Beets & Sweets

My friend Sarah inspired me to start blogging again and I love her for it. Sarah is a yoga instructor and incredible at creating healthy, delicious recipes. She JUST started her blog but everyone should check her out and follow her for some really inspirational posts at The Way Om.

Ok, on to the food!

I'm always up for trying new foods or foods I thought I hated when I was a child when my taste buds didn't know any better; at least that's my excuse. That being said, somehow I've continued to avoid beets like the plague until recently. I think they are kind of like brussel sprouts, you just have to cook them the right way...and by "the right way" I mean add bacon. Bacon makes everything better and don't try to pretend like you don't know it!

This beautiful photo is from WWJME but without the beet greens.

I found this recipe at What Would John Mack Eat. I pretty much follow it as is (minus scallions), but I also cook the beet greens. Cooking the greens adds a ton of nutrients including fiber, protein, Vitamins C, K, A, B6,B2, Iron, Copper, Potassium, Manganese, Magnesium, Calcium and others.

Obviously eating the whole plant adds a bunch of nutritional benefits so I don't peel the sweet potatoes either. Leaving the skin on adds extra fiber, Vitamins A, C, E, Folate, Potassium and Iron and still tastes just as amazing.

Wasn't planning to post this when I took a picture. No judging!

To cook the Beet Greens:

I cut the greens off the stem right where the leaves end, wash then dry them then simply put some of the extra bacon grease in a pan on medium high and tossed them in. I leave them in there and toss them around a few times over about 10 minutes. Whenever they look good to you take them out, cut them a bit and toss in with the beets and sweet potatoes.

I love this dish SO much I usually do 2 large sweet potatoes and 3 beets. And obviously ALL bacon. I'm always looking for new and creative ways to cook vegetables if anyone has any recipes!

Paleomg's Pizza Spaghettti Pie

If you don't know who Paleomg is, you need to! She has some of the most amazing and delicious healthy paleo recipes. Sunday I made her Pizza Spaghetti Pie. Not only did I LOVE this, but it was a hit with my friends! She also posts pictures of her creations on Intsagram daily, check it out!

Almost 5 Ingredient Pizza Spaghetti Pie

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Prep time

25 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 25 mins

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• 1 large spaghetti squash (about 600 grams)
• 1 pound Italian sausage
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup pizza sauce (no sugar added)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 eggs, whisked
• (optional: add anything you like with pizza: veggies, basil, even cheese if you do primal)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Place spaghetti squash cut side down on a baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the skin of the squash gives when you press on it. Then reduce oven heat to 350 degrees.
3. Once squash is done cooking, remove threads and place in an 8×8 greased baking dish.
4. Place a large pan over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and onion. Cook until pink no longer remains in the sausage and it is broken up into pieces.
5. Add pizza sauce, dried basil and salt and pepper to the pan and mix well.
6. Add sausage mixture to the 8×8 dish and mix well with spaghetti squash threads.
7. Lastly, add whisked eggs to the baking dish and mix everything together until you can no longer see the eggs.
8. Place in oven and bake for 1 hour or until the top of the mixture forms a slight crust that doesn’t give when you press on it in the middle of the dish.
9. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Banana Pancakes

While I love having plain ole bacon and eggs for breakfast, sometimes I want to have something a little different. I've seen lots of recipes around for paleo pancakes but most of them require coconut flour, which I am currently out of. Luckily this morning I found a few ideas to make pancakes without any flour substitute: Banana Pancakes.

These have a great texture to them. I just ate mine plain but I suppose you could top it with honey or some fresh fruit too.

Ingredients:

2 medium bananas-ripe

3 eggs

vanilla extract

ground cinnamon

ground nutmeg

coconut oil or butter

Directions:

In a blender toss in bananas, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Blend about 2 minutes until batter is full of air bubbles. In a pan heat oil over medium. Pour in batter and cook on first side around 5-8 minutes till it is almost cooked all the way through. Just keep an eye on it. Then flip over and cook another couple minutes. Finished!

"Interesting" people...

Here is a video of the man that runs backward in our walmart... On the daily... In jorts ;)

Sweet Potato Hash

I am OBSESSED with sweet potatoes. I have a TON of them growing in a giant storage container in my backyard right now that I need to dig up and devour! You can eat these with a million different meals but one of my favorites is pictured here.

Sweet potato hash, chicken and grilled pineapple

Got this beautiful char on the pinapple using the George Forman Grill.
That thing can grill anything I swear.

Gorgeous home-grown sweet potatoes.

Recipe time!Sort of...If you want to know any specifics that I didn't mention just ask!

Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes
Diced Ham
Butter
Bacon Grease
Salt
Cinnamon
All Spice
Honey

I use pre-cooked thick sliced ham from the deli and bacon grease left over from the copious amounts of bacon I cook...

Directions:

Chop the ham in to a small dice and the sweet potatoes in to a larger dice. Use a big spoon full of the bacon grease in a pan to render the ham. After dicing up the sweet potatoes, toss them in and saute with the butter honey and spices for about 20 minutes. Just add the spices and honey to taste. Whatever you like!

This is one of my favorite dishes and it is perfect if you eat it with the grilled pineapple. Enjoy!

New Food Obsessions

When I started cutting things out of my diet, like grains, I needed to find some awesome replacements to fill that delicious void. I say delicious because I'm being honest here. I've read a lot of paleo eaters say, oh grains don't taste good, it's the stuff you put on them like butter. Well, I'm here to tell you while I could certainly eat butter off a spoon, I could also eat a fresh baked baguette with nothing on it and be in heaven. But I digress. So in my journey of finding new favorite foods I have stumbled upon a couple foods that I honestly have no idea how I've been living without until this point. 

First: Goat Cheese

Holy crap! Have you ever had goat cheese? I'm sure a lot of you have. But for some strange reason, I hadn't. Now I'm already a lover of cheese in general. My favorite cheese for a long time has been this Irish cheddar I get from a local market. But I'm really loving this right now. Since I first tried this stuff a few months ago, I haven't had a salad since without it. And that is saying a lot because I eat a salad for lunch 5 out of 7 days a week. 

So what do I eat goat cheese with? Obviously salad. Since it is soooo creamy, I haven't even been using any salad dressing. I eat it on salads like the one below, pulled pork salads, bbq chicken salads, ext. Sometimes I crumble some and mix it in a bowl with some fresh tomatoes and eat it as a snack. And as I'm sure you have concluded, sometimes I just eat a big spoonful of it! ;) The most recent way I have had it is in THE BEST OMELET I have ever had. I'll post that recipe soon. 

This was the first time I had goat cheese. My mom made this yummy chicken salad with it.

Second: Avocado

Ok, so it's not as if I had never had avocado before. I have eaten guacamole a million times. But once I changed my eating habits I needed to find some higher fat, healthy foods. One food most all paleo eaters love is avocados. It's creamy and delicious and a great source of those healthy fats we are always looking for. In the past, I don't think I had ever purchased an avocado. These days it's a staple on my grocery list.   

So what do I do with all these avocados? Well, half the time I just eat them! A lot of mornings my breakfast consists of half an avocado and these organic smoothies I buy that have 6 grams of protein. (I'll have to make another post about them because they have some pretty awesome ingredients). Some days I make banana avocado smoothies with or without protein powder. The most recent concoction I have tried is this egg baked in an avocado. If you have never tried this you are missing out. It is super simple too!

Baked egg in an avocado: hollow out some of the avocado to make enough room for the egg. Crack the egg into the whole. Crack some fresh pepper and salt on top. Make a bowl out of aluminum foil and bake in the over on 375 for about 25-35 minutes just depending on how you like your egg. 

I was a little skeptical about trying this at first. I'm not sure why, but I figured it had two of my favorite foods so how could it be bad? Man was I glad I tried it! The texture of the avocado and the egg work so well together. More creaminess which I'm clearly a fan of. I saw another recipe where they used cayenne pepper, but I tend to like more simplicity. This was delicious for breakfast with that perfect balance of fat and protein I'm always looking for. Definitely a must try!

Have you guys discovered any new foods that you can't believe you were living without??

First Anniversary Dinner!

Me and Matt's 1 year anniversary was May 22. Ok...so I'm a litttttle bit late with this post. I obviously haven't posted anything in a few months. I think I'm back ;). So anniversary dinner: Matt went ALL out. Of course. Even now, months later, I can still taste all those incredible flavors! It was definitely memorable. Now this dinner was not 100% paleo but I think I get a pass since it was a super special occasion.

Drinks while we cook! aka: drinks while Matt cooks and Laura....drinks?

These beautiful crystal champagne glasses were a wedding gift.

First Course: probably has some fancy name but Matt is sleeping so I'm just going to make it up... ;) I could have just eaten this as my entire dinner it was so delicious! Matt did a beautiful job getting those claws out fully intact. OOOwwwww pretty.

Tempura fried lobster claws over a bed of lettuce with remoulade apples.

Second Course: Lobster Bisque- creamy lobster deliciousness, and it's awfully pretty if I do say so myself.  I'd be happy to post any of these recipes if you want them so just let me know!

Lobster Bisque

Main Course: Surf and Turf. Probably the best surf and turf I've ever eaten. Main lobster tail, perfectly cooked rare fillet mignon with a creamy hollandaise sauce and 3 cherry tomatoes and a sprig of thyme from our garden.

Fillet Mignon & Main Lobster Surf & Turf

Dessert!!! Obviously I don't normally eat cake. The last time I did eat cake was on our wedding day. THIS Cake however is the masterpiece my sister in law created for us. We ate the top tier of it for dessert. It was my mother in laws apricot recipe. I'm not sure what's in it but it sure was heavenly. 

Looking back at all of this is making me hungry! Lucky for me my birthday is in 8 days so there should be some fancy food coming soon. I'll be sure to share all the food gloriousness with you. 

Would you guys rather have your boyfriend/fiance/husband cook for you on a special occasion or would you rather go out to a nice restaurant?