Amazing Short Ribs

I still love comfort food so I'm going to go out on a limb here. Short ribs can be very fatty, but if you are patient, and you order them from a grass fed cattle farmer they are simply heavenly. You see, the fat in short ribs from a grass fed cow is the fat that you need in your diet. The fat from a grain fed cow is... well... deadly. So since my goal is to help all of you have long and healthy lives, I don't want to hear that you've made this recipe with some nasty, grain fed, sickly, obese cow. That's just no bueno.

This dish is another one that you can smell from across the street. It has bold and rich flavor. So don't be surprised if the neighbors come out of the woodwork, moving toward your house in zombie like fashion trying to steal your dinner and eat your brains. (Really, sometimes I think I've actually lost it). But really, you should make a few more than you think you will need. If you cook this... they will come.

What you'll need:

4 pounds of short ribs

almond flour for dusting

1 can beef broth 8 oz (low sodium, gluten free)

2 cans tomato sauce 8 oz (low sodium)

1 tsp horseradish (optional but worth it)

1/2 onion, minced

2 cloves of crushed garlic

olive oil/avocado oil/coconut oil

What you do:

Get out your heavy and deep skillet. Get it hot with the oil of your choice. Cut the short ribs into individual pieces and dust with a little almond flour. Brown them in the oil on all sides. Drain the pan of any excess fat. They look yummy already, don't they.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and bring to a boil. Once it starts to boil lower the heat and cover the pan. Simmer for 2 - 2 1/2 hours until meat is tender and falling off the bone. In the mean time, if you haven't fainted from the fantastic aroma coming from the pan, you can bake a sweet potato and mash it (or steam some veggies if you are in weight loss mode).

So there it is. Comfort food made paleo friendly. To plate this little beauty make a little mountain of sweet potato or steamed veggies and put your short rib on top. It makes a pretty presentation and I am all about presentation. When I go out to eat I study the way the chef plates my food and I try to copy it at home. I promise pretty food tastes better!

Enjoy!

Salsa Chicken

I can't believe it's Monday. The weekend flew by. Saturday and tonight were our kickoff meetings at CrossFit 714 about starting the paleo challenge. We had a great turnout! I am so excited to get this thing underway.

I am committed to putting up as many easy recipes that are paleo friendly as I possibly can. I want everyone to have the same success that my family has had. We have experienced all that paleo has to offer. We have more strength, more energy, clearer skin, less body fat, and we are more healthy than we have ever been. How on Earth would we be able to handle twin toddler tornadoes at nearly forty years old if it wasn't for our paleo diet! My husband's stomach issues left right around the same time his little spare tire was replaced by six-pack abs thanks to paleo. Many of you know that I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. I am happy to report that I take no medications what so ever. Paleo eating is not "snake oil". I still have a few bad days mixed in with all the good. However, I firmly believe eliminating grain from my diet plays a pinnacle role in keeping my joints flexible and has halted my disease progression.

With that said, I wanted to take one more moment of your time to say thank you so much for supporting me and loving my recipes. My goal continues to be to provide you with quick and easy meals that get you in and out of the kitchen so you can get back to your busy lives. My family has found that if we eat meals packed with flavor, we don't feel deprived. For us, big flavor is the most important part of making it easy to stick to the paleo way of life.

And so, it is now time to bring you... wait for it... SALSA CHICKEN!

What you'll need:

Salsa

Chicken

(really... that's it???)

What you do:

Get out your crock pot. Spray it with a little olive oil so you don't have to spend the evening scrubbing. Put in your chicken breasts. Put the salsa over the top. Cover and cook on low about 6 hours.

I know you are thinking, "Am I missing something here?" The answer is a resounding no... no you're not. Sometimes the simplest things taste the best and sometimes the simplest things are so simple, we don't think to make them.

What you do with the chicken when you are done is up to you. Taco salad? Lettuce wraps? Eat it plain? What about stuffing it into a pepper? The sky is the limit!

A key point to remember is that not all salsas are created equal. I personally like Santa Barbara Salsa in the Roasted Garlic flavor. It's all natural and gluten free (yes, they put gluten in salsa as a thickener and filler... can you believe that sh*%.) You can pronounce everything on the Santa Barbara Salsa ingredient list which is always a plus.

Let me know what you make with your salsa chicken!

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Traditional cabbage rolls are supposed to take forever to make. Some recipes call for hours of slave like preparation and two days of cooking. Those were the cabbage rolls of my Russian grandmother's era. I'm not so sure why they need massive amounts of preparation. They taste just as good to me the "quick" way. I think it's in Russian women's blood to do everything the hard way. I constantly fight against this in my genes. But when it comes to cooking, I refuse to spend hours on something that should take minutes to accomplish. Oh, and by the way, these are not the traditional version anyway. I have made them paleo friendly and changed up the ingredients.

You do need a bit of time for the preparation so keep in mind that this is not a 15 minute recipe. It is best reserved for the weekend or a time when you aren't rushed and out of breath which for me is precisely two times per year.

When you are done your efforts will be rewarded in that you will have a wonderful, flavorful and joyous dinner where everyone at the table will be singing your praises. Who wouldn't want that!

What you'll need:

A green cabbage

1lb grass fed ground beef

1T Italian seasoning

1tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup of onion, grated

1 egg

for the sauce:

1 8oz can low salt tomato sauce

1/2 can of tomato paste

1T Dijon mustard

1/2 a lemon, squeezed

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 350. Put the cabbage in a large pot and cover it with water. Boil the cabbage until the leaves are soft and easily removed. This takes about 15 minutes from the boiling point. I promise the nasty boiling cabbage smell is temporary. While the cabbage boils take your meat, spices, onion and egg and mix them up in a bowl. You know the rule: mix with your hands not a spoon. When the cabbage is soft, peel the leaves off one by one and put them on a plate to drain and cool. While they cool mix up the sauce in a separate bowl. Ok, so you're about 25 minutes in. Not bad considering you could have been toiling for about eight hours by now. On what, I'm not quite sure but I promise that tradition says you must spend at least this amount of time before you get the cabbage rolls in the oven. Maybe my grandmother was secretly making vodka while making the rolls and that is what was taking so long.

So now you're ready for the assembly. If you're really into it you can put on a house coat, apron and scarf. Now you look like my Russian grandmother. It's good karma... your rolls will taste better if you do. Make sure you send me a picture. Line the bottom of a baking dish with some of the smaller cabbage leaves. Take a cabbage leaf and hold it in your hand. Trim the thickness of the stem down so it's easier to roll. Plop some of the meat mixture on the leaf and roll the leaf up tucking the sides of it in so the meat is completely covered. If the leaf is too big you can cut the excess off. Put it in the baking dish. Repeat until all the meat is used. Pour the tomato sauce on top of the rolls and cover the dish with foil. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on how big you made your rolls. This recipe makes between seven and ten rolls. Double up if you have a larger family.

That's all there is to it. No days of labor needed!

Enjoy!

Chicken Puntanesca

Here is the recipe that proves we can live without pasta! It is totally and completely possible and quite yummy to boot. Just make a quick sauce and put it over chicken (or steak) instead of noodles. This is another one of those blink and it's done dishes. I'm in love with those, especially on nights like this. I knew that I was going to make chicken "something". I had made about four runs at the kitchen to try to make dinner but the more I tried, the more my efforts were thwarted.

One of my sons is nonverbal. His way of communicating is to look at me, take me by the hand, and lead me to what he wants. Trust me, we are celebrating that he is doing this... it's a huge accomplishment. So tonight was one of those nights where every time I tried to make dinner he would come in and take me by the hand and off we'd go. We played on the trampoline, I pushed him on the swing, we had a wrestling match. All the while dinner was falling further and further behind, but you know, who really cares when you've got the most important part of your life right in front of you trying like heck to communicate. He is awesome and I love him dearly. So my point is the later it got, the less time I had to come up with something. The idea of a beautiful bounty soon turned into whatever I could make that was fast and simple.

I love strong flavors so consider yourself warned. This one is not for sissies. The flavor is as intense as it is delicious. This is true paleo cooking at it's finest. So good, you will never know that it's healthy. And it's true Primal Mama cooking. So fast, dinner is on the table in 15 minutes.

Feel free to adjust the amounts of ingredients to your liking. I hope you love it!

What you'll need:

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

10 kalamata olives, rough chopped

1 large (or 2 small) cans diced tomato, low salt!

1 T. capers, rinse them off to get some of the salt off

chicken breasts

What you do:

Start by cutting through the chicken breast to make two thin pieces out of one breast. Pound the thicker end slightly to form a chicken cutlet. Throw a little cracked pepper on both sides. Saute the chicken on the stove top in a little olive oil until cooked through and remove to a plate. Using the same pan, add a little more olive oil if necessary and throw in your garlic and olives. Give that a good stir for about a minute and be careful not to burn the garlic. Add in the can(s) of tomatoes and mix. Get the flame going on high and stir until the tomato liquid is absorbed and you are left with a thick tomato sauce. Toss in the capers. The smell of this dish alone will cause you to fall in love immediately. Plate the chicken and pour the sauce on top. You have just made a wonderful meal in 15 minutes flat. No drive thru, no chicken nuggets, no "cream of god knows what" soup needed! And most of all... no pasta!

Enjoy!

Ginger Chicken -- emergency dinner

As you probably know by now an emergency dinner, according to my definition, requires no skill, almost no effort, and no time at all to get on the table. What this recipe lacks for in preparation certainly is made up in flavor. If you have a plate and can stack things on top of each other, you can make this.

This recipe was realized when I was out for lunch with my hubby and we went to Fitness Cafe in Brea. We had to laugh at the "fitness" part of it. The menu was full of pasta dishes, whole wheat bun sandwiches, spinach tortilla this and that, and the every popular... low fat cheese. Now if you operate in mainstream America these choices are certainly better than McDonalds... but "Fitness"? I'm not so sure about that.

Hubby ended up having a $15.00 steak salad which was just that. Some romaine lettuce with a big ol' slab of steak on the top a la boring! Not so much as a tomato wedge or a slice of cucumber to be found. The waitress raved about the "Tuscan dressing". I'm sure it had sugar in it.

After scouring the menu for what felt like an eternity I decided to have this wrap... unwrapped. I didn't need to eat the white flour and lard laden tortilla even if it was colored green with a little spinach juice to try to throw me off. Don't fool yourselves. Just because the tortilla is the color of a vegetable does not mean it's equal to a vegetable.

The down side was when I was done with this little number I was still starving. I added a side salad with olive oil and lemon wedges for the dressing and a side of fruit. Now that was perfect.

It really was quite tasty and would make the perfect meal in a super hurry. So here it is, complements of Fitness Cafe.

What you'll need:

Cooked chicken breast (I like Trader Joe's sliced chicken breast)

1 purple onion

pickled ginger (Asian aisle at the market or available at most health food markets)

1 avocado

What you do:

Take a little olive oil and heat it in a pan. Slice your onion super thin and saute it until it's soft. Take a plate out and put some chicken on it. Put the onion over the top of the chicken. Put the pickled ginger on top of the onion. Put the avocado on top of the ginger. EAT.

That is it for this tasty little number.

Enjoy!

Chile Relleno the Primal Way

I am a Southern California native and Mexican food is in my blood. Since I've been eating the paleo way, I've missed many of the dishes that I used to enjoy. One of my favorites was Enchiladas. They are so gooey and cheesy and yummy. The down side is that they are really carby and unhealthy. So needless to say, I've given them up. Another Mexican dish that I've given up is Chili Relleno. I've really only had it a couple of times but I really enjoyed it when I did. Who wouldn't love a giant chili stuffed with a huge hunk of cheese, battered and deep fried in lard? It goes down so good until you wake up one day with blocked coronary arteries and buns the size of Texas and wonder how it happened. I'm here to tell you, it was the Chili Relleno.

A couple of days ago I started to think, "What if I could take the healthy parts of both of those dishes and combine them to make something totally new?" I love Anaheim Chilies and I love chicken with sauteed onions and I love red sauce... Alright! I think I'm on to something. And so the Primal Chili Relleno was born.

As a side note, I have to say that this recipe turned out so good that my hubby and I stood over it at the stove and inhaled the entire pan. We didn't sit down, we didn't get a napkin, we even shared utensils because neither one of us wanted to break away from the heavenly flavor. I may make this again tomorrow.

What you'll need for 4 Chili Rellenos:

4 fresh Anaheim Chilies

2 eggs

1 rotisserie chicken from the market

1 big can enchilada sauce **Watch out** read the labels! Enchilada sauce can have really nasty ingredients. I like El Pato brand. Nothin' in there except tomatoes and seasoning.

1 onion

4 slices of jalapeno pepper from the jar

a brown paper bag

Guacamole (premade is easier!)

What you do:

First you want to fire roast your Chilies. Hopefully, you have a gas flame stove. If you have electric you are going to need to buy the chilies ready to go in a can. Look for whole Anaheim Chilies. You may be able to roast your chilies under the broiler, although I have never tried that. Ok, so, get the burner going and put your chili right on top of the flame and let it sit there. You want the skin to blister and turn black. Get it good on all sides using tongs. When all the skin is blackened put the chili inside the brown bag and close the bag up tight. Listen up! Make sure that the chili is not on fire when you put it in the bag! The bag will catch fire and you will have to play fireman with that little spray thingie you have attached to your sink. Do not ask me how I know this! Follow with the remainder of the chilies. Let them sit in the bag for 10 minutes. Rip open the bag and peel off the skin on all your chilies. You should have a very soft, skinless chili now. Cut down the chili vertically and take out the seeds and veins. You may have to use a knife to cut the seed pod out. Leave the chili intact with just a slit going down the center of it like a little pocket.

Now here's the part where you should either get out your electric mixer or pray that CrossFit has been good to you and your arm strength. It's called whipping egg whites for time. Separate your egg whites and yolks. In a large bowl start whisking your egg whites until they are stiff. Whisk like your life depended on it. Those egg whites aren't going to get all fluffy by themselves! Get to it! Once they look like merangue you can gently fold in one of the egg yolks. Your mixture should still look quite fluffy and airy.

Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a small pan and get it hot. Dip the chili in the egg "batter" and fry the chili in the olive oil on each side just until the egg is cooked and browned. It only takes a few seconds per side. Drain the chilies on paper towels.

Chop and saute your onion using the same pan that you cooked the chilies in until soft. While the onion is cooking take about 2 cups of chicken meat off the bone and chop it up. Mix the onion with the chicken in a bowl. Mince up about 4 slices of jalapeno (I use the ones in the jar already sliced) and add it to the chicken. Mix in enough enchilada sauce to coat the chicken mixture nicely. Now spoon the chicken mixture into the chilies and put them in a baking dish. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until everything is heated through.

To serve, pour some enchilada sauce on an empty plate and place the stuffed chili on top of the sauce. Spoon some guacamole on the side of the plate. Sprinkle with oregano. Take a bite. Cry tears of joy because nothing on this Earth should taste this good.

Enjoy!

Sausage and Peppers - Emergency Dinner

I'm almost embarrassed to give you this next recipe. Actually, the term "recipe" doesn't even apply here. I had one of those days yesterday. You know, the ones where you start running a few minutes late and before you know it, it's snowballed into a disaster complete with exploding laundry baskets and piles of crap everywhere. There's no food in the fridge, the dog is laying in the middle of the unmade bed with muddy paws and there is an unknown substance stuck in your sons hair? Yeah... I have those a couple of times per week. It's inevitable. With twins in multiple therapies, my own health to consider, construction going on at our house and a multitude of other obstacles, I just threw this one together... literally. I knew it would be okay though. The more my recipe blog grows, the more I hear from women (and the occasional man) that suffer the same plight. I know that we are all in this together. So file this one under emergency dinners. A Primal Mama emergency dinner consists of 5 ingredients or less and the most minimal effort possible. Getting in the car and driving thru would be a monumental task compared to this. So don't even think about it.

What you'll need:

2 onions: one white, one purple

3 bell peppers, color of your choice

2 jars of Gluten Free Marinara Sauce, 3 grams of sugar or less

(I use Trader Joe's Organic Marinara)

enough Italian Turkey Sausage links to feed your family

hot, mild or a combo of both

Italian seasoning

Your trusty crockpot

What you do:

Chop the onion and bell peppers in large chunks. You want them large because you don't want them to disintegrate from the long cooking process. Put those in the crockpot. Put your sausage on top of the veggies. Open your jars of sauce. Poor them over the top. Set the crockpot for low if you do this in the morning or high for a max of 3 hours. Serve it in a shallow bowl with a little Italian seasoning over the top for color. And that is the whole recipe. Congratulations! We've survived another day!

Enjoy