Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake

I crave crave CRAAAAAAAAVE sweets since I started on the Paleo diet. Most Paleo recipes I’ve tried taste like cardboard or worse. One thing I miss since going on the Paleo diet is CAAAAAAKE. Well, after many recipes tried and tweaked, I have found something to satisfy my sweet tooth. It’s chocolate, and quick and easy to make. 

Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake

Ingredients:

3 tbsp of almond meal, extra fine

3 tbsp of cocoa powder, sifted (I used extra dark)

2 tbsp of honey

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Making the Mug Cake:

Put all ingredients in a 12 oz. mug. Mix well with a fork. Cook in the microwave on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds or 2 minutes, depending upon your microwave. Pull it out of the microwave and the cake should be firm on the top. Top with dark chocolate drizzle, strawberry or raspberry jam, or whipped coconut cream.

Zucchini Noodles with Paleo Alfredo Sauce

Even being Paleo, I can go back to my Italian roots and whip up something delicious. My Paleo Alfredo Sauce has become my new favorite way to eat Paleo “pasta”. Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do.

Zucchini Noodles with Paleo Alfredo Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

• 1-2 zucchini, sliced on a mandoline, then cut into matchsticks or julienne using a peeler
• 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
• 8 cloves of garlic, minced
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 4 cups chicken stock
• sea salt and white pepper, to taste
•  ½ cup romano or parmesan cheese

Making the Noodles:

1. Using a julienne peeler, peel the zucchini. It will turn them into angel hair like noodles. You can use a mandoline and slice the zucchini on thin slice, but make sure you slice thinly for a spaghetti like noodle.
2. Put them into a microwaveable dish. Cover and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Drain the zucchini!!!! It’s a must. Zucchini are watery veggies and I usually have to drain them twice.

Making the Sauce:

1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium low heat.
2. Add the garlic cloves to the skillet and cook for 2 minutes or until
   softened and fragrant.
3. Put the cauliflower florets and chicken stock in a large pot. Bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat, cover and let cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender.
5. Once the cauliflower is tender, do not drain the chicken stock. Instead, transfer
   the cauliflower to a food processor or you can use an immersion blender to blend.
6. Process for a few minutes until sauce is completely smooth and creamy.
7. Put back into the pot if the sauce seems runny, and cook on low until thick.
8. Add the grated cheese at the very last moment and stir into the sauce.
9. Serve over zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash.

Paleo Roasted Tomato Sauce

Here’s one of my go-to spaghetti sauces! You can make it fresh with tomatoes from your garden!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

• 8 or 9 tomatoes (I used whatever was in my garden, plum, Early Girls, etc)
• 1 medium onion, sliced into wedges
• 1 carrot, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
• 1 red pepper, cut into chunks
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 tsp of italian seasoning
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Making The Sauce:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut tomatoes in half; transfer to one large (or two smaller) rimmed baking sheet; add onion, carrots, pepper, garlic, and Italian seasoning.
2. Toss tomato mixture with oil; season generously with salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer. Roast until tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
3. Transfer mixture (including juices) to a blender or use an immersion blender; pulse several times, until chunky.
4. Serve with zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash. I bought an amazing julienne peeler from Martha Stewart. It works wonders!!!!!!

Best Paleo Bolognese Sauce EVVVVVVA

I’MMMMMMMM BAAAAAAAAACK! It’s been a while since I wrote this blog, falling off  and getting back on the paleo wagon multiple times… Blarrrrrrgh.

But I’m back and trying to stick with it!

So here’s my recipe for Paleo Bolognese Sauce… and it turned out better than I ever thought.

Paleo Bolognese Sauce

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons  butter
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 to 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 1 to 2 carrots, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds grass-fed ground beef
• 8 ounces grass-fed ground pork
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 1/2 cups almond milk
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 1/4 cups dry white or red wine
• 2 cups homemade or store-bought organic chicken stock
• 1 can (28 ounces) peeled organic plum tomatoes with juice, pureed
• 1 bay leaf

Making The Sauce:

1. Melt butter in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Cook onion, celery, carrots, and bay leaf stirring often for 10 minutes. Add beef, pork, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring and breaking up meat with a whisk (trust me, it was my Noona’s best way to break up ground meat!), until meat has cooked, about 8 minutes.
2. Add wine, and simmer until liquid reduces by half, about 15 minutes. Add stock, pureed tomatoes, and 1 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat to medium- low, and simmer until sauce is thick, approx. 1 1/2 hours.
3. Add almond milk and nutmeg in the last 30 minutes of cooking.  Season with pepper.  Serve on top of spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles.

Best Roasted Beet Salad EVERRRRRR

My beets in the garden are growing in abundance!!! I decided to make a salad worthy of these gorgeous beets from the garden!!!! Enjoy!

Roasted Beet Salad

3 to 4 medium red beets, quartered

10-15 radishes, halved

2 small red onion, quartered

1 carton of cremini mushrooms

3 tbsp of olive oil

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp of fresh ground black pepper

lemon wedges, for squeezing

Make da salad:

Preheat oven for 425 degrees. Combine all the veggies together in a bowl. Add salt, pepper, and oil and toss veggies. Put them flat on a sheet tray to roast for 30-40 minutes until veggies start to brown. Take out of the oven and let sit for 10 minutes to cool. Serve warm with a squeeze of lemon juice on top.

Muah! delicious.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, and Jalapenos with Cajun Spices

So it’s been a while, I know … But a lot of things are happening for me. I was on an amazing trip for my spring break for more than a week traveling to New York City and Baltimore. I’m also approaching my graduation in my Masters program and a possible life-changing move out my small town! Hallelujah!

Anyways, I’m craving something spicy. So I decided to make this vegetable dish and it turned out amazing! Salty, spicy, and sweet… i mean what else could you want!

Here’s the recipe:

Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, and Jalapenos with Cajun Spices

Cajun Spice Blend:

2 tsp sea salt

2 tsp garlic powder

2 1/2 Hungarian hot paprika (you could use smoked or regular, whatever you have)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

Blend all the spices together with fork. Put in mason jar or plastic container to keep fresh. Makes about 1/4 cup.

Roasted Vegetables:

2 jalapenos, sliced in half (i kept the seeds in, but you can remove if they too hot)

2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into wedges

2 large carrots, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces on a diagonal

2 tbsp of garlic oil

Cajun seasoning

Making Da Veg:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine all veggies, spices, and garlic oil in a bowl and toss. Put spiced vegetables on a sheet pan (make sure all the veggies are flat on the pan). Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until veggies are brown.

Whoa! That’s some spicy deliciousness righhhhht therrrr!

Paleo Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy and Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Carrots

It’s Sunday dinner. And if you’re in my home, it means endless hours cooking, fighting, and bickering with the family in the kitchen (we’re Italian so this is a normal). When I started planning the meal, my mind was thinking “comfort foods”. So what’s better than a meatloaf? Nothin’!

Paleo Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1 large carrot, diced small

1 red, orange, or yellow pepper, diced small

1 medium zucchini, diced small

1 large white onion, diced small

1/3 cup of almond meal

2 eggs, beaten

2 pounds of ground beef, grass fed

Making the Meatloaf:

Put olive oil in the sauce pan. Add all the veggies and cook for 10-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to your taste. After they cook, put veggies in a big bowl and add almond meal and eggs. Mix well. Add beef to the veggie mixture until incorporated. Bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours uncovered. In the last 15 minutes,  take off the foil and finish cooking in the oven. Take the meatloaf of the pan and plate. Leave the drippings, you’ll use them to make the gravy.

Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients

1/2 cup of white mushrooms, chopped

4 tbsp of Arrowroot flour

1/2 cup of beef broth (optional)

Pan drippings from the meatloaf (1 1/2 cups)

1 Tbsp of olive oil

Gettin’ Graavy-ed:

Put olive oil in a sauce pan and add the mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes. Whisk arrowroot powder and cooled pan drippings together really well. Make sure that there is no lumps. If too thick, add a little beef broth and cook on med-high until thickened.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts:

Ingredients:

1 pack of brussel sprouts, left whole

3 carrots, cut on a diagonal

Garlic olive oil

1tsp of sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

Making the Veg:

Mix veggies with garlic olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put onto sheet pan and cook on 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

YumMMMMMMMmmmmmm!

Mushroom Omelette with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

Whoa! That’s about all I can say when I ate this. Fresh mushrooms… Sun-dried tomato Pesto… Farm-Fresh Eggs… get in my mouth now! Seriously,this recipe made me fall back in love with eggs again. 

 

Mushroom Omelette with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

FOR THE PESTO:

4 Sun-dried tomatoes 

1/4 cup raw cashews

1 garlic clove

pinch of Itaian seasoning

Olive oil

Making the Pesto:

Add the tomatoes, cashews, garlic and seasoning to the food processor. Blend up all of the ingredients until it makes a smooth paste. Slowly add the olive oil until it reaches your desired  consistency.

FOR THE OMELETTE:

2 farm fresh eggs, beaten

4 white button or cremini mushrooms, sliced

sea salt

fresh cracked pepper

Making the omelette:

Saute the mushrooms in a tbsp of olive oil on medium- high in a pan. Add pepper and cook for 4 minutes until they brown. Add a pinch of sea salt and cook for another 2 minutes. Put in a bowl and set aside. 

Turn down the pan to low heat and beat your eggs.  Season eggs with salt and pepper. You can wipe out your pan or leave as is and put a tbsp of olive oil in the pan (i wiped mine out). When the pan is heated, pour the eggs and let them cook until the eggs set (usually 2-3 minutes). Do not mess with them too much or they’ll never flip cleanly. Flip the eggs and cook for about a minute on the other side.  Add the mushrooms and fold over eggs and plate it. Add the sun-dried pesto on top.  Andholymolywhatanamazingomelette!

 

THE ULTIMATE PUMPKIN SMOOTHIE

OK… for the past few weeks, I have been craving pumpkin. Now, I know it’s wayyy out of season, but I can’t help wishing, dreaming, and fantasizing about some pumpkin pie (it’s just shameful really).  Well, since it was breakfast and I don’t have the time or much of the materials to make a pumpkin pie, I thought smoothie! Hopped on the web, looked at a few pumpkin smoothies and realized I had a hodge podge of ingredients from each recipe but not specific ingredients for one (my usual). And like a mad scientist, I have created one of the best smoothies I ever had.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Ingredients

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 almond milk (I used vanilla, unsweetened but you can use whateva)

1 frozen banana, cut into coins

1/4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice

A dash of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp of honey (optional, for the sweeter folks)

2-3 ice cubes

GETTING SMOOTHIE-D:

Blend all the ingredients together until smooth. And whoa… instant pumpkin pie… and tastes just like a Pumpkin Shake from McDonald’s without the GMO laced bullshit! Super healthy!

Note: I tried the smoothie without the honey and it was just as good. But for the peeps that crave the sugar, use only a 1/2 tsp it sweetens the smoothie up just right.

Cheers!

PALEO MINESTRONE or (WHATEVER VEGETABLES I HAVEN’T USED YET SOUP)

OH MY GOSH, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but I have been through bouts of what I would only call the “worst flu in history”! I am actually starting to eat again and the first thing I want is soup, soup, and more SOUP! After raiding the fridge, I found a combination of various veggies that I had in the keeper and leftover chicken breasts from a meal that I made Friday. The little voice in my head told me to immediately make minestrone. Now, minestrone is the kind of ltalian soup where you can put everything but kitchen sink in there. You can have meat in it, or you can choose to make it vegetarian. Doesn’t matta. It’s Mine-makehoweveryoulikeit-strone! And here’s mine…

Minestrone 

Ingredients:

1 package of shredded cabbage (aka coleslaw mix)

3 carrots, sliced into coins

1 red onion, halved and sliced thinly,

3 stalks of celery, sliced

2 cans of diced tomatoes, juice and all goes in ( I used one regular and one fire-roasted)

1 package of frozen green beans

2 leftover chicken breasts, or fresh chicken breast sliced thinly (optional)

1 garlic clove, minced

3 cups vegetable stock

1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes

1 tsp of Italian seasoning

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp of fresh cracked pepper

MAKING DA SOUP:

I literally threw all the ingredients in the crockpot on high for 4-5 hours. And oh my god, it was delicious.

Bon appétit!