I have severely neglected the Food Blog over the last few months and have been meaning to get the ball rolling again… thank you Karen for sending me this!!!

“Tonya made this for me a while ago, and I just added the chicken, and tweaked the sauce a bit… I think shrimp would work too..

Almond Chili Sauce:
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup tamari (coconut aminos)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup water
1/4 cup agave (tried it without, and its good!)
1 tsp salt
1 pinch chipotle powder
1 1/2 Tbsp chili flakes
(makes enough dressing for a HUGE salad, or 3-4 normal salads)

Salad:
1/2 shredded cabbage
1 cup kelp noodles (Kitchen Quickies has them)
1/2 sliced/shredded cucumber

Mix it all together, with your meat of choice, and then I put some cilantro on top.

It’s about time!

The one is a huge favourite from the Whitewater Cookbook and Lesley has paleoized it (with a few “grey area” items in there):

“INGREDIENTS:

* 4 organic chicken breasts sliced
* 4 medium roasted yams (I like to do half yam & half sweet potato) peeled & cubed
* 2 cups grated carrots
* 2 cups grated beets
* 2 cups packed baby spinach leaves
* 2 cups slivered almonds toasted

DRESSING:
* 1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
* 1/3 cup Tamari
* 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
* 1/3 cup water
* 2 tbsp tahini
* 2 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 cup olive oil

In blender, purée together nutritional yeast flakes, tamari, vinegar, water, tahini and garlic. With motor running, add oil in slow, steady stream. Blend until smooth. (Make-ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week.)

Throw all the ingredients for the salad together and toss, then add the dressing, mix it all up and serve – YUM!”

From Mandy… she got it from Primal Women in the Kitchen Blog

Ingredients:

* A dozen eggs
* 1 ½ large avocados
* ¼ c. cilantro- chopped
* ¼ c. onion- chopped
* handful of cherry tomatoes (I used 6 from our garden)- chopped
* 2 tbsp. olive oil
* 2 tsp. minced garlic
* 1 squirt of lemon juice
* pinch of red pepper flakes
* pinch of salt

Prep:

* Hardboil your eggs by placing them in a sauce pan full of cold water and bringing the water to a rolling boil.

* Remove the pan from heat and allow them to sit for 15 minutes.

* Move to an ice bath for another 15 minutes. This will make them easier to peel. (Eggs that are a week+ old tend to peel easier but fresh will work too. )

* Peel eggs.

* Gently slice eggs in ½ placing the white on a plate and the yolk in a bowl.

* Mix the avocado with the egg yolks and olive oil until creamy.

* Fold in all other ingredients except the salt.

* Spoon ping-pong ball sized dollops into the egg whites.

* sprinkle salt over the top.

From Mel:

(Mel is Cam Wow like a sham wow?)

“I bumped in to Tanya at Nester’s a few nights back and saw that she had ground turkey in her basket (a very clean
basket I might add). For some reason, I always forget about ground turkey. I wanted to cook it with some taco mix
but not the ready made stuff that god knows what is in it…so I made this and it was really good.
You can add the meat to a salad or eat as is like I did with half an avocado. Yumm.

1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika (yes Slater, smoked paprika is fine)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper”

From Shannon….

“I learned this recipe while in Thailand and it is definitely my favourite! This soup is so good and super easy to make – you can’t really go wrong anywhere except adding too many chili’s. Usually you’re only supposed to eat the prawns, mushrooms, tomatoes and broth; however each to their own…some may have more luck chewing through lemongrass than others – the first time I had this soup I ate a huge chunk of ginger thinking it was a potato…bit of a surprise…

From “A lot of Thai” Cooking School

* 2 1/4 cups chicken or prawn stock ?(prawn stock can be prepared by boiling the head and the shell of prawns in water for 3 minutes) – you can also substitute coconut milk
* 2 stalks lemon grass – 3 cm diagonally sliced
* 50 g galangal – thinly sliced ?can substitute fresh ginger
* 50 g (1/3 cup) shallots -crushed
* 100 g (1 cup) mushrooms – bite size
* 2-3 kaffir lime leaves – torn in quarter
* 100 g or 1 tomato -bite size pieces
* 150g prawns- shelled and de-veined – you can also substitute fish or chicken
* 1 1/2 – 2 tbsp fish sauce ? you could omit this and it would probably still be pretty good – may need to add a little sea salt
* 1 tbsp red chili – smashed (about 10 small chilies) ?we only used 2-3 because they were medium sized chilies and it was super spicy; start small and work your way up….
* 1-11/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
* 2 tbsp coriander leaves – roughly chopped

* Bring the stock to a boil over medium heat. Then add lemongrass, galangal and shallots. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
* Add mushrooms and kaffir lime leaves – Cook for 1 minute then add tomato and boil until soft.
* After that add prawns and cook for approximately 30 seconds.
* Remove from heat
* Season with fish sauce, chili, lime juice and garnish with coriander leaves on top.
* Combine well before serving ? serves 2-4 depending on if it’s a meal or part of”

Steve W. sent this in… he got it from http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-moussaka/comment-page-2/#comments

He tweaked some of the proportions of the spices just a little…

“Ingredients:

1-2 large eggplants and cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 bunch of kale, chewy lower stems cut off
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 pound ground meat lamb
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
4 eggs
1-1/4 cup natural or vanilla coconut milk yogurt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
olive oil, for sautéing

Directions:

1) After slicing the eggplant, place the slices on a paper towel. Sprinkle the slices liberally with kosher salt. Let the slices sit for 20-30 minutes until moisture appears on the surface. Rinse the eggplant thoroughly and blot dry.

2) Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over high heat. Add several slices of eggplant to the hot oil at a time and sauté the eggplant slices, turning as necessary, until browned. Continue cooking the eggplant until all the slices are cooked. I found with a super hot nonstick pan (highest heat possible) you could cook the slices without oil but they burn fast so stay close. Set the eggplant aside.

3) Puree the kale with the tomatoes in a food processor. You can boil the kale for a bit before to soften up but it’s not exactly necessary.

4) Heat some of the olive oil in a pan over medium heat and add onion and garlic. Saute a few minutes then add meat, cinnamon and allspice. Stir, so the meat browns evenly. After five minutes add the dill and the tomato mixture. Simmer until the sauce thickens, about 30 minutes. As the meat cooks, whisk together eggs, yogurt and nutmeg.

5) Preheat the oven to 350. In a lightly oiled 2-quart square baking dish, place a thin layer of eggplant then cover with the meat. Layer the remaining eggplant on top, then the sauce mixture.
6) Bake 45 minutes, or until the top is set and golden brown. Let rest 20 minutes before cutting into the Moussaka”

This might be the best food blog entry yet……

from Bic:

“This is for all the food groupies who are finding it hard to stomach eggs every morning. I have to admit, I think I’m over 3 months strong in my pursuit of the perfect breakfast eggplosion, and I haven’t tired of them yet. This meal is dedicated to Jesse’s BACON STRIPS t-shirt, because after watching a few episodes of Epic Mealtime I now know what the shirt means. Here it is, straight up simple!

Step 1: Bring out yo BACON! Not sure how much? MORE, that ‘s how much! Weave that shit up, cause that’s how we roll…over, under, over, under, hell throw a double under in there if you want! Now put that bacon weave on a pan and bake it up til you just can’t bear it any longer.

Step 2: Get your pan warming up and ready to go. No not the little pan, the BIG one! This ain’t no tea time snack, this is a Bacon Weave Frittata!

Step 3: Crack 6 eggs in a bowl, and beat them up good. You can’t eat 6 eggs? Don’t worry, the bacon weave is like a beer bong for breakfast feasts. BAM!

Step 4: Now chop up some green onion. Make your food look goooooooooood!

Step 5, 6, 7: Time to wrap this shit up, I’m getting hungry…flip that oven to broil and pour half your eggs in the big ass, well lubed up pan and let it sizzle for a few minutes. Then grab that pre-broiled bacon weave, and drop it in your egg mixture and get ready to bring this home. Top that bacon weave off with rest of the egg mixture and some green onion. Throw that pan in the oven under the broiler and watch the action. DON’T PUT YOUR PAN WITH A PLASTIC HANDLE IN THE OVEN FOOL! This ain’t no amateur shit, go buy a pan that can go in the oven so you can create more bacon weave magic if you need to!

Ok, done with the Epic Mealtime inspired narrative. Go youtube Epic Mealtime and watch an episode before you read this!! Thanks for introducing me to it J.Bif.

Enjoy,
Sean Bic”

From Bronwen, she recommends it and got it from The Quick & Easy Primal Blueprint cook book:

“Play with the measurements…I adjusted mine to have less salt & it tastes AMAZING!
Was surprised that it had fish sauce as an ingredient (contains sugar)
I left it out…..

Chicken marinade:
3 TBLS Wheat Free Tamari
2 TBLS Coriander
1 Teaspoon Cumin
1/2 TBLS Sesame oil…Combine & add approx 2 chicken breasts chopped into bite size pieces…Grill/saute ( used coconut oil) until cooked.

Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup Almond Butter
1/2 cup of Coconut milk- Plain
1/4 cup of H20
1 Garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons of grated fresh ginger ( I keep this in my freezer & grate some off every time I need it!)
1 Teaspoon Tamari WF (I used low sodium too)
1-2 Tbls sesame oil
****1 1/2 Tbls of fish sauce ( I left this out for 2 reasons…1) I could not get the lid off!!!!!! & 2) It has sugar as an ingredient!)

Whisk, dip Chicken….ENJOY!”

A few people have asked us about cooking with Whey Protein so I did a little reading on the world wide web this morning (not even the craziest thing that people in 80′s movies thought we would be able to do on the eve of 2012). Here is what I found:

* “Can you bake with whey protein powder?”
http://www.livestrong.com/article/288537-can-you-bake-with-whey-protein-powder/

* “Can I heat whey protein?”
http://www.livestrong.com/article/528865-can-i-heat-whey-protein/

* A random thread with some interesting responses to the question “Can I bake with protein powder?”
http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/recipes/baking-whey-protein-powder

From my quick read through a bunch of sites and threads it seems like adding protein powder to baking is an effective way of adding protein to a baked good. It may denature the proteins as I suspected but it may not mean a loss of nutrients. Less heat seems better than more heat, and adding more oil may help to keep it moist as whey tends to thicken the recipe! And of course, the more the company has messed around with it and added weird stuff to it, the harder it is to predict what it will do biochemically when you heat it…. keep the quality of the product clean.

Let me know if you guys find anything else that adds to this info!

Heather