Turkey and Sausage Meatloaf

Hola everyone. Meatloaf has been on my mind this past week. When I get back on the wagon I always seem to forget how to stock my fridge. I end up eating 1 piece of fish and some veggies and I wonder why I'm STARVING 2 hours later. So I've gone to the paleo podcasts for some advise. Robb Wolf is like numero uno for paleo advise but I can only take so much of his blog. It's like listening to an hour long bro fest at a Slayer concert at times but it has some really good info. I can only handle it if I've just listened to dubstep or backsquated like 250#. Which is never so I listen to it after over stimulizing my nervous system with dubstep.

The podcast I have been obsessed with is Sarah Fragosa and Jason Seib's podcast 'Paleo Lifestyle and Fitness Podcast'. I just bought Jason's book  on Amazon because I can't get enough of the podcast. Their advise is simple and it really makes me feel like I can stay on the paleo wagon. They give advise like "hey if you really like meatloaf and sweet potatoes...eat meatloaf and sweet potatoes". I don't have to have 7 gourmet paleo dinners planned out every week. If I really love ground beef (which I frickin do!) eat some ground beef! There whole thing is if it is easy and tasty they would rather have you eat that then eat some crap squeaky chicken and steamed broccoli and then binge on a pint of coconut ice cream and paleo cookies 3 hours later.

Which leads me into "paleo" and "gluten free" paleo food. Just because something says "paleo" or "gluten free" doesn't mean it's a free for all. I'm talking about all the paleo cinnamon rolls and paleo brownie recipes I drool over on the google machine. I mean, don't get me wrong. I have a loaf of gluten free bread in the fridge and 2 half eaten boxes of gluten free chocolate cookies on my counter. This stuff isn't diet food and a fix for my hunger. Sugar is sugar no matter what you call it. Eating paleo donuts is not considered eating good paleo. It's fun but keep it in check folks. Let me tell you a story..or continue my story from my previous post.

I went to whole foods last week and ate a half box of gluten free cookies and 4 chocolate haystacks. Don't know what those are? Go to whole foods. They are amazing.

Did I feel awesome after eating my whole foods  "gluten free" binge? No. Absolutely not.

I didn't feel awesome because I didn't eat paleo. I just ate a crap ton of stupid sugar and rice flour. Sure it's better than gluten, but it's still sugar. AND If you didn't know already, sugar and gluten make me feel cRaZy inside. My chest tightens, my tongue feels like it's lifting weights. I don't get it...I just know I'm trying to balance my crap out. So for now, I'm going to hold off buying "paleo" food in packages even though it has the gluten free stamp on it. Instead I'm going to fill up on food I know I LOVE. Like Meatloaf. Check out my awesome recipe. It makes a ton so you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a couple of days. heaven.

Turkey and Sausage Meatloaf
Preheat oven to 325

Ingredients:
- 2 tbls of coconut oil (for saute pan and to coat the casserole dish)

- 3 onion (saute until soft)
- 1 can of tomato sauce
- 1 tbls of dried rosemary
- 1 tbls of dried thyme
- 1 tbls of salt
- 1 tsp of pepper
- splash of worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup of chicken stock

- 2 pounds of ground turkey
- 6 hot Italian sausage links

- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup of coconut flour

In saute pan heat 1 tbls of coconut oil and add the following ingredients
- 3 onion (saute until soft)

Add following ingredients to sauteed onions
- 1 can of tomato sauce
- 1 tbls of dried rosemary
- 1 tbls of dried thyme
- 1 tbls of salt
- 1 tsp of pepper
- splash of worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup of chicken stock

Simmer until slightly thick.
Turn off the heat and let mixture come to room temp.

Meanwhile...

In a large mixing bowl add:
- 2 pounds of ground turkey
- 6 hot Italian sausage links
Squish together with your paws until both meats are combined
Now add:
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup of coconut flour

Once the tomato and onion mixture has cooled off. Add mixture in with the meat, eggs, and coconut flour.
Combine everything together in one bowl.

Grease a large casserole dish with 1 tbls of coconut oil
Transfer the raw meatloaf mixture into the casserole dish

Bake meatloaf on 325 for about 1hr 20 min (or until internal temp reaches 160 degrees)


Before baking:

After baking:

Meatloaf on day 3 w/ added tomato sauce (recipe coming soon):

Maine Boiled Dinner

This weekend was abnormally cold for Florida. I know everyone from up north is like boohoo but seriously...it was cold for down here. The wind was howlin and temperatures dropped into the 30s. The one cool this is that I got to wear my bright green pea coat from Old Navy I bought like a million years ago. I never get to bust that thing out.

Since it was like 60 below I decided to make a good ol' Maine boiled dinner. For those of you who don't already know..I'm from Maine. In Maine we like things that are cheap and can feed a lot of people. Also, the meal is usually cooked in a dutch oven or a crock-pot for the fancy folk (i.e beef stew with dumplings, Maine baked beans, etc). I usually side with the fancy folk and cook everything in the crock-pot. I don't have time to sit around all Sunday while my food is cooking in the dutch oven. Also, I feel uneasy leaving the house while the oven is on. I'm afraid some gas line will leak and my oven will blow up along with the rest of my apartment building. I don't even think we have gas but that's beyond the point.

So I cooked this mess in the crock-pot is what I'm trying to say. The ingredients and steps are pretty simple. I bought a half ham from Publix (with the bone still in it). Hams are confusing. I don't understand them. I mean are they already cooked or what? Come on people. Don't even get me started on corned beef. What's that all about? It looks like ham.

Anywho, by the looks of this ham..it wasn't cooked. It even had some fatty skin around it which made me feel rustic. I like to feel rustic when I'm making my food. My meat comes from Costco where it doesn't even look like it came from an animal. It's all nice and trimmed and in its own individualized vacuumed sealed bag. It may be just me but I doubt cavemen meat looked like this. Good thing I'm not a caveman. Whatever. 

Ingredients

1 halved ham (bone in)

4 peeled carrots cut in half (not split down the middle but snapped into 2 pieces, yeah?)

2 peeled sweet potatoes (chopped in half)

1 green cabbage quartered

1 tbsp Salt

2 tsp pepper

Steps

1. Place ham in the crockpot

2. Surround ham with your cut veggies

3. Pour 4 cups of water into the crockpot (water should come 3/4 quarters of the way up your meat/veggie mix)

4. Sprinkle your salt and pepper over everything

5. Cook on high for about 5 hours

6. If everything feels tender and the meat is falling apart turn the crock-pot off and let it sit until you're ready to eat

Pork Chops in a Mustard Tarragon Sauce

Ok I have a confession to make. I haven't been eating 100% paleo. Huge surprise. Good thing paleo is a 80/20 lifestyle. I'm fairly close to the 80% during the day but I have night time sugar cravings. At night I usually like to eat ice cream, chocolate, anything that I baked that week. Last week I had a potluck and decided to try out a new recipe. I got this one from the interwebs. Usually I'm a number one fan of this girl's recipes but my marshmallow surprise was nothing special. No matter what I couldn't get rid of this dessert. No one would eat that mess. Even after I changed the name to marshmallow surprise it didn't excite people to try it. Marshmallow surprise isn't much of a surprise. I finally threw it out last night. I just couldn't keep trecking that crap all over the place trying to get people to eat it.

Anyways, after I threw it out I decided to make a healthy and super paleo dinner. Boneless pork chops in a mustard tarragon sauce. OMG so good. I'm usually not a huge tarragon fan. It reminds me of licorice tea for some reason. I don't know why..who knows. When tarragon is cooked in a mustard cream sauce it turns amazing. For the veggie side I cooked up some zucchini, yellow squash, and grape tomatoes with some minced garlic, rosemary and red pepper. Of course both the pork chops and veggies were cooked in leftover bacon fat. I prefer cooking everything in either coconut oil or bacon fat. When I'm feeling zesty I use the bacon fat. Maybe it's because I don't strain my leftover bacon fat so I end up getting little bits of bacon bits in the fat. I could just eat it with a spoon. I won't though...that may be a bit intense.

When you do make the veggies be sure to add the rosemary and red pepper. It's easy to forget those 2 ingredients but I promise you it really makes it. I love the little bit of heat the red pepper adds and rosemary has such an earthy delicious taste. Sometimes it reminds me of Thanksgiving. No idea why, it just does. Below is the picture of the pork chops. The picture took me forever to take because it kept looking all bright and overexposed. Also, the meat juices started to run and that was driving me crazy during the picture taking process. Meat juices.

Pork Chops in a Mustard Tarragon Sauce

3-4 Pork Chops (boneless)

1 tsp bacon fat

salt/pepper

1/4 cup white whine

2 tbls dijon mustard

1 tsp tarragon 

1/2 cup coconut milk

1. On medium heat plop some bacon fat in your pan

2. Salt and pepper your raw pork chops before putting them in the pan

3. Cook chops about 4ish minutes on each side

4. Remove chops from the pan and place on a plate

5. Pour white wine in the hot pan and scrape up all the good bits

6. Add your Dijon mustard, tarragon, and coconut milk and stir all together

7. Add the pork chops back into the sauce

8. Cover pan and simmer for 2 minutes

9. Remove chops and spoon delicious mustard tarragon sauce over the chops

Rosemary and Red Pepper Veggie Medley

1 zucchini

2 summer squash

2 handfuls of grape tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp dried rosemary

salt/pepper to taste

1. On medium heat put your bacon fat in the pan to melt

2. Add all the veggies to the pan once the fat has melted

3. Cook veggies for 2 minutes and then add the minced garlic

4. Add salt/pepper, red pepper flakes, and rosemary

5. Cook veggies on medium heat until the grape tomatoes start to burst

6. Drop veggies down to low until the pork chops are done

Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad

So it's strawberry season in sunny Florida. This is the time when Publix has cartons of strawberries for cheap, like 2 for $4 or something like that. I love strawberries because I feel like I'm eating a dessert. For those on the sugar detox I'm not sure if you're able to eat strawberries. Sorry, I think you guys can only have like an apple a week or some crazyness like that. For us paleo folk they say moderate your fruit intake if you're trying to lean out. Which I am, so I only eat like half a carton of strawberries instead of a whole one. I'll talk to you later about why I want to lean out (Shhpiels).

Ugh you know what also may be good on this salad? Walnuts and hard boiled eggs! Dang, dang I should have done that...next time salad.

Anyways I was a huge fan of this salad. I say salad a lot. I've also said strawberries a lot. I'm not apologizing.

I've never been a huge fan of fruit in my salad but recently I've gotten into the sweet and savory combos. Like honey mustard, I used to hate that. I thought it tasted like sweet mayonnaise. Nasty. There's no honey mustard in this salad so no need to second guess the dressing. You know, is this paleo? Omg should I eat this? What about my blood sugar?! All the usual crazy paleo questions that come up when you're trying to eat. I used balsamic vinegar instead of an oil based dressing because I'm lean and mean like that. Most of the time I don't even notice the oil in the dressing so why add it, ya know? Instead I added bacon. Who am I kidding? I would have added bacon to it no matter what. Bacon is awesome that's why. This bacon was already cooked when I decided to make the salad. And NO I did not buy the pre-cooked junk bacon. Maybe it's not junk, but I'm calling that crap bacon junk. This bacon was cooked by me, in the oven, over the weekend. I have a super awesome way of cooking bacon that even I don't mind doing. I'll tell you my bacon secrets later. #teaser

So try out this salad, it's amazing and makes me smile.

Main Ingredients
8 strawberries cut into bite size pieces
1 handful grape tomatoes (cherry if you like em big)
4 deliciously crispy pre-cooked bacon strips
3 handfuls of raw spinach leaves
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Steps
1. Grab a big salad bowl and put your spinach in it
2. On top of the spinach add your cut strawberries and grape tomatoes
3. Crumble the crispy bacon by hand or cut up w/ a knife
4. Sprinkle bacon over the salad
4. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over everything
5. Toss and enjoy (the good stuff likes to sink to the bottom so mix well)