The Shirazi Salad we had was delightful, tasteful and simple to make. Only three veggies needed to make it and a tad of lime juice. That’s three gold stars for this salad.
Persian Shirazi Salad
But this was not the entree for our dinner. This was the side dish to a Pomegranate Stew with Chicken. I hear what some of you are saying … pomegranate stew? Yes, pomegranate. It is a unique recipe (at least for me) and tasted fine. You can even taste the cardamon in this recipe — very subtle.
Pomegranate Stew with Chicken
The combination of the salad with the stew seemed a little odd to me at first but when you have a hot item with a cold one it blends quite well.
If you like lamb shank like I do, this recipe is for you.
It’s tender, moist, melts in your mouth and you’ll want to make it again and again.
Lamb Shank Dinner
And, if you’ve never tried fennel, this is a good time to try it as the juices meld together nicely. We did not use the anchovy fillets that were called for in the recipe — you can if you’d like and please let me know if you do and how you like it. I’ve never been an anchovy fan.
Lamb is such a comfort food for me and I’m not sure why. While growing up, we mainly had chicken. It wasn’t until late in adulthood that I actually had lamb and fell in love with it.
Although the driveway and streets were clear earlier this week, another snowstorm blasted through our area with ice snow. Ever heard of ice snow? Well, I made up the word. Â (laughing)Â
I call it ice snow because when you shovel it there are crystals of ice in the snow itself. It’s not pretty, especially when you try to shovel it. The snow is very heavy and gives you what is called “shovel shoulders” which is basically sore shoulders.
Although I do not particularly like the summers in Minnesota, spring always brings wildlife that I enjoy photographing.
I’ve posted quite a few paleo dinner entrees already but breakfast is a huge part of a paleo diet because if you start off with a full belly, the rest of the day is pretty easy.
So this Breakfast Sweet Beef recipe (which is really a beef casserole) with its sweet potato and spinach ingredients really made for a healthy and hearty way to start the day.
Breakfast Sweet Beef Mix
I am partial to sweet potatoes though and have found that I can have them every day. Since we don’t eat sugar on the paleo diet (except for the occasional honey), the sweet potatoes satisfy the sweet tooth that I have.
You can substitute regular potatoes if you’re so inclined but I much prefer the nutrients in the sweet potato.
I am not a cook by a long shot but I do like to try other people’s recipes and “play” with them to see how I can make them my own. Currently, my son is doing the cooking and I am doing the tasting — not a bad arrangement, eh?
Lamb, lamb and lamb. I only know of one person who doesn’t like lamb. Are you a lamb lover?
This Moroccan Lamb Stew is made in a crock pot which makes it not just delicious but easy to make. The only problem I ever have with lamb is that it is so expensive so we don’t have it on a regular basis.
Moroccan Lamb Stew
This lamb stew went very well with a Moroccan Carrot and Orange Salad that had plump golden raisins and pine nuts that made my mouth say “whoa! I love this!”  (laughing)  Okay, okay — my mouth really didn’t say that but it was quite pleased with the raisins and nuts.
Moroccan Carrot and Orange Salad
Does it seem odd to you to have a carrot salad with lamb stew? Normally rice would be served so you can soak the juices from the stew with it but we haven’t introduced rice to our paleo diet yet and we find that salads go just fine with just about anything.
Here’s another lamb recipe that I’ve tried that tasted good also:
This Moroccan Chicken Stew has one of my favorite vegetables.  Can you guess what it is? Sweet potatoes! So, it’s no wonder that this stew is one of my favorites. The chicken in the picture looks a little underdone, doesn’t it? But in reality, it was quite tender and was cooked all the way through.
The ingredients include cinnamon and ginger which makes it quite tasty.
Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes
We haven’t started eating rice yet so we have to get creative with the entrees we have that are “juicy.” To accompany this stew, we decided to have a Moroccan Zucchini, Grape and Bell Pepper Salad in keeping with the Moroccan theme.
Moroccan Zucchini, Grape, and Bell Pepper Salad
For me, this salad was just okay. I’m not a big fan of raw zucchini. Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten raw zucchini before I had this salad. Hmmm …
But if you’re a zucchini love, this salad would be really good for you.
Ahhh … I’ll bet you’re wondering about the Christmas Tree Salad, especially since I’m posting in April, right? Well, frankly, I love salads all year around. The owner of the recipe thought the salad looked like a Christmas tree so that’s why she named it Christmas Tree Salad.
The salad has many healthy ingredients like oranges, pecans, cranberries … well, you get the idea.
Christmas Tree Salad
We had Salmon Provencal with this wonderful salad which made it a perfect Paleo dinner.
Salmon Provencal
The topping on the salmon was really delicious and is included in the Salmon Provencal recipe.
This was the first time I had tasted pomegranates. Isn’t that odd? I’ve lived over 50 years and never tasted pomegranate.
If you’ve ever rented a car then you know the rental car routine when you go to pick it up.
Check in at the rental car company, sign your contract, get a key for the car, walk around the car to make sure nothing is damaged, sign a form stating whether you found any damage to the car, then start your journey.
Simple enough, right? Well, not exactly. A lot depends on where you are picking your car up at.
Recently when I rented an economy car, they upgraded me to a red Ford convertible Mustang. I looked at the guy and said “you realize I’m an old person right?” Â (laughing)
He said it would be okay so I walked around the car, checked for damage, gave him the form and started to drive off. But the car felt “too fast” for me. I’m sure it was psychological but I had visions of getting in an accident and my insurance company having to pay an arm and a leg.
So, I did what any paranoid person would do — I drove it back the few feet I had driven it.
There was a woman at the counter now and I explained my hesitancy to her and said “I wish they wouldn’t have upgraded me to something I didn’t ask for.” She then pointed to another car and said “How about that one?” Well, this one was better but it was also large — a compact instead of an economy.
Not wanting to cause more disturbance in the rental company’s force, I agreed to rent the Chevy Impala. This one had recently been washed. It was then that I noticed that the lighting was not great in this indoor garage. I considered noting on the inspection form “lighting too dim and car wet so unable to determine damage” but I thought “you’re getting paranoid again.”
It’s amazing how many times we don’t listen to what our gut tells us, isn’t it?
So, I drove off into the rainy city of Seattle and arrived at my destination 45 minutes later.
All was going well on this trip until … the sun came out. Now, normally in Seattle, the sun coming out would be a good thing and I certainly felt glad when it did. I visited the people I’d come to see and at the end of the day drove back to my friends house for the evening.
For some reason, I had parked the car closer to the garage than I had earlier so I walked around the back of the car to get to the house. Then I saw “it.” Â Can you see it?
Rental Car
Let’s take a closer look … see it now?
Rental Car
Now, I absolutely, positively, knew that I had not been in a car accident and that no one had hit me since I was going from garage driveway to garage driveway most of the time. There was one exception — a mall that I went to but that was after I discovered the problem.
I know what some of you might be thinking — oh, you probably parked it somewhere and someone side swiped you and you just didn’t notice. Well, that is possible but not probable.
Take a look at this …
Rental Car
That is what the other side of the car looked like in the rain and it’s very similar to when I picked it up and it was wet from the car wash they had given it.
In addition, If you look very closely, the damage to the side shows that a small bit of the paint is chipped and a little bit of rust can be seen so this was not a recent occurrence.
Rental Car
Did I miss this damage when I took possession of the car? Yes, absolutely.
I should have followed my gut and written on the form they gave me “unable to determine if there is any damage due to lighting and wetness.” But I didn’t.
So, what happened? I was anxious for the next few days and when I took the car back, I knew exactly what was going to happen. I pulled into the car rental drive, got out and waited while they inspected the car for damage.
Then the most interesting thing happened. Side note: If you ever watched Star Wars, you probably remember when Yoda would put his hand out and the person he was trying to distract away from him would suddenly turn the other way. (This was because the “force” was with him). Anyone remember that scene?
Anyway, as I stood there watching this guy walk around the car to inspect it, he suddenly stopped at the very spot where the damage was. Then he leaned in to take a closer look. He touched the spot and spent a few moments looking at it. Then he straightened up, walked over to me and had me sign that everything was okay.
What?!!! I couldn’t believe it. I was ready to fight for my dignity and — nothing. My inner fight was deflated.
I had prayed all the way to the car rental location reminding God that I was 99.9% sure I was not responsible for this (as if He didn’t know). I asked Him to be my Judge and to please show me grace and mercy so that I wouldn’t have to fight this. Â And that’s exactly what He did.
So — all you car renters — make sure you check and double check the cars you rent. And if you can’t inspect the car very well because of lighting or the car is wet, note that on the form they give you to sign.
Oh — and don’t forget to pray if something should go wrong (you can pray when it goes right also). God cares about the little things that affect us in life whether we’re right or wrong.
There really haven’t been too many paleo recipes that we’ve tried that haven’t been good, very good or excellent.
This Breaded Mustard Chicken did not taste like “regular” breaded meat but it was close. The almond flour that’s used as the breading doesn’t stay as “attached” to the chicken though. This is something we’ll need to work on — unless anyone out there knows of any tricks that could be helpful in using the almond meal as breading?
Breaded Mustard Chicken
The chicken was complemented with a Holiday Salad with a Cranberry Apple Orange Vinaigrette. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, it was! Â This is going to sound “old” to those who have been following my food posts but I have to say it again — make sure you serve the vinaigrette on the side so that everyone can add as much or as little as they like. There — I said it!
Don’t add too much maple syrup though or it will be too sweet. Yes, there is such a thing as something being too sweet, especially if you’re following a paleo diet. We use Kirkland’s Maple Syrup that we purchase at Costco.
We’ve been on the hunt for dried berries to use in salads and have found that the ones they sell at the store either have added sugar in them or they are as expensive as a trip to the moon.
So — we decided to get a dehydrator and checked on Amazon to see what we could find and settled on a Nesco American Dehydrator.
Nesco American Dehydrator
I was a little concerned when it arrived because the top of the box was only half sealed with tape but all the contents were inside so we lucked out. Whew!
We bought some strawberries that were on sale at our local grocery store and proceeded to slice them so they could be dehydrated.
The dehydrator is very easy to use. Slice your fruit, lay it on the trays, reassemble the trays and turn on the power. It is a little loud though so we put it in a spare room while it was running.
Nesco American Dehydrator
Clean-up was a breeze. I just used a soapy sponge to rinse it off.
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