Alton Brown Pot Roast

I've been a big fan of Alton Brown since the first season of Good Eats.  If you've noticed in some of my pictures, I have one of his kosher salt containers and love it.  I had a beautiful Tendergrass Farms chuck roast to cook and I wanted to do something more special with it than just putting it in the slow cooker with some carrots.  I decided Alton's Pot Roast recipe could be that something special.  All of the ingredients were paleo except for the vegetable oil which was easily replaced with coconut oil.  

I gathered the ingredients and turned the oven on to preheat.  

Crispy Salmon by Gordon Ramsay

A while back, I was looking for a better way to make salmon and came across this video of Gordon Ramsey preparing his Crispy Salmon.  If you skip to about 2:07, that's when he starts making the salmon.  

I've since seen some paleo recipe bloggers copy Ramsay's technique which is so simple it's genius.  But will it work in my kitchen? Let's see.  

Vegetable Find: Chinese Broccoli

A girl can only eat so much kale.  I don't know about y'all but I can easily fall into a vegetable rut.  I often go to the Asian grocery for broth making ingredients and have often admired the long vegetable aisle full of green leafy vegetables sometimes labeled in English and most of the time not but have never been brave enough to get anything.  I decided it was high time I got over that fear and bought a book about Asian vegetables by Sara Deseran. The book has nice pictures of various vegetables used in Asian cooking, the many names they go by at the store, general storage advice and basic preparation ideas.  It also has some really tasty looking recipes that I'm not certain I have the skill to make paleo, but maybe one day.   

I decided to start with Chinese Broccoli. Ms. Deseran says that this vegetable is mainly bought for the stems that she says are asparagus flavored.  The leaves are edible as well she notes.   

I decided to use this recipe as inspiration for preparing my Chinese Broccoli.   Now that I look at it again, I realize I didn't use much of the recipe as written, but it helped me get in the kitchen.  

Paleo Meatloaf by Amy Kubal

Sometimes it's nice to go back to basics.  As I get myself back into a swim schedule, I've had to become stricter with my meal planning and preparation.  This means no more leisurely mornings to make breakfasts and put lunch together.  I have to have breakfast and lunch for the next day ready to go before going to bed.   As I'm also having to go to bed much earlier, I really don't want to be in the kitchen every night of the week, even if it's making something quick, so I am preparing some main dishes that freeze well.  This brought me back to Amy Kubal, R.D.'s,  Paleo Meatloaf.  

When I first started working with Amy, she sent me a collection of easy paleo recipes.  Her meatloaf recipe was an instant favorite.  She has given me permission to share it with all of you. Thank you Amy!   

Almost all the ingredients for a single batch.

Here is the recipe: 

Szechuan Stir-Fry from Quick & Easy Paleo Comfort Foods

I bought a copy of Quick & Easy Paleo Comfort Foods from Julie and Charles Mayfield a few months ago and hadn't gotten around to cooking from it until recently.  This book is full of recipes that give you the taste of comfort food but in less time.  Most of the recipes have a stated total cooking time of around 30 minutes.  My first stop in this book was the Szechuan Stir-Fry.

I gathered my ingredients and got to work.