Food Friday #4

This week was a pretty lame attempt at cooking and eating paleo.  I went out too much and ate not paleo and just didn't get the prep done that I wanted to.  I was also trying to use up more of what I have in my pantry/freezer, including chicken and salmon.

Here's what I did make:

1. Mustard Balsamic Baked Chicken


The chicken is this recipe here.  I really liked it, and the other bonus is that everything I needed to make it I already had.  This one will definitely happen again.  I ate the chicken with some frozen green beans and the sweet potato hash browns I had made a while ago and frozen.

2. Tourtiere

Yup.  I know. Not paleo at all.  But it was in my freezer, and 100% home made (by me!) and it needed to be eaten.

This recipe my dad had put together in 1999 trying to replicate the meat pie his mom used to make and so it's a combination of other recipes and trial and error.  And as you can see, it's very precise! HA!

1 lb     ground beef
1 lb     ground pork
1 med chopped onion
dash   sage
dash   savory
dash   ground cloves
dash  garlic salt
fresh ground pepper
salt
1 med  potato mashed (1/2c)

*pie crust

Makes two 8" pies.

Brown the meats, and add onion and spices. *don't worry about draining the meat* Simmer mixture for about 30 minutes.

Add your mashed potato to the meat mixture, and adjust salt and pepper to taste before cooling the mixture.

Let mixture cool.

*Using pre-made pie crusts OR (what I did) make your own (I used the classic crisco pie crust found here) assemble your pies, making sure to vent the top crust.

Bake pies in 425*F oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350*F and bake for another 30 minutes.  There are varying opinions on what you should serve with your tourtiere.  Some people like ketchup, some people like chutney, and some people like it as is.  Your choice!

Unbaked pies do keep well in the freezer for at least a month!

3. Sad disaster or as it might also be known as, Ropa Vieja....

This is the only photo I have of this one...sorry it's not prettier!

So I went to make this recipe for Ropa Vieja from Paleomg.com.  I'm sure it would have turned out wonderfully.  Except for one thing I messed up.

Well, I had the best intentions of making this.  So I took my frozen meat out of my freezer to defrost in the fridge. Unfortunately I didn't get to it as soon as I would have liked.  I was dumb and even though I was worried the meat might be iffy, I figured it was my imagination and that I'm sure it would be fine (it looked okay and smelled okay, but the grocery store I bought it from is not my preference for meat and dairy...I've purchased far too much spoiled dairy from there in the past to really trust their meat).  Once it was done I couldn't bring myself to eat it.  I couldn't help but think it might make me sick.  And I don't know about anyone else, but if I get that in my head, it's too late and the meal will forever taste off.  So....I threw it all out.  Without eating a bite.  Sad, I know.  *sigh* Lesson learned I guess.

Food Friday #3

This is the third post of Food Friday, where I share what I ate this week with you, and how you could eat it too.  I started eating by paleo guidelines a while back, focusing on whole, real foods, and cooking from scratch.  A lot of time people wonder what it is you eat when you cut out grains and a lot of carbs.  Well here is what I eat, I hope it inspires you to do some cooking of your own!


1. Roasted Squash Seeds
These are really just a "by-product" from #2 but I love eating roasted squash seeds.  These ones are from a spaghetti squash.  Separate the seeds from the flesh & goop, don't wash, add a little oil and whatever you like.  I used chill and garlic powder with some fresh ground pepper and salt.  Roast in a single layer in your oven at 350F until they're crispy and brown.

2. Pizza Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Apparently I didn't take any pictures making this, but I did make my very own pizza sauce for this.  In fact, the slow cooker recipe I used makes about 4 cups, so now I have 3 cups of pizza sauce ready to go in my freezer.  Best part is I know what's in it, and it's a lot less junk than the bought stuff.  It's super easy and delicious, here's the recipe I used.

For the actual casserole I used the recipe from paleomg found here.  I totally forgot that it had the sausage in it, so I had already thawed one chicken breast, so of course that went in too.  This turned out really great and I would make it again, maybe adding mushrooms and pepperoni.  Oh, and if you have the choice, buy the "sausage meat" that's like ground beef, otherwise you're just going to have to take it out of the casing, as you cook it like ground beef.

Super tasty, I would make it again, probably a mushroom and pepperoni version!

3. Spicy Crusted Salmon with Winter Slaw
I like this recipe for salmon because it's a little unexpected.  I like the uniqueness of putting spicy with salmon.  Here's the recipe I used.  I also used chill powder instead of cayenne.  Because I'm cooking just for me, my mixture makes more of a "crust" for the salmon instead of the way it looks on the recipe picture.  I like it like this, feel free to use less.

Winter Slaw
This one is again from Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry
Salad
 - purple cabbage
 - romaine lettuce
 - carrots (recipe says julienned, but next time I would use a carrot peeler for shreds because my julienning skills could use work)

Mix the veggies in the combination that makes you happy.

Tahini dressing (altered from the recipe)
 - 1/4 cup Tahini
 - 1/4 cup water
 - 3 Tbsp lemon juice
 - 1 Tbsp olive oil
 - 1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix all ingredients together with a blender or immersion blender and toss desired amount on salad!

 

The salad was good, but I liked it with more lemon  juice and would squeeze an extra wedge of lemon on before eating.

4. Crab Cakes
This recipe was based on this one here. I only had one can of crab meat (which definitely does not equal anywhere near a pound of crab) and so I modified and just used this recipe as a guideline.

They turned out alright, I would actually look for a different recipe, or try harder to use the right proportions next time.  I think I did end up for the most part eating these with avocado and lime, and more of the Tahini salad. 

Food Friday #2

Welcome back for the second installment of Food Friday! Basically I show you what I've been eating all week and how you could make it too!

This week:


1. Chia Meatballs with Carrot "Noodles"
These were the chia meat balls I made last week.  People have asked a lot about these meat balls and also the carrot noodles.  I really like the meat balls.  You don't really notice the chia seeds in them and they're tasty.  The carrot noodles were really improv-ed.  I didn't have anything to take for lunch, and I had the meatballs in the freezer, and the only other thing I had was carrots, so thus, carrot noodles.

I used my carrot peeler to make them into small thin strips, and then microwaved them for about a minute so that they weren't super crunch when I ate them with the meatballs.

2. Baked salmon with zucchini and leeks.
This recipe I've made before and it's great.  I can't wait to try doing it in foil on the BBQ in the summer!  All you do is throw everything in parchment paper and toss in the oven!  Original recipe is from Martha Stewart here.  I threw the leeks in because, hey, I had one leftover.  It was a poor choice, and I wouldn't do it again.

3.  Crock pot roast beef & Oven roasted veggies with balsamic vinegar glaze
The roast beef I just threw in the crock pot with some wine, water, onions, and a few spices.  I think I wrote it down, but it wasn't that remarkable, so I don't dig around for it.  In my travels, I did find a recipe for a pot roast where everything is basically what you'd put in a Caesar/Bloody Mary, so that I WILL be trying in the future.

My veggie combination was again "what's in the fridge?" Pictured is golden beets, carrots, and celery.  Beets take forever to cook, and I was in a bit of a hurry that night, so I threw my veggies into a pot and parboiled them first.

Then I threw them back in their cute little bowl and tossed some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, salt and pepper on them, put them on a cookie sheet and threw them in the oven at 400F for about 20 minutes.  They turned out fantastic, and I'll definitely be doing this again!

4. Mish-mash
I had some peppers in the fridge that were approaching their time, so I sautéed them with some onions and celery to make a veggie mix to throw into stuff like eggs.  I was also considering adding chicken and using this as a fajita base, but that never happened.

There you have it, one more week of What I Ate!!

Food Friday!

Since living by myself, I find the easiest way to eat healthy (and paleo) is by having one big cooking day and eating that all week.  I've decided that I'm going to post the summary of that here once a week on Fridays (even though I usually do my cooking on Sundays).



1. Breakfast Sausage Patties
One of my favourite new things is having home made breakfast sausage all week long.  Yup.  Weekday big breakfasts.  I make up a batch of sausage patties and freeze them.  For the longest time I used to use this recipe from Paleomg.com.  Don't get me wrong, it's good, but the new one I tried this week blew that one out of the water! It came from Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry - Elana Amsterdam, the new paleo cookbook my sister got me for Christmas!

I modified it a bit because I like the texture best when using ground pork and ground turkey (pork alone is a bit greasy, and turkey is too lean and the texture weirds me out!) Below is my modification on the recipe.

1 lb          ground turkey
1 lb          ground pork
1 Tbsp     dried sage
1 Tbsp     dried rosemary (crushed up a bit more)
1 Tbsp     honey
1 tsp        sea salt
1 tsp        fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbsp    fat of choice for cooking (I used coconut oil)

Mix all ingredients (except oil) in large bowl - I use my hands...it just works better.  Shape into patties, about 1/4 cup or so each

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat.  Cook patties in skillet, turning once & gently pressing down to flatten.  They're done when meat is cooked thoroughly (use a meat thermometer if that's your style!) and when the patties are golden brown.  Place on paper towel after transferring from the skillet to absorb extra grease.  Serve immediately OR let cool & freeze in airtight container.


2.  Chia Meatballs & Sauce

I found this meatball recipe by fluke and really wanted to try it because it used chia seeds.  The chia seeds get gel-ish when wet, which is what is used to help hold the meatballs together, thus replacing egg as the binder in the this recipe.

Both the meatball and sauce recipe are from Bare Root.  I made the recipe as-is, and divided it into 4 containers with about 3-4 meatballs in each and popped them into the freezer (when cool).


3. Paleo "Potato" Leek Soup

This is another one from  Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry - Elana Amsterdam.  It's super-veggie loaded and surprisingly tasty.  I'm not 100% on the "replace everything with cauliflower" bandwagon, but this one gets my vote!  Next time I would use a larger head of cauliflower for a thicker soup, but it's still good and I would make it again!

2 Tbsp           coconut oil
1 medium      leek (green & white parts) about 3 cups
1 large           head of cauliflower
6 c                 stock (chicken or veggie would probably work best)
1/2 tsp           sea salt
1/2 tsp           ground black pepper

Melt coconut oil in large sauce pan over medium heat.  Sauté the leek about 10-15 minutes until soft and lightly browned.  Add the cauliflower and continue to sauté your veggies another 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender.  Add the stock and bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Using a hand blender, puree soup until smooth.  (If using a conventional blender, let soup cool for a bit and blend in small batches.  If you don't, you will explode hot soup all over your kitchen and your self. Please don't do this. It hurts and is messy!)

Stir in salt and pepper and make sure soup is heated through.  Serve and enjoy!



4. Sweet Potato Hash browns

These ended up being too much work, and I wouldn't do it again.  I looked up how to make shredded potato hash browns and then combined a bunch of recipes and tips together.

I shredded the raw (peeled) sweet potatoes.  Then par-boiled them for a couple minutes.  After that they needed to dry.  While I figured I'd have soggy potatoes sitting around all day I threw them on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven on broil.  After they were mostly dry, I put them in freezer bags.  When re-cooking I put them in a skillet to brown.  I'm going to have to experiment with more/different fat next time I cook up a bag because they were meh.  Too mushy, and the whole process was just too much work!


5. Homemade Grapefruit Jello

This is definitely not the most appetizing looking photo, but I have really been into making my own "jello".  It's a good alternative to the store bought stuff and gelatin is actually really good for you.

1 Tbsp     unflavoured gelatin (grass-fed, ideally)
1/4 cup    cold water
2 cups     grapefruit juice (or other fruit juice of choice - just watch sugar content!)

Sprinkle gelatin over the surface of your cold water and without stirring let soak for about 3 minutes until it has absorbed most of the moisture.  Have your juice ready at almost boiling.  Combine your hot juice with the soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved.  Place mixture in the fridge to set.

There are a million variations to this, and this is just what I did this one time.  It was tasty, and I really enjoyed it as a snack.  You could always dilute your juice with water, or add a sweetener if you find the grapefruit juice too tart.


6. Brazilian Curry Chicken in the Crockpot

I got a crockpot/slow cooker/"wife" whatever you like to call it for Christmas from my mom.  Yay!  You'll be seeing crockpot creations likely on a weekly basis around here!

This recipe is straight-up Paleomg.com.  I accidentally added too much broth and the whole can of coconut milk, so it was a bit soupy (which was okay too).   She used one red and one yellow pepper, I used one red and one green...because I'm a rebel like that!

Well there you have it!  That is what I'll be eating this week!  How do you like to do your cooking? Do you prepare it all at once, or do you cook every night?  Are you planning to give any of these recipes a try? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Easy "Freestyle" Salmon Cakes

This was one of those dinners that I realized probably almost too late that I should really blog about ASAP because I made things up myself!

For some reason my mom always looks so surprised every time I tell her I made something without a recipe.  Don't get me wrong, my mom makes delicious food, but she uses a recipe for EVERYTHING.  She is that person that uses a recipe to cook a pot roast in the slow cooker.  Yeah...I wish I was joking!

As you might be able to tell, I made this up, so you should definitely follow it to the letter, the measurements are really precise *she said sarcastically*

Salmon Cakes:

2 cans     salmon of your choice (or fresh if available)

1-2          medium carrots - shredded

some       fresh parsley

1/2 a lemon  of both juice & zest

2 good spoon fulls mayo

1-2          potatoes - cooked & mashed

1             egg

salt & pepper to taste

1) Heat a skillet with some oil (1-2 Tbsp) over medium heat.

2) Mix your lemon zest & juice, chopped parsley, and carrots in a medium sized bowl.

3) Add remaining ingredients - mayo, potato, salmon, egg, salt & pepper.  Combine well.

4) Shape into patties - mine were about 2.5-3" in diameter, maybe 1/2-1" thick (the thinner the better). These can be prepared ahead of time and chucked in the fridge for a few hours to hold their shape a bit better.

5) Cook your salmon cakes in your hot pan.

6) Be patient and flip only once after they have browned nicely on one side!

 

That's it! Easy as pie...or cake that is!

Like most of the things that are my "creations" there's a lot of room for play.  Change up the add ins - chopped green onions would have been great in these, other veggies, etc.

To go with these I made Jamie Oliver's Creamy Leek Bake 


Honestly, I wasn't all that impressed, and not recipe share-worthy.  Don't let the cheesey top fool you. This is one of the few times that Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution has let me down!  I just wanted to share what I ate with these cakes! 

Black Bean Burgers & Sweet Potato Biscuits

Quite some time ago I discovered a delicious black bean burger recipe.  I LOOOOVE this recipe.  But when I stopped eating wheat (generally) and started following a (mostly) paleo-type diet I stopped eating things like this because it's less fun without the bun.  This was from a while ago, and I don't remember if I subbed for the bread crumbs or not, but I hope to soon publish a wheat-free alternative for the burgers.

These burgers were made exactly as per the recipe found here.  The biscuits come from Paleomg.com (a favorite of mine!) and I made them plain, without the jalapenos or shrimp (because I didn't have any!)

Because the burger can be

a) weird to eat on it's own

or

b) dry if over-cooked

I like to top it with cheese and avocado.

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Throw Together Meal

Living alone sometimes it's hard to cook things that don't make a bazillion servings. Or sometimes I'm just lazy.  Either way, this was a pretty tasty "throw together what's in my kitchen" kind of meal.

Corn on the cob - just boiled, cuz I'm lazy like that.  Salad was spinach with slivered almonds, shredded mozzarella, and raisins (I would have used Craisins if I had some) and a drizzle of olive oil and squeeze of lemon juice on top!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust - FAIL

In an effort to eat more "paleo" and wheat free, I decided to take a crack at the whole cauliflower pizza crust thing.

FAIL!!

I just scoured my pinterst boards trying to find the recipe I used, but I can't find it! So frustrating.  I can't even try to tell you to test an alternative recipe or maybe help me figure out where i went wrong.  This recipe was mostly cauliflower, eggs, and cheese.

It started out looking okay

But it just didn't provide a crust that you could pick up and eat like pizza.  It tasted good (so it wasn't exactly a waste) but with this recipe I would have just as easily enjoyed making cauliflower pizza casserole, i.e. tossing it all together in a dish and baking. (which I might do at some point!)

Have you had any luck with cauliflower crusts?

Quick & Easy Avocado Salad

Here's a salad I guest-posted on my sister's blog earlier this summer - for this and other salad ideas, check out her salad series!

This salad is pretty much an original creation.  It all came about because I was at work, thinking, what do I want for supper?  The answer was "a steak and eating an avocado with a spoon."  And then I remembered I'm a grownup, and probably shouldn't eat an avocado with a spoon.  SO I created this salad instead!

What you need:

2                ripe avocados, chopped

1/2             English cucumber, chopped

1                small roma tomato, diced

                  crumbled feta cheese (adjustable to personal preference)

                  balsamic vinegar (adjustable to personal preference)

Toss all your veggies and cheese into a bowl.  Pour balsamic vinegar over all of it, and stir! 

Serve up with a steak done your favorite way! We still had a solid wall of snow blocking the BBQ when I made this, so I settled for pan-fried (is that what you call it?!) with some Montreal steak spice.

There you have it - a quick, easy, and grain free meal!

 Heaven!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

The first time I made these cookies was at one of my summer jobs. Let's just say things were slow out there, and I made them because I thought the recipe was odd because there is only 3 ingredients in them - yet at my work we happened to have all three!

Original Super-Easy Peanut Butter Cookies (Kraft)

Here's my version:

What you need:
1 cup            natural peanut butter (ideally 1 ingredient - peanuts)
1/2 cup         xylitol - I use just under half a cup actually (you could use sugar)
1                   egg
3 tsp             coconut flour (because the natural peanut butter has a different consistency than Kraft, the cookies are a bit sticky without the flour.  I assume you could use wheat flour if that's what you had)

Mix all ingredients together until well combined.

Roll into balls, place on cookie sheet (I think I got about 15 cookies) and press with a fork.

Bake in 325 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until completely baked. 

I saw these on pinterest and now want to 1/2 dip all my peanut butter cookies in dark chocolate! soon!

Source: Something Swanky

 

Carrot Breakfast Protein Cake

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this blog before (PALEOMG.com) but her recipes are sooo good that I will be singing her praises again! I LOVE this recipe (and not just because it combines the words "breakfast" and "cake"!)

Carrot Breakfast Protein Cake

I've attempted this recipe three times and have successfully enjoyed it twice.  The first time I started to make it...well...this happened:

Yup.  I shredded the $@*# outta my finger!!  I didn't think it would stop bleeding.  I thought this was the cake that would be the end of me!

So here's my warning  **use a food processor to shred your carrots...or CAREFULLY use your new - really sharp - Ikea cheese grater**

Anyway, let's make some tasty cake!

Ingredients:

2                large carrots, shredded

2/3 cup      peanut butter (the original recipe calls for almond butter, I have yet to buy/try that version - but I will, Amy recommends the almond butter at Costco!)

2               eggs

3 Tbsp      raw honey

35 grams  Whey protein, not gonna lie, I just toss some in... (2 Tbsp of coconut flour would also work if you don't do the protein powder thing)

1 Tbsp      cinnamon

1/2 tsp       baking powder

pinch         salt

1/2 cup      rasins

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

1.5. (Optional) for baking I typically soak my raisins in water before using.  It gets the grit and any oil off them.  If you do it, you'll see that the water ends up pretty grungy....I prefer not to eat the grunge.  ;)

2. Mix carrots, eggs and peanut butter in large bowl.

3. Add honey, protein powder, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.

4. Fold in rasins.

5. Grease a muffing tin OR in my case because I didn't have a muffin tin, cute adorable ramekins with coconut oil.  Bake about 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and they have a bit of a "crust" to the top.  (The original recipe uses a 8x8 pan, and bakes for 35 minutes)

6. Quite possibly my favourite step! Eat guilt-free cake for breakfast.

               

Kale Chips - I'm so behind the times

So I'm guessing I'm the only person who hadn't tried making kale chips before.  Now let me explain that I used to work in a deli and we would use kale & parsley to decorate the case.  So I always though of kale as a garnish, not food.  

I kept it simple for my trial run.  Followed some basic instructions - rub with oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper, bake at 350 degrees, flip in between.  

And all in all, the turned out.  However the one thing I would definitely do differently next time would be to cut them into BITE SIZED pieces.  These suckers were hard to eat, and when they get all crispy those little curly edges are like daggers.  Ouch!  And yes, I ate all of that. It was the whole bunch of kale.

I did like them though.  They work well for when you feel the need to mindlessly put things in your face. 

Sweet Potato Chips and Guac

The other night I was hungry while making dinner.  I was making chilli.  It still needed to simmer an hour. I wasn't going to make it that long!

What I did have ready to eat was an avocado (my love of avocados is HUGE!) and sweet potatoes.  I thought that this could be a winning combination.

 

And how!

 

Using my sister's blog post on making microwave potato chips, I did the same thing with sweet potatoes.  I found they needed to cook a bit longer than what she recommends.  I don't know if this is due to different microwave powers or due to sweet potato vs. regular potato (potato, patahto, right?!)

 

Anyway, this was a nice quick solution to my rumbly tummy!

 

 

As for the guacamole I really phoned this one it.  We're talking mash some avocado, add some lemon juice and salt and pepper (did I mention I was hungry?)  I think we all know that guacamole is really just an "adult" way to eat mass amounts of avocado "legitimately" right?!  If you have a favorite recipe for guac, go for it.  :)

 

Enjoy!

Roast Beef Hash

So this recipe was inspired by one on PaleOMG.com (surprise surprise) but apparently I can't find which one it was that I started with, so you're just going to get my version of "what I had in the fridge thrown together to create something to eat for dinner and if I title the post Roast Beef Hash it sounds more intentional" SO here we go.


What you need:
1/2    yellow onion, diced
4-5    fresh mushrooms, sliced
1       bell pepper, diced (I used a combination of red, yellow & green, and used a little jarred roasted red pepper too)

Leftover roast beef, chopped
3-4    eggs
1       avocado, chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Heat up a couple lugs (okay, so I've been using Jamie Oliver cook books too much) of olive oil in your pan, and cook onions until soft.

Add mushrooms, and cook until mushrooms reduce in size.

Toss in your peppers and leftover roast beef.  These you want to cook just long enough for your beef to warm up, but not so long that your peppers get mushy (if you're really worried about that, toss in the beef first, and then the peppers a while later)

Add your avocado into the mix.

Now because I wanted "piece of egg" and not just "egg coated meat and veggies" I moved most of the stuff in the pan to one side, and poured in my eggs on the other.  Add salt and pepper.  Scramble your eggs as they cook. 

When the eggs are cooked, mix together with everything else!

Alright, so maybe not the prettiest thing to look at, but you know what would fix that? Cheese.  I actually had intended to throw some on here, and forgot. 

I really like stuff like this because you don't dirty many dishes, it's quick, easy and the full meal deal and you can throw in whatever you happen to have in the house!