5 Must-Have Ingredients to 'Paleo-ize' Your Meals

Almost everyday I read about some new ingredient to add to my fridge or pantry that can spice up meals without comprimise.  I am thankful that there are so many good people out there playing with recipes and coming up with gems that I can steal!  I decided to come up with a list of great kitchen items that don’t necessarily pop up on the rookies’ shopping list.  If you can get yourself familiar with a few of these, you will open up a much wider range of Paleo recipes.  I’ll include some suggestions for usage after each item.  Here we go (in no particular order)…

- Coconut milk

Okay, this one isn’t really THAT profound, but it makes the list because it is so incredibly versatile.  Use it for sauces (even gravy!), curries, coffee creamer, or even ice cream (all you need is an ice cream maker or a friend like me that has one).  Basically, when you would normally use milk or cream, try coconut milk.  As far as nutrition goes, it is loaded with good, healthy fat.  Remember, eating this will not make you fat...we embrace the good fat, and we look better for it (don't believe the 'low-fat' hype...stupid mainstream).

-Coconut flour

I just recently experimented with this one for the first time…again, super wide range of uses.  Use it to thicken a sauce (like corn starch), to bake (sub for regular flour), to “bread” fish or chicken, and in place of bread crumbs…I actually find this stuff to be more absorbant than the conventional stuff, so you seem to need to use less in recipes where you'd normally dump in flour or bread crumbs.  Again, since it’s all coconut, it's good for ya.

*Also try almond meal for a similar effect.  Adds a little more texture than the coconut flour.

 -Coconut aminos

You probably haven’t seen this stuff.  We have been tearing through bottles of this, because it is a GREAT soy sauce substitute that is far less processed and is not filled with nasty soy.  It tastes a bit milder, but has the same general profile as it’s Kikkoman brother.  Use however you would use soy sauce, duh.

-Spaghetti squash

Again, you may not have ever tried this chameleon of a squash, but if you have a nasty hankering for a pasta dish, this guy can help without the intense insulin spike and carb bombed gut that the flour and wheat brings.  This stuff actually looks like pasta after it’s prepared.  It tastes sorta like pasta, but once you add the sauce, the texture and the look of it makes for a perfect Italian knock-off.  Try this recipe.  Top with any sauce you'd like.

-Cauliflower

This one might be sitting in your refridgerator right now!  The key though, is how you prepare it.  Now you may think that your days of delicious mashed potatoes and fluffy white rice are behind you since you went Paleo…not so fast!  You can make cauliflower into nice subs for both of those tasty side dishes.  For rice, try this method from Nom Nom Paleo.  For a “mash” or puree, just steam the cauliflower florets.  When fork tender, puree them with some butter or some water from the steamer and seasoning until they are the desired texture.  You can try adding some coconut milk for creaminess, too (since you are well stocked now).  Cauliflower is also great roasted or grilled if you feel like changing things up.

So next time you go to the store for your typical meat and veggies, grab these things and start getting creative.  We made these fried chicken tenders last night with a coconut flour/almond meal crust…delicious.  Paleo soul-food!  Anything’s possible! 

Fried chicken tenders in coconut oil, breaded in coconut flour and almond meal with cauliflower puree and broccolini

Paleo Baked Goodness

 It is no secret that I love to cook.  On the other hand though, I’m pretty clueless when it comes to baking.  There are many Paleo-cooks out there that are pros at converting baked goods that are normally big ‘no’s for us into decent options that won’t spike insulin levels and aren’t loaded with sugar.  I am not one of these Paleo-cooks, but since I love a muffin or cake or biscuit as much as any guy, my lovely fiancé decided to do some work in the bake shop to surprise me last week.  With some magical ingredients and some recipe browsing, she managed to create some AWESOME biscuits.  In my opinion, as good or better than any I have ever had…guilt free!  So, naturally, I decided to share this recipe with you fine folks.  Here it is, courtesy of Ms Alexis Bessa, my resident baker!

 

First, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Ingredients:

3 eggs beaten

¼ cup coconut oil (melted, if purchased in solid form)

½ cup coconut flour

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon water

Handful of blueberries

Note about the ingredients: if you have never tried the two coconut products, head to any good market (Whole Foods has it all) and pick them up.  Coconut oil is a GREAT substitute for vegetable oils or olive oil if you are looking for a subtle flavor change.  The flour is just like regular flour except a bit more absorbent (you will often use less than you would regular).  We use it to ‘bread’ fish or chicken and also as a substitute for breadcrumbs in recipes.  Both of the products have very little coconut flavor.  Okay, back to the biscuits…

First, combine beaten eggs, coconut oil, vanilla, and salt until well incorporated with a whisk.

Next, gradually mix in the coconut flour and work into a dough.  Repeat until you have added all of the flour. 

Once the dough is established, add the berries and the water.  Mix with your hands.

Form into whatever size you’d like (keep them all uniform for even cooking), and place on a baking sheet covered in foil for easy cleanup.

Bake for about 15 minutes until starting to brown on the edges.

Enjoy with a drizzle of honey or butter or nothing at all if you’re staying strict!

Thanks, Alexis, for droppin’ some bakery knowledge on this Paleo kitchen :)

Chili!

One of my favorite days of the week is Sunday.  We get up early, make breakfast, workout, and head to our Farmer’s Market.  I LOVE the Farmer’s Market.  Since we order most of our produce and veggies from an organic produce delivery service (L.O.V.E. Delivery for you LA folks), we usually grab all of our meat, herbs, fruit, and whatever else looks good on Sundays at Farmer's.  The grass-fed, pastured meat from Rocky Canyon Farms is the best our market has to offer.  Not only is most of it half of the Whole Foods’ price, you get it straight from the farmer!  We have been stocking up, since we can easily go through a couple pounds of ground beef each week. 

One of my favorite ways to put this delicious ground beef to use is in chili.  I make a HUGE bowl of it and eat it alllll week (remember: leftovers are Paleo’s best friends).  This particular recipe was adapted from the obnoxious Food Network duo Pat and Gina Neely.  Good BBQ food, painfully bad cooking show (just my humble opinion…sorry Neely’s).  Anyways, here it is!

The Best Paleo Chili.

Ingredients:

·  4 slices thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

·  4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

·  2 medium onions, chopped (in case you have trouble chopping onion, I made a video to help you)

·  1 red bell pepper, chopped

·  1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

·  2 small jalepenos, seeded and chopped

·  3 tablespoons chili powder

·  1 tablespoon ground cumin

·  1 tablespoon ancho chili powder

·  2 teaspoons dried oregano

·  1 tablespoon smoked paprika

·  Approx ½ teaspoon cayenne (if you like it hot, go nuts)

·  Some cinnamon (less than a teaspoon)

·  Salt and freshly ground black pepper

·  1 pound grass-fed ground beef

·  1 pound ground pork (organic or pastured, if available)

·  1 cup beer (recommended: any Chocolatey or Coffee Stout) **sub some beef stock for stricter Paleo.

·  1 (24-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

·  1 (24-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice

Spices

Chopped veggies

 Lots of ingredients, I know…but most are spices that will definitely be used in many future culinary endeavors, I promise.

First, put the bacon in a cold pot or Dutch oven with a little olive oil and turn heat to medium.  When bacon is near crisp and starting to brown, add all the chopped veggies and the spices and stir to mix.

Bacon browing

Veggies, spices, and bacon

Cook the veggies until they get soft and smell awesome.  Now add the beef, and break it up with spoon and stir until it starts to brown up.  Add the pork, and cook the entire mixture until both meats are no longer pink and are broken up nicely.

Veggies look good...add the meat!

Meat is browned and ready

Pour in the beer (or stock) and simmer for a few minutes.  I love a little chocolate/coffee flavor, so I use beer that lends a little bit of that.  Add crushed and diced tomatoes, and turn heat to low.  Simmer for an hour and a half or so stirring periodically.

In goes beer, then tomatoes

The payoff! With my favorite side salad: arugula, avocado, and red wine vinaigrette.

Eat it!  Box of the leftovers, then eat it again tomorrow for lunch!

Our Top Paleo Tips!

Our Whole 30 has officially ended…but our Paleo lifestyle is definitely still kickin!!  We have successfully completed the 30 day challenge, and the results have been nothing short of amazing.  Both Alexis and I feel better than we ever have in our entire lives, and the improvement definitely shows up in the before/after pics.  This was not about vanity or looking good, but even so, we are both extremely happy with the results since beachtime is coming up :-)

Day 1

Day 29

Day 1

Day 29

 We celebrated our "graduation' with a trip to Lake Elsinore, CA for the Warrior Dash (awesome, hilarious race…check it out).  

Pre Race

After the race, we decided to have a little ‘cheat meal’.  Went to a favorite neighborhood spot, La Grande Orange, and crushed some nachos (arguably the best in LA btw), a little pasta, and a huge bowl of frozen yogurt…YA.  Of course after that though, I spent about an hour feeling like I may throw up.  I skipped breakfast the next morning (still not quite right) and wrote the dinner off as a reminder as to why I love eating Paleo. 

Over the last month, we have cooked about 90% of our meals at home to try to stay in compliance.  We have learned a few tricks along the way…call them our “Tips to Eat Right without Going Broke or Hungry.”  Here we go…

- Always have some kind of salad greens on hand.  Salads are easy to make and you can load em up with anything you want (bacon, egg, veggies, leftover chicken, canned tuna, etc…).

Our lil cobb

- Learn to make burgers with grass-fed beef.  A good, hot cast iron skillet, sea salt, and good meat are really all that you need.  Shoot for about ¼ to 1/3 pound per patty.  Cook em up, top them with virtually anything that sounds good and put it on top of some greens.  Good, healthy, and EXTREMELY customizable.

 - Buy a slow-cooker.  These are the BOMB.  You can cook big, cheap cuts of meat without much effort.  We do this once a week and it makes plenty of leftovers.  Try pork butt (shoulder), roasts, or short ribs.

Carnitas slow cooked

- Speaking of leftovers…when you cook, cook too much.  I almost never cook a lunch, but lunch is always homemade.  Leftovers are necessary for Paleo-survival.

- Buy tons of eggs.  Hard boil them for portable protein.

- Feed the dessert beast.  If you must have something sweet, try fruit.  If regular fruit isn’t enough, try adding heat (bake or sauté) and some cinnamon.  

Baked apples with cinnamon (dessert!)

- And finally, leverage the Pros.  If you are running out of ideas, or if you are craving some specific dish but don’t want to cheat, chances are that someone out there has an answer.  I google “Paleo (insert dish/ingredient here) recipe” almost daily.  There are TONS of resources out there. 

Check out our most recent recipe find from Everyday Paleo…DELICIOUS meatloaf!

Tastes wayyyy better than it looks :)

Four Minute Abs

 Good news.  You have time to workout.  Yes, even YOU.  As I have mentioned before, I have learned a TON of what I know about diet and exercise through my Crossfit gym and community.  One of my favorite lessons is about a workout regime that costs FOUR minutes of the day.  That is not a type-o.  In four minutes per workout, you can actually make some significant gains.  If you double or triple them up (a whopping eight or 12 minutes), you can really get some things done. 

The type of training that I am referring to is called Tabata Interval training.  The format is simple: 20 seconds of high-intensity work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times. 

Research shows that this type of training is as effective or more effective than the ol’ tried-and-true long, aerobic activity like that half hour jog we all hate. And for you athletes, this training has proved to pay big dividends in studies on cyclists and other endurance competitors.  Bottom line: you can do them in four minutes, and they make you skinnier, boost your endurance, and improve your athleticism.  Sold.

All that you need to perform Tabata’s is:

a)     A timer (most stopwatches/sports watches have interval settings…there are also a few Tabata iPhone apps for you cool kids).  The one on the link is very easy to use.

b)    An idea for an exercise.

If you don’t have b), try these: all out sprints, pushups, situps, bodyweight squats, fast jump rope, cycling sprints, kettlebell/dumbbell swings, bench/box jumps…or literally anything else.  They will all be hard as long as you go hard in each of the 20-second intervals.  I like to pick two things and knock ‘em out back-to-back.  For example…20 seconds of body-weight squats, rest 10 seconds.  Repeat eight times.  20 seconds of burpees.  (KILLER exercise…click link for demo. That's my gym's owner, BTW. What a stud), rest 10 seconds.  Repeat eight times.  Eight minutes of goodness.  Workout done for the day.

So if you are the guy/gal that says, “I just wish I could sneak in a workout in today…”, I don’t want to hear it.  Grab a clock, and go get sweaty.  You can spare four minutes.

A Solid Soup

Time for an easy recipe!  As you know, I love leftovers.  One of the best “eat all week” dishes we make is soup.  My favorite is butternut squash.  It’s a nice, warm, creamy, hearty dish that can be a meal or side dish or snack.  Versatile.  You will see that it is extremely easy to make (just a few ingredients), and it is healthy! Here we go…

What you need:

-1 butternut squash

-1 peeled cubed pink lady apple (optional)

-1 medium onion (white or yellow) diced

-Chicken stock (water or veggie stock is fine too)

-Some cinnamon

-Some nutmeg

-Pinch of salt and pepper

-Pinch of cayenne pepper

-Bacon! (optional, but delicious…as always) – if you want to use it, dice it up and cook it on medium-low until crisp.  Remove from pot  and set aside leaving grease in pot.

-Olive oil, coconut oil or fat rendered from bacon

-A soup pot

-A blender

-First, peel the squash until the surface is a nice, bright orange (peel away the white).  Dice the squash into approx. 1 inch cubes.  Start by cutting in half the long way, scoop out the seeds and pulp, and then cube it up.

-Sweat the chopped onion in either olive oil, coconut oil (adds a nice little flavor), or bacon fat on medium low until translucent and limp.  Do not let them brown.

Pictured in coconut oil, but I prefer bacon fat :)

-Add the cubed squash, apple, and enough chicken stock to almost cover the cubes (less stock, thicker soup).  Boil, then simmer the squash until it is fork tender.

I like mine a bit thicker...

-Pour the pot into a blender and CAREFULLY puree it until smooth (in batches if necessary). 

-Add the puree back into the pot.  Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon and nutmeg, the salt, pepper, and cayenne.  You can adjust the seasonings to taste.

-Simmer for about 15-20 minutes.  Serve and top with bacon bits (if you wanna).

Served alongside a random seared shrimp/onion/chard saute

Save the rest and eat it all week as a side dish or lunch or whenever else you feel like it!  Enjoy!