Grilled romaine wraps with bacon, onions, blue cheese and reduced balsamic

Damn these were good!  I am using an iPhone to take the pictures and the pictures do not do justice to the flavor of this meal.

Since eliminating gluten from my diet lettuce has become my official wrap for In&Out burgers and sandwiches.  This week I was inspired to grill romaine as another alternative for bread like products (tacos, burritos, bun).  With the dense leaves I figured worst case I could throw the outside leaves away while salvaging the inner lettuce guts.  This was not necessary.  They outside leaves were slightly wrinkled and softened while the inside stayed crunchy.  The grill flavor was so good and I envision more grilled romaine meals using ground burger, lamb, feta cheese, salsa...stay tuned for other ideas.

Ingredients: (assume 1 romaine lettuce per person)

Romaine lettuce

Bacon (2 slices per person)

Onion (1/4 cup per person)

Olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Blue Cheese - crumbled

1. Heat grill
2. Dice bacon and onion, add to fry pan and cook over medium heat until the onion is browned and bacon slightly crunchy - set pan contents aside

3. Add about 1/3 cup balsamic to fry pan and heat over a medium heat - the vinegar will bubble and slowly thicken up.  Do not overcook it as it turns into a taffy like substance.

4. Cut romaine lettuce in half and coat the inside with olive oil

5. Place lettuce on grill and monitor closely.  Turn often and remove from grill when browned and outer leaves wilted.

6. Place two halves on a plate.  Top the lettuce with bacon, onions and crumbles of blue cheese.  Drizzle the reduced balsamic vinegar on top and enjoy.

On an interesting side note, my cross country truck driving friend Steve is starting the Primal diet.  His challenge we be finding places to eat primal while on the road.  I am going to work on simple meals that he can cook on the small propane grill he is adding to his gear.  If you want to minimize your efforts, you could cook this meal all on the grill.  Grill the bacon crunchy-set aside.  Grill the onion by cutting it in rings, covering in olive oil (or butter) - set aside.  Reduce the balsamic in a small cast iron pan over the grill or not reduce it at all.

Kind of Primal (egg free) pancakes

Besides for the occasional bite of pizza, a couple of strands of pasta and emergency tortilla wrap, wheat products have been out of my diet for over a year.  However these pancakes we devised for "J's" egg allergy are pretty good and I've become addicted to a couple (slathered in butter and almond butter) a week.  The mix is commercially produced and I've discovered when I eat wheat/gluten I tolerate bleached flour products better than whole wheat products.

(You can read more about the wheat health issues in Mark Sisson's book available at amazon through this link The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy.)

The recipe is pretty simple and slowest part is cooking the pancake mix.  Some days I will get out my two burner griddle but most of the time I use a small, flat fry pan.  The mix is pretty thick and I recommend keeping the pancake sizes to about that of a soda pop can circumference.  Anything bigger takes too long to cook and the outside burns.

Ingredients: (For 8 small pancakes - feeds my family of 2 adults and 1 3yo) 20 mins start to clean up
1 Banana
2/3 cup of bisquick
2/3 cup of heavy whipping cream
Butter

Optional: mix in if you want
Chocolate chips
Blue berries

1. Put pan over medium heat
2. Mash banana in a bowl with a fork until consistent with baby food
3. Add bisquick mix to bowl
4. Add cream to bowl
5. Mix together until the dry ingredients are wet
6. Check heat of pan by dropping a little bit (water hanging off your finger) of water onto the pan-if the water sizzles and dances the pan is hot enough - adjust heat if necessary
7. Add a little bit of butter onto pan and swish around
8. Using a measuring cup pour pancake mix onto pan to form small pancakes
9. Cook until the mix bubbles and there is adequate firmness to flip over
10. Cook other side and serve

Without the egg, and by adding the banana, the pancakes will not cook the golden brown we have all become accustomed to.  Let me know how you like the flavor.

The first photo is from breakfast today.  Apples for the ears and arms, crispy bacon for the legs, blue berries for the eyes, raspberry for the nose, almond butter for hair and chocolate chips for the mouth (added after pancake was cooked). 

Wow-Kale can taste good

Kale-the next miracle veggie?  Whole Foods ranks it high on their list of best foods.  But most often kale is used as a decoration in the salad bar.  Kale can be grilled, roasted, boiled, sauteed, blended into soups, chopped raw into a salad...

Cooked properly kale can be a great side dish, cold snack or even a wrap for a turkey & cheese sandwich.  Today's recipe is inspired by the great southern Cal weather, cool evening beach breeze and awesome smell of grilled steaks.  I enjoyed the Kale with the ribeye steaks last night however the Kale was even better cold the next day as a snack.  After sitting overnight in the fridge, the usually rough center stem was softer and had a great smokey flavor.

Overall cook and prep time - 3 minutes (assuming you have a hot grill)

Ingredients:
1 bunch of Kale from the supermarket (About $1-1.50)
Olive oil
Salt

Optional
Garlic Salt
Seasoned Olive Oil

Directions:

1. Heat grill
2. Wash kale and dry
3. Place kale in a round bowl and drizzle with olive oil...I cover half the olive oil opening as I pour the oil onto whatever I'm drizzling 
4. Add salt/garlic salt onto the kale
5. Place kale on grill over a high heat 
6. Monitor the kale and minimize olive oil flare ups - turn often using tongs like OXO Good Grips 16-Inch Locking Tongs
7. Once the OUTER kale leaves start to wilt/brown/crispy and the overall body shrivels up, remove from the grill
8. I usually slice the kale in half and serve the upper half stem and leaves.  The lower half I cut the leaves off and do not serve the lower stem...it is too tough.

I just realized my chicken with prosciutto, basil and cheese pictures did not post.  I will add those to the previous post.