Tag Archives: carnivore

My Twist on Stuffed Peppers

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stuffed peppers 2

stuffed peppers 1

There is a great recipe that I have gone back to over and over for stuffed peppers in “Practical Paleo” by Diane Sanfilippo. It is basic and tasty and good for you! Easy to prepare ahead, even to have in the freezer.

I am always wanting an additional flavor punch. OK. I can’t help but tinker with recipes sometimes.

So with the addition of Chorizo for flavor punch, and spinach for extra veggies, and cumin and double the garlic? OH you just have to make this, it is so good!

Here’s what:

My Twist on Stuffed Peppers:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. While doing that, halve and remove seeds from 3-4 red bell peppers. Place these in a large pyrex dish, flesh side up, and roast for 20 minutes. Take them out and let them cool enough to handle….flip over and they are ready to stuff.

The Filling!
1 pound grassfed ground beef
1 pound organic chorizo (I use a veal chorizo)
begin browning these two ingredients in a large skillet.

As the meat browns, add:
1 onion, diced
8-10 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
1/4+ tsp red pepper flakes (depends or your heat pleasure!)

Keep moving it all around in the pan, browning the meat and onions as you go.
Add in 1/2 tsp or more dried basil and oregano
add 1/4 tsp cumin
Add in 1 can fire roasted diced organic tomatoes
Add in several handfuls of baby spinach (fresh). Up to 10 oz.

as the spinach wilts, turn off the heat….this part is done!
You can add in some fresh basil leaves at this point as well.

Fill your roasted peppers with the meat mixture, and any extra meat just tuck in around the peppers, someone will eat it!

Put back in the over at the same heat for another 15-20 minutes to heat through and let the flavors meld. (Especially tasty the next day!)

Because of the flavors involved, you can push this as mexican food or italian…maybe this is fusion? I don’t know. But it is a meal in itself. Or you can dice a little avocado on top! Or serve with a salad!

So dern good. You need to try this one!

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A Lovely Plate

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again 2

Nothing complicated here, just clean, easy yum.

Fresh avocados with a squeeze of lemon juice and a dusting of coarse sea salt.
Thick cut no sugar all natural bacon, perfectly fried.
A small pile of fresh fruit, all organic.
And the raw crunchy salad I am so addicted to!

The fast way today:

In the bottom of the bowl, 2 TBSP of home made paleo mayo, 2 tsp honey, couple of splashes of raspberry balsalmic vinegar to taste….wisk wisk wisk.
Now add to the bowl a handful of bite size raw broccoli and of cauliflower. also a few dried cranberries. (I usually add radishes and pecans, but was in a hurry!).
Now toss everything together! The longer you have, keep tossing and the flavors build!

So dump the salad on your plate, your done!
Ready, set, delicious!

Egg Foo Young-ish from NomNomPaleo

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eggfooyung

I am obsessed with “Food 4 Humans” by NomnomPaleo blogger, Michelle Tam.
She was the very first blogger I found when I first delved into Paleo. He recipes were simple and tasty and she is so real! I was so excited when her book came out! And it is one of the BEST cookbooks I have ever relied on! I make things from her book and website weekly…give her a try, you cannot go wrong!

The pic above is her interpretation of Egg Foo Young-ish.
My conclusion is they are really handy little omellettey things that travel well!
This morning I topped a couple with sausage, avacados and salsa…nom!

The link to her site and the recipe is:

http://nomnompaleo.com/post/5568966009/egg-foo-young-ish-spinach-egg-ham-coconut

(hope I did that write….this is my first link in a post…if i missed it, just go see her blog at http://www.nomnompaleo.com you will find all kinds of great things before you race out to buy her book!)

I also had the pleasure of meeting Michelle Tam when she came into Houston for a book signing a few weeks ago. She is a doll! So real…just a working mom who adores food and health!
By the way my all time favorite recipe of hers?
Mexican Pot de Creme.
Deeee VINE!
seriously. try it!

Spicy spin on Chicken tortilla-less soup

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mex soup

Inspired yet again by one of the greats! Ms. Diane Sanfillipo, to me a nutritional guru when it comes to all things Paleo, author of Practical Paleo (my go to for everything knowledgeable and sensible about Paleo living) and also of the 21 Day Sugar Detox, which I find to be an incredible reset for everyone, shares her wealth of knowledge in simple terms, and then eases you into a delicious realm of paleo eating with her tried and true recipes, each one better than the next! I almost never change a note of her recipes, and when I do, traditionally it is just to amp up the flavors to my taste personally, nothing at all wrong in the master recipes.

In the 21DSD, she has a lovely, simple, Chicken Tortilla-Less Soup, which I have seen countless photos and raves about on IG ever since the book came out, but only got around to trying it out this weekend. This was one of those recipes that just got my own wheels spinning! Being a Texas Girl at heart, and having a love of all things Tex-Mex on my dinner table…I like my spicy foods SPICY!

So if you like a truly spicy mexican chicken soup, take a look at this little number which took off from Diane’s base recipe….I think you might like this! Just enough heat without being hot, a lovely meal or side anytime!

Try it like this:

In a large soup pot with a wide bottom, Saute the following:
-1 onion, diced
-2 carrots, diced
-1 red bell pepper, diced
-2 celery stalks, diced
-2 roasted poblanos, peeled, diced (Blacken pepper directly over gas flame, cool and peel. or you can roast in the oven)
-6 cloves of chopped garlic
saute for 7-10 minutes, letting the veggies soften, but not brown.

To the pot, add:
-1 1/2 Tbsp Ground Cumin
-2 tsp coriander
-1/2 tsp ancho chili powder
-1/2 tsp garlic powder
-Salt and Pepper to taste
-1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes for heat
continue to saute and mix together.

Add to the pot:
6-7 oz tomato paste, stir in
32 oz of bone broth
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 handful chopped fresh cilantro
Squeeze in the juice of one lime
drop in 2 chicken breasts, shredded (guilty. I buy an organic rotisserie chicken and use the meat from that…really tasty)

Check the level of saltiness and heat and let the soup simmer 15-20 mins to allow flavors to develop.

When you serve it, top the soup with diced avocado and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

This soup is hearty and so flavorful!
Hope you enjoy it!

Thai Chicken Meatballs

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Last night we made Thai Chicken Meatballs and broccoli, which turned out mighty good!
I admit, this recipe was not mine originally. I found it in a favorite book, Primal Cravings, that I have a love/hate relationship with. I think the writers of this book have some fantastic ideas! Great flavor profiles! Super ideas! But I truly do not believe they tested half of these recipes, or if they did, they wrote a few of them up, well, wrong. I have made MANY things from the book, and once I have tweaked and fixed a few things, they are really great recipes! So I will say this is their base recipe, with some tweaking so you don’t throw the book out the window, which I almost did more than once.

Here is what should happen:

Put all of the following into a large mixing bowl:
2 pounds ground chicken (we decided last night beef would work here too)
2 Tbsp coconut flour
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp Peach Jam (all fruit, no sugar added)
2 Tbsp Spicy Chile Sauce (as clean as you can find it!)
2 cloves of Garlic, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp of salt ( or more, to your liking)
Cayenne pepper if you like it spicier….I used about 1/4 tsp
*2 Tbsp water mixed with 1/2 tsp cream of tartar and 1/4 tsp baking soda

Mix with your hands and form golf ball size meatballs. Plece meatballs evenly spaced on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. (Do not use a silpat. This turns into a mess.)

Bake these in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until and instant read thermometer reads 165+ degrees. They should be browned on the outside and on the bottoms.

While meatballs are browning in the oven, in a small sauce pan bring the following to a simmer and turn off:
1/2 cup of peach jam (from above)
1/4 cup of chile suace, or more to your liking
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 minced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp water
salt to taste
whisk until blended, heat to a simmer.

When the meatballs are ready, place them in a bowl and pour peach chile sauce over them and toss gently….you are ready to dig in!
We just steamed some broccoli with lemon and salt to serve with them! These are great the next day for leftovers as well, if any are left!

Plate this!

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mexiplate

Always on the search for something with alot of flavor that is easy and fairly quick on a weeknight, coupled with will everyone in the house eat it….I was flipping through the March 2014 issue of Paleo Magazine and stumbled across some definitely doable recipes! I read through the two recipes that were meant to be served together called “Salsa Beef and Spiced “Rice” Bowls” and thought, this is too simple!

I got my head around it and started a little improvising in my head, and ended up with the recipe below. I wanted to credit whoever wrote the base recipes, but there is no author cited! So, thank you to Paleo Magazine …for printing those two recipes for inspiration! And here is how I made them my own:

I prepped all my ingredients, the chopping anyway,for both recipes and then just threw them together in their seperate skillets at the same time….

Skillet One – Mexican Beef
Brown 1 pound of Grass fed ground beef in a Tablespoon of coconut oil
Once browned, add:
1/2 medium red bell pepper, chopped
4 medium scallions (greens and whites) trimmed and chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, chopped
Continue to cook in the skillet another 5 minutes.
Stir in 1/2 cup of your favorite fresh salsa
Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Skillet Two – Spiced Mexican Rice
Chop florets of 2 heads of cauliflower in a food processor
Saute cauliflower in about 3 tablespoons of coconut oil along with 1 medium chopped red onion, 5 minutes. Add in 5-7 cloves of chopped garlic as you saute.
Season the cauli rice with:
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 + tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
salt, pepper and up to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or more, to taste
Keep moving this around in the skillet until evenly distributed.
Whish together 1/2 cup chicken broth and 2 tablespoons tomato paste….add to the saute and mix in.
while that is cooking a minute or two, chop a handful of cilantro and toss in. Mix in, turn off heat.
Squeeze the juice of a lime over the whole thing and give it a quick mix.

SERVE IT UP:
Put a good helping of cauli rice on the bottom of the plate or bowl.
Top it with your Mexican Beef…
Add a dollop of home made guacamole (mine is a secret recipe…for now!) or chopped avocado…

we decided it could be spicier…
Next time around I will put a couple of spoonfuls of pico de gallo in the rice and mix in….I think that sounds good!

This whole thing took 30 minutes, start to finish…smells divine! Tastes even better!
I cannot wait to hear how you like it!

Inspired Italian Meatballs

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italilan meatballs

I am a huge fan of Michelle Tam of http://www.nomnompaleo.com and book, Nom Nom Pale, Food for Humans. She was the first paleo blogger I found when I did my first Whole 30 about two years ago. I loved all of the things she made and the fact that she is a mom of two boys and works full time and seems to truly love food! Everything I have ever made from her blog or book has had such depth of flavor, just amazing food!

Well, I had a pound of ground meat on hand and wanted to make one of her meatball recipes, but she used veal, and seasonings that lended themselves to veal like basil. I had beef…so I ran with that using her recipe as a base to stem from.

They turned out light and airy and so flavorful!

Here is what I did:

Place all of the ingredients below in a mixing bowl and mix with hands:
1 pound organic grassfed ground beef (would be good mixed with pork)
1/2 finely chopped onion
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup chopped italian parsely
1 tbsp italian seasoning
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 cup garlic cauliflower mash (Steam 1 head of cauliflower cut into florets with 5 cloves of garlic for about 10 minutes. Pulse through the food processor until smooth with 2 Tablespoons ghee or butter from a grassfed source)

Shape into golf ball sized meatballs. Brown in a good skillet over medium-hi heat in a mix of ghee or butter and coconut oil for 2-3 minutes per side, keep turning until browned all over.

You can sauce these up so many different ways or just eat on their own! Easy stuff!
We ate with the remainder of the cauliflower mash on the side and a chopped veggie salad.

Let me know what you think!

Hot Dog!

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hot dog

So yesterday I was having one of those BONE TIRED days for whatever reason. When I finally got home from work, the usual tasks loomed before me, feed the zoo, walk the dogs, fix dinner.
All I could think about was how to get my body into bed as fast as possible! There was a pile of dishes taunting me from the sink, and all I could do was yawn, yawn, yawn! What the heck! I ate good food all day, drank plenty of water, no idea.

So on the walk back home with the animules, I started rifling through the refrigerator in my brain trying to come up with the easiest thing I could. I did eggs at lunch, so that was out. And then I remembered the hot dogs!

When I got home I opened the fridge doors and angelic music played in my mind!
Here is what happened:

Threw 4 Applegate Farms all organic grassfed beef hot dogs into the skillett to start browning up on medium heat.
Put another pot of water on to boil, I had some asparagus on hand….that is a quick winner! Boil about 3 minutes, dot with a bit of Kerrygold grassfed butter and squeeze the juice of one lemon over the top with a little salt and pepper…easy!
Dogs are nice and brown, so I placed each one on a large romaine lettuce leaf (like a bun or a taco!) and topped with PaleoChef Srracha and slices of avocado! Had a little beet sauerkraut on the side too!

Literally dinner was plated in less than 10 minutes!
Those dogs are great to keep on hand for days like that, lunches, dinner, even breakfast in a pinch!

Best part? This was compliant all over the board…paleo, primal, 21 day sugar detox, you name it! Clean eating and tasty!

And I was in bed by 8….and watching Teen Wolf at 9, whence I fell asleep!

Thank you DVR!

Love me tender

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pork tender

Does not matter the weather or the day of the week, pork tenderloin is a favorite in our house, by those paleo and not, it just such a tried and true simple basic we probably eat it every week. Put on two of them and you have leftovers for a couple of meals, simplifying your week even more!

Nothing clever to say here this morning, except that anyone can do this. ANYONE! There is nothing tricky, nothing complicated. Have iron skillet, will make roasted pork tenderloin!

Here is how it works:

Have one or two organic pieces of pork tenderloin, I usually do two of them, as they will both fit nicely in the pan and give you plenty to pick off of for a day or so. 1-2 pounds each.

Rub each tender with some coconut oil (melted) or olive oil so that it spreads over the entire piece of meat. Usually 1-2 Tbsp should work.

With the tip of your knife, on one side of the meat, randomly poke in about 10 or so places about 1/2 inch deep. You will put thin slices of garlic and/or ginger in these slits….flavors up the meat nicely!
(That said, thinly slice 1-2 garlic cloves and a finger of fresh ginger…place a slice of either or both in each slit…push it down all the way.

Put your iron skillett on your stove burner on HIGH to preheat.
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees as well.

While everything is heating, liberally sprinkle on both sides of the meat:
course sea salt
fresh cracked pepper
ground ginger
thyme
a light sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Once the skillet is screaming hot, lay the tenders in the pan to sear it to a beautiful brown on each side….about 3 minutes per side should do it.

Now place the skillet in the hot oven for 25-30 minutes….and you are done when the temperature of the meat is 160 degrees or higher at the thickest part of the meat.

Let the meat sit for 5 minutes before slicing, and you are done!

We love to serve with stewed apples and asparagus…but it goes with just about any sides! It is lovely with eggs in the morning, cold for lunch, and thankfully not an expensive cut of meat!