Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Smoothies!

I love smoothies!  Once you get rid of all the crap most people put into smoothies, they can actually be nutritious!

Ingredients:
Coconut Water
1 Banana
Any fruit of your choosing!

We usually use frozen pineapple, peaches, strawberries, and some blueberries, but the options are endless.  If you don't have coconut water, you can use applesauce to give it the consistency of a smoothie.

BBQ Ribs

This is technically not 100% Paleo, but it was pretty darn close!

I was feeling lazy one day, and decided to buy BBQ sauce instead of making my own "Paleo BBQ" sauce.  I found some gluten, sugar, and soy free sauce from Vitamin Cottage.  It has agave in it, but other than that it was about as clean as it gets.

I used this sauce to make ribs, and it was great!

Ingredients:
1 large package of St. Louis Style Pork Ribs
1 or two jars of BBQ sauce.  You can also make your own...I only had one can of sauce, so I made more with 1 can of tomato sauce, mustard seed, garlic, pepper, and little bit of cayenne pepper.  (Mixed with the Pre-made stuff, you couldn't tell the difference).  There are TONS of Paleo BBQ sauce recipes, so if you feel so inspired go ahead and make your own!

Directions:
In a large pot bring water to a boil.  When boiling add in the ribs, let simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove ribs from water and place in a roasting dish.  Coat in BBQ sauce, and then cover dish with tin foil.  Bake at 300 degrees for an hour, uncovering the ribs for the last 15 minutes.

Serve with roasted veggies or your favorite salad.

Apple Crisp!

Dessert is always tough when you eat Paleo, as I usually crave ice cream and baked goods.  I decided to make an "Apple Crisp" that would hopefully keep my sweet-tooth under control.

Ingredients:
2 cups Almond Flour
2 tablespoons Coconut Oil
Halved Pecans
5 Apples or Peaches
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Cloves

Apples/Peaches:  Peel and cut into small slices and layer in a baking dish.
Mix the coconut oil and 2 cups of almond flour together, and season with your spices. (Will look like a paste)
Cover the apples with cinnamon, and then layer on the "dough."  Top with a little more cinnamon and the pecans.

Bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes (until you see bubbling in the pan)

I have made this with apples and peaches, but I bet any fruit would be delicious!

Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti

Ingredients:
One Large Spaghetti Squash
2 lbs of ground beef/elk
1 onion
1 bell-pepper (color of your choice)
1 zucchini
4-6 cloves of garlic
1-2 cans of tomato sauce

Basil, Oregano, Garlic, Onion Powder, salt, pepper
**If you want to make it REALLY easy buy a jar of "Amy's Family Marinara" it is the only one I could find without SUGAR added!  

Spaghetti Squash:  Cut in half length-wise... (try not to cut your hand off, as this can be tricky to cut)
Scoop out the insides and place open side down, on a cookie tray.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.  When done, scrape out the insides with a fork, and it will look just like pasta.

Spaghetti Sauce:  Brown meat in a skillet.  Add onions, and other chopped veggies.  Once they have cooked together for a few minutes, add either your jar of sauce, or the tomato sauce.  Season with lots of oregano, basil, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.  

Serve just like pasta, and enjoy!

Roasted Veggies

Here are two easy recipes for delicious roasted veggies:

Roasted Butternut Squash

Peel the Squash, and cut the ends off.  Scrape out the insides (just like a pumpkin)
Chop into 1 inch squares.
Cover in about 2 tablespoons of Coconut Oil.  Then add some cinnamon, salt, and pepper.  Roast on Convection Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Serve with whatever dinner you'd like.  Also can be used on Salads, or eaten as dessert because this is delicious.

Roasted Brussels sprouts and Bacon

Cut up 4 slices of bacon (sugar-free) into small chunks.
Chop up Brussels sprouts into quarters.

Coat in 2 tablespoons of Coconut Oil, and season with salt and pepper
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, flipping every 15 minutes.

Easy Roasted Chicken--

This may be the easiest recipe ever:

Ingredients:
1 Whole Chicken
Salt

Put salt all over the chicken, and place in a roasting dish.  Bake breast up, at 400 degrees, for 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Serve with your favorite roasted veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, brussel-sprouts, etc).  Or shred the chicken and use as a snack, or on a salad.

(Side-note) It will be a little smoky in your oven, and that is totally normal!

Pork Green Chili

We had lots of shredded pork left over after I made some the other day, so I decided to try and make pork green chili out of the leftovers, the results was awesomely good!

For the Green Chili Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 LARGE can of chopped or diced Green Chilies
4 Tomatillos
1 Anaheim Chili
1 Jalapeno
1 Can of Diced, Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1 Onion
Cumin
Chili Spices
Garlic

Roast the Tomatillos, and Chilies on your stove-top for about 15 minutes.  After roasting, combine all ingredients in a crock-pot.  Flavor with cumin, and chili spices.  Cook on low for about 4 1/2 hours.

Serve with two fried eggs on top, it will blow your mind!

WARNING:  If you have never worked with chilies before, I recommend wearing gloves, as they are hot!  I missed the memo about wearing gloves, and proceeded to use my bare hands, and then ate some nuts, and the result was a burning of my lips like I have NEVER experienced.  It was brutal, so wear gloves, throw them away after, and then wash your hands.

Easy Shredded Pork

I made this recipe for our Town to Town Throwdown/Fight Gone Bad, and it was SUPER easy, and quite delicious.

Shopping List:

1 Pork Shoulder/Butt Roast (bone-in) 6-8 lbs
1 Package of Tin-foil
Garlic
Cumin
Salt

Instructions:

Slice the pork with shallow slices (shaped like a tic/tac/toe board)
Cover in salt, cumin, garlic.  You can also chop up some garlic, and layer it in the slices you created.
Wrap the pork with 4 sheets of aluminum foil (like wrapping a present)
Bake for 7-8 hours at 350 degrees.

You can serve as Carnitas, with bell peppers and avo, or eat it with eggs, pretty much whatever you can think of can be done!