BBQ Rump Steak, Roast Beets & Pumpkin with Salad
I’m beginning to get convinced that anything you throw on that BBQ comes out delicious…
The roast beets and pumpkin were leftovers from last night and we just heated them up in the oven. They came out just as tasty, if not even more so. Maybe a good argument for cooking a whole bunch at once and heating up for lunches and sides the next few days?
Recipe for Roast Beets
Paleo Pad Thai with Prawns and Zucchini Noodles
This meal is quickly becoming one of our kitchen staples and favourites. So quick and easy to make, versatile and utterly delicious. I doubt we’ll ever get bored of this one!
Recipe variations:
- Macadamia butter instead of sunflower seed butter resulted in the best batch of sunshine sauce yet!
- Zucchini noodles instead of spaghetti squash - I’m really beginning to think that zucchini is better in pad thai both taste and consistency-wise
Recipe from Well Fed
Webber Roast Lamb with Roast Veggies, Broccoli and Gravy
Nothing’s better than a good lamb roast when you get the taste of coal roasting infused all through the meat!
We served the meat with roast pumpkin, carrots and onions, steamed broccoli and delicious dark gravy. Unbelievably tasty!
Mexican Beef Marinade & Grilled Capsicums upgrade for Paleo Fajitas
Paleo fajitas has got to be one of our favourite dishes. It’s utterly delicious, eating with hands is much more fun and Mexican food is just simply awesome.
However, we’ve been thinking that this traditionally mince based dish could be done better… and I think we just cracked it: replace mince with Mexican marinated BBQ beef and raw capsicums with grilled ones.
Giant BBQ T-bone Steak with Salad
BBQ truly makes everything better. This steak was slightly indulgent size-wise (read: the size of my head) but the dinner was of celebratory nature and it was rather wonderful.
Lemon & Herb Grilled Chicken with Fennel, Orange & Chilli Salad
This chicken cooked on the BBQ was absolutely amazing!
BBQ kingfish steaks with parsnip puree and roast tomato sauce
This dinner was simply amazing. The kingfish steaks were just cooked on the BBQ and the salad was simple with just added fennel.
Moroccan Lamb Tagine gone paleo
This was a delicious Moroccan Lamb Tagine we cooked recently. It’s based on a Master Chef recipe, which is very easy to tweak paleo-friendly.
Iodine rich (and ugly) breakfast hand rolls
Are you getting enough iodine?
Iodine is essential for thyroid function and removing processed food and salt from your diet pretty much eliminates your regular sources of it. Seafood is a good source of iodine, so if you regularly feast on seafood, you should be fine.
“[S]ince you’re no longer eating processed food rich in iodized salt, which is where many people get their iodine, you may be missing out. And if you’ve switched from iodized table salt to unrefined sea salt – as many Primal eaters do – you’ve just removed another rich source of iodine in their diets. Instead of popping iodine or going back on the junk food, just eat foods rich in iodine. Seaweed, shellfish, and other seafood, seeing as how they spend most of their waking lives fully immersed in iodine-rich sea water, are excellent sources of iodine.
Vegetables and the animals that eat them can also be good sources of iodine, but if the soil is iodine-depleted, so is the food that grows and eats there. The sea will most likely always be a good source.”
I’ve also discovered that some of our kitchen stables (namely cabbage & cauliflower) might actually be amplifying the lack of iodine and it’s effect on thyroid function.
“[S]ulfur-rich cruciferous veggies, but they can also act as goitrogenic inhibitors of thyroid function. Goitrogens interfere with iodine uptake by the thyroid, so excessive intake of cabbage, cauliflower, and other cruciferous vegetables might necessitate a bit more iodine in the diet.”
Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/do-perfect-foods-exist/#ixzz1oZI5VZ3i
If you have any reason to doubt your current iodine intake levels and if you’re exhibiting symptoms of hypothyroidism, it might be a good idea to see a GP and get a thyroid panel done as well as your iodine levels tested.
“Early symptoms:
- Being more sensitive to cold
- Constipation
- Depression
- Fatigue or feeling slowed down
- Heavier menstrual periods
- Joint or muscle pain
- Paleness or dry skin
- Thin, brittle hair or fingernails
- Weakness
- Weight gain (unintentional)
Late symptoms, if left untreated:
- Decreased taste and smell
- Hoarseness
- Puffy face, hands, and feet
- Slow speech
- Thickening of the skin
- Thinning of eyebrows”
Good sources of iodine:
As Australian soil is depleted of minerals such as iodine, we wouldn’t be getting significant amounts of iodine out of vegetables and animals. Out best bet is the sea.
Seaweed is a great source of iodine, but in the post-Fukushima world, not necessarily the safest option. Most of the seaweed sold in Australia come from around the Fukushima area, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend upping your seaweed intake.
Fortunately there are other options: Australian kelp, Canadian dulse and New Zealand spirulina are great options to use instead of seaweed.
According to my GP (I finally found one fully versed in the wonders of paleo lifestyle!) the most concentrated one out of the lot is Australian kelp. It can be sprinkled onto soups and salads in small amounts - as it’s so nutrient dense, you don’t need much of it.
If you like making smoothies, spirulina is an excellent supplement to use - as long as you don’t mind the taste that is.
Then again, if you like snacking on ‘seaweedy’ things, Canadian dulse might be a good option for you. It’s a bit more moist and in apparently makes for a great snack.
Personally I’ll be going with either dulse or kelp (which ever I happen to locate first to be honest). In the meanwhile, I’ve got some seaweed - the health food store owner promised she received the order before the Fukushima incident - that I made these rather ugly hand rolls out of. Not necessarily visually appealing, but it was actually quite tasty.
Quick and simple: wrap some smoked salmon and avocado in a sheet of seaweed and you’re good to go!
Marlin Steak with Sweet Potato Mash, Egg and Salad
Moving was such hard work that extra carbs were in order - sweet potato mash is a lovely comfort food ideal for some tasty carb loading.
Marlin is very dense and can easily get a bit dry while cooking, so we always tend to serve marlin steaks with friend eggs sunny side up. Not only does the egg compliment the taste beautifully, is also stops it from being too dry.
Paleo Pad Thai with Chicken
This Pad Thai is turning into a kitchen stable already - I absolutely love it! No matter the variation, it always turns out delicious! This time using spaghetti squash as noodle and chicken for meat. Yum!
Recipe from Well FedPad Thai with Chicken and zucchini noodles
I’ve tried cooking the pad thai recipe from ‘Well Fed’ using prawns before - which was delicious - but I wanted to try the recipe with chicken too. I also wanted to try how this would work using sweated zucchini as noodles.
Both noodle replacements work great, although the sweating leaves a bit of added saltiness to the zucchini, which I really like. If you’re trying to avoid salt, spaghetti squash might be a better option. The chicken was delicious and worked just as well as the prawns. I finally had the coconut aminos to cook with and I have to say that it performs just as well as soy sauce!
Overall, I’ve got a feeling this meal will turn into a kitchen stable in it’s different variations. So very tasty!
Recipe from Well Fed
Hot Thai Fish Cakes
Made from self-caught bonito.
Second attempt at paleo Spaghetti Bolognese
I took another attempt at cooking spaghetti squash and this time it turned out just right! The insides were super easy to just scrape into strands! On a plate it behaved just like spaghetti and I could even twirl it around a fork.
Recipe for Bolognese Sauce
Made of tasty win!
Empty Fridge Special: Lamb Chump Chops with Roast Kumera and Sautéed Cabbage
You know those days when ‘there’s nothing in the fridge’? Last night was one of them and this is what we came up with. Lamb chump chops with roast kumera and sweet potato with sautéed cabbage.
Quick, easy and delicious.
Pad Thai Goong gone paleo (Prawn Pad Thai)
This paleo-variation of pad thai was absolutely delicious! We used the other half of the already cooked spaghetti squash and followed Well Fed’s recipe - though instead of chicken, we used prawns.
The result was amazing and when garnished with chillies right out of our own little garden, it had enough heat to keep us smiling and sweating all through dinner! Two thumbs up and can’t wait to cook this again!
Recipe from Well Fed
Paleo Meatball Stew with Spaghetti Squash
Woohooo! After more than a year of desperate searching, I FINALLY got my hands on some spaghetti squash!!
The big melon-like squash was labelled ‘Vegetable Spaghetti’ and the tag listed it grown & packed by Milano Brothers.
Sydney-siders: I found mine at the Norton St Grocer, opposite Coles on the bottom floor of Bondi Junction Westfields. It exists in Australia, so I’m certain that you can get some to your local fruit & veggie shop!
Now, about the dinner: Of course I stuffed it up and over-cooked the spaghetti squash. The result wasn’t so much spaghetti as squash. However, the flavour was delicious and even the texture was nice, it just wasn’t in spaghetti format.The flavour was great with the meatball stew and despite the aesthetic flaws, the meal was absolutely delicious.
Quantity-wise, I’d say half a spaghetti squash is a meal for two-three.
Lucky I bought two and I can’t wait to have another go at mastering the cooking process…
Recipe for Paleo Meatball Stew
Best Chicken You’ll Ever Eat with El Minzah Orange Salad
Ever since I got my hands on this book, I’ve been dying to try out the recipe for ‘The Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat’, the book recommends serving it with El Minzah Orange Salad, which is exactly what we did.
The chicken was amazing with a beautiful spicy surface, and the orange salad did a wonderful job balancing the heat with the juicy fruit sweetness. The meal was an absolute success and best of all, there’s stacks left for lunches - even though there was three of us hungry grownups feasting on it!
The man ground the spices for the rub.
We cooked the recipe using chicken thigh and removed excess fat before cooking. Also, we don’t have a BBQ at the moment, so we cooked the chicken in the oven.
The orange salad looks amazing…
And after feeding three people, there’s two huge containers full of lunches left!!
Recipes from Well Fed
Venison Cutlets, Roast Kumera and Spinach with Mushrooms, Garlic & Almonds
The man went hunting & gathering again and returned victorious with an entire free-range, grass-fed venison from a friend’s farm. Normally he only grows venison for his own needs, but this time he happened to have an extra animal. The freezer shuffle was a bit of a hassle, but boy was it worth it!
Our visiting chef Christian*** did a fantastic job threatening the cutlets with a skillet, resulting in a perfect results of all nice pink and raw under the beautiful seared surface. A stack of crispy kumera (purple sweet potato) on the side, and the whole lot finished off with a delicious side dish of spinach and mushrooms with garlic and almond slivers.
Amazing.
(*** Alert single paleo ladies: Christian is a strapping caveman on the market! I can vouch for the fact that this one is fully paleo dedicated, and sure knows his way around the kitchen… AND he catches his own fish too!)
Fried Apple with Bacon and Pecan
To follow up a dinner of Kingfish Steaks with Waldorf Prawn Salad, I whipped up this taste sensation of a dessert.
Recipe from Well FedKingfish Steaks with Waldorf Salad with Prawn
I am so in love with this cooking book, it’s ridiculous - everything I’ve cooked out of it is just amazing.
This time I made the Waldorf Salad to go on the side of the last of Sunday’s self-caught kingfish, but I altered the recipe slightly: instead of tuna I used prawns and it was a raging success. Everyone loved it and despite making a double batch for 3 of us, it all got devoured to the last morsel!
Recipe for Waldorf Salad from Well Fed
Lettuce Wraps with Roast Pork
Confession: I have a tendency of getting lazy with cooking when alone at home.
The man is away on a business trip for the night, so I just whipped up a quick plate of lettuce wraps for dinner: roast pork, avocado, tomato, cucumber, red onion and large lettuce leaves.
Delicious, easy and healthy!
Kingfish Steaks with Greek Broccoli
The only difficulty I’ve faced with the Well Fed book so far, is to choose what to cook - it all looks and sounds so delicious! Based on one day’s reading and first meal cooked, this has already become my favourite cook book of all times!
We still had some kingfish left from the w/e and wanted something tasty to accompany it - the Greek Broccoli sounded like the perfect choice. Which it was.
Quick and easy to cook, everyday ingredients we pretty much already had in the house AND my favourite: the instructions had me cooking in one pan only! The result was absolutely delicious and made for a perfect companion for the fish. So tasty and healthy!
Recipe for Greek Broccoli from Well Fed*
Traditional Sunday Roast
Quite often we finish the week with our favourite traditional Aussie meal: a roast. When we have quests over for dinner, we crank it up a notch by firing up the Webber and cooking both the meat and veggies on the coals instead of the oven.
We bought the organic lamb leg from a butcher who was able to tell us everything about animal’s breed, her life story (we named her fluffy) and everything - just short of showing us a picture of the animal. The leg was boned (top part), with just a small piece of the bone left on one end for cosmetic purposes.
We seasoned the leg with a combination of garlic, shallots (red), rosemary, olive oil, salt and cracked pepper.
As for the veggies, we roasted pumpkin, kumera, parsnip and beetroot (as well as added some small potatoes for the non-paleo crowd) in the Webber with the lamb.
The result was a delicious plate of paleo goodness and everyone around the table was both impressed and well-fed!
Bacon & Eggs with Roast Pumpkin, Tomato and Onion
A great way to bring some variety into the bacon & eggs morning staple, is dressing it up with last night’s dinner leftovers. In this case there was some roast pumpkin left from previous night’s dinner, but not enough for lunch, so we just threw it in with the usual eggs and bacon for a delicious brekky.
Eating in NZ: Bacon & Eggs Brekky
One more photo left celebrating the food we ate in New Zealand.
We started every day of the trip with a delicious stack of fried eggs and bacon cooked on the BBQ. In this case we also added in previous night’s roast pumpkin, some cherry tomatoes and onion, all cooked on the BBQ.
Very quick, easy and delicious, and not once did we hear grumbles from non-paleo travel companions that they were missing the obligatory slice of bread etc. You just can’t go wrong with bacon…
Eating in NZ: Three takes on the kiwi ‘Meat & Three Veg’
At it’s best, NZ food was fresh, simple and utterly delicious. Also, looking back, I think just about every meal we ate was cooked on the BBQ and stacked with beautiful fresh veggies.
Our typical meal during the trip looked something like this: BBQ steak with kumera chips roasted nice and crispy and steamed broccoli and carrots.
Or maybe BBQ steak with roast pumpkin, steamed spinach and carrots…
Or BBQ steak, buried under a stack of mushroom sauce, on kumera chips and served with steamed broccoli, spinach and red onion.
Chicken Chorizo & Pine Mushroom Salad
I love a good meaty summer salad - delicious, fresh and light yet filling.
This concoction was the result of Kurt finding some chicken chorizo that he wanted to trial and me coming across pine mushrooms in our local fruit shop.
- chicken chorizo, sliced thin
- pine mushrooms, sliced and sautéed
- pumpkin, squared and roasted
- rocket & spinach leaves
- sherry tomatoes (from our own garden!!)
- red onion
- dried figs, sliced thin
- fresh basil
Hunting & gathering in NZ
During our trip to North Island, NZ over Christmas and New Years, we had the pleasure of indulging in some pretty special food. To be honest, just about everything we ate was delicious, but the absolute highlights of the trip were paua and venison on the BBQ.
While we visited Kurt’s uncle Gus’ beach batch in Hawke’s Bay, he took the boys paua diving. (From my understanding Australian Abalone is pretty much the same thing, except for slight colour difference?) They returned victorious and as a result, I had my first taste of this incredible delicacy. They looked pretty iffy coming up and I wasn’t convinced I wanted to eat them - however, after the first bite, they had to fight me off the plate!
Paua
Venison
After the paua appetiser, it was time for the main course: Uncle Gus is a passionate hunter and he had prepared a treat of venison for dinner.
Still rare on the inside, these small venison steaks were possible the best meat I have ever tasted! So healthy and tasty!
Unbelievably tasty, that's all I can say. I doubt I'll ever find meat as healthy and delicious as this feast...
I will be dreaming about this feast for a long time to come and can’t wait to go back to NZ for a second round!
Self-caught Kingfish with tomato, garlic, capers and homegrown herbs
Once again the man returned victorious from a fishing trip with this gorgeous 13kg kingfish!
To do the beauty justice, he whipped up this delicious dinner of fried kingfish fillets, served with roasted tomatoes, garlic, capers and garnished the lot with homegrown herbs. Unbelievably yummy!
The side dish was a concoction of tomatoes, garlic, red onion, capers and a whole lot of olive oil, roasted in the oven and drizzled over the fish fillets.
BBQ Chicken with Rocket, Pecan and Roast Veggies salad
The best thing about firing the Webber up, is cooking two chooks at once, as the meat is even tastier the next day!
To accompany the chicken, I whipped up a simple tossed salad from rocket, cucumber, tomato, red onion, pecan nuts and leftover roast veggies from the night before.
As dessert, I thought I’d treat the man to some pecan stuffed fig. They’re quick and easy to make and oh-so-yummy!
BBQ Chicken with Roast Veggies
Sunday is a great day to fire up the Webber and roast a chook or two! This time we served the BBQ chicken with a stack of delicious roast veggies that we cooked simultaneously in the oven.
Pork loin chops with creamed spinach, mushrooms and bacon
The creamed spinach we did the other week was so delicious, that I wanted to make that again. It just goes so very well next to a nice hunk of pork! This time we added in mushrooms again and topped the whole lot with crispy grilled bacon. Yum!
Recipe for Creamed Spinach from ‘Paleo Comfort Foods’