~ since this wasn’t my original recipe, I’ll direct you to where you can see the original one.  Just click below.

Strip Steak with Carrots, Onions and Garlic

We really enjoyed this recipe and it couldn’t be much more simple.  I hope you enjoy it also.

Have a good day!

 

 

 

Here’s another easy and tasty paleo meal ~ Chicken Fillets with Vegetables.

I should tell you upfront that I purposefully did not cook my vegetables all the way through as I wanted them to be crisp when bitten into.  Feel free to cook them first before adding them to the chicken if you prefer them well cooked.

What I like about this recipe is the ginger, Braggs liquid aminos and garlic taste.  It leaves a burst of flavor in your mouth.

But before you start prepping anything, you need to marinate your chicken once it’s cut up in bite sized pieces.  It’s a simple thing really ~ cut then add the chicken pieces to a bowl, sprinkle it with the liquid aminos, salt and pepper then set it aside for at least 20 minutes.

While the chicken is marinading, prep your vegetables and spices.  (The small glob of yellow is the grated ginger …)

Once the chicken is ready, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet set on medium then add the minced ginger and garlic.

Allow this to simmer for a minute or so before adding another tablespoon of olive oil then the chicken.

Next, and this is important, you need to make sure the chicken is cooked almost all the way through so toss it around ~ turning each piece to make sure it’s not going to be raw.  Raw is NOT good. The chicken below is only halfway cooked.

Next add your vegetables ~ broccoli and carrots ~ and stir.  When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, add a handful of cashews, stir and then …

Enjoy!

Here’s the recipe ~

Chicken Fillets with Vegetables ~ Paleo

Not too long ago I received an advertisement in the mail for a subscription for two magazines for $10 for a whole year.

I don’t normally jump on offers like this but after mulling it over I decided, why not?  It’s cheap and it will give me a chance to check out the magazines which I don’t normally purchase.

One of the magazines is Better Homes and Garden and recently they had a recipe for Greek Stuffed Meatballs that are made in a crockpot.  Well, I am normally prepared.  Really, I am.  But on this day I was a little lazy and didn’t read all of the instructions until a couple hours before I needed to make the meatballs.  So ~ I had to improvise as I would have to bake them instead of “crockpotting” them.  (Is that a word?)

The other change I made in the recipe was to paleo-ize it which was quite simple ~ I merely changed out the bread crumbs for almond meal and it worked great!

I’ve seen this exact same recipe on other internet sites so I’m not sure who the original owner is but here is it for you to check out with my changes.  I must say, they turned out fantastic!  I even put them on my “favorites” list.

First, let’s talk about cheese.  I used Kerrygold sweet cheddar (which has just a touch of sweetness) for this recipe.

You can use any cheese you like although you want to be able to cut it in cubes (large or small).

Keep in mind that these cubes will go in the middle of your meatball.  I made large meatballs so sometimes I used two small pieces in a ball.

At first the recipe felt like it might have too many olives.  Is that even possible?  Well, you really don’t taste the olives as much as you would think because they are diced so don’t be afraid of that.

The mixture with the egg, almond meal, olives, parsley, garlic, salt & pepper will look like this.

And after you add the lamb and the beef it will look like this.

Now, it’s really a personal preference, but I like to use my hands to mix everything together and form it into balls.  If you decide to do this, please make sure your hands are really clean.  No use spreading any more germs in this already germ filled world.

I picked up enough of the meat mixture to put it in the palm of my hand, flatten it then add a piece or two of the cheese in it.  Then I covered the cheese with the meat mixture.

I had prepared a casserole dish for the meatballs by putting a couple tablespoons or so of tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish.

Then I added the meatballs to the dish.  You really don’t need to oil the dish as the meatballs let out enough grease on their own but I like to have the meatballs covered in sauce ~ both bottom and top.

And then ~ whala!

Next you spread the rest of your tomato sauce over the top of the meatballs, put aluminum foil over the casserole dish and plop it in the oven.

They will come out looking like this … not too pretty but that’s because of the grease that comes out of the meatballs.  You can pretty it up once it’s on the plate, eh?

Okay then ~ ready to see the recipe?  Enjoy!

Paleo Baked Greek Stuffed Meatballs

For additional paleo recipes, click here.

I knew I wanted to have chicken today but wasn’t sure exactly what to have with it.

Looking in the refrigerator, I noticed some leftover cauliflower from last week’s meal along with broccoli and mushrooms.  Hmmm … I thought.  That’s a nice combination.

Taking the veggies out of the refrigerator, I rinsed them with cold water and cut them up into bite sized pieces.

The now defrosted bone-in skin-on chicken thighs sat waiting to be prepared.

I wanted this paleo Baked Chicken with Broccoli & Cauliflower recipe to be simple and easy so I decided to use only a few items to prepare it:  white pepper, onion powder, salt and toasted sesame seeds.  I tossed a little of each over the chicken thighs.

To give this meal a little flavor, I used toasted sesame oil to toss the veggies in ~ just enough to make them glisten.

I added the prepared chicken to a greased casserole dish then arranged the veggies around it.

One thing I noticed while preparing the chicken is that one of the pieces was a lot smaller than the other three.  That’s important because it means they will bake differently, i.e., the small one will be very well done.  Oh well, I won’t worry about it.

I used the convection baking setting on my oven to bake this casserole.  If you decide to make this recipe and use the regular baking setting, just know that it will take a little longer so you’ll have to check on it periodically  (I usually poke a chopstick in the chicken to see if blood comes out ~ no blood means it’s ready.)

Alright then, enough of my chatting here.  Ready to see this recipe?

Paleo Baked Chicken with Broccoli & Cauliflower

Enjoy!

For additional paleo recipes, click here.

Finally!  An easy paleo roasted cauliflower recipe. Just can’t get much easier than this folks.

I have not been a fan of cauliflower (are you?) but when roasted, it actually tastes pretty good.

I headed out early this morning to pick up my full head of cauliflower at the grocery store. And what a beautiful Minnesota morning it was.

Next, to prep for dinner. I took my head of cauliflower and, with a large knife, cut it into small pieces.  Although, once you start cutting into it, the cauliflower starts coming apart and you can use your hands to separate it easily. I then threw it in a mesh basket that I have hanging over my sink and sprayed it with cold water to clean it.  I let it drip dry for a few minutes.

Next I placed my fairly dry cauliflower in a large bowl, sprinkled it with olive oil and pepper then salt and tossed it all together.  You don’t want too much olive oil but you want enough that the cauliflower glistens (looks a little shiny).

Next you’ll be spreading the cauliflower out on a cookie sheet ~ no need to oil it as the oil that you added to the cauliflower will suffice.

Then you’ll be roasting it.  I used my convection oven but this can be roasted in a regular oven so no worries there.  In the convection oven it took 13 minutes and I took the cauliflower out at the 7 minute mark and tossed them about.  In a regular oven, you would roast it for 20 minutes and toss it at the 10 minute mark ~ but I would check your oven as some of them heat hotter than others.

I served the cauliflower with my Indian Chicken with Gravy recipe (although I substituted skinless chicken thighs for the skinless legs) and a Tahini Sauce that I found over at the Minimalist Baker site.  It all came out pretty pretty good.

Ready to see the recipe?

Easy Roasted Cauliflower

Enjoy!

For additional paleo recipes, click here.

The spring rolls I’ll be presenting can be considered a paleo “cheat”  to some people as they use rice paper.  The inside of the spring roll can have a variety of ingredients added to them so it’s a versatile recipe.

There are a lot of strict paleo-ites who would not eat rice at all as they have no nutritional value.  Instead, the rice adds empty calories to your diet so if you’re trying to lose weight, rice should not be in your diet.

For my ingredients, I used lettuce, carrots, cucumber, scallions and cilantro.  Pretty simple, no?

Our local grocery store had rice paper which surprised me but I was glad I didn’t have to search all over town for it.  They had two different kinds and I purchased the Banh Trang Rice Paper.

The springs rolls I have eaten at restaurants have a peanut sauce either inside the roll or else it’s served with an outside peanut dip.  I decided to use cashew butter instead (paleo-ites don’t eat peanuts).  What I did was take a couple of large tablespoons of cashew butter then I added a little bit of water to liquify it so I can pour it on top of the veggies in the spring rolls.

In order to prepare the rice paper, you need to have a bowl of water that’s either cold or warm that you will put the rice paper in (so it has to have a wide bottom).

The rice paper is very thin.  I put it in my cold water for a couple of seconds then took it out and put it on a plate in preparation to fill it with the veggies.

The picture below appears that I was a bit chintzy with my vegetables.  I added more after I took the picture though.  (Don’t be so judgmental ~ laughing)

After the rice paper is filled with your veggies and sauce, you simply fold it from the bottom to the middle then fold the sides over and finally fold the top over it.  I’m not a pro at it yet but what I did worked for me.

I decided to have a light supper and served these with baked chicken wings.  Yum!!!!

Here’s the recipe for you to view and/or print out.  I know you’ll enjoy them.

Paleo Fresh Spring Rolls

For more paleo recipes, click here.