Perfect Paleo Gumbo

I love soups... chicken soup, beef soup, chili, mushroom soup, maryland crab soup, cioppino...  I love them all!  This past winter, I attempted to make some gumbo!  We have some good friends who are from New Orleans who KNOW how to make some authentic dishes.  One day, I was just craving some anduille sausage and figured I'd try my hand at some gumbo.  I shot a quick text message to Angele asking her for any tips when making gumbo.  She immediately called me back and asked me if I had a pen and paper to take notes!  I combined a bunch of different recipes and made a DELICIOUS gumbo.  Here's my version of

Pefect Paleo Gumbo

* 1 bag frozen chopped okra

* 1 whole roasting chicken

* 1 large onion, diced

* 1 lb peeled shrimp

* 1 lb anduille sausage

* 1 lb lump crabmeat

* 1/4 cup bacon grease

* 2 cups seafood stock

* 1 can diced tomatoes

* 3 ribs celery , diced

* 1 green pepper, diced

* 6 cloves garlic, minced

* 1/2 tsp cayenne

* 1 tsp paprika

* 2 tbs creole seasoning (I used Zatarains)

Before you get started, you'll want to cook the whole chicken.  I just threw the chicken in a big pot and covered it with cold water.  Then I put a pinch of salt and pepper in the water and coverfed the whole thing with a lid and let it boil.  It took a while to cook the whole thing, but you want to boil and cook the chicken.  Once it's cooked all the way, you can remove the chicken from the water (but save the water- you'll want the flavor for later!!!).  Then, pick through the chicken and set the meat aside because you will use this for your gumbo.

I started off the gumbo by putting the bacon grease in a large heavy bottom pot.  Once it was liquidy, I added in the okra.  I put it in still frozen because it will obviously thaw out once it cooks through.  You'll want to start this early because the okra needs to cook for a while.  As it cooks, you will notice that it's getting slimy... you can literally see the slime stuff on your spoon as you stir it up.  Don't fear! Keep going... the slimey stuff will eventually go away, leaving a deliciously flavored okra that helps to thicken the gumbo.

While the okra is cooking down, you can dice the onion and the garlic as well as the green pepper and the celery.  Once the okra is past the slimy part, you can add in the onions and the garlic. Let it cook down and get all soft and cooked.  This is definitely a slow process that you don't want to rush! 

Stir in the celery and the green peppers and cook everything down.  I didn't want any crunch in my gumbo, so I just kept adding in a bit of bacon grease when it all seemed to dry up.  I didn't have to add too much extra, just enough so that the veggies didn't brown and crisp up.  I just wanted them sauteed and soft.

Next, I added in the can of diced tomatoes.  I always use the organic, salt free tomatoes that are diced.  You could probably use fresh tomatoes if you want, but I just had canned... so that's what went in!  I mixed it all together and started seeing some promising results!

I added in the seafood stock (which I make from scratch, but you can certainly buy).  I like my soups very liquidy, so I added in about another 2-4 cups of the water that was reserved from cooking the chicken.  You can add in chicken broth, or skip this step altogether if you'd rather have yours more chunky. 

Then, in went the reserved chicken meat that I left in nice bite sized chunks.

I also threw in the shrimp and crabmeat.  The first time I made this gumbo, I used chicken, shrimp, and anduille sausage... unfortunately, the grocery store I went to didn't have anduille sausage... btutI remembereed Angele saying that she used crabmeat sometimes... so I took a trip to the seafood department and picked up a pound of crab meat!  Being a girl from the Md area, I love crab and decided that it would be a nice addition!  So in went some crab.

I stirred it all together and let the shrimp cook through (which only took a few minutes).  I then added in the cayenne and paprika. 

I also added in the creole seasoning. I love spices so I actually added in a lot more than 2 tbs, but you should really add it to your own personal taste.  There are tons of different creole spices you can use, but this stuff was what the store had, so in it went!  It was pretty darn tasty!



 

So here's the finished project!  Seafood gumbo!  It was soooo delicious... I'm definitely a fan of gumbo now :)  Now I will say that, traditionally, gumbos need a roux which is basically a cooked paste of flour and butter. Flour, as we know, is definitely not paleo, so I just omitted this part.  I thought it still tasted great and didn't miss it at all.  If you want to make the gumbo thicker, you could probably add in some tapioca starch or something gluten free... but I didn't think that the lack of a roux detracted in any way shape or form. 

Enjoy!

Breakfast Fritattas

So my computer has been acting totally off... I think I have a virus, but I don't know how to fix it... so all my personal settings are gone, as well as a lot of pictures that have disappeared somehow... including a bunch of food pictures. :(  I'm hoping to find some way to fix it and restore everything!

Anyway, I just thought I'd put up a quick posting of a weekly staple for me and Curt.  Breakfast frittata!  It can be hard to find a quick breakfast that's paleo friendly.  I tend to wake up early and make an omelette of some sort.  Curt, however, prefers to get on the road early and eat breakfast at the office, so I've started making him these little egg concoctions to just heat up and eat!  They are SUPER easy and very versatile... I change up the ingredients every week! 

Breakfast Frittatas!

* 1 dozen eggs

* 1 package of bacon (I don't know how much bacon is in a package... half a lb?)

* 1 box of frozen spinach (you could use fresh)

* 1/2 lb of breakfast sausage

* 1/2 onion, diced

* salt and pepper to taste

  

First, I browned all of the sausage in a pan... this only took a few minutes.  After it was cooked all the way through, I removed it, but left the oil in the pan.  You have to cook all of the ingredients first, or else they won't cook all the way when you bake it later!

Next, I added in the bacon.  I let it crisp up (I like CRISPY bacon).  Again, after it was cooked, I removed it, crumbled it, and put it aside.  I drained most of the bacon grease, but left about a tablespoon in the pan so that I could cook the onions in it, rather than have to add butter or something similar.

I threw in the onion and sauteed that until it was soft - remember Curt doesn't like tasting the texture of onions! :) haha... cook them as much or as little as you like!

Once the onions were browned, I added in the frozen spinach.  You could take the time to thaw it all out if you would like... but the water would eventually evaporate anyway, and I didn't think ahead when making this and hadn't thawed it out yet!  Basically, you just keep pushing it around and poking at it with a wooden spoon until it thaws, cooks, and the water evaporates.

Then, I added the sausage and the bacon back in and mixed everything up so that it was all nice and combined.  I added in a pinch of two of pepper (my new favorite and highly underrated spice!)  I didn't really add in any salt because the bacon and the sausage already have enough in it.

Once everything was combined thoroughly, I put in evenly into a baking dish.  I don't remember how big it was, but use your judgement.  I've seen people put them in cupcake tins so you have individual little egg cupcakes, like my good friend Caroline did Here  But for Curt's sake, I just bake it all together and then cut it into big serving sizes.

I then cracked the whole dozen eggs into a big container and whip up the whole lot of it.  Again... I add in some pepper, just for fun!

Then, I poured the egg mixture over the "toppings" and used a fork to swirl everything up.  You don't want to have all the yummy stuff in clumps on the bottom and just egg on top (I don't think you do at least).  So just mix it all up and pop it in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes.  You just let it cook until you can stick a toothpick in it and have it come out clean - like you would for a cake. :)  When it cooks, it will get all big and puffy, so make sure that whatever pan you use, there is at least an inch between the top of the egg mixture and the edge of the pan or else you might have some messy overflow!

I took it out of the oven and voila!  Deliciousness.

Here's a picture of what Curt eats almost every morning for breakfast while reading the Wall Street Journal.  Now, you can have it with fruit, or veggies... whatever you'd like.  I tend to get full on just this.  I break each of these "pans" down into 4 servings, so on average, it's about 3 eggs a day with a bunch of veggies and meats mixed in.

This is really a super simple recipe.  You can mix and match ingredients, spices, and amounts and it almost always turns out great.  Here are a few of my favorite combinations:

~ crab, asparagus (Curt wasn't a fan of the asparagus in it though)

~ chicken, spinach, mushrooms

~ spinach, mushrooms, onions, feta cheese, bacon, oregano (Greekish)

~ spinach, sweet potatoes, bacon

~ bacon, mushrooms, onions

~ broccoli, spinach, and bacon

~ tomatoes, oregano, basil, chicken (Italiany theme)

Get creative! You can almost have a different fritatta each week!

Scrumptious Spinach

In looking over my blog, I've realized that most of my postings are entrees... I'll post some sort of protein and then just have some random veggie side.  Since going paleo, Curt and I have been eating a TON more veggies.  Needless to say, steamed broccoli or green beans, although delicious, can get somewhat boring.  I've had to get a bit creative and try new recipes to make sure I don't get bored! Here's one of my new favorite sides!  Spinach!  I was never a huge fan of spinach, but I had this in a tapas restaurant once and LOVED it, so I tried my hand at it... super simple and super delicious!

Sauteed Spinach with Raisins and Pine nuts

* 1 bag baby spinach

* 1 shallot, minced

* 1/4 cup raisins

* 1/4 cup pine nuts

* 1 Tbs butter

So this recipe is so easy that anyone should be able to do it!  First, I melted the butter in a pan, then I added in the shallots.  I let the shallots cook for a few minutes to soften up a bit.  Then, I added in the pine nuts and raisins.  From here, I just let everything saute and heat through. 

 Easy so far, right?!

Next, I added in the entire bag of spinach.  I'll warn you that it looks like a lot, but spinach really cooks down to nothing.  If you are cooking for 2 people who like spinach, you should definitely double the recipe!  I let the spinach cook through and heat up.  This really only takes about 2 minutes to cook.  Just make sure you stir the whole mixture together so that the spinach is cooked (I either like mine cooked or raw... not half way wilted... I feel like that's a bit to indecisive for me!)

Voila! There you have the easiest spinach dish ever.  I did see a few recipes that asked for some sherry cooking wine to be added.  I tried this with and without and didnt' notice much of a difference... but if you have some sherry on hand, go ahead and throw in a bit (1 tbs or so) to see if you notice a difference!

So there you go... super easy, right?  It's also done in just a few minutes, making it the perfect side for a quick last minute meal!  I think I paired this one with a hamburger patty or something of the sort.  Does anyone have any yummy spinach recipes?

Rosemary Proscuitto Chicken

I find it ironic that I'm not a huge fan of Rachel Ray, however, I've posted about 3 or 4 of her different recipes!  I bought some chicken thighs from the grocery store and wanted to do something with them.  Usually, I grill them and throw them on my salads... this time, I just wanted to make something a little different.  I went to foodnetwork.com and searched for chicken thighs and found this incredibly easy recipe by Rachel Ray... it was totally paleo and totally easy!

Rosemary Prosciutto Chicken Thighs

* 8 chicken thighs

* 2 tbs fresh rosemary, chopped

* 1/4 lb thinly sliced prosciutto

* 5 cloves garlic

* 1/4 cup olive oil

This shouldn't take long at all to make!  First, you chop the rosemary and the garlic.  Then throw it in a dish and pour the olive oil on top and mix it all together.  I added in some salt and pepper (which just so happens to be my new favorite spice- highly underrated!!!).

Next, you throw in the chicken thighs and coat them in the herb/oil mixture.  You want to make sure the chicken thighs are evenly coated.  You could let the chicken marinate for a while and just bake/grill it as is... however... I wanted to add that extra touch :) Hence... prosciutto!

 

You take each chicken thigh and wrap it in the prosciutto.  The prosciutto was sliced perfectly to wrap around the chicken thighs.  Next, you need to place it, seam side down to rest for a bit.  It didn't take long to wrap the chicken.  I liked how neatly packaged these little flavorful chicken parcels were. :) 

 

You can bake the chicken, but I wanted to use my cast iron grill.  This is the same one that I have a love/hate relationship with.  Sometimes it's great... othertimes, its a smoky burnt marinade mess... this time, however, it was a love experience.  I heated up the grill pan and greased it a bit with some bacon grease that I always have on hand.  Next, I just placed the chicken thighs on the grill and let it cook.  You want to make sure the chicken is seam side down, that way, it sort of seals the prosciutto so it won't open and the chicken won't spill out.   After the chicken had cooked for a few minutes and the prosciutto had crisped up, I flipped them over and cooked the other side. Then, after only about 10 minutes, the chicken was done!  As my students would say, it was "easy peasy lemon squeesy" (I teach 5 year olds!).

I'd love to say that this chicken was delicious.  I'd love to say that it was cooked perfectly and seasoned well.  I'd love to say that the rosemary flavored the chicken really nicely and complemented the prosciutto.... unfortunately, Curt ate it all before I had a chance to try it.

 

Of the 8 pieces, I had packed 6 for Curt's lunch.  I paired it with some steamed broccoli and a salad.  The very next night, the GIANT tupperware came home empty.  Curt had eaten it all in one day.  I had placed the last 2 pieces in a tupperware for me to eat with some broccoli.  I forgot it in the fridge on that first day.  The next morning, I reached into the fridge to grab my lunch for the day and found that my lunch had been kidnapped!  So, sadly, I have no idea how this dish tasted.... but judging by the fact that Curt ate all 8 pieces of chicken within 2 days is probably a good sign!

Cashew Coconut Mahi Mahi

So it's been a little while since I posted some recipes, but we are currently remodeling our kitchen, meaning that we literally took EVERYTHING out of the cabinets and set it on the living room floor, then painted all of the bases, and just had granite countertops put in... it's still a work in progress, but it's looking GREAT!  You'll be seeing some pictures soon, I'm sure :)

Anyway, on Wednesday night, Curt and I had a nice workout at the gym... the only problem was that afterwards, we were both STARVING and there wasn't really anything at home.  I stopped by the grocery store and found some frozen wild caught Mahi Mahi.  I grabbed the bag and headed towards the veggie section to find something to go with it.  I had planned to just broil the fish with some lemon and oil, but I turned over the bag of fish and lo and behold, I found this awesome recipe!  The original recipe called for cornstarch, but it was something that I could easily alter.  So here we have:

Cashew Coconut Mahi Mahi

* 2 (6 oz) filets of mahi mahi

* 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper

* 3 tbs of coconut flour

* 1/3 cup of coconut milk

* 1/2 cup of chopped, toasted cashews

* Salt & Pepper

I had raw cashews that I picked up from Trader Joes, but I wanted to toast them.  I think that toasting them really helps to warm up the oils and bring out a lot of the yummy flavor.  Keeping this in mind, I heated up a pan (without any sort of oil or spray) and threw the cashews in.  I put the heat up to medium and shook the pan every minute or so to make sure each side of the cashew was getting some color.

While I was waiting for the cashews to toast up, I mixed the coconut flour and the cayenne pepper.  I would suppose you could use any sort of flour type substance like almond flour or cashew flour.  I thought the coconut flour would go nicely with the coconut milk, so that's what I used.  You definitely want to coat the fish with something, though.

Once the cashews had some color, I chopped them up into tiny little chunks, not to the point that they were minced, but just to where they were small enough to fit nicely on the fish without it falling off all over the place.

Next, I dipped one side of the fish in the coconut flour mixture.  You don't need a ton, but you do want to have enough so that it sticks nicely to the fish.  This flour mixture is what allows the coconut milk to stick to the fish.

Now, onto the coconut milk.  Once the fish has a nice coating of coconut flour, you want to dip it, flour side down, in the coconut milk.  Make sure that it is all coated and yummy looking.

Next, I put the fish, coconut milk side up, in an oven proof pan.  I forgot to mention that I preheated my oven to 350.

Now, you pour the chopped cashews on top of the fish.  Some will fall off the sides, but it will be ok.  Just pack on all of the cashews that you can.  Then stick the whole thing into the preheated oven.  The fish only took 20 minutes to cook and then voila!

Cashew coconut mahi mahi!  This was absolutely delicious!  I'm really going to have to make this over and over again.  The fish was cooked through, but not tough.  The coconut milk helped to keep the fish tender and give a nice light coconut flavor.  I didn't feel that it overpowered the fish at all. 

This was another of those dishes where I was really suprised at how good it would be.  It's a definite keeper because it's deliciously paleo, really really simple, very quick, and fabulously tasty!  You all should DEFINITELY give this one a try!

Creamy Lemon Chicken Soup

 When the weather outside is cold and windy, one of my go to meals is soup.  There's nothing like having a nice big bowl of soup while you're curled up on the couch with a good movie.  When we had all of that snow a few weeks ago, all I wanted was soup.  I wasn't able to go to the grocery store while the snow was really, really falling.  I did have a few things in the fridge, so I decided to create this soup. Here we have:

Creamy Chicken Soup with Lemon and Spinach

* 1 quart chicken stock (I use homemade)

* 1 box thingey frozen spinach (maybe 10 oz?)

* 1 1/2 lb of shredded chicken

* the grated peel and juice of 2 lemons

* 2 tbs olive oil

* 4 cloves of garlic, minced

* 3 eggs, beaten

* 1/2 onion, minced

(I had planned to use the broccolini, but then thought it might be a little weird in a soup... I had some spinach in the freezer, so I used that instead)

I started off by sauteing the onion and garlic in the olive oil.  Onions and garlic are the base of pretty much every dish I ever make, so no need to switch things up too much.

While the onions were sauteing  I set to grating the peel off my lemons.  The zest contains a whole lot of citrus oils which packs a punch of flavor.  It's amazing how a little bit of zest can really liven up a dish.

Once the lemons were zested, I used my little juicer thingey and got all the juice out.  It ended up being a pretty good amount of juice.  I always prefer freshly squeezed juice... the bottled stuff says it's fresh, but it's never quite the same.

Once the onions were softened, I added in the frozen spinach.  I didn't bother really thawing it out because the extra water just added to the liquid part of the soup.  I like my soups really brothy, so this worked perfectly for me.

When the spinach was warmed through and combined thoroughly with the onions, I added in the chicken stock.  You could use chicken broth too, but I always have homemade chicken stock in the freezer, so I use that... plus, if I make it myself (it's super easy to make), I know what goes into it so I can guarantee there's no other chemicals and junk in it.

Next, I added in the lemon zest and stirred until everything had come to a gentle boil.

While waiting for the soup to come to a boil, I whisked the eggs in a bowl and added the lemon juice to the egg mixture.  I stirred it all together and set it aside until the soup boiled.

I had shredded chicken from earlier in the week when I had roasted a whole chicken for dinner.  I just threw that into the soup and turned the temperature down to medium.

Next, it was time to add in the egg.  Now, you don't want to add the egg to the hot soup.  If you do this, the egg will scramble and you'll have little chunks in your soup.  I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of scrambled egg soup.  To avoid this, I took a ladle of the soup and added it to the egg mixture and immediately started mixing it all together.  I added in one more ladle full of the soup into the egg and stirred a bit more, just to be safe.

Finally, I poured the egg/soup mixture into the big pot of soup and started stirring.  The egg really helps to thicken the soup without adding any of the gut irritating grains like flour or cornstarch.

Overall, this soup was pretty good!  I liked the spinach flavor, as well as the garlic and lemon blend.  I will say that I think it was a bit too lemony for me.  Next time, I might try to cut down the lemons to just one lemon (zest and juice).  If it isn't lemony enough, I can always add in more later.  This was a yummy and unique soup.  You could probably add in more veggies if you wanted to... carrots, celery, etc... it's worth a shot!