Thursday, November 3, 2016

Paleo Homemade Lawry's Seasoning Copycat

I love using Lawry's Seasoned salt.
I noticed that our bottle was almost gone and I decided to try my hand at making a homemade version and to make it paleo to boot!

It was very simple.... gather all your spices (running some through a grinder).

Mix it together and you're done!

I did a taste test sprinkling some of my bottled Lawry's on one side of some fried potatoes and my homemade version on the other side. I liked the homemade version better! Maybe the spices were fresher? Our grocery store carries bulk spices so this was super economical too.

Paleo Homemade Lawry's Seasoning Salt Copycat
1/3 cup salt*
3 1/2 ts coconut sugar*
1 1/2 ts arrowroot powder**
1 TB celery salt*
1 TB smoked paprika
1 ts granulated onion
1 ts granulated garlic
1 ts turmeric
1/8 ts cayenne pepper

Adapted recipe from Food.com

*run through a spice or coffee grinder

**I wasn't sure if I should replace the cornstarch in the original recipe with arrowroot powder or tapioca starch. Here is an excellent article that explains the science behind making paleo flour replacements.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Baked Zucchini Mini Muffin Meatballs


I HATE to roll meatballs! So I decided to try and make meat "balls" in a silicone mini muffin pan instead.
 It was not as easy as I hoped it would be, but it did save me from the dreaded" rolling of the balls"!
My 7 year old usually won't touch zucchini, but he gobbled these up!

Baked Zucchini Mini Muffin Meatballs
1-1 1/2 lb ground meat *
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup zucchini, shredded, drained and packed
1/4 onion or 2 shallots finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cook onions in fat on stove top until translucent. Lightly salt them to draw out the moisture.
In a bowl combine the rest of the ingredients. Add onions when they are ready.
*if you are using ground turkey you may want to add a tablespoon of olive oil to the mix.
Combine and place in a mini muffin pan.
I have a round tablespoon that ended up being the perfect scoop.

Cook for 20-25 minutes.
I used ground beef and the grease was starting to go over the edge of the pan so I ended up placing a large cookie sheet on the lower rack to catch the grease.

Makes 48 mini meatballs

Adapted from a recipe on Prevention RD



Friday, September 2, 2016

Applesauce Muffins (Paleo)


Paleo baked goods have been very difficult for me to get used to. Almond flour and coconut flour are just not the same as wheat flour. Some of the things I've baked have been horribly dry and some recipes have you use a ridiculous amount of eggs and then they taste like...eggs!

These applesauce muffins were pretty decent (how's that for a rousing endorsement :). Nice and moist with a mild, pleasant flavor. They give me hope that I will start finding some good paleo baked good recipes. I also think I just need to train my palette to get used to these new tastes.

Since we are new to paleo I bumped up the sweetness from the original recipe and mixed my walnuts in rather than have them on top. From Gluten Free Homemaker

Applesauce Muffins

1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup applesauce
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoon coconut sugar
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350

In one bowl whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
In another bowl mix eggs, applesauce, vanilla, honey and sugar.
Add the wet and dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add walnuts and mix in.

I used a silicone muffin pan. Fill 10 of the muffin cups and cook for 25 minutes. Use a toothpick to make sure they are cooked through and then cool on a wire rack.