This recipe is also from Sarah at every day paleo. The roasted red pepper mayo I posted yesterday was for these delicious crab cakes! Who doesn't love some fried seafood in the summer time! These were actually really simple to make. The red pepper mayo was the tricky part, if you make your own mayo like I did, but at least you can make the mayo ahead of time so its ready for dipping when you make these little crabby cakes. Here is the link to the every day paleo recipe crab cakes
you will need:
- 1 lb crab meat- sarah suggested using the canned crab meat from trader joes so that's what I did, you can use fresh crab meat if you'd like.
- 2 tbs of chopped chives- recipe called for red onion but I like chives better
- 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
- sea salt and pepper for taste
- 1 egg
- 2 tbs coconut flour
- 1/8 teaspoon of chipolte powder
- 2 tablespoons paleo mayo recipe here -- the plain mayo not the red pepper mayo
- I also added about 1/4 shredded carrots- you can leave this out, I just had it left over and thought it would make a nice addition
- 3-4 tbs coconut oil for frying
1. mix crab meat ( break apart with hands to make sure there is no shell), chives, garlic, salt, pepper, coconut flour, chipolte powder, carrots, and mayo.
2. heat coconut oil in frying pan
3. form mixture into small cakes, toss in frying pan, fry on each side for about 2-3 minutes or until brown on both sides.
Even sponge bob likes these crabby patties
I served my crab cakes over raw spinach, the red pepper mayo is enough you don't need any dressing or oil, but you can service them however you like!
For those who didn't see yesterday, to make the red pepper mayo dipping sauce for these crab cakes, I just put about 1/2 cup roasted red peppers in the food processor with a tsp of garlic, pureed it and folded it into the Paleo Mayo recipe. Thanks to Sarah from Every Day Paleo for all of these yummy recipes and ideas!
I have finallllly mastered the Art of Making homemade mayo! It took about 3 attempts and a bunch of wasted olive oil and time, but after watching this video from Sarah at every day paleo, it made it much easier!
If you decide to make your own mayo know that it will take at least 10-15 minutes. All the recipes I followed said slowly add olive oil to blender while blending. They aren't kidding, you have to drop in the olive oil drop by drop at first (with 2 cups this takes a while). My first few batches failed because I added the oil too quickly and it just was a watery mess. I would say at least the first ten minutes you should be adding the oil in drop by drop, then once the mayo starts to emulsify, you can add a slow stream, it will eventually thicken and get a mayo texture. Another tip I learned from this recipe from every day paleo is to actually use a lower quality olive oil. You want to go to stop and shop and get a plain old olive oil, no extra virgin. The extra virgin has a really potent taste, I used extra virgin on my last attempt and I couldn't stand the smell when I was trying to make it.
Also, she put a fun twists on her mayo recipe, you can turn it into dips, dressings, any other flavorful condiments. I made a plain mayo and a roasted red pepper mayo that Sarah also posted on her site. I'm very excited to now have my own "paleo" mayo to make chicken salad with! here is the every day paleo blog for this recipe click here for blog
Ok here it is:
What you will need
- 2 cups of olive oil
- 2 eggs ( on the every day paleo site it shows how to pasteurize your own eggs if you are worried about salmonella)-- but using good quality farm fresh eggs pretty much eliminates your chances of getting sick from this.
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1. add eggs, vinegar, and mustard to blender. Blend alone for about 30 seconds.
2. keep blender running on low and SLOWLY drip in olive oil drip by drip until the mixture starts to emulsify. It is very tedious and time consuming, but if you add it too fast the mixture will get ruined. It took about 10 minutes for my mixture to start to emulsify, and then I added the oil with a slow pour. Be patient.
3. Once all the oil and your mixture is creamy and thick, you can turn off the blender and add mixture to a small dish.
4. then add the cayenne pepper and sea salt
I then split the mixture into two dishes, one I kept plain and one I made into a roasted red pepper mayo for a dish I was making for dinner(that recipe will be posted tomorrow)
For that I put roasted red pepper and garlic in the food processor, blended it up and then folded it into the mayo. This could be use for a veggie dip, sauce, condiments, sea food, etc. Another idea I want to try is a sundried tomato & basil mayo, maybe a pesto dip, you can basically add any spices, herbs, or flavors that you want!
Two things I've been eating a little too frequently, my coconut crusted chicken recipe and chicken salad. These are two things I prepare on sunday or monday so I have a few days worth of mindless lunch and dinner. I really enjoy both of these things, but sometimes you just need to spice it up a little. These aren't really recipes but here's two things I did this week to spice up my food a bit.
Coconut Crusted Chicken w/mango salsa
I make a bunch of "chicken cutlets" and leave them plain, that way if I eat it a few days in a row I can switch between salsa, marinara, different veggies or whatever I feel like having on it.
To make the chicken cutlets I dip thin sliced chicken breast in egg, then "bread" them in a mixture of unsweetened coconut and flaxseed meal, I then brown them on both sides in coconut oil, and then bake them covered for about 15 minutes at 350 to keep the moisture in.
You can find my Mango Salsa here. (scroll to the bottom of the page) The salsa and coconut chicken was a reallllly yummy/summery/refreshing combination.
For lunch today I made my self some cute little edible chicken salad bowls.
I usually just eat chicken salad out of the container or wrap it up in lettuce, but if you slice one pepper(find a nice round one) into four pieces they make perfect little dishes that you can eat the chicken salad with. It adds a nice little spice to your same old lunch. I made this chicken salad with chicken breast, walnuts, shredded carrots, and olive oil mayo ( not paleo, I know, not the best, I know, but I haven't successfully made my own mayo and I only use a little bit ..ok?) For a lot of people lunch seems to be the most difficult to prepare for because most people associate lunch time with sandwiches, chips, soups, etc. These little guys kinda make you feel like your eating a sandwich, just a littttttle crunchier. They are even easy to eat in the car! Trust me, I tried it out today, it was way less messy then trying to eat my spaghetti squash egg bake on the road this morning. I'm not even that busy , I don't know why I ate breakfast and lunch while driving. Anyway, I know I get way too excited about silly things like salsa and red pepper "bowls". Hope you enjoy a couple new ways to spice up your food.
I just got back from Deadlift Tuesday at CFM. After Strength days i'm always ravenous, so I needed something fairly quick yet satisfying for dinner tonight. This recipe is basically the same as my chicken parm recipe, but I added some sauteed spinach to the sauce and left out the "parm". It was really delicious so I just thought i'd share. I even liked the spinach, sometimes cooked spinach grosses me out a little, maybe the texture it gets after cooking it in coconut oil, or maybe because its not the pasta I would prefer to have with chicken parm, or maybe because I ate it almost every day for lunch while doing my clinical rotations at the hospital because it was the only decent thing I could get there. But when it was all mixed up with the sauce and the chicken it was much tastier.
You will need:
- 1 egg
- 4-6 thin sliced chicken breasts
-1 tbsp heavy whipping cream
-1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
-1/4 cup flax seed meal-- you can leave this out and just add more coconut if you want
- 1 jar of your favorite marinara ( unless you are feeling ambitious and want to make your own--certainly not the case for me today)
- 1 bag of spinach
- 2 tbsp coconut oil- 1 tbsp for frying the chicken and 1 for sauteeing the spinach
*** sorry friends my hands were covered in egg and coconut so I didn't get to take any pictures along the way, just the final product. Forgive me, okthanks.
1. preheat oven to 350
2. beat egg and heavy cream in a bowl
3. add coconut and flaxseed meal to a plate
4. melt coconut oil in frying pan
5. dip chicken breasts in egg, then coat in the coconut/flaxseed mixture, toss in frying pan.
6. cook about 1-1 1/2 mins on each side ( just until slightly browned on the outside) then add to a baking dish.
7.sautee spinach in melted coconut oil, add jar of marinara to that. Dump over chicken in the baking dish, cover it with foil, and throw it in the oven for about 20 minutes.
There really isn't a substitue for pasta, but at least there are some things you can do to give the texture, feel, and satisfaction of eating a nice hearty pasta dish. Many people use spaghetti squash as a pasta substitute, I like spaghetti squash but for a pasta dish the sweetness throws me off a bit. So I found this delicious looking recipe from Every Day Paleo . I changed the recipe up a bit, but that's the beauty of cooking at home, you can make it however you like it. I went out and bought a new toy for this recipe also, a Julienne Slicer , this isn't the exact one I got, but I got mine from Bed Bath and Beyond for less than $15. This recipe was a little time consuming between making my own turkey sausage and slicing the Zucchini, but it was worth it!
Here's what you will need
- 5 zucchini sliced thin
- 1 lb ground turkey sausage, I posted the recipe for this last week, here it is, Turkey Sausage - note I added 1 tsp of fennel seed to this recipe.
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- 1-2 tbs coconut oil (for sauteing)
- 3 small shallots chopped
the cutest little shallots that you ever did see
For the sauce:
- 1 14.5 oz can chopped tomato (no sodium added)
- about 10 small basil leaves
- 1 tsp oregano
- 2-3 tbs grass fed heavy whipping cream
1. Make the turkey sausage ( or buy any kind of sausage you would like)Peel then slice all zucchini using the Julienne slicer, slice the red pepper, chop shallot and garlic.
2. Melt coconut oil in fryin pan and add shallot and garlic, sautee for a few minutes then add pepper.
3. while doing that, pour can of tomatoes into small sauce pan, add oregano, basil, and cream. Heat on low until you are ready to add it to the "spaghetti"
4. Add Zucchini to the oil, garlic, shallot, and pepper. Sautee for about 5 minutes.
A lot going on here
5. Add sausage to the veggies and either just dump the sauce right into it , or you can leave the sauce on the side and allow people to add as much as they want.
Well after looking at this picture close up, I think I need one of those fancy cameras (or a photographer) to make my food look as appetizing as the fancy pictures on other blogs. Anywho, I've been meaning to try this recipe for a while, ever since my buddy David from the gym emailed me asking what I thought of a chocolate pudding made out of.............Avocado! I wasn't sure what I thought of the idea until I actually tried it. It was freakin' good! You can't taste the avacado but it gives the pudding a really smooth texture. Even better news is that it only has four ingredients ( unless you add a dallop of home-made whipped cream on top like I did), in that case 5 ingredients. I shared this recipe with a friend who was over for dinner, who also decided to eat this pudding with an 88% dark chocolate "spoon" (aka used a big chunk of chocolate to scoop out the pudding).
I know you're probably thinking "whats up with this chick and mixing chocolate with wierd stuff lately", in my defense, I didn't create these recipes, I got ideas from other sites. So there are other strange foodies out there just like me! This recipe I got from Lisa's Paleo Nutrition Blog
Ok Chocolate Lovers here is your Chocolate Avocado Pudding!
you will need:
-1 large avocado (or two small)
- 3 TBSP of cocoa powder
- 1 ripe banana
-2-3 tsp of honey depending on desired sweetness ( or none if the banana is sweet enough for you)
** optional- heavy whipping cream for topping.
1. scoop out inside of avocado and put in food processor or blender
2. add cocoa powder
3. add banana & Honey
4. blend it all up until you have a nice smooth texture ( about a minute)
Optional: Whipped cream
1. Put about 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream & 1-2 tsp honey into a tupperware container
2. shake it up for about 2 minutes- you will know its done when you don't hear the liquid moving anymore
I made my spaghetti squash eggbake the other day, and decided I needed to add even more protein! I love pork sausage but I had my fill of pork and red meat after this past weekend, so I wanted to stick with a lean meat. All of the turkey sausage I found at the store were already cooked links, and I wanted the crumbly sausage to put in my eggbake, so I just bought some ground turkey and made it myself!
You will need:
-1 lb ground turkey
-1/2 tsp dried basil
-1/2 tsp dried thyme
-1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
-1/2 tsp garlic powder
-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
-1/4 tsp black pepper
-most recipes also have fennel seed, I didn't have it and I just used what I could find in my cabinet, I do want to add it next time though!
- any other spices you feel like adding in
1.) add all the spices to the turkey sausage-mix thoroughly
2.) brown meat in a frying pan ( if you aren't adding sausage to eggbake, you can also form small patties)
--I added mine to eggbake, but you can serve it however you want!
