Category Archives: Fruit

Food in technocolor

January 23, 2012 4:16 pmLeave a Comment

Our food has never been so colorful. So full of flavor. We recently watched the documentary Forks Over Knives (wow, I just now get what the title means. Am I the most clueless person ever? I’m thinking yes. Forks over knives. Eat food that requires use of forks instead of knives. Ie: veggies are better than meat.. duh. Makes total sense now. Geez…).

Where was I? Oh yes, we watched that documentary and found it fascinating and just a bit exciting. Not that I’m going to hold to that philosophy in its entirety. We still eat meat and will continue to do so but I’ve cut back in the amount and upped our veggie intake even further.

colorful food!
excuse the photos – taken in a hurry with my iPhone

Look at that plate filled with glorious color. It’s like a painting. Red, green, orange, black, yellow, purple. Vibrant colors that are just bursting with flavor. So much more welcoming to the taste buds than bland rice or a bowl of oatmeal. And infinitely better for you.

Our breakfasts typically look something like this: sliced zucchini, green peppers, sweet peppers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, black olives, yellow squash, etc. Some days I’ll scramble some eggs over the top or like today, we’ll have some diced up ham. Toss it all in a frying pan with coconut oil and you have a meal that satisfies for hours (we ate 6 hours ago and I’m just now making dinner… I’m hungry but certainly not *starving to death*) and is so chock full of good health, it should come with a prescription. Or at the very least, a brownie point. (mmm.. brownies… best not to go there)

It will take some time for us to arrive at our permanent way of eating. There is so much information out there that one could literally follow a new whole-food diet of some kind or another every day and not run out of different viewpoints over months of doing this. For us, it boils down to several important facts.

1. Whole foods only.

2. Emphasis on fresh vegetables.

3. No processed food. No sugar. No soy. No dairy, corn, gluten (of course), grains of any kind, legumes, potatoes. No natural sugars (honey, agave – horribly allergic to that anyway – and the like). No artificial sweeteners or sugar-subs.

I have learned to love fruit again. I made a list of all the low-glycemic fruits and we have small bowls at breakfast and then for dessert after dinner. Berries, oranges, grapes. Delicious. Fresh. Healthy.

colorful food!
And look at the color. That is real food, folks. Good for you and great tasting. Is it any wonder that I now wake up in the morning craving my breakfast fry-up of assorted veggies? Yum.

(Those sweet peppers are like candy. Crunchy, sweet, bursting with garden-fresh flavor. Nom. Nom.)

Posted in breakfast, chit chat, fruit, vegetables

I’ll have a Waldorf Salad… hold the waldorfs

January 10, 2012 7:05 pmLeave a Comment

My husband and I just love the old tv show “Fawlty Towers.” Inspired by the rude behaviour of the proprietor of a hotel in the seaside town of Torquay, on the “English Riviera”, the show follows Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) in his running of the fictional Fawlty Towers hotel in the same area. It’s truly hysterical. And one of our favorite episodes is “Waldorf Salad“…

American tourist Mr. Hamilton checks in with his wife late one evening. They want a hot meal, but Terry, the cook, has finished his shift. Hamilton bribes Basil to keep the kitchen open, but Terry leaves after a dispute with Basil about overtime. Hamilton orders items not on the menu and, in a panic, Basil tries to prepare the meal while maintaining the pretence that there is a chef slaving away in the kitchen.

So when it came time post about my paleo-friendly chicken salad, I immediately thought of this episode and the title of the post came to me. Just in case you were wondering why I was asking to hold the waldorfs in the waldorf salad…

My chicken salad is made with 4 basic ingredients: homemade, paleo-approved mayo; chicken; grapes, celery. You can add apples or walnuts if desired – but I *hate* walnuts and am just now coming to the point of being able to eat almonds and other tree nuts without wanting to vomit. I’ve been a life-long and avowed nut hater and the thought of actually adding nuts to my dishes isn’t quite yet a welcome one.

For my waldorf-free salad, I used mayo that I had made with a combination of olive oil and avocado oils. Thus the slight yellow/green tint you’ll see in the photos. That’s the goodness of the avocado shining through. Yum.

Because I was lazy and didn’t feel like cooking an entire chicken, letting it cool, and then picking the meat apart — I bought some of the chopped up pre-cooked chicken breast from Costco. Minimal ingredients. No sugar added. Quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive.

chicken salad with paleo mayo

This is a super simple salad. It’ll take longer to make the mayo then it will to put the salad together. I’ll be posting about homemade mayo in a future post so in the meantime, here are a few great links if you’ve never made your own and would like to learn how. Or, you could purchase one of my recommended reading cookbooks and follow the recipe there. Each is delicious and makes a perfect mayo.

paleo-friendly mayo recipe 1
paleo-friendly mayo recipe 2

Chicken Salad (and no waldorfs!)

this recipe doesn’t use measurements – they are not needed

cooked chicken breast, chopped or pulled into small pieces
seedless grapes
celery stalks
homemade mayo
salt, pepper

Cut the grapes in half lengthwise. Dice celery into smallish pieces. Combine with chicken and add mayo as desired — more for a creamier salad, less for a drier salad.

Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over fresh spinach leaves, wrapped inside romaine lettuce, or eat straight out of the bowl. It’s very yummy and hits every nutritional requirement: protein, veggies, fats, fruit. Nom. Nom.

We like our non-waldorf salad served over fresh spinach leaves. One of my husband’s favorite lunches or midday snacks.
chicken salad with paleo mayo

Posted in comfort food, fruit, lunch

Curried Fruit

January 7, 2012 7:04 pm1 Comment

I used to love curried fruit as a child. My mom would make giant crock pots of the stuff and we would enjoy it for days. It was a staple at potlucks and family get togethers. Spicy, fruity, and so very sweet. Toothachingly sweet. Overnight cavities sweet. Crazed hyperactivity sweet. Sugar on top of canned fruit, which is made with sugar – curried fruit is a definite paleo and diabetic no no.

Unless you remove the sugar. The American diet is pumped full of sugar. It’s in everything. Don’t believe me? Go to the grocery store and look at any random 12 labels. I guarantee you, there will be sugar listed in at least 10 of them.. if not all 12. Thank goodness they haven’t figured out how to put sugar molecules into whole foods. Yet!

curried fruit
After our delicious venison chili dinner tonight, I was in the mood for some fruit. Something a bit sweet. With a kick. It’s almost time to hit the grocery store again and refill the paleo frig, but I had some fruit left so it was time to recreate that childhood favorite – paleo style.

For my curry, I chose some frozen peach slices, a few stalks of fresh cut pineapple, and couple of raisins. A few days ago I would have added a few grapes and some mangoes along with a sliced apple but alas, the frig is nearly empty! At least I was well stocked with coconut products: coconut milk (from the can), coconut oil, coconut butter (aka: coconut manna).

curried fruit
The end result was different than the curried fruit of my childhood – but in the best possible way. I don’t miss feeling heavy and slowed down by massive sugar consumption. As does my blood sugar levels!

Curried Fruit

2 cups fresh or frozen fruit (peaches, pears, apples, pineapple, mangoes, grapes, etc – sliced or cut into chunks)
2-3 tbl raisins, optional
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
2 Tbl coconut oil
2 Tbl coconut butter
1 tbl curry powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground star anise
mint leaves, garnish

Heat oil, coconut butter, coconut milk over medium heat in large frying pan. Stir in spices. Boil for a minute or so to combine and then add all fruit.

Cook until fruit is softened or heated through. Serve in small bowls garnished with mint leaves or dried mint. Serves 4.

Posted in comfort food, fruit, spicesTagged , ,