Butternut Squash Hashbrowns

 

These are the best on a Sunday morning with eggs and bacon.

Pancetta Apple Salad

This salad is sweet and salty. I love the taste of the crispy pancetta with the crisp and tart apples on top of a bed of spinach. Sorry no picture yet, but next time this comes up on my menu, I hope I remember to take one before it's gone!

What you need:

1/2 lb pancetta, cut into cubes ( bacon would be an ok subsititute)
1/2 large onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 granny smith apples, cored and diced into cubes
1 bag spinach


In a large skillet, brown the pancetta until it's crisp. Remove from pan.

Add in garlic and onion and saute until tender about 8-10 min.

Add back the pancetta, along with the apples and saute for a minute or two until the apples are warm and glazed.

Turn off the heat, add in the spinach and fold with tongs or two large spoons until mixed well.

You shouldn't need salt, the pancetta has plenty.

Butternut Squash Latkes

I found this recipe at Elanas Pantry and I am sure you will see many more from her website here.
These latkes were fresh, sweet, and nutty flavored and gave me just enough of that “potato” feeling. I wish I would’ve remembered to take a picture of them but we ate them too fast! ( this is Elana's picture)

Try them with some applesauce on top!

Pesto Spaghetti Squash

I have been loving spaghetti squash lately and last week I decided to make a pesto sauce for it. It is soooooo good! Its dairy free too!

The recipe is as follows.
1 small Spaghetti Squash
2 packets of organic basil(about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup pine nuts
olive oil
salt to taste

Cut your spaghetti sqaush lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Place it face down on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 450, COVERED with aluminum foil so the outside doesn’t burn, for 30-45 minutes or until the inside is tender enough to scrape out. Scrape out the spaghetti and place in a large bowl.

While squash is cooking, in a food processor, place basil, garlic, and pine nuts. Blend until a paste forms. Next put the processor on and add olive oil until the paste becomes a sauce and is the consistency you want. I failed to measure how much olive oil I used because I just went by what I saw, but when I eyeball my olive oil bottle it looks like I used about 3/4 cup. I really wanted it to be saucier rather than thicker so it would blend in my squash easier. Add salt to taste.

When your squash is done, pour on the pesto and mix. I put my squash in a pan and added the pesto in it over the heat because I wanted it to soak up the flavor more. You don’t have to do this though.
Eat as is, or with veggies, meat, tofu, whatever you think will taste delicious.

If you add veggies, you might want to add them to your pan while you saute the squash in the sauce so they get that flavor in too.

If you are allergic to pine nuts, walnuts would work well with this. You might also try a cilantro pesto instead of basil.

Zuchinni Onion Soup

I love this recipe for zucchini soup! It's sweet and savory all at the same time.

Homemade Chicken Soup

I’ve been thinking about making chicken soup for a while now and I have been waiting  to make it on just the right cold and snowy day. This is super easy, but it does take some  time, perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Guacamole

3-4 Large avocados
1 bunch cilantro
1 clove garlic
1 jalapeño
salt to taste
1/2 tsp cumin
juice from 1 small lime

place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until the consistency is what you want. If you are going by hand, mince the cilantro, garlic, and jalapeño and place all the ingredients in a bowl and mash with a masher or a fork, or use a mortar and pedestal if you have one.

Primal Frito Pie

 

I was in the mood for chili yesterday and after doing some experimenting with  Sweet Potato chips on Friday I got the great idea to make Frito pie. Now when I make Chili I sort of “wing it” as far as a recipe and use things I have laying around the kitchen, so I tried to write down this recipe as best I could. The best thing about winging it with chili is that every chili comes out new and excited but the bad part is, it’s hard for me to replicate a really good chili over again. This batch turned out smoky with a sweet taste from the squash and the andoullie sausage. Yum!

 

Roasted Chicken with Cranberry Orange Stuffing

In my quest for a Paleo  T-Day I stumbled upon Boulder Sausages Cranberry Orange Breakfast sausage and I thought to myself, I bet that would be great in stuffing!!!! This stuffing is all paleo and is just enough sweet.  The stuffing was enough to fill the chicken and fill the outside of the 13X9 baking dish and probably would be enough just to fill the inside of a turkey. You could also use the regular breakfast sausage as well.

Turkey Loaf

Don’t be fooled by the picture, it’s not bread it’s meat. This turkey loaf is an adaptation from Elana’s Cookbook, the Gluten Free almond Flour Cookbook. It turned out really good! I made a few slight changes and put it in a 5X3 inch loaf pan instead of forming a loaf.

Primal Stuffed Peppers

The thing I love about food is that what we really like about foods isn’t always just the taste, it’s the texture of a particular food we long for, especially when nature doesn’t create a paleo food with that same texture. Fortunately, nature gave us spaghetti squash so that takes care of that, but what about rice?
Cauliflower is the answer and it does it’s job quite well. Just pulverize in a food processor and voila you’ve got rice!
I used my rice this time in a mixture with ground turkey and other spices to fill up some bright peppers.

You need:
1 pound ground turkey
5 Bell peppers, 1 chopped, the others with tops cut off and hollowed out
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small head cauliflower
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 can diced tomatoes
salt to taste
for the sauce:
3 large tomatillos, quartered
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2 jalapeños
1/2 can diced tomatoes
juice from one lime
salt to taste

pre heat oven to 350.

Brown and cook the turkey with a pinch of salt.

In a sauce pan, fill it with water and place in the tomatillos and jalapeños. Boil for 10 minutes.
In another pan, sauté the onion, garlic, and peppers in the olive oil until the onion is translucent.
Pulverize the cauliflower in a food processor and add it to the sauté pan. Add in the meat, tomatoes, and seasonings and stir. let cook 5 minutes stirring occasionally to meld flavors.

When the tomatillos and jalapeños are done boiling, strain them and place them in the food processor. Add cilantro, tomatoes, lime juice, and salt. Blend on high until the mixture becomes salsa like.
Add 1/4 cup of the sauce to the meat and veggie mixture and combine thoroughly.

Place the peppers that have been prepped into a Pyrex baking dish. Pour a bit of the sauce into the bottom of each pepper, then fill as full as possible with the meat mixture. Any left over can be placed outside the peppers. Top off the peppers with a bit of the sauce.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until peppers are soft.

These can be made ahead of time and cooked later. Great for an easy oven pop in when you get home from work.

These make a great alternative to chips of any kind. Great for snacking!

What you need
2-3 large sweet potatoes
olive oil
coconut oil
grapeseed oil
salt

Squash Pear Sesame Salad

This salad is refreshing with the sweetness from the pears and squash combined with the more sour sesame dressing.


What you need:
1 cup butternut squash, peeled and dices
1 large ripe pear, diced into cubes
juice from 1 lemon
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
salt to taste

In a pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil and saute the squash until soft. Meanwhile mix lemon juice, oil, ginger, and salt in a bowl. Prepare a bowl with ice water, and when the squash are soft, pour into the ice water to stop the cooking process and cool the squash temperature. Drain the water and place pears in the bowl. Pour in the dressing and mix making sure everything gets covered in sauce.

Coconut Crusted Chicken Fingers

This weekend I tried a recipe from my Paleolicious cookbook and created one of my own! These chicken fingers are so flavorful and crispy on the outside. I used the larger coconut shavings instead of shredded coconut which added more crisp to the chicken. We dipped the chicken in leftover sesame dressing, jalapeno cilantro chimichirri and homemade bbq sauce.

It is pictured here with squash pear sesame salad.

Lemon Cilantro CrockPot Chicken

Crockpot Roasted Chicken is so easy and it turns out moist and juicy, better than the gross chemical ridden store bought rotisseries. I made mine with lemon, cilantro and garlic. All flavors I love!! I based my recipe off this one.

Primal Chicken Pot Pie

This hearty pot pie is made with and Almond flour crust. Chicken pot pie is amazing on a cool night. This one is modified from Elana Amsterdam's cookbook, The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook. Here's my version.

For the Crust:
1 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1tbs minced cilantro
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1 tbsp water
1 egg

Pre heat the oven to 350. Mix the salt, garlic powder, cilantro, baking soda, and almond flour in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix the water and the grapeseed oil. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones and press into a 9 1/2 inch pie pan or cake pan. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with a little water and rub the crust with the egg wash for crispier crust.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and let cool before filling.


For the Filling:
1 lb chicken breasts, cut into cubes ( I used left over roasted chicken)
2 tbsp Olive oil or bacon grease
1 large onion
2 stalks celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1 tsp sea salt
2 sprigs thyme
1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
1 cup cubed butternut squash
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 cup chicken stock

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion for 8-10 minutes, until soft, then decrease the heat to medium. Add the celery, carrots, squash and salt then cook covered for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Add the mushrooms and chicken and cook for 3-5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Add the thyme.

In a small bowl, whisk the arrowroot powder with the chicken stock until dissolved. Raise the heat in the filling pot to high and add the arrowroot mixture, whisking consistantly for a minute, or until it thickens.

Pour this mixture in the crust. Serve Hot.

Garlic and Herb Mashed Cauliflower

This is a wonderful substitute for those mashed potato cravings. I love to have these with a hearty meal like pot roast. 

What you need:
1 head cauliflower
olive oil
water
1 package poultry herbs ( sage, thyme, and rosemary), minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt to taste

Boil the cauliflower (cut into small pieces) until soft. Drain the cauliflower and place in large bowl or blender/food processor. Add in garlc, herbs and salt. Begin to mash or blend the mixture and add olive oil and water alternating the two one tablespoon at a time until you reach a consistency you want.

I used my food processor and my mash turned out more like a thick cream. Next time I will try simply mashing with a masher them for a more potato like texture. Adding butter would be a nice treat too!
Bon Apetite!

Vanilla Cinnimon Roasted Pecans

 These are a great treat when it's a bit chilly outside. I love to roast pecans it really brings out their buttery flavor.

To make Pecans:
In a small bowl place a cup of pecans, 2 tsp of vanilla, 1 tps grapeseed oil, and 1 tsp of cinnamon and mix well. Place pecans in a pyrex baking dish and bake for 20-30 minutes.