Day Eighteen: Squash Spaghetti and CHOCOLATE!

Hello again!
I got a comment a little while ago that I was missing a key component of the day: Dessert! I decided then to make a fully paleo version of chocolate balls, a sort of fudge-y round bite of heaven. But first I needed a good, healthy dinner!

Sauce cooking up!

On a tip from my friend Adrienne, I had bought a spaghetti squash in anticipation of using it as an innovative replaement for actual noodles. Using the rest of the tofu in my fridge (I know, terrible source of nutrients, soy = not good, but as a student, I couldn't justify throwing it out!) I started a delicious sauce. Chopping up mushrooms, zucchini, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and shallots, I seasoned the mixture with garlic, bay leaves, chives and black pepper. Letting the vegetables get a little softer, I cut my squash in half (TOUGH to do by the way), scooped the seeds out, and with the oven at 350 I placed each piece face down on a cookie sheet with a little water in it. This went for about 30 minutes, and I added a little more water about halfway through. The topping was then thinned with some chicken stock, before I let it reduce to give it the consistency of spaghetti sauce rather than stew.

Then I scraped out the insides of my squash and assembled my dish! Top with more fresh basil and black pepper to taste and there you have it! Paleo Spaghetti to warm you up on cold winter nights, of which we have many in Canada!

For dessert, as I mentioned, I made some really good chocolate confections. These dont really become hard, and are best kept in the freezer. This also helps them last longer because you don't see them staring at you every time you go into the fridge for a healthy (-er) snack! Very easy to assemble, the hardest part is keeping the batter off your fingers, as it can be very sticky. I find that once mixed, let it sit in the freezer for about half an hour, making it much easier to work with.

Chocolatey Goodness!

Mix a 1/4 cup of cocoa powder with 1/3 cup almond meal in a small bowl. In a separate bowl place 1/4 cup water, 1/8 cup maple syrup and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, making sure to smooth out any lumps. I like to do this with a fork, but if you were going to make a larger batch you might want to pull out the electric mixer!
Once melded, add a large spoonful of almond butter and repeat the process. Chill the batter and prepare a bowl with some more cocoa powder and coconut flakes. When enough time has elapsed, make small ball shapes out of the chocolate, which should now be much easier to handle! Roll these shapes in the cocoa and coconut for a coating which is both delicious and practical: your balls will stick to the dish you place them in without it. Once you have assembled this, you're ready! Dig in guilt free (just don't go making anymore for a little while!)

I keep the quantities pretty small because I know myself, but if you have more self control I'm sure the recipe could easily be doubled, tripled, or made however big you want. Because these are raw, they keep for a long time, especially if you freeze them. Hypothetically you could keep them at room temperature, but they really don't stay as firm and become messier to eat. As a contribution to a cocktail party, just stick a toothpick in each one and no one will believe that there is no dairy in these babies!
I'm off to fall into a sugar coma, though to be fair it's a naturally induced one! Maple syrup sure is delicious!

Day Three: Babaganouj Experiments and Party Planning

So at the market the other day, I made extra sure to pick up some serious vegetables. I'm not kidding, at least 3/4 of my haul was made up of this food group. I got carrots, broccoli (stem included so I can chow on that as well), celery, radishes, peppers and cucumbers: The Paleo Staples! Problem is, I'm not really crazy about just eating raw veggies all the time. Then it came to me: being as hummus is usually my go to, but I now have to stay mostly away from the legume family (this will probably last until my next bison hunk defrosts and I am overcome with the need to make chilli... but at least I'll try!) Why not try BABAGANOUJ? Armed with eggplants, tahini and lemon I endeavoured to make a dip that would spruce up my veggie selection!

I found a great recipe for it and with my old as hell blender (thanks Dad!) I started off!
First I had to steam the eggplant, and I assembled my ingredients: lemon, black pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, chives, garlic, tahini and basil:

Tossing it all into the blender, after a few taste tests that established that I needed the whole lemon's juice, I had my spread! This was the finale: Let the vegetable massacre begin!

Broccolli Stems, Radishes, Carrots, Cucmber and Celery!

The rest of the day was preeeeetty boring, and my meals were made up of leftover cabbage rolls, (I was right, they were really good cold!) and a nectarine for dessert! Really starting to get the hang of this Paleo thing!

I did however get started on my contributions for a potluck party that I'm going to tomorrow (read: no one will have anything there that I can eat so I'm going it alone)...
I'm going to bring some of those chorizo sausages so I have something easy to grill up, and I decided to make a paleo dessert (well, almost... I'll make a portion of it for myself that's paleo anyways...)
As a side dish I took 5 yams and 2 apples, along with some cinnamon, ginger and a tiiiiiny bit of vanilla and mixed it all up:

Then I spooned it into a pyrex dish (8" by 10") and topped it with some chives and chopped pecans before throwing it into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes just to brown the top. Hopefully I can use the oven there to reheat it when I get there!

Does look good though... hmmmm, maybe not all of it will come with me?

Paleo Fruit Crisp

As my dessert idea, I'm sticking with the apple theme and doing an apple, nectarine, strawberry and peach crisp with cinnamon. I added some brown sugar for the guests, and a topping to the party-friendly version of butter, rolled oats and brown sugar. I'm going to bake it all at the event (so as to serve it piping hot!) Hope it goes quickly or I'll have to bring it home... and then the temptation may be too great!

Doncha wish everyone ate Paleo so we wouldn't have to limit ourselves at events like this?