Paleo

Menu- January 2nd- January 8th


This is my menu plan for the first week of the Whole 30.  I have a calendar for the whole month ready to go but I figured I would give it to you a little at a time.  I followed some basic guidelines when making the menu plan so it would be really easy.  One meal a week is pasta (the family loves it, they don't feel like they are missing out while I'm doing Whole 30 and it is great for the boys lunches).  One meal will be tacos.  Because tacos.  One meal will be soup because its January and I love soup and I especially love leftovers.  At least one meal will be leftovers.  Thursday night I have set aside for fish and baked potatoes.  This is a place holder for more leftovers but if there aren't enough I have fish in my freezer and potatoes in the cabinet.  At least one meal per week will be made in the crock pot.

For non dinner meals I eat a lot of leftovers, nuts, fruit, sliced turkey wrapped around guacomole with a sliced apple (for example), sweet potato hash, and of course lots of soup.

Without further ado, this weeks menu:

Monday: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Sausage (from Against All Grain)
Tuesday:  Beef Tacos (Inspired by these but without the corn.  I do allow for some legumes.  I will make three meals of the beef and freeze two of them.  I will also shred and add carrots to the meat.)
Wednesday:  Spaghetti and Meatballs (Family will have pasta and I will have spaghetti squash.  The sauce and meatballs are homemade.)
Thursday:  Roasted Salmon with Baked Potatoes and Broccoli (if necessary)
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday:  Roasted Turkey with green beans and mashed sweet potatoes (Ukrainian Christmas)
Sunday:  Mexican Turkey Soup (Adapted from Against All Grain)

Maple Pecan Trail Mix


Maple Pecan Trail Mix (Paleo friendly)
This is my favorite basic trail mix recipe.  It makes a ton of trail mix and I freeze most of it and then put some of it in a ball jar to grab as needed.  I've experimented with the dried fruit and nuts.  You can really do whatever it is that you want.  The coconut oil and maple syrup are the real keys.  
Ingredients
  • 4 cups of halved pecans
  • 2 cups of raw almonds
  • 1 cup organic raisins
  • 1 cup golden rains
  • 1 cup dreid cranberries
  • 1 cup organic sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds  (I did a combo of the two)
  • 1/2 cup organic coconut, shredded, unsweetened
  • 1/4 cup of organic coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup organic maple syrup
  • 1 tsp organic vanilla extract
  • 1-2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well to coat maple syrup on dry ingredients.
  3. Line a large baking pan with parchment paper. Parchment paper is a must!
  4. Spread out mixture on parchment paper. Heat in oven for 15-20 min.
  5. Let cool and then store in a dry, airtight container.  (Or freeze for it to last longer.)

(adapted from www.dontmesswithmama.com)

Freezer Fill up- Summer 2014


For about two weeks now we've been eating anything I could put together from leftovers in our freezer and our pantry.  Let's just say there was a lot of tuna fish and breakfast for dinner.  This past weekend the time finally came to fill the freezer.  For me this starts a few days before with a making a list of everything I want in the freezer.  I have a few favorite go to options but this summer I was focusing on two things.

The first was to make the contents of the freezer clean and paleo compliant.  The second was to ensure that everything could be cooked on the grill or stove top in case of really hot weather (kind of like the kind we are having now).  With those parameters in mind I opened a few cook books and had some fun time on Pinterest.  When the list was complete we (the kiddos and I) headed to a few stores, Trader Joes and Costco in particular, to load up on all the necessary elements.  I wanted a balance of poultry, beef and pork.  Enough delay already.

This is what is filling our freezer for the summer:



  • Hamburgers
  • Uncle Kip's Meatballs
  • Steaks
  • Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
  • Chicken and Apple Sausage
In the process of making the food I had big plans to take a lot of photos.  Sadly, that was before I became more focused on ensuring there was no cross contamination.  I like to pretend that this process was a well oiled machine but I have a feeling that the kitchen looked like a bomb exploded.  

What I did do was start the things that required cooking first.  I got the taco meat going and the meatballs in the oven.  I sauteed a ton of onions to use in the recipes.  This time around I made my own BBQ sauce to use for the chicken breasts and to save for future pulled pork and pork ribs.

I cooked, did some flash freezing, and filled bags with meat and marinade.  Total I made about 30 meals that with leftovers will last even long.  The chicken breasts will be a nice treat for some crock potting.  

More recipes and details of the above will be coming...as well as a menu plan for the remainder of he summer.   

Artichoke Chicken

Just the other day I had a craving for chicken and artichokes.  No particularly reason I can think of other than the fact that I had noticed a can of artichokes in our pantry.  I hopped on Pinterest and fortunately there was a recipe ready and waiting.  With a few tweaks I made it a bit more paleo friendly (if you scrape off the cheese) and the best part was it tasted just as good over whole wheat pasta as it did with a side of asparagus.  



Yield: Serves 4 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes 
Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4-5 roma tomatoes
1 can of artichoke harts
a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
a few tablespoons of almond flour
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
Salt and pepper, to taste
mozarella cheese

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Core and chop tomatoes.
  3. Drain artichoke hearts
  4. Please all ingredients in a bowl and toss.  (The flour helps with extra liquid.)
  5. Place the tomato mixture in with the boneless skinless chicken breasts. 

  7. Take the almost done chicken out of the oven and sprinkle mozarella cheese over the top. Place the chicken under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is golden brown and the vegetables are caramelized.



Original recipe courtesy of http://aaronandjillw.blogspot.com/2011/08/italian-chicken.html?m=1






The Hunt for Paleo Pancakes- Part 2

One of my favorite features of Facebook are groups.  You can join a group for just about anything.  Right now I'm in a great challenge group where we are trying to eat paleo, or paleo(ish) to be more precise.  A few exceptions are made to make the menu a little more palatable.  In addition to having people to hold you accountable it is a great place to go for recipes.  Last weeks recipe was courtesy of a fellow group member, as is this one.  With just a few tweaks to match the recipe to what was in my pantry I made another attempt at grain-free pancakes.  




These pancakes turned out to taste very good.  My 2 year old taste tester scarfed one down.  The only tweak I made to the recipe was that I added a little more flour in because the blueberries were a little wet.  That being said this is a solid contender for a good grain free pancake.  The original recipe calls for hazelnut flour which I think would be fantastic.  When I track some down I will definitely try them again.  Before the whole family tries these out they may call for a few more options but this recipe is a solid contender for my go to pancake recipe.




Nut Flour (not just one nut but two) Pancakes

Yield: Serves 4 Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 6 minutes  (each batch)
Total Time: about 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup cashew flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 tbs oil (I used coconut oil)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbs maple syrup or honey (I used honey)

Directions:
1.  In a medium bowl mix together try ingredients.  In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients.   Pour wet mixture in to dry ingredients and mix until no lumps remain.
2. Heat greased pan.  Make 2-3 inch sized pancakes. Cook slow at low heat.  Do not look for bubbles but instead cook for 2-3 minutes per side.  
3. Serve with blueberries.

The Hunt for the best Paleo Pancakes

Reading the grocery flyers this week (I read them every week, but especially when I'm preparing to stock my freezer) I saw the advertisement that I love to see at the beginning of every summer...Blueberries on sale!  In our house we can polish off a pint of blueberries without thinking twice but what we all love are blueberry pancakes.  

This is my first summer following a paleo lifestyle and I refuse to make my family pancakes without enjoying them myself.  Unfortunately the paleo pancakes I have found have been less than impressive.  Hence, then hunt for the best paleo pancakes.  I am determined to find ones that both the family and I love allowing me to partake in a favorite family tradition (Sunday pancakes) and enjoy one of the best things about New Jersey, their blueberries!



The below pancakes were very tasty.  A little thinner than I like and unfortunately because of that I put the blueberries on top rather than inside the pancakes.  The kiddo ate about half the pancake and then stated he didn't like them.  I'm pretty sure he was just bored with them and wanted to each straight blueberries, so I don't trust his opinion.  While, these pancakes provide a great jumping off point but certainly are not going to compete with non-paleo pancakes.  





Coconut Flour Pancakes

Yield: Serves 4 Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 6 minutes  (each batch)
Total Time: about 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
4 eggs 
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

Directions:
1.  In a medium bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda and salt and stir with a fork.  In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients.  Pour wet mixture in to dry ingredients and mix until no lumps remain.

2. Heat greased pan.  Make 2-3 inch sized pancakes.  Keep enough space between the pancakes to ensure they do not run together.  Cook the pancakes for 2-3 minutes or until they are bubbling.  Flip pancakes and cook for another 2 minutes.   

3. Serve with blueberries, blueberry sauce or almond butter.  (We did almond butter and chopped blueberries).

Breakfast on the go: Egg muffins

Breakfast is the best.  It is absolutely my favorite meal, well other than brunch.  But of course part of the joy of brunch is that you can eat breakfast...and steak...and shrimp.  My breakfast used to be a variety of easy go to foods.  Granola with yogurt and fruit.  Oatmeal.  Peanut butter on a multi-grain waffle.  All of these are tasty and healthy breakfast options.  These days however, I am eating paleo.  That means no granola (unless I make it special.  Stay tuned for a post on that).  No yogurt.  Frankly, no to everything I previously ate for breakfast.  

 My breakfast is currently eggs, meat and veggies.  I must say I love it.  I feel filled up and don't get hungry and even better I feel like I am indulging by having bacon.  The only problem with this plan is that each morning I am making breakfast while trying to get out the door with bottles, lunches and babies in tow.  Thus I am usually scarfing down my breakfast in a quick, unhealthy amount of time.  

 I've known of the existence of egg muffins for awhile now and way back when I've even made them, but not recently and not with cheese.  Despite my reservations it was time to bite the bullet and finally make breakfast easier, so more time could be spent playing with the kiddos before work and not frying eggs.  What was going into my first egg muffins?  What I had in the refrigerator of course (A common theme when I make my own recipes).  Kale and Trader Joe's Maple Chicken Sausage.  Easy, tasty, filling and now my breakfast is ready to go for the rest of the week.






Kale and Sausage Egg Muffins

Yield: Serves 4 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes 
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

One Package Chicken Sausage (could use turkey if you like)
8 whole eggs 
1 bunch of Kale
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut sausage into 1/2 inch pieces.  In a medium skillet, brown the  sausage pieces on medium-high heat. Cook until sausage is brown all the way through. Chop kale and toss in the skillet until it is cooked.  Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. 

3. Grease 8 muffin tin cups with cooking spray or line cups with paper liners.   Distribute kale/sausage mixture into the muffin cups.  Pour egg mixture evenly into the muffin cups.

4. Bake egg muffins for 20 minutes, or until the muffins are firm in the center. Remove from oven and gently go round each egg with a butter knife. Serve warm.

Great news!  You can store the egg muffins in the fridge for 3-4 days and reheat them in the microwave.