Peach Salsa

Leave a comment

I speak quite a bit about whether buying certain foods organic actually matters.  I honestly have a different opinion than most people may think.  I think local over organic is MORE important.  Local AND organic is even better, which is why I love being a part of Rise Up Farms.  I know all my produce all summer long is coming from a farm down the street and is all organic!  Not many people can say that for $14/week!  If you aren’t a part of a CSA or have your own garden, try farmer’s markets or following the “Clean 15/Dirty Dozen” list.  This will at least help you avoid the crops that are the most heavily sprayed with pesticides.  The other perk of “organic” is that it is not GMO.  Beware of zucchini, because that is one piece of produce that can be GMO if you don’t buy organic.  Having said that, peaches are on the dirty dozen, and obviously don’t grow in Indiana.  Martin’s has had organic peaches the past couple weeks, and that always get me super excited!  I’ve made blueberry peach crisp, peach and thyme bourbon smash, and now peach salsa!

This salsa is great as a standalone salsa, but can also dress up some ahi tuna, burgers, or pork chops to bring your protein to the next level.  For this recipe, I made my burgers by combining ground beef and ground beef heart, and the salsa made them seriously delicious!  This is also the perfect recipe to use up some of those tomatoes coming out of the garden!

Peach Salsa

Ingredients:

  • 2 peaches, peeled and diced
  • 3 Roma tomatoes, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 small shallot, diced
  • 1/2 of a jalapeno, finely diced
  • 1/2 of a lime’s juice
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
  • salt to taste

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients and enjoy!  You could also use the food processor if you want a smoother version.

Zucchini Muffins

Leave a comment

Zucchini is something that gets so overwhelming in the summer that people can’t find enough uses for it! I do not find that it freezes very nicely, so you have to get creative on how to make this bounty last. Everyone needs a good zucchini muffin recipe, and these little guys can freeze easily for later months. I use more spice than most other recipes because I want my muffins to have that cinnamon flavor I crave from zucchini bread. This is an all coconut flour recipe, too which means it uses quite a few eggs. Use this to your advantage and eat a couple for breakfast!

Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:

  •  3/4 cup coconut flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup grassfed butter, melted (or coconut oil)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Melt the butter and add all the ingredients together except for the zucchini. Once combined, fold in the zucchini and portion among 12 lined muffin tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes and let cool completely in the pan after removing from the oven (they will keep cooking slightly). Store in the fridge!

 

Tomato, Avocado, Cucumber Salad

Leave a comment

Right now my cherry tomato plants are going a little too crazy! I planted three different kinds in addition to a roma tomato plant, so I could have homemade tomato sauce frozen throughout the winter. I had no idea my plants would get so big! I am getting a shirt-full of cherry tomatoes every single day. I haven’t made any sauce yet, but this salad was a great opportunity to use some up along with cucumber that I know everyone has growing like crazy, too. I used basil as the herb because I have tons of that in my garden and from the CSA, but you could easily use cilantro, parsley, dill, etc. This salad is fresh, slightly creamy from the avocado, and perfect for a summer side dish! It stays nicely in the fridge for a couple days but will have some browning of the avocado and basil, so if you are making it for an occasion, make this dish the day of.

Tomato, Avocado, Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1 cucumber, cut into bite size chunks
  •  2 avocados, diced
  •  2 cups of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  •  1 sweet onion (I used one like a giant green onion but you could use a quarter red onion)
  •  juice from one lemon
  •  Olive oil drizzled over the top
  •  salt and pepper to taste
  •  Basil cut into thin strips and garnished on top

Directions:

Add all the chopped veggies into a serving bowl, add the lemon and olive oil and toss to coat. Just before serving, add salt, pepper, and basil.

Blueberry Cobbler

Leave a comment

Remember how I told you that the Organic Blueberry Ranch was finally open?  Well, the other weekend, I was craving blueberries and really wanted to go pick some.  The only issue was that the variety being picked was not my favorite.   My absolute favorite is “bluecrop.” However, I decided to go anyway and figured I’ll have plenty of opportunity to get some bluecrop later.  When I showed up, guess what they decided to pick that day?!  Bluecrop!  I was in heaven.  I picked 4 lbs of blueberries, and less than a week later, they are almost gone.  I have made this cobbler twice now…in 1 week.  I have to say that it is the easiest dessert you could ever make and it is heavenly right out of the fridge.  I’m hard to please, and crisps/cobblers/and pies are not my thing.  So, for me to love this, it’s gotta be good!  Don’t blame me if the awesome blueberries are what make it so freakin’ delicious!

*Lurong Challenge: use honey instead, add 1/8 cup to the berries and 1/8 cup to the topping.  Sub coconut oil for the butter.  1/4 of the entire thing would be your sugar quota for the day)

Paleo Blueberry Cobbler

  • 3 cups blueberries
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
  • 1 and 1/2 cups almond flour
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 Tbsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a cast iron skillet, fill the bottom of the pan with blueberries.  Depending on the skillet, you may have to use 4 cups.  Just make sure you fill the bottom.  Pour in the maple syrup, lemon zest, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt.  Fold in the arrowroot powder until you can’t see white anymore.  (This thickens the sauce that the berries make as it cools….so good).  In a bowl, use a fork to crumble together the almond flour, cinnamon, and butter.  Sprinkle over the top of the berries, drizzle the top with maple syrup and put in the oven for 30 mins.  Turn the oven to low broil and cook another 3 minutes or until the top of the almond flour starts to brown.    Watch it carefully!  No one wants burnt cobbler!  Get it out, let it cool.

I’m super impatient…so I could not wait to try it.  I ate it warm.  It was good.  I wouldn’t make it again.  I ate it again before bed while putting it away…holy moly!  It was amazing!  Hence making it twice in one week!   Wait until it cools down.  The flavors shine and combine much better at room temp! Follow my lead and eat it straight outta the fridge.

Summer Squash Casserole

Leave a comment

Let’s face it, I love picking vegetables from the garden! However, when I turn around and see that I am 5 zucchini deep because I haven’t used any in a couple days, it’s nice to have an awesome casserole that can use LOTS of squash, taste amazing, and be a little different from the typical grilled version. This is a recipe that I created a couple years back but didn’t realize it wasn’t on the new blog until I went looking for my own recipe yesterday! I made sure to get it on the new site just in time for all your squash needs. ;)

Read More

Balsamic Marinated Chicken with Strawberry Salsa

Leave a comment

I have been really slacking on getting recipes posted! I’ve been so crazy busy, that they are piling up in a folder, and I need to purge a little. Several months ago, I posted about a cooking date with my friends that we do periodically. One of the dishes we made was balsamic marinaded chicken with strawberry salsa. It was super yummy and one of my other friends texted me the other day with chicken and strawberry, avocado salsa, which is what spurred me to post! The fruit pairs really well with protein and feel free to change it up for traditional tomato salsa instead. Tomatoes will be in season shortly and my guess is that you will need to find a use for them! Balsamic Marinaded Chicken w/Strawberry Salsa (credit to EMeals!)

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb chicken (boneless, skinless)
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp gluten free soy sauce
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
  • 2 tbsp fresh lime juice

Directions:

Whisk together the vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic and place in a large plastic bag. Add the chicken and allow to marinade for 3 hours to overnight. When ready to cook, discard marinade, sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and grill. While the chicken is grilling, Mix together the strawberries, hot pepper, and lime juice. Serve the cooked chicken with salsa to top!

Sweet and Savory Popovers

2 Comments

I saw these little guys on PaleOMG’s blog the other day, and thought to myself: “There’s not much to those. I bet you could make tons of flavors!” So, I decided that night that I was going to make one batch of six and in case it was an epic fail, I would make 3 savory and 3 sweet. I have thyme in my garden right now and tons of garlic scapes from the CSA so one flavor was garlic thyme. Cinnamon was an easy choice because who doesn’t love cinnamon? These are like pillowy dinner rolls with an indented center that would be amazing filled with custards, curds, compound butters, or whatever your little heart desires. When I made these, the process seemed to be very forgiving because my eggs were sort of a disaster. Farm fresh eggs means sometimes you get double yolks. I had 2 double yolks and decided that I was worried it may alter the texture. So, at least you know that a mishap like that will still allow for a good outcome!

Sweet and Savory Popovers

(basic popover from My Paleo Patisserie)

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsp arrowroot
  • 2 Tbsp coconut flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 large eggs, room temp
  • 1/4 cup canned coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 Tbsp ghee
  • Thyme/Garlic: a few sprigs of thyme and a minced garlic clove
  • Cinnamon: 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp coconut sugar (If you decide to do all one flavor, then double the flavor addition)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450F. In a small bowl combine the flours and salt. In another medium bowl, whisk the eggs up lightly and add the coconut milk, water, and flour mixture and combine until school. Put a little bit of the ghee into each of the 6 muffin tins. Put the muffin tin and fat into the oven for about 5 minutes and then remove. Put 1/4 cup of the batter in each muffin tin. Cook for 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350F and cook until golden brown, which could be another 15 minutes.

Primal Vanilla Cheesecake

Leave a comment

You all know how I feel about cheesecake. It’s my favorite dessert, I have it about once a year on my birthday, and there’s no substitute for the real thing. I also never make it because it seems really complicated. However, I had a friend that was having a birthday dinner and I told her I would make her dessert. I asked her what she would like to have. She said she didn’t care. I was thinking maybe carrot cake would be a good idea! She told me that carrot cake and cheesecake are her favorites. Then she says….I kind of want cheesecake. That’s all it took. I was off at my first attempt to make cheesecake!
This recipe is not strict paleo because of the cream cheese, but everything else is.

Primal Vanilla Cheesecake

Ingredients:

 Crust:

  •  3/4 stick of grassfed butter
  •  2 1/4 cup nut flour
  •  1 tsp cinnamon
  •  1 Tbsp honey
  •  1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

  •  3 blocks organic cream cheese (ROOM TEMP)
  • 2 Tbsp coconut milk
  • 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 vanilla bean, seeded
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 4 eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all the crust ingredients and pour into springform pan. Bake until the crust browns slightly, which should be about 10 minutes. Get it out and let it cool. Lower the oven temp to 325F and place a dish with water on the bottom rack.
While the crust is cooling, whip the cream cheese until its creamy and smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients one at a time until it’s all combined and pour over the crust. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Then turn off the oven and let it continue to sit in the oven for another hour. Get out of the oven and let cool to room temp before placing in the fridge to set and cool. Serve!

Paleo White Russian

Leave a comment

Want a refreshing “adult” after dinner drink? I bought this Vodka when I saw that it was organic and it was on sale. When choosing something made from corn, it’s important to have it be organic to avoid GMO varieties. It’s no secret that I love coffee, and coconut milk is an awesome substitute for full fat milk products like cream.

Paleo White Russian

Ingredients:

  • 2 parts coffee (I used cold brewed)
  • 1 part coconut milk
  • 1 part vodka
  • ice

Directions:
Blend all the ingredients together until slushy and serve with a straw!

Garlic Scapes

Leave a comment

I just got word that our first week of the CSA will have garlic scapes! I remember LOVING this recipe when I got them a couple years ago, so I am reposting it for everyone that doesn’t know what to do with them. ;)

Cilantro & Garlic Scape Pesto

  • 1 bunch of cilantro, ends removed
  • 2 garlic scapes
  • handful of chives (or garlic clove or more scapes)
  • 2 handfuls of walnuts
  • 1/4 cup olive oil (or more depending on how creamy you want it)
  • 2 pinches of salt
  • pepper to taste
  • few good shakes of crushed red pepper flakes (these happened to be homemade from last year’s dried chili’s)

Directions:

Put the cilantro, garlic scapes, chives, walnuts in the food processor and pulse until they are a coarse meal. Put in the salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and run a stream of olive oil in while its processing until you get a chunky/creamy texture. Serve on top of any meat, mushroom caps, eggs, etc.

Pesto is so versatile and easy to freeze. It helps dress up any boring meat easily. I chose to grilled up some grassfed flank steak and serve pesto on top. I put it on top of the salad blend I got from the CSA. Absolutely fabulous. This is what I love about the CSA. I didn’t know what a garlic scape was and I had definitely never cooked with them. Forced me out of my comfort zone and now I know just how much I like them! I hope we get more next week because I have thought up a million more way to use them!!!