Category: Recipes

Here are a couple more new paleo dinners that we’ve recently tried.

This crustless quiche was very good! It had asparagus in it which I’m not usually fond of but it was complimented with other veggies so tasted great. I had leftovers for breakfast and it heated through just fine.

The quiche was a side dish to this very delicious cod.

The next recipe we tried was an Ethiopian Chicken in a red pepper paste. Although this looked a little odd with the eggs in it, it actually tasted very good.

The chicken was served with a Kale, Sesame and Ginger salad which was not my favorite. Perhaps it was the kale or too much sesame oil. The flavors just didn’t seem to flow right in my mouth so we’ll have to work on tweaking this recipe if we want to use it again.

The chicken was quite moist and very flavorful.

It’s really not too hard to eat paleo. I’d be interested in hearing if anyone has tried any of the recipes and tweaked them some to make them better.

Did you watch the Superbowl game yesterday? I was rooting for the underdog all the way — the Ravens. And … they won (she says gleefully). It was quite a close game though. A real nail biter!

While waiting for the game to start, we had an appetizer that included julienned carrots with Baba Ganoush.  It was really good and even though it was made with eggplants it tasted very much like hummus (a Middle Eastern dip).

For dinner we had chicken drummettes  that were brushed with paleo barbecue sauce, baked sweet potato fries and mango avocado fruit salad.

I should have really enjoyed the fruit salad but it had a little too much lime sprinkled on it and made my mouth pucker quite a bit. Next time we’ll use less lime.

The paleo barbecue sauce was actually pretty good as long as you didn’t slather it on the chicken — pretty much the same as with regular barbecue sauce.

Overall … a very complete and filling meal.

Yum! Yum! and Yum!

After returning from a cruise where we were tempted with every kind of food under the sun (well, okay, don’t take that too literally), I decided to weigh myself to see what kind of damage had been done after a week of moderate restraint.

Arriving in the bathroom, I looked at the scale and scowled at it. Yes, I had eaten bread on the cruise although not a lot … Yes, I had had some desserts (one being a cheesecake that was simply too sweet for me to finish) … Yes, I had had hot chocolate … (You wouldn’t expect anything less from a chocoholic, would you?)

But it was time to weigh in. One thing I learned about weighing yourself is that you have to be as light as possible so empty the bowel and remove all clothing for a true weight. lol

Our scale is one where you have to touch it with your toe then wait for it to show “0.00” before getting on.

I know no one cares about my scale.  I’m just procrastinating in letting you know my weight gain, uh, loss?

Naw — I gained 2 pounds and  was quite pleased as that’s exactly what I thought I had gained.

Now we’re back on the Paleolithic Diet full time instead of part-time. Since I’ve already had day-by-day postings of a lot of  paleolithic meals I decided to post a few new recipes on one post that we’ve tried this week. (Hope that works for you all.) Breakfast and lunch continue to be quite simple since I tend to eat leftovers most of the time although we did have a new tuna salad recipe (see below).

This tuna salad was quite good and since my son made a lot of it, I had some for breakfast one morning and some for lunch twice. Regular mayonnaise was used in this salad although you could make a paleo mayo that is more friendly to this diet.

Next we had a really really really delicious soup. Don’t let the name “Mulligatawny Soup” deter you from trying this soup. Totally delicious!

The soup was served with an orange cranberry bread. It was “okay.” We need to work on tweaking it a little I believe. The crust was semi-burnt but the bread was quite moist.

Another day we had roasted chicken which was also delicious. It was served with mashed potatoes.

Oh … are you wondering about the mashed potatoes when we’re not eating potatoes on this diet? Doesn’t it look delicious?

Actually, this recipe is called truffled cauliflower mash and it tasted very good. I’m not sure I would have noticed they weren’t potatoes except that it has a wee bit of a different taste to them. It doesn’t taste like cauliflower though.

And here’s what the actual dish looked like …

Can we all say yummmm???? (laughing)

I’ll be posting more pictures and recipes as time goes on although I think we’ll be making some of these recipes over again so there may not be as many new ones as I’ve previously posted.

The paleolithic diet is not about losing weight for me but about eating more healthy. Weight loss is a bonus.

Since I was a vegetarian for over 20 years, it does feel like I’m eating a lot of meat.  Once I start cooking on my own, I’ll try to incorporate more veggie type dinners.

Have a fun day!

Here we are two weeks into this diet, trialled because our son – the cook, decided to offer to do all the work for us.  So far, I’ve lost 4.5 pounds and my blood pressure (which normally runs high) has become normal.

Today is an “easy” food day. I had leftovers from yesterday’s breakfast spanish style casserole.

I added an over easy egg and an avocado.

It was quite filling and the avocado was nice and ripe.

For lunch today, I had a fruit smoothie that I made in a blender. I used one very ripe banana, about a 1/3 cup of frozen strawberries that I had in the freezer, a handful of fresh blueberries and about a half cup of coconut milk.  After drinking that up, I had a handfull of unsalted sunflower seeds.

Dinner was spaghetti!!!!! I’m just teasing you. (she smiles)

Today was vegetarian day so we had zucchini spaghetti with fresh marinara sauce and eggplant dippers. I can’t say that this tasted anything like spaghetti but it was good and filling. That’s what really counts, eh?

Onward!

I woke up this morning and put the already-made spanish style casserole in the oven after cracking three eggs over it. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it because it had green peppers in it but I was mistaken. It tasted great!

After 20 or so minutes of cooking in a 450° oven it was ready for eating.  Yummm!

For lunch, I had leftover Jamaican Pepper Pot stew with a slice of bread (sorry I don’t have the recipe for this gluten free bread). These were very good leftovers.

Dinner included sauteed chicken with spinach, a Martha Stewart recipe.

This diet really can be very simple to follow although not having dairy (except for the eggs) makes it kind’ve tough for some people.

Interestingly enough, my blood pressure is normal. I’m guessing that part of the reason is that I don’t have hardly any sugar or salt in my diet. Yes?

Today was my turn to make pancakes. The recipe was one for pumpkin pancakes made with coconut flour. They came out a tad thick so I should have added a little more coconut milk to thin them out. Other than that, they were okay along with a slice of turkey bacon and fruit.

Since I ate breakfast kind’ve late, I just had 3 tangerines for lunch along with some grape juice.

Dinner was delicious! We had zucchini fritters with tahini sauce and a green bean casserole. Quite delicious!

We’ll probably do “paleo” for the rest of this week and then we’ll be taking a week off before getting on it again.

So far, my blood pressure continues to stay low. Very interesting …

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I haven’t had any bread, pasta, rice, milk, sugar or cheese. It seems quite incredible to me. I’m not sure I would have had the inclination or desire to try this diet if it weren’t for my son.

So here we are on day eleven. Woohoo! I was supposed to make french toast with banana bread but when I awoke I had a desire for fried eggs so instead, I had banana bread (paleo-style) with 2 fried eggs and 2 slices of turkey bacon.

The banana bread was quite good and would have worked well as french toast.

For lunch, I had chicken salad that had apples in it. So sorry — no picture because (again) the recipe was made for my husband’s lunch during the week and I forgot to take one before I had a quick bowl.

Side note:  After having almost finished the bowl of chicken salad, I started experiencing wheezing. In the past, I get tingling in my mouth when I eat fresh fruit like apples (mainly because of the pesticides on it). I didn’t expect to have this reaction though as I had had a slice for breakfast that my husband gave me. I did have to use my asthma inhaler in order to get rid of the wheezing. (Even if I clean the apple really well or peel it, I still have this reaction with some apples.)

Dinner included onion burgers (served with no bread or bread crumbs), pico de gallo, guacamole sauce, garlic aioli sauce and caramelized onions.

Mmmmmmm …… very good and filling. The hamburger was too big though (but that doesn’t mean it didn’t get eaten). (she smiles)

Scones — today was cherry scone day. They were made with almond flour and tasted really good. I had them with a glass of almond milk. That was it for breakfast (believe it or not).

For lunch, I had Mexican Spanish Rice. Well, no, not really as rice is not allowed on this diet. (she laughs)  This recipe was made with minced cauliflower to mimic rice. I don’t have a picture of this recipe because it was actually made for my husband’s lunch and there just happened to be leftovers in the refrigerator. I was surprised that it tasted pretty good.  Afterwards I had a bowl of fresh fruit.

Dinner included Jamaican Beef Pepper Pot (stew) which was really really really good, Spinach Bhagi (looked like a big wet blob of spinach but tasted good also) and Puerto Rican Tostones (fried green plantains).

My son made a sauce for the plantains — very simple: 1/4 cup virgen olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper, all mixed together.

On occasion, I’ll have a glass of mango (my favorite) smoothie with no added sugar or tea with a tad of honey.

Blood pressure is still low on this diet. Interesting …

Today was kind’ve a ho-hum day. I woke up and started a wee bit of laundry then put two eggs in a pot to boil. I’ve always liked soft boiled eggs but have never been able to perfect the timing on them (they usually come out too hard or too soft).

I also attempted to eat a bowl of fruit but after a few bites remembered that I don’t like cold fruit. So, I left the bowl on the table for later enjoyment.

After running a few errands, I came home and finished the bowl of fruit. I also had some pistachio nuts, a mango smoothie and a lemon poppyseed muffin. That was my lunch. Later in the day I had an orange.

I wasn’t feeling very hungry until about 5:00. Then the stomach started rumbling and water didn’t seem to fill my appetite. But I had to wait until 6:00 before dinner was ready.

Tonight we had tuna cakes with wasabi tartar sauce, red cabbage and garlic grilled vegetables.

And it was absolutely delicious. I was a little hesitant about eating so much cabbage as I thought I might get sick of them after a little while but I actually went back for seconds.

The tuna patty was very filling and there were two patties for each person. So, guess whose belly was overfilled?

Now, having said that, I still left a little room to try the paleolithic brownies. They are flourless and I have to say they don’t compare with the really moist fudge brownies that I remember from so long ago (maybe a month).  Ahhh, she laughs. But in a pinch, these will do and we still have more time to experiment on how to make them a tad bit moister. (Have you noticed I say “tad” a lot? Hmmm … not sure where I picked that up from.)

This diet doesn’t seem to be hard if you don’t want it to be. It can be as simple as baking or grilling chicken with steamed vegetables. But it’s always nice to try to be a bit more creative, eh?

Four .  Hmmmm …. wanna guess at the significance of that number? No, it’s not the temperature (although in Minnesota you might’ve been right).

It’s …. ready for it? It’s the number of pounds I’ve lost in one week on this diet. My intent was not to lose weight but to try a diet that our son happens to be trialling out. But, I’ll take the four pound loss!  Congratulations to me!!

Breakfast today was leftover food from brunch on Day 5 (the turkey hash and sweet potato fries).

For lunch, I had the rest of the leftovers above (seriously! there was enough for both meals). If you ask me if having leftovers is becoming boring, I’d have to say “it depends.” It really does depend on what the leftover is.

Dinner was really good today. We had pan seared salmon with kalamata olives and salsa cruda, grainy mustard mashed yams and steamed broccoli.

The salsa on the salmon was amazing! Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s because the olives are salty. And the salmon was great too. The mashed yams were okay. They tasted a bit grainy but I’m not sure why.

It’s hard to believe we’re into our second week of trialling a paleolithic diet.