A Good Dinner & a Not-so-Good Dinner

I made Smoky Country Style Ribs and Cajun Sweet Potato Fries Wednesday  night for dinner.  The ribs were too dry and tough and the fries were too spicy.  The dinner was edible and not awful, but it is not one I will make again.

On a happier note, I found spaghetti squash at the farmers market yesterday and got 2 small ones for only $3!  The lady that grew them told me that would keep a long time, so I figured I'll make them in a week or 2.  I also bought this from her:

I didn't know what to do with it, but her son said he cuts them in half and puts melted butter mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar on it and then bakes it.  I followed his advice, but left out the brown sugar.

I started by cutting the stem off the top and then cutting the squash in half the long way.
Then I scooped the seeds out.

Then I melted some butter and added some cinnamon & nutmeg.  Of course, I didn't measure.

I brushed it all over the insides of both halves.   I put them in a glass baking  dish and covered
them with tin foil.  I baked them on 400 for 55 minutes then took the foil off and baked them another
5 minutes.

Here they are after they are done baking!  We just scooped the meat out and ate them out of the shells!

Overall, the squash was good, but I can see why he put brown sugar on them!  I think they would be delicious hot out of the oven with some banana ice cream.

I also made buffalo wings for dinner last night (paired them with green beans).  They were tasty!  

Updates

I have a ton of stuff to share! 

First of all, while on a quest for groceries this weekend, my friend and I decided to see what kind of coconut milk was at our local Wal-Mart.  Boy were we surprised when we found this brand (ingredients:coconut milk, water) for only $1.48!!!  That's about half of what we normally pay at the grocery store!

This is what it looks like after being in the fridge:

Can you say "creamy"?!  It's much thicker than the other brands I've been using (that have guar gum or xantham gum in them).  It tastes a little sweeter too.  This weekend, I'm going to buy all that Wal-mart has on it's shelf and stock up! 

I made spaghetti squash with meatballs for dinner Saturday night.  I was hesitant to make this meal because I didn't want to try to replicate actual spaghetti.  But, I was pleasantly surprised at how GOOD it was!  Husband LOVED the meatballs.  He was eating them plain.  The recipe made about 40 meatballs and they were all gone in 24 hours!  Here are the recipes for the sauce & meatballs.  The squash recipe can be found here.

Marinara Sauce (from Paleo Recipe Book page 317)

8 Plumb Tomatoes, cut into quarters (I just used whatever I could get at the Farmer's Market)

1/2 Onion, sliced thinly

4 cloves of garlic, whole

1 celery stalk, chopped (I left this out this time because I didn't have any)

Handful of each: fresh thyme, rosemary & sage (I used dried)

6T cooking fat (I used coconut oil)

Sea Salt & Black Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 200F.  Place all vegetables in baking dish and pour 3T of the melted cooking fat and mix well to combine.  Roast the vegetables for about 5 hours in the preheated oven, until they are really caramelized.  Place the vegetables in a blender and process to a smooth sauce.  Add the rest of the cooking fat, season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and process again.

I doubled this recipe (used 2 baking dishes) and put 1-1/2 jars of it in the freezer for another time.

Fresh Herb Meatballs (from Paleo Recipe Book page 28)

1lb ground beef

1lb ground pork (I used medium pork sausage from the farmer's market)

1/2 onion, minced

1/2C fresh basil, finely minced (I used dried)

1C spinach, finely minced (I have a mini food processor/chopper that I used for this.  It wasn't very "finely" minced)

4 eggs

1/2C almond meal

1T dried oregano

4 cloves of garlic, minced

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well with your hands.  Season the mixture to taste with s&p.  Make small balls the size of a golf ball (I used my cookie baller, it made about 40) and place them apart on a baking sheet.  Bake for about 25 mins until well cooked.



This is just a pretty breakfast that I had on Sunday.
Scrambled eggs topped with Frog Ranch Salsa, Watermelon & Cucumber Salad, & Meatballs!



...and this was dinner last night!  A grilled hamburger topped with
onion, tomato and homemade paleo mayo with canned beets on the side.



Tip of the Day #4

There are some great apps for your mobil device that you can use to come up with great Paleo/Whole30 meals/snacks.  My favorite one right now is My Kitchen fromThe Food Lovers' Primal Palate!  Here's what the app looks like on your iPhone:

This app allows you to search for recipes by type (appetizers, beverages, breakfast, entrees, salads, sauces & dressings, side dishes, soups, treats & cheats).  It also allows you to build your own weekly menu and shopping list.  I haven't played with the menu building/shopping list portion of the app yet, but I have made a few recipes that I found there recently which I will feature in another blog post(s) later this week!                       

Tip of the Day #3

Get your friends to join you! 

Of course, most of our friends thought we were crazy when we started our first Whole30, but after seeing our results (which I think were not what they expected, because they thought it was going to so difficult and we really found it to be easy), they all want to do one too!  The best part about this, is sharing Whole30 meals together!  Our friends that started their first W30 yesterday came over for dinner last night and we'll have dinner at their place one night this week.  I also had the pleasure of shopping for and preparing some basics (mayo, ranch...etc) with my friend this weekend!  

We also shared some samples of our Whole30 meals with some other friends that are starting their first W30 next week.  They raved about the food and it made them even more exciting about starting their first W30.  I look forward to having Paleo/Whole30 dinner parties soon!  

Image from visitshoremagazine.com

Recipe Roundup

I've tried 2 new recipes this week and invented a 3rd one!  

I've been wanting to try greens for some time now, but I had a feeling that the traditional southern way of boiling vegetables to death would turn me off.  So, instead I used a great recipe by Whole Life Eating called Pork Loin Chops with Collard Greens.  I actually liked it!  It was best when I took a bite of greens with a bite of the pork.  Husband resisted even trying them and then when he finally did he said they were "disgusting".  I still plan to make them once-a-weekish for myself.  The health benefits are too good to ignore (calcium, folate...etc).

My next new recipe was this Crockpot Ropa Vieja & Cuban Style Rice by PaleOMG.  I left the capers out because I didn't know what they were!  This recipe was good.  Husband wasn't thrilled with the texture of the cauliflower "rice", but overall he liked it.  

Then came my masterpiece!  Strawberry (banana) Ice Cream!  This recipe was inspired by the Banana Ice Cream that we had already been enjoying from time to time.  I simply put frozen sliced bananas, frozen (fresh) strawberries and full-fat canned coconut milk (chilled) in  my new food processor and blended it all together! When I do this again, I will cut the strawberries in half prior to freezing.  Being whole, they required a bit of coaxing with a wooden spoon in between processing.  I left out the cinnamon & nutmeg from the original banana ice cream recipe and I think that was a good decision.  Now I'm dying to try this Cinnamon Sweet Potato Ice Cream from PaleOMG.  We MUST get an ice cream maker!

On my list to make this weekend/next week: 

Meatballs

Marinara Sauce

Spaghetti Squash

Sauteed Shrimp

T-bones

Buffalo Wings

Sweet Tater Fries/Mashed sweet taters

Smoky Country Style Ribs

Crock Pot Lemon Pepper Chicken

Watermelon & Cucumber Salad                                                     

Tip of the Day #2

Today's Tip:

Get yourself some Larabars.  Check the ingredients if you are doing the Whole30 because some of them have peanuts, honey or other non-compliant ingredients.  I buy a lot of the apple pie, blueberry muffin, pecan pie and key lime pie bars.  My favorite is the Pecan Pie.  These bars taste like you're cheating.  Seriously, they are delicious. The ingredients are: Dates, Pecans & Almonds.  That's it!  But, don't go hog wild and eat several of them a day.  That would be stupid.  Just keep them around for when you want something sweet or "dessert" (be careful of enabling old habits during your Whole30 though!).  I like to keep one in my desk or purse for days when I get stuck at work late or just have hard time making it from breakfast to lunch without snacking. 

Paleo/Whole30 Tip of the Day

Today's Tip: Purchase and use a slow cooker!  

These are brilliant appliances.  They allow you to cook meat and veggies together for delicious "one pot" meals with very little effort.  Just put your meat, veggies & seasonings/sauces in the slow cooker in the morning before work/school/whateveryoudoallday and then when it's time for dinner... VOILA!  You have a healthy delicious meal!  Here are some slow cooker meals that I cook on a regular basis.

I actually have 2 slow cookers and sometimes on Sundays, I have food cooking in both of them at the same time!  You can pick one up for under $20 at wal-mart or other department stores.