While on the paleo diet, one of the foods I miss (if it can be called a food) is hot chocolate. So … I have created a “cheat” hot chocolate. It’s not quite paleo because the chocolate has a tad bit of sugar and milk in it but it’s such a small piece of chocolate that I don’t think it matters that much. (Perhaps I think that because it tastes so good?)

Anyway … I’ll share my homemade recipe with you. It can be sweetened more by adding a tad bit more honey but I (having a sweet tooth) believe it tastes perfect just as I made it.

You’ll only need three ingredients. The chocolate I used was a Ghiradelli Chocolate Bar with 72% cacao. You can use a darker more bitter chocolate if you like but this percent seems to work well for me.

I used canned coconut milk as it seems to have a much smoother consistency than the boxed ones you see on the grocery shelves thus giving the chocolate a “fuller” taste.

I also used a frother by BonJour. It makes the chocolate frothy and you feel like you have an expensive cup of chocolate that you bought at the local cafe.

Here’s the recipe — tell me what you think.

Ingredients

• 1 square of a Ghiradelli Twilight Delight Chocolate Bar
• 8 ounces Coconut Milk, from a can
• 1/2 teaspoon organic raw honey

Directions

1. In a small sauce pan, on medium low heat, add the coconut milk.
2. With your hands, crumble the chocolate square and add the pieces to the coconut milk then stir until its all melted.
3. Add the honey to the milk mixture and stir until well combined.
4. Allow the mixture to almost boil (unless you like really really hot chocolate) then remove the sauce pan from the heat.
5. Pour the chocolate into your favorite mug and enjoy.
6. If you want to use a frother, I usually froth it right in the mug until I have the amount of frothiness that I want.

That’s it!  Pretty simple and quite tasty. (I could have it every day.  Shhh … don’t tell anyone because I said I “could” not I “do.”)

I had a desire for barbecue chicken. Do you ever get those gut desires? This time I had to follow my desire … and I wasn’t disappointed.

This is taken from two recipes that I combined and frankly – it came out great!

First I made the ingredients for the chicken coating (rub). My kind of recipe — not too many ingredients.

The ingredients for the barbecue sauce were a few more but manageable.

I thought the ingredients for the barbecue sauce would make too much but it evaporated just like the recipe said plus I halved the original recipe.

So … let’s look at the recipes.

Ingredients for the Chicken Rub from the Paleo Flip website

• 1 lb chicken thighs (I used skin on/bone in)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder.
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 380 degrees.
2. Mix the spices in a bowl and dip the chicken pieces in it to coat the chicken.
3. Put the chicken in an oven proof baking dish.
4. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.
5. Prepare the barbecue sauce while the chicken is baking.
6. After 35 minutes (or so) take the chicken out of the oven and brush it on both sides generously with the barbecue sauce.
7. Put the chicken back in the oven for 5 additional minutes.

Ingredients for Barbecue Sauce from the Paleo Cupboard website

• 8 oz tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2.5 tablespoons raw honey
• 1/4 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 tablespoon onion powder
• 1/4 tablespoon ground mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

1. Put all the ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium high heat and stir to combine.
2. Taste and adjust any seasonings to your liking then bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer for approximately 1 hour.
4. Brush the barbecue sauce on the chicken.

And this is the beautiful final result.

Ahhh .. I’d say heaven but I don’t believe we’ll be eating meat there as there will be no killing … so, I’ll say delicioso!

This recipe is delicious but a tad bit expensive to make because it calls for flank steak. So … although I really enjoyed it, I probably won’t have it on a regular basis unless I can find flank steak on sale.

I started with the marinade which was pretty simple to make — just tossing a few ingredients together and whisking them.

Next I combined the cabbage, carrots, mint, cilantro and basil together in a bowl.

After grilling the flank steak, we cut it into thin slices then halved them.

Then it was just a matter of tossing it all together.

Truly delicious and great as leftovers also!

I did “paleo-ize” (adapt) this recipe as it had ingredients we don’t normally use in our paleo diet. Ready to try it?

Ingredients

• 1 1/2-pound flank steak, trimmed
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons liquid aminos
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce (your choice what kind)
• 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
• 3/4 cup julienne-cut carrots
• 1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves

Directions

1. Sprinkle the steak with pepper and salt.
2. Grill the flank steak until it’s cooked to your level of doneness.
3. Remove steak from the grill and let it sit for approximately 5 minutes.
4. Cut the steak diagonally across the grain into thin slices.
5. Combine the lime juice and the next 5 ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk to make the marinade.
6. Combine the cabbage and the remaining ingredients in a separate medium bowl.
7. Add 6 tablespoons of the marinade to the cabbage mixture and toss it well.
8. Add the steak to the cabbage bowl along with 2 tablespoons of the marinade and stir to combine this well.

And there you have it! Thai Steak Salad — done the paleo way.

Egg salad is always a good lunch meal to have whether its as a sandwich or on a bed of lettuce. This recipe is really quite good. You can spice it up more than I did but I think it had enough “kick” with what I added.

Here are the ingredients I used …

I made my own paleo mayonnaise for this using this recipe although I replaced the canola oil with olive oil (not extra virgen olive oil).

Ingredients

• 2 Turkey bacon slices, cooked
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 2 tablespoons paleo mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce (I used Tapatio)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 hard-boiled large eggs, chopped

Directions

1. Cook the bacon in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until crisp.
2. Remove bacon from the skillet and crumble it into small pieces.
3. Place bacon in a large bowl.
4. Stir in the onions and the next 5 ingredients (through salt).
5. Gently stir in the eggs.

That’s pretty much it! You will enjoy this recipe!

I adapted my recipe from Egg Salad with Bacon and Sriracha.

Ooohhh … what a nice recipe for drumsticks. I remember growing up and taking the drumstick in my hand and just chewing on it. It was a little messy and more cave-man like but  no utensils to clean.

These “Fine Chicken” drumsticks will be coated in a marinade and baked. Very easy and very tasty.

I served them with a new brussel sprouts recipe that was also easy but made the sprouts more palatable to me. I’m not a big fan of sprouts — normally. The sprouts are cut in half and baked.

They came out nice and crispy.

Ready for a couple of easy paleo recipes?

Ingredients

• 10 drumsticks (I used 7 as that’s what came in my package)
• 2 large shallots, minced
• 3 onions or scallions, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar (original recipe calls for sherry vinegar)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (instead of coconut or avocado)
• 1 tablespoon liquid aminos (instead of coconut aminos)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Mix the shallots, onions, vinegar, oil, aminos, salt (2 large pinches), fish sauce, and pepper in a large bowl.
2. Add the drumsticks on top and coat the chicken in the marinade.
3. Allow the chicken to marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
4. When you’re ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 375 F on convection bake or 400 F non-convection. Arrange the chicken in an oven-safe baking dish and put it in the oven.
5. Bake the chicken for 40-45 minutes and turn the pieces over halfway through the cooking time.

Pretty simple, no?

Here’s the recipe for the Paleo Crispy Brussel Sprouts …

Ingredients

• 20 brussel sprouts, cut in half
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Sea Salt
• Ground Pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Cut the brussel sprouts in half and place in a medium sized bowl .
3. Drizzle with olive oil and add a few dashes of salt and pepper.
4. Mix the brussel sprouts in the oil to ensure they are evenly coated.
5. Put the brussel sprouts on a baking sheet and make sure they are evenly spaced then place the baking sheet in the middle rack of your oven.
6.  Bake for 8 minutes, stir the brussel sprouts around the pan, and bake for another 7 minutes. Make sure to watch so you don’t burn them.

The brussel sprouts recipe was one that I had a good laugh with as Paleo Cupboard ended her instructions with “ Enjoy brussel sprouts for the first time in your life. Send me thank you letters and praise.” I just found that so funny and was glad she ended her instructions in a fun and light note.

Because we had cucumbers and tomatoes in the fridge, I sliced them into large pieces, added a small bit of olive oil and basil then tossed it all together. I enjoyed the combination of these three for dinner.