I don't know about you...no, I take that back, I DO know about you: You are feeling as awful as I am about this incredibly hideous election cycle. When I think about Election Night, I can picture myself sitting under a blanket and sucking my thumb. In dark times like these, the only foods I want to eat are comfort foods...primarily tapioca pudding. I once spent several weeks following one disastrous election outcome (but not as disastrous as this one could be, trust me) comforting myself with warm tapioca, right out of the pan. I couldn't stomach anything else.
So here are a few of my go-to nursery food choices to get you through Election Day. And after that? Depends on the outcome...I'll either go with celebratory meals, or, if my friends follow through on their desires to flee north of the border, Canadian specialties.
Meanwhile, please don't forget to register and VOTE and please let your vote be informed by everything that is GOOD about our country. Love can indeed trump hate.
The meatloaf recipe, below, requires bread (the ultimate comfort food), so I am reprinting the recipe for Paleo Sandwich Bread from a year ago, one of my first posts. So, Happy Anniversary, Paleogram, and thank you, faithful readers, for making it such a fruitful year.
So, what are your favorite comfort foods, childhood or otherwise? Drop me a line under comments and, if feasible, I'll work on making your favorites Paleo and include them in a future blog post.
So here are a few of my go-to nursery food choices to get you through Election Day. And after that? Depends on the outcome...I'll either go with celebratory meals, or, if my friends follow through on their desires to flee north of the border, Canadian specialties.
Meanwhile, please don't forget to register and VOTE and please let your vote be informed by everything that is GOOD about our country. Love can indeed trump hate.
The meatloaf recipe, below, requires bread (the ultimate comfort food), so I am reprinting the recipe for Paleo Sandwich Bread from a year ago, one of my first posts. So, Happy Anniversary, Paleogram, and thank you, faithful readers, for making it such a fruitful year.
So, what are your favorite comfort foods, childhood or otherwise? Drop me a line under comments and, if feasible, I'll work on making your favorites Paleo and include them in a future blog post.
Paleo Sandwich Bread (from Paleoeffect.com)
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups arrowroot powder
1 cup golden flax meal
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
4 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
4 TBS walnut oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
4 egg whites, beaten to soft peaks
Coconut oil for greasing pan
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a bread pan.
2. Combine all dry ingredients.
3. Mix 4 eggs, walnut oil and cider vinegar and then combine with dry ingredients.
4. Fold in beaten egg whites.
5. Pour into greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes.
6. Cool on wire rack.
1 1/2 cups arrowroot powder
1 cup golden flax meal
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
4 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
4 TBS walnut oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
4 egg whites, beaten to soft peaks
Coconut oil for greasing pan
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a bread pan.
2. Combine all dry ingredients.
3. Mix 4 eggs, walnut oil and cider vinegar and then combine with dry ingredients.
4. Fold in beaten egg whites.
5. Pour into greased pan and bake for 55-60 minutes.
6. Cool on wire rack.
My Favorite Meatloaf
Serves 6-8
The original recipe came from an old Adele Davis cookbook which is now lost, but I've changed it up quite a bit over the past 40 years, so my kids consider it mine. In any case, it wasn't difficult to "paleotize."
Ingredients
2 slices Paleo Sandwich Bread (see recipe, above)
1/2 cup organic full fat canned coconut milk
2 TBS hemp seeds
1 large carrot
1 small zucchini or other summer squash
1 small onion
Handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
A few grindings black pepper
1 egg
1 lb. ground grass-fed beef
1 lb. ground turkey or ground chicken
Paleo-friendly ketchup
Coconut oil for greasing pan
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease loaf pan (I prefer glass, but metal works o.k., too) and spread a thin layer of ketchup on the bottom of the pan
3. In a large bowl, crumble the bread into the coconut milk and let sit until bread gets mushy (you may have to mash it with a fork, as this bread doesn't mush as well as regular bread); stir in hemp seeds
4. Using the shredding attachment of your food processor, shred the carrot, zucchini and onion, and stir into the bread mixture, along with the chopped parsley, oregano, salt and pepper.
5. Mix in the egg, then mix in the ground meats, one pound at a time.
6. Now it gets fun: Roll up your sleeves, take off your rings, and plunge your hands into the mix. Use your hands to mix thoroughly until everything is incorporated and there are no separate little chunks of meat or bread.
7. Put the meatloaf mix into the pan, smoothing the top with a spoon. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. To serve, cut loaf into slices and spoon ketchup "gravy" from the bottom of the pan onto each slice.
For extra comfort, serve alongside mashed cauliflower (faux mashed potatoes). Simply steam cauliflower florets until tender, then place in food processor with a tablespoon or two of ghee and salt to taste and process until it achieves the texture of mashed potatoes. And if you don't tell them, some of your eaters may think it is the real thing.
2 slices Paleo Sandwich Bread (see recipe, above)
1/2 cup organic full fat canned coconut milk
2 TBS hemp seeds
1 large carrot
1 small zucchini or other summer squash
1 small onion
Handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
A few grindings black pepper
1 egg
1 lb. ground grass-fed beef
1 lb. ground turkey or ground chicken
Paleo-friendly ketchup
Coconut oil for greasing pan
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease loaf pan (I prefer glass, but metal works o.k., too) and spread a thin layer of ketchup on the bottom of the pan
3. In a large bowl, crumble the bread into the coconut milk and let sit until bread gets mushy (you may have to mash it with a fork, as this bread doesn't mush as well as regular bread); stir in hemp seeds
4. Using the shredding attachment of your food processor, shred the carrot, zucchini and onion, and stir into the bread mixture, along with the chopped parsley, oregano, salt and pepper.
5. Mix in the egg, then mix in the ground meats, one pound at a time.
6. Now it gets fun: Roll up your sleeves, take off your rings, and plunge your hands into the mix. Use your hands to mix thoroughly until everything is incorporated and there are no separate little chunks of meat or bread.
7. Put the meatloaf mix into the pan, smoothing the top with a spoon. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. To serve, cut loaf into slices and spoon ketchup "gravy" from the bottom of the pan onto each slice.
For extra comfort, serve alongside mashed cauliflower (faux mashed potatoes). Simply steam cauliflower florets until tender, then place in food processor with a tablespoon or two of ghee and salt to taste and process until it achieves the texture of mashed potatoes. And if you don't tell them, some of your eaters may think it is the real thing.
Fettuccini or Spaghetti Carbonara
Serves 2
Writer Calvin Trillin once famously called for Spaghetti Carbonara to replace turkey as America's iconic Thanksgiving meal. While I wouldn't go that far...how can you go wrong with bacon, eggs and cream on pasta? Actually, I eat this for breakfast a couple of times a week. Zero calories for the Miracle Noodles, not so for the bacon, eggs and coconut cream, though.
Ingredients
2 packages Miracle Noodles Fettuccini or Spaghetti (available at your local health food store or on-line at miraclenoodle.com), prepared according to package directions, which are basically to rinse noodles, throw in boiling water for a minute and then drain)
4 cage-free eggs, beaten
4 slices cooked bacon, broken into pieces
4 TBS coconut cream (from top of can of organic full-fat coconut milk)
Salt and pepper to taste
Nutritional yeast, optional
1. Prepare Miracle Noodles and after boiling for a minute, drain the water out and put noodles back in dry pan. Over low heat, stir the eggs into the noodles and cook gently, just until egg are no longer liquid (don't cook too long or you will end up with scrambled eggs).
2. Stir in the coconut milk, add crumbled bacon and salt and pepper to taste. If you want to make this more authentic (Spaghetti Carbonara contains Parmesan cheese), sprinkle with nutritional yeast for a "cheesy" taste.
2 packages Miracle Noodles Fettuccini or Spaghetti (available at your local health food store or on-line at miraclenoodle.com), prepared according to package directions, which are basically to rinse noodles, throw in boiling water for a minute and then drain)
4 cage-free eggs, beaten
4 slices cooked bacon, broken into pieces
4 TBS coconut cream (from top of can of organic full-fat coconut milk)
Salt and pepper to taste
Nutritional yeast, optional
1. Prepare Miracle Noodles and after boiling for a minute, drain the water out and put noodles back in dry pan. Over low heat, stir the eggs into the noodles and cook gently, just until egg are no longer liquid (don't cook too long or you will end up with scrambled eggs).
2. Stir in the coconut milk, add crumbled bacon and salt and pepper to taste. If you want to make this more authentic (Spaghetti Carbonara contains Parmesan cheese), sprinkle with nutritional yeast for a "cheesy" taste.
Tapioca Pudding
Serves 8, or one very needy person, who will eat it warm, right out of the pan (Note: I do not endorse this practice, but it's better than drinking yourself s**t-faced as you are waiting for the election returns from swing states).
This is a Paleo version of the Classic Old-Fashioned Tapioca Pudding Recipe on the back of the bag of Bob's Red Mill Small Pearl Tapioca, which I recommend. Do not use instant tapioca, as it may contain additives. Tapioca is not a grain, so it's o.k. In moderation (with an exception for Election Night) on a Paleo diet.
This is a Paleo version of the Classic Old-Fashioned Tapioca Pudding Recipe on the back of the bag of Bob's Red Mill Small Pearl Tapioca, which I recommend. Do not use instant tapioca, as it may contain additives. Tapioca is not a grain, so it's o.k. In moderation (with an exception for Election Night) on a Paleo diet.
Ingredients
1/3 cup small pearl tapioca
3/4 cup water
2 1/4 cups organic full-fat canned coconut milk
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 eggs, separated
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Place tapioca and water in a medium-sized saucepan and let tapioca soak for 30 minutes. Do not drain after soaking.
2. Add coconut milk, salt, honey and beaten egg yolks to tapioca and stir over medium heat until boiling. Simmer over very low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring often.
3. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
4. Fold about 3/4 cup of the hot tapioca mixture into the egg whites, then gently fold mixture back into saucepan. Stir over low heat for about 3 or 4 minutes.
5. Cool for 15 minutes, then stir in vanilla. Serve warm, but it's good cold the next day, provided there is any left over.
1/3 cup small pearl tapioca
3/4 cup water
2 1/4 cups organic full-fat canned coconut milk
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 eggs, separated
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Place tapioca and water in a medium-sized saucepan and let tapioca soak for 30 minutes. Do not drain after soaking.
2. Add coconut milk, salt, honey and beaten egg yolks to tapioca and stir over medium heat until boiling. Simmer over very low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring often.
3. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
4. Fold about 3/4 cup of the hot tapioca mixture into the egg whites, then gently fold mixture back into saucepan. Stir over low heat for about 3 or 4 minutes.
5. Cool for 15 minutes, then stir in vanilla. Serve warm, but it's good cold the next day, provided there is any left over.
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