Chicken Salad

Mel's chicken salad-to be exact. Because no one else's recipe quite compares.

First, make yourself a batch of Tony's seasoning, hold the MSG please, to have on hand for dozens of batches of chicken salad.

Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

-Just a little less than 1 cup of sea salt
-1 Tbs. ground red pepper
-2 tsp. black pepper
-1/2 Tbs. garlic powder
-1/2 Tbs. chili powder

Combine spices in a mason jar. Put the lid on. Shake it all about. Store in pantry to season meats, eggs, and other dishes.

Chicken Salad:

-1 whole YWF chicken, cooked on low in a crockpot for 6-8 hours with s&p only (depending on the size) and shredded.
-1 batch of Clothes Make the Girl Mayo (be sure to follow her directions exactly on the light olive oil and room temp ingredients.)
-grapes, washed and halved
-pecans, chopped
-creole seasoning, to taste (start with a little, adding more as needed)

Combine above ingredients and store in the fridge for a few hours. Serve on a bed of spinach. Behold the wonder.

Paleo Chicken "Noodle" Soup

It's what {was} for dinner in our house tonight. All four kids have some sort of infection (ears, throat, lungs, etc.) and this is the perfect dinner when you're feeling under the weather. This tastes just like chicken noodle soup: it's mild, light on the tummy and comforting.  (My sister passed this on, based off this recipe, after her kids gave it their approval...and my kids have agreed that it's one of their favorite soups.)

Like most real-food meals, it does require a bit of prep work, but if you can plan ahead for it, it's not too bad.

Paleo Chicken "Noodle" Soup

fat of choice (coconut oil, butter, olive oil, etc.)

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. parsley

1/2 tsp. oregano

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 large onion, diced

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 whole soup chicken, cooked and shredded (Yonder Way Farm)

2 lbs butternut squash  (pre-peeled and cubed from Sam's or Costco)

1 head of cauliflower, riced (I like to do this at the beginning of the week, when I try to prep all my veggies at once, if so this makes it a lot easier. If you don't know how to rice a cauliflower, see step 1, here.)

1 large can of diced tomatoes (28oz)

6-8 cups chicken bone broth (Make your own...I keep them in my freezer in Mason jars and let them thaw out the morning I use it.)

1. Start cooking/boiling your chicken. (When I boil my chicken, it's always seems to dry. So, I put mine in a crockpot on low for 6 hours (for a small, whole soup chicken, 8 hours for a large whole chicken) covered with salt and pepper. Nothing else in the crockpot. Just the chicken. You might be worried that it's going to be really dry. It's actually the opposite. My friend Meredith told me how to do it this way. It's amazingly moist and simple.)

2. Steam the butternut squash for about 10 minutes until barely tender. Remove half the squash onto a plate. Allow the remaining squash to simmer for about 5 more minutes. Then, drain water and mash this squash with the back of a fork. Set aside. (I usually use the same plate: half with cubed squash, half with mashed squash.)

3. Melt fat of choice in the bottom of a large pot. Saute onion for about 8 minutes and add the garlic for a few more minutes. Add riced cauliflower, cook for about 5 minutes. (I also usually add the broth that was at the bottom of my crockpot from cooking the whole chicken at this point. If you didn't do that, no big deal, you'll add the broth in a little bit.) While all this is happening, shred your chicken on a plate.

4. Add tomatoes, all of the butternut squashed (mashed and cubed), and shredded chicken. Pour all spices and seasonings over the top of the chicken. Add the 6-8 cups of broth. And allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

The Girls' General (Paleo) Stir Fry...

It's named "Girls' General Stir Fry" b/c McKlayne helped as the official "taste-tester" and "ingredient adder" as I've made several adjustments to a General Tso's recipe to "paleo-fy" it and get it just right over the last year. McKlayne gave me high-fives all throughout this meal as she commented on how good this was.


Several things that I love about this meal: I love that this meal is PACKED with tons of veggies. I love that it makes PLENTY of leftovers, even for all of our big eaters!  (It's really good the next day for lunch!) And I love that I can actually prep most of this meal earlier that day (or even earlier in the week) to make a quick dinner to throw together.  (I actually riced my cauliflower the day I bought it and kept it in the fridge for 5 days before making this meal. If I prep the broccoli and carrots, too, this meal is pretty simple...it just takes some time to cook in batches since it makes so much.) This makes clean-up much easier and cuts down on time in the kitchen. If you don't prepare all your veggies before-hand this could take about an hour or longer to prepare and cook...but maybe that's just  because of my four little "interruptions" as I frequently have to take breaks to referee or move them on to something else to keep the babies "busy".


Okay...onto the recipe:

2 heads of cauliflower, riced

4-5 cups broccoli (I use raw, but I'm sure frozen would be fine, too.)

5 large carrots, sliced into rounds

1 large onion, cut into large chunks (like you would for a stir fry)
3 chicken breasts (cut into bite size chunks, seasoned with paprika, chili powder, s&p)
Plus the sauce ingredients listed in Step 2.

1. Begin by "ricing" 2 heads of raw cauliflower: Remove stems and leaves, and chop florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like rice. (I find it much easier to pulverize the cauliflower in several batches.  It's less messy AND I have better control over the consistency.  I like mine to look like large feta cheese crumbles....any smaller and I think it gets too mushy.) I usually set my processor on a 1-2 (out of 6) and pulverize away. Set riced cauliflower aside.
2. Then, prepare the sauce. (Half this if you're making a smaller portion.) Whisk the following together thoroughly in a small saucepan: 


2 cups Chicken Broth 

1/2 cup raw honey
1/4 cup Coconut Aminos (this is to replace soy sauce..it's wheat and soy free)
1/4 cup apple juice (sherry wine or white wine...I actually had some of this and none of the others, so I used the apple juice)
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar 
1/8 cup lemon juice
1-2 tsp garlic chili sauce (optional: my kids don't mind the spice, but if your kids are sensitive, you can cut it out...if you cut it, make sure you add some garlic powder, maybe 1 tsp.)

Let all of this begin to simmer and then add: 1/4 cup arrowroot powder with 1/4 cup of water, for thickening. Simmer, allowing the sauce to thicken a bit. Turn heat to low.  

3. While the sauce is simmering, prepare the chicken: Melt a couple tablespoons of coconut oil in a large pan on medium heat and brown all sides of meat. Once the chicken is starting to brown, turn heat down to med-low and steam for a few minutes until done. When it's done, transfer it to a large serving bowl where you will combine all the stir-fry. (While chicken is cooking, get started on the veggies.) If I had a large electric skillet, I'd probably do all the veggies in this (and use it in place of my "serving bowl"), but I don't so I have to make it in my largest pan and do a couple batches.

4. Cover bottom of hot pan with coconut oil and fry cauliflower. This may take about 10 minutes or so. When you think it's done, taste a little bit...if it still tastes cauliflower-y then cook it a little longer until it doesn't taste like much (kinda like rice.) When it's done, dump it in your serving bowl.

5. Add about 1/4 cup of the stir-fry sauce to your large pan and pour in the rest of the veggies (broccoli, carrots and onion) and cover for about 10 minutes. Occasionally stir everything together, until veggies reach desired "done-ness".  Transfer everything to the huge serving bowl with the "rice" and chicken, mixing together well.

6. Dish out individual servings of the stir-fry and top with desired amount of sauce. Enjoy your stir-fry! 

If you liked this, you may enjoy this even easier go-to-dish: Pork Fried Rice.

Chicken Fajita Wraps

with oven-roasted okra.

Our friends, Joe and Melissa, made Fajita Wraps with all the fixings for us when we were over for dinner one night. It was a hit with my family, so I knew I had to add this to the rotation!  (Now I think of you wonderful Terry's every time we eat this meal and for all the ways we're thankful for how God has used you two to shape us.)

I based my marinade off of this recipe.

Fajita Marinade

1/4 cup lime juice
 1/3 cup water
 2 tablespoons olive oil
 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
 2 teaspoons salt
 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

I usually let the marinade sit for 1-2 nights in the fridge, but it can marinate for just a few hours if you need to eat them sooner. The longer, the better, though.

Grill or cook on stovetop in skillet.  Serve in lettuce wraps with grilled mushrooms and onions, salsa and guacamole.

Roasted Veggie Medley

This recipe originated with my friend, Rachel. I may have made a few changes over the years, I really can't remember.  I like making this at the beginning of the week and eating off of it for a few meals or making it when we need to contribute to some sort of large-group meal.  It makes a very large portion, so you may need to, at least, half it.

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into thirds
1 red onion, cut into large slices
1 whole red, orange, or yellow bell pepper (or 1/2 of each), sliced
a few handfuls of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1-2 zucchini, cut into bite size pieces
4-6 cups of broccoli
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic
salt and pepper
(and sometimes a couple dashes of Tony's seasoning)

Mix veggies in a huge bowl. Add oil and seasonings. Toss to coat. Roast in the oven at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

You can also grill them: Heat grill over high heat. Toss veggies into a grill basket (or an aluminum pan with holes poked in the bottom) and grill for 8-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

Crispy Chicken, "Faux"tatoes and Roasted Zucchini

(Crispy chicken, "faux"tatoes, and roasted zucchini)

This is what my kids like to call Crispy Chicken.

I altered this recipe a little bit. If you're using a whole chicken, you can follow the basics of PW's recipe by stuffing the chicken, but it's cheaper for us to buy the chicken hindquarters from here rather than a whole bird. (And, up until recently, one package of hindquarters was enough to feed our family. Now that the two babies are eating what we eat, I make two packages and we have leftover for lunch or for chicken salad.)

Alright, here's what you need:


Crispy Chicken

chicken hindquarters, rinsed (get pasture-raised if you can)

1 teaspoon of Basil

1 teaspoon of Oregano

1 teaspoon of Parsley

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 Tablespoon of salt

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

In a small bowl, mix together all the spices and seasonings and add the olive oil until combined well.

Coat your entire hindquarters with the marinade...front, back, every nook and cranny.  Place them on a large piece of tinfoil-covered baking sheet and roast at 425 for about 40 minutes. We like our skin really brown and crispy, crunchy. Let it cool for about 10-15 minutes before tearing into it, so all the juices aren't immediately released and so your chicken tastes juicy, not dry.

That's it...wasn't that so easy?

*************

"Faux"tatoes


1 giant head of organic cauliflower or a bag of frozen, steamed until soft
1/2 stick of butter
1 tsp garlic powder, or fresh garlic, to taste
sea salt and pepper, to taste


Blend all ingredients in a food processor. Keep scraping the sides and everything willl mix together and turn into what looks like mashed potatoes. Taste to see if you need to add anything else...more butter? Salt? Those are usually what I start with...


*****************


Roasted Zucchini

3-4 zuchinni, sliced (long, thin slices using a mandoline)

olive oil

sea salt & pepper

Lay out all the zucchini slices on a baking sheet. Use a basting brush to coat the slices with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put these in the oven for about the last 15 minutes of the chicken being roasted...check them after about 5 minutes...I usually end up turning the heat from 425 to 400 at this point. (Your chicken will continue to roast just fine on this temp.) And roast until light, golden brown.

Spaghetti Squash & Meatsauce

"Spaghetti":

Boil a large (or two small) spaghetti squash until fork tender.  Slice open. De-seed and scrape out the "spaghetti" with a fork so it's nice and stringy.

Meatsauce:

1 lb ground meat

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp whole oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 T salt (my tomato sauce usually doesn't have salt added)

1 T dried parsley

1/2  onion 

2 cans Tomato sauce ( 15-oz cans)

Brown meat. Drain well. Stir in flavorings. Add tomato sauce. Simmer at least ½ hour. Stir in spaghetti squash until well-combined.

I like making this meal ahead of time (or at least the meatsauce) b/c Charlie and I agree that it always tastes better when it's had a bit of time to "marry" in the fridge. (Sometimes I'll even make and store it in the fridge for a few days before we eat it. Then, it's an already a prepared, quick dinner option.)  I've also prepared and frozen the meatsauce.  Just let it sit in the kitchen sink for a few house to thaw the day you want to eat it and prepare the spaghetti squash separately.

Swiss Chard

Thanks to Marylou, this is how we like to eat our swiss chard, usually grown from her garden, but you can really use any type of green :

Ingredients:
Greens (chard, kale, spinach, etc.)
a few slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
fat of choice, (We love butter around here!)
S&P
Lemon juice

While the bacon is cooking, wash and chop or tear the leaves, removing the center "spine". (The chard will cook down a lot, so I always prepare what seems like WAY too much.)

Saute greens in fat of choice until it's really cooked. Toss in broken bacon pieces. S&P to taste and squeeze fresh lemon juice on top. And, if I'm feeling extra naughty, sometimes I'll even sprinkle on a dash of parmesan cheese.

I cannot overstate how much my kids love this. Asher calls this his favorite vegetable and will often go back for third helpings...after two hefty ones. Before this we had never even tasted swiss chard, so I was shocked that we all loved it so much. But, I mean, with a little butter and bacon, how can you go wrong?

Carnitas Ensalda

Sometimes we'll have leftover pork from making this recipe.  And, if we do, Charlie and I really enjoy eating this for lunch.

Shredded Lettuce (this happened to be iceberg, but we'll use whatever we have on hand)

Tomatoes

Red Onion

Sour Cream (optional)

Salsa

Guacamole

Carnitas

Mix it all together and squeeze some lime juice over the top.

Blackened Blackberry Ribs

This is how we like to eat our Yonderway spareribs. The blackberry marinade was inspired by this recipe, but we've made our own adjustments to make it Whole 30 legal. Double the following recipe if you're using more than one big rack of ribs:

Marinade:

1 cup blackberries (instead of other fruit)

1/4 cup coconut aminos

1/8 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 tablespoon sesame or olive oil

1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves (1 tsp. minced garlic)

Blend or process all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Pour the marinade over meat in an air-tight bag or container. Make sure the meat is completely covered with the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Grill for 4-5 minutes per side, plus additional time as needed.  We like them blackened so make sure the grill is low and cook them slow and you can't go wrong.

Paleo Valentines...

Oh, how we love thee.

Remember how much I love this day? Well, no way were these (most of the time) gluten-free eaters going to miss out! My, how far we've come since last year.

My kid's heart pancakes are a tradition that we could not crush...so, we "paleo-ized"them. I really want to make these someday. Even though I'm not much of a pancake person, I am a butter person. (And the maple pecan butter sounds like reason enough to make 'em!) This morning we made these because they are simpler. (And by we, I mean Char) b/c he's the flapjack flipper in this house! He's pretty much taken over breakfast completely these days...and it is WONDERFUL...I can actually get going in the morning. Another reason why I'm in love with you, Charlie Apel! (These were surprisingly good.  Best paleo-pancakes I've had! They do taste coconut-ty but with butter and maple syrup, they were great!)

And...we added these to our Valentine's Day Breakfast.  We "heart" bacon 'round here.

Char and I may or may not have indulged in these late last night DIPPED in chocolate!  I've always wanted to try bacon and chocolate...and incase you're wondering, it is ALL the rage! We didn't have much success the first time with the hearts keeping their shape, so this morning, we used toothpicks at the top and bottom to keep them together. Meh...they looked okay.  The kids were impressed. Mission accomplished.

Chocolate Dipped Bacon:

If you want to make the chocolate dipped bacon, here's how I did it: After getting them to just the level of desired crispiness, let cool on a plate for about 15 minutes.  Then, I used the chocolate ganache from Health-Bent's cupcakes (1/3 cup dark chocolate chips + 2 Tbs. coconut milk, microwaved for 30 seconds and whisked together.) and dipped half of the bacon in the chocolate. I know you're going to be tempted to try them then, but don't. You'll be disappointed. Let that chocolatey bacon-goodness cool in the fridge an hour or so. Then take them out of the fridge until they reach room temperature: 15-20 minutes or so and serve them to the ones you love.

Dessert for the Kiddies: 



I mean...it is all for them anyway, right? And...I couldn't decide which to make...I mean, I didn't want one to totally be a bomb and have a bummer Valentine's dessert. So, I just made both of these cheesecake brownies and the chocolate cupcakes.  Health-Bent, oh, how I love YOU! I wish I could send you a virtual-valentine. Why did I ever doubt that you may not come through? You ALWAYS do. We loved them both...but I'd have to say that if I were to pick a fave, I'd go for the cheesecake brownies! They were DIVINE! These could totally be passed of to your non-paleo eating friends. (The chocolate cupcakes tasted like a chocolate banana muffin to me, still good...and the kids loved them...so I was happy.)

Like always, I'm a little fashionably late, but I made both these desserts in an hour last night! (And that's counting sending the hubby for a late night grocery run for the cream cheese!) So, you still have plenty of time to make these.

Paleo Fried Rice

I've been making this almost weekly for about 8 months. And we still aren't sick of it. Usually I double the recipe. Even then it's goes really fast around here. Not one person in my family doesn't love  adore this stuff.

We eat it for lunch. We eat it for dinner. We eat it for a snack. I've even eaten it for breakfast a time or two. We eat it hot. We eat it cold. We eat it room temp. You get the idea...

This recipe was inspired by Health Bent's Pork Fried Rice...but this is the way that I make it. I'm giving you the proportions for a "single" batch. Then, if you like it as much as we do, you can double it next time. (Don't pay attention to the number of each food ingredients in the pic below...I was doubling a batch but not all of my eggs are there...I think they began to roll off my hutch at that point.)


The trickiest part of this whole thing is the mess that it makes preparing it.  A food processor is almost mandatory since it cuts out so much work. I've also found that if I use one big saute pan (or wok) and one huge serving bowl to transfer the "fried" ingredients to; it helps to minimize the mess. You've got to work in batches with this one.

Ingredients
1/2 lb. smoked link sausage or ground pork (I try to stretch our meat consumption around here...you can do a one whole pound of meat. It sure is delicious...but I'd rather use the other 1/2 lb for breakfast the next couple mornings in our eggs. We don't seem to really notice much of a difference.)
1 onion, diced
4 large carrots, diced
1 large head of cauliflower or 2 medium (regular) sized (The ones in the picture are LARGE!)
2 T coconut aminos
1 1/2 T  chili garlic sauce  (You can adjust the spice on this...start out with teaspoons and if it's not too hot for you...move to Tablespoons. It doesn't seem to bother my kids, but they've grown up eating "spicy" foods.)
6-8 eggs
coconut oil for frying


Begin by browning the pork. If you use smoked link sausage, cut in about 6 pieces and throw it in the food processor to get nice crumbles. (The kind I buy is fully cooked, so I don't have to worry about cleaning the raw meat out...but I'll still brown it in the skillet like normal until it's nice and caramelized.) While the pork is browning, you can get to work on prepping all the veggies.


Put onion (remove peel and cut in quarters) and carrots (remove stems and cut in thirds) in food processor until finely diced. When pork is done, pour it in your large (HUGE if you're doubling this) serving bowl. Depending on how fatty my pork was, I may add a little coconut oil to the pan, if there's not enough grease to the pan and saute the carrots and onions until carrots are a dark orange (you want them all the way cooked) and until onions are translucent.  (Go prep your cauliflower while this is cooking.)  Add 1/2 T of garlic chili sauce (or teaspoon, if you don't want the kick!) to your onion carrot mixture and 1 T of coconut aminos. Dump in serving bowl when done.


"Rice" a head of raw cauliflower: Remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like rice.  (I find it much easier to pulverize the cauliflower in several batches.  It's less messy AND I have better control over the consistency.  I like mine to look like large feta cheese crumbles....any smaller and I think it gets too mushy.) I usually set my processor on a 2-3 (out of 6) and pulverize away. 


Add coconut oil to your hot pan and fry that riced cauliflower. This may take about 10 minutes or so. Just stir every couple minutes and add 1T of coconut aminos  and 1T (or teaspoon) of garlic chili sauce. When you think it's done, taste a little bit...if it still tastes cauliflower-y then cook it a little longer until it doesn't taste like much (kinda like rice.) When it's done, dump it in your serving bowl. You're almost done.


Turn down the heat just a bit and scramble those eggs.  Dump into serving bowl and give it a good mix until all the ingredients are well-combined.


It's ready...be prepared that this may disappear way quicker than it just took you to make all of that big heaping pile of fried "rice".

Caveman Chili

...or Beanless Chili...whatever you want to call it. Need a sneaky way to add more veggies to your family's diet? This is your recipe.

The inspiration to substitute the veggies for the beans came from this recipe, but I adapted it to fit my family's favorite "Kramer Chili" recipe.  And...they didn't even notice, or at least mention, that it was missing the legumes. In fact, my boys (the big one and the almost 5 year old one) each had two bowl-fulls. 

2 lbs ground beef

1/2 large onion

1/2 green pepper

1 jalapeno pepper

1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 and 1/2 Tbs. chili powder

2 Tbs. cumin

1 tsp. black pepper

salt, to taste

1 Tbs. cocoa powder

1 large bottle of Vegetable/Tomato juice (46oz)

1 can of tomato paste (6oz)
1 large can of diced tomatoes (28oz)

1 cup beef bone broth (Make your own...I keep them in my freezer in Mason jars)

1lb butternut squash, cubed (Sam's and Costco sells this right now!) or 1-2 sweet potatoes, cubed

1 zucchini, sliced and quartered

In a large pot, brown ground beef. While beef is browning, throw onion, green pepper, and jalapeno in a food process and pulverize. Add the veggies to the pot with meat and let them cook for a few minutes. Add seasonings. Stir in all remaining ingredients (except butternut squash and zucchini...if you're using sweet potatoes instead of squash put it in now since they take longer to cook). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Stir in squash and zucchini and allow to cook for 15 more minutes.


We love to eat this topped with red onions and avocado slices.

Jordan's Bacon Candy

Heather gets the credit for naming this...and since it is her birthday today...this post goes out to her...the namer of "Bacon Candy".  (Heather, if you weren't in Haiti I would make you a big ol' plate with 35 pieces of Bacon Candy piled high. All.To.Yourself.  That would be my present to you. You know it would be the best present ever. Maybe the best present, or at least hypothetical one, that you've received in 35 years. Happy Birthday!! I sure love you.)

Juliette first introduced me to the goodness of Bacon Candy at Blaire's bridal shower...way back before Heather even named it "Bacon Candy". Juliette got it from Jordan.  And, Jordan, I don't know where you got this recipe...or if you're even the originator...but you'll get the credit for being the creator of this recipe forever and ever, as far as my family is concerned. It'll go down in the Apel family cookbook as "Jordan's Bacon Candy" to be passed down to my great, great, great grandchildren. Truly.

Okay...I'm done with my Grammy Acceptance Speech.  But, I feel like I need to give that every time I make Bacon Candy, as the response is always adoration...and I just don't feel like I deserve the credit. It is so simple.

So...back to bacon candy...what the what? I know. You're curious.  Everyone is always curious when it's mentioned.  Curiosity.  Skepticism. Humility. Adoration. Say it with me, now...that's usually the correct order of emotions in response to Bacon Candy.

Now that you're curious, let's move onto skepticism as you find out what it's made of: bacon, dates, almond butter. That's it.  I won't mention any names, but I've had people stick their nose up as I've listed the ingredients.  Some even down right refuse to try it.  And some are adamant that they will NOT like the delightfully deadly combination...but those same people usually decide to take a risk, in all their skepticism, and try it. 

And then they enter what I call Step 3: Humility.  Humility looks like them getting down on their hands and knees and asking for forgiveness for seeming so smug and stubborn and like I'd actually lead them astray when it comes to something like food...and once the begging ensues, I'd say we've reached Step 4: Adoration...where they're asking for me to write Jordan's Bacon Candy recipe and asking me to sign my autograph at the bottom of the recipe card.

So...this is where we'll pick up...I'm sparing you the Four Step Program...are you ready? This really is good. I promise.  So good that my kids gladly traded in their large bags of Halloween candy for a batch of their own.  No lie.  But, also so good that my husband will learn of this for the first time as he reads this post because...they ate ALL of the Bacon Candy on November 1st before he even got home from work at 5:05 p.m.  I figured it was better than half of their Halloween candy...

Here's what you need:

1 package of Bacon 

Pitted Dates (strips of bacon x 2)

Almond Butter

Toothpicks (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut strips of bacon into fourths.  So, if you started with 10 slices of bacon, you'll now have 40 pieces. (Sorry...this is for Heather, afterall, so I'm breaking down the math for her.)  Cut enough dates in half, so you have a 1/2 date for each 1/4 piece of bacon. (So, if you have 40 strips, you'll cut 20 whole dates....to make 40 half dates.) (I think the original recipe calls for whole dates and half strips of bacon, but this way you get twice the amount of goodness for half the ingredients.  And we don't think this compromises Jordan's Bacon Candy one bit.)

2. Spoon the almond butter into the date halves.  Wrap the almond butter-stuffed-dates with bacon.  You can secure them with a toothpick or just wrap them tightly without a toothpick.  (I've done them both ways.)  Place them on a baking sheet. (Tip: Line baking sheet with foil and fold all four sides up 1/2 an inch from each edge. This will keep all bacon grease inside the lined foil...and you won't have to clean your baking sheet.  Easy cleanup.  I'm all about that.)

3. Bake for 10 minutes.  Then turn them over and bake for another 15 minutes or so until done-ness.  Now...here's where you're going to have to trust me.  They taste great hot out of the oven.  But the taste EVEN better about an hour or so after they've cooled.  They congeal into the perfect gooey-ness after they've cooled.  That's how we like them best.  (If you happen to have leftovers, they keep well in the fridge.) 

After Asher (we call him the Paleo Police in our house) traded in his crap Halloween candy and while he was snacking on his bacon candy, he was recounting the night before when we'd Trick-or-Treated at the Morchat's...who live in our neighborhood...but weren't passing out candy.

Asher: I know why Jordan and Danny didn't have any candy for us.
Me: Why is that?
A: B/c they love us too much.
Me: What do you mean?
A: They didn't want to poison us. Candy is poisonous. It's not worth having a tummy-ache. 
Me: You're right, buddy...some of us just aren't so quick to learn that.
A: Danny loves us the most, though, because he wanted to give us meat. He wants us to have big muscles like him one day.

Homemade "Laraballs"

My family loves Larabars.  But it's so much cheaper to MAKE them.  

Cate gave me the great idea of rolling them into balls!  Perfect portion control.  (And she taught me that you can make a whole bunch at once and store them in the fridge for about a month...if they last that long!) They make a great on-the-go snack. My boys (the big ones) love them. McKlayne...like most other things...it just depends on how she's feeling that day. They're also great when you want something to give you a little energy before you workout, without a heavy meal on your stomach.

We've tried several recipes over the last few months and tinkered around with the proportions until it was "just right" to us.  The original larabars are made with cashews instead of walnuts, but we've modified it to maximize the nutritional benefits.  You can use cashews, if you'd prefer, they're still great for you, but I love that we're getting those Omega-3's with the walnuts.

Here are our two favorite recipes:

Cherry Pie:

3/4cup dates
1 cup cherries*
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup walnuts

Dump all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulverize until fine...take about a tablespoon (maybe a little more?) and roll into gumball-sized balls.  This recipe will make about 18-20 balls.

*Locals: I've only found tart, dried cherries (with no added sweetener) at Village Foods.

Lemon:

3/4 cups walnuts
1 1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 cup dates
2 lemons

Dump the first three ingredients into a food processor.  Zest one lemon and add to the processor.  With a strainer, juice the two lemons and add to the processor. Pulverize until fine. Take about a tablespoon (maybe a little more?) and roll into gumball-sized balls.  This recipe will make about 26-28 balls.

For both of the above recipes, we notice that the longer they sit in the fridge, the more flavorful they become.  And...if you're looking to save money on all of the above pricey items, the best deal I can find around here is to buy the nuts and dates at Sam's.

Mayo-Free Coleslaw

One of my new favorite and EASY sides is Coleslaw.  

I've NEVER been a coleslaw fan...I mean who really likes cabbage?  And, of course, traditional coleslaw recipes contain mayo, which always just made me feel like I was eating a big pile of lettuce with mayo...sick. But this stuff is delightful!  Make a big jar of the dressing earlier in the week because the longer it is allowed to "marry" the better it tastes...and one batch of dressing will be enough for TONS of batches of coleslaw...a little goes a LONG way!

Dressing:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 cup coconut aminos (I get it at our health food store for around $6 in place of soy sauce)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/8 cup sesame oil 

1 tbsp garlic
1 tsp ginger

Slaw Mix:

shredded cabbage (I get mine from Sam's) 

shredded carrots (my bag of cabbage has carrots in it already but we prefer additional)

green onions, chopped (you can also use red)

sunflower seeds
shredded apple (this is a nice but not necessary addition)

I like to have all the veggies prepped in the fridge ahead of time and you can just throw the rest of the ingredients all together.  Then, dress it all. A little dab will do ya. Very easy, very filling, very nutritious since cabbage is a cruciferous veggie.