Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Lime Marinade

Flat Iron steak has become a new favorite of mine, provided that it is cooked on the more rare side otherwise it can be a tough cut of meat.

Mike found this recipe and it sounded amazing, so we gave it a try.

Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Lime Marinade
1 large jalapeno
1 flat iron steak
1/2 cup tamari
1/3 cup red wine
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
2 limes, juiced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon mustard powder
Salt and Pepper to taste (of course I eliminated the pepper)
Slice jalapeno in half, seed it, then rub the steak on both sides with the pepper.  Finely chop the pepper. Combine the jalapeno and remaining ingredients in a large Ziploc bag.  Add the steak, turn to coat. refrigerate for 1 hour to marinate.  (next time we make this we will marinate it longer than 1 hour to really incorporate the flavors).   Heat grill to high.  Remove steak from marinade and place on grill. Cook for about 4-6 minutes per side.   Remove from grill and let steak rest for about 5 minutes, slice and serve.

Served this meal with grilled zucchini and yucca.

Yucca with Garlic Sauce
Currently I am avoiding lemon and lemon juice.  The first time I made this recipe I used lemon juice.  I substituted lime juice instead and feel that it was a nice substitute.
1-1/2 pounds yucca, peeled and cut into chunks
Juice from 1 lime
6 cloves of garlic mashed into 1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup lime juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
Place yucca in a saucepan; add water until yucca is just covered.  Add a little bit of salt to the water and the lime juice, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender about 30 minutes.  Drain. Remove the woody or fibrous core from the center of the yucca.  Mash garlic cloves into salt using a mortar and pestle (if you don't have one, use a knife and mash it on a cutting board).  Add garlic, lime juice, olive oil, and onions to a separate saucepan, heat until bubbling.  (I cooked this at the same time the yucca were cooking).  Add yucca to the pan of onion mixture, toss to incorporate and saute it over medium heat.  Serve.

Grilled Zucchini 
1 large or 2 small zucchini, sliced
Olive oil
Salt
Take 1 large piece of foil, add zucchini to one half of it, drizzle with olive oil and a little bit of salt,  fold foil over to make a pouch.  Place pouch on grill and cook for about 3 minutes per side.   Remove to indirect heat and continue to cook until steak is done.

Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken

I found this recipe on one of those facebook posts, you know the ones that circulate through all of your friends, well this post actually caught my eye.  The picture of the chicken looked great.  The facebook page is Holly's Fitness & Healthy Living (I like to give credit where credit is due).  I made this recipe yesterday but due to a crazy schedule I couldn't post it last night, so here it is tonight, which really isn't so bad since we had leftovers.

The recipe is super simple.  The only thing I did not add was black pepper which is due to my allergy.  I also used a whole chicken that I cut up into pieces (reserving the backbone and neck to make broth for soup).

Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons dried minced onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (make sure that you have pure balsamic vinegar, a lot have other ingredients in them  - so check the label)
8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 24 ounces) or breasts (again I used the whole cut up chicken)

Combine the first five dry spices in a small bowl and spread over chicken on both sides.  Set aside.  Pour olive oil and garlic on the bottom of the crock pot.  Place chicken on top.   Pour balsamic vinegar over the chicken.  Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.  Serve.

To go along with the chicken I fixed steamed fresh green beans and heirloom potatoes.

Potatoes
1 large bag of mixed heirloom potatoes, diced (these potatoes were of the purple, pink, gold variety.  All had a purple or pink/red skin)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves of garlic minced
sea salt
In a large cast iron skillet that has a lid.  Heat olive oil and garlic in pan over medium high heat.  Add cut potatoes.   Stir.  Continue to flip/stir potatoes so that they won't stick.  Add about 1/4 cup water and cover skillet with lid.  Cook for about 5 minutes and stir.  Check doneness of potatoes.  If still a little too crunchy add a little bit more water, cover and cook some more.  When they are almost done, remove lid, add a little salt to taste, stirring to continue to cook until all water is gone.  Serve.

Blueberry Crumb Muffins (Paleo)

I picked up this cookbook called Paleo Indulgences by Tammy Credicott.  It is full of recipes and there are several that I have wanted to make.  We have a guy near where we live that grows blueberries that he doesn't spray.  We order several quarts of them and then freeze them.  Since our weather has been so crazy it has taken a while for blueberries to get ripe.  I decided to make this recipe today.

Blueberry Crumb Muffin
I doubled this recipe.  The recipe yields makes 6 muffins.
I also added the optional crumb topping.
Dry Ingredients
1/3 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Wet Ingredients
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

Add In
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Optional Crumb Topping
2 tablespoons almond meal
1/4 cup coarsely chopped raw nuts and seeds (almond, pecan, sunflower and/or pumpkin seeds)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.  Add the wet ingredients, except coconut oil, to the dry and blend well with a hand mixer (I actually used my stand mixture).  With mixer on low, slowly pour in the coconut oil.  Blend well.  Fold in blueberries.  If desired, make the crumb topping by placing all topping ingredients in a small bowl and stirring to combine.  It should be slightly crunchy.

Fill 6 paper lined muffin cups two-thirds full with batter.  Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon crumb topping evenly on each muffin.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until center of each muffin springs back to the touch or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  The tops should be golden brown.

Cool 5 to 10 minutes in the pan.  Serve.  Store any leftovers in an airtight container for 3 days, or freeze up to 3 months.

Coconut Crusted Black Cod

I wanted fish tonight for dinner and my husband pulled from the freezer black cod.  I didn't want to just bake it, I wanted to do something different.  You know how it is you get into a food funk where you eat the same things, in pretty much the same ways, time after time.  Summer is the time where this usually happens to me.  The heat outside diminishes my appetite which doesn't help matters.

I dug around on the internet for a while and found a paleo recipe.  We don't eat any wheat in this house anymore (I am allergic) and really wanted an alternative to a fish crusted with something and cooked.  I found this recipe from a blog called Melik's Paleo Sweets.  I figured minus the black pepper (I am allergic) I could easily do this recipe.

Coconut Crusted Black Cod
2 black cod filets (I cut them in half)  (as always this black cod came from SeaBear)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons avocado oil (you can also use coconut oil)
In one bowl add the coconut flour and half of the spices.  In another bowl add the egg; whip and in another bowl add the shredded coconut and the rest of the spices.  Mix the ingredients with the spices really well so that the spices incorporate really well.   Place the fish into the coconut flour mixture and coat on all sides, dip into the egg mixture and then into the coconut.   Add the oil to a heavy bottomed skillet (I find these cook foods that are fried easier).  Heat over medium high heat.  To test to see if the oil is ready take a piece of the egg mixture that fell off your fish (yes you will have some in the bowl) and add to the skillet, it should sizzle and begin to cook.  If it doesn't start to sizzle your pan isn't hot yet.  Add fish skin side up and cook for about 5 minutes or so.  Keep an eye on it, you don't want it to burn, flip and continue to cook.  Gently pick up each fish and lightly brown each side.  I had one piece that was really thick and was afraid that it wasn't going to cook all the way through so I placed a lid on the pan, leaving enough for any heat to escape (didn't want to steam it).

The meal was served with cooked yellow squash (truly not my favorite) and a salad (all the ingredients in the salad were from our garden).

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

We really wanted to try our hand at making our own sausage.  I have a Kitchen Aid mixture that I got a grinder attachment for (have been wanting one for years) and so we decided to make sausage.
I don't have the part where you can make them into links (that will be next) so I decided to make patties.   I am dealing with several food intolerance's and allergies and one of the things that I am avoiding is black pepper.  So making my own sausage is a great alternative.

We even did a taste test to see what they tasted like once cooked.

Check out my notes at the bottom of the recipe.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage
2 pounds of pork (we used some pork stew beef that was cut into small chunks)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons sage
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1-1/2 teaspoons thyme
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
Place pork in the freezer for about 30 minutes this will harden it slightly and allow for easier grinding.  I ground my pork just once on a fine grinder setting.  Once the pork is ground add all ingredients and mix thoroughly, using your hands to incorporate all the ingredients.  Shape the pork mixture into patties. I used a Pampered Chef large scoop which about equaled 1.4 ounces.  I didn't want the patties to be super big but a nice size.  I figure it is easy enough to eat more than one if you were hungry.

I chose to freeze the patties.  I placed the patties onto wax paper and covered with another piece of wax paper and then put them inside of a seal a meal bag.  The patties can be kept separate that way and it is easy to get just one if you want.

Cook the patties until browned on both sides and cooked all the way through.

Note:  Since I used a pork that was considered stew it didn't have a ton of fat.  After the taste test we both agreed that it would be better with a small amount of fat added to it.  The next time we make it we will use a little fatback.  Also if you don't like it spicy you might want to reduce the amount of crushed red pepper.

Sausage Patties Ready for Freezing

In the package ready for freezing

1 for a taste test

Chilled Cucumber Soup

We have a lot of cucumbers coming from the garden and there is nothing better than chilled cucumber soup.

Here is what I did to make the soup.

Chilled Cucumber Soup
2 cucumbers, peeled and seeded
1 small avocado
1 handful spinach
1 cup water
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 small hungarian wax pepper, seeded (we have these growing in the garden as well)
salt to taste
a couple of sprigs of fresh dill
a couple of basil leaves
Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.  Add more salt or herbs as needed for taste.  Place in refrigerator to chill.  Serve in chilled bowls and top with fresh chopped herbs of your choice.

24 Hour Refrigerator Pickles

We have a ton of cucumbers coming form the garden and my husband really wanted to make pickles but he wanted to make sure he could find a recipe that doesn't contain sugar (I don't eat sugar anymore).  He found one on about.com.     I have to give all the credit for these to my husband Mike.  He tends the garden, picks the vegetables and made these pickles.

I can tell you this, they taste great even with them still being crunchy.  Can't wait until they sit in the refrigerator for a while.

24 Hour Refrigerator Pickles
1-1/4 cups water
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1-1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 springs of fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2-1/2 pounds cucumbers, sliced or cut into spears (Mike made them both ways)
Make a brine by combing water, vinegar, salt and honey; bring to a boil.  Pack two clean jars (pint mason jars) with the cucumbers.  Add one clove of garlic, one sprig of dill, and a pinch of red pepper flakes to each jar as you pack in the cucumbers.  Make sure the cucumbers are packed in there so they will not float when you add the brine.

Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers in the jars.  The cucumbers should be completely immersed in brine.  Since these refrigerator pickles will not be canned, it is not necessary to leave head space between the surface of the food and the rims of the jars.  Fasten lids and store in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before eating.

Also you can make bread and butter pickles by using 1/4 cup instead of the 2 tablespoons of honey.  Add 1/4 cup finely sliced white onions.  Sprinkle 1 teaspoon whole mustard seeds and 2 or 3 whole allspice into each jar as you load the vegetables.  (I am hoping that Mike will make these next).