Egg White Tortillas

Ingredients

• ~1 egg white per tortilla (this depends on your pour)
• Fat of choice (I usually use lard)

Directions
Heat pan to medium/medium-high. Add spoonful of FOC to pan. Pour thin layer of egg whites into pan. Move pan in circular motion to get a nice even coating. Once you start to see bubbles, use a spatula to loosen the edges of the tortilla and flip once the bottom feels solid enough. Let the second side cook for another minute. Flip back to the first side if you'd like it fried more. Remove from pan. Repeat until you have enough tortillas.

Beef Tacos

Ingredients

• 3 lbs ground meat
• 4 peppers, chopped
• 1 med onion, chopped (Do more, if you like onions. We only like onions in this recipe.)
  
• Taco seasoning to taste

Taco Seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

We make an enormous batch of the taco seasoning at a time (about 10x of the above) and just keep it in an airtight container.

Directions
Brown the meat on medium high for 5-7 min, stirring frequently. Drain meat; add taco seasoning. Stir for a few more minutes. Add peppers and onion, stir in with meat. Cover pan and reduce heat to medium-low; simmer for 10-15 min. Serve and enjoy. Try to save some for leftovers.

You can eat the meat by itself (we do when we're starving or lazy or out of time). You can also try making egg white tortillas.

Baked Chicken Wings

Ingredients

• As many chicken wings as you need to eat (we usually make around 30-40); we prefer either drummettes only or buffalo style wings
• Salt & Pepper
  

Cashew Butter Sauce - made to taste and desired consistency (aka, Jon doesn't measure things)

• ~1/2 c cashew butter
• ~1/3 c coconut aminos
• ~1/3 c water
• Tabasco to taste

Buffalo Sauce

• ~1/3 c coconut oil
• ~1/2 c Franks Red Hot Sauce Original
  
• ~1 T garlic powder

I'll update the amounts if he ever decides to actually measure them.

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Add salt and pepper on both sides of the wings and place in a foil-lined pan (pans, for us). If you have a convection oven, use it; it seems to help the wings get a little crispier. Bake wings for 20 min. If you're making plain wings, flip them and bake for another 20 min. If using a sauce, take the pan(s) out of the oven and baste the wings with sauce on the top side. Put back in oven for 10 min. Remove the wings and flip; baste the other side and put back in the oven for 10 min. Voila!

Two Month Old Menu

So, things have been a bit busy for us lately, lots of traveling, bathroom remodeling, and commuting to DC. The last menu I started to post is from August, I think, and after losing a finished draft, I gave up on it for a bit. So here's that menu:

• Chicken marinara
• Pinchos Morunos
• Thai Chicken Soup
• Grilled Green Chicken
• Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce
• Beef Tacos with Egg White Tortillas

The pinchos morunos were pretty delicious, as I recall. We had extra Thai chicken soup, so we froze some, and have since used it up. Jon was a huge fan of the grilled green chicken, and we've made that again since the first time, and plan to make it next week as well. We still haven't managed to try the pork chops with mustard sauce, but I had some of it when Erin brought it in for lunch, and it was good. Beef tacos have become something we crave now, with or without tortillas. When we made them last week, we made 10x the original amount of the taco seasoning recipe, so that we just have it on hand for emergencies.

So, back to the past:
While we were waiting on paint to dry some afternoon last month, we also decided to try some new snacks:

• Snacks: Kale chips
• Snacks: Baked chicken wings (half plain, half with cashew butter sauce)
• Snack: Paleo tortilla chips

The tortilla chips were just ok, they actually don't need all the spices if all you want is a salsa delivery vehicle. We've made the chicken wings on an almost weekly basis since then. They're pretty wonderful to have post-WOD, or while we're waiting for a long dinner to be ready. As I'm typing this, we have another batch in the oven (half cashew butter sauce, half easy buffalo sauce). We're having a serious cooking afternoon while I catch up on some football, so we've actually also made another batch of kale chips. These are also pretty wonderful, and the recipe is very accurate, in my experience so far. I would only add, make sure the kale is very dry, and don't overdo the oil. They'll come out soggy and undelicous. It's not fun.

In all of this cooking melee, we've also tried a little sweet stuff. I'm pretty much in love with Nom Nom Paleo and all the recipes she finds or creates; I'm pretty sure her blog has persuaded us to get a Sous Vide for Christmas. Last week we tried the Roasted Broccoli & Bacon; today it was Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies from Primal Palate and Apple Cinnamon Cookies. We're also giving her Cauliflower Fried Rice a try tonight.

Jon really enjoyed the roasted broccoli. It had a pretty bitter taste to me, very similar to dark greens. I'm looking forward much more to the cauliflower tonight. The sweets were definitely a hit for us. After a few strict months of Paleo, the chocolate chip cookies are almost too sweet for me, but I absolutely adored the apple cinnamon cookies.


For the upcoming week, we're planning on the following meals:

• Meatballs and zucchini noodles
• Meat curry (chicken and turkey, this week)
  
• Ridiculous burgers (lamb and bacon, this week)
  
• Balsamic glazed pork chops
• Pistachio-crusted flounder fillets
• Beef satay

These are things we've all made before, so hopefully the week won't be too rough, cooking-wise.

Soups!

Coconut Chicken Soup

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs, diced (about 2 lbs)

salt and pepper

1 Tbsp. coconut oil

8 oz mushrooms sliced

2 cups Swiss Chard sliced into ribbons

2 Tbsp. lemongrass

2 Tbsp. ginger, minced

1 can coconut milk

3 cups chicken broth

2 Tbsp. fish sauce

1 tsp chili garlic sauce

1 lime zested and juiced

1 bunch green onions sliced

1/4 cup basil chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1) In large saucepan over medium-high heat, melt coconut oil. Add chicken pieces ad lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. When pieces are halfway cooked, about 3 minutes, stir in mushrooms and chard. When mushrooms are no longer dry, add lemongrass and ginger, stirring until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in coconut milk, chicken broth, fish sauce, chili-garlic sauce, and lime zest. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

2) Just before serving, stir in lime juice, green onions, basil and cilantro. Ladle into bowls. Serves 4

Curried Beef Stew With Coconut Milk

3lbs of beef for stew, cut into 1-2 inche pieces

5 tablespoons of coconut oil

2 medium onions, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tablespoons of ginger, minced

2 teaspoons coriander

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon tumeric

1/2 tsp cardamom

1 tsp red pepper flakes

4 cups beef broth

1 cinnamon stick

1 can coconut milk

6 carrots peeled and diced

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large dutch oven, heat 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and brown the beef chunks in small batches. Remove beef to a bowl and add the remaining coconut oil, onion garlic ginger and spices. Cook for approximately 10 minutes, then return the beef and add broth. Bring to a simmer then cover and place in oven for about three hours. Check periodically to ensure there is enough liquid. If it looks dry, add a little water to cover. After three hours, add the coconut milk and carrots. Replace cover and leave in oven for one more hour. Remove from heat and remove cinnamon stick. Salt and peppeper to taste and serve, garnish with cilantro.

Teriyaki Sauce

This recipe makes about 1 1/4 c of teriyaki sauce. You really don't have to be so stringent about mixing everything - it comes out fine when you mix it all together to begin with, as we found out last night.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c sweet wine or rice wine
• 3/4 c coconut aminos
• 1 Tbsp + 1/4 tsp coconut vinegar
• 3/4 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 c honey (optional)
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 1/4 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• dash red pepper flakes
• black pepper to taste

Directions
Bring wine to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 min. Pour in coconut aminos, vinegar, sesame oil and honey. Season with garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and black pepper; simmer an additional 5 min.

Beef Satay with Cashew Butter Sauce

We re-worked this recipe to our liking from a Williams-Sonoma recipe. It's especially delicious with fresh green peppers, or at least it was last night :) We also make our own teriyaki sauce, but that's something everyone should make to their liking.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs flank steak
• 2/3 c teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
• 2 green or red sweet peppers
• 6 Tbsp cashew butter
• 6 Tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
• 4 Tbsp teriyaki sauce

Directions
Cut steak diagonally across the grain in thin slices. For marinade, combine 2/3 c teriyaki sauce and 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 min. Drain steak, reserving marinade. If grilling on skewers, alternate steak strips and peppers. Brush skewers with remaining marinade. For peanut sauce, combine 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce, cashew butter, water and 4 Tbsp teriyaki sauce in a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until heated through; keep warm.

Grill, saute with marinade, or broil steak and pepper mix until steak is cooked to your liking.

Back From a Cruise, Time for Better Eating

So... Last week, we shouldn't even discuss. When all food is free and buffet-style or room service, and you're on vacation, it's really hard to be good. In fact, we didn't even try. So this week, we're being fairly strict and really good, and so far, it has paid off.

For Father's Day Sunday night, we had absolutely amazing balsamic glazed pork chops, with the inch-thick pork chops from the farmer's market, and a spinach and bacon salad that I nicked from Paladar.

Then Monday night, we gave two new recipes a shot: Coconut chicken nuggets and Egg Drop Soup. The nuggets actually kept the breading and stayed crispy, and the egg drop soup looked like anything you might order from your favorite guilty pleasure Chinese place. And, incidentally, both were delicious. For guilt-free soup, we did lard instead of butter, coconut aminos instead of soy sauce, and arrowroot instead of cornstarch.

Tuesday night, we re-worked an old recipe from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook: Beef Satay with Cashew Butter Sauce. I love it even more than the original recipe, I think the cashew butter comes out much better than peanut butter. Also, the fresh green peppers from the farmers market were so soft and sweet!

A few gym-night standards for the nights to come:
Chicken pesto - yay for frozen pesto cubes! We made a double batch last time, so no blending tonight!
Beef curry
Chicken thighs w/ creamy tomato sauce

Pad See Eaw

Ingredients

• 2 T honey
• 2 lbs of flank steak, cut into strips (we've also used venison, and the original recipe used pork)
• 6 T coconut aminos
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 pack of kelp noodles
• 2 eggs
• Head of broccoli, chopped or bag of florets

Directions
Heat skillet or wok to high and add some oil. Add in chopped or minced garlic and stir. Add the sliced meat. Stir to cook the meat. Add coconut aminos and honey. Mix in any desired seasonings. Open a spot in the middle of the pan and drop the eggs in. Scramble until almost all cooked. Add in broccoli and noodles, and stir until broccoli is cooked.

Tuna Casserole

This is one of about three meals in my regular repertoire, and unfortunately for Jon and me both, one that he doesn't enjoy very much. Still, he indulges me every now and then, or I make it when he's gone. That was my intention last week, but I never got around to it, so we had this last night. This was my first time attempting something more Paleo with the recipe (it used to have rotini in it), and it turned out better than I would've thought. Even Jon had a full portion :)

Ingredients

• Cooked broccoli (either 8oz frozen, or a couples handfuls fresh)
• 2 zucchini, peeled (this will replace the noodles)
  
• 8oz raw sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 cans tuna (haven't experimented with other options here yet; one change at a time)
• Homemade mayonnaise, to taste (I used 2 heaping tablespoons)
  
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Use vegetable peeler to peel off thin slices of zucchini. Grate about 2/3 of your cheese. Mix zucchini, broccoli, cheese, tuna, mayo, salt and pepper. Grease 9x9 pan with olive oil or butter, add mix to the pan. Grate remainder of cheese on top. Bake for 20 min covered with foil, then an addition 5-10 to melt any remaining cheese. This probably makes about 3-4 portions, and is a bit heavy on the cheese.

This Week's Menu

Finally a new menu! It's been a somewhat ridiculous couple of weeks/months for us, so much that we only ended up cooking maybe once or twice most weeks. The upside to that, though, is that we now have a freezer full of meat! The plan for this week includes several new meals, so there may be more updates and photos later this week.

• Chile Colorado
• Pad See Eaw
• Lemongrass Chicken (slow cooker)
• Pork Stuffed Peppers (slow cooker)

Many Mini-Muffins!

Because it's impossible to not be happy when I think about these. I made lemon blueberry last weekend, and tonight I made apple cinnamon.



The recipe I ended up using was pretty close to Liz K's, and there's a similar one on Jen's Gone Paleo.

Base Recipe

• 1/2 c coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup raw honey
• 4 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 c coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Then add some of whatever you'd like. Last weekend, it was a tbsp of lemon zest, and a cup of blueberries. Tonight, it's cinnamon and apples.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another. Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then fold in your fruit. Pour batter into lined or greased muffin tins. Bake 12-15 min.

This recipe made about 30-35 mini-muffins. The muffins were a little oily last week, so I decreased the coconut oil from 1/3 cup to 1/4 cup.

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground or cubed meat (we've used beef, pork, venison, bison)
• 3 c beef broth
• 2 c diced mushrooms
• 1 c sour cream (grass-fed if available)
• parsley (garnish)
  
• Pepper to taste
  
• 1-2 packs of kelp noodles
  

Directions
Brown the meat in a large skillet, add pepper while browning. Add the beef broth and mushrooms, heat to a boil. Add kelp noodles, cook until softened, about 5-10 min. Stir in sour cream and heat through.

If you can't find the kelp noodles, this could probably be made as just a meat dish. We order our noodles by the case, and they keep in the pantry for several months.

Chicken Pesto

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken thighs, cubed
• 3 c fresh basil
• 1 1/2 c pinenuts
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 c grated parmesan cheese (optional)
• 1 c olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Add all ingredients except the chicken to a blender or food processor. Blend until well-mixed. Saute chicken in a large skillet until cooked through. Add the pesto sauce, simmer for 5-10 min.

Supposedly, the pesto sauce freezes very well. We still need to test this. I say the parmesan is optional because we made this meal a lot during our first Paleo challenge, and it works fine without the cheese. This week will actually be the first time we make it with cheese.

This Week's Menu

Since my first/last post, Jon and I have already failed at the Whole 30. Life happens, and a lot of it happened to us last week. We didn't make half the meals we'd intended to, but we're hoping to get back on track this week with our normal routine at least, even if we have to hold off on the challenge for awhile.

• Salisbury Steak
• Beef Curry
• Kebabs with Aioli
• Czech Meatballs
• Chicken Pesto
• Beef Stroganoff

Update: Had the Salisbury Steak tonight. Very good flavor, and a surprising hint of sweetness in the gravy.

Roast Pork Loin with Sweet Potatoes

Made this big pork roast tonight and it came out delicious! I followed the recipe below, without the butter and with sweet potatoes rather than potatoes. I fried them up in coconut oil on the stove before adding them to the pan. I'm not sure if this is the exact cut of meat the recipe was talking about, but it turned out fine anyway. Cut it off into separate pork chops, as shown above!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Pork-Loin-and-Potatoes-103438

The skin was crispy and brown and the fat right beneath just melted in your mouth. Loved it!

Menu for the week

Our menu for the upcoming week:

• Salisbury Steak
• Dad's pork chops
• Zesty cilantro lime roasted chicken
• Czech meatballs
• Coconut chicken curry soup
• Sausage and miscellaneous vegetables

All recipes contingent on my level of laziness, and what ingredients are on sale/ridiculous this week.

--Erin

Freezer stew

I've been trying to clean out our freezer, and I had about a pound of beef chuck roast and a pound of boneless lamb leg.  Not enough to do anything with on their own, but they made a really good stew together!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb beef chuck roast, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 lb leg of lamb, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 parsnip, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 5-6 large white mushrooms, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• Spices: dried basil, thyme, oregano; black pepper; seasoned salt
• 6 giant cloves of garlic, crushed in my garlic press
• 2-3 cups of chicken broth

I threw all this in the crockpot this morning and let it cook on low for 7 hours.  It came out really flavorful, the meat was perfectly tender and not dry at all!  Usually, I find my miscellaneous stews to be rather bland and uninspired with a taste that doesn't make me want to eat the leftovers, but this one was really good!  I think the secret ingredient was the Borsari seasoned salt.  We picked it up at Whole Foods a few weeks ago and so far it's made everything we've put it on amazing.

Ground Beef Curry

This recipe is a conglomerate of several online recipes, and one recipe from The Paleo Solution. It's a very easy meal, and always better than I remember.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground beef (any ground meat will work here; we've used venison, pork, bison)
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 c curry powder
• spinach (a lot; we chop ours up pretty small because we're still wusses when it comes to veggies)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 4 cloves garlic

Directions
In a skillet, saute minced garlic in olive oil. Brown the ground meat. We usually drain the meat before continuing. Mix in the curry powder. Add the coconut milk and spinach at the same time. Mix well and let it simmer for a few minutes.

This is enough for both of us for dinner and lunch the following day.

Last Week's Menu, New Blogger

Hi all! Erin has invited me to join her family with blogging our weekly menu. Jon and I just started the Whole-30 challenge on Monday, so these first few weeks may be fairly restricted. The previous week included the following recipes:

• Burgers & asparagus
  
• Thai Almond Pork
• Balsamic Pork Chops
• Ground Beef Curry
• Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

Burgers are basic for us, grass-fed beef seasoned with garlic salt and black pepper. I'll post a few recipes we use for condiments later.

The thai almond pork was okay, but I don't know if we'll do it again. It just wasn't quite as appetizing the second day, and we depend on leftovers for lunch.

The balsamic pork chops were excellent, and may become a gym night staple meal for us. We made the mistake of using a bit of lard in the skillet for the first batch of pork chops, so they didn't end up glazing very well. The second batch glazed very well, since there was balsamic vinegar in the skillet during the entire searing process. After the second batch was finished, we added spinach to the skillet and lightly wilted it in the remaining balsamic vinegar.

The ground beef curry is one of our current gym night staples. It's quick, easy, and the biggest obstacle on gym nights is trying to pick up our heavy cast-iron skillet.

Since I got my wisdom teeth out Friday, I've been living off the sweet potato & sausage soup. Jon's not a big fan, but I've really enjoyed it, and I've only been able to eat it cold so far. As far as the recipe goes, we also doubled the sausage, and added some ground beef to make sure I got enough protein this weekend. Jon forgot the curry powder, but it still had a good flavor. It's also possible that I favor it because it has a similar consistency to hash, which I miss dearly.

Menu for the week

Here's next week's menu!

• Sun-dried tomato chicken bake
• Barcelona Burger
• Nice and Spicy Pot Roast
• Stuffed Squash
• Smoked paprika chicken thighs
• Beef and lamb stew (which I will make up as I go along...)
• and corned beef with cabbage!

Slow-roasted pork shoulder

Yesterday's all-day cooking adventure was the slow roasted pork shoulder, with a deboned and trussed 8+ lb pork shoulder!  I followed the recipe fairly faithfully, with the exception of slightly reducing the amount of fennel since I'm not a huge fan. (More fennel was requested for the next iteration, however.)  In my oven it took almost exactly 8 hours to get to an internal temperature of 195 degrees, the temperature for pull-apart pork according to the internet.  I think next time I might take it up to 200 or so--parts of it were meltingly tender and shreddable, while a few other areas were a little more solid.  The fat of course was delicious, melting into the meat and making it moist and very flavorful!  There wasn't much orange or onion flavor, however, unless you were eating a piece that had sat on top of the fruit during the cooking.  I didn't mind much, but maybe next time I'll experiment with getting a little more in there?

Leftovers--of which there were many--were delicious for lunch today.

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

I made this on Sunday, it was very easy and tastes delicious!

• 1 3/4 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 lb of your favorite spicy pork sausage, casing removed
• 2 large carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder;
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 7 cups chicken stock
• Coconut oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

I doubled the sausage, because I had a whole pound that needed to be used up. It all gets dumped into the blender anyway, and in the end I couldn't really taste the sausage at all, so it must not have been too much!

1. Heat a large skillet over a medium-high heat with some cooking fat.
2. Add the sweet potatoes, sausage meat, carrots, celery, garlic, onions and curry powder. Combine well.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes, until the carrots and sweet potatoes are slightly soft.
4. While the vegetables are cooking, pour the chicken stock in a pot and bring to a boil.
5. Add the cooked vegetables to the hot stock, bring back to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the sweet potato cubes are cooked through.
6. Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, pour everything in a blender or food processor and process until smooth.

The curry flavor was a lot stronger than I expected, especially since I doubled the sausage and also added a little more sweet potato, I would cut down the curry if you're making it for someone who doesn't like that flavor!

Short rib ragu

I made the short rib ragu yesterday while puttering around the house, and wow.  It came out delicious!  The meat is incredibly meltingly tender, and the sauce is thick and fatty without feeling greasy or heavy.

I made a few modifications out of necessity: my grocery store didn't have porcini mushrooms this time, so I substituted 0.75 oz of assorted dried mushrooms.  I also didn't have Worcestershire sauce, so I added a dash of tamari soy sauce and probably about a teaspoon of anchovy paste.  And I skipped the gremolata (out of laziness).

For the meat, I used about 5.5 lbs of bone-in short ribs.  I would have liked to put in more to increase the final amount of meat, but that's all that would fit in my pot!  Lacking an immersion blender I pureed the sauce in my food processor in two batches.  Finally, I ended up simmering it very gently for about 2 more hours to reduce it, in large part because that's just how long it was until we ate it.

The final product doesn't look like the picture of the recipe; mine is much more like a thick stew.  I can imagine it would be delicious served over some sort of floppy pasta (like bowties) so I'm trying to figure out a good paleo substitution.  Maybe thin blanched zucchini slices next time?  It's delicious in a bowl by itself though so I'm not thinking too hard about it!

menu for the week

I'm going to try hard to be better about posting on here!  Here's my tentative menu for next week...I'll try to write up anything that comes out particularly good.

• Spicy Beef and Vegetable Soup
• Island Stuffed Chicken
• Ropa Vieja
• Chicken Sweet Potato Curry
• Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
• Short Rib Ragu

Sushi!

Made these California rolls the other night! They were pretty good, for a California roll, better than the ones I've had at restaurants. The recipe is here: http://theclothesmakethegirl.blogspot.com/2010/07/riceless-soy-free-sushi-domo-arigato.html