Sides
One of these two salad versions most always fills up 1/3 to 1/2 of our dinner plates.
Sides
Having an Easy Paleo Mayonnaise Can Really Help
I had just rediscovered my old, old good mayonnaise recipe that I used when the children were growing up; and then Erin brought her homemade chicken salad with Paleo Mayonnaise to CrossFit. Her recipe looked a bit easier than mine, but I didn’t have all of the needed ingredients, so I improvised and adjusted. And it is so good.
Ingredients
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/4 tsp Black or Cayenne Pepper (I didn’t have Cayenne)
2 TBL Raw Honey
4 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
7 tsp Lemon Juice
1 and 1/4 cup Olive Oil
How to Make
Put all ingredients into a blender, except the oil. When well blended, slowly pour in the oil.
Erin’s recipe looked so much easier: “Just put all ingredients into blender and hit it with that hand blender.”
I tried to pour in the Olive Oil slowly, but I didn’t do well. So I followed Erin’s directions. I actually used a little blender called an Emersion Blender. This was the first thing I had gotten it to work on. So happy for this victory.
Ideas
Combine a can of Chicken with some of this Mayo, a few grapes and walnuts. Serve it over a bed of Organic Lettuce. It is so very good. Next time I have a Rotisserie Chicken, I will save some for this instead of using the Canned. I may also add some chopped apples and celery.
One of these two salad versions most always fills up 1/3 to 1/2 of our dinner plates.
Simple Basic Green Salad
Wash Spring lettuce or dark green lettuce. (Iceberg lettuce has little to no nutrients.)
Sprinkle slivered almonds on top along with your choice of the following:
Dried Cranberries,
Cherry tomatoes red or yellow
Freshly ground pepper
or go another route and use
Spinach Salad
Washed baby spinach
Grapes or sliced strawberries or mandarin orange segments
Slivered almonds
Few cranberries
Honey Mustard Salad Dressing – so easy
A dear friend sent me this recipe saying it was her favorite. Now it is my favorite too! She did not send the source, but looks like a cookbook. Will try to find that out too.
Ingredients
6 TBL Apple Cider Vinegar
4 TBL Olive or Coconut Oil
4 TBL Honey or Agave Nectar
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/8 + tsp Black Pepper
Instructions:
Whisk first four ingredients to combine well
Season to taste with sea salt and pepper
Store in a tightly covered jar in refrigerator up to 3 days
Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing
Salads are such wonderful choices, but salad dressings can really deceive us into thinking we are eating so healthy, when we aren’t. This dressing perfectly meets Paleo guidelines and is so delicious on salad greens alone or with dried cranberries, caramelized almonds, pecans, or apples. I just realized I must have erased the recipe from the website, so here it is again.
Ingredients
- 1/4 C. Fresh Fulled and Chopped Strawberries
- 1 TBLS Agave Nectar or Raw Honey
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/8 tsp Freshly Ground Pepper
- 2 TBLS Balsamic Vinegar
- 3/4 C. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
How to Make
- Place all but olive oil in blender and blend on low until very smooth.
- With blender running, slowly pour the olive oil through the top in a steady stream to emulsify the dressing.
- Taste and adjust flavors.
Recipes – Roasted Vegetables
My good friend, Sheryl Nichols, shared this recipe.
Chop in fairly big chunks an assortment of vegetables:
Turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, sweet potatoes, squash green or/and yellow, mushrooms, peppers red and green are the ones we used. Use any you wish.
1. Place a small amount of coconut oil in bottom of a big broiler pan and melt it. We used the one from our oven. This makes a bunch of veggies, so a big one with edges is needed.
2. Toss veggies in the melted oil.
3. Roast 20 minutes at 400 degrees. A little more melted coconut oil may be needed. Turn for another 10. Check on them as may need to remove sooner.
4. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. I like to also use a little stevia especially if using turnips as they are so very good sweetened a little. Even those who don’t like vegetables may well like these.
Find more Paleo recipes at this site under the Recipes tab.
I slightly altered this WELLNESS MAMA recipe using Ghee or Coconut Oil versus Butter. 30 mins SERVES 4
Wellnessmama.com is a terrific website for Paleo ideas. Katie is a mother of several young children. She must be amazing.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup of coconut oil (or Ghee)
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 3 cloves of garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 28 ounces of diced, canned tomatoes or 6 fresh tomatoes
- 2 cups bone broth (Chicken Broth for me until I learn how to do the bone broth.)
- 1 cup coconut milk or additional broth
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- ½ cup fresh basil or 3 tablespoons dried
- Optional green onions for garnish
Instructions
- Dice the onion and place in a pan with the ghee or coconut oil over medium heat.
- Mince garlic and add (or add garlic powder)
- Sauté until onions are softened and translucent.
- Add tomatoes and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Mince the basil (if using fresh) and add to pan.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer for at least five minutes (for richer flavors, you can simmer for up to 30 minutes)
Optional but Recommended: Using a metal immersion blender, carefully blend in the pot until smooth.
Garnish with chopped basil or green onions (optional) and serve.
Dressing
Use olive oil mixed with Balsalmic Vinegar for dressing or Strawberry Balsalmic Vinegarette Dressing that you have made up ahead of time and stored in a mason jar.
Easy Paleo Sweet Potatoes
This are recipe takes a little planning ahead – but totally worth it!
Wash sweet potatoes(enough for one each)
Put can full fat coconut milk in refrigerator to cool.
Wrap in tin foil and place on a baking sheet in oven about 350 degrees.
Bake about one hour while preparing the rest of dinner.
Open can of cocounut milk and scoop off the cream off top. (It rises to top as it gets cool).
Whip the cream up with a packet of Stevia (or use a little honey) and a little cinnamon to taste. Scoop on top of the potatoes as you serve them.
This meal is good to go with a piece of chicken or salmon and a big green salad.
Cauliflower Rice (a Paleo Diet Trick for Weight Loss)
(For speed cooking, many stores new sell the frozen Cauliflower Rice already prepared for you.)
One of the first Paleo tricks I learned was how to use the wonderful vegetable, Cauliflower, as a side dish or as a rice substitute. This is so very good although it seems a bit of a task at first to get it prepared. If you have a good blender or food processor, it becomes a snap. I use my Ninja Blender to chop my cauliflower into the needed rice-like consistency.
Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
2 TBS coconut or olive oil
Sea Salt, Garlic, Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Chopped peppers, onions, etc. as desired
Instructions
1. Place the cauliflower into a food processor or powerful blender and pulse until the cauliflower has a grainy rice-like consistency. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2. Meanwhile heat a large sauté pan over low-medium heat and add the oil when hot (not too hot as oil can become rancid).
3. Sauté cauliflower, peppers, onions and any additional seasonings desired.
Serve as a side dish with Salmon, Chicken or even eggs. You can also use as rice and serve with a sauce.
Creamy Avocado Soup
From Ninja cookbook using 72oz pitcher of the Ninja Note: A Ninja Blender is a wonderful kitchen tool. Also makes a great lunch.
- 2 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, quartered
- 8 green onions, cleaned
- 2 cups chicken stock, warmed
- 2 TBLS fresh lime juice
- 2 TBLS fresh cilantro, chopped
- ½ tsp. sea salt
- ¾ tsp. cumin or more to taste
- ½ tsp, red chile powder or more to taste
- 1 can full fat coconut milk to add later
- 4-6 sprigs cilantro for garnish
Put all but milk and cilantro garnish in Ninja blender at 2 until just mixed.
Add Coconut milk and blend again til soup is just smooth. Do not over blend.
Taste and adjust the seasonings as desired.
Serve at room temperature or cover and refrigerate 2 hours to serve chilled.
Garnish with sprig of cilantro to serve. (NOTE: John and I like it warm best. It was very delicious. We were thinking this would make a great enchilada sauce!
