Day Sixteen: Mexican Taco Salad

So in order to help me keep track of my diet more efficiently, I've set up an account at the Livestrong website, which gives an approximate count on the calories contained in most food! I was a little surprised to find out how many are in an avocado... but that's besides the point! I was ambushed by my roommate today who demanded to know how I'd shrunk so much lately! I feel much better, I've found that I actually feel good about eating instead of feeling guilty, and that my clothes fit a little looser. I bet if I was smart(er) and cut out the booze as well, I'd see a radically different body in less than a month... alas, the bar scene is a bitch.

Today I made Taco Salad, keeping with the ethnic theme started yesterday. Now anyone who has been to a mexican restaurant can tell you, this usually is served in a charming little corn chip bowl, which is probably the best part of the whole dish. That bowl however, is usually deep fried and often made with gluten. I made my version sans adorable food bowl, but it was nonetheless very good!

Again using the Livestrong website, which has a fantastic collection of Paleo recipes, as well as their nutritional information alongside! I decided to whip up some of the Chorizo Shrimp Sautee, and use it as the protein in my salad! Easy enough to make I combined tomatoes, onion, shallots, mushrooms, half a red pepper and two uncased chorizo sausages with some frozen salad shrimp and garlic! In the meantime I assembled my lettuce and avocado, no dressing required as the fats and liquid from the stirfry are more than adequate!

Chorizo Shrimp "Taco" Salad with tomatoes and avocado

I also had to replenish my baba ganouj supply after polishing off the last bath with my remaining raw veggies. New dip to go along with the haul I got from the store the other day!

The seafood component has been pretty weak the past few days, I think tomorrow I'll grab one of the exotic type fish fillets I snatched up! Perhaps try a Mediteranean dish, eh?

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?