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.