Eggplant Lasagna

We miss Italian food, eating Paleo all the time. But I figured out how to get around it! Eggplant makes for perfect noodle substitute, as long as you peel it.

Ingredients:

One large, fat eggplant, peeled and sliced very thinly (use a mandolin if possible)
1 pound (or a little more) ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 16-oz package of shredded mozzarella
2 lb tub of ricotta cheese
fresh oregano
salt and pepper

Peel and slice the eggplant while you brown the ground beef in a saucepan along with the onion and garlic. Once the meat is browned, add the sauce, dash of salt and pepper, and a small bunch of fresh oregano (or 1/2 tsp dry), and stir together well on low heat. Turn off heat, and spray olive oil into bottom of large glass baking dish. Mix the ricotta and a handful of mozzarella in a big bowl together.
Time to start layering!
Spread a layer of meat sauce on the bottom of the dish, then top with a layer of eggplant.
Spread a layer of ricotta on top of that, followed by a final layer of meat sauce and another layer of eggplant.
Spread the rest of the ricotta on top, then a final layer of eggplant, topped with the rest of the bag of mozzarella.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, and enjoy!

**QUICK POST NOTE** After cooking this, I realized it was a bit too cheesy, so maybe next time only 1 pound of ricotta is necessary :P

Mom's Baked Beans

I realize this isn't really Paleo, nor is it the healthiest recipe I've ever made. But if you start these the night before, put a little extra water in the crock pot, and cook on low overnight, you have baked beans for/with breakfast! And it's so much nicer than opening a can. And yes, this is my mom's recipe. Ingredients: 1 1lb bag dry navy beans 1 cup water 1 cup ketchup 2 tsp dry mustard 2 Tbsp dark molasses 1 medium onion, chopped 1 large slice of bacon or about 2 Tbsp sliced salt pork a dash of salt and pepper Pour the dry beans into a large pot, sifting with your fingers a bit to check for dead or black ones. Cover with twice as much water and bring to a boil, then simmer on stove top for 25-30 minutes.

Turn burner off and let sit for at least 1 1/2 hours. Drain beans and add to crock pot, along with all other ingredients (slicing the strip of bacon into little chunks), mix well.

Cook on low at least 6 hours, or as long as you want (if overnight, add a little extra water before you go to bed).

Amazing Apple-Pork Meatballs With Sweet Sauce

I found a turkey recipe in a magazine that sounded good, and then I realized I only had maybe half the ingredients it called for. So I BS'd my way through the entire thing, making this an almost paleo recipe to boot. These are by far one of my greatest creations!

Ingredients for Meatballs:

2 pounds ground pork
1 large/ XL egg
2 apples, grated
1/4 cup bread crumbs (or almond flour if you have it; not only does it taste better, it's Paleo)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dry thyme
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 Tbsp fresh (or 1/2 tsp dry) oregano
1 large shallot, minced

Crack the egg into a large bowl. Grate the apples over that.

Add all other ingredients (mince the shallots as small as you can before your eyes water up) and mix it all together well with your hands.

Form meatballs and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes, but check them at 25 minutes; they are done when they are brownish gold on the outside and feel solid.


Ingredients for Sauce:

1/2 cup apple sauce (natural unsweetened is best)
1/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Mix all ingredients in a small pot and cook on low while the meatballs cook; keep warm and spoon over meatballs after they are on the plates.

Mostly Paleo Almond Cookies

A cookie should be sweet, at least in my mind. I tried to cheat as little as possible and re-create a gluten-free cookie I had tried from a box once. I think these are pretty darn tasty!

Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large/ x-large egg
1 stick butter, softened
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4-1/2 cup (however much you want) slivered almonds (optional)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until smooth, then drop in hefty spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. I pressed the bottom of a small cup into mine to give them decoration, but it's not necessary. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes.

Soy Ginger Fried Chicken

I've raved about the tasty benefits of coconut oil in previous posts, so I fry everything in it now. And I've lost weight. Go figure. :)

Ingredients:

about 1- 1 1/2 pounds of chicken wings
3 Tbsp light soy sauce
Coconut oil
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Drop a couple of heaping spoonfuls of coconut oil into the pan on medium-high heat, enough so that when it liquefies it covers the bottom of the pan.

Add the soy sauce and spread around with a spoon. Arrange the wings so all parts are touching the pan. Mix the spices in a little bowl and sprinkle evenly over the chicken, then again after you flip the wings over the first time. Continue flipping and cooking until golden crispy brown, about 20 minutes. If you need to, add another spoon of coconut oil.

Apple Pork Roast

It drives me crazy when someone has an apple or other kind of fruit tree in their yard and doesn't take advantage of it. So when we took our walk and saw a ton of freshly fallen apples under a HUGE apple tree just lying rotting in someone's yard, I filched as many as I could stuff under the stroller and walked away. The good news is, I'll be making apple sauce tomorrow.

Anyway I had this pork roast and figured what the hell, why not use some apples?

Ingredients:

2-3lb pork loin roast
1 tsp kosher/sea salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
dash of ginger
about 2 cups of chopped apples
1- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix the spices together in a small bowl.
Rinse off the pork roast under running water, then rub all over with the spice mix. Set in bottom center of large crock pot. Chop up the apples and spread all around the sides of the roast.

Sprinkle the cinnamon over the top of everything and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Tasty Breaded and Fried Eggplant

I've gotten into the Paleo Diet lately, and although it involves not eating dairy products or wheat-based anything, I still had this big can of bread crumbs on my shelf that I was reluctant to throw out. Eggplant was on sale at the store this week, and so a delicious side dish was born! And coconut oil is my new best friend in this house. It's much easier to cook now that my daughter understands the phrase "back off" when referring to her proximity to the stove.

Ingredients:

One large eggplant, washed and cut into rounds, then halve the rounded slices
2-3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 Tbsp Italian spices (or a few dashes of parsley, oregano, basil, and thyme)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup coconut oil

Beat the eggs in a large bowl and set aside. Mix the bread crumbs and spices in another large shallow bowl and set next to the egg bowl. Heat half the coconut oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat, until it just begins to steam. Dip pieces of the eggplant in the beaten egg, then drop into the bread crumbs and coat thoroughly. Drop gently into the heated oil and fry for about 1-2 minutes on each side, til the pieces are golden brown. Use the remaining coconut oil after each batch, as the breading will tend to soak it up. Continue the process until all the eggplant has been breaded and fried and set on a plate for serving purposes. Makes a great side dish, or a lunch by itself.

Simple Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

It's a rainy, yucky day, where we can't go on a walk or to a park, so we put our aprons on (yes, she has a matching toddler apron) and baked a pie with some of the rhubarb my mom brought from her garden. I looked through several recipes online and they all seemed really complicated, so I simplified this up with what I had available. I made my own crust from scratch, because I like to, even though it inevitably falls apart and looks horrible in the end. It's always tastier when you use real butter and your fingers.

Ingredients for Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter (softened)
4-5 Tbsp cold water

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, first with a spatula and then with your hands, until it forms a large dough ball. Then break the ball in half and roll out each side, one for the bottom of the pan (a regular 9-inch pie pan, greased, floured, and pricked with a fork) and one for the top of the pie.

Ingredients for Filling:

2 cups (or so) fresh rhubarb, chopped and rinsed
2 cups/1 pint fresh rinsed strawberries, de-stemmed and chopped
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 lemon- all of the zest and juice
1 Tbsp butter

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour evenly into the bottom crust, sprinkling bits of the last pad of butter over the top of the filling, then top with the top crust, slicing an X in the center and pushing down the edges with a fork.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.

Easy Carrot-Ginger Soup

I stole this out of a past issue of Parents magazine, and am giving it a shot since all we have in the house is leftover chili and the kiddo refuses to touch the stuff.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Add the olive oil to the bottom of a large soup pot and saute the onion, celery, and ginger for a few minutes while you peel and chop the carrots. When the onion starts to become clear and you can smell the aromas coming from the pot, add the chicken broth and carrots, along with a dash of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook on medium, covered, about 20-25 minutes, then blend together with an immersion blender (or in batches in a regular blender).

Bangers and Mash (Emptying the Cupboards)

Yep, I did it again. In my sad quest to change our diets (both my husband and I want to lose weight, so we're cutting carbs out as much as possible) I did not buy enough food to last two weeks. So I had to start getting creative to last through til payday. I found some potatoes buried in a lower cupboard, just starting to go a little bad, and you can always keep peeling til you hit the good part of an onion. And hooray for discount sausage! All in all I probably made this meal on about, oh, $4.

Ingredients:

2 Idaho Potatoes (large), peeled and cubed
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium sized onion, chopped
2 fat cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
3 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
1 Tbsp dried parsley

4-6 large sweet sausages

Put potatoes in a large pot and add the chicken broth, then add enough water to cover the potatoes. Cover and start on med-high heat while you chop the onion and garlic. Add onion and garlic, cover, and cook until boiling. Then raise the lid a bit for steam to escape and turn heat down to medium.

While this cooks, put sausages in a large skillet and add about 3/4 cups water, then cover the pan and cook on medium-high for about 8 minutes. Then take the lid off, poke the sausages with a fork, and turn over periodically as they cook, uncovered, an additional ten minutes or so.

Once potatoes are fork-soft, drain the liquid and return to the pot. Add all other ingredients and spices and mash well, mixing together with a large spoon.

Serve with the sausages and some ketchup.

Irish Soda Bread Buns

Okay, I admit, I stole this recipe from a magazine. But it's really simple and accurate, and the buns could be made into one big loaf if you really wanted to. I think these taste wonderful, especially for a bread made entirely without yeast, though my husband and the baby don't like them.

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup raisins or currants
1 3/4 cups lowfat buttermilk
2 Tbs melted butter

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Add buttermilk and stir with a spatula to combine. Once mixture starts to become doughy, dig your hands in and mix it all together into one giant dough ball.

Knead it a few times once it's dough. Grease a large cookie sheet with cooking spray and form the dough into 12-13 little round balls, lining up on the sheet.

Cut a cross/"X" into each bun then brush the tops with the melted butter. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

Easy Turkey Sloppy Joes

I combined and added ideas from other recipes to make this one my own. It was really easy to throw together.

Ingredients:

1 tsp vegetable oil
1 pound ground turkey (frozen or thawed, doesn't really matter)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced (I was supposed to use green, but only had a red one)
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup prepared barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
multigrain/whole wheat hamburger buns

Drizzle oil into bottom of crock pot. Add turkey. Toss all other ingredients in on top of turkey (except for the buns) and cook on low 6-8 hours. About halfway through cook time, open the lid and stir everything together with a wooden spatula; this is essential if your turkey was put in as a frozen block of meat.

(Sorry but for some reason the photo uploader keeps turning my image sideways)
When it's time to eat, just put some of the mix on the buns and enjoy!

Leftovers Lunch

Once again, I wanted to use up some of the leftovers and random things i had in my cabinets to make something healthy for lunch. Now that the baby is a toddler, she has a lot of her teeth and can eat just about anything. I'm going to recommend you either buy good-quality brown rice or rinse off the rice in a colander before you start cooking it, as mine came out tasting a little dirty.

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice
2 1/2 cups water
1 scallion, chopped
2 white mushrooms, chopped
1/2-3/4 cup leftover roast chicken/poultry, chopped up
1/3 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup frozen corn
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. parsley flakes

Prepare the rice as directed; in other words, boil the water then throw in the rice and turn to a simmer for about 30 minutes. When rice is close to done, leave on low and throw in all other ingredients, mixing well. Cook another 10-15 minutes, or until water is all sucked up.

Makes about 4-6 servings. We ate this for lunch, and I ended up throwing a little sweet and sour sauce on it to spice up the taste a little. But hey, at least it's healthy!

Cheese and Spinach Tart

I got this recipe from Parents magazine, and messed with it just a little bit for dinner last night. It was pretty easy, but all together took about an hour to make.

Ingredients:

2 small onions, diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 9-inch frozen pie shell
1 cup reduced fat milk
1 cup part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 10oz package frozen spinach, drained and squeezed of water

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Heat oil in a skillet, and add onions. Cook on low to medium heat until caramelized.

Prick pie shell with a fork and bake for 10 minutes. When onions are done, take off heat and let cool a few minutes. Mix all other ingredients in a large bowl, then add the onions.

Pour into cooked pie crust and bake another 45-50 minutes or until firm. I served this up with some of my Easy Lemon Pepper Fish.

New Year Mexican Fun Dip

I'm overwhelmed with stress right now. I'm trying to organize and pack for a move clear across the country to Massachusetts and on top of that my grandmother just died. So I apologize for the lack or recent recipes.

I don't have any photos of this, but it's so simple you can picture what it looks like on your own.

Ingredients:

1 can refried beans
1 small jar any type of Salsa
1/2 cup shredded Mexican-style cheese (one cup for large batch)
2 Tbsp sour cream

For a large batch, you'll use all the ingredients, but for a small 1-2 person batch, place 2 heaping spoonfuls of refried beans into a bowl with 2 heaping spoonfuls of salsa and the 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Mix together then top with sour cream, or mix the sour cream in. Makes a great, easy dip for snacking with tortilla chips or Triscuit Thins.

Lovely Meat and Veggie Pies

We had meat pies at Dickens Fair in San Francisco this year and loved them so much that I decided I wanted to try to make them. My husband even helped out a little! It was fun and not as hard as you might think. The baby loved them too! We bought small ramekins at World Market for $4 a 4-pack to make individual pies.

Ingredients:

1-2 pounds ground meat (we used a mix of lamb and beef)
1 sweet onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 small/medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 red potatoes, chopped small
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 Tbsp parsley flakes
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper

Dough:

2 cups flour
2/3 cup softened butter
1 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold water

Brown the meat in a large pan on medium heat, breaking up into bits as it cooks, while you chop the vegetables.

Put carrots and potatoes into a small pot and cover with water, then boil about ten minutes until softened.

Drain meat once it's cooked. Add butter to pan and throw in the onions and garlic to brown up a bit. Then add the meat and the cooked potatoes and carrots and mix it all together. Turn the heat to low and throw in the peas, milk, flour, parsley, and as much salt and pepper as you like the taste of. Mix it all together until it's creamy, adding more milk if needed.

Mix the dough with your hands and roll out thinly. Use a bowl as a cookie cutter to make a circle large enough to fit into the ramekin. Spray inside of ramekins with cooking oil and push the dough circles into them, tucking loose ends in neatly.

Save enough dough to make smaller circles of dough for the tops of the pies. Fill each crust with the meat mixture and then top with another crust, pinching closed at the edges. Cut a small cross in the top of each pie to let out steam.

Place on a baking sheet for ease of removing from oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes.

Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

So I've been using jarred spaghetti sauce for about 4-5 years now, and finally thought I'd try a cheaper way out. The baby is 15 months old now, can you believe it? So I am able to sit her in her play area and let her watch one of the Your Baby Can Read dvds while I prepare a meal. Since I just threw this one together in the crock pot, it took no time at all and will be very easy to throw together come dinnertime.

Ingredients:

1 14oz can tomato sauce
1 14oz can diced tomato (mine was flavored with olive oil and garlic)
1 pound ground meat (I used turkey this time)
1 can artichoke hearts or quarters
2 fresh scallions/green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
a few shakes of seasoned pepper and onion powder
1 Tbsp each fresh chopped sage and oregano
1/2 tsp fresh thyme

Throw all ingredients into the crock pot. Mix together if you can; my ground turkey was still partially frozen when I put it in so I'm going to have to stir it all together in a few hours once it's cooking. Cook in slow cooker on low for 6+ hours or until dinner, then serve over freshly cooked pasta of your choice.

Atrocious Frozen Beef Makeover

I realized it was my night to make dinner close to noon today, so I hope I'm not cutting it too close using the crock pot. I'm going to start it on high for a few hours before turning it down to low later on... though I'm sure whatever this is would taste better cooked on low for 8-10 hours. I found a package of badly freezer-burned thin beef steaks in the freezer and am trying to reconcile them with the beef gods for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds of old, frozen beef something-or-other
2 shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3/4 bag of baby carrots
2 medium/large red potatoes, chopped
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
a few shakes of seasoned pepper and seasoned salt
1 cup leftover red wine (ours was a zinfandel)
1 cup frozen green beans

Unwrap the beef atrocity, thawing a little under warm running water to get the wrapper off and using leverage to break the frozen meat in half, or however it will fit into the crock pot. Add all the other ingredients on top of the meat, and cook either on low for 8-10 hours or high for 3 hours and then low until dinner time (another 3-5 hours) In the last 20 minutes of cooking, toss in the green beans and then mix in with the rest of the stuff before serving.

Let's hope this turns out well and rescued... it looks like it'll serve about 3-4 people.
UPDATE: Though it could have used a little more salt, it was actually pretty decent, as a sort of stew/potage.

Veggie Stir Fry Over Rice

This was a quick meal, thrown together for lack of any thawed meat in the house. Hooray for the local Farmer's Market!

Ingredients:

1 cup rice
2 cups water
2 Tbsp sesame or olive oil
1 zuchinni, sliced into 2 inch strips
2-3 small heirloom tomatoes, sliced
1 shallot, sliced thin
2 garlic clove, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, cored and sliced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 egg, beaten
sprinkle of fresh thyme


Prepare the rice as directed; bring to a boil then simmer on low heat for 20-30 minutes until all water is absorbed. Saute the vegetables in a large frying pan with about 1-2 Tbsp sesame oil, adding the soy sauce, thyme and pepper once the veggies begin to wilt. Push the veggies to one side and drop in the beaten egg, stirring around til it fries, then mix in with the veggies.

Put a big scoop of rice in a bowl and top with the veggie mix. Quick and simple, and feeds 2.