Category: Recipes

A couple of days ago our son, who has been cooking for us for a few months, left to pursue life’s adventures. So, it’s time for me to get back on the cooking bandwagon. For the next few days, I’ll probably be using some of the paleo recipes that we’ve already tried and enjoyed. Occasionally I’ll throw in a new salad or entree recipe. We’ll see how it goes.

I am a couple of weeks behind in posting some of the recipes we’ve tried already so you will see some of those also.

To date, I’ve lost 20 lbs (almost 21 but I won’t count the extra lb until my scale shows it for 3 days). Not bad for eating paleo and not exercising, eh?

Yesterday we had Crock Pot Lamb Stew that we had before and it was a hit again. I cooked it on high for 4 hours and it was perfectly done.

I made a new salad to go with the stew — Honey Mustard Broccoli Salad. It was quite good! One gauge I use besides my own taste buds is my husband who took all of the leftovers with him for lunch today. Yea for me in finding a simple but tasty salad.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb broccoli (with stems)
• 1 large apple (I used a medium one)
• 3 leaves of lettuce (original recipe calls for mixed greens but I had lettuce at home so that’s what I used)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard (sugar free if possible) – I bought the spicy brand so used 1 tablespoon instead of the 3 tablespoons that the original recipe calls for)
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• salt & pepper (to taste)
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt

Directions

1. Clean the broccoli and slice it into medium sized florets. (The original recipe says you can use the stems too but they are normally too chewy for me so I left them out.)
2. Steam the broccoli for approximately 2 minutes (the broccoli should look “bright” but you don’t want it soggy).
3. Remove the broccoli from the stovetop and immediately immerse it in cold water until cooled. Drain it thoroughly and then pat them dry with a towel so the florets won’t hold onto the water which will dilute the dressing.
4. Core & slice the apple thinly then add it to a large bowl along with the broccoli and lettuce.
5.  In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the dressing ingredients (mustard, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper.) Taste and add more of any of the ingredients depending on what your preference is.
6. Pour 1/2 of the dressing over the salad and toss everything together to blend it.
7. Refrigerate the salad for 30 minutes.
8. In a small bowl, toss the raisins with 1/4 tsp. salt and set aside.
9. When you’re ready to serve the salad, add the raisins over the refrigerated ingredients and serve.

The reason I saved half of the dressing is because I don’t like to toss my salads in the dressing as most times it becomes soggy. This salad does need to marinate in this dressing so that’s why I added half of it. In addition, my husband likes spicy foods but I don’t so this gave him the option to add more dressing to the salad whereas I kept mine more mild.

This was quite simple and I would definitely make it again.

The highlight of my paleo diet was this Sweet Potato and Leek Soup. Really and seriously. This was fantastico! I loved every bite of this soup and later had it for breakfast also. It has a smooth texture to it that reminded me of cream of rice. What?!!! Yes, it had the texture of cream of rice and I love that texture on my palette.

I will make this again and again, although my husband, who is not a fan of sweet potato, was not too thrilled with it, so we’ll see where life leads. What are we going to do with such husbands?

My son served the soup with Ratatouille. An odd combination, no? I’m beginning to believe I’m not a fan of ratatouille. I mean, it was okay but it’s not on my “let’s make it again tomorrow” list.

Both entrees are chockfull of vitamins though so I say — go for it! But definitely try the soup — you won’t be disappointed.

Trialling this recipe that our son made was interesting. I’d never thought of making a casserole, aka Chicken Potato and Vegetable Bake, and adding potatoes and carrots. It’s certainly simple enough — I just wouldn’t have thought of it.

The casserole was a little bland. We didn’t use the Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing as my son made his own dressing nor did we sprinkle it with grated parmesan. Perhaps that’s what made the difference, you think?

Although a little bland, it tasted okay as it was served with Pan Roasted Asparagus and that really did make a difference. I am a huge fan of asparagus these days. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I’d say that but life brings interesting changes and this is one of them.

If you decide to make the casserole and you use the Zesty dressing or something else, let me know how that works for you.

There are some simple foods that don’t need much to please the palette. This Spicy Beef Sloppy Joe is one such food. It reminded me of the “old” days when my mother would take out a can of sloppy joe, heat it and serve it, although this was much much better than a can of sloppy joe.

Because we’ve been eating “paleo” in our family, we did not serve it on a toasted kaiser roll as the recipe suggests. Instead, we served it on lettuce. Turned out pretty good!

Our son served it with fried sweet potato fries — one of my favorite sides.

So, this was not one of my favorite paleo dinners. I’m pretty sure the cauliflower was the cause of my, shall I say, “undoing.”

First, I am not a cauliflower fan. Just saying the name “cau-li-flow-er” makes my head shake. Second, I’m starting this post with cauliflower so that should tell you that it’s in the forefront of my mind. It’s not that cauliflower is bad — I just haven’t been able to acquire a taste for it.

Well, let’s talk about the “Chicken Country Captain” recipe that we trialled first. Several ingredients started with the word “sweet” so that’s always a good thing for me. Sweet onion, green sweet pepper, yellow sweet pepper — so, what’s not to love? But, you do have to love peppers as this recipe is chockfull of them.

Now the cauliflower. I took a great picture of the Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon, Garlic and Capers Dressing.

Alas! For me, this recipe couldn’t be saved because I simply don’t like cauliflower. But I’m sure all you cauliflower fans will love it!

My son is so good at cooking various foods for us as we continue trialling the paleo diet. Even when we tell him that we don’t particularly enjoy eating a certain food, he’ll try to find a recipe that might change our mind. That’s a good thing, no?

So, we’ll keep trying new recipes and let you know how we like/dislike them. And if you ever make one and change it to something you think enhances it, please share!

Beef stew, again! There are so many variations of stew that one can make, aren’t there? This one is called Grandma’s Ginger Beef Stew.

I’m afraid our stew days might be over soon as the days are getting warmer. Although … if the house is air conditioned it shouldn’t matter, should it? Our house stays cool because of all the trees surrounding it.

We did “cheat” a little on this recipe and used the soy sauce that it called for (but not the corn starch) and we replaced the white potatoes with sweet potatoes instead. It was deeee-liiiii-cious!

The side salad we had was a Kale and Strawberry Salad and was interesting in flavor because of the combination of strawberries, kale and jicama (a pale brown turnip with crisp sweet flesh). It was crunchy and good!

Doesn’t it look delicious? I’m guessing we’ll be eating more and more salads as the summer nears.

Pineapple Chicken Teriyaki was the day’s dinner which was nice and light.

The skinless chicken breasts are marinated from 30 minutes to overnight in a soy sauce/pineapple sauce. (Yes, I know — we don’t normally have soy sauce on a paleo diet but did make an exception for this recipe.)

It’s pretty easy to make also as it takes only 20 minutes or so under the broiler.

To complement this light entree, we had a Kale Salad with Pecans and Radishes. Some of you might be saying “kale, yuck.” Actually kale tastes pretty good. I even include a couple of leaves in my fruit smoothies as it’s high in iron and vitamin K which can help protect against certain cancers. It also helps to prevent blood clotting (make sure to check with your doctor if you’re taking certain medications that could reverse natural clotting you might need).

And, kale is a great anti-inflammatory. Just a few kale “fun facts.”

Back to the salad now. This is one pretty and healthy salad. We did not use the goat cheese that the original recipe called for (as you can see).

The dressing is also very light — olive oil, white white vinegar, Dijon mustard … yup, nice and light.

Since the kale is more “hearty” than lettuce, you can mix the dressing in with the salad (instead of serving it on the side) as it holds up pretty well.