DIY Lara bars

Hello there bloggy blog.  I'm sorry that I've neglected you.  I'm just boring and keep eating the same stuff over and over, or I've been using a lot of the recipes from eMeals, or just kept it basic.

However, I finally got to the business of organizing my kitchen cabinets and to my surprise, found 4 separate containers of sesame seeds (whoopsie, I'll need to do something with those) and a big ass container of dates, as well as 2 others.  So after perusing Pinterest and looking for a homemade Lara bar recipe that I could make with what I had on hand, I improvised because I was short on one thing or another.  So here's what I came up with and the results were quite pleasant.  I apologize in advance for the lack of precise measurements.

• 1 cup sunflower seeds (I had roasted/salted but unsalted is fine too)
• 1 cup almonds (again, I used roasted/salted)
• 15-20 dates, pitted
• Coconut oil, melted.  (maybe a tablespoon or two, I didn't measure)
• Couple of handfuls of dried fruit of your choice, I used Craisins
• Vanilla

In a food processor, combine the sunflower seeds and almonds and pulse until ground well and combined.  Don't let it go too long, you don't want to make almond/sun butter out of this.

Once the nut/seed mix is blended, toss in the dates and continue to pulse.  This is where your coconut oil comes in.  I just drizzled it in so everything would mix better.

After those are combined, toss in a handful or two of whatever dried fruit you want (or chocolate chips, that's your choice) and a teaspoon or two of vanilla.  Continue to pulse for another minute or two until everything is combined.

Unload your mix into a baking dish (my 8x8 was dirty so I used, I don't know, a 5x7 one or something) lined with parchment paper and press down evenly.  Refrigerate for a few minutes to let things solidify a little and cut into squares.

I was surprised with how quick and easy these came together and how delicious they were!  The dates and dried fruit are plenty sweet on their own, so you don't need honey, but that's always an option if that's your thing.  

Roasted beet and apple salad

Before you make this salad, do yourself a favor and go out and pick up some goat cheese, it will put it over the top.  This kind of turned into a "I have 3 pounds of roasted beets, what should I do with them?" situation, and I kind of hate lettuce but I buy it anyway, then remember I don't like it.  Issues, I tell you.

• A few handfuls of romaine lettuce (or whatever lettuce you like), chopped
• 1 cup of roasted beets, diced (if you've made your beets ahead of time, toss them in some coconut oil in a skillet and warm them up a bit)
• 1/4 of a Granny smith apple, diced
• 1/2 of a roasted red onion*, sliced
• 2T chopped pecans

Dressing:

• 2T red wine vinegar
• 1T olive oil
• 1t dijon mustard
• 1t lemon juice
• Salt & Pepper to taste

How are you going to roast the red onion, you ask?  Simple.  Take a whole red onion, thinly sliced, and toss it with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and roast at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Remove and toss in 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.

In a large bowl combine all of your ingredients and if you're nice, this will serve two.  If you're selfish and hungry (and live alone like I do), this will make one big salad.  The flavor of the roasted beets paired with the crisp apple and mellow onions are kind of awesome.

Green beans with mushrooms and onions

Well I'm back on the paleo wagon and my problem is coming up with sides.  Today I scored some baby bella mushrooms on sale and found a bag of haricot verts in the freezer, and amazingly had some onions sitting around, so off I went.  And the results were tasty!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

• 1 24-ounce bag of extra fine french green beans (if you have frozen, just let them thaw and use paper towel or a salad spinner to get rid of the excess moisture)
• 12 ounces of baby bella mushrooms, halved
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2-3 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2-3 teaspoons onion powder
• 2-3 teaspoon fine sea salt

In a large baking dish combine all ingredients.  Cook at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.  Adjust seasoning as necessary.

Serves 6

Mashed sweet potatoes

Seriously, why eat boring old white potatoes when sweet potatoes are like dessert?

This is a super simple, super delicious recipe that had people raving when I took it for a party recently, so I'm sharing it with the world.

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon coconut butter
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• Dash of cinnamon

If you have a pressure cooker, this will make your life much easier.  Place the sweet potatoes in your cooker and cook at 15 pounds of pressure for about 5 minutes.  Cool immediately by running cold water over the pressure cooker.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can always steam them or roast them in the oven.

Once your potatoes are soft, mash them and add in all of the ingredients and stir until combined.

The coconut adds such a great flavor but doesn't leave anything overly sweet.

Frittata for a crowd

Why doesn't my computer recognize frittata as a word?  Or New Zealand?  Seriously, I get the red squiggly correction lines under those words (oh, but SQUIGGLY is a word?!)

Anyway, check it.  This is a great recipe if you are going to a brunch, or hosting a brunch with girlfriends and watching Love Actually, which is ACTUALLY what happened on Sunday, haha.  And what's nice about this is you can use any veggies you have on hand.

First step, preheat your oven to 350.

Second step, grease a 9x13 baking dish with your fat of choice.  Coconut oil makes a good fat of choice here.

Third, get your stuff together.

• 1 dozen eggs, whisked
• 1 bell pepper, sliced. You pick the color
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 package portabella mushroom caps, sliced (there's another one that spell check doesn't recognize!)
• 1/3 lb Provolone cheese, diced
• Coconut oil (or whatever oil you like to saute with)
• Your choice of spices-I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika, a few dashes/sprinkles of each and tossed them in while I was whisking the eggs

In a large skillet, melt a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil and toss your onions in and cook over medium low heat for about 15-20 minutes or until the onions are soft and starting to caramelize.  Once those are finished take them out and put them in a bowl and set aside.  Add more fat to your pan if necessary and toss in your sliced mushrooms and bell pepper and saute until the mushrooms are tender.  Remove from pan and toss those in your onion bowl.

Add your whisked eggs to the baking dish and toss in your veggies and cheese and stir to combine everything.  Pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until egg is firm.  Slice and serve!

What's also nice about this is if you have leftovers, it makes for a quick and easy emergency protein snack!

Meatballs

So a few days ago I took out one of the grass fed chuck roasts that were a part of my bulk beef order with the intention of making a roast.  Well, I'm going to Chicago for the weekend tomorrow and this thing took about 3 days to thaw, so, no roast for me.

Instead, I made meatballs!  And man, there really IS a difference between grain and grass fed beef.  These meatballs were so full of flavor, and not dry at all.  I had to stop after 3, I could have gorged on those things.

• 2# grass fed chuck roast, cut into chunks (if you don't have grass fed, use what you've got)
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground sage
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1T olive oil
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400.

Take your chunks of roast and toss them a handful at a time into the food processor and pulse until it's ground like hamburger meat.

In a large bowl, combine everything and mix together.  Form the balls (I used a large cookie scoop and ended up with 20 meatballs) and put on a rimmed baking sheet.  Now these will be wet, but don't worry, they won't fall apart.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Sweet potato hash

So I bought a couple of sweet potatoes a while ago and I keep trying to figure out what to do with them.  I thought about making sweet potato hash from Everyday Paleo, but I didn't have sausage.  I thought about making twice baked sweet potatoes from PaleOMG but didn't feel like doing all the work, so I did a combo of both and the end result was amazing if I do say so myself!

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and grated (use a cheese grater or the shredding disc on your food processor)
• 5 slices bacon
• 1 small yellow onion, sliced thin
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• Sea salt (to taste, I just did several grinds right in the pan)
• Black pepper (to taste)
• Cinnamon (I didn't measure but I'd estimate I used maybe 1-1.5 teaspoons?)
• Dash of cumin
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

In a large skillet, cook the bacon.  Remove and set on a paper towel to absorb excess grease and chop roughly

Toss the sliced onion and garlic into the skillet (use the bacon grease that's in the pan) and saute until onions are tender.  Melt in the coconut oil and add the sweet potatoes, salt, pepper, cinnamon and cumin and stir until the potatoes are tender (mine took maybe 5 minutes).  Add the bacon back in and combine everything.

The cinnamon and coconut oil lend a sweetness to the potatoes, while the bacon, salt and cumin add a salty/smoky flavor.  I can see this going into the rotation of post-WOD snacks, a great balance of healthy carbs, fat and protein!  My only regret is not making a double recipe, I am going to devour this!

Szechuan Lo Mein

Wow, it's been a while since I posted!  But, have no fear, anyone who reads this, as there is a 90 day challenge starting at the box on April 1, so expect lots of posts!

Todays meal was inspired by a recipe I found on Pinterest, thanks to Bill & Hayley over at Primal Palate.

I made a few changes/additions/substitutions to it and was pretty pleased with the results.  My recipe is below:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced into thin strips
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1 8 ounce can of water chestnuts, sliced
• 1/4 cup green onion, chopped
• 1 8 ounce package baby Bella mushrooms, sliced 
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 cups broccoli (it's fine to use frozen broccoli, just make sure it's mostly thawed, it will cook up quicker)
• 3-4 cups of cabbage, sliced thinly
• Sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons tamari
• 2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce*
• 2-3 tablespoons gluten free szechuan sauce (use more or less depending on how hot you want it, 3 tablespoons was just about right for my liking)

Heat a wok (or large skillet if you don't have a wok) on high and add sesame oil and chicken.  Cook until it is almost cooked through.  

Add the broccoli, water chestnuts and mushrooms, cook another 3-5 minutes or until broccoli starts to get tender.

Add almonds, garlic, green onions, ginger and cabbage along with the fish sauce, tamari, chili garlic and szechuan sauce.  Stir everything together and cover, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes, or until cabbage is soft.

Garnish with sesame seeds

Makes about 4 servings

*So I used a sweet chili garlic sauce at Trader Joes and one of the ingredients listed is sugar, so while this isn't a *true* paleo meal, I think it's close enough.  Besides, I couldn't find a non-sugar containing sauce and was too lazy to make my own.

Coconut flax perch

First, I have to thank Hillary over at CrossFit Bloomfield for giving me the idea for the coating with this recipe, she had some chicken a couple of weeks ago she had baked and it inspired me.

• 3/4 pound of fresh caught lake perch (or your fish of choice)
• Coconut milk
• 1/2 cup golden flax meal
• 1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Shortening or your fat of choice

Soak your fish in coconut milk for several hours or overnight if possible.

When you're ready to cook, take the flax, coconut, almond meal, salt and pepper and combine.  I put mine in the food processor and pulsed a few times, just to blend everything together.  Take half the mixture and place on a plate for dredging, and reserve the other half to add more as needed, that way, if you end up with some extra mixture like I did, you can save it for breading another time.

Meanwhile, in a cast iron skillet, melt your shortening over medium heat.  I was excited because I finally had a reason to use this!  Preheat your oven to 350 as well.

One at a time, remove the perch from the coconut milk and dredge through the coconut/flax/almond mixture, making sure both sides are coated evenly.  Place in skillet and cook for about 3-5 minutes on each side, then transfer to a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until the fish flakes easily.

Green beans with caramelized onions and bacon

Super quick and super easy side dish alert!

I'm having dinner tonight with two girlfriends, we've started monthly paleo dinners and it's really nice to have other people who eat how I do, so we can get together, eat some healthy, delicious food and catch up with each other :)  Juliana is hosting tonight so I threw together a side.

• 1 bag frozen (or fresh if you've got them) green beans.  I bought the frozen french cut green beans, they just look a little fancier ;)
• 1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 4 strips of bacon
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet over medium heat fry up your bacon.  When it's finished removed and put on a paper towel to absorb grease.  

Turn the skillet down to medium low and add the garlic and onions and saute until the onions start to caramelize (and your kitchen smells completely delicious)

Add the green beans and stir to combine everything.  You can use the beans straight out of the freezer, or you can let the beans thaw in the bag and drain the excess liquid.  I did an in between and there was some water in the pan, so if you have that problem, then just let it simmer until it's absorbed.

Meanwhile, turn your broiler on to high.

When the beans are almost finished, toss in the bacon (that you have no doubt crumbled while you were waiting for the onions to caramelize).  Then, wrapping the skillet handle in foil if it's not oven/broiler safe, stick under the broiler for 5-10 minutes or until the beans get crispy and slightly browned.

Season with salt and pepper.

Zucchini Fries

Hello world!  I'm alive and well, just been using a lot of cookbooks/old recipes/food not worth mentioning which is why I haven't posted much lately.

Today though, I have a new treat....Zucchini fries!

My apologies in advance, I kind of threw this together and as usual, didn't measure, but this is something that you can alter based on how much you are making.  And a helpful step if you have the time is after you slice the zucchini, wrap it in paper towel and let it sit for a couple of hours to draw out some of the moisture (although who knows, maybe they will be crispier if you don't let them dry out??).

Anyway, you will need:

• Zucchini
• Egg
• Almond meal
• Cayenne pepper (optional)
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Salt
• Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the almond meal and spices in one dish and whisk an egg in another.  Dip thinly sliced zucchini in the egg then dredge through the almond meal mix.  You want just a light coating on these, too much and we all know how almond meal tastes when its caked on (gross).  

Arrange the zucchini strips on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, flipping zucchini over halfway through.

I baked mine for 10 minutes on each side, and I probably could have baked them just a little bit longer, but the coating was starting to get crisp, and I definitely tasted the flavor of the seasoning (if I had to guess, I'd say I used 1/2-3/4C of almond meal and maybe 1/2-1 teaspoon of garlic powder and onion powder and 1/4-1/2 of cayenne...I really need to get better about measuring).

Serve with your side of dipping sauce (I whisked together a couple of tablespoons of olive oil mayo with a little bit of lemon juice, super tasty!).

I had two small zucchini that I made up as a test and I ended up eating the entire dish, oops!

Super rich, chocolately paleo pudding

I was talking to Hillary, my CrossFit coach this morning and she told me about the pudding she recently made with avocados in it.

I know what you're thinking.  Avocados?  In pudding?

However, I've seen several variations of recipes floating around the web for this, and since I had 1.5 avocados (the other half was put in a smoothie this morning) that were destined for the trash the next day because they were so ripe, I set out in search of a solution.

Here is the link to the original recipe, my variation is below.

• 1-2 ripe avocados.  Like, super ripe, skin is black and a little mushy and you are contemplating throwing them out because you didn't use them in time.
• 2-3T dark chocolate cocoa powder
• 2-3T honey (depending on your level of sweetness)
• Dash of vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/2C of coconut milk

In a food processor, combine the avocados, cocoa powder, honey and vanilla and blend until smooth.  Gradually add in coconut milk until your level of desired consistency is met.  I probably added a little over 1/4 cup, and it came out nice and thick and creamy.

This is a very rich pudding, so a little will go along way if you are craving something chocolate :)  Also, it is so thick that it makes a great dip for fruit!

Salmon Hash

So I'm not the biggest fan of salmon, so what did I do?  Bought a piece of salmon.  Yeah, I know, I don't make much sense.

Last night I seasoned it with some lemon pepper seasoning, cooked the salmon up in my cast iron pan, and took a bite and realized "nope, I don't like this".  But I wasn't about to waste it and thought about giving it to Charlie this morning so he'd have a super treat with his dog food, but this morning came up with a better idea.  Originally it was going to be an egg/salmon/turnip scramble, but I had other ideas.

In a small skillet, melt some bacon grease (or your fat of choice) and add a couple of handfuls of grated turnips (you know, out of the bowl of grated turnips you've had sitting in the fridge for a few days that you haven't gotten around to eating yet....or if you are using fresh, make sure you squeeze the excess liquid out of it).  Saute those for several minutes until they start to brown, then add in some salmon and a drizzle of EVOO and stir until it's heated.  Season with salt and pepper.

The result?  Pretty damn tasty!  And since I have salmon and a bunch of turnips left, I think I'll be eating this for a couple of days.  You could also make a bigger batch and just reheat as needed (which I will probably be doing for some quick post workout meals).

Chicken with sundried tomatoes, olives and mushrooms

The other night I was supposed to have a Skpe dinner date with my primal eating buddy, Sarah, but work interfered and our dinner was postponed.  So this afternoon, after realizing I didn't have anything for lunch, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to make it.  The original recipe can be found here, my adaptation is below.

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half
• 1/4-1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes, sliced thinly (I have a giant jar of marinated tomatoes from Costco, I just counted out 20 and used the liquid that came off of it as well)
• 1/4 cup of sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup of olives, sliced in half (I used pitted kalamata olives)
• 6 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1T dried basil
• 1T dried parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large baking dish (my big rectangular Pyrex dish fit the chicken perfectly) arrange the chicken.  Season with EVOO, salt, pepper, basil and parsley on both sides.  Top with the garlic slices and spread an even layer of the tomatoes, mushrooms and olives.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly.

Serves 4-6

UPDATE:  Okay, so I just enjoyed a piece, and while it was pretty tasty, I feel like it was lacking a little flavor.  If you've got some artichoke hearts on hand, definitely toss those in the mix too. 

Zucchini pasta

No grains?  No problem!  Vegetarian?  This is the meal for you!

This is one of those creations where I am kicking myself a little for not properly measuring things out, but I guess that's when some of the best stuff happens.  And I didn't want to wait to post it until I made it again, so here you go. Obviously you can use whatever you have on hand and play around with the seasonings, this is what I had.

Ingredients:

• Zucchini (I got an awesome julienne peeler and I love it!  I sliced 3 zucchini the other day and used a little more then half of it for this dish)
• Mushrooms, rinsed and diced
• Red onion, thinly sliced (I used about 1/4 of one)
• Kale (there was some kale ready to be picked in the garden, so this was a great dish for it)
• Sundried tomatoes, thinly sliced
• Capers (a couple of forkfuls) 
• Lemon juice (I used about 3 capfuls)
• Lime juice (another 3 capfuls, so maybe a teaspoon each?)
• EVOO
• Coconut oil
• Salt, pepper and lemon pepper seasoning

In a large skillet, add a couple tablespoons of coconut oil and add the zucchini, mushrooms, onions, kale and tomatoes.  Saute for a few minutes until everything is tender.  Add the capers, lemon juice, lime juice, a drizzle of EVOO and season to taste.

Makes 2 servings.

No sugar needed!

First off, I apologize for the crappy picture quality, I didn't feel like lugging out the good camera...

Anyway, sweet tooth strikes again, and this whole no sugar thing throws a damper on that, but I came up with an amazing solution.  I say no sugar needed, because this is plenty sweet on its own.

Preheat your oven (or toaster oven if you have one, no sense in heating up the whole oven just for this) to 350.

In a bowl, combine a handful of cherries (pitted), blueberries and 1 banana, sliced.  Drizzle with some extra virgin coconut oil (I seriously cannot get enough of this stuff!!  Just ordered 2 jars from Amazon for a great price).  Sprinkle with some unsweetened shredded coconut and a few shakes of cinnamon and nutmeg.  Stir to get the coconut oil over everything.

Next, get a piece of aluminum foil big enough to hold everything and put the fruit in and loosely wrap it (make sure the sides are closed!) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bananas are tender (they will probably take the longest to bake, they were still pretty firm after 10 minutes).

The result?  Warm, sweet, rich dessert with no sugar, no chocolate and virtually guilt free!  I'm trying to watch my fruit intake this month but I figure with the heavy lifting I did earlier some extra carbs aren't a bad thing ;)

Serves 1

Got berries?

So it's July here in Michigan and that means blueberries are abundant.  Everywhere I'm at lately I see blueberries on sale, 2 pints for $3 or 2/$4 so last week when they were $1/pint I bought 3.  I've never been a big fan of blueberries, I didn't mind them in a fruit salad or something but since switching my diet, I love things I never really cared for (like blueberries).  Unfortunately, one can only eat so many berries before they go bad and when I bought 2 more pints when I still had another in the fridge ready to go bad, I started wondering what to do...

Blueberry compote came to mind.

Unfortunately, most recipes for compote have you adding half a cup of sugar (or more!!) and during the 30 day challenge I'm doing, no sugar.  Fear not, if you get some super ripe berries like I did, you won't even miss the sugar.

• 1 pint blueberries
• 1/4 cup of water (or less, I used about 1/4 cup and it was a bit too much, made it a little too thin for my taste)
• Several dashes of cinnamon (maybe 1/2 tablespoon?)
• Few dashes of nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over low heat, gradually bringing to a low boil, and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until thickened to your liking.  You can mash some of the berries (I used an avocado masher that worked well) but after the berries heat up, you can easily mash them up with a rubber spatula.

Now, what to serve it with?  I think this would work really well in some homemade ice cream, or mixed in some yogurt, or just to dip some apples in, but I used it on the almond berry pancakes I made (the exact recipe is in the cookbook but you can find a very similar one here).  Perfect when you want something sweet.

Makes about 1.5 cups

Anything goes slaw

Just like the title says, anything goes for this dish.  I picked up a head of cabbage from the store and when my original recipe didn't quite work out, I played the "let's scavenge in the fridge" to come up with a dish.

First, assemble your ingredients.  I used:

• 1/2 head purple cabbage (about 3-4 cups)
• 1 large cooked, diced chicken breast (about 1-2 cups)
• 1 diced mango
• 1 diced granny smith apple
• Chopped sundried tomatoes (about 1/4 cup)
• Blueberries

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix.  For the dressing, I just used equal parts of extra virgin olive oil and blueberry pomegranate vinegar.  I thought about adding a little bit of honey but the mangoes and blueberries added just the right amount of sweet, and the cabbage and apples gave just the right amount of crunch.

This will make about 5-6 servings as a side (I'm guessing, really didn't measure it out, as usual!)

Paleo stir fry

Okay, technically I guess this is more paleo-ish because of the oyster sauce I used, but it's what I had and I don't know of a paleo alternative.  Anyway.....this little creation came out pretty tasty!  Super easy to throw together, and you can really use whatever veggies/seasonings you have on hand to come up with your own creation.  This re-heats really well and will make 3-5 servings (depending on what your idea of a serving is :)

• 3T extra virgin coconut oil
• 2t garlic powder
• 1/2t paprika
• 1t crushed red pepper (more or less depending on your level of heat you like)
• 1/2t chili powder
• 1/4t sea salt
• 1/4t black pepper
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 8 ounce package of baby portabello mushrooms, rinsed and sliced
• 2 cups frozen chopped broccoli (or fresh if you've got it)
• 1/2 head cauliflower, shredded into "rice" (use the shredding blade of your food processor)
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 2T oyster sauce

In a large skillet melt 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (if it's not already melted) and combine the ground beef and spices.  Cook thoroughly and drain beef and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of coconut oil and saute the mushrooms and broccoli until the broccoli is tender.  Add the beef back in and the pan along with the cauliflower rice (it's fine raw, since it's chopped so small it will cook pretty quickly).  Add the 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce and cook for about 5 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender, and then add the bean sprouts.

This had the perfect amount of heat (for my liking), plus tons of veggies and a great dose of protein and healthy fats!

Hot Dog Salad

The original recipe came courtesy of Rachael Ray, but thanks to me not having some of the items (granulated sugar, cabbage, yellow mustard) I decided to improvise it and make it more paleo-friendly (although the original recipe is pretty close!).

My version came out pretty good, the dressing was tangy, but not too tangy, and the addition of the sauerkraut really helped add some flavor.  I didn't even realize that the original one called for salt and pepper, but I don't think you need it.  As far as the hot dogs, I used Coleman Natural Beef Hot Dogs, no added chemicals :)  Although you might want to rinse them off first, they were kind of goopy, gross.  My recipe is below:

Hot Dog Salad (Serves two)

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons deli style mustard (I just had the brownish, tangy stuff on hand, but you can use yellow mustard too)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

In a small bowl, whisk the above ingredients together until blended.  Set aside.

Salad:

• Romaine lettuce (I just used up the little I had left, maybe 2 loose cups, shredded)
• 1/4 red onion, sliced thin
• Banana peppers (just toss in what you think you want)
• 1 cup sauerkraut, drained
• 1 tomato, sliced
• 4 hot dogs, sliced

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients but the hot dogs.  In a skillet over medium heat, arrange the hot dogs in a single layer (you can cook these in two batches as well) and cook until browned on both sides.  Drain on a paper towel and add to bowl and toss with salad.  Top with dressing and enjoy!