Potato-less Potato Salad

Ingredients

• 2 heads of cauliflower
• 1/2 dozen eggs, hard-boiled and diced
• 1/2 a medium sized red onion or green onion, finely diced
• 5 celery stalks, finely diced
• Baby dill pickles, diced
• 2 Tablespoon or more of whole grain mustard ( Honestly I prob used 4 TB or more)
• About 3/4 or less  cup of Paleo Mayo
• Handful of chopped FRESH dill

Paleo Mayo

• 1 whole egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1  1/2 cups of pure olive oil or walnut oil
• 1 to 2 tablespoons melted bacon grease

 

 

 

Directions Mayo

In a blender, add the eggs, lemon juice, and mustard and blend together well – leave the

blender running and slowly drizzle the oil. Do not dump all the oil in quickly and give up.

When the mixture begins to emulsify or thicken, only then can you be a bit faster about

pouring in the olive oil but still take your time. Turn the blender off once all the olive oil is

in and the mayonnaise is thickened. Add the salt and pepper and mix well or blend again for another few seconds.

 

Directions for Paleo Potato Salad

You can steam or boil your cauliflower, I just boiled mine. You want the cauliflower to be soft but not mushy. Drain the cauliflower well and pat dry with paper towels. Crumble the cauliflower into a large mixing bowl, add all of the remaining ingredients including the mayo and mustard, mix well. Either eat right away or let chill for a couple of hours before serving!

Apple, Currants and Sunflower Seed Kale Salad

I love kale! I'm always trying to find new ways to incorporate kale into my diet. Kale is pumped with phytochemicals and antioxidants. 

Kale has a higher level of antioxidants than spinach.  These antioxidants along with many other benefits can prevent or slow the oxidative damage of our body.  They enhance the immune system and slow down the aging process.

Kale is also high in sulfur another cancer-fighting compound. When Kale is chopped, cooked or chewed, sulforaphane is formed from the sulfur. Sulforaphane helps the liver to stimulate detoxification and remove free radicals. 

 I had been running into the idea of Sulforaphane a lot lately and how it is beneficial in the fight against breast cancer.   Given its breast cancer awareness month - read this article!  That's my tip for the day-healing foods!


 
But this is a recipe that my aunt lisa always makes. It's freaking goood! Probably one of my top fav Kale recipes. 



The texture of kale is sometimes hard to get use to.  So another way to prepare kale is to massage it with salt. Salt draws moisture out of things, and salt alone is enough to soften the toughest of raw kale leaves. By massaging the kale with the salt it renders a softened texture which is easier to chew. Be sure to only use the 1 tsp of salt I wouldn't recommend much more than that. 

Ingredients

• 2 bunches of kale
• 1 small red onion diced
• 1 small light red apple diced
• 1/3 + cup currants
• 1/3 + cup sunflower seeds
• small package of Raw Gorgonzola Cheese- broken into chunks - The raw Gorgonzola I found at whole foods is pretty salty tasting- I ended up going with an organic Gorgonzola instead bc this salad is already salty
• 2 tablespoons apple cider viniger
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp of salt

Directions

De-stem kale by pulling leaves away from the stems. Wash leaves, spin or pat dry. Slice kale  into ribbons. Put kale in a large mixing bowl and add salt. Massage salt into kale with your hands for 2 minutes.

To toast sunflower seeds, put in a dry skillet over low to medium heat and stir constantly for a few minutes until they change color and give off a nutty aroma.

Stir onion, currants, apple and toasted seeds into kale. Dress with oil and vinegar and add the Gorgonzola. Taste for salt and vinegar, adding more if necessary.  This salad will keep for several days and still be great! 

Salmon With Charmoula Sauce

I was lucky enough to experiment with this sauce at my aunts house in Minnesota.
She has a beautiful kitchen. Definitely one of those kitchens that tends to bring
the whole family together. We made this new sauce and topped it on grilled
chicken and grilled salmon.
Charmoula sauce is cilantro and parsley based. The color is not the most appetizing
but I thought it was incredible tasting. I love cilantro, garlic and lemon so the combo of
these is fresh alive and tart. I really encourage this recipe!

I literally made this in 15 minutes. I packaged my salmon up in parchment tossed the ingredients in my crappy blender and just barely cooked my salmon....  I love it super flaky!

Charmoula Sauce

• 4 cloves garlic
• ½ cup cilantro or more
• ½ cup parsley (Italian) leaves
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (no store bought!)
• 1 ½ teaspoon paprika
• ¾ teaspoon cumin( i used more-so 1/2tsp)
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne
• ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil

With the motor of a food processor or food blender running, drop in the cloves one
at a time till minced. Then add the cilantro, parsley, lemon juice paprika,
cumin and cayenne till pureed then slowly add the olive oil.

   I would recommend waiting on adding salt till the end. And I would recommend adding more of these ingredients to create a larger batch.  

You might need to play around with the result. If you dont like it as tart then add less lemon juice and more oil and cilantro/parsley.  If you need more garlic or spice....... just slowly keep adding more to it till you find your happy place. 

 Marinate the fish with EVOO salt n pepper, and garlic and lemon.



Preheat oven to 400. Salt n pepper the salmon and place in parchment paper. I added lemon and EVOO then pulled up all 4 sides to make a pocket... this will make the steaming effect.   I cooked mine for maybe 12 minutes. The recommended amount is 20 or so minutes.

If you have any left overs of the charmoula sauce SAVE IT! It's awesome on thick avocado chunks. 

 

  

Honey Tamarind Orange Chicken

 

This recipe was fun for me because I was able to work with two different ingredients that
I have never used before. I used a tamarind paste and coconut palm sugar.

The other day while aimlessly walking through whole foods and stealing chocolate covered
raisins, I ran across coconut palm sugar. After reviewing a few cites on it I thought I
would try and incorporate it into a few recipes.

What I found with coconut palm sugar is that coconut PALM sugar, is not from the actual
coconut. It is simply the coconut palm sap (nectar) from the coconut palm flowers, boiled,
dried, and pulverized into granules. It's not processed other than boiling and drying.
Coconut palm sugar seems to be similar to maple sugar, which is simply boiled, dried and
granulated maple syrup.

Tamarind is the fruit of a tropical evergreen tree.  It produces pods filled with dark brown,
seed-laced, bittersweet pulp. It is the pulp that is consumed. The pulp is very tangy and
very sweet. Even though this is apart of the legume family – I theorize that a caveman
would have noticed a tree filled with sweet nectar pods and probably would have really
enjoyed it!  But it is a legume so it technically isn’t paleo.

This recipe came from an episode I saw on FoodNetwork...with a few changes to make it more Paleo.   It reminded me of a modern tangy Caribbean BBQ sauce.  I find that I am not a fan of that many Paleo BBQ sauces..... So if your wanting something different and taste bud challenging... try it out!

But if I had to make this again I would have chose using wing style chicken or a basic chicken breast... my pieces of chicken were too big and it annoyed me.  

Ingredients

• Chicken Wings/choice of chicken cut
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup Coconut Palm Sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground allspice 
• 2 teaspoons ground chile
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

Honey-Tamarind  Sauce

• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup clover honey
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup tamarind concentrate
• 1-inch of smaller piece ginger, thinly sliced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar( optional)

Directions

For the jerk chicken wings- Brush the chicken with canola oil. Combine the sugar,
allspice, Chile, black pepper and salt. Generously coat the chicken with the spice mix.
Heat the grill to medium heat. Place the chicken on the grill over medium
heat, and cook until golden browned and crisp, about 5 minutes. Cover the grill. Grill until
the chicken is brown and crisp and just cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from
grill and place the chicken in a large bowl.

Meanwhile, for the honey-tamarind sauce- Combine 1/2 cup water, the orange juice,
honey, ketchup, tamarind and ginger in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the
heat to medium and cook until slightly thick, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and
remove and discard the ginger. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk in the vinegar. Keep
warm.

Add the honey-tamarind sauce to the bowl of chicken and toss to coat. Sprinkle
with salt and transfer to a platter.

Stuffed Almond Butter Banana and Cacao Butter French Paleo Toast

Yummmmmy!!  This is one of my fat-kid recipes turned paleo.   I use to always make a french toast stuffed with peanut butter and bananas.   So I tried making it paleo. I was really happy with the results. And I made my first batch of paleo almond bread and it was a success! If you do use this recipe I would recommend doubling the amounts as well as trying to cut the bread slices thin.  Mine were too thick when I made the french toast.  

I also used Artisana's cacao butter on a few samples.  BOMB stuff. Kind of hard to spread though but it did add just the right amount of chocolate to the stuffed french toast.

Ingredients

       Paleo Almond Bread

 1 cup Almond flour

 1  1/3 cup Almond butter

3 TB Olive oil

3 Eggs

1 cap full of Almond extract

 3/4 tsp Baking soda

   Stuffed French Toast

 Almond Butter- Which ever flavor

1 egg

Orange juice

Left over coffee

Cacao butter

Bananas

Tri-Berries organic frozen

Directions

         Paleo Almond Bread

 

 Combine all ingredients. Make sure to stir for a smooth consistency. Depending on the type of almond butter you might need to add a bit of water to just even it out.  You will want the consistency to be a little bit thicker that a pancake mix.  When I made this it wasn't nearly enough so I would recommend doubling the size.  Bake in oven at 350 for 30 minutes. 

 

 

        Stuffed Almond Butter, Banana and Cacao Butter French Toast

Slice almond bread into sandwich  size portions. Spread almond butter and Cacao butter on one side of the bread. On the other side add sliced bananas.   Combine both sides to make a sandwich.

 

Combine an egg with lil bit of orange juice and a splash coffee. Stir mixture and then place the french toast into the mixture and let soak for 30 seconds or until soggy.  

 

Over medium heat place french toast in pan and cook until golden brown. 

 

At this point I wanted to make it rain with powdered sugar... but I restrained and decided to top with a some berries.  

 

 

I bough a bag of organic frozen tri-berries and heated on top of the stove till they were just barely cooked down.  Top the stuffed french toast with the berries and serve!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cherry Tomato Zucchini Pasta

This is one of my favorite dishes to make!  A few years ago I remember watching a Rachel Rae episode where she made this quick, sweet pasta sauce from cherry tomatoes and just a few ingredients.  I love a quick pasta sauce recipe! It’s key though to use fresh cherry tomatoes because they are much sweeter than a regular tomato.  Trying to find a store bought paleo-ish pasta sauce is hard to find and I get tired of the same old heavy pasta sauce.  This sauce is great because it's very light but full of flavor. 

 

Even though Rachel Ray sways from the paleo lieftyle she holds a special place in my heart. As silly as it souns Rachel Ray was a huge influence in my love for cooking. She is a bit rough around the edges but very easy to relate to. In high school I would always watch her show and recreate her girl-on-the-run recipes.

 

Ingredients

·         1-2 cups of cherry tomatoes

·         2-3 garlic cloves, minced

·         ½-1 tablespoons of red pepper flakes

·         1 very large zucchini

·         2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

·         Fresh basil

·         Spicy Chicken Sausage

 

Directions

I first began by cooking the chicken sausage until fully cooked.  I used that same pan afterwards with the left over goodness from the chicken sausage and dumped in the cherry tomatoes whole.  I let them soften for a few minutes with the red pepper flakes and olive oil.  I used about a tablespoon which is pretty spicy! 

After tomatoes have softened take a potato masher and lightly mash the tomatoes. Keep in mind to keep them intact. Simmer tomatoes with the minced garlic until flavors combine and tomatoes are mushy and sweet.

 

Meantime, I used a julienne slicer to quickly slice through my zucchini.  I like having long strips of the zucchini.  Toss the zucchini strips in with the sauce and simmer for just a few minutes.  Return chicken sausage back to pan, stir, top with basil and serve!