The amazing athletes at Crossfit Thousand Oaks are doing a paleo challenge right now.  My husband found a brownie recipe from them.  I thought I would share the love (and chocolatey goodness) with my paleo readers!  I have cleaned up the directions to make them easier to follow.

Some notes…

I recommend medium to coarse grain sea salt.  Why?  Because these brownies are uber rich, and an occasional bite of salt is a really amazing contrast to the rich gooey sweetness.  (If you have ever eaten a salted caramel, you know exactly what I mean.)  I also recommend using coconut oil to grease the pan.  Why?  Because it’s delicious with the chocolate.  However, an unflavored oil or nut oil would work fine for greasing as well.

Enjoy!

Paleo Brownies

• 16 oz of walnuts
• 1 egg
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tbs pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 oz unsweetened dark chocolate chopped

1 – 2 tbs coconut oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.  Grease a 8 x 8 baking dish with coconut oil.
2. Pulse walnuts in food processor until smooth and creamy.
3. In a large bowl, beat an egg.  Add in the nut butter and vanilla and honey and stir to combine.
4. Add in cocoa powder, salt and baking soda.  Stir in chopped chocolate.
5. Pour batter into greased baking dish.
6. Bake at 325 for 30-35 minutes.  It will puff up in oven and settle when it cools.  To check doneness, insert a toothpick or knife in the center.  It should come out clean.
7. Cool for 15 minutes and then cut and eat.

With holidays around the corner, I decided to update this non-paleo treat from my childhood to a sometimes paleo treat.  It contains honey, so this is definitely not an every day snacking thing, but it can be nice for a special occasion.

Ingredients:

1 lb or roughly 4 cups of pecan halves

1 egg white

1 tbs water

2/3 cup honey

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250.

2.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

3.  In a large bowl, put in egg white and water.  Using a fork or whisk, beat together until it is frothy.

4.  Dump in pecans and stir until they are completely coated.

5.  In a measuring cup, combine honey, salt, and cinnamon and carefully stir to combine.

6.  Pour honey mixture over nuts and stir to combine completely.

7.  Dump contents of bowl onto cookie sheet and using a rubber spatula, press into a single layer.

8.  Bake for about an hour to an hour and a half, stirring every 15 minutes.

9.  Pull nuts out of oven, and put them onto a glass baking dish to cool (if they cool on the parchment, they will stick).

10.  Once cool, break up and store in zip top bags at room temperature.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cubed

5 large green olives, diced

4 sundried tomatoes, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs capers

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

3 tbs olive oil

Directions:

1.  Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and brown chicken pieces.

2.  Add in spices and veggies and cook for another 10 – 15 minutes.

Sorry I haven’t updated this week.  I’ve been prepping for a trip to the mainland!  I should be able to update a couple of times before I leave next week, and then hopefully, will be back on schedule.  Thank you for your support!

Ingredients:

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

juice of 1 large orange

1 green onion diced (green and white parts)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp honey

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tbs olive oil

Directions:

1.  Mix all ingredients except the olive oil and the shrimp in a bowl.

2.  Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.

3.  Add shrimp and quickly sautee on both sides for about a minute or two.

4.  Add sauce and allow to cook down for about 2 minutes.

My friend Alan was talking about making Sloppy Joes the other day.  He had an abundance of ground turkey and gave me some of it.  I’m not the biggest ground turkey fan, but I thought it would do well in a paleo version of this comfort classic.

These aren’t so sloppy without buns, but Neat Joes just doesn’t have the same ring to it.  If you are feeling nostalgic for the mess, you can always make this a finger food like my toddler does.  Feel free to sing Lunch Lady Land while making these.

Ingredients:

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 small sweet onion, diced

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

2 tbs olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb ground beef or turkey

1 tbs tapioca starch

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

1 6 oz can tomato paste

2 tbs honey

2 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs mustard

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

Directions:

1.  In a bowl, combine tomato sauce, tomato paste, lemon juice, honey, and spices.

2.  In  a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Cook onion, carrot, and pepper until soft.  Add garlic and cook another minute.  Remove from pan and set aside.

3.  Brown the ground turkey or beef.  Sprinkle with tapioca starch.

3.  Add veggies back into the pan and then coat with the sauce from the bowl.

4.  Stir and reduce heat to low.  Simmer 10 minutes until thick.

Last week, while my husband was at the regional games in California, he went to visit his buddy at Crossfit Thousand Oaks. He found out that the TO crew are fans of Paleo Mama and put one of the coaches, Dan on the phone with me.  Dan said that they are starting up a paleo breakfast club.  A jock, a brain, a basket case, a princess…oh wait.  Wrong club.  Anyway, to help them start off right, I thought I’d give some egg tips and a recipe!

Tips for scrambled eggs.  Use LOW heat.  (Brown scrambled eggs aren’t right.  Honestly.)  Don’t add anything to the eggs.  No water or anything else for fluffiness.  Use a non-stick pan.  Use a little fat in the pan for flavor.  Use a soft rubber spatula to fluff eggs as you cook them.

Ingredients:

You can use any veggie combo you like.  This is what I happened to have in my fridge today.  This is breakfast for two.

4 asparagus spears

1/2 sweet onion

3 sun-dried tomatoes

3 tbs olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 large eggs

Directions:

1. Hold asparagus so that spear is in one hand and woody stem is in the other.  Gently bend upward until it snaps.  The woody stem bit will have broken off.  Throw it out.  You are left with tender goodness.  Chop this into 1/4 inch pieces.

2.  Dice up half a sweet onion.

3.  Dice up 3 sun-dried tomatoes.

4. Put 2 tbs olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat.  Cook veggies until they are soft.  Remove veggies from pan and LOWER heat to medium low.

5.  Add 1 tbs oil to pan.

6.  Using a fork or small whisk beat eggs up to a fluff in a bowl.  Add salt and pepper.

7.  Put eggs in pan.

8.  Using soft rubber spatula, constantly work eggs by pulling spatula along bottom and edges of pan and up.

9.  When eggs are only slightly wet, add veggies back in and cook for another minute or two, fluffing them together.

10.  Serve with breakfast meat of choice! (This is fantastic with steak)

My dear friends Nick and Ellen made a recipe similar to this using duck.  Ellen remarked that sausage would be delicious as well.  After some experimenting and playing around, this is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

1 lb sausage removed from casings

1 tbs fresh sage, chopped OR 1 1/2 tsp dried sage

1 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 small sugar pumpkin or 1 kabocha squash

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil

2.  In a large skillet, brown sausage, breaking it into chunks with the spatula.  Add in sage, allspice, salt and pepper.  Cool.

3. Cut the top of the squash or pumpkin like you are preparing it to be a jack-o-lantern (angle the knife, so that it creates a little shelf for the top to sit on).

4.  Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard or toast later for munching.

5. Sit pumpkin or squash on the baking sheet and fill with contents of the skillet.  Replace the top.

6.  Bake at 400 for about an hour or until the squash is soft and caramelizes.

7.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes.  Gently peel skin and scoop out yumminess inside to serve!

This mother’s day, why not show mama you care by making her a pie?  I have been making these paleo pies for a while thanks to this recipe.  Here is my modification for a delicious pie to impress your mom!

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup macadamia nuts

1 cup walnuts

1 tsp ground cinnamon

8 oz dates

Filling:

2 cups strawberries

8 oz dates

3 cups strawberries cut into bite sized slices

1 cup kiwi cut into bite sized slices

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, plus a little more to decorate

2 tbs lemon juice

Directions:

1.  Chop 8 oz of dates into chunks and soak in water for 15 minutes.

2. Put nuts in a food processor and pulse until they grind up into tiny crumb-like pieces.  Don’t just hit the “on” button or they will become nut butter quicker than you’d believe.

3.  Chop dates into chunks and put in food processor along with the cinnamon.

4.  Pulse mixture until it comes together and resembles a graham cracker crust mix.

5.  Press this mixture into a 9 inch pie plate starting at the center and working your way out to the edges.  Use your fingers to press and crimp the edges to be pretty.  (This is for mom, after all)

6.  Stash the crust in the freezer while you prep the filling.

7.  Chop up 2 cups of strawberries and put in a blender.

8.  Drain dates and add to blender with lemon juice.

9.  Puree until smooth.

10.  In a large bowl, combine the bite sized slices of strawberries and kiwi along with the shredded coconut.  Pour puree over the mix and gently combine with a rubber spatula.

11.  Carefully put filling into the crust and spread with spatula to even it out.  Sprinkle some shredded coconut on top.

12.  Chill pie in the fridge for at least an hour.

13.  Impress mama!

This was the result of…hmmm, what do I have in the house to feed my hungry family?

Ingredients:

4 thick strips of bacon

4 chicken breasts cut into thirds

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup red wine

Directions:

1.  Snip bacon into 1/2 inch pieces using kitchen scissors

2.  Fry bacon in a large skillet until fat is rendered out and bacon is crispy.  Fish out bacon and most of the grease, leaving back about 2 tbs.

3.  Brown chicken on both sides.  Add in garlic and cook 30 seconds.  Add in wine and seasonings, then tomatoes.

4.  Stir, add in bacon, cover and drop the heat to medium low.

5.  Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes or until chicken is done when you cut into it.