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!

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!

Pepper Steak

Here is a go-to quick pepper steak recipe that has been a staple for my family long before paleo and how I adapted it.

Spaghetti:

... squash, that is. Normally, this recipe is served over pasta and rice. Spaghetti squash does quite well - and I don't like eating pepper steak without something to break up the flavor.

Before you start, stick your spaghetti squash in the oven. I prefer baking it sliced in half, rind side up. (I'll also fry it in butter at the end, stay with me.)

Ingredients:

• 1lb flank or chuck steak, cut into strips. 
• 1/2 cup or so worcheshire sauce
• 1 tbsp cooking oil (I like coconut, of course!)
• 1 can mexican tomatoes
• 2 cans beef broth
• 1 bell pepper, diced into strips
• 1 onion, chopped

Cooking:

Heat up the oil. Drown in it worcheshire sauce and cook for 2 min over medium-high heat. The sauce will begin to carmelize, which is what we are going for. Throw in half the onion and cook another 2 minutes.  Add the steak. Brown till... well... it's brown, 5 min or so.

Pour the broth & tomatoes (with the juice) over it. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes. Uncover and give it another half an hour, allowing the fluid to evaporate, leaving the meat with plenty of au jus.  

Now is the time to get spaghetti out of your spaghetti squash, throw some butter in the pan and fry it for 5-10 minutes. This will prevent it from being quite so watery. I thought, frying was a substantial improvement!

Throw in remaining onion and pepper, toss with the meat, cook 2 more minutes and serve.

 This recipe is festive enough, it's as good for entertaining as it is for a family meal. It is pretty successful with the kids: it does have a kick from the mexican tomatoes, but without being too spicy. The spaghetti squash was voted down as my family is not used to it - but I enjoyed it. Still, it has unusual texture, so be cautious with picky eaters!

Getting pregnant again!

A while ago, I had announced, this blog was going to be about the paleo pregnancy.  Unfortunately, this idea was short-lived as I lost the pregnancy at twenty weeks of gestation due to a developmental problem: water in the brain, chest cavity and abdomen.  Apparently, the baby had a hole and leaked! I know, I can laugh about it now - but only because yesterday my husband and I have finally decided to try to conceive again!

From LadyZona.com
(I want to look like her!)

Boy, am I committed to doing everything right! There is no evidence, I did something wrong, but it's important to me to increase the odds that I conceive fast and carry the pregnancy if there is any hope. So bottom line, I am getting back to the topics of paleo pregnancy, conception, nutrition and exercise.

The next topic I need to get answers for is optimal prenatal vitamins. Hopefully, next time I post, there will be info!