Happy New Year!

Well, I suppose I could say that my hiatus from posting on the Bacon is a product of exhaustion, laziness, stress, and all kinds of other reasons I give for not doing the things I should – but that just isn’t fair.  I really just felt like the stress of the holidays was enough without trying to document every meal I cooked, and remember every success and failure along the way.

But for those of you who find your inspiration on E.J.’s blog, Paleo Marine, I know many look here for new and interesting recipes and ideas for cleaner eating.  And I feel like I’ve been letting some of you down by not sharing some of the amazing new recipes we’ve found and developed over the last several months.  Right now, E.J. and I are half-way through our 4th Whole30, and honestly, it’s been the easiest one yet.   With all of the great recipes on the Favorites page to start with and with some of the latest successes, it has hardly felt like much of a reset, save for the lack of cookies and chocolate in between and after meals. Of course those small sweets are my downfall any time of the year, and cutting that one bit out has eliminated my annual holiday inflammation and dropped me 7 lbs since New Years.

With that said, let me catch you all up.  After Thanksgiving, E.J. and I tried to be really good for a few weeks because we went up to New York City to visit our daughter who moved up there last year.  It was always on my bucket list to visit NYC during the holidays to experience the snow,  Broadway, 5th avenue, the Rockettes, and all of the Christmas traditions, and this trip delivered on all of it.  As with most of our trips, E.J. and I gave ourselves a pass on the diet in order to experience all of the local fare, and then promptly went back to our standard paleo diet when we returned.  It’s fun to visit the land of “not caring what you’re eating” every so often, but I’ve decided I never want to live there again.

Then we celebrated a quiet Christmas with the rest of the family at home, and this year I did prime rib and roasted duck for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day – which both turned out fantastic.  I had never attempted a prime rib before, but I used my favorite new kitchen tool of 2017, my Anova precision cooker, doing a 6 hour sous vide and  finally finishing with an herb crust under the broiler.  The duck was slow roasted (nearly 5 hours) using the recipe from my favorites page, and our crew said it was the best one yet.  My favorite new side dishes from the holidays were a new Green Bean casserole recipe from A Girl Worth Saving and this Loaded Cauliflower recipe with lactose free sour cream and omitting the cheese.

After Christmas, I took a week from work off and relaxed a bit, before gearing up for our annual New Year’s eve party and the big backyard polar plunge.  For party fare, I revisited some of my old favorites and had a few new ones thrown in as well.  Here are some of the new additions to the favorite party snacks list:

Sausage Cream Cheese Dip – OMG, this is officially the new hotness when it comes to my future party offerings.  I have to admit to having an unhealthy relationship with Chili con Queso prior to going Paleo.  I LOVE cheese dips, and really missed the old Velveeta mainstay at our parties, and now I have a new Primal substitute.  I made this with lactose free cream cheese to reduce the negative affects of dairy, and am hooked.  Again.

Bacon Meatballs with Mango Honey Mustard Sauce– This one had rave reviews also.  I made the meatballs and kept them on a warmer for the party and then offered this sauce and some Paleo BBQ sauce as a topper.

Spiced Paleo Apple Dip – E.J. raved about this one.  I have to say that it’s not the prettiest looking dip in the world, and since I did it in advance and refrigerated it, it thickened up a bit too much when I served it, but E.J. absolutely loved the flavor.

I also made a nut butter for the first time – with hazelnuts.  I admit to being lazy and just buying nut butters when I need them, but it turns out hazelnut butter is really hard to find.  The Ninja blender was up to the task though, and I was able to whip up some beautiful hazelnut butter after roasting the nuts I bought in bulk.  Out of that came 2 fantastic desserts: Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge and Hazelnut Brownies.  If you are a Nutella fan, these are totally for you.

And now that the holidays are over, it’s Whole30 time again, so I have a few new healthy recipes to offer on that front:

Paleo Fried Zucchini – I actually substituted the coconut flour for a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of Cassava and Almond flours, but otherwise kept this as-is.  The cool dill dip is really good, and this was a great addition to a weekend lunch with cabbage and sausages.

Sauteed Red Cabbage with Apples & Onion – I’ve made this twice now in the last 2 weeks and it’s still really good.  E.J. is a huge fan of cabbage slaw, and I think this one is a great balance of vinegar and a slight sweet from the apples.

Moroccan Lamb Casserole – This one is quite easy as a slow cooker recipe if you just throw everything in and turn it on.  The recipe calls for sauteeing ingredients before and after the main cooking phase, but it’s really not required.

I hope you’re able to try out some of these new recipes and enjoy them as much as my family has.  Happy New Year, everyone!