Tuesday, October 30, 2012

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.

Friday, October 26, 2012

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: 




Tuesday, October 23, 2012

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.     



Friday, October 19, 2012

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!







Tuesday, October 16, 2012

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.  

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

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.

Monday, October 8, 2012

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.



Wednesday, October 3, 2012

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.


Monday, October 1, 2012

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.