January 2013
7 posts
5 tags
The Art of the Deglaze
Best cooking lesson learned in a while!!
Step 1: Buy some cooking wine. Sweet marsala is good, I found mine at BevMo. The taste of the marsala adds a lot to the sauce, but really any wine will work.
Step 2: Cook your meat. I brown a pound of ground meat a week, so that presents a perfect opportunity for sauces. However, this sauce has even coaxed me and my burgers and steaks away from my...
5 tags
Restaurant Review
This is not the point of my blog, and I probably won’t make a habit of this, but Plan Check Burgers (mentioned in an earlier post) deserves mentioning! If you let your paleo self splurge on sweet potatoes or yams, you need to try this place! They actually fry their fries in beef tallow!! Hooray for new school old fashioned establishments doing it right. Beef tallow, as an animal fat, is...
4 tags
Home Sweet Home
Speaking of Burns Kitchens…the original one is down south in San Diego and is always showing me up with Dave’s famous margaritas and epic Seaside Market sashimi. (PS thats coconut aminos with wasabi and ginger, no soy for me!)
Thanks mom and dad!
5 tags
Better Burgers
Where can you find a a grilled grass fed burger with nitrate free bacon and a pastured egg (cooked in pastured butter) with raw amish cheddar on top? Not Umami burger, the Counter or Plan Check my friends. The Burns kitchen is where it’s at!
hmm…i do think i need to step up the photography though…
5 tags
Happy New Year!
Surviving my first semester of grad school and the mayan apocalypse didn’t leave me with much time for blogging. I was still cooking though, so here begins my new years resolution to catch up and keep up on my blog! Here’s to a deliciously healthy 2013!
October 2012
1 post
Excuse my Rant
I just drafted this little ditty to include in a piece on savy farmers market consumerism but I went a little over the top. Still, I feel like it needed to be shared.
Something to keep in mind: Our farming politics are VERY messed up. (Why does a local, organic apple that I should just be able to pick off of a tree down the street cost more than a Big Mac?) We have been producing a surplus of...
August 2012
4 posts
5 tags
Eggplant?
I recently signed up to get fresh, seasonal, organic produce delivered once a week through Farm Fresh to You. Its awesome! I just opened my door and there was a box of amazing food!! However, there was an eggplant… and I have never eaten an eggplant before. After spending about 30 minutes looking up recipes and another 30 getting a pep talk from my mom, I pulled that bad boy out and sliced...
5 tags
Tutti Frutti
I still can’t believe that I only started eating fruit this year. Now raw honey, raw greek yogurt, and some epic organic farmers market goodness makes for such a refreshing summer dessert!
To kick that chocolate craving the paleo way:
4oz unsweetened organic fair trade baking chocolate
4T butter
2 1/2 T Raw honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
Melt the chocolate...
4 tags
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Paleo Pesto
Basil makes so many great foods so much better, why not concentrate that summer taste into a paste? This recipe is one of many favorites from the Paleo CookbookWell Fed. I’ve made two batches so far and have started buying and making food just so I have something to put it on!
Unfortunately I only have a blender, not a food processor. The blender takes a little more time because the...
July 2012
6 posts
1 tag
Jalepeno Disaster
NEVER
CUT or
DESEED
JALEPENOS
BY HAND.
That is all. 1 hour after de-seeding and de-ribbing 5 jalepenos with my bare fingers, they actually felt like they were on fire. Dipping them in yogurt helped for a second. Lime juice felt wonderful. Aloe vera cooled the burn while it was wet. I thank the kitchen gods that I my nose or eyes didnt itch while I was chopping!!! Also, even when the...
5 tags
Prime Dinner
Its dinners like these that make me wonder if they will ever be reproduced in my own kitchen!! I have been SO spoiled by such amazing home cooked meals!!
Prime Rib Roast
Buy from the meat counter per rib. Estimate 1 rib feeds two people. Ask to have it tied so they cut the ribs off and tie them back on-you want them for the juices!
Season with salt and pepper
Put in a roasting pan-the deep...
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Meatloaf
I need to go buy a loaf pan so I can make this in my new kitchen!
***Thank you so much to Alex @ http://livegreenandeatclean.com/ for this wonderful Paleo recipe!!
2 lbs of grassfed beef 2 eggs (pastured, of course) 1/4 cup almond meal 1/4 cup of raw milk (since you are baking it, you can use regular milk, but its all I ever have on hand anyways) a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce...
5 tags
Moving Day!
I am an official resident of Santa Monica, California!! Now complete with internet! I am so sad to leave my family behind, but am thrilled to be out on my own and starting school soon! I have definitely taken cooking in a fully stocked kitchen and knowing where my next raw greek yogurt, nitrate free bacon and grass free ground beef patties were coming from for granted, so there might be some...
June 2012
3 posts
6 tags
Crossfit Paleo Talk
Thanks to all the members of US Crossfit that came out in support of my paleo talk today!! I was so thrilled with the attendance and all the awesome questions you guys asked!
The main question I got was actually how to make the dip, so here goes. The ranch starts with a homemade mayo recipe that you can find in my blog, it was one of my 1st posts. Don’t be afraid, it literally takes 5...
The Big Sweet Potato Fry Lie
Sweet potato fries are a lie. What you are actually eating in all their guilt free salty goodness are YAMS. Yep. These are two different veggies. Restaurants everywhere and recipe bloggers alike are LYING to you!! Sweet potatoes are actually light yellow when cut open like below.
These real sweet potato fries are actually quite delicious. They are a little more sturdy and contrary to popular...
4 tags
Celebrate!!
I aced both my written and practical tests and am now an officially certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner AND I successfully completed the 8 week Paleo challenge and am now indulging in raw dairy!
Celebration Drink of Choice? Blended Mango Margarita
Tequila, frozen mangoes from trader joe’s, lime juice (yes, my lime is yellow), and some grand marnier. Add some ice, blend till...
May 2012
8 posts
4 tags
THE Paleo Challenge
I love to bake. Cookies, pies, brownies, eclair cakes, pumpkin bread, etc. Halfway through high school I stole the role of dessert maker out from under my mom and was the friend that always brought baked goods to class for your birthday. 5 weeks into Paleo my little brother and sister were sorely missing the stocked sweet cupboard and with my sister’s cheer team coming over for dinner, I...
5 tags
Zucchini Noodles
First, let me just say how proud I am of my iphone for taking such a bomb picture. That was actually my plate, not a reblogged picture of what zucchini noodles “should” look like!
Okay, so why zucchini? Well, just as I was falling in love with spaghetti squash, it was going out of season. What was I going to put shrimp on? Lamb? Sausage? Epic curry sauce or an obnoxious amount of...
4 tags
5 tags
I eat leaves!
For those who know me, this has been the extent of my leaf consumption for the past 5 years. Before that, I didn’t even eat salad.
Yes, it looks bomb, with the homemade Caesar dressing and avocado, but nutritionally, it’s really a poor excuse for a salad. Cutting out all the rice and pasta, beans and bread from my diet really left me just eating meat. I wasn’t eating any...
4 tags
3 tags
Coconut Aminos to the Rescue!
I have been craving sushi! White rice and soy sauce didn’t make the cut for the paleo menu, (Soy, among other terrible things I will expand on in a later post, is a legume) so I have been left with visions of california rolls dancing in my head.
Enter Coconut Aminos.
I don’t know who looked at a tree and decided its sap could be a food item, but it worked for the maple syrup guy and...
3 tags
Fat is your Friend, Part 1
The casual inclusion of lard, bacon grease and coconut oil in my cooking coupled with the fact that my blog is labeled “butter is better” may be shocking to those standard american cooks and consumers. I’d love to start explaining my love for fat, showing why it should be endorsed instead of vilified, and convincing you to add more of the “right” fats to your diet.
...
2 tags
Barbeque Fever
I am LOVING the barbeque! The weather has been gorgeous, so most of my lunches end up being burger patties and other such meals to be made and enjoyed in the sun. But my love for the grilled chicken thigh even had me come home after work and bust out the grill at 9:30! They are absolutely my new favorite snack, I know I mentioned them in an earlier post, but I literally grab a cold chicken...
April 2012
10 posts
3 tags
Smoothie Success!
Stoked on a successful paleo smoothie!
1 small banana
handful each frozen strawberries and frozen mixed berries
juice of 2 oranges
1 raw egg yolk *this is safe if your eggs are from pastured chickens (not pasteurized, but raised roaming the pasture)
spoonful coconut oil
refrigerated coconut milk
*Adjust coconut milk to OJ ratio to taste, increase or decrease liquid to smoothie thickness...
4 tags
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Coconut Whipped Cream?
Worst. Idea. Ever. Turns out I don’t like coconut as much as I thought… I had a sweet tooth and thought I would try something new. Unfortunately this “dessert” was lacking so hard in the sugar department my craving was actually worse after eating it. This isn’t to say that none of you will like it, but it was no handful of trader joe’s chocolate chips or a...
3 tags
Homemade Mayo
I had no idea how much science and how little ingredients went into mayonnaise!
2 T Lemon juice
1 egg
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c sunflower oil (the flavor of olive oil is too overpowering)
Simple ingredients but if you just throw them in a bowl and start mixing, you will never get mayo. The goal is to create an emulsion using the lemon, egg and oil. It is crucial...
2 tags
Ode to Trader Joe's
Though you may not be grass-fed, you are free from chemicals and full of real flavor. You cook so effortlessly, I feel gourmet. Add bell peppers, onions and fresh cilantro and you make my day, so gracias Trader Joe’s Carne Asada, gracias.
2 tags
Spaghetti Squash
Wow! I didn’t even know this existed, and I love it! Cut in half and seeded, cooked at 350 face down on parchment sprinkled with water until easily forked and viola! The texture really does rival spaghetti and will go great with some tomatoes, olive oil and ground beef, or maybe lamb, coconut milk and curry sauce. Can’t wait!
2 tags
8 week challenge
I am 1 week into an 8 week Paleo challenge put on by my crossfit gym SealFit. My nutritional philosophy is such that I eat raw dairy and occasional properly soaked and soured grains. I do not eat processed sugars or grains, fake fats like canola oil, PAM or margarine, or anything containing High Fructose Corn Syrup. I strive to eat local and organic produce and grass-fed, free-range meat. I...
Welcome
I believe:
-butter is good for you, not margarine
-in listening to your body, not the food label
-Dr. Weston A. Price, Dr. Pottenger, Sally Fallon, Dr. Mary Enig, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, not Dr. Atkins, Dr. Gerson, or Jenny Craig
-that the diseases that didn’t exist 100 years ago are directly related to the food that didn’t exist 100 years ago, not that we didn’t have...
