I’m sort of on a cooking adventure so I thought it would be fun to share what we are eating. I guess the adventure is that we are eating grain-free for three weeks and although I have gone grain and/or gluten-free before I realized I was allowing too much into my diet and so I’m am sort of detoxing my body. We will revisit the idea of including grains into a meal no more than once a day in three weeks (actually just two more since it’s been a week since we started). The idea of removing grains from our modern diet is one that stems from the consideration of Paleolithic humans and what they ate being the optimal diet for us even today, also known as the Paleo Diet.

Just to clarify, my diet is not 100% Paleo but it’s as close as I want to get to it but most of our recipes and meal ideas will be dairy- and grain-free and pretty darn close to being paleo recipes ideas. If you have any questions or suggestions about our meals please share.

Tonight I made chicken breast stuffed with pesto and baked it in the oven. I cut the chicken breasts open lenghtwise opening up a large pocket for the pesto. Be careful not to cut all the way through and avoid cutting all the way to the ends. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and any other garlicky herby mixes you have.

Next I heated a cast iron pan on high heat with it just barely covered in olive oil and stood the chicken breasts up on the backside of the cut. They had to rest against each other to do this. The idea was to brown two of the sides rapidly so it would have a richer flavor. Once the edge was browned I flipped them to the seasoned top and finished browning it (this part should take no more than 2-3 minutes). I did not brown the cut side or the bottom.

Now, turn the heat off and while holding the chicken breast with tongs, stuff them generously with pesto (here is my homemade dairy-free pesto recipe) and then lay them flat in the pan with the un-browned side down, cover and place into 375 degree oven. Cook about 20 minutes or until done.

The carrots are easy and sort of cheap rendition of something that sounds and maybe even looks fancy. In a lightly oiled pan add some carrots and cook on high heat so they get browned quickly without cooking a lot (about 3 min.) then lower heat and allow the pan to cool down a bit then add about 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. The quality of your vinegar is going to make a difference but I used an inexpensive balsamic but because I let it reduce on a low heat it took the sharpness out of the vinegar and gave it a smooth, sweet taste and a pretty color.

Steamed brocolli is so plain and usually I sometimes just season it with salt but tonight the drippings in the pan from the pesto chicken looked so yummy so I drizzled some of the oil and crumbs over the broccoli and made the taste a little more colorful without any work.

The ingredients are so simple I can hardly even take credit for this:

2 chicken breasts
6 tablespoons pesto sauce
salt & pepper
other dry herbs that sound good like rosemary, oregano….
1/2 to 1 pound of carrots
1/2 to 1 pound brocolli

That’s it! Enjoy.

Gearing up for the Spring Leaning Paleo Challenge! This is a recipe for a grain-free pasta-style meal. The zucchini serves as the pasta and when topped with a hearty meat sauce even a meat & potatoes kinda guy will adore it.

1-2 pounds of Italian Zucchini
4-6 cups meat sauce

I begin my meat sauce by dicing onions and cooking them until soft. Then I add a pound of grass-fed ground beef, cook it through and add salt, pepper and oregano. Next I add tomato sauce either from a can or out of the freezer from pureed tomatoes grown in our garden. I prefer my sauces on the meatier side so typically 2 cans or about 20 ounces of tomato sauce does it for me. Then I add a bit more salt, pepper, garlic and oregano to taste. If I have other fresh herbs on hand like basil and parsley I definitely add those in as well so just use what you have…it’s hard to mess up a red sauce.

To prepare the zucchini you will want to cut them in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Then lay them flat side down and cut them into thing strips. Saute the strips in a bit of olive oil until they are tender but not mushy. Sprinkle with salt & pepper before topping with meat sauce.

Simple dish with a big taste and I have a couple of different versions coming soon.

I found this recipe for almond meal muffins at Organic & Thrifty that had been adapted from an original recipe from the Grain Free Gourmet Cookbook. And now I have taken this recipe and adapted it once again. I’m thinking these adaptations are leading us to an even tastier grain-free muffin made with almond meal.

This recipe is so quick and simple and requires few ingredients. It’s worth giving a try even if you are one of the most skeptical critics of grain-free baking. I doubled the original (adapted) recipe but erred on the lighter side of the measurements for cranberries and honey because these muffins do host quite a sweet flavor. Adding the orange zest put them over the top. I have also had success substituting thawed/drained berries.

5 cups almond meal
6 eggs
1/3 – 1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tb. vanilla extract
1/2 -1 cup dried cranberries
zest from 1/2 an orange

Measure the almond meal into a bowl and add baking powder, stir. Beat eggs and vanilla extract together. Add to almond meal and stir. Next stir in honey, cranberries and orange zest.

Divide into greased muffin tray and cook for 30 -35 minutes at 300 degrees.

Next time I make these I will be trying a fig and goat cheese variation. I plan to make a version that omits even more honey and replace it with oil…I’m curious how that will turn out. If you get to it first let us know how it turns out. 7

When we stopped cooking with dairy because of my son’s allergy one of the first things I made was pesto without the parmesan. I personally don’t think it changes the taste much at all if any. My recipe is basic and yummy. It gives the option of either walnuts or pine nuts. Walnuts will be cheaper but pine nuts will give it an even creamier taste. Either way it’s delicious.

1 bunch of basil (about 3-4 leafy stems
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup pine nuts or walnuts
4 large cloves of garlic, peeled

First place the dry herbs into a food processor and pulse until chopped finely. Next add the nuts and garlic and pulse again until you get a coarse mixture.  Now add the olive oil and pulse it until you get the consistency you like. I like mine a hearty texture rather than a puree and I think that it works better for things like stuffing chicken when left coarse.

My daughter needs snacks for lunch this year. She’s going to be heading off to school and I want her to be well nourished while away from home. Today I roasted some chick peas in the oven. She loved them when they were all finished. I packed them into a small container and added a few carob chips and hazelnuts so she would have variety to choose from.

Roasted Chickpeas

2 cans Organic Garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tb. Olive oil
1 Tb. Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drain the cans of chickpeas or the water from fresh ones and toss them in the olive oil and sea salt. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking pan for even cooking. Spread the chick peas out in one layer and cook for about 45 minutes. There is no need to turn the chick peas. Store in a glass jar.