Green Soup

I'll always encourage folks to eat the seasons.  I try to do so as much as possible by participating in a local CSA and growing fruit and veg in my backyard.  The coolers of veg we've been getting this time of year are brimming with greens.  As much as I LOVE wilted greens (cooked in bacon grease, chicken fat, Kerrygold, etc.), I need other options.  Enter: my wife.

She doesn't cook too often.  While I do 80-90% of the cooking in our house, her less frequent contributions are awesome.  This recipe of hers has been a staple in our house during the springtime for at least a couple of years now.

"Horchata" Protein Shake

Horchata is a sweet Mexican rice milk... somewhat of an "agua fresca." The homemade stuff you'll find in little taquerias all across this state is made with rice, milk... and sugar.  Hmmm... at least one of these things strikes me as "not very paleo or primal."

One of the guys I work with comes up to me and asks where I got the horchata I'm drinking. I looked down at my protein "shake" and thought about correcting him. But, after thinking about it for a half second... the way I mix my protein looks, smells, and kind of tastes like horchata. So, this is either an accidental recipe for faux horchata or an intentional recipe for how I drink my protein.

Bacon Rosemary Cod

I haven't done anything with seafood in a while.  I take that back.  I haven't posted anything to do with seafood in awhile.  I made salmon cakes a couple of weeks back.  On the plus side, they tasted great!  They just weren't very appealing to the eye.  Worth trying again later, though. 

You may or may not have noticed... I'll wrap bacon around just about anything.  Dates, eggs, chicken livers (a-frickin'-mazing)... and fish.  Looking at this recipe, instead of cod, you could probably sub in chicken tenders or some sort of lean beef cut into strips.  But, cod plays nicely in this dish.  It has a good, firm texture and it's not a fishy fish (for those who complain about such things).  And, considering the fact that my freezer is stocked with the 2.5 pounds of the cod I bought at Sam's... it's time to make cod.

To prepare...

Apple Cinnamon Bites

These little guys are in a freezer bag tucked away in my backpack as I wander around PaleoFX.  I kind of wish there was a time activated sensor that rationed these out to me... then I wouldn't need "self-control."  While they certainly aren't cookies in a traditional sense (no sugar, flour, etc.), eating them in excess will still not do me favors.  Eating almonds, apples and raisins are all better for you than cookies... but you can easily eat too many of those things as well.

I thought about naming these Cinnamon Raisin Apple Paleos... but they taste way better than that acronym would imply.  To make these...

Chicken "Waldorf" Salad

I'm putting the name "Waldorf" in quotes because, well... it only slightly resembles a Waldorf salad.  A Waldorf salad is traditionally described as "a salad made of fresh apples, celery and walnuts, dressed in mayonnaise, and usually served on a bed of lettuce as an appetizer or a light meal."  My version eschews celery and adds tons of protein... because I'm not looking for an appetizer or a light meal.  I want a lunch that will get me through the rest of my day at work and through whatever CFWR has in store for me... and hold me over until dinner.

And, my version has bacon.

Poblano Chicken Bake

Why do casseroles on TV always have pasta in them?  The commercials show a smiling mom opening the oven door (with gleeful children onlooking) and pulling out a steaming dish... that is 80% pasta, 20% meat, lightly tossed in "tomato" sauce and covered in breadcrumbs.  Just watching this makes my insulin spike.  Thankfully, the next commercial is usually for some sort of diabetes medication.  Paula Deen would approve.  Based on the use of sweet potatoes and bacon grease, she might even approve of the recipe I have below.

Primal Texas Chili

This recipe is overdue.  I have no excuse for not posting it sooner.  In a perfect world, I would have made it on a bitterly cold winter afternoon.  Few things cut through a winter chill like a warm bowl of Texas Red.  But alas, I don't know that we had a winter this year.  It was 78 degrees the day I made this batch.  And with little chance of a freeze on the horizon, I decided I just needed a bowl this past weekend. 

How do you define chili?  Ask ten people and you'll get ten different answers.  Folks in the upper midwest put cinnamon in theirs.  Sometimes "chili" is served on top of noodles.  People from all parts use recipes with all sorts of beans.  There's even debate about the kind of meat that should be used.  I've had some good venison chili, and some people like to incoporate pork into their recipe.  While most people believe that chili meat starts and ends with beef, they're still divided into cubed vs. ground beef camps.  Overall, I keep my recipe simple.

Egg Muffins: The Spinach Experiment

It is a fantastic source of iron and calcium.  It was a food item I went out of my way to avoid as a child.  It is a staple food in Popeye's diet.  Folks, I'm talking about spinach.  While I wouldn't touch the stuff as a kid, I can't get enough of it now.  I know it's good for me.  I mix it into meat sauces and stews.  I wilt it and serve it as as side dish.  I make it the green, leafy foundation of a salad.  And, now I'm eating it for breakfast.

This week, I decided to turn my recipe for my batch of egg muffins on its ear... meaning more veg, less meat. Using my normal template for egg muffins, I came up with...

Spiced Chicken and Root Vegetables

The language of food can be a fun one.  It spans continents and cultures.  It can make you sound sophisticated.  It can also make you sound like an immature 12 year old boy.  At the top of my food vocabulary favorite list (right behind "fishmonger") is "spatchcocked."  Walk up to the meat counter at your local grocery store, ask for one of the whole chickens in the case... then ask the butcher to spatchcock it for you.  I can usually keep a straight face right up until the butcher does a double take and asks me what I just asked.  I quickly explain that a spatchcocked bird has the back cut out and the breast bone removed or broken (both of which can be reserved and used later for stock).  They slowly nod and prep my chicken.  Why do I ask the butcher to do it for me?  They have better knives and shears than I have... and I just have fun asking.

If your butcher doesn't cut meat/poultry to order, check out this guide on how to spatchcock your own bird.

Also, I decided to take this bird into previously uncharted territory (for me, at least) when it came to seasoning.  To satisfy a craving I've been having all winter, I dusted this bird with cinnamon and allspice.

Fennel & Apple Slaw with Pork Chops

Every family has their standbys and quick go-to meals.  They are part of a rotation.  Thinking back to when I was a kid, I remember hot dog/mac’n’cheese night, taco night and grilled cheese/soup night.  One of my favorite meals that my mom kept in the rotation was pork chops, apple sauce and Rice-A-Roni.  If I want to overanalyze it, I’m sure the roots of the recipe below can be found in that childhood meal.  I wasn’t trying to mimic or recreate it… just thought of it while eating my latest creation.  I’ll wager that this version has a little less sodium than boxed rice and noodles… and a little less sugar than jarred applesauce.  And it has vegetables!  Fennel!  [That’d be the funny looking onion-like bulb that smells faintly of licorice in your produce section.]

Buy and use as many pork chops as you need for this meal.  The slaw portion prepared below makes about 4-6 good sized servings… but then I’ll eat a quarter of a cabbage head in one sitting.

Buffalo Salmon Jerky

If you want something done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself.  The buffalo salmon jerky recipe I will share below spawned in the deep, dark recesses of my brain when browsing the seafood counter at our local Whole Foods.  They happen to make/carry a version of this treat.  But, after reading the ingredient card and talking with the fishmonger, I discovered that they make their salmon jerky using farm raised Atlantic salmon and have a number of soy based ingredients in their marinade.  [sigh…] Not something I want to spend my hard earned money on, much less eat.  As if the presence of soy wasn’t disappointing enough...  wait.  Why, you ask, am I so wound up about the sourcing of my jerky meat?

Buffalo Chicken Wings

Aside from some of the harsh lessons learned in my kitchen these past couple of weeks, there have been a couple of successes.  One of them was the bacon bouquet I made my wife for Valentine's Day.  A bacon bouquet doesn't last as long as a dozen (overpriced) roses, but roses don't taste like bacon.  If they did, I still wouldn't buy them because real bacon is cheaper.  Next Valentine's Day, show your love with bacon.  If the target of your affections rejects your offering, move on.  Anyone who rejects bacon doesn't deserve your love.

I digress.  You're probably thinking, "Did he mislabel the post?  He hasn't said a thing about chicken wings..."  And if you're hoping to find out what a bacon bouquet looks like, sorry.  It didn't last long.  So, buffalo chicken wings...

Hearty Beef Stew

If it were to ever get cold in Texas this “winter,” I’d have started making this months ago and more often.  But, alas… It’s going to be 70 degrees or warmer the next couple of days with no dip into the 30s for a while.  Sometimes it’s hard to want to make stews and chilis when it isn’t cold outside.  However, I took advantage of the amazing unseasonal weather we’ve been having and started cleaning up and prepping the back yard and vegetable patches last weekend.  Some things we planted last year are somehow still going strong: chard, parsley… and rosemary.  While the recipe that follows is headlined by beef (a favorite leading character), rosemary certainly deserves a nod as Best Supporting Ingredient.  It doesn’t steal the spotlight, but brings a depth to the entire production that would be lacking if it were not there.

Egg Muffins: Variations on a Theme

I am one who will eat the same thing for lunch, Monday through Friday.  I look at breakfast the same way.  Every morning, I eat two or three eggs.  If my palette was the only one in the house to please, I’d probably eat Bacon Wrapped Eggs every morning.  But now and then, my wife or I will want a slight change in the menu. Not a sharp turn off the Primal path toward standard American breakfasts of cereal/oatmeal/donuts/bagels/toaster pastries/waffles/etc… just a different spin on eggs.  While I make Egg Muffins about every other week or so, I don’t always use the exact recipe I posted earlier.

Listed below are a few different ways to change up your Egg Muffins, using the same recipe format. 

Spicy Coconut Shrimp

I almost hesitate to use the words "coconut shrimp" to describe this dish. Together, the words conjure up memories that are deep fried, battered, greasy, and over-cooked. As this dish is NOT deep fried and NOT battered, it is far what you are probably imagining. However, I found it to be satisfying in many other ways... spicy, slightly sweet and plenty of lean protein.

Please note: I don't list any measurements for the cayenne... and never list them for salt and pepper. I lump these things under the heading of "use to taste." This is cooking (art), not baking (science). And besides... someone in the Pacific Northwest may have an entirely different idea of what spicy is compared to someone who grew up stirring a pot of Texas Red.

Sweet Potato Hash with Eggs

December can be a handful.  With friends, family and work events to balance, loved ones to shop for, and workout regimens to maintain on top of everything we normally do... something has to give.  In my case, I spent less time in front of my computer.  In itself, not a bad thing.  But then, it has been a few weeks since I have posted any new recipes.

January can be a handful, as well.  The first of the year is chosen by many as a starting point for an attempt at a new way of life.  Many try to wedge new habits into their schedule in the name of better health.  Gym memberships spike.  Neighborhood sidewalks are crowded with joggers.  I'm sure there is an increase in sales of fitness apparel and candy "protein" bars.  I'll break down the popular protein/recovery/energy bar market in a later post.  But today, I'm offering a whole food alternative that will help replenish your depleted glycogen and give you some needed protein and fat after running or working out.

So Delicious Mint Mocha

It’s that time of year.  It’s cold.  The calendar is filling up quickly. And by default, I’m already behind on my Christmas shopping.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy weaving my way through the crowded masses at the malls as I search for the perfect gifts for my wife and family… There are really quite a few things about the adventure that I enjoy.  Near the top of the list of “Things I Like About Christmas Shopping” is the peppermint mocha.  In my book, it tastes like Christmas.  It’s warm… countering the chill on the air.  It’s sweet… in contrast to the bitter attitudes of some of my fellow shoppers.  And it’s caffeinated.

In years past, before hitting the stores I would make a swing through a Starbucks drive-thru and shell out almost $5 for a warm cup of cheer.  According to the Starbucks Nutrition page, here’s what I was paying for…

Sweet Potato and Celeriac Casserole

“What is THAT?” inquired the lady behind me in the checkout line.  IT was my latest experiment… or at least one of the ingredients.  I was looking for something to put into a vegetable casserole of sorts. Something that would act like a potato, or perhaps a turnip.  Something I hadn’t tried yet.  I already knew that the dish would be topped with shredded sweet potatoes and have a base of onions, celery and... something else.  But, what?  Inspiration struck as I was browsing the produce section and about to reach for celery.  Lying next to it was its cousin, celery root (also known as celeriac).  It’s not exactly the most attractive vegetable in the produce section.  Regardless, I grabbed it hoping it would make a nice addition to my dish.

How I Got My Dad to Eat Brussels Sprouts

They were never served in my parents house.  They always carried negative adjectives with them.  Overcooked.  Soggy.  Stinky.  I suppose, as my Grandmother must have prepared them, the Brussels sprout never stood a chance.  Not knowing a thing about them (aside from the myths my parents imparted upon me), I didn't try them until my wife made them one glorious night.  It was a culinary/dietary epiphany on par with the times I (re)discovered sweet potatoes and spinach... both irrational fears stemming from "bad experiences" as a child.

So, what is different about these sprouts? 

Roasted Autumn Medley

As the seasons change, so does the produce section.  The onset of cold weather means, “Goodbye” to some summertime favorites, but also, “Hello” to a new set of ingredients to play with in the kitchen.  When foraging through the store, looking for something to throw together for a family gathering, I started to ponder primal/paleo options for the upcoming Holidays.  Like every year before, there will be no shortage of creamy mashed potatoes or savory cornbread stuffing at my parents’ house.  With thoughts of integrating the menu this year (I’m not looking for a hostile takeover), I decided to try this one on the family at a dinner this weekend…