Simply Norma

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.