EatPood

Fall Flavor

Look at this handsome man!

On Sunday, we raked leaves together and baked pumpkin muffins. I don’t know where all his friends were hiding, but I’m sure glad I got to have him all to myself for a few hours.

These muffins have made two appearances at Chez Kinney (in the course of two days)! The first time I made them as mini muffins. I only baked them for 15 minutes, but I found them to be a little dry. On Sunday, Jack and I made a double batch. We used ½ C currants and 1/2 C craisins in place of the raisins. I like them better as full on muffins. 

We ended up with 2 dozen muffins that we have been sharing with friends.  But, that took 5 cups of almond flour, people, and this stuff doesn't grow on trees.  Well, okay, so maybe it does, if you live in California, which I don't, but I'm not bitter.  Sooooo, this recipe has inspired me to import another economy-sized bag of almond flour from Nuts Online. 

Regardless of current almond flour prices, you need to give these little buggers a try. Yum!

Almond Flour Pumpkin Muffins

2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup honey
4 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners (12 muffins).

In a large mixing bowl, use an electric beater to thoroughly combine all ingredients EXCEPT almond flour, walnuts, and raisins.

Stir in almond flour until well combined.

Stir in walnuts and raisins (or currants and craisins or dark chocolate chips...).

Spoon batter into muffin cups, using wet fingers to press down any bumps on the tops before baking. Makes 12 muffins.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe from Spark Recipes.

Remember me?

Preface: I don’t function well without routine. I’m flying by the seat of my pants around here. We are in and out so much that I’ve been cooking favorite old standbys and also just making things up as I go. All that said, I aim to give you three new recipes this week to make up for my lack of posting since summer began. This is the first one.

Summer is a time for getting together with friends, light meals and food that doesn’t heat up the house. This yummy dip fits the bill. I’ve been taking it to cookouts and parties lately. It’s the best substitute for hummus I’ve found if you’re trying to stay Paleo (and if you haven’t been sneaking milkduds and other sugary treats like me). We eat this with raw veggies.

 
Walnut Red Pepper Dip

2 C shelled walnuts, soaked in water for 1 hour

1 jar roasted red peppers, drained

½ t cumin

1 clove garlic, minced

2t lemon juice

½ t salt

2T olive oil

Pulse walnuts and red peppers in bowl of food processor until smooth.

 
Add other ingredients and process until well-combined.

Enjoy! 

 
Recipe from Everyday Paleo.

(Don't) Let Them Eat Cake

I had a Whole30 birthday this year, which distressed my sweet children. They thought I should get an exemption on that day so we could all eat some cake together. No way! I’m coming down to the end of this thing. I’ve made it this far, and I’m not giving up now. Talk to me on April 9…

This is what I ate on my birthday (observed):

1 hard-boil egg, 6 blackberries (pre workout)

12 oz coconut water (post workout)

2 fried eggs, about 5 slices bacon, ¼ avocado (when I finally got home from the gym)

Salad with smoked salmon, lemon/walnut vinaigrette, some boiled butternut squash

A grapefruit and 3 dried dates

Raw walnuts, raw pecans, raisins (smuggled into the movie theater)

A salad without cheese and about 4 oz bass, a few mushrooms and 2.5 Brussels sprouts - literally two and a half sprouts, not cups of sprouts.  That was the number of mini cabbages on my dang plate.  I felt unsatisfied by this meal out because at home, I eat about 250 Brussels sprouts in one sitting.  Later at Casa de los Copious Amounts of Brussels Sprouts, I ate around 3/4C blackberries with a bunch of unsweetened coconut flakes and few slivered almonds.  Happy Birthday to me!

Blah, blah, blah! I know what you really want.  Here’s the recipe. I made these energy bars last week from the wonderful website Elana’s Pantry. They were for Jack to eat after his track workouts. I didn’t eat any, but four people have confirmed that they are indeed delish.

Espresso Power Bars
1 ½ cups pecans, lightly toasted
¼ cup cacao powder
2 teaspoons organic decaf espresso, finely ground
10 large medjool dates, pitted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
10 drops stevia
1 tablespoon agave nectar

Blend pecans, cacao and espresso in food processor until finely ground.  I didn't have quite enough pecans so I mixed in a few walnuts.

 
Add pitted dates and process until blended into dry ingredients.  I won't show you the whole dates in the food processor.  They are't the prettiest dried fruit, and in fact, they resemble something, shall we say, "yucky." 

 
Pretend that you can discern some sort of difference between the last two photos!

Process in vanilla, stevia and agave until well combined.

Press mixture into an 8x8 inch pyrex dish, add a little water if your batter is crumbly when handling.  My batter was not overly crumbly, but I used 12 dates instead of 10 - my dates seemed medium as opposed to large.

 
Freeze for 2 hours, then cut into squares

 
Note that the finished product was a little bit hard to cut and extricate from the pan.  No one seemed to mind that all the squares weren't quite square.

Store in a sealed container in the fridge. 

Custom made CrossFit birthday card by Jack.  

EatPood General's Warning

Just because a yummy tidbit qualifies as “Paleo” or “Primal” doesn’t mean you get to eat it every day or in unlimited quantities, e.g., the following recipe for Coconut Granola. All of the ingredients here are - how you say? - lee-gal. The recipe makes 1 ½ cups, and you’ll likely want to eat all. Don’t do it! I’ve been there. You’ve got to trust me on this one. This is a treat. Have it once a week, and enjoy the heck out of your fair share.

Coconut Granola
1T coconut oil, melted

1T real vanilla extract

2T honey

1C unsweetened shredded coconut

¼ C roughly chopped raw walnuts

¼ C roughly chopped raw pecans

1T flax meal

Dash each of cinnamon and nutmeg

 
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper and spray the paper with some nice coconut oil cooking spray. Set that aside.

 
Whisk the liquid ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Then, stir in the dry ingredients one at a time, in the order listed, making sure to coat them thoroughly with the liquid mixture.

Spread the granola onto the parchment paper.

 
Bake in the preheated oven for seven minutes. After seven minutes, remove the baking sheet, and stir the granola. Bake for seven more minutes, but I advise you check it after five minutes to be sure the granola isn’t burning.

When the granola is beautiful and golden, remove the baking sheet from the oven, and cool completely.

 
Break the granola into pieces, and store in an airtight container. Or, do like I do, and eat it all really fast before anyone in your family realizes it’s there.

Next time, make a double batch.

 
I tried making this using the original recipe from The Primal Blueprint Reader Created Coconut Recipe Cookbook. In that recipe, you use ¼ t stevia extract and 1t honey (instead of 2T honey) as well as raw almonds (instead of walnuts). I’ve no beef against the almonds, but walnuts are easier to chop.  As for the stevia, it has a certain taste about it that is definitively un-honeyish.  The granola just isn't as delicious with the stevia. If you’re going to treat yourself, I hope you'll live it up with the honey or at least agave nectar!

Stay tuned to EatPood.  We've got exciting stuff coming up soon.  Exciting as in prizes, bounty, booty, free stuff for some lucky someone out there!! 

Keeping it Real

Sometimes I’m in a hurry. On Tuesday I had 30 minutes to make dinner. Luckily, that morning I put two pounds of grass fed ground beef in the fridge to defrost. Hooray for Taco Tuesday!!!

In 30 minutes I honestly made taco meat, homemade salsa and guacamole. My boy grated some extra sharp white cheddar for the Moo Paleo Peeps in the family. He also set the table and took all the cans to the recycling bin. The kitchen was a mess, but we had a yummy dinner and got where we needed to be on time!

Taco Filling

2# grass fed ground beef (85/15 or leaner)
½ of a large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans diced green chiles
3 T chile powder
1 can El Pato, Mexican Hot Style Tomato Sauce (Kroger)
Romaine lettuce leaves

Brown the meat in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is softened. Add the chiles and the chile powder. Finally, stir in the tomato sauce and cook until heated through.

 
Serve the taco filling in the lettuce leaves with salsa and guacamole.

 
Salsa

2, 15 oz cans diced tomatoes
1, 10 oz can Rotel original
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
½ C cilantro, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, roughly chopped
¼ of a large onion, chopped
¼ t cumin
¼ t Kosher or Sea Salt
Juice of ½ lime
½ t agave nectar

In a food processor, pulse the garlic and jalapeno until finely chopped. Add the tomatoes from the cans with their juices along with all remaining ingredients and pulse until salsa reaches desired consistency.

 
Guacamole

2 avocados
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ of a large onion chopped
2T cilantro chopped
Juice of ½ lime
8 dashes of Tabasco
Pinch of Kosher or Sea salt

¼ t freshly ground black pepper

Cut avocados in half. Remove the pit from each. Score the flesh of each avocado with a knife making a grid-like pattern. Scoop out the flesh and place it in a bowl. Mash the avocado with a fork. Mix in the lime juice and then the remaining ingredients.

 

Salsa recipe adapted from www.thepioneerwoman.com

Suffer the Little Children

How do your kids like living the Paleo dream? On this end, my girl has been asking for ketchup. I made some Primal Ketchup today and served it up with a version of fries. She didn’t really like my ketchup, and she asked me to buy some from the store. The boy and the hub liked it though so that gave my culinary ego a little boost.

Primal Ketchup

1, 6 oz can tomato paste
2/3C cider vinegar (I recommend starting at 1/3C and adding a bit at a time)
1/3C water
3T honey
3T onion, minced (real onion, not dried minced onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1t sea salt
1/8 t ground all spice
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t black pepper

Mix all this together in a blender or food processor. If you’re following my advice about the cider vinegar, blend and taste until you get the flavors how you like them.

 
Oven Fries

Squash and/or Carrots
Honey
Coconut oil
Sea salt
Pepper

I had a delicata squash and part of an uncooked, peeled butternut squash left over from a few days ago. I added two carrots to this mix.

Cut your squash and/or carrots into thin pieces about two-inches long. Put them on a baking sheet and make sure the pieces don’t touch. In other words, don’t overfill the baking sheet.

 
Melt about 2T of coconut oil and pour over the squash on the pan. Drizzle with about 2T of honey. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  See how the veggies glisten with coconut oil and honey-ed goodness!!! 

 
 
Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes. Midway through the baking process, open the oven and toss the squash/carrots around a bit.

 
Serve with Primal Ketchup.

 
Primal Ketchup from The Primal Blueprint Cook Book.  Oven Fries inspired by carrot fries from Elana's Pantry.

Nibbles

I’m always trolling the internet for good things that we can eat.  I found this little ditty a while ago.  I thought it looked like a whole mess of things I like to eat all jumbled up together.  I made it a few weeks back and darned if I weren't right!  Try it at home, man.

apricots with blue cheese, pistachios and honey

 

• 16 whole Dried Apricots
• ¼ cups Blue Cheese, Crumbled
• 2 ounces, weight Pistachios, Shelled And Chopped
• 1 teaspoon Honey, Plus Extra To Drizzle

Mix together the blue cheese, pistachios and honey until it forms a paste-like mixture that can be molded.

Using a teaspoon, form into little mounds and place one atop each apricot.

Arrange on a serving plate and drizzle with honey.

 

What inspires you in life? What makes you want to reach for the stars and do something truly extraordinary?

Who said anything about brownies?

Anything with almond flour is a bit dry!!!  There you go.  I put that out there, up front, because I'm honest like that.  I'm not trying to trick you into thinking that these bars taste like pre-packaged protein or energy bars.  But, if you can get past the dryness factor, you'll like these little numbers.  They're tasty - especially the chocolate version, if chocolate is your thing.  Also, it doesn't hurt that everything on the list of ingredients is something you can pronounce and identify as real food.  I'm just saying...

 

Primal Energy Bars
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup coconut oil (it’s solid like Crisco and you can get it at Kroger or Healthy Life Market)
1/4 cup almond meal (make your own by pulsing approximately 1/4 cup of almonds in food processor until it creates a coarse flour)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of raw honey
1/2 cup unsweetened whey protein powder
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries or blueberries
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut to sprinkle on top

1. On a cookie sheet, toast nuts and shredded coconut until golden brown (300 degrees oven). Shake up the tray at least once during cooking or you will burn the coconut and you will be sorry and I'll just say I told you so. 

2. Once toasted, pour mixture into a food processor and pulse until nuts are chopped and the mixture becomes coarsely ground.  Turn the oven up to 325 to preheat it for the bars.

3. In a mixing bowl, melt coconut oil and almond butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir until smooth.

4. To the bowl with coconut oil and almond butter, add vanilla extract, honey and sea salt. Mix thoroughly.

5. Fold in nut mixture, almond meal and protein powder until mixed thoroughly.

6. Add whole egg and mix thoroughly.

7. Fold in blueberriesor cranberries or both. Live it up!

8. Press mixture into an 8 x 8 pan. The kind you used to use when you made brownies long, long ago, I'm sure. Not that I miss brownies. Really…Almonds are very satisfying. Sigh…

9. Bake in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.

10. Remove from oven, sprinkle a ¼ cup of shredded coconut on top and place under broiler until top begins to brown.

11. Let cool for 10-15 minutes. Cut into 12 pieces/bars.

12. Enjoy immediately or stack on wax paper/parchment and store in an airtight container.

Note: You can also add dark chocolate chips instead of the dried berries. If you add the chips while the mixing bowl is warm (from the coconut oil/almond butter mixture), they will melt into the mixture. I liked the chocolate version better, and I’m sure that is completely unrelated to the aformentioned subject of brownies.

Happy Hour

UPDATE...

I am pleased to report that Jalapeno Friday was a complete success.  My peeps devoured all the jalapeno doo-hickeys!!!

Photos from my kitchen:

 

I have never posted a recipe before trying it out on my family. However, this looked good so I’m taking a risk. But, come on, people - the jalapenos are wrapped in bacon. What could  possibly go wrong? I’ve got two plants loaded with jalapenos, and I plan to make these Friday night because we know how to party around here - woo hoo!!!

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapenos with Cream Cheese

20 whole, fresh jalapenos, 2-3 inches in size
2 cubes cream cheese, softened
1 lb thin, regular bacon, sliced into thirds

 

Cut jalapenos in half, lengthwise. With a spoon, remove the seeds and ribs. (I use a grapefruit spoon because it has a nice, serrated edge.) Smear softened cream cheese into each jalapeno half. Next, wrap each half with 1/3 slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Bake on a pan with a rack in a 375-degree oven for 20-25 minutes. If after 20 minutes, the bacon doesn’t look brown enough; turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes to finish it off. Don’t let bacon shrink so much that it squeezes the jalapeno.  That would not be cool!

Serve immediately or at room temperature.

The recipe says you can freeze them uncooked for later use.

After Jalapeno Friday, I’ll update this post to let you know if these thingies are as good as I’m hoping, wishing and dreaming they are.

Recipe from tastykitchen.com

Tahini in the Cupboard

Hello there. It is I, the chick who makes her own mayonnaise. Today, we discuss hummus. I do not like store bought hummus. I will not eat it in a house. I will not eat it with a mouse. I will not eat it in the rain. I will not eat on a plane … you get the picture. In contrast, I do like/love Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame, and she has THE BEST HUMMUS RECIPE EVER!

Hummus ingredients are pantry staples, no? Recently, I made my fave hummus with frozen shelled edamame. It was fab. Translation: the boy and the girl liked it as well as 5 dinner guests and my beloved.

Edamame Hummus
4 cloves garlic, minced
1, 12oz. package frozen shelled edamame
2T water
6T fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 1.5 to 2 lemons)
1/3C tahini paste
8 dashes Tabasco
1t kosher salt

Lazy girls like me put their garlic cloves in the food processor first and mince them with a few pulses. (Try it. You’ll like it.) Next add all remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Transfer your hummus to a serving bowl and serve with assorted raw veggies. I like to drizzle the hummus with a little olive oil and sprinkle it with some paprika to make it look pretty. This hummus will be greenish so a sprinkle of dried oregano might work better than the paprika.

Makes 2 cups.