Roasted Baby Squash and Carrots

You are going to need energy on paleo. How do we get it?  "So we should eat a lot of carbs, right? Uh, no. As you will see we are better served if we can encourage most of the body to run on fat and just provide enough carbohydrate to meet the needs of these truely glucose-dependent tissues.  By reducing the body's total need for carbohydrate, we actually protect ourselves from Blood Sugar Crashes."  Excerpt from Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution.  Buy it and read it.

Ingredients: preheat oven to broil. Serves 2 or maybe even 1 if you're hungry
The Paleo Diet Cookbook

1Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 zucchini cut 1/4 inch
baby carrots (handful sliced in half long ways. Some I cut in 4s long ways)
sprinkle dill across - aprox. 1/2 tsp. (recipe called for fresh, I used dry)
sprinkle thyme - 1/2 tsp.

preheat oven to broil. In a baking dish add the oil and garlic (I used a baking sheet with foil on it).  Add the veggies and mix in the herbs. I used my hands to toss.  Broil for 10 minutes.  (just in case you didn't know, broil is only using the top burner in the oven, and it gets pretty hot.  Sometimes you'll broil bread and butter so the top is crispy and the bottom is soft. dont eat bread.)  keep it in for 10 minutes. stir. and keep them in for another minute or so.

Bison Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients: Serves 4. preheat oven 350.
The Paleo Diet Cookbook

4 Bell Peppers (make sure when you buy them that they can stand on their own)
1 Tbs. olive oil
1lb bison
1 egg
1scallion diced
garlic powder to taste (I used 2 small, fresh cloves)
cayenne pepper to taste (I used 1/4 tsp.)

Preheat oven. cut the tops off the peppers and remove seeds.  Rub the outer surface with oil. Instead of measuring, i just poured about 1tsp in my hand and rubbed. Get a baking dish, add some olive oil to the bottom of it, put the peppers in the dish and set aside.

In a bowl combine ground bison and egg. You can use your hands but I just used a spoon.  Add the Diced scallions, pepper, and garlic.  Keep mixing till it's all even looking.  Stuff your peppers (great for kids to do!)

 You might have already realized this before stuffing the pepper, but your baking dish is going to be slippery when you put the pepers in.  It was quite a challenge to get my peppers to stand on end when full, so I had to put two small shot glasses to help hold them up.  This is what took me the longest to accomplish!  So now you have your baking dish, peppers bison spout up, and now cover ( I covered with foil).   Bake for 1 hour. let sit for 5 minutes.

OK. 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper was perfect. 2 tiny cloves of garlic or 1 big clove was perfect!  How can you add an ingredient to taste when the product is RAW? gross.  I'm glad my guesses worked out.  But before I get ahead of myself, I did do a couple things wrong. I'm all cavewoman, so I wanted more meat in my pepper!  I stuffed 1/2 pound in 1 pepper and 1/2 pound in another pepper (I didn't stuff 4 peppers like the recipe said).  The bison was very rare and more like luke warm. Which is ok for some people.  But we put ours back in the micrwave to a more medium cook.  I think if I would have put 1/4 pound in a pepper, it would have been fine. Oh, and when it's all done and you put it on your plate, juice might go everywhere.

Pumpkin Nut Muffins

Ingredients: preheat oven 400 degrees, makes 12 muffins
1/2 C. coconut flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. pureed pumpkin
6 Eggs, beaten
4 Tbs. coconut oil OR gently melted unsalted butter
1/3 C. pure maple syrup or honey (Grade B or less)
1 tsp. real Vanilla extract
some pecans
12 aluminum muffin liners

Holy Cow! Where was this recipe when I had my last 45 day, no cheating, paleo challenge!? Now that I'm preparing for a lifetime of paleo, I'm extremely excited that I have The Primal Blueprint Cookbook to give me amazingly healthy, delicious recipes like this. GO TRY IT RIGHT NOW.  If you don't have coconut flour, go buy it, and you can also make a pancake recipe that I'll post soon.

Grease a muffin pan very well, or you can prevent the mess by getting aluminum muffin liners. 1st, combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl #1; blend, stir well, and set aside.  Get bowl #2 and add the pumpkin puree. One by one add the eggs and mix well.  Add the oil/butter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract.  Mix well. Add the dry ingredients from bowl #1 and whisk until you don't see any lumps. You can add chopped nuts if you want. I added mine on top.  Use a spoon to fill in muffin pan or liners 3/4 full.  They will rise a little bit.  Bake 18-20 minutes.  I kept mine inside for 20 minutes.  You can get a toothpick to poke through the muffin; if it comes out "clean" then they are ready to come out.  I prefer the muffins warm, but they are yummi warm or room temp.  The muffins stuck to the liners just a little bit. It wasn't big problem, though.

BREAKFAST TACOS!

I got the idea from an enchilada recipe from The Primal Blueprint Cookbook. No more flour tortilla! Say YES to egg tortilla taco!!!


Ingredients: serves 2 people
1/2 sausage package
1 diced tomato
1/4 diced onion
1 avocado
lemon juice
salt
garlic (1 small clove fresh or 1 tsp. or so of powder)
5-6 eggs

Heat a pan on medium (to save time, heat two pans - 1 for your sausage and 1 for your eggs). Side Note: I always have the oven on Warm with plates so when i'm finished something, I plop it in the oven until everyone's ready to eat.

Put your sausage in pan 1. I would personally add sausage to both pans to grease both of them up then consolidate them- or you can just use olive oil for your eggs. While those are cooking, dice the tomatoes and onion. continue to stir the sausage, cut your ripe avocado in half, dig out the green and smash it up. I always add a little salt, garlic, and lemon juice to taste - and don't really use measurements.

Whisk your eggs in a bowl.

In a well greased pan 2 (or same pan 1 - you can put your sausage in a bowl and put in the oven to keep warm), pour a little bit of the egg in the pan. It was easier to flip the egg if I kept it small and thin, like a small flour tortilla. You gotta flip it fast and good or it can rip or flip on itself where it'll stick together. Cook for about 45seconds or a minute on each side. When I was done with 1, I put it in the oven to keep warm.

Eat these like a taco or with a fork. It just depends on how dirty you want to get ;)

Colorado Chicken

I got this recipe from The Paleo Diet Cookbook. The main difference between this and The Primal Blueprint is the Paleo Diet Cookbook has many recipes but no pictures. Although The Primal Blueprint has fewer recipes, I love it because there isn't only a picture of the final product, but also a picture of all the ingredients plus picture during the making of the meal.

Ingredients:(serves 2)
preheat oven 425 degrees
5 - 3 oz. chickens
1 diced tomato
2 cups mushrooms sliced
1 cup chicken broth
olive oil
pepper

Heat the pan on medium. Add olive oil and some pepper. Add your chicken, cover and cook 2-3 minutes on each side (if you are using larger breasts, make it 5 minutes). I put the chicken in a glass baking dish and kept it aside. I went back to the pan on the stove and added mushrooms and covered for about 10 minutes, then I added the diced tomato and chicken broth. Bring it to a boil then simmer for about 5 minutes. I added the mushrooms,broth, and tomatoes to the chicken in the baking dish. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

While that was cooking I put brussel sprouts and olive oil on medium heat on the stove. When they were almost finished cooking (a point when you can easily put your fork through em and they start to brown) I tried something new and squeezed some tangerine juice and then tore apart the rest of the tangerine to add to the dish.

Almond Crusted Chicken Fingers

You thought that once you go paleo, you can't eat good food. Not True! This is a great recipe for kids AND adults!

Ingredients:
olive oil
almond meal
seasoning (I used Kick'n Chicken)
dill
1 egg
chicken strips

First, heat the olive oil in the pan on medium or a little less than medium heat. Get 1 bowl and 1 plate. 1 bowl is for the egg (beat it like you're making scrambled eggs. This is the coating so your almond meal sticks to the chicken). 1 plate is for your almond meal (add seasonings. I used both dill and kickn chickn).


1. dip a chicken strip in the eggs. You just want a thin layer, not big clumps of egg.
2. Roll the chicken strips around in the almond meal
3. put the chicken in the hot oil in the pan. Cook each side for about 5 minutes. They might look cooked on the outside, but the inside could still be uncooked. You don't want the heat too high because it'll burn the outside almond meal. Next time I'll probably take the chickens out of the fridge early.

I also made acorn squash for the side. Cut it in half, dig out the seeds (but keep them!). Put the half in a medium bowl, add a squirt of water, cover with saran wrap and put it in the microwave for 3-4 minutes. If you want an AWESOME snack, then turn the oven on 350 degrees, get a baking sheet and foil. put the seeds on the foil (but make sure all the stringy guts are cleaned off them) and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until they are lightly browned. WOW so freaking good!

Merry Christmas Dinner! AND DESSERT!

Wow! No one could believe that a paleo dinner would taste so good - including dessert! Baked Ham, Sweet potato casserole, zucchini and yellow squash, and Walnut Meal Brownies.

servings: 7-8

Sweet potato casserole - recipe borrowed from CrossFit Lake City

pre-heat oven 350 degrees.















1Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 C honey + a few extra TBSP's
1/2 C coconut milk
1C pecans

Dice sweet potatoes and boil for about 30 minutes or until thoroughly soft. Drain water. Mash the sweet potatoes. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, 1/2 cup honey, and slowly add coconut milk. Stir until it's all blended well. Pour it into a baking dish/platter. Smooth it out and place the pecans on top. Drizzle the leftover honey. Cover with foil and bake for 40-45 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes to brown the pecans.

*we originally used 7 or 8 potatoes. This would have fit a 9x13, but I used two medium sized square glass baking dishes. With 7 people, we probably only consumed 4 potatoes which was 1 medium baking dish. More is better than less, though. This tasted SO GOOD!


Zucchini and Yellow Squash Side Dish
2 zucchinis (slice and cut in halves)
2 yellow squash (slice and cut in halves)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 chunks of unsalted butter

On Medium heat add butter and minced garlic. Put all veggies in the pan and stir. Continue until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. This was so easy and delicious. It's a stress and hassle-free side dish. It's a modern twist on Christmas Dinner.

Walnut Meal Brownies
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees; Adjust oven rack to the middle position.















1 3/4 Cups of walnut meal (purchased or ground in food processor)
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1.5 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 large eggs (room temp)
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 c honey
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 c coconut oil
walnuts for topping
unsalted butter for greasing the pan.

First, mix all the dry ingredients. In a second bowl, whisk eggs for one minute, then add coconut milk, honey, and continue whisking. Add melted coconut oil and whisk until completely blended. Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and whisk well. Scrape the sides and make sure everything is mixed well. Batter will be thinner consistency than most conventional brownies. Pour the into the baking dish. I sprinkle whole or chopped walnuts - or nothing - on top. Bake 35-40 minutes. Cool before cutting.

THESE BROWNIES WERE AMAZING. You don't need Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem for your diet, and you don't need em for dessert either! YOU HAVE TO MAKE THIS RECIPE RIGHT NOW.