Recipe: Paleo Eggs Benedict

Only two more days until I start my 8-9 hour trek back to NC to visit with family for the holidays. As I mentioned two blog posts ago, I spent my weekend trying to prep a few recipes to share with them. One of my favorite things about going home other than the obvious (warm weather..jk) is when we do family breakfasts. At least one morning per time I visit we make time to do one! Lately, between my sisters better half JP and myself -- our obsession with Eggs Benedict has totally dictated what we have been having on these mornings. Except we don't do it the traditional way. Typically we substitute the usual canadian bacon with extra crispy regular bacon and a nice buttery country style biscuit. Okay, stop drooling, keep reading!

My challenge this weekend was not how to poach the egg, or how to make the bacon extra crispy, or even to make a super amazing savory hollandaise sauce...but to perfect a biscuit that will compliment these layers of flavor...that is paleo. I'm no baking expert so I began searching around different paleo blogs to see if there was a recipe that popped out at me. I found it. I have to give credit to "Simply Living Healthy" blog for the recipe I used for these biscuits. 

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The Perfect Paleo Biscuit

Makes 9 biscuits
6 egg whites
3/4 cup blanched almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil, chilled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold coconut oil with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. In a medium bowl whisk egg whites until they are very frothy. Fold the egg whites into the chilled flour mixture until well combined. Scoop about 1/4 cup of dough onto the baking sheet and smooth the top to form each biscuits, an ice cream scoop works well in this step. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

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Above is the recipe (and link) to where I got this recipe. I actually totally screwed up a few of the steps which only proves how important it is to follow them! My first mistake on my first mini batch is I combined all the ingredients together without pre-whisking the egg whites. MISTAKE! (which is why i bolded it above) I realized I misread the recipe and decided why not make another and compare the difference (since naturally I was curious to see if it really mattered) IT DEFINITELY DID. The 'mistake batch' was totally flat and not fluffy where as the other batch as fluffier and better textures. I think when I make it for the family I'll use grassfed butter to take away from the coconutty flavor. I also bought some coconut flour that was more finely ground that I feel will give it even better texture. 

Hollandaise Sauce (blender)

6 Egg Yolks

3-4 Tbsp Lemon Juice

dash of Cayenne Pepper

dash of salt

1c Grassfed butter (warm and melted)

I put egg yolks, lemon juice and cayenne in a blender and turn it on high. Slowly stream the warm butter into the mix. This will allow for a thick and savory hollandaise sauce. 

With the bold flavor of the egg bacon and hollandaise it came together great. With the leftover biscuit I made a almond butter and banana sandwich..ughhhh so good.

Can't wait to share this with the family!!

Kim

Fusion Steak Guisado

So with conflicting schedules we had to push the typical Tuesdays dinner for two to Thursday. It was totally worth the wait. Patrick started texting me earlier on in the day to tell me about this meal he was making which of course made me extremely hungry the entire rest of the day! He started by sending me pictures of 2 shell steaks in this broth he made.

Ugh!! See what he does to me while I'm at work. As I'm getting hungrier he starts talking about how he wants to turn this dish into a pulled beef type meal so he started experimenting with tortillas using almond flour and egg whites....

My stomach continues to growl at me as he sends me these updates! Finally I'm heading home and I'm on the train. He tells me "OMG Kim, its FALLING off the bone!!"

...Seriously? Kill me now that just looks way too good! I was so excited to try it! He mentioned he added curry to it which made me slightly nervous since I have such little experience tasting or cooking with that ingredient. But I trusted that this meal would be as good as it looked. When he got to my house we starting prepping together a basic cauliflower rice (raw cauliflower blended nicely) with some garlic and olive oil and put into a sauté pan. Meanwhile I realize I have these super brown skinned plantains that needed to be used. Patrick slice them up and started searing them in a pan with coconut oil.

Let me tell you..If I could post a "smell" onto this blog, I would have won you over by now! The kitchen smelled amazing. Once everything was completed he dished things up for us and we devoured..and I mean..devoured the food. I had a huge helping of seconds (I don't even think he realized I had gone for seconds I ate my first helping so quickly)

Recipe: Paleo Fusion Steak Guisado

1 onion
1 green pepper
2 shell steaks
1 head of garlic
Few bushels of fresh thyme
3 olives
1 cup tomatoe puree
1 cup beef broth
1 tsp of curry
1 tbs respectively of salt, pepper and garlic powder

Sauteed veggies till translucent and set as side. Seared high heat the steak on both sides after seasoning (salt & pepper). Added rest of ingredients and slowly cooked at low temperature roughly two hours or until meat is pulling apart easily. To thicken the sauce Patrick used tempered egg yolks leftover from making the tortillas but he says you can skip it :)

Recipe: Paleo Tortillas
4 Egg Whites
Coconut or Almond Flour
(Coconut flour works better because it absorbs the moisture)

Whisk in coconut flour to get the desired thickness and pour onto a skillet. Kind of like a crepe.

Seriously this dish is awesome..You should definitely try it!

Kim

Recipe: Paleo Chocolate Almond Butter Eggs

Happy Monday!

This weekend has been busy with experimenting with different recipes to show my family when I come home to visit! One of the fun things I worked on this weekend was replicating and paleo-fying a Ross Family Tradition "Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs". For years my mother and now sister and I have been making these as an easter tradition. This year I wanted to try to see if I could make a paleo friendly look (and hopefully taste) - alike to try to continue with the tradition.

Recipe: Paleo Chocolate Almond Butter Eggs
2 cups Powdered Stevia
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp Arrowroot starch
1/8 lb GF butter (or coconut oil)
1/2 lb Almond Butter
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4 sq unsweetened bakers chocolate
1/4 cake parafin wax (optional)
2 tbsp GF butter (or coconut oil)
liquid stevia for sweetness

For the first half of ingredients: Mix together all ingredients with a hand mixer. With this we're going to form little egg shaped balls. If the mixture is too 'wet' try adding some almond flour (or coconut flour) to dry it out a little (my mixture was a little on the wet side)..if for some reason it's on the dry side and you're unable to keep the egg shape to stick, add a little almond or coconut milk to moisten the mixture.

For the second half of ingredients: Melt the ingredients in a double boiler or small crockpot. Keep chocolate warm

Once egg shapes are formed and the chocolate is nice and melted, dunk the eggs into the chocolate and put on wax paper or foil to cool. With the remaining chocolate you can drizzle more chocolate on top if you want to be fancy or maybe use it for fruit (I decided to dip some strawberries I had in the refrigerator YUM!)

Kim

Paleo Rockin' Shrimp

One of my favorite types of food is Japanese food, sushi to be specific. My brother and I used to get dinners together when he was living nearby to this awesome sushi restaurant and we would always order an appetizer of Rockin' Shrimp. It was Rock shrimp, tempura battered on top of lettuce with generous drizzles of spicy mayo dressing all over it. THIS was AMAZING. UGH! I crave it a lot actually. So yesterday was one of those days that I was craving this flavor intensely. I decided I can make a paleo version to subside the craving. It turned out to be almost as good if not better! And healthier!!

Recipe: Paleo Rockin' Shrimp
Raw Shrimp (peeled and de-vained) -- However much your heart desires
Paleo Spicy Mayo 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sesame Oil
Powdered Ginger
Garlic Powder
Salt/Pepper

I personally don't have the time to grocery shop too often so I typically buy the bag of raw frozen large shrimp. So I start out by thawing the shrimp in warm water for 5-10 min. Once I've peeled the shrimp i put them on a paper towel to pat them dry to remove the excess moisture. Meanwhile in a pan put a light amount of olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of pan) along with maybe a teaspoon of sesame oil and shake it around so that its all incorporated. Then I put the heat on medium - medium high heat (dependent on your oven). One the excess moisture is patted off the shrimp I season both sides with powdered ginger, garlic powder, salt and pepper -- not to heavy just sprinkles of all of the above :) Once the pan is ready drop the shrimp and listen to them sizzle!! 2-3 minutes per side should do it! Take it off the heat and toss in some of that wonderful spicy mayo (see the blog on my Spicy Mayo baked Salmon for recipe) until its nicely covered.

I decided to pair my shrimp with some coleslaw which was very basic -- shredded cabbage, spicy mayo, rice vinegar, and salt/pepper. Add a little stevia for sweetness if you need it!

So goodbye Fried Tempura Rockin' shrimp and hello to Paleo Rockin' Shrimp!! And yes..it IS as good as it looks.. I think Patrick is totally jealous that he didn't get to try it!! :)

Kim

Perfect Paleo Chilli

Kim's Chili Recipe:
1.5 -2 lb Ground Beef (85/15)
.75 - 1lb Ground Italian Sausage (hot) - You can get in the links if its cheaper and then remove the casing and "squeeze it" out
1 Chili packet
2 (small) cans of organic tomato sauce or 1 can of crushed tomatoes
2 Green or Red or mix bell pepper (you can make it 3 if you like)
1-2 yellow/sweet onions (1 if large..2 if small)
1-2 tbsp of minced garlic (me like garlic)
1 habanero pepper (WARNING - wear gloves, mince mince mince .. and don't touch your eyes..wash all utensils that touch this pepper right away..can be very painful)

Put beef and italian sausage into pan and cook until cooked through (browned) ...Remove excess fat..leave some though..cause fat is flavor..Add to crockpot. Meanwhile chop onion (No crying!!) and peppers and put into crockpot. For the Habenaro -- Cut off stem, remove all seeds and as much of the "white membrane" of the pepper..that is the most spicy part..if you want your chili more spicy leave it..beware!!!..Mince it finely..very very finely..Add to crockpot

Once beef/sausage is put into crockpot add chili packet, garlic, and canned tomato to crockpot Mix it around. Put crockpot on High for 3-4 hours or Low 6-8 hours

Nom Nom NOM..let me know how it turns out!

Paleo Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Scallop Scampi

On last nights episode of "Tuesday's dinner for Two" ...

So Patrick and I have decided to make a re-occuring event of "Tuesday's Dinner for two". Since he cooked that wonderful steak dinner last week I felt it was my turn to impress so I planned a Italian inspired meal with a perfect paleo twist. Dinner was made up of perfectly seared scallops and shrimp on top of roasted spaghetti squash topped with a lemon garlic butter sauce. I also decided since we're near the half way mark of our first month to make a special dessert!! A little bird told me Pat's favorite dessert is red velvet cheese cake with oreo crust..sooo Paleo Red Velvet Cheesecake (well I guess technically Primal Red Velvet Cheesecake) became my next challenge. The actual cheesecake and crust was all paleo, made out of blended cashews and beet juice for the red coloring and used almond flour to create an oreo-like chocolate graham cracker crust. The cream cheese frosting was obviously more 'primal' using only grassfed cream cheese and sour cream as the main ingredients.
Lemon Garlic Butter Recipe:
1/3 Minced Onion
3 cloves Minced Garlic
Lemon Juice
White wine (optional if you're anti alcohol..i'm clearly not)
EVOO
Butter (Grassfed)
Salt/Pepper

Mince 1/3 medium sized sweet yellow onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Toss them in a pan thats been lightly warmed with just enough extra virgin olive oil to coat the pan. Let the onions and garlic slowly cook on low until they are close to a caramel color. Add salt/pepper. Be careful not to burn the garlic it can taste bitter. Add the white wine and lemon juice and turn up the heat. Once it reaches a boil bring it back to a simmer and let it cook on low until it starts looking like an oat meal (sounds super appetizing doesn't it!) Once the oatmeal looking mixture has completed you can take it off the heat. When you're ready to serve your meal, cube pieces of butter and slowly melt and mix the butter into it so that it looks like a thick butter sauce.

Roasted Spaghetti Squash (super easy)
1 Spaghetti Squash
EVOO
Salt/Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the spaghetti squash in half and remove the seeds. Lightly drizzle/paint on the extra virgin olive oil. Add salt and pepper. With the 2 halfs face up, place on pan and stick it in the oven for 50 minutes. Let it sit for 5 minutes after you take it out of the oven and then use a fork to scrape out the insides. Looks like spaghetti! It truly is a great substitute if you're a pasta lover!! Anyways, for this dish I tossed it in a little bit of the lemon garlic butter sauce (from above) in a pan, and then served it on the plate.

Once the sauce and 'pasta' is complete, I topped it with seared scallops and shrimp that were both cooked in EVOO. Yum!!

By the way, last nights Tuesday for two dinner was full of multi-tasking. My job was busy so I got home late and then I had to sign back online for work. While working I was cooking the items above, as well as this red velvet cheese cake! I was a 3 ring circus on my own! So I'm glad dinner came out tasty!

So for the big finale we have the Red velvet Cheesecake.

"Oreo" crust
1/4 cup coconut oil (or you can use grassfed butter)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (not mrs. butterworth)
4 drops of stevia extract

1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups almond flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup water
Using a food processor or stand mixer (flat dough blade) put the dry ingredients (almond flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder) and have the mixer on low. Add maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla, stevia and cinnamon to the mixture. Then slowly add in the water. Once ingredients are incorporated, cool in the refridgorator in the mixing bowl for an hour. I actually made this a day ahead of time. To make crust: Press the dough into pan about 1/4 thick. Bake at 325 for 15 to 20 minutes or until the top looks dry and slightly toasty, a tooth pick should come out clean. You can also use this recipe to make graham crackers (if you remove the cocoa..or you can make them chocolate graham crackers)..I really think I'll be doing this in the future.

"Cheesecake" Filling Paleo style
5 cups of raw cashews, soaked over night
1 cup coconut oil
1 cup pure maple syrup
2/3 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 beets -- juiced

Using a food processor (or a blender) blend all the ingredients until the texture is very creamy. This may take a few minutes...be patient cause its totally worth it! Make sure there are no chunks! AH This is so good! You'll seriously be in disbelief that you're in fact eating cashews. Once its perfectly creamy add to your pan and put it in the refrigerator over night or the freezer for an hour. I personally love it frozen!! 

Primal Cream Cheese Frosting

1 Package 8 oz Grass fed Cream cheese

1 cup of grass fed sour cream

1 tsp ginger

1 tbsp pure maple syrup

Use a hand blender to mix all the ingredients together. Make sure there are no chunks of cream cheese. The texture will be fluffy and wonderful!! Pat got lucky that this was one of the last things I was making when he got here and got to lick the spoon!

Finally combine everything together! I stuck it in the freezer until after dinner, so maybe about an hour and it came out awesome!! Tuesday's Dinner for two has been another success and I cannot wait for next weeks! OH and stay tuned because this Thursday Patrick and I are going to have a Paleo Chili Cook-off..its going to be epic!

Kim

Best Egg Salad Ever

I feel like this week has flown by but moving in slow motion at the same time! It's always the moments i want to slow down that go too fast and the moments i want to speed up the seem to move at the speed of a turtle. None the less, I've finally made it to Friday! I love Friday for a number of obvious reasons however one of my favorite things about Friday is being able to work from home. I love being able to have full access to my kitchen which is typically stocked with my paleo friendly items rather than the office kitchen that is stocked full of wonderful tempting goodies! Thankfully up to this point I've avoided all temptation! I'm also excited because I finally was able to get back into the gym this week for Brazillian Jiu Jitsu class. I've been out for 3-4 weeks between being sick, injuring my rib, and work being so hectic! The soreness I feel today feels so rewarding. But now I'm hungry :)

Today for lunch I decided I wanted to make some egg salad. I don't like to brag, but I truly feel my egg salad is the best I've ever had. I always look to my mom in her cooking methods. Her flavor ideas always have been amazing and she's the one who taught me the tricks to the best egg salad ever..so why not paleo-ize it :)

Egg Salad Recipe: (recipe serves 2-3 people.. or great for leftovers! )
6 Eggs
1/3c Mayo (home made paleo)
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1-2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Lemon juice
Onion powder
Dill
Salt/pepper

I start by hard-boiling 6 eggs.  Once they're ready (and cool enough to touch) I peal them and dice them. In the bowl I add my Paleo mayo, the dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar and stir around. The balsamic vinegar is really the secret ingredient in this dish that I truly believe takes the egg salad to the next level. Please note it does turn the color of the salad kind of an ugly yellow-brown color. If the color is too much of a turn off you can always buy white balsamic vinegar or possibly substitute apple cider vinegar or even white vinegar...my preference is for balsamic though..Once its nicely blended I add a squeeze of lemon juice..No more than a table spoon. Then I sprinkle onion powder to lightly dust the top of my mixture. I do the same thing but more liberally with the dill. Last add your salt and pepper and then mix everything together. Taste it make sure its to your liking and feel free to add any of the above ingredients to achieve it!!

Normally people enjoy their egg salad with chips or on a nice slice of white bread. Who needs that! I took a nice vine tomato and hollowed it out and stuffed my wonderful egg salad in there! Sprinkled a little dill on top and it was perfect!! I decided with the leftover inside of the tomato I could chop it up and add some cubed avocado, some minced onion and a little lemon juice and balsamic to pair perfectly with the dish.

Happy Friday everyone!!

Kim

Quick Monday Night Meal

Hello again!

What a busy first half of the week! Thankfully I've been able to find time for cooking meals. My monday I got home and wanted to make something that was quick because I got home so late! I have a few "go to" meals for days like these, and if my refrigerator is stocked properly before the start of the week these meals are a cinch! My monday evening meal was a Spicy Mayo Baked Salmon with a side of Green beans tossed with toasted almonds and coconut oil and some of my left over paleo coleslaw that I made over the weekend.

Spicy Mayo Recipe 

Paleo Mayo
Siracha (use with caution)
Rice vinegar
Lemon Juice
Garlic powder
Salt/Pepper

So I can't make this dish without my Spicy Mayo so I start with my already made paleo mayo, depending on how much you want to make..I like to make extra for later days or just to add to the side to my Salmon. So lets start with 1/2 cup of Paleo Mayo and 1 tsp of siracha (these are total guesses)..remember the more siracha you use..the spicer its going to be, so definitely use caution when you're making this and also remember that you can always make it more spicier (or add more mayo to lessen the heat) . I blend that together and it should give the mayo a very orangey/pink color. Then i squeeze 1/2 of a small lemon, and around a tablespoon of rice vinegar. I finish the Spicy Mayo with some garlic power (duh) and salt and pepper. Taste test when done to make sure you have the flavor you want!

Now the fun part, preheat the oven to 375. I usually buy the precut 6oz portions without the skin (personal preference) salt and pepper...and garlic powder..spray the pan with a little olive oil to avoid sticking. Once the salmon is placed on the pan I smothered it generously with my spicy mayo. It's okay..don't be shy! When the oven is preheated stick that baby in! I usually have it in for about 20-25 min.

While your salmon is cooking I take green beans and steam them for 3-4 min. During that time I throw some almonds in a pan and lightly toast them. I then melt coconut oil to the pan with some minced garlic and add my steamed green beans and toss them together for a few min.

Once everything is done and put on the plate I like to drizzle more spicy mayo on top, maybe some more siracha if you like the heat!

Kim

Recipe: Ultimate Paleo Whopper

Paleo Whopper...

Ultimate Paleo Whopper (2 burgers)

16 oz ground beef 85-15 Grassfed

Almond flour

Sweet Onion

garlic

garlic powder

salt/pepper

Boston leaf lettuce (4)

Bacon

Apple cider vinegar

Just as a preface, i'm horrible with measurements so bare with me!! Also a second note is that I love garlic in large amounts..and I realize not everyone is in love with it like I am, so just remember if you decide to recreate it choose your garlic amount wisely :)

Started off by mincing 1/4 of a small-medium sized sweet yellow onion. I also minced about 2-3..okay maybe 4 cloves of garlic (I know.. I know.. but I'll never have problems with vampires) Add both the minced onion and garlic to the beef and incorporate well. I added maybe a cap full of apple cider vinegar, some almond flour (just enough to hold everything together) ..I'll take a wild guess and say about 1/8 - 1/4 cup almond flour. Don't for get some salt and pepper to taste! Then I split the meat in half and shape my patties. These come out pretty thick!! You could easily make 3 burgers out of this amount..so either huge portion for two people or some good leftovers. Before sticking them on the grill I added some garlic powder and a little salt/pepper on top so that when you put them on the grill they will have a great crust and lock in all the juices!

Once  at a perfect rare-medium-rare they were pulled off the grill and ready for building!! You can get creative for what you like on your burgers. I put bacon, zesty paleo ranch, paleo onion rings, and tomato! I used Boston leaf lettuce in place of buns which were perfect to hold up to this juicy mess of a master piece!! And with a side of paleo coleslaw this meal was nothing less than epic. Enjoy!!