Crock pot Smoked Green Chile Pork

Man, this was good.  We ate 4 pounds of pork roast in 2 days.  I'd like to say I'm a genius, but alas, I'm really not.  Smoking in a crock pot?  Stole that idea from one of my favorite food bloggers, the civilized caveman (check out his crock pot meals!). 

Warning:  a little bit of advanced work is needed here (the night before and the morning of), but it is so worth it.  Trust me here.  We could barely contain ourselves, the house smelled so good.  

(Oh, yeah, don't know my pictures are so fuzzy these days.  Maybe I was shaking with excitement to chow down after smelling this all afternoon?  Don't know.  Sorry.  The food is good, really, even if my pictures are not.)

Ingredients:

• 1 pork butt roast, about 4 pounds
• Emeril's Creole Seasoning 
• 13 oz New Mexico roasted chopped green chile (I cannot vouch for the results if you are forced to use canned green chile...)
• Wood chips
• Waxed paper
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

The night before... 

1. Rub the pork roast with Creole Seasoning.  Make sure you get all sides.
2. Place pork in a large plastic bag (I had one of those turkey oven roasting bags left over for some point in the past) and add green chile.  Turn the pork and make sure all sides get covered with green chile.  
3. Close and secure bag and put in the fridge to marinate overnight (I put my bag in a pan so that nothing would leak all over my fridge).  In a perfect world, you'd probably rotate the bag and make sure all side get some good time with the green chile; in a realistic world, you never get there, and things still turn out great!

In the morning...

1. 30 minutes before you want to start cooking, soak your woodchips.  
2. Come back, remove your chips from water, and place them on the wax paper.  Make yourself a little pocket and put the pocket in the bottom of your crock pot.  EDIT:  poke some holes in your pocket to allow chip flavor to escape.
3. Dump 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of your pot.
4. Place marinated pork on top.
5. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
6. Eat and enjoy.

Coconut Shrimp

This is good.  Really good.  And I don't really even like seafood (I know...).  And it only takes a few ingredients.  And it's pretty easy to put together.  AND (the final and) you can get this on the table in 30-40 minutes.  My kind of dinner!

Most recipes seem to use a base layer of flour.  I don't think you need the extra breading (even a gluten-free kind).  This is crunchy, slightly spicy, with a mild coconut hit.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 - 2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne pepper (I like it hot, so we went to 1 tsp...if you like it pretty mild, I'd go with 1/2 tsp or even 1/4 tsp)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 lb shrimp, deveined and peeled
• Coconut oil

Directions:

1. In a food processor, combine coconut flakes, salt, and cayenne.  Pulse until you have pretty small flakes of coconut - sorta like homemade breadcrumbs.  You are not looking for a flour...but my coconut flakes are too big to stick well.  Plus, this nicely mixes in the spices.  [This step takes 2-3 minutes...it's worth the time and effort.]  Pour into a bowl.
2. In another bowl, beat the egg.
3. Dip shrimp first in the egg and then in the coconut.
4. Place each shrimp on a large platter or baking sheet (or a couple of plates - whatever ya got).
5. Heat some coconut oil in a pan.  Let oil melt and pan heat.  Carefully place shrimp into the hot oil.  Let cook for a few minutes until browned, then gently flip.  Cook until the other side is browned.  This only takes a couple of minutes each side.
6. Serve and enjoy.

 

Crockpot Chicken Curry (Put it Together in a Hurry!)

Seven minutes - from start to finish - that's how long it took to put this together (and that included measuring the spices so I could tell you how much to use and stirring what I had on the pot for the meal I was about to eat).  Surely you have 7 little minutes to put together a great meal?  If you want to get fancy, grate a little fresh ginger and add a few cinnamon sticks.

As always, sorry about the picture.  Not only am I a pretty bad photographer (and this is worse than usual), I think it's pretty hard to make chicken, wilted spinach, and curry sauce look good (though I know others could probably manage that feat:)).

 

Ingredients:

• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 can diced tomatoes (I prefer no-salt added fire-roasted tomatoes - if they have green chiles, even better)
• 4 Tbs curry powder* (I know this seems like a lot, but this is going to simmer all afternoon - it loses some heat)
• 1 lb baby spinach (I used pre-washed - helps to make my 7 minutes) (if you don't have spinach, dump in another long-cooking veggie or skip)
• 3 lbs bone-in, skin on chicken (use whatever you have - seriously.  and if you don't like the skin, cook with it on, then remove before you eat)

 

Directions:

1. 1.  In a bowl, mix together coconut milk, tomatoes, and curry powder (yeah, I know, sorry for the extra dirty dish, but I like to mix the curry powder in the sauce).
2. 2.  Pour a little sauce on the bottom of the crock pot.  Add spinach.  Add chicken on top of spinach.  Pour the rest of the sauce, making sure to cover all of the spinach (so it doesn't get all crispy).
3. 3.  Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
4. 4.  Serve.  I like it over mashed root veggies, spaghetti squash (throw this in the microwave while you are sorting through your mail:)), or riced cauliflower - but if you're really hungry, just skip it and eat it more like a soup.

*  Curry

• 2 parts turmeric powder
• 2 parts paprika powder
• 1 part salt
• 1 part chili powder (adjust up or down for more or less heat)
• 1 part cayenne powder (adjust up or down for more or less heat)
• 1 part coriander powder

Curry-Spiced Tomato Bisque

I don't make a lot of soups.  The husband doesn't really like them...unless he's (a) sick or (b) had dental work.  So you guessed it...something is up.  The husband just had dental surgery and was wanting something soft, yet tasty, to eat.  I had some tomatoes that needed to be used and I thought I'd give good ol' tomato soup a try.

I looked at traditional tomato soup recipes (most of which are either Paleo or could easily be made Paleo) as well as the versions by Everyday Paleo and Nom Nom Paleo to come up with my version.  It's not easy competing with pure genius, but I think this version is pretty good.  Two thumbs up from both the husband and non-Paleo mom.  Mmm, mmm, good...all without the nasty stuff you find in canned soups.

Need protein?  I topped my soup with leftover ground beef.  The husband had eggs.  I might also suggest a crisp salad.

Ingredients:

• 14 smallish tomatoes (mine were just bigger than golf balls)
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• appropriate fat (ghee, coconut oil, tallow, lard, etc.)
• 1 onion
• 1 tsp curry powder*
• 1/8 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 cup coconut milk

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler to about 450 degrees.
2. Place tomatoes and garlic on a broiler sheet and broil until blistered.  Turn occasionally so that the other sides get broiled as well.
3. Meanwhile, heat fat in a pan.  While heating, peel and then roughly chop onions.  Cook until they are softened and brown.
4. Pull out food processor (or blender, etc.).  Pulse together tomatoes (including juice), garlic, onion, curry powder, ginger, and coconut milk.  Taste.  Adjust seasonings as necessary.  Pulse again until smooth.  If you like a thinner soup, add more coconut milk or some chicken broth.  
5. Quickly heat to desired warmness.  Enjoy:)

*  Curry

• 2 parts turmeric powder
• 2 parts paprika powder
• 1 part salt
• 1 part chili powder (adjust up or down for more or less heat)
• 1 part cayenne powder (adjust up or down for more or less heat)
• 1 part coriander powder

Adovada Enchiladas

I had two different food-related thoughts that came together this weekend.  First, I wanted to use the Carne Adovada (one of my favorite New Mexican recipes) sauce developed by Use Real Butter, but I wanted to make it with ground beef (I was originally thinking Adovada burgers or something).  Then, my library hold of Mark Sisson's The Primal Blueprint Cookbook finally came in (hooray!) and I was intrigued by his use of egg white crepes to make the enchiladas.  Aha, I thought (in what I like to think was a rare moment of brilliance), adovada enchiladas could be something really good. 

I thought about making coconut flour tortillas, but eggs are generally used to tame down heat here in New Mexico (and since I don't eat dairy...these kind of things help:)), and frankly Mark's crepes looked pretty easy (I subbed coconut milk for the cream).  I found it took me a bit to make the perfect crepes, but once I got the hang of it, life was good.  [You cannot taste the coconut milk in the crepes once you are done.]

Anyway, this recipe is a bit, er, time intensive?  But, for a special weekend meal, I think well worth it.  Also, I added veggies to my sauce mixture - you can change them up or omit them as you prefer (I figured since I was doing so much work, I wasn't going to take the time to make another side dish...).

Served above with fresh mango and avocado to tame the heat and add a lovely bit of sweetness!

Ingredients:

• 20 dried, red New Mexico chiles (to tone down the heat, remove the seeds)
• 3-4 tsp sea salt
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 tsp oregano (original calls for 2 tsp, but I'm not a real fan of oregano, and I can totally taste when there are 2 tsp)
• 3-4 cups beef broth/stock (you can use water, but I think the beef broth adds a needed depth/body)
• 1 pound ground meat (I used a mixture of pork and beef - pork (carne) adovada is a very traditional New Mexican dish)
• 2 yellow squash
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 1 bunch spinach
• 8 egg whites (save the yummy yolks for something else)
• 1/3 cup coconut milk (if you let the can sit in the 'fridge, the "cream" separates from the water -- I used the cream part)
• Oil (to grease the crepe pan)
• Sliced mango (optional)
• Sliced avocado (optional)

Directions:

Begin by making the sauce

1. Preheat oven to 325 degree (F).  Place dried chiles on a baking sheet and cook until blackened and blistered, about 8-10 minutes (keep the door open a crack...also, be careful of the fumes...and be VERY careful to handle the peppers and their seeds).
2. Meanwhile, bring beef broth to a boil.
3. Remove from the oven and cover peppers with beef broth.  Cover and let steam for about 30 minutes.
4. Remove pepper from broth, reserving liquid.
5. In a food processor (or blender), mix together peppers, salt, oregano, and about 2 cups of the broth.  Blend until pureed.  You may need to add a little broth/water to get the desired "sauciness".

Make the filling [you can start this while sauce is being prepared}

1. Begin to brown meat. 
2. Chop veggies (if using). 
3. Once meat begins to release a little of its fat, add veggies (except spinach) and let begin to soften.
4. Add sauce and spinach and cook until thickened and spinach is wilted.

Make the crepes

1. Whisk together egg whites and coconut milk.
2. Meanwhile, heat a pan or griddle, add oil, and pour just a little bit of the egg white mixture.  The key here - you want it to be THIN.  Mark suggests about 1/6 cup.  I don't have a cup that is 1/6 cup, so I just eye-balled it.  Once the crepes begin to form little bubbles all the way through (like pancakes), flip.  It doesn't take too long on the other side.
3. Set aside on a plate until all the crepes are cooked.

Assemble the enchiladas

1. If you turned your oven off, turn it back on to 325 degrees.
2. Put a crepe on a plate, stuff with filling, roll, and place into pan.  Do this until you are done (whether because you ran out of food or no more will fit in your pan).
3. Cover with foil and place in an over for about 20 minutes (this helps the flavors meld together...we tried it both with and without baking, and I prefer the end result after baking).
4. Plate.  Serve with diced mango (this is really good, and really helps tame the heat) and/or avocado slices.  Enjoy your Paleo enchiladas! 

Super-Simple Sausage Bites

Looking for something quick and easy for breakfast?  Look no further than these super-simple sausage bites (you could form them into patties - but I'm too lazy for that!).  They take very little time in the morning - I promise!  I can't tell you how often I've been having these for breakfast... 

The recipe easily doubles or halves. Since everyone has a difference spice level preference, start with less and add more later.  It's easier to add than to subtract...  This spice level consistent with our taste profiles -- yours is likely to be different.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 1/2 Tbs garlic powder
• 1 Tbs fennel seeds
• 1 Tbs red pepper flakes (if you can't take much heat start with a little and add more later)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Heat skillet over medium heat.  Add ground beef. 
2. Break your beef into small bits with the spatula. 
3. Add seasonings and stir to combine.
4. Cook until done to your desired temperature (I like my pretty browned when I'm having "sausage").
5. Taste, and adjust seasonings if necessary.
6. Serve and enjoy.

Cure for the Common Egg: Curried Eggs

This is something I eat for breakfast.  Yes, I'm weird...but my family has known that for a long time:)  But, hey, breakfast is just another meal where I try to get quality protein, a little fat, and my veggies.  If you can't stomach this much spice for breakfast, it's good any time of the day.

Ingredients:

• 1 dozen (12) hard-boiled eggs, halved or quartered
• 1 can no-salt added fire-roasted tomatoes (sub fresh if you want)
• 1 can full-fat coconut milk
• 2-3 Tbs curry* (start with less and add more)
• 2 small heads cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 bunch fresh spinach, cut roughly

Directions:

1. If you don't already have hard-boiled eggs, begin by boiling eggs.
2. Prep veggies (cauliflower and spinach).
3. Combine together tomatoes (including liquid), coconut milk, curry, and cauliflower in a stock pot.
4. Heat until boiling, then reduce heat and let simmer until cauliflower is almost cooked.
5. Add eggs and spinach; cook until spinach is wilted and eggs are heated through [I leave the eggs for the end because I don't want them to get too cooked, but you could add them earlier if that's easier].
6. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.
7. Serve and enjoy, although it is even better the next day.

*  Curry

• 2 parts turmeric powder
• 2 parts paprika powder
• 1 part salt
• 1 part chili powder (adjust up or down for more or less heat)
• 1 part cayenne powder (adjust up or down for more or less heat)
• 1 part coriander powder

Sweet & Sour Slaw

I never really used to like coleslaw.  Maybe it was that I never really had good coleslaw.  I have memories of limp, wilted cabbage soaked in icky jarred mayo.  I don't know what possed me to give this one a try...maybe it was that I had a wonderful looking mango, two heads of cabbage (one red and one green), and some carrot in my 'fridge.  This turned out great, if I do say so myself:)  Sweet from the mango, sour from the coconut vinegar.  Hope you enjoy as well!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 head red cabbage
• 1/4 head green cabbage
• 1/2 large carrot
• 1 fresh mango
• 1/16 cup pecans
• 1/8 cup coconut vinegar (other vinegars would work - but if you are gluten intollerant, make sure it is a gluten-free variety)
• 1/4 cup olive oil (other oils would work here - I think coconut oil would be really good!)

Directions:

1. Thinly slice cabbage.  Grate carrot (be careful not to grate your finger!).
2. Peel and dice mango.
3. Break pecans into small pieces.
4. Combine cabbage, carrot, mango, and pecans in a bowl.
5. In a separate bowl, blend together coconut vinegar and olive oil (I used my small food processor, but I think a brisk whisking would work as well.)
6. Combine dressing with salad.  Stir well to combine.
7. Chill at least an hour (really, this is much better chilled).  Serve and enjoy.