Paleo/Primal cooking

Since discovering that I don't handle grains well, I've started cooking with substitutes. (Wonderful things like almond flour means that I can make things that are very close to what I ate before, without leaving me exhausted :D) While it's worth it to feel better, it's also quite time consuming, because I have to actually cook every single meal from scratch. This means that I usually just take a day on the weekend and get all the cooking for the next week or two out of the way. After all, if I'm gonna go to the effort of cooking a meal from scratch, I might as well do 4 or 5 of them and have more food available for longer right? Makes life a little bit easier anyway :).

Yesterday, I decided to cook up everything for the next month. I'm not usually this ambitious, but I'm moving, which means my kitchen will be packed up soon, and I wanted my food ready and waiting for me when I needed to eat it, instead of having all these ingredients, and no way to cook them (never a good situation to be in). So away to the store I went, and bought everything I needed. And after about 9 hours in the kitchen, I finally got it mostly done.

I made 5 "bento boxes" for lunches, which basically just consist of hard boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, roasted garbanzo beans, and raisins. Then in addition to that I made Meatza Pizza, Chicken Alfredo (with spaghetti squash noodles) Chicken Parmesan (with spaghetti squash noodles) chicken curry with quinoa, avocados stuffed with tuna salad, tortillas for tacos, banana chocolate chip muffins, chicken and "rice" (using cauliflower instead of rice) and meatballs and cabbage in stewed tomatoes. Recipes below (sorry I didn't take any pictures. I was a little pre-occupied with trying to finish before 10 pm :P)

From dropdeadgorgeousdaily

Paleo Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon coconut oil or ghee

1 large onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed (or to taste)

1 small fresh red chili, finely chopped

2 tablespoons curry powder (or to taste)

2tbsps coconut oil or ghee

1 boneless, skinless chicken (I used chicken thighs, but you could also use breasts) cut into thin strips

1 cup mango chutney

1 1/2 cups coconut milk or single cream (half and half)

1 bag of baby spinach or some fresh sorrel if you’re lucky

Salt and pepper to taste

Coriander (cilantro) to garnish

Method:

Heat the oil or ghee in a large steep-sided frying pan or skillet.  Coconut oil or ghee are recommended  for Paleo cooking and are absolutely delicious in this dish, but you could also use vegetable oil.

Saute the onions and garlic until soft and then add the chili and curry powder.  Fry for a minute or two until the spice become fragrant.  Add the chicken strips and saute until brown all over.

Add the mango chutney and coconut milk (or cream) and then cook at a medium heat for about five minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  Add a huge heap of spinach or sorrel and continue cooking until the spinach has wilted into the curry.  If you’re lucky enough to have some sorrel, the lemony sharpness is perfect for this.

Season to taste and garnish with a little lime and cilantro (coriander).  To keep with the Paleo theme, I like to serve this with tiny roasted cauliflower florets, but some Basmati or jasmine rice would obviously work too.

From Deliciouslyorganic

Chicken and “Rice” Casserole (Grain-Free)

Serving Size: Serves 8

If your bacon is relatively lean, you may want to add a tablespoon or two of butter when you add the cauliflower to the pan (remember, it’s good to eat saturated fats with your vegetables so the body can assimilate the fat soluble nutrients. For those who follow a dairy free or Paleo diet, I know the cashew “cheese” sounds a bit odd, but trust me - it’s fantastic!


Ingredients

• 4 pieces bacon, chopped

• 1 large yellow onion, chopped

• 12 ounces button mushrooms, chopped

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1 1/2 teaspoons Celtic sea salt
• 1 large head cauliflower, “riced”*

• 1 1/2 pounds cooked chicken, shredded
• 1/2 cup sour cream (or for dairy free, Gaps or Paleo use cashew “cheese”) 

• 1 cup raw cheddar (omit for dairy free, Gaps, Paleo)
• 4 green onions, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook until crispy. Using a slotted spoon, remove bacon from pan leaving the bacon drippings in the pan. Add onions and mushrooms to the bacon drippings and cook, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until mushrooms have released their moisture and are just turning golden brown on the edges. Make a well in the center of the pan and add the thyme and salt. Stir in the center of the pan until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add cauliflower and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chicken, cooked bacon and sour cream (or cashew cheese) then stir until combined. Season with sea salt to taste. Pour mixture into an 11 x 7 - inch buttered dish (or individual dishes as pictured above). If using cheese, sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20 minutes or so until top is just turning golden brown. Sprinkle with green onions. Serve hot.

*To rice the cauliflower - Cut the cauliflower into large pieces (about 2-inch). Place in a food processor and pulse for 7-8 one-second pulses until the size of rice. Click here to see a photo.

from Askgeorgie

 Ingredients

1 cup egg whites

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 tsp each: cumin and garlic

1/4 tsp each: salt and cayenne pepper

Method

1. In a blender pitcher, combine all ingredients. Process for 10-20 seconds to break up any lumps in the coconut flour. Let is sit for 10 minutes so the coconut flour hydrates.

2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat and oil the bottom lightly if the nonstick coating isn’t great. When hot, pick up the pan and pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the center of the pan, giving the pan a tilt-rotate-jiggle action to spread the batter into a thin pancake about 8 inches or so across.

3. Put the pan back on the burner and let it cook until the top of the tortilla doesn’t look shiny anymore, and is not sticky to the touch. If it feels solid enough to flip, its time to flip. If it needs another minute, give it another minute. Timing isn’t crucial.

4. Use a big, wide pancake turner to flip it onto the other side. Another minute of cooking, and your tortilla is done. I recommend removing it to a paper towel-lined plate to free up the skillet for the next tortilla. Stacking the cooked tortillas on a bare plate works too, but gets some condensation moisture on the bottom to they end up a bit wet.

Makes 6. The last tortilla might be smaller than the others if you have less than 2 oz of batter remaining at the end.

From cookeatpaleo (I added mayo to it as well because my avocado wasn't mashing well enough and I needed something to hold it together) :

INGREDIENTS

• 1 avocado
• 1 lemon, juiced, to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped onion, to taste
• 5 ounces cooked or canned wild tuna
• sea salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut the avocado in half and scoop the middle of both avocado halves into a bowl, leaving a shell of avocado flesh about 1/4-inch thick on each half.
2. Add lemon juice and onion to the avocado in the bowl and mash together. Add tuna, salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Taste and adjust if needed.
3. Fill avocado shells with tuna salad and serve.

One of my favorites from Marksdailyapple:

Slow-Cooked Cabbage, Tomatoes and Meatballs

Last week we discussed the merits of canning your own foods. So you canned a bunch of tomatoes and now you need a good reason to use ‘em! Enter the following unstuffed cabbage recipe:

Ingredients: 
1 large head of cabbage
1 pound of ground meat (turkey, chicken, beef…you decide)
½ pound of spicy sausage, casing removed
½ cup minced onion
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 16 oz can tomatoes – including the juice
3 tbsp vinegar
1 carrot – unpeeled, ends chopped off
Salt and pepper to taste

Method: 
Preparation could go one of two ways. If available – and you have the time to throw it together in the morning – a crock pot could be used. The slow cooking process really allows the flavors to mingle and creates, in our opinion, a tastier dish. However, this dish also turns out well when made in a roasting dish and may work better for those who like to throw dinner together on the fly.

Now on to the actual method…

First, cut the cabbage into large chunks and use your fingers to roughly separate the leaves. Place half in the bottom of the crock pot or roasting pan. In a large bowl, mix the meat, sausage, onion, spices, salt and pepper. Using your hands, tightly roll the mixture into a series of small meatballs about 2-3 inches in diameter (if you don’t roll them tightly enough, they’ll break apart – while this does nothing to the taste, it looks more appetizing when you have the meatballs!) Place the meatballs on top of the cabbage and cover with the remaining cabbage. Set aside. In a food processor, combine canned tomatoes (with juice) and vinegar and pulse a few times so that the tomatoes are broken down but not pureed. Pour the mixture over the cabbage, add the carrot* and cook in a crock pot for 6-8 hours on low or in an uncovered roasting dish in an oven at 350 F for 1 hour. Remove carrot and serve piping hot.

We know this dish sounds kind of strange, but trust us, it is delicious. It all comes together to form a hearty, gorgeous amalgamation of light green cabbage, bright red tomatoes and juicy sausage and is super easy to make. Give it a try tonight and let us know what you think in the comment board.

*Due to the acidic nature of this recipe, most stuffed cabbage dishes call for sweetener to be added. However, a carrot will actually soak up the acidic flavor without adding any sugar. Just be sure to discard it before serving.

from yourpaleorecipes:

chocolate banana muffins

3 mashed over ripe bananas (Mine for small/medium size)
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 eggs
1/4 cup melted coconut oil 
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup chocolate chip

mix everything but the chocolate chips together in the blender. Stir in chocolate chips, and put it in your muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Chicken alfredo:

chicken, diced up

1 head of broccoli, cut and steamed until tender

spaghetti squash

alfredo sauce

Cook spaghetti squash in oven for 1 hour and 15 min at 400, then cut it open, and pull out noodles with a fork. 

Add cooked chicken, steamed broccoli, and alfredo sauce. Mix it all together and enjoy!

Chicken parmesan:

Chicken breasts

Tomato sauce or marinara sauce

mozzarella cheese

parmesan cheese

Place chicken breasts in 9x11 pan, cover with tomato sauce and add some italian seasoning (or just cover with marinara sauce. your choice) then smother with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, and cook for 30 min at 350. Can use spaghetti squash noodles as a side to the meat.

Meatza Pizza:

I used ground turnkey, but the original recipe says to use ground beef, and it might work better that way. Anyway, this one came from my mom.

2 lbs ground beef

2 eggs

1/2 tsp garlic powder (and I added some italian seasoning as well)

mix it together, and spread it out on a pizza pan. Cook at 350 for 20-30 min, until meat is cooked, but not dry. It will shrink. Top with pizza sauce, toppings, and cheese, then bake for about 10 min more until cheese is melted. Let it cool, and enjoy!

When I get a chance, I still have a few more meals to make (two salads, and an experimental sandwich, in addition to cooking up the leftover fish I have) So I'll post on those when I get them done :) Happy cooking!

Elimination Diet update

Well, I'm all done with the elimination diet. So far, I have discovered that all grains are out.  (No rice, corn, buckwheat, barley, nothin!) And beef needs to be kept to a minimum. Nightshades are inconclusive, since the only reaction to those would be my knee acting up, and with the working out I do, and the crazy changes in the weather, its hard to gauge that :P. Also, no soy, but regular beans seem to be ok. Keeping away from soy is hard though because soy lecithin is used in almost everything chocolate that is pre-made. (like chocolate chips, and especially candy) And of course, xantham gum and corn starch make an appearance in almost anything pre-made as well. So I guess that means just getting really good at making things from scratch huh? :P well, at least I have a little bit of practice :)

Divergent

**Spoiler alert for those of you that have not yet read the series, but are planning on either reading the books or watching the movie.**


"One Choice can transform you" "One choice can destroy you" "One choice will define you" So read the tag lines of Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy. I picked them up this weekend because I had heard good things about them, the movie for Divergent is coming out soon, and I was looking for a good book :). What I read surpassed my expectations for a young adult series. I expected easy reading, a page turning story line, and general amusement that wouldn't require a lot of thinking on my end. What I got was all of that, except the last part. See, this series starts out like a normal young adult series. There wasn't a whole lot of depth to writing, but the story itself was enjoyable, and I was able to read through it fairly quickly.

Divergent tells the story of Tris, a girl who has grown up in what used to be Chicago. Life is far different now though. Society is based on factions, groups that have been formed so that those who value certain virtues most (Truth, Peace, selflessness, knowledge, and bravery) can give their best to society through the strict application of whatever virtue, and therefore faction, they choose. They make this choice at the age of 16. The main point of the story is to describe Tris's experiences as she goes through the initiation of Dauntless (the faction that values bravery)her chosen faction. At the end of the book, Erudite (the faction that values knowledge) starts a war by controlling the minds of the dauntless and attacking Abnegation (the faction that values selflessness).

Book 2, Insurgent, continues the path of this conflict, and brings us to a shaky resolution because the group that wins the war winds up being just as tyrannical as the group that was killing everyone. However, we do find out that there is a world outside of their city, and the reason that they're all trying to kill each other is because they are afraid of what is outside the fence around their city. At this point, I figured book 3 would focus mostly on getting out of the city and dealing with the tyrant that's running it. Then I read it.

At the start Allegiant, the story moves fairly slowly. The main characters and their friends are on their way out of the city, but that happens fairly early on. From that point forward, the conflict inside the city is more of a side plot than the focus of the story. Veronica Roth takes us into another world entirely; one where people who are deemed "genetically damaged," due to an experiment centuries ago that went wrong, are being mistreated and suppressed by the "genetically pure" (sound familiar anyone?). The reason that the city exists is because the government is trying to fix the "genetic damage" it caused, and is doing so by way of certain experiments. Upon discovery of this, Tris and her friends decide to stop them, resulting in Tris's death.

Now that you have the background, I want to stop and analyze this a bit (told you it gave me more than I bargained for :P)

The story begins with Tris as the narrator. It ends with her boyfriend, Tobias (or Four as he is often called), narrating. I think the point here is to show you that even though Tris is the one who does most of the story telling, it really Four's story. With that in mind, to look at it from the beginning, you can see that Four is really the one who who has the most character development.

Tris starts out as a quiet girl from Abnegation, but quickly shows that she belongs in Dauntless. Once she begins to trust herself, her character doesn't develop a whole lot more. In Insurgent it becomes obvious that she falls apart, because she is dealing with the death of her parents, and being responsible for the death of one of her friends. Four helps to pull her out of that, but only partially. It isn't until she is facing death herself that she is able to realize that life can continue for her. No one helps her to see that but herself.

However, Tris is constantly the one helping Four throughout the story to become a better person. She helps him to face his fears, and at one point is told how much better he is with her, than without her. She challenges him, makes him better. In Allegiant, he learns that Tris is supposedly one of the genetically pure, but contrary to what he thought, he is not. This sends him into a tailspin for a while because the one good thing he thought of himself has now been taken from him. It is Tris who helps him to see otherwise, that the "damage" or "purity" of their genetics doesn't matter, he's still Four, and she still loves him.

When I read about Tris's death, initially I was outraged. How could she die from a bullet, after everything else that she had survived? But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Allegiant is written mostly from an alternating perspective, switching between Tris and Four almost every other chapter. As the story progresses, their voices blend together, and it becomes difficult to remember who is narrating this part of the story. While this might be seen as a negative thing, I think this was done on purpose. Roth wanted to show that Tris and Four were becoming one person. They thought the same, acted the same, and felt the same. Without this alternating perspective, it would have been difficult to determine this. This is one of the reasons that Tris had to die. She and Four were no longer separate entities, sharpening each other. Instead, they had begun to absorb one another. While this might not be a bad thing over all, given their characters, they needed a defining moment to give them the push to become better people. For Tris, it was in death. She was able to be not only re-united with her parents and her friends, but to do so in a way that honored her family, and ultimately, her character. For Four, Tris' death allowed him to see himself as strong, not just with her, but take what she had given him, and be strong without her. Had she not died, his character would not have fully developed.

The other reason for her death, I think, is that her character required a "somewhat" heroic ending. She was the only one who could have carried out the final mission successfully, and her death brought her a justified peace.  For Tris it was better to die in the height of glory, than to live to see herself in decline. For her, life after the end of the war would have been nothing but decline. She would not have had a place in it. Just like Tolkien sends Frodo across the sea with the Elves, Roth gives Tris the most glorious exit possible. She allows her to die the hero.