I found coconut flour and almond meal at a little Mom'n'Pop grocery near my house. It calls itself a "farmer's market," but the produce is largely unremarkable. What is remarkable is the wide variety of imports that are hard to find elsewhere, including all manner of coconut products and Asian and Latin American spices and seasonings.

They also had 25-lb Jack fruit! They were enormous and ugly, and another customer (Filipino, I think) assured me that they were "an acquired taste." Anyone ever had Jack fruit?

By the way, don't you think a handful of fresh cherries would be good with that coconut porridge instead of sweetener? Did I mention that I love cherries? And apricots. And peaches. And plums. And mangoes.

As long as there is so much beautiful fresh summer fruit available to me, I am taking a long walk everyday after lunch. When it gets too hot to walk outdoors, I'll stop eating the fruit. We'll see if the extra exercise offsets the extra sugar.

Here's a recipe for Avgolemno, the Greek egg and lemon soup. It's extremely simple to make and is fantastic when anyone is feeling sick and not in the mood to eat.

Ingredients:

Good chicken stock (preferably homemade)
fresh juice of 1-3 lemons
3 eggs
salt and pepper

rice or pastine (if making for others)

I always recommend buying a good, organic/free range/no antibiotics bird to either boil or roast. I prefer the bones of roasted birds to make stock with. Check your local coop or farmer's market for carcasses to make soup. You of course can use canned broth or boullion, but I just don't think it tastes the same.

I simmer my bones with a carrot, half an onion, 4 cloves, 1 bay leaf, and some whole peppercorns for 2-3 hours, although 45 minutes will suffice for whole legs alone, 1.5 hours for a whole chicken.

1. Drain stock into a clean pan and bring to a simmer. Add ground pepper and rice or pastine if using and cook until done.

2. in a seperate bowl, stir eggs well. Add juice of 1 lemon and stir until color has lightened and is a bit frothy.

3. Stirring quickly all the time to keep the eggs from curdling, slowly ladle or spoon the hot stock into the bowl. When the eggs are warm, stir the whole mixture back into the pot and remove from the heat.

4. Season to taste, adding more lemon juice if necessary, and serve immediately.

Your chicken stock should have a jelly like consistency when refridgerated overnight. This is also a great way to get rid of any excess fat, which is easily scooped from the top.

M

I'm not familiar with the books since my diet just consists of meat meat meat meat and limited dairy, but looking over some of the recipes it seems cream is allowed. If it isn't, just ignore this.

BF and I came up with a great way to get a morning breakfast in and to introduce raw eggs into our diet. Takes a total of 30 seconds to prepare. It is kind of like egg nog.

4 Large Raw Eggs
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
SF Vanilla Syrup (or you could just use vanilla but the syrup gets rid of the need to add powder splenda which adds carbs)
Cinnamon (to taste)
Nutmeg (to taste)

Blend in a blender till smooth. Pour over a large cup of ice and let cool. Enjoy.

He also has recently branched out

4 Large Raw Eggs
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
SF Chocolate Divinci syrup or SF chocolate syrup of any kind

Blend, pour over ice, let cool. Enjoy.

I'm sure he'll try many more flavors. I may have to try strawberry some day soon. The base of this recipe, four eggs and half cup of cream, according to Fitday has

709 Calories
64g Fat
27g Protein
6g Carb

80 % Cal from Fat
17 % Cal from Protein
3 % Cal from Carb

Fits almost perfectly into the 70-80 percent from fat/20-30 percent from protein model with a max of 5 percent from carb.

There may be other carbs added in there from the syrup or if you decide to use flavor and splenda. But overall a good breakfast and fills you up.

I've got cinnamon, fresh nutmeg (awesome stuff) and butter in my Paleo porridge today. Oh yeah, and butter. :)

how to use up a whole bulb of fennel
 

FENNEL! how to use a whole bulb with no waste
------------------------------------------------

First, go gathering and find yourself the biggest bulb of fennel that you can. Make sure it has lots of nice stalks and fronds on it.

Bring it home, remove the fronds and reserve them. Cut the tough bottom off of the bulb. Then slice the bulb very thinly with whatever method you have available to you - knife, food processor, mandoline. Save the stalks.

Take your sliced fennel and toss it with some EVOO, a splash of vinegar, and a nice pinch of reserved fronds. Enjoy your fennel salad. If you want to get really fancy, add some orange segments or pomegranate seeds to it. I usually don't.

Take your leftover stalks and bottoms and put them into a pot with some chicken stock, a sliced leek, a splash of white wine vinegar, and some salt and pepper. Cook, covered, until the fennel and leeks are soft. Put into a blender and process until smooth. You can add more chicken stock if you need to. Pour into a bowl and top with some reserved fronds and some crumbled pancetta or bacon. Enjoy your delicious creamy springy green soup.

I finally tried the avocado mousse that Kallyn posted. I used the original as written in Garden of Eating and next time I'm going to use Kallyn's revised version.

It is really fantastic! I loathe avocados but don't taste them at all. It was just a beautiful chocolate pudding. I didn't get a whipped mousse texture, probably because I didn't use the dates.

For those who still use artificial sweeteners, I can report that replacing the dates with sweetzfree worked very well, although I'm still working out how much.

Yay for a rich fatty food source.

That's great news Bat! I know you had had trouble finding fatty stuff. :)

I have a potential concept...

Bacon wrapped dates

I went to a interesting restaurant that has little foods, like tapas only not spanish. One of the dishes was Bacon wrapped dates, they had cheese in the middle, definitely not paleo. But I was thinking one could put something else in the middle.

They were insanely good. :P

fake tortilla soup
 

TORTILLA-LESS SOUP serves 1
-------------------------------
First, for dinner the night before, throw a beef roast in the crock pot with a jar of salsa verde for 8 hours, shred, and serve however you like it. Save any leftover beef and some of the juices.

The next day, put the following in a pot and simmer for 5-7 min:
leftover beef/salsa (I think I used about 3/4 cup)
chicken stock (again, about 3/4 cup)
shredded carrot (1/2 a large carrot)
frozen okra (about 1 cup)
fresh cilantro (to taste)

While it is simmering, slice up an avocado and layer half of the slices on the bottom of a bowl. Pour the hot soup on top of the avocado, garnish with a little more fresh cilantro, and serve! Save the rest of the avocado for a little guac or salad garnish or a pudding base.

If there are non-paleos about, cut a corn tortilla into strips, gently saute in a little olive oil til crispy, salt, and serve on top of the soup.

Awww, avocados steal my soul! This sounds really good!

Nancy I want you to know, I haven't eaten a pig in over 12 years and I haven't been able to quit craving this since the day it was posted. Such an odd combo but it sounds fantastic. Perhaps you could use an almond or something to stuff the date with.

It was an amazing combination. :) I was thinking some sort of nut paste in the middle would be tasty.

I have bacon, I have nuts... just need to get the dates.

I adore bacon wrapped dates!
They're really fantastic stuffed with goat cheese. :(

I think a toasted almond would do well. Tahini might work. Cashew butter?

You guys are evil. :p

Hazelnut butter!

Yum - we always made bacon wrapped dates during the holidays.

Bumping so I can search for a coconut milk ice cream recipe.

(later) Ack! Help!

We don't HAVE a recipe for coconut milk ice cream!

Please post one if you have one!

I've made Thai-style coconut ice cream. Dairy-free and no sweetener! Here is the first recipe that came up on google, and it looks pretty similar to the one I made:
http://importfood.com/recipes/thaiicecream.html

what would happen if i used four eggs instead of two eggs and two yolks? (i don't have any cook's instinct about this type of thing!)

Thai Inspired BBQ Chicken

Take a few TBL of chopped cilantro (stems, leaves, whatever you've got), about 1/3 of that quantity of mint, onion (I used powdered or minced because I HATE CHOPPING ONIONS!), and lime or lemon juice (enough to make it all kind of watery). Put it into a blender or processor and whir it until it is well mixed.

Soak the chicken in that mixture until your BBQ is ready. Slap the chicken on the BBQ and grill until done. Be sure to pour the marinade over the chicken breasts and that the herbs stick to the chicken, I scraped them out of the bowl it was marinating in.

It is very refreshing and light. I served it with Sweet and Sour Veggie salad and Thai peanut sauce. It was GREAT!

Lemon Treats
 

Copied from the Whole Foods site. I'm trying this the next time I'm treating myself, without the dried coconut (YUCK). Maybe this weekend. (See, we have something in common with the vegans after all!)

Lemon Treats

Low-Sodium, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Vegan

Tart lemon, nutty walnuts and sesame seeds, rich coconut and smooth, sweet dates come together to make these delightfully refreshing treats.
Makes about 18

* 1 cup chopped pitted dates
* 1/4 cup lemon juice
* 2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
* 1 cup raw walnuts
* 1 cup sesame seeds
* 1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut flakes

Place dates, lemon juice and zest, walnuts and sesame seeds in a food processor. Pulse and blend until completely mixed. The mixture will be slightly sticky. With dampened hands, roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls. Roll in coconut and chill until ready to serve.

I just invented this practically* paleo salad and I've made 3 batches in the last week. I'm craving it so much I had it for breakfast, so I must share.

1 16? oz can quartered artichokes
1 same size can artichoke bottoms cut into bite sized chunks
1 jar of palm hearts. (My jar has 7 hearts, about 4 in long) Cut into disks.

1 palm full (1T maybe?) each dried tarragon, basil, and chervil. Mix with some (1/2c maybe) vinegar, I like to mix apple cider and red wine and let soak a few minutes.

Dump everything in a bowl and add olive oil until you like the coating. Best if chilled before serving.

Seriously, my new favorite food and absolutely perfect for the unrelenting heat we're having out here.

*Practically because it required canned food, which I don't usually use, but starting with fresh artichokes wouldn't really do it in this case.

Beef cheeks
 

Beef cheeks are very flavoursome and if cooked for a long time, are extremely tender.
This recipe from our local ABC broadcaster: ground almonds can substitute for the flour.

You need:

4 large beef cheeks
4 rashers bacon
4 medium brown onions
12 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
4 sticks celery
1 medium leek
2 large carrots
2 red capsicum
4 egg tomatoes
2 tablespoons oil
seasoned flour
1 1/2 cups red wine
fresh thyme
salt
pepper
1 dessertspoon sugar
flour
2 litres beef stock

Method:

1.Remove fat and sinew and cut cheeks in half. Cut bacon in lardons, peel and dice vegetables.

2.Using a stainless steel pot, heat oil. Toss cheeks in seasoned flour and shake off excess. Brown in oil on both sides, then set aside.

3.Saute vegetables until golden brown, sprinkle with a little flour, add wine and reduce a little. Add cheeks, thyme, seasoning and stock and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook in 150deg.C. oven for approximately 1 1/2 hours.

4.When meat is cooked, remove cheeks and reduce sauce to a good consistency. Return cheeks to sauce and keep warm until ready to serve. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes topped with gremolata.

Kelp Noodle Pad Thai
 

Kelp Noodle Pad Thai (Can be made 100% paleo)

1 Tbl Fish Sauce
1 Tbl soy Sauce
Package of kelp noodles
1/4 pd chicken or pork
1/4 pd shrimp
Dried red pepper flakes (to taste)
1 egg (beaten)
1/4 cup of chopped nuts (I used cashews)
1 Tbl of sweetener
1 Tbl of roughly chopped garlic
1 Tbl of chopped shallot (I used the white part of scallions)
3 Scallions (green onions)
1/2 Cup of mung bean sprouts (optional)
3 Tbl of oil
Minced cilantro


Assemble the ingredients

Saute garlic and shallots in oil until brown. Add in the chicken and shrimp and cook until done. Add in the soy and fish sauces and the sweetener. Dump in the noodles and cook until they're soft and clear, mix in with the other stuff. Push the noodles to the side and pour the egg into the pan. Scramble it on the side. Stir into the noodles when it is done. Add in the red pepper flakes. Toss in the green onions, cook for a bit. Toss in the sprouts (optional). Remove from pan and top with chopped nuts and cilantro.

DELICIOUS!

I'm going to try that Pad Thai recipe soon. Thanks, Nancy.

The original recipe had 2 Tbl of Soy and 3 Tbl of Fish sauce but it was WAY too salty. I love this Thai cookbook but she uses too much fish sauce. :p

Mango Pudding
 

I was horribly jonesing for something sweet last night and found Frozen mango slices in my freezer (probably been in there 2 years... but I was desparate!). So I heated the mango in the microwave, poured coconut milk on top and heated that. It was really nice!

Last night for the first time I tried thickening a sauce with and egg yolk. It worked BEAUTIFULLY. I can't believe it took me so long to try.

It does work well! Bernaise, Hollandaise... all use egg yolk. Only problem is reheating it doesn't work so well.

APPLE ROASTED CHICKEN:
-------------------------
this recipe is adapted from The Silver Spoon italian cookbook

1 whole chicken
2 apples, grated
4-6 strips of bacon
black pepper and salt to taste

preheat the oven to 475
wash the chicken and pat it dry, then arrange in a roasting pan breast side up
rub salt into the skin
stuff the grated apples into the body cavity and then seal it shut with either string or a toothpick
wrap one piece of bacon around each drumstick/leg, then arrange remaining bacon across the top of the bird (or just wrap your birdy in bacon any which way you want, this is just how I did it)
season with black pepper
roast at 475 for 20-30 min, then lower the oven temperature to 350 and cook until your bird is done (cooking times will vary depending on how big it is)

I made this for family over the weekend and they loved it!