This Stir Fried Beef with Ginger and Spring Onions was simply delicious. We did “cheat” on this though and used soy sauce which we normally don’t use on the paleo diet but every now and then (so I’ve been told) it’s okay to cheat as long as it doesn’t make you digress back into the “old days” of sugar and gluten laden foods.
Stir Fried Beef with Ginger and Spring Onions
The soy sauce did make a huge difference (for me) in this recipe. I’m not sure if replacing it with something else would have given it the same “umph.” Any folks out there have any ideas on this?
It’s hard for us to find a good Asian restaurant to eat at that doesn’t have food laden with msg.
The title tells it all — Butternut Squash and Chicken Mash. My photo for this dish didn’t come out so great — a little blurry (see below). What was I thinking? It must be the dry eyes I’ve been struggling with for the past 6 months … but I digress.
Irregardless of the picture, this is a paleo recipe you should try. It’s definitely filling and uses one of my favorite food ingredients — butternut squash. The chicken is shredded which is good since there are crushed hazelnuts that the recipe calls for also which gives it a good texture.
(Did you know … Some people – like me – are allergic to hazelnuts. I can eat them when they are in a bag and out of their shell and usually not have any problems. But if I buy them in their shell, crack them then eat them, I get tingly sensations on my tongue. Weird, eh? Anyone else have that problem?)
Back to the recipe. The dish was a little bland (spinach doesn’t have too much flavor) but it suited me just fine. I don’t think I would have changed anything about it.
“It was that time of year when everything seemed to be in its richest colouring; the birds were singing in trees and everywhere. It was very warm; a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon and soon thunder and lightning. We had to hurry to shelter. But the storm was soon over and the clear sky appeared.
“When I came home I opened my window toward the sea. There evidently had been a funeral and the bells were playing the tune of ‘When eternity’s clock calling my saved soul to its Sabbath rest.’ That evening, I wrote the song, ‘O Store Gud.'” Author Carl Boberg on the inspiration to writing the poem that became the song.
Now, truly, this is a paleo muffin that I could sink my teeth into!
It’s not easy for my son to find recipes for us to try that will satisfy our hunger for bread but this one did just that.
This Gluten Free Paleo Carrot Muffin recipe uses almond flour which I normally wrinkle my nose up at. “Normally” the recipe just doesn’t taste like bread at all.
But with bananas, carrots and pecans thrown in there with everything else, the recipe was moist enough and definitely satisfied my longing for the “good old days” of bread eating.
Gluten Free Carrot Muffins
Shall we take a peek inside this wonderful muffin?
Snow is slowly falling outside my window today just as it did yesterday although yesterday the snow had melted by this time.
This has not stopped the spring birds from flitting from tree to tree. Some birds are a ways off but my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS19 camera, which has a 20x zoom, is able to see them better than my binoculars. Still, the pictures aren’t the clearest. Time to use a tripod or  upgrade to a new camera with a better zoom lens sometime soon.
One of the first birds to come around were the house finches. Below is a picture of the male house finch. He’s so pretty with his red colored head.
Male House Finch
The female house finch was not far behind but she has no pretty coloring to her. Quite opposite the human species where women tend to “dress up” more than men do.
Female House Finch
I haven’t been able to tell if these two finches are the ones feeding at our new bird feeder that we have hanging over the deck. The feeder is too close to the house and whenever there is movement inside the birds fly away. We’ll have to relocate this feeder so I can take better pictures. The birds do look similar to the house finch, don’t you think?
Birds at Feeder
Whenever the sun is out and I see a large “shadow” on the ground, I usually look for the red shouldered hawk. He has quite a voice on him but when he reaches a branch, he sits very quiet and doesn’t move for awhile. He’s looking for his prey — small mammals. Eeek! I wonder if they eat small cats as one of our neighbors is missing one.
Red Shouldered Hawk
Click here to get to the website where you can listen to the sound he makes. It’s quite unique and different from other hawk sounds.
The red shouldered hawk was very hard to see as his coloring is very similar to the trees.
My mother-in-law gave me a book called Birds of Minnesota and I have been using it to identify these birds. It is quite useful.
In some of the recipes we have been trialling, some of the ingredients have been left out and others have been put in. One thing that it has taken me a long time to learn is to tailor the recipe to what I like.
This paleo lamb stew that my son made was modified just a wee bit.
Lamb Stew
For one thing, we did not add the chickpeas that the recipe called for since we’re trying to eat more “paleo” and chickpeas are not part of that diet.
We also used bone-in lamb stew since it was on sale for very cheap at a local store called Kowalski’s.
The stew itself was very very good and the cumin and coriander did give it its “Mediterranean” flavor.
I still miss my occasional bread though so for those of you who make the stew and aren’t trying to avoid gluten, a nice hunk of french bread would have gone well with this stew.
There are only so many ways to make salmon taste “different,” right?
For me, besides the cooking of the salmon, the topping or marinade makes a huge difference in whether the salmon can be called okay, good or great. I happened to like the dill sauce that was used on this Baked Salmon recipe.
Salmon with Dill Sauce
Paired with (a matching) Sweet Potato Salad, this healthy paleo meal can be had any day of the week as far as I’m concerned.
The original recipe for these paleo pancakes was meant for waffles but it worked fine for pancakes.
The ingredients are pretty simple. You’ll need coconut oil for greasing the grill also (not shown below). I used Trader Joe’s Almond Butter as I find it works well and is cheaper than at other stores.
Paleo Pancake Ingredients
Peel the apple and banana then puree it in a food processor.
Pureed Apple and Banana
Using an electric mixer whisk, whip the almond butter on high for 2-3 minutes until its smooth and “fluffy.”
Whip the Almond Butter
Add the puree to the almond butter along with the remaining ingredients and continue to mix it all together with the whisk until all the ingredients are combined. (Doesn’t look too much different, eh?)
Whip all ingredients together
Grease your grill and when it’s hot, spread a little bit of coconut oil (you can also use olive oil) around it. Drop 1/4 cup of batter onto the grill for each pancake and cook until browned. Roughly 3-5 minutes per side.
Use 1/4 cup batter for each pancake
Don’t turn the burner up too high or the pancakes will burn easily. This is what they should look like.
Paleo pancakes on grill
Since I am a banana lover, and not everyone in the family is, I added some sliced bananas to some of the pancakes so they could taste more banana-y for me. At this point, you could add blueberries or small chunks of apple if you’re so inclined.
Add additional sliced banana
I’m really glad I added the sliced bananas because they gave it more flavor. Next time I probably will add cinnamon also.
And there you have it — paleo banana pancakes.
Paleo Banana Pancakes
Simple recipe, simple meal.
Paleo Pancakes with Fruit
Ingredients
1 medium banana, ripe
1 medium apple, peeled and cored
1 cup smooth almond butter
2 medium eggs
1 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
oil for greasing your grill
Directions
Puree apple and banana in a food processor.
 Using the whisk on an electric mixer, whip the almond butter on high for 2-3 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
Add all remaining ingredients (including apple & banana puree) and whip all the ingredients to combine them together.
 Grease the grill with coconut or olive oil (I used coconut).
 Use about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Don’t put the heat too high or the pancakes will burn (or be more chewy than you’d like).
Allow about 3-5 minutes of cooking per side but after your first few pancakes you’ll know what works best for your stovetop.
Then, enjoy!
This recipe is from Paleo Parents. Click here to see the original recipe.
Paleo dessert, anyone? This is a very nice “healthier” alternative to apple pie or regular apple crisp that uses gobs of sugar (not healthy, not healthy).
The Paleo Apple Crisp uses almond flour  (it can usually be found in the baking section of your grocery store/market) with almonds or pecans (we used pecans) to make it crunchy like a regular crisp.
Paleo Apple Crisp
This recipe is not heavy in the belly — very light and not overly sweet.
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