Good Eats

Let's just cut to the chase, shall we?

This was the delicious chili I made for Halloween dinner. I adore crock pot recipes especially when I'm entertaining. It took a few minutes to throw together at midday, but then it was on its own. It turned out wonderfully. I served it on spaghetti squash, which really added to it. The only time I've missed beans is in chili because I grew up with beans in my chili. I've tried one other paleo chili recipe, but this one is definitely my favorite. It even warmed up excellently as leftovers, too! :-) I found this recipe over at Antihousewife.com but I'm not really sure how I even stumbled upon her blog. All I know is I've had that chili recipe in my "to try" pile and I'm glad I finally got around to it!

We followed the yummy chili with some trick-or-treating. It was freezing outside with a wind, so we didn't go for very long. We came back home and ate cake for my Dad's birthday. I made him his favorite apple cake, and I think it was the second time in the past 6 months that I used normal flour & sugar for a recipe! I took the opportunity to try a new recipe for apple cake, as well, though: Cinnamon Apple Cake topped with fresh whipped cream. It was great! But then, Elana's recipes are always great.

A side note on Halloween and all it's candy: I didn't get all weird with my kids and candy so I have let them eat their candy, a couple pieces each day only after a meal. Eventually I'll throw it away or hide it, but for now I'm letting them enjoy it. Why? Because they are kids and life should be fun and they like it. I don't really buy candy any other part of the year and so it's a special treat for them. Our paleo lifestyle is of the 80/20 variety and this would be right in that 20%.

Okay, back to the yummy food. I whipped up both the Pulled Pork, as well as the Barbecue Sauce, from the Make it Paleo cookbook. Which, did not disappoint! Both were wonderful, with everyone in the family liking it! Whoot, there goes another recipe for my rotation. :-)

I included a couple of the girls' lunches mainly because I think the flower-shaped pieces of meat and cheese are just too stinkn' cute. I used Stainless Steel Vegetable Cutters that I ordered from Amazon. They make their lunches look so cute!

The last time I was at Costco, I picked up some Chicken Andouille sausage (nitrite, gluten free), and so I did a quick search for recipes using it for some ideas. I found this one for "Kale Salad with Warm Andouille Sausage Dressing." It sounded wonderful, so I whipped it together for a side dish to go with dinner.

And then the next morning I ate the rest with a couple fried eggs as suggested in the recipe. SO good!! 

This new recipe came from "Paleo Comfort Foods", and used some of the andouille sausage too. Jambalaya with riced cauliflower! It was so good and had some kick but wasn't too spicy for the kids, although I did skip adding the Tabasco sauce. It was super tasty, even as leftovers. And fairly easy, too, I think I had it on the table in about 30 minutes after swim lessons.

Another great recipe from "Make it Paleo". This was Hot Pepper Hummus, using zucchini as a base instead of chickpeas. I made it for my first book club meeting (more on that later) and it was a hit. I served it with veggies and some gluten-free chips for a treat. I could've eaten the whole bowl!

This wasn't a planned recipe for me, but I had some time on Saturday, and some extra tomatoes, so I threw it together. "Egg Houses" from Everyday Paleo. I only made three, and Lindsay sort of ate one, she didn't like the flavor of cooked tomato, so she fished out the egg and I ate the other 2 because I really liked them. Her loss, my gain! :-)

I love egg nog season. One of my favorite indulgences before going paleo were egg nog latte's. I just love the flavor of strong coffee with egg nog. But have you ever looked at the ingredients on a carton of the stuff? Even the "organic" stuff isn't that great! So, I was inspired to find a recipe for egg nog that was "as paleo as possible". I did what any self-respecting cook does when they need recipe help, I googled it! And came across a variety of ideas, but decided to try this one, first. I did the coconut version and decided to use a little of real sugar instead of experimenting with honey. I didn't want to waste the coconut milk and creamer. It turned out excellent!!

I put just a splash in my coffee, sprinkled some nutmeg on top, and was in heaven! Just enough egg nog flavor in my coffee to make me happy but not too much.

I like that recipe, but I don't like using sugar, so while I sipped on my egg nog coffee, I kept searching for a recipe that used honey as sweetener. I figure why should I do all the experimenting if someone else already has?! I may have found it here, and I'll for sure let you know when I try it. 

Here's what's up for this week of eating and cooking:

Sunday: (Tonight) Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich. I bought some buns for the kids and Erik, but I'll stick to eating it plain. And we'll have salad.
Monday: Salmon Cakes
Tuesday: Whole Chicken in the Crockpot; Mashed Potatoes and Gravy with Lemon Bars from Elana's Almond Flour cookbook. (All Lindsay's requests)

Wednesday: Leftovers and will make broth out of the chicken carcass

Thursday: Albondigas Soup (Everyday Paleo)

Friday: Slow Cooker Ribs, Roasted Squash (both from NomNomPaleo)

Saturday: Leftovers or dinner out with the girls

Sunday: Taco Night

Others:

Coconut Nested Eggs (Make it Paleo)

Eggs with Lox & Capers (Make it Pale0)

Homemade Sausage (from Joyfulabode.com)

Dried Apples