Avocado, Grapefruit and Pomegranate Salad

I owe this tangy, satisfying salad all to my husband.  I’ll be the first to admit that these days, when I think about what to make for dinner, I think about meat. Mmmm, meat. That sometimes has the unfortunate side-effect, however, of leaving my vegetarian hubby out in the cold. Being that I’ve only recently come to enjoy the greener spectrum of foods, P.J. has been a great resource for figuring out tasty new veggie-friendly dishes, and he’s always game to experiment with whatever’s fresh.

On this particular occasion, we had been to the Farmers Market that morning and picked up some yummy local pomegranates…inspiration! This salad is his creation… it’s got a really nice tang to it, and the pomegranate seeds and almonds add a nice crunch of texture.  Follow the jump for the recipe!

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Every Day Shredded Chicken

For many years, I’ve been nervous about cooking chicken, and I’m not entirely sure why.  I really like chicken (especially dark meat, not gonna lie), and I ate loads of it growing up (thanks, Mom!).  Since I’m working on adding some great easy, tasty proteins to my weekly menu, a roasted chicken that can be added to just about anything seemed like a good thing to try.  This one’s good solo, but it can also be a salad topper, a frittata protein, whatever!

This is a super-easy recipe that will give you several servings of protein to use at will during the week… enjoy!

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Feeding my turkey addiction: Roasted Turkey Breast

I LOVE the house-made Traditional Roasted Turkey Breast at Central Market. They actually give me funny looks at the deli counter when I ask for four pounds of this stuff.  It’s just a simple roasted turkey breast seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  I got a wild hair this week to try roasting my own turkey breast. My only prior experience with roasting turkey was Thanksgiving a few years ago… it involved a 5-gallon brining bag filled with seasoned salt water and turkey juice that ended up all over my kitchen floor.  Although I did have to thoroughly disinfect my floor, my kitchen did smell wonderfully of rosemary for several days… 😉  Needless to say, it was time to re-tackle the turkey.

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Fresh Summer Salad: Peaches, Lump Crab, and Mixed Greens with Orange Juice Reduction

At the fish counter in Central Market, they carry these little tubs of gorgeous, fresh crab claw meat… Every time I go in, I stare longingly at them, wishing I knew how to make something other than crab cakes.  Well, the day has finally come… I ran across a Martha Stewart recipe for a salad with peaches and crab meat, so I adapted it last night to be Paleo-friendly (and to my liking!). The only downside was that it took a little longer than I planned, so I was on the ravenous side when I finally gobbled it up. I also had to stop myself from just eating the crab meat straight out of the tub. Don’t tell.

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Savory Roasted Butternut Squash with Thyme

These were a HUGE hit at our Paleo dinner party last Saturday. The combo of sweet and savory paired beautifully with our pan-seared roasted pork chops, and they’d also be great as a fall/holiday dish. I highly recommend peeling/prepping your squash ahead of time… it’s not the most fun thing to do, and it seems to take a little longer than you’d think.  Not much fun when you’re trying to pull together your dinner at the last minute.

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Watermelon and Arugula Salad... Perfect for Summer!

My husband P.J. is a HUGE fan of watermelon and arugula, so I’d been meaning to adapt and serve this recipe for a while. I actually stumbled across it in my pre-Paleo days and had it earmarked for summer. At the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, we stumbled across some seedless yellow watermelon (crazy!) – that was all the prompting I needed to make this salad.

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Roasted Prosciutto-Wrapped Figs

I have a confession to make.  I had never purchased a fig before this weekend. In fact, I didn’t even know what a fig looked like. (Whew! Thanks for letting me get that off my chest…)

So, how did I end up making this app over the weekend for our Paleo Dinner Party? Honestly? I scoured my loads of cookbooks (Ina Garten! Bobby Flay!) to find something that sounded fancy but that would be easy to make as well.  Since I’m a huge fan of cured pork AND this fabulous Ina Garten recipe (from her book, “Barefoot Contessa, How Easy Is That?”) sounded sufficiently fancy, I figured I’d give it a try. This recipe is so stinking simple, there’s not much to change! Here’s what I made:

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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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The final product... quick and easy, gluten-free shrimp ceviche.

I had a great dinner this weekend with my hubby and some lovely friends at Fonda San Miguel here in Austin.  Just wanting something light for dinner, I ordered the lobster ceviche and absolutely loved it.  While I’d love to make it at home, on a busy Tuesday night, shrimp ceviche seemed like the next best thing.  The prep time for this is crazy quick, and because you do quickly boil the shrimp, you only need about an hour to marinate before enjoying a yummy dinner.

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Since switching to a Paleo diet in April of 2011 (about 3 months ago), I have quite literally eaten more salad than the entirety of my life leading up to this point. Seriously.  I was not a salad eater, and I would pretty much only eat them when it would be socially awkward/unacceptable to avoid it (i.e. weddings and business dinners).

That said, when my coach told me I needed to eat a full serving of veg with every meal (of five) of the day, I figured salad would be a good place to start (no cooking, quick to prepare in the morning, etc.).  I tried a bunch of different greens, and I’ll admit, I’m still working my way into some of the more serious greens (kale, spinach, etc.). That said, I’ve learned that I LOVE Romaine lettuce.  Never thought I’d say that.

I keep my salad pretty simple for every day, but I’ll periodically dress it up with whatever fun veggies we pick up at the fantastic Austin Farmer’s Market (downtown, Saturday mornings).  Here’s what I do every day…

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