Paleo Shepherd's Pie - Yes, I'm doing Whole 30 again

Happy June. It's hard to believe that it's already June. We've had so much rain and so many stormy days this spring, I thought we'd never have sunshine and heat. Not that I'm looking forward to 100+ degree weather, but cold and rainy is strange for May in Texas.

So, I have gotten a bit off track with my eating recently. Yeah, right. I totally have derailed. My hip is better, thank goodness, so I'm not in pain all of the time anymore. The Airrosti doctor did a fantastic job on my hip and hamstrings. Not a painless treatment method, by any stretch of the imagination, and I was left with some interesting bruises after my sessions, but I'm not in chronic pain anymore. Yay!  The pain did a number on me mentally. I couldn't work out, I couldn't run, even sitting became painful after a while. Did I watch what I ate? No. Unless you counted watching it disappear in to my mouth. I have no excuses for what was available to eat. I do the grocery shopping and the cooking, after all. If there are Doritos in the house, I let them in. When The Sisterhood mentioned that they were starting a Whole 30 on June 1st, I took it as a sign to get back on track. This thought was reinforced by seeing how round I look in pictures. (We got our picture taken with two of the guys from Firefly at a recent fan con.) That's life. Time to move on.

Back to the Whole 30. When I tried this a couple of years ago, I went a bit crazy on the coconut oil wagon. Bad mistake. It does not agree with me in the slightest. I had so many strange reactions that I quit halfway through the 30. I am committed to following this at least through Fitbloggin. Hopefully I'll be back on track enough by then that I don't get too crazy.

Part of following this plan is thinking about what I'm eating. I can't rely on having some cheese when I get hungry or having a sandwich for lunch. I can't even rely on sauces or salad dressings to spruce things up because so many commercial foods have sugars and starches in them. That leaves me with a bunch of whole food ingredients, standing in my kitchen, trying to figure out what to make to eat that will make me happy. Today, it's shepherd's pie.  I was going to call this post "everything but the kitchen sink..." shepherd's pie, but then I thought, no, if the kitchen sink is paleo, it's going in there, too. It was more of a clean out the fridge shepherd's pie. I had half of a large box of mushrooms that needed to be used, a head of cauliflower, a partial bag of green beans, part of an onion... you get the picture. I think the only vegetables I didn't use were the beets, zucchini and the clam shell box of "power greens."

Paleo Shepherd's Pie (serves 6 generously)

1 T olive oil

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

4 celery ribs, sliced

¼ cup diced onion

1 cup fresh green beans, chopped

1 20 oz package lean ground turkey

1 T garlic powder

1 t ground thyme

3 T tomato paste

1/2 c chicken stock

1/4 t cayenne pepper

1 T no-salt seasoning mix

1 T parsley

1 t marjoram

salt/pepper to taste

Thickener: 

1 T kudzu (you can use cornstarch if you aren't making this paleo)

1/4 c chicken stock

Topping:

1 head of cauliflower, chopped and steamed

1 sweet potato, chopped and steamed

1 T ghee

salt/pepper to taste

drizzle of olive oil

parsley flakes

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a medium sized skillet over medium high heat. When pan is hot, drizzle in the olive oil. Saute the mushrooms until soft. Add in the ground turkey, using a spoon to break it in to small pieces. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until meat is no longer translucent. Add in the carrots, celery, onion, green beans, tomato paste, spices and chicken stock, stirring well to combine. 

In a small bowl, combine the kudzu and chicken stock, stirring until there are no lumps. Add this to the mixture in the skillet and stir. 

Let mixture simmer for 15 minutes to let the vegetables soften. While this is happening, chop your cauliflower in to florets and peel and dice the sweet potato. I use Ziploc steamer bags to cook my veggies in the microwave. Follow cooking times on the bags. When these are cooked, place the cauliflower and sweet potato in bowl, add the ghee and salt and pepper. Mash with fork or use a stick blender until fairly smooth.

Spoon turkey mixture in to an 8x8 baking dish, making sure the vegetables are evenly distributed and that the ground turkey doesn't have any large chunks.

Spread the mashed cauliflower/sweet potato mixture on top, smoothing the surface with the back of a spoon. Top with parsley, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. 

When it's piping hot and lightly browned on top, it's done! This really hit the spot today. I wanted something creamy, but I couldn't rely on dairy. It's meaty, but not too meaty, and it's full of really tasty vegetables.  This is so good, I'm kind of glad The Aussie isn't a turkey or veggie eater! More for me!

The Perfect Recipe For April

Since eating paleo is really big these days, I have been working on more meat recipes this spring. We usually do lamb on Easter, but I've decided to branch out this year. I'm not sure that this will fit in my pressure cooker. I may have to get out my Dutch oven. Or a really, really big rotisserie.  In the meantime, I am putting together a marinade with red wine, garlic, rosemary, thyme, pepper, and perhaps a bit of sage.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Eat Your Greens Hearty Winter Soup

Greens, greens, they're good for your heart... well, that's not how the rhythm goes, but greens are very good for you. In fact, 1 cup of chopped kale contains nearly 3 grams of protein, and over 100% of your vitamins A and C. Not too shabby, right?  It isn't a budget buster, either. In fact, none of the ingredients in my kale and lentil soup are budget busters, especially if you make your own chicken stock. The bay leaf might be priciest thing, and it's pretty much optional. I have a bunch because my mom has a huge bay plant. Which reminds me, I need to beg for more bay leaves...

Kale and Lentil Soup

1 T olive oil

3 leeks, well rinsed, cut lengthwise and then thinly sliced

4 ribs of celery, sliced

4 carrots, sliced

1 lb of lentils

8 ounces of chopped kale, rinsed (that's 1/2 of one of these huge bags)

1 can diced tomatoes

4 cups chicken stock

2-3 cups water

1/4 cup red wine (I had it on hand, it's optional)

1 bay leaf (optional)

2 T Worcestershire sauce

Before serving:

2 T red wine vinegar - add at the end, before serving - it brightens up the flavors

dash of hot sauce

Set your pressure cooker to saute. Drizzle in your olive oil and let the pot heat up for a minute or two while you are chopping the vegetables. Add in your leeks and celery first, stirring them around to coat with the olive oil. Cook for a minute or two and then add the sliced carrots and cook for a minute. Next, add your lentils. Stir to combine with the vegetables, then add in the kale and diced tomatoes. The half bag seriously filled up my cooker

Lastly, add in the liquids: chicken stock, water, red wine, Worcestershire sauce. If you're using a bay leaf, throw it in now. Set your cooker to high pressure for 20 minutes.  When it's done, do a quick release of the pressure. Before serving, I like to add a bit of red wine vinegar and hot sauce.  Black pepper and red pepper flakes rock, too. Season as you wish. By switching out the stock and seasoning, you can make this vegetarian or vegan. It is a seriously flexible and flavorful soup. 

For stovetop cooking, simply follow the directions using a dutch oven and let the soup simmer for about 35 minutes, or until the kale is tender.

Quick and Easy Spicy Scotch Eggs

Hello October! Not all things fall revolve around pumpkin pie spiced everything. Shocking, I know, but true. Fall flavors to me, are savory flavors. Chili powder. Smoked paprika. Garlic. Yum.  These are a few of the flavors in one of my favorite things to eat. Scotch eggs. Recently, to celebrate the return of Doctor Who, The Aussie and I ate out at a local British pub. I was so happy to see Scotch eggs on the menu. Ever since, I've been thinking about them. What better time to make these than at the start of a paleo challenge?

Spicy Scotch Eggs (serves 4)

4 hard boiled eggs, peeled
1 pound pork sausage
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 T parsley flakes
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil.

Mix the sausage and spices together until well combined.

Take a large spoonful of the mixture and start to wrap it around a peeled hard boiled egg, like so.

Completely cover the egg with the mixture, smoothing it down to make sure there are no gaps. Repeat with the remaining eggs.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes until the sausage is lightly browned and cooked through.

The eggs can be eaten hot, cold, and anywhere in between. I got a little piggy here because I was so hungry (they smelled amazing while I was cooking) and took two. My dipping sauce was a simple paleo mayo-mustard. I was full after having 1 1/2. These are perfect for any meal. 

Enjoy!

Let's do this.

Let's see if I can't get back below my 10% level, shall we?

Starting weight:

This paleo/Whole30 thing seems to be working already.