Category Archives: paleo

How to Get Rid of Dead Bananas and Avocados

The other day when we were dropping the glambaby back home, my daughter-in-love, Nikki, asked if I wanted four avocados. They were pretty ripe and she wasn’t going to use them. I love avocados so I said sure.

I needed to use them right away, though, four of them. They were very ripe. That’s a lot of avocado for me to eat alone. I remembered seeing a chocolate avocado pudding recipe so I searched for it. Since I also had some dead bananas, it was a perfect thing to use the avocados for.

I thought, just maybe, that if it was good enough, David would eat it. And he did. He said it had an unusual flavor but he liked it. Awesome!

So today, I still had two very ripe avocados and two very ripe bananas left. On Tuesday, Nikki had given me some dates so I decided that I would make a chocolate pie with these things. I made the chocolate avocado pudding I made last night and then made Fudge Babies into a pie crust.

I’m really looking forward to trying this after dinner. It looks delish! The best part is, it’s healthy and has no sugar in it. 🙂

Sumo Mandarin

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Today, after we picked up the glambaby, we stopped by the grocery store to get a couple of things. While we were in one aisle we saw a picture of a peach and she thought it was an apple. So I thought we should go over to the fruit to see if we could find a peach to show her the difference.

There were no peaches but there were these:

Sumo Mandarin Oranges.

They are kind of ugly but the glambaby was attracted to it. We looked at all of the oranges and she decided she wanted to take this one home with us.

We opened it up at lunch and I ws a little worried about it because one section tore and it looked like it could be dry and tasteless.

But it wasn’t! I twas delicious and sweet. It was kind of pricey and it was definitely ugly but it was a nice treat.

Have you ever eaten a fruit that surprised you in its taste?

Coffee Rubbed Steak

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I have found something else to do with my Eight O’Clock Coffee. Coffee Rubbed Steak!

I found this recipe in my travels through the interwebs and it looked delicious.

I made it for dinner last night. After grinding the coffee very finely, I mixed the rest of the spices with it and rubbed it into both sides of the meat.

It didn’t say in the recipe to do this but I did this a couple of hours before I planned to cook the steak, then covered and put it in the refrigerator. Also, although we normally don’t add sugar to things, I did add the 1/2 TBS of brown sugar because it wasn’t very much and I wanted to taste what the original recipe ended up like before modifying it.

I then cooked the steak on the stove top for five minutes on either side. It was done with a little pink in the center.

I’ve never cooked a steak in a pan before and I was worried about how juicy it would end up but it was fabulous!

The taste of the rub was good, the level of juiciness was good. I couldn’t noticeably discern a strong coffee flavor but the combination of the spices with the coffee was wonderful.

I served the steak with my famous roasted baby carrots and mashed cauliflower. Delish!

Cookbook Cook Through – Week 6

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Just finished the second recipe from this week’s cookbook cook through challenge of Everyday Paleo and Oh. EM. GEE!

This week, I made Apple Shallot Pork Chops and Breakfast Paleo Pizza.

The pork chops were good. There’s something about pork and apples, right?

I will admit I’m not a big fan of cinnamon and meat. But I did follow the recipe instructions on this one mostly because of the apples. It was good but not sure I’d make it again with the cinnamon.

The Paleo Breakfast Pizza was to die for! OMG! So good.

David helped me make this one. It would have taken a lot longer if he hadn’t. Doing the prep chopping took the most time. If I had to make it alone, I’d have all that done ahead of time. But it was fun to cook with him.

As he started putting the sausage on the eggs, it seemed like a lot. I looked at the other ingredients and told him I think we need cheese.

Okay, cheese is a gray area in the paleo world but we like it. We don’t eat it often and when we do, we enjoy every single bite. This recipe wouldn’t have been as good without it, in my opinion. Did I mention it was DE-LISH? Yum! We’ll definitely have this one again.

For next week, we’re going to try Rockin’ Moraccan Chicken and Sausage Stuffed Dates. 🙂

Cookbook Cook Through – Week 5

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After taking a week off for vacation, we came back home and I decided to make Speedy Spicy Stuffed Peppers and Curried Veggie Hash from the Everyday Paleo cookbook.

I lost my food processor in between moves but am happy to say that I’ve found it again and I love it. It makes recipes like these super easy.

Both recipes were amazing and we will for sure eat them again. The best thing is they were tasty but the second best thing is that David ate three things he tells me he hates. Now, I’m really into honestly and transparency but I also know that basing your adult taste buds on foods you tasted as a kid can let you out of a WHOLE bunch of good food.

My mom used to always cook spinach, from a can, in the iron skillet some way. Gah. I didn’t like it. It was slimy and disgusting. But fresh spinach as an adult? I eat it out of the bag like candy.

Anyway…

The first recipe for stuffed peppers, contains yellow squash and the hash recipe contains sweet potato and zucchini.

Four thumbs up on these two recipes. We’ll be eating them again! 🙂

Next week we’re going to try Apple Shallot Pork Chops and Breakfast Paleo Pizza.

Cookbook Cook Through: Week 4

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We’ve just finished up week four of the cook through of the Every Day Paleo cookbook. I made three recipes this week and they were all wonderful.

First I made the Dry Rub Burgers. This makes some tasty burgers. The recipe makes quite a bit so we’ve actually had these twice now. We love them!

Next we tried Frittata for All otherwise known as let’s watch Lauri and David eat a lot of eggs. It was delish! David can’t wait to have this one again. It was easy to prepare. I was a little afraid of putting my skillet in the oven but it was fine and the frittata turned out perfectly.

The third recipe I tried was Curried Cauliflower. We both love Indian flavors and roasted veggies so this was a perfect recipe for us. We ate it all. An entire head of cauliflower. Yum!

I’ve really been enjoying this challenge so far. We are going to Florida tomorrow so I won’t be cooking anything from the cookbook the week we’re gone but I’m looking forward to what I chose next! 🙂

Cookbook Cook Through – Week 3

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It was week three of my cookbook cook through challenge and we had some good food!

We both loved Indian food so I chose the Better Butter Chicken to make first. It was really good and even better the second day. I searched high and low to find fenugreek but couldn’t so I ended up leaving it out. I guess I’ll check the Indian grocery to see if they have it. I will make this one again but I think I’ll serve it over riced cauliflower next time.

We had never had red chard, or any kind of chard, before and I was able to find it at Sprouts. It was pretty! I looked forward to preparing and tasting it. I wasn’t too thrilled with its taste and David didn’t like it at all so I probably won’t make it again.

The second recipe we tried was Nutty Cookies. One of the problems we always have when eating clean is that David misses his “fun food”. He has started bringing me recipes which I help him out by making but have been truly awful. The last one, The Life Changing Loaf of Bread was just, um, awful.

So anyway, this cookie recipe looked like it would be far and away better than the bread recipe. Although it was a little involved, it wasn’t difficult and we ate the cookies for breakfast. They were good! I will for sure make them again.

Next week I’ve decided to try the Frittata for All and Baked Curry Cauliflower. Yum! 🙂

I Was Nervous!

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Today was my first weigh-in for the Ton of Fun Challenge and I was nervous to step on the scale.

I’m super competitive. Mostly with myself, especially as far as weight loss goes. I joined the challenge to have accountability to lose weight. Before I left the house, I asked David if he thought I had lost at least one pound.

I did not want to look like a loser when I weighed in at Fleet Feet. Ha! You know, an unsuccessful person. I definitely wanted to look like a weight loser. If I could lose one pound, I would feel successful.

You see, I was not perfect. Oh, I met my exercise goals. I always do. But on Friday we made pizza with the glambaby and I ate the finished product. So I was nervous.

The rest of the week, I was paleo chic. We tried some fabulous new recipes out of Everyday Paleo and Cave Women Don’t Get Fat. I’d say I was paleo at least 80% of the time if not more.

The good news is, I ate very little sugar. Losing the sugar from my diet is goal number two on my list of 100 goals. While most of my goals are not in order of priority, numbers one through three are. They are the goals that come to my head when I think, “Hmmm what goals do I have in life?”

Number one, I’ll keep in my pocket. But number two is to stop eating sugar and number three is to eat paleo almost 100% of the time.

So, anyway. I wasn’t perfect. And I’m okay with that. I’ve tried that trying to be perfect thing and it truly didn’t end well. But knowing that I wasn’t perfect, got me nervous to step on the scale.

I took off my jacket, took off my shoes, wiped my sweaty palms on my pants, took a deep breath and stepped on the scale.

And I lost 7.2 pounds!

Oh my goodness! I was so excited! I didn’t expect that and it was just so awesome. (I know, I know but it truly was awesome. ;-))

I’ve set a goal of 24 pounds to lose over the course of the challenge and I’m well on my way. I know I won’t be losing 7 pounds every week but I’m excited to have gotten such a good start. 🙂

Cookbook Cook Through Week 2

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It’s the second week of my Cook Through of Everyday Paleo and I made two recipes that were DE-LISH! Yum! 🙂

I made the first recipe Brussels Sprouts ‘n’ Bacon straight away. I had scored some beautiful Brussles sprouts at the preview event at the new Sprouts Farmers Market that’s located in midtown Tulsa.

This recipe was fairly easy and we both loved it. I’m not sure about the steaming for 4 minutes part of the recipe, though and I might just skip it next time. Maybe blanching them for 4 minutes? I don’t know but after only 4 minutes in my steamer they were still cold so it seemed like a wasted step to me.

Clearly, I’m hooked on stick to the ribs comfort food since it’s winter. I chose the Marvelous Meatballs for the second recipe. I kept putting off making it because it seemed involved. That’s why this post is a day later than I had planned to write it.

In the end, the veggie chopping wasn’t that difficult and the meatballs were amazing! I served it with mashed cauliflower and roasted green beans with garlic.

I cut this recipe in half and it still made six large meatballs so we got dinner and leftovers.I can’t wait to taste the cold leftovers, something I adore. 🙂

Next week, I plan to try the Better Butter Chicken and the Nutty Cookies.

Brussels Sprouts ‘n’ Bacon – from Everyday Paleo

6 bacon strips
1 lb Brussels sprouts
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs dried thyme
black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Dice bacon and cook in a skillet until crispy
Steam the Brussels sprouts for 4 minutes, cut off stem and quarter
In a medium sized mixing bowl, toss the Brussels sprouts with the bacon, bacon grease, garlic powder, thyme, and black pepper. Spread evenly in a glass baking dish and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Stir halfway through cooking time.

Cookbook Cookthrough: Everyday Meatloaf and Paleo Apple Muffins

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This was the first week for the Paleo Cookbook Cookthrough challenge that I decided to do and I chose one main dish recipe and a muffin recipe.

The first recipe I made was the Everyday Meatloaf. It is DELISH!

I used fresh basil as called for in the recipe and it’s very basil-y which I love. I have seen the recipe on the Everyday Paleo site and it used dried basil which would be great in a pinch. But if you have the opportunity for the fresh basil, use it!

I mixed the meatloaf in the Kitchen Aid and, while it looked like it was completely mixed, there was a part of the finished loaf that had a concentration of almond flour. Next time, and there will be a next time, I’ll mix it all with my hands like it says to in the recipe.

I served the meatloaf with roasted garlic green beans which are a favorite here.

Uh-MAZING cold! I adore cold meatloaf and David and i were fighting over the leftover cold pieces. This is a great recipe!

Yesterday, I tried the Paleo Apple Muffins.

I did cut the recipe in half because there are just two of us. I know from experience, that if something is good, we have no restraint. Fresh muffins are best anyway, right? 😉

For paleo muffins, I give it five stars for texture and muffiny-ness. And they were okay tasting. We did eat them. But they are not very sweet. I expected them to be just a little more special. I will for sure make them again because when you’re eating paleo, sometimes you really want some bread and these would fill that need nicely. However, I think I’ll try adding some dates or stevia or something to make them just a little sweeter.

Next week, I’m planning to try Marvelous Meatballs and Brussels Sprouts N Bacon. I scored some beautiful Brussels sprouts at the new Sprouts Farmers Market grand opening and I can’t wait to eat them! 🙂

Lauri Rottmayer

Catch the Rottitude!

Category Archives: paleo

How to Get Rid of Dead Bananas and Avocados

Sumo Mandarin

Coffee Rubbed Steak

Cookbook Cook Through – Week 6

Cookbook Cook Through – Week 5

Cookbook Cook Through: Week 4

Cookbook Cook Through – Week 3

I Was Nervous!

Cookbook Cook Through Week 2

Cookbook Cookthrough: Everyday Meatloaf and Paleo Apple Muffins