paleo poppyseed vinaigrette

My all time favorite salad dressing is poppyseed dressing. I order it any time I get a salad at a restaurant, since chances are, its made of oil and sugar, sans any gluten problems. My cousin Mike is the owner/chef at Kelley's Courtyard Cafe, and no one makes poppyseed dressing better. There's probably no chance he'll give up the recipe, so I decided to venture out on my own and make a Paleo version. The dressing I ended up with was a total success. It's delicious, nutritious, and very similar to the flavor Mike will someday bottle up like Paul Newman did after his glory days :)

Ingredients:
1 cup olive oil
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
juice squeezed from 1 orange
1/3 cup honey
1 T mustard
3 T poppyseeds
dash of salt and pepper

Whisk it all together then store in the refrigerator after serving.

paleo philly burgers -the world's most lip smackingly delicious burgers

I am honest to goodness not a huge fan of burgers. The other day, I went to Ted's Montana Grill and they had a bison burger on the menu, so I had to have one. I love bison. The burger I had was topped with philly cheesesteak toppings, minus the cheese, and was so delicious I had to make one of my own. Don't you hate when you go to a restaurant, try to recreate what you had that tasted so good, and the restaurant food was so much better than what you created yourself? Well this was not one of those time. I didn't have bison, but beef worked just fine, and it was so tasty!

Burger:
75/25 beef, about 2.5 lbs
2 jalapenos, diced
5 cloves of garlic, diced
3 T worstershire sauce
2 T liquid aminos
dash of sea salt, dash of black pepper

Combine all ingredients together and throw on the grill until done the way you like.

Philly topping:
1 T olive oil
1 jalapeno, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow onion, sliced
handful of sliced mushrooms
dash of salt, dash of pepper

Saute it all together in a pan on medium heat until onions and peppers are slightly soft.

The rest:
sliced tomato
lettuce leaves

Wrap a bit of everything into lettuce leaves and you now have a load of a wonderful burger. No lie. 100% guaranteed delicious!

paleo fried "rice"

I am so excited about this. I'm Asian, and I love rice. Rice has always been my food-love. It's always been there... I'm slightly kidding. In all sincerity though, I have probably had it with almost every one of my meals since I was able to eat solid food as a kid. Bread has never been a big deal to me, nor has any other grain. But rice. Dear goodness, rice. Anyway, I ran across an awesome blog that instructs you how to make cauliflower taste like rice and how to incorporate it into your everyday rice dishes. Saved!

Find it here: http://feastingonfitness.blogspot.com/2009/10/cauliflower-rice.html

I decided to incorporate it into my mom's famous fried rice. The other day I was sad that my cousin ate all of my fried rice, but now I'm better seeing as I can make my own healthy version :)

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower
1 T olive oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 cup mushrooms, diced
3 T liquid aminos
1 T sesame oil
1 T black pepper
1 tsp ground red pepper
3 eggs, scrambled
3 slices bacon, chopped

Cut up florets of the cauliflower then blend in food processor or blender by small amounts, into rice-like texture. Set aside. Heat a large skillet to medium heat, add olive oil, red bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, and cauliflower. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the liquid aminos, sesame oil, black pepper, and ground red pepper. Saute for 2 more minutes, then add the eggs and bacon. Stir everything together and let cook until the cauliflower has a rice-like consistency.

paleo nut crunchy treats

I DID IT! Alright, so not these didn't stick together in their perfect little squares like rice crispy treats do with all that marshmallow holding them together. But these are so incredibly yummy and a great snack. They are nothing but protein (with a little bit of chocolate...) and so delicious. I love rice crispy treats, but wanted to make a Paleo version that I could snack on and not feel guilty. Great success!

Ingredients:
6 cups raw nuts, chopped (I used walnuts and cashews)
dash of sea salt
2/3 cup almond butter
2/3 cup honey
1 T vanilla
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Toss all of the chopped nuts into a large bowl, then mix in a dash of salt. In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir in the rest of the ingredients until everything is melted and well blended. Remove pan from heat and stir the mixture into the nuts. I put on a glove and mixed everything together by hand to make sure everything was combined. Pour it all into a casserole dish a press down. Allow to cool, then cut when ready to eat.

spicy wings over paleo, just in time for football!

Everyone should know by now what a wing fanatic I am. Wings are my go-to meal... even for a romantic dinner with Jake the day before he leaves for deployment. True story. I'm not sure why people think they are so bad for you. I especially like when someone tells me how unhealthy chicken wings are, as they grab a bowl of ice cream and a diet soda. Yep. Anyway, there is something about the way the meat cooks with the skin (fat) and the bone that makes it so sweet and juicy. I love my wings marinated and grilled, but we don't have a grill here at the beach house. I am about a few meals away from breaking down and buying the portable grill Jake and I have been wanting for a while now. Until then, baking and broiling will work. These wings were so absolutely delicious, I just can not describe how amazed I was at the full flavor. I didn't even use any vinegar/sugar/chemical-laden sauces. SOOO YUM!

Ingredients:
1 package wings, wing tips removed
1 T sesame oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp grapeseed oil (or olive oil)
3 T liquid aminos
1 T honey
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T crushed red pepper
1 jalapeno, chopped
5 cloves of garlic
2 T cayenne pepper

Blend everything (but the wings) together in either a blender or processor, until everything is pureed and combined. Throw everything in a ziploc bag or a tupperware container with the wings. Allow to marinate overnight, and shake it all up when you get the chance. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the wings side by side on a slitted pan over a baking pan after greasing the slitted pan. Bake for 50 minutes, turning the wings over halfway through. Turn on the broiler at the end, then broil the wings 5 minutes per side to get it crispy. Or if you have a grill, just throw them all on a grill for about 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Warning: these wings are extremely deceptive when it comes to heat. They burned my mouth and I am a spice fanatic. I would only use 1/2 of the jalapeno and 1/2 of the cayenne as well as 1/2 the vinegar if you can not tolerate spice very well.

baked sweet potato aka my favorite Paleo snack!

I have been snacking on weird food since I was a baby. I believe my first snack other than my mother's milk was dried squid... basically squid jerky. Yeah, that's how hardcore beast I am. Now I can't even think about eating squid without gagging because of squid overload. Next I guess I moved onto yummy sweet potatoes, which are much more the "norm" I'd say. Sweet potatoes are yummy and it doesn't get any easier. Well, you could always reach for a bag of chips. Oooooh your chips are "whole grain"... well then, aren't you the healthiest person in the world. Not. Go several days without grain and see how different your body feels. You'll be amazed. But I digress. I just wanted to share how easy it is to snack on something other than junk.

Ingredients:
sweet potato

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Poke many holes into the sweet potato then wrap it in foil, shiny side in. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until soft. Yummy!

paleo pancakes... that actually taste like pancakes!

First of all, some of you may have noticed the ugly plates in all of my pictures lately. No, my taste has not taken a significant plunge. I have been staying in an awesome beach condo with my parents in Florida for vacation. Thus, the ugly plates that come with the place. I'll take ugly plates for an awesome view of the beach every time I wake up!

Secondly, some of you are thinking, Paleo doesn't mean eating starches and alternative flours! No, no it doesn't. Not for people who are trying to lose weight anyway. However, I am not trying to lose weight and I love my carbs... therefore, I will be eating a ton of fruit and starchy veggies and coconut and almond flours thankyouverymuch! That's what Paleo means to me. It means eating healthy and doing what is best for my individual body.

Finally, these pancakes are wonderful. They are fluffy, nutritious, packed with protein, just sweet enough, and don't need syrup! You can top them with anything you want just like regular pancakes. I didn't think until after making them that I could have made blueberry pancakes. But hey, this was my first time making Paleo pancakes, so one thing at a time. At least this first attempt was successful! I'm getting quite lucky with all these successful first attempts, I'd say.

Ingredients:

6 eggs
1 1/2 cups almond milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 T baking soda
1 T honey
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup coconut flour

Beat the eggs well. Then add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until everything is well-combined. Heat a pan to medium, drizzle a little grapeseed oil onto the pan then add in big spoonfuls of pancakes. Make sure you spread them out so they don't burn on one side before you can even flip them. I drizzled just a tad of honey atop the pancakes to give it a little more sweetness.... I can't give up my sweet tooth but at least I didn't throw in chocolate chips like I'm used to doing! Trust me, if I had dark chocolate on hand, I would definitely have done so ;)