Baked Smoothie

I recently followed an interesting online conversation regarding the tagging of recipes as Whole30. In many cases, recipes that contain non-compliant ingredients were incorrectly tagged as Whole30. Duh... they shouldn't be. However, the more controversial recipes were those than contained all compliant ingredients but did not necessarily meet the intent of the Whole30 program.

This is where my interest in the conversation suddenly increased.

When my daughters and I complete a Whole30, our intent is to spend 30 days ridding our bodies of toxins and eating the best we can by eliminating all the "illegal" foods prohibited during this program. My kids are 9 and 10. The promise of better health is not quite good enough motivation for them to want to eat this way. So my challenge, as mom and head chef of our household, is to entice them so that they want to adhere. Show them that I can take some of their old favorite dishes and turn them into Whole30 compliant dishes and usually, make them taste even better than before. I'm not talking paleo-ized mac-n-cheese and fried chicken. But do I look at recipes I've been making for years and seriously consider how I can improve them in a way that makes them healthy to eat? Heck yeah! And I don't feel I'm straying from the spirit of Whole30 by doing so.

So I apologize if I'm one of "them"... one of the people who has been tagging recipes as Whole30 that don't meet the intent of the program. I thought I've always made good judgement of what is or isn't. But maybe my perception of the program differs from what it is meant to be. I'm sorry and I will try to be more conservative in the future.

Like now... (tempted as I am, I will forego the Whole30 tag)

My daughter came home from school one day last week and proudly relayed to me how she turned down cupcakes being passed out for a friend's birthday. This is my sweet-tooth kid and I know the willpower it took for her to say no. A LOT. And so when she ended that story by asking if we could make a treat over the weekend, I gladly agreed.

I've seen many "cake in a cup" recipes and at some point realized they look suspiciously similar to our favorite PB Cup Smoothie. So here's my take on it... They're delicious and contain only Whole30 compliant ingredients.

Makes 9 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond butter
• 2-3 T 100% pure cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add all ingredients to a blender and mix until smooth.
3. Grease cupcake pan or fill with liners.
4. Divide batter evenly to make 9 cupcakes. Tins should be about 2/3 full.
5. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. Serve immediately.

Italian Wedding Soup

I have two tweens. And we have been striving for a paleo lifestyle after many years of eating grain-ful, but otherwise generally healthy meals. I think one of the keys to keeping the girls "on board" with paleo is our ability to re-create past family favorites within this new paradigm. Today's challenge was to paleo-ize a commonly requested cold-weather Saturday lunch: canned Italian Wedding Soup. The girls have asked me to attempt this before but they couldn't decide on a replacement for the orzo or couscous usually found in this soup. I suggested we try veggies cut into tiny pieces and cooked al-dente and by some miracle, they agreed! I let the girls pick which veggies to try and they decided on carrots and zucchini. I julienned them with a mandolin slicer then further cut them into tiny orzo-sized pieces. We added the veggies at the last moment so they would maintain some of their texture and resemble a grain. This soup was an instant hit!

 

Serves 4-6

Meatball Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 T dried Italian seasoning
• 8 ounces ground beef
• 8 ounces ground pork
• salt and pepper 

Soup Ingredients:

• 10 cups homemade chicken stock or paleo-friendly chicken broth
• 1 egg
• 1 cup spinach, chopped
• 1/2 cup carrot, julienned and cut into tiny pieces*
• 1/2 cup zucchini, julienned and cut into tiny pieces*

*I use a mandolin slicer to julienne the veggies into thin matchsticks.

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix the meatball ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
2. Use a spoon to scoop the meat mixture and roll into small 1-inch balls. Set the meatballs aside.
3. Pour stock/broth into a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Add the meatballs, one at a time, and simmer for 10 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.
5. Beat the egg in a small bowl and pour very slowly into the soup.
6. Reduce heat and add the spinach. Simmer for a few minutes.
7. Add the carrot and zucchini and serve immediately.

Egg Masala and Tuna Curry

It's the day after Easter and I have this in my fridge:

We could have spent the next week or so having crazy-faced, hard-boiled eggs in our lunches... but I'm not that much of a hard-boiled egg fan to begin with. So instead of prolonging their life, I went about making a list of recipes where I could get rid of all the eggs in one go. My very uninspiring list consisted of egg salad. Not exactly what I was hoping for. Then I recalled that years ago, I came across an Indian curry calling for hard-boiled eggs. I have to admit my first reaction to seeing that was "why in the world would I waste a perfectly good curry sauce with eggs?" But over the years, the recipe has caught my attention more than once. That curiosity combined with the dozen plus eggs smiling at me from the fridge finally caused me to take action and give it a try. Fearing a big thumbs down from everyone in the family, I made a backup dish to accompany it: our favorite tuna curry, which I usually serve over a cabbage salad.

The results? Pretty amazing. Not only did the girls gobble it down and beg for more, I surprised myself by going back for seconds! And... it was divine with the tuna! I will be adding this to my list of school night "quick fixes", for sure!

Serves 4

Egg Masala Ingredients:

• 2 T coconut oil
• 1 cup onion, finely chopped
• 2-inch piece ginger, finely chopped
• 3 cups tomato sauce
• 4 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp hot curry powder
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 T cilantro, finely chopped
• 8 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half

Egg Masala Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. 
2. Add onion and ginger and fry until onion begins to carmelize. 
3. Stir in tomato sauce, spices, and lemon juice and simmer for 10 minutes. Add a little water if the sauce becomes too thick.
4. Stir in cilantro. 
5. Gently place eggs in the pan and spoon sauce over top. Heat until eggs are warmed through.

Tuna Curry Ingredients:

• 2 T coconut oil
• 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1-inch piece ginger, finely chopped
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
• 3 small cans tuna, drained
• 2 T curry powder
• 1 T cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Tuna Curry Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. 
2. Add onion, garlic, ginger, and jalapeno pepper and fry until onion begins to carmelize.
3. Stir in tuna, curry powder, and cilantro and cook until tuna is hot. 
4. Squirt with lemon juice and serve immediately.

*Both these gorgeous dishes are inspired by recipes in cookbooks from Madhur Jaffrey.

Onion Ring Brekkie

Who says you can't eat onion rings for breakfast??? This meal (which could be one of the best breakfasts I've ever made) was inspired by a photo my spouse found online a couple weeks ago: an egg cooked inside a thick slice of red bell pepper. This morning, shortly after I accidentally volunteered to make brunch without a single preconceived idea, this popped to mind. I'm sure making this with a bell pepper would have been tasty. But I'm a huge fan of sweet, carmelized onion and I'm positive that ingredient alone catapulted this into the "fantastic" category!

Ingredients:

• 1 T coconut oil
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced into rings about 3/4-inch thick
• 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped (use the small, leftover inner rings from above)
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup asparagus, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded (optional)
• 1 avocado (optional)
• lime juice (optional)
• hot sauce (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large, deep skillet.
2. Break the onion rings apart so you have 4 good rings. I found that keeping the rings 2 layers deep made the walls more stable once the onion cooked. Fry onions until they begin to carmelize on the edges. Flip over as needed.
3. From here out, do not lift or flip the onion rings. Divide the chopped onion, pepper, and asparagus into fourths and place in each ring. Reduce heat to medium and fry a few minutes, until the veggies soften.
4. Carefully crack and pour one egg into each ring. Cook over medium heat until eggs set and reach desired doneness.
5. If using cheese, sprinkle over eggs and allow it to melt.
6. If using avocado, scoop into a bowl and mash with a few squirts of lime juice.
7. Remove eggy onion rings from skillet and serve with avocado. Top with a dash of paleo-friendly hot sauce. I served these with a slice of bacon.



Scotch Eggs

I have no idea what reminded me of these. I had one a dozen or so years ago when I was in England... But WOW-- how perfect for paleo? Well, minus the breadcrumb crust. So, in my experimentation I fried them without any coating, and then the last few I did roll in egg then some gluten-free crumbs. I liked the crumb coating, and considering a few tablespoons of gluten free crumbs was it for the day it was well within the 80/10 guideline I try to follow. I also tried deep frying only, versus a few minutes of deep frying followed by about 8-10 minutes in a medium oven. These could easily be baked in oven without any deep-frying, or made into a meat loaf... but having the meaty grenade shape is fun and makes them super easy to grab on the go or stuff in your lunch bag. They're good hot with a salad, or just as good -if not better- cold the net day.

Scotch Eggs

6 boiled eggs, peeled and set aside.

1 medium onion

2 cloves of garlic

S&P

(any and/or all of the following)

1 or more fresh chili pepper - with or without seeds, your choice.

1/2 red pepper... (I did this for the kids, then added the hot chili and spices after I made theirs.)

fresh or dried herbs... at least 2-3 Tablespoons total fresh, or at least 2-3 teaspoons total of dried. I used dried sage, mixed italian herb blend, red pepper flakes, and cayenne.

1 raw egg

1 pound ground meat--- beef or pork (or emu, lamb, deer...doesn't really matter.)

**even easier - do you have a paleo sausage you love? Use a pound of that - or any sausage recipe you like**

1. Peel the onion and garlic and toss in the food processor with the S&P, and herbs and spices. Whirl until the onion and garlic are pretty small chunks...

2. Add the ground meat and egg and process until pretty smooth - this makes it easier to form around the egg and it stays together in the deep fryer.

3. Divide the mixture into 6 portions. (approx 1/2 cup each.)

4. Flatten one portion of meat out in your hand, and place 1 hard boiled egg in the middle...carefully form the meat around the egg making sure to seal all seams. Set aside and repeat with the next 5 eggs.

If you like - at this point you can either dust them with some gluten free flour, or roll in a beaten egg followed by anything you've used for a paleo breading . (almond meal, ground pork rinds) Or not!

5. Heat oil in a deep fryer and deep fry one at a time approx 5-6 minutes. OR Fry them like meatballs in a shallow pan until browned completely all around and pop them in a medium oven for 10 minutes or so to finish... or really, any way you'd like to cook them works. You may have to experiment. The first one I deep fried with no coating for 8-9 minutes. Recipes I found on the web said to deep fry them for 10 minutes but that was too long, and the oil was about 325 - 350F. The best ones I made were deep fried for about 2 minutes @ 350F, then finished in a 350 oven for not quite 10 minutes...and they were even better for breakfast the next day.

Jet-Lag Special

I've gotten really good with short-cuts while cooking since having kids, but this morning I woke up at 3:30 am so I had a little extra time to do things right. Today's cooking goal? To make beef stock. Usually I just use raw soup bones I get from the grass-fed beef vendor at our market, and whatever veggies I can find in the fridge. This morning I decided to roast the bones first. It really makes for a good stock, and as a bonus-if you line your tray with foil and turn up the edges, you can save all the awesome fat that renders from the marrow. Most of that I saved for future use, but I took a few teaspoons of it, fried a julienned purple carrot in it, and ended up with a super yummy "hash." Add a fried egg on top, and viola!

The picture didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but it sure was delish. I would absolutely add some onion next time, but I haven't re-stocked the refrigerator yet and didn't have any.

Purple Carrot Hash

1 carrot per person

(I know this will be even better next time with onion)

marrow fat! or whatever fat you like

S&P to taste

1 or 2 eggs per person

Julienne, slice, or dice your veggies

Fry in the marrow or other fat until soft and starting to crisp up.

Move hash to plates and use the same pan to fry eggs to your liking.

Serve egg over the hash with S&P. Who needs potatoes anyway?

Polish Sałatka (Polish Potato Salad - Paleo Style)

Another day another cook-out. I used to love potato salad, so imagine my delight when searching polish food recipes to stumble across "sałatka." Its potato salad, and so much more...so of course to make it paleo I made it so much less (-potatoes, sugar, and non-paleo dressings) and a new fav was born!

Polish Sałatka (the "ł" is like our "w." - but you can just call it yummy!)

1 large rutabega or a few small ones

1 parsnip

1 celery root

1 turnip

2 carrots

2-3 celery stalks

2-3 polish dill pickles

(any other veggie you have on hand and like(d) in potato salad - green or red peppers?)

2 hard boiled eggs, cut into bite-sized pieces

Mayo - probably homemade or any that is actually paleo

mustard

S&P

What to do??

Peel and cut all veggies to bite size. (I diced the non-boiled veggies smaller - my personal preference.) The ones in the first group (rutabegas, parsnips, celery root) you want to boil until tender.

The veggies in the second group (carrot, turnip) you could boil, but I hate mushy turnips, so I quickly blanched these.

The veggies in the last group (celery, pickles) leave raw.

Dump it all in a big bowl, and dress with as much paleo mayo you like. Add a little mustard and S&P to taste, and voila! A paleo potato salad everyone will love!

Sassy Green Devils

This recipe is one you've seen all over, just search "paleo" + "deviled eggs." Yes, you can make regular deviled eggs paleo if you make your own mayo, but I had neither the time or the equipment. I also have made these before and think I actually prefer them to the old version. There are many, many versions of this recipe all over the internet, but I'm giving credit to and linking to this site because Jessica called them green devils, which I just like... and I love her recipe exactly as is. BUT, I also like more of a kick, so I added lime juice the second time I made them, and then a chopped up jalapeno the third... I think I now have the best possible combination....and they are fantastic! Enjoy!

Sassy Green Devils

• 6 hard boiled eggs
• 1 avocado
• handful cilantro, chopped
• juice of one lime
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• S&P

Cut eggs in half, remove yolks, set whites aside. Take the yolks and smush them up with the remaining ingredients. Scoop the filling back into the egg white halves. You can garnish with paprika or cayenne if you like...but while a regular deviled egg really needs the sprinkle of red to spruce it up, the little green guys are fine on their own.