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Yay! I have a computer again. A moment of silence for my old laptop. She served me well.
Some caveats and notes. This recipe does use raw egg. However, before you run screaming and worry yourselves, the acidity from the lemon juice kills off any critters (much as the acid from lime juice does in a ceviche), so don’t worry. However, if you are pregnant or have a compromised immune system (or are really young), please refrain from consuming this one.
This is a fun one to prepare table-side and impress your date. It’s easy, and tastes amazing!
Ingredients:
Dressing:
1 egg yolk
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs anchovy paste
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne
3-4 tbs olive oil
Salad
1 heads hearts of romaine
1 green onions minus the hairy bits (chop up green and white parts)
1 avocado, diced
all natural pork cracklins (pork rinds) to sub for croutons, could also use sunflower seeds
Directions:
1. Carefully crack eggs in half and pour yolk between shells until all whites have been removed. (Do this over a bowl or the sink) Put yolks into the bottom of a bowl and whisk until lighter in color. (This starts the emulsion and makes the rest much easier)
2. Add in garlic, spices, and mustard, and continue whisking. Then add lemon juice and olive oil.
3. Cut lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Toss into dressing with avocado and onions and sprinkle pork rinds on top.
Aloha, y’all. I am so sorry I’ve been behind in posting here. I have been busy practicing with my band for an upcoming gig, and on top of that have been a bit under the weather. While sick, I decided to make chicken soup with kind of an Asian flair as influenced by living here in Hawaii. This is great for busting colds.
Ingredients:
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
3 cloves garlic
3 tbs lemon juice
3 tbs cilantro
3 chicken breasts, cubed
3 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 medium onion, diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 boxes chicken stock
2 red peppers cut into thin strips
Directions:
Put garlic and ginger in a food processor, food chopper, or blender and pulse until minced together.
Put olive oil in a large pot and heat to medium high heat.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Brown chicken in pot and remove.
Add in garlic, ginger, celery, carrot and onion. Cook until onion is translucent. Add chicken, lemon, cilantro and chicken stock to pot. Bring heat down to medium low and cook for about 15-20 minutes. (Lemon brightens chicken and makes it more chickeny flavored.)
Serve with red pepper strips (bell peppers have more vitamin C than oranges).
With Superbowl coming up, I wanted to offer some game day treats that won’t get you off track. Guacamole is easy, popular, and delicious. Serve it on top of steak, chicken or burgers, or with chopped veggies as a dip.
Ingredients:
3-4 ripe avocados
juice of 1 lime
2 roma tomatoes
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs finely diced red onion (optional)
Directions:
To find ripe avocados, make sure that they are kind of soft, but not squishy.
Cut avocado lengthwise until you hit the pit. Then rotate the avocado around the knife until you have split it in half.
Open avocado and scoop out meat using a spoon and put into a large bowl.
With the pitted side, carefully tap the knife into the pit and twist to pop pit out. From back side of knife, push pit off blade.
Scoop out other side.
Mash up all avocados with a fork or potato masher. Add in salt, garlic and lime juice and mix thoroughly.
Cut tomatoes in half and remove the seeds and wet sloppy bits with a knife. Dice up the rest and toss into avocado with onion if you choose.
I had something similar to this at my friend’s house. The sweet from the dates, salty from the bacon, creamy nut butter and crunch from the almonds make this amazingly satisfying. Here’s my paleo version.
Ingredients:
20 dates
20 almonds
almond butter
bacon
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.
Put a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.
Cut a slit down the length of the date. Remove the pit and replace it with some almond butter and an almond.
Cut bacon into 2 inch strips (I have found using kitchen shears works best for cutting bacon). Wrap strip around stuffed date and secure with a toothpick.
Place seam side down on the wire rack.
Once all dates are stuffed and wrapped, place sheet with rack on it in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the bacon is crispy.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes so that you don’t take off the roof of your mouth.
So, in honor of what would have been Elvis’s 75th birthday, I came up with this one. It’s tasty for breakfast with some eggs. Elvis’s favorite sandwich was the famed fried peanut butter and banana with bacon.
Ingredients:
2 medium greenish bananas
8 strips bacon
Directions:
Preheat oven to 420
Peel down one strip of banana. Cut down the length of the banana with a table knife. Finish peeling banana.
Wrap each half of the banana with 2 strips of bacon.
Lay 4 wrapped halves of banana on a broiler pan and bake for 20 minutes.
If you desire to munch on this as a snack, use the nut butter of your choice to dip in. (I like cashew or mac nut butter).
This is my son’s favorite. He makes cookie monster noises while eating it and then asks for “more” in a way reminiscent of Oliver Twist.
Ingredients:
3 tbs coconut oil
2 small chilis, diced
1 inch piece fresh ginger root (peeled with spoon)
3 cloves garlic
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 head cauliflower cut into florets
1 onion diced
3 chicken breasts cut into chunks
3 tbs curry powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup cashews
2 cans coconut milk
Directions:
Grate ginger and garlic together to form a paste. You can do this in a small food processor or by hand using a micro plane.
Heat coconut oil in a large pot over medium heat.
Add ginger, garlic, chili, curry, and cinnamon and cook for 2 minutes, stirring the whole time to be sure garlic doesn’t burn.
Add in chicken and onions and cook for another 5 minutes.
Add in all other ingredients except cashews. Turn heat down to medium low and cover pot. Cook for about an hour until veggies are tender.
Uncover, add nuts and cook for 15 more minutes to thicken.
I’ve been on kind of an Italian food kick lately. This one, I created for my son. He scarfed it down (which is great, because he’s been in a spit out his food on the floor stage).
Preheat oven to 400.
Using a cleaver and rubber mallet, split a spaghetti squash lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Rub olive oil on inside, and lay flat side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Put in oven.
For Sauce:
Ingredients:
6 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
1/2 cup red wine
1 tbs olive oil
2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbs Italian seasoning
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp rosemary
Directions:
Combine garlic, onion, and wine in a blender and puree to form a slurry.
Heat a large pot over medium heat and add olive oil.
Sautee slurry in oil for about 3-5 minutes to bring out the garlic. Add tomato paste and cook an additional 3 minutes.
Add crushed tomatoes and seasonings. Drop heat to low and cover.
For meatballs:
Ingredients:
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small to medium zucchini, grated
1 lb Italian sausage (not in casings)
1 lb ground beef
1 tsp dried basil
1 tbs dried parsley
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup almond flour
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. With clean hands, mush together to fully mix ingredients.
Roll into ping pong sized balls and set aside on a plate.
Heat a saucepan over medium high heat and add 3 tbs olive oil.
Using a slotted spoon, add meatballs in small batches to brown on all sides. Once browned, use spoon to gently place meatballs in sauce to finish cooking.
Once all meatballs are in the sauce cook for an additional 15 minutes.
Use 1/4 cup of red wine in the pan you browned meatballs in to scrape up brown bits. Pour all of this goodness into the sauce.
Take spaghetti squash out of oven and scoop from shell. Serve meatballs and sauce over the squash.
In Italian, “saltimbocca” means “jumps into the mouth.”
This is my version of one of my favorite dishes at an Italian restaurant I love.
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts
fresh sage leaves
3 oz proscuitto
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/2 – 3/4 cup white wine
3 tbs olive oil
Directions:
Pound chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness.
Season with pepper and garlic powder on both sides (honestly, it doesn’t need to be measured, just sprinkle it).
Place a few Sage leaves along one side of the chicken and then wrap each piece of chicken with a piece of proscuitto.
Heat pan over medium high heat and add in olive oil.
Cook chicken for 5 minutes. Then turn over and cook for another five. Add in wine and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
I usually serve this with some asparagus.
You may know this one as Shepherd’s Pie, which it isn’t because I am using ground beef instead of ground lamb. Whatever you call it, it’s delicious and can be made ahead of time and frozen.
Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium sized leek
1 medium sized carrot
1 medium cauliflower
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 egg yolk
2 tbs tomato paste
1 cup beef broth or red wine
2 tbs almond flour
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried thyme
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.
Cut leeks into rings and then quarter the rings. Soak in water and then remove. Dry on paper towel. Peel carrot and cut into half lengthwise and then cut each half in half lengthwise so you have 4 sticks. Dice up the sticks. Set aside.
Remove leaves of cauliflower and cut off very bottom. Cut up stem and head into chunks and put with 2 tbs of water in a microwave-safe dish. Cover and cook on high for 6 minutes. Drain water and mash with the coconut milk. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Peel and mince garlic.
Put olive oil in the bottom of a pan and heat to medium high.
Sautee carrots and leeks until leeks become translucent.
Add in ground beef and garlic and brown the beef. Add in the almond flour and stir to thicken.
Add in tomato paste, beef broth, salt, pepper, and thyme. Stir together to make gravy.
Put in a glass baking dish 8 x 8 or 9×9.
Take cooled cauliflower mash and mix in egg yolk. Spoon cauliflower over the top of the meat mix in the dish. ****
Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes or until cauliflower starts to brown.
Allow dish to cool for 15 minutes on a rack before serving.
****(At this point if you want to freeze, allow to completely cool, then cover with plastic wrap then foil and a sticky note where you write the contents, date and Cook at 375 uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour.)
I was watching a Good Eats Christmas special and, besides being highly entertained, was inspired. Not only will I be roasting my first duck this year, I am going to do a paleo makeover of the treat featured in the special…the sugar plum. Now, in the recipe, Alton uses sugar, which I’m omitting, and also star anise and fennel seeds as spices, which I’m changing because I’m not really into the licorice flavor (but that’s a personal choice).
Ingredients:
6 oz almonds
4 oz dried plums
4 oz dried apricots
4 oz dried figs
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Pinch sea salt
1/4 cup honey
Directions:
Roughly chop the almonds and toast them in a dry pan over low heat. Do not leave them unattended…they can go from toasty golden to burned ridiculously quickly.
Put the almonds, plums, apricots, and figs in the food processor and pulse in short bursts until the fruit and nuts are chopped into small pieces and look like loose crumbs. You don’t want it to gum up into one big mass, so be careful not to just leave the “on” button running or get too pulse happy.
Put in the fruit and nut mixture along with the honey into the bowl with the spices. Use your hands to mix together into a dough.
Use a small ice cream scoop or coffee scoop to portion the mixture and roll into balls.
You can serve immediately OR dry on a wire cooling rack at room temperature uncovered for an hour or two.
The sugar plums may be stored on the cooling rack for up to a week. After a week, store in an airtight container for up to a month.
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