Tuna Salad

HELLOOOOO Perky Paleo! I know it has been a loooong while and I am not even sure if some of you are still doing gluten, dairy and soy free anymore but even if you are or aren’t or added one of these ingredients to your diet, this salad is a must and I wanted to share it with you! Especially since summer is just around the corner. A friend of mine made this one night and I loved it! Therefore, this salad has become a weekly favorite of ours. Hope everyone is doing well!

Tuna Salad:

a tomato
a green bell pepper
sliced almonds (or any kind of nut that you want really)
Golden raisins (or regular raisins or cranberries)
carrots
romain lettuce
1 can drained tuna

Dressing:
soy sauce
rice vinegar
olive oil

Directions: chop all ingredients and place in a salad bowl, including the can of tuna. Put even amounts of the 3 dressing ingredients over the salad. Put as much ingredients of the dressing to your liking and taste. Mix and serve!

*if you are still not doing soy use a soy sauce substitute. Not a 100% if there is one but I am assuming there is! Also, this is just what I put in the salad but you really could add anything you want 🙂

Brownies

these brownies are legit, the texture is just like a chewy fudge brownie and they taste fantastic.  If you are willing to spend $10 a batch go for it.  the recipe calls for a whole jar of almond butter and a small jar of honey.  I just couldn’t celebrate Josh’s birthday with the family and watch everyone eat Joshs favorite texas sheetcake (that I made without taste testing all for the love of a good man) and not have something to enjoy.  And I really enjoyed them.  They almost fooled the Donnellys but those Donnellys have particularly well developed palates, they know their sugar and gluten quite well and can taste a fake easy.

Brownies

Hold the Phone!!!

I am about to become your new best friend. Well, after you finish your Whole 30. Are you ready for really good news!

DELICIOUS PANCAKES THAT ARE GRAIN FREE REALLY DO EXIST!!! 

I have been “Paleo Baking” and the results are very discouraging. VERY. 

Until this morning. Please meet my new friends from Against All Grain. 

You just might do a happy dance in the kitchen.

Or run to the bedroom to shove some in Ben’s mouth because you can’t believe your taste buds. 

Macadamia Waffles with Fruit Syrup

She also has a variation with cashews. I liked this ratio of almond milk/coconut flour better. 

http://realsustenance.com/grain-free-waffles-guest-post-from-against-all-grain-glutendairyrefined-sugar-free/

Once a Month Mom

I have been following this blog for some time now, and I really like their meal ideas. They share all recipes freely. What they are selling is their structure for cooking all the meals for one month IN ONE DAY. Whew… well it doesn’t cover a meal for every day because lets face it… sometimes we go out and aren’t home. I’m excited because that will give me some flexibility to still try new recipes and not be stuck to a strict regiment.

They are $8/month, or $72 for the year. I made a small leap and just bought a memebership for a month, but you have access to all meal plans (they also have whole foods and gluten free/dairy free meal plans. Sweet!)

http://onceamonthmom.com/

Link to Pinterest with the meals for February (you have to go on their website for the clickable links)

Cuban Black Bean Stew

This was one of the recipes on the gluten free menus Spencer and I bought on group on. It was SO good! Have to try this one. I am making it again this week.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Tablespoons olive oil
¾ red onion, cut into small dice
1 ½ red bell peppers, cut into small dice
1 green bell pepper, cut into small dice
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
Kosher salt & black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 ½ cups gluten free vegetable broth
2 – 14 ounce cans organic, no salt
added black beans with liquid plus
1/2 can of drained beans
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup diced ham (low sodium, no nitrates added), about 4 ounces *Optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat a large soup pot over medium heat and add in oil. Once
the oil is warm, add in the cut vegetables and garlic, sprinkle
with salt & pepper, and season with dried oregano, cumin and
white wine vinegar. Stir to combine, reduce heat to
low/medium, and sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes. After
10 minutes the vegetables will be softened and the onions will
be translucent.
2. Add the broth and 2-1/2 cans of black beans (2 full cans plus ½
can left over from Meal #3) to the pan of cooked vegetables.
Stir to combine and add in salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Carefully remove about half of the beans and vegetables with
a slotted spoon and place into the blender (use caution: hot
liquids can cause pressure to build up in the blender). Add just
enough liquid to blend until fluid and smooth, return to the
pot, and stir in chopped ham if desired. Gently simmer for about 5-10 minutes.
Pressed for time and don’t want to
dirty the blender? Skip the blender step and serve the soup as is.
4. Serve warm.

* I had no idea what “sweat vegetables” meant so I looked it up. It means to just cook uncovered on low heat so that they don’t burn or get brown. Stirring occasionally.

Fruit Crisp

So if you know me well you know that I love a good fruit pie. Cherry, apple, strawberry rhubarb, those are the best. So I found a really good recipe for paleo cherry crisp. This could work with any fruit and it was so delicious! I used frozen cherries that were thawed. Feels good having a serving of fruit for dessert. Try it. Youll see 🙂 http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2012/09/paleo-cherry-crisp_19.html#

juuuust one more

i found this website-slash-blog: http://everydaypaleo.com . Some things look…interesting but some look pretty good and simple! I really like how this website is set up for some reason. Just click on “food” and it takes you to all her recipes. I want to try this one:
http://everydaypaleo.com/two-minute-tuna-salad/
I have been looking for tuna something without mayo or homemade mayo in it and this is the first!

Hope everyone is doing well and the withdrawals are slowly fading off. cheers to paleo!

Kale Chips

Ok I know you are not so sure about the idea of kale chips but I made a batch tonight and they were surprisingly delightful!  three ingredients, chopped kale with stems removed, olive oil, and sea salt.  Just mix a bunch of kale with 2 tbs olive oil on a cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes on 350.  Salt to taste.  They are soooo good!  Nice and crispy.

BLT’s

Spencer mentioned these in a comment and figured I’d share!
All you need is some lettuce, bacon, tomatoes and avocado.
Sprinkle some salt and pepper, wrap it up and you got yourself a BLT!
These are great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or a quick snack.

A word from the Sensei of Gluten-Free

sooo…….mandy and I were talking to dad last night and he was going on and on about this post he made on our blog. Some sort of salad post, and rave about how salads are so great. We explained to him that it was nowhere to be found on the blog. He didn’t buy it……….As we walked him through the process we found that he had created his own blog and posted to that one instead! lol………poor Sensei…..Needless to say he never accepted the invite to join the blog and was blogging on some random baghouseman blog nobody was looking at. If you would like to see for yourself you can locate his post at this link: 

http://baghouseman.wordpress.com/

 

At any rate. Dad needs to be reinvited to the blog and here is his post: 

We need to be eating lots of salads…double salads with all fresh veggies.  Add some Craisons without sugar and tangerines.  Also Walnuts.  We should be eating lots of walnuts every day for the amino acids in them.  Dressing is a must.  2 cups of olive oil, 1 cup cider vinegar, one whole avocado, one squeezed lemon, pepper, salt, I heaping tablespoon of the garlic you get in the jar from Costco but first put it in a small fry pan and brown it…then throw it all in a blender.  Oh..I forgot the black olives…say 10 or 20 or whatever you like.   If you want to make it interesting throw in a pealed orange…BAM!  Make it like you like it but make it and eat it and live to be 120 and not need diapers…Dadio!