Easy Weeknight - Garlicky Meatballs w/ Sauteed English Peas & Onions - YUMMY!

Last night it was a team effort cooking dinner in our house.  We decided to make pork meatballs with the ground pork we got in our last shipment from Tara Firma Farms.  You can substitute any type of ground meat in this recipe.  It's so GOOD & the flavors went amazing with the fresh English peas & onions from the farmer's market.  I LOVE English Peas when they are fresh and in season.

Recipe yields 20 - 1 inch meatballs

Ingredients for Meatballs:
1lb Ground Meat
2 cloves of garlic - pressed
1 Egg
1/4 c Fine Almond Flour
1T fresh parsley - chopped
1t Italian herbs
Sea salt & pepper - couple pinches
1/2t Cumin
1t Garlic powder
1t Onion powder
1/2t chili powder
2 pinches cracked red pepper
2T Coconut Oil
1/2c of white wine
1/4c of chicken broth
3T coconut cream from a full fat can of coconut milk (don’t use the water part at the bottom but instead the cream at the top)
1/2t Smoked sea salt (this helps remove the coconut taste to some extent)
Chives or Green Onion tops diced - Keep for the end to top meatballs

Directions: 

• Mix all ingredients (except white wine, broth, coconut cream, and smoked sea salt) together in a large mixing bowl with your hands
• Form into 1-2 inch meatballs (as shown in photos below)
• Melt coconut oil in pan over high heat
• Brown each meat ball 4-6 min each side

• Once you have flipped one side you can lower the heat to medium-high
• Lower stove heat to medium
• Add white wine and let reduce until 1/2 of liquid remains
• Add broth and reduce to half
• Add the whisked coconut cream from the top of your can into the mixture
• Make sure the meatballs are coated well
• Add your smoke sea salt to taste (this helps get rid of some of the coconut taste)

• Before serving add parsley & green onion on top.

• Enjoy!

Ingredients for English Peas & Onions:

2 Cups English Peas - shelled
1 Small Onion - diced
2-3T Kerrygold Grassfed butter or grassfed/raw butter of choice
1/4c Chicken broth - we used our homemade broth on hand that we made the previous week
2T Dry white wine (optional - alcohol cooks off when using in food)
2 pinches of Italian herbs/spices
Sea salt & black pepper to taste

Directions: 

• Steam peas for 10-15 minutes
• While the peas are steaming start the following steps
• Heat cast iron pan for 5 min
• Add butter over medium heat - melt
• Saute Onions, add a pinch or two of sea salt, stir over medium heat
• Pour in broth, white wine, strained English peas & spices into cast iron pan - stir

• Let the mixture reduce about 10-15 over medium heat - stirring occasionally
• Add sea salt & black pepper to taste prior to serving

• Enjoy w/ your meatballs or any main course of choice! 

Dinner is SERVED!

Wing, Sate, Skewers, Kebab - Spicy "Peanut" Sauce

Tonight we made homemade chicken wings and I made a spicy "peanut" wing sauce.  It's super easy to make healthy homemade chicken wings!  Try it out!

Spicy "Peanut" Sauce

Ingredients:
3T Almond butter (raw) or Organic sunflower butter(organic only because regular has sugar in it) - Almond butter (Trader Joe's most affordable) & Sunflower butter - Whole Foods 
4T Coconut Amino's (taste like soy sauce but doesn't have soybeans or wheat) - Whole Foods, Sprouts, Amazon
1/4-1/2c Hot Sauce of choice - I used Jalapeno Pepper Sauce from AZ Gunslinger (http://www.azgunslinger.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=11&pg=1) - Whole Foods
4T Aged balsamic vinegar (make sure it only grapes & NO caramel coloring)
2T EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)  - My favorite & only brand I use is Kasandrino's  (15% off right now of orders online) http://www.kasandrinos.com/store/?ap_id=Eat2BeeHealthy

Directions:

• Add all ingredients & only 1/4c hot sauce into a small stock pot over medium heat
• Whisk together until combined and heated
• Taste test - add more hot sauce as needed 
• Set aside for meal tossing w/ wings or using for dip w/ your grilled chicken skewers or sate

- Chicken Wing Steps - 

Preheat oven to 400f
Place chicken wings sprinkle w/ sea salt & black pepper and spread on baking sheet and cook for 20 min.

Option #1 - Bake to Finish
Flip chicken wings and bake an additional 15 min
Remove wings from oven and toss in 1/2 "wing sauce of choice"
Turn oven to Broil
Spread back out onto baking sheet and broil for 4-5 min (keep your eye so they don't burn but instead crunch up)
Toss in remaining wing sauce
SERVE!

Option #2 - Grill to finish
Grill for additional 15-20 min
Toss in wing sauce of choice
SERVE!

Buckwheat & Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - AMAZING!

My hubby said these are the best chocolate cookies I have ever made...hands down! He is a total cookie snob so that meant a lot hearing this from him!  I mean a cookie snob in a good way of course let's just say a serious foodie to be nice. HA!

Ingredients:
2c Almond flour  - I use honeyville purchased on amazon - great price and very fine texture
1/2c Buckwheat flour - Bob's Mills - Whole Foods, Sprouts, Amazon
3T Tapioca flour - Bob's Mills - Whole Foods, Sprouts, Amazon
1/2t Baking soda -Bob's Mills - Whole Foods, Sprouts, Amazon
1/4-1/2t REAL sea salt - BRAND: REAL
1/2c Palm oil shortening - Tropical Traditions is my favorite but this type of shortening is also sold at Whole Foods.  You can substitute with expeller pressed coconut oil if you prefer.
1T Vanilla extract
1/2-3/4c Honey
3/4c Enjoy life mini chocolate chips - Whole Foods, Sprouts & Amazon sell this brand

2-3T 100% Dark chocolate chips (if you wanted to omit the enjoy life and make a dark chocolate chip cookie I think this would work great too!)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350f
• Sift all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl
• Melt honey and palm oil in a pan over low-medium heat
• Turn off heat and stir in vanilla extract into the honey/oil mixture
• Add all chocolate chips/chunks into the dry mixture - stir until everything is mixed together

• Slowly add the melted mixture into your dry ingredients

• Work into a dough using hands
• Scoop 1T of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet
• Push a little with fingers into shape of cookie or you can leave and it will spread on it's own from the baking soda.

• Makes 24 cookies
• Bake for 10-12 minutes - They will seem very soft when you remove them from the oven.  As they cool they will get crunchy.  It's important not to over cook or they will be VERY hard.
• ENJOY!

Quiche "Grain Free Crust"

I didn't have time to take photos after throwing together this recipe last week, so the only one I took was before I put it into the oven.  My apologies for not providing photos step by step.  Next time I make this I will edit my recipe to reflect properly.  I made this for a couple of friend's and they absolutely LOVED it!  After the feedback I thought I would share my little experiment with my "grain free" crust for the quiche, since it was such a success.  Enjoy!

Ingredients - Crust:
1/2c Buckwheat flour
1/2c Almond flour
2 pinches of sea salt
1/4c Coconut oil or butter (if you don't like coconut taste)- not melted
3 Egg whites (reserve yolks for quiche filling)
2t Grade b maple syrup (optional)

Directions for Crust:

• Preheat oven to 350f
• Mix dry ingredients together
• Mix wet ingredients together (except the coconut oil)
• Slowly mix the dry into the wet ingredients
• Work the coconut oil into the dough by hand and make sure it's mixed in evenly
• You'll end up with a large dough ball 
• Put this into your buttered/oiled pie pan, and form a crust with an edge by hand 
• Put into oven for 10 min
• Remove and let sit aside and cool at room temperature for use in the quiche
• Leave the oven on to make the quiche.

For the filling I typically use left over meat and veggies that have been cooked during the week, diced up to put into the quiche.  This most recent time I used beef cheek barbacoa, arugula and onion with kerrygold grassfed cheddar.  You can use any meat/poultry or just veggies.  Whatever you decide it will turn out great!

Ingredients - Filling: 
1/2c Kerrygold grassfed cheddar - shredded (optional - it will still taste great without the cheese too)
6 Pastured whole eggs
3 Egg yolks (saved from earlier steps)
1/2c meat/poultry/sausage of choice - precooked saves time.  If it's raw brown the meat and add spices as needed before adding into the recipe.  Make sure everything is diced up into small bite size pieces.
1/2c veggies of choice diced up
1/4c Green onions - diced white and green parts
1 small onion - diced and sauteed (optional)
Sea salt
Black pepper
Spices/Herbs of choice

Directions for Filling:

• Whisk together the eggs  
• Add remaining ingredients and stir everything together into the whisked eggs
• Pour mixture into the quiche crust

Precooked - beef barbacoa cheeks, arugula, onion & kerrygold cheddar

• Bake at 350f for 15-25 min (time will depend on desired egg consistency and oven - I cook mine 20 min, checking halfway through)
• Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 min before slicing/serving
• Enjoy with a nice side salad, or on it's own for breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks or dinner.  Just because it's a quiche doesn't mean you have to eat it for breakfast only.   

My friend Kelly tested this recipe out today and sent me a finished product of her quiche.  Looks beautiful!

20 Minute or LESS - Tasty Taco Night

I have a slight obsession with taco night, whether it be with fish, ground turkey, lamb, beef, chicken you name it.  I absolutely love all of the flavors that go into making an amazing taco (now lettuce wrap for me).

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef - Grassfed from Tara Firma Farms
1 Yellow bell pepper - diced
1 Red bell pepper - diced
1 Medium red or yellow onion - diced
1/2c Homemade bone broth - I used turkey bones this time from a Tara Firma Farms turkey we made on Easter.  I made the broth from the bones in my pressure cooker.  It turned out AMAZING! It was full of gelatin and this is very healing to the body in many ways.  I can't stress the importance of making your own broth versus buying a box of it at the store.  If you need some ideas on how to make broth in either a pressure cooker or crockpot go up to the search box on my page and type in broth.  A few ideas will come back.
2T Achiote "taco" Seasoning - Mine has a blend of several spices that I pick up from my local farmer's market.  I would suggest using cumin, annato(achiote), cayenne, sea salt, black pepper, chili powder, paprika - mixed in a little bowl and only use 2T of the mix in your recipe.
4T Cilantro - diced
2T Cilantro - diced - reserve for topping on tacos
1.5T Pastured lard - rendered from bacon we bought this past weekend from Prather Ranch. Or whatever you want to saute your veggies in butter, coconut oil, palm oil, etc.
Butter lettuce or romaine  - The leaves will be used as your taco "tortilla"

Directions:

• Saute onions and bell peppers in lard over medium heat 
• Add a touch of sea salt to help the onions & peppers sweat 
• In a separate pan start to brown your meat
• Once your meat is completely brown and your veggies are sauteed, add them together in one pan going forward.  You can do this in one pan to start out with but it might take more time because you'll have to do cook either the meat or veggies first.
• Add broth, taco seasoning (Please don't buy the store bought ones they are LOADED with crap! Just make your own spice blend.), stir

• Reduce heat to med-low and cook for about 10 min or until the broth reduces 
• Add 4T cilantro into the mix and cook for 2 min

• Taste and see if you need to add sea salt, spices, etc to the mixture before serving.
• Serve inside your taco shells & enjoy!  We often add avocado to the top, but last night I didn't have any on hand.  This is also very tasty served with mexican cauliflower "rice" as a side.

Basil & Arugula Walnut Pesto

Yesterday I roasted a spaghetti squash in the oven, because I knew I would be enjoying homemade pesto today on lunch.  If you are even in a time pinch I always recommend roasting veggies ahead of time to make lunches faster during the week.  Last week I ordered 6L of Kasandrino's extra virgin olive oil (my one & only choice for EVOO) to stock up and couldn't WAIT to make pesto with the organic/local fresh basil, walnuts, garlic & arugula I got Saturday from the farmer's market. 

Ingredients: 

1 1/2c Basil leaves (fresh, rinsed & tightly packed)
1/2c Arugula (rinsed & tightly packed)
3/4c EVOO  Kasandrino's (extra virgin olive oil) - My favorite and only brand we like to use at our house is from Kasandrino’s Imports.  The link to their page is below at the end of my recipe post.  If you haven't tried this yet, you should!
2T Lewis Labs Brewer’s Yeast (Nutritional Yeast)
1/2c Walnuts - raw/soaked & rinsed (soaked mine 24hrs this time around)
10 Garlic cloves peeled
1t Black pepper (more/less based on taste)
1-2t Sea salt (again to taste)
1t Onion powder
2t Raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar (Bragg's is my favorite)

This recipe makes about 6-8oz of pesto.  Feel free to double/triple this recipe, and freeze for later use, that is if you don’t eat it all within 5-7 days!  You can eat pesto in and with so MANY things!! 

Directions:

• Add basil, arugula, garlic, brewer's yeast, onion powder, black pepper, sea salt, ACV (apple cider vinegar) and walnuts into your food processor or high speed blender.  Today I opted to use my food processor instead of my vitamix. 

1/2c Arugula

1 1/2c Basil 

1/2c Walnuts soaked

All ingredients ready for a quick pulse to mix it up!

All mixed up! Ready for the next step??

• Slowly add EVOO until the desired consistency is accomplished as shown below.

• Taste, add more salt, pepper, EVOO as needed for your taste buds.

• Serve or Store for later enjoyment!

LUNCH today: I cut up one spicy Italian sausage from Prather Ranch and tossed it into the frying pan with half of my spaghetti squash "noodles" warmed on medium-low heat for about 5-10 min and for the last couple of minutes added the 2-3T pesto. Voila! Lunch is served!  If I would have had some kalamata olives on hand in the house I would have added those into the mix too, as I think it would have added a nice touch to this tasty dish today.

The delicious and easy finished meal! =D

KASANDRINO's EVOO - If you would like to order or read about this amazing extra virgin olive oil, please do so by following this link.  You won't be disapointed!  This month I am also planning to make my own skin care lotion using this amazing EVOO.  I will report back once I have tested and perfected it!

http://www.kasandrinos.com/?ap_id=Eat2BeeHealthy

Cocoa Banana Butter Truffles - 21DSD Approved!

Happy Saturday and almost Easter!  As most of you know I am doing the sugar detox, and I am happy to say I am on day 19 of 21!  The detox this time around has gone much smoother for me, and I have actually enjoyed it!  I will admit I do daydream still about certain paleo treats, but after the detox I am really going to try and keep sugar in all forms out as much as possible and continue to sweeten things with a green tipped banana on occasion.  My taste buds seem to think it's sweet enough so why ruin a good thing (ie no more "sugar" addiction)?!?  The first time I did this detox back in December 2011, I only made it 17 days due to various holiday parties popping up.  This time around I decided to do the detox when I  knew there wouldn't be a lot of life events getting in my way.  Let's face it I am weak sometimes and want to indulge in a glass of wine, or paleo treats with my friend's.  To be honest while being on the detox you still want to indulge when you are around your friends, and well this treat below will definitely fit the bill without breaking your detox and making you feel guilty.  I was craving dark chocolate the other day like a mad woman (one of the amazing benefits of being a lady).  Last week I attempted making the chocolate almond bites from Primal Palate and well...while they were good they weren't exactly a "treat" in my mind.  I decided to try and make my own spin on these and ended up making something more like a truffle consistency.  I will make these again as special treats or finger food desserts for parties in the future.  My hubby said he would prefer a little honey added to his, but I think that's because he is used to the taste of a little coconut palm sugar daily (in his coffee), so they didn't seem as sweet to him.   We are having people over for Easter dinner tomorrow, and I plan to make these.  It will be interesting to see who likes the ones with & without raw honey.  I of course won't be able to test out the ones with the honey because I will be on day 20 of the detox!! Yay me (yeah I know that's totally cheesy but whatever I am excited for this accomplishment)!!  Is anyone else out there detoxing?  How is it going for you?  Okay enough babbling...here is the recipe.  Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

Ingredients:

1/2c Almond Butter
1/4c Sunflower Butter
1/4c Coconut Butter -melted (Could omit and use one the nut/seed butter above in place of this if you want although I think it adds great flavor and richness)
1T Raw Cacao or Unsweetened Cocoa Powder - I used 2T raw cacao powder - it made this batch super dark chocolate(y) tasting - if you like that kind of thing go for it.
2t Vanilla extract - sans sugar/sweetener
1-2t Cinnamon  - This adds  a touch of sweetness naturally, and keeps blood sugar/cravings stable.
1 Green tipped Banana - If you are not doing the 21 day sugar detox any banana would work it would just taste sweeter.

Makes 18-20 Bites  

Disclaimer: 1-2 a sitting is about all it takes to kick that craving in the butt, so these should last awhile.  No need to over indulge and regret that you ate so many of these good full fat treats! - Yes they are just treats!

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients together in food processor until smooth.  
• Make into 1-1.5inch balls and store in fridge for a minimum of 1hr before serving.  If you are in a rush you can freeze them for 10 minutes before serving them.  Don’t let them sit in the freezer longer or they will turn into hard cement balls and need extra time to thaw out.  
• Store them in the fridge, and they will stay fresh 5-7 days, or longer if you keep them stored in the freezer.  Just remember in the freezer they will get hard like little hockey pucks, so you will need to let them thaw out to enjoy.

Tomorrow I will be adding 1t of raw honey to sweeten these up a touch for a super decadent dessert for the guests!  The other thing I will be adding next time is a little chopped up raw/soaked walnuts, pecans or almonds to add a little crunch (stir these in don't blend them in with the food processor).  Have fun with it! Enjoy!