Today E.J. and I will be heading out for vacation, and we’re both really excited.  So excited that we were up at 5:30 am this morning and wide awake.   So what do you do when you have time to kill and are feeling that vacation high before sunrise?  Blueberry pancakes, that’s what!

We tried this recipe for Fluffy Blueberry Paleo Pancakes from Civilized Caveman, and OMG were they good.  Fluffy, soft, and every bit as mouthwatering as advertised.  This blog is quickly becoming one of my favorites because it’s regular food that tastes nothing short of amazing.  I highly recommend you check it out if you’re new to Paleo and looking for some familiar flavors within the context of a Paleo diet.

I’m excited about all of the great foods we’re going to get to try in the Pacific northwest (we’re headed out to Seattle and Vancouver), but it’s every bit as awesome to start it all off with a Paleo treat.

We’ve been scoping out some Paleo-friendly restaurants in the cities we’ll be visiting, and I’m sure we’ll have some great ideas to bring back with us.

We’re having a department potluck today at work, and I wanted to bring something that was paleo but would still be enjoyable by others… so Paleo Brownies!!  Using this Double Chocolate recipe from Civilized Caveman, I ended up with some super moist and fluffy goodness to share with the team (even the gluten free guy can enjoy)!

E.J. and our son Brendon tried one last night when they were still warm and they got the seal of approval, so even if no one eats them today I know they’ll be enjoyed at home. Fingers crossed for leftovers!

I learned something new about E.J. recently after nearly 13 years of marriage: he really likes scallops.  I never knew this about him, probably because they’re kind of expensive, so I typically don’t buy them or plan meals around scallops even though I really like them too.  We were having dinner with friends a few weeks ago, and our hosts served us scallops, and E.J. was so surprisingly enthusiastic that I knew I wanted to incorporate them into our meal planning.

This past weekend, we also picked up some fresh goat cheese with basil and rosemary from a local vendor at the Wine and Art festival, so I went looking for a recipe that would incorporate these 2 items.  I ended up going with this Seared Sea Scallops over Zucchini Ribbons with Goat Cheese recipe, but I added about a pound of shrimp to just extend the volume of food.

We were really pleased with the results, and the sauce that came from the butter, lemon, wine, and goat cheese was delicious.  We will definitely make this one again!

This weekend was a very busy one.  On Friday, we met up with friends for dinner at Alicia’s, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants and had their Steak Chipotle with grilled onions and guacamole (instead of rice and beans) and as always, it was fantastic.  But before we went out for dinner, I had some time to kill and about 6 egg yolks in the fridge left over from the “tortillas” we made for the shrimp tacos.  What better way to use up egg yolks than to make ice cream??

So off I went to my vast archives of saved recipes I’d like to try and ended up landing on this Paleo Coconut Vanilla Ice Cream from Paleo Leap.  It was actually fairly easy to put together since I also had some leftover coconut milk in the fridge, and with 6 eggs, I needed to make a recipe and a half to use up my eggs.  I used the Tahitian vanilla beans that E.J. gets in bulk to make our homemade vanilla extract every few years, honey to sweeten it, and added some dairy free chocolate chips at the very end of the churn in my ice cream maker.  The result was smooth and tasty – albeit with a little bit of a coconut overtone which is a little strange at first but is much better after the 2nd or 3rd bite.

On Saturday, we went to the Texas Wine and Art Festival in Old Town Spring, where I found some wonderful flavors from Texas wineries I haven’t visited yet, and then E.J. and I went up to the mall to take our wedding rings to be resized.  We’ve been waiting to get closer to our goal weights to make sure we have them sized correctly, and I’m pretty sure my fingers are as small as they’re going to be – it’s the knuckle that’s the biggest part now.  After some additional shopping and walking around, we ended the evening at Peli Peli for some fantastic South African cuisine, and as always it was delicious.

For Sunday Cookday, we had friends over for some friendly tabletop games, so I knew I wouldn’t have much time to spend in the kitchen on meals for the week.  To make it easy, we quartered two whole chickens, sprinkled the pieces with Penzey’s Arizona Dreaming spice blend, and popped them in the smoker with pecan wood for 4 hours.   I think I’ve decided smoking is the absolute best cooking method for chicken because you get a nice crispy and flavorful skin with a juicy and tender inside that’s not even close to being dry.  Yum!  I’ve got one of the leg quarters packed for lunch today.

I also made another recipe that we tried back in the early days of our Paleo journey for a spicy twist on meatloaf.  This Bacon Chorizo Chipotle Smothered Meatloaf from PaleOMG is simple, really tasty, and fantastic for packed lunches, so I made 2 loaves of it, some roasted cabbage (leftover from the shrimp tacos) and some roasted sweet potato bites, and voila, packed lunches for the week with minimal prep and cleanup.

E.J. and I have both had a lot of small victories with the weightloss lately – I’m now down into size 10’s (I started in 18W in September last year) and E.J.’s 36 pants are starting to get loose.  We’ve got vacation coming up in 2 weeks, so we hope we don’t slide out of our pattern too much, but if everything goes well, we should both be hitting our weight goals sometime in the summer months.  I never would have believed we could do it, but here we are.  Looking good and feeling great!

When E.J. was in the Marines, he was stationed out in California for a number of years, and has a soft spot for Baja cuisine.  On our very first trip together, he took me out to SoCal and introduced me to fish tacos (which seemed like a very strange concept at the time).  After tasting Rubio’s, I was hooked, and fortunately a few places around Houston have started serving fish & shrimp tacos in the last 10 years.

For last night’s meal, I found inspiration from this Shrimp Taco Recipe from Paleo Grubs.  I used almond flour instead of coconut flour in the tortilla but otherwise followed the tortilla instructions exactly. The tortilla’s came out pliable but sturdy – at least as good as the standard corn tortillas that typically are served.

For the shrimp, I simply melted a tablespoon of butter in a skillet (you can use ghee if preferred), added the shrimp and then about 2 tbsp of garlic powder, 1 tsp onion salt, 1 tsp cumin, and 1 tsp ancho chili powder.  Mix and cook until shrimp are pink.

The cauliflower had a similar spice treatment, first I drizzled roasted garlic olive oil over the florets, then tossed them in about 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp onion powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp ancho chili powder, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Then oven roast in a pan (or lined cookie sheet) for about 25 mins.

Finally, because the real thing always has a good baja sauce, I threw together a paleo version that went something like this:

• 1/3 cup paleo mayo 
• 2 tbsp almond milk
• 1-2 tsp garlic powder (to taste)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp ancho chili powder

Whisk everything together and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For taco toppings we had limes (for drizzling over the shrimp), shredded cabbage, finely diced onions, cilantro, avocado slices, and the baja sauce.

Yum!