Before I begin, I want to give credit to a few other blog posts out there. I had never made this, or anything like it before, but when it came up in a discussion I had with a co-worker, I knew I had to make curry. I asked around online if anyone could point me in the direction of a good Primal recipe for coconut curry and 3 people shared links with me of their own recipies. All 3 of these looked awesome and I used them as a template and took ideas from each one. Here they are:

Girl Gone Primal’s Creamy Coconut Beef Curry

Yummy Gatherer’s Thai Coconut Curry

Annika’s Coconut Curry 

Here is the list of ingredients I used. Of course I encourage you to mix, match, and use your choice of meat and vegetables. As Girl Gone Primal told me, it’s hard to make anything NOT taste good in here.

1 Can of Coconut Milk

Curry Paste – I used green

Meat – I used beef stew meat

Vegetables – I used celery, broccoli, green peppers, thai chilies, mushrooms, onions, couple cloves of garlic & fresh basil.

1 lime.

Cauliflower – I used about half a head.

I started by seasoning the beef. I seasoned it with curry powder, cumin, paprika, garlic salt, thyme, sea salt, & pepper. I cut the lime into quarters and squeezed the juice out of one of the pieces on the meat and put it to the side. I chopped up all the vegetables and mixed them together in a bowl and squeezed the juice out of another piece of lime over them. I let everything sit for a while as I put my daughter to bed for the night.

When I came back I opened the can of coconut milk and combined it with a teaspoon of the green curry paste and heated it up in a wok, mixing it together really well. It got a little frothy, then I added the raw, seasoned meat and cooked for a few minutes until the meat started to brown. Then I added all of the raw vegetables and squeezed the rest of the lime juice into everything and left it to simmer for a while, stirring every few minutes. I didn’t keep track of time, but you can keep an eye on it and remove the heat when all of your meat and vegetables are cooked to the way you like them. While cooking, I grated the cauliflower to turn it into “rice.” When the curry was done, I served it on the bed of cauliflower rice.

I was very happy with the way this turned out. It was exactly what I had been craving and it hit the spot. There are a few things I would do differently next time. I could’ve gone a little heavier on the spices, and since I like things very spicy, I could’ve added a couple more Thai chilies than I used. Maybe use a little more of the curry paste too. Of course those are things you’d want to adjust based on your personal preference as well.

Enjoy!

-Roger De Rok

Chard has come up recently among people I follow on Twitter and last week I decided it was time to try it since people seem to like it quite a bit. It was one of those things I’ve always seen in the grocery store but had never actually seen people buy it and had never even heard people talk about eating it until just recently.  Surprisingly,  it’s become one of my favorite vegetables, almost to the point of an addiction.

Right now some of you are reading and thinking “What the heck is chard?” It’s a leafy green that looks like it could be the illegitimate child of kale and celery. I’ve seen it in red, rainbow, and green varieties. My favorite so far has been the green as I’ve tried those three within the last week. It has somewhat of a bitter taste, similar to that of spinach, and what I understand, you can cook it in all the same ways spinach is cooked.

Here’s the way I like to cook it, it’s very simple and takes no time at all. I know most of you paleo and primal people have cooked bacon today, so odds are you’ve got bacon grease still sitting in the pan or maybe stored in the fridge. Bacon makes everything better right? Chop up the chard into smaller chunks. I heat up the bacon grease in a pan, then add the entire bunch of chard with a couple of chopped up cloves of garlic. Only takes maybe 5-10 minutes for it to wilt and fully cook. When it’s done I put it in a bowl and add some butter, sea salt, & pepper.  Easy enough, right?

Do you like chard? How do you like to cook it? What is your favorite kind of chard?

-Roger De Rok

Enchiladas Dressed

Alright, it is about time I put this recipe up. I think it still has room for improvement which is why I have held off on posting it but I have not gotten around to developing that yet so here it is in its current yummy state. Those of you that are adventurous can play around with it. I think that adding some organic sour cream to the beef before baking would make it even better as creamy enchiladas but have not yet tried it. This is an enchilada plate and not “rolled” enchiladas which are what you may be familiar with.

Primal Enchiladas:
Ingredients:
Crust option 1: (This is my favorite. It sounds a little odd but its delicious).
- Eggs
- Ground coconut

Crust option two:
- Eggs
- Shredded zucchini

Other ingredients:
Beef (grass fed preferably)
- Onions (white, yellow or red. Pick your favorite. I prefer white in my enchilades)
- Green Chile (if you have it available which I know that those that aren’t New Mexican natives often dont).
- Salsa ( make my own special for enchiladas that is heavy on tomato paste)
- Shredded Cheese (I like a mixture of mozzarella, pepper jack and cheddar)

Toppings:
- Shredded Lettuce
- Organic sour cream
- Guacamole or avocado

Directions:
1. In a baking dish we will first create our crust.
Crust option one.
- Make some SoG coconut griddle cakes and line the bottom of your baking dish with them. Fill in the in-between spots with some egg.

OR

Crust option 2.
- Mix shredded zucchini with egg and line the bottom of the pan.

2. Season and brown your ground been in a skillet. I recommend a lot of garlic and spicy seasonings.
3. pour your browned beef on top of your crust.
4. Top your beef with chopped onion, green chile (if you have it of course) and a layer of salsa.
5. Top with your shredded cheeses.
6. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees until a slight crust starts to form on the top of the cheese. About 30 minutes to 45 minutes.
7. Serve on a plate and top with shredded lettuce, organic sour cream and guacamole or avocado slices. delicious.

For my next recipe, I am working on an idea I have for Primal goat cheese manacotti. I know.. awesome right?!?!?

Yummy Waffles

I was perusing through my kitchen cabinets the other day when I came upon a waffle iron. Of course I immediately got a huge craving and decided that I had to create some Primal Waffles.

Here is what I came up with and it will definitely not disappoint. These were quite good. It has been long enough since I had a “normal” waffle so it is hard for me to compare but I would say that these are easily as good if not better!

Old… OLD World Waffles

Ingredients:
- 8oz Organic Cream Cheese
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 half cup shredded coconut.
- 4 eggs
- 1-2 teaspoons vanilla
- dash of cinnamon

Waffle Syrup:
- Fruit! Any you like but I have found that frozen strawberries that are put in the microwave and then chopped and mashed makes a great natural syrup!

Directions:
1. Pulse half cup of shredded coconut in a food processor or blender until you have a kind of coconut flour. (some people may remember this from some of my other recipes) This makes a great coconut flour that is full fat and less dry than pre-made almond flour which is usually de-fatted.
2. In a mixer or mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well to create a batter.
3. Cook your batter on the waffle iron. If you dont have a waffle iron, you could probably make them pancake style in a pan on the stove.
4. Enjoy them how you like them! We did some organic butter and the heated frozen strawberry natural syrup.

Came out perfect!

Cracklin Chicken with peppers and salsa

I know I promised this last week but here it is… sorry… better late than never right?

Do you miss your chicken/veal parmesan? How about breaded tilapia or any other delicious breaded or fried meat? Well here is a perfectly primal solution… and it is delicious!

I give you Cracklin Chicken. It is so easy and so delicious. This same principle can be applied for fish, beef, pork or any other meat that you would like as well (Just change the cooking times accordingly of course).

Ingredients:
- Chicken tenders or breasts
- Egg (white and yolk mixed)
- Crushed Pork Crackling or Pork Rinds. You can either collect all the crumbs that are left over from your normal stash or crush some up on purpose.

Prepping the chicken

Directions:
1. Paint your chicken with egg.
2. Cover with crackling crumbs using the egg like a glue.
3. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until cooked.
4. Enjoy!

You can add some additional seasonings to the chicken if you like but I have found that it is not really necessary because of the salty nature of the crackling or pork rinds.

You can eat your Crackling Chicken straight up, use it in a chicken salad or use it in other delicious recipes like this:

Primal Chicken Parmesan:
Top your crackling chicken with this simple sauce:

Ingredients:
1 Can Tomato Paste
1-2 Cups Water (To desired thickness)
1 Tsp Dried Oregano
1 Tsp Garlic

Directions:
1. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients. Use water to desired thickness. We like ours pretty thick. Feel free to add more spice if you want it, too.
2. Simmer on stove for approximately 15 minutes.

Serve with or without spaghetti squash noodles!

I hope you all enjoy this one… I can’t wait to try my Crackling Tilapia!

Sorry that I have not posted in a while. I have been extremely busy. My car broke down  and I had to fix it and we have added a new addition to our family.

His name is Egon.

Already checking out the grill

He is a GREAT dog. Absolutely amazing in fact. We saved him from the middle of a busy street about a week back and when no one claimed him (people abandon dogs in the desert out where I live all the time), we decided to legally adopt him. Unfortunately though he got an infection from his surgery (the animal shelter neuters all adopted dogs) and he has been very sick and has required a lot of extra care and attention.

Anyways… here is a simple labor day recipe for everyone. This salad dressing is my grandmothers recipe and is by far my favorite dressing. It also happens to be completely primal. Not only is it my favorite primal salad dressing though, it is my favorite dressing period!

My batch is almost gone!

Primal Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
-3/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tblspns balsamic vinaigrette
- 2 teaspns dijon mustard
- 1 small garlic glove finely chopped or minced
- 1 tbslpn shallots finely chopped or minced
- 1 tblspn red onion finely chopped or minced

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl
2. mix thoroughly
3. Store in sealed container (I got mine form the $1 store) in the refrigerator
4. Shake well before use and Enjoy!

Like many of the best things in life.. it really is that simple!

Enjoy your labor day! I have an extra special chicken recipe coming to you later in the week!

Due to popular demand from the last post I figure I better put up a recipe.

This is a simple recipe that I have been absolutely hooked on lately. I love this stuff.
I forgot to take a picture of the final product (ate it too fast) so picture the 2 parts below mixed together lol!

Browned Beef

Guacamole

Ingredients:
- 2 pounds ground beef (or 1 pound ground beef and 1 pound stew meat like in my picture)
- 4 cloves garlic
- ½ onion (white, yellow or red… your preference)
- 2 avocados
- Sea Salt
- Crushed red pepper
- Black pepper
- Chopped tomato or your favorite salsa
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- (Optional) Peppers. Your choice… Green Chile, Green Bell, Red bell, Hungarian, Thai. You name it, I have made this with all and it is awesome.

Directions:
1. Mince garlic and chop onion.
2. Season beef with 2 minced garlic cloves, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper and optional peppers or chiles.
3. Brown beef
4. In a large bowl combine onion, remaining 2 garlic cloves, lemon juice, avocado and chopped tomato or salsa.
5. Mash avocado with a fork and stir guacamole.
6. Turn off heat to beef and stir guacamole into beef.
7. Ensure that everything is mixed together well and serve!
8. Makes serving size… “a lot”. (Scientific huh?)

Feel free to play around with this recipe and make it your own. I don’t think that I have ever made this exactly the same way twice!

Primal BBQ Sauce

My good buddy Roger De Rok and I were out doing arroyo sprints yesterday (sprints in a sandy arroyo.. they will WRECK you). It is about a 45 minute walk to and from the arroyo through the desert with the lizards and jackrabbits (100s of them)  and it makes for good talk time. Roger told me about a debate spurred recently on MDA about what the most primally acceptable BBQ sauce was.

Well it just so happens that I created a 100% primal and 100% delicious barbecue sauce last week when I made some BBQ brisket. I wanted to make bbq but I wanted it primal so I researched a bunch, made myself an expert on bbq sauce and adapted a primal recipe version. I decided to replicate the results for measurements so I could give the recipe to all of you. Here it is and wowzas is it good. I could (and did) eat this stuff by the spoonful.

SoG Zesty Barbecue Zauce

Ingredients:
- 1 6oz can tomato paste (preferable organic)
- 1 to 1.5 cups of beef stock (I made my own but if you buy, you want it without salt)
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- .5 of an onion
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons chili powder

Directions:
1. Dice your onions and garlic as fine as possible. You want your BBQ sauce a little chunky but the more fine you dice these, the better the flavor will spread through the entire sauce.
2. Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan. Whether you use 1 cup or 1.5 cups of beef stock will depend on how thick you want your sauce.
3. Bring sauce to heat on stove with a low setting.
4. Cover and simmer. Stir frequently and taste regularly. The longer you simmer, the more consistent your flavor will be. I simmered for 20-30 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

Extra can be stored in refrigerator.

Who said BBQ can’t be primal? I can just imagine this spread over a nice Bacon Explosion! I am using some of my sauce for rotisserie chicken tonight.

P.S. You can probably substitute garlic and onion powders for the fresh garlic and onion for a slacker sauce.

I know. I get an "F" for presentation but it is delicious!

Recently I discovered that my brother in law, my sister and my wife are all pretty big fans of hummus. Seeing as how hummus is made from legumes (which aren’t the worst thing in the world but I recommend avoiding), I figured that I would see what I could do about finding a more primal alternative.

This is what I found. Unfortunately I cannot take credit as this is taken from several similar recipes spread across the web. Still though this is extremely easy to make and also extremely good. This is so good in fact that I am now hooked on hummus as well!

This makes a great vegetable dip or you can eat it like me and put some over fried eggs which I find delicious.

Ingredients:
-2 peeled and cut zucchini
-3/4 cup of tahini
-1/4 cup of olive oil
-1/2 cup of lemon juice
-4 cloves of garlic
-2.5 teaspoons of sea salt
-1/2 tablespoon of ground cumin

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor (or blender).
2. Blend thoroughly.
3. Enjoy!

Store in the refrigerator.

Do you like hummus? Try this one and let me know what you think!

Dairy Free, No Sugar Added Custard

Do you miss puddings and custards in your primal world? We have a local egg custard here known as “Flan” and for some weird reason, I have been craving it. Here is a custard recipe that I have been putting together. I finally got the proportions perfectly where I like them. If you like yours sweeter, all you need to do is add more bananas! This recipe is about as simple as it gets.

Ingredients:
- 2 bananas
- 1 can coconut milk
- 3 eggs
- Cinnamon

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients except for cinnamon in a mixer and mix well.
2. Pour into custard or souffle cups (coffee cups or other oven safe containers work fine if you don’t have custard cups).
3. Sprinkle top with cinnamon.
4. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for approx 45 minutes. Custard will balloon a bit and you may see some liquid… its ok, it will work itself out.
5. Chill.
6. Serve and enjoy.

This makes a tasty treat! Careful though… it is easy to overeat lol.