Spinach Omelet with Pesto

3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup frozen spinach or 1/4 cup cooked/wilted
1/4 cup zucchini linguini
1 Tbsp Cilantro Pablano Pesto (or any pesto you've made recently)
Grilled onions
Roasted red peppers
Avocado slices
Hot sauce (I used Chipotle Tobasco, my FAVORITE.)
Chili Cilantro Aioli (optional, but recommended)


Heat spinach (thaw if it's frozen) and mix together with pesto and zucchini. Scramble eggs and cook in a pan (duh). Mix onions and peppers into the spinach-pesto mix. When eggs are almost cooked, put veggies in the middle and fold. When the eggs finish cooking and the veggies inside are warm enough (you might want to heat them before you put them in the omelet if they're not already hot) remove from pan an put on plate. Top with avocado and hot sauce.

Italian Sausage Stuffed Zucchini

For the sausage:

1 lb ground pork
1/2 Tbsp fennel seeds, toasted
1 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.

For the zucchini:

6-8 small zucchinis

Cut the tops off the zucchini, then cut them in half, lengthwise, and scoop out seeds. Stuff with sausage. Bake at 350 for 45 mins - 1 hour.

Boiled Bone Dog (or Cat) Treats

Halle

Step One: Make bone broth. I use the Balanced Bites recipe. It's simple and easy. Do not use onions to make your broth if you plan on feeding these treats to dogs. I'm not sure about cats, but I've heard that onions aren't good for dogs. The bones must be soft enough to grind, so if you're using bones from large animals (cows, bison, lamb, etc) make sure they have been boiled for a long time. You don't want to break your meat grinder!

Step Two: When you strain your bone broth, try to separate as much of the garlic from the bones as possible. You could omit the garlic to make this easier, but then your broth won't taste as good. The only vegetable I use to make broth is garlic. If you use carrots to make broth and they turn to mush and you can't separate them from the bones, it's ok. Garlic might not be good for dogs, but carrots are fine.

Step Three: Grind bones in a meat grinder. I use the meat grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer and it works fine. The bones are pretty mushy after boiling for 24 hours. Since I have a small dog, I use the coarse grind first and then run it through a second time with the fine grind. I've never tried a food processor for this.

Step Four: Line food dehydrator trays with parchment. Scoop pureed bone mush into desired size and shape. I like 1/8 cup for my 50 lbs pitbull and 60 lbs lab mix and 1 tsp - 1/2 a Tbsp for my 17 lbs pug. For fun, you can use cookie cutters to shape the treats. 

Step Five - Dry on 155 degrees for 12-24 hours depending on climate. I live in a vast desert wasteland so it doesn't take long for me.

Hazel and Jack

Step Six - make your pet happy.

Cole Slaw

In my quest to get Nikos to eat more vegetable, I made cole slaw.

2 tsp salt
6 cups shredded red cabbage
6 cups shredded green cabage
2 carrots, shredded
1/2 cup paleo mayonnaise (or more if you like it extra creamy)
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1/2 tsp caraway seeds

Combine cabbage and salt and mix thoroughly. Drain in a colander for about an hour. Squeeze out the excess water.

Heat seeds in a pan and toast until fragrant.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the vinegar, seeds and mayonnaise. add the cabbage and carrots and mix thoroughly. It's good to prepare it a day in advance because it tastes better on the second day.

Mayonnaise

I have several recipes for aioli and flavored mayo, but none for plain mayonnaise. Mostly because it's more fun to add flavor and you can find a basic mayonnaise recipe anywhere. This is what I used in my cole slaw recipe. I figured if I publish the cole slaw recipe I should include a recipe for mayo on the site for easy reference.

1 egg
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
juice from 1 lemon
1 tsp dry mustard powder
1/2 tsp salt
pepper
3/4 cup olive oil

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a food processor. blend thoroughly. slowly drizzle the mayonnaise in while blending. Once all of the olive oil is in, keep blending for a couple more minutes. store in a glass container and refrigerate.

Baconated Bananas

You're Welcome.

Ingredients:
Bananas
Bacon
Nut butter
Dark Chocolate (optional)

No exact measurements here. Slice banana into 1" chunks, then slice chunks lengthwise. Spread nut butter on the banana chunks. If you're using chocolate, break a square into small bits and place chocolate on the nut butter on the banana. Match up your banana halves and wrap in bacon. Fry in pan until bacon is crispy and chocolate is melted. Enjoy.

Bay Scallops with Squash Linguini

Making linguini out of butternut squash is freakin awesome. I like it better than spaghetti squash. Nikos thought this was one of the best meals I ever made for him. He likes everything I cook for him, or at least he tells me so. 

1 Tbsp ghee or clarified butter (or more if you really like ghee)
1/2 cup chopped fennel bulb
3 cups butternut squash, spiral sliced or julienned
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp anise seeds

1 Tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1 lb Bay Scallops
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 lemon juice

Cut butternut squash into quarters. then cut into chucks that will fit into your spiral slicer.

Heat 1 Tbsp of ghee in a pan. Add fennel and cook for about a minute, then add squash and spices and toss. Saute for about 10 minutes. While that's going on, heat the other Tbsp of ghee and add garlic. after about 30 seconds, add scallops. those will cook fast, so when they're done, take a slotted spoon and remove the scallops. If the squash is cooked, put that on low and throw the scallops in. Squeeze the 1/2 lemon into the empty pan with the scallop liquid. Reduce liquid until it thickens, then add it to the pan with scallops and squash, toss and serve.

Sweet Bacon Crusted Pumpkin Pie

Last year I made a savory bacon crusted pumpkin pie to have as a side dish. This year, thought it would try a dessert. I'm not a big dessert eater and I think paleo dessert is an oxymoron, unless you're eating berries. This is a nice treat for the paleo eater who has been good all year and wants a clean dessert.




Ingredients
1 12 oz pack of bacon
1 1/2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/8 cup maple syrup (or more if you like it sweeter)
1/2 Tbsp coconut butter
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

I did something a little different this time, I poked holes in an aluminum pie plate and placed it on top of a stoneware pie plate to let the bacon grease drip off. I lined the pie plate with half the bacon and set it under the broiler for about 10-15 minutes. I drained off the excess grease and lined the same plate with the other half of the bacon. When that was done, I let the bacon cool so I could line the whole plate with all the bacon since the bacon shrinks. In a mixing bowl, combine all the other ingredients and fill bacon crust. Bake at 350 for about an hour let cool and serve.

Salmon Bacon Awesome

This was a quick dinner that turned out awesome. Everything is better with bacon.

1 lb Salmon
4 oz bacon
Dill Aioli
1 Avocado
Sundried tomatoes chopped into bits
Juice from 1 lemon
Salt, pepper, dill, oregano, garlic powder


Marinate salmon in lemon juice and sprinkle with salt, pepper dill, garlic powder and oregano. let stand for about 30 minutes. Cook bacon until it crisps slightly. liberally spread bacon and sundried tomatoes on top of salmon and grill until salmon starts to flake. (approx 10 minutes). Serve with Dill Aioli and avocado.

Dill Aioli

This is awesome with bacon wrapped scallops Works well with salmon too.

1 egg
Juice from 1 lemon
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
3/4 cup olive oil

Leave all ingredients out so they're at room temperature. Combine first 6 ingredients in a food processor. Blend thoroughly. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil. You don't want to do this all at once. Take your time; it should be a thin drizzle. once thoroughly combined, put into a container and refrigerate.