From Inglewood Farm, Old Baton Rouge highway. They will be at the next Second Saturday market at Alexandria Museum of Art, February 11, 9a-1p. Bring your grocery bags. Your taste buds will sing!
Clean, delicious, freshness
Fermentation
So, since starting a Paleo lifestyle last May, I became interested in non-dairy, or supplemental, sources of probiotics – for gut health – and discovered fermentation. Well, I didn’t “discover” it, but I’ve been experimenting with it – in the form of sauerkraut. Pretty good stuff. Above is my latest traditional-ish version. I used one head, each, green and purple cabbage, added celery seeds and caraway seeds, with ~3 tablespoons of kosher salt and let it work it’s magic for 3-4 weeks. I’ve got a new batch brewing as of a couple of days ago – purple cabbage, cranberries, apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, kosher salt – sauerkraut, my new dessert!!
Easy Chicken Dinner
Evening everyone! I’m on call, and got in a little late, so it was a quick dinner tonight. After a rushed stop at Kroger for my goods, I came home and got to work. Simple dinner menu? Chicken Thighs, roasted King Trumpet mushrooms, and wilted red chard.
The mushrooms were easy. Diced them into bite sized pieces and tossed them in this awesome garlic infused macadamia nut oil I found a Marshalls. In the oven at 400 F for 20 minutes and done.
The chard was a last minute addition. I’ve kind of been slacking on bringing greens into dinner lately, so I got the chard. Wife wasn’t too excited, but she survived. Washed them, and put them in hot olive oil for a minutes or so. I added a touch of chicken broth, a healthy dose of reduced balasmic vinegar, and some S&P. Let it cook down till it was a nice sticky mess, and yum!
Chicken was even easier. Season, saute, and done!
I’m telling all you doubters out there…this took me 15 minutes!!! And it cost less than 20 bucks (fed all four of us, and could be much cheaper without the organic chicken). You can’t Paleo without cooking…so GET COOKING!!
My Paleo Dinners
Well, my photos, or posting abilities are not near the quality of Ernie’s, but these photos reflect some of what I’ve been preparing for dinner at our house. The top photo is a stir-fry and beet green sauté; the other bison/leftover pulled pork chili, Brussels sprout/asparagus sauté and Chinese 5-spice turnip fries. All very good!
Spanish Style Baked Chicken and Asparagus Salad
Greetings all! Hope all are well. Tonight I took my basic baked chicken recipe and changed it up by using spanish smoked paprika, or Pimenton as the major flavor.
Start by putting together a marinade with 2 chopped shallots, 1 garlic clove, 2 T Sherry Vinegar, 2 T Olive Oil, and your chicken pieces (I used 6 Drumsticks and 4 Thighs) which I seasoned liberally with salt and the Pimenton. Put in all in a ziplock bag and marinate for a few hours to overnight.
When you are ready to start cooking, Pre-Heat the oven to 400 F Convection, divide up a head of cauliflower into florets, quarter a container of mushrooms, and roughly chop a yellow onion. Place these at the bottom of a large oven safe casserole, season with salt and pepper, and top with the chicken pieces skin side down. Add a scant 1 cup of chicken stock to the dish making sure to pour between the chicken pieces as to not take the seasoning off the chicken. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then flip the chicken over for an additional 35 minutes in the oven.
While the chicken bakes, hardboil an egg and peel it. In a bowl combine a tablespoon of grainy mustard, 3 tablespoons of good Sherry Vinegar, and a little salt and Pepper.
Whisk in 4-5 Tablespoons of good olive oil until you make a very loose vinegarette.
Cut and trim some relatively thin asparagus spears and get some water boiling in a shallow pan that has a cover you can use.
Steam the asparagus till just tender and plate. Pour the vinegarette over the top while they are still hot so they absorb it better, and sprinkle the chopped up egg over the whole mess. It’s so YUM!
Once the chicken is done, remove it from the pot and let the veggies cook in the oven for around ten minutes, replace the chicken on top, reheat in the oven a few minutes, and take it to the table! The chicken is perfectly done, and the cauliflower and mushrooms have absorbed all the delicious fat from the chicken baking above.
Whole family gave it an A Plus, hope yall can try it! I’m telling you guys, eating Paleo does not have to be boring. It’s also not hard at all to put together these recipes. Can’t wait to figure out what to make tomorrow night!
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
I wasn’t sure how this was going to come out last night, but it was great! The deer sausage had a nice smoky flavor and the almond flour roux gave it a nutty undertone. This Paleo gumbo was adapted from Paul Prudhomme’s recipe (seriously!). Serve over chopped cauliflower and you don’t even miss the rice!
Paleo Dinner, Kid Style
Hope all had a great weekend! I’ve been on call…so not the most exciting weekend, but I can’t complain.
Decided to make a more Kid centered dinner tonight, and get the kids involved as well. After I got home, I put together another batch of my Curry Agave Jerky as the first batch did not last very long! I also experimented with some beef bone marrow stock in the pressure cooker, and it actually came out really good! I’ll post on that later after I use it in a soup and make sure it’s suitable.
I’ve been pumping the kids up in the last week about the homemade chicken nuggets we were gonna make. Little man bought in right away, while little lady proved wise and proceeded with caution! So here we go. These recipes were based loosly on the Paleo Coconut Chicken Nuggets from Health-Bent.com, and some Latin Fries that I actually turned into more like thick plantain chips. I’m very wise in the ways of the plantain given that I’m Puerto Rican…so I got serious plans for plainains in the future. But I digress….
Preheat the oven to 400 F
Start by putting 2 pounds of ground veal (yeah, no ground chicken at the store), two egg yolks, 1/2 cup almond flour, a teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder, and some salt into a bowl.
Mix it all up and ideally, get a 2-3 Tablespoon disher ready. In a shallow plate stir together 1/2 cup of almond flour and 1/2 cup of dried coconut (not sweetened!) along with a little S&P. Dish up consistent scoops of the meat mixture, roll into balls, and drop into the dish. If you have kids, have them roll the balls around to cover in the almond and coconut mixture.
Heat up your FOC (Fat Of Choice) in a frying pan and put half the nuggets in. Rotate every few minutes until all sides nice and golden. A good crisp nugget is key to your kids buying into this whole thing. Once they are done, transfer to a warm holding dish and finish the second batch.
For the Plaintain chips, peel the plaintains and slice them into 1/2 inch rounds. Toss them in some oil (I didn’t use enough this time, and they came out a little dry) and salt. Put them in the oven for half an hour or so till they are golden.
The dinner was a hit with the whole family! My always perceptive Syd took one bite of nugget and said “I’ll tell you two things daddy…first, that’s not chicken, second, you can make these any time you want, cause they are delicious.” Like I said, the plainains were a little dry, but we can fix that with more oil. I hope yall try these soon!
Oh, and I’ve stopped using my iPhone for the pictures and picked up the Digital SLR. I’m ATTEMPTING to learn how to use this thing right to get better pictures….but the manual is longer than most textbooks….LOL
Curry Agave Beef Jerky
I love beef jerky, and it makes so much sense from the Paleo standpoint. Problem is that almost all the jerky you can find commercially has tons of preservatives, and almost always soy sauce. So, I stole my mom’s food dehydrator and this what I got! Was tasty indeed.
Marinade:
2 T Coconut Aminos
2 T Pure Agave Syrup
2 T Warm Water
2 T Apple Cider Vinegar
1 t Curry Powder
1 t Salt
1 t Pepper
Slice up any cut of lean beef into thin strips and marinate them for a few hours. Then put them on the food dehydrator and dry until you like the texture. Much cheaper, much healthier, and much better tasting than what comes in a bag!
Steak and Slaw
Simple dinner tonight. Mixed up a little dry rub for some strip steaks and grilled them up. On the side I got a bag of broccoli slaw, some thinly sliced mushrooms, and sautéed them up in a little ghee and olive oil. Simple and tasty…just the way we like it!
Madeira Chicken with Mushrooms
Saw a recipe on the web for a baked chicken, and I kind of changed it up to my liking. Seriously yall, try this recipe…it’s the bomb. Kourt and the kids took it down in no time. If you could only smell what my kitchen smells like at the moment…
Paleo Chicken Madeira with Mushrooms
INGREDIENTS
5 to 6 Organic Chicken Drumsticks
4 Organic Chicken Thighs (Bone In)
3 Shallots
1 Clove Garlic
6 oz Mushrooms
3 T Madeira Wine (Or Marsala)
3 T Olive Oil
2 T Sherry Vinegar
1 T Coconut Aminos
Salt and Pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 F Convection (400 F conventional) with the rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Peel and roughly chop shallots and garlic clove. With food processor blade running, drop in the garlic clove, and sections of shallot one at a time to achieve a fine consistency. Salt and Pepper the chicken. Place chicken into a gallon size ziplock bag along with the shallots/garlic mixture, sherry, Madeira, olive oil, and aminos. Let marinate in the fridge from 30 minutes to overnight. I only let it sit half an hour, and it was awesome.
3. Once you are ready to make the chicken, place the pieces skin side down in a large oven proof baking dish and place in the oven. After 20 minutes flip the chicken pieces over and top them with the mushrooms. Place back into the oven for 25 more minutes or until crispy. Serve hot with your choice of side and plenty of the resulting sauce spooned over the chicken.
PaleoHikerMD 