Delicious Buttery, Garlicy, Lemony, Spicy Shrimp

I was (again) wandering punchfork last night and searched for "Paleo Shrimp" and this jumped out at me. First off, it's really a Paleo cheat because it uses a lot of butter. Butter is "ok" from time to time. I use butter now and then and I'm careful to buy the "Happy Butter" as I call it. Grass fed cows, free-range, no funky stuff fed to them or injected.. so yeah, happy butter!

I also served it with some homemade french bread because the sauce you end up when it's cooked is just too good to waste so you can either pour it in a glass and drink it or use some french bread to sop it up. The latter won't make you feel dumb. ;)

You're going to need:

2 pounds Raw Shrimp, Cleaned and Deshelled
2 sticks COLD Unsalted Butter Cut Into Pieces
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
4 cloves Garlic, Peeled
1/4 cup Fresh Parsley
1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
1 whole Lemon, Juiced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (190.6 C).

Get out your food processor. You're really going to need one to make this painless. Use the blade attachment that chops everything up.

In the bowl add your cut up COLD butter pieces. It's important that it's cold and hard butter or it's not going to crumble right. So butter, sea salt, garlic, parsley, crushed red pepper and the lemon juice.
Pulse it until it's all combined and kinda crumbly. 

Get a baking dish out (I used a 8x11 casserole pan) and lay the cleaned shrimp out all flat in one layer. The original recipe calls for the shells to be left on and then peel them as you eat them BUT, from experience, when you cook shrimp with the shells on and then peel them to eat, all of the good taste comes off with the shell! SO... I'm saying deshell, clean and put on the tray all nice and flat.

Sprinkle the butter mix all over the shrimps and pop in the oven. You're going to want to cook them until the shrimp is pink on the outside and opaque in the middle and butter is hot and bubbly. It took me about 13 minutes and Gary said it was cooked perfectly.

Next, take your plate and serve the shrimp up with big spoonfuls of the butter sauce that you can use your french bread to get off of your plate. The butter sauce is the best part in my opinion!

(image courtesy of punchfork stock)

Slow Cooker Apple BBQ Chicken

I stopped looking for new crockpot recipes awhile ago because everything seems to be "protein plus BBQ sauce". It gets really old, really fast. Well, I was bored, wandering punchfork again, and came across this recipe. It had some extra flair so I decided to give it a go and it turned out pretty stinkin' good!

That is not my picture. I used punchfork stock.

You're going to need: 
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 3)
4 slices of bacon (I skipped this step)
1/2 cup of BBQ sauce
2 large apples, peeled and cut into small pieces
2 Tbs lemon juice

You're supposed to start by wrapping the chicken breasts in bacon slices. I skipped this step. I'm sure it adds some decent flavor but I like my bacon one way.... burnt. I HATE soggy bacon and there can come NO GOOD from bacon in a crockpot for 8 hours.
Anyway, place your chicken breasts in the crockpot.. with or without bacon.

Peel the apples and chop them up into little pieces. (I highly recommend peeling them even if you like skins. The skins won't break down in the crockpot the way they're supposed to.)
Mix the BBQ, apple pieces and lemon juice.
Pour it over the chicken and cook on low for 8 hours.

I used green apples. Those are pretty much the only kind that Gary likes. If you try a different kind of apple, you'll have to let me know how it tastes!

I was out of Steve's Original BBQ sauce so I used another gluten free/NO HFCS BBQ sauce that I found at Sprouts. :)

Sizzling Shrimp with Garlic

On December 23rd, I went to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute things for Christmas dinner. I didn't wanna go the day before Christmas because I knew it would be a madhouse. I also picked up a few things to make meals right before and right after because again, I don't like madhouses. One of the things that I grabbed was a pound of shrimp. Then I went googling for a new shrimp recipe because I wanted to try cooking something new.
I'm going to post this recipe as I found it then tell you the changes I made along the way.
Gary gave it 5 stars. I, personally, don't eat shrimp. It's nasty. It tastes nasty and has a horrible texture. It did smell good though!


I found this recipe on punchfork.com. Punchfork is my new favoritest place to find fun, new recipes. It's where I found the dill, garlic, lemon salmon that I posted yesterday, and this one, and a few more I'll be trying.

While this recipe IS Paleo we did cheat and use some delicious french bread. I ate it with my gluten free pasta/marinara and he used it with the pan juices this dish creates.

You're going to need:

4 to 5 Tbs. olive oil
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. sweet paprika
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 to 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 to 2 Tbs. dry sherry
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Start by heating up the olive oil over medium heat in a saute pan. I didn't have lemons for juice on hand so I used a lemon infused olive oil. Once the oil is warm add in the garlic, red pepper flakes and paprika. Saute for about a minute ... until it's fragrant.

Turn up the heat to high and add in the shrimp, lemon juice and the sherry. Stir well and saute until the shrimps are cooked. They'll turn pink and opaque... it takes 3 to 4 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the parsley.

He liked it so much that instead of saving half for lunch the next (like he normally does), he ate the entire pound of shrimp.

Crockpot Mexican Soup/Stew

I know that it's been awhile since I've posted a recipe. Now that I look at it, it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Sorry! I've been busy and other than painting my nails, I haven't really been up to anything blog post worthy. I also haven't really been trying new recipes so I haven't had much to post food wise.

That being said, I have a new one to post! Gary is going TDY for 2 weeks to Florida. He's leaving on Saturday so this was our last weekend together for the month. Since today was Columbus Day he didn't have to work so we took advantage of this and went to see "Taken 2". It was fabulous. There were a few obnoxious people in the theater but I took a Klonopin before we left, so I didn't feel all stabby stabby.

I prepared this meal this morning and turned on the crockpot on our way out the door so that dinner was ready a short while after getting home from the movies.

I did take this recipe from Paleomg and her recipe also calls for cilantro lime "rice" (which is made with mashed cauliflower for those not familiar with Paleo). Gary doesn't like paleo "rice" AT ALL and I didn't feel like making it just for me. SO, if you want the ENTIRE recipe, including the "rice"... it's right here. :)

You're going to need:
1 TBS olive oil
1lb chicken breast (I actually used 1.5 because, well I just did)
1/2 of chicken broth (I used an entire cup and next time I"ll probably use 2 cups)
1 (14oz) can diced tomatoes
1 yellow onion slivered
1/2 a jar of roasted red peppers (I used a 12oz jar)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed with a knife (I used .. double. We love garlic!)
1 TBS chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano (oops, I must have forgotten this)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder (I added this on my own)
1 tsp salt
pepper, to taste (oops, forgot this too)

Take all of the above... throw it in your crockpot. BUT be warned, if you throw it and miss and make a mess, I'm not coming over to clean that crap up.
Mix it all up and cook it on high for about 4 hours.
Once it's done shred the chicken up with 2 forks or whatever and serve it.

This is deeeeliiiiiciiiooouuuuusss!

Paleo Chicken Soup

 This weekend is "cooking weekend". I was in the mood so I'm making Chicken Enchilada Stew, bread for Gary, a new salmon recipe because I have to cook what's in the fridge before it goes bad plus I've been craving chicken noodle soup all freaking week. SO MUCH so, that I broke Paleo law and ate a little bit last night... noodles and all! It, however, did not one little bit curb my craving. I went on a google spree and came up with this site. Jeff's Crazy Idea. I didn't have much time to do any reading, other than the recipe, but I'm assuming his crazy idea was to go Paleo. I should probably read more because our story could be called "Gary mentioned it and Rachel went crazy"... SO, mine is still simmering so I stole his picture and I'm really sorry, I feel horrible about it but right now my camera is crap anyway. :(

I did a few things differently or "Rachel's way" so here goes.

You're going to need:
2 tablespoons of bacon grease
2 garlic cloves
1 large onion chopped
2 cartons (1L each) of chicken stock.
4 cups of chopped celery
4 cups of chopped carrots
2 Tablespoons of Italian Seasoning
4-6 chicken breasts cooked
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of black pepper

Let's get started!
Starting with the chicken. Jeff's wife (?) boiled hers which, as I've recently learned, is the healthiest way to prepare chicken. I didn't feel like boiling though so what I did was generously season 4 FULL chicken breasts with sea salt and white pepper. I never add salt and pepper to dishes, mostly because I forget, and this way you don't have bland chicken chunks in your soup.
While my chicken was cooking, I started in on the bacon grease. Now, I guess you COULD use a different fat but when someone (especially in a Paleo recipe) says "use bacon fat" I'M ON THAT LIKE A FAT KID ON CAKE because there HAS to be a great reason, right? I don't have bacon grease on hand and if you don't just take 5 strips, cook it down (on LOW) in the pot that you're going to make this soup in. It's going to take a little bit, but you don't want to risk burning the bacon because then you have to start over or everything in the soup will taste burnt. :(

Ok, so your chicken is done and your bacon grease is ready... let's continue!

Pour your chicken stock CARFULLY over bacon grease in a pot and place over medium heat. When broth starts to get warm, add your onions and garlic into the broth.

Once onions become translucent (about 10 minutes for me), add the celery, carrots, spices and chicken.

Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for one hour. Stir occasionally.

I don't usually post recipes before I've cooked and eaten them to avoid posting GARBAGE but this was smelling SO GOOD that I got a head start. Mine should be done in about 30 minutes and I'm going to GRUB for lunch.
Oh, and if the salmon, that I'm making for dinner, turns out tasty, I'll post it tomorrow! :)

Two For One Special!!

I haven't posted much lately and I do have another nail polish post to put up but I thought I'd do a quickie.

We eat a lot of broccoli and asparagus in this household and after I figured out the perfect way to roast them I'll never ever ever ever ever go back to steaming. EVER!

Let's start with the Roasted Broccoli.
1 bunch of raw broccoli
2 TBS of olive oil or coconut oil (I like using lemon or garlic infused olive oil!)
1/2 tsp sea salt

Wash and cut the broccoli into smaller pieces with long stems
Toss the broccoli with the olive oil and salt
Spread it out in a baking dish
Bake at 400F (204C) for 12-15 minutes until tender and slightly browned.
EAT!

Roasted Asparagus:
1 large bundle of asparagus (20 to 30 spears)
1 TBS coconut oil or olive oil.
Sea salt to taste (pepper and thyme too if you want)

Wash and remove the tough ends of the asparagus
Place in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet
Drizzle the oil over the asparagus and toss it around to make sure it gets evenly coated
Bake for 10 minutes at  400F (204C) THEN reduce the heat to 250F (121C) and bake for another 15 minutes.
Season it up with some salt and pepper!
EAT!

I'm telling you, this is how we will eat broccoli and asparagus for the rest of our lives... OK GARY? FOREVER!!!!

That is all. :)

Butter Poached Salmon with Warm Tomato Relish

Before you start hollering... we did use a cheat last night because I just didn't think I could get the same effect butter gives you with coconut or olive oil. I used grass-fed, happy cow, organic butter. :P

I've never been a fish fan which isn't really fair to Gary that I've waited this long to try. He loves fish and other seafood. Ok, let me rephrase, I'm not a cooked fish fan. I love me some sushi!
He was pretty excited that I chose this recipe to prepare. He didn't have to ask me. I found and planned it without even telling him. I wanted to be a surprise.

Let's begin. First, I prepared enough for 3 meals. 2 servings for Gary (he brings one to work the next day) and 1 for me.

Tomato Relish
1 small red onion, sliced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced *
3 tablespoons capers *
2 tablespoons grass fed butter
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Salmon
3 filets , skin on
2 tablespoons of butter per filet
Sea salt and black pepper

In a small saute pan melt the butter over medium heat, add the onions and cook until the onions begin to caramelize. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. The recipe says this is enough relish for 5 filets BUT * I didn't use the capers or the olives because Gary doesn't like them. I used an extra tomato.

For the salmon: The amount of butter that you use depends on how many filets you prepare. You will use 2 tablespoons of butter per filet.

Preheat the oven to 350F (176C). Generously season both sides of the filets with salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a small oven proof pan (I didn't do this, I just quickly transferred it to another dish before popping it in the oven). Anyway, melt the butter until it's hot enough so that when you put the filets in, skin side down, they sizzle. Let them cook for about 3 minutes then you're going to start basting the filets. I used a spoon and continuously basted non stop for 4 minutes. After this, pop your fish in the preheated oven for about 8 or 9 more minutes. I put all 3 filets in a baking dish and poured the butter from the pan over top of them.
The time in the oven depends on how thick your filets are. Mine were average. I used the tail end of the salmon so they were less fatty and a little thinner.

I served this with an Asparagus and Mushrooms recipe. I cooked the Asparagus first with the tomato relish, put both aside covered with foil to keep hot and then worked on the fish since the fish didn't have to cook for that long and needed constant attention for half the cooking time. :)

Enjoy! I know I sure as heck did. I actually DID LIKE IT! I'll prepare this again anytime.

Enchilada Chicken Stew

Move over "Taco Soup" which incidentally sounds disgusting to me, and even though people swear it tastes like heaven, I just can't bring myself to eat it.
This stew is going to knock your socks off. Again.... thanks Juli. I really need to dedicate a post just to her. She has single handedly made Paleo fun... and delicious AND funny, all at the same time.

I've been meaning to cook this (again) for days now, but me and remembering to START crock pot meals in the morning and not 8 hours later when I'm hungry don't get a long. That being said, I REMEMBERED today.. granted I only had 10 minutes to chop everything up and thaw chicken ... well I guess it's not really that much. Anyway.

You're going to need:
2lbs chicken breasts
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 (4oz) can of chopped jalapenos
1 (4oz) can of chopped green chiles
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 (14oz) can of diced tomatoes
1 (7 oz) can tomato sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
bundle of cilantro, to garnish *
avocado, to garnish *

Get the crockpot out. (Yes, stupid spell check, CROCKPOT is a word!)

Add in the chicken breasts

Throw everything else in on top.

Kinda mix it around with a spoon or something.

Put on low for 8-10 hours or if you're like me, and didn't remember at 6am, high for 6-8 hours. ;)

When it's all done, shred the chicken up with a fork or a chicken shredder. Yes, they make meat shredders. My girlfriend, Sandra, has one and I might steal it from her.

Eat it up after you've garnished. Which brings me to *... we both hate cilantro and I forgot an avocado so unless I get my lazy butt to Frys before dinner we AINT HAVIN' IT!

Cherry Jam Crepes

Once again, THANKS JULI!
I did take a picture but it looks like a big pile of goo because I didn't listen to her and wait til the crepes cooled to pile with whipped cream and again, I don't like to take other people's pictures.

You want to plan ahead for this recipe and put an open can of coconut milk in the fridge the night before. CAN not CARTON.

You also can't appreciate the full experience of cooking this without a big fat Walter laying in the middle of the kitchen floor the entire time so you trip and or step over him every time you turn around. Head to your nearest SPCA and grab the fattest cat you can find.

OK, here we go!
For the crepes
3 eggs, whisked
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon honey
For the cherry jam
1 cup cherries, PITS REMOVED
2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon coconut oil
For the whipped cream
1 cup of coconut whipped cream*
pinch of cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract


*For your whipped cream, get that can of coconut milk you left in the fridge last night and scoop out the coconut cream that has hardened in the top of your can of coconut milk. Leave the water behind.  Then place coconut cream in a bowl, add cinnamon and vanilla, and whip! Toss it in the fridge to keep it cold while you cook!

Get a small saucepan and heat over medium. Add your coconut oil and cherries to the pan. Mix together to get the cherries all oily. Cook them down but keep stirring now and then so they don't burn or start to stick.

In the meantime, put a large skillet over medium heat. Add your crepes ingredients to a larger bowl and mix WELL to make sure there are no coconut flour lumps.

Once the skillet is hot, add some coconut oil to coat. Pour a small amount of the batter on the skillet. Just like little pancakes. I kept them little so that I could flip them easy enough. Crepes are super thin so they can break up pretty easily ... of course that didn't happen to me. <.<
Cook for a minute on each side. Do this until the batter is gone. Set them aside to cool a little, unlike me ok?

Hopefully you haven't forgotten about your cherries. Once they are soft, add your honey in there and mix everything all up.

Your crepes should be cool now. Start stacking!
I put whipped cream between every crepe and dumped a pile of my cherry jam on top. I then proceeded to stuff my face and now I'm sitting here, fat as a dumpling and full as a happy pig, typing this up for you.
I'm not sure Gary is going to like this recipe. It's a little coconutty but he likes lemon juice on his pancakes so maybe without all the toppings he'll like it.  If  he doesn't, I'm not going to cry because then I have more for ME!

The only thing that would make this recipe better is if someone came over and cooked and cleaned for me. Oh and a mimosa.

Creamy Chicken Chili

Well, I'm not sure why it's called that because it's not very creamy (or Gary wouldn't eat it) and there are more peppers than chili in it but I guess Chicken Peppers would sound dumb. ANYWAY, I have to credit Juli from paleomg.com for this glorious meal. I've made it twice now and I could have sworn that I had already posted it but nope, I hadn't. I can tell you though that even if you forget to add all the spices in, it's still delicious... but who does that right?

So let's start! You're going to need:

2 lbs chicken, diced into 1 inch cubes
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
1 clove of garlic, minced *
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 (4 oz) can green chiles (diced makes life easier :D)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cumin **
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

You're going to want to use a pot (instead of a sauce pan) for this. It's pretty much a soup. Put it over medium heat and add your olive oil and minced garlic.

Once you can start smelling the garlic, add your chicken in. Mix it around a few times to make sure it's cooked on all sides.

Once the chicken is about half way cooked through, add in all the peppers, jalapenos, onions and green chilis.  Mix it up really good and let it cook for 3 minutes.

Add in your chicken broth, coconut milk and all of your spices... YEAH! Don't forget the spices! <.<

Stir it all up... cover and let simmer for about 7 minutes.

Enjoy!! (be careful, it's um... super hot and you might burn your mouth!)

* I used about 4, we love garlic
** I didn't use the cumin. We both hate cumin.

Paleo Fish Tacos

Ok, lets start by saying that I'm not a huge fan of fish. I'm TRYING to like it slowly, and what I've had I liked and I really liked these A LOT!

We used stone ground whole wheat tortillas which is NOT paleo but I didn't feel like dealing with lettuce so I used a cheat. The recipe calls for putting the fish taco mixture into romaine lettuce or cabbage. I've also used butter lettuce leaves.








You're going to need:
1lb fresh tilapia fillets;
1 tbsp Paleo cooking fat; (I used garlic olive oil)
1 medium onion, chopped;
4 cloves garlic, minced;
1 or 2 jalapeño pepper(s), finely chopped;
2 cups tomatoes, diced;
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped;
3 tbsp lime juice;
 Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste;
 1 avocado, sliced; (For garnish)

I'm sure you can use any sort of fish that you'd like, but I used tilapia because of how mild tastes.

In a large skillet over a medium-high heat, combine the cooking fat with the garlic and onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions are soft and translucent in color.

Add the tilapia fillets to the skillet. Allow the fillets to cook for 3 to 4 minutes on one side prior to flipping. As the fish begins to cook through, use a fork to break it apart into flaky pieces.

Add the jalapeno pepper, tomatoes, cilantro and lime juice to the mix and then season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 5 minutes before removing from heat.

Serve the taco filling to your liking and garnish with fresh avocado slices.

Absolutely DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

Blueberry Honey Coconut Cups

Mine look like garbage so I didn't take a picture and I didn't want to steal someone's picture so we're going without one this time.

THESE THINGS ARE SO FREAKING GOOD!!! If you like blueberries, coconut and honey you have to make these. BUT one of the ingredients you have to special order so plan in advance. :(

You're going to need:
1 cup Coconut Cream Concentrate*
1 cup blueberries
1 cup Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil
1/3 cup raw honey
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup cashews, chopped (or other nut of choice)**


Now place a small saucepan over medium heat.
Add your blueberries and honey. Mix to help break down the blueberries.
Once your blueberries have pretty much turned to mush, add your coconut oil and coconut cream concentrate. They're not going to totally mush, but you'll be able to easily smoosh one against the side of the pan.
Mix thoroughly.
Remove from heat and add your shredded coconut and cashews.
Line your muffin tin with silicone liners or paper muffin liners, pour mixture into each cup to a height that you prefer, then place in freezer for about 30 minutes. Obviously freezers are different. Melia's might freeze them in 30 seconds... I checked mine after about 45.

*I haven't found this ANYWHERE except the website I linked to. They have it in stock now, but sometimes they're out. Spring for the big jar. You'll need it in a lot of Paleo desserts so you might as well spend the extra $8 or so.

**I left the nuts out and doubled the shredded coconut. Gary doesn't like nuts at all and I figured the best way to get him to try it is without. I've also been doing some research and I'm reading that nuts are not good for your complexion at all so I'm avoiding them when possible. I broke out like a mofo but I was also eating 1/2 bag of pistachios a day... whoops?

Paleo Pound Cake

Let me start this by saying it does taste quite a bit like coconut so if you don't like it, you're probably not going to like this. I, however, LOVE coconut so I got to eat it all because Gary doesn't. :D

You're going to need:
6 eggs
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla extract (use the real stuff people!)
1 tsp. orange extract *
1 cup coconut flour  **
1/4 tsp baking SODA (not POWDER)
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp sea salt
coconut oil for the pan

Start by preheating your oven to 350F (176C).

Grease your loaf pan very thoroughly. The recipe also says lightly flour, which I didn't do and didn't have any problems but I use the Pampered Chef stoneware loaf pan so I really don't need to. Just use a little coconut flour and you'll be good.

IF you have a food processor I'd recommend using it for this recipe. I use it for all my Paleo breads because it just gets the batter nice and smooth and you don't have to worry about lumps of anything in your bread.

Beat the eggs until they are smooth. Add in the remaining liquid ingredients (coconut milk, honey, vanilla extract and orange extract) and mix it up.

Add in the dry ingredients (coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, sea salt) and mix until smooth. The recipe says to sift the coconut flour but I didn't and never do in my recipes and it turned out just fine.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. The recipe says 45 minutes but mine took close to an hour. Start checking it about 45 minutes in using the toothpick test.

Try and wait until it's cooled down a bit before diving in, believe it or not it comes out of the oven hot and even someone who's had a skin graft and should be skittish of hot things didn't wait and burnt her tongue.. idiot right?

* I didn't use orange extract. I don't have any on hand and didn't feel like going to the store. 

** The recipe says "or flour of choice" but I wouldn't recommend swapping out flours unless you know the exact conversions. For example, if you're using almond flour you need to use LOTS LOTS LOTS more (I don't know the exact conversions and I'm not going to pretend that I do). Coconut flour to almond flour does not measure equally. Just stick with the coconut flour. It's lighter, fluffier and tastes amazing. :D

"Delicious" Beef Ribs

I've been really busy. I can't really tell you why, not that it's top secret or anything, I just can't figure out WHY I've been so busy. I think that it might be slowing down soon but in the meantime I'm just hanging in there and trying to cook good food.
I've been meaning to cook these ribs for like 5 days now. The meat has been in my fridge thawed and waiting for me but it's a crockpot recipe and I never remember to put stuff IN it until it's about 3 hours too late. Well, today I remembered!
Juli, at PaleOMG, calls these "Paleo Caribbean Jerk Crockpot Beef Ribs" but I left out a lot of the spices because I just don't like them so I'm going to just call them "Delicious Paleo Ribs". K? Good.

You're going to need:
2-3lbs beef back ribs
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup beef or chicken broth or even water. (I used beef)
1 tablespoon coriander
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons salt and pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice


Ok guys, complicated instructions coming up!
First, put the ribs and the onions in the crockpot
Add your broth (or water)
Mix your spices together and put them in the crockpot, coating the ribs.
Crockpot it up for 6-8 hours on low!

While you're eating beef ribs please be very careful to pick out the bones, especially on these crockpot ones because the meat basically falls right off. 


Anyway, that's the recipe as Juli posted it but I crossed out what I left out of my spice mixture. 


Enjoy!!!

Garlic Chicken Pasta

A few days ago I was wandering Ross with my girlfriend, Teri. While she was trying on some clothes I was in the kitchen aisle. Well, I found a mandolin and I've been wanting to get one for a while. This one also had a grating setting and my favorite of all, a julienne setting! All for under $10! I love Ross so hard. As soon as I saw it, I knew which recipe I was going to try next. I had seen this a few weeks ago but the thought of having to hand julienne veggies made me cringe.
Last night I was thinking of just serving leftovers but I wasn't in the mood for anything we had leftover and the more I thought about it, the hungrier I became. So, I pulled up my newest favorite website - paleOMG and got to cooking.
After dinner I promptly went to Juli's blog and asked her to marry me.
I was actually setting myself up for failure with this recipe. It contains 4 things that Gary really doesn't care for at all: zucchini, squash, tomato sauce and coconut milk. He LOVED IT! So here we go!

You're going to need:
2 lbs chicken, diced
2 zucchini, julienned
2 yellow squash, julienned
1 onion (small to medium), diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon hot sauce *
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 large can diced tomatoes
3 whole heads roasted garlic, cloves removed from peels
salt and pepper, to taste

I would highly suggest doing the first step a while before you're going to start cooking.
Start by heating your oven up to 400F (204C). You're going to roast garlic. Peel away the outer layers of the bulbs, just the outer layers. Cut off the top of the cloves so that you can see the individual cloves of garlic. Now, I use a muffin pan to set each bulb in to keep them from tipping over but you can use a regular pan. Drizzle about 2 teaspoons of olive oil over each head. Make sure that the garlic head is coated in oil. Cover them up with aluminum foil and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The reason I suggest doing this before you're ready to use them is because they come out of the oven HOT obviously and you need to gently squeeze each head to get the cloves to pop out and when they're HOT it's kinda hard. Maybe I'm sensitive since the skin graft but anyway....

Julienne your zucchini and yellow squash.
Add olive oil to a large saucepan and saute the onion over medium-high heat until they're soft.
Then you're going to add in the tomato paste, diced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, hot sauce, crushed red pepper, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper. Cook it for about a minute then add in the coconut milk. Don't worry, it doesn't make it very creamy at all, just enough to make it perfect.

Take your diced chicken and put it directly into the sauce. Turn the heat down to low and cook it for about 15 minutes. Stir it occasionally.

After 15 minutes, add the garlic cloves you've roasted and the julienned zucchini and squash and stir it up. You didn't miss a step, you're not mincing or dicing the roasted cloves up, just add them directly into the sauce. Cook for another 5 to 8 minutes to let the squash/zucchini soften up then SERVE!

You are not going to be disappointed. This dish is absolutely fantabulous!

* There are 100s of hot sauces out there. We used Texas Pete. It gave it some heat without changing the flavor.

Paleo (gluten free) Bread!

So, now that we can't eat your typical "buy from the grocery store" bread, I've been on the hunt for good bread recipes that I can keep on hand for my bread fiend.
I tried one 2 weeks ago, and while it was good, it was very, very dense/heavy. I had to drown it in honey and one tiny slice had me full for hours. It was HEAVY!
I was doing some hunting a last week for a new one to try and I came across this one and I feel really bad but I don't remember where I found it so I can't give credit. I also made a few changes for lack of ingredients.

You're going to need:
1 3/4 cups almond flour
2 Tbs coconut flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking SODA (not POWDER)
5 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 Tbs honey
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar

The best way to do this is with a food processor. The bread I made last week I hand mixed and it was kinda lumpy. The food processor got this as smooth as pancake batter and I think that made a difference.

Put the almond flour, coconut flour, salt and baking soda in the processor. Pulse it a few times to mix it all up.
Put in the eggs, oil, honey and vinegar and pulse it a few times to get it all nice and smooth.
Pour the batter into a loaf pan (about 7.5 x 3.5). You can grease it if you'd like. I use my Pampered Chef stoneware so I don't need to.
Bake at 350F  (176C) for 30 minutes. A knife should come out clean if you stick it into the bread.

I waited until the morning after to post this so I could know if it tastes as good the day after and it DOES. It doesn't harden up at all. I wouldn't hold on to it more than 2 days, but as tasty as it is, it probably won't last a whole day. ;)

Rosemary Chicken and Roasted Broccoli

My pictures always look like garbage. I can't ever get food pictures to look "good" but maybe that's because I'm using my phone? I really should invest in a good camera. <.<

Anyway, this turned out to be really, really good (and not because I was STARVING by the time dinner rolled around).

You're going to need:
4 chicken breasts
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
zest of lemon
2 Tbs fresh rosemary
3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper


Ok, for starters, I didn't have any lemon to zest so I used a lemon infused olive oil from Olive Creations. When it came to the rosemary, I pulled the sprigs off of the stems and kinda roughly chopped it.
Get a big bowl and mix up the garlic, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss in the chicken breasts and make sure they're completely covered in the marinade. Let it marinade for 30+ minutes. Obviously, the longer the better. I think I let it go for about 4 hours.

Preheat your oven to 400F (205C). Heat up a large pan over medium high heat. You shouldn't need to add any more fat to the pan since you marinated it in so much oil. Once it's very hot, place the chicken breasts in the pan and let them cook for 3 to 5 minutes on either side. DON'T flip them back and forth. Let it cook on one side and when you can turn them with no resistance then it's time to flip to the other side and let it cook on that side for the same amount of time.
Remove the chicken from the pan, and place in a dish to put in the oven that you've pre-heated. Put them in for about 15 minutes so that they can finish cooking (NO pink).

Now, when I was done cooking these I wrapped them up in foil and put to the side so I could roast some broccoli really quick. I did this for the first time last week and I don't think I'll ever steam broccoli again. Roasted broccoli is AMAZING!

All you need to do is turn the oven up to 500F (260C). Toss the broccoli (3 to 4 large crowns) in a large bowl with about 3 Tbs of olive oil and 5 to 6 cloves of minced garlic. Put it in the heated oven for about 10 minutes give or take. When it's done, just put it on your plates, unwrap that chicken and NOM NOM NOM!

I didn't feel like it was missing anything without the lemon zest, in fact I think the lemon would have been overpowering. The lemon olive oil was perfect. I could smell it while it was cooking and had a hint of it while I ate it.

Western Omelet - Gary Approved

Anyone who knows me, or at least my eating habits, knows that I DON'T EAT EGGS. I hate them, I think the taste is ok but I can't get past the texture. The closest I'll get to eating an egg is the yellow part of deviled eggs. Those are delicious. I really wish that I could eat them. I have them on hand at all times and it would be a quick and easy breakfast or even lunch.

I'm really good at cooking them though! I used to be able to make them anyway you asked but since Gary only eats scrambled I think I lost my touch. So, last night I had Gary read a omelet recipe that I had found and he said he'd give it a try. I'm giving you the directions how it came but adding what I changed.

For one omelet you're going to need:
3 eggs*
1 tsp. coconut oil
1/4 yellow onion diced (Gary said half this)
1/2 bell pepper diced (I left this out - I only have one and I'm saving it for dinner ..hehe)
1/2 medium tomato diced
1/2 cup spinach (I always use fresh baby spinach)
1/4 cup ham cooked and diced (I skipped this, don't have any on hand)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

So, wash and chop all the veggies and set aside.
In a bowl, beat the eggs well and set aside.
Heat your skillet up over medium heat and when it's hot add the coconut oil to the pan.
Pour the eggs into the pan. When the egg has partially set, scrape the edges and tip the pan so that the uncooked egg at the top can spread to the bottom of the skillet.
Immediately after you've done that, add the veggies (and ham) to one half of the omelet and continue to cook until the egg is almost fully set.
Grab a spatula and fold the empty half of the egg over the veggies (and ham).
Cook for 2 minutes longer and serve it up!

Gary at it up like a starving child. So yeah, I guess it was a hit!

*I used 3 large, brown, omega 3, free-range chicken eggs. The recipe called for 2 but I added an extra one. Seemed to be the perfect size. 

Honey Chicken

I was out ALL day long today and totally spaced out and forgot to plan dinner. Since this is a new menu for us, planning dinner is very important as we can't just say eff it and run to Wendy's. So I scrambled through the cookbook for something quick and easy and with stuff that I had on hand and this is what I came up with. I made some alterations for us. For example, the recipe actually included walnuts but Gary hates them and I don't like them in my meals (desserts maybe). Anyway, here goes!


You're going to need:
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 1 Tbs FRESH thyme, chopped
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3 Tbs raw honey
- 1/2 cup water

Combine olive oil, thyme, sea salt, and pepper
Rub the chicken with seasoning.
Now here I took some olive oil (in addition to what the recipe calls for) to cook the chicken in... about 1/2 Tbs. The recipe calls for a "non stick pan" and I don't own those. In fact I hate them so anyway, continuing on.
Cook the chicken for about 12 minutes (or until it's cooked through and not pink in the middle), turning frequently.
Once cooked, transfer the chicken to a clean plate. Make a foil tent to keep it nice and hot.
SAVE THE DRIPPINGS IN THE PAN!
Add the apple cider to the pan with the chicken drippings. Cook for 1 minute stirring constantly.
Add in the honey and water and simmer for 6 to 7 minutes until slightly thickened.
Then, you just spoon/ladle/pour it over the chicken and enjoy!

I doubled the sauce (so 2x the vinegar, honey, and water), and cooked it for a bit longer to get it the right consistency. We like sauce, what can I say?

p.s. I know, I know. we had corn again. I hate throwing out food and we had 2 cobs left. I ended up giving Gary my brussels sprouts and taking his corn. I am not fond of brussels at all. I used to like them, but I think that was when I could have loads of butter.. LOL

Asparagus with Mushrooms

I made this as a side last night with our Cumin Chicken. I wasn't happy with the chicken recipe. It was "ok/edible" but I realized that I really don't like cumin all that much. It cooked up nice and tender so I'll make it again but this time with a different herb or selection of herbs.

Anyway, back to the asparagus and mushrooms. First off, don't be turned off because of the mushrooms. I HATE mushrooms but I used them, picked them out and the asparagus was just as delicious so feel free to leave them out or if you're making some for people who do like mushrooms, just pick them out. I slice them in BIG slices to make that easier.

 You're going to need:
- 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
- 1/4 tsp sea salt, (optional)
- freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- 1 pound fresh asparagus, ends trimmed
- 2 Tbs Coconut oil (but I used olive - Gary isn't a huge coconut fan)
- 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 1/2 cup green onions, sliced



Ok, Add the vinegar, 1 Tbs of the oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Add the asparagus in boiling water, just enough to make them crisp (few minutes)
Drain and IMMEDIATELY pour iced water over them (or blanch them by dumping them into a bowl of ice water)
Heat the remaining oil in a pan on medium high heat.
Add mushrooms and saute until they are soft.
Add green onions and saute for another minute.
Add the asparagus and cook for another 3 minutes.
REMOVE from the heat then slowly add in the vinegar mixture.

EAT!