Paleo Chuck Roast with Mango BBQ Sauce

This was an excellent meal. This recipe focuses on a beautiful chuck roast. Our lives are so busy and we have to work on making good food - it's always worth it. If YOU are looking to upgrade the quality of your beef, shop around for grass fed and try to go local.

I peeled and sliced two mangos and placed it in the bottom of my slow cooker, along with 1 TBSP of coconut oil.
I laid the chuck roast right on top of the mango.

In a small bowl, I stirred up the following ingredients to make a thick paleo bbq sauce:

1 6 oz can organic tomato paste
3 TBSP water
1 TBSP coconut oil
2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
1 TBSP honey
1 tsp Cherry Wood Smoked Sea Salt (salttraders.com or your favorite sea salt)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste, and then a little more - lol
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 TBSP Garlic Gold nuggets (garlicgold.com)

This was a thick sauce. I spread it out right on top of the chuck roast. 
I poured 1/4 cup water down in the slow cooker, careful not to disturb the bbq sauce.

I put the lid on the slow cooker and let it cook for 8 hours on low.                                                                    It was MELT_IN_YOUR_MOUTH_TENDER_AND_DELICIOUS!

Paleo Dutch Oven Ribs

Ribs. Don't you just love ribs? Beef - pork - bison - ribs are just delicious. I wanted to try some ribs in a deep, flavorful, mom-cooked-these-bad-boys-with-love kind of way.

Here's how I made Dutch Oven Ribs:

I put 3 1/2 to 4 lbs of ribs on a foil-lined baking sheet and sprinkled them with salttraders.com Smoked Sea Salt and pepper. Then I BROILED them for 5 minutes on each side.

I took them out of the oven and turned off the broiler. This was to allow the oven to cool off a little so I could take out the top rack, to make room for the dutch oven. ( I used to always forget to do this...)

In my dutch oven, over medium heat, I put:
2 TBSP coconut oil
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
2 celery stalks, ends trimmed off, then sliced thin
3 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thin
2 large portobello mushroom caps, cut into big chunks (optional)
1 tsp organic minced garlic (you know I love Garlic Gold)
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves (fish them out later)

I cooked this 10-15 minutes, stirring often.

I stirred in:
 3 TBSP organic tomato paste
1 32 oz container of organic beef broth

I brought this to a boil and then added the RIBS.
I put the lid on the dutch oven and opened the oven door and removed the top rack.
I heated the oven to 350 degrees and  with my best Crossfit squat I put that heavy dutch oven into the oven for 1  1/2 hours so the ribs would be tender and deep-flavored and really good!

What a meal! All I had to do was serve it up. Ger said he especially liked the ginger kick in there.

Good luck with your ribs. Let me know how they turn out.

                                                               Don't those ribs just look epic?

Paleo Pumpkin Butter

The last 5 Wednesday nights have been exciting around here - we watched the announcement of Open WOD 13.5 while we ate dinner. I'd made oven-baked chicken breasts and cabbage and spinach. I'd also come up with this quick pumpkin butter, thinking it might be interesting with chicken breast...... and when Ger dipped his chicken into the pumpkin butter ( I know that wounds weird.....) and maybe he was REALLY hungry...... but he said, "This is some of the best stuff I've ever put in my mouth!"  It sounded more like, "Thisisthebeststufffi'veeeverputnmymouth!" but I'm sure that's what he said.
       Isaac even ate a lot of it! Needless to day, there wasn't any left over. I'd been thinking how it might be good in steel-cut oats.... (yes, I once-in-a-while have oats, but Ger doesn't.) But, I won't have oats now since the pumpkin butter is gone.  I may make it again tomorrow!

I put all these ingredients into a saucepan and heated it slowly on low, just to melt the coconut oil and raw honey:

2 cans organic pumpkin
2 TBSP coconut oil
1 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup raw honey (that's just 4 TBSP)
1 tsp vanilla

I stirred it well and served it with chicken breasts. Let me know if you love it, too, or if you just think we are crazy.

Paleo Italian Chicken Thighs

I don't know if my CrossFit workout tonight just made me hungry or if I just outdid myself, but this meal was just delicious.

I put a tsp of coconut oil in a skillet  and then browned 8 chicken thighs. I turned them down to let them cook through. I sprinkled them with smoked paprika, oregano, and sweet basil.

In a smaller skillet I put 2 packages of fresh mushrooms ( the kind with a variety of mushrooms) and 1/2 of a jar of spaghetti sauce. (Find one with no sugar.) I let this simmer.

I washed and cut up 4 big yellow peppers. I placed them on a coconut oil-rubbed cookie sheet and then rubbed the pepper pieces with coconut oil melted in my hands. I sprinkled them with basil and popped them into a 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes, maybe more.

When the chicken was done, I put the other half of the sauce on it, and yelled for the kids. Wow, that was good!

Paleo Chicken Breasts in a Crock Pot

WE all are busy and need great food fast. So, here's a new one. We eat a lot of chicken breasts cooked in the oven and they are amazing, but I wanted that crockpot tender-thing. Here's what I did:

I rubbed the inside of my crockpot with coconut oil.
I rinsed 6 hormone and antibiotic-free chicken breasts then laid them close together in the crockpot, overlapping as little as possible.
I added 1 TBSP of coconut oil, 1 cup of organic chicken stock, and 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp rosemary, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder.
I turned the crockpot on low and left it for 5 hours. It was also fine at 6 hours. (I left it on just to see if it would be ok to go longer.)
That chicken breast is so tender and juicy - you have to try it!

Ger just said, "Mom, that chicken is amazing! Really good. Do it again soon."
That makes it all worthwhile, huh?

I did 2 pans of kale chips but put smoked paprika and garlic powder on them instead of chilli powder. You can find this recipe in February, I think the 9th, but try it with the smoked paprika!
Fresh asparagus and broccoli in a skillet with a couple TBSPs of chicken stock and sea salt rounded out a great meal for the first snow day of the year!

This is my favorite photo from the OCT 2015. They take some amazing photos! Ger got 4th place!

Sea Scallops on Asparagus

We love sea scallops, and yes, they are expensive, but they make a very special meal that's much less expensive than eating out. They are so sweet.

I rubbed coconut oil on a cookie sheet. I rinsed the thawed sea scallops and laid them on paper towel-covered paper plates. They need to be dry so I moved on to the vegetables.

I broke off the bottoms of a big bunch of fresh asparagus, and threw them into a skillet. I added a TBSP of coconut oil and 1/4 cup of organic chicken stock. I added 2 containers of fresh, sliced brown mushrooms, and a package of frozen mixed vegetables. I let this start cooking, stirring often.

I put the sea scallops on the cookie sheet and rubbed a little coconut oil in my hands to melt it, then rubbed the top of the scallops. I shook sweet basil and herbed sea salt and freshly ground pepper onto them, and put them under the broiler for 6 minutes. (Sometimes they take 8 minutes - watch them. Don't overcook them)

Done. Easy. Great fuel.
Take care of the ones you love! Feed them well.