Braised lamb shoulder

We got a deboned Icelandic lamb shoulder at Whole Foods, already neatly trussed up.  I decided to braise it with a bunch of vegetables following the instructions in "Art of Simple Food."

1. I took a small glass baking dish and covered the bottom with chunks of onion, celery, sweet potato, and orange and white carrots.
2. I rubbed the lamb shoulder all over with salt, pepper, oregano, and basil.  If I'd thought of it, I would have done this step last night!
3. I put the lamb on top of the vegetables with the fat side up, and added enough chicken broth to come about a third of the way up the lamb.
4. This cooked in a 375 degree oven for an hour, then I flipped the lamb over.  I cooked it another half hour, flipped it again, and cooked it one more half hour.  At this point, the lamb was tender when poked with a fork and the vegetables were mushy and delicious.

This made an awesome lamby vegetable stew that we floated slices of the shoulder on.

Chicken Fajita Salad

Chicken Fajita Salad

Just a quick lunch Wednesday morning, from The Paleo Solution, very colorful! Easy to make too, made it in the morning right before work.

2 tbsp olive oil

1 chicken breast

1/2 an onion

1/2 bell pepper

1 avocado

1 tomato (if you like them, I hate them. But I tried to eat it.)

Salad

Heat olive oil, throw in sliced onions, cook till soft. Add chicken, cut into strips. Season with oregano and cumin. Once chicken is browned, toss in sliced bell pepper to soften it a bit. Toss chicken/onion/pepper mixture over the salad, add sliced avocado and tomato.

Came out delicious and was very filling, will definitely make it again, minus the tomato. Overcooked the chicken a bit too.

Butternut Squash Soup

I made this soup today. Bit of an experiment... I roasted the squash first instead of boiling it. It added a different flavor to the soup - richer.

1 butternut squash (I buy mine previously cut because it can give me a nasty burn if I cut it myself)
2 cups Chicken stock
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
nutmeg
salt and pepper

Peel, remove the seeds and cut up the squash. Place on a cookie sheet with some olive oil, salt, pepper. Roast for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.
Transfer to a Stock or Soup pot.
Add the chicken stock
Add the onion
Add the garlic
Nutmeg ( 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp - Hard to tell when you are grating a nut)

Simmer until tender.

Smash or use a hand blender to smooth the soup.

Slow roasted pork shoulder

A little while ago Lurene and I split a local pastured pig with a trainer at our gym.  It turns out a pig has a lot more meat than I expected, so two full freezers later we'll still eating pork at almost every meal!  Today's pork adventure is a roasted bone-in pork butt.  I based it on the recipe at Cook's Illustrated , but slightly modified.

1. Last night, I scored the fat cap of the roast into little one-inch squares, and rubbed it all over with kosher salt and sprinkled it with Chinese five-spice powder.  (I use this all the time on pork.  It tastes like it should be in cookies, but there's no actual sugar in it!)  Then I double-wrapped it in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
2. This morning, I unwrapped the roast and brushed off any remaining salt.  I sprinkled it with pepper and put in on a V-rack in a roasting pan.  I added about four cups of water to the bottom of the roasting pan, and put it in the oven at 325 degrees with a thermometer set to go off at 185 degrees.
3. This takes about 5-6 hours to cook. (Mine was about 5.) Twice during the cooking process I pulled it out to baste it.  (Of course I don't have a convenient basting device, so I have to use a spoon.  I make Lurene do this if I feel like I might burn myself today.)
4. Wen the timer went off, I pulled it out of the oven, covered it loosely wit tinfoil, and let it rest.  I was supposed to let it rest an hour, but we only made it 30 minutes.

We had this with some steamed carrots.  I also made a quick pan sauce by deglazing the roasting pan with some chicken broth and apple cider, and added a little black pepper and garlic powder.

I think this was one of the best things I've ever made.  Probably a lot of credit goes to the pig, though.

Meatloaf

I watch the Food Network all time and get ideas. Then I alter them to work within the Paleo diet. Here's how I did it with Meatloaf. This works for Meatballs as well.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground beef (or you can use a mix of pork, veal, whatever you like)
2 eggs
2 tsps crushed garlic or 5 cloves chopped
1 package of frozen organic chopped spinach, defrosted and drained
1 medium onion chopped finely
Salt and Pepper, of course
Take off your rings and mix all together with your hands. ( Messy!)
Place in a loaf pan or casserole dish.

Add a 1/4 cup of organic beef broth or dry red wine.

For an Italian twist - I add Parmesan Cheese and Romano Cheese and bake it with tomato sauce at 375 degrees until the internal temp reaches 175.

For use in meatballs - just roll them into 1.5 inch balls. Brown them in a large frying pan. Add liquid of choice and cook for 45 minutes on simmer. Turning every 15 minutes.

Chicken Pizza

I was missing the taste of Pizza so I created this recipe. So many options with it!

The process is so simple..... Just pound boneless chicken breats flat and line them up on a cookie sheet prepped with a little olive oil.

Then - add the toppings you love on pizza.
Some of my favorites:

organic tomato sauce
sliced mushrooms
chopped eggplant
garlic ( of course!)
fresh baby spinach
Fresh mozarella and ricotta ( I *like* dairy)
Fresh parsley and basil

Bake it at 375 for 40 minutes

Yum!

Welcome!

Welcome to Paleo on the Farm!  After we kept saying "We really should start a food and recipe blog" long enough, I finally got around to setting one up.  Here, my mom, my sister, and I will post our weekly food triumphs.  The ground rules: no grains, no legumes, minimal dairy.  We'll post meal plans and recipes, along with what worked and what didn't.  People really can and do eat this way long term, day in and day out, and it's not that hard to do!  Hope you enjoy!

--Erin