Bacon Wrapped Dates

BACON WRAPPED DATES:

You're welcome in advance because your lives are about to change. For the greasier.

You'll need:

Pitted dates. Costco has a giant tub of yummy ones.
Bacon.


You'll need to:

Wrap each date with a half piece (or third of a slice, depending on how much bacon you like) of bacon

Place on a baking sheet with edges to catch the bacon fat that comes out

Place wrapped dates on sheet, bacon end side down to keep them together

Bake at 400 for as long as it takes for them to crispify. (about 25 mins)


Now eat them before lions even know you made them. This was my mistake.

Scrumptious Veggies, easier than pie

Since we eat a LOT of vegetables (I try to serve at least two different ones with each dinner, and often more), I need a fool-proof, fail-proof way to quickly cook them. Sometimes I do a stir-fry, once in a while I will quick-boil broccoli or green beans, but this is how I cook fresh vegetables almost every night.

Roasting the vegetables creates a whole new flavor -- rich and caramelized and delicious. Since trying asparagus and cauliflower this way, I've never cooked them any other way. 

Roasted Vegetables
  
fresh vegetables, choose from:

• asparagus
• carrots
• sweet potatoes
• red, purple or white potatoes
• red, white or yellow onion
• summer squash, including zucchini
• brussels sprouts
• beets
• kohlrabi (yes!)
• cauliflower
• broccoli
• green beans
• red, green, yellow, orange or other sweet peppers
• probably lots of others I can't think of now

Extra-virgin olive oil
Favorite seasoning (my go-to is Montreal Steak Seasoning, easy and delicious) (Salt and pepper will work fine, so will chili powder, paprika, garlic salt, TJ 21-Seasoning Salute, Mrs. Dash, etc)

Choose your vegetable(s), and cut them into a consistent size. Somewhere around an inch is good, but some experimentation is necessary. I cut brussels sprouts in half, most others into about one-inch chunks. Cauliflower is fabulous but tricky - aim for the florets to be a consistent size. I like to cut carrots, beets, and kohlrabi into french-fry-style sticks. You can do the same for potatoes, and you will (voila!) get roasted "french fries." 

Dump your vegetables into a rimmed baking pan - I have a 9x13" pan that came with my counter-top oven that is just right for us. The pan should allow the veggie pieces to be in one layer for even cooking. Surface area is important. Drizzle some olive oil over them and then shake your desired seasoning on. 

Now the most important part: USING YOUR HANDS, rub the olive oil and seasonings lightly into the vegetable pieces, so they are fairly evenly coated. Spread them around on the pan into one layer. This takes about 10 seconds; do it next to your sink so you can then wash your oily, seasoned hands.

Pop into a 425-degree oven and leave them alone. Depending on the vegetable, check with a fork in about 10-15 minutes -- poke the fork in and sneak one out for tasting. They should be tender but not overcooked. Asparagus and summer squash cooks quickly; carrots take 20-30 minutes. Others are somewhere in between. Meanwhile, you can quickly cook your protein on the grill or in a skillet, and poof! dinner is ready.

Note: combinations of veggies are especially good. I started with sweet potatoes and red onions (our Thanksgiving tradition). Carrots and potatoes obviously are a good choice. 

Last night I did summer squash and sweet peppers. The photo at the top is carrots, kohlrabi and a lonely beet (all three of which were getting a bit limp and needed to be eaten).

Make extra (duh!) and enjoy them for lunch the next day. Or as Hil says, put a fried egg on top and call it breakfast!

Squash, Spinach, Sausage

I don't have a name for this meal, since it was something Em and I threw together with things from our fridges. But it was still good, and can be easily altered and added to depending on what veggies you have. This made enough for 2 relatively hungry girls.

Maybe a bit blurry, but it still looks good

3 summer squash (or zucchini)
1 lb ground sausage (any kind of meat, this was probably chicken)
a couple handfuls of spinach
Garlic
Oil
Salt + pepper
Parmesan (unless you're strict Paleo)


In a skillet, cook the ground sausage. While it's cooking, make "noodles" out of your squash. I used a potato peeler and just peeled the squashes down to the seedy parts. When the sausage is done, put it on a paper towel-covered plate. Then toss the squash noodles into the empty-but-hot pan with some oil and garlic. Let these cook, stirring frequently until they're soft-ish, probably around 8 minutes (depending on how crunchy you like your "noodles"). A few minutes before the squash is done, throw in a few handfuls of spinach, and let those wilt while the squash finishes cooking. Then toss in your sausage to let it all heat together. Salt, pepper, and parmesan, then serve.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops, etc.

After making this family favorite "recipe" a bunch of times, I decided to actually write down what I usually do. The inspiration and basic ingredients came from a Rachael Ray recipe I found a few years ago, which is now spread across the internet and does not always credit her appropriately. Oh well. The original is from "Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats, A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners" and can be viewed here. The original also gave options to use the glaze and technique with chicken and swordfish, as well as instructions for a rice pilaf with arugula (and you know I don't make that part).

 

Basamic-Glazed Pork Chops

4 1" thick pork loin chops
2 tbsp EVOO
salt and freshly-ground pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped (thyme or sage works too)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp honey
1/2 - 1 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp butter

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season pork with salt and pepper and add to the skillet. Cook about five minutes on each side, and remove to a platter and cover to keep warm. Return pan to heat and add a bit more oil if necessary, and the onion, herbs and garlic and saute about four minutes. Add the vinegar, honey and chicken stock. (I use about 1/2 cup stock; the original called for a cup.) When the sauce has reduced and thickened a bit, turn the heat off and add the butter and stir. Return the chops to the pan and coat in the glaze, warming them up a bit before serving.

This is a great basic recipe and is also delicious with chicken.

For our Labor Day "Pork Day" I served it with fresh green beans, and some root veggies that I cut into french-fry size, coated with olive oil, salt and paprika, and roasted at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes. (We had some carrots, 2 kohlrabi and one lonely beet that needed to be eaten.) Yum.

Pulled Pork, Slaw, Sweet Potato Fries

This is one of my new favorite dinners.

Pulled Pork
4-5 lb pork butt roast (mine was 3 lbs)
2 onions, sliced

Dry Rub:
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander (I skipped this one..I don't know what coriander is.)
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp onion powder (I used garlic powder)
1 tbsp dried parsley (I skipped this too..I don't have dried parsley)
1/4 tsp chipotle powder (again, not in my spice cabinet yet.)
2 tsp salt

Mix all dry ingrdients together then rub the mixture on the roast. Place a layer of onions in the crock pot, then the roast on top. Put the rest of the onions on top of the roast. Cook on high for 5-6 hours, then low for 3-4 more hours. My roast was small so I did 5 on high, 3 on low. The meat should be easy to shred from here. Mom says to put it in the fridge overnight to cool and then de-fat. Since I am impatient, and Mom said she does this too, I just took some out and made it into dinner right there. The rest is sitting in the fridge waiting for fat-removal (I'm looking forward to this process, obviously). Once I shredded my pork, I mixed in BBQ sauce (Trader Joes).

For the coleslaw dressing, I followed (for the most part) a recipe but now I can't find it. I think it was something like this:

1/4 cup canned coconut milk
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
4 cups cabbage/slaw/stuff (I used broccoli slaw)

Since I only had about 2 cups of broccoli slaw, I cut the dressing recipe in half. It also called for celery seed, but I didn't have any, so I finely chopped some celery and threw it in there (not an exact substitution, but whatever). Mix the coconut milk and vinegar, then slowly stream in the olive oil while whisking together. Pour over the slaw. I added some salt, pepper, and paprika on top.

This isn't my favorite coleslaw dressing, but it was still good.


Sweet Potato Fries

2 medium sweet potatoes
1 tsp of each: paprika, chili powder, garlic powder (I'm guessing here, I didn't measure them)

Wash, peel, slice the potatoes. In a mixing bowl, toss them with enough coconut oil to coat them evenly. Mix the spices together (add others if you want to) and toss with the potatoes. Add more if you want them spicier.

Toss them onto a cookie sheet in a single layer and bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes, watching them toward the end (unless you like them charred). I took them out early and threw on some parmesan and baked for 5 more minutes at 450. Bake longer for crispier fries.

Serve with BBQ sauce.

Sweet Potato Fries

I wanted to do fries, but I forgot to buy any kind of dipping sauce, so I just made them kind of seasoned/spicy and they turned out great. However, I didn't write down my recipe, so I don't know how much of anything I used. But its not an exact science, right?

3 lb bag of sweet potatoes (8-10 medium potatoes?)
Coconut oil
Garlic powder
Paprika
Chili powder
Salt + pepper


Preheat oven to 425. Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut them into fries-sized pieces and toss in big mixing bowl with enough oil to coat them. From here, I just started adding spices, enough of each kind to cover all the fries, plus some salt and pepper. Lay them in a single layer on cookie sheets and bake until they start to crisp. The time to cook them will depend on how thick the pieces are, so keep an eye on them after around 15 minutes.

I baked mine until they were soft, then took them out and tossed some more oil and parmesan cheese on and baked them for around 8 more minutes (this might have been under the broiler).

Next time I make these, I'll pay more attention to how I do it, and I'll actually write it down  :)

Sweet Potato Pancakes

I've found that I like having pancakes in the fridge to eat as a snack. Almond butter and apple sauce has been my favorite topping combination. And of course, I'll eat anything with sweet potatoes. These turned out more like crepes, since the batter is pretty runny. 

Here is the recipe from http://www.health-bent.com/treats/paleo-sweet-potato-pancakes

• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ c sweet potato (about 1 large)
• ½ c almond butter
• ½ c carton unsweetened coconut milk (we used So Delicious brand)
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 2 t cinnamon
• ½ t nutmeg
• ½  t salt
• coconut oil

Peel, chop into small pieces,and boil your sweet potato until it’s fork tender.

Once the sweet potato is cooked and cooled, add all ingredients to blender and blend thoroughly.

Your batter should be pretty liquid-y thin. If it wouldn’t run off a spoon, it’s too thick…add a little more coconut milk until you get the right consistency.

Heat your griddle/cast iron/non-stick skillet over medium heat. Melt a generous bit of coconut oil and pour in the batter, in whatever shape or size you’d like. When the pancake begins to have surface bubbles near the center flip and cook other side (each side 2-3 minutes). Add more coconut oil to cook surface as needed between batches.

Getting your heat right is the key to cooking these babies. If it’s too hot you’ll burn your pancakes before they’re cooked through. Try a small dollop of batter as a “tester” to see if the temp is just right before committing the entire batch. If your oil is smoking at any point it’s probably too hot. So adjust your heat accordingly during cooking. It can be a little tricky, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Let your pancakes rest in the oven on “warm” on a paper towel lined plate until all batches are complete.