Dill-icious Shrimp from Weeknight Dinners & Giveaway

Last week, I vowed to try another recipe form Weeknight Dinners  and here it is.   I had a fair amount of paleo mayonnaise that I needed to use, so I decided upon Dill-icious Shrimp.  As promised, I am going to apply my lessons learned from making the Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts and Balsamic-Glazed Brussels Sprouts.

I forgot to mention this in my last post, but if you are interested in seeing what the book looks like, Amber offers a free 39-page sample of the book Paleo Savvy.  This was not one of the recipes in the sample and I've not seen it anywhere, so if you want it, you'll have to buy the book if you want the exact recipe or perhaps you could win a copy here on the blog?!?  Keep reading for details on that. 

First, I re-typed the recipe.  This gave me an opportunity to also reorder the list of ingredients so that all items that needed to be chopped, peeled or grated were at the top of the list.  I also reformatted the recipe instructions in to a bulleted list and simplified the wording a bit in places.  No pretty pictures, but its easy to read, to me. 

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts and Balsamic-Glazed Brussels Sprouts from Weeknight Paleo

A couple of months ago, Amber Beam at Paleo Savvy contacted me about reviewing her cookbook: Weeknight Paleo: 9 Weeks of Quick and Easy Gluten-Free Meals.  We corresponded a bit and I explained that I don't review cookbooks per se, but recipes.  She graciously sent me a electronic copy of the book.  Life took over and well I didn't get around to cooking anything from the book until this past weekend.  Thanks for your patience Amber and the cookbook.  I am always looking for new recipe resources and am proud to add this book to my paleo library.

While I don't review cookbooks, I'll first give some general observations about the book.  First off,  the concept of her book is having a weekly menu.  Some of the recipes within that menu are derived from other elements of recipes you have made earlier in the week.  My goodness the thought and work that Amber put into this book.  The pictures are beautiful.  

But you know we aren't all about pretty pictures here at The Paleo Review, so let's put some recipes to the test.  

I had a hard time selecting a recipe for two reasons.  First, each time I saw something that really looked good, it ended up that you needed to have made a whole other recipe.  For example, Amber suggested that I make her Spaghetti with Meatball Sauce. When I looked at the recipe, I found I would have to make pesto first.  The second reason was that many of the recipes have ingredients that I personally typically avoid (e.g. fruit, nuts, honey).  Of course, if you don't avoid these things, you won't have troI finally decided to live a little and have the Spinach Stuffed Chicken and Balsamic-Glazed Brussels Sprouts from Week 3. 

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts

First I gathered my ingredients. 

Pressure Cooker Chicken Broth The Paleo Review Style

As you know, I am a fan of making my own broth.  I've also become obsessed with getting my broth to gel.  Its a badge of broth success.  I've made broth on the stove top and in the slow cooker with gelled success, but not with the pressure cooker.  I tried two times to make Nomnompaleo.com's pressure cooker beef broth without success with respect to taste or getting it to gel.  She recently posted/bragged about her pressure cooker success and well, I couldn't stand it any longer, I knew I had to try again.  

OK, perhaps she wasn't bragging, but it sure felt like it given my failure.  After seeing her recently post a picture of her ready to go gallon size plastic bags of broth bones, I saw her secret.  CHICKEN FEET!  Chicken feet=Guaranteed Gel!

Before I dug my pressure cooker out of my storage closet, I did some internet searching about pressure cooker broth making and found that some had success with pressure cooking the broth for up to 2 hours.  NomNomPaleo's recipe calls for a maximum of 50 minutes.

I decided to not follow her recipe but rather just assemble the ingredients that I would for my slow cooker chicken broth and cook it for 2 hours.  

Here is what went into my 8 quart pressure cooker: 

     Roughly 3 lbs frozen chicken backs 

     4 chicken feet (I cut the talons/nails off, but you don't have to.)

     1 Onion, quartered (Yellow or White-I don't think it makes a difference.)

     3 Carrots, unpeeled, washed and cut in half (stem ends cut off too.)

     1 handful fresh parsley, washed (I used flat leaf because I had it around.)

     3 celery stalks, washed, cut in thirds

     8 whole pepper corns

     1 tbs apple cider vinegar (My usual slow cooker recipe uses 2 but this seemed like a 

        smaller batch, so I used less.)

Pretty colors!

Crockpot Turkey Breast by Stupid Easy Paleo

Each year, I have a a holiday party at my home.  It's a lot of hard work cleaning and preparing food, but its worth it to have my house full of friends.  My menu isn't all paleo as the majority of my friends are not paleo eaters, but I offer some solid paleo options.  This year, after learning that some serious paleo eaters would be attending my party, I decided to up my game and make my own turkey breast instead of buying prepared turkey breast.  I knew I'd be pressed for time on the day of the party, so I decided a slow cooker recipe would be best.  After searching the internet, I found this recipe from Stupid Easy Paleo.

My main worry about making the turkey breast was dryness.  I commented on the recipe asking about the juiciness level of the turkey.  The moderator, I couldn't find the name of the person who authors this blog anywhere on the site, said that it was juicy but suggested brining the breast as a way to guarantee juiciness.  So here I go again:  making a recipe for the first time for company.

Beef Stew from Paleo Comfort Foods

Happy Tuesday!  You may or may not have noticed, that I did not post a recipe on Friday.  This past Friday, I had my annual holiday party and I was swamped with yard work, house cleaning, and last but not least, food preparation.  We may have missed a post on Friday, but you will soon gain the best turkey breast recipe I have ever tasted in my life (Sorry Mom and Mamaw).  In the meantime, today I will review the Beef Stew from Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen.  I didn't see that they have posted this recipe online anywhere, so I hope you have the book! 

There are many stew recipes out there to choose from, but I wanted to cook this one because it uses anchovies.   I was curious how their addition would add flavor to the stew.  I also wanted to try this recipe because it allows for finishing the stew in the slow cooker.  

First, I gathered my ingredients.  

Chicken Soup by Paleo Comfort Foods

We had our first, but short lived, cold snap in Austin last week and I had a craving for warm soup.  Having a good supply of chicken broth in my deep freeze, I decided to give the Chicken Soup from  Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen a try.  I've not found where they have posted this recipe online, so I hope you have this cookbook.  It's worth every penny!

Hot Wings from Paleo Indulgences

I love buffalo hot wings.  I've seen many paleo recipes for them, but have never made them before.  After enjoying the fish sticks from Tammy Credicott's Paleo Indulgences: Healthy Gluten-Free Recipes to Satisfy Your Primal Cravings , I thought I'd give her wing recipe a try.  What's great about this recipe, if you omit the honey, as I did, its not really that much of an "indulgence."  Unfortunately, I don't see that this recipe has been posted by Tammy or anyone else yet online, so you'll have to get the book.    

First, I gathered my ingredients and pre-heated my oven.  

Red Wine Sauce by Food Lovers Primal Palate

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  I don't cook for Thanksgiving, so I don't have any special Thanksgiving posts ready.  Sorry.  So, when you're tired of turkey, come on by, I've got you covered!  

I love pasta.  Unfortunately, pasta does not love me. Luckily, I've learned to live without it.  Today's recipe is a Red Wine Sauce from Food Lovers Kitchen, a.k.a. Food Lovers Primal Palate.  I'm really not certain what Hayley Mason and Bill Staley wish to be referred to as generally, but it's their recipe.  It is not found in their book, Make it Paleo: Over 200 Grain Free Recipes For Any Occasion.  

I first gathered my ingredients.  

Well Fed Thanksgiving Class & Beef Liver and Onion Meatballs

Before I get to the recipe of the day, last night, I had the awesome opportunity to go to a cooking demonstration given by Melissa Joulwan herself at Whole Foods.  The class was titled "Paleo Thanksgiving."

Cake cutting is serious business.

Salsa Verde by Paleo Comfort Foods

A few weeks ago, I made a great pork chop dish that originally called for Salsa Verde.  When I couldn't find a store brand, I modified the recipe and resolved to make my own Salsa Verde in the future.  That time has come.  I decided to give Paleo Comfort Foods' recipe a go.  I did a little searching and didn't see that they have posted this recipe anywhere themselves, so if you don't have the Mayfield's book, I highly recommend it.  I don't think I've had a recipe from that book that I wouldn't give a thumbs up to so far.

Quest for Condiments: Tartar Sauce & Cocktail Sauce

When eating foods like fish sticks, the meal experience is just not the same without condiments.  I like both tartar sauce and cocktail sauce, so I decided it was high time to try to make these two condiments.  Making Paleo Indugences's fish sticks, gave me the perfect opportunity to make both.  I prepared both of these sauces in advance of cooking my fish so that they could refrigerate a bit.

Paleo Comfort Foods Tartar Sauce

I decided to try the tartar sauce recipe from Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen.  I did not see where the Mayfield's had posted this recipe online or that anyone else has, so I hope you have their book!

I gathered my ingredients.  This recipe is a lot quicker, of course, if you already have some paleo mayonnaise prepared.

Paleo Indulgences's Fish Sticks

I like entering contests.  If you have any of the big paleo names in your social networking feeds, you know that every week there seems to be a new contest out there.  I recently entered a contest through Tammy Credicott's site, where one of the prizes was an autographed copy of her new cookbook: Paleo Indulgences: Healthy Gluten-Free Recipes to Satisfy Your Primal Cravings.  Say that three times fast.  When I received Tammy's email saying I had one a copy of the book, I couldn't believe I had finally won something!  Little did she know she was giving this little site one more recipe resource.

As I'm working on some body composition goals, much of her beautiful book is off limits to me right now, but decided to give her fish stick recipe a try.

First, I gathered my ingredients.

Civilized Caveman Cooking Beasty BBQ Sauce with bonus Roast

One thing about adopting a paleo diet has meant for me is giving up condiments and sauces as most commercial/restaurant versions are full of high fructose corn syrup, other sugars, and other undesirable ingredients.  The solution: make your own.  As you know from my kombucha experiment, I'm not one to shy away from taking the time to make my own food.  The issue I have with making condiments is that with many, like ketchup or barbecue sauce, I have been conditioned to expect a certain taste.  If a ketchup doesn't taste like Heinz ketchup, then it is simply not good to me.  I'm getting a few posts together with condiment recipes I'm trying out that I'll be posting over the next few weeks.  Keep a look out for my quest for paleo ketchup.

I'm a native Texan who was raised on barbecue   I love barbecue sauce.  More likely, in the past, I loved the sugar in barbecue sauce.  Lately, I've really had a craving for that flavor.  Today, I'm putting Civilized Caveman Cooking's Beasty BBQ Sauce to the test.

Paleo Fear Factor: Chicken Liver

Here is the first of many posts where I’ll explore some of the more traditional foods that are touted by the paleo gurus as very healthy but seem scary to those of us who were raised and have been eating a standard American diet.  Welcome to paleo fear factor at The Paleo Review!

Growing up, my mom never made me try really any of the foods/vegetables that you see kids cringe at on sitcoms.  While she would enjoy beef liver at the cafeteria my family would frequent often on Sundays, she never made me eat it and the idea of liver has never sat well with me.  After reading about the nutritional value in eating liver, I decided I needed to give it a try.  As I love Melissa Joulwan’s book Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat and her blog, I decided, after reading this, to give her Crispy Spiced Chicken Liver recipe a try. 

I assembled my ingredients: 

The Paleo Diet Cookbook's Greek Chicken Breast Kebobs

I must admit that I have a bias toward cookbooks with pretty pictures.  A few months ago, in search of new recipes, I bought Loren Cordian, Ph.D.'s The Paleo Diet Cookbook.  If you bought his new book, The Paleo Answer, the meal plans in that book reference recipes in this cookbook.  Unfortunately, The Paleo Diet Cookbook does not have a single picture except those on the cover of the book.   I decided that I've been unfairly overlooking this book and decided to give his Greek Chicken Breast Kebabs a try.  I searched around for where he may have posted this recipe online, but didn't see that he had.  If you search the internet, you may or may not be able to find this recipe posted somewhere.     

Product Review: Tropical Traditions Coconut Oils

I've been cooking away with my Tropical Traditions coconut oil and wanted to do a more lengthy post, but as I saw they are having a sale on some products and a free shipping offer until October 22, 2012, I decided to get a quick post up so if any one of you is so inclined, you can take advantage of it.

I will be.

Special Price! - 2 Quarts - 32 oz. Organic Expeller-Pressed Coconut Oil - BUY 1 GET 1 FREE!

Paleo Porchetta

For some reason I really like the idea of cooking meat in rolls.  It seems so much more interesting than just cooking a slab of meat.  Today, I'm reviewing a Porchetta recipe I found one day while mindlessly surfing around YouTube   While this website is not paleo, the recipe itself is and Gianni is just fun to watch.  I'm fascinated by people who seem to just hold recipes in their head.  I love that there was a video of him cooking this especially since I had to reference it as I cooked to clarify some of the ingredient amounts.  

First, I gathered my ingredients and preheated my oven to 425 F.  

The first step is to make the herb paste that will be spread on the butterflied pork loin.  The recipe calls for 2 sprigs of Italian flat parsley.  I knew from watching the video that wouldn't be enough.  I brought my laptop into the kitchen and watched.  It looked to me that he used about 1.5 cups amount.  

Quick Slow Cooked BBQ Party Pork

Recently, I had a the privilege of attending a party to celebrate a friend and swim team mate Katy Dooley's victorious solo swim across the English Channel.  She is a swimming rock star and I am so proud of her.  She completed her swim in 11 hours and 16 minutes.  Amazing!

Hook 'Em!  Katy on French Soil!

It was pot luck, and knowing that while I'm trying to eat clean paleo, if I don't bring something I can eat to a party, it's likely, I'll be stuck eating raw veggies off a veggie tray.

Pure Wraps and NomNomPaleo Tuna Salad

The sandwich.  Giving up bread is the one thing that seems to scare people I talk to away from giving a paleo style diet.  There are gluten free bread options out there, but they are usually highly processed, full of sugar and use alternative grain flours that can irritate one's gut as much as wheat flour.  So, they are a no go for me.

Around the blogosphere, I've seen pure wraps being used to bring back the sandwich or a wrap at least.  Of course, you can use lettuce to make wraps, but often I don't have lettuce around.  They are Whole 30 approved which means they are made with quality clean ingredients: Coconut Meat, Coconut Water, Himalayan Salt.  They have a very long shelf life.  I ordered some to try.

Paleo Comfort Foods: Cauliflower Mash

Mashed potatoes.  Who doesn't love mashed potatoes?  Before going adopting a paleo diet, I would rarely allow myself mashed potatoes.  I certainly wouldn't allow myself to have mashed potatoes with butter.  Cauliflower mash is a prime example that eating a paleo diet does not include deprivation.  I want to have a blind taste test at my house where I would defy my guests to say that my cauliflower mash doesn't have all the taste, feel and flavor of mashed potatoes.  When I want anything that sounds like comfort food, I turn to the experts:  Julie and Charles Mayfield.  Here is their recipe for cauliflower mash.

Alton Brown's Parchment Paper Salmon

I love the weekends.  Who doesn't?  I like having big breakfasts on the weekends.   On a recent Saturday, I looked in the refrigerator, and saw that I had some leeks leftover from making the Steak Roll and a salmon filet that I had defrosted and needed to cook.  I decided to make this recipe from Alton Brown.  Salmon for breakfast?  Yes!

This recipe has been a favorite of mine for quite some time.  It sounds quite elegant but its actually super easy and quick.  You are essentially steaming the salmon and vegetables in the parchment paper.  I don't follow the instructions to the letter.  I did the first time I made it and didn't like it.  Why?  It tasted bitter to me and I attributed it to the orange.  So, I made it again, omitted the orange, and changed up the vegetables a bit and I loved it.  Feel free to try the recipe as Alton wrote it as you may like it.  Here is my version.

Boeuf Bourguignon from Wellness Mama

While looking for recipes to use my my beef share round steaks, I came across this recipe from Wellness Mama.  After making the steak rolls, I had one 1 pound package of round steaks left so I decided to give the Boeuf Bourguignon a try.  The recipe calls for 3 pounds of meat, so I put round steak on my shopping list.  At the grocery store, I searched the meat shelves and there were no round steaks.  I could have pulled out my smart phone and started searching the internet for substitutions, but instead I asked one of the butchers.  He explained to me where the round steak came from on a cow and that the london broil steak came from the same area.  They didn't have of those out but he offered to cut one for me.  Perfect.  I encourage you to talk to your grocers when you can't find what you are looking for, especially at the meat counter, as sometimes they will have a solution for you.  

Butter and wine, how can this possibly go wrong?

Slow Cooker Chicken Broth

When a recipe calls for broth, you'll usually see me use my homemade broth: beef or chicken.  I've blogged my experience making beef broth and today I'll finish up my broth posts with chicken broth.  As you read in my beef broth recipe, a well made broth will gel.  This also applies to chicken broth.  I'm warning you now, if you are easily grossed out, you may want to turn away now, but I hope for the sake of healthy broth, you'll continue to read.  I again turn to Sally Fallon for my recipe which can be found here.

Start with some nice normal aesthetically pleasing vegetables.

Paleo Comfort Foods Steak Roll

In the 25 pound grass fed beef share I recently bought, there were some round steaks.  I did some searching for a recipe to cook with these steaks and decided upon a Steak Roll from Paleo Comfort Foods.  The recipe is in their book, but I could not find where they had posted it themselves on the internet.  If you do some searching on the internet you may be able to find where others have reprinted it.  This cookbook is a great resource to have on hand, whether you are eating a paleo diet or just want to cook some tasty food.

Five Spice Slow Cooker Pork Ribs

On my trip to the grocery store this past weekend, somehow, these pork spare ribs made their way into my cart.

"Fresh"?!? and a "Manager's Special," how could I leave these at the store?

I truly do need supervision at the grocery store.  When I got home, I looked through a few cookbooks and searched the internet and decided upon  this recipe from Melissa Joulwan's blog, The Clothes Make the Girl.  Melissa has a great cookbook, Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat, that I highly recommend.

Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil Giveaway!

9/24/12 Update: The Giveaway has ended and Andrew R. has claimed his prize!  Congratulations Andrew R. and to all who participated!  I hope to be able to bring some more giveaways in the future.  I'm going to cook some of the recipes that were suggested in the comments and will be reviewing Tropical Traditions Oil in a few weeks.  Thanks for your support!

I was going through twitter the other night and saw a tweet from tropical traditions about food bloggers getting a free sample of their coconut oil for review.  As I use a lot of coconut oil and have seen Tropical Traditions all over the paleo blogosphere, I decided to apply for a sample.

I am happy to report that Tropical Traditions has put a sample in the mail to me and it has offered to sponsor a giveaway of a 1 quart jar of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil!  Sweet!

Win 1 quart of Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil!

Paleoized Jacques Pepin Quick Roasted Chicken

This past Christmas, I had special dinner company and wanted to make something that did not require much prep work or cooking time, but would at the same time impress said company.  I searched the internet a bit found this recipe for Jacques Pepin's Quick Roast Chicken.  

If you look at the ingredient list, there is only one non-paleo item: soy sauce.  This is easily replaced by coconut aminos. But Rachael, there is white wine in the recipe too, is that paleo?  That depends on what variety of paleo you follow.  In my kitchen, I don't consider alcohol that I cook with to be a problem as the alcohol is cooked off during the cooking.  For me, drinking the wine would be a cheat.  If you are doing a Whole30 or simply don't want to cook with wine, you would need to omit the wine and substitute it with something acceptable to you.  There, problem solved.  

First, preheat your oven.  The prep on this recipe does not take long, so you'll want your oven to be ready.

SCOBY Watch Part 4: Kombucha Bottling & Tasting!

** Updated 9/19** Please scroll to the bottom for my second batch update.

When I last reported on this ongoing experiment, on September 27, I had put a gallon jar of tea and my homegrown SCOBY in the closet underneath my stairs to ferment. 

The recommended ferment time I've seen is 5-7 days.  At this point, as this is your kombucha, you are basically trying to find a brew time that gets the tea to your desired level of sweetness or lack thereof.

Braised Short Ribs: Food Lovers Kitchen Style

Recently, I had the opportunity to buy a 25 pound share of a grass fed cow through ATX Meat Share.  This group offers shares of grass fed meat from ranchers in the central Texas area.  This particular share was special as it came from a family ranch that doesn't even use pesticides on the grass that their animals graze upon, so this is about as clean of beef as your going to get. You don't get to choose the cuts you get, but there was a good variety in 1 pound increments.

  

Pork Chops with El Pato Salsa

I was sitting at work this afternoon thinking about what I would have for dinner.  I knew I needed to cook something for the blog, but what?  While looking at Yahoo!,  a video advertising Herdez salsa popped up featuring a recipe with pork chops and salsa verde.  I clicked on the ad and looked at the recipe hoping it would be paleo friendly.  I love salsa verde.

Verde?  That's not green!

Tom Kha Gai - Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Working on my post about broth got me in the mood for soup.  As its hot outside, this Tom Kha Gai from Paleo Comfort Foods looked like a nice light dinner.  I've made this recipe once before and messed up.  It was an innocuous mess up that still made good soup, but I wondered if it could be better.

The Impulse Salmon Fillet Part 1: Simply Grilled Salmon

I really need to be supervised when I go to the grocery store, more specifically, at the meat/seafood counters.  I've tried sticking to a list, but something off the list always makes it into my cart.  This week's off list impulse item:  A Huge Salmon Fillet.  It was on sale and so pretty on ice that I could not leave it at the store.

1.5 pounds of Coho Salmon

The Impulse Salmon Fillet Part 2: Cedar Plank Chipotle Salmon

After the first half of my salmon produced a great result, I had high expectations for the second: Cedar Plank Chipotle Salmon from Paleo Comfort Foods.

Simply Grilled Salmon and Cedar Plank Chipotle Salmon

Crock Pot Beef Broth

As you have seen in a few of my recipes, when broth is called for, I use broth that I made myself.  I became interested in making my own broth this past winter while I was preparing for a swim meet and trying not to catch the many illnesses that my coworkers were spreading around the office.  I began to feel a little under the weather and my dietitian suggested broth.

Coffee Marinated Steak from PaleOMG

Recently, I attended a Coffee 101 class at Texas Coffee Traders, a local coffee roaster.  I found my way to Texas Coffee Traders after having really good cups of coffee at Alamo Drafthouse (served in french press) and 24 Diner.  When both told me their beans had come from Texas Coffee Traders, I knew I needed to go to their store at their warehouse/roasting facility. I'm so glad I did.  Just open the door and you will be intoxicated by the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans.  The staff there is so knowledgeable and willing to help you find a coffee you will love and insure you have the brewing equipment to make it.  They will also fix you a coffee drink to enjoy while you shop.  I had the best cup of black iced coffee I've ever had while shopping there once.  I jumped at the chance to participate in their monthly Coffee 101 class.  

SCOBY Watch Part 3: Brewing Kombucha Tea

It's been just over a week and a half since I started my Kombucha experiment.  In Part I, I used a commercial bottle of kombucha to begin growing a SCOBY.  After one week, I checked on my jar, and a SCOBY had in fact grown.  I decided that it was now big enough to begin brewing actual kombucha.