Here’s a paleo dessert that you can sink your teeth into — a strawberry and apple crumble. It does taste a little different than the blueberry crumble I used to make in my sugar laden days, but this tastes great nonetheless. The crumble (top) uses macadamia nuts, coconut flour and a few other ingredients. (I love coconut so have not been having problems eating recipes that contain the flour.)
Paleo Apple & Strawberry Crumble DessertPaleo Apple & Strawberry Crumble Dessert
It really is yummy!
One thing I have found on the paleo diet I’m on though is that I don’t really have a need for dessert after dinner as I get full enough on the meal. So — although I have always liked desserts, I don’t seem to eat them as much as I used to.
That’s a good thing, right? Even if the desserts are healthy!
Awhile back, I wrote about the guanabana seed that I brought back from Puerto Rico and that has grown into a nice little plant outside of its tropical environment.
But when we went on a recent cruise, my husband brought the heat down in the house to 55° fahrenheit which left the house here in Minnesota a tad bit chilly.
When I returned, the guanabana had lost most of its leaves.
A Dying Guanabana Plant
I thought for sure we had killed it but I continued to water it and hoped and hoped that it would be revived and, guess what? New leaves are starting to sprout. Woohoo!
Reviving A Guanabana Plant
It’s not out of the woods yet though but I’m hoping that those small leaves will come back healthier than when they left.
Moral of the story? If you have something you treasure make sure you take care of it even when you’re not around.
Winters and crockpots are always a good combination so we recently bought a new crockpot to allow our meals to slowly simmer.
This pepper steak was good and I have been eating it for breakfast as leftovers for a couple of days now. It is unusual to have steak for breakfast instead of cereal or toast but unusual does not mean bad. It’s quite filling actually.
The recipe calls for bean sprouts but we did not use them.
Asian Pepper Steak
The pepper steak was served with steamed broccoli and egg foo young-ish. Quite a funny name for a fritter-like pancake, no?
We included most of the recipe ingredients except for the ham so if you try this recipe, adjust the recipe to your tastes. That’s what cooking is all about — tasting and adjusting.
I am not a big fan of granola but my son is always coming up with different things we can have for our meals — including breakfast — so it was not unusual that paleo granola came into the picture as I recently threw out our Honey Nut Cheerios and other cereal that has been sitting in our pantry for awhile.
I had this granola with warmed Almond Milk. For some reason, I haven’t been able to drink Almond Milk cold. Is that unusual?
Paleo Granola
It tasted okay. The nuts in it were a little too large for me so I probably should have cut them up into smaller pieces. I’m not sure if that would have made a difference for me though as I’ve never been a big granola fan.
Overall, it is a good diversion from having eggs in the morning.
If you try it, let me know if you like it AND if you made any changes to the recipe. Thanks!
I recently took a trip to Seattle to check in on a friend who has started on hospice for the second time in a year. She looks healthy but did not remember me when she first saw me. Her dementia is getting worse and she is pretty much bed bound now.
She sits in her bed and “counts” her blanket as if she’s measuring it. Over and over again — she counts, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five. This is not unusual to me as she was an avid hand quilter for many years and subconsciously she must be remembering those days.
While in Seattle, I also visited other friends. Most of them knew I have been trialling a Paleo Diet so they attempted to accommodate me the best they could. One couple in particular really went above and beyond the call of duty.
They made seasoned beef-filled green peppers with roasted eggplants, veggies and lemon dressing. The green peppers were absolutely delicious!
Stuffed Peppers Paleo Style
The roasted eggplants with veggies and lemon dressing was also good but a bit “juicy.” I’m including the “recipe” below but keep in mind that my friend doesn’t use a recipe and this is all from the top of her head. (Good luck if you try it!)
Roasted Eggplants with Veggies and Lemon Dressing
Dessert was baked apples. Yum!
Baked Apples
Since I had gone to visit my friends with another friend, they brought out a beautiful dessert torte. Oh! This was so tempting to me but I declined a few times and made it out of Seattle without one bite of this torte.
Torte
I had a great time in Seattle even though my reasons for going weren’t for “fun and relaxation.” It’s rare when I get to really relax because of visiting most of the people I know there.
Below is the recipe for the Roasted Eggplant …
Ingredients
2 eggplants roasted, then remove the skin and mash the pulp (make sure you poke a few holes in each eggplant so they don’t burst open)
Mash the pulp in a food processor on “pulse”
1/2 – 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
3-4 green onions chopped
2 T chopped fresh mint
1 medium tomato chopped (save some for decoration)
Dressing
1-2 garlic cloves crushed to a pulp
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste
1/4 C olive oil
Instructions
Mix most of the above together then taste to adjust for how much salt and lemon you want
Decorate with the saved chopped tomatoes
Note: Â This dish tastes better if left to marinate a little in the refrigerator
The ratatouille was pretty good but a little soggy although I’m told that’s how it’s supposed to be. I enjoyed (again) the sweet potato mash but didn’t enjoy the Indian Spiced Butternut Squash as much as my husband did. I rated it a 3 on a scale of 5 (with 5 being the best) and my husband thought it was a 5. Go figure. For me, it had a tad bit too much lemon and cardamon seeds (only 2 pods though).
Ratatouille, Indian Spiced Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Mash
Had the butternut squash been spiced down just a bit I would have enjoyed it a lot more. But it really depends on the person and how spicy they like their food, eh?
The main ingredient in this gluten free paleo bread is almond flour. The texture is a little different than wheat or white bread — it’s a little more dense. But add a tad of butter — oops! now you know we’re not having butter on this part of our paleo diet journey — so, my husband had egg salad on his slice of bread.
Paleo Bread
Either way — dry or with something else it was good. But if you’re looking for something soft and mushy in your mouth, this is not your bread. A fried over easy egg would also be a good accompaniment with this bread.
It is filling though so slice your bread nice and thin …
I’m a little behind the eight ball in hearing about the story that “broke” back in December of 2011 (well, only a little over a year).
I consider myself to be one of the “try to be healthy” people who likes to buy fresh orange juice — but only when it’s on sale.
An article/video was recently sent to me that discussed how fresh orange juice — the one we pay more for because it’s fresh — is actually made. Come to find out, it’s not very fresh — unless you think sitting around for a year is fresh. Â Personally, I don’t.
I share the video with you as informational only. You can choose to continue to buy “fresh” orange juice or not. I just found it quite interesting that we pay extra for a product that’s not fresh at all.
Please turn the volume down on your computer as there is a video that starts up right away that discusses fresh orange juice and then later (after an ad or two) another video starts that discusses arsenic in apple and other juices.
Feel free to turn off the video and just read the article. Again, I found it quite interesting.
Our last port of call on a recent cruise was in Cozumel, Mexico. I was really thankful that the weather turned out to be beautiful as we did not have a paid excursion to go on and were simply going to walk around the local area.
Cozumel is Mexico’s largest Caribbean island and is approximately 30 miles long and 10 miles wide. Since we were on foot, we were only going to see a small piece of the island.
Once we disembarked the ship, we walked to a plaza-type area that had many shops.
We were looking for wifi on land as the ship’s internet service is quite costly. And, look what we found. Yes — even Cozumel has a Starbucks.
Starbucks, Cozumel, Mexico
After sitting down for a few minutes and catching up on our emails and messages, we “hit the road” to see what the area had to offer. Cozumel is quite colorful which brightens a heart easily.
Cozumel, MexicoCozumel, Mexico
The streets where we walked were quite narrow.
Street in Cozumel, Mexico
Here’s a local plaza that we walked past. Not much going on here though.
Plaza, Cozumel, MexicoPlaza in Cozumel, Mexico
There are a lot of local shops right off the pier and the prices of items vary greatly from one to the next. It really does pay to negotiate a price here. I had wanted to purchase a small Mexican sombrero and the first shop I went to wanted $5 U.S. I kept going and purchased it from another shop for $3.00. Negotiate, negotiate!
Shops, Cozumel, Mexico
There were quite a few “men” dressed up as if they were statues and some of them were pretty good at posing quite still.
Still Man, Cozumel, Mexico
I saw a sign for a synagogue but was not able to locate where it was. Perhaps it was a lot further than where we walked.
Synagogue Sign, Cozumel, Mexico
I enjoyed looking at the various shades of blue in the water — beautiful!
The Caribbean, Cozumel, MexicoCozumel, MexicoCozumel, Mexico ScuptureSquare, Cozumel, Mexico
The people are friendly although when you pass a shop they “encourage” you (quite insistently) to go in and browse.
After walking for awhile, we decided to stop and have some real Mexican food at a restaurant called Alberto’s Bar and Grille. The waiter stood outside the restaurant encouraging people to come in and eat and that worked for us.
Alberto’s Restaurant Bar & GrillePico de GalloAlberto’s RestaurantAlberto’s Restaurant, Cozumel, MexicoAlberto’s Restaurant, Cozumel, Mexico
Our food was quite good. I’m not sure why that surprised me. Perhaps because the restaurant was so close to the ship — I guess it shouldn’t have mattered.
After lunch we walked around a little more and saw people taking rides on horse drawn carriages.
Horse and Carriage, Cozumel, MexicoHorse and Carriage, Cozumel, Mexico
It was definitely a beautiful day to walk around and enjoy the Mexico sunshine.
Cozumel, MexicoCozumel, Mexico
This was our last port of call on our cruise on the Norwegian ship called The Star. Tomorrow would be a “sea” day — no ports, just sailing across the Gulf of Mexico.
Other posts from our cruise to Mexico and Honduras are below.
Chicken pot pie, paleo style — that means no bread and this one was made with no bottom crust either. The top crust was made with coconut flour and other ingredients. It tasted pretty good!
Paleo Chicken Pot Pie
The pot pie was served with a delicious papaya pear arugula salad which was scrumptious. Arugula is a little bitter though so the papaya and pear helped to sweeten it up.
I had this meal as leftovers also and the pot pie heated through just fine and tasted the same as the day it was first made.
