Sunny side up luncheon

First of all, I would like to announce that I am really back.  :-) Having taken a month off paleo and suffered the consequences (mostly, a marked decrease in energy), I've gone back just a few days ago. Not surprisingly, I feel great. No longer exhausted, I am able to accomplish more with my day, often finding myself still full of energy at bed time and choosing to relax or work.

Today I wanted to share my lunch recipe.  Well, it's not really a recipe - it's a "I am hungry, pantry is empty, too broke to go shopping and too busy to cook" lunch approach.

Do you like your eggs sunny side up? That's what I grew up with.  Nothing compares as far as I am concerned. Though if you are of the scrambled persuasion, it works just as well.

To make your mouth water, I have captured a tiny video clip of the eggs sizzling in the pan. A still just doesn't do the same!

Heat up oil in the pan
Throw in fresh salsa (the kind you can buy in a plastic tub in a grocery store)
Cook on high till it sizzles
Break a few eggs
Reduce heat to medium/med-lo and cook till your heart says, it's time.

If you are in the habit of saving some bacon for garnish, throw that on top. DELICIOUS!

Bacon wrapped smokies

I discovered this recipe a while ago and have made it twice.  It's fun to make with kids, fun to eat, makes great left-overs and works for lunch boxes.

Ingredients:

1 package of Lil' smokies (little tiny sausages from the grocery store)
1 lb bacon
1 tbs or so of brown sugar (you can try honey)

This would undoubtedly work without the brown sugar.  However, it cuts the intense flavor of sausages and that amount won't kill you, really! It doesn't really taste sweet, just a little hint of carmel-something. Of course, if you want to be strict, use honey instead.  Should do just as well. Come to think of it, I will do so next time!

The process:

Cut bacon in thirds. Wrap each individual sausage into a strip of bacon and slide the result onto a skewer. Arrange skewers on a baking pan and sprinkle with brown sugar. You will complete 6-8 skewers.  Stick 'em in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes or so. For extra crispiness, increase the temperature to 400F for the last five minutes.  Yum!

Lunch box in a panic

Today I was running late.  The kids were eating breakfast cereal with daddy. They are still occasionally eating cereal for several reasons.  First, I am moving slowly in converting them to the primal lifestyle; don't want to push it too hard.  Second, I would like to avoid gluten intolerance which, as I understand, can result from removing gluten entirely from one's diet.  (If you have thoughts about that, I would really appreciate them!)

Anyway, what do I get them for lunch?  Still tired from late night of writing code, having had no breakfast of my own, I am opening and closing refrigerator doors. NOTHING.  Well, it's never nothing.  Just nothing inspiring.  The best I could do was leftover roast, which would be rather boring without gravy and not quite tender enough to eat cold, I thought as I tasted a piece.  Oh well!  It's the best I can do.

... Six hours later I picked them up from school. I looked into their lunch boxes. Not a scrap!  "What happened to your lunch?"  I asked.  "We ate ALL OF IT!" said Alex proudly.  "Mommy, thank you so much for the salad!" added his two-year-old sister.

And here is how it happened:

Salad

• Two 1/4 in slices of roast cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 whole tomato chopped small (about the same as the roast)
• Grated cheddar cheese sprinkled on top till you couldn't see what's under it

Sides

• Salted soy beans in a little ziplock bag
• Apple slices sprinkled with lemon juice, the best apple preservative

I guess, the tomatoes worked out to generate the perfect dressing for the beef roast and cheese - well, you know, it's cheese.  :-)  I am still working to figure out "good" cheese that tastes like cheddar.  But for now, it's the old grocery store variety.  

Still, Mommy 1, Lunch Monsters 0.

Perfect bacon every time

Surprisingly, I am still doing great with my paleo. I am sick, overworked, overcommitted, don't have time to blog - but eating great and loving it!  Big changes.  I am continuing with the ideas of simplifying paleo diet: finding quick and easy goto recipes, learning the fast way to cook big meals, taking advantage of leftovers.

Today, I want to share the latest discovery, which has taken our breakfast to the next level: perfect bacon! A fellow paleo mommy wrote, "The one downsdie to feeding your baby bacon: Greasy little paws after breakfast!"  I decided, she was right and I needed to find a bacon recipe that does not take so much time and effort.  And I did! From now on, bacon is easy enough, we can have it on school mornings!

I started with a baked bacon recipe. The idea is brilliant: instead of laboring with a fork over a hot pan of sizzling bacon, put it in the oven, set the timer and walk away. After some experimentation, I came up with several important principles:

• There are two phases to baking bacon: the rendering of the fat and the crisping
• The rendering should take about ten minutes at a temperature of or below 300 F.
• The crisping takes under 5 minutes at  400 F.
• The crisping time is critical and depends on the thickness of the bacon, your particular oven and your preferences with respect to crispiness.

This principles generate a couple methods, each useful for its own circumstances.

Step 1.  Lay it out.

Line the baking sheet with foil to avoid Lay the bacon strips on a baking sheet. Put the sheet in the oven.  (Multiple sheets simultaneously are ok for a lot of bacon!)

Step 2. The baking.

Set the temperature to 400F. Timer to 15 minutes.  Walk away. Come back and peek - wait till it looks as crispy as you like it!  Record the total time for future reference. Done.

Modification A.  Warm oven.  

If you are using an already warm oven, don't despair.

Set the temp to 300 F, timer to 10 minutes.  Come back, set temperature to 400F, timer to five minutes.  After that watch it till it's done.

Congratulations! You have just created the best bacon that has ever resided on your breakfast table, and you can repeat this success every time.  Always be careful when buying a different kind of bacon. Everything depends on the thickness of your slices! And don't forget to come back a little early when you get a new oven or move.

I am thrilled with my results - not the bacon - my husband's pleased face.  He is the pickiest bacon eater and we've had perfect bacon for a whole week!

Honey Mustard chicken nuggets

For the paleo kids!

Actual chicken nuggets
 from this recipe

I've always been disappointed with the almond meal solution when it comes to chicken nuggets.  First of all, almond meal is very dry, often generating nuggets I feel like choking on.  Second, it does not coat evenly and they come out looking kind of scruffy. Finally, they just don't have the right color: dull biege instead of the golden I am used to.

This time, I tried something different and the result was incredible! If you don't believe me, just look at the picture taken as they came out (they are a little paler than in the picture - but the even look it what amazed me). This recipe is for 1 lb of chicken. Quadruple and freeze after cooking for a perfect lunchbox option.

Step 1. The marinade.

1/2 water, 1/4 cup warm honey, 1/4 cup grey poupon mustard, 1 lb chicken. The marinade works very fast and you can leave them there for fifteen minutes. You will be surprised to see that the chicken is turning white as the acid works to cook the outside right in the marinade! The liquid is reduced dramatically as it penetrates the chicken.

Step 2. The coating.

1 cup almond flour; 1/2 tsp dry mustard + optional spices to taste (I like garlic powder, ginger root, palm sugar). Coat the chicken, a few at a time - I saw a much more even coat than when using almond flour alone.

Step 3. The baking.

Line the sheet with foil to reduce cleanup. I did 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Check on them after fifteen minutes. You'll see brown circles forming around the nuggets. When that first happens, it's time for them to come out. Wait a few minutes more - and they are stuck to the bottom!

The nuggets have a vague hint of honey and mustard, barely noticeable. The chicken is sooth and tender, not too dry.  I loved them as much as the kids.  I also made honey mustard sauce by mixing mustard & honey 2:1 for myself. Kids ate them with ketchup. Yum!

Culinary puzzle

My husband is still skeptical about paleo. Our taste preferences couldn't have been more different to begin with - and throwing grains out of the equation was just about the last straw. Still, I wanted to be able to connect with him, even where fundamental disagreements were in the way.

He's got a mathematical bend, so I figured I'd try his sensitive spot:

Culinary puzzle
OK, so you are told to make a grain-free bean-free salad.
So far you've got cubed cheese & ham. Keep adding ingredients till it's yummy!

It worked! Before long we had a beautiful salad put together, so tasty, I wouldn't change a thing!

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Tomatoes, diced
• 1-2 cups of finely shredded lettuce (I am not a big lettuce person, so I don't like a lot of greens in my salads!)
• 1 cup of leftover meat (or lunch meat) of your choice (mine was baked ham, still trying to get through it!)
• 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese, small cubes
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• Optionally: add diced boiled egg and crumple crisp bacon while serving (don't put bacon in the salad bowl as it'll become soggy in storage)
  
  Dressing:
• 3 tbs Olive oil
• 1 tbs lemon or lime juice
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp salt

Jeff's requests:

1. Lettuce has to be shredded fine to really soak in the dressing.
2. No soggy bacon
3. Italian dressing should be tangy, not sweet (note: no sugar in my dressing!)

Yum! the only problem - not enough.  :-)  Once husband Jeff got started on it, he couldn't put it down.  I was especially happy with the dressing. Spicy is always a problem with young kids around - I am forever looking for that hint of something that will delight adult palates while getting by the little ones.  Big success!

O'derves for lunch get high praise

One of the difficulties of cooking Paleo for a newbie is, well, there is a lot of cooking! You start out with raw ingredients and 4 pans, 3 pots & 7 dirty bowls later, you have a meal. Seriously? Three meals a day? Yes, mom, I know, that's how you had to do it too. But I was very quickly overwhelmed.

Then I discovered "sliced bread" of Paleo! You know, those cute little things at corporate events and weddings that one just cannot resist? Really, how much does it truly matter what's in it when it's on this dainty little toothpick? One can pick it up, play with it, eat it - it's equally good for gray hair in tuxedos & bottomless toddlers running around the house.

Ingredients: cold meat, raw veggies, cheese.

Here are a few options I've created that got the most "orders" from the crowd:

• A slice of hot dog & a bell pepper square on a toothpick
• Ham and cheese melt: three squares: baked ham, cheddar cheese, baked ham. Toasted for 5 minutes. Yum!
• Alternating circular slices: hot dog, string cheese, hot dog... Looks as much fun as it tastes!
• Ham, avocado, bell pepper, ham

You get the idea. I had to make them again and again! I seriously needed a break from heavy cooking today. It was a blast!