Cajun Style

So I am not normally a person who enjoys spicy foods but this one is a keeper. And it's as spicy as you want to make it, I went pretty mild so the kids and I would enjoy it too, but for those of you who really like the hot, you can always add more spice and tobasco sauce to your bowl after everyone else is dished up.
INGREDIENTS:
1 bag shrimp
2 oz chicken
1 tbsn cajun spice (we used the spice from a few posts back "spicy nuts")
1 tbsn oil
1/4 C cut onion
1/4 C  cut bell pepper
2 tbsn diced garlic
1/2 C chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp tabasco
3/4 C caulirice
3 C chicken stock
5 oz sausage (we used deer sausage I would recommend a pork)
salt and pepper

Mix all spices in the meat and set aside.

Heat oil on med/high in a pot. Cook the onion, celery, and pepper until almost tender. Add the garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves and sauces. Stir in the caulirice and chicken broth and than finally the meat.  Cook on med heat, with a lid on, stirring occasionally, until the meat is done.

Quick, easy and very yummy, even for a spicy dish.

Stuffed birds!

 So I have been saying I was going to work on a clean stuffing recipe for months and I have finally done it. OK so I haven't spent as much time on it as I would've like and this is definitely not the end all be all on the best stuffing recipe, but it is a good base. I think.

INGREDIENTS:
3 thick slices of almond butter bread (recipe just a few months back) cubed
5 stalks celery sliced
1 apple diced (I like a little sweet and a little tart so I used fuji)
1 tbsn coconut oil
1/3  C onion
1 C chicken broth
1/2 C pecans
1 tsp sage
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt

CHICKEN RUB:
3/4 C olive oil
3 tbsn garlic
2 tbsn rosemary
1 tbsn basil
1 tsp pepper
salt to taste

Mix all ingreidents together for the rub, and cover the chicken in it, don't miss the skin between the wings and the body. (Don't forget to clean the chicken inside and out and remove all the gizzards and neck that are stored inside the cavity). Set aside.
If you want to use the neck and organs to make a broth or chicken stock now is the time. Put them in a pot with water almost covering them. Add spices of your choice, I usually go with bay leaves, salt, garlic, parsley and basil. Simmer on low of a few hours (about as long as it takes to cook the bird) and you have a tasty chicken stock that you can use for your stuffing next time or soup.

In a saucepan combine everything but the bread cubes and the pecans. Turn on med high until it boils, reduce heat and cover and let simmer until the vegys are tender.
Meanwhile, put the bread cubes on a cookie sheet, in a single layer, and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, until crunchy but not heavily browned. Set aside.

After vegys are tender pour over toasted bread cubes, add the pecans and blend well. Put the bird in a shallow baking dish and gently add some stuffing to the cavity of the bird, laying the remaining amounts outside in the baking dish. Don't pack all the stuffing into the cavity, the fuller it is the longer it will take to cook.
Bake the bird at 400 degrees uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the top is beautifully browned than "tent" (or cover the baking pan and bird with tinfoil that doesn't touch the bird)  turn the oven down to about 350 and finish cooking.

 

It should be tender and fall off the bone yummy. The apples in the stuffing really help juice up the meat and bring a bit of a sweet flavor to the dish. Now if you really want to have at it boil and mash some garlic sweet potatoes and have yourself a clean thanksgiving-ish meal.

For the Kids!!!

Sorry not a great picture! So, during the recent nutrition seminar, I had someone ask me what about kids and paleo. And I realized we haven't really done any snacks, stuff for after school, between practice and lessons. Easily packable and healthy options so here ya go. (Plus I get the benefit of having a full fridge for the 4 empty pits that live in my house ;)  )

 

 

1st: cut celery, carrots, bell peppers and a smaller tupperware clean ranch dressing

2nd: cut melons in a fruit salad

3rd: Cucumber salad (sliced cucumbers and sweet onions in a 1 to 1/2 ratio of apple cider vinegar and honey)

4th: apple chicken sausages

5th: pumpkin snack bites (recipe to below)

6th: beef jerky (recipe to below)

 

 

 

PUMPKIN SNACK BITES:

Ingredients:

1 C. pumpkin (canned is fine)

2 Tbsn honey

1/2 C. coconut flour

1 egg

3/4 C almond butter

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 C coconut milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 C dark chocolate chips (I found mine at huckleberries in Spokane but I'm sure theres some at Pilgrams)

Oven at 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients well, scoop onto a cookie sheet by the spoonful and bake for about 25 minutes.


BEEF JERKY:
Ingredients:
1 lbs beef jerky
1/2 C soy sauce (wheat free)
1/2 C pineapple juice
garlic powder, salt and pepper to liking

Mix all ingredients together well. Put the meat between two sheets of wax paper and roll out even and flat. slice into 1 1/2 inch width pieces and put into the dehydrater for about 5 to 6 hours. The thinner the faster it's done and the crunchier it is, or roll it out a little thicker and make it chewer. You can do this in the oven too 205 degrees, crack the oven to let the moisture out and about 3-4 hours.

Spicy nuts!!!

Sorry about not having a lot of pictures for this post, Andy eat them too fast for me to get many. (Well Kate and I did our fair share as well :)  )

So here is a quick and easy way to make those on the run, after school or just because, good for you munchies. Be aware, the paleo diet advocates, SOME fats. So don't over do it on this one, although it is very easy to do.

We did three different kinds of flavored nuts on one try but by far the Cajun flavor won out, for everyone. (Even me who is not usually fond of spicy.)

Ingredients:

1/2 a bag of the Costco raw almonds

sweet nuts:

1 tbsn honey

cinnamon and nutmeg

salty nuts:

olive oil and salt

Spicy nuts:

2 tsp salt

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 1/4 tsp dried oregano

1 1/4 tsp dried thyme

1.2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional for those hot and spicy type)

Mix all the ingredients for the spicy nuts together.

For the spicy and salty nuts, mix all in a bowl with a little bit of olive oil, just to coat. lay out on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with the spice of your choice.

We tried the sweet nuts with the olive oil too but the honey just slips right off so try blending the honey with some liquid coconut oil first, throw the almond in the bowl and stir t around to coat them and than lay on the cookie sheet and sprinkle with nutmeg and cinnamon.

Bake for about 15 minutes at about 350 degrees, let them slightly cool (I liked them all warm mmmm), and enjoy!!
Stay tuned I will be posted an attempt at gumbo with this Cajun flavoring, can't wait!

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