The Paleo Mama

Homegrown and Handmade

paleo

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Smoothie

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Had a craving for chocolate tonight and all I could find in my pantry was cacao powder (which by the way is just frickin delicious). Accepting this challenge I began to throw things in my blender and, I have to say, I have come up with an amazing, chocolate-craving busting smoothie that is so healthy!

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of coconut milk (or almond milk).
6-7 frozen strawberries (can use fresh, just add in ice cubes)
1/2 frozen banana
1.5 TB cocoa powder

Add a couple drops of liquid stevia. I used my chocolate raspberry stevia and it enhanced the chocolatiness!!

Optional add ins: free-range egg yolks, coconut oil, and ice cubes if you use fresh strawberries

Throw everything in a blender, except ice cubes, and blend till smooth. Take a peak and add in ice cubes to get it to the thickness you desire.

Enjoy!!!

Other recipes you might like:

Spirulina Smoothie

Bulletproof Coffee

2 Minute Mug Brownie

Pumpkin Pie in a Cup Smoothie

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Ground Beef Stroganoff

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This is so good, I just can’t keep it to myself anymore! I make it 2-3 times every month. It’s just so delicious and comforting. I adapted this recipe from a non-Paleo recipe I saw on here. It’s so nourishing and 100% Paleo! You can make it Primal by using sour cream instead of coconut milk cream. Hope you like it!

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Ingredients:

  • 2 TB of Butter or Ghee
  • 2 TB of extra-virgin olive oil or coconut oil, divided
  • 1 lg Onion, diced
  • 8 ounces of sliced white mushrooms (slice em’ thick)
  • 1 pound of ground beef
  • 2 TB of tomato paste
  • 1.5 ts thyme
  • 1.5 ts rosemary
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 TB arrowroot powder
  • 1.5 cup beef stock (I usually use my homemade chicken stock since I make a batch every week)
  • 2/3 cup thick coconut cream (this is the cream off the top of a can of coconut milk). I recommend Native Forest  for this because it separates really good in the can.
  • 1/2 ts of sea salt
  • 1/2 ts black pepper
  • cooked Cauliflower Rice, Sliced Zucchini “noodles”, sweet potato noodle, or Spaghetti Squash

Directions:

In a skillet, melt the butter/or Ghee with 1 TB of olive/or coconut oil. Add the mushrooms and onions, and saute until slightly softened and browned around the edges. Remove to a plate.

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Brown ground beef in 1 TB of olive oil until no longer pink. Return onions and mushrooms to pan. Add tomato paste, thyme, rosemary, and garlic. Saute’ for about 3 minutes to allow the flavors to develop. Reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle arrowroot powder over meat mixture and stir to combine until arrowroot is completely mixed in. Add beef stock and stir to mix in.

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Sauce will begin to thicken as it comes to a simmer.

Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a couple minutes.

Stir in the thick coconut cream.

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Serve over cooked Cauliflower Rice, sliced zucchini noodles, sweet potato noodle, or roasted Spaghetti Squash with some roasted vegetables on the side!

We made it with sweet potato noodles this time which my kids LOVED!

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Raw Feeding Paleo Dogs

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Don’t they look fierce?

I have stepped into a new world of raw feeding my dogs. It’s something that I have been interested in for months. In fact, I have almost felt convicted when it comes to my dogs. My family eats so clean and Paleo, but twice a day I find myself pouring kibble out of a bag down for my dogs. I started to feel guilty in a way. I didn’t even think there was another way that I can afford. Since our children were born, we have had to discontinue the use of $50 bags of high-end dog food. I thought since it was expensive, then it must be good. Well, not so much.

Samson’s first taste of real food

Dogs are carnivores. If out in the wild, they would live on a diet high in raw meat. It’s only when we started to socialize dogs with humans that processed “dog-food” came about. And even if you were to look at the ingredients of a bag of dog-food, you would find that it would be mostly grains and veggies…with some meat fillers. Poor doggies! So, that’s how my quest for finding the proper nutrition for my dogs began. I’ve heard of raw-feeding but I thought I could never do that. I have no idea why, but all I needed was the “push” to get me started on this path.

Yesterday, a natural group that I am in on Facebook started talking about raw-feeding. My mind couldn’t grasp it because it seemed too easy. I mean, seriously, you just throw a piece of raw chicken (bone-in) down for the dogs to eat? What about the bones splintering? What about the bacteria? What about them becoming blood-thirsty and possibly devouring my leg in my sleep?

Whatever, I’m doing it. I threw a chicken leg down for my fawn colored pug and a chicken thigh down for my black pug. They spent the next 30 minutes eating it, enjoying it, savoring it. It was the first real food they had EVER had. I almost cried. I saw the pleasure and delight in their eyes. You know when you bite into a savory, perfectly-cooked steak? The “oh-my-goodness-this-is-the-best-thing-I-have-ever-ate” feeling that you get? I actually feel like they love me more now. Last night my fawn pug, Samson, became more lively than I have ever seen him. He is my dog that hates eating. I would put kibble in his bowl in the morning and he would finally eat it at 8pm that night when his stomach became so fiercly hungry. I just figured he didn’t need much food. When I gave him the chicken leg it actually took him like 20 minutes to figure out how to hold the leg with his paws so he could tear away the meat! In less than 24 hours I have noticed a huge difference in him.

I’m not sure on all the proper methods of raw-feeding, but I plan on following the Prey Model diet for dogs. This is 5-10% organs, 10-15% edible bones, and 80-85% edible meat. The models and resembles, as closely as possible, what carnivorous canines have been eating for thousands of years.

Raw-feeding also seems like it’s going to be cheaper than feeding packaged dog-food. Yesterday I bought 10lbs of chicken, 2lbs of chicken organs, 3lbs of pork necks, and 3lbs of chicken backs (with meat) for under $15. This should last them a little over 3 weeks. I also plan on giving them some kefir every morning to help assist with the digestion of this new diet. Today as I was portioning the organs they got a few chicken hearts and split a big can of sardines! Needless to say, I am their hero!

More info on raw feeding:

The Science Behind Raw Feeding

Raw Dog Food: Make it Easy for You and Your Dogs

The Barf Diet

 

Meat for the month!

Milky Match Made in Heaven!

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If you read my blog from a few days ago (https://thepaleomama.com/2012/02/14/milksharing-and-homemade-formula/), I talked about how I lost my milk supply when I lost my younger sister. I posted a picture of my little man with some donated breast milk. I shared my story last month on Facebook and the story and picture went Facebook viral. It was shared among many breastfeeding and milksharing sites. Here is my amazing milksharing story that touched me in so many ways. It helped to heal from the loss of my sister.

Frankie with all of her milk!
I cannot express my thanks enough to the mommy who donated all this precious milk to my baby boy. We met through Human Milk 4 Human Babies. Blythe posted a few weeks ago about her baby girl who was born premature. She had pumped for her baby while she was in the NICU but at 5 weeks old her precious little one had passed away. She was left with her milk that was intended for her baby girl and wanted someone else to have it. I saw her posting and in tears I replied and explained how I had recently lost my younger sister and the trauma and grief had caused my complete milk supply to dwindle to nothing. Blythe was my perfect milky match! The death of my sister and her precious baby had brought us together and even from their death…Blythe’s milk was going to bring life and nourishment to my little baby boy! Here is a picture of all her milk. I have no idea how much! Enough to feed him for a while though! So grateful for my milky match made in heaven!

Baked Avocado-Coco Fries!

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Baked Avocado-Coco Fries

Ummm, holy deliciousness!!! These are amazing! I needed to do something with my avocados so I adapted a recipe I found online (https://morethanmary.com/2011/01/heavenly-and-healthy-delicious-dish-baked-avocado-fries/) to make it gluten-free! Yay!!!

Recipe:

1 whole avocado, peeled and sliced in 1/2in slices

1/8th-1/4th cup of Almond flour (I needed a little more than 1/8th)

2 eggs

1/2 cup of desiccated coconut (I threw coconut chips in the blender and ground them up)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Drizzle of lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

First sprinkle some salt and pepper on the avocado slices. Then coat the avocado slices in the almond flour. Then dunk and swish it around in the egg. Then coat them completely in the desiccated coconut. Place them on a greased cooling rack and then place cooling rack on a baking pan. You can cover the baking pan with aluminum foil to make clean up easier. Then drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the slices and place in the oven.

Cook for 10 minutes, but keep an eye on them and take them out when they start to brown. Then sprinkle some lemon juice over them.

Enjoy!

(if you have a Paleo baby, these are great for them to chew on! Sometimes avocado is so hard for them to pick up so I like to coat them with desiccated coconut to make them easier to handle)

 

My Guaciled Eggs!

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Jackie's Guaciled Eggs!

I love guacamole! It’s just so good on everything…no really, I literally put it on everything! Some of my favorite things to put guacamole on is eggs! I love frying eggs in coconut oil and topping them with guacamole. If I don’t have the time to make it, I buy the Wholly Guacamole brand which is delicious! So, I was trying to figure out something to bring to a pot-luck and I thought deviled eggs would be very Paleo-friendly and even those who weren’t Paleo would enjoy it. In comes my idea for Guaciled Eggs!

Guaciled Eggs

8 Boiled eggs – cut in half lengthwise and yolks removed

3-4 TB lemon juice

2 TS of dried mustard

Salt and Pepper to taste

About 1/4 cup of Guacamole (I used Wholly Guacamole)

I threw the egg yolks in the food processor and added the guacamole. I pulsed it a few times to combine and then added the lemon juice until it was the consistency I wanted. Then I threw in the spices, scooped the mixture in the egg whites, and added some paprika on top! It was delicious!!!