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!

Cooking plans for the week

I am now pretty much over all the emotional turmoil associated with the lost pregnancy.  It really sucks that I am technically still carrying a fetus, so I still have to think about it all, and wait for a miscarriage, but I have, for the most part moved on. And the most important part to emotional recovery is: FOOD.  I can't tell you how many times I've lived through the vicious cycle: too depressed to cook, too malnourished to cheer up.  :-)

Thankfully, I found my stride pretty quickly this time. And here are some exciting plans for the week - I'll blog about the flips & flops as they happen:

• Paleo bread - YES! I am going to try this faxseed bread recipe, as soon as my flaxseed meal arrives from amazon.
• Honey-mustard rosemary pork roast. That one is marinading right now, waiting for dinner tonight!

Some tried-and-true favorites:

• Paleo muffins - I make those a lot as not only do they provide variety in breakfast, but they are also a wonderful topper for the kids' lunchboxes.
• Bacon, bacon and more bacon.  (Did you read about how I bake it, so it's quick and easy to make a bunch?) My favorite things to do with it: plain-old breakfast and garnish for soup, particularly the kids' favorite: tomato soup.  

I am seriously hoping, the pork roast turns out.  I tend to get a lot of meals out of roasts!  My best lunchbox solution is a roast/tomatoes salad.  Tomatoes create just the right amount of dressing for the cold meat. I sometimes add bell peppers or other favorites, and the tupperwear seems to come back licked every time.

Grass fed: beef with taste

I don't know what's wrong with me the last few days - I can't stop blogging...  OK, I have opened a third food package I received from USA Wellness Meat.  I've already expressed my delight with their hot dogs, wrote about the nice eye of round roast the whole family enjoyed and here comes

Forget-the-spices chili

I was so upset, so worked up over personal problems, even the thought of cooking made me cry.  I looked up a recipe for chili.  Broke into tears.  I thought about what Granny does with ground beef.  Considered murder-suicide.  Finally, I figured, I'll just start throwing sh*t at the pan and something will stick.

I placed 1 lb of 75% fat ground beef into the pan and got it browning.  After a few minutes, I tasted the rendered fat.  Hey, it's not so bad!  Didn't have that oily thing going on.  Tasted more like, well, meat broth.  Cool.  Keep going.

Found a can of Italian tomatoes.  Never a bad idea.

Oh, I've got some zucchini squash.  I tasted a slice raw.  Not bad!  I should consider using it in a salad.  Sliced it up and threw it in.

5 minutes later I figured, I should consider spices.  I tasted it.  It was quite good!  I had another spoonful. Couldn't think of anything to add... Habitually, I thew a pinch of salt.

Should I add onions?  Nah, it tastes great.  So I let it reduce for another ten minutes - and there we have it!  Forget-the-spices chili.

Don't try this at home   - unless you have great ground beef.  My conclusion isn't that zucchini makes chili.  It's that this ground beef is amazing!

P.S. I don't get paid by those guys - I just love them.  :-)

[UPDATE: kids loved it.  They cleared pretty substantial portions and asked for more!]

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.

Scallops are coming for dinner

Today was an unqualified success! What you see on the left is Alex's best attempt and posing next to his picnic of strawberries, whipped cream and shaved chocolate. I created the latter in the blender, just to add to the festiveness of the occasion.

We got home and I threw some shrimp in the pot, rounding out the meal that started with veggie chips & seaweed snacks earlier in the afternoon.

Lunch box

Tomorrow for school, I will send some of those veggie chips with them.  They are not the best as they use safflower oil.  However, the concept is neat: various root veggies used in place of potatoes.  Our favorite turned out to be beets. Could I fry those in coconut oil? I need to try!

The veggie salad I described today shall make its first appearance in a lunch box tomorrow! Shrimp takes main stage; throw in remaining strawberries and we've got lunch!

Dinner

I shall attempt bacon wrapped scallops and cream of mushroom soup. I might make both in time for lunch and have dinner be informal, starting with an after-school snack, just like today.

Paleo for kids

I have been inspired and motivated to cook creatively recently.  After reading about the dangers of protein to kids at the PerfectHealthDiet, I understood why I have been struggling in feeding my kids meat. I was already coming to the conclusion that there need to be a variety of vegetables on the tables for kids to choose from in order to have a happy and peaceful family meal.  Now I understand why.

In brief, breast milk is composed of 7% of protein. Increasing protein to even as much as 9% in formula leads to problems.  Cordain recommends limiting protein to no more than 20-25% of caloric intake for pregnant women.

So how much is exactly right for kids? There isn't enough evidence to suggest a specific number, but it is clear that they should not eat any more than they are willing and happy to do. This means, no brow-beating them into finishing their meat or clearing their plate. Presented with healthy options, they should naturally gravitate toward a good balance. This means, plenty of dishes to choose from at every meal and lots of choices among different types of calories: protein, fat, carbohydrates.

Truthfully, it's not so hard to do.  I often start meals with a veggie dip appetizer:  A ranch dip with carrots, cauliflower, celery.  (While I normally buy the ranch dip at the store, having run out I was delighted with this incredibly easy home-made ranch alternative. If made for kids, wait to add garlic & onion powder, adding a little at a time to taste.  Otherwise it's deliciously spicy for adult palate, but I had to quadruple the recipe to get it back to tolerable for kids!)

I often slice tomatoes and bell peppers to serve on the side of any meal. They are our family favorites!

A cup of tomato soup or home-made beef/chicken stock garnished with bacon bits & cheese is a very popular option.

Salads are time-consuming, but these easy veggifiers create a splendid-looking table and guarantee that they won't leave hungry. In the meantime I am also increasing the amount of fat present in all of our meals, using the tips I worked out earlier for myself.

Finally, I am beginning to experiment with super-energy deserts.

In a food processor, mix heavy cream or coconut milk with any frozen fruit or berry and you have instant ice cream. The whole family can work together to prepare - then to enjoy. I like adding shredded coconut to mine, but the texture is too much for the kids. For them, melted dark chocolate does so much more! Making ice cream right on the dinner table with a food processor is a fun after-dinner activity and eating it right after is a tasty bonus.

US Wellness Hot Dogs

Dear US Wellness Meats,

Hot dogs as displayed
on grasslandbeef.com

I would like to share with you the wonderful experience I just had with your product.  After a lot of deliberation, many abandoned shopping carts across various sites, I finally screwed up my courage to order grassfed meat from your site: grasslandbeef.com. I emailed you citing my friends' high praise of your product and asking for a discount. I promptly received a code for 15% off on new orders.  Thanks for that!

The meat arrived soon as was rock-solid-frozen. After some time, I got a hold of the modest package of your sugar-free all-ingredients-listed hot dogs. I wasn't sure, buying hot dogs was such a good idea - but as it was my first time I went for a sampler - so there they were: grass-fed beef hot dogs flavored with onion, garlic, paprika and beet juice! I was rushed and did not have time to prepare them in any fancy way. Threw them in a pot, chopped them up and served to my kids & myself with ketchup.

My goodness! It was not just the best hot dog experience of my life - it was one of the better meat experiences period. I generally have two problems with hot dogs: one is never sure what's inside of them - and one's tummy is never really sure whether anything really landed there. It seems, they fail to fill me the way "real" meat does. Not this time! The hot dogs were wonderfully tasty - and one and a half hot dogs actually filled me up.  I felt the kind of warm energetic feeling I get after a good hearty meaty meal.  My kids cleared their plates, too.  That's always a bonus!  And this time, I didn't feel guilty about serving them hot dogs instead of food.  :-)

"Alex," I said to my four-year-old son, "These are the healthiest hot dogs you have ever eaten. They are made from super-healthy cows, have no sugar and nothing at all bad for your body in them."  "I know!" Alex explaimed, excited for the opportunity to share his expertise, "They must have lots of Omega3!"

Go Alex, and Go US Wellness Meats!

Paleo mommy success!

After many attempts, I finally made a yogurt flavor rivals store-bought vanilla and strawberry that are my son's favorites. And I am not telling!

No, really, I am telling.  :-)  If I weren't telling, this wouldn't be a blog but one of those add-filled splash pages.  Only no ads.

I mixed my full-fat Creamline Village plain yogurt from Trader Joe's with honey. Not only is honey better than whatever they are likely stuffing vanilla yogurt with, but here I have complete control. Switching over to honey yogurt means, I can gradually reduce honey or even replace it with other flavors.  (Lily has been eating yogurt with palm sugar for a long time - but Alex stuck with the flavored alternatives till now.)

This is just one in my many attempts to trick my non-paleo family into eating healthy and natural.  While I am on the topic, here are some principles I have developed:

• To avoid snacking, feed them early! Kids snack all day because they are hungry.  Stuffing their tummies before they think of it keeps the ice cream away.  I had no idea just how hungry they were after school till I started  making an after-school meal.  I am planning on having dinner ready at 3:30 pm and a healthy snack at 6 instead of the more typical vice-versa.
• Always offer a healthy desert after a meal: strawberries with whipped cream, fruit, meringues, dark chocolate.  Just discovered something to try: paleo cupcakes. If you are lucky, they'll think they are getting something special and won't go looking for cookies. I think, it's generally valuable if kids recognize that their parents value things that are valuable to them! 
• No forbidden fruit. If they want a bagel (and daddy loves bagels, so they will!) they get a bagel. The conflict involved isn't worth it.  If their friends are going for ice cream, we are coming - no guilt, no shame.
• Create replacements.  We just discovered that sun flower seed butter is just as yummy as peanut butter and now we have it in the house. Also, apple/seed butter sandwiches are even better than peanut butter bagels! 
• If they are used to sugar, give them healthy sweetness.  Palm sugar is great; so is honey, maple syrup, stevia. So, I am slowly learning to replace store-bought sweet options with home-made sweet better options.  :-)
• If they are not used to a lot of meat, always have lots of vegetable options for them to choose from. I sometimes say, "Alex, you have 1-2-3..-7 dishes to choose from! Surely, you can find something you like!"  With pressure gone, he is slowly turning into a meat eater. I am thrilled!
• Relax! Stressing about it will make things worse.  It'll create conflict inside the family, turn your kids into picky eaters and will cause you to consider giving up the whole thing.  That's what happened to me.  Since I allowed myself to go easy - things have been great! 

It hasn't been long since I failed at paleo.  Surprisingly, I am finding it fun and easy this time. Part of my success, I know, has been due to the abundance of paleo mommy blogs.  Here are some I have discovered lately:   Wellness Mama with lots of kid-tested recipe, Whitney at the Paleo Child who posts her child's lunch boxes, Anita at Paleo On a Budget who made me realize, fresh ingredients are out there.  I would like to put together a paleo kids resource page as there are seem to be so few out there and we need each other! Please leave me a comment with your blog url if you should go on it!

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!

Fruit indulgences

The hardest thing for me to give up on Paleo is fruit. As far as I am concerned, world peace has got nothing compared to a steady supply of grapes.  I am currently on a mission to make Paleo easier and more comfortable for me.  Here is how I have integrated fruit.

1. Grape fruit - the red kind - turns out to be absolutely delicious!
2. On apples, I stick to Granny Smith as a low-sugar option. They've always been my favorite anyway.
3. Berries berries berries. Pricey, but well worth it.
4. The most important discovery: fruit is always better with a good doze of fat & protein:
• Apples & nut butter. I make a sandwich of two thin slices of apples with nut butter inside. Yum!
• Whipped cream. Not enough sugar to count and it turns a sin into a win.  :-)
• How about both? Yesterday, it was pear + peanut butter (I didn't have any other kind, *sniff*) + whipped cream. What a delight!
• Yogurt. Everyone knows, it works well with berries, but oh my god peaches!!! Then sprinkle roast coconut on top.  You could almost call that a meal. Or, if dinner fails - a backup option.
• Heavy cream. When I was a little girl, I used to love eating berries in a bowl of milk, as a cereal. It's even better - and way more filling with cream.

So, I've relaxed and I am enjoying it. If I had a good meal, I won't turn my sweet fruit tooth down. A few days ago, a friend sent over a fruit basket filled with all my favorites, including a pineapple! Have you ever had pineapple with whipped cream? "... you should. For this is fun and fun is good!" just as the doctor [Seuss] ordered.

School lunch

I've been having such a hard time figuring out how to balance my comfort with kids' nutrition, peace and harmony at meal times and a fundamentally unhealthy diet other adult members of our family follow. Really, how do I raise healthy kids when bagels, candy, cakes and pasta are considered reasonable staple by those they love?

Little steps, I have decided! My goal for this year is to expand their taste palates to include lots of meat and paleo-friendly carbs over the course of this year, learn to cook and plan for a transition to proper nutrition perhaps starting in the fall of 2011.

My son is starting the new year of pre-school tomorrow.  I need to have a plan for what he will eat for lunch if I have any hope of feeding him what I believe is right.  I have located a list of wonderful ideas at Everyday Paleo.

So here is my tentative meal plan (not all of this can be packed to go to school - but great for after-school snack):

Ingredients	Meal options
Yogurt Whipped Cream Berries Peaches Palm Sugar Cashews Dried blueberries Dried cranberries Carrots, cauliflower, celery Veggie dip Chicken nuggets Cubed meat Cubed cheese Cabbage/lettuce Bell peppers Hot dogs Meatloaf Bananas	Whipped cream & berries Healthy fruity yogurt (frozen?) Berries mix Healthy Trail mix Crunch Veggies with dip Chicken nuggets w/ketchup Chef-style salad O'derves luncheon Meatloaf pieces with ketchup Boiled eggs Nutty muffins

I have purchased little sauce cups of the sort you find in Mexican restaurants and they work great for ketchup and other dips. This is still work in progress, but here you go.  Any other ideas?

[UPDATE] I would like to try these baked sweet potato chips, too!
[ONE MORE THING] Found an interesting snack: almond cucumbers I have to try.

Healthy fruity yogurt

Have you ever looked at the sugar content of any flavored yogurt?  What about kids' yogurt?  And the winner of all - gogurt!  Knowing that parents will be all about the "healthy" association with anything that has yogurt in it - food companies create little sugar addicts by making the health food a nutritionally inferior option to jelly sandwiches.

We have invented our own kid-friendly yogurt!

Ingredients:

High-fat unsweetened yogurt (I buy Greek or Creamline Village brand at Trader Joe's)

Palm sugar (with its low glycemic index and facintating texture, it's a big win)

Sliced peaches or berries

Shredded coconut, sweetened & roasted

This wins high awards as breakfast, snack or desert. It has sufficient calories and nutritional content to be a small meal and it's sweetened to taste, which, not surprisingly requires so much less!

Nutty banana nut muffins

I wrote a few days ago about good-looking paleo muffins I wanted to try. I was extremely nervous, as always, experimenting with substitution recipes. Will anyone like them? 

The muffins turned out unbelievably delicious.  I enjoy muffins - but these were the next level. They stayed fresher than their flour counterparts and my whole family admitted, they were a wonderful treat.  They are now a permanent part of our family recipe collection.

Here is the recipe I wound up with:

1 1/2 cups almond flour
3/4 cup bananas pureed with a fork
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Blend eggs separately, breaking the yolk.  Mix together all the ingredients (including the blended eggs) except for the walnuts until smooth. Fold in the nuts.

Spoon batter into 6-12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups (I used muffin paper cups and filled each 1/3 of the way, making 12 perfect muffins). Cook 20-25 minutes at 350 F until the top is golden-brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

These are very soft and cakey muffins. I think that cutting them in half and toasting them is very nice since it gives it little crisp edges.

They were very sweet for my palate - but I have dramatically reduced sugar intake.  Everything tastes sweet to me.  Next time, I'd like to try reducing maple syrup to 1/4 cup and sprinkling palm sugar on top.

My mother-in-law, my 2- and 4- year-olds thought they were delicious, even my husband!  I made half without the nuts for texture-sensitive palates, but in the end, all muffins were gone, nuts and all!

I was surprised that there was no grittiness associated with almond flour. Muffins were soft, fluffy and acted like they were what mother-nature intended.  :-)

We are going to try the pumpkin variation at Halloween time.