Frozen grapes

Although I am on a lower carb, paleo diet, meaning fruit intake is minimal, I have always loved frozen purple grapes. I think these are a great paleo dessert, when I crave a sweet snack.

Freezing fruit seems to bring out more of the sweet flavor, and eating it frozen means I won't go crazy, inhaling too much! 

Ingredients:

Purple grapes

Directions:

Rinse grapes in cool water, separate from stems. Place on cookie sheet in flat, even layer. Freeze until solid, at least a few hours. 

Once frozen, remove from cookie sheet, and store in container in freezer. Don't allow to sit out too long, or else they will melt, and then refreeze in a clump.

Cook's notes:

• You can freeze the grapes in bunches, but I find it's easier to eat them when they are separated prior to freezing, so they come out in singles, rather than clumps. 
• I always coat my cookie sheet in foil, for easier clean-up.

Paleo coconut-chocolate bar

This is a delicious crave-curing, totally paleo dessert. When I found this, I was skeptical, but it totally does the trick, and it's delicious!

Ingredients:
2-3 tbs coconut oil
1 tbs coconut nectar, or honey
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup coconut flakes
1/2 nuts (I've used almonds, pecans, walnuts...they all taste good.)

Directions:
In a saucepan, add coconut oil, melt over medium heat. Add coconut nectar (or honey). Once melted, add cocoa powder, coconut flakes, and chopped nuts. Mix together, place into storage container, and freeze/refrigerate until cool.

Cook's notes:

• I found the coconut nectar at Whole Foods. 
• I store it in tin foil in tupperware in the freezer. It cools quickly, but you should keep it in the fridge or freezer, as coconut oil will warm to room temperature quickly. 
• It tastes like dark chocolate with coconut and nuts. So good!

Sweet Potato Fries!

Now, we can't eat high carb all the time, but we can enjoy a carbo-loaded snack every once in a while, and one of my favorite indulgences is fries!

Here is a great version of the comfort food we all love, but without the "fried" part. Yum!

Ingredients:
Sweet potato, or yam (depending upon preference and availability, and yes, there is a difference!)
2-3 tbsp EVOO [extra virgin olive oil]

1-2 tsp dried rosemary
1-2 tsp dried thyme
sea salt to taste (I use a sea salt & garlic blend)
black pepper to taste

Directions:
Cut sweet potatoes into slices. In a large bowl, add EVOO, rosemary, and thyme. Add sweet potatoes to mix in bowl, and coat fries with mix.

Place fries in one layer on cookie sheet, add salt and pepper to taste, and bake in oven for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees (depending upon thickness of fries).

The fries, just before they go into the oven!

All done! These are delicious with home made paleo ketchup. 

Cook's notes:

• Cutting the sweet potatoes can prove difficult if you are using thick potatoes, so I recommend buying thinner/skinnier/longer potatoes for this recipe, rather than the thick/longer potatoes.
• I cover my cookie sheet with aluminum foil, which makes clean up really quick!
• After baking for 20 minutes, I broil for a few minutes to get ends crispy.
• I will add more seasoning/spices after potatoes are on cookie sheet if they seem a little sparse on seasoning. I have a rosemary & garlic blend I like to use. 

Paleo Jambalaya

This dish is my favorite paleo dish I've made to date. Absolutely delicious!

[I found the basis for this recipe in The Primal Blueprint Cookbook by Mark Sisson, and then added to it to suit my taste.]

Ingredients:
1/2 lb andouille pork sausage (or a spicy variety of any sausage you wish), sliced
1 lb. shrimp (I used pre-cooked, shelled frozen shrimp)
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
2 green bell peppers, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

28 oz. diced tomatoes (I used canned variety)
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 head cauliflower

Servings: 4-6

Time to Cook:
Start with the sausage pieces; add EVOO to large soup pot, cook sausage over medium till browned. Once meat browns, add yellow onion and green bell peppers; cook until vegetables soften and onions turn translucent.

Add garlic (I used minced garlic from jar) and spices (add to taste, or measure), then add diced tomatoes and chicken broth. Bring to simmer with lid on for 10 minutes or so.

While pot simmers, cut cauliflower into small pieces, and rinse well. Once rinsed, grate cauliflower using a food processor (or similar) to create rice-like texture. (I used my magic bullet, as I haven't invested in a food processor, yet, and it worked well!) Add the cauliflower to the post and simmer another 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer until the shrimp is cooked through (pink).

Plate and serve! Delicious.

Some cook's notes:

• The combination of the spicy sausage and cayenne pepper was enough heat for me, but I have a more mild preference (reference: I'm usually a 2-3 star eater). 
• I purchased my pre-cooked shelled shrimp from Dominick's, which is a partner of Safeway. I prefer not having to worry about cooking the shrimp in the jambalaya. I thawed in a strainer under cool running water prior to adding to my jambalaya.

• I purchased my sausage at Whole Foods, in the deli, but they also had pre-packaged sausage in front of the deli case, which I will try next time. The spicy sausage from WF was good. 
• I used two 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes; 1 can was fire-roasted with garlic and diced chiles, 1 was plain low sodium diced tomatoes.
• If you like it thicker, you could add tomato paste, which I did not do this time.

If you try this recipe, let me know what you thought! Did you make some changes? Let me know!

Oh, what a journey...

I've almost completed week 2 of my new 6 week commitment to Paleo eating. This time, I am using leverage to ensure I make it all the way [my previous record was 20 days]; I've got a bet going with the boy friend -- and if I lose it will cost me a LOT, so I won't be losing this time.


Needless to say, I am not pleased with my progress thus far. While I am not doing this as a means to lose weight specifically, I guess I was assuming it would be inevitable. As of this point, I may have lost a bit, but the results aren't what I had expected. (Maybe I just have really high expectations? Yes, yes I do.) I guess I don't know exactly where I stand, as I do not weigh myself anymore, but I know that I'm not where I want to be.

So, it's time for some tweeking... I'm already trying my darnedest to eat low carb (and I've cut out fruit as much as possible, save for the occasional Luna Bar treat or a sprinkle of dried apple-sweetened cranberries). Next, I am going to attack the nuts in my life! [Sounds interesting, huh? Unfortunately, it's not as interesting as it sounds.] Somehow, in the craziness of this challenge, I believe I allowed too many nuts to sneak into my diet, and I think that is what is showing. So, this next week, I am going to focus on keeping the fruit out, and cutting out the nuts. [I may allow a sprinkle here or there on a salad, but not in the quantities of the last two weeks, by any means.] This, I'm hoping, will provide me with some better results.

Also, I noticed that my last few recipes have all involved night shades, most specifically tomatoes. My 2nd goal for week three is to cut back on the night shades. I may have some peppers here or some tomatoes there, but I need to get them out of my everyday. I am not sure if the inflammation is a problem, but I won't know 'till I try, right?!

So, this is my Paleo update. Wish me luck for the next week, as I think it will be the hardest. My last two attempts have ended with a fail in week 3, so this is the test!

Also, stayed tuned: I'll be posting a recipe, or two, or three, this weekend! Yum.

Paleo Lasagna

Last week I experimented with a paleo lasagna recipe -- well, more like a few recipes. I found this recipe here (at Jen's Gone Paleo), and this recipe here (at EverydayPaleo), and took what I had in my fridge, put it all together, and BAM! Delicious paleo lasagna. In Rachel Ray's favorite words, "yum-o."

Serves: 4-6

Base Ingredients:
[1 lb.] grass fed hamburger
[1 lb.] garlic chicken sausage (from Trader Joe's)
[2 large] zucchini squash (I used one yellow, one green)
[1 standard] eggplant
[10 large] asparagas spears
[1] red bell pepper
[3] fresh roma tomatoes
[1 tsp] dried rosemary
[5-7] sprigs of thyme
[1-2 tbsp] extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
[1 bunch] fresh basil
[to taste] sea salt, black pepper


Sauce Ingredients:
[28oz. can] whole plum tomatoes
[2 tbsp] tomato paste
[1] yellow onion
[3-4 cloves] garlic
[1 tbsp] dried oregano
[to taste] red pepper flakes
[1-2 tbsp] EVOO

Order of [my] Operations:
First, pour 1 tbsp EVOO into large pan,  remove sausage from casing (if packed in casing), and add sausage & hamburger. Cook meat thoroughly (no pink) over medium heat and set aside.

While meat is cooking, slice the zucchini and eggplant lengthwise (I used my mandoline slicer). Cover a jelly roll pan with tin foil and lay the piecesof eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and asparagas in a layer; baste with EVOO, then add salt, black pepper, rosemary, and thyme to taste. Bake at 350 until vegetables start to soften (about 10 minutes, but this depends upon thickness of slices), turning slightly golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. (This is where the foil worked nicely. I pulled the whole sheet off, and set aside, while I lined it again, and put my second batch in. I only have one jelly roll pan/cookie sheet right now.)

Once meat and veggies are cooked, prepare sauce. (If you can do all three of these things at once, you are amazing.) Mince garlic and slice onions (size is up to preference). I sliced my onions into thin strips. Pour EVOO into pan, and add onions. Cook until translucent over medium heat. Just as onions are finishing, add garlic. (Be careful not to leave garlic in pan too long on it's own, or it will burn and give off a bad taste. Your goal is just to heat it up, not burn it.) Next, add plum tomatoes. I opened the can, and squished each tomato by hand before inserting into the pan. (Be careful, the juice will get you if you are too forceful!) Then, add tomato paste, oregano, and red pepper (to taste).

Once sauce is complete, prepare lasagna! I created several layers of awesomeness. I started with a thin smearing of sauce on the  bottom of the pan. Then, a layer of "noodles". Next, some sauce, meat, and fresh sliced roma tomatoes. Finally, another layer of "noodles". Repeat until you have used all of your ingredients, or create as many layers as you wish. I had three layers.

Some afterthoughts:

• I added the juice from the can of plum tomatoes, but felt that my sauce was too runny afterward. Next time, I will omit the "juice" from the can of plum tomatoes, and maybe add more paste
• You can skip the roasting of vegetables part, and put raw veggies into the lasagna pan instead; just note that you will need to bake the lasagna longer to allow the vegetables to soften. 
• My vegetables were sliced too thin using my mandoline, so next time, I will probably just slice by hand for thicker (about 1/2") slices. Or, if I choose not to bake them first, I will use the thinner slices, so the lasagna "noodles" soften quicker.
• Next time, I will add sliced black olives with my roma tomatoes, but the addition of the fresh tomatoes was great. Loved it.