Cinnamon-y goodness

 This one is one of Adam's favorites and mine as well. I am working on a frosting to this as well and will hopefully be posting that to the comments section of this post soon.
I got this recipe from Adam through a friend of his but I don't know the original site this came from. So a big thanks out there for this one from whatever wonderful blogger created this one, it's amazing.

Before I post the directions and ingredients I do want to take a little time to talk about why we eat Paleo. To be healthy is the best answer but more specifically to feed our bodies with the best source of clean, healthy, satisfying and nutritious fuel possible. Avoiding damaging substances, including high bad fats, indigestible damaging foods, carcinogenics, processed foods, additives and chemicals all while maintaining a balance insulin response, blood sugar level and nutrient supply. Having shared that this is not a good recipe to use if you are seriously taking on the role of a Paleo living. This is high in fats (although good fats, fats all the same) high in added sweetener (yes it's honey but it is an added sweetener that spikes your insulin response and blood sugar as well as fat storage and everything else that goes along with any form of sweets). This is not a every day meal. However, if you have the choice between this cinnamon roll and a regular cinnamon roll this is definately the healthier choice, no damaging grains, no fat storing dairy. Just a little food for thought on that one.

INGREDIENTS:
3 c. almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 c coconut oil (softened)
2 tblsn honey
raisins, pecans, and a little more honey

DIRECTIONS:
Pre-heat oven to 340 degrees.  Mix the flour, soda and salt in a bowl. In a different bowl lightly whisk the eggs add the honey and the coconut oil (this is pretty messy and doesn't blend well unless the oil is really really soft, almost melty). Combine both bowl, making sure that the coconut oil is blended well (no white chunky bits).

Put the dough in the fridge for about 5 minutes to set.
Between 2 wax peices of paper put your dough and roll it out in a rectanglur shape. spread raisins and pecan across the dough and drizzle with some more honey. Roll the dough. This can be tricky, take your time and scrape up the dough and press it back together as you go, it will crack and break but it's very moist to easy to press together. 

Slice into rolls and place on a cookie sheet that has been greased. Bake for about 10 Min.

As promised...

CHICKEN FRIED STEAK AND GRAVY!

A big thanks to Kim D. for this one, I changed it just a little using some tried and true Texan style cooking secrets passed down to me through my (than) mother-in-law  (thanks Dawn).

INGREDIENTS"

2 LBS chuck steak, round beef patties or round steak tenderized and 1/2" thick

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 c almond flour

1/2 C coconut flout

1 tsp garlic powder

3 large eggs

1/4 c coconut oil

2 C chicken broth

1/2 C canned coconut milk

1/2 tsp thyme

DIRECTIONS:

Pre heat oven to 250 degrees. Make sure meat is tenderized, and cut into smaller peices. Whip the eggs together in a bowl and mix the flours, garlic, salt peper on a plate or baking dish.

In a large skillet (according to my Texan guru cast iron is the best) melt your coconut oil. Dredge the steak peices through the egg and than the flour mixture and brown both sides, put on a cookies sheet with tinfoil and a light coating of olive oil over the top of it. After all peices are coated, browned and put on the cookie sheet put it in the oven to finish cooking.

 This is a Texas secret, you now need to make a Rue, which is really just fat and flour melted together to form a base for your gravy. Melt your coconut oil and put small amounts of flours into the melted fat until it looks like cookie dough. 

In the pan that you browned the steaks, put in the broth and deglaze the pan (that means scrape off all those yummy crispy morsals of batter left in there and mix them into the broth).  Put your Rue in the pan and blend throughly, as you go if it needs to thicken just add the left over flour from the battering slowly, I find that whisking as you go works really well to keep a smooth gravy.


Pull the steaks out of the oven when their done (I still like them a little pink in the middle or they seem to tough). Cover with Gravy and place with you favorite side, in our house it's hands down potato salad

And enjoy. Thanks again Kim D (and Dawn)



But I though Deep Fryers were a no-no...

OK so yes, deep frying is not the healthiest choice, that's a no brainer. But, it seems to me, that a clean fry meal is better than a dirty fry meal, and this is a good way to get rid of those fried food cravings without getting back into the "Crack" of grains.

 

 

 

DEEP FRIED SHRIMP

 

So I have a deep fat fryer, I know, I'm so bad. I have finally put it to use for something clean.  I used olive oil, although the pot recommends not using it.  You could easily accomplish this same recipe in a frying pan as well, just make sure that there's enough oil to cover most of the shrimp.

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 bags frozen tail on raw shrimp (we got them at costco)

almond flour

coconut flour

salt, pepper, garlic powder to liking

 

 

Mix all dry ingredients together on a plate.  Beat the eggs in a bowl. Wash shrimp and pat dry with a paper towel. Roll the shrimp in the egg to fully coat, roll in the flour mixture and drop in the hot oil. (If you are using a frying pan use medium heat, you don't want the flour to burn.)  Cook until batter is brown and shrimp is pink, place on a plate with a papertowel to absorb the left over oil. And enjoy, easy, quick and so so yummy

 

Store bought paleo bread

Guess what Costco has, BREAD! I personally haven't tried it yet but the girls really dig it in french toast and sandwiches. As soon as this food challenge is over I'm making some for me, and maybe Andy ;).  It comes in a  two loaf pack for a little over $8.00, not a bad deal. Blake says he likes the homemade almond bread better, but for our house this works in a pinch.

LASAGNA!!!!!

Branden has been asking for month for me to find a clean lasgna recipe becuase he misses it so much, so here it is, and it's amazing!!!!

 

LASAGNA

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

CHEESE:

    1/2 c almonds

    1/2 thinly sliced onion

    2 cloves garlic

    3 tbsn oregano

    1/8 tsp nutmeg

    1/8 tsp salt

    1/2+ c water

Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. I should have gotten a picture of that texture for you but I was so eager I forgot. It should look like a ricotta cheese.

 

LAYERS:

1 lbs ground beef browned

1 can clean speghetti sauce

4 large mushrooms, sliced

2 large zuchinnis, thinly sliced (mandolins work great for this) These are your noodles

fresh spinach leaves

 

Brush the zuchinni "noodles" with a light coat of olive oil and grill. I used my broiler pan and my oven at 375 but on the BBQ would be so much better.

 

With all your ingredients start making your layers in an oven safe baking dish. Beef, spinach, mushrooms, zuchinni noodles, and than smear the "cheese" on the "noodles" and cover with a layer of sauce and start all over until your pan is full, ending with the sauce on the top.

 

 

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20-30 minutes and serve. It is by far best hot but still great as leftovers.

You need to try this one you're going to love it, kid tested and approved!!!



 Another great this with this cheese is with the left overs I made an omlette the next morning. Spinach, onions, mushrooms and almond cheese it was so good!!!

Shepards Pie

If you haven't noticed yet there is another food challenge going on this month, and there will be another next so come prepared. In order to help those of us on the challenges stay focused I am going to try and provide all of us with some new options (more often) for meals.

Today's addition is one I've been wanting to do for a long time and really have had no excuse as to why I haven't.  We tried it with sweet potatoes and yams, I preferred the sweet potatoes, better consistency  and flavor (in my opinion) but overall this recipe was a keeper in our household.

SHEPARD'S PIE INGREDIENTS:

Ground Beef (we used 1/2 of a Costco package)

3 handfuls+ diced baby carrots

6 stalks diced celery

 1 diced sweet onion

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 C. beef broth

4 large sweet potatoes (or yams)
coconut oil
4 large sliced mushrooms
oregano, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper

COOKING DIRECTIONS:

Scrub and cube the sweet potatoes and put in a pot and a steamer and steam until tender. You can do this in the microwave as well, I just like the consistency of the steamed vegys better. When they are steamed, mash to your liking. I like it smooth and creamy so Andy had to mash for awhile :) 
Set oven to 400 degrees.
While the potatoes are steaming, heat coconut oil in a large frying pan. Add garlic, onions, celery and carrots, cook until tender. Add mushrooms and cook until tender, put aside.  Add the ground beef to the pan add all the spices to your liking ( I do about 3-5 shakes of the bottle with each, I know not very helpful I'll try to remember to measure next time.) Cook until fully browned.
Mix vegys and meat together and spread out in a baking dish, cover with beef broth. You can choose to boil the broth with some coconut flour if you would like, some say it thickens it, however, I think it changes the taste and texture, I wasn't to fond of it. Cover the top with the mashed potatoes (this is very sticky so push a little into the meat mixture to get the potatoes to stay in place.) Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, until the broth starts to boil and the potatoes look slightly browning on the edges.
we didn't even wait for it to cool we dug right in, everyone loved it!!!1

Just in time for the Food Challenge...

OK so no not just in time, I am posting this too late for any of you to actually use this in the first week of our challenge, but to make up for it I have added 5 recipes and I am hoping to be able to post a clean stuffing recipe before Thanksgiving (fingers crossed for Tuesday.)

 

 

So I actually saw this idea on a facebook post from a CrossFitter friend and I though what a great idea, now we can't use the excuse that eating clean is too time consumer or that the paleo food is boring. I took the idea and ran with it. Below are 5 choices for freezer bag, crockpot meals. I haven't tried any of these yet, we just prepared them today and we are using them to keep up on the challenge so I will let you know in the comments of this post how they turned out.

 

Easy, simple, add all the ingredients to the bag, date it, titled it, put any cooking directions on it and stick it in the freezer. To cook them, pull them out of the freezer throw them in the crockpot and come home in the evening to a hot and ready meal!!

 

***Cook all of these in the Crockpot on low for 6-8 hours

 

BEEF STEW:

1 onion diced

2 garlic cloves

1/2  of the large bag size of baby carrots

2 celery stalks chopped

2 yams cubed

1 can V8 juice (and yes these are clean but not all of them so read your ingredients, remember no added sugars for the food challenge.)

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 C beef broth

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp pepper

stew meat.

 

 

GOULASH:
1 bell pepper diced
1 onion diced
1/2 of a large bag of baby carrots
2 garlic cloves
stew beef
6 0z tomato paste
3 zuchinnis sliced
2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp pepper

MANDRIN CHICKEN:
1 C. V8 juice
2 fruit cup snack packs of mandarin oranges (1 with the juice 1 without)
brocolli
garlic powder
6 chicken thighs

TERIYAKI CHICKEN:
1/2 of a large size bag of baby carrots
1 onion chopped
20 oz pineapple with the juice
 garlic cloves
3 chicken breast cubed
1/2 C soy sauce
1/4 tsp grated ginger
1/2 C water 
(The original recipe calls for 3 tbsn maple syrup and 1 1/2 tbns arrowroot)

 

 

BBQ PORK RIBS:

*This one has some extra directions*

1 package boneless pork ribs

1 capri sun apple juice pouch

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp pepper

slow cook for 6-7 hours, drain juices and cover with BBQ sauce and cook on high 1 more hour



 

 

 

My freezer is full and ready for the week, can't wait to try them. Let me know if you try them as well, post on the comments of this post and we'll fine tune them together !!