Our paleo meal last night – Kitty and I had the dogs without bun on a plate but we put the kids in regular buns (actually I meant – the kids dogs… 🙂 ). I personally like mustard, mayo, dill relish (no sugar), dill pickles (my fav is Strubs but you can’t get those here so we have to make do with Bubbies – which I have a feeling are made by Strubs in Canada anyways) and sauerkraut as toppings –

Ingredients

• 8 slices bacon not thick-sliced
• 8 beef hot dogs
• 8 hot dog buns, split (for your non-paleo eaters)
• Favorite hot dog toppings (stick to the non sweetened if your paleo – as above…)

Directions

Heat oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Wrap bacon tightly around hot dogs; place on cookie sheet.Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until bacon is thoroughly cooked and hot dogs are browned. Serve immediately in buns with your favorite toppings.

via Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs – Crave Redding.

Our organic box brought us leeks week after week so we found and adapted this recipe as a nice change from leek soup – although not really Eat To Live friendly, so you can only have a tiny piece, but our kids enjoyed it…

• 3 Tbsp butter
• 4 large leeks – sliced
• salt/pepper
• 1 egg – beaten
• 1/2 cup grated Kefalotyri or any other kind of hard cheese like Parmesan
• 1 refrigerated whole wheat pie crust – this was our nod to the diet…

Saute leeks in butter for approximately 15-20 minutes or until soft and translucent. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Once leek mixture is cool, add egg  and hard grated cheese. Mix to combine. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread leek mixture into tart pan. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes until crust is golden brown. Allow to cool prior to serving.

Adapted from Super Immunity – we found that the recipe was a little dry so we made a few small changes:

Makes about 22 cookies

• 2 cups finely ground rolled oats – we used our Blendtec to process regular rolled oats – not the quick cook kind
• 1/2 cup dried unsweetened coconut – we like the fine as opposed to the shreds
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips – shoot for 73% if you can otherwise get the highest number you can get
• 2 Tbsp Chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp raw almond butter – we like the Trader Joe’s brand
• 1/2 cup raisins, soaked in 1/2 cup water for one hour or more
• 1/8 cup Goji berries, soaked with the raisins above
• 1 medium apple, cored
• 1 tsp vanilla – make sure that you use the good stuff

Soak the 1/2 cup raisins and the 1/8 cup Goji berries in a 1/2 cup of water for an hour or more.

Preheat over to 200 degrees. Put the apple in the blender and puree until chopped, then add all of the rest of the wet ingredients (soaked raisins and Goji berries, almond butter & vanilla) and process until smooth.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir. Using two spoons, form into cookie size patties and place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake at 200 degrees for 1 1/2 to 2 hours – you are basically dehydrating them – they will not change in size or shape so however you place them is how they will turn out.

Enjoy with coffee or tea

Was in Whole Foods the other day and caught the price of Seitan, which is used as a vegan substitute for meat (yep, its the other, other white, non-meat 😉 )- all the protein with none if the fat – and it was CRAZY expensive. Saw a variant of this recipe in the awesome Vegan on the Cheap: Great Recipes and Simple Strategies that Save You Time and Money (highly recommended for us vegetarians, vegans to whatever degree) Hell of a lot cheaper – one 2lb bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Flour was only $7

TIP: Don’t just slice and use this directly: slice and pan fry in a little oil to give it some crunch on the outside before you throw it in a stir-fry or whatever. We had some the other day in a variation of this recipe…

Seitan

1 3/4 cups vital wheat gluten flour
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cups cold vegetable stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp olive oil

Broth:

4 cups vegetable broth
1 cups water
1 onion quartered
2 cloves garlic smashed
1/4 cup soy sauce

Fill a stock pot with the broth ingredients and bring to a boil.

In the mean time, in a large bowl mix together dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl mix together wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry and combine with a spoon until most of the moisture has absorbed and partially clumped up with the dry ingredients. Knead by hand for 3 minutes, then let rest for 5. Divide into however many equal pieces you’d like (2-6) with a knife and then knead those pieces in your hand. Don’t work them too hard no matter how much you stretch they’ll probably stretch back, they kind of have a mind of their own.

Once the broth has boiled, lower the heat to a simmer. Add the gluten pieces. Let simmer for an hour. Once done, take them off the heat and let them sit in the broth until cool.

Will keep a few days wrapped in the fridge or weeks in the freezer, if tightly wrapped.

I first discovered this Cole Slaw at Houston’s restaurant up in San Francisco a few years ago when I used to work across the street from it – sometimes I’d just order the slaw for lunch! Of course when I wasn’t dieting it was just a side for a giant rack of ribs – ah those were the days!

¾ cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1⁄8 th teaspoon salt
7 cups chopped green cabbage ( 1 head)
1 cup purple cabbage
½ cup chopped parsley – or if you like fresh dill toss some of that in, I do.
½ cup chopped green onions
½ teaspoon celery seeds

Whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar and salt in medium bowl. Combine cabbage, parsley, green onion and bell pepper in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and mix well. Add celery seed and mix, then cover the bowl and chill for at least 4 hours.

Kitty’s mom used to, like all Asian moms, whip up dinner every now and then from the random contents of the crisper, so that’s what she did the other night and everyone loved it – even the meat lovers of the group – surprising and pretty damn healthy and low fat.

1 package extra firm tofu
1/2 lb bean sprouts
1/2 lb sliced white mushrooms
1 medium onion
2 green onions sliced on the bias
3 Tbsp Mirin – rice wine
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil

Brown the crap out of the tofu in the pan with the olive oil. Make sure that you don’t burn it – charred tofu is gross, you just want to put a bit of a surface on it – it should be golden brown. Throw in the remaining vegetables except for the bean sprouts, Mirin and soy sauce and simmer until softened, about 10 minutes. Add bean sprouts on top, and simmer for 3 more minutes. Toss everything together and serve.

Forbidden Rice Pudding

adapted from a recipe from Super Immunity by Dr. Joel Fuhrman

This recipe can easily be doubled, quadrupled etc – just don’t make TOO much because I learned the hard way that it does not freeze well. I use Almond Milk and in the frozen batch all of the milk got watery, so only make enough which will store in the fridge for a week. I eat this every morning for breakfast and go through about a quad of this recipe in two weeks.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups cooked black (Forbidden) rice – use a rice cooker  and the same instructions as for Sushi rice – typically 1.5 cups of rice to 2.5 cups of water is perfect, or cook it on the stove. Rice must be cooked first…
2 cups unsweetened almond or soy milk – I use vanilla Almond Milk from Whole Foods myself
1/2 cup dried apple, soaked to re-hydrate, then chopped fine. You can substitute other dried fruit if you like…
1 cup frozen blueberries – either wild or regular
2 large or 4 small dates, pitted and finely chopped
1 Tbsp currants – I used raisins in a pinch last time
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract – add more to taste – use a good quality one
1 Tbsp Chia seeds

Place all ingredients, except chia seed, in a medium-sided pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat then reduce heat and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the chia seed, stir well, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.

Let cool and eat any way you like: I usually have it for breakfast heated with a little extra almond milk, almost like oatmeal, but its great anytime for a snack, dessert whatever. My family jokes around and calls it “sludge” but I like it. If its not sweet enough for you throw a few drops of light agave nectar on it and stir it in just before you eat it – yum.