Paleo Brownies- updated!

I love chocolate, especially brownies. I thought going full paleo I wouldn’t be eating delicious desserts anymore. Wrong 🙂

I have concocted the perfect brownie recipe that is 100% paleo. No flours, grains, sugar or processes garbage. Not even almond flour or coconut flour. I don’t judge other primal eaters for eating nut flours but I don’t really use them for personal reasons.

So here’s all you need to make these:

1 cup of almond butter (or macadamia, cashew or sunflower) just make sure it’s 100%, with NO added sugar!
1/2 cup of pure maple syrup (again pure. No additives)
1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp of vanilla
2 eggs (one yolk 2 whites)
3-4 tablespoons of coconut milk or almond milk
2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
1 tsp of white vinegar
2 tsp of baking powder

Optional: almond slivers, dried fruit, nuts, fresh fruit

Turn your oven on at 325.
Grease a 9×9 pan with coconut oil and set aside. If you use a 9×12 pan, cook for 2-3 minutes less.

Measure out a cup of almond butter.

Creamy or crunchy is cool.

Add your maple syrup, cocoa, oil, vanilla, vinegar, baking powder and milk. Stir until it’s nice and incorporated.

When all done, add your mix into your pan.

You can add almonds on top if you like! Or dried fruit, any nut, be creative. You can add them into the mix too.

If you like, you can add a 1/2 of a ripe banana into your mix. This will create a fluffier texture! I chose not to, but it’s your call! Avocado or unsweetened apple sauce works as well.

I baked mine for 25 minutes. Check in at 22 minutes and test with a toothpick for done-ness.

Usually with regular brownies, you want some gooey-ness on your tooth pick. But these are uber creamy and soft, so make sure the tooth pick comes out totally clean.

I know it’s tough but wait about 15-20 minutes until they’re cooled and set. They won’t have the correct firmness when warm! So be patient!

Easy BLT Lunch

People ask me all the time what I eat. And I’ll admit, sometimes it can be tough to come up with new ideas. This idea came to me easily, because I used love turkey BLTs.

All that’s on this quick lunch is:
2-3 romaine leaves
Paleo mayo
2 slices of turkey deli meat on each
Slices of tomato
2-3 slices of uncured bacon

And if you like, add avocado or onion too.

Take my advice and get uncured bacon. It holds its shape much better, and has a delicious taste. I don’t like my bacon shrinking into tiny pieces 😦 I want a nice tender thick slice, and that’s how uncured bacon tastes.

Also! Don’t eat that crud mayo in a jar. It’s gross! Especially if you’re paleo- it’s totally off limits. Mayo from jars number one ingredient is soybean oil. Not on our food list. And who knows what all those other ingredients are?

Here’s what I do. I put two organic egg yolks, 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice, a pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of organic brown mustard in my kitchen aid on high with the whisk attachment. Slowly, REALLY annoyingly slowly, drizzle in a cup of your choice of oil. Olive oil is way strong for me, so I use avocado oil. It takes time because the oil has to be drizzled in super super slow in a tiny stream, but the pay off is heaven.

Heavenly taste, great texture, organic. You’ll never go back to the weird stuff in a jar. I promise!

Primal Breakfast for Dinner

This is a favorite of mine. And it’s another quick one.

This recipe is a pre-cooked ham steak with a fried egg nestled on perfectly seasoned sweet potato hash browns. Topped with ripe avocado, cocoa tomatoes and thinly sliced red onion. I added a quick herb sauce for some extra moisture and flavor.

This serves 4. If you are cooking for yourself and/or another, cut the recipe in half!

You’ll need:
4-5 tbsp of olive oil- separated
2 large sweet potatoes
2 pre-cooked ham steaks
4 fresh eggs
2 tbsp brown mustard
2 teaspoons of sea salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp oregano
1 avocado
1/4 of small red onion
2 small cocoa tomatoes (any kind is good)

Start off by peeling your sweet taters then shredding them with a large holed cheese grater.

You’ll end up with a huge pile. But it cooks down quite a bit.

Heat up a very large pan with 3 tablespoons of oil on a medium-low heat.

Add your 4 spices in a small bowl. And mix them together with your fingers. Rub the mixture together, crushing the spices between your fingers. You should be able to smell them. This released the oils in the herbs and adheres to the salt, that gives your food a stronger and even flavor through out!

Add your shredded sweet potatoes and your spice mix into the pan. Stir until everything is combined.

This will cook for about 30 minutes, and flip occasionally! You want golden brown pieces, not black. So keep an eye on it.

While they cook, chop up your avocado, onion and tomatoes. Keep them in bowls so everyone can add what they like and how much!

When your sweet potatoes have cooked, transfer to a pan or bowl. Wipe off your pan and add another tbsp of oil.

Another trick! When you take out your ham steaks, they’re quite wet. Soak up all the excess moisture with a paper towel on both sides. This helps the meat brown up and get a nice crust on it.

Coat one side of your steaks with brown mustard and cracked pepper. The mustard flavor is not detectable but it adds a great flavor.

Throw those into your pan on medium heat and cook on both sides until a brown crust forms.

When finished cooking, place a serving of sweet potato hash on your plate. Top it with your ham steak.

In the same pan, cook 4 eggs sunny side up. To get a nice, evenly cooked egg without brown edges, your pan should be on an extremely low heat. Just barely lit! The eggs will take a decent amount of time to cook, but the taste is better- as well as its color.

Put one of your eggs on top of the ham.

Then add your toppings!

This is so delish you guys. I love breaking my fork into the yolk and mixing it with the fresh veggies!

I added a fresh creamy sauce on my ham and hash- this is totally optional.

It’s 3 tbsp of primal mayo, 1/4 c up of coconut milk, a pinch of salt and pepper, 1/2 tsp of mustard and a tsp of fresh parsley and dried oregano. I blend it together and drizzle it on my meat. Excellent addition 🙂

Shredded Chicken Fajitas

These are the best darn fajitas I’ve ever had!

They’re savory, flavorful and fresh. So delish. And it was fast!

Here’s what you need:

1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 small onion
1 Roasted Whole small chicken (Rotisserie is great!)
1 Whole Romaine lettuce stalks or Head of Lettuce
3 tbsp avocado oil
Dash of sea salt (for veggies)
Optional: avocado, diced tomatoes, salsa
Homemade spice mix (to follow) This is ESSENTIAL! No store bought! Not paleo and not very good

Slice your peppers and onions longways but finely. Don’t make them thick! Nice thin slices here. Over medium low heat with 2-3 tbsp of avocado or olive oil. Add a dash of salt to help them sweat out.

Okay now while that sweats out, we mix our seasoning together. This is the most delicious spice mix for Mexican food EVER! And I did it all by trial and error.

1 tsp of sea salt
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of onion powder
1 tsp of oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin

Mix that together and dump half into your veggies.

Once your veggies are soft, add your shredded chicken, along with a few tablespoons of water and the rest of your spice mix. Cook for about 15 minutes.

Wait till your meat and veggie mix comes to a warm room temp. This prevents the romaine leaves from wilting and ripping.

Put about 3-4 tablespoons on each romaine leaf, top with an avocado slice and chopped tomatoes.

What makes these ridiculously yummy is our homemade spice mix and letting the shredded chicken cook down with the veggies and spices for so long. The flavors marry and the fresh leaves and toppings make it the perfect paleo meal!

Let me know if you try it!

Cauliflower Risotto

I used to love risotto. It’s full of cream, cheese and butter. It’s delicious, but not paleo. Not at all.

I love cauliflower. It’s so versatile, low in calories and takes on the flavor around it. And it’s a great companion to the primal lifestyle.

Today, I wanted risotto. I wanted it so bad. Chances are, you’ve seen “cauliflower rice” all over blogs, Pinterest and Instagram. A lot of recipes have you throw it into the microwave raw. Gross.

So here’s what I did to create my yummy creamy cauliflower risotto…

I buy a very large cauliflower head. Cut the head of cauliflower into bite size chunks.

Put 1/3 of those florets into a pan with a lid, along with 2/3 cup of Chicken Stock.

Chicken stock is darker and more flavorful than broth. Broth I’d great for soups, but stock is better for cooking!

Put that on a medium high heat with the lid on and let it steam.

With a food processor, put the rest of your florets in and pulse several times until you get a crumbly texture.

Add about 1/2cup of chicken stock to this. Some people use water, but I like my food to taste yummy 😉 Put the lid on this guy too on medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Ok onto our other delicious additions to the risotto.
We’re putting in lots of garlic, shallots, baby portobello mushrooms and uncured bacon. Bacon yay!

Finely chop up a big shallot. (You can use onion but I prefer the subtlety of shallots in this type of dish)

Slice up your mushrooms. One container should be just right.

Now here’s where I get weird. I have a lot of little tricks, this one you should really hear me out. Wash out that food processor we just used, and add 3 slices of bacon to it. Pulse it for a minute. It’s going to look strange, like a glob of meat. But that’s okay! Trust me on this.

See? Weird. Scoop it all out, just trust me. Okay?

Now your garlic. I used 5 cloves. Yes 5. Here’s another important fact. Garlic is great for you, the and oils that get released really make your food better. After I smash my cloves and remove the peel, I like to use a meat tenderizer and smash the hell out of them, like this:

Now after all of the smashing, I chop em up real good and smash my knife over the cloves, making a paste.

See all that moisture? That’s the oil. That’s goodness. That is flavor. Yummmm.

Get a nice large deep pan out and add about a tablespoon of oil.

Ah, the great oil debate. If you’re full paleo, you’ll want to stick to olive oil, avocado, macadamia and coconut oil. No canola or veggie oils, that stuff is garbage! I love me some avocado oil.

Add your shallots and mushrooms first. Cook them on medium for 5-10 minutes, until soft but not too brown. Remove from pan.

Add your glob of bacon and stir on medium high, see how it separates? Yes, tiny pieces of bacon that flavor your entire risotto vs. big chunks. See? Told ya.

Add everything back in, along with the garlic. Don’t let that garlic get brown!

Now take your cooked florets, and use a slotted spoon and add all of them back into your clean food processor. Don’t throw away your stock! Put the processor on, and slowly add all your stock. Let it blend a while.

Look! That’s cauliflower! Ok, now we add this to our veggies in the pan on low.

Mmmmm. Remember to salt this with lots of sea salt. Add your riced cauliflower.

Add some stock if it’s too thick.

Add your thyme, about a tablespoon. No stems!

Now let this bubble on low for a minute.

See that extra liquid on top? Let it boil off and reduce.

It will look like this when done 🙂 if you want extra creaminess, add some full fat coconut milk.

Yum!

If you’re not paleo, I would add some Parmesan cheese! It would be fantastic. If you’re vegan, add some nutritional yeast.

It’s not the same as creamy cheesy risotto, but it’s pretty delicious and primal!

P.s. I paired mine with chicken breasts.

Marinate in mustard, avocado oil, tsp. lemon juice, pressed garlic cloves and baked at 400 for 15 minutes.