Stewed Beef and Acorn Squash

Ok, I admit. I am not a fan of the sudden cold. But I promise not to complain about the temperature in every post from now until May. Pinky promise. Besides, there is so much about Fall that I absolutely love. I love Thanksgiving, and little kids in Halloween costumes, and pumpkin flavored things. Oh how I love pumpkin flavored things! Squash, in general, is a family favorite.

I was excited to see acorn squash at the grocery store, and grabbed 5 for our lunches. The Whole Foods also had a huge stack of grass fed stew meat. But, because was making chicken noodle soup for dinner this week, I didn't want to eat beef stew for lunch. I decided to to make stewed beef, with all the flavor of beef stew, but none of the broth. It turned out delicious! AND I got to practice the reduction technique I plan to use to make Thanksgiving gravy.

Ingredients

4 lbs grass fed stew meat
2 yellow onions - diced
8 oz mushrooms - sliced
2 cups beef stock
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons rosemarie
1 tablespoon garlic powder
salt
pepper

5 large acorn squash
3 strips thick cut bacon - diced
chili powder
pepper

Instructions

Combine stew meat, onion, mushrooms, stock, bay leaf, rosemarie, garlic, salt, and pepper in the slow cooker. Cover and turn on high. Let cook, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender. I let mine go all day.  Once the beef is tender, scoop out all of the solids using a slotted spoon. Discard the bay leaf and set the rest aside.  Pour the broth into a large skillet and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Continue boiling, stirring more frequently as it reduces, until the liquid becomes a thick sauce.  Remove from heat.  Pour over the stewed meat and veggies and stir until coated. Makes 10 servings.

While the slow cooker does its thing, cut each acorn squash in half from top to bottom. Remove seeds. Arrange acorn squash halves on a baking sheet.  Divide the diced bacon among the 10 halves, placing in the center of each squash.  Dust with chili pepper and black pepper. Place in a 400 degree oven.  Cook until the squash is tender, about one hour. Makes 10 servings.

Doesn't that look amazing?
I just realized my camera has a "cuisine" setting,
so expect high-quality photos like this one in future posts.

Nutritional Information

	Cal	Fat	Carb	Protein
Stewed Beef	580	37	6	54
Acorn Squash	116	3	22	4
Total	696	39	28	58
Percent		0.51	0.16	0.33

Paleo Chicken "Noodle" Soup

Who approved this weather?! 

We went from summer to late-late fall in one day and I am totally unprepared. Last year at this time I weighed significantly more and wore a much larger size. So, most of my winter clothes are saggy, baggy or frumpy. Not. Cool. Luckily I had one pair of jeans and a North Face sweatshirt to get me through the weekend. 

I am holding out hope that this is a temporary cold snap and stubbornly refuse to turn on the heat. Instead, I've been hanging around the house in oversized sweat pants and the hoodie-robe CaveBoy bought me for Christmas last year. Trust me, it's super cute. CaveBoy isn't so lucky. Rain or shine, wind or rain, hot or cold, he's out in the world doing his job. So, I decided to make something for dinner this week that would warm him up.

I've been experimenting with spaghetti squash and wondered if it would make a good noodle for soup.  It does! It obviously doesn't have the same texture as egg noodles. It's more like Lipton Noodle Soup. The mild squash flavor doesn't make a big statement, allowing the chicken and herbs to shine. This soup is perfect for a cold fall day. 

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash
16 skinless, boneless chicken thighs - cut into bite-sized chunks
2 large yellow onions - diced
1 large bunch of celery - diced
7 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons herbs de provence
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper

Preparation:

In a large pot, saute diced onions and diced celery in olive oil until they start to release some of their liquid.  Add chicken chunks and mix.  Allow the chicken to start to cook on the outsides.  Add chicken stock, herbs, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer while the spaghetti squash cooks in the oven.

Once the spaghetti squash is cooked, allow it to cool to room temperature so that it is safe to scrape.  Add the spaghetti squash "noodles" to the soup, mix completely, re-cover, and allow to simmer until the chicken and veggies are tender, about an hour. Makes 8 servings.

It looks a little like mush, but it tastes delicious!

Cooking this soup made the whole house smell amazing and CaveBoy was thankful to have something so warming for dinner when he got home.

Nutritional Information:

	Cal	Fat	Carb	Protein
Total	365	18	18	38
Percent		0.45	0.20	0.41

Lamb & Beef Kefta and "Hummus"

Starting today CaveBoy and I are fortifying ourselves against back-to-school-colds and damp-weather-ick by eliminating dairy and inflammation inducing oils, along with all processed foods with even a hint of added sugar or harmful additives. If you're interested, we are following the guidelines of the Whole30 program.

In practical terms, following this program means that we will only be eating food prepared at home for the next month. So I need to step up my game!

Over the summer our good friend made a delicious spread of paleo appetizers, including roasted cauliflower hummus, and I have been thinking about it ever since.  Because I was in the mood for raw veggies--and ranch dressing is off the menu--I decided to build our entire lunch box around this delicious dip.

I found this recipe for cauliflower hummus online, which gave me an idea of the ingredient ratios, and I based my seasoning profile for the kefta on another recipe I found after a quick google search.

Lamb & Beef Kefta

2 lbs ground lamb
2 lbs ground beef
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 tablespoons dehydrated onion flakes
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Large pinch of salt
Black pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until completely combined.  Divide into 10 equal portions, and then divide each again twice, for a total of 40 equally sized portions. Roll into elongated meatballs of equal thickness.  Arrange on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Don't you want to have this in your lunch box?

	Cal	Fat	Carb	Protein
L&B Kefta	432	30*	0	35
"Hummus"	118	10	6	4
Veggies	31	0	6	3
Total	580	40*	12	41

*The fat content of the Kefta is a little misleading.  A large portion of the fat is left in the pan after cooking, but I am not quite sure how to capture that here.


Roasted Cauliflower "Hummus" 

1 head of cauliflower
1/2 cup tahini, well mixed
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt
pepper
paprika

Wash and break-down cauliflower into equal sized pieces.  Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a few shakes of salt and pepper.  Arrange on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until browned (and softened).  About 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool.  In a food processor, puree cauliflower, tahini, olive oil and lemon juice until it has the consistency of a thick paste.  Shake in salt, pepper, and paprika, to taste, and continue mixing until completely combined.

Note: this is my first attempt at this recipe and, while it tastes amazing, I think I can do better.  I will continue my research and update this post if I decide I like different ingredient ratios.


Update: I re-worked the hummus and posted the much-improved recipe here. Enjoy!

Key Lime CavePie

I would love to say that I invented this amazingly delicious, paleo key lime pie, but I cannot.  I have to give credit where credit is due.  Last week, I was playing around with a gelatin-based strawberry coconut milk pie-type recipe (that I haven't quite perfected) and my good friend CB asked if I had considered key lime.  She is a genius. She also coined the CavePie term, which I have embraced despite my suspicion that she is mocking me...

I was further inspired by two genius bloggers who are much more creative than I have been, to date.  The pie crust is based on a recipe from Jan Can Cook that I found on Pinterest, and the pie filling was stolen outright from a paleomg.com lemon bar recipe.

But I was the one to assemble it all in one place. So. You're welcome.

Key Lime CavePie

Key Lime CavePie

For the Crust:

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tablespoon raw honey
1/4 cup coconut oil

Instructions

Melt the coconut oil and honey in a skillet over medium heat. Brown the coconut, stirring continuously.  Once it has reached a uniform golden brown, transfer into a greased pie plate (I used spray coconut oil to grease the plate).  Allow the mixture to cool to a point where it is safe to touch, then press into the plate with your fingers.  Place in the refrigerator to cool while you make the filling.

For the Filling:

Ingredients

5 eggs
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup key lime juice
1 tablespoon honey

Instructions

Whisk all ingredients together in an unheated sauce pan then place over medium heat. Whisk continuously until the mixture starts to thicken.  Lift from the heat and continue whisking until the filling is thick. Transfer into a bowl and place in the refrigerator to cool. Let it cool for 10 minutes.

Pull out the cooled pie crust and filling and spoon the filling into the pie plate.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Makes 6 servings.

This pie has been a universal hit!  I took one to ladies movie night and it received rave reviews. CaveBoy's only suggestion for next time was to double the amount of filling.

Nutritional Information

		Cal	Fat	Carb	Protein
	Total	1629.82	151.26	52.97	34.27
	Serving	271.64	25.21	8.83	5.71

Who Needs Croutons? I've Got Bacon!

CaveBoy and I have been overwhelmed lately with work and end of summer activities (those holiday weekends aren't going to celebrate themselves).  So "easy to prepare" has been the most important quality for our weekly meals.  Enter the salad.

Earlier this summer, we spent a long weekend at Club Med, Sandpiper Bay basking in the Florida sun, sailing and paddle boarding daily, and taking full advantage of the all-inclusive meal package.  This included a 3 PM chicken caesar salad snack.  While the bottled dressing was full of ingredients I normally avoid, the experience reminded me how much I love a good caesar salad. Fast-forward to the end of the summer, and voila.

Look at those chunks of bacon!

Cal       Fat       Carb       Protein

667.4     39.5      9.2        79.5 

For the dressing, I mixed one serving of Annie's Naturals Organic Caesar Dressing and one tablespoon lemon juice to make the salad easer to toss.  I then sprinkled one tablespoon parmesan cheese and salt and pepper, then topped it all off with bacon croutons.  Each salad also included one grilled chicken breast.  

For the bacon croutons, I cut Wellshire Farms thick cut bacon into small cubes and cooked them in a large skillet until they became crunchy but not burned.

Here they are, just getting started.

All finished. See how crunchy and delicious they look?

I cooked all the bacon (and grilled chicken) ahead of time so I could just rinse the lettuce and assemble each salad at meal time.  Of note: I found that this salad is also delicious dressing-free.  I needed a quick packed lunch one Saturday, so I tossed the ingredients (minus the dressing) into a container and ran out the door.  The saltiness of the bacon and parmesan made up for the lack of dressing.