This is one of my favorite recipes, because it’s super easy and makes chicken strips for days. I’ve found that while coconut flour gives these fried chicken tenders a nice, fluffy texture, the tend to be very dry. Meanwhile, using purely almond flour gives the recipe an excellent moisture, but the fried crust tends to be extremely crumbly. A 1:1 mixture of both coconut and almond flour makes for a perfect batter. Avocado oil works well for frying because of the high temperature smoke point, something that olive oil and coconut oil just can’t match. As for vegetable oil, well, you should know better! Grapeseed oil and bacon grease, however, will both work in a pinch.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 tsp Lawry’s Seasoned Salt (or seasalt)
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 2 eggs, cage free, vegetarian fed
• 1 lb cage free, vegetarian fed chicken tenders, or breasts cut into 1″ strips
• Avocado oil

A little crafting in the kitchen a few weeks ago and I came up with this recipe. With rising temperatures and the changes in season, this is a nice way to cool out with the berries you pick up at the farmer’s market.

It also uses the Arbonne Essentials chocolate protein powder, which uses stevia as a sweetner. Stevia isn’t 100% paleo, but if that’s the only bad thing about this dessert, I think I can live with that. I haven’t found another protein powder that works as well as this for getting a nice balance in consistency, flavor, and ingredients for me besides this one to make this a vegan and paleo dessert, something that actually works great for both Jen and me anytime. Not even the vanilla powder seems to get the right consistency for me, strangely enough, but that works, because, c’mon. Chocolate.

Empty two cans of organic coconut milk into a large bowl or container. Quality does matter, and so does the fat. Light or low fat coconut milk cans aren’t going to work here, you want as much of those tasty, natural healthy fats for this recipe to work. You can always get a pretty good price on these from just about ethnic supermarket, even if you have to go with a non-organic brand.

Add four scoops of Arbonne’s chocolate protein powder, and mix well with a large spoon. Get the coconut milk to blend as well as you can with the chocolate protein powder. Half the fun is hand mixing it, and I enjoy making this stuff so much, I don’t want to waste a lick of it in a mixer.

Once you’re satisfied with the mixing, add 1/3 cup of those organic, pesticide-free blueberries. Add the 1/3 cup of organic raspberries, and finally, the last 1/3 cup of organic blackberries. Strawberries work just as well, too.

Fold in your berries of choice until they’re well mixed into your bowl, seal your container, and stick it in the fridge overnight, or for at least 4-5 hours.

When it’s ready, your mixture will have thickened into an what is a pretty gigantic bowl of omnomness. I may or may have not been accused of eating cups of this stuff in a single sitting, so I really found it was helpful to exercise some portion control.

An espresso cup seems to be just the trick. For me at least. Somewhere in the neighborhood of a junior scoop of ice cream. Half fill that minicup with your mixture, and top with a teaspoon of chopped pecans.

Fill the rest of your cup with more of the chocolate coconut mix, and then top with another teaspoon of pecans. You can garnish your dessert with a blueberry or a sprig of mint, and serve.

pow.

You can let me know how this dessert tastes yourself. The first time I had it?

Ingredients:

• 1 handful (approx 1/3 cup) of organic blueberries
• 1 handful (approx 1/3 cup) of organic raspberries
• 1 handful (approx 1/3 cup) of organic blackberries
• 4 scoops of Arbonne Chocolate Protein Powder
• 2 cans of organic coconut milk
• 2 tsp of chopped toasted pecans (that you can pick up at Trader Joe’s)

It’s been a while since I’ve put together a recipe, so here’s a quick and easy one that makes for an excellent meal.

I’ve started to use the above chili garlic sauce instead of habanero or sriacha sauce because it’s got a really nice, light kick to it with a great amount of flavor.  Use it to spice up any recipe you have, and goes great over fried eggs in the morning.  You can find this in just about any Asian/ethnic grocery store for pennies.

I discovered lemonaise a few years ago, but it recently found its way back into my fridge again having found out that it’s completely paleo, and comes in tons of flavorful varieties.  It’s really expanded my options again with eating seafood on a paleo diet, which is always nice having another tool to use in the kitchen.

Caveman kitchen. I’m mostly outfitted with just a firepit and rocks of different sizes for smashing.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz lump crab meat
• 2 tsp Chili Garlic Sauce
• 1/4 lime, juiced
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1 tbsp chili dijon mustard
• 2-3 tbsp lemonaise
• Sea salt, to taste
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste
• Butter lettuce

Directions:

1. Place lump crabmeat into a medium sized bowl, and make a few passes with your hands to check and remove any remaining shell fragments.
2. Squeeze lime juice over the crabmeat. Sprinkle coriander, sea salt, and ground pepper as evenly as you can over the crabmeat.
3. Add chili dijon mustard, lemonaise, and chili garlic sauce.  Using a fork and spoon, gently toss the crabmeat until the ingredients are well mixed.
4. Using the spoon, spread your crabmeat mixture over the center of a butter lettuce leaf, roll up, and devour.

This one’s a quick dessert if you’ve got a craving for chocolate.  This recipe has a bit more of a dark chocolate taste, and I pretty much hoovered the entire thing in a few seconds, with a little bit of help from Jen.  It’d also probably make for a really nice chocolate spread, or the paleo-cupcake recipe I’ve been trying to come up with, except with the avocados, it doesn’t have a very long shelf life.  Which means you’d have to eat every last bit of whatever you use it for as a spread within a few hours.

Fine by me!

Ingredients:

• 1 large ripe avocado, chopped
• 2 tbsp dutch cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp honey

Directions:

1. Mix very well in a food processor or using a fork. You can eat it right away, or put it away in the fridge and let it set for 30 minutes.

One of my friends mentioned to me how much he appreciated how I am constantly working on ways to cheat within the rules.  I couldn’t agree more.  So I decided to give a go at making a paleo fried shrimp recipe.  This is another super easy recipe to follow, and with minimal ingredients.  The coconut flour used as batter doesn’t stick perfectly to the shrimp, but it’s still an excellent paleo alternative to using a regular grain based flour.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of large (31/35) shrimp, frozen
• 1 pasture raised egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 1/2 cup Avocado Oil or oil of your choice

Directions:

1. Defrost shrimp the night before, or under cold water in the sink.
2. Place the beaten egg in a small bowl or dish.  This egg wash will help the coconut flour stick to your shrimp.
3. Spread the 1/4 cup of coconut flour over a large flat surface, such as a cutting board or plate.  Evenly grind 1/2 tsp of black pepper over the coconut flour, and then 1/2 tsp of Old Bay over the coconut flour.
4. Gently pat one shrimp dry with a paper towel, and then dip the shrimp into the egg wash.  Make sure the shrimp is completely soaked, and then roll the shrimp into the coconut flour, getting a generous coating on your shrimp.  Set each of these aside and repeat until you have about 8-10 coated.
5. Heat a a large pan or skillet over medium high heat for about 5-10 minutes, until pan is hot.
6. Pour avocado oil into your pan, and gently lay each shrimp down into the oil.  You can use tongs or chopsticks, and handle your shrimp by the tail, so you minimize disturbing your batter.  Cook for about 60-90 seconds until the batter has turned a golden brown, and turn over to cook the other side.  Cook for an additional 60 seconds, and remove each shrimp to a plate.
7. At this point, you can start feasting, or prepare another batch of shrimp with the same process above.

Who’d have thought you could have fried food on your diet and still get away with it? I took my shrimp down in a pool of sriracha, but feel free to use whatever paleo dipping sauce you’d like!

Son of Grok has a fantastic paleo BBQ sauce, but it’s more of a saucy sauce, meaning, you pour it right over you’re going to cook, or use it to marinate your delicious pasture raised meats.

I tend to need it more for crockpottery, so I modified it just a tiny bit for my purposes here.

BBQ Sauce:

Ingredients:

Buffalo brisket, about 2-3 lbs

1/2 large red onion, diced

3/4 cup tomatoes, diced, or tomato sauce

6 cloves of garlic, diced

2 tbsp avocado oil (olive oil works, too)

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar (balsamic vinegar works in a pinch)

1 tsp kosher or sea salt

1 tsp hickory liquid smoke

Directions:

1. To prep, mix all the ingredients EXCEPT for the onion in a medium sized bowl until it gets a nice, thick consistency.  I opted out of the beef stock used in the original sauce recipe because cooking brisket in a crockpot does wonders in terms of bringing out the natural juices in the meat.  Buffalo tends to be an especially lean meat, but have to fear, this might be some of the best paleo brisket you’ll ever have.
2. Score the two flat sides of your brisket in a diagonal criss-crossing pattern, with each score being about 2-3 inches apart.  You don’t have to be perfect about scoring all the meat, but you do want to be able to really get the sauce into the meat.
3. Place the brisket into your crockpot, lean side up.  Pour half of your BBQ sauce over your brisket, rubbing in the sauce for just a few seconds until your brisket is fairly well covered.
4. Turn over your brisket, and pour the remainder of the sauce on your brisket, and repeat rubbing in the sauce until you get pretty good coverage.
5. Cover your BBQ-ified brisket with all the diced red onion, and spread evenly.
6. Cook for 5-6 hours. Your brisket should be lean, tender, and pull apart with a fork.  BAM!

I saw this recipe a while back for a paleo coconut cake and have been waiting for chance to actually make it.  I had a few friends come over for dinner the other night, and decided that was about as good of an opportunity as any.  Looking over the ingredient list, I was a bit leery about how cake-like it could taste, but it was surprisingly good, so here’s to finding your new paleo birthday cake substitute.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut  milk
• 1/3 cup of avocado, grapeseed, or coconut oil
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 2 cage free eggs
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 cups desiccated (shredded) coconut
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit (190 degrees Celsius).
2. Mix all wet ingredients (coconut milk, oil, honey, eggs, and extracts) in a medium sized mixing bowl well.
3. Add the dry ingredients (desiccated coconut, almond meal, coconut flour, baking soda) to the bowl, and continue to mix.
4. Grease an 8″ x 8″ baking dish lightly with oil.  I used grapeseed oil, as it doesn’t have too strong of a flavor to it.  Spread the cake mix evenly in the dish, and place into the oven.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  The cake is done when the top is a nice golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

I garnished this dish with Cointreau soaked strawberries (eh, okay, so maybe the Cointreau isn’t exactly paleo) and a coconut milk cream sauce.  For the sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients well with a spoon or fork in a small bowl.

You can pour the sauce over the coconut cake and strawberries, and even add some coconut milk ice cream with this dish.

Well.  It’s technically paleo.

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This recipe is a little bit different in that it doesn’t fall into my normal categorization or Paleo or Zone, but Primal. There’s a lot of writing on the Primal Diet out there on the interwebs, but it’s very similar to the Paleo Diet, with the inclusion of some dairy back in.

And guess what? Mozzarella is one of those dairy products. That opens up some interesting cooking techniques, one of which is a grainless pizza dough. I made a few batches of these, testing each one on Jen.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I got the recipe from, but I’ll provide my adapted version for you to enjoy.

Ingredients for Crust:

• 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 cup Cooked Cauliflower
• 1/4 cup Coconut Flour
• 1 Cage Free Egg
• 1 tsp Garlic Salt, Kosher Salt, or Sea Salt
• 1 tsp Oregano
• 1 tsp Basil
• 1/2 tsp Fennel
• 1/2 tsp Black Pepper

Ingredients for Base Toppings:

• 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese
• 1/2 cup Diced or Chopped Tomatoes

Directions for Crust:

1. Turn on the oven and set to 350°F.
2. Bring 5-6 cups of water and 1/2 tsp of salt to a boil over high heat.
3. Add 2 cups of cauliflower to boiling water, cover, and let cook for 10-15 minutes, until cauliflower becomes slightly translucent and soft.
4. Remove cauliflower from water and drain well.  Move the cauliflower to a large mixing bowl, and proceed to mash cauliflower to smithereens with whatever you’d like.  Potato masher, beer bottle, Playstation 3, or in my case, a large fork will do.  The cauliflower doesn’t have to be mashed smooth like potatoes, but you want it to be mashed to where it’s slightly larger than the size of rice.  Set aside.
5. Add in the egg, coconut flour, and mozzarella cheese.  Mix well.  I found mixing it with my hands was easiest.  Add in fresh basil, garlic salt, oregano, black pepper, and continue to mix.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and flatten the dough on the sheet to about a 1/2″ to 3/4″ crust.  If you don’t have parchment paper, well, better stop here, because this recipe just won’t work.  Just kidding.  You can lightly spray or coat the pan with some olive oil, but parchment paper makes it a lot easier to transfer off the pan later on.
7. Place your flattened crust into the oven, and let it cook for about 17-20 minutes.  The crust should start to have some brown, crispy spots, but not completely cook all the way through.  Remove the baking pan and place it on an oven-safe surface.

Directions for Toppings:

1. While waiting for your crust to cook, you can prep your toppings for your pizza.  Most pizza sauces are loaded with sugar, so I prefer taking crushed tomatoes and mixing in about a tablespoon of coconut flour to give it some thickness.  I also add more oregano and chopped basil to the tomato sauce for that Italian kick (well, after watching the World Cup games this week, I’m not sure the Italians can kick…I kid, I kid!)
2. Top your crust with your tomato sauce, and add a layer of mozzarella.
3. Add any additional toppings you normally like on your pizza.  A couple cloves of fresh chopped garlic, mushrooms, onions, sausage, go nuts!  Just remember if you are adding meat to your pizza to use pre-cooked meat.
4. Place your pizza back into the oven for 5 minutes.
5. Remove pizza and slice.

Makes 1 10″ pizza.

While this doesn’t wholly fit into being Paleo, I’d say the breakout is about 4 blocks of protein, 3 blocks of carbs, and 8 blocks of fat.

I only recently heard about the affogato, which as exotic as the Italian name sounds, can be a very accessible and easy dessert to make. Or if you’re someone like me, as a mid-day defense against the heat and humidity that is dropping DC to its knees.

Affogato means ‘drowned’ in Italian, and is simply a scoop of ice cream or some sort of ice cream variant, topped with a shot of espresso. I took this along the paleo route, using the coconut milk based ice cream I stock my freezer with. It’s questionable just how ‘paleo’ this ice cream can be when it’s still using organic agave nectar, but it’s far better than the type made with your typical milk and sugar.

I’ve also seen recipes calling for espresso powder, which certainly work in a pinch.  But I think every home that has a coffee drinker should have their own Bialetti espresso maker.  Make sure you spring for the stainless steel version and not the traditional aluminum ones.

Ingredients:

• Espresso beans or freshly ground espresso
• Ice cream of your choice
• Filtered Water

Directions:

1. Take your Bialetti Espresso maker apart, and fill the bottom chamber with filtered water, but just below the hole in the side.  You don’t need to completely fill this chamber with water.
2. Place the espresso in the funnel filter that tops the bottom chamber.  The espresso doesn’t need to be hard packed in, but it should be completely full.
3. 

   Screw up on the top, and place your espresso maker on a stove.  Turn on to medium high heat, and let your Bialetti do what it does best.  Makin’ coffee espresso.  You’ll hear it steam and bubble into the top container.  Once you no longer hear it steaming, it’s probably done.  I’d guess this takes anywhere between 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of your Bialetti.

4. Prepare a small espresso cup, and place a medium sized scoop of ice cream in the cup.  I used my coconut milk ice cream here.
   

5. Pour in a shot of espresso over your ice cream.
   

6. Stir if you’d like, and enjoy.

The one downside of using the coconut milk based ice cream is that you’ll often have coconut shreds inside, so be prepared to find that in your espresso, as well, but this doesn’t end up bothering me too much.  If it does, I believe that the other flavors of coconut milk based ice cream don’t have the same coconut shreds, and will likely give you a smoother result.  Either way, this is a perfect rescue from those hot summer days in the city. Really try and use fresh ground espresso beans or ones you’ve had stored in an airtight container, and filtered water when preparing espresso. As with so many things we consume, it’s the attention to quality that really makes things better.

I had the perfect opportunity to try this recipe out while Jen and I were out vacationing in Hawaii. Reading over the ingredients list, you’d question whether or not this really will taste good, as I did while I was prepping the salad. The result? Delicious. I neglected to pick up red wine vinegar as Paula Deen calls for in her original recipe, but balsamic vinegar works just as well here. My one suggestion, is that if you’re making this while you’re out in Hawaii, is to make sure and not buy the 14 lb watermelon at $1.49 a pound.

Whoops.

So…how about that Kama’aina discount?

Don’t judge this one by how it looks, because it’s a great way to fight off a long, arduous day of relaxing in the Pacific sun.

Adapted from Paula Deen’s recipe here.