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?

Stuffed Chicken Cutlets

There may be something to the idea of happy animals tasting better. Bos Creek chicken must have a happy chicken source because this chicken is REALLY GOOD. Really good meat inspires me to make  really good meals for my family.

I hope you try this recipe and I hope you check out the Bos Creek website.  We have an offer code for you:      GerBos    will get you $15 off  your first box of Bos Creek meat. theboscreek.com is where to check them out!  They have "delicious grass fed beef delivered monthly" and lots of other choices, too. Isn't their website beautiful? No wonder their cows are happy.

I took chicken breasts and sliced them thin into cutlets. This recipe is for 7-8 cutlets.

I added the following ingredients into a mixing bowl:
1 package fresh basil (I pull the leaves off the stems and stack them so they are easy to chop and compost the stems)
1/2 cup Ballyshannon Dubliner cheese (from happy grass fed cows lol)
1/3 cup fresh organic broccoli, cut up small
5 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled
4-5 slices dried organic mango (I cut this up with scissors - easier, faster)
Salt Traders Cherry Wood Smoked Sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and black sesame seeds to taste

I laid out pieces of foil - one for each chicken cutlet.
I placed 1 tsp coconut oil on the center of each piece of foil.

I laid each chicken cutlet out on foil (on top of the coconut oil) and put the mixture from the bowl on the top of each chicken cutlet, using it all and dividing it evenly. I tried to carefully fold over each chicken cutlet... but if they won't fold, they still taste incredible! They looked like this:

I folded two opposite edges of foil over the chicken and folded them together like a seam, then folded in the ends to make the foil able to hold in the steam while the chicken cooked.

I cooked these packets on a large baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
You can see in the top photo that I served these Bos Creek chicken awesome stuffed cutlets with spaghetti squash with a nice marinara sauce. It was an awesome meal!

Blueberry Lemon Lime Kill Cliff Popsicles

I took 6 of these popsicles to the box and 6 of them were eaten.  This was the best photo in the bunch. Thanks so much, Monica, Dustin, and Saadi - you all look great!

Here's our I made this batch:

I opened a can on Lemon Lime Kill Cliff and poured it into a bowl. I stirred it some to let the light carbonation fizzle away.
I added 1 TBSP fresh lime juice and some lime pulp.
I added 1 tsp honey.  (totally optional)

I stirred this up and poured it into 6 popsicle molds. (I love my new Zoku popsicle molds...)

Then I added several blueberries to each popsicle mold. The blueberries float up to the top, which is really going to be the bottom of the popsicle. I left a little room at the top so they wouldn't be too full as they froze and expanded.   (If yours don't come out just right, you can add a little coconut water to even things out if you need to, or add more fruit.)

A few hours later they were ready.
I wonder what watermelon would taste like with Kill Cliff......

Simple Paleo Chicken Tenders

I put a TBSP of bacon grease in a skillet - yes, bacon grease. (If you don't have any, the same amount of coconut oil will also be awesome)

I added a package of organic chicken tenders.
I sprinkled them with:
smoked sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
minced garlic
smoked paprika

I cooked them on medium heat, turning them now and then. They took less than 15 minutes.

Here's the important thing: We know what's in them. We know they are fast food, but not fake food. We know it is extremely important to fuel our lives with healthy foods full of nutrients.

See? Simple.

Roasted Purple Potatoes

Ger's brother, Isaac wanted "potatoes, not sweet potatoes, POTATOES..."

This was as close as I could go with that request. These are organic purple potatoes and they are less "bad-carb" than white potatoes because they have all those purple antioxidants in there to do you some good! They also taste exactly like plain old white potatoes, so Isaac was HAPPY.  Give them a go when you crave potatoes.

I put the following ingredients into a glass 9 x 12 baking dish:

1  1/2 lbs of organic purple potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 TBSP grass-fed butter, melted
1/2 tsp smoked sea salt
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp minced garlic (I used garlicgold.com nuggets)
freshly ground black pepper

I stirred this up to coat the potatoes pieces and then spread them out.
I put them into a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes and stirred them once halfway through the roasting time.
Oh, just yum. Purple yum.

Paleo Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Bacon and Black Sesame Seeds

I'd bought 4 HUGE sweet potatoes. I rinsed them off and put them in a pan, covered them (almost) with water, put a lid on the pan, and put them on the stove over medium heat to cook until very tender when pierced with a fork.While the sweet potatoes were getting tender, I cooked 4 pieces of bacon in a skillet and then patted them with paper towels and crumbled them.
When the sweet potatoes were extremely done, I poured the hot water off of them and let them cool for a few minutes until I could peel them. I just peeled them with my fingers - the peel just came right off. I cut the two ends off with a knife. I placed the peeled sweet potatoes back into the pan.

I added:
1 TBSP KerryGold Pasture butter
3 TBSP coconut cream concentrate (tropicaltraditions.com)
1 tsp smoked sea salt (salttraders.com)
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup basic chicken stock
1 tsp black sesame seeds
I mashed this all up with a fork and put it back on the stove on low until Ger and Cassies got home from CrossFit Countdown.         You may need to adjust the amount of chicken stock, depending on your sweet potatoes. 

Paleo Coconut Raspberry Treats

This recipe uses mini muffin cup papers. So, they are little......Ger ate nine of them..... that means they are good!

I put the following ingredients into a small sauce pan:

1/2 cup coconut cream concentrate (coconut butter)
1/2 coconut oil
2 TBSP honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 container fresh raspberries

I stirred the mixture over low heat, just until everything was melted and mixed. I smashed the raspberries with the spoon. Then I took it off the heat and STIRRING  OFTEN, (because it wants to separate) I put a little into each mini muffin paper with the spoon I stirred with. They didn't look like the photo yet since the coconut oil was warmed and clear and trying to separate from the other ingredients. I popped them into the freezer for 30 minutes. It made 22 treats.

They are fast, easy, and delicious AND good for you. So, eat nine of them and tell me what you think!