Cold Paleo porridge

I'm a person who gets bored quite easily with dishes. I try to come up with new things to have so that I don't have to eat the same thing everyday. Breakfast is one of the more difficult one to come up with and the thing with breakfast is that it can't take too long to make during weekdays. So I found this recipe on http://undervarttak.blogspot.se once again.

Ingredients
serves 2
100 ml almonds
100 ml dessicated coconut
1 tbsp linsseed meal
200 ml coconut milk
100 ml water
1 tsp vanilla powder
100 ml blueberries

Put the almonds in a food processor and chop coarsely. Mix the coconut milk and water in a bowl. Pour in the chopped almonds, coconut, linsseed, vanilla powder and stir.
Pour the mixture in a jar with a lid and put the blue berries on top. Put the lid on and keep in the fridge over night to let it thicken a bit.

Crisp bread with seeds

So this is another recipe from http://undervarttak.blogspot.se/
It's super simple and super tasty. We had it with some butter, ham and cheese and it was good.

Ingredients
2 eggs
100 ml sesame seeds
100 ml pumpkin seeds
100 ml sunflower seeds
50 ml poppy seeds
sea salt

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Whip the eggs lightly in a bowl. Add all the seeds and mix around.
Spread the mixture thinly on an oven tray prepared with some baking paper.
Sprinkle over some sea salt and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
When ready, take out of the oven and break into pieces.
Place the pieces on the oven rack and let them dry in the after-heat of the oven with the oven door slightly open. Store in a dry place.

Meatballs

I found this great Swedish blog/website which has lots of great Paleo recipes: http://undervarttak.blogspot.se/. They put up traditional Swedish things that they've made Paleo versions of which I think is great.

I've already made a few recipes from their website which I will post a bit later on. I found the recipe for meatballs today and I decided to make some for lunch. I modified the spices a bit since I didn't have any all spice at home. I got about 18 meatballs but it all depends on how big you make them I guess. I made mine quite medium sized I think.

Ingredients
500 g mince meat
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp dijon mustard
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp paprika powder
1½ tsp salt
½ tsp cracked black pepper
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley (or as much as you prefer)
1½ tbsp butter for frying

Put the mince meat in a bowl. Finely chop the onion and garlic, either by hand or using a food processor. Add the onion and garlic to the mince and mix around thoroughly with your hands. When mixed well, add the dijon, spices and parsley. Mix once again until completely combined. Roll the mince meat mix into round balls. Fry them in the butter on medium heat for about 8 minutes or until cooked through.

Pesto prawn pasta

So I made pesto as you could see in the previous recipe but I didn't quite know what to use it for so I made up this recipe (with inspiration from a Jamie Oliver recipe) which turned out really well.

Ingredients
serves 2
1 onion, diced
1 capsicum, diced
200 g prawns
1 tbsp white wine
2 tbsp chicken stock
3 tbsp pesto
2 medium sized zucchinis, julienned
1 handful mixed lettuce leaves (or just ruccola is fine as well)
salt and pepper to taste
pine nuts
butter to cook with

Start off by making the zucchini pasta. Follow everything except for the last step; sauteing them in olive oil.

Chop up your veggies while the zucchini is draining.
Heat up a pan on medium heat and add the butter. When hot, add in the onion and saute for about 3 minutes. Add the capsicum and saute for another 2 minutes. Add in the wine and the chicken stock and let it simmer for about 5 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated. Add the prawns and let them fry for 3 minutes, until they are almost cooked through. Then add the pesto and mix around so that everything is covered with pesto. Add the zucchini pasta, mix through carefully and heat up for a couple of minutes. Last, add the lettuce and mix through. Season with salt and pepper and serve with some toasted pine nuts.

Paleo pesto

I'm usually not a big fan of pesto because of the Parmesan but I found this very simple recipe in the Paleo Recipe Book without cheese.

Ingredients
makes approximately 250 ml
500 ml packed fresh basil leaves
120 ml good quality extra-virgin olive oil
80 ml pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the basil, garlic and nuts in a food processor and pulse until everything is chopped. Then add the olive oil and pulse again until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

As simple as that!

Korean beef, vegetable and noodle bowl

This is one of our new favourite recipes and we'll probably make it again pretty soon. The recipe comes from http://www.primalpalate.com
We used soy sauce instead of coconut aminos since it's a bit tricky to find here.

Ingredients
serves 6
1 tbsp oil/butter
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 red capsicum, thinly sliced
1 cup Chinese cabbage, thinly sliced
3 carrot, julienned
240 ml mushrooms, sliced, loosely packed
1 tbsp ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
80 ml coconut aminos
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 bunch kelp noodles
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
2 lb rump steak, thinly slice

In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium heat.
Add the broccoli and capsicum to the skillet and saute for 5 minutes.
Add the carrot and cabbage to the skillet and saute for another 3 minutes.
Add the garlic, ginger, and mushrooms, and continue to saute until mushrooms are soft.
Pour the coconut aminos over the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, and continue to saute for 3 more minutes.
Add the kelp noodles and spring onion, and stir to combine. Cook the kelp noodles for 3 minutes, and then transfer the vegetables into a separate bowl.
Turn the skillet up to medium high heat, and in small batches sear the flank steak on either side for 1-2 minutes, or until browned.
Place the cooked batches of steak into the bowl with the vegetables as they finish.
Once you have seared all of the steak, turn the burner down to low heat, and transfer the beef and vegetables back into the skillet.
Stir to combine all ingredients, turn the heat off, and season with a splash of toasted sesame oil if desired for flavor.
Plate the dish, garnishing with sesame seeds and additional green onion if desired.

Paleo Bread

I reckon the most difficult thing to for me to give up with the Paleo lifestyle is bread. I love a nice warm bread roll with lots of butter. I'm from Sweden so I've grown up with bread every morning and something for dinner as well. So when I found this recipe i was very excited. I was hoping that it was going to come out slightly fluffier, mine was quite dense. Still tastes really good though so give it a go. Found the recipe on: http://www.paleoeffect.com

Ingredients

1 loaf

355 ml arrowroot powder

240 ml linsseed meal

4 eggs

4 egg whites

4 tbsp walnut oil

2 tsp sea salt

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Coconut oil to grease the bread loaf pan

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

Combine all dry ingredients. Then mix the wet ingredients together and add them to the dry until thoroughly incorporated. Grease a bread loaf pan with the oil pour in the batter. Bake the loaf for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Asian chicken soup

When it's winter and cold and dark outside there's nothing better than a quick delicious warming soup for a weekday dinner. To be quite honest though, it's not really that cold here so that you necessarily need it but sometimes it's just nice. That's why I made this soup during the week. I got the recipe from http://onceamonthmom.com

Ingredients
serves 4
1 tbsp coconut oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1½ tbsp ginger, peeled and minced
500 g chicken (cooked and shredded)
1,2 l chicken stock
2 tbsp coconut aminos (or a good soy sauce)
2 small carrots, sliced with a vegetable peeler
3-4 bok choy "heads", stalk thinly sliced
10 cm leek, thinly sliced
1 tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed

Heat a large pot on medium-high heat. Add coconut oil, garlic and ginger. Sauté for about 30 seconds.
Add shredded chicken and cook until golden brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and coconut aminos (soy sauce). Bring to a boil then add carrots, leek and bok choy. Cook until bok choy is tender, about 2–3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice.

Very simple and very delicious.

Roast pork with balsamic braised cabbage

As I mentioned before the weather today was a real autumny day with rain and wind. So we decided to have a roast for dinner. We wanted to have brussel sprouts with it but we forgot to by them and we are extremely lazy so we didn't want to go the whole 500 metres to the supermarket. However, pork roast need some kind of cabbage as a side dish and we had red cabbage at home. So braised red cabbage is what we had. Pork recipe is taken from http://paleoparents.com and the cabbage recipe we found at http://recipes.sparkpeople.com. We served it with roasted sweet potato and pumpkin and made a jus with the pork juices.

Ingredients
about 2 kilos of pork roast
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ red cabbage head, thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter
80 ml balsamic vinegar
2 pinches of stevia
salt and pepper to taste 

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Combine the garlic, salt, pepper, onion powder and cayenne, then rub the mixture over all the sides of the roast. Put on an oven tray and roast in the oven for about 90 minutes, or until 73 degrees inside the meat using a meat thermometer. Take out and let it rest for about 10 minutes

Melt the butter in a pot on medium heat. Add the cabbage and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the stevia and toss until completely mixed. Add the balsamic vinegar and turn the heat down to medium-low and cook covered for about 30 minutes. Make sure you stir it every 10 minutes so that it doesn't get burnt or stuck. Season with salt and pepper.

Protein snack balls

I always struggle with easy and healthy snacks to take to work. I always end up with either carrot sticks, a banana or a few nuts. I'm getting a bit bored with it so I decided to make something which is very easy to just take with you and they will ease your cravings and hunger for a little bit longer. I found the recipe for these on http://healthyyumyum.com.au.

Ingredients

makes about 15 balls

360 ml raw almonds

2 tbsp protein powder

2 tbsp raw cacao powder

12 fresh dates, pitted

1 tsp vanilla powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Water and/or coconut oil

Ground almonds and shredded coconut

Add the almonds, protein powder, cacao and cinnamon to the food processor and blend until a crumbly mixture. Add in the dates, vanilla and process again. Then slowly add a small amount of water or coconut oil and blend so the mixture comes together. Roll about 2 tbsp of mixture into a ball, then roll in a mixture of coconut and ground almonds. Store covered in the fridge.

Lemon and poppy seed muffins

So the weather this morning was the worst I've ever seen since I moved here I think. It was pouring down rain and extremely windy. I thought it would be a perfect day for a day in the kitchen. However, when I started baking my muffins the sun decided to come out and I immediately felt guilty for being inside. I went on an made my muffins anyway though and they were super-duper-delicious!
I got the recipe from delightedmomma.com.

Ingredients
makes 12
140 ml coconut flour
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla powder
60 ml melted coconut oil
2 medium sized lemons, juiced
80 ml honey
½ tsp of baking soda
zest from 2 lemons
2 tbsp of poppy seeds

Preheat the oven to 165 degrees Celsius. Line a muffin pan.
In a large bowl mix together eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice. Melt the coconut oil and honey together and pour this into the egg mixture.  Mix everything together.
In a separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients. Slowly add them into the wet ingredients while mixing. Fill each muffin tray with about 60 ml of batter
Bake in the middle of the oven for 22 minutes.