Pizza buns

I've made this recipe once before but I didn't get a chance then to put it on the blog. Second time around they're just as tasty and I was surprised (once again) about how easy they actually are to make. The recipe is from undervarttak.se.

Ingredients
makes about 12 buns

For the dough
300 ml almond flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
3 egg whites
250 ml boiling water

Toppings (you can obviously alternate this with whatever you fancy)
300 ml crushed tomatoes or passata
125 g bacon
1 bunch of basil
1 egg
oregano

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
Combine all the dry ingredients for the dough in a large bowl. Separate the eggs and pour the egg whites into the bowl. Whisk together with an electric whisk. Add the water slowly and be mindful not to add too much water so the dough gets runny (depending on how big your eggs are you might not need to add all of the water). Mix together until it forms a dough. Kneed it to a big lump and put it on a sheet of baking paper. Put another sheet of baking paper on top and use a rolling pin to make a rectangle which is a few millimeters thick.
Pull away the top layer of baking paper and you can now add your tomatoes. I added some cheese on top of the tomatoes but if you want to make it completely Paleo, just leave that out. Sprinkle some oregano on top. Cut the bacon to smaller pieces and sprinkle these on top. Add the basil leaves and then roll the dough lengthwise to form a roll. Cut the roll in about 2 cm thick pieces and put them on a greased muffin tray. Whisk the egg and brush the buns before putting them in the oven for about 45 minutes. Now you have a delicious treat to bring to picnics or to the beach.

Spicy meat soup

I really like soups, especially when it is getting a bit colder and darker outside around this time of the year. I however sometimes just feel like vegetable soup of some kind (i.e. pumpkin) whilst my other half wants some more protein in them. So I found this recipe on Under vart tak and decided to give it a try. I think we were both very happy with the result. I added some cauliflower to the recipe for some extra veggies.

Ingredients
serves 4
500 g mince meat
125 g bacon
1 onion
2 carrots
1/4 head of cauliflower
690 g tomato passata (or crushed tomatoes)
400 ml coconut milk
100 ml stock
2-3 garlic cloves
½ red chili
3 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp salt (or herbal salt)
pinch of black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper (or as much as you think you can handle)
handful of fresh parsley
handful of fresh basil
butter, olive or coconut oil to fry in

Peel and finely chop the onion.
Grate the carrot and the cauliflower with the big grater.
Fry the onion and other veggies in a big pot with your choice of grease.
Chop the bacon to small pieces and add these to the pot. Fry them for a few minutes.
Add the mince meat and let it all fry together until the mince meat is cooked through.
Finely chop the chili and crush the garlic and add this to the pot.
Add the tomato passata and the coconut milk.
Add the spices and mix around. Finally add the fresh herbs and let it all simmer for a few minutes until all the flavours are mixed through and the soup is hot.
Serve it with some nice Paleo focaccia

Broccoli and bacon pie

I made a few Paleo things for the past month or so but I haven't had a chance to put them up due to holiday and no internet. Therefore I'm going to now catch up a bit and see whether I can remember the recipes....

The first one is a delicious Paleo broccoli and bacon pie, the recipe is from undervarttak.blogspot.se

Ingredients

serves 4-6

300 ml almond flour

50 ml sesame seeds

2 tbsp psyllium

1 tsp sea salt

40 g coconut oil

1 egg

1 head of fresh broccoli

150 g bacon

4 mushrooms, sliced

5 cherry tomatoes, halved

3 eggs

200 ml coconut milk

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

Mix the almond flour and sesame seeds in a food processor, using the knife. Add psyllium, salt, coconut oil and egg. Mix again until it forms a dough. Press out the dough in a pie dish. Prick with a fork and pre-bake for about 10 minutes until it's golden brown.

Cut the broccoli to smaller florets and pre-boil for about 3-4 minutes. Put the sliced mushrooms on the bottom of the pie crust, cut the bacon to smaller pieces and add this to the crust. Add the broccoli florets and the cherry tomatoes. 

Whisk together eggs and coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Pour the egg mixture over the the bacon and vegetables in the pie crust. 

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the egg mixture is set.

Brussel sprouts and bacon salad

Last night we decided to have a barbecue and it's always a question of what to have as a side dish. I bought the cook book from Eat Drink Paleo yesterday and found this recipe in it. Luckily both me and my other half love brussel sprouts so it was an easy decision.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
500g brusselssprouts, washed and halved
3 slices of bacon, diced and crispy fried
1–2 tbsp macadamia or coconut oil
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp hot mustard
½ lime, juice
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Toss brussel sprouts in macadamia orcoconut oil and roast for 30 minutes, until crisped and browned. Stir half way through.
Whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Add fresh cherry tomatoes and bacon to roasted brussel sprouts and toss together with the dressing. Serve in the same roasting tray or in a salad bowl.

Creamy carrot soup

My spouse is not a huge fan of soups so I took the opportunity to make one when he wasn't home for dinner. It turned out pretty good even though I didn't follow the recipe fully. I got the recipe from undervarttak.blogspot.se and the original had 600-700 ml coconut milk but I thought that was a bit too much so I modified it a bit.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
7 carrots
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
½ red chili
400 ml coconut milk
100 ml beef stock
400 ml water
parsley
thyme
salt and pepper

Peel and chop the carrots and onion into small pieces. Peel the garlic cloves and crush them with a knife. Split and take the seeds out of the chili.
Pour the stock and water in a pot and add the carrots, onion, garlic and chili. Bring it to a boil and let it boil until the carrots are soft (time for this depends on how big you've cut the carrots).
Take off the heat and mix with a hand blender until it's a smooth puré. Add the coconut milk and mix a little bit more. Put back on the heat and add parsley, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Bring it to a boil so that it heats up. Serve with some crispy fried bacon on top.

Here served with crispy fried serrano ham and spring onion

Carrot, spinach and bacon breakfast hash

Sometimes I feel like our breakfasts don't have enough veggies so I found this recipe on http://taylormadeitpaleo.com and thought it could be nice to make on a Saturday morning with some avocado on the side for some healthy fat. I swapped the sweet potato for carrot since that's what I had at home.

Ingredients

serves 2

4 slices of bacon, diced

2 small carrots, grated

2 big handfuls of spinach

½ onion, finely chopped

4 eggs

salt & pepper to taste

Add bacon to a frying pan greased with coconut oil over medium heat.

After the bacon has cooked for a minute or two, add carrots, spinach, onion, salt, and pepper mixing frequently. When the bacon is almost cooked through, add your eggs and cook to your preference.

Moroccan tomato and bacon baked eggs

It's been a long time since I posted something now. I got a new job so I haven't had that much time to cook a lot of food and we've had a few busy weekends this past month. Now we're getting in to the season when there's a lot of rain and cold weather so there's probably going to be more time for us to cook some new delicious recipes. I tried something new today which is perfect for a rainy weekend morning when you have some extra time to cook breakfast. Found this recipe on eatdrinkpaleo.com.au.

Ingredients

serves 2

4 free range eggs

1 small red chili, chopped

1 medium red capsicum, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 slices of bacon

1 1/2 tsp Moroccan spice mix (paprika, cumin, coriander seeds, cayenne pepper, oregano etc)

1 cup tomato passata

2 tbs butter

1 tbsp olive oil

Fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1/2 tsp salt

We used a stainless steel small frying pan with a lid to make our baked eggs.

Brown off the bacon in a non-stick frying pan. When bacon is nice and crispy, drain it on a paper towel and dice up.

Saute onion, capsicum and chili in a the stainless steel pan with 2 tablespoons of butter for 3-4 minutes on medium heat. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Add garlic and spices to the pan and stir through for half a minute. Add bacon and tomatoes, stir and cover with the lid. Cook on low heat for 12-15 minutes, giving it a stir a few times.

Using a spoon, make four wells in the tomato mix and crack an egg into each, letting the egg white spill over the edges. Sprinkle each egg yolk with a little salt and pepper, cover with the lid and cook on low heat until the egg whites settle and firm but the egg yolks stay soft. This took a bit longer than I expected (approx 10-15 minutes) and we still got some raw egg white and the egg yolks were slightly harder than expected. I think we might have to try this recipe more times in order to master it fully.

Try it! It's delicious!

Paleo Shepherd's pie

Ingredients
serves 3-4 people
1 onion
1 garlic clove
200 g bacon
2 medium sized carrots
500 g ground beef
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp black pepper
herbs and spices as preferred
250 ml chicken stock
1 large cauliflower head
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper
smoked paprika powder

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Cut off the florets from the cauliflower head and steam until really soft. Put in a food processor together with 2 tbsp butter, salt and pepper and mix together.
Finely dice the onion and carrots. Add 2 tbsp cooking fat (I used butter) to a pan on medium-low heat. Sauté the onion for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and bacon and sauté for 5 minutes more. Put the carrots in the pan and cook for another 5 minutes and last, add the ground beef and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and all the spices and mix around. Add the chicken stock and let it simmer for about 5 minutes until almost all the stock has evaporated.
Pour the beef mixture in a baking dish and pour the mashed cauliflower over it. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle some paprika powder on top for a final touch.

Pumpkin and sweet potato soup

Delicious creamy soup. Recipe from fastpaleo.com

Ingredients
serves 3-4
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
700 g pumpkin flesh, diced
1 chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp butter
1 l chicken stock
250 ml coconut milk
cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
4 rashes of bacon (optional)


Heat a large pot, melt cooking fat and fry onion until soft. Add garlic and fry for another minute. Add chopped pumpkin and sweet potatoes and fry off for a few minutes. Add the chicken stock, season with cayenne, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 25 min until potato and pumpkin are tender. Stir in coconut milk and use blender make a smooth soup. Fry the bacon until crispy then cut in small pieces. Serve the soup in bowls with the bacon pieces sprinkled on top.

Balsamic chicken with braised cabbage and bacon

It's been a while now and I'm currently in Sydney, Australia. I have not been able to cook that much good food here yet since I'm not really sure where to find all ingredients but I'm getting a bit closer so today I decided to make a Paleo recipe. The Paleo lifestyle has been on hold for us for a while now because of the move but slowly we'll pick it up again. I found the recipe for this on http://everydaypaleo.com/ and the Paleo Recipe book. Enjoy!

Ingredients
serves 2-3
Balsamic chicken
2 chicken breasts (each cut in half long way)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of crushed garlic
2 ½ tbsp wholegrain mustard

Braised cabbage with bacon
1 cup chicken stock
3 slices bacon, cut up into bite size pieces
thyme
½ medium green cabbage, finely sliced
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse off your chicken breasts and season both sides with salt and pepper. Put them in a plastic bag and add the balsamic, extra virgin olive oil, mustard and garlic. Close up the bag and massage the chicken in the bag to ensure it all gets coated evenly. Put in the fridge and let marinade for as long as you want; the longer the better. Fry on medium heat in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil and brown on both sides. Once brown; turn down the heat, add a bit of the marinade, cover with a lid and let reduce it down. Make sure to stir occasionally and cook until the chicken is no longer pink on the inside.
Bring the chicken stock, bacon and thyme to a boil in a pot. Add the cabbage, boil for 5 minutes and then reduce to a simmer until the cabbage is just tender. Add some extra stock during the simmering process if it seems to have reduced too much. Add the butter, salt and pepper.

Breakfast bake

I wanted to try something else to have for breakfast other than the usual eggs and bacon or pancakes. So I found this recipe which we decided to try; Paleo Breakfast Bake. I put a little bit of whatever I had at home in it.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
6 eggs
3 beef sausages
3 slices bacon
1 onion
½ capsicum
1 tsp paprika powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Fry off the sausages and the bacon for a couple of minutes. Let them cool.
Put all ingredients in a bowl (including the sausages and bacon) and fold gently to combine everything.
Pour into a greased oven-proof dish.
Bake for 45 minutes.

Lunch omelet

We had some veggies in the fridge that were getting old so I decided to just throw together a quick omelet for lunch.

Ingredients
serves 1
3 eggs
4 paksoi stems and leaves
½ red capsicum
½ leek
2-3 slices of parmaham
salt and pepper

Fry off the leek and capsicum in some olive oil for about three minutes. Add the paksoi and fry for another couple of minutes. Add the parmaham last and just let it fry togehter for a minute or two. Turn the heat off. Whisk together the three eggs and season with salt and pepper. Add this to a pan greased with a bit of olive oil and fry on low heat. When omelet is almost set on the top, flip it over and add your veggies on one half of the omelet. Let it fry for a couple of minutes, then fold it in half and transfer to a plate.

Chicken with parma ham and avocado sauce

Found this recipe on tasteline.se. As usual I've modified the recipe a bit. Mostly because I don't like anchovies or parmesan cheese which was in the original recipe. Perfect for a Friday night treat.

Ingredients
serves 4
4 chicken fillets
1½ tsp paprika powder
1½ tsp herbs
2 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
100 g parma ham
500 g cherry tomatoes

2 garlic cloves
½ lemon, peel and juice
2 avocados
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
Cut the chicken fillets into three slices lenghtwise. Mix the garlic, paprika powder and herbs. Add the olive oil, salt and pepper. Rub the chicken with the spice mix. Place them in an ovenproof dish. Shred the ham and put on top. Cut the tomatoes in half and place around the edges in the dish. Bake for 25 minutes in the oven.
For making the sauce or dressing; crush the garlic cloves and mix it with the lemon juice and peel. Cut the avocados in pieces and add this to the garlic and lemon together with the olive oil. Blend together with a hand mixer until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with lettuce leaves.

Bacon wrapped cod with roasted veggies

Ok, this combination might seem a bit weird but it did actually work quite well together.

Ingredients
serves 2
1 red capsicum
1 green capsicum
1 small zucchini
1 eggplant
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
dried basil
dried rosemary
salt and pepper
2 pieces of cod
8 pieces of bacon
pepper

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees,
Finely chopped the onion and garlic. Cut the capsicums, eggplant and zucchini in big pieces.
Put the onion and garlic in an oven proof dish together with the olive oil. Put in the oven for about 5 minutes.
Take out and add the other veggies together with salt, pepper, basil and rosemary. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Put pepper on the top of the cod. Wrap each piece of cod in four pieces of bacon. Put in an oven proof dish and cook in the oven for 10 minutes.

Zucchini, bacon and corn fritters

Fritters is one of my personal favourites. They don't take that long and you can vary it with putting in whatever you like. I was planning on doing the original recipe with flour but I realized when I got home that we didn't not have any flour. So instead I made these flourless fritters which are actually just as good.

Ingredients
(serves 2-3 people)
1 zucchini, grated (about 2 cups when grated)
1 onion, finely chopped
100 g bacon, chopped into cube size
200 gram canned corn, drained
3 eggs
1 tbsp coconut flour
salt and pepper

Fry off the onion and bacon for a few minutes. Beat the eggs and sift in the coconut flour. Add the zucchini, bacon, onion and corn to the eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan and add some butter and fry about 10 cm big fritters. Serve with a nice salad.

Chicken wrapped in bacon

I'm back! After a quick little getaway to Sweden, where we had all kinds of yummy things, I am now back to continue with the challenge for another two weeks. Today I made a recipe from the Paleo Diet Recipe book again (this is where I find most of my inspiration). I modified it a little bit myself.

Ingredients
(serves 2)
2 large chicken breast fillets; cut in half to make slightly smaller pieces
2 large leeks; sliced
olive oil
thyme (fresh or dried)
butter
7 slices of bacon
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. In a bowl, place the chicken breasts, the leek slices, thyme, a few knobs of butter, a splash olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix everything together well. Line the bottom of a baking dish with a sheet of aluminium paper that’s a bit larger than the dish, to get some loose ends. Place the leek mixture on the bottom of the dish. Wrap each chicken breast in 2 slices of bacon, or as many slices so it covers the chicken fillet. Place the chicken on top of the leeks. Pour some more olive oil and knobs of butter here and there and place some thyme on top. Close up the loose ends of the aluminium paper over the uncovered leeks and chicken so they don’t burn. Cook in the middle of the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, then take off the top parts of the aluminium paper and turn the oven on grill mode. Cook for another 5 minutes or until the chicken is wellcooked. Serve with a nice fresh salad.

Oven roasted veggies with chicken

I had nothing planned for this evening but I had a look in the freezer and I found a chicken fillet and some bacon pieces. So I decided to do something quite easy.

Ingredients
1 carrot
1 parsnip
½ a fennel
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 chicken fillet
100 g bacon pieces
paprika powder
cayenne pepper
garlic powder
salt and pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Cut the vegetables into bite size chunks. Put them all in an oven proof dish and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add the olive oil and mix around. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through.
Cut the chicken into pieces. Sprinkle some paprika and cayenne powder and mix around. Let sit for a few minutes. Fry the bacon pieces in a frying pan (no need to add cooking fat). After a couple of minutes add the chicken pieces and fry until the chicken is cooked. Serve with some salad.

Paleo Pizza

Last night we decided to have pizza for dinner, Paleo pizza. Truth be told, we were a little bit sceptic to it when we made it but in the end it was actually quite good. The dough is not really like normal pizza dough but it reminds me more of a pie crust. However, the flavour i good and it's all up to you what you want to put on it. Here is ours. Recipe found on: http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-pizza/

Ingredients
(serves 4)
½ cup coconut flour
1 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp garlic powder
4 eggs
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup coconut milk


Toppings:
Pizza sauce mixed with our homemade BBQ sauce
Beef sausage
Bacon
Capsicum
Onion
Atichoke hearts

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees. Start by preparing the crust. Mix together the wet ingredients with an elecric whisk in a smaller bowl. In a large bowl, combine the coconut flour, almond meal, baking powder and garlic powder. To try to eliminate any clumping, start mixing in the wet ingredients. Continue to whisk, because it helps prevent the dry ingredients from clumping. You will reach a point when your whisk becomes useless and your hands are necessary in order to get rid of the lumps, generally when the mixture starts forming a batter. The batter will seem really soft and much different in texture than the usual pizza dough, but once cooked it will take the right form. On a well greased and rimmed pan, pour in the batter and spread it until it’s covering the complete surface. It’s important to use a rimmed pan so the batter doesn’t spill off. Throw just the crust in the oven and allow it to bake alone for 15-20 minutes.

Start preparing your toppings by frying the sausage and the bacon. Once cooked, cut into pieces. Dress the pizza crust, when done, by starting with the tomato sauce, then the meat, the artichoke and last the uncooked capsicum and onion. Top off with some garlic powder and dried oregano.

Omelet muffins

The most difficult thing for me with Paleo style food is the breakfast. I don't usually have much time in the mornings and I really don't feel like eating eggs and bacon every day. So I found this recipe of omelet muffins in the Paleo recipe book (http://paleodietlifestyle.com) which I thought sounded interesting. It sounds like a perfect thing to just heat up quickly in the morning before work.

Ingredients
(makes 6 muffins)
6 eggs
½ cup chopped bacon
½ cup finely diced green capsicum
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1/8 cup mayonnaise
1/8 cup water
salt and pepper to taste


Preheat your oven to 175 degrees. Grease 6 muffin tins with cooking fat. Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the bacon, bell peppers, water, mayonnaise and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Combine well. Scoop the mixture evenly in the 6 muffin tins and bake in the middle of the oven for about 18 minutes, until a knife inserted in the muffins comes out almost clean. Remove from the oven, let cool a bit, remove from the muffin tray and enjoy or store in the refrigerator for later.

Gratin with ham and root vegetables

And here we go again...another gratin. As I mentioned before though; it's so easy and so tasty. This original recipe was with pasta but I decided to go easy on the carbs and do it without pasta. Turns out it works without pasta as well. If you want pasta though, you can lower the amount of celeriac and add some pasta.

Ingredients
250 g carrots
500 celeriac
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
200 g ham
2 dl parsley
1½ dl cream
1 dl grated cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
Grate the carrots and the celeriac coarsely. Chop the onoin and the garlic. Fry off the carrots, celeriac, onion and garlic in some olive oil. Add the ham, cream, parsley, salt and pepper and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Place the mix in a ovenproof dish and add the cheese on top. Place in the oven and bake in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes.

TIP!
While the gratin was in the oven I managed to do the below short but intense workout. Only takes 5 minutes.

20 Two-legged Glute activation raises

15 Flying Dog on each side

50 Kettlebell swing (use heavy weights)