The Paleo Mama

Homegrown and Handmade

Jackie Ritz

25 of My Favorite Main Dish Paleo Meals

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I thought I would put together a list of the recipes that my family loves! These are tried-and-true! We eat these pretty much on a rotation or using whatever meat we have stocked in the freezer!

1) Balsamic Mustard Chicken – This tops my list because this chicken is unbelievable. We serve it over spinach and drizzle the juice over roasted veggies. You have to try this!!!

2) Chicken Nuggets – my kids love this…ok, so do us adults 🙂

3) Thyme Roast Chicken – I am always looking for whole chicken recipes because I buy whole chicken in bulk when it goes on sale. This chicken is so delicious!

4) Lime Roast Chicken – another whole chicken recipe that my family loves. The juices are so good you can drink them!

5) Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps – this is a recipe that I made Paleo. We love it!

Asian Lettuce Wraps

6) Damn Fine Chicken – OMG, this chicken is so good. We make it with virgin red palm oil.

7) Spicy Caramelized Peach & Leek Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken – whew, yes it’s a long title but it is out of this world! The sauce is delicious!

8) Meat & Spinach Muffins – We love these! They are a great protein to have on hand when you are in a hurry.

Meat & Spinach Muffin on the right

9) Ground Beef Stroganoff – tired of burgers? Give Beef Stroganoff  a try!

10 ) Stuffed Poblano Peppers – these are sooooooo delicious! Not spicy, and our kids eat it!

11) Firecracker Tuna Salad – another amazing recipe from The Clothes Make the Girl!

12) Almond Bread – I know this isn’t a main dish…but this is our go-to bread recipe. It’s the consistancy of cornbread and a great side to any soup or stew! I just had to share it because it’s that time of the year where there’s nothing better than a warm piece of bread and a hot bowl of soup!

13) Creamy Chicken Tomato Crockpot Soup – this is so easy and simple and yet so tasty! I always have lots of bone stock that I make from our whole chicken bones. This soup tops my list!

14) Chicken Noodless Soup – just in time for the chilly months! This soup will warm you to the bones!

15) Paleo Butternut Squash Lasagna – this is soooooooooooooo freakin good! I make it quite often. You won’t even miss the lasagna noodles! Trust me, my Italian husband gobbles this down!

16) Sausage Stuffed Apples – sausage and apple just go perfect together!

17) Apple & Bacon Stuffed Pork Chops – finger licken good! You won’t be disappointed with this. I’ve even make it with chicken breast and it’s just as good!

18) Spinach Stuffed Braciole – mine never comes out pretty, but it tastes amazing! My mom introduced me to this recipe! So good!

19) Pepper Crusted Steak – delicious! We had it over spinach and loved it!

20) Zucchini & Sweet Potato Frittata – we have this for breakfast, for dinner…who cares! It’s so good and I love sweet potato!

21) Scotch Eggs – the Scottish got it right when they created these little boogers! Another great breakfast or quick snack if you are on the go a lot!

22) Bacon Egg Cups – so cute and easy! Great when you are in a rush and need to get ready while the oven cooks for you!

23) Mexican Hash – my husband loves this hash! I use it with ground beef sometimes instead of chorizo and it’s delicious!

24) Buffalo Chicken Chopped Salad – ever get that chicken wing craving? This salad will satisfy it!

25) Lemon Garlic Crockpot Chicken – another favorite whole chicken recipe! But this one you can throw in the crockpot and be done with it!

Mama Jo’s Italian Meat Stuffing

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I grew up on Mama Jo’s stuffing! Mama Jo was just that…a second Mama to me growing up. She had that amazing Italian laugh that filled your heart with joy!

Mama Jo was the one responsible for cooking for all the major functions at my church growing up. Whenever I smelled food, Mama Jo was the one who was sweating behind the burner and cooking for the hundreds. Nothing she ever made was gross. I loved watching her move around in the kitchen; a dance that only a true cook had mastered.

My love for cooking, undoubtedly, came from watching Mama Jo.

Every Thanksgiving I knew that Mama Jo was going to bring over her unbelievable meat stuffing. I must have been Paleo-at-heart as a child because I never did like bread stuffing. My daddy loved putting cranberry sauce on top of this meat stuffing. This cranberry recipe looks delish and so does this one.

Mama Jo gave me permission to share her recipe. I hope you love it just as much as I do! It makes a big pot of stuffing, so plenty to share with a big group.

Mama Jo’s Italian Meat Stuffing (Primal)

3 1/2 lbs of ground beef

3/4lbs of ground sausage

1 bunch of celery hearts (chopped fine)

2 medium onions (chopped fine)

2 cups of parmesan cheese

1 cup of pine nuts

1/2 cup of parsley

salt and pepper

1/2 cup of butter

3 splashes of my secret ingredient Red Boat Fish Sauce OR 2 ts of garlic salt

Instructions:

Brown the ground beef and the sausage in a large pot (my dutch oven was perfect for this). When brown, remove the meat and drain.

Melt 1/2 cup of butter in the same pot. Saute the celery, onions, and garlic until soft and translucent.

Add the meat mixture and all the other ingredients. Please don’t skimp on the pine nuts! These are what make this recipe so awesome!

This is where you add the secret ingredient. This was the only thing I had to find a substitute for. The real recipe called for Accent which isn’t necessarily Paleo, so I had to research this a bit. Accent is a flavor enhancer, so I thought, YES! My Red Boat Fish Sauce is my favorite enhancer.

I add it to every meat dish I make and it doesn’t make it taste fishy. It gives the meat flavor more depth! I added about 3 quick splashes to this recipe. If you don’t have fish sauce, or the thought just grosses you out (although you really should give it a try!) you could just add a few teaspoons of garlic salt for added flavor.

Mix everything together very well and then bake until heated through.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving y’all!

Enjoying the stuffing with avocado!

Other recipes you might like:

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Spanish Burgers

Chile Pork Tacos

 

 

 

 

Never Say These Things to a Grieving Person

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Found this note written by Dinah a few months ago.

Before I lost my sister a year ago, I had no idea what to say to someone who was grieving the loss of a loved one. Honestly, I was clueless. I avoided them because I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. No one near me had ever died. My grandparents all died before I was old to enough to remember. I lived a perfect, happy life; free of death and mourning; free of anger or questions for God.

Then September 23, 2011 happened. The darkness that surrounded my family was enormous. Our house sounded like something off a horror movie. Random sounds of weeping, fists banging on walls in anger, and screams from the nightmare that we endured was something that I will never forget. I can’t describe the deep, dark pit that we were in for several weeks.

Confusion.

Self-pity.

Hate.

Where are you, God?

The emotions emerge as I write this.

It’s hard to be around someone who is grieving. You wouldn’t want their sad world to cloud your happy world, right?

“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.” – Ecclesiastes 7:2

How can we help? What can we say?

Here’s a list I put together that may help you if you encounter someone who lost of a friend or loved one. These are things you should NEVER say:

1. “Everything happens for a reason.”

This is my favorite one that I just want to sock ’em in the eye for. I mean, really? My sister died for a reason? What reason was that? Oh, it won’t be revealed yet? Blah. My sister’s life LIVING could happen for a reason. She was only 27 when she died, she could have done so much more…FOR A REASON!

Please don’t ever say this to someone. It doesn’t help. It doesn’t comfort. It only pisses ’em off.

2. “God has everything under control.”

You may or may not believe in God. I do; so when people said this to me, I wanted to look at them and say,

“Really? How is THIS under control? Come to my house at night and tell me if it sounds like everything is under control!”

3. “_________ is in a much better place.”

Are you God? Do you stand at judgement with the Book of Life and know where our souls are going? What if I don’t even believe in heaven? How does that comfort my aching soul? 

What if ___________ didn’t even believe in Jesus Christ? You don’t know the destination of ANYONE’S soul.

Just avoid this all-together. It may make YOU feel better to think that __________ is in heaven, but it may not do anything for the grieving person. So keep it to yourself.

4. I know what you are going through.

Really? NO YOU DON’T. Who do you know that took their own life? What’s that you say? Your grandma died a year ago? Ummm, she lived a full life…you cannot compare that.

Truth is, even if you have been there, don’t say this. You, truly, don’t know what someone is going through; only they do.  Saying this can evoke many angry emotions to the grieving person.

5. You’re a strong person. I know you will get through this.

I don’t want to be strong. I am NOT strong.

Don’t pressure someone to live up to this. In the despair and grief of losing someone so dear, you don’t want to be strong. You want to cry, weep, scream, and do all the things that people classify as weak. Let them do this. Let them grieve in whatever way they need to. Don’t pressure them to be anything that they don’t want to be.

6. It’s been a year. You really need to move on.

Don’t you think we know life has to move on? That’s THE MAIN thing we are grieving about. Life is moving on without my sister. She is stuck at 27 years old for the rest of MY life. I’ll never raise my kids with her kids. I’ll never grow old with her and see how her face wrinkles. We know this!

Just don’t say that. It hurts enough already knowing life is moving on without ________.

7. God is going to be glorified in all this.

How about if I slap you upside the head? Is God glorified in that too?

Usually when people say this they are referring to the death of the person. They say that ______ death is going to touch many people in the same circumstance.

Couldn’t their LIFE do the same thing? Couldn’t them being ALIVE touch many people? Please refrain from saying this, even if you really do believe it.

All these things evoke a response of anger, confusion, questions for the grieving person. Take it from me, it doesn’t absolutely no good to say any of these 7 things to someone who lost a friend or loved one.

There are much better things to say. Let me help you out:

1. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.

2. Words fall short but I’m here.

3. ________’s life was beautiful.

4. My deepest thoughts and prayers are with you.

5. I brought you a hot meal.

6. I’m here for you. Call me ANYTIME.

7. I’m here for you. Even if it’s to just sit next to you at your house so you’re not alone.

8. Tell me about ________’s life.

9. How are you doing? No, REALLY, how are you doing?

10. I brought you some groceries.

The grieving person is still a person. They don’t have cooties or a scarlet letter. They are you…they are me…they are one of us. They don’t want you to avoid talking about it. They don’t want you to think it’s a sore subject.

When someone would ask me, “How are you?…no really, how are you?” I knew they really cared. And sometimes it opened up a can of worms depending on how my emotions were on that day. Sometimes, I talked about Dinah. I shared stories from our past. I relived moments we shared together in time.

Moments like these bring healing.

This is my story…

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I can sometimes close my eyes and smell my childhood. It smells like freshly raked leaves, chlorine on my bathing suit, sweat that lingers on my skin, and freshly popped cheesy popcorn.

It tastes like Oatmeal Cream Pies, tacos on a Saturday night, and hose water.

I treasure the childhood I had. I spent summer days riding bikes with my sister, Dinah, to faraway lands and magical “secret” places that only we knew about. My sister treasured it too. Five days before the worst day of my life, she wrote a short story for college about a time when we were playing hide-and-seek as kids. She must have treasured it as much as me, for no one can ever take these moments in time away.

I am the middle child. I am the free spirt. My mom sings, “I Hope You Dance” over me because she says the words remind her of me. I’m my Daddy’s little girl. I hold his hand in mine even when my teenage friends could see. I walk with pride standing next to my big brother. He’s huge. Standing at over 6’6″, he stares into the eyes of boys and frightens them away. I smile at him because I’d rather hang out with him, then stupid boys. My sister was always my best friend. We loved hard and we fought even harder. Yet, at the end of the day when we layed down in our beds that shared a room, we always said:

“I’m sorry if I’ve done anything wrong.”

“I forgive you.”

” I’m sorry if I’ve done anything wrong too.”

Every. Single. Night. We didn’t want to die and go to hell for unforgiven sins.

Sometimes we had a line dividing up our bedroom. Other times we slept in the same bed when outside terrors scared us.

Eventually we grew up.

I started college, then became involved in church ministry. Soon, I left for Australia, then to Thailand for a year of missionary work. My passion became showing women how beautiful they are. Thailand changed me forever. I talked to prostitutes and taught them English. I helped a center that gave them a chance to come out of prostitution by choosing to learn a trade. I bought them out of bars for a night of fun and feasting.

Life became hard there by myself. I came home.

I went to massage school and became a licensed massage therapist and worked on completing my bachelors degree.

During this time I met and married the man of my dreams who I met in the most unique way…online! He, since, has given me two beautiful children and fulfilled my greatest purpose in life of being a mother.

Now I am reliving my childhood through my two children. Nothing could be better than the life I have now. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been easy. Some of you know the missing part of my testimony. One year ago I lost my best friend, my sister. She made the impulsive decision to end her life the day after her boyfriend was killed in an automobile accident. By just admitting this, I feel like I have to defend her honor. I wonder when that will go away?

Her death shattered my perfect, little world and questioned all I believed in God.

It’s been a year since her death and life is changing once again. We are eagerly anticipating getting out of the military and moving back home to establish our roots close to our families. Life is good for my little family. With each boo-boo that I kiss, each diaper that I change, and each word that I speak to my children, I remember how critical the present is.

I remember to kiss my husband deeply everyday.

I remember to tell my parents how much I love them.

I remember that life is too short to have fake friends.

I remember that no matter what God is still good and still my God.

I remember that if my kids adore me, then I have successfully been the mother that my mother was.

For this life is my story.

Choosing the Right Coconut Milk (for weaning babies)

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coconutbabies

My son, Frankie, is almost 15 months old. We weaned him from breast milk about a month ago because my donated freezer stash ran out, so I figured this would be a good time to wean him onto something else. He was on donated milk for almost a year! Incredible, eh? Well, I think so. It was a miracle, actually, and an answer to my deep cry out to God in prayer. You can read why we needed donated milk here.

First off, let me start this by saying I am NOT a professional, nutritionist, or medical provider. I am just a mom who has done extensive research in what to use as a milk alternative. I am also just going to address dairy-free alternatives and what has worked best for my family.

I am very confident in my children’s nutrition and that they are eating a balanced diet. So, milk, for us, is just a compliment to their diet; a treat. I don’t count on it for calcium, protein, or Vitamin D. In fact, there are many days that we go without milk. Even Frankie only gets milk twice a day now. When we weaned him from breast milk at 13 months old, he was drinking about 30 ounces of breast milk a day. So, my challenge was to get him used to the taste of water now. I kept offering less and less breast milk and more water and coconut milk. Coconut milk is what we chose to wean onto. I didn’t expect Frankie to just stop drinking milk when that is all he had for nearly 14 months. I looked at all my choices: hemp milk, coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk, raw milk, and store-bought organic milk. Coconut milk seemed to be the most nutrient-dense, dairy-free choice.

The hardest part about choosing coconut milk was the fact that EVERY single store-bought coconut milk had some terrible ingredients in the carton. The worst of these is Carrageenan. As quoted here off Cornucopio.org, “Carrageenan, a seaweed derivative used as a stabilizer and thickener in foods, has been found to be contaminated with a substance (degraded carrageenan) that is classified by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer as a “possible human carcinogen.”  Research funded by the National Institutes of Health raises serious concerns about harmful effects of carrageenan as an inflammatory agent on the human gastrointestinal tract.”

Homemade Coconut Milk

Method #1: Using Coconut Shreds

Cost: $2 for a half-gallon

So, I tried a few methods of making my own homemade coconut milk. The first way that I experimented with was using Bob’s Red Mill Flaked Coconut Unsweetened, 4 – 12-Ounce Bags to make the milk out of. This was MESSY and not so easy. However, the milk tasted amazing and it was pretty cheap. I used this recipe here and quadrupled it to make about a gallon. It cost me $2 to make a half-gallon of fresh milk…$4 for ALMOST a gallon. However, you need to make sure you get high quality unsweetened coconut shreds because with shredded coconut, the majority of the time the milk has already been expressed out of the shreds. Also, you may want to invest in a “nut bag” to help with the squeezing the milk because this is very messy.

Method #2: Using Whole CoconutCost: $4 for a half-gallon

The other method I did was I used a whole coconut and followed this recipe. According to this recipe, one whole coconut makes a about a quart of milk. The average coconut is around $2 so this method costed me about $4 for a half-gallon of milk…twice as much, however it was delicious! It was much richer than just using the coconut shreds and I could have probably diluted it a bit more with filtered water. However, we liked the richness of it and so did Frankie!

Method #3: Coconut Milk Tonic (using canned milk)

Cost: $4 for a half-gallon

The last method that I tried was this one. It is taken from the book, Eat Fat, Lose Fat. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

14 oz can of full fat Native Forest Organic Classic Coconut Milk, 13.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)

2 1/4 cups filtered water

2 TB Coombs Family Farms 100% Pure Organic Maple Syrup Grade B, 32-Ounce Jug

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp Kal Dolomite Powder — 16 oz

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together in a medium saucepan over medium to low heat until all the dolomite is dissolved.  Serve immediately or refrigerate.

I didn’t have any dolomite powder and am confident that my kids are getting enough calcium from other foods so I didn’t add this. I just mixed everything up in a half-gallon mason jar and shook it! The milk separates from the water as it’s sitting in the fridge so you have to give it a little shake every time you use it. We really like this one too! It was rich, creamy and frothy! I even used it in my coffee a few times.

WHICH METHOD DID I LIKE BEST?

Taste-wise: Method #2, using a whole coconut was the best with method #3, the tonic following very closely behind.

Conveniency: Method #3, the Coconut Milk Tonic was the most convenient and easiest to make. Method #1, using the shreds was messy, took forever, and the taste didn’t even come close to the other two methods. The reason why, is because the process of making coconut shreds, takes a lot of the “milk” out. So, you have a much more watery taste to the milk.

Cost-wise: Obviously, the shreds was the cheapest.

WHICH METHOD DO I NOW USE?

I am using Method #3 and mixing it with a clean Almond milk that I found. Kroger is now making Almond Milk and the ingredients look pretty clean to me. It has no Carrageenan in it and the half-gallon only costs $2.50. So, I am mixing this 50/50 with my Coconut Milk Tonic. This way, it’s not costing me $8 a gallon to make the Coconut Milk Tonic. It’s only costing me about $3 to make a half-gallon of the coconut/almond mixture. Geez, I hope I didn’t just confuse you!

 

 

Albino Broccoli Soup

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We love albino broccoli in this house! There are so many things you can do with it! Broccoli’s little brother, cauliflower, is by far the most versatile vegetable that you can have in your house! You can make pizza crust, rice, mashed “potatoes” and so much more! Tonight I made my soup!

This is by far MY FAVORITE soup ever! I love this soup with meatballs. Tonight I am trying these Merguez meatballs from The Clothes Make the Girl, author of the amazing Well Fed cookbook. I usually make them with Arabic meatballs, which is a little different than the Merguez Meatballs.

I promise, the cauliflower tastes amazing in this recipe! It’s even more delicious if you use your own homemade bone stock! You can read my recipe for making stock here!

Albino Broccoli Soup

2 heads of cauliflower or 3 frozen bags, broken in florets

3 medium onions, diced

5 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup butter or Grassfed Organic Ghee 7.8 Oz

3 cups of stock (I prefer my homemade chicken stock, but you can use beef stock too)

2 teaspoons of salt

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

Directions:

Steam or boil cauliflower until tender. Drain and set aside.

Saute the onions and garlic in a pot over medium heat until tender.

Add cauliflower and stock to the pot. Mash with a potato masher or use a stick blender to puree the mixture to a consistency you prefer. I like mine a little chunky. If you don’t have a stick blender then you should use a blender to puree it.

Add salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings.

If primal, serve with a dollop of sour cream!