I made coconut butter! 

Here’s the recipe: dump shredded, unsweetened coconut into a food processor and process until it’s goo. Boom.  NBD.

February 2 / Whole30 Day 12 Dessert: Paleo Banana & Almond Butter Ice Cream

Ex-M and I used to make this dessert, but I never paid attention to the ingredients or the timing. I looked around the internet for something similar to what we used to do, but didn’t find anything. So below is my own version of Paleo ice cream - that’s Whole30 approved!

Paleo Banana-Almond Butter Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 ripe bananas, preferably frozen
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/2 cup coconut milk, chilled
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Special equipment: KitchenAid Stand Mixer, KitchenAid Ice Cream Mixer attachment

Preparation

1. Ahead of time, freeze the ice cream maker attachment.
2. When just about ready to make the dessert, remove the bananas from the freezer to thaw a little bit.
3. Mix all the ingredients together into a smooth goo-ish mix. If your bananas weren’t frozen, put the mix into the fridge until chilled.
4. Start up your mixer at the lowest setting, pour the mix in, and let it churn for about 30 minutes.
   
5. Scoop it out and serve. If you want more of a firm texture, drop it in the freezer for a little while, but don’t leave it too long because it can tend to get a bit icy.

January 26 / Whole30 Day 5 Dinner: Carrot, Mushroom, & Chicken Soup

I made a new recipe tonight! I was thinking about what I should do with the two-pound bag of carrots I got about a week ago (I forget why I even got them-random!), and I decided: Carrot Soup! I scoped out a few recipes online, but none had all the things I wanted to add to mine, so I just made my own recipe! :D

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Recipe: Carrot, Mushroom, & Chicken Soup

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb carrots
• ½ red onion
• 2.5 tbsp olive oil, divided
• ½ lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
• ½ lb baby bella mushrooms, quartered
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• Juice from 3 oranges (3/4 to 1 cup)
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• 1.5 cups chicken broth, divided
• 1 cup coconut milk
• Cayenne pepper, to taste
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 2 large handfuls of kale, chopped
• Special equipment: food processor

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Quarter the onion and peel and quarter the carrots.
3. Toss the onion and carrot in 1 tablespoon of olive oil then put them in an oven-safe dish and roast them until tender. Mine took 30 minutes.
4. While that’s going, chop up the chicken thighs and sauté them in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until cooked through. Set aside.
5. Then sauté the mushrooms in a ½ tablespoon of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar. Set aside.
6. Once the carrots and onions are done, transfer them over to your food processor, along with the orange juice, garlic, ginger, ½ cup of the chicken broth, and ½ cup of the coconut milk. Puree until smooth.
7. Transfer the puree into a large pot on the stove over medium heat. Mix in the remaining 1 cup of chicken broth, the remaining ½ cup of coconut milk, and season to taste with cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
8. Mix in the kale, chicken, and mushrooms. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
9. Serve!

October 16 / Whole 30 Day 16 Breakfast: Beef, Kale, & Mushroom Breakfast Bake

Last night, I set out to make some Paleo Egg Muffins, but realized that I forgot to collect my muffin tins at M’s. Crap. Well - just add it to the list of various items to get back from him at some point. Or not. I incidentally have some of his stuff too, and need to do a trade off. Filing this under things to think about later.

So I improvised and made a breakfast bake instead! The recipe is below - and is super easy! One thing to note is that you really could put whatever the hell you want in this bake - I used what I had on hand, and the amounts really don’t matter. I guess you just need to add more eggs, the more you put in. I had 7 eggs, so that’s what I planned for with the rest of the ingredients.

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Recipe: Beef, Kale, & Mushroom Breakfast Bake

Serves 6.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a small onion
• 4 oz of grass-fed ground beef or other meat of choice (I think sausage or chorizo would have been better, but I just used what I had on hand)
• Olive oil, for sautéing 
• 2-3 cups of chopped kale (remember, it’ll cook down!)
• 3/4 cup of diced bell peppers (I used red/orange/yellow)
• 1/4 cup of chopped scallions
• 1 cup of chopped baby bella mushrooms (I love me some shrooms)
• 7 eggs
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• Salt & pepper

Preparation:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Over medium-high heat, saute your onions until soft, then add in your beef until it’s browned. Drain the excess oil, then set the meat mixture aside in a medium bowl.
3. Turn the temperature down to medium, wipe out your skillet, then cook your kale in a little olive oil. Once it’s finished cooking down, set that aside with the meat.
4. In the same pan, add a little more olive oil, then drop in your bell peppers. Once those look a bit softened, add your scallions and mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms look about done, maybe 4-5 minutes.
5. Transfer that to the to the meat and kale and mix it all up.
6. In a separate bowl, crack open your eggs and whisk until blended. Then pour the eggs into the cooked stuff. Blend well.
7. Stir in your seasonings. Pick whatever spices you want. Then transfer the whole shebang into a greased glass casserole dish.
8. Bake for 45 minutes or until the eggs are no longer gooey.
9. Enjoy!

Nutrition (serving size - 140g)

• Calories: 157
• Total Fat: 8.9g
• Saturated Fat: 2.4g
• Cholesterol: 208mg
• Sodium: 101mg
• Total Carbohydrates: 6.2g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.4g
• Sugars: 1.5g
• Protein: 14g

September 17: Baked Corvina with Lemon, Basil, and Hot Soppressata with Broccoli and Roasted Acorn Squash

After a trip to the Dekalb Farmers Market, I had a wide array of ingredients and wasn’t sure what to do with them all. I’m the worst planner when it comes to grocery planning! After digging around online to see if I could find a recipe that I could do, I decided to whip something up on my own, and this is what I netted! Not sure how I feel about the hot soppressata (it was really salty on an otherwise fairly mild dish), but it tasted alright, so there you go!

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Baked Corvina with Lemon, Basil, and Hot Soppressata

Serves 2.

Ingredients

• 2 corvina filets (sea bass would work nicely as well)
• 1 lemon, cut into thin round slices
• 1/4 cup chopped hot soppressata
• 1 tbsp fresh basil
• 1 tbsp olive oil, divided
• Salt & pepper 

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Get all the ingredients prepped up: slice up your lemon, chop up your basil and soppressata, and rinse and pat dry your fish.
3. Add a half tablespoon of olive oil to a glass dish and make sure the entire bottom is coated. Then place your fish into the dish, salting and peppering each side.
4. Add a layer of lemon slices, then sprinkle on your basil and soppressata.
5. Sprinkle the other half tablespoon of oil over everything then place the fish into the oven.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
7. Enjoy!

I received a request from my friend Emily on how to prepare roasted brussels sprouts, so here is how I do it. Enjoy!

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients

• 1 pound of brussels sprouts
• 2 tbsp of olive oil or fat of choice
• Salt
• Pepper 

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Trim your sprouts by cutting off the base and pulling any skanky-looking leaves off. Here’s a video on how this is done.
3. Half or quarter them depending on how you want them. This really just depends on how big your sprouts are.
4. Toss them in your oil, salt, and pepper. You can totally use less oil if you want, but I think a tablespoon per half pound is about right.
5. Put them on a foil-lined pan and pop them in the oven for about 30 minutes. It’s a good idea to shake the pan about half way through to make sure they get roasted evenly. I’ve had them darkly roasted (example) and lightly roasted (example). It’s really up to you on how done you like them.
6. Enjoy!

July 8: Making Chicken Stock

M found chicken backs at the farmers market on Saturday so he bought several pounds to make chicken stock from scratch. Here’s how he did it - enjoy!

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Chicken Stock

Makes about 3-4 quarts.

Ingredients

• Chicken backs, about 6 pounds (find them cheap at your local farmers market)
• Olive oil or fat of choice, enough to lightly coat the backs
• Water, enough to completely submerge the backs
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp peppercorns, whole
• 3 carrots, chopped into 1.5” pieces
• 3 celery stalks, chopped into 1.5” pieces
• 1 large white onion, quartered
• Special equipment: 1-2 big ass pots (two if doing the optional part mentioned in step #7 below), strainer, small bowls (if you want to freeze the broth into individual portions)

Preparation

1. Defrost your chicken backs completely.
2. Coat the backs in olive oil or fat of choice.
3. Roast them at 425 for an hour, flipping them mid-way through.
4. Remove and place into a big pot and cover with water.
5. Simmer for an hour, skimming the surface every five minutes to remove the “scum”.
6. Throw in the bay leaves, peppercorns, carrots, celery, and onion, then simmer for about two hours.
7. Next, you strain the liquid. If the stock appears too watery or if you like your stock stronger, then you’ll strain into another stock pot to continue simmering. Otherwise, you just strain it into a bowl, which you will put into the fridge to cool. You want it to cool as quickly as possible…to speed up the process, M keeps frozen water bottles that he throws into the liquid to do so.
8. Once chilled, the fat will rise to the surface. You’ll want to skim that part off. 
9. It’s ready to go! We freeze ours in individual portions, so if you want, transfer the liquid into small bowls and freeze them. Once frozen, we simply wrap the frozen liquid into plastic wrap and then store in a freezer bag.

June 21 Dessert: Paleo Plum Kuchen

M used to live in Germany, so he is a big fan of many German dishes. Last night, we decided to make a Paleo version of Plum Kuchen. Kuchen is the German word for cake, though what we prepared was closer to a cobbler or a crumble. At any rate, it turned out wonderfully! I think this would serve nicely with some whipped coconut cream or vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

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Recipe: Paleo Plum Kuchen

Ingredients

For the crust

• 1 heaping cup almond flour (we made our own!)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2-3 tbsp almond or coconut milk (we used coconut)
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, chilled
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

For the topping

Preparation