Avocado Apple Chicken Salad, You Complete Me

I have only recently discovered the magic of avocados. Out of nowhere, I began craving them on a regular basis. Well, I craved guacamole. Then I discovered it was made of avocados. So, I bought some avocados, and stared at them in my kitchen, until I finally broke down and googled how to get the gooey green goodness to come from the weird-looking thing I bought. At that point, I put avocados on everything - toast, salmon, chicken. A fork. No telling if this was my arthritic body screaming for Omega-3s or just another delicious discovery by a fat lady. In any case, thus my love affair with avocados.

Since I roasted a chicken in the slow cooker yesterday largely for the bones so I could make stock, I wanted to do something with the meat that would last me all week. I had been thinking of chicken salad, whcih I've never made before. Then I thought, Hey! I have both apples, and onions, and celery, and avocados. I wonder if I can throw that all in and make deliciousness. So, I decided to try it. This recipe is an epic success, though I'm certain I'll be fooling around with it in future weeks to tweak it. What you'll need:

Ingredients
- The breast meat from a roasted chicken (or 2 large breasts, baked), cubed
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 1 large Honeycrisp apple, diced
- 2 small avocados (or 1 large Hass avocado), diced
- 2 tsp lime juice
- 1 cup mayo
- 1/2 tsp black pepper

I started in my largest glass bowl, and had to transfer to a large pot for stirring room, so make sure you use a large bowl. Literally combine all ingredients and fold gently with wooden spoon until everything is mixed. Best if served cold, so refrigerate once you either cover the bowl or parcel it out into smaller containers.

Note on the mayo: I used Hellman's Light because I didn't have eggs in the fridge to make my own, and because after comparing the ingredients, the Hellman's Low Fat mayo had high fructose corn syrup and food colorings in it than did the Light. Normally I'd shrink from using mayonnaise (it's an ingredient I rarely touch unless I am making deviled eggs), but I'm not sure what you can replace it with in a chicken salad. As for the fat content, well...I'm seeing a personal trainer. Plus, the calories are actually probably an improvement over my usual practice of don't-eat-anything-all-day-until-7pm-and-then-EAT-ALL-THE-THINGS. *Ahem*

For next time: For some more tang, next time I might (1) make my own mayo, and (2) try it with 1/2 cup of light mayo and 1/4 cup of brown mustard or some such (recommendations appreciated), or (3) replace the mayo altogether with something else, though I'm not sure what. You could easily use another stalk of celery if you like the stuff. Also, I'm not terribly adventurous with spices because they so easily mess up a dish, but fresh parsley or cilantro would probably go well in this dish. You could probably add raisins, but I'm not a fan; red grapes would work equally well. Other recommendations - please do add them in the comments!

I used my cup measure, and with an overflowing scoop into smaller containers, this netted me four large lunch servings for the week. (I also ate a few tablespoons of it, to test it. Delicious - the apple really makes it, and though I usually despise raw onions and celery, I can completely deal with it since they're offset by the sweetness of the apple and the creaminess of the avocado. I'll end up eating it out of tupperware for this week, but I think this would be delicious either served on lettuce leaves, or atop tomato slices for the acidity.

Considering this one a raving success. I can't wait until lunchtime tomorrow!

Scallops, Spinach and Mushrooms, and the Importance of Organized Spices

Tonight's recipe is a lesson in organizing your spices and knowing the properties of your ingredients, so this recipe is a bit of an "oops," though it came out fine in the end. It also encouraged me to add a spice rack to my kitchen wish list.

So, to start and have on hand, in addition to two frying pans, you should have on hand:

Ingredients
- coconut oil
- 6 large sea scallops
- 1 9oz bag of baby spinach
- small package of white button mushrooms
- cumin
- pepper
- cinnamon

I'll also let you know the ingredients I wish I had had on hand:

- white wine, for deglazing the scallop pan

Wash and slice the mushrooms while the coconut oil heats up. Rinse the spinach too - even if you get your produce bagged and pre-washed, you should still give it a rinse. With all the e. coli badness going around nowadays, you can't be too careful.

I put the spinach and mushrooms in my smaller frying pan and covered it to steam. Once my coconut oil was hot, I plopped the scallops down. Having not really worked with coconut oil (and trying valiantly to replace my usual use of extra virgin olive oil), I was surprised that the coconut oil doesn't actually keep things from sticking to stainless the way olive oil does, so I shuffled the scallops around a bit more than I usually would while trying to get them seared. I gave the scallops a barely-there light dusting of cumin (it's strong, you don't need much), and then did the same with the spinach mixture. Intending to give the scallops a wee bit of pepper, I grabbed the container handy on the counter and did that.

But my pepper dusting was a light brown - should I say, cinnamon! - oops. Hrm. Apparently I left the cinnamon out from this morning. Unfortunate. But cinnamon and cumin both go in chili, right? And there was barely much there, thanks to my light spice hand. I could rescue this. I added the intended pepper. Once the bottoms were seared, I did the same dusting - minus the unintended cinnamon - on the other side of the scallops. The scallops stuck a bit (yes, I found myself wishing for olive oil), and I used a bit of broth to deglaze the pan a little (here's where you might use white wine), added that liquid to the spinach. Move both to the plate (the spinach finishes faster than the scallops, so keep an eye on it), and mangia!

The oops-cinnamon and the cumin combine to give the dish a vaguely Moroccan flavor. Given that it's not one of my favorite flavor profiles, I consider this recipe a bit of a mistake, but if you enjoy Moroccan food you may want to try this. As usual, I'm working without salt, so if you need a bit more bang, you may want to add a bit.

When I was finished, I still had a bit of a spinach craving, so I cooked the rest of the 9oz bag with another few sliced mushrooms - just steamed them in the same pan. Ate a whole bag of spinach. And I don't even feel guilty.

Breakfast Recipe: Paleo Island Hash

What I wanted this morning was a potato hash. However, trying to be faithful to Paleolife, I've rid myself of all real potatoes, and am trying valiantly not to touch my olive oil unless it's an emergency. I did, however, have sweet potatoes, and onions, and was dying to experiment with the new coconut oil in the cabinet.

So, once I put my beef stock up and cleaned the crockpots, I washed and de-gutted a whole chicken and placed it in the large crock after rubbing it down with Penzey's Forward! spice (more on how this turns out later). The cutting board, chef's knife, and veggies came out, and this is how the Island hash got started.

What you'll need to start: a cutting board, your favorite chopping knife, a veggie peeler, and a decently big frying or chef's pan with a lid. Your ingredients are:

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 yellow onion, diced fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large sweet potato, chopped coarse but fine
1 large honeycrisp apple chopped coarsely (save peel & core for chicken stock!)

1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch pepper to sprinkle in
1/4 can coconut milk

Saute the onions and garlic over medium heat until translucent. (I figured, lots of normal recipes start that way, I can do this!) At this point I added the potatoes, afraid they'd take forever to cook. They weren't doing much frying - and perhaps that is because I didn't use enough coconut oil. (Because I'm not a coconut fan, and am new to the oil, I was afraid using too much of the fragrant stuff would put me off the dish). I added the apple simply because I had one around, and could tell that if I didn't want things to burn, I'd need more liquid in the dish.

Grumbling a bit about the loss of apple pie and all things processed and sweet, I thought that the apple and sweet potato might take well to a bit of cinnamon, so I added that. Still not happy with the dry texture, I added 1/3 can of coconut milk (regular, not 'lite'). Pop the cover on the pan, turn to low/low-medium, and let it simmer away for about 5-7 minutes with the occasional stir. I let mine go for about 7 minutes; if you prefer your potatoes with more crunch, you'll want to pull it off the heat a bit earlier.

I served this with a lamb chuck center cut chop/steak that had a light dusting of pepper on it. It was wonderful (and I remembered to bag and freeze the bones for next weekend's stock making). The slight gaminess of the lamb offsets the near-dessert sweetness of the hash nicely, and I would eat this again. I found the hash to be tasty and filling (if not quite the crispy fried hash texture I had initially intended) - about 3/4 cup ended up in my belly, and the rest of it should serve as breakfast for the next three or four days (fewer for those of you who are Big Breakfast Beasts - I tend to skip the morning meal altogether, so this is a step up for me). I figure that's not bad for something thrown together with nothing but a vague idea and some handy groceries!

Paleo Beef Broth in the Crockpot

My first attempt at "going paleo" in the kitchen was to make some beef stock. I've been reading how good homemade stock is supposed to be for those with autoimmune and leaky gut issues. I figured, I own two crockpots. How could I not just fill them full of stuff and wake up the next day to some good stock that i can keep on hand? Seems too easy to not take advantage of. So I did a quick grocery trip for some staple veggies and some beef bones. I had called some local butchers, but few sold bones - I just picked up a couple of 2lb. bags from my grocery's freezer section.

I have two crockpots, one is about 4(?) quarts, and the other is larger at about 6 quarts. For the smaller crockpot, I used (in order of adding to the pot):

- 2 large carrots, unpeeled, chopped into 1-1.5" pieces
- 1 yellow onion, quartered. (I peeled mine, some recipes say not to)
- 8 cloves garlic, unpeeled and smashed
- 3 stalks celery, washed and chopped into 1" pieces
- 1 2lb. bag of beef soup bones (grocery freezer aisle)
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- filled crock the rest of the way with tap water

For the larger crock, I did about the same, using just a bit more of each of the ingredients:

- 4 large carrots, unpeeled, chopped into 1-1.5" pieces
- 1 yellow onion, quartered. (I peeled mine, some recipes say not to)
- 12 cloves garlic, unpeeled and smashed
- 4 stalks celery, washed and chopped into 1" pieces
- two 2lb. bags of beef soup bones (grocery freezer aisle)
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- filled crock the rest of the way with tap water

I started at about 2:00pm; everything was in the pots and I kept them on the low heat setting until about 8:30am the next morning. I'm terrible about opening them up and peeking in on occasion, so I lost some heat that way. The broth doesn't reduce much this way since the covers stay on; next time I may try it on the stovetop to see what the reduction can add flavorwise.

This morning I placed a colander into a large pasta pot, and drained the crocks into that. I discarded the veggies and bones, divvied up the broth into various containers (including: tupperware, large pint yogurt containers, and some old chinese restaurant soup containers I had washed and kept). Later, I'll scoop off the top fat layer (the broth was definitely greasy) and then divvy up the remaining broth between the freezer and fridge. I'm planning to use it as a starter for soups and stews, but since it's winter, a cup of hot homemade broth will be nice on occasion, too.

The broth smells delicious - you'll notice I didn't use any salt; I tend not to cook with a lot since my palate is very sensitive to it. I'd rather handle it later when I'm using the broth for cooking rather than have it start out with much salt in it.

One thing I did note is that I have this automatic habit of throwing out the heels and peels of my veggies - I'm going to have to work on that and keep a scrap bag handy for the freezer so that I can make stock from scraps instead of whole fresh veggies. Same with bones - looks like going paleo may well help me discard less as well as feel better!

Running Paleo Reviews: Paleo Diet Cookbook

*Completed: Cordain, L., Stephenson, N., & Cordain, L. (2011). The Paleo diet cookbook: more than 150 recipes for Paleo breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and beverages. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

An excellent primer recipe book for those just starting out on the Paleo diet. You don't have to read the other Cordain book unless you are interested in the background and science, since this cookbook gives you the quick and dirty of why certain foods are okay and others are not. Contains easy grocery lists and simple (but pretty tasty) recipes with ingredients anyone should be able to find. An easily digestible cookbook. Once new paleos get the basics down, they'll likely be interested in more complicated combinations and more time intensive dishes, but this is a great way to get familiar with the most common ingredients and easy preparations.

Jumping Into Paleo: How I Got Here

My name is Colleen, and this is my entrance into the Paleo lifestyle.

After a long spring and summer of surprise joint issues, my rheumatologist diagnosed me with ankylosing spondylitis - as the docs explained it and from my skimming of some sources, it's a lot like rheumatoid arthritis with the added bonus that the joints are also attempting to fuse. The emergence of the joint issues coincided with a resurgence of my gut issues. Many sick days and two hospital stays later, the GI doc noted he can't say definitively that it's Crohns, but it's a possibility, since Crohns and rheumatic issues tend to cavort together. Whatever it is, carbs, processed foods, and dairy are pretty major triggers for me at this point. Doing a wee bit of research - I'm a librarian, it's what I do in times of uncertainty and stress - it sounded like cutting out all of those essentially left me with the Paleo diet.

I was hoping I could sneak through the holidays and start the paleo thing once Nana's Stuffing (and pumpkin pie, and cake, and various other delicious foods) season was over, but no such luck - after eating what I wanted for Thanksgiving, my innards duly punished me. And so here I am, saying goodbye to sugars and grains and legumes and dairy products and refined/processed foods. Excuse me for a moment while I desperately hug my boyfriends Ben & Jerry for a tearful goodbye.

And so, thus begins my paleo journey. As I type, I have two crockpots full of vegetables and beef bones simmering in the hopes of getting a decent broth out of it (I'll be posting about weekend mass-cooking soon). I'm scouring the 'net for other good paleo blogs with useful recipes that I'll try to pop into the blogroll for anyone interested, and I'll post good recipes as I discover them in my own kitchen. As I read more about the paleo lifestyle and gut issues, I'll be posting reviews, info bits, and bibliographies with links to the resources I find particularly useful. If you're a paleo veteran, I hope you'll stop by with tips and advice; if you're a newbie like me, I hope you find something useful here.