Spinach Steak and Pear Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

Ingredients:
Steak
4 slices of bacon
2 pears
2 T red wine vinegar
2 hard boiled eggs
1/4 of a red onion- chopped

I grilled steak on the foreman and cut it up into bite sized chunks.

-Place 4 strips on bacon in a pan on low heat to render the fat.
-take out the bacon an add two chopped pears to the fat
-add a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar and let it cook down

-in a salad bowl mix chopped bacon, spinach, steak, hard boiled eggs, and red onion
-pour hot bacon dressing over the top
-- Katy

Omelets Galore

I have a new obsession with omelets. They have replaced the meat muffin for my usual breakie.

Omelet Base:
2 eggs
Splash of unsweetened coconut milk
Seasoning to taste

Whisk the above ingredients.
Add whatever you want to make the omelet awesome...the possibilities are endless.
Cook in a nonstick skillet at medium to low heat until it is cooked through.
Eat.

Examples:


Smoked salmon and capers



Ground Beef, frozen veggies and avocado salsa verde.




Chicken and spinach with Italian seasoning.

Pork cutlets with cherry salsa

I found the cherry salsa recipe on the Whole Foods iPhone app. I already had the pork and the cherries. I would have never thought to put them together in a savory dish. I'd do believe the free app was totally worth it.

Cherry Salsa
2 cups sweet cherries, pitted and roughly chopped
1 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl then cover and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

I served the cherry salsa over pork cutlets.





-- Katy

Banana Walnut Muffins

I got this recipe a few months ago from someone at CFPT - Liz, maybe? - and have made it a couple times now. Both times, the muffins have been super moist and very delish. Even my non-paleo boyfriend likes to eat them! :)

Dry Ingredients:

2 C almond flour/meal (Trader Joe’s Almond Meal is the cheapest)

1/3 C coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg (grated fresh)

1 C baking walnuts

Wet Ingredients:

2 bananas, the riper the better

1 T vanilla

3 eggs at room temperature

1/3 C honey

3 T oil (olive oil is fine, coconut oil when liquid is excellent, and hazelnut oil hits it out of the park!)

2 T almond butter (unsalted, but if salted, just add 3/4 tsp salt instead of 1 tsp)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place walnuts in to roast. Keep an eye on the walnuts, they burn easily! Mash bananas into a liquid. Mix in the honey and almond butter. Beat eggs and add in with oil and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients including walnuts, then mix wet and dry ingredients. Place in muffin cups. Depending on if you are making small or large muffins, cooking time will vary. It can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes. My batches make 12 muffins and take between 12 and 16 minutes.

Lambuger with Tzatziki Sauce

I love lamb. It's delish. The lamb burger is one of my favorite at FLIP. This is my take on the lamburger. The mint in the burger is very refreshing. I not gonna lie I really just like saying lamburger.





Lambuger
1 pound ground lamb
1 small onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons finely chopped mint
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Olive oil, for brushing

Mix. Form into patties. Grill or pan fry.

If you are dairy free the burger works ok without the sauce.

Tzatziki Sauce
1 container plain yogurt- I used grass fed goat milk yogurt





1 cucumber - peeled, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
2 cloves garlic, peeled

Blend in a food processor. Serve with lamburger.

-- Katy

Mojito talapia salad

This salad and mojito were light and refreshing and well deserved after the mess I made making it. When I made it I spilled the marinade all over myself and the soda water exploded when I made the mojtio. It was a mess.





Mojito Marinade
INGREDIENTS
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup rum
1 tablespoon freshly grated lime zest
2 limes juiced
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher

PREPARATION
Place garlic, mint, rum, lime zest, lime juice, honey, oil and salt in a food processor. Pulse. Pour the marinade 1-gallon sealable plastic bag for marinating. Add protein and marinate in the fridge for an hour.

Grill or bake your protein. Then add it to the salad

**I used talapia I baked it in foil for 40 mins at 350 degrees.

Salad:
2 cups lambs lettuce
1/4 cup mint
1/2 cucumber chopped
Strawberries, chopped

Lime and olive oil to dress the salad


-- Katy

Fudge Babies

I am obsessed with fudge babies. The name actually grosses me out. Makes me think of sea biscuits and dropping the kids off at the pool. The taste is amazing! They remind me of chick-fil-a brownies. If I could find a paleo recipe for some icedream I would be in heaven.
Although they are gluten free and have no added sugar I would still consider them a paleo cheat.

Ingredients:

1 c walnuts
1 and 1/3 cups pitted dates (I like Medjools)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tablespoons cocoa powder, depending on how chocolaty you want your balls to be
Directions:

1. Chop/blend all the ingredients, using a food processor, Magic Bullet, etc.

2. Roll into cutey-pie little balls. (Use plastic wrap if you need to.)

3. Pop them in the fridge if they are too doughy

You can mix up the nuts for your balls...
You can find a variety of baby recipes here:
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/baby-making/


-- Katy

Tuna Tartare

I made this last night and it is so good! It is somewhat of a ceviche, but the tuna remains pretty rare.
I adapted it from http://humblegourmand.com/recipes/tuna-tartare/

Ingredients:

12 oz. sushi-grade ahi tuna steak, diced into 1/2" pieces
1 ripe Haas avocado, diced
1 large jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 medium red onion, diced
1 medium cucumber, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or put through a press
Juice from 2 limes
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients except fresh lime juice in a bowl. After mixing, squeeze the juice over the mixture and let it soak in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

-- Katy

Butternut Squash Soup

This certainly wasn't my favorite paleo dish (but I'm kind of biased since I'm not much into soups in the first place), but it hit the spot one cold night while curled up in bed watching a movie with Coleman. I'd never had butternut squash before, but he'd insisted on buying two the last time we went to YDFM and this seemed an easy enough recipe to gamble some wasted time on if I didn't like it. (Recipe adapted from one found on Paleo Mama's Cave Chick Cuisine.)

Ingredients:

Soup:
1 large butternut squash
32-oz. box of chicken stock
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. corriander
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 cup coconut milk

Seeds:
seeds from the squash
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika

Directions:

Split the squash lengthwise and pull out the seeds and pulp (much as you would with a spaghetti squash). Set the seeds aside for later use.

Spread a tsp of evoo on a foil-lined baking sheet and place the squash flat-side down on the sheet. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Once the squash is soft and caramelized, remove from the oven and let cool slightly. Flip over the halves and scoop out the center (the original recipe suggested an ice cream scoop, but a regular spoon worked just fine).

Put into a stock pot and add chicken stock and spices. Puree the squash into the broth - you can either use a stick blender if you have one or do as I did and puree it in batches in a regular blender. You're looking for a creamy consistency here, so make sure to break up any large chunks. Cook over medium heat until soup is warmed throughout.

While your soup is heating, wash the goop off the seeds and pat dry. In a bowl, combine seeds with garlic powder, salt, pepper and paprika. Spread out in one layer on a lightly greased (more evoo) baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Once soup is throughly heated, stir in 1/2 cup of coconut milk. Garnish with the toasted spiced seeds. As could be expected, I added some crumbled bacon as well. Great mix of flavors.

Pasta with chicken and sundried tomato pesto

Pesto:
4 large basil leaves
1 cup walnuts
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 T lemon juice

Blend in food processor

Pasta:
4 cherry tomatoes diced
1/4 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms
6 oz. Diced chicken
1 T butter
1 large zucchini julienned
Pesto

Sauté cherry tomatoes and Bellas in olive oil. Add cooked chicken and pesto. Add butter and zucchini. Stir until warm. Eat!




-- Katy

Banana Muffins

Gluten Free Banana Mini-Muffins
3 cups almond flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup agave nectar
¼ cup olive oil
3 eggs, whisked
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 bananas mashed
In a large bowl, mix together almond flour, salt and baking soda
In a smaller bowl, combine agave, olive oil, eggs and vanilla, then stir in bananas
Mix wet ingredients into dry
Place batter in mini muffin tins
Bake at 350° for 15 minutes
Remove from oven and allow to cool


-- Katy

Do you know what this pork needs? Some bacon

Bacon Wrapped Pork
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin, cleaned and trimmed
5 slices of applewood bacon
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 teaspoon dried crumbled leaf basil
1/2 teaspoon dried crumbled leaf oregano
1 teaspoon black pepper
olive oil
3 apples sliced
nutmeg

Preparation:
Combine garlic powder, seasoned salt, basil, oregano, and black pepper; rub seasoning all over the pork tenderloin.
Wrap pork with bacon and secure with toothpicks.
Take your olive oil and coat well.
Add sliced apples to the sides and top of the pork and sprinkle with nutmeg.
Place in a 9x13 pan and bake uncovered in a 375 to 400 oven for 45 to 60 minutes, or until pork reaches about 155°.
Remove and wrap in foil. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing. This pork tenderloin recipe serves 2 to 4.
-- Katy

Dairy-free Crustless Quiche

Breakfasts are one of the hardest meals for me. First off, I'm usually not very hungry in the morning. And second, when I am hungry, I don't have a lot of time to cook something (typically because I'm too lazy to get out of bed in time to do so). In an effort to simplify my mornings, I made a quiche during my Sunday cooking whirlwind and divided it into six aluminum foil-wrapped portions for an quick grab-and-go breakfast. All I have to do in the morning is pop it in the microwave when I get to work, at which time I typically am hungry, especially if I worked at the gym that morning.

What's also great about this recipe is that you can play around with the fillers and have pretty much any kind of quiche you want. The first one I made had spinach, sausage and mushrooms in it. This time, since I was out of spinach, I just increased the amount of my other fillers.

Ingredients:

9 oz turkey sausage

8 oz mushrooms

10 eggs

1 can coconut milk

Directions:

Brown sausage and saute mushrooms. (This time around I sauteed my mushrooms in bacon fat and it added a great flavor! Be sure to drain any excess fat still remaining in the pan after cooking though. Otherwise, your quiche is going to leak excess liquid and let me tell you, it's messy!) Mix sausage and mushrooms and set aside. Whisk eggs and coconut milk, and then pour into baking dish. Add meat/veggie mixture and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and cooked all the way through.

Don't be alarmed: The quiche will rise a little in the middle during cooking, but will shrink back down as it cools.

Zone breakdown:

16P - 1/3C - 21F ... This is for the whole recipe. To get the breakdown for individual servings, obviously, divide it by the number of servings.

Also, the fat content will vary based on the type of coconut milk you're using. To determine how many blocks are in your can of coconut milk, divide the total fat grams by 7 (the number of grams in a block). Mine contains 147 grams of fat, which divided by 7 gives me 21 blocks.

Ratatouille

This weekend I tried a recipe I found on Off-Camera Chronicles for ratatouille with bonus protein via cheese (which you dairy-haters can leave off) and eggs. I used my brand new, super cool food processor to chop up all the veggies and it was a Godsend! I can't imagine having to cut up all this stuff by hand!

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes

2 eggplants

2 capsicums (I had to

look this one up. It's just a fancy term for pepper, go figure.)

2 zucchinis

1 large red onion

3 cl

oves of garlic

5 Tbsp. evoo

2 tsp. ground cumin

grated cheese (I used

mozzarella)1 tsp. paprika

sea salt & pepper, to taste

5 eggs

Directions:

Dice all your veggies and cook them in a large pan with evoo, cumin, paprika, and however much salt and pepper you want to use for flavor. Cook the mixture over high heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.

Then transfer everything into a casserole dish and bake for one hour at 390F. The original recipe said to cover your dish with aluminum foil for baking, but I forgot this step and it didn't seem to have any negative effects. Next time I'll try it with the foil to see if it makes any sort of difference though.

Once done, remove from oven and sprinkle with grated cheese (or not - boo!) and break eggs on top. Bake for another 10 to 20 minutes at 350F until the eggs are at desired consistency.

Since I'm just cooking for me, I had tons of leftovers! I divided it up into tupperware and it was enough for

approximately four

full meals and a smaller portion that can serve as a side dish. This is clutch for me during the week when I'm tired after being at the office/gym and just want to veg out. Instead of being tempted by the convenience of fast food, I can just pop one of these suckers in the microwave et viola, still on track with healthy eating!

Crockpot pork chop and applesauce

I am still looking for ways to use all of my apples from last weekend's apple picking.
I browned both sides of a butterflied porkchop. I added it to the crockpot with the following :
Diced onion
Garlic
2 apples sliced
3 slices of bacon
Nutmeg
Ginger
Pepper
I cooked it on low for about six hours. My appartment smelled amazing. Bacon and Ginger are two of my favorite scents...glade should make that into an air freshener.

-- Katy

Buffalo Chicken Salad

I cut up a chicken breast and doused it in Frank's Buffalo sauce. I baked it in foil for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. When it was done it placed it atop of my salad.

Salad:
Romaine lettuce
Baby Carrots
Celery
Cherry Tomatoes
Granny Smith Apple (I still have a ton of apples from the apple pickin')
High Quality Bleu Cheese
Splash of olive oil and vinegar
Cracked black pepper

This may be the best salad ever.

-- Katy

Apple spice muffins

I went apple picking this weekend. I couldn't think a better use for fresh picked apples than spiced apple muffins. I adapted this recipe from the recipe that Bridget posted to the CFPT blog yesterday.

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/09/spiced-apple-muffins-gluten-grain-and-dairy-free.html

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup of coconut flour (I used dried coconut that I ground in the food processor)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon medium grind sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/8 cup ground flax

In a medium size bowl combine the dry ingredient and briskly whisk until all lumps are removed.

Add:
1/3 cup of coconut oil
1/4 cup of honey
Splash of lime juice

Melt together on the stove top, just until melted (don’t get it hot, otherwise it could cook your eggs prematurely).
And:
3 eggs, lightly whisked.

Whisk until everything is well combined, and then add:
3/4 cup of shredded apples (wash, and core the apples, and then shred, peel and all)

I used 1.5 granny smith apples.

Divide between 24 mini-muffin tins, and bake for about 17 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the middle of the muffin.

Eggplant Parm with Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 Eggplant (sliced)

2 small tomatoes (sliced)

3/4 c Ground flax seeds

1/4 c Parmesan Cheese

Egg

Fresh Mozzarella

Tomato Sauce

For Meatballs:

Ground turkey

Garlic

Fennel (finely chopped)

Basil (finely chopped)

Preheat oven to 350

Whisk the egg in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the flax and Parmesan cheese with some salt and pepper. Dip the eggplant and the tomatoes in the egg then coat with the flax mixture. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes on each side.

Combine ground turkey, garlic, fennel and basil. Roll into balls. Cook in a covered saute pan with a little olive oil until cooked.

In a baking dish add a layer of tomato sauce, then eggplant/tomato, then meatball, then cheese. Repeat until you run out of ingredients. Bake for 25 minutes. Eat.

-- Katy

Chayote Squash

It is a funky looking veggie, so I thought I would try it.


I chopped the chayote and sauteed it with garlic, onion, salt and pepper in a little olive oil.
Then, I added some cherry tomatoes and peppers.
Finally, I added some ground pork and black beans leftover from the night before. So good.


I liked the chayote. It held up better than yellow squash.
-- Post From My iPhone

Eggplant Caponata

This is my take on eggplant caponata. I love any recipe where I can just throw a bunch of stuff into a pot. I have made this a couple times and it gets better as it sits, so the leftovers are amazing.

1 lb ground pork
1 clove of garlic
1/2 onion diced
2 cans diced tomato (no salt added)
chopped mushrooms
1 cup spinach
green olives
capers
1/4 cup red wine
Eggplant, diced

Salt eggplant and place it in a colander with a plate on top and weigh the plate down. Let sit for around 45 minutes. This allows some of the bitter juices to drain out. Rinse the eggplant.

Saute garlic and onion in a pot
Add the ground pork and let it brown
Add the tomatoes and red wine
Add eggplant, spinach and mushrooms
Add green olives and capers and let simmer