Category Archives: Meat

Cooking on the fly (Paleo Coconut Ginger Beef)

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Beef, Meat, Paleo Recipes, Vegetables

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Okay first we have to get the following rant out of the way:

GO AWAY WINTER!!!!!

No seriously, please go away. Your persistent winter storms have left us feeling down right depressed and your teasing of the few hours of sun you’ve shined on us has done nothing but practically left us in tears over the long awaited Spring that still seems so.far.away.

Man, it’s been tough. Really tough. Make you cry like a big baby tough. Make you want to eat frozen pizzas, tubs of ice cream and hunker under the covers until the first sign of Spring literally pops up on your front lawn.

Except we can’t see the lawn because it’s been covered in snow for almost 4 months straight.

Okay, rants over and with the recent Daylight Savings time change we are feeling a little more optimistic that Spring is in fact just around the corner.

(Thank goodness).

Back to business.

Cooking on the fly. How many times have you opened up the fridge only to find a few vegetables and pretty much nothing else? That happened to us. Busy week. Weekly shopping won’t happen for another day or two. We found ourselves in kind of kerfuffle…

So we took thawed a pot roast and threw those veggies together to make this Coconut Ginger Beef. Literally cooking on the fly.

Paleo Coconut ginger beef

And it was delish!

Paleo Coconut Ginger Beef

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs of beef (we used a pot roast)
  • 1 Large Broccoli Stalk (cut into floret sizes – and use the stalk!)
  • 2 Large Peppers or 4 Small Sweet Peppers (sliced thin)
  • Thumb Size Ginger (peeled and chopped)
  • Garlic (peeled and chopped) – we used 6 cloves. Adjust accordingly]
  • 1 Tbsp FoC (Fat of Choice)
  • Sprinkle of Shredded Coconut

The sauce:

  • 1/2 cup wheat free soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp Fish Oil
  • 2 tsp Sriracha sauce (adjust accordingly)

Put the ingredients together for the sauce so that you can adjust the amount of sriracha you want to use. We like things with a kick and probably could have used a little more. Set aside.

Now the really nice thing about this recipe is this: almost any vegetable that you have will be good. Carrots, celery, peas, onion, brussels sprouts, cabbage, green beans….If it’s in your fridge it will probably work. So get creative. Remember to #eattherainbow! Prep your veggies before you prep your beef. Food safety and cross contamination are important things to keep in mind when you’re in your kitchen. Set aside.

Cut your beef into thin strips

In large saute pan or wok, add fat of choice (we use rendered bacon fat) on med-high heat then add garlic/ginger and saute for about 30 seconds (just until the garlic browns). Turn stove top down to med heat and add beef. Continue to saute about 5 minutes making sure beef is cooked to a medium rare (more / less depending on your preference).

Add veggies. Saute another minute or two.

Add sauce. Bring to slight boil. Then turn down heat to a simmer and leave for another 5 minutes.

When you’re ready to serve, sprinkle with shredded coconut.

Enjoy!

~Now that’s good eatin’ Folks!

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Ode to Fall (Curried Roasted Sugar Pumpkin and Sausage)

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Meat, Paleo Recipes, recipes, squash

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A Haiku:

How We Love Thee Fall

Pumpkins, Leaves, Cold Clear Crisp Days

Get In Your Kitchen!

Fall is deep upon us. Having to throw an extra blanket on the bed and donning the slippers before trying to find your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night, can only mean one thing: WINTER SQUASHES ARE HERE!!!!!

Oh man, we love our squashes. We’re venturing out a little and trying our hand at new squashes this year too. We’ve already tried a Sweet Mama squash (in the Kabocha family) and are eyeing a few others too as the nights get colder and we look for those healthier comfort foods.

Below is the recipe that will not only bring tons of comfort to your belly but it’s looks pretty amazing with the deep orange pumpkin and the wilted spinach mixed in. The fun thing about this recipe is you can change it up in so many ways just using the three basic ingredients: Squash, Sausage and Spinach. Try a different squash. Try a different Sausage. Try a different leafy green. Mix up your spices and BAM BAM BAM a totally new creation!

(oh looky there it’s a one picture recipe again!)

pumpkin and italian sausage

Enjoy!

Paleo Curried Roasted Sugar Pumpkin and Italian Sausage

Ingredients:

  • 1 Sugar Pumpkin (seeded, peeled and cubed)
  • 1 lb Favorite Sausage (we used spicy Italian – remove casings)
  • 4 Cloves of Garlic (more or less depending on your taste buds)
  • 4 Cups Spinach
  • 1 Tsp Curry Paste
  • 1 Tsp Olive Oil (to lightly coat squash prior to roasting)

Preheat oven to 350F

This is seriously a super easy recipe. No seriously. Easy Peasy. It’s even easier if you don’t feel like peeling the sugar pumpkin first. You can just cut it in half, remove seeds then roast (flat half down) until fork can poke through the skin. When we cook a squash we tend to remove the outer shell first. If you cut the skin off, then cube, lightly coat with olive oil and roast until tender (about 20-30 minutes depending on oven). Halfway through the roasting process add the cloves of garlic and finish roasting.

While pumpkin is roasting, remove casings from sausage and in saute pan cook thoroughly on medium heat.

Here’s where timing gets a little tricky. We all want to eat hot foods during the colder months so the best way to do this is: Begin roasting. When you add the garlic cloves to roasting pumpkin, then start sausage.

About the time the sausage is done, so will the pumpkin. Remove sausage from saute pan but leave the delicious drippings (if you save fat for future cooking then remove half and save) otherwise dispose of half. Turn down burner to low and wilt spinach slightly in remaining sausage drippings.

In food processor add sweet pumpkin (if you roasted it in half you MUST remove the skin first), garlic, and curry paste. Pulse until mashed to your preference. Add spinach and pulse just a few times to mix.

Plate sausage in mound (did we just say mound???) and top with amazing curried pumpkin. Eat like it’s going out of style then head back to your favorite farmer’s market or store for more winter squashes because the possibilities are endless!

~ Now that’s good eatin folks!

Paleo Coconut Curry Chicken…

02 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by in Chicken, Meat, Paleo Recipes, recipes, Stew, Vegetables

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Summer is coming to a close. Leaves are quickly turning those lovely deep oranges and reds that we love so much as we meander in our neighborhood trying to get the walks in that we miss so much during the winter months.

The seasons change pretty quickly around here. One day you’re planning a big barbecue, throwing the frisbee around outdoors and lathering on that suntan lotion and the next day you’re putting on your hoodie, pulling out your rainboots and thinking about when you’re going to need to make the winter tire appointment.

It also means that local foods around here change. Root veggies become the predominate staple and instead of those big old summer salads you begin to think about hearty stews that warm your insides.

This is one of those hearty stews. We found this little recipe over at Nom Nom Paleo and as usual changed things up according to what we had and what we like. The recipe below is a little larger than most recipes because when we cook we’re also thinking about lunches for the coming work week. Change amounts according to what you need but seriously it’s better to have more and cook less if you ask us!

Enjoy!

Coconut Curry Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts (or thighs),
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil or fat of choice
  • 2 large onion, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons Thai curry paste
  • 1 can coconut milk (full fat is preferable)
  • Lots of veggies ( we used asparagus/sugar peas/peppers)
  • Garlic, minced (we used 8 cloves)
  • Spices according to your likes (we used chili powder/paprika/salt/pepper)
  • Zucchini (optional – used for “noodles”

The players

As usual, you want to think about food handling safety while prepping so it’s better to prep veggies THEN prep chicken.

Veggies

cute bowl

*** Side Note: A friend of ours gave us some stuff to sell at an upcoming yard sale and we found this cool bowl in with the goodies. Yhea, not gonna lie, we’re totally keeping it for ourselves***

Once you’ve cut your chicken into desired size, you want to add your spices. Again, in the Martin/Dowe household we do love a little spice in our life:

  • 2 Tbsp Chili powder
  • 1 Tbsp paprika
  • A little Salt
  • A lot of pepper

Chicken...

Heat up your coconut oil (or FoC) in saucepan or wok and cook chicken thoroughly. Remove from pan and set aside…

mmmmmm chicken...

Once removed, add garlic to pan or wok and saute for a minute or two…

garlic...

Add veggies of choice and saute. Don’t over cook. Keep them crunchy!

veggies!

While veggies are in the saucepan/wok, mix coconut milk and curry paste together in separate bowl. Add sauce to veggies and return chicken to pan. Turn down the heat and let simmer…

Now if you’re adding the zucchini as a base this is where you want to make your “noodles”. We have this really handy grater:

"noodles"

You can also use mandolin and slice thin or use practice your knife skills and do it by hand. In separate saucepan heat up a little coconut oil/FoC and saute the “noodles”…BE CAREFUL and don’t over cook. These little strings of deliciousness only take a minute to heat up. After that they turn to mush…

noodles

Serve and Enjoy!

Paleo Coconut Curry Chicken

We only cooked enough “noodles” for the one meal. If you want to stretch this out a little you can add quinoa as a base (which by the way if freaking amazing with the coconut curry sauce!).

We were able to get one meal and 4 lunches out of the whole shebang!

~Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Where the hell is Spring? (Paleo Spicy Pineapple Stuffed Burgers)

23 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Beef, Burgers, Meat, Paleo Recipes, Pork, recipes, Sweet potatoes

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No seriously, where the hell is Spring?

This time last year it was hovering around 20C (for our American friends that’s around 68F). The first day of Spring here in Halifax saw a dumping of about 15cm of snow (just under 6″) and then another few centimeters this morning.

We have our eyes set on the budding trees around our neighborhood and are so looking forward to warmer days (and by warmer we mean above 5C [40F]). We’re on our official two week staycation (this is day 3). We had hoped for some road trips down to the states to see friends but alas(!) we’re still waiting for that ever frustrating permanent residency card and don’t want to take the chance of crossing the border without it!

So instead we’re working out hard, cooking up some freaking fantastic foods and literally checking out every movie we can get our hands on at the library (yes, we’re that geeky)!

Normally it takes us a bit of time to go from testing a recipe to actually posting it but today we couldn’t resist getting this one out as soon as possible. The original recipe was found over at PaleOMG and can we just take a moment to say how much we dig Juli. Her recipes are always TO DIE FOR (okay maaaaaaybe not die for but you get the picture) and the words she throws down on her blog are always good for a laugh and an “oh man do I get it”. If you haven’t checked her out, do so and then get in your kitchen and try out this recipe.

As always we made some changes according to our tastes and what was available in our kitchen. Don’t be afraid to mess around with what you like / don’t like for this one. You really can’t eff up a burger no matter how hard you try (unless you have and then we’d like to hear about it!)

Enjoy!

Paleo Spicy Pineapple Stuffed Burgers

This made 5 good sized burgers and were about 390 calories each (not including avocado)

Start to table time about an hour (because of sweet potato fries)

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb Ground Meat (we used pork for this)
  • 3 Sausages (the large kind like from the butcher – we used a nice spicy sausage from our favorite butcher Jess over at Highland Drive Storehouse), casings off.
  • 1 C Crushed Pineapple (canned is okay but we used fresh and “crushed” ourselves)
  • 1 Tbsp Cumin
  • 1 Tsp Paprika
  • Pinch of Cayenne
  • 2 avocados
  • Juice from 1/2 Lemon
  • 1 Tsp Coconut Oil
  • Fat of Choice

Now if you want to make sweet potato fries to go with you’ll want to take care of those first…who doesn’t want sweet potato fries for Pete’s sake!

SAM_1515

If you don’t know how to make them, go HERE!

If you do make them a good way to know when to begin cooking your burgers is to begin when the fries have been turned and are halfway finished. So time wise you should do this: Start fries. While fries cook first round, make burgers (wash your hands after!). Flip fries. While fries cook second round begin grilling / cooking burgers. While burgers cook, puree avocados…everything should finish up about the same time!

Okay back to the recipe!

The players

In small saute pan add coconut oil, pineapple and 1/3 of your cumin (1 tsp). Saute for about 3 – 4 minutes (the juice from the pineapple should cook off). Set aside and cool.

Pineapple

In mixing bowl add your ground meat, sausage (casings off!) and spices. Mix thoroughly. If you have a kitchen weigh this will come in right handy for making 1/4 lb patties (for a total of 10). It’s probably more space conscious to make 5 and keep the rest of the ground meat off to the side until your ready to put together.

With your “bottom” patty ready, divide pineapple evenly.

burgers getting ready...

(Are we the only ones that thought this looked like a tongue?)

Now form the top halves of your burgers and seal. Pinch edges together and when you think you’ve got it, pinch again just to make sure. The more you do this the better the burgers will stay together! You can salt side up for a more crispy burger but that is a personal preference.

(are you ready to flip fries?)

When all burgers are complete, heat up a little FoC (around 2 – 3 tsps) in large saute / frying pan (or if you have a grill get that bad boy ready. Apparently we’re the only people in Canada that don’t own a grill and we are missing out something serious!) and place burgers, salt down, and cook on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes. Salt top portion of burgers and flip, cooking again for 4-5 minutes until done.

For the Avocado puree:

Cut avocados in half, remove pits and scoop into food processor. Add lemon juice and puree until smooth.

SAM_1521

(Before)
SAM_1523

(After)

When burgers are thoroughly cooked, top with avocado puree and dig in!

Paleo Spicy Pineapple Stuffed Burger

instagram finished

We love Instagraming the hell out of our foods!

Oh and if you’re wondering what to do with any left over burgers you may have, may we suggest the following:

instagram finished 2

Yhea, that happened (and will happen again real soon!)

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

95/5; Paleo Thai Pork and Noodles.

21 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in Meat, Paleo Recipes, Pork, recipes, squash

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95/5

That’s our Paleo Food Foundation.

It’s not perfect and we don’t confess to being perfect. What we do confess to is trying to be as conscious about the foods we eat and the moving we do in order to feel strong, look strong and all around kick the ever living ass out of this life.

Many times we’ll post a recipe or picture of something we make and inevitably someone will point out that “such and such” can’t be Paleo by Paleo standards.

Sometimes Vegetarians eat meat/fish.

Sometimes Vegans eat cheese/eggs.

Sometimes a Paleo follower will use an ingredient that contains xantham gum.

It’s not the end of the world.

One of the things we can’t give up right now is our Sriracha Sauce. It pretty much rocks the socks off our feet and if we could tip back that beautiful rooster and digest the entire bottle, we would.

We also haven’t given up the occasional beer and pizza fest at one of our favorite hang outs. We are still Paleo. It’s a food foundation that we strongly believe in and just because it’s not iron clad, to the T, oh my god we just hunted down our very own grass fed moose out in the woods of Alaska we are still Paleo.

That being said; we did just found a Paleo recipe for Sriracha that you can bet your sweet rooster socks we’ll be trying!

The recipe below is for Thai Pork and noodles. The noodles of course is the delicious innards of a spaghetti squash (which we can’t seem to get enough of these days). The original recipe was found over at PaleOMG. Very little was changed. Make this once and it will be added to your list of “favorite” recipes. We liked it so much the first time, we made it again two days later and doubled the recipe so there would be plenty of left overs for lunch.

The great thing about this recipe is the ability to change it up to your liking: Change the meat, add seafood, omit the sriracha, add chili powder, throw in lots of veggies…you name it, it will probably work with this recipe!

Enjoy!

Paleo Thai Pork and Noodles

Total prep/cook time; about 45 minutes start to finish. Serves 2-3 (unless you eat smaller portions or serve with additional sides then 4)

Ingredients;

  • 1 medium spaghetti squash
  • 1lb chopped pork
  • 1 yellow onion,  chopped
  • 2 tablespoons FoC (Fat of Choice – we used rendered bacon fat)
  • Garlic, minced (we used 5 large cloves)
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced
  • 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup almond butter
  • 2 Tbsp wheat free soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp siracha chili sauce
  • 1 tsp fish sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp ginger, minced
  • 1/2 tsp curry powder or curry paste

The players

(As an after thought to this picture we decided to add the green beans)

green beans!

The key to cooking proficiently is to know in what order to prepare your food. For this it’s easier (and safer food handling wise) to 1) start the spaghetti squash 2) make the sauce 3) cut your veggies 4) slice the pork.

Spaghetti Squash: preheat oven to 425F. Cut squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Place face down on cookie sheet and bake for about 25-30 minutes (when you can stick a fork easily in the skin it’s done). While this is cooking move on to the rest of the prep work.

Sauce: Combine coconut milk, lemon juice, fish oil, sriracha, soy sauce, sesame oil and curry paste and mix thoroughly. Keep the almond butter separate as it won’t mix well until heated.

Veggies and pork: remember cut veggies first then pork (helpful hint: the thinner sliced the pork the more tender it will be when finished).

veggies and pork

In a large skillet/wok over medium heat, add your FoC, onions, green beans and ginger.

Onions, ginger and green beansAfter a few minutes add your pork and cook thoroughly.

Pork

Once pork is cooked, turn heat down to low and add sauce and almond butter. The almond butter will heat up and blend really nicely with the sauce (helpful hint: if sauce thickens you can add almond milk to thin) . Simmer until Spaghetti Squash is ready.

Simmering

When spaghetti squash is done, remove from oven and very carefully (cause it’s HOT!) separate “noodles” from shell. Then mix directly into sauce.

spaghetti squash in sauce

Mix well and serve!

Paleo Thai Pork and Noodles

We garnished with grated carrots and green onion. You can garnish with whatever you’re little heart desires. Almond slices, thin strips of basil or cucumber slices on the side would work well.

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Stuffed Acorn squash (with Slow cooker apple pulled pork)

07 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in Meat, Paleo Recipes, Pork, recipes, Slow Cooker, squash

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We are buckling down for a winter storm about to hit the area…

They predict upwards to 30 – 40 cm (~15in for our American friends) over late Friday and all day Saturday. That may put a damper on a race that Tara should be running this weekend (Hype Half Marathon) but it won’t put a damper on the good foods we’ll be cooking up this weekend in preparation watching the winter wonderland from our apartment.

The last of the winter squashes are in season right now and we’ve been taking full advantage of the bounty. Our freezer is stocked full of soups ready to be had during these cold winter nights and we’re always looking for ways of incorporating squash into our more hearty meals.

This recipe was originally found over at Paleo in PDX but we took it one step further by slow cooking pulled pork for the stuffing instead the sausage used in the original recipe. Took less prep time since we set the slow cooker in the morning and by the time we got home from work we just had to pop the acorn squash in the oven.

If you live in the States or Canada and are getting ready for the snow storm; stay safe, eat well and make a snow angel for us!

Enjoy!

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Slow cooker apple pulled pork

Ingredients:

  • Acorn squash 
  • 1 lb Pork Loin
  • 1/4 c Shallots (optional)
  • 2 Apples, chopped
  • 1 Med Onion, chopped
  • 1 tsp Dried Basil
  • 1/2 tsp Cumin
  • 1/2 tsp Paprika
  • 2 C Spinach (optional)
  • Garlic (we used 8 cloves), minced
  • FoC (Fat of Choice)
  • Salt / Pepper to taste

The players

For stuffing: cut onion, apples, shallots and garlic and place half on the bottom of slow cooker, layer with Pork loin then add spices then top with remaining onion, apple, shallot and garlic.

Onion, shallot, apple and garlic. spices

layer with apples, onions, shallots and garlic then porklayer with rest of apples, onions, garlic and shallots

Cook on low for 6 – 8 hours or until cooked thoroughly.

About 60 minutes before you’re ready to eat, prepare and cook the acorn squash. Cut in half and remove seeds. Place face down in glass baking dish with a bit of water and cook in oven for 45 minutes. Flip and cook remaining 15 minutes (or until squash is tender). As an option you can add butter to the cavity of the squash during the last few minutes of cooking. We don’t eat butter so we left this out.

acorn squash acorn squash

We wanted to add a little color to the meal so when the pulled pork was ready we tossed it in a big pan with lots of spinach…

pulled pork add spinach

The spinach is optional if you don’t want to wait to eat!

Remove squash from oven and stuff with pulled pork goodness!

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Slow cooker pulled pork

~Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Don’t Be Afraid of Your Own Kitchen (Homemade Almond Flour and Paleo Almond Crusted Chicken Strips)

07 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in Chicken, informing the community, Meat, Paleo Recipes, recipes, What you should know

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We love a good workout.

The kind that leaves you bent over at the waist wondering if it’s ever going to end (and yet wishing it would keep going). The kind that as soon as it’s done, the first thing we think is “hmmmm, that’s gonna be sore later”. Whether it’s running, swimming, lifting heavy stuff or perfecting the pull-up we know the importance of moving your body…

But…

Ask either of us and we’ll be the first to tell you we strongly believe that it’s the food foundation that was the main factor in our weight loss journeys and understanding how processed foods affects us both physically and emotionally. You can run a million miles but you can never out run your “diet”.

These days, it’s about convenience. Pick up the phone, go through a drive-thru, pop a frozen dinner in the microwave and Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am; You can conquer any hunger pangs. But let’s not fool ourselves; That’s not food. Yes it’s easier, yes it takes less time, yes you might get away without doing the dishes for the night, yes maybe the only thing you have to worry about is whether you’ll stop in at Ben and Jerry’s on the way back from the All-You-Can-Eat pasta bar and yes you’re inserting a substance into your mouth and swallowing to begin the process of digestion but trust us,  you could do so much better.

One of the reasons people resort to the convenience of eating out (at a restaurant or out of a bag) is the fear of being in the kitchen. Our main goal here at theHDD is to prove to you that with just a few ingredients and no fancy equipment, delicious meals can be created and be created by you.

We also want to encourage readers to think about ways of making even the most basic of kitchen staples. Take for instance Almond Flour. You want to make better choices and what better choice than to switch out that bleached wheat based flour for almond flour? You head to the store and WHOA THERE…

“you want me to pay what for this?”

It’s expensive people! But what if you could make it at home for a fraction of what it cost and in about 10 minutes? Not to mention you feel pretty bad ass for making something that seems so…well fancy smancy!

Homemade Almond Flour

Ingredients: ALMONDS

(a Magic Bullet and Old Fashion Flour Sifter)

It doesn't take much to make Almond Flour1. Throw handful of almonds into magic bullet and pulse.

Oh the power of the magic bullet 2. Pour into sifter and wheeeeeeee spin until only larger pieces are left behind.

Old Fashion Sifter is a fun thing to have in the kitchen.4. Put larger chunks back into magic bullet and repeat steps 1 – 4.

Almond Flour

Now just to show you that the almond flour we make at home (in less than 15 minutes and about 1/4th the cost of store bought almond flour), is as good as the  store bought – below is the almond flour we make on the left and Bob’s Red Mill almond flour on the right. The only difference is they removed the skins and blanched the almonds. Ours are right out of the bag making it a deeper flavor.

Comparison (R) is ours (L) is store bought

Okay Tara and Meegan so now I made almond flour (and you’re right I feel pretty bad ass) what do I do with it? Well shoot, why not try your hand at Chicken Strips!

Paleo Almond Flour Chicken Strips

Ingredients;

  • Chicken breasts (we use one breast per person)
  • Egg white
  • Almond Flour
  • FoC (we use coconut oil)

There won’t be any pictures taking you step by step since we already inundated you with the almond flour pictures but it’s pretty easy (especially if you know how to make any kind of fried chicken).

  1. Set up dredging area (one bowl with egg white, one bowl with almond flour and plate for finished product).
  2. Cut chicken breasts into strips.
  3. Brush or dip strip in egg white then lightly cover with almond flour and put on plate. Repeat until all strips are done.
  4. Heat up FoC (Fat of Choice) in skillet over medium/high heat.
  5. When FoC is hot, place strips in skillet and cook approx 3-4 minutes each side until chicken is cooked thoroughly. We tend to flip our chicken strips often to make sure they brown evenly.

chicken strips

Less than an hour from making homemade almond flour to eating dinner at the table. We might have had dishes to wash but we know exactly what went into the preparation of our food. No hidden sugars or added processed ingredients. Just good food that drives our desire to make better choices both physically and emotionally.

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

How Time Flies (Paleo Moroccan Meatballs)

04 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by in Beef, Meat, Paleo Recipes, recipes

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Can you believe it’s already the beginning of 2013?

Life is pretty busy around the Martin/Dowe household. Three blogs to upkeep, jobs to show up too, and races to train for, it seems there are not enough hours in the day to get that never ending “to-do” list under control.

The holidays are finally behind us and we won’t lie: we consumed a lot of sugar. Christmas chocolates, sweet drinks from Starbucks, gum drop cakes and pumpkin pies, it felt like it would never get back under control. In the consumption of said sugar there’s been a shift in thinking. Both of us experienced quite an emotional upheaval during the month of December and both recognize the direct correlation between the consumption of sugar and how crappy it makes us feel.

Both physically and emotionally.

As we continue to read “It Starts with Food” there is concrete understanding of how what we eat affects us on a cellular level. We, in turn, are using that understanding when making food choices that are more in line with how we want to feel emotionally so that we can get to doing what we do best: Kicking ass and taking names!

In order to get back to doing what we do best we’ve refocused what we make in the kitchen. It’s not like we veered off a Paleo foundation in our own kitchen but because of the holidays we spent a lot of time eating foods that other people had prepared or eating the foods that came in enticing chocolate boxes with the guides telling you what was inside each little square morsel. To get back to doing what we know is good for us, we picked out some of our favorite meals and set about making them over and over (and over again).

The really nice thing about the Moroccan Meatballs is they are so freaking easy. A little meat, a little spice and 30 minutes in the oven and BAM…good food that’s good for you!

The original recipe came from EveryDay Paleo and as usual we made changes according to our own tastes (and what was available in the kitchen)…

Enjoy!

Paleo Moroccan Meatballs

Ingredients:

  • 2lbs Ground Beef
  • 3 Cloves Garlic (minced)
  • 2 tsp Ground Cumin
  • 1 tsp Chili Flakes (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp Paprika
  • Pinch of Cayenne Pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.

The Players

Okay, hold on to your seats for the rest of the process…

  1. Line cookie sheet with foil (for easy clean up)
  2. Mix all ingredients together in large mixing bowl
  3. Form into golf ball size meatballs and place on cookie sheet
  4. Cook in oven for approx. 25 minutes or until cooked thoroughly

spices minced garlic

mix all ingredients together meatballs

SAM_1333

Seriously people it doesn’t get much more easier than making these tasty balls (did they just say tasty balls?) of Moroccan goodness. We make them all the time. We’ll use a combination of beef and pork, add more garlic or less chili flakes depending on what we’re in the mood for. Because there are only two of us there’s always plenty of left overs for lunches during the week.

We’re looking forward to seeing what kinds of awesomeness is headed our way during the 2013 year. We hope it’s a year full of making great food that helps us in our on going need to move forward towards all we deserve to accomplish…

~Now that’s good eatin’ (in the New Year) folks!

Some cool changes and Paleo Thai Curry Beef…

04 Tuesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Beef, Meat, Paleo Recipes, recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetables

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We took a big leap this week and bought our domain name. Funny because we had originally wanted the domain name www(dot)TheHDD(dot)com but when we began our research we found out that we would need to purchase the name from some other company…

For $3000!!!!

(seriously, that’s just ridiculous)

We’ve had this blog for just over a year (can you believe it) and figured it was time to take our commitment one step further and drop the “wordpress” in our dot com and lucky for us thehealthydynamicduo hadn’t been bought up by some strange virtual real estate monster…

Yay for us!

In other news, we found a really cool program for eco friendly printing options over at PrintFriendly. Now when you want to print out one of our recipes you can just hit the “Eco friendly print” button on the bottom and it will take you to another page where you have the option to print without pictures! You can also delete any text you deem unnecessary (we can get a bit wordy) and change the text size so its easier to read.

Yay for you!

You can test out Eco Friendly Print option with this recipe cause look at all the extra stuff you can delete just for the heck of it! Now let’s get on to the recipe portion of this blog post shall we?

We love Thai food.

Give us a plate of pad Thai and a large helping of panang curry and we feel like nothing can go wrong with the world. The heat of the spices warming out mouths while the noodle-y goodness fills our bellies.

As Paleo eaters we enjoy the occasional “splurge” on foods we love but we know all too often if we’re not careful one splurge turns into two, turns into “can you please shove this entire chocolate cake in my mouth”…It doesn’t happen to everyone but for us we know it can happen pretty easily.

To combat the urge to eat out in search of those splurge meals we try to recreate them at home. We know it may not be exactly what we get when we sit down at a restaurant but we also know our meal won’t come with processed foods, extra salt and ingredients we have a hard time pronouncing.

We found the original Thai Curry Beef recipe over at Paleo Parents and as usual changed a few ingredients according to our tastes (and what we had in the fridge).

Enjoy!

Paleo Thai Curry Beef

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs Beef (we used flank steak cut into thin strips)
  • 1 Onion (peeled and chopped)
  • Carrots (2 -3 large or small organic bunch from local farm – peeled and chopped)
  • 1 Leek (cleaned and chopped)
  • 1 Head of Chinese Cabbage (washed and chopped)
  • Garlic (we used 7 cloves)
  • 1/2 C Coconut Milk
  • 1 Tbsp Curry Paste (red or yellow)
  • 1 Tbsp wheat free soy sauce ( or coconut aminos)
  • 1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
  • 1 Tbsp FoC (Fat of Choice)

The Players

The Sauces

In wok or frying pan on med/high add FoC. Add beef and brown on all sides. Remove beef and set aside.

Beef

In same heated wok/frying pan add onions/carrots/leek and cook until tender.

Onion Carrots and Leek

Return beef to wok/frying pan. Add curry paste and stir to coat meat/vegetables. Add coconut milk and mix thoroughly. Add wheat free soy sauce (or coconut aminos) and fish sauce, stir and reduce heat to simmer.

beef and veggies

Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Serve on bed of Chinese Cabbage

Paleo Thai Curry Beef

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

If our trainer likes it, you know it’s gotta be good! (Paleo Spicy Pineapple Chili)

29 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in Beef, Meat, Paleo Recipes, recipes

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It’s no secret we like love to work out.

When you’re on a journey to lose over a combined 200+ pounds (yes we said 200+) you come to appreciate the strength and endurance gained while leaving some serious sweat on the gym floor.

We run. We lift heavy shit. We get our hearts pumping and our muscles working in ways we both never thought imaginable. While living apart we each had our own trainers that we both love and respected. When I (Tara) came to Halifax, I felt I was infringing on Meegan’s already established relationship with Chris. It was silly but those of us that have had long term (and significant weight loss) relationships with one particular trainer understand that feeling of “butting in”.

Fast forward to today and I’ve gotten over that “I’m totally stepping in where I don’t belong” feeling and get my ass handed to me (and trust me it happens quite often) along side with Meegan multiple times of the week. One of the things I really appreciate about Chris is he’s become our “taste tester” for most of the recipes here on TheHDD.

We make it.

He eats it.

When something is really really (really) good, he’s sure to let us know.

(that means make it again asap)

This is one of those recipes.

The original recipe for the Paleo Spicy Pineapple Chili was found over at Civilized Caveman and as usual we changed things up according to our preferences. This chili is freaking amazing and you can be sure we’ll be making it over and over again (not just to make Chris happy but for our tummy’s too!)

Enjoy!

Paleo Spicy Pineapple Chili

Ingredients:

  • 8 – 10 bacon strips, cut into thin pieces
  • 2 Medium Onions (peeled and diced)
  • 5 Sweet Peppers (seeded and chopped)
  • Garlic (how much is up to you – we used 6 cloves)
  • 2 lbs Ground Beef
  • 1/4 C Chili Powder (less for more mild, more for a super kick)
  • 2 Tsp Ground Cumin
  • 1 – 2 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes (see chili powder)
  • 1/2 Fresh Pineaple (peeled and diced)
  • 1 lb Fresh Tomatos
  • 1 13oz Tomato Paste

Now if you need to cut out some time you can always buy canned pineapple and a nice tomato sauce but we work hard to keep our “can opening” to a minimum.

The nice thing about this recipe is everything is cooked in a stock pot. Cut it up, cook it up, simmer and BAM!

  • Cut your bacon into thin strips and place in a large Stock Pot over medium heat and brown until cooked to your preference.
  • Add onions, pepper and garlic. Stir often and cook until onions become translucent.

  • Add ground beef, chili powder, red pepper flakes and cumin. Mix together and cook until ground beef is cooked thoroughly.

  • Add remaining ingredients (pineapple, tomatoes, tomato paste) and bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.

 

This will make about 6 servings (1 1/2 cups each serving). We usually put quinoa or mashed sweet potato on the bottom of our bowl.

This chili has a lot of heat to it so if you like to have things a little more on the mild side adjust accordingly. On the flip side if you like a lot of heat try spices as listed but then next time adjust to your preference…

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!