Taco Salad

Well, I missed a blog entry last week, now I owe 100 burpees.  

This blog entry was brought you by Taco Salad.   It’s simple and requires little effort or cooking. 

I forgot I had ground bison in the fridge.  I could have made bison chili or bell peppers stuffed with bison but I was impatient and could not be bothered with the effort.   I’ve made regular taco salads in the past and thought, “Why not paleo taco salad?”

I’ve made taco salad using prepackaged seasoning but I have to tell you, making my own taco seasoning was way better than any store bought seasoning.  Of course, my seasoning was much spicier.   Plus I cranked it up a notch with fresh jalapenos and hot salsa.

Below I have list of veggies I used in my taco salad but really you can add any veggie.

Ingredients:

Taco Meat:

1 pound of ground meat (beef, chicken, turkey or bison)

1 tablespoon chili powder

¼ tablespoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Salad

A few fist fulls of lettuce

1 diced tomato

¼ medium onion (diced)

small can of sliced olives

2 large jalapenos (sliced)

salsa (make sure it is paleo)

1 avocado (sliced)

shredded carrot

1 hard boiled egg (sliced)

a few sprigs of cilantro

Directions

Brown ground meat until almost entirely brown.  Add seasoning and allow too cook for a few more minutes.  Set aside when done.

While meat is browning, dice your veggies.   Duh.

Assemble your taco: lettuce, meat, and other veggies.  Top with salsa.

Baked Hard Boiled Eggs

So I've heard about this way of cooking eggs and decided to give it a try. If you're like me and like hard boiled eggs, but dread having to boil them....I mean let's face it.. they're either under done, over done or the shell is just not coming off without a fight. Yes, you will have to turn your oven on but after you taste the difference you will not want a hard boiled egg any other way. The shell will easily peel off, the egg white will be tender and the yolk will be perfect. Now let's get started.

Directions:

I used a dozen eggs but you can use more if needed. DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN. Move oven rack to the middle of oven and place eggs directly on rack. (Place a pan under eggs just in case one breaks) Turn oven on and set at 325 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes. Immediately take eggs out of oven and place them in a bowl of ice water to stop the egg from cooking. Peel and enjoy.

Kristy

Tortilla chips

Does anyone miss a crunchy vessel for guacamole? I do!!!! So I played around with some different ideas and I came up with this... And it's pretty darn good :)
3 egg whites
2 cups almond meal
1/2 cup flax seed
1/2 tbs cumin

Mix together well and flatten into 2-3 rounded tortillas. Deep fry in olive oil until it starts to harden. Take each one crack into pieces. Dip into your favorite guacamole... Yum and thank god!

Chocolate Truffles

These truffles are delicious and literally melt in your mouth. This non-bake recipe is super quick and easy and amazingly better than the real thing.

Ingredients:

1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup agave
1 small pinch of salt

* You will need a little extra cocoa powder to coat the truffle in.

Directions:

Warm the coconut oil until it is slightly soft but not melted. Combine all 4 ingredients together in a medium bowl. Using a spoon full, form small round balls of mixture and coat/roll each ball with extra cocoa powder. You may need to place mixture in freezer for a few minutes if it is too soft to form. Place completed truffle on wax paper and put them in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

Kristy :)

Chayote Soup

I have fond memories of a chayote vines intertwined and growing around a very large tree in my grandfather’s backyard.  Literally, the chayote plant was strangling the tree.   My mother would pick a few chayote, cube them, steam them until soft and then slather it in butter.  Hey, its better than Hamburger Helper!   

When I was in Ralphs the other day, I noticed chayote was on special.  This prompted the question, “What can I make with chayote?”   I went to the interwebs and searched for something quick and easy.  Soup was about as easy as it gets.  

The soup it self was spicy but that was because I added way more Serrano chilies than it required.  If I had to do this soup over again, I would stick with ¼ teaspoon of Serrano chile, not 3 whole Serrano chilies.    

Ingredients

2 scallions (minced)

1 garlic clove (minced)

¼ teaspoon of Serrano chile (minced)

¼ teaspoon of coconut oils, ghee or grass-fed butter

2-3 chayotes (peeled, sliced length wise, pitted and cut into ½ inch pieces)

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons of freshly chopped cilantro

1 3/4 cup of beef broth, chicken broth or water

Directions

Cook scallions, garlic and chile in oil in a large sauce pan over medium-low heat.  Stir until soft (3 min).  Add chayote, salt and 1 tablespoon cilantro, stirring for 3 more min.   Next, add water/broth, cover and let simmer until chayote are tender (20-25 min).  

Stir in remaining cilantro.  With an emersion blender or conventional blender, blend the be-jesus out of the mixture until you have a soup like consistency.   Serve hot.  

Bacon Wrapped Dates

This is popular snack in the paleo world, so I thought I would give it a whirl. If you are craving something sweet this would be a great option.

Ingredients:

8 pieces of bacon cut in half
16 almonds
16 fresh whole dates

Tip: If dates are extremely large feel free to use a half of date per wrap.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Stick the almond inside the date (make sure seed/pit is out of date). Wrap date with half of piece of bacon. You may use a toothpick to hold in place but it's not necessary. Bake for 15-20 min or until bacon is to your liking.

Enjoy

Kristy

Broccoli shrimp ala T-Joes

I love love love Trader joes!!! I can whip up quick easy and yummy meals for my week in just minutes. I'm currently on a shrimp terror so bare with me. My roommate, who doesn't Crossfit and still doesn't know what paleo is, loved this dish.
What you need:
1 medium onion
1 small tomato
1 bag of broccoli florets
1 bag of argentine shrimp
1 tbs of all natural lemon pepper
1 tsp of crushed garlic
EVOO
Steps:
Take a large pan and coat evenly with EVOO. Add diced onion and tomato until brown and soft. Add broccoli, stir and make sure the oil coats and cooks the broccoli. Add the defrosted shrimp and add a bit more oil. Throw on the lemon pepper and garlic. The shrimp will cook fairly quickly... Literally about a minute or two. Serve with lime and eat up!!!
~Liz

Frittata...with a Kick! Ye-haw

This paleo creation was made out of desperation!!!!  Desperation is never pretty.

Tomorrow, I have a morning work meeting.  Tomorrow, most everyone will either bring donuts or bagels.   That is a Fail.com in my book.  I needed something I could make the night before, that would keep and I could enjoy the next day during my morning meeting.  I searched the interwebs and found an awesome recipe for a frittata.   I knew it would be a winner because the recipe calls for Chili Powder.   Ive being doing Paleo (mostly) for over a year and if there is anything that I have learned, its that any recipe that calls for Chili Powder, tends to be a winner.

The recipe is flexible...if you wanna use beef, then use beef.  If you wanna use bison, then use bison.  If you wanna use ham (I did), use ham.  Use any meat you want...but keep it paleo.  Same goes with the veggies.   Experiment a little, as long as you are using Chili Powder, you can't go wrong.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
1 small onion (diced)
1 large jalapeño (diced) if you really want a kick use Serrano Chilies
2-3 cloves of garlic (diced)
1 cup of sweet potato (peels and grated)
1 pound of protein (ground beef, diced ham, ground bison...whatever)
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 of red or green salsa (read label to ensure Paleo-ness)
12 eggs

Directions
Preheat oven 350 degrees.  In a large skillet under medium heat add coconut oil and saute onions and jalapenos until onions are translucent.  Next, add your meat.  If using ground beef or bison, cook until meat starts to turn brown and then add sweet potato and garlic.  Continue to cook until sweet potato is soft and meat is completely brown.   Add chili powder, salsa and cumin to skillet and mix throughly.  Cook until heated through.  

In either an 11x7 baking pan or 2 pie pans, add meat mixture to bottom of pan, spread evenly.  In a large bowl, beat 12 eggs and pour over meat mixture.  Cover tightly with foil and cook for approximately 35 min.  Uncover and bake for an additional 10-15 or until the middle is firm.

Flowers

Quickie fruit snack

Mother's market carries the freshest almond butter... It's literally created before your eyes. My favorite snack consists of...
Two regular spoonfuls of almond butter
3 diced strawberries
1/2 a diced banana
A hand ful of blueberries

Stir the almond butter until its covering it all and it's a bit mushy... Love it!!!'

Hot Legs

This recipe is so easy to prepare and even tastes better than your typical restaurant style hot wings. You may use chicken wings but for this recipe I chose drumsticks and made them our main course. Feel free to double the recipe.

Ingredients:

8 chicken legs
5 oz Louisiana Hot Sauce ( I love this hot sauce because its made with only 3 ingredients: peppers, vinegar and salt)
4 oz pure organic butter (salted)
1 Tbs olive oil
Paprika
Ground pepper
Garlic powder

Instructions:

Pre heat oven at 375. Place chicken legs in a baking dish. Drizzle olive oil on top of the legs followed by a quick rub down to spread the oil evenly. Sprinkle each leg with paprika, pepper and garlic powder. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until legs are fully cooked.

Melt butter and mix with hot sauce. In a large bowl toss cooked legs and sauce.

Note: The veggie dip recipe in this blog is a great ranch replacement.

Enjoy!

Kristy