Paleo Carrot "Fries"

I don't crave many specific foods, but french fries, I'm always craving. This recipe takes the monotonous carrot stick to a whole new level. Yowza!

• whole carrots, peeled and sliced like fries
• olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• fresh or dried herbs, to taste (optional)

Preheat oven to 425. After you slice the carrots, place in a bowl, drizzle with desired amount of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss until all carrot sticks are well coated then spread evenly on a veggie sheet (a.k.a. a cookie sheet). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. If you pull them out too soon, the outsides will be beautiful but the insides will be crunchy and too reminiscent of regular carrots, sad day.

Mashed Cauliflower with Garlic

I purchased a head of cauliflower on a whim today (I know, I'm so reckless) and made a huge batch of cauliflower rice and mashed cauliflower. We'll be eating the "rice" with lunches this week and I am going to freeze the mashed cauliflower for later. I could probably eat all of this in one sitting if I knew I wouldn't regret it ;)

• 1/2 head cauliflower (or 1 small), stemmed and coarsely chopped
• 2-4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1T butter or ghee (optional)
• 2T chicken broth or other liquid (optional) 
• salt and pepper to taste

Steam cauliflower and garlic cloves until tender. Transfer to a food processor with butter and broth and mix until desired consistency. Add salt and pepper. Voila!

Paleo Oven Roasted Okra

We have been receiving oodles of okra in our co-op share the past few weeks and I have made numerous recipes to include them, some good, some not so good. This is by far the easiest and one of the most delicious ways. So simple, yet so good. 

• 1-2lbs okra, sliced in rounds
• 1-2 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 1-2T olive oil
• sea salt, to taste
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 400. Toss okra and tomatoes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until okra is softened and starting to brown.

Serve as a side dish, pile on top of cooked quinoa, or plop down and dig in for a snack.

Colorful Kale Salad

This recipe is my version of a recipe from the Whole Foods app. It is mostly "my" version because we went grocery shopping half an hour before the grocery store closed on a Sunday and couldn't purchase many of the original recipe's ingredients (whoops!). Oh, this makes a TON of salad so you may want to half the recipe if you aren't so sure about kale yet.

1 bunch of dinosaur kale, stems removed and leaves coarsely chopped

1 small head of red cabbage, shredded

2 navel oranges, segmented and coarsely chopped

1/4 cup dijon mustard

1/4 fresh orange juice

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

salt and black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine kale, cabbage, and oranges. In a small bowl, combine mustard, orange juice, and balsamic vinegar. Add mustard mix to kale mix and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and keep refrigerated for up to 3-4 days (depending on age of kale and cabbage).

Spicy Bok Choy (with Sweet Asian Meatballs)

Here is a yummy dish that made use of our co-op bok choy. In my search for an Asian protein recipe to accompany it, I found PaleOMG's Sweet Asian Meatballs. 

• 1 bunch bok choy, chopped (white and green parts separate)
• 1 T olive oil
  
• 1 T sesame oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T coconut aminos
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional) 

In a small bowl or cup, stir together the olive oil and sesame oil. In a separate larger bowl, stir together the water, ginger, garlic, coconut aminos and red pepper flakes. Set this aside. 

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the bok choy stems (white parts) first; stir fry for a few minutes or until the pieces start to turn a pale green. When stems are almost cooked, add the leaves; cook and stir until leaves are wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer the bok choy to a serving dish. Pour the sauce into the skillet or wok, and set over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes. Pour over the bok choy and toss lightly to coat.

Serve with Sweet Asian Meatballs and eat up!

Turnip Curry

This is Jeremy's favorite Paleo/Whole30 recipe. Don't be afraid of the turnips-give them a chance. I served this with brined and roasted chicken breasts.

•  2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 large turnip, peeled and diced
• 2 cans fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• salt and black pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, garlic, cumin, and curry powder; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the turnip and tomatoes. Season with red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender and the curry has thickened, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 

This makes 4-6 servings depending on how hungry you are ;)

Slow Cooked Mustard Greens (2 Points+)

Lots of goodies in our produce share this week.  Mustard greens, collard greens, Swiss chard, butternut squash, radishes, beets, turnips, apples, oranges, and two types of potatoes! I only made minor tweaks to this recipe from Urban Acres, but it was too delicious not to share. I am still trying to figure out what to use in place of the bacon for a vegetarian dish, so if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!  

• 1 cup white vinegar
• 2 Tbsp red pepper flakes
• mustard greens, stemmed and chopped
• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 3 cups water

The night before or morning of, combine the vinegar and red pepper flakes in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid. At least an hour before your meal, cut the stems of your mustard greens. Thinly slice the stems and roughly chop the leaves. Get a large pot and combine the greens, bacon, butter, sugar, salt and water bringing it all to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for at least an hour.

Or, after the dish has been brought to a boil, place in a slow cooker on low for 4 hours. 

Serve the greens with quinoa or rice (or whatever sounds good) and with a drizzle of the spicy vinegar on top. 

Each serving is 2 Points+. If served with 1/2c of quinoa, add 3 Points+ values.