by ninaeliseh | May 21, 2014 | Meals, Recipes
Paleo Spicy Bison Burgers!
Served with a side of steamed broccoli & sweet potatoes topped w/franks red hot sauce
Ingredients:
For the burgers:
- 16 oz bison/buffalo (beef would work too)
- 1/4 cup franks red hot sauce
- 1-2 Tbsp trader joes South African smoke seasoning blend
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Olive oil
For the Sweet Potato “Buns”
- 1-2 large sweet potatoes
- 1/4 cup franks red hot sauce
- 1/4 cup oil (I used olive)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Put foil over pan. Cut sweet potatoes into thin slices and place into a bowl. Make sure you cut enough slices for the amount of burgers you are making. Cut the remaining sweet potato into cubes and place in bowl. Mix the rest of the ingredients with the sweet potatoes, tossing until all is covered in the mix. Place on foil -covered baking sheet and put in oven for 30 minutes.
While the sweet potatoes are cooking, place all burger ingredients in a bowl except for the olive oil and mix thoroughly. Pour olive oil in a pan to coat and turn heat on medium. Shape patties to your desired shape/size and place in pan. Cover with a lid and cook on med-high for about 5 minutes. Flip burgers and cook for another few minutes until they are brown. In the meantime, flip sweet potatoes in oven about 15-20 minutes in. Once all food is done cooking, assemble bison patties on sweet potato “buns.” Top off with franks hot sauce and enjoy!
by ninaeliseh | May 2, 2014 | Meals, Recipes
Recipe adapted from paleoleap (Sweet Potato Buffalo Chicken Casserole). Paleo & Whole30 approved!
Ingredients
- 1 lb of boneless chicken breasts
- 1 large sweet potato, no skin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp garlic powder;
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp smoked south african pepper (from trader joes)
- 4-5 tbsp Franks Red hot sauce
- 1/8-1/4 cup melted ghee (from trader joes)
- Optional: butter lettuce/spices
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Combine all ingredients except for sweet potatoes and chicken into a bowl. Chop chicken up into small pieces and add to bowl. Peel skin off of sweet potatoes (or leave on, I just don’t like the skin) and cut into small cubes. Add to bowl and coat everything with the sauce/spices. Pour mixture into a pan/dish (size doesn’t matter) and cook in oven for 35-45 minutes, or until sweet potatoes have softened. **If you don’t want your chicken cooking that long, pre-cook your sweet potato before cutting up and putting in mix.
You can also just throw everything in a crockpot and cook for a few hours!
I placed the mix on a bed of butter lettuce! Enjoy!
by ninaeliseh | Feb 1, 2014 | Recipes, Snacks
Good morning!
I have been wanting to make homemade almond milk for FOREVER! Unfortunately, I never invested in a nut milk bag, and I thought it would be too time consuming. Now that I have one…well, it does take a few days to make… but it’s pretty easy. But messy. Regardless, I would make this again. And again. Because it is delicious, and creamy, and vanilla-ey… and almost tastes like liquid ice cream. I think next time I am going to experiment with a few different flavors and sweeteners… maybe try a chocolate almond milk??
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of almonds (I bought mine from the whole foods bulk section)
- 2-4 cups water
- 1/2 vanilla bean pod (or 1 tsp vanilla extract) – I bought my vanilla bean pods from whole foods
- 1/2 tsp salt
- optional: sweetener to taste (honey, date paste, stevia, maple syrup)
Directions:
- Soak almonds in water for 1-2 days
- After almonds have been soaking, drain and rinse
- add almonds to blender with 2-4 cups of water (2 cups =more creamier, 4 cups=thinner, but more yield)
- blend almonds & water for 2-3 minutes
- place nut bag over top a bowl and pour almond mixture into it
- squeeze. and SQUEEZE that bag until there is no more liquid in it. You should only have leftover almond pulp (which you can make almond meal/flour – see hot-to here)
- Pour liquid into a jar/container (I used a tall mason jar)
- split vanilla bean & scrape out insides – add to almond milk (or just add vanilla extract)
- add in sweetener, if you would like (I used stevia) – make sure to add a little bit at a time & taste test
- shake all ingredients up and enjoy! Lasts for about a week in the fridge.
by ninaeliseh | Jan 30, 2014 | Meals, Recipes
One of the things most people should know about me is that I like EASY. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind doing the work, as I am a very motivated & driven person. BUT – it doesn’t mean I don’t always exhaust all efforts to find an easier way to complete any task (if it looks difficult). This isn’t just in my job, workouts… it’s also in the kitchen. Insert: Crockpot. My favorite kitchen appliance ever invented. Literally – you just throw stuff in there, and it magically cooks without having to come back and check on it, worry about the house catching on fire if you leave, etc. I think I make 1-2 recipes in my crockpot a week, which is usually what I eat for the entire week. I made an old favorite the other day: Crockpot Sweet Potato Beef Casserole. Delicious, easy, and lasts me 5-6 meals.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb ground beef/bison
- 1 large sweet potato (can use 3 large plantains, but I find they don’t have as much flavor)
- 5 eggs
- Ghee/coconut oil/butter
- Spices: salt, pepper, all-purpose spice (whole foods), Trader Joes South African Smoke Spice ($2-$3 at TJ’s, pale/whole30 compliant. Trust me on this – buy this and keep in your spice cabinet forever)
- Optional: hot sauce (preferably franks red hot or tessamae’s buffalo wing sauce)
Directions:
- Grease crockpot with ghee/butter/coconut oil.
- Brown ground beef/bison on the stove & season with spices to taste.. and hot sauce, if you ‘re into that kinda stuff
- Wash sweet potato & slice into ¼” thick medallion rounds
- Put 1st layer of sweet potato rounds in the crockpot. Layer some of ground beef over top. Repeat until beef & sweet potatoes are gone.
- Crack eggs in a bowl & whisk together with any additional spices, if you are feeling spicy
- Pour egg mixture over beef, covering the beef/sweet potato mixture as much as you can
- Cook on high for 1-2 hours
- Serve with some more hot sauce & eat!
Recipe inspired by PaleoPot.
by ninaeliseh | Jan 29, 2014 | Desserts, Recipes, Snacks
I had one of those days where I wanted to just cook in the kitchen… and nothing seems to go right. BUT. Sometimes it works out in my favor, and these paleo cinnamon bread bites are the delicious child that came from my kitchen baking mistake. It all started out with good intentions: Paleo Cloud bread. Sounds amazing, right? I am sure they taste great, too. But I’ll never know, because I cannot beat egg whites for the life of me. So after my egg whites didn’t cooperate and decided to be a foamy dud, i did what I always do in situations like this: just start throwing random stuff in the bowl and hope for the best. Usually, situations like this turn out pretty gross. And I am sure you could omit or change a few of the ingredients, but I am not willing to take that chance after eating these fluffy clouds of goodness. Luckily, the baking Gods were looking down on me tonight, gracing me with a nice recipe to tack to my Whole30 approved recipe board. And the best part? You can make them sweet… or salty… or garlicky… whatever your heart desires. Best served with a glass of almond milk. Eat up!
- 3 eggs, separated
- 2 tablespoons of coconut butter
- 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons of date paste/honey/maple syrup (can add more to taste)
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 5-6 Tbsp tapioca flour
- 2-3 Tbsp coconut flour
- 2 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
**If you don’t want “sweet”, omit the cinnamon & up the garlic powder amount. or add jalapenos. whatever.
Heat oven to 300 Degrees Fahrenheit. Separate egg whites & apple cider vinegar into one bowl. Add the egg yolks to a separate bowl and mix in the coconut butter, coconut oil and sweetener. Add the egg whites and apple cider vinegar to the egg yolks bowl and mix some more. Slowly add the flours until the consistency reaches the point of not-so-runny. Add in your spices/flavors and mix some more. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes to thicken up – it should look like a thicker porridge. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and use a spoon to scoop the mixture onto the paper (cookie size, or smaller if you want). Bake in oven for 15 minutes and let cool. Makes about 10 cookies.
