Arrowroot Powder Pizza Crust Recipe

Most people who are paleo will tell you that at some point or another, they just really miss pizza. We’re no exception to this rule. Finding a good paleo pizza recipe, however, can be tough. It’s a lot of trial and error, and sadly, some not so good dinners along the way. Well, I happened upon this recipe from Paleo Spirit. I don’t have, and have never actually used Tapioca Starch, so I substitited arrowroot powder, since I’ve heard that they can be substituted for one another. I also always add some italian seasoning (oregano, basil, thyme, and a little rosemary) to my pizza crusts. I add the dried herbs on top of whatever liquid the recipe calls for. This refreshes the herbs so to speak and makes them a bit more flavorful. Here is a picture  of the cooked crust.

I then topped it with some home made pizza sauce, cheese (we eat dairy) and some pepperoni. It turned out to be really tasty.

Korean Beef

You will have to forgive this horrid picture. Believe it or not, I am trying to improve my photography skills. Regardless, this dish was much better than it looks, and easy to make. I used a recipe that I found online http:// http://elizabethbryant.blogspot.com/2010/05/korean-beef.html, and modified it to make it paleo.

Ingredients:
I lb ground beef (I bet bison would also be tasty)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut aminos
1 TBS sesame oil
3 gloves of garlic minced*
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add the ground beef and cook until it’s brown. Drain any excess fat. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and add them to the skillet. Simmer for a few minutes and serve. I served it over cauliflower rice.

*Confession….I know that fresh is always better, but I buy the already minced garlic that they sell in jars at the grocery store. 1/2 tsp is the equivilent to one clove of fresh garlic. I use this cheat in every single recipe I make. Nobody has ever noticed a difference and I save myself a few minutes of time.

Butternut Squash Soup

I have a confession to make. Prior to making this soup, I have never eaten butternut squash soup before. I had certainly never cooked with it before. While I have to admit that I found peeling it to be a gigantic pain, this soup was so good. I used the recipe from Primal Palate’s book, the Food Lover’s Kitchen. What I didn’t realize when I started the recipe, however, was that I didn’t have any nutmeg, which the recipe calls for. So, instead of using cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger seperately, I swapped in an equal amount of pumpkin pie spice. This substitution worked out really well.

Against All Grain Slow Cooker Sesame Orange Chicken.

One of the things that I like the most about Danielle Walker of Against All Grain’s recipes is that she lives in the real world. She has a husband and a young child, so when she writes her recipes, they don’t usually involved any crazy techniques and hours of preparation. This recipe, from her book Against All Grain is super simple to make. It doesn’t involve a ton of ingredients and it cooks in the crock pot. I paired it with a side of steamed veggies here, but I bet it would be delicious over some cauliflower rice.

The toddler eating trials

Anyone who has ever been near a toddler at feeding time knows that getting them to eat what is put in from them is not an easy task. It’s no exception in our house. We have always had luck getting her to eat fruits and vegetables (although the ones she loved yesterday might be highly offensive today), and since I couldn’t cook when we lived with the in laws, we did a lot of snacking. I’d keep the mini fridge full of fruit and veggie trays (not the most cost effective, by any means, but easy), so that when she was hungry, she had food options. I’d also usually keep some full fat cheese and some Applegate lunch meats. Clearly, not as awesome as sitting down to eat actual meals, (and we did always have something more substantial for dinner), but under the circumstances, it was the best I could do.

When we moved into our own place, I knew that getting her to eat meals (and the meals that I prepared) was going to be an adjustment. I didn’t, however, get the memo that it was going to be such an issue. In the beginning, we tried to force her to eat at least one bite of whatever I made. You would think that just one bite would be do-able, but I have never in my entire life met anyone as stubborn as this child. After a few days of this, we realized that that was not the approach that was going to get us results. If we continued down that patch, meal time was going to turn into a battle every single time, and meal time wasn’t going to be the pleasant family time that I was hoping for.

So, we changed our approach. She does need to sit at the table until everyone is done eating. That’s not negotiable, but we stopped pressuring her to eat. My husband and I do make a big deal about how good the food is while we are eating, and usually this will encourage her to eat it. If it doesn’t though, we just let it go. Maybe she’s not hungry, maybe she is just being picky, I don’t know. However, I won’t make her something different. Dinner is what I make, and that is that. We have had way more success with this method.

Do you have any tips or tricks for getting toddlers to eat? I’d love to hear what works for your family in the comments below!

Carne Asada Burrito Bowls

Fact: I used to HATE mexican food. With a passion. I’m not just talking about taco bell either. Then, we moved to Southern California, where I continued to hate Mexican food. Then we found Chipotle, which was like a gateway drug for me. My husband and I liked Chipotle so much that we would go every Sunday night. Now, as far as fast food type chain restaurants go, Chipotle is probably the best option. They use local, organic, and naturally raised ingredients as much as possibleI respect that, and as someone who has become very aware of what I am putting into my body, I appreciate that. However, our wallets dictate more eating in and less eating out. Luckily, there are ways to make similar food at home.

For this, I used the Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice from Popular Paleo. It’s easy to make and tastes good! Then I added the carne asada from Against All Grain. I added some peppers and onions to the meat as I cooked it, and I topped the bowls with guacamole and pico de gallo (I’d like to taell you that I made these myself, but I bought them pre-made from the store to save some time)., and some sour cream. Yum!

Updates, updates

So, it’s been far too long. Although, in all fairness, I warned you all that it was going to be a bit before I got back to you. I didn’t want or expect it to be this long though. For that, I certainly do apologize.

In the few months that I have been MIA, there have been some big changes. The first one being that I gave birth to our second baby. I gave birth to her with no drugs. Not so much by choice, but because I missed the boat on the epidural. Buy the time they got me settled into my room, it was too late. I will be honest, it hurt, I let out a lot of curse words, but it wasn’t unbearable pain. Now that I know I can do it, I will probably just opt out of the drugs if I have any more children. So far things are going well. Going from one child to two kids under two has been an adjustment to say the least. I’ve been drinking far more coffee than I should be, but I’m hanging in there. I also must confess, in the beginning, I was also eating a fair amount of junk food, for the quick energy that the sugar was providing. Luckily, I was able to get a handle on that pretty quickly.

         The other big news is that we moved. I had hoped that we would be able to move before the baby came, but that didn’t happen. Luckily, my in laws were nice, and tried to convince me that having a newborn in their house wasn’t an inconvenience. I could tell by their tired eyes, though, that it was, and as soon as we were able to, we made the move into our own place.

         The first thing to get unpacked was the kitchen, and once we were able to stock up on real food ingredients, there was no looking back. We’ve all been eating better, and I was able to kick that junk food habit pretty quickly. One of the first things I did was to make a giant batch of salad to keep us fueled during the moving and unpacking process. This one just has a ton of veggies, some Applegate turkey, a bit of feta cheese, and Balsamic Vinaigrette that I made using this recipe from Primal Palate.

       Anyway, thank you for bearing with me while I was away. I look forward to reconnecting with you all again. Please let me know in the comments section if you have any questions or if there is anything you’d like me to talk about. Thanks

Slow Cooker Kalua Pig from Nom Nom Paleo

When I got my hands on Nom Nom Paleo’s book Food for Humans, this recipe jumped out at me. First, because it looks delicious (although maybe not in my picture), but secondly because it’s super easy to make. It only uses 3  or 4  (if you use the optional garlic) ingredients, and it takes maybe 10 minutes of prep work. The hardest part is going to be smelling it for the 16 hours that it takes to cook.

I tried some as I was shredding it, and then made my husband try some. Then we just stood there, eating it as we were shredding it. (Because we’re civilized like that….) Also, I couldn’t find Red Hawaiian Sea Salt, so I just used the highest quality sea salt that our grocery store carried. It was delicious nonetheless. For those of you that don’t have the book yet, the recipe also happens to be right here on their blog. Horray!

Three Ingredient Banana Pancakes

I have been craving pancakes for a few weeks now. The problem is that my husband isn’t a huge fan of pancakes, so I rarely make them. This recipe floated around facebook one day, and it’s so easy that I didn’t mind making them just for myself. (The recipe was on a bunch of Paleo Pages, with no credit to who came up with it. I didn’t create the recipe).

Ingredients:

1 Banana, mashed

2 eggs

A few shakes (maybe 1/8 – 1/4tsp) cinnamon

Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Pre-heat a skillet on medium heat. Add some coconut oil, or grass fed butter to the skillet. Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter into the skillet. Once the bottom side firms up, flip and cook the other side. Once both sides are browned, put it in your belly.

 

Practical Paleo’s Beef and Mixed Veggie Stir-Fry

This stir fry was the first recipe that tried when I received a copy of Practical Paleo. Aside from all of the chopping, a stir fry is generally a  quick meal to throw together. It’s also really easy to change it up, using almost any meat that you have on hand, and whatever veggies you have. We skipped the string beans that the recipe called for and used a red bell pepper. I love peppers, and I love seeing lots of  natural colors in my meals. The recipe made enough for the three of us (although the little one still doesn’t eat much at all) with leftovers for the next day.