Hello Fall!

Since this is supposed to be something of a food blog, I figured that I would add in a recipe.  It's been quite a while, sorry!!

It's the unofficial start to the fall, and that makes me super happy.  I absolutely love this time of the year; the crisp air, the beautiful fall foliage, and best of all, my kitchen isn't a gazillion degrees, so I am able to cook up a storm! I am almost jumping for joy to start making some slow cooking bone broths, braising some meats, and just laying back and eating some damn good food!

To start off, this is a soup/meat and gravy dish that I made in the slow cooker.  I love the slow cooker too.  Fall and Winter dishes are some that just kind of "come together" with what we have.  Volumes are not going to be accurate, and they will change depending on how much I have of each thing.  Most of these slow cooker meals you can add less liquid to make a sort of gravy to pour over rice, potatoes, or squash (or anything else really!) and more liquid to make a soup.  The type of meat used in these dishes is also going to be pretty easy to substitute too.  Use these recipes as a jumping off point!

My routine for the coming seasons is to roast a chicken every week.  From that chicken, I will use the meat in various dishes and I will use the bones to make a broth to use in meals for the week.  I will use the organ meat as well.  The liver I will use in dishes and the other organs go into the broth.  I keep whatever fat comes off the bird for my broth too, and I also use a splash of vinegar to help get the nutrients from the bones into the broth.  The result is a tasty base full of essential nutrients along with the fat to help our bodies assimilate all of those nutrients.  It's fabulous.  I also make a gravy when I roast the bird.

On the weekends, whenever possible, we will braise a big hunk of meat (recipe to come!).  Braising, besides helping create a memorable meal, also provides you with a lot of extra gravy.  Make sure that you keep it!

For this dish you will need:

Meat (I used 3 med sized pork chops, but you could use anything, really)
2 cups of chicken stock
1.5 cups of gravy
3 carrots
3 ribs of celery
1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes and the juice
a bunch of spinach
(I also had an eggplant handy, so added that - it added a nice touch of sweetness!)
Herbs from the garden if you have them, otherwise dried herbs will work.  I used a bit of thyme, oregano, and rosemary.
Salt and pepper

This recipe makes a rather thick version that we poured over baked potatoes, the next day I added a little more broth and a little more gravy to make it more of a soup.  That is what is in the picture.

So, cut up the veggies (onion would work in here too, and so would garlic...but it's not going to make or break the dish....unless you are a garlic fiend!) and throw them into the slow cooker.  Add the meat, tomatoes, and spinach.  Then just cover with broth and the herbs...I cut a large sprig of each herb.  You could add about a tablespoon of oregano...thyme and rosemary can be very overpowering, so I would add half a tablespoon of those, and adjust if necessary. Adding the bit of gravy is a nice way to give this a rich flavor with a lot of depth.  So. Worth. It.
Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 7-8.  Pull meat apart with a fork to break it up a bit.

Just be prepared to want to make this every week!! Or more.....

Really, though, adding the gravy just makes this dish over-the-top delicious!

Paleo Bread and Baked Avocado Breakfast

I have a really juicy post coming up soon, but I needed to get this recipe somewhere accessible.  So enjoy this (it's really good!) and hold on to your hats for the next post. 

In the meantime, here is a generic "paleo" recipe for grain free bread:

paleo bread:
1.5 c almond flour or almond meal
1/4 c ground flax
1/4 tsp celtic sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
5 eggs
1 tbs honey
1 tbs cider vinegar or lemon juice
2 tbs coconut oil (plus some extra to grease pan)


Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  This will leave the bread yummy and moist, but still able to handle toasting.  If you want it a little crispier right out of the oven, it can definitely handle a few more minutes.  Oh yeah, if you look at the ingredients, you see baking soda and vinegar...this will bubble up - and you should let it, it helps the bread be a little less dense :)

Oh yeah, this is an awesome base for making banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, or....french toast!!

I really like to eat breakfast.  I saw something a while back about baking an egg in an avocado, and thanks to Pinterest, I was able to find a recipe! It's super simple, and oh so delicious! And not to mention that it's brimming with wonderful nutrients and health fats, so it will really hold you over until lunch time.  Which is excellent.  And what's nice is that it's not overly heavy either.  I can devour this and then take Nick for a walk downtown to the playground.  So, here it is:


1 avocado, sliced in half (remove the pitt and scrape out a little extra fruit to make room for the egg if needed). You may also want to hack off a tiny bit of the bottom so that the avocado doesn't tip over.
2 eggs
Bacon, and any other fixin's that you like (i.e. tomato, salsa, whatever)


Preheat the oven to 350 and put your skillet in the oven while is heats to warm it up.  Crack one egg in each half of the avocado and place in the warm skillet.  Place 2 slices of the paleo bread in the skillet to toast with the eggs and avocado.  Let bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on how runny you like your eggs.
While the eggs are cooking, it is SO worth it to fry up some bacon!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

No More Garlic Allergy!!

Well, I have "cured" my garlic allergy, which as it turned out wasn't really an allergy at all.  My suspicion about having a rather large yeast problem seems to be what has been wreaking havoc on my system.  I'm not entirely surprised.  This means I am a huge leap closer to being in the full GAPS diet protocol.  Or Simple Carbohydrate Diet.  Or eating Primal/Paleo.  Whatever, it's all pretty much the same thing. 

Recently I have been really good about cutting out dairy and gluten, and keeping it out.  Not only that, but I have made some really good progress in terms of going totally grain free, and I have cut out most fruits too.  It's definitely an adjustment, but with the way I have been feeling, I barely look back.  When I do "cheat", usually because I have not packed enough food for a day out, or am away from home longer than I anticipate, I feel pretty yucky.  And then the cravings hit...having milk, and bread, and cheese, and chips around is like keeping a pack of butts in the house after you have quit smoking.  I shut what I could into the closet so that I don't have to look at it when I open the cabinet, but my subconscious knows it's there!  So far so good!

Anyway, so I figured out that the garlic allergy was actually a yeast problem by adding coconut oil to my green smoothies on a more regular basis.  I knew something in them was causing me some digestive upset, but I wasn't sure what.  So I tried changing up the ingredients, and lo and behold it was the coconut oil.  It's no coincidence that the coconut oils has wonderful anti-fungal properties... so I started using more of it instead of avoiding it.  And after about a week, I stopped getting bloated.  Hmmmm, know what else is a potent antifungal? Garlic! So I tried eating some fresh garlic....nothing! WhoooHooo!! Boy how I missed that flavour! And the added bonus is that I started to be able to tolerate probiotics!! I am only taking Nick's dose of 5 billion, and I should be working my way up to 50 billion....so I have a ways to go.  But definitely progress; so this means that just by eating the coconut oil and garlic and by avoiding sugar, dairy, and grains as much as possible, I have started to kill off the yeast!

So while I feel super encouraged that I have identified what my issue is, I know it's going to be a tricky road to go down...avoiding all sugars, including fruit, and all grains, and all starchy veggies....Hmmm.  That's a toughie.  So I came up with a sort of sugar free treat to help bridge the gap between all out sugar and sugar free.  I know from experience that trying to go cold turkey is a recipe for disaster. 

Now I feel really good about having separated my problems from Nicks...and he is getting better too.  Although, his symptoms went south as soon as I tried to eat some handy gluten free convenience foods, (I think it's the corn), so it just cements my resolve to quit all grains.  Luckily he really seems to like the real foods...I just need to get him to take one bite at a time! 

This little gem is the perfect summertime cool down, great for kids and adults!  For adults, I recommend a fancy cup, and for those who drink can add some rum and this would be totally fabulous.  For kids, just pour into Popsicle molds. 

 

 

Creamsicle!

This is ridiculously yummy, and it tastes just like the real thing! All you need is coconut milk, orange juice, pear juice, and vanilla extract...and ice for the adult beverage.

Firstly, I open my coconut milk the night before (the kind from a can - with the cream, not the light version - coconut fat is really good for you!), so it will get nice and firm. 

Then I squeezed the juice from one orange and added just a dash of pear juice (you probably wouldn't miss this if you didn't have any).  And about a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  I poured this off into popsicle molds, and then blended the rest with ice to create this wonderful, amazing refreshing elixir!  It was absolutely perfect for the 90-100 degree weather we had!