Stephanie here…

This salad was served at our local PCC several times this summer. The first time I had it, they had cut long ribbon-like noodles. The second time, it was cut more like I have done it here, except with more of a spiral noodle cut. I liked it EVERY way I had it.

Re-making this salad proved to be fairly simple. Make a basic pesto with sun-dried tomatoes thrown in and leave out the pine nuts and the parmesan, then toss it with your zucchini noodles/ribbons and you’re good to go. The one at PCC had almonds in it, too, but I liked mine better without them.

Pesto Zucchini “Noodle” Salad

about a lb. of zucchini (usually takes 3-4 medium zukes for me)

2 cups of lightly packed basil
2-4 T olive oil
2-4 cloves of minced garlic
2-4 sundried tomatoes (In Oil)
1 Tbsp of lemon juice
lemon zest (1/2 lemon)
Sea Salt to taste

Make your zucchini into noodles, either with a mandoline, a food processor or a cheese grater. Press the water out of them with a clean towel.

In a food processor, process all other ingredients (NOT ZUKES) to make the pesto. Mix pesto with zucchini and refrigerate for an hour or two.

I took this to a few different events this summer and got rave reviews. People couldn’t believe how good the zucchini noodles were. It’s fresh and flavorful!

Stephanie here…

Kate inspired me earlier this year with her post on snacks. She had a picture of the Hail Merry macaroons. I had seen them in the store, but hadn’t tried them. After looking them up, I added them to my “to do” list.

I started with a recipe from Tracey at the I’m No Superhuman blog and as usual tweaked it a bit. I can’t stay away from these little puppies and the whole family LOVES them.

Raw Macaroons

2 cups shredded coconut, unsweetened
1/2 cup almond flour (Honeyville)
1/4 cup coconut butter (I made it with CCK’s help)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Mix all ingredients together. Press into little molds and freeze for 10 minutes. Pop out and store refrigerated so they don’t become misshapen.

Next time, I plan to either stir in cocoa or nibs OR paint the bottoms of the cups with dark chocolate before plopping the coconut mixture in the molds. I’ll post pics as I can!

Stephanie here…

After eating a wonderful ground chicken dish a few months back at a local Thai restaurant, I thought, “Hey, I can make this!” That is what I usually end up thinking, because I’m cheap. Well, this one took a few tries to learn what I liked and what I didn’t like. I do like this dish made with ground chicken thighs, I do not like it as well made with ground chicken breasts, but it was not bad, just dry and lacking in flavor compared to it’s dark counterpart. I’ve consulted many recipes in cookbooks, many thoughts online about this dish. This one is a major mixture of all I’ve learned and is very simple. Most of all, it’s very like the one I had at the restaurant!

Gai Pad Krapow
1 pound of ground chicken thighs (make your own with your handy little food processor)
2-4 T. coconut oil
several cloves of minced garlic (how much do you like the garlic?)
2 cups of basil leaves, ribboned (I used Thai basil in most of my attempts, but the regular basil was delish too)
1 t. or more of Huy Fong’s Chili Garlic Sauce
2 T fish sauce
1 T honey

Have all ingredients ready to go. Mix chili garlic sauce, fish sauce, honey and set aside.Heat a cast iron skillet (I used a 12 inch skillet) over medium high heat. Heat the oil and add the ground chicken. Saute until pink is no more. Add garlic and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add basil and sauce and stir fry until basil wilts. Serve by itself or with some cauliflower rice.

I also added zucchini and mushrooms to several of the different makings of this and it was wonderful that way too. Give it a try. It’s a lovely addition to my paleo options!

One June day while trying to frantically fit in more errands than one school day will allow, I became hungry. I stopped into the gigantic Whole Foods in Bellevue and checked out their deli. I’d had the curried chicken salad and wasn’t in the mood for that, but next to it was their Blackened Chicken Salad. Well, I like my blackening seasoning and I like my chicken, so that sounded pretty good to me, you know. It WAS good. So good that I peeled the ingredients list off with the determination to re-make that lovely dish so that I could have it anytime I wanted to! It looks like this:

CRACKS ME UP to post pics like this, but at least you get the gist. I’m going to have to take a class on food photography.

Here’s my take of Blackened Chicken Salad:
3 chicken breasts, poached and sliced (you can chop it if you like, but they sliced it and I liked that)
2-4 green onions with greens, sliced up nicely
1 c. paleo mayo
1 T. country or dijon mustard
1 T. Apple Cider Vinegar
2 T. Blackening Seasoning

Mix all but the chicken breasts together well and then toss with the chicken. Wrap it up in some lettuce or just eat it and enjoy!

Blackening Seasoning is easily made at home by mixing 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, 2 t. fennel, 1 t. thyme, 1 tsp paprika, 2 t. mustard seeds, 1 t. red pepper flakes, 1 t. garlic powder in a spice grinder and pulsing until powdery. Makes a nice coating for grilling foods, too!

Couple of ideas I’ll pursue the next few times I make this: Grilling the chicken for an alternative, and perhaps adding bacon crumbles to the poached variety.

Stephanie here…

Do you ever have those times in Paleo life where you run across an old favorite recipe and go “Wow, this can be made Paleo, I love this!” That happened last week. I was recalling a recipe from Annabel Karmel’s First Foods cookbook. It was a favorite cookbook and this chicken recipe knocked our socks off.

Caramelized Chicken and Onions (slightly modified, because, well, that’s what I do)

Ingredients

1 Tbsp coconut oil
1-2 onions, sliced thinly on mandoline More »

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