This is the most amazing Paleo breakfast I have found so far! I found this recipe at Paleomg.com. No adjustments are necessary for her recipe–it is perfect. The only thing I did differently was use Agave nectar instead of maple syrup.
Banana Bread French Toast
Update 2/28/12
Well, I had an excellent day off, that included an extended nap! I’ve been thinking of how to improve my crab cake recipe, and I think I did it today! So, here we go!
I started with some wonderful beets I got from Inglewood Farms (all the produce tonight is from Inglewood). I washed and trimmed them, put them in an oven proof dish, add a splash of water, cover tightly with foil, and put in a 400 F oven for 45 minutes or so. The actual cook time will vary depending on the size of the beets. Once done, let them cool, and use the back of a pairing knife to peel off the skins. Dice them up and place in a bowl with salt, pepper, and your vinegar of choice. Now I like beets, and most cookbooks I have say to let the beets marinate in vinegar a while before adding any oil. So, I added balsamic vinegar and around 30 minutes later, added a bit of extra virgin olive oil. Beets done!
Next I’ll address the side vegetables. Tonight we had carrots and cauliflower. I trimmed and peeled the veggies, and placed them on a sheet pan. On the carrot side I added some garlic infused macadamia nut oil with salt and pepper. For the cauliflower i added olive oil and garlic powder. The pan went into the same 400 F oven for around 30-40 minutes and that was it!
Lastly for the crab cakes. In a bowl I put half a yellow bell pepper diced finely, three scallions diced finely, one egg well beaten, two tablespoons of paleo mayo, a tablespoon of Old Bay Seasoning, and a pound of fresh crab meat. Gently mix the ingredients and form into 8 small patties. Put them in the fridge to firm up so they stay together while you fry them up. In a shallow plate sprinkle some coconut flour. Melt a little coconut oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Coat the cakes in flour and fry in the coconut oil around 3-4 minutes a side until the are a nice golden brown on both sides.
Now I don’t know about ya’ll, but crab cakes to me just need a sauce to make them pop! I found some mild pickled type baby peppers my mom gave me (picture attached) and blended them up with my immersion blender along with a few heaping spoonfuls of coconut milk and a few drops of agave syrup. Plate everything up and it’s time to eat! Hope everyone has a good day…
Update 2/26/12
Hey everyone! Hope you all had as good a weekend as I did. Just a totally relaxing weekend with the family, and I really needed it! So, what did I do? Well, I started off Saturday morning with a trip to the Green Market downtown to buy some Inglewood Farms organic produce and eggs for the weekend. I got it home, washed it, bagged it, and settled it all into my Veggie Refrigerator Drawer.
Next I did a few housekeeping chores for the kitchen. I was running low on my balsamic vinegar glaze, so I bought two 3 dollar bottles of balsamic vinegar at the grocery, and I simmered it until it was reduced by around 1/2 or more. This makes a thick and rich glaze that is amazing with almost anything. Sure, you can spend tons more on very old balsamic, and I do have some of it, but that is only for special occasions. This stuff is cheap, yummy, and perfect for every day. Next, I put a heap of almonds into the food processor and let them go for 10 minutes. At the end I add a little roasted almond oil, and there ya have it…almond butter!
Saturday night I cooked up my kid’s favorite…Flat Iron Steak! They sell them individually pre-vacuum sealed at Kroger, and I find the flavor just about the best of any steak you can get anywhere. Like I said, the kids love it. Funny enough, they will ONLY eat it medium rare! I always cook it that way, and they won’t accept it any other way. Fine by me! I added another batch of the the Health-Bent.com Roasted Acorn Squash drizzled with a little of my newly made balsamic glaze, and a side of Inglewood Farms Chinese Spinach sautéed in bacon grease…YUM!
I woke up this morning craving something a little different…a cheat maybe? So, I whipped up some Paleo Coconut Pancakes. I’m not ready to say I perfected the recipe yet, so I’ll keep working on it and post it when ready. Pancakes themselves are perfect, just need to work on the spice combination! For a topping all I had was a relatively bruised honey crisp apple. I chopped it up and sautéed it in ghee till crisp, and then added a little cinnamon and agave to finish it off. Added a couple of pieces of bacon, drizzled a little melted raw honey on the pancakes, and that’s all she wrote. Lets just say…we’ll eat these again!
We decided to take the kids on a hike today out at Valentine Lake, so before we left, I collected the cornish hens I put to defrost a few days ago and seasoned them. I my spice grinder I put three dried shitake mushrooms, a tablespoon of sage, and a tablespoon of salt. I whizzed it up and liberally applied it to the birds. At the bottom of my slow cooker I put a chopped up onion, a few carrots, some left over acorn squash from the other night, and three garlic cloves. I put the birds on top, put a third of a cup of chicken broth in the cooker, and set it for 8 hours on low.
When we got back this afternoon, I took the hens out and put them on a rack to cool. With my immersion blender I made an amazing gravy out of the juices and veggies in the bottom of the slow cooker. Just had to add a touch of salt to finish it off.
For my sides, I sauteed up some cubed King Trumpet Mushrooms in olive oil, and roasted some asparagus in the oven at 400 F for around 20 minutes. Just toss them in olive oil, salt, and pepper and pop them in. I usually add some kind of vinegarette to top my asparagus because Kourt just loves them that way, and tonights did NOT disappoint! Whole grain mustard, White Balsamic Vinegar, salt, pepper, and olive oil. All I can say is…Kourt and I were fighting to lick the left overs out of the bowl! Finally, I plated everything up. We have the adult plate, and the kid’s plate! All were happy…
Really, just a great weekend! Good weather, good food, and great times with my family. Time to go start planning tomorrow night’s dinner!
Update 2/23/12
Ok, so I’ve kind of been kind of slacking on updates lately…been crazy busy with my brother on vacation! I did manage to cook up some yummy grub last night which I stole from other sites!
Ginger Lime Chicken from Paleo Magazine and Roasted Butternut squash from Health-Bent.com. Good stuff!! Post again soon 🙂
Update 2/18/12
How is everyone doing? I hope all of you are well. I’m all alone this weekend, so have a chance to try out some new things to cook! I’m reading an awesome book right now called “Why We Get Fat,” I’ll make sure and post a review once I’m done.
Got back from rounding at the hospital this morning and was quite hungry. Ran by the grocery and picked up some Chicken apple sausages and served them with a spinach salad I whipped up.
Tonight I decided to try something fun. There are so many Puerto Rican dishes that I grew up eating, and I’m convinced that many of them can be converted to Paleo. This evening I made traditional Vaca Frita (Literally, fried cow) and Puerto Rican style “Cauliflower Rice.” Honestly, I have to say, this may have been the best Paleo meal I’ve come up with yet!!
I started with taking a whole flank steak and slicing it in two. I threw it in the old pressure cooker with a bay leaf and 4-5 peppercorns. I filled it half full of water, cranked her up, and let it go at pressure for 45 minutes. I let the pressure die down and once they cooled, I removed the steaks and shredded them and set the meat aside.
Next I started on the Cauliflower. Normally I would make steamed rice and Puerto Rican flavored kidney beans. What I decided to do was to make Cauliflower Rice, but use the flavoring I would normally make the beans with! Start by making a traditional sofrito. In a food processor add half a yellow onion, 1/3 a sweet bell pepper, two large garlic cloves, 1/2 t of oregano, and 1 t salt. Process until pretty smooth. Add the sofrito to a pan with a good dose of olive oil and fry gently until the flavors come together. Next process the cauliflower until the consistency you want…basically rice like. Add the cauliflower to the pot along with a cup of chicken stock and a packet of Goya Sazon Seasoning. It’s not completely paleo I’m sure as it has a little MSG, but there is no flavor substitute! Cook this down, add a little salt to taste, and turn your attention to the meat.
Slice an onion up thinly, and add it to a pan with olive oil with the heat up high. Add the shredded beef and season with salt, pepper, and just a sprinkling of cumin. Fry the meat, moving often until it gets nice and crispy. You are looking for around half crispy and half moist. Be aggressive with the heat to get the right flavor! Serve, and enjoy!
Update 2/14/12
How is everyone doing on this Valentine’s Day?? Hope all are well. Kourt and I had our Valentine’s dinner last night, so we were home tonight and I cooked for the kids. A few other goodies first though.
For those who don’t know, I’m Puerto Rican by heritage. We eat LOTS of plantains, and I have vivid memories of eating very ripe plantains for breakfast with my eggs. So, enter a perfect Paleo breakfast. You want the plantain to be so ripe, you think it’s rotting! (Completely black) Just slice it, and fry it up in coconut oil.
Next for dinner tonight I made baked chicken. Now there are many out there who seem to be afraid of baking a whole chicken…but you can’t beat it! They are cheap, and taste better than any boneless skinless anything out there. This is how I have always baked my chickens, no alterations needed for paleo!
Wash the chicken’s very well in cold water and pat dry. Slice a shallot in half, and stuff half into the cavity of each bird (I always make two so I have left overs). Also throw in 3-4 thyme sprigs and rosemary sprigs from the backyard (or supermarket). I buy grass fed butter (which has a VERY favorable omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acid ratio, and universally accepted in paleo in moderation) and rub it all over the birds. Last I season liberally with salt and pepper. You can use your imagination and season as you see fit! Preheat oven to 375 F Convection (400F conventional) and place birds in on a rack breast side up. Cook for 20 minute, flip them over, cook for 30 minutes, then flip back over until done. Around 20 more minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest 10-15 minutes. Carve and Serve! It’s just so easy, even a caveman can do it….sorry for that.
Ok, so last…I have had basically nothing resembling a “treat” in 6 weeks, and it’s valentine’s day, so I made Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies! They were from the book Make it Paleo, and they were amazing!
And I threw in a picture of me and my little man at his Valentine’s day party! Hope all had a wonderful day!!!
So, Where has Paleo gotten me over the last 6 weeks?
Greetings all, I just wanted to give a little update on how things are going now that I’ve hit the 6 week mark on Paleo.
First…My Knowledge Base. I’ve read around 5 books concerning the paleo lifestyle, and reviewed COUNTLESS blogs and blog posts. With every day I become more convinced that the evidence supporting Paleo is unmatched, and sadly, will also never be mainstreamed by the government or media. That’s just reality, folks. Big government and big business will win every time. That said, it does not mean that educated people can’t both live heatlhier lives, and try to get others to do the same. I’ll keep reading, and plan on posting some interesting facts I’ve learned about Paleo in the coming weeks.
Second…My Personal Experience. So six weeks, I’ve lost 17 pounds, never feel hungry, very rarely crave things to eat, sleep like a champ, feel more energized, and just FEEL healthier. Oh, and I stopped the blood pressure medicine I’ve taken for almost 6 years two weeks ago, and my pressure is normal. Quite amazing, it really is. This is real change folks…and it’s not hard.
Third…My Friends’ Experience. I’ve convinced no fewer than 5 friends and family to go Paleo, and they have all experienced similar results to myself. The two main constants are people sleep much better, and they are never hungry. I just don’t see how people can justify their eating habits when they feel so poorly doing so.
So, where do I stand? Well, I certainly am convinced paleo is right for me, and for my family. My kids have benefitted as well from my wife and I’s dietary changes, and they I believe also feel better, even though we are not as strict with them as we are ourselves. Also, I’ve convinced that it is right for certain patients I see at my clinic.
Beef Shanks with Carrots And Cabbage
Hello everyone, hope everyone was able to make it out to the Green market today at the museum! I took the kids cause the wife wasn’t feeling well. We were a bit late, and the line was long. The kids were freezing, and I made it about two minutes of the kids swearing they were turning into Popsicles before I caved and went home…empty handed. On to next week…
I did manage to cook today, and I use a Nom Nom Paleo recipe as a guide. I pretty much followed the recipe except I added two turnips to the mix. Kids actually ate some, and all were happy with things! Hope you guys can try it out some time.
Several Goodies I’ve Cooked Up
Greetings all, I haven’t posted, but I’ve been busy! Thought I would post a few things I’ve cooked recently, so here we go.
I went over to a friend’s that I’ve convinced to eat paleo, and she asked me to help her cook a paleo chicken meal. We ate Chicken Marsala, Spaghetti Squash, and a Warm Spinach Salad. But, for dessert I wanted to pre-make some cookies. I honestly can’t remember the recipe cause I kind of made it up, but they were mainly made with apples, coconut, almonds, and raisins. They weren’t bad at all…almost had a macaroon taste to them.
I also have started at looking at re-creating some of the Puerto Rican foods I grew up eating, but adapting them to the paleo lifestyle. A classic Latin American dish is called Picadillo, which is a savory ground meat mixture typically served over rice, along side plantains or yucca, or stuffed into peppers. It’s absolutely yum. You may look at it and think…green olives and raisins in the same dish?? Trust me, its a hit! Get a big dutch oven and brown 3 pounds of ground beef till its cooked through. Drain the excess grease from the pot. Add in a chopped yellow onion and 2-3 garlic cloves and cook for a few minutes. Next add a can of chopped green olives stuffed with pimentos, 2 cups of raisins, two chopped bell peppers, two cans of tomato paste, a good bunch of cilantro, a heaping T of cumin, and a T of salt. Cook for around 30 minutes until it’s to your liking. Taste and readjust the seasoning. Like I said, serve this over cauliflower “rice”, stuff peppers with it, pan-fry up some very ripe plantiains…or whatever. I’ve also going to experiment and try to come up with a Picadillo Meatloaf! Just try it!
Last, one of our good friends is sick, and I wanted to take her some chicken soup to make her feel better. Now of course I can’t use a Noodle soup, so went with a different approach! I had to chicken carcasses left over from the Marsala the other night, so I through them into the pressure cooker with enough water to fill the cooker around 2/3 of the way full. I got it going and cooked it for an hour at pressure. I let the pressure settle and opened up the pot…what amazing chicken stock in an hour! I removed the carcasses and (fairly painstakingly) picked all the meat that was left after cutting away the main pieces of the chicken. To the stock I added a can of fire roasted tomatoes that I whizzed up with my immersion blender, a chopped up onion, two carrots I sliced paper thin with my mandolin right into the pot, 1 t Cumin, 1 t garlic powder, 1 1/2 T salt, 1/2 t oregano and 10 green olives sliced pretty thin. I let that all simmer for around 20 minutes, and done! To serve I just threw in some chopped up avocado and it was YUM! It’s like tortilla soup without the Tortillas!
So that’s it for tonight. I’m trying to keep you guys as informed as I can about my cooking adventures, and it’s actually quite fun! If you haven’t figured it out, I love to cook. Most of my recipes are mine, or significantly tweaked to my liking! Get cooking, it’s the only way to Paleo!
Portable Breakfast Frittata
Before I forget, I wanted yall to notice the recipe index tab above. I’m adding links to all the recipes I post under this section to make it easy to find them over time. I have nothing but plans to grow this blog over time, and one day the organization will help everyone find what they need much faster! On to the food..
If you are all like me, it’s hard some days to find time to eat a complete breakfast when you are on the go. I love a good frittata, but often gotta get the kiddos to school before I could ever finish one! Enter the muffin frittata (Nom Nom Paleo is apparently obsessed with them). This morning it’s just me and the kids, so I decided to take my first crack at baking me up some individual frittata’s with the hope of eating a few in the mornings this week for breakfast when I’m running short on time.
Pre-Heat the oven to 375 F. Here is what I assembled for the job. Half a pound of ground turkey, two shallots, a yellow pepper, a can of red pimentos, Madras Curry Powder, 1/4 cup of coconut milk, coconut flour, and 6 eggs.
Next I heated up a little olive oil and cooked up the peppers and shallots until just tender. I added the turkey and seasoned liberally with salt and the curry powder. Saute until just a bit crispy on the edges.
In the mean time I sprayed a non-stick muffin tray with coconut oil spray and whipped up the egg mixture. Just whip the eggs with the coconut milk and a bit of coconut flour. Fill each muffin cup with the meat mixture, then top off with egg mixture to reach almost the top.
Pop these in the oven for 12 minutes, then rotate the tray 180 degrees and bake an additional 5-6 minutes. Immediately after taking them out of the oven I ran a sharp knife around the edge of each muffin to make sure it did not stick…then I crossed my fingers.
After around 10 minutes I GENTLY removed each frittata to a cooling tray. To my great surprise, I did not have to be that gentle after all as they held together very well and did not stick at all! The possibilities are endless here on good flavor combinations…I will certainly be experimenting more with these and think they’ll be a big hit on busy mornings!
Oh, and I had some left over meat mixture, so while these baked, and I was hungry, I made some quick scrambled eggs and chowed them down before the frittatas were even done 🙂
PaleoHikerMD 