***Updated***

Cheese. Considered a cheat by Paleo Purists. We hate the word cheat, by the way. So much so that we’ve written an entire post about it. Dairy is a gray area in Paleo Land and therefore considered a “Scarlett Letter” ingredient. We know that. But we have functioning brains, and decide for ourselves when and how we consume dairy. You can do whatever you want, it really doesn’t affect us. Love you, but can the dogma please. That being said, if your functioning brain tells you not to eat dairy, then we’ve added an avocado cream recipe that makes a mighty fine cheese alternative.

Ingredients

• 5 poblano* peppers
• 1 lb. fresh chorizo**, casings removed (slit the back of the sausage with a knife and unwrap the meat from the case) and crumbled
• 4 oz. mushrooms, diced
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• handful chopped cilantro
• 3 oz. raw sharp cheddar
• 2 oz. goat cheese

• 2 avocados
• 1 lime, juiced

Method

Preheat your oven to 450ºF.

Slice the tops off your poblano peppers (reserve them, minus the stem), then cut them in half, lengthwise. Remove the white membrane and the seeds. Coat in a little bit of fat and place in the oven to soften. We’re trying to roast and soften ‘em up before we stuff ‘em.

While the peppers are working in the oven, saute the chorizo, onions, garlic, mushrooms and the chopped pieces of the poblano pepper tops, until everything is soft, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheeses and cilantro.

Take the peppers out of the oven.

Using a spoon, stuff the chorizo filling into each pepper and place back into the oven to melt the cheeses and warm everything up.

If you don’t eat dairy, this is a great cheese substitute:

To make the avocado cream, use a fork to mash up the avocados with the lime juice. Serve with the rellenos.

*Poblano chile peppers are mild mexican chiles. Think of it as the less bitter, mexican version of green bell peppers. They’re found at most grocery stores, around the other chile peppers.

**If you can’t find fresh chorizo (dried chorizo is hard and usually labeled Spanish, fresh is soft and usually labeled Mexican), you could substitute fresh andouille or make the chili recipe from the chili cheese dog recipe.

Last Saturday was a busy day. After breakfast we knew we’d have no real time to eat again until that night. So we threw together the biggest, most protein and fat packed meal we could possibly conceive. It was enough food to keep a cowboy full for hours…believe me, I feed one. It’s the usual suspects here: eggs, sweet potatoes, sausage, cilantro and avocado. I was inspired by our Baked Bibimbap to make a baked version of Huevoes Rancheros. Runny yolks oozing alongside crispy, sweet potatoes and salty sausage. I’m sorry if you’re bored by my constant use of these ingredients, but I obviously am not bored (and I’m not sorry either :p). They can do no wrong in my book.

Ingredients

• 1 lb breakfast sausage
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
• 5 eggs
• 1 avocado, diced
• handful cilantro
• hot sauce
• raw cheese, optional
• s & p

Method

Preheat your oven to 400ºF.

In an oven safe skillet, we used cast iron, crumble and brown the sausage.

Once it’s brown, use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage and let it hang out while we cook the sweet potatoes. Try to reserve as much of the grease as possible.

Toss the sweet potatoes into the sausage grease and let them get crispy and cooked through.

Add the sausage back into the pan.

Make a few wells in the pan–one well for each egg. Crack your eggs into the wells.

Place the skillet in the oven. We’re just baking the skillet long enough for the eggs to set, about 5 minutes.

Now, turn the oven to broil and hit up the top side of the eggs for a few minutes, but don’t let the yolk cook all the way through–unless you don’t like runny yolks. But man, oh man, the runny yolks go down really nicely with the crispy sweet potatoes. Just sayin’.

Remove the pan from the oven and douse the whole thing with avocado, cilantro and hot sauce.

Serve by scooping out an egg, along with its neighboring goodies, with a large spoon.

Shake up the traditional meatloaf ingredients a little bit, and you’ve got a weeknight meal that packs great flavor and is ready to hit the table in less than an hour.

I wrote this recipe for Food Renegade, so you’ve gotta head over there to check it out.

View the recipe here.

Link: http://www.foodrenegade.com/chorizo-mini-meatloves/

Unless you make your own ranch or blue cheese dressing, you’re eating a lot of omega-6 laden seed oil and other fraken-ingredients. So….let’s just remove all doubt and guilt and make good ole fashioned guacamole to dip some taco spiced wings in.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs chicken wings
• F.O.C. (fat of choice)
• 2 t garlic powder
• 2 t chili powder
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1 t smoked paprika
• 1 t regular paprika
• 1/4 t cayenne pepper

For the Guac Dip

• 2 avocados
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 handful cilantro, chopped
• chili garlic sauce, to taste
• salt

Method

Move the oven rack to the upper-middle part of the oven. Place the oven on broil. Now, let’s go to wing school and learn how to prep the wings:

Save the wings tips for a quick chicken stock.

Mix the spices together. Coat the wings in the spice mix along with a few tablespoons of your F.O.C (melted). Place the wings, skin side down, on a baking sheet. Broil for about 12 minutes on this side, until crispy. Use a pair of tongs to flip over the wings to skin-side up. Continue to broil for about 20 minutes, until the skin is super crispy.

For the Guac Dip

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor, or just use a fork to smash everything together.

I had a hard time deciding what to call this recipe. It’s not really a frittata, often associated with Italy, but also means the eggs are beaten to a fluffy consistency. These weren’t. Then there’s the Spanish tortilla, which is an onion, potato, egg mixture. This really isn’t that either. So I figured I’d close my eyes, so to speak, and pick a name right down the center. Omelette, it is– even though it’s not an omelette in the traditional preparation, it’s just baked, no fancy flipping or multiple pan action needed.

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh chorizo, casing removed
• 1 red onion, diced
• 2 poblano peppers, chopped
• 1 sweet potato, chopped (I was lazy and left the skin on, couldn’t tell the difference)
• 6 oz. mushrooms, chopped
• 8 eggs
• avocado slices

Method

In an oven safe saute pan, heat it up to medium high. Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Add the sausage to the pan and let it brown–making sure you crumble it into nice size pieces as it cooks. Toss in the rest of the ingredients (minus the eggs) and let them cook through and soften, about 10 minutes. Stir everything around every once in a while as to not let anybody burn.

In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk the eggs together with about a ½ t of salt. Salt helps the egg proteins not bind too tightly together, so they won’t get too rubbery. Pour the eggs over the chorizo/veggie mixture and stir everything around to incorporate. The egg will start to cook a bit and that’s what you want to see.

Toss the pan into the oven and let it go until the eggs have set to your desired likeness. I like mine a tad underdone. Mine went for about 6 minutes, so start it checking then by pressing your hand onto the top of the omelette. It should feel firm.

Remove the pan from oven, slice and serve with some avocado slices.

A riff on one of our favorite salads from California Pizza Kitchen.

Ingredients

For the Chicken

• 1 ½ lbs. chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 2 t  paprika
• 1 t coriander
• 1 t cumin
• ½ t cinnamon
• ¼ t red pepper flakes
• salt

For the tasty stuff that goes in the salad

• 2 heads romaine lettuce
• 4 small golden beets
• 1 small-to-medium butternut squash
• toasted almonds
• dried cherries (or cranberries–something tart will work best)

For the dressing

• juice 1 lemon
• juice 1 lime
• ½ avocado
• 1-2 T vinegar (champagne or cider)
• ¼ – ½ c avocado oil (olive oil will work too)
• s&p

Method

Preheat your oven to 400ºF.

Peel the beets and butternut squash (+remove the seeds). Chop into small pieces, salt/pepper and oil the pieces. Roast until the squash is soft, about 20 minutes (depending on how big the pieces are).

While the veggies are roasting…

In a large bowl, combine all the spices together. Toss the chicken pieces into the bowl and coat them evenly with the spice mixture. Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat and saute the chicken until cooked through. Remove from the pan and add to the serving bowl.

Wash and chop the lettuce. Add it, along with the rest of the “tasty” ingredients to the serving bowl. Add the squash and beets too.

For the dressing…

Combine all ingredients into a small food processor and process until smooth. Of course, you could use a whisk and bowl, in lieu –just make sure you’ve smashed the avocado up before adding it to the dressing.

Visiting family and eating Health-Bent is always a tough situation. That’s why, most times, we just offer to cook. It a.) allows us to stay the course and b.) exposes our lovies to the way we eat. We made this for my grandmother and uncle during a visit a few months back. This meal helped convince my grandmother to start eating this way  and…I’m not making this up, she’s lost 10 pounds.

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Fried Egg Chorizo Burgers with Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb fresh chorizo, casing removed
• 2 red onions, thinly sliced
• 6-8 eggs
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 2 avocados, sliced
• 1 lime, sliced into wedges
• 6-8 slices melty cheese (muenster, gouda, fontina, jack, provolone), optional
• S&P

Method

Set your oven to 400ºF.

In a large bowl combine the beef and chorizo. Mix well with your hands. Patty the meat into as many burgers as you’d like. We made monster burgers, so we got about 6 out of the mixture.

Place the burgers on a pan (or grill them) and s&p them. Bake for about 10 minutes then add the cheese slices if you’re using them. Continue to bake until the burgers are medium to well, whatever you like best. Cooking times are going to depend on the thickness of your burger, so check them, don’t rely on our times.

While the burgers are cooking…

Using a ton of your F.O.C. (bacon grease!), over medium-low heat, with a regular pan or a non-stick saute pan (our preference here, because we used the same pan to fry the eggs (see below)), saute the onions until they’ve developed a nice carmel color–this may take a while, so if you’re in a hurry, crank up the heat and get the onions charred and crispy.

Once the burgers are done and resting…

Fry the egg to your liking in the same pan you used to caramelize the onions. Sunny side up, over easy, over hard, doesn’t matter to us–though we enjoyed a runny egg yolk, as it made a nice ‘sauce’.

To serve, top with sliced tomatoes, avocado, a squeeze of lime juice and a fried egg.

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“Oh dear Lord, not another Paleo chili recipe!” I know. You’ve seen tens if not hundreds of chili recipes and you’ve probably eaten it that many times too. You’re probably sick of it. But, please, let us explain…

Making this spice mixture yourself is the key to the unique flavor of this chili. No chili seasoning packets allowed beyond this point! We took our chili “base” and pumped it up with some fresh pumpkin (canned would work beautifully, as well). Then for le pièce de résistance, we conjured up the avocado cream–it’s like guacamole, but not, all at the same time. It’s an unexpected, quirky, refreshing boost of flavor that kicks the chili up a level.

Ingredients

For the Chili

2 lbs ground beef
1 large yellow onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 sugar pumpkin, diced (about 3 cups) or 1 ½ c canned pumpkin
1 (28 oz) can diced, fire roasted tomatoes
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (7 oz) can diced, roasted green chilies
1 c chicken or beef stock
FOC (fat of choice)
S&P

Chili Spice Mixture

2 T chili powder
2 T cumin
1 T paprika
2 t salt
2 t coriander
2 t cinnamon
2 t cocoa powder
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t cayenne

Orange, Coriander Avocado Cream

2 avocados
zest of 1 orange
juice of 2 oranges
1 t coriander
1/2 t salt

Method

For the Chili

Heat a large soup pot over medium high heat with a tablespoon of your F.O.C. Add the beef and let it brown. Try not to stir it too much until you get some color on one side but make sure you break up the pieces. This should take 5-8 minutes.

While you’re browning your beef make your spice mixture. In a medium bowl, mix up all the spices.

We like to brown the beef first so we can use the fat that renders out to cook the vegetables. So, using a slotted spoon remove the beef and place in the spice mixture bowl…leaving the fat in the pot. Add your diced onion and garlic. Let those two saute for a few minutes (3-4) stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened. Add your diced pumpkin.

Cover and cook about another 8-10  minutes, stirring occasionally until the pumpkin begins to get tender (check with a fork). Add the rest of ingredients and the beef/spice mixture. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer to let all the flavors “meld”.  When you’re happy with the texture, you’re done.

For the Cream

Add all ingredients to food processor and blend until smooth

* Update: we had a few requests for nutrition data on this one. I did my best to put it into a recipe calculator. I believe the data is pulled from the USDA database…would think it’s somewhat reliable but take it all with a grain of salt since it somehow thinks that this would have trans fat in it, and I really doubt that to be true. Keep in mind you would have to use the same percentage beef we used (80/20) for your numbers to work out the same. I have included an analysis of the pot of chili on its own and a nutrition label for 1 of 8 servings (404g). This does not include the avocado cream.

More sausage! Brandon was supposed to make dinner tonight and well, I kind of took over. He wanted breakfast for dinner and I’m totally in to that, don’t get me wrong. Problem is, we’re going out of town, out of the country actually, for the next 5 days and I had some stuff I wanted to use up in the fridge.  So we melded our ‘wants’ and came up with this beauty.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. link sausage*
• 6 eggs
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1 avocado, chopped
• Salsa**

Method

For the sausage, use a knife to split the link 3/4 of the way through and use your fingers to split it flat. Cook the sausages in a saute pan, that’s on medium high heat, with the casing side down. Why? Because the casing needs to render out otherwise the sausage will curl up,  won’t crisp up and will taste oddly chewy.

While the sausage is browning, whisk together the eggs with a bit of salt. Remember, the salt helps keep the eggs tender. After the sausage is done, scramble the eggs in the sausage renderings, however you like–runny, slightly runny, hard and rubbery.

To serve, lay a few sausage links down on your plate, top with eggs, spoon with salsa and then sprinkle the green onions and avocado on top.

*We used plain, breakfast sausage, simply because that’s all I had in the freezer. Crumbled sausage or Chorizo would be fab-u-lous here too. I’d be interested to hear how a smoked sausage, like Andouille would be.

**We used a chipotle salsa and it was magical. If I had green salsa, that would have been on there too!

These take literally less than 30 minutes to make. The leftovers are awesome cold and would be great for lunch. Only drawback, they’re a little messy. Well, Brandon is usually the messy eater and didn’t have a problem, but myself, the neat one, had the sauce dripping down my hands. Nothing I couldn’t lick up though…hehe.

Ingredients

• 3 T oil of your choice
• 1 lb. chicken breasts or ground chicken
• 4 oz. shiitake mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• handful of cilantro, chopped
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 c wheat free soy sauce
• 1 t chili garlic sauce
• 1 t sesame oil
• iceberg or bibb lettuce
• 1 avocado, sliced

Method

Heat a saute pan with 2 T oil. Cut the chicken into the smallest pieces possible and add the pan. Don’t worry about overcrowding the pan, the chicken doesn’t need to brown, just cook it until it’s done all the way through.

While the chicken is cooking, add the lemon juice, chili sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, green onions and cilantro into a serving bowl.

Once the chicken is done, add it the bowl.

Add a few more glugs of oil to the saute pan and toss in the mushrooms, onion and garlic. Saute until golden, about 10 minutes. Add to the bowl. Toss everything around to coat.

Remove the stem of your lettuce head with a knife (if you’re using iceberg, slice the head in 1/2, lengthwise). Peel the lettuce into individual “cups” and wash.

Pile the chicken into your lettuce cups and top with avocado.