Hi again!
I made these first for a CrossFit RTP community cook-out and they were a hit. Remember, notes and details are now at the end of the post, AFTER the recipe. I want to mention that this recipe is my version of the one posted by Caveman Gourmet. My permutation:
Avocado Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
12 eggs
2 avocados
2 garlic cloves, crushed and shopped fine
1 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbs spicy brown mustard
sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and horseradish to taste
Directions
Hard boil the eggs* (see notes below for additional detail), peel and slice lengthwise. Reserve 6 out of the 12 yolks to add to the avocado. Mush up the yolks and avocado together with the remaining ingredients and mix until creamy.
Spoon the mixture into the yolk pocket of each egg half. Sprinkle with more paprika and enjoy!
Notes and Details
Yes, I will admit it, I had to look up how to boil an egg on the internet. I'm not afraid to say it, I have narcolepsy and it just became easier over the years for my husband to do all the cooking and so I am WAY out of practice. Especially on the weekdays, when I would be so sleepy that it would take me hours to do something simple; if I even made it to the kitchen awake at all after work.
Here is how to perfectly hard boil an egg: Perfectly Cooked, Easy-to-Peel, Hard Boiled Eggs
I hope you like these!!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
A Couple Old Favorites (Part 2): Roasted Veggies
Hi Everyone!
As promised here is another favorite veggie side dish that comes from the genius of my hubby's mother, Toni. We have been enjoying this dish for a couple years before starting the switch to Paleo, and it is a great one for flexibility and minimal prep: Roasted Vegetables
In an effort to streamline my blog posts/recipes, I am rearranging the text to put the notes and additional details AFTER the main recipe. Please read all the way through if you have questions/concerns. Or just comment/contact me!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roasted Veggies
Ingredients
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
garlic (5+ cloves crushed and finely chopped)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar*
1 tsp lemon zest
1 bell pepper, cut into slices
1/2 eggplant, cut into about 1/2 inch half-moon slices
1/2 onion, cut into about 6 wedges and the layers separated
fresh herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme)
Directions
In a container/zip lock bag combine all the ingredients--EXCEPT for the herbs--and marinate for at least 30 minutes. At the end you may want to sprinkle some fresh herbs before serving.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and arrange the marinated veggies in a single layer on the foil. Place in an oven heated to 400 degrees F on the middle rack and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, flipping the veggies about halfway through.
When all the veggies look cooked and have a nice crispiness forming (about 40 minutes), remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle on some fresh chopped herbs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes and Details
You will notice that one of the ingredients (sugar*) is not Paleo. Because I am still doing my 30 day bit, I simply omit this ingredient and the result is still delicious. However, substituting a "Paleo Sugar" such as maple syrup or raw honey could work great here.
There is nothing more frustrating than a recipe that doesn't give the amounts! Sorry about that, but this one you will have to trust your gut on and find your own happy amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, especially if you are switching up the types and amounts of veggies that you are roasting. For the veggies listed in this recipe, about 1/2 cup olive oil and 3 Tbs balsamic is good. You are aiming for about a 3:1 olive oil to balsamic ratio. You can use more or less garlic, depending on your taste, as well. The eggplant will absorb a lot of the oil and flavor, which makes them so darn good by the end. :D
Once you have prepped all your ingredients and combined the marinade in your container/zip lock, go ahead and add the veggies to the marinade and coat well. We like using a zip lock because you can really mush the marinade around the veggies and get them thoroughly coated, but my inner environmental Nazi gets a little peeved sometimes by the use of plastic. Toss the marinating veggies anywhere you please (the fridge, the counter, etc.) to sit and soak in the juices. You want them to marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes; of course, longer is better and I like to aim for an hour.
When you are ready to bake your veggies, heat your oven to 375 or 400 degrees F, depending on the temperament of your oven, with the rack in the middle position. Cover a baking pan (rimmed cookie sheet, or other heat-conductive pan with shallow side-walls) with aluminum foil. You can skip the aluminum foil, but the juices do tend to burn onto the pan pretty harshly with this recipe. Arrange the marinated veggies on the aluminum foil in such a way that they cover the pan in a single layer. If you have more veggies then what will fit in the pan you can do this recipe in batches or save the marinated veggies to bake the next day.
If you are adding some faster-cooking veggies to this recipe (such as asparagus), place them on the pan with the other veggies when you are flipping them or when you have about 15 minutes of baking time left. Squash such as zucchini and summer squash can also be used with this recipe and can be incorporated from the very beginning.
Et voila!! Irresistible veggies!!! They are even better the next day as leftovers!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you want next? Another dinner, maybe some snacks? I know that my avocado deviled eggs are in high demand...how about that one?
Happy Living!!
As promised here is another favorite veggie side dish that comes from the genius of my hubby's mother, Toni. We have been enjoying this dish for a couple years before starting the switch to Paleo, and it is a great one for flexibility and minimal prep: Roasted Vegetables
In an effort to streamline my blog posts/recipes, I am rearranging the text to put the notes and additional details AFTER the main recipe. Please read all the way through if you have questions/concerns. Or just comment/contact me!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roasted Veggies
Ingredients
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
garlic (5+ cloves crushed and finely chopped)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar*
1 tsp lemon zest
1 bell pepper, cut into slices
1/2 eggplant, cut into about 1/2 inch half-moon slices
1/2 onion, cut into about 6 wedges and the layers separated
fresh herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme)
Directions
In a container/zip lock bag combine all the ingredients--EXCEPT for the herbs--and marinate for at least 30 minutes. At the end you may want to sprinkle some fresh herbs before serving.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and arrange the marinated veggies in a single layer on the foil. Place in an oven heated to 400 degrees F on the middle rack and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, flipping the veggies about halfway through.
When all the veggies look cooked and have a nice crispiness forming (about 40 minutes), remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle on some fresh chopped herbs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes and Details
You will notice that one of the ingredients (sugar*) is not Paleo. Because I am still doing my 30 day bit, I simply omit this ingredient and the result is still delicious. However, substituting a "Paleo Sugar" such as maple syrup or raw honey could work great here.
There is nothing more frustrating than a recipe that doesn't give the amounts! Sorry about that, but this one you will have to trust your gut on and find your own happy amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, especially if you are switching up the types and amounts of veggies that you are roasting. For the veggies listed in this recipe, about 1/2 cup olive oil and 3 Tbs balsamic is good. You are aiming for about a 3:1 olive oil to balsamic ratio. You can use more or less garlic, depending on your taste, as well. The eggplant will absorb a lot of the oil and flavor, which makes them so darn good by the end. :D
Once you have prepped all your ingredients and combined the marinade in your container/zip lock, go ahead and add the veggies to the marinade and coat well. We like using a zip lock because you can really mush the marinade around the veggies and get them thoroughly coated, but my inner environmental Nazi gets a little peeved sometimes by the use of plastic. Toss the marinating veggies anywhere you please (the fridge, the counter, etc.) to sit and soak in the juices. You want them to marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes; of course, longer is better and I like to aim for an hour.
When you are ready to bake your veggies, heat your oven to 375 or 400 degrees F, depending on the temperament of your oven, with the rack in the middle position. Cover a baking pan (rimmed cookie sheet, or other heat-conductive pan with shallow side-walls) with aluminum foil. You can skip the aluminum foil, but the juices do tend to burn onto the pan pretty harshly with this recipe. Arrange the marinated veggies on the aluminum foil in such a way that they cover the pan in a single layer. If you have more veggies then what will fit in the pan you can do this recipe in batches or save the marinated veggies to bake the next day.
If you are adding some faster-cooking veggies to this recipe (such as asparagus), place them on the pan with the other veggies when you are flipping them or when you have about 15 minutes of baking time left. Squash such as zucchini and summer squash can also be used with this recipe and can be incorporated from the very beginning.
Et voila!! Irresistible veggies!!! They are even better the next day as leftovers!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you want next? Another dinner, maybe some snacks? I know that my avocado deviled eggs are in high demand...how about that one?
Happy Living!!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
A Couple of Old Favorites (Part 1): Sauteed Mushrooms
Ciao a Tutti!!
My super awesome hubby (cape and all) made dinner tonight so I get to catch up on a little back-log of recipes I need to post. So here are a couple of my 'pre-paleo' favorite sides: Sauteed Mushrooms and Roasted Vegetables.
Sauteed Mushrooms
These sauteed mushrooms are an adaptation from the recipe "Champignons Sautes au Beurre" by the brilliant Ms. Julia Child published in her cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." As an aside, this cookbook is a veritable treasure-trove of amazing recipes; highly recommended for so many reasons!
I promise you, this recipe is so good you will want to eat the mushrooms on their own and/or will find yourself wanting to add them to all kinds of other dishes. Ms. Child adds the following advice: "Successfully sauteed mushrooms are lightly browned and exude none of their juice while they are being cooked; to acheive this the mushrooms must be dry, the butter [fat and oil] very hot, and the mushrooms must not be crowded in the pan." My permutation:
Ingredients:
1 Tbs of pasture-raised pork fat
3-4 Tbs of olive oil
1 lb fresh mushrooms (white, button, baby bella, whatever your heart desires) washed and left whole if small or sliced or quartered if large
Optional: 1 to 2 Tbs minced shallots or green onions
sea salt and fresh pepper to taste
Heat a heavy-bottomed pan or skillet over high heat with the fat and oil until it has come to temperature (about 1 - 2 minutes). Add the mushrooms and toss and shake the pan for 4 - 5 minutes until the mushrooms are all well coated and they start to absorb the fat. In 2 to 3 minutes the fat will appear on their surface and the mushrooms will begin to brown. As soon as they have browned lightly, remove from heat. If you want to add shallots/green onions, toss them in with the mushrooms when you have about 2 minutes left and saute with the mushrooms over moderate heat.
Enjoy!!!
Next post: A DEE-LICIOUS roasting of some wonderful veggies as prepared by my incredible mother-in-law (and nutrition guru of 25+ years), Toni. Seriously, I don't know how this woman does it. And her food is amazing!
Happy Living!!
My super awesome hubby (cape and all) made dinner tonight so I get to catch up on a little back-log of recipes I need to post. So here are a couple of my 'pre-paleo' favorite sides: Sauteed Mushrooms and Roasted Vegetables.
Sauteed Mushrooms
These sauteed mushrooms are an adaptation from the recipe "Champignons Sautes au Beurre" by the brilliant Ms. Julia Child published in her cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." As an aside, this cookbook is a veritable treasure-trove of amazing recipes; highly recommended for so many reasons!
I promise you, this recipe is so good you will want to eat the mushrooms on their own and/or will find yourself wanting to add them to all kinds of other dishes. Ms. Child adds the following advice: "Successfully sauteed mushrooms are lightly browned and exude none of their juice while they are being cooked; to acheive this the mushrooms must be dry, the butter [fat and oil] very hot, and the mushrooms must not be crowded in the pan." My permutation:
Ingredients:
1 Tbs of pasture-raised pork fat
3-4 Tbs of olive oil
1 lb fresh mushrooms (white, button, baby bella, whatever your heart desires) washed and left whole if small or sliced or quartered if large
Optional: 1 to 2 Tbs minced shallots or green onions
sea salt and fresh pepper to taste
Heat a heavy-bottomed pan or skillet over high heat with the fat and oil until it has come to temperature (about 1 - 2 minutes). Add the mushrooms and toss and shake the pan for 4 - 5 minutes until the mushrooms are all well coated and they start to absorb the fat. In 2 to 3 minutes the fat will appear on their surface and the mushrooms will begin to brown. As soon as they have browned lightly, remove from heat. If you want to add shallots/green onions, toss them in with the mushrooms when you have about 2 minutes left and saute with the mushrooms over moderate heat.
Enjoy!!!
Next post: A DEE-LICIOUS roasting of some wonderful veggies as prepared by my incredible mother-in-law (and nutrition guru of 25+ years), Toni. Seriously, I don't know how this woman does it. And her food is amazing!
Happy Living!!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Paleo Meatballs
Welcome back!
Well, I have some recipes to catch up on (we are on Day 11 after all!). Some of them were excellent and some need a little adjustment before I post them. And some of our old stand-bys are passing the test beautifully. To get this recipe roll-call going, we're going to start with tonight's meal: Paleo Meatballs.
Already prejudiced towards my Italian Grandma Lucy's homemade-non-paleo-version, I did not have very high expectations for these 'health-food' meat mounds. But I was pleasantly surprised and my husband gobbled these down, as if he forgot they were 'healthy'.
There are a few sources to reference when discussing where I got the idea for this recipe, but they were all relatively the same and I simply adjusted it slightly for the items I had in the fridge and what I wanted to use up before it went bad. To see the original recipes, you can check out CrossFit Football, Everyday Paleo, and/or Food.com. Here is my permutation:
Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 lb ground pork
2 celery sticks, chopped small/thin
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
2 Tbs fresh oregano
1 1/2 Tbs Dijon or spicy brown mustard (whatever you have that is 'paleo')
2 eggs
about 1 Tbs garlic salt
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Mix all of the above well in a large bowl. Shape about 2/3 cup of the mixture into balls (or enough to make the meatball just smaller than your fist, they will cook down smaller by the end). Cook the meatballs however you prefer; in the oven, on the range, or in a slow cooker. I browned mine in a dutch oven with 1 Tbs pasture-raised pork fat (from my friends at the Old Havana Cuban Sandwich Shop) and 2-3 Tbs olive oil, or however much was needed to coat the bottom of the dutch oven. I preheated the oil on medium-high and then added my meatballs.
Once the meatballs were done, I removed them from the pot to make the sauce:
Ingredients
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
5-6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 handful of fresh basil leaves, torn coarsely
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
With the meatballs resting on a plate, I deglazed the dutch oven with the diced tomatoes, added the rest of the ingredients plus the meatballs, returned the sauce to a simmer and reduced the heat to low. After the flavors melded (about 10-15 minutes) serve up with your favorite veggie sides!!
Buon appetito!!!
Well, I have some recipes to catch up on (we are on Day 11 after all!). Some of them were excellent and some need a little adjustment before I post them. And some of our old stand-bys are passing the test beautifully. To get this recipe roll-call going, we're going to start with tonight's meal: Paleo Meatballs.
Already prejudiced towards my Italian Grandma Lucy's homemade-non-paleo-version, I did not have very high expectations for these 'health-food' meat mounds. But I was pleasantly surprised and my husband gobbled these down, as if he forgot they were 'healthy'.
There are a few sources to reference when discussing where I got the idea for this recipe, but they were all relatively the same and I simply adjusted it slightly for the items I had in the fridge and what I wanted to use up before it went bad. To see the original recipes, you can check out CrossFit Football, Everyday Paleo, and/or Food.com. Here is my permutation:
Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 lb ground pork
2 celery sticks, chopped small/thin
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
2 Tbs fresh oregano
1 1/2 Tbs Dijon or spicy brown mustard (whatever you have that is 'paleo')
2 eggs
about 1 Tbs garlic salt
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Mix all of the above well in a large bowl. Shape about 2/3 cup of the mixture into balls (or enough to make the meatball just smaller than your fist, they will cook down smaller by the end). Cook the meatballs however you prefer; in the oven, on the range, or in a slow cooker. I browned mine in a dutch oven with 1 Tbs pasture-raised pork fat (from my friends at the Old Havana Cuban Sandwich Shop) and 2-3 Tbs olive oil, or however much was needed to coat the bottom of the dutch oven. I preheated the oil on medium-high and then added my meatballs.
Once the meatballs were done, I removed them from the pot to make the sauce:
Ingredients
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
5-6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 handful of fresh basil leaves, torn coarsely
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
With the meatballs resting on a plate, I deglazed the dutch oven with the diced tomatoes, added the rest of the ingredients plus the meatballs, returned the sauce to a simmer and reduced the heat to low. After the flavors melded (about 10-15 minutes) serve up with your favorite veggie sides!!
Buon appetito!!!
Just Getting on the Wagon
Greetings!
I've never blogged before, never really had a diary as a kid neither. But I just started getting into something recently that has been changing my life tremendously and it really should be documented (even if my mother is my only reader!). I hope that some of what I post here might be useful to others as well and not just a reference for myself (and my mother).
First of all, let me introduce myself. I am a narcoleptic basketcase. I am a 30-something married female scientist. Typically, before my big "transformation" I would say that I was only able to live about 50% of my life (and most of that was at work, when my narcolepsy medication was effective).
This big "transformation"? Well, it's not an overnight thing, but my introduction to CrossFit and the CrossFit community has changed my life. I will save most of the details on how I was before and how I am now for my "About Me" section (if I even have one of those; again, never really had any blog experience, reading or writing). But, in short, that lead to my current adventure with "Paleo" eating and the "Paleo Lifestyle."
I am currently on Day 11 (as of March 28, 2012) of the Whole30 program and it is NOT EASY! The purpose of this blog is to catelogue the recipes, experiements, and resources that I have found helpful to living a better, more healthy and enjoyable, life.
Please feel free to ask me questions about anything. I am just starting on this new chapter and I am in NO WAY an expert. But if relating what I learned from my experiments thus far could help someone else in a similar situation hoping to achieve a similar goal, then this is all worth it.
Good luck to you all and happy living!!
I've never blogged before, never really had a diary as a kid neither. But I just started getting into something recently that has been changing my life tremendously and it really should be documented (even if my mother is my only reader!). I hope that some of what I post here might be useful to others as well and not just a reference for myself (and my mother).
First of all, let me introduce myself. I am a narcoleptic basketcase. I am a 30-something married female scientist. Typically, before my big "transformation" I would say that I was only able to live about 50% of my life (and most of that was at work, when my narcolepsy medication was effective).
This big "transformation"? Well, it's not an overnight thing, but my introduction to CrossFit and the CrossFit community has changed my life. I will save most of the details on how I was before and how I am now for my "About Me" section (if I even have one of those; again, never really had any blog experience, reading or writing). But, in short, that lead to my current adventure with "Paleo" eating and the "Paleo Lifestyle."
I am currently on Day 11 (as of March 28, 2012) of the Whole30 program and it is NOT EASY! The purpose of this blog is to catelogue the recipes, experiements, and resources that I have found helpful to living a better, more healthy and enjoyable, life.
Please feel free to ask me questions about anything. I am just starting on this new chapter and I am in NO WAY an expert. But if relating what I learned from my experiments thus far could help someone else in a similar situation hoping to achieve a similar goal, then this is all worth it.
Good luck to you all and happy living!!
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