Sweet Potato Fries

There are certain foods that most folks eating a paleo diet indulge on – sweet potato fries being one of them. Having never eaten a sweet potato in my life, I didn’t understand how these could replace the craving for my standard, salty, starchy fries. There are a lot of foods I miss that I can find suitable replacements for, but most aren’t as good as whatever I’m trying to replicate. Do sweet potato fries taste just like regular fries? No, of course not. But they do taste super good and have nearly eliminated my desire for the fries I used to like so much.

Since discovering these tasty fries a few months ago I’ve been consuming them largely as an evening snack. However, I’ve also eaten them as a small lunch on weekend days when I’m not particularly hungry. While it’s not something I’m going to make a habit of, it’s a great way to get some extra vitamins. One sweet potato contains 13% of your daily potassium, 15% of your daily fiber, and a whopping 369% of your vitamin A. It’s also a good source of vitamin B6, manganese, copper and a few others.

The last thing to take note of is that there are two different kinds of sweet potatoes sold in your average grocery store. There is the orange-skinned variety, often called yams, or the pale-skinned variety. We prefer the pale-skinned.

Sweet Potato Fries

Source: Inspired by lots of blogs, perfected by us

Ingredients

One sweet potato

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel and cut sweet potato into strips. It’s quite dense, so make sure you have a good knife and possibly somebody strong. In a medium sized bowl, drizzle with olive oil and toss. Dash on some salt and pepper and toss again.

Place neatly onto a cookie sheet line with parchment paper. Bake for 18-22 minutes, turning halfway through. They’ll still be somewhat soft depending on how thick you cut your slices. They are still delicious though!

Short Ribs with Wine and Cream

A few months ago I was looking for a special recipe for Travis and I to make together. I don’t remember what the occasion was, but whatever it was, Pioneer Woman’s Short Ribs with Wine and Cream fit the bill. Ironically I dislike fatty cuts of meat and I’m still in denial about my newfound love of mushrooms, so what possessed me to choose this recipe I’m not quite sure. It was indeed a bit too fatty for my tastes, but Travis was in love with this meal. In fact, as soon as we brought home our 1/2 cow, he requested we remake the meal.

We were hungry, and didn't cook these as long as we should have.
If we'd gone the full three hours, more of the fat would have melted off. 

I’m still not a huge fan of the fat content, but I can’t deny it’s a tasty recipe. It’s rich, tender, and has excellent flavor. I even like the mushrooms. Honestly, I don’t think you can even improve on the recipe. I do highly recommend finding an assortment of mushrooms as the recipe suggests. Our local Safeway strangely only had cremini and portabellas in stock, and the lack of variety was definitely noticed.

It is important to note that we specified our short ribs be cut English style. It seems the more popular cut is Flanken style.

While this was a great meal for the two of us, I could definitely see serving this to guests in the future. It’s largely hands-off due to the three hour simmer time, but comes across as one something much more elaborate. It’s sure to impress at a dinner party.

Short Ribs with Wine and Cream

Slightly adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

12 whole Shortribs

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 1/2 tablespoons bacon grease

1 cup red wine

32 ounces, fluid beef broth

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

2 tablespoons grainy mustard

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons capers

16 ounces by weight of assorted Mushrooms: Cremini, Oyster, Baby Bellas, Etc.

Olive oil, for drizzling

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat bacon grease in a dutch oven over high heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper on three sides of the ribs. Quickly sear the meaty sides of the ribs, about 1 1/2 minutes per side. Remove the short ribs to a plate.

Pour wine and beef into the dutch oven. Add rosemary. Stir to combine, scraping the bottom of the pot to deglaze. Return short ribs to the pot, cover, and place in the oven for 3 hours.

After they have cooked, remove the pot from the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees. Arrange the mushrooms in a single layer on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then roast the mushrooms until they're golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the dutch oven a stove burner and carefully remove the short ribs from the pot again. Stir in mustard, cream, and capers, then raise the heat and allow it thickened a bit. Return the short ribs to the sauce, put on the lid, and turn off the heat.

Serve the short ribs on top of the mushrooms, then drizzle with extra cream sauce.

Bringing Home Bessie

Both my husband and I are in agreement that there is more to healthy eating than just
eating healthy fats and vegetables and omitting grains and sugar; eating local food is also
part of the equation as well.

In general we do a pretty good job of this on our own. We have our own garden during
the summer months and regularly have a freezer full of freshly caught steelhead, bass and
trout. We also hunt deer and elk, but after a disappointing and unsuccessful season we
were interested in purchasing half a cow (who we've since named Bessie).

On one of his recent hunting trips to eastern Oregon, my husband was listening to a radio
station when an advertisement came on for a ranch that fertilizes the grass the cows eat
with leftover “waste” water from local brewers. They cows are also fed beer mash of
wheat, hops and barley as they become older. We could have opted for a cow that was
100% grass fed, but as beer lovers we thought this would be the perfect starting point.
The entire process was incredibly easy. We simply filled out a form on the rancher’s
website and waited for a cow to be ready. The butcher called once it was ready and we
were able to specify exactly what cuts of meat we wanted along with their preferred
package size.

Our half cow weighed 450 pounds hanging weight, and at $3 per pound hanging weight our total came to $1,350. In exchange we received:

109 packages of ground beef (approximately 1 pound per packages)

7 packages of New York steaks

5 packages liver

4 packages Tenderloin steak

12 chuck roast, approximately 3 pounds each

3 Bottom Round Roasts

6 Top Round Roasts

1 Rump Roast

1 Heart

1 package of Stew meat

5 packages Top Sirloin Steak

5 packages Sirloin Tip Steak

6 packages of Ribeyes

4 packages of Short Ribs, cut English Style

1 Brisket

4 package of Soup Bones

2 packages of suet, approximately  five pounds each

All of the meat was (barely) able to fit into a 15 cubic foot freezer we bought especially for the occasion. So far we've tried the ground beef, New York steaks, Ribeyes, Chuck Roast and Sirloin Tip. It's not the most tender steak I've ever had, but that was to be expected. I'd trade that extra bit of tenderness for a local, grass-fed cow any day. 

Almond Thins

One of the hardest parts of eating a low carb, paleo diet is the lack of convenience foods available. I’m often running behind in the morning so I need to be able to grab something for lunch quickly, and pre-packaged foods used to be a common solution. I could just grab a box of crackers or a bag of chips, throw some food in a zip lock and be on my way.

My new eating habits definitely require a bit more planning and preparation. I can still have my grab-and-go lunch foods, I just need to prepare them in advance. One of my favorite options are the Almond Thins from Linda’s Low Carb. They are very easy to make and are way more nutritious than the boxed versions from the store. I always make a double batch so there is plenty to go around for an evening snack with cheese or to throw into my lunch in a hurry.

A terrible picture, but an example of how thin your dough should be.

Almond Thins

From Linda’s Low Carb

3/4 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons granular Splenda (You can use liquid, but it doesn’t blend as well. I’ve found a few extra sweet crackers as a result)
1 egg white
3/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix everything together well in a small bowl

Rip out two sheets of parchment paper. Lay one piece down on the counter, and coat the second piece with oil. Almond flour dough is incredibly sticky, and without the oil you won’t be able to peel off the parchment paper without taking your crackers with it. Place the dough in the middle of the unoiled parchment paper and place the oiled piece on top. Using a rolling pin, spread and level out the dough to about 1/8” thickness. Remove the top piece of parchment paper and using a greased pizza cutter, cut squares into the dough.

Place the parchment and dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-20 minutes until the crackers are golden brown. They all finish at different times, so you’ll want to keep a close eye on them after 10 minutes. I often have to take a few crackers off using a spatula and continue baking the rest several times throughout the process.  Break them apart on the score lines and let cool. They will keep for over a week in an airtight container.

Brasato al Barolo

After a whirlwind Christmas weekend, my husband and I were looking forward to a quiet New Year’s Eve at home. Making a special meal together sounded like the perfect way to celebrate. We took a trip down to the local butcher and found a nice looking bone-in chuck roast. With the help of the internet, it didn’t take long to figure out what to do with it.

The recipe I found was almost a year old but had just shown up in my Google Reader as one of The Beantown Baker’s top recipes of 2011, and it’s clear why it made the list. One sentence of the description stood out: “Cooking some beef in red wine for four hours couldn't possibly have bad results.” She was right.

In place of the Barolo wine called for in the recipe, I chose a large bottle of Yellowtail Cabernet, with the added bonus that there was extra for drinking while the roast cooked. We were also missing a few ingredients and had to improvise a bit.

After spending a few hours cooking in the wine, the roast had taken on an impressive purple color but the meat was somewhat bland by itself. The deep, rich flavor of the finished dish all comes from the sauce. It’s quite sweet but not overpowering. Despite the name of this blog, we served it with a side of mashed potatoes, an occasional treat for us in an otherwise mostly Paleo diet.

Brasato al Barolo (Beef Braised in Wine)

adapted from The Beantown Baker, originally from Emeril

Serves 4-6 

1 (3-pound) beef chuck roast
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 slices bacon, diced
1 yellow onion, chopped into fingernail size pieces
15 mini carrots, halved
4 celery stalks, chopped same as onion
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 1/2 cups (1 1/2 bottles) Cabernet Sauvignon, or other dry red wine
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons rice flour

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a large Dutch oven (oven safe), cook the bacon until done. Remove with a slotted spoon leaving the grease in the pot. Sprinkle the roast with salt and pepper, and place it in the pot and cook, turning every couple minutes to brown on all sides. Remove roast from the pot. Put the onions, carrots, celery and a pinch of salt into the pot, adding more bacon grease or other cooking fat if needed. Cook the vegetables until softened a bit and starting to brown, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Return the bacon and beef to the pot and add the wine, stock, rosemary, bay leaves and cinnamon. Bring the liquid to a simmer over medium-high heat, then cover and transfer the pot to the oven.

Cook in the oven, turning the roast once midway through, until fully tender and meat is starting to fall apart, this took about 3 hours for ours. Remove the meat from the pot and tent with foil to keep warm.

Place the pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Cook about 10 minutes. Ladle some of the hot sauce into a small bowl. Whisk in the rice flour then stir the slurry back into the pot. Cook another 10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Adjust the seasoning to taste and turn the heat off.

Place meat onto a platter and thinly slice or shred. Serve the beef ladled with the sauce.