Chili Honey Mustard Dressing

Today I had the great luck to be visited for lunch by a friend who works near our house. I have fun cooking for her and anticipating the pleasure of midday conversation with another adult.

Today's lunch was roast chicken drumsticks, baked potatoes, and a salad. I needed a dressing, and then remembered that I just happened to have an egg I had cracked open earlier that had come to room temperature. Serendipitous, no? Thus came together a tangy honey mustard dressing with just a hint of heat to liven things up.

Note: There are a lot of chili oils out there that are mostly or all soybean or canola oil. Instead, read labels carefully and try to find 100% olive oils that are chili infused. I found mine used in this recipe at my local Bloom grocery store.

Chili Honey Mustard Dressing
Dresses one large family style salad


Ingredients:
1 egg, at room temperature
2 tablespoons chili-infused olive oil, also room temperature
    --> If you don't have this you could instead do 2 T. room temp olive oil with 1 t. chili powder.
1/2 oil-soaked chili pepper
    --> These came in the olive oil I had on hand, I used half of one that was pinkie finger sized.
          You could otherwise probably use 1/2 of a small fresh chili pepper.
1.5 tablespoons plain yellow mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon tamari (I used San-J, but you could also sub coconut aminos)
2 dashes fish sauce (I used Red Boat)
2 dashes hot sauce (I used Tabasco)
1/2 large very ripe pear, or 3 sugar pears
    --> Sugar pears are the mini pears you'll be seeing in the lunches this week...I found them randomly at Sam's Club.

Directions:
Blend all ingredients thoroughly, and dress salad immediately before serving. Enjoy!

 

Chocolate Mousse Topped with Sliced Almonds and Cacao Nibs

I first saw the idea of combining cocoa powder and avocado in Girl Gone Primal's Choc Avocado Mousse. I'd made variations on it a few times since then. It had been a while since I'd given it another go, but this time it turned out especially tasty. My preschooler loved it packed in her lunchbox, and I'll admit that I very much enjoyed the rest for breakfast! :)

There are some great reasons to give this simple desserty dish a go:

• You don't need to worry about avocados oxidizing and turning the dish an unappetizing shade of brown - the cocoa powder already makes it a rich chocolatey brown from the get-go! Thus it is great for making ahead, even for packed lunches.
  
• Overripe avocados - which might otherwise be tossed - are perfect for this purpose - the especially soft, ripe ones make the lightest, fluffiest mousse.
  
• You get a good dose of fat and antioxidants, with a little sweetness. Adjust the sweetness by adding or subtracting honey according to your dietary requirements and taste!

Chocolacado Mousse
Serves 2 generously

Ingredients
2 avocadoes, very ripe
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions
Combine ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend thoroughly. Serve topped with sliced almonds and organic unsweetened cacao nibs, or the nuts and fruit of your choice.


~

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Shopping Amazon through Primal Kitchen affiliate links supports Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you, so thank you!!

Gluten Free Grain Free Soul Cakes

This post is also a part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.

Back in the day, it was a Catholic tradition for soulers to come calling to households, offering to say prayers for the dead in honor of All Saints' Day - and their reward came in the form of small round cakes, called soul cakes, which were often baked with raisins, currants, or other dried fruits, frequently with the shape of a cross as a way of signifying that the cakes were a kind of alms. It was an Ur-trick-or-treating.

I identify as a mixed-bag flavor of Protestant, but that doesn't stop me from loving the idea of baking up some commemorative tea cakes around Halloween and All Saints' Day, which we could enjoy while reflecting on the lives of those loved ones we'd lost in the last year.

These paleo-fied soul cakes have a hearty coconut flour shortbread, and a bittersweet chocolate base with cranberries, cacao nibs, and sliced almonds. A single cake is very rich. I chose bittersweet chocolate to signify the bittersweetness that comes with remembering loved ones gone - but you could chose a sweeter chocolate depending on the tastes of your crowd.

I have a palate that appreciates rich but not sweet desserts - thus I enjoy that the shortbread itself is not super sweet, but is still offset by the sweeter trail mixy chocolate base. You could sweeten the shortbread additionally to taste with palm sugar, honey, or maple syrup to taste if you prefer sweeter treats. These would go very well with a cup or raw milk, or coffee, or tea.

The basic coconut flour shortbread is adapted from Eat the Cookie's version.

Grain Free Gluten Free Soul Cakes
Makes 12-18 cakes, depending on thickness

Ingredients (shortbread):
1 3/4 cups sifted coconut flour (If you don't have a sifter you can gently spoon/shake the flour into the measuring cup)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup room temperature butter (for dairy-free you could sub coconut oil here, making a total of 3/4 c. coconut oil)
1/4 cup soft coconut oil
1/2 cup palm sugar (or other natural sweetener of choice; add more if you'd like your cakes sweeter)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 tablespoon cacao nibs

Note: You can adapt this with whatever trail mixy-items of dried fruit and nuts that you happen to have around.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Using a spray olive oil (or softened butter or coconut oil), lightly grease silicone baking cups. (I used round silicone muffin cups, like the ones available here, and also the Wilton pumpkin / leaf silicone cups, available here.)

Combine the flour, the salt, and the baking soda thoroughly in one small bowl - if necessary, use your fingertips to crush any clumps of coconut flour. In a separate larger bowl, cream the butter, coconut oil, and palm sugar together - and then mix in the eggs one at a time, followed by the apple cider vinegar and the vanilla extract. Add the dry flour mix to the wet mix and combine thoroughly.

Press the dough into the greased silicone cups at desired thickness. Press a few slivers of almond and cacao nibs into the dough. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Once you pull the cups out of the oven, warm:

1 tbsp. butter (you could sub coconut oil)
1 tbps. heavy cream (you could sub coconut cream concentrate)
1 standard size bag bittersweet chocolate chips (go for quality)

...for 2 minutes and half power in the microwave. (You can also melt everything in a double boiler, though that may take a while longer.) Mix the ingredients with a spoon until the chocolate melts into a smooth ganache, and spread the chocolate over the shortbread in the silicone cups. Press some dried cranberries into the ganache.

Allow the shortbread and chocolate to cool.

]

Gently push the silicone cups from the bottom to release the shortbreads from the cups. Put the shortbreads chocolate/cranberry-side down on a clean paper towel or wax paper.

If desired, use the melted bittersweet chocolate to also decorate the tops of the cakes. One of my little tricks for drawing in melted chocolate is to use a sanitized medicine dropper - I find it affords a lot more fine motor control than would a traditional frosting decor bag and screw-on tip.

Here, I drew a cross shape in the chocolate and added cranberries on the top of the round cakes. For the pumpkin and leaf cakes I traced the lines.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Shopping Amazon through Primal Kitchen affiliate links supports Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you, so thank you!!

Paleo Comfort Foods - A Slam Dunk Gluten Free Taste Extravaganza

When Charles and Julie Mayfield's Paleo Comfort Foods arrived on our doorstep a couple of weeks ago, I practically ate the book on the spot. This paleo power couple has gained quite the reputation for their Southern recipes done paleo-style, and the detailed descriptions and accompanying pictures in Paleo Comfort Foods certainly live up to that reputation.

So far, we have tried and loved three recipes from Paleo Comfort Foods: Spicy Chicken Wings (page 52), Grilled Veggies (page 168), and Oven-Roasted Broccoli (page 208) - all pictured below as we made them.

The Paleo Comfort Foods' hot wing sauce,
applied to chicken tenderloin cutlets. Perfectly spicy!

Paleo Comfort Foods' grilled veggies - delicious simplicity.

Grilled veggies as we served them. YUM.

The Recipes

Paleo Comfort Foods' recipes are generally simple, with easy to read instructions. What I really appreciate is the authors' extra notes about possible substitutions or other twists to add to the recipe - this expands the possibilities for each recipe two or three times. These usually fall in the categories of variation, ingredients, and tips & tricks.

There are detailed notes on flavor pairings, including possibilities for those of use who "do dairy", as well.

The Core Strength

I can say without reservation that this is the best lineup of adaptations of neolithic recipes that I've ever seen. In Paleo Comfort Foods you will find delicious-looking, healthy recipes for typically unhealthier classics like mayonnaise (normally manufactured with industrially extracted soybean and canola oils, but not in this cookbook!), deviled eggs, crab cakes, muffins, chipotle dipping sauce, "not peanut" sauce, barbecue sauce, biscuits, coconut flour tortillas, pancakes, bread, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, grits, sweet potato casserole, lemon squares, and much, much more.

What Ingredients You'll Wish Were On Hand

There are a few ingredients that continuously pop up through Paleo Comfort Foods which are (I'm guessing) probably staples in the Mayfields' pantry. Among them are:

• Coconut flour
• Almond flour
• Celery seed
• Tabasco sauce
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Worchestershire sauce (The Mayfields recommend Lea & Perrins' reduced sodium sauce)
• Cumin
• Thyme
• Tarragon
• Paprika
• Coconut oil
• Coconut milk
• Fresh garlic

By now, my pantry usually has all or most of these, but that wasn't always the case and may not be for others new to paleo who are cracking open this book. My recommendation is to figure out which recipes you'd like to try first, and then tackle them one at a time, going slowly with the pantry additions acquisition. I know first-hand from experience (last summer!) how quickly the temptation to stock a paleo-friendly pantry can result in an unexpectedly massive food bill.

The Photos

Paleo Comfort Foods is lushly photographed, with mouthwatering presentation on every single page. It's for this reason that I could see Paleo Comfort Foods as being a great "intro to paleo" gift for the cooking enthusiasts in one's life; the pictures are so lusciously compelling that you can't flip through the book and not mentally dog-ear some selections to try making soon.

The Selection

Garlic roasted broccoli.

This is one huge book - it is about the size of a standard college softback workbook. There are roughly 150 (probably much more) full color recipes, and a nice array of categories: Starters and Snacks, Soups and Salads, Sauces and Staples, On the Side, Main Dishes, and Desserts -- in other words, enough delicious options to constitute many, many satisfying paleo meals.




It's worth mentioning that I'm listing just a few of the highlights here - I very much recommend that you pick up a copy of Paleo Comfort Foods for yourself - and for your loved ones. Everyone's tastebuds are sure to thank you!


This review contains only my opinions, which are honest and my own. I was not compensated for reviewing this book, other than receiving a free advance copy. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you!

This Weekend, Throw Yourself a Primal / Paleo Gluten Free Grain Free Oktoberfest aka "Mocktoberfest"

Now that Oktoberfest has officially kicked off in Munich (as of last weekend, through October 3), might I suggest checking out my "Mocktoberfest" recipes for German potato salad and gluten free grain free Schnitzel? Cuddle those bad boys up next to some gluten free beer and you'll be in the mood for festivities in no time. :)

~

Tuna Stuffed Mini Peppers

I found a paleo-friendly alternative to the American lunchbox staple that is the tuna salad sandwich: Tuna salad stuffed peppers! Having located a canned tuna that has only olive oil (no soybean or canola oil), I made a batch of tuna salad last week and stuffed it into the mini peppers that we had picked up at Sam's Club. The peppers worked very well as a tidy vehicle for transporting tasty tuna salad into one's mouth.

To make your own tuna salad, try making your own paleo mayonnaise - there's a nice tutorial over at The Clothes Make the Girl. Or, you could do the quick'n'dirty shortcut that I did last week - full fat sour cream (ingredient: cultured cream) mixed with a paleo-friendly salsa verde and some Bubbies relish (which has no sweeteners like sugar or corn syrups added) - all mixed with the tuna. Given the right occasion I would definitely serve these up as an appetizer!

Delivering Moral Support Meals: Real Food for Really Intense Times

Folks in our lives need help. It just happens as a matter of course. Your friend just had a baby. Your family member just had major surgery and is recovering on the couch at home. An acquaintance you know through a group you've joined is going through a tough time.

Bring them a meal.

It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't even (gasp) have to be "perfect paleo".

Just bring them a meal! Make it mostly nourishing, make it today, bring it to them. Take one more thing off of their to-do list and make them dinner.

Here are some practical ideas for making them dinner:

• Ask in advance about allergies/dietary restrictions and the size of the crowd you're feeding. These are practical ways that you can make sure that the meal you prepare is appropriate to those consuming it.
  
  
• Bake and/or serve the items in disposable dishware. I get foil serving trays at Sam's Club for this purpose, and at about $0.30/each they really fill the gap. After baking something, all I have to do is pop a sheet of aluminum foil on top and it's ready to go. But though it's convenient for me - it's even more convenient for the recipient, who doesn't have to worry about washing or returning dishes to you.
  
  Avoid using plastic as a disposable option, unless you're using it to contain cold foods like hard boiled eggs, clementines, etc. that don't have an acidic sauce. (Acids in sauces and dressings can cause plastic to leach, especially if they're left in a plastic container for several hours.)
  
  
• Add any necessary instructions. Even a strip of masking tape on top of your pan of lasagna with: "30 minutes covered at 350F" can help later on when the family is figuring out how to reboot dinner.
  
  
• Serve it as fresh as possible. If your meal recipient is in your neck of the woods, making and serving foods the same day works for the best-possible taste. Most meals that were made a couple of days or more before might not be at their best.
  
  
• The slow cooker is your friend. I love slow-cooking meals I bring because it's the same amount of work to create a meal for my family and for the recipient family - I just double the quantities in my massive crock pot and divide once it's done cooking! You can also cook a large cut of meat with some veggies in the oven at low heat over the course of a day - this option being best left for cooler weather temps, of course. The doubling convenience works here as well - just double your ingredients and you've covered dinner for your family and theirs!
  
  
• Don't be afraid to stretch a nutritious meal budget-wise. Purists may disagree with me, but I don't think that there's anything wrong with bringing a family (especially one that you know isn't paleo / primal anyway) a side of white rice with their meat-and-veggie chili, or some organic corn tortillas along with their soft taco fixings. Also, when I deliver meals to others, conventionally sourced items often work just fine.
  
  There are three reasons why using budget-friendly meal stretchers can work for you if you're faced with a host of potential meal recipients:
  
  ~First, now is not the time that anyone would or should be convincing a worn-out family of the merits of going paleo.
  
  ~Secondly - most families receiving our meals already eat grains and conventionally sourced items on a regular basis; upping the sourcing standard for one meal isn't going to make any kind of practical impact.
  
  ~Thirdly - and this for me is the biggest factor - for the price of a single meal produced entirely out of organic pastured animal products and organic fruits and veggies - I could deliver three or four - or more! - meals that rely more on conventionally sourced products and maybe a bit of non-gluten grains added in. Ask me what I'd rather do in a given month with our extra resources: a) deliver to one large family a singularly perfectly-sourced meal, or b) deliver multiple homecooked often-conventionally-sourced non-industrial-oil-containing gluten-free meals to several families? In our current budget, we are fortunate and blessed to be able to chose option b) many months out of the year.
  
  
• Make them breakfast if they have their other meals being covered. Sometimes, breakfast isn't the most important meal of the day, it's the hardest to get off the ground, especially for a family with other concerns dominating. Bring a crustless quiche or two, maybe a bag of apples, a box of Larabars, or some fresh strawberries, or even a Chebe (taipioca-based gluten-free) batch of cinnamon rolls. A to-go box of coffee accessorized by a half-pint of half'n'half or (for the dairy-free) coconut milk creamer would have your recipients perking up in no time.
  
  
• Cover them with a freezer meal for "who knows when". You could make any of the following, and deliver it ready to be popped in their freezer (don't forget to label and add instructions!):
  
  ~ Eggplant lasagna. I cook up the slices in single-serve squares (about 3"x3"), and stack them 3 or 4 high layered with cheese and sauce (you could make it a meat sauce). This way, if the recipient needs only one serving, they can "break off" one serving of eggplant lasagna and warm it in the microwave without having to defrost/oven warm the whole thing.
  
  ~ Twice-baked potatoes. This make-and-freeze recipe from Joyful Abode lends itself well to a kitchen with a vacuum sealer.
  
  ~ Shepherd's pie, with either cauliflower faux mashed potatoes, mashed white potatoes, or mashed sweet potatoes. Mashed white potatoes are the most budget-friendly (even organic white potatoes are still fairly inexpensive) and the traditionally used item here.
  
  



Here, Primal Palate's Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake,
as made for my husband's birthday a while back.

• Add a sweet touch. It could be as simple as a bar of Green & Black's 85% dark chocolate to round out their meal, a drool-worthy fruit salad, or a batch of home-churned sorbet. Adding something dessert-y isn't always necessary, but I think that as the capstone to a warm, lovingly-prepared meal, a sweet finishing touch can help a frazzled family to feel a little more human again. Seek paleo and primal blogs with naturally, minimally sweetened recipes - by trying to keep refined sugars minimized or (better yet) out of the equation entirely, you'll ensure that you're not setting up your recipients for a sugar-crash.
  
  
• Offer other ways to help. As you deliver the meal, be sure to ask if there are other ways the family is needing help. Maybe an able-bodied adult could stop by one weekend afternoon and mow the lawn - or perhaps for their kids to come hang out at your place for a while one afternoon so that the grownups can rest. The meal delivery is multipurpose - you get to bring them needed food, but you also get to touch base and offer them some human contact.
  
  
• Make your delivery efficient. Though it's tempting to hang out and catch up for a spell, delivering your meal, offering to help in other ways, and letting them know with a hug that they are in your thoughts and/or prayers is probably the best way to go. A hungry family already worn thin by life's demands will be grateful for your quick visit, but even more grateful to then dig in to the meal you've prepared!
  
  

What tips and tricks do you have for delivering "Moral Support Meals"? Do you have any freezer-meal-friendly recipe links to share? Do tell! :o)

~

On a Lack of Orthodoxy, and Reflecting on Michael Pollan's Food Rules

Here is where I tell the dogmatic: this is not a post for you.

We returned today from a quasi-staycation - we were spending the week at a nearby lake taking advantage of some kayaking and other summertime activities. And guess what? There were s'mores. Oh, yes.

Now, in no way would I attempt to classify any type of s'more (grain-free or not) as "paleo" or "primal". Nope, they are decidedly a rare neolithic treat. Michael Pollan once said in his Food Rules, "#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself." I can't ever know whether he had s'mores in mind, but the idea here applies nonetheless. Since all of the commercial marshmallows that I found in stores contained various preservatives in addition to corn starch and corn syrups, I looked for a non-corn marshmallow, only to return the same search results over and over. You guessed it: Google was recommending via its various search results that I make my own. Me? Make my own marshmallows? I went back to a marshmallow recipe linked by Eat the Cookie, who also has a grain-free graham cracker recipe on the same page.

My mom was my partner in crime: she covered most of the marshmallow-making process. I made the graham crackers. And guess what? Total time invested in both was at least three hours. Yes: three hours. In other words, Michael Pollan knew that there was something to his statement. If someone wants a Cheeto, and they have to hand-craft the Cheeto, it's going to take them way more time and energy than popping a few quarters into a vending machine does. Because of the huge time investment, guess how often s'mores are likely to be a part of our lives? Yup; about once or twice a year, tops.

The marshmallows toasted beautifully once held close to the flame - and my entire family pronounced them far superior to commercial marshmallows in all aspects. (I didn't have any of anything, since I'm still in July Whole 30 mode, so I relied on the reviews of the s'more eaters present.) My brother said that conventional s'mores were a taste and texture bust by comparison.

And thus, my 4-year-old had her first handcrafted s'more.

A Dairy-Free Sugar-Free Grain-Free Gluten-Free Banana Bread

I should kick this recipe by saying right off the bat: this is not a supersweet banana bread, not in the is-this-bread-cause-it-tastes-like-cake-to-me sense. It is more like a delightfully lightly sweet multigrain bread, only without...you know...the grains. I think it's a great candidate for serving up in situations where you might normally serve cornbread, as with a bowl of chili - a good option for when you have nonprimal company over for a meal.

Unbanana Bread
Makes 4 mini-loaves, approximately 6 slices/loaf


Ingredients

Wet:
2 bananas
8 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. white wine vinegar (can sub other vinegars)

Dry mix:
2 c. Bob's Red Mill Almond Meal
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 generous pinch ground cloves

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F. Pregrease four mini-loaf pans with a healthy cooking fat (you could use butter, coconut oil, macadamia oil...).


In a blender or food processor (my mini food chopper worked fine here), blend the bananas, eggs, vanilla, and white wine vinegar. Blend for at least one minute to allow blending to whip air bubbles into the batter.

Combine dry mix ingredients and combine with a kitchen mixer. Add the wet mix to the dry mix and combine with the kitchen mixer. Pour the mix evenly into each of the four mini-loaf pans.

Bake at 375 F for 40-45 minutes. The top of the mini-loafs should be firm and dark golden brown.

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. Thanks for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you!

Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Grain-Free Sugar-Free Primal Paleo Pancakes

Love that cherries are in season and half-price at Giant this week!

Though the blog post title is elaborate, there's no elaborate measuring and mixing here! In fact there's not even any kind of flour; though I do use alternative flours like coconut flour from time to time, not in this recipe - this is my "We need pancakes now!" recipe.

Play a banana-themed soundtrack while you're working, if you like:




Lazy Day Pancakes
Makes approximately 12-16 cakes

Ingredients
1.5 large bananas (or 2 medium ones)
3 eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
Dash vanilla extract (optional)
Pinch nutmeg
Pinch salt

Directions
Blend all the ingredients together in a blender on high for at least 2 minutes, until perfectly smooth and there are lots of air bubbles whipped into the batter.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of stable cooking fat such as butter, coconut oil, or macadamia oil in a large pan on medium heat. When the oil starts to shimmer, pour in the batter to make 2.5" cakes. Allow the cakes to cook in the pan until almost all the way done before flipping; you'll see bubbles pop and stay "popped" when they are ready to flip. Continue cooking the rest of the cakes, adding a little more cooking fat to the pan before each new set of pancakes.

Serve warm with fresh fruit and butter to top, if desired.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you!

Lunchbox #92

Today, my husband's packed lunch featured (clockwise):

• Leftover fried chicken thighs - these were battered with egg, then in a half/half mix of Tropical Traditions Organic Gluten Free Coconut Flour and Let's Do Organic Shredded, Unsweetened Coconut. I had also added some shredded parmesan cheese and seasonings (including salt) to the dry breading mix.
  
  After battering, I fried this batch of chicken thighs in a large pan with Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil on high heat, and then placed the fried thighs into the oven at 400F for around 40 minutes so that the chicken was cooked all the way through. Organic virgin coconut oil is one of your best bets for high heat frying and sauteeing because it is shelf stable and high in saturated fats. This means that the oil won't oxidize and become rancid by the time your meal hits the dinner table! Also, remember that saturated fat is not the enemy.
  
  
• Broccoli, sauteed in a mix of salted Kerrygold and Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, with garlic powder and ginger powder added, as well. I love this side veggie because the florets really soak up that delicious combo of oil and butter.
  
  
• A fresh peach. Yum!
  
  
• Mini-peppers, with the top and seeds cut out, filled with roasted red pepper hummus. This is a very tasty grain-free gluten-free way to enjoy hummus. I'm already contemplating serving them this way as a summer party appetizer.
  
  ~

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you!

Menu Plan

Yesterday morning: Sliced mango and leftover chicken,
whole milk on the side.

Wow, we made it through March! It was a very rainy March for us - and it's still rainy today, hence the playlist.

I was shocked at how much money we saved on groceries last month with my husband being the primary grocery shopper -- enough to have him involved in grocery shopping a lot more often from here on out.

Also? My preschooler is more or less geared now toward the idea of whole foods for breakfast; I can't remember the last time that she asked about breakfast cereal, and I consider that a milestone of some sort.

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Monday:

Leftover beef brisket soup, absolutely
loaded with leeks and mushrooms.

Breakfast - Hot tea for me, bananas and leftover chicken with mango for my girls
Lunch - Liverwurst, smoky autumn beef brisket soup using leftover beef roast
Dinner - Flank steaks on the grill - it's grillin' weather, baby, YEA! :)

Tuesday:
Breakfast - Hot tea for me, milk and fruit for my girls (I meant to get some protein in for them, too, but the morning got ahead of me!)
Lunch - Leftover beef brisket soup, Dubliner cheese
Dinner - Chebe Pizza!*

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Onion and cheese omelette
Lunch - Fasting for me, probably
Dinner - Chuck steaks under the broiler, baked Brussels sprouts with butter

Thursday:
Breakfast - Frozen blueberries, warmed with cinnamon, served with cottage cheese
Lunch - Lamb shoulder simmered in tamari and butter
Dinner - Salmon filets, coconut oil veggie stir fry

Friday:
Breakfast - Whole milk yoghurt with liquid whole leaf stevia and vanilla extract
Lunch - We're visiting with a friend and her daughter! She's providing the chicken for grillin', I'm supplying a loaded salad and maybe some Green & Black's as a special treat :)
Dinner - Bacon and eggs

Tonight's Chebe crust pizza, which I made using the
very simple and low-carb Victoria tomato basil sauce.
It is, quite simply, delicious.
I would be proud to serve it to company.

*Look away if you are dogmatic -- I saw Chebe Bread Pizza Crust Mix as somebody had mixed and baked it up on another paleo blog (it's tapioca flour based, very short ingredient list, came highly rated). Drumroll...this means that yes, our household will have the occasional pizza night! (I haven't been contacted by Chebe with any review requests; I discovered and bought Chebe of my own initiative, and am glad that I did!) I did some Googling, and discovered that Chebe also sells frozen pizza crusts with the same ingredients as the dry mix ... but unfortunately the wet ingredients added in the frozen crust include (ick! so bad for you) canola oil.

Definitely some leftovers going with my husband
and daughter in their lunches tomorrow.

But now that I know that the tapioca flour crust won't "die" while waiting in a freezer, I hold out some hope that I could make the dry mix (as I did tonight) fresh at home with Kerrygold, but then press it flat and and add some toppings, and finally freeze it for when unexpected dinner company drops in, or those nights when we arrive at home after some long trip with nothing in our fridge, or in case of nausea/illness/recovery when something simple and fast is needed. Hmmm, maybe that is a case where a vacuum sealing appliance comes in handy -- as it did for Joyful Abode when she cracked open some frozen vaccum sealed twice baked potato skins that she had made with her postpartum recovery time in mind.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you! All opinions expressed here are honest and my own.

Lunchbox #50

Today, my preschooler's lunch featured (clockwise):

• Leftover sauteed veggies from the night before (asparagus, zucchini, carrots)
• Cherry tomatoes
• Sliced cucumber
• Whole milk organic yoghurt swirled with Sprout Organic Apples & Blueberries Baby Food - this is one quick and easy way that I offer "sweetened" yoghurt in our house. The Sprout baby food is a puree of organic apples and organic blueberries, in a resealable 3.5 oz. BPA-free pouch. I bought it on Subscribe and Save on Amazon (you can cancel Subscribe and Save immediately after placing your order and still get the savings on the first and only shipment) - so it was ~$0.70/pouch.

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link. Thanks for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you!

Snow Day Coconut Green Curry Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Chowder



Chowdah.



Have you ever seen that part of True Lies where Bill Paxton's weenie wanna-be spy character is faced with the real-life-spy Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arnie and his partner are trying to scare the Skittles out of Bill Paxton by waving their guns at him out on the edge of some kind of quarry/dam? And Bill Paxton crumples in a pile of sobs and wets his pants?

Well, that's pretty much what region where I live does whenever faced with the prospect of snow. Even one or two inches is enough to cancel a day of public school, which therefore cancels my daughter's preschool since they tie their cancellations to the public schools' cancellations.

Which means this much snow? (Yea, where there's not enough to even completely cover the blades of grass.) Just enough to cancel school, throw off my workout plans, and provide enough building materials to make Homeslice here:

So: I had haddock fried in oil set for one of last week's lunch menus. If it's just me and the baby, I'm cool with a simple plan like that as I can supplement the baby's meal with a few cubes of cheese and call it a meal. But with my preschooler home due to cancelled school, I felt compelled to do a little something more cozy with the fish in my fridge, and thus was born Snow Day Coconut Green Curry Chowder. Most commercial and restaurant chowders are thickened by adding white flour, but this one is coconut milk based, so the thick creaminess is gluten-free, yay!

Snow Day Coconut Green Curry Chowder
Serves 6
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. coconut oil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. powdered ginger
1 tsp. salt
1 lb. mild white fish (in this case it was 2 large fillets of haddock)
***
2 tbsp. (again!) coconut oil
2 tbsp. green curry paste (I use Thai Kitchen brand, which is rumored to be on the milder side as green pastes go)
1 onion, sliced thin into 1" pieces
3 small potatoes, cubed into 1/2" pieces (I used organic russet; if you're opposed to potatoes use sweet potatoes or other root veggies)
1/3 cup small pieces of bacon
1 standard-size (14/15 oz. or so) can coconut milk
Optional: 1/2 tsp. palm sugar or 1/2 tsp. blackstrap molasses, to further caramelize onions and add depth (this recipe is divided into about 6 servings and as such does not constitute a big blood sugar/insulin surge)
***
Salt, to taste
Water, to thin as desired

Directions

Warm oven to 400 F. Place 2 tbsp. coconut oil into baking pan with garlic powder, powdered ginger, and salt, and melt in oven until the coconut oil is liquid - a few minutes. Remove pan from oven, stir around seasonings until well-combined with liquid warmed coconut oil, and then dip fish fillets in oil mix such that all sides have been coated. Place fillets in the same baking pan with the oil mix and bake for 20 minutes.

While fish is baking, add coconut oil to a medium-size soup pot and heat to high. Add onions (and if desired: palm sugar or molasses) and stir continuously until onions caramelize and become translucent (a few minutes). Add green curry paste and further stir to combine, then add potato cubes. Add bacon pieces and coconut milk and set the soup pot burner down to medium heat, stirring to combine.

Remove fish from the oven. Make sure that it is fully (or very nearly fully) cooked, testing by flaking at the flesh with a fork. If it flakes away easily, use the fork to flake all of the fish into bite-sized pieces, and add fish and oil from pan into chowder on stovetop. (If you want to add the fish skin, that's really up to you. I kind of have an ick factor with fish skin, but that's how I roll.) After about 5 minutes of gentle stirring, taste the chowder, and add water to thin (just a bit at a time) or salt to taste as desired.

Primal / Paleo Oktoberfest / "Mocktoberfest" - Gluten-Free Schnitzel with German Potato Salad



Come to Mama.


At last, I tackled "Mocktoberfest". Being partly of German extraction - and having lived in Germany for a time, sometimes I just need a good Schnitzel. Schnitten is the German verb for to cut, so you can bread and fry cutlets of just about any meat. Popular choices are beef (especially veal), chicken, and pork. The problem? Breaded Schnitzeln are ... uh ... breaded. Hence my adaptation for those living primally who need to hearken back to the Mutterland every so often.

Today we cuddled ours up next to some German Potato Salad (recipe below) and some canned red Sauerkraut. (If you are looking for a homemade red Sauerkraut recipe, check out AndreAnna's crockpot red cabbage recipe - looks delish!)

German Potato Salad

Ingredients
3 lb. potatoes, peeled and diced into 1" cubes
1/2 cup mayonnaise (you can make your own if you're up for it)
1/2 c. crumbled bacon or bacon pieces
1/2 c. finely diced white onion (this is optional; I left it out today since my husband and his side of the family can't tolerate them)
1/2 c. melted butter (I used Kerrygold)
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
To a boiling pot of salted water, add the cubed potato. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove from heat and use a slotted spoon to spoon the potato cubes into a medium bowl. Whisk together remaining ingredients into a dressing, then pour over warm potato cubes. Allow potato salad to sit for about an hour so that flavors can meld before serving.

Chicken Schnitzel with Creamy White Wine Reduction

Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts, pounded very thin (1/2" or less)
Salt and pepper
1 cup sifted coconut flour
1 cup sifted coconut flour mixed with 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
4 eggs
4 tablespoons fresh parsley
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. nutmeg
4 tablespoons milk or cream
1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 lb. Kerrygold butter

Directions:
Salt and pepper the chicken breasts, then dip in sifted coconut flour evenly to coat. Mix eggs, parsley, cheese, nutmeg, milk, and mustard thoroughly in a medium-sized bowl, then add 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper and 1/2 tsp. salt and mix again. In a large shallow bowl spread out the coconut flour/unsweetened coconut mix. Dip each floured chicken breast into the egg mix and then dip both sides to coat in the coconut flour/unsweetened coconut mix.

In a large pan, melt 4 tbsp. butter on medium heat. Add breaded chicken breasts to the pan, turning after 3 or 4 minutes. Continue turning breasts every few minutes until all sides are golden brown and chicken is cooked through. (In my case, this was side A 3 minutes, side B 3 minutes, side A 3 minutes, side B 3 minutes.) Keep adding butter to the pan a little at a time while cooking in order to prevent burning; the chicken breasts will soak up a lot of the butter while in the pan.

Creamy White Wine Reduction

After chicken breasts are all cooked, add 1/2 c. cream or milk to the pan, with 2 tbsp. butter and 2 tbsp. white wine of choice. Use a spatula to scrape brown leftover schnitzel bits off of the bottom of the pan and keep stirring to combine while sauce reduces. Once desired thickness is reached, drizzle over plated Schnitzel.



Optional but fun addition: gluten-free beer. :)



Christmas Eve Dinner - Prep for Cheesy Chicken and Potato Soup

As I type this, the remains of a mirepoix simmer on the stove. The rest of the mirepoix has been ladeled over 3 chickens in 2 crockpots to cook on low overnight.

I'm adapting my mother-in-law's family tradition of potato soup at Christmastime. The original recipe, from her mother, called for skim milk and an irrational quantity of non-dairy creamer, which - you guessed it - is loaded with hydrogenated oils. In place of the skim and the non-dairy creamer, I'll use one or both of organic whole milk and/or organic heavy whipping cream.

The one neolithic ingredient of the soup that I'm willing to keep, especially since this recipe is a once-a-year thing, are cheese singles. In my mother-in-law's potato soup making heydey, she probably used Kraft; I'll be using Horizon organic singles for their stripped down ingredient list and smooth meltability.

For the mirepoix, I simmered salted Kerrygold butter, diced celery, diced white onions, diced carrots, halved mushrooms, minced parsley, and minced chives. Are you supposed to slow cook parsley and/or chives? I'm not sure, but I had a load of these fresh on hand because tomorrow I'm making AndreAnna's Grain-Free Savory Country Biscuits and at my grocery store you must buy about 10 times as much of the fresh parsley and chives as I'm planning to use in the biscuits. My extra bits of fresh celery and parsley have gone into a freezer bag for a future batch of broth or stock (see tips on making your own broth and stock here, and also here).

So, the to-do list for tomorrow, before we feed a crowd of 8 adults and 2 children dinner:

• Grain-Free Savory Country Biscuits - in my convection toaster oven, the Christmas gift from my generous parents
• Finish the Cheesy Chicken and Potato Soup - Remove 3 cooked chickens from the crockpots. Tear off the slow-cooked chicken meat into hearty chunks, add back into the broth in the crock pots. Add 1/2" cubes of potatoes to slow cook for a few hours more. Just before serving, add singles and stir to melt, along with by any cream or milk necessary.

I emailed tomorrow night's guests shamelessly soliciting primal-compatible indulgences for dessert and they gladly delivered, so dessert will be: nuts, chocolate, clementines. Yay for crockpot cooking and crowdsourcing making a (more or less) primal Christmas Eve a simpler task!

How are YOU adapting your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebration food to be more paleo / primal / gluten free / grain free / sugar free? If you're blogging about your adaptations, feel free to add your link!

Shrimp Po' Boys

OK, I gave it the college try:

Looks tasty, right? The problem is, the coconut bread recipe, while delicious, is like a dense pound cake, so it didn't really hold up consistency-wise to the required "sandwichyness" needed for a po' boy. But my husband said that he would be just as delighted to eat the same coconut crusted fried shrimp over a bed of salad greens, with a couple of mini slices of the coconut bread on the side. So: note to future self.

Since the coconut bread turned out so much like a dense cake, it got my wheels turning for the possibility of using it as a birthday cake. More on this later - when one of us actually has a birthday to celebrate.

Also, the shrimp was more or less off-the-cuff (when I was cooking, I didn't pull up the MDA recipe that I originally meant to use as a reference point), and since I would gladly repeat - I'll record what I did here for future reference.

Coconut Crusted Shrimp
Serves 4 generously

Ingredients
1.5 lb. raw shrimp - peeled, deveined, tails off
All-purpose seasoning in the tradition of Old Bay - without sugar, MSG, etc. (Salt, paprika, and other seasonings, generally.)
3 eggs, scrambled
2 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut (I used Let's Do Organic)
3/4 c. coconut flour (I used Tropical Traditions)
1 c. coconut oil

Directions
Put shrimp in a large bowl, and season a bit. Add a bit of seasoning to the egg wash as well, then pour it over the seasoned shrimp, and stir to coat.

To a shallow dish, add shredded coconut, coconut flour, and another shake of seasoning, and toss to combine.

Add large spoonful of coconut oil to a medium-to-large pan on medium-high heat. Once the oil has melted, pull an "egged" shrimp from the large bowl and toss it in the shallow dish of coconut crust until it's coated. Place the shrimp in the hot pan, and work quickly around the pan, adding shrimp. (I start at the "12 o'clock" position in the pan and work clockwise.) Once the pan is full, the first shrimp to go in will have cooked on one side, so being flipping each shrimp - they should be golden brown once the underside is flipped side up. Cook an additional 2 minutes, then place in a shallow dish on a paper towel. Scrape old oil and debris from pan, add more fresh coconut oil, and start again, frying the shrimp this way in batches until all are fried. Serve immediately.

Crackeroni and Cheese

I'll be honest: for me, the elbow macaroni in macaroni and cheese had, in the past, really just served as a vector for the melted cheesy goodness. Tonight, craving that same warm cheesy goodness, I took one look at the yellow squash in my fridge, and tossed caution to the wind. This was a hit with my preschooler, so I packed some in her lunchbox for tomorrow. (My husband still had the steak and salad written up in the menu plan.)

You could cook the squash even less if you are looking for a more "al dente" texture - the below recipe, which comes together in about 10 minutes, results in very tender pieces.

Oh, and adding bacon? Resulted in the crack-like addictive taste.

Crackeroni and Cheese
Serves 2 very generously

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter (I used salted Kerrygold)
2 small yellow squashes, diced into thin 1 inch long slices (about elbow macaroni size)
1" wedge brie, trimmed of rind, cubed into small 1/2" pieces
1/4 c. crumbled gorgonzola
2 tablespoons crumbled bacon (= 2-4 cooked strips' worth, depending on your desired baconishness)

Directions:
Melt butter on medium high heat, and add squash. Sautee for 5 minutes, or until squash pieces start to turn translucent. Stir in pieces of brie and crumbled gorgonzola, and stir vigorously until cheese is well-melted throughout. Add bacon pieces and serve immediately.

Microwave Nutmeg Ginger Banana Pudding

Quick primal meals are harder to come by. But I serendipitously discovered this one this weekend! Yay for a microwavable breakfast. Ideally this would be paired with a couple of eggs or a smoothie featuring protein to slow the impact of the banana on the blood sugar.

Microwave Nutmeg Ginger Banana Pudding
Serves 1

Ingredients
1 banana, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Kerrygold butter
1 shake ground ginger (or more to taste)
1 shake ground nutmeg (or more to taste)
1/4 c. heavy cream
Handful walnuts, to top (if desired)

Directions
Add all ingredients except cream and walnuts to a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute. Remove bowl from microwave, add cream, and stir vigorously to combine (this will further break down the bananas, too). Within a minute, it will take on a pudding-y consistency. Serve warm, and if desired, topped with walnuts.

I can tell that I will be making this a lot this winter!