Paleo Sweet Potato Pancakes on the Griddle

Since going Paleo, I have to say that breakfast has become a whole different animal for me. I’ve always been a breakfast person, but for years, breakfast consisted of a glass of skim milk, a banana, and a cereal bar. Holy glycemic spike, Batman! I’d feel great for about 45 minutes, and then I’d be starving and dragging within a couple of hours… it was all I could do to make it to lunch.

These days, I get some pretty awesome sideways looks from my coworkers when I pull out leftover ribeye and salad to have for breakfast.  I’ll admit, it took some getting used to, but I feel so much more satisfied having some good protein and fat in the morning… I’m no longer starving by lunch, and my energy levels stay much more constant throughout the day. That said, every once in a while I’ll get a craving for some traditional breakfast food… e.g. pancakes.  Given that I love sweet potatoes, I figured I’d give some Paleo sweet potato pancakes a try for me and the hubby over the weekend.  There are tons of great recipes out there, and here’s my custom version, topped with sauteed cinnamon apples.

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Hatch Green Chile Breakfast Scramble with Avocado

It’s Hatch chile season here in Austin, which basically means that all the grocery stores are overflowing with these gorgeous green chiles.  I’ve only recently started using a lot of chiles in my cooking… I found them a little intimidating before I started using them regularly. Needless to say, I hadn’t yet experimented with this particular chile until this past Sunday.  The hubby and I were home enjoying some much-needed quiet time, and rather than go out for brunch, I decided to whip up a super simple breakfast scramble using one of the chiles I’d grabbed at the market.  I made this version vegetarian so we could both enjoy it, but you could definitely add some cooked bacon directly into the eggs if you’d like! Follow the jump for the scramble recipe.

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Lemon Coconut Macaroons, Fresh from the Oven

It’s been a little while since I posted a dessert recipe, so in honor of my 20lb. PR deadlift last night and the upcoming holiday weekend, today’s recipe is a sweet treat. I’m a huge fan of coconut macaroons – they’re such a simple, tasty little cookie – so I decided to give ’em a go.  (Plus, they’re gluten- and dairy-free!) For inspiration, I looked to Elana’s Pantry – she’s got some incredible recipes for gluten-free goodies.  While I was grabbing supplies at the store, I ran across a gorgeous little bottle of pure lemon oil, and I thought it might pair really well with the clean coconut flavor in the cookie. Follow the jump for my adapted recipe…

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Just flew in from London, and boy are my arms tired…  I mean my brain. I mean my neck. I mean pretty much every part of me.  I just got back from a super-quick business trip to London over the weekend, and my poor body doesn’t know what hit it! Here’s what the last four days looked like:

• Flew out Thursday night and arrived in the UK on Friday morning (sat in the cheap seats, so I only got about 1-2 hours of sleep)
• Worked from the hotel during the day Friday and was able to drop in at CrossFit London for a jet lag-busting workout (more on that below!)
• Worked all day Saturday and took my team out for a fab dinner at the Spice Market (short ribs! slow-cooked ribeye! yum!) in central London
• Spent the entire day Sunday flying back to Austin (long, long day, but… I did get unexpectedly upgraded to business class on the Heathrow-JFK flight – woohoo!)

Needless to say, I’m ready to get back into my food and workout routine – that much travel is just hard on the body.  I will admit that I wasn’t 100% Paleo over the weekend, although I was pretty darn good.  My biggest non-Paleo indulgences were dessert on Saturday night at the Spice Market (it was simply too good to turn down!) and a couple of pints of lager with my team.  When in Rome, eh?

I did get to enjoy the very Paleo-friendly English breakfast during my stay… these guys do bacon right:

English Bacon and Eggs... Yum!

One of my very favorite parts of the trip was getting to drop in at CrossFit London over in the East End.

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Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake with Banana-Cinnamon Sauce

At my core, I am a baker. I LOVE baked goods… cupcakes, cakes, cookies, caramels, etc. I loved baking so much that I had my own cake design business for several years. One tiny little problem… everything I used to make was loaded with gluten and processed sugars. Sure, I used the highest quality ingredients out there – imported chocolate, European butter, Madagascar vanilla. But, at the end of the day, there was a lot of not-great stuff in those tasty treats, and that just doesn’t jive with my Paleo lifestyle these days.

That said, I’m still not willing to give up the OCCASIONAL baked treat, and figuring out how to make “healthier” versions of past favorites is going to be an ongoing goal. I am super excited about this recipe… my husband and I test-drove it this weekend, and it is stinking delicious. Seriously. I had to get it out of the house as quickly as possible. An extra bonus? It was ridiculously easy to make.

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Spicy Oven-Roasted Pecans with Cinnamon (These puppies are addictive!)

Years ago, there was a restaurant here in downtown Austin called Crimson… I think the restaurant was only open for about 8-10 months, sadly, but they were the wonderful folks who introduced me to spiced pecans. Rather than bread and butter, they would bring you bowls of these delicious, addictive spiced pecans to munch on while you picked out your meal for the evening – I loved it!

When I was thinking about what to make as an easy snack food for our friends this weekend (at our Paleo Dinner Party), the idea of spiced pecans came to mind.  Easy, delicious, and they’d pair really nicely with the very non-Paleo German beer we were having.  For inspiration, I looked to a variety of places, including the wonderful Elana’s Pantry. This recipe is my adaptation… I hope you enjoy it!

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The Table Setting: Fun Linens, Tealights, and White Hydrangea Blooms in Short Water Glasses

I LOVE a good dinner party.  Seriously.  I honestly can’t imagine what I enjoy more on a weekend night than having friends in our home, eating food we’ve prepared, drinking good wine, and having a great time. Pre-Paleo, this was a pretty regular occurrence: whether it was hors d’oeuvres for 30 for my husband’s birthday or an intimate multi-course meal, I reveled in cooking for others. (We’ll just ignore the fact that my typical menus included bread-and-cheese trays, fried risotto balls, Italian pasta with cream sauce, and loads of gluten-rich baked goods. No one needs to know… it’s our little secret.)

In fact, one of my original reasons for resisting the change to a Paleo lifestyle was that I wasn’t sure I could still create delicious, gourmet food that was both Paleo and appetizing to our guests.  I couldn’t have been more off-base!  The Paleo lifestyle has such an incredible range of possibilities for creating incredible food, and I’m beyond excited to keep experimenting.

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Bacon-Wrapped Mini Paleo Meatloaf

I grew up loving my mom’s meatloaf. Really!  I have no problem with the idea of multiple ground meats mixed together with some veggies and tomato sauce and baked to perfection. The only way I can see making it better is to cut the gluten and add bacon (words for life, eh?). Most recently I tried the Seriously Tasty Paleo Meatloaf over at Health-Bent.com – loved it and wanted to make it my own.

So, here is my take on some fun mini-meatloafs that would be great for a casual get-together or family meal… and everyone gets their own!  I’ve opted to include veggies directly in the loaf in this recipe, but if you’ve got persnickety young ones, it tastes great without ’em, too.

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My Sunday breakfast plate (not going to lie, I had two more "muffins" after these).

These are a weekend favorite at our house… Make a big batch on Sunday, and then you can just grab ’em on your way out the door for a quick breakfast during the week.  (I actually find them delish cold.)  I first ran across the idea of doing these over at nomnompaleo.com (if you’re not reading this blog, go there right now and read it. It’s amazing!)  The great thing about these is that you can put just about whatever you want in them and they’ll taste good.  Today was a bacon and southwest veggie day…

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