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Paleo Challenge 2017

1/6/2017

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Well, it's that time of year again.  Holidays are over and I had my way with them, and I enjoyed myself immensley.   Now it's time to get back to this lifestyle thing and I am energized and ready to go.  I don't know what it is that feels so good about letting loose during the holidays, but I do know that once it's over, I feel cruddy and sluggish.  So here we go with a Whole30 kickstart and then a transition back into a more practical, sustainable way of eating and living.  A Whole30 can be challenging, but when you are fueled by endless post holiday motivation, it seems to go by pretty fast.  
I am leading a group from my gym, CrossFit St. Louis through a 6 week nutrition challenge and thought this post would be helpful when people ask, "What should I cook".  Here are a few things I did this week to make the first 4 days go as smoothly as possible. 

SUNDAY - New Year's Day.  After cleaning up all the Christmas stuff and putting away our attic firs, I cleaned out the fridge and the pantry.  Tossed all things that tempted me or were expired.  Apparently that weird chutney that I had on my pantry shelf expired in May of 2008.  Cleaned out the fruit and veggie drawer and readied my shopping list.

MONDAY
Prep day.  I went to the store and stocked up on Whole30 approved items and lots of fresh veggies.  I wanted to make an easy grab and go breakfast for those mornings when I had to be at the gym early to teach my rowing class.  Here's how it all panned out.   

Mexican Breakfast Muffins
9 eggs
1 lb chorizo from Lucky's Market (no sugar or bad ingredients added)
3-4 large handfulls of spinach
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1/2 onion chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Saute chorizo and set aside reserving a small amount of grease for the veggies.  Sautee onions and mushrooms till soft and add spinach. Saute until greens are wilted.
In a non stick muffin pan, layer chorizo and sauteed veggies in 12 cups. Meanwhile, whisk the 9 eggs together until blended.  To the eggs, add about 1/2 t. salt and pepper (or to taste.)  It's hard to know how much because sometimes the chorizo can be salty.  Pour the eggs evenly over the sausage/veggie mixture.  I fill until it almost reaches the top.
Bake at 350 about 20 min or until firm and set in the middle.  They will come out nice and fluffy, but tend to deflate a little while they cool.
After I made these, I realized that adding about 1/2 cup rotel to the egg mixture would make them taste even better.  I'll do that next time.
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Here is a video of how I put everything together:  https://youtu.be/IxaCrcxs4wMyoutu.be/IxaCrcxs4wM

While those were cooking, I made a batch of tuna salad.  Used two large cans, 4 hard boiled eggs, chopped celery and onion, celery seed, and some homemade paleo mayonaise.  I like to have that in the fridge and ready to go.
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Once the egg cups were cooling and the tuna was made, I also cooked up some plain breakfast sausage from Lucky's meat counter.  After inquiring, they said there was no added sugars, fillers or wheat products so the ingredients looked pretty clean.  I like to have that on hand for quick egg scrambles.  Makes the morning go quick.  Below is a video summary of my food prep.
Dinner on Monday night was a new recipe I found from Zenbelly.  I have their cookbook too and it is amazing.  The recipe was called "INSTANTPOT CRISPY MOJO PORK SHOULDER WITH SPICY SLAW and it was delicious.  I made the pork and the slaw to go with and it was good for leftovers as well.  I used my Instantpot which I LOVE.  If you don't have one, you can order one on amazon.  It's part electric pressure cooker, part slow cooker and part saute pan all in one.  For more on an Instantpot, go here.
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Tuesday
Breakfast was my easy egg cups that I made on Monday.  I had two with my coffee.  Lunch was some rolled up turkey with paleo mayo and mixed greens.  For Dinner, we had "Salad Surprise" which was basically your choice of egg salad, tuna salad or ham salad (all made ahead) along with a green salad.  The ham salad was easy.  I bought a half of a Boar's Head tavern ham and chopped about 3/4ths of it in my food processor.  I added whole ground mustard and the rest of the paleo mayo I made the day before.  I chopped some dill pickle and some onion and mixed it all in.  It went fast.

Wednesday  We went to see Arrival at the movies at 7:45 that evening so I knew I needed something quick.  I went to my old reliable favorite Sweet Potato and Kale Chicken Patties from this blog in recipes.  These have it all...kale, sweet potato and white and dark meat chicken fried up in a little ghee.  They are wonderful and I love them for breakfast as well. 
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This Dijon mustard made by Annie's is Whole 30 approved as it is not made with wine or other alcohol.
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Thursday - Egg cups for breakfast, leftover tuna salad and mojo pork for lunch.  
Dinner was a pleasant surprise.  I had a pack of 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs that I bought on sale at Lucky's the day before.  I didn't know what to do with them so I simply googled "boneless skinless chicken thighs paleo recipe" and the first thing that popped up looked so tasty that I made it.  It was called Mustard Balsamic Chicken Thighs by PaleoHacks and it was a keeper.  I roasted some sweet potato, multi colored carrots and turnups in olive oil and salt and pepper to go along with it.  
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I've found that if you prepare well a Whole30 can go very smoothly.   Have a breakfast made ahead of time or something easy enough to prepare quickly in the morning.  Outline a few dinner recipes and use a crockpot or instantpot.  And have some snacks ready to go like avocados, coconut chips, jerkey, boiled eggs or veggie sticks.  You won't go hungry and you'll enjoy all the goodness that whole foods have to offer.  Weekend, here we come!
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Breakfast Egg cups

8/23/2016

1 Comment

 
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I got my busy on today, preparing food for the week and one of my favorite things to do is make breakfast egg cups.  These are my "go to" for fast, easy, on the go breakfast and the beautiful thing is you can add almost anything you want to these things and they always turn out good.  In this version, I used sausage, zucchini, onion, spinach and tomato but I've also used peppers, mushroom, and kale and the results never disappoint.  

Breakfast Egg Cups

Ingredients  
1 lb pork breakfast sausage
1 T. Kerrygold butter
1/2 yellow onion
2 medium zucchini
3 cups spinach
12 cherry tomatoes cut in half
7 eggs
salt and pepper

Fry the sausage in a pan until done.  Drain cooked, crumbled sausage on a plate with a paper towel.  Add 1 T. butter to the pan and melt.  Add onion and zucchini and saute until veggies are crisp tender. Add spinach and tomatoes and sauté until spinach is wilted and tomatoes are softened.

In a non stick cupcake tin, spoon the sausage evenly among 12 cups.  Top the sausage with equal amounts of veggie mixture trying to even it out among the cups.  In a separate bowl, beat the 7 eggs with a whisk until blended.  Carefully pour the egg mixture into each cupcake space, partitioning out the egg mixture evenly among the cups.  Season the tops with sea salt and ground pepper to taste.

Bake at 300 for about 15-20 minutes or until eggs are set.  Let cool slightly and then remove them from the cupcake tin and let cool on a wire rack.  Store in an air tight container in the fridge and enjoy a quick breakfast all week!
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Egg cups with sausage and veggies. Egg mixture comes next.
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These eggs came from my wonderful backyard chickens.
Nutrition Facts
I calculated the macronutrients per egg cup by adding together all the nutrition facts of the ingredients.  Depending on the type of sausage, size of zucchini, and number of eggs, the ratios may vary a bit but here is a good guideline.
Total servings:  12
serving size:  1 egg cup
Calories:  155
Protein: 8 grams
Net carb:  2 grams
Fat:  12 grams
For those following a paleo, low carb, or keto lifestyle, these would fit in nicely.  They are nutrient dense and high on flavor.  They are also great for a post workout snack.  
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Banana Pecan Muffins

11/4/2013

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Stop the presses! You don't ever have to search for a good Banana Nut Muffin recipe again.  Ever.  It's right here and it's the last one you'll  need...I'm that confident.  My daughter walked in from school today and the conversation went something like this... "What's that smell...are you making muffins?"  I was like, "Yes, banana nut!".  As I predicted, she responded, "Are they paleo?"  And much to her dismay, my answer was "Yes".  In her mind, any baked paleo treat is crumbly, tasteless and bland and definitely not worth her time.  But these smelled so wonderful and came out hot and fresh.  To no one in particular, she said,  "OK, fine, I'll try it."  After her first bite, she asked if they were really paleo.  "They're really good Mom!"  And it was then I knew that I found the perfect recipe.  Believe me, I've made my fair share of muffin recipes and have a whole folder of paleo banana nut breads, muffins, cookies, and pancakes.  I feel like the Bubba Gump of bananas.  But this one is so much better than the rest.  The combo of almond flour AND coconut flour, along with a few added dates and ripe bananas give these a good texture and the right amount of sweetness.  You must try. 

RECIPE

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Ingredients
2 cups almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup dates (or raisins if you prefer)
3 ripe bananas
1 T. vanilla (I prefer Mexican vanilla)
3 eggs
1/4 cup honey
3 T. coconut oil melted
2 T. almond butter

How to:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  (In a non stick pan, roast pecans on medium heat until fragrant tossing gently as they roast.  This step is not a must but it adds another level of flavor and complexity to the muffin.)  Set aside.
Mash bananas with a whisk or fork, and add honey and almond butter.  Beat eggs and add to banana mixture.  Add oil and vanilla and blend well.  In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients, including pecans.  Mix wet with dry ingredients.  Spoon batter into lined muffin cups or a non stick muffin pan.  (I love my non stick muffin pan from Sur la Table.  NOTHING sticks to this and it's so easy to clean.)  Bake 15-20 minutes.  Makes 12-15 muffins.


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Stacie's Pumpkin Muffin

1/26/2013

2 Comments

 
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Last weekend, I went to Omaha, NE to visit some of my favorite college chums.  We try to get together 1-2 times a year because it's cheaper than therapy.  This past trip was a blast as we laughed, make fun of each other, and watched a movie that we later quoted from the rest of the weekend. (If you haven't seen Sordid Lives, go watch it on Netflix...it is hilarious!) Our friend Stacie made some incredible paleo pumpkin muffins.  I know there are a gazillion pumpkin muffin recipes out there, but I can tell you these were legit.  Her recipe has some honey in it, but if you are doing a Whole30, no sugar version of paleo, they still taste good without the added sugar.  I've made them sans the sugar so I know!

PALEO PUMPKIN NUT MUFFINS

1/4 C coconut flour
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground cloves
***OR  2 t pumpkin pie spice instead of individual spices
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 C pureed pumpkin
6 eggs beaten
4 T coconut oil or unsalted Kerrygold butter, gently melted
1/3 C honey
1 t vanilla extract
1/4- 1/2 C chopped pecans (optional)
1/2 C semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (optional) or 1/2 C raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin pans very well.
Sift coconut flour, baking soda, salt and spices into a small bowl, blend well and set aside.
Place Pumpkin puree in mixing bowl and whisk eggs one at a time into the pumpkin.
Add gently melted coconut oil or butter, honey, and vanilla to pumpkin mixture and combine thoroughly.
Add flour mixture to egg and pumpkin mixture and blend well with a whisk until most of the floury lumps are gone, but don't stir more than necessary to blend.
Gently fold in nuts, chocolate chips or raisins if using them.
Spoon into each muffin tin two thirds full.
Bake for 16-18 minutes.


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I purchased these great muffin tins from Sur laTable at my friend's suggestion.  They are awesome because nothing sticks to them, even if you don't use parchment liners.  I got rid of all my cruddy pans, invested in two of these and am so glad I did.
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Me, Frank, Brenda and Stacie watching our funny movie.
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Brenda is tutoring Frank on how to eat Paleo because we think it will be good for his digestion.
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Saying goodbye at the airport. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
It was a great weekend to get away, hang with friends and enjoy Stacie's muffins.  For something extra funny, watch Betty White on SNL talk about her Dusty Muffin.  LOL!
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    Author

    My name is Leeny Hoffmann and I am paleo curious. Come out of the "Standard Diet" closet with me and let's find out what the paleo lifestyle is all about.

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