GAPS Diet Intro Week 1:

We are now officially 1 week into GAPS intro over here. While the whole household isn't doing GAPS, my fellow home cooks will understand when I say that it is a pain in the rear to create multiple separate menus. So, even those here who aren't officially doing GAPS are doing GAPS + stuff on the side just out of pure convenience.

I'm just one more bowl of bone broth away from
snapping and turning into a crazy cat lady.
It wouldn't be all bad, though.
Kittens are cuddly-wuddly!

Courtesy of the George Eastman House Collection,
Flickr Creative Commons

There are definitely a few learning curves. I enjoy bone broth and use it in my cooking all the time, but I've had to become accustomed to the prospect of always having it available to consume throughout the day. To that end I say horray for slow cookers! One big blessing is that my local Giant just switched its Nature's Promise chickens from "all natural" blah blah blah to Nature's Promise certified organic chickens. There's a big difference between the two! And while the organic chickens probably aren't pampered free range local chickens fed GMO free feed and allowed to forage for bugs, our family having regular, dependable access to certified organic chickens is a huge step up, especially when quality bones for broth are now a house staple. To get a certified organic chicken before that, I'd have had to drive at least 45 minutes away. I wrote a "customer comment" form at the customer service desk thanking Giant for carrying them! I know the folks at Giant probably don't get a lot of positive notes in the comment box, so a, "Way to go!" on their new inventory will probably catch their eye. I also mentioned that otherwise I'd have driven a ways to buy organic chickens from Trader Joe's, so that lets the staff know that they won a regular chunk of my money from a competitor by stocking certified organic chickens.

This is me stocking up on wholesome chickens,
with a slightly manic gleam in my eye.

Courtesy of the
George Eastman House Collection,
Flickr Creative Commons

They average $11-12/chicken, which is definitely expensive, but I am glad to have organic chicken bones from each chicken to supply us with at least a couple of days' worth of bone broth - not to mention being able to feed my GAPS patient the organic chicken's organs - so there is more value to them than just in the meat. I'll be keeping my eye out for sale prices on those chickens and when the price drops, I'll be stocking up!

I've already used a few shortcuts - Bubbies sauerkraut and Sunja's kimchis have been my go-to for sugar-free lacto-fermented veggies. One day in a blissful fantasy future I will figure out home fermented veggies, but for now I'm grateful to have a ready-made option to provide lots of lactobacillus for our guts. (And special thanks to my friend A. who lives near stores that stock these! She's been a big help in keeping us supplied.) For now I'm using the juice for our GAPS patient, but I readily hork down the veggies themselves, so it's all good.

Another couple of shortcuts I'm using this month include organic pumpkin puree and organic butternut squash puree. There is one ingredient in each of these: organic pumpkin, and organic squash, respectively. Also, I was happy to discover that their maker is committed to using BPA-free cans. Is peeling and slow cooking the whole food in my own kitchen ideal? For sure. But, having these around ensures that I don't forget to add some to meals for an added dose of good carbs.

What are your favorite bone broth tips and tricks? Have you had any fun discoveries in your local supermarket this week?


~

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.

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!

Star Anise Bacon Soup

If you are a fan of pho and its complex licorice-y broth, you would enjoy giving this quickly-assembled soup a try. I like the bacon a little more tender and wilty than crisp in this case; if you like it crisp you should cook it as directed, then remove the bacon before adding the onions, and add the bacon back into the bowls right at the end when serving the soup.

Star Anise Bacon Soup
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
1-2 tbsp. butter (I used unsalted Kerrygold)
12 oz. bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces (I used kitchen shears to shortcut this)
1/2 - 1 c. onions (I used leeks and shallots here)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 bag cole slaw veggie mix (just shredded cabbage and carrots - no dressing!)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
5-6 dried star anise stars (mine came from the local international grocery store; see collage pic above)
2 c. or more other vegetables (I used 1 zucchini and 1 box of mushrooms here)
3 c. water
Salt or tamari to taste, if desired

Directions:
To a large soup pot on high heat, add butter, bacon, onions, garlic powder, and ginger. Stir continuously until onions sizzle and turn translucent. Add cole slaw mix, black pepper, star anise stars, and continue to stir for about 2 more minutes. Add water and other vegetables, and cook an additional 10-15 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender. Pick out star anise stars, and serve hot.



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Smoky Autumn Beef Brisket Soup

This soup came about early last week for a lunch after I realized that not only did we come home from our weekend trip with an abundance of my parents' produce, but also to some leftover beef brisket in the fridge. It also kicked off a soup streak for me this week - you'll see bacon-based clear broth variation later this week, as well.

Smoky Autumn Beef Brisket Soup
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
1 lb. or more slow-cooked beef brisket (leftovers work really well in this case!)
At least 1 c. of diced onions - you may use yellow or white onions, or scallions, leeks, shallots, etc. or any combination
(The above pictured soup had diced white onions and leeks)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1-2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses (optional, but adds the smoky depth)
At least 2 c. of other diced vegetables (Above shows 1 sliced zucchini and 1 box - 8 oz. - sliced mushrooms.)
1 standard can (~14/15 oz.) pureed pumpkin, plus 1 can's worth of water
1/2 c. heavy cream
Tamari, to garnish

Directions:
In a large soup pot, combine beef, butter, onions, and garlic powder, and heat on high, stirring constantly, until onions are sizzling and turning translucent. Add molasses, and stir to combine over high heat as the onions caramelize. Add vegetables, stirring continuously for about 2 minutes, and then add water, heavy cream, and canned pumpkin. Turn heat to low, allow to simmer about 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender, and then serve hot, with tamari to season.

Creamy Tarragon Asparagus Soup

I wish that I had a Vitamix. I also wish that I could throw around $400 willy nilly without blinking, but we all want things, right? I'm still working on getting the budgeting basics of primal eating down, so it suffices to say that the Vitamix that I would like to use for this recipe exists in some sort of utopian parallel dimension.

Another thing that I've wanted, but was reasonably within my means to acquire, was a hot bowl of asparagus soup. It wasn't as super-duper-velvety smooth as I would have liked, but my food processor is not a Vitamix. That didn't stop the soup from being tasty, though!

Tarragon is a rogue seasoning - one that pairs well with white meats like chicken and pork, seafoods like scallops and shrimp, and also vegetables like asparagus and mushrooms. Put another way: it has a vaguely licoricey taste that marries well with light, savory foodstuffs (and usually something creamy). I like using it when cooking for company because guests recognize it as different yet decidedly tasty.

Creamy Asparagus Tarragon Soup
Serves 2, as a starter course

Ingredients
1 package frozen asparagus - the kind that you can cook in-package in the microwave in about 5 minutes
1/2 c. whole milk (could substitute half'n'half, heavy cream, or coconut cream for this)
1 tablespoon butter (I used salted Kerrygold)
1 tablespoon dried tarragon
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Creme fraiche to garnish (optional; could sub coconut cream also)

Directions
Cook the asparagus in the microwave as directed. Crush the tarragon between your fingers and put it in the bottom of your blender/food processor/Vitamix. Melt the butter and pour over the tarragon, and pulse briefly to combine the butter and tarragon. Add a bit of salt and pepper (go easy on the salt as you can always add more later) and the garlic powder, and pulse again. Add the cooked asparagus stalks to this (mine were very wilted), including any excess water, and the whole milk. Blend until the soup is as smooth as possible, then serve immediately while still hot, and garnish with creme fraiche or coconut cream if desired.

Primal Kitchen Chili

This is actually quite simple. You sautee a bunch of veggies, onions, and peppers - your pick on the type - then combine with a large can (~30 oz.) of crushed tomatoes, and season with chili powder, cumin, cayenne, etc. to taste. Add browned ground beef after all the rest has simmered for at least half an hour. Garnish with creme fraiche or sour cream. The next day the flavors should be even more deliciously melded, so make enough for leftovers!

P.S. - A fellow student from my grad school program - a Mexican lady - once told me (vaguely recalling here), "Americans think that all Mexican food is CUMIN. Cumin, cumin, CUMIN!"

Heh - I think she was referring to the dominant cumin taste in American-Mexican cuisine (analagous to the American-bastardized creations of fortune cookies and chop suey when it comes to Chinese cuisine). So if you want your chili kind of Taco Bell-ish, feel free to be liberal with the cumin. If not, go easy on it and let other flavors take center stage.

Here's the long version:

Primal Kitchen Chili
Serves 4 adults generously

Ingredients
2 lb. ground beef
1 large (~30 oz.) can crushed tomatoes (I used one with added basil)
2-4 cups of 1/2"-1" cubed fresh veggies - in my case I like zucchini and yellow squash, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc.
1-2 finely chopped jalapeno or other peppers, if you like it spicier
Butter or other stable cooking oil, to sautee the veggies and peppers
Broth, if you want to make your chili a bit thinner
If you do dairy, creme fraiche or sour cream (or cheese) to top

Seasonings to taste:
Cumin (this is the traditional American interpretation Mexican seasoning)
Cilantro (if using fresh, stir in just at the end or use to top as a garnish)
Dried chipotle peppers
Cayenne (Be careful! A little goes a LONG way!)
Paprika (this, especially sweet paprika, will take your chili in a "goulasch" direction the more you add)
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
In a large pan over medium-high heat, add onions and peppers and sautee in butter or other cooking oil until the onions start to brown and turn translucent. Add other veggies, and stir continuously for about 10 minutes to ensure that everything gets an even shot at being browned/sauteed. Add veggies and canned crushed tomatoes together in a crock pot on low, and then brown the ground beef. Season the ground beef as it browns, tasting along the way to make sure that the seasoning is to your liking, and then add this to the crock pot when it's mostly brown (especially if this is grass-fed ground beef, which is easier to overcook). Stir contents of crock pot through, allowing to warm for a few more minutes. Garnish with any of the following: sour creme or creme fraiche, cheese, and fresh cilantro.

Coconut Curry Chicken & Spinach Soup

When that nip in the air starts to come back, I get really excited. I love cold weather, and I love cold weather comfort foods. This fall will prove a new challenge as I try to Primalize some of my longstanding fall/winter treats, but I'm up for it.

Soups, though, aren't that hard to conquer in terms of Primalizing. This one is super simple, warming, and comes together in less than 15 minutes. Great for a nourishing lunch!

Coconut Curry Chicken & Spinach Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 c. small pieces of leftover roasted chicken
2 c. organic baby spinach
1 can coconut milk
2 tbsp. coconut oil

Warming spices, any/all to your liking:
garlic powder
onion powder
ginger
nutmeg
cardamom
curry powder
turmeric
cumin

Directions:
Melt oil in medium-sized pot on medium. Add spices to your liking and let them simmer in the oil for a minute or two. Add chicken pieces, and stir to coat with oil and spices. Add coconut milk, and stir to combine. Let simmer for just a few minutes so that flavors blend and the coconut milk is warmed through. Just 3-5 minutes before serving, add the baby spinach. Serve while spinach is bright green and just barely wilted for maximum flavor.

Turkey Veggie Soup

I love a good soup. You might say where Mark Sisson revels in his "Big-Ass Salads", I do so equally in a large bowl of soup brimming with veggies, protein, and of course, the addition of good fats and seasonings. (I think this is because I tend to prefer colder weather - 60 degrees is about my favorite temp.)

So, nothing - not even the summer weather - keeps me from occasionally making a veggie soup. Chop up a bunch of onions and veggies, sautee in seasonings, simmer, add fresh herbs and cooked protein. Boom! OK - it may not be precisely that easy, but it is almost that easy.

Turkey Veggie Soup

Ingredients:
1-3 cups pieces protein (see Step 1 for notes)
2 cups onions, any variety
2 cloves or more of fresh garlic
2 tablespoons oil of choice
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
1 carton (blasphemy in primal/paleo world, I know!) of broth of choice; I generally prefer organic low sodium chicken broth
4 cups fresh veggies, chopped
Fresh herbs, if desired

Directions:
1. Cook some protein, or have some leftover protein ready. Options: ground beef or turkey, pieces of leftover roasted chicken, etc.

2. Chop up about 2 cups of onions. (You don't have to add onions, but I'm an onion lover and consider them to be the base of any good broth.) You can use leeks, scallions, shallots, traditional white onions, whatever! You can also mix and match, depending on your onion prefs.

3. Chop up some garlic. A couple of cloves or more.

4. Add the onions, garlic, and a couple of tablespoons of the oil of your choice to a stock pot. Turn on high and sautee a few minutes.

5. Add a conservative drizzle of blackstrap molasses. This helps get the process of carmelizing the onions going and gives the broth some dimension. Stir frequently for another couple of minutes.

6. Add a carton of your broth of choice and a bunch of other chopped up vegetables - about 4 cups' worth. Below you'll see zucchini, carrots, button mushrooms, and portabella mushrooms. Simmer for 20 minutes or so.

7. If you have a fresh herb to add, now is the time to add it (if you do it sooner you may run the risk of overcooking and missing the peak flavor). I threw a few big sprigs of fresh rosemary on top and let simmer for just a few minutes longer. This is also the time to add your protein so that it warms but does not overcook.

The rosemary makes for a cute little garnish if you're serving this to company.

But of course, then I just take it off and nom nom nom.