Category: Paleo Diet

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!

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.  Yes, I know winter is technically over but the salad can be had any time of the year or whenever you can find pomegranates.

“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 rings 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.

 

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?  (smiles)

 

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!

Another day — another paleo dinner.

 

When I was younger, my mother used to make bacalao fritters, a Puerto Rican cod fritter.  So when my son made these fritters they reminded me a little bit of what I used to have growing up. They’re not the same but still brought back the memory.

These Cod Fritters were quite tasty and included sweet potatoes in the filling (my favorite). With fish, one normally has tartar sauce, right?  We had homemade tartar sauce that complemented the fritters very well.

The cod fritters were served with a tomato and cucumber salad and baked sweet potato fries. Yum!

Another paleo dinner hit!

(Note:  The Puerto Rican bacalao fritters can be bought at most stores or online (click on the picture below to buy them online). However, if you purchase them in a box, remember that you don’t get a whole lot of fish … just so you’re not surprised if you decide to try them.

[amazon_link id=”B008J4ZJ9G” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]

So, goulash is basically a stew — a nice hearty and fill-your-stomach kind’ve stew.

Hungarian Goulash usually has paprika as one of the ingredients and this one was no exception. The ingredients call for lard, tallow, olive oil or butter — we used olive oil in ours.

Side note: I remember that when we moved to Minnesota from Seattle, we brought our Hungarian Paprika with us. I don’t recall how old it was though (laughing) but it was a large container and I didn’t use it too often (although when I made scalloped potatoes I would use it).

The beef was really tender in this stew (a good thing) probably because it simmered for approximately 1.5 hours. It kind’ve reminded me of when my mother makes Carne Guisada (a Puerto Rican beef stew).

This goulash was filling but we still had a side dish – Cabbage Stuffed Peppers which I found quite delightful. I know, I know, you wouldn’t think of cabbage as being delightful, would you? But I did. There was a sweetness to the cabbage and the peppers also tasted sweet.

The strange thing about the Cabbage Stuffed Peppers? I didn’t know I was eating cabbage. It’s true! I had to ask my son what the peppers were filled with in order for me to know. I believe that’s a good thing since I know a lot of people don’t like cabbage although I’m not sure why.

This would be a good recipe to try on someone who doesn’t like cabbage — but they do need to like peppers.  (smile)

[amazon_link id=”B0043UAM1U” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]

 

This was the best paleo bread I’ve tasted so far on the paleo diet — a Blueberry Pumpkin Loaf. 

Some of the ingredients are bananas, fresh blueberries (and it’s not even spring yet!) and almond flour.

I was surprised that the loaf didn’t taste like almond flour. It tasted like a “regular” blueberry loaf which was wonderful.

Shortly after the loaf was made, we had a friend come visit and he had a slice. He thought it was delicious also. My husband tried to tell him (before eating some) that it was paleo but we hushed him up quickly so we could get a true picture of whether he liked it or not. Yesterday I saw my friend again and he again commented how much he liked it.

So if you’d like to try something new yet “old” (in the sense of blueberry loaf), this is the recipe for you. And if you try it, let me know how it turns out.

 

This Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad was one of my favorites as it uses three ingredients I enjoy eating — dried cranberries, walnuts and, of course, chicken.

The celery that’s also in this salad gives it a nice crunchy taste which compares nicely to the softer ingredients.

I had this for lunch a couple of days in a row as it was quite tasty.

This makes for an excellent paleo lunch.