Smoked Paprika Kale Chips

Smoked Paprika Kale Chips.....could my house smell any better?  Whether you make them in a dehydrator or your oven, you are going to want to try these. Addicting, I tell you.

I make these, as you can see, in the dehydrator, on 145 for 2  1/2 hours. If you use the oven, it's at 325 for 20-25 minutes and I usually stir them once and put them back into the oven somewhere near the end of the cooking time. If I forget, and any kale isn't crisp, I just stir them gently, spread them back out and put them back into the oven for a couple of minutes after I've turned it off.

This recipe is so simple! In a LARGE bowl, I put:

1 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP smoked paprika (nuts.com)
1 tsp garlic nuggets (garlicgold.com)
 1/4 tsp sea salt

I stir this up and then tear one bunch of organic kale off the stems and drop into the bowl. Next, I take my hands and mix the kale into the oil and spices, turning the kale over and working it almost like kneading bread.
I spread the kale onto a dehydrator rack, maybe a rack and a half.

I measure out my oil and spices and continue this process again. My dehydrator has 4 racks and I use 3 bunches of kale, usually two of organic purple kale and one of green kale.  When we eat dinner, we just each take a rack and transfer it to our plate!

You can use the dehydrator with less racks, or you can make a lot and keep the leftovers in in a big Ziploc bag.

Now, I'm all about sharing ideas to save money, and I have another one for you. I spend a lot on spices - it's crazy. So, the last time I sent in a big order to nuts.com for nuts, I thought I would try  a couple of their spices in one-pound bags. So, let's look at the math here:

Smoked Paprika - around $7 for 1.62 oz
Nuts.com Smoked Paprika - $9.99 for one pound! (that's 16 oz for those of you who forgot - you know who you are....)
Organic Cinnamon - around $7 for 1.4 oz
Nuts.com Organic Cinnamon - $8.99 for one pound!

The quality is at least as good, if not better!  I will be filling up my little glass bottles with nuts.com from now on! 

Paleo Tomato Baked Chicken

I am looking forward to feeding Ger Sasser tonight - he's been in Sacramento for the weekend, coaching. He got home today and started coaching at Crossfit Countdown. I miss him when he's traveling. I hope he missed my cooking a little......lol.


I rubbed 1 TBSP coconut oil on a 9 x 12 glass baking dish.
Next, I cut up a red onion and placed it in the bottom of the dish.

I topped this with 6 organic chicken breasts.
Then, I combined:
 1  28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 TBSP Emeril's mustard, or other mustard with no hidden sugars
1 TBSP Garlic Gold nuggets (garlicgold.com)

I poured this mixture over the chicken breasts and sprinkled it with applewood smoked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I put this into a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.  (Then I washed and cut up red. yellow, and orange peppers. I rubbed them in coconut oil and placed them on a baking sheet. They went into the oven, too, for 20-25 minutes of the the chicken's cooking time. See? A whole meal, healthy and EASY, and so, so good!)

Sweet Potato Casserole

This is a paleo-ized version of my mom's sweet potato casserole. Cassie recently made this and took it to her family's Thanksgiving celebration.

She boiled 3 large organic sweet potatoes in water, until fork-tender.  Then she easily peeled them.

She placed them in a bowl and mashed them with a potato masher.
 She added:

1/3 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup organic coconut milk (from a can)
1/3 cup pasture butter, melted
1 egg, stirred first
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

She mixed that up and spread in out in a 9 x 12 glass baking dish that had been rubbed with coconut oil.

Next, she mixed up the topping:

1 cup unsweetened coconut (we like the big chips, or chunks, not the shredded)
1/4 cup brown sugar (optional, but since it was Thanksgiving, and we wanted other people to eat it, we added this small amount of brown sugar - mom's original recipe called for 1 whole cup!)
1/3 cup almond flour
1/3 cup pasture butter, melted
1 cup  pecans

She spread this out on the top of the sweet potato mixture.

It went into a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

Ham Pineapple and Broccoli in Acorn Squash

I had Ger cut two acorn squash into halves. I cut out the seeds and stringy stuff in the centers and laid them in a pan, cut side down, with 1/2 inch water. I put them into a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes.

I cut 2 big ham steaks into bite-sized pieces and cooked them over medium heat in a large skillet with 2 TBSP of coconut oil and 1/2 cup water. I put a lid on it and stirred often. When the ham steak bites were tender, I set the lid aside.
(If you really want to make this recipe fast, use the precooked ham steaks, instead of right out of a local farm-raised pig, like mine, but go for quality meat, always. I also like to put the big round bone in there and then give it to Mikko. He loves that.)

Next, I cut up one head of broccoli and one fresh pineapple, into bite-sized pieces and put them into the skillet.
I added:
 1  1/2 tsp smoked sea salt
1/2 tsp Garlic Gold Nuggets (garlicgold.com)
1/2 tsp red pepper (cayenne)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

I let that cook until the broccoli was cooked, but not mushy.
I took the acorn squash halves out of the oven and placed them on plates. I filled the center with the ham, pineapple, and broccoli mixture.
Ger went back for seconds - that's always a good sign......

Squash Soup

It's snowing outside and there's ice under the snow. It's a Sunday and I am not going ANYWHERE today. It looks like a great day to catch up on some blog recipes and make some soup. This one is satisfying and easy.

I cooked one small organic spaghetti squash and took out the seed and stringy parts in the center. I used a fork to get out the squash and put it in a sauce pan.

I added one small can of diced tomatoes. (Sometimes I use one with chili pepper in it, for a little more heat.)
I poured one container of organic butternut squash soup into the sauce pan, along with:
1/2 tsp smoked salt
1/4 tsp red pepper
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

I let that heat up slowly. When it was warm, I put it into bowls and added 1 TBSP pepitas (pumpkin seeds from nuts.com are a favorite here) and 1 tsp heavy whipping cream to each bowl.

Tell me if you think that's warm and delicious. Crumbled uncured bacon on top is also VERY special.

Eat clean whenever you can, and once in a while, have a beautiful splurge. Ger and Cassie love Grater's when they are in a city that has one.

Paleo Pumpkin Pecan Butter

I love having homemade toasted pecan butter around. I have a plain version and a cinnamon vanilla version on this blog already, but this week I came up with a pumpkin version - it's great with apple slices.

I toasted a lb of pecan halves in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes and let them cool while I gathered my other ingredients and readied the food processor.

For each batch, I put the following ingredients into the food processor:

1  1/2 cups toasted pecans
1/4 cup organic pumpkin
1 heaping TBSP raw honey
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp sea salt

I ran the food processor until it was smooth, scraping down the sides once or twice. I put each batch into a container that I keep in the fridge.
It's a great thing to have on hand - it's all about the prep, so we have real-food choices.

Happy Thanksgiving from Feeding Ger Sasser, me, Ger, Cassie, Isaac, Mikko, and Daisy.
(Isaac call this week the "backwards week" since we go to work 2 days and get 5 days off. Love it!)

Paleo Cocoa Maple Pecans

Aren't these pretty enough to serve over the holidays? They won't be around after a day or two, but I can always make more. They're easy!

I put one pound of pecan halves into a bowl.

I added:
 2 TBSP dark cocoa.
 3 TBSP real maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

I stirred with a wooden spoon until the ingredients mixed and the nuts were coated.  
I spread the gooey nuts on a baking sheet and put them into a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. I let them cool and broke the chunks up and put them into a lovely antique carnival glass bowl. Pecans like this are worth celebrating!