Kohlrabi Who?

04/30/2010 7 Comments

Today let’s introduce a vegetable not very widely used here in the U.S. One of my absolute favorite vegetables: The Kohlrabi. This wonderful vegetable can be prepared in so many different delicious ways. Soups, Sautee, Raw, Steamed, BBQ, or just plain part of a stir-fry. Either way it is so delicious. Please pick some up and give it a try, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
The kohlrabi, Brassica olearcea, is a very popular vegetable and is originally from northern Europe. Most believe it to be a cross between wild cabbage and white beets. People have enjoyed this wonderful vegetable since the 16th Century in Central and Eastern Europe where it was most popular. Kohlrabi is not a root vegetable, it actually grows slightly above ground; it’s pretty.
The taste and texture of kohlrabi are similar to those of a broccoli stem or cabbage heart, but milder and sweeter, with a higher ratio of flesh to skin. The young stem in particular can be as crisp and juicy much like an apple, although much less sweet. We used to pull it out of the veggie patch, clean it off and eat it as an afternoon snack while playing in the yard. I wish that kids today could experience how wonderful it is to grow your own veggies. Except for the Gigante cultivar, spring-grown kohlrabi much over 5 cm in size tend to be woody, as do fall-grown kohlrabi much over perhaps 10 cm in size; the Gigante cultivar can achieve great size while remaining of good eating quality. The plant matures in 55-60 days after sowing. Approximate weight is 150 g and has good standing ability for up to 30 days after maturity. It is tolerant to cracking.
The flesh is bright green in all varieties. There is almost no taste differences between the bright greenish-white kohlrabi and the reddish-purple colored ones, with the slight exception of the purple being a bit more sweet in taste. The slightly sweet, crisp taste of meat resembles that of radish, while stems and leaves taste a bit more like cabbage.
So what’s in a kohlrabi per 1/2 cup raw?
  1. It is low in calories: 19 per
  2. It is high in dietary fiber: 2.5 grams
  3. Potassium content: 245 grams
  4. Vitamins: 25 I.U. vitamin A, 43.4 mg. vitamin C, 11.3 mcg folic acid, and 16.8 mg. calcium
General: A good source of Thiamin, Folate, Magnesium, vitamin B6, Copper & Manganese

  • Kohlrabi Austrian Style
  • Ingredients
  • 4 Kohlrabi peeled (we used Gigante in this recipe @ 10cm in diameter)
  • 1 tablespoon Coconut oil
  • 1 large Garlic clove chopped
  • 1 teaspoon Arrowroot Powder
  • 1 pinch Sea salt to taste
  • 1 pinch Black pepper to taste
  • Preparation
  • You can use red or green kohlrabis, peel and julienne them. (cut large stalks off & discard) Chop small stalks for cooking as well. In a high-rimmed sauce or braising pan, add julienned kohlrabi and cover barely with water, cook on medium-high until tender. In a separate small skillet heat coconut oil with garlic (finely chopped) and cook until golden, add to kohlrabi. In a cup of water add Arrowroot powder mix, and quickly add to cooked Kolrabi. Sea salt and pepper to taste. You may wish to garnish with fresh dill, cilantro or Italian parsley.
  • Enjoy this fabulous side dish with any of your favorite meats or poultry!

Filed under Entree, Food Wisdom, Health & Fitness, Paleo, Primal, Side Dish Tagged with , , , ,

Primal Dessert: Jo’s Almond Blueberry Butter Squares

04/29/2010 1 Comment

We love butter, ghee, tallow, lard, and all good and natural saturated animal fats! If you follow our recipes you know that we also eat cookies, brownies, and muffins.  These are always gluten-free, relatively low in carb content (we never add sugar), and usually high in good fats.  They are always Primal but not always Paleo, click here for a post that describes the difference between these two approaches!

Desserts are not the staples of our diet and we encourage you to exercise restraint with your consumption, especially if you are trying to lose weight.  It’s too easy to over indulge, especially when you tell yourself its “OK” because they are made with healthy ingredients.  Still, it’s nice to be able to have them once in a while, and our dinner guests always love them.  Today’s featured Primal dessert is for butter lovers – actually we should have called it Butter Square Delights :-) .  The filling as you can see is primarily pastured butter; whipped creamy with a beautiful egg yolk some raw honey and chopped up nuts and figs. Oh boy…naughty.

Below is the macro-nutrient profile per 1 square (note this recipe makes 32 squares):

Although it’s a bit higher in carbs (21%), and a bit lower in protein than we like (8%), it’s a super tasty “treat” that you can enjoy once in a while. We usually try to stay under 50 grams of carbs a day, but on those days that we inch closer to 100 grams we indulge in a tasty morsel, such as this:

  • Calories  118
  • Total Fat  9.8g :-)
  • Total Carb  7g
  • Total Protein  2.4g
Ingredients

150 grams Blanched Almond Flour
4 Eggs
1 Egg yolk
4 tablespoons Raw Unfiltered Honey
2 teaspoons Gluten-free Baking Powder (or Baking Soda)
2 tablespoons Organic Vanilla Extract
150 grams Organic Unsalted Pastured Butter
2 tablespoons Dried Pomegranate/Cranberry Mix
6 Turkish Figs minced
1/4 cup Walnuts chopped
1 cup Coconut Flakes (unsweetened)
4 tablespoons Homemade Blueberry Jam (low sweet)
1/2 pinch Sea salt
8 tablespoons Brewed Black Coffee (optional)

Instructions
You will need a 13 x 9 x 2 non-stick baking pan, and pre-heat oven to 400 °F.

In a mixing bowl, combine 4 eggs, 1/2 pinch of sea salt, 3 tbsp honey, vanilla, 3 tbsp brewed black coffee (optional), and blend with a mixer until very creamy and frothy. Then gently blend in almond flour and baking soda/powder. Pour into baking pan and bake for 10 minutes, remove and carefully cut in half horizontally.

Filling:
Whip butter, 1 egg yolk, 1 tbsp of honey, 1 tbsp vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. Then add 5 tbsp coffee (optional), figs, dried pomegranate/cranberry mix, and walnuts. Mix well, and add coconut flakes until mixture is consistent.

Distribute 4 tbsp of low sweetened homemade blueberry jam on one half of the baked mass. Cover with filling using a Dough Card. Then carefully lift second half on top of the other. Carefully cut into 32 squares, and refrigerate for 30 minutes and serve.

Filed under Desserts, Primal

Ginger Smoked Pulled Pork

04/28/2010 Leave a comment

What can I say, we love pork. Not going to get into a bunch of food wisdom or any other great write-up today, enjoy a just a recipe. We had this dish a few days ago as lettuce wraps and they were amazing! You could cook your own pork and pull it, but if you want to save time then buy yours from a local farmer, who feeds his piggies properly, smokes it just perfectly and pulls it for you. We buy ours locally from Pork on a Fork. Absolutely fantastic quality pork.

My mouth is watering just thinking of how yummy this dish was :-) Takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and cook.

Ginger Smoked Pulled Pork

Ingredients

1 pound Smoked Pulled Pork
1 1/2 tablespoons Ghee
4 large Shallots sliced
3 medium Cloves of Garlic chopped
2 small Serrano chiles chopped & seeds in
1 small Ginger root minced
3 medium Bell peppers sliced
1 cup Coconut Milk
1 pinch Sea salt to taste
2 small Vine ripe tomatoes chopped

Instructions
Best if prepared in a wok. Combine, ghee, shallots, garlic, and serano chiles, saute for 3 minutes then add tomatoes, bell peppers (best you use 2 green, 1 red bell pepper). Cook until all veggies are tender but not too soft, add in the smoked pulled pork and stir together. Sea salt to taste and add minced ginger and coconut milk, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve with salad, or sweet potatoes or on a shallow bed of quinoa. We also like it as lettuce wraps.

Filed under Entree, Primal Tagged with , , , , ,

Live-r for life!

04/26/2010 8 Comments

Today we wanted to introduce something a little different, an organ meat, or offal that some of you may have never eaten, or perhaps one that you’ve not eaten since your childhood.  We grew up eating calf’s liver, and although it might be an acquired taste for some, we find it to be quite delectable and sweet.  We prepare our calf’s liver in a very simple fashion, because we feel that the more flavors are added the more the actual taste and sweetness is lost.

What to look for when choosing your calf liver:
Make sure that it is nice and shiny, slightly pink, organic, and fresh.  Always buy it from a quality store or butcher.  Smell is a good indicator of a livers freshness.  It is very perishable so once you buy it, it should be consumed within 48 hours.  It can be frozen, but we don’t recommend it.

So why should you eat some calf’s liver?
It is available year round, delicious, easy to make, and most importantly it contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food!

From “The Liver Files” on the Weston A Price Website.
Some of the benefits provided by liver:
  • An excellent source of high quality protein — 25 grams, per 4oz serving
  • Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A  — Over 600% of RDA, per serving
  • All of the B vitamins in abundance, particularly B12 — 690% of B12 RDA
  • One of the best sources of folic acid — 215% RDA
  • A highly usable form of iron — 16.5% RDA
  • Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
  • An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
  • CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
  • A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

Here is the way we prepare it, this makes 4, 4oz. servings or just enough for two hungry Primals. :)

Calf’s Liver Simplified

  • 1 lb of Calf’s liver
  • 1 pinch of sea salt, to taste
  • 1 medium onion or 4 large shallots, sliced
  • 1 very large clove of garlic, sliced
  • 1 pinch of fresh ground black pepper, to taste
  • 3 tbsp butter, or tallow, or ghee, you decide

We prefer to use a cast iron skillet because it cooks foods more evenly and the pan will not cool off as quickly as others once the meat is introduced.

Heat oil in cast iron skillet, add garlic, onions, salt, and pepper, brown until golden and glossy. Slice calf’s liver into 1/2 inch strips and toss into pan – cover with onions and garlic. Sautee for about 5 minutes and serve.

We had ours this weekend with some sweet potatoes (after a crazy workout) :-) , but it is very delicious if served with dark green veggies such as spinach or kale, or even some spaghetti squash. Yummm! It’s a staple in our house and we recommend it to anyone who is a meat eater and loves to live healthy.

Go out and get some today!

Filed under Entree, Food Wisdom, Health & Fitness, Paleo, Primal Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Seafood Friday Night Dinner: Shrimp Diablo

04/23/2010 3 Comments

We all love our meats, but we do need to mix it up once in a while. With that said, I want to share our Shrimp Diablo dish with you. It is hot and spicy just like its name implies. But the sweetness of the shrimp and cream evens the taste out to angelic delights. I made this for my husband and I a few days ago, because we were tight on time having gotten back from the gym late. 2 pounds of shrimp you ask? Yes we do eat a lot, but we had left overs for lunch. :-) So in reality this dish would be perfect for 3 if you’re making dinner and if you’re not serving much on the side. We loved it so much that we ended up lapping up the sauce as if it were soup. Oh this dish has my number and if you like hot and spicy food, I am sure you’ll love it too.

Shrimp Diablo

Note: If you prefer to use coconut milk, feel free to do so, but it will alter the taste just a bit.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 lbs Shrimp shelled and butterflied
3 medium Heirloom Tomatoes chopped
2 large Shallots sliced
2 large Cloves of Garlic chopped
4 medium Serrano chiles chopped & seeds in
1 pinch Sea salt to taste
3 tablespoons Raw Cream
1 tablespoon Ghee

Instructions
In a high-rimmed sauce pan, heat ghee with shallots, garlic and serano peppers. Sautee until glossy, then add heirloom tomatoes and reduce heat to medium-high. Stir until ingredients begin to be a little pasty. Add sea salt and cream and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes on low-medium, add shrimp, stir in and cover for 5 minutes.

Serve on a bed of heirloom lettuce, or on a shallow bed of red quinoa. It is amazing on spaghetti squash too, or just plain by itself.

This is a spicy dish – thus Diablo, so get ready for some heat!

Filed under Entree, Health & Fitness, Hors D'Oeuvre, Primal Tagged with , , , , , ,

Celebrating Earth Day

04/22/2010 Leave a comment

U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day as an environmental teach-in, today 40 years ago.  His movement began at a grassroots level, mobilizing from a huge student body ranging from High Schools to Universities. Approximately 20 million Americans participated. The movement began because people recognized the need for environmental protection and the need for change due to increasing levels of pollution and waste. Much time has passed and much has transpired in these past 40 years. Our environment is still deteriorating, we still experience oil spills, our ponds are still being poised by toxic waste, every day we lose a part of our wilderness and wildlife, we continue to pile up huge amounts of garbage that ends up in landfills, and on it goes. Yes, some aspects have gotten better, for the most part humans are replanting trees, and are beginning to look for eco-friendly fuel alternatives, but we have a long way to go.

Today we want to not celebrate the political movers and shakers or the lobbyists, but rather all the grassroots people who have changed the way they look at experiencing life and food. Let’s thank and celebrate our Primal and Paleolithic communities, as well as our local farmers.

By making small adjustments such as buying locally grown vegetables that aren’t sprayed with pesticides and waxes that destroy our soil, water and our bodies and by using our own bags, we can already make a big difference. Locally grown and grass-fed beef, pork, chickens, eggs, etc. do not emit as much methane gas because they are not corn-fed, and are not packaged in thick layers of plastic, which only contribute to more landfill. These are merely a couple of examples of all the things that we can do to facilitate a healthier earth in our households.

It is truly amazing how much we, personally, have cut down in recyclables and household trash since we have adapted to a Primal and Paleo way of life – about 80% overall of what we used to generate in garbage. Amazing! Granted not everyone can have a compost pile, understood, but with every small informed and conscientious adjustment to how we view life and food, we can make a big impact on Earth Day, every day.

We believe that the 2010 grassroots movement will be greatly impacted by our Primal and Paleo communities who have already made huge contributions and continue to do so every day. So this celebration and thanks goes out to all of you.

Happy Earth Day! NK

Filed under Food Wisdom, Health & Fitness, Paleo, Primal

Horseradish Guacamole

04/21/2010 1 Comment

Anyone who’s ever eaten horseradish knows that it helps with sinus issues. It really clears your nose cavity and sinus areas, and can actually give you this burning sensation if the root is too spicy or if you eat too much at once. Nonetheless, it clears us up. Lately we’ve had a tough time with this Spring’s allergy season, so we’ve been eating fresh horseradish, yes fresh, to help clear up our sinus pressures along with our beloved Netty Pot. You can find it at most grocery stores or at the Farmers Market.
So if you suffer like we do and are also prone to developing sinus infections, try a small piece of horseradish the minute you feel stuffy or feel a cold coming on to prevent mucus from accumulating in your sinus cavities. Moms and herbalists have recommended horseradish for common colds, influenza, and lung congestion since I can remember. My mom used to grate fresh horseradish from our garden and put it on our chests to help with the breathing. It really does work and is an amazing natural alternative to nasal decongestants.
It is also excellent for helping you purge that excess water that you might build up due to high sodium intake. This little root is super high in our favorite vitamin C, packing an average of 79.31mg  per 100g of raw horseradish, which is in the family of some of the highest concentrations. It also boasts very high amounts of potassium, sulfur and is considered a good source for calcium.

Too spicy for you? But you still want the benefits of eating it? Try our Horseradish Guacamole as a dip or a condiment to your steak, pork, lamb…etc. It is great with eggs and bacon too! :-)

Horseradish Guacamole


Ingredients

2 medium Avocado mashed
4 tablespoons Fresh grated Horseradish (peel before grating)
1 pinch Sea salt to taste
2 tablespoons Heavy cream (or greek yogurt; if you can’t do dairy at all, just leave it out)
1 medium Lime
1 pinch Cayenne to taste

Instructions
Combine all ingredients, mash-up well, chill for 10 minutes and serve!

Filed under Condiment, Food Wisdom, Health & Fitness, Hors D'Oeuvre, Primal Tagged with , , , ,

Rack of Lamb

04/20/2010 1 Comment

Are you tired of beef or pork? Or are you trying to impress your love or boss with an awesome meal?

Whatever your motivation, change it up with some lamb, one of my all time favorites. In the old country growing up, we used to get lamb on a spit – OMG!!! So good. But since we don’t have one in the backyard, a nice juicy rack will have to do instead. :-) Every time we make this dish, people love it. Because of the smear, the meat gets this very subtle sweet and tangy taste, muted by the fresh rosemary. We  love sautéed mushrooms with this and a nice green veggie or spinach salad. We buy local whenever possible, but always organic grass-fed.

Can’t wait to hear from you to see what you think of it.

Don’t you just want to bite into that? I do and it’s not even 10 am. :-) Yumm

Ingredients

2 Rack of Lamb
2 tablespoons Organic Gluten-free Dijon Mustard
2 pinch Sea salt to taste
2 pinch Fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 stalks Fresh Rosemary de-stemmed
1 1/2 tablespoons Coconut oil melted (make sure that the oil is not too hot, just melt it room temp otherwise it will separate from the mustard)

Instructions
You will need your trusty cast iron pan, and your oven pre-heated to 375 °F.

Mix the mustard, salt, pepper, rosemary and 1 tbsp oil well in a bowl and set aside.

If the rack is really big and has plenty of meat on each piece then we separate the rack into singles. If it is a bit smaller, it’s better to cut the rack into double or even triple pieces. This way you will still be able to get them perfectly cooked to medium-rare.

Heat the cast iron pan to a high heat melting only 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Place the rack pieces on their sides with the bone sticking sideways out of the pan.

Now brush the smear onto each lamb chop. Once the first side is nice and browned, flip each chop and repeat the smear. Each side should cook for about 3 – 5 minutes, depending on the thickness and on how many you’ve got piled into the pan.

Flip them one more time before shoving the whole pan into your oven. Bake for about 10 – 12 minutes for perfect medium-rare rack of lamb chops.

These are so juicy and so good. Enjoy every bite!

Filed under Entree, Hors D'Oeuvre, Paleo, Primal Tagged with , ,

Almond Bread Breakfast Muffin with Pine Nuts

04/19/2010 1 Comment

We love our eggs and bacon in the morning, but on some days (Wednesdays and Sundays for us) when you’re looking for more carbs in your day, it’s nice to dunk that wonderful egg yolk up with a tasty muffin.

Almond Bread Breakfast Muffin with Pine Nuts

Ingredients

6 Eggs
1 tablespoon Raw unfiltered honey
120 grams Almond Meal
1 pinch Sea salt
1/4 cup Pine nuts
1 pinch Nutmeg

Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 350 °F.

Separate egg yolks and whites. Beat whites until very stiff and set aside. In another bowl beat eggs until creamy and fluffy, then add honey, salt, almond meal, nutmeg and blend well. Add pine nuts and fold egg whites into bread mixture until perfectly smooth and blended. Fill into muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes.

This is perfect for breakfast or instead of the “dinner rolls”; we also love it as a snack with tea.

Nutritional Data  from Daily Burn

Filed under Breakfast, Desserts, Paleo, Primal, Side Dish Tagged with , , ,

Not just another salad dressing! Jo’s Almond Butter Salad Dressing

04/16/2010 11 Comments

If you pick up any salad dressing bottle in the store and read the ingredients, you’ll probably never want to pour that stuff over your salads again. Even the organic “good for you” kinds will have possible food colorings, canola and soy oils or even more harmful hydrogenated oils, xanthan gum, and juice concentrates.   That makes us wonder why more people don’t mix their own varieties of salad dressing instead of reaching for the bottle on the grocery shelf.  The answer is easy I guess, it’s all about convenience.  But what most people don’t realize is that we could eat so much tastier and healthier, and cut down tremendously in the trash that we generate, if we were to start with something as simple as salad dressing.  A typical bottle of salad dressing is 8 fl oz. How long does that last in a household of 2? I would guess less than a week.

These are the ingredients for an 8 oz bottle of Kraft’s (Tuscan House Italian) newest PureKRAFT line up. This is supposed to be one of their healthiest dressings. Hmmm… a whole paragraph of ingredients? Really? But why?

VEGETABLE OILS, (SOYBEAN OIL, CANOLA OIL AND EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL), WATER, VINEGAR, BALSAMIC VINEGAR(WATER, WINE VINEGAR, GRAPE JUICE), SUGAR, PARMESAN AND ROMANO MADE FROM COW’S MILK CHEESES (PART SKIM MILK, CHEESE CULTURE, SALT, ENZYMES) CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SALT, DRIED GARLIC, GARLIC, DRIED ONIONS, EGG YOLKS, SPICE, LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE, DRIED RED BELL PEPPERS, DRIED CARROTS, XANTHAN GUM, VITAMIN E, NATURAL FLAVOR
Size: 8 FL OZ

(Oh and by the way, made on equipment shared with wheat, milk, eggs, tree nuts, soy & fish, peanuts, and my grandmother’s kitchen sink! :-) ) What??  If you whip up some dressing at home, you know exactly where all ingredients came from, what equipment you’ve used, you can save a ton of money, help the environment and live healthier. It takes less than 5 minutes to make dressing that you can use all week.

Our dressings usually consist of finishing oils that you can find on our Eat for Life page, such as pumpkin seed oil, olive oil, walnut oil, etc., a pinch of sea salt, perhaps some lemon, maybe fresh pepper, and sometimes vinegar. But let’s face it the same old usual suspects of oil and vinegar tend to get boring. So for this reason I came up with a tangy creamy dressing that will compliment citrus, goat cheese, shrimp, chicken and really anything else that you’d like to experiment with.

In the picture below we drizzled it on a bed of locally grown heirloom greens with goat cheese and kumquats, finished with just a tiny drizzle of pumpkin seed oil. If you’re having this dish for lunch or dinner just by itself, make sure to add chicken or shrimp, for example, so to make sure that you get enough protein with your meal. We made this a few days ago as a side dish for skirt steak. It was such a great flavor combination. Please try some and let us know what you think.

Jo’s Almond Butter Salad Dressing

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons Almond Butter Creamy w/Sea Salt
1 tablespoon Olive oil
1 tablespoon Coconut Water Vinegar (Apple Cider Vinegar works too)
3 tablespoons Water
2 pinch Sea Salt to taste
1 teaspoon Honey
1 pinch Black Pepper

Instructions
Gently mix all ingredients in small bowl with a spoon until all items are blended and no lumps are left.

We like to just drizzle our salads with dressing so this should be enough for 4 people. It yields about 1/2 cup of dressing.

We love this dressing on heirloom greens or mache salad with goat cheese and kumquats. Amazing!

Filed under Entree, Food Wisdom, Health & Fitness, Paleo, Primal, Salads Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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