Turning up the flavor, Paleo style

Now that we’re back to our regularly scheduled Paleo program, it’s time to turn up the flavor and get back to a little more creativity in the kitchen.

The last 2 Sunday prep days have been adventures in finding new flavors and more Paleo analogues to help diversify our diet and enjoy some of the old foods we used to love in new ways.

• Primal Cannelloni al Forno – This is an original adaptation of the old Olive Garden dish my mom and I used to eat regularly.  It’s been off the menu a long time now, but I have a copy of the recipe that I adapted to follow primal guidelines (I didn’t remove the cheese, but did reduce the quantity a bit)  Funny thing is I used to think this recipe was just too much work to make regularly – but since all of my dishes typically now require multiple steps, it felt like just another weekend dish.  To make it even more special, I made…
• Creamed Spinach to go with it – and, yeah, I know it’s silly to remove the cheese from this when I left it in the cannelloni, but again, I really have to be careful with my dairy intake and I can handle aged Parmesan way better than cream cheese.  Plus, this Paleo version was really, really tasty, if I do say so myself.
• In honor of Chinese New Year, I made General Tso’s Chicken – one of my favorite Chinese dishes.  Generally Chinese food is off the list when it comes to Paleo cuisine, but this recipe was very flavorful and not too spicy.  I served it with a side of caulirice and will definitely be adding it to the favorites list.
• Bison-stuffed Black Pepper Biscuits – this one came on my radar when I started looking for new and interesting ground meat recipes.  I’ve found that ground meats (meatballs, meatloaf, etc) do really well reheating in microwaves compared to other dishes (like pork and beef) which tend to dry out and get a little rubbery.  I came across some “Paleo Mince Meat” recipes, which led me to this one.  I was also interested in it, because its remarkably similar to our Texas “kolaches” where meat is wrapped in a bread dough and baked.  I still think it should be made in moderation due to the copious amounts of arrowroot required, but the resulting dish was pretty good – I will definitely be experimenting more with this concept in the future.
• Pear Ginger Muffins – Finally, E.J. had 4 very ripe pears sitting on the counter that needed to be used, so I made a double batch of these Pear Ginger Muffins with this amazing topping.  Very yummy, especially with an added teaspoon of cinnamon.

This week I made a new Super Bowl inspired dish in the crock pot that I’m looking forward to trying before I share with you all.  It’s a new Paleo adaptation I came up with, so we’ll see how the reviews are before I share it.

Have a great week everyone!