Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Paleo Peach BBQ Ribs

I love ribs. I even more love slow-cooker ribs that require less than 1 minute of work to make!

Have you tried any of the Paleo Chef sauces from Steve's PaleoGoods? Well you should, because that is what we used for this recipe! Paleo Chef Sauces are not only very tasty and convenient, but they donate a portion of the profits to a great cause! Check them out! We bought the sampler, and some ketchup, and TRUST ME----we use the ketchup a ton!

You can essentially use any sauce you want on top of the ribs for this recipe. It just needs a little liquid in there to not only flavor the ribs, but also help them cook.

This may be the easiest rib recipe you ever make. Truth!

Ingredients
1) 2-3 pounds of ribs (we used beef short ribs)
2) 1/2 to 1 cup of sauce, depending on how many pounds you use (This is where we used the Peach BBQ Paleo Chef Sauce-----awesome!)

And that's it. SERIOUSLY.

Instructions
1) Place your ribs in the slow cooker.
Beef short ribs
2) Cover your ribs with the sauce.
Sauced up!
3) Cook on low for 8 hours.
All done cooking
4) Once cooked, stir up the ribs in the sauce, and you will notice they are falling apart! We gave the bones to the dog and she was happy!
5) Serve it up, and eat. We put some of the extra sauce from the slow cooker on top of some broccoli as a side dish and it was a perfect meal!

Mixed up with the sauce

.....and eat!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Slow Cooked Roast & Carrots

Who doesn't love a good roast? Especially on a nice, relaxing weekend. 

Well I do love a roast. But even more so-----I SERIOUSLY LOVE CARROTS. That's 95% of the reason why I make this dish. So I put a ton of them in there....and they were insane. Yum!

This recipe is very simple, and a crowd pleasure. Do yourself a favor and just buy a big bag of baby carrots so you don't even have to cut them for this dish. That will save you time for sure!

Ingredients
1) 3-4 pound roast (this was a 3 pound beef roast)
2) 1-2 pounds of carrots, cut into bite sized pieces (or baby carrots)
3) 1-2 onions, cut into chunks
4) 2 Tablespoons spices of your choice + 1 cup water (I used Italian season). This is where you can play up and change this recipe to your family's liking. Next time I'm going to try to do a chili flavored version.

Instructions
1) Place your carrots and onions into the slow cooker.
Carrots and Onions
2) Add your roast on top.
Carrots, Onions, and the Roast plus spices --- ready to cook!
3) Mix up your 1 cup of water and spices, then add on top of the roast and carrots.
4) Cook on low for 8 hours.

All done!!
The beef will just fall apart and the carrots and onions will be super tender and tasty.





Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Chicken & Kale Slow-Cooker Stew

Kale is underused in my book. I never really tried it before I switched over to Paleo, and up until lately my only kale adventures were making kale chips in the oven. Then I saw a few slow cooker recipes using kale and decided to give it a try. It adds a ton of nutritional value, beautiful color, and it's delicious!

Whenever I slow cook with sweet potatoes they always seem to explode and turn the meal into a thick stew----which is just fine in my book! So when this recipe is done, you will not really have any resemblance of sweet potato cubes. But you will have a tasty, hearty stew instead!

Ingredients
1) 2 pounds chicken breast or thigh (no need to chop these, just throw them in. They'll shred later)
2) 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into chunks
3) 1 large onion, cut into chunks
4) 1 Tablespoon tomato paste + 1 cup of water
5) 2-4 cups of baby kale (or regular kale, which you should chop into smaller pieces)

Instructions
1) Throw your chicken into your slow cooker.
2) Chop up your sweet potatoes and onion, and toss that in too.
3) Add your tomato paste/water, and then stir to incorporate everything.
4) Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
5) In the last hour of cooking, open your slow cooker and stir to mix everything up. This will shred your chicken. Add in your kale, and stir until it's incorporated.
6) Cook for 30-60 minutes longer until the kale is tender.
7) Eat up!
Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, Onion and Tomato Paste

Mix it up!
Cooked and mixed---ready for kale

Kale added, and cooked another 60 minutes. Ready to eat!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Coconut Cream Apple "Pie"

Ok, ok, there's not any actual pie. This doesn't even have a crust. But I think it's pretty spot on for what the inside of an awesome apple pie should be!

Coming from Washington State, I super DOOOOOPER love apples. Yes I do! And I also love apple pie. I mean, really, who doesn't? But it is a lot of work, for one, and it's unfortunately very difficult to pull off a good gluten-free/Paleo crust for it. But let's be honest, isn't the inside the best part anyway??!!

So I will tell you that after I made this for my boyfriend a few times when we started dating, he encouraged me/us to buy a case of Coconut Cream Concentrate from Tropical Traditions, because it is THAT good! We still have tons of it, so I am able to make this dish a lot and keep little portions of it in our fridge, and we can have it as a side for a meal or a delicious dessert. Couldn't be easier, or tastier!

Ingredients
1) Apples (I used Fuji apples, and I used 4 apples to make 4 servings of this. Use as many or as few as you want at the time)
2) Cinnamon
3) Coconut Cream Concentrate (aka Coconut Butter---you can find this at Tropical Traditions, or many other places (Let's Do Organic makes a good version too) or you can make your own. It's just like almond butter, except instead of almonds you use shredded coconut and puree until smooth) --- You will use 1 TBSP per apple

The best product ever. Love love LOVE coconut cream!
Instructions
1) Cut up your apples however you want. I chop them into small wedges. Whatever works for you!
Sauteing the apples
2) Saute on medium heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are soft. The longer you saute them, the softer they will be. I like mine super soft, but it's up to you!
3) Sprinkle some cinnamon on top, or apple pie spice, or pumpkin pie spice. Any dessert spices will work!
Adding the cinnamon
4) Stir up your apples. Now it's time to add the coconut cream. You will add 1 tablespoon per apple. If this doesn't look like enough, add some more. It's YOUR meal to enjoy!
Ready for coconut!
Add in your coconut cream----almost done!
5) Stir to incorporate, and your apple "pie" is done!

Done!
Yummmmmm!
I make 4-5 apples at a time, and then break it up into 4-5 servings and stick those in tupperware in the fridge so we always have some apples when the dessert demon starts calling!