Curry Coconut Creamed Kale (Dairy Free)

Paleo creamed kale
This is like the popular creamed spinach recipes (except it uses kale rather than spinach and coconut cream rather than heavy cream)! It’s a great side dish – I served it with some pan-fried tilapia.
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Paleo Mu Shu Pork

Paleo Mu shu Pork
Mu shu pork (also known as moo shu, moo shi, or mu xu) is a traditional northern Chinese dish typically served with little pancakes (especially in American-Chinese restaurants).

The traditional dish typically has wood ear mushrooms, eggs, some form of meat, bamboo shoots and day lily buds. The wood ear mushrooms and the day lily buds were a bit too hard for me to go and find (i.e., they weren’t in my local grocery store), and so I used shiitake mushrooms and napa cabbage as substitutes. Instead of the pancakes, I used lettuce leaves, although honestly, the dish tastes pretty damn good just by itself!

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Why Blanch Vegetables?

Why Blanch Vegetables?
Has it ever seemed silly to you to blanch (i.e., drop into boiling water for a very short time) vegetables before cooking them or freezing them? Well, there’s actually a purpose to doing this as I’ll explain!

This article will detail:

  • What is blanching?
  • Why would you want to blanch vegetables?
  • How do you blanch vegetables?
  • How long should you blanch vegetables for?
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    Paleo Grilled Chicken Drumsticks with Garlic Marinade
    This is a simple grilled meal – perfect now that the weather is warmer and the grill can be fired up again! 
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    Paleo Fish Tacos – Happy Cinco de Mayo

    Paleo Fish Tacos
    Cinco de Mayo was not something I had ever celebrated growing up…in fact, Mexican food was not something I had even come into contact with until I moved to California after college in England! Burritos and tacos were suddenly exciting oddities, and don’t get me started on mole sauce!

    I grew to love Mexican food, especially fish tacos (I used to get them from Rubio’s all the time when I lived at the Paseo Colorado in Pasadena, CA). Sadly, I haven’t had fish tacos for a very long time! So, it only seemed fitting that I would make my own Paleo version of fish tacos this Cinco de Mayo.
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    How to Poach an Egg

    Paleo Poached Eggs
    I seem to learn all my egg cooking skills from Gordon Ramsey’s TV shows! Although Gordon can make cooking any dish look easy, this one really is remarkably easy, although it requires a tad more work than just dumping an egg into boiling water.

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    Paleo Chinese Chili Oil/Sauce

    Paleo Chinese Chili Sauce
    I have to admit that I hate shopping in Chinese supermarkets for prepackaged foods, because most things simply don’t have ingredient lists in English, and I like to know what I’m eating!

    So, to solve this problem, at least for chili sauce, I decided to make my own. This is actually also the same method for making Chinese chili oil at home (you simply skip the food processing step and then remove all the chilis and peppercorns at the end).

    Why Chinese Chili Sauce? When you mix this chili sauce with some coconut aminos, you get a fantastic dipping sauce for a variety of meats and vegetables! This sauce is also great for spicing up any stir-fry any time.

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    Paleo Kale and Chives Egg Muffins

    Paleo Kale and Chives Egg Muffins
    Kale for breakfast!

    I was intrigued by the red kale at Whole Foods last night, so this recipe is made with red kale, but you can totally substitute for another variety of kale (I had no idea there were so many until I checked out wikipedia).

    Here’s the red kale:
    Paleo Kale and Chives Egg Muffins

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    Paleo Chicken Fingers or Tenders

    Paleo Coconut Chicken Tenders
    I’ve been reading about Dr. Robert C. Baker, the inventor of the chicken nugget and a professor at Cornell University. Even though I had never considered the question of who invented chicken nuggets, my first answer would probably have been McDonald’s, just because it’s hard to think of a professor “inventing” something so commonplace. But I guess, it did have to be a scientist who would come up with reconstituted chicken meat!

    Ok, enough about chicken slurry – I just thought those were “interesting” tidbits. This recipe uses whole chicken breasts (although you can also use chicken tenders, which is the meat close to the breast but that has a little white tendon attached to it). I’ve always found it easier to buy chicken breasts (which I keep frozen in my freezer for quick meals) and then to slice the the breasts into strips. And the “breading” for this recipe is really simple – just coconut flour with some spices.

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    Coconut Chicken Curry

    Paleo Coconut Chicken Curry
    This curry was so amazing I could have kept eating it until my stomach burst – luckily for me this time, I didn’t make enough for that to happen, but I definitely finished off every last drop!

    The inspiration for this recipe came from Tyler Florence’s Spicy Chicken Coconut Curry (but I changed up the ingredients and cooking method a bit and made it not spicy so that I could drink every last drop comfortably!).

    And what’s surprising about this curry recipe is that it’s really easy to make (unlike real Indian curries, which can take practically a day)!

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    Coconut Butter Stuffed Dates

    Paleo Dates stuffed with Coconut Butter
    I listed this simple recipe in my 12 Ridiculously Addictive Coconut Butter Recipes post, but I now realize that it deserves its own post! And if you’re wondering why….it’s because it’s too delicious.

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    stock or broth
    Ok, this question has been nagging at me for ages, and I’ve read tidbits about it before, but I finally decided to find out once and for all. In case you’ve been wondering the same thing…here’s the answer:
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    Coconut Fish Pie Recipe

    Coconut Paleo Fish Pie Recipe
    Just wanted to let everyone know about this coconut fish pie recipe that I guest posted at PerfectHealthDiet.com. You can find the recipe here: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2013/04/coconut-fish-pie/

    It’s absolutely delicious – I love pies, and this definitely brought back many happy childhood pie eating memories for me! So here are a few more photos to make you hungry.
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    Fried Sweet Plantains

    Paleo Fried Sweet Plantains
    Nom!! It’s hard to not like sweet plantains. If you’re not familiar with plantains, they’re like a heartier version of bananas – they’re usually a bit bigger and the skin is a bit tougher to peel and they are slightly less sweet. They’re also delicious as you can bring out their sweetness by cooking them and caramelizing the sugar in them. They also don’t fall apart unlike bananas when cooked.

    I made these simple pan fried sweet plantain strips to go with some slow cooker pork. They went perfect together.

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    Why Aren’t Potatoes Paleo?

    Paleo Potatoes

    Why are Potatoes Not Paleo?   But yet, Sweet Potatoes are?

    Think it’s because Potatoes aren’t as nutritious as Sweet Potatoes?  Well, then you’re in for a shock!

    Think it’s because Potatoes are more toxic than Sweet Potatoes?  Well, again you’re in for a shock!

    So what’s the real reason for this, and is it even a good reason?  Well, I think I’ve posed a lot of questions, and this article is going to provide some answers.

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    Endives and Pear Sautee

    Paleo Endives
    I’ve often had endives at high-end restaurants as part of an appetizer or salad. It has a nice crunch and a slight bitterness that makes it a refreshing start to a meal. Of course, I couldn’t be content with just making a salad…so I decided to go for a stir-fry with fresh pears and garlic.

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    Dehydrated Kale Chips Recipe

    Dehydrated Kale Chips Recipe
    I really like snacking, and I’ve started to buy kale chips at Whole Foods to satisfy my snacking needs! Unfortunately, it’s a really expensive habit. So, I’ve started to make my own kale chips.

    It’s fun experimenting with different flavors, and it’s dirt cheap to make a huge amount! I’ve also made some zucchini chips and some fruit slices too.

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    Paleo Cookbook

    paleo cookbook

    Ok, I have some news…I am writing a cookbook!  It’s a slow process, but hopefully it’ll be out soon.  So, for this post, I thought I would list some of the other great Paleo cookbooks out there in case you missed them!

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    PaleoFX 2013 Roundup

    PaleoFX Austin Brisket
    This post could actually be titled “BEST BRISKET IN AUSTIN”…but I thought I would save that for next year when I’ll hopefully get to drive down to Lockhart again (the brisket center of the world)!

    This weekend (Thursday through Saturday) was PaleoFX in Austin, TX – a gathering of cool Paleo peeps from all walks of life and some from abroad too (I met lots of Canadians and Brits). It was also a weekend filled with lots of fun, eating, drinking, and occasional Paleo-cheats (like 2 Mac Attacks from Paleo Treats, a few scoops of Lick coconut ice-cream, and a delicious frozen banana from Bananarchy - more on these later!).

    In between the bouts of eating, there were informative talks on the cutting-edge science behind Paleo, fitness training sessions by some of the best trainers around, cooking demos from fabulous Paleo bloggers and chefs, and of course lots of hugs and handshakes from old and new friends.

    So who did I get to listen to, who did I get to meet, and most importantly, WHAT DID I GET TO EAT?
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    Are Raisins Paleo?

    raisins
    I was recently asked this question on Facebook, and I thought it would be good to write a short post on it so that everyone can benefit from the knowledge.

    Raisins are grapes that are often sun-dried or dehydrated. They are naturally high in sugars (33.8% fructose and 31.2% glucose according to Dr. Cordain’s data), and so they usually don’t have extra sugar added to them (like some other dried fruits).

    So, are they Paleo?
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