Category: paleo

Detox Herb & Romaine Salad

This is just about the most detoxifyingly delicious salad I can think of. It’s perfect for winter and feeling like it won’t be snowing forever. There’s an equal mix of lettuce and herbs, and a light lemon dressing is, as always, my fav. Thanks for Colly Doll for the recipe – enjoy!

HERB & ROMAINE SALAD (makes as much or as little as you want)
Equal parts:
– Romaine (the freshest you can find)
– Parsley
– Mint
– Green onions
– Dill
– Juice of 1 lemon
– Splash of EVOO
– Good quality Kosher Salt

1. Pull apart (don’t chop, this will be prettier) the herbs into equal amounts.




2. Add everything to a big bowl, then add romaine – torn, if you want.


3. Juice a lemon over the salad, then add EVOO. Top with Kosher salt and gently mix all together.



Black Bean and Cilantro Hummus

 

The incomparable Caravia’s does just about everything perfectly. Their food is amazing, their produce is the best/most organic you can find in the area, everything is selected with care and detail, and the health inspector, while visiting, told them “If every place was this clean, I’d be out of a job”. Oh, and it’s a family-run business (by one of my favorite families of all time) and you should go there immediately, if not sooner.

Anyway, they make a ton of awesome food, but one of my favorites is their black bean and cilantro hummus. I tried to duplicate it, but I’ll admit a loss when I meet one – theirs is still better.  So the next time you visit Clarks Summit, pick some up. If not, this will do as a substitute!

BLACK BEAN AND CILANTRO HUMMUS (makes enough for a party-size serving)
– 1 BPA-free can of chick peas (also called garbanzo beans)
– 1/2 BPA-free can of black beans
– approx. 3 tbsp. cilantro
– 1/4 C. tahini
– 1/4 C. EVOO
– 1/4 – 1/3 C. chicken (or vegetable) broth
– juice of 1 lime
– 1 tsp. cumin
– kosher salt to taste

1. Drain and rinse the black beans and the garbanzo beans. Add the garbanzo beans to a bowl, set the black beans aside for later.

2. In the bowl with the chick peas, add the tahini, EVOO, 2 TBSP of cilantro, cumin and kosher salt. Mix it all together pretty well.

3. Add the mixture to a food processor, pulse it until it’s combined. 


4. Little by little, add the broth – continuing to pulse the mixture – until it’s pretty light and fluffy.

5. Put the mix back in the bowl, stir in the 1/2 can of black beans and the remaining 1 TBSP of chopped cilantro. Mix it all together and refrigerate. Serve with chips, veggies, pretzel chips, or even use it as a sandwich spread.

Crunchy Chopped Salad with Feta, Mint and a Lime Vinaigrette

 

Oh, did you overdo it with all the food on Superbowl Sunday? Me too. I needed a serious detox meal the next day, and this salad was pretty perfect. It’s super easy, healthy, completely delicious and fun to eat. You can use whatever veggies you want, but try to get a couple different colored ones to make it look pretty. I also strongly recommend using sugar snap peas, because man, are they ever satisfying to eat. Crunch crunch crunch.

CRUNCHY CHOPPED SALAD WITH FETA, MINT AND LIME VINAIGRETTE (serves 4 – adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
– 1 cup each of 4-5 different kinds of veggies, chopped into pretty uniform pieces. I used an english cucumber, sugar snap peas, radishes and red onion.
– 2 scallions, chopped, white and green parts
– 1/3 C. crumbled feta
– approx. 6 large mint leaves, chiffonaded

LIME VINAIGRETTE
– juice of 1 lime (approx. 1 tbsp)
– 2 tbsp. EVOO
– 1 tsp. cumin
– kosher salt and pepper to taste


This is a really tough recipe. Ready?

1. Get all your veggies cleaned. Chop into similar size pieces and throw them into a bowl.

Sugar Snap Peas win the world
2. Add the feta, mint and the scallions, mix everything together. 

3. In a different container, combine the lime juice with the cumin, salt & pepper. Stir to combine. Add the olive oil and mix it all together. Just before serving, pour dressing over the salad and stir everything together gently but thoroughly.

4. Serve.  We had this with salmon burgers with avocado slices and a dill sauce on sourdough-rosemary bread, and oh, my god. This dinner almost cancelled out the over-indulgence of Super Bowl Sunday – I probably felt almost as bad as the Broncos did by the end of the night. You’ll get them next time, Colorado!

White Bean “Hummus” with Sage and Roasted Garlic

For months now I’ve been in a salad/scoop/soup kind of mood. That’s going to change next week, because my mom just let me know I’m in charge of making a pumpkin pie “with tiny leaves made out of dough” for Thanksgiving. I’ve never made a pumpkin pie. I’ve definitely never made one with “tiny leaves made out of dough”.  Soo…in the interim, let’s get back to the 3 s’s.  This one falls under the “scoop” category, and it’s awesome. 

WHITE BEAN HUMMUS WITH SAGE AND ROASTED GARLIC (makes a side for about 5 people)
– 1 can white Northern beans, rinsed and drained
– couple sage leaves, chopped
– 1 clove garlic, roasted
– 1/4 EVOO (or less. Add this little by little to desired consistency)
– squeeze of lemon 
– Kosher salt & freshly cracked black pepper to taste

1. Roast that garlic. Lop the top off of it, place it on a piece of tin foil, cover with some EVOO & salt, wrap the top loosely & place in an oven at 400 for about 30-40 mins.


2. Remove garlic from the oven when it’s soft & golden. Let it cool a little bit.


3. Rinse and drain a can of white beans. Put in a food processor.


4. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into the food processor with the beans (you can skip this completely if you don’t like roasted garlic. I do, though!)


5. Add chopped sage & lemon juice & salt/pepper.


6. Add EVOO little by little, blending well, until the “hummus” is combined and fluffy.


7. Serve with french bread, veggies, or (of course) pretzel chips.


— Side notes.  It’s been an incredible couple of days. Without getting into the beginning part of this week and why it was wonderful, in the last 24 hours two of my friends Pat & Peggy got engaged. I set them up at the beginning of this year, and couldn’t be more excited for them. This is the second couple I set up who are getting married!!! I mean that’s got to be a better track record than Patti Stanger, right??

Also, we had an incredible time promoting The Great American Smokeout this morning with one of my favorites, Ryan Leckey, at South Scranton Intermediate. I do PR for Geisinger-CMC. The hospital, and Geisinger in general, is really involved with community health initiatives, so we brought in the Director of the PA Department of Health to talk to the middle school kids about the dangers of smoking, and I built a morning show (“Leckey Live“) around it. I could talk for an hour straight about everything that went wrong while I was trying to coordinate this, but I won’t, because when I walked into South Scranton this morning and saw how they had decked out the whole auditorium with signs and posters and banners etc., I was so psyched about how it looked that I high-fived the maintenance guys who’d shown up at 4am to let us into the school to start taping. South Scranton has a special place in my heart as the school we used to do our high school plays at before Scranton Prep built our fancy stage & auditorium, and it was so cool to be back there as an adult, coordinating one of my favorite morning shows ever, and feel the energy in the place from everyone (90+ kids, cheerleaders, parents, school staff, Geisinger representatives) who was so excited to be there. Ryan and his cameraman Corey just knock it out of the park, every time, but today was something extra special.  

At least once a day I think “I love my job”. Today I had a bunch of those moments. 

Enjoy the clips from the show here and here. 


Roasted Cauliflower with Cumin and Lime


I love, love, love roasting just about anything. Roasted Lemon Cauliflower is one of my favorite snacks, and this version of it – lime instead of lemon, a little cumin – takes it to a whole other level. It’s a perfect, super healthy and delicious snack. Plus, the health benefits of cumin!!! Who knew.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER WITH CUMIN AND LIME (serves 4 as a side or snack)
– 1 large head cauliflower
– 4 limes, juiced, zest of 2
– 1 tbsp. EVOO
– 2 tbsp cumin (don’t let this scare you)

1. Preheat the oven to 450.

2. Chop up the washed cauliflower. The easiest way to do this is to cut the cauliflower in half, then into quarters. Then, cut away the middle part (the stem, I guess). The florets should fall away on their own, pretty much mess-free. Add them to a big bowl.


3. Juice and zest 2 of the limes, then add the cumin. Mix to combine. Add the olive oil. Mix it all together and toss it with the cauliflower until it’s well-coated.


4. Lay the cauliflower in one layer on a roasting sheet. Put into the oven and cook for approx. 30- 40 minutes, or until roasted golden brown. Flip it every ten minutes, squeezing the juice of 1/2 a lime over it each time.


5. Serve as a snack or an appetizer (we had this with Roasted Red Grapes with Thyme. I told you I liked roasting things).


Hostessing is my all-time fav.

— AND, just want to give a HUGE congrats to Mario & Katie and the rest of the crew from What The Fork food truck! They made the top 4 for LIVE with Kelly & Michael‘s “Truckin’ Amazing” nationwide Food Truck competition! It’s been so cool to watch their amazing progress over the last year. Vote for them here. Congratulations guys – you make Scranton proud!


Chopped Chicken Salad with Summer Nectarines, Avocado & Feta in a Basil Vinaigrette

This is, clearly, the summer of salads.  It’s been so hot out lately that I can’t even think about turning on an oven, so here we are.  You can get pretty creative with salads – for this one, I had some leftover grilled chicken, and the rest was in my refrigerator. It was delicious. You can sub peaches for nectarines, but make sure they’re pretty ripe, because crunch of the nectarines was perfect when paired with the creamy avocado, the grilled chicken, the saltiness of the feta and the sweet punch of the basil vinaigrette. It doesn’t keep well (at all) so make as much as you’re going to serve at a time.

CHOPPED CHICKEN SALAD WITH SUMMER NECTARINES, AVOCADO & FETA IN A BASIL VINAIGRETTE (serves 2-4)
– 2 nectarines (or peaches), chopped
– 1 large grilled chicken breast, chopped
– 1 avocado, chopped
– 1/4 cup crumbled feta
– couple basil leaves, chiffonaded

Basil Vinaigrette (makes more than enough, so just use however much you need)
– 2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
– 1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
– 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
– 2 tsp. honey
– 6 tbsp. EVOO
– little kosher salt & fresh cracked black pepper

Ready for this? It’s super complicated.

1. Chop up the nectarines/peaches/avocado into pieces roughly the same size (approx. 1/4 inch), add to a bowl.

2. Add the feta, mix gently to combine and not bruise the avocado.

3. Combine the vinegars and the salt/pepper, then the honey, then the EVOO & the chopped basil.  Put a lid on it and shake it up (that doubles as life advice).


4. Top the salad with the dressing just before serving, then gently combine.  Top individual servings with the extra chiffonaded basil.


— It was hard for me to concentrate while writing this because I SWEAR TO YOU, STINK BUG BUZZING SOMEPLACE IN MY SUNROOM, I WILL FIND YOU AND YOU WILL BE MINE.  

Creamy Avocado Dressing – No Olive Oil or Dairy!


This dressing was a happy accident.  Dinner was almost ready one night, and I realized we didn’t have any olive oil left to make a salad dressing.  So I searched the internet and found a couple basic recipes, combined a few of them, and came up with this.  It’s fantastic.  It’s like a salad on top of a salad, is one of the healthiest, most refreshing dressings I’ve ever put together, and will keep a couple of days, too.  We ended up using it for a dipping sauce for mexican summer rolls for dinner the next day. I really can’t express just how much I love avocados and how they seem to make just about every recipe better.

CREAMY AVOCADO DRESSING (serves 4-6)
– 1 avocado, cut into chunks
– 1/2 english cucumber, chopped
– 1/4 C. cilantro, chopped
– juice of 1/2 lime
– zest of 1/2 lime
– juice of 1/2 lemon
– 1/4 C. water
– kosher salt to taste

1. Cut up the avocado, english cucumber, cilantro, and put into a Food Processor.  Add the lemon & lime juice, lime zest, water, & 1/2 tsp. kosher salt to start.


2. Blend everything really, really well.  Taste, then add more juice, water, salt, etc. to taste.

3. Serve on top of a nice green salad, use as a dipping sauce, etc.  This is a great way to sneak in an extra serving of veggies, too.

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon

Is there any vegetable that roasting won’t make delicious?? Asparagus is great, but roasting it and adding a bit of lemon takes it to a whole other level. This is one of the quickest, tastiest side dishes you can make.  I would eat this for a snack.

ROASTED ASPARAGUS WITH LEMON (serves 2-4) 
– 1 lb. asparagus, ends trimmed – get thicker spears, if you can – these will hold up better during roasting
– zest of 1 lemon
– 1 tsp. kosher salt, or more to taste (kosher is best here, or any other larger-grain salt)
– couple of grinds fresh black pepper
– 2 tbsp. EVOO
– squeeze of lemon juice, for topping

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Trim the asparagus – you can kind of just bend them towards the bottom, and the “woodsy” part should snap off naturally.

3. In a large ziplock bag, combine the EVOO, lemon zest, and half of the salt & pepper.

4. Add asparagus spears to the bag, zip it, and roll the spears around inside the bag so they get covered with everything.

5. Add asparagus to a roasting pan in a single layer.  Top with the remaining kosher salt & pepper.

6. Roast for approx. 10 minutes, shaking the pan about halfway through to get them to roll around a bit and get all sides cooking.
7. Remove from the oven, squeeze a little lemon over them, and serve.

— Also, check out what some of my girlfriends and I did last night!  Indigo dyeing!!!  This was so much fun, and we got pretty creative, and I felt like I was back in summer camp, which was awesome.  There are some seriously talented people out there who do this “Shibori dyeing” (to clarify, we are not those people) – check out this blog for a little tutorial:  http://honestlywtf.com/diy/shibori-diy/  
After you dip these, even though the end color is indigo, the pieces come out kind of an acid green. So weird.
Some of our masterpieces!!  This was such a fun, and funny, craft project. Definitely worth the blue-stained fingernails today!

Avocado & Tomato Salad with Lemon Olive Oil

Ohhh, this is just the best thing ever.  There are 5 main ingredients in this recipe, and they all combine to create one of the most delicious salads I’ve ever had.  The creaminess of a whole avocado together with toasted, super thin slices of almonds is insanely good on its own.  Combine that with the peppery-ness of some arugula, the freshness of plum tomatoes, and a little dusting of parmesan cheese, dress it with a really simple lemon olive oil, good grief.  This seems like a really indulgent little lunch, but it’s so healthy, and pretty, too. The next time we have people over for dinner, I think I’m going to make a platter of this for the salad course. Any takers?

AVOCADO & TOMATO SALAD WITH ARUGULA, TOASTED ALMONDS, & LEMON OLIVE OIL (serves 1)
– 1 ripe avocado, halved
– 1.5 plum tomatoes, cut into quarters (discard the middle part with the seeds)
– handful arugula leaves, or mixed greens
– handful thinly sliced almonds (you can find a bag of these in most grocery stores), toasted
– parmesan cheese, for topping
– juice of half a lemon
– 2 tbsp. EVOO
– good-quality salt, for topping

1. In a small pan, toast the almonds over medium heat, shaking the pan frequently so they don’t burn.  They should toast up pretty quickly – maybe only 2-3 minutes.  Remove pan from the heat and set aside. 


2. Cut the avocado in half – run a knife through it, twist it open, then carefully whack the avocado pit with the knife blade and remove it. Then, run your knife around the perimeter of the avocado halves, and carefully squeeze out each avocado half.


3. Arrange arugula leaves in the center of a plate, then place the avocado halves on either side.  Add sliced tomatoes.


4. Combine the lemon juice and EVOO, stir to combine.  Drizzle over the avocado/tomato/arugula.


5. Top with the toasted almond slices, dust with a little parmesan cheese, then add a pinch of really good quality salt crystals over everything to bring it all together. 

I’m going to go make another one of these right now.  So good!

Tomatillo Salsa

Tomatillos have to be one of the cutest foods out there.  They come in their own little leaf packaging, they’re a bright green which would be fabulous in a wedding color palette, and they’re perfectly, adorably, palm-sized. They also have a really unique flavor – kind of tart, kind of tangy – and are a great, fresh base for an incredibly flavorful salsa.  I used this as a topping to the fish tacos I made a couple of days ago, and it was terrific.

TOMATILLO SALSA (serves 4)
– 4-5 tomatillos, seeded and diced (approx. 2 cups)
– 1/3 red onion, diced
– 1 lime, juiced
– 2 small cloves garlic, chopped
– handful cilantro, chopped
– 1/2 tsp. cumin
– 1/4 tsp. kosher salt, couple of grinds fresh black pepper

1. Peel the “leafy” part away from the tomatillos.  This has a bonus of smelling like crumpling leaves in the fall!  Wash the whole tomatillo to remove any residue.


2. Cut the tomatillos into quarters, then with your fingers, kind of push out the whole middle part to “seed” them.  These seeds are teeny, so don’t worry if you don’t get all of them.  You also lose a lot of the bulk of the tomatillo in this process, but that’s ok too.


3. Dice a 1/3 of a red onion – make slits along the natural ridges of the onion, lengthwise, then flip it to the side and make horizontal cuts. The onion will dice itself naturally.


4. With a Citrus Reamer, juice a lime into a small prep bowl.  Add the cumin, garlic, salt & pepper, stir to combine.


5. Combine the diced tomatillos, onion, chopped cilantro in a bowl.  Add the dressing and stir to combine.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Serve as a topping to any mexican dish, or even on its own.