Primal cottage pie

Ingredients:

1kg beef mince
1 pint beef stock
1 onion
1 tin of tomatoes
1 large carrot
3 large flat brown mushrooms
2 tsp oregano (or mixed herbs)
seasoning
3 large kumara
1 knob of butter
1/2 cup of grated cheese

Heat the oven to 180c

1. chop the kumara into chunks and boil until cooked. Set aside.
2. Chop (dice) the onion and saute in a pan, with a little oil.  Add the mince and fry until browned.  Dice the carrot and mushrooms and add to the pan.
3.  Add the beef stock and tin of tomatoes.  Add the herbs and season if necessary.
4. Simmer for 20 - 30mins until the liquid has reduced.
5.  Mash the cooked kumara with a small (or large if you are like me!) knob of butter and seasoning.
6. Place the reduced mince mixture into an oven proof dish. Add the kumara mixture on top.  I like to fluff up the mixture with a fork and then sprinkle with grated cheese.
7. Bake for 45 mins or until golden brown on top.

This looked so tasty, when I got it out of the oven, that I totally forgot to photograph it! But, believe me, it was tasty mincey goodness!

Ice-cream!

Found this yummy ice-cream recipe tonight....

paleo coconut vanilla icecream


So tasty, I thought I would share it with you....eating it with some of gorgeous gluten-free chocolate cake we made last weekend.  Indulgence on a Winter's evening. 

Saturday...

Great morning at the gym, lifting, flipping, dragging odd objects....Followed by coffee in Wellington's Lamason....awesome!
lamason

egg fried rice

Cooking for one tonight, so wanted something quick and easy so I could get on with my night.  I took my inspiration from Kylie Kwong, on a program she was doing from Shanghai.  I have (of course) adapted it slightly - to fit what is in my cupboard!

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 tbsp soy sauce (fish sauce if you are following strict paleo diet)
1/2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 onion finely chopped (Spring onions would be better I think, but I had none of these!)
1 cup of finely chopped cauliflower (I whizz mine up in the food processor, until it is a crumbly texture)
1/3 cup of finely sliced cabbage.

optional - sliced and cooked chicken/duck/bacon or veggies  (I had bacon and tomatoes in the fridge, so in they went!)

1. Whizz up the cauliflower and briefly saute in a pan with a small amount of oil (I used coconut oil). Set aside.
2. Beat together eggs, soy sauce and ginger (I also added chilli flakes here).
3. Heat the oil in the pan and briefly saute the onions.
4. Add the egg mixture and fry - kind of like an omelette, folding over at the finish.
5. Add the 'rice' and fry together with the egg - break up the egg further and then add a splash of extra soy sauce.  Throw in the sliced cabbage and fry for a further 30 secs.
6. Add any extras that you want to throw in at this point and serve.

Paleo Pad-Thai

I'd love to be able to take claim for this! But, I can't - the credit goes to Health-Bent for that.  This is one of our favourite, quick snacks in the evening.  I mix it up a bit from the original recipe - adding different meats - or veggies.  Sometimes, replacing the zucchini noodles for thinly sliced white cabbage, which is a lot cheaper and just as tasty.
Highly recommended - yum, yum, yum. Thanks to Health-bent again - this certainly doesn't look or taste like dog food (although my dog, is totally eyeing up the duck jerky on your website!).

pad-thai

toad-in-the-hole

I am extremely excited about this, so much so, that I'm blogging it before it's even in the oven, let alone a success.....thanks to http://prettyinprimal.blogspot.com/ for the yorkshire recipe...I have adapted it slightly from Erin's original, but such a good inspiration to get me started.

Ingredients:
5 sausages
1/2 onion (sliced)
5 eggs
1/2 cup of cream (I haven't tried substituting milk, or a mix of milk and water, but will experiment and keep you posted)
1/3 melted butter
1/3 almond flour
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 200c.
2. Place sausages and sliced onion into the bottom of a pyrex dish and cook until sausages change colour.
3. Meanwhile beat all the ingredients in the batter mix together. I was bought up as a child with the notion that batter mix is best prepared hours before and left to stand.  I alas had no time for this today - tummy was calling. But I will do some experiments and see if it makes any difference with a paleo recipe.
4. Once the sausages are cooked, pour the batter into the dish and allow to cook until the knife comes out clean. Mine took approximately 45mins - but I did keep a close eye on it towards the end.

Wow!! I am so pleased with how this has turned out! It puffed up beautifully and the batter was delightful!

chicken wrapped in bacon

Tonight's dinner - and a recipe for Rob, who was the first person to officially eat a home cooked meal at our new kitchen bench!

Ingredients:

1 chicken thigh per person
2 slices of streaky bacon per person
1/2 leek per person
handful of cherry tomatoes per person
slice of feta per person


1.  Preheat the oven to 200c. Chop the leeks into rounds and throw in the cherry tomatoes.  Drizzle generously with olive oil and season well.  (You could add your own herbs and spices if you like here too)
2.  Open up the chicken thigh and stuff a generous slice of feta in (I just crammed in as much as I could!).
3.  Wrap each chicken thigh in bacon with the joining side on the underneath.
4.  Place on top of the leeks and tomatoes and pop in the oven.
5.  Cook for 20 - 30mins or until chicken is cooked through.
5.  I served mine with some homemade kumara wedges (Orange kumara, wedged and tossed in olive oil and whatever herbs and spices fell out the cupboard first) and some savoy cabbage briefly stir-fried with some bacon and garlic.

Saturday ...

Fantastic workout this morning - number 6 from the worlds...scaled for little old me, but I did it all (feeling v proud of myself!).  It's raining outside, so some tasty comfort food is in order.  Had a craving for 'bangers and mash', so found this real gem to replace the mash:
cauliflower and onion mash

Yum, what a treat, with some spicy sausages and big chunky brown mushrooms - I am a happy camper.

Sausage and leek stirfry

Yummy, yummy comfort food....
Ingredients (to serve 2):


4 sausages (I used pork, but I'm sure any variety would do)
4 rashers of smoky bacon
2 leeks - sliced
small bunch of asparagus - chopped into pieces
200g spinach 
125g cream cheese
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp hot chilli powder
seasoning to taste

1. Ok, so being relatively new to the meat world, I cut up the sausages and fried them (this may not be the best way to do this, but hey...it worked for me).  
2. Chop the bacon and add to the pan as the sausages are nearly cooked. 
3. Add the chopped leek and stir until cooked through. 
4. Add the asparagus and cream cheese - stir until the cream cheese is melted through (it may be worth warming it slightly first)
5. Add the spinach to the pan and stir until it loses it's crisp.
6. Season with chilli, cayenne pepper (we are chilli fiends so add as you desire), salt & pepper. 
7. Serve and enjoy! 

P.S - apologies for the terrible photography - this will be my goal I MUST TAKE GOOD PHOTOS OF MY FOOD!! 

A wee bit about me and my blog...

So, paleo - hmmmmmm....well, I've been eating demi-paleo (is that a thing!? - let's go with it) for a while now and I certainly feel the benefits in my health and fitness.  I began Paleo eating through my crossfit gym - MaD Crossfit as part of a 'new year, new you' challenge.  I offered some degree of resistance to begin with - "What about sandwiches? What about Pancake day? What about peanut butter?" But, before too long, I found myself enjoying the rewards that Paleo eating was offering me.  I probably should mention here that I am also in a transitional vegetarian phase - this initially did not make the change in diet easy.  However, although I have not completely relinquished my vegetarian principles, I am exploring the world of meat with fresh eyes - after 20 years of abstinence.  


This brings me on to my main purpose for the blog - by far and away my favourite part of Paleo eating is the hunt for recipes and the recipes that I have fun designing myself.  So, I thought why not blog it and share with others? I am by no means an expert on Paleo food and this is a really huge journey for me.


So, here goes, what follows is my first ever recipe post - hope you enjoy! Eek - I'm a bit nervous!