Is that Paleo?

 

It’s usually a funny joke we throw around the house, “is that Paleo?”  We wear it on t-shirts and have gifts with the phrase on it.  But this time, I really have to ask, “Is that paleo?”  As I’m looking around for some green bell pepper recipes (our secret ingredient tonight!), I saw a link to the new stem cell burger.  For real, that is not paleo (firstly because they had to add bread and other things to make it more burger-like and secondly, it’s franken meat).  One of the most basic reasons our bodies enjoy meat is because we’ve been consuming it for hundreds of thousands of years worth of genetics.  We receive great nutrition from meat where you cannot imitate the value;  whether or not you feel bad for animals is irrelevant when comparing this nutritional value. The bottom line is health and wellness has shown to be more successful when you go back to food that is natural, not man made; anything imitated is just not the same (just look at cheeze whiz = FRANKEN CHEEZE).

My Favorite burger Joints:

1. Bubs Burgers – just meat. no bun. so good.

2. Bloomingfood’s Nick’s Burger – Grill it at home!!

3. Scotty’s – I’ll get it with a side of broccoli and fruit.  I cut up the burger and have a broccoli burger stir fry!

4.  Upland – I’ll get it with a side salad. The orange ginger vinegarette is very good.

Summertime Grilling!

Upcoming Gathering! BBQ challenge this Sunday 7/28 at 12:30pm!  This challenge is to make a BBQ sauce with your favorite summertime meat!  Make enough for 20-25 people to sample; Non-Challengers will taste a sample size!  

I have been dreaming about burgers! I have been getting the Nick’s Burger at Bloomingfoods for the last couple of months and It’s divine!  But, sometimes I’m at home, no where near the convenience of Bloomingfoods; so, I googled some recipes and found one on TLC’s website.

I found Emeril’s Burger Seasoning.  Now, I don’t keep pepper on hand because I don’t use it enough to want to buy it, and I’ll usually only eat spicy things when others prepare it.  So, I left the 2 peppers out.  You should use 2.5 teaspoons of the seasoning for 1lb of beef.   My Burgers turned out fabulous!

EMERIL’S BURGER SEASONING:
2 ½ tablespoons	paprika
2 tablespoons	table salt
2 tablespoons	garlic powder
1 tablespoon	onion powder
2 teaspoons	black pepper
2 teaspoons	ground mustard
1 teaspoon	cayenne pepper

One thing that we learned from Dave is you should always have your burger well done.  If the burger was originally exposed to germs, then they get ground up in the middle.   If it’s not cooked in the middle, the germs are still having a party.  Steaks are different because if there’s germs, they’d be on the outside, and killed off from the grill.  On the flip side, he said pork is no problem, and even if it’s a little pink in the middle, it wouldn’t harm you with the threat of germs.  MiNd BlOWn!!

Blackberry Glazed Pork Chops

Don’t forget! This Saturday 2/2 @ 5:30pm is our Paleo Pitch-in Meeting.

• Bring a main dish, side dish, or dessert.
• If your main dish or side dish includes a *fruit* as the special ingredient, your name goes into a pot to win a $15 Butchers block Gift Cart.  To be added to the drawing, it must be a dish that isn’t only fruit.
• Write or print your recipe off for others to take a picture of or copy!*

** Not sure what to make? PaleOMG is a great resource for recipes that incorporate fruit into paleo dishes! Check out her Blackberry Glazed Grilled Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 1-2lbs US Wellness Meats Pork Chops
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 12 ounces fresh blackberries
• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons water
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Turn your grill on!! If you don’t know how to light it, I can’t help you.
2. Place pork chops on a plate and cover your pork chops in some cinnamon, thyme, salt and pepper on both side and press into the pork chop.
3. While your grill heats up, place a small saucepan over medium heat on your stove top and add your blackberries, balsamic vinegar, water, and a pinch of salt.
4. Let the sauce begin to mix together, stirring frequently to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom.
5. Turn heat to low and let the sauce simmer for about 3-5 minutes.
6. Then pour half of the sauce into a bowl (you can leave the blackberries in the saucepan because you’ll just use them to top your chops off later).
7. Use a glazing brush to glaze one side of your pork chop then place that glazed side down onto your grill.
8. Then glaze the other side, cover grill and let cook for 5-7 minutes per side. I glazed each side of my pork chop probably 3-4 times to make sure as much blackberry sauce as possible could be soaked up by the chop. Make sure your chop is cooked on both sides and cook completely through before removing from grill. (took me about 12-14 minutes total).
9. Once your pork chops are all done cooking, add to plate and top with your leftover blackberry sauce that has been simmering and thickening up.
10. Then eat until your cry. So delicious.

Paleo Enchiladas!

Jamie W. made these awesome cabbage enchiladas at our Halloween WOD.  I wanted to share this recipe!!! It calls for sweet potatoes, but it’s less fuss to use cooked cabbage leaves.  She also added cilantro, about “bunch,” chopped

Prep time:  25 mins

Cook time:  15 mins

Total time:  40 mins

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

• 3 sweet potatoes, sliced thin lengthwise with a mandolin (used cabbage instead)
• 1lb grass fed ground beef
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (4oz) can diced green chiles
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• ¼ chili powder
• ¼ sea salt
• ¼ black pepper
• 3-4 tablespoons Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil

For the sauce

• 1 (14oz) can tomato sauce
• ¼ yellow onion, minced
• ⅓ cup vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon oregano
• ½ teaspoon chili powder
• salt and black pepper, to taste

 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Now to make our “tortillas” from our sweet potatoes. Use a mandoline to thinly slice your sweet potatoes lengthwise. (You can use a knife but I found I couldn’t get the thinness I wanted or consistency with each slice with using a knife)
3. Heat up a large skillet or griddle and place 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in it. When skillet is very hot and coconut oil has melted, add your sweet potatoes. Cook your sliced sweet potatoes for 3-5 minutes per side or until sweet potatoes are soft. You DO NOT want them crispy. (You may have to do this a couple of batches so keep coconut oil on hand.) Do as many batches as you need to and place sweet potato slices on a paper towel to remove excess oil and cool while you cook your meat.
4. Once your sweet potatoes are cooling, use the same skillet to cook your meat. Add in a bit of oil then add your minced garlic cloves along with your onion.
5. When the onion becomes translucent, add in your ground beef along with your green chiles and spices. Let that cook down until cook completely through, using a wooden spoon to break up the ground beef and incorporate all the flavors.
6. While the meat cooks, place a saucepan over medium heat for your sauce. Add your tablespoon of oil along with your minced onion.
7. When the onion becomes translucent, add your tomato sauce and vegetable broth, as well as all your seasonings. Let that cook down until it thickens just a bit.
8. Now once everything is done cooking, it’s time to use your fingers!
9. Pull out an 8×8 or 9×9 glass baking dish, add a spoonful of enchilada sauce on the bottom and start building your enchiladas.
10. Each enchilada should take 3 slices of a sweet potato. Place a slice down in the dish, then another half way on top, then another half on top of the second slice. It should be a feathering or fan effect. Now place a spoonful or two of your meat mixture in the center of your sweet potatoes, then wrap your sweet potatoes over the meat, tucking the ends underneath the other ends of the sweet potatoes (like a tortilla).-see first picture for an example
11. Repeat until all your sweet potatoes are gone. If you are have leftover meat, place that around your enchiladas.
12. Pour your enchilada sauce on top.
13. Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes.
14. Cool then eat your heart out!

Eggs Benedict Burger

 

Eggs Benedict Burger Recipe

Makes 6 to 8 patties

Ingredients

• 3 lbs ground grass-fed beef (not too lean if you want a very flavorful patty);
• 3 large eggs;
• 2 cloves garlic, minced;
• 1 tbsp fresh herbs of your choice, finely chopped;
• 6 to 8 large eggs;
• 2 large avocados, cut into thick slices;
• Paleo mayonnaise or Hollandaise sauce to serve;
• Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste;

Preparation

1. Place the ground beef in a large bowl and add the 3 eggs. Combine until the eggs are evenly mixed through.
2. Mix in the garlic and season with salt, peppers and your choice of fresh herbs.
3. Form 6 to 8 patties that are slightly smaller than the mushroom caps so they can fit on top once cooked.
4. Place on a preheated BBQ grill and cook on each side for about 5-7 minutes (the time it takes will depend on the temperature of your grill. I cooked them at medium-low for approximately 6 minutes).
5. While the burgers are on the grill, poach the eggs. If you don’t have a poacher, this can be done easily by boiling a pot of water, adding a few tablespoons of vinegar to the water and then cracking the eggs into the pot. Allow them to cook for 5 to 7 minutes before removing.
6. Once the patties are cooked, remove them from grill. To serve place the poached eggs on each burger patty.
7. Pour some homemade mayonnaise or Hollandaise sauce over the eggs and burgers. Serve with the avocados slices on the side.
8. You can also add other toppings or condiments depending on your preferences. Lettuce and tomato slices are two good options.

Sunbutter Burger

I don’t know if you saw this on HCF website via Foodee via The Clothes Make the Girl, but I had to post this.  To be honest, I’ve never purchased these silly looking burgers with any kind of nut butter at a restaurant, but I’d love to try it at home.  Start exploring new foods!

Makes 2

Ingredients:
1 cup strawberries, sliced
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
8 ounces ground beef
salt & pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons organic (sugar-free) Sunbutter or almond butter
1-2 scallions, green tops only, thinly sliced

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix the strawberries, lemon juice, and ginger; set aside.

2. Generously season the ground beef with salt and pepper, form into patties, and cook your favorite way. I like to grill them on the gas grill so they’re crispy on the outside, but pan fried would be really tasty, too.

3. While the burgers are cooking, heat a small saucepan over medium-high. Pour the strawberries and their juice into the pan and sauté the berries until they’re very soft and syrupy. They should be reduced to about 1/4 cup. Allow to cool a bit.

4. Put the Sunbutter in a microwave-safe dish and heat until thinned, about 40 seconds.

5. When the burgers are done, top each with 1 tablespoon of melted Sunbutter and 1-2 tablespoons of the strawberry “jelly,” then sprinkle with scallions.

MAYO!!

This Mayo Recipe, adapted by my friend Heather who adapted it from Sarah with Everyday Paleo, has changed my paleo life.  EASY MAYO! but you need an emulsion blender, really; Otherwise invest in a lot of wasted oil and a lot of tests. I’m gonna be honest – if you told me to get one of these, i’d have no idea  what you were talking about. My mom gave me her old one, so it’s guaranteed to work for the next 20 years.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg – try a trusty local, cage free, free range egg
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/4 tsp garlic
• 1tsp dill
• 1 tsp mustard (I used some expensive fancy stuff),
• 1 TBS apple cider vinegar
• some salt

Add all the ingredients. turn on the emulsion blender. magic. It tasted a little bitter at first, but put it in the fridge for about 24 hours and my burger turned into heaven.

Tex Mex Meatza from Foodee Project

Tex Mex Meatza with my man and the CrossFit Games Live!!!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 16 oz. jar of salsa (I made my own pico de gallo and added it instead)
• 8 oz. raw cheese, shredded (optional) (I left this out)
• handful of cilantro, chopped(I left this out – it was in my pico)
• 1/2 head crunchy lettuce (like romaine), chopped (I really wanted a pizza, not a taco)
• 2 green onions, sliced (I left this out)
• I added Old World Pizza Sauce, green bell pepper chopped, red onion chopped, sliced mini baby portobello, and shredded parm

Method

Preheat your oven to 400ºF. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the beef, egg and 3/4 c of salsa with your hands. Spread the mixture out into a large oven-safe pan (something with high sides–we used cast iron), making sure to press the mixture all the way up the sides–think deep dish pizza. Bake this mammoth meat mass for 30 minutes* or until the meat is cooked through and is considerably brown.

While the mammoth meat mass is baking, chop and shred the rest of your ingredients. (I put my veggies on the stove top to cook a little bit)

You’ll see the mass has shrunk quite  bit, but has still maintained a nice crust/toppings boundary line. (mine had a lot of oils and juices, so I poured this out) Pour the rest of the salsa (I decided w/ the pizza sauce I didn’t want salso on top) into the ‘toppings’ part of the pie and top with cheese. Turn your oven on broil and pop the pie back in the oven. Let the cheese get to the desired level of bubbly, brown-ness, remove and let cool a bit.