Paleo tomato pasta sauce with grass fed meat balls

Anyone living in southern cal knows its been hot the last couple of days.  Normally I wouldn't cook in the kitchen with 90 degree weather outside but with time constraints tonight I had to come up with something quick and easy.  

Tonights dish we served with rice pasta.  My knee therapy has gotten more intense and the extra bump in carbs makes a difference in the way my body feels during the recovery.  Plus I'm rediscovering the joys of push ups, dips and abdominal exercises so overall my body needs a little more zip.

Ingredients:

3 cans of roasted tomatoes

1/2 cup of olive oil

1 leek (or onion I just didn't have one)

2 lbs grass fed ground beef (90/10% works better than 80/20%)

3 garlic cloves

Mushrooms

1 cup of red wine (Doon Buggy!)

Parmesan cheese

Oregano or Italian seasoning

Salt n Pepper

Red pepper flakes (optional but would add a nice bite to this dish)

1. Heat pot over medium high heat.  I like to cook this in my stock pot as it doesn't splatter as much on my white stove and countertop.  Once pot is hot (does water dance when dropped on the bottom) gently add 1/2 cup of olive oil.  The oil will get hot quickly so be careful.  Then pour in the three cans of roasted tomatoes.  I keep the lid partially covering the pot when doing this so it doesn't splatter on me.  No need to stir the pot (unless you really want to).

2.  Prep three garlic cloves.  No need to chop up.  Normally I would chop an onion but the only onion like item in my fridge were three leeks.  Leeks are a great substitute for an onion in this dish.  If you have never cooked with them before, just barely cut off the root end, cut off the leaves area (where it gets dark green) and slice open like the pic below.

3.  The leek needs to be run under water and peel apart each layer to ensure all the dirt is removed.  Chop up and add the leeks, garlic, handful of mushrooms, salt, pepper, 1 cup of red wine and oregano to the sauce.  Still no need to stir as the tomatoes will boil it in.

 4. Grate about 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese into a bowl.  Add some salt, pepper and oregano.   Then the 2lbs of ground beef (or veal, chicken, turkey etc).

 5. Using your hands mix the ingredients together.  Twist, knead, turn, mold until you are confident the flavors are evenly mixed.

6.  Now go ahead and mix the sauce.  It is still over medium high heat.

7.  Roll the mixed meat into meatballs and gently place into sauce.  The meatballs will be about 3/4 covered and thats OK.

8.  In about 10 minutes gently move the meatballs around so the tops get under the sauce.  Cook another 5 minutes and serve.

I forgot to take a picture of the adults plates before we chopped up the meatballs and mixed everything together...so here is the 3 year olds's plate, plastic fork included.

The only thing I would change in tonight's meal is gone with a leaner beef.  The 80/20 blend would work great with something (mmmm crusty bread) to soak it up.

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.

Carbonara (Primal and pasta options)

Carbonara is a rich, creamy pasta sauce.  Traditionally it is served over fettucini with a raw egg on top.  For this recipe the egg and peas are optional along with the pasta.  I use the zucchini as the pasta replacement for my primal diet.

Ingredients: (for 1 serving)
2 slices of bacon diced (I use Fresh and Easy sodium nitrate free bacon)
1/4 onion diced
1 tablespoon of butter (if I am out of butter or want more bacon flavor I use bacon grease)
1 zucchini sliced into long pieces
3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
Fresh grated parmesan cheese

Optional:
1/4 to 1/2 cup of frozen peas
Serving of pasta
Egg

Directions:

1. Start heating pan (if you are making pasta start that now by following the pasta directions - delay starting the sauce a few minutes to ensure pasta is done at same time as sauce)
2. Dice bacon and onions
3. Add butter/bacon grease to pan and allow to melt
4. Add bacon and onion and cook on medium heat for about two minutes-stir with wooden spoon 
5. Add zucchini and cook on medium for about four minutes until it starts to brown - season with salt 
6. Add heavy cream (and peas) and turn up heat 
7. Stir as cream boils and thickens - about 2 minutes - DO NOT over heat cream 
8. When cream thickens turn off heat 
9. Add egg (optional)
10. Add pasta (optional)
11. Serve in a pre-warmed bowl
12. Grate fresh parmesan using Zyliss 11370 Classic Rotary-Style Cheese Grater

Pasta Version

Primal Version