Paleo Crock Pot Short Ribs

Does anyone ever go to the grocery store and decide to be brave and bold and buy a new ingredient?  That is how Paleo Crock Pot Short Ribs came to be.  I was at the meat counter, almost done and the sale of the day catches my eye. Short Ribs? Grass Fed?  Maybe I need these in my life? Then I find myself ordering 1 pound please.  Before I know it; I'm checking out and thinking "I have no idea what to do with short ribs".  I know I love short ribs but how do I cook them?  Well, a week or so later and I decide slow cooking sounds like the best way do this. So I bust out the crock pot, mushrooms, carrots, onions, garlic, and stock and just start creating.

I would recommend making the recipe with 2 pounds of short ribs as the yield of meat is not enough for left overs or more then 2 people.

Ingredients
I used 1 pound of Short Ribs but i recommend 2
1 quart organic reduced sodium Beef Stock

1/4 cup dry red wine
1 onion chopped
1 large garlic minced
5 medium sized carrots chopped
1 cup diced portobello mushrooms
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper


In a small bowl mix the sage, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and black pepper and mix to make your rub.  Gently coat your ribs in the rub and place in the crock pot.  Then chop your vegetables, beef stock, and red wine to your crock pot.  Turn the crock pot on medium for 6 hours, cover, and cook.

I served our short ribs over paleo mashed sweet potatoes.  Simply boil 2 large organic sweet potatoes.  Mash boiled and drained sweet potatoes with 1 TBSP of grass fed butter.  Delicious! I hope you enjoy the simplicity of this recipe with the warm hearty flavors.

Roasted Leek Soup

Brrr, baby it's cold outside!  As the temperature drops it is the perfect time to warm up with some yummy soup.  I love my soup hearty, savory, and exploding with flavor.  Normally when you hear "hearty" one might think heavy and cream, but that doesn't have to be so.  You can clean up your favorite soup recipe and keep it creamy and hearty with out it including 'heavy cream'.  My favorite way to do this is by roasting vegetables and making a puree, then just add any stock, and followed by spices. There you have a savory and hearty soup with all the cream.

This season I am working on cooking more sustainable which includes buying in season vegetables and fruits. Leeks are a hearty root vegetable that is usually harvested in the fall and makes for a great winter veggie. So I was cruising my local grocery store and I thought what the heck those Leeks look interesting.  So I bought some and decided to experiment with a new soup recipe to add to my repertoire.

Ingredients
2  organic Leeks
1 small organic cauliflower head
1 chopped onion
1/2 garlic head
2 cups Organic Vegetable Stock
Olive Oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp paprika
3 TB grass fed butter
salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  You will want to clean the leeks and chop them.  I had never cleaned a leek before but it was not that hard. 

Chop off the green tops and the root. 

Then dice the entire stalk of leek.  

Then soak and swirl around in a bowl of warm water to get all the grit off of them.

(Just for a few minute)

Drain and then rinse in a colander.

On a baking sheet place your chopped leeks, chopped cauliflower and chopped onion.  Cut the 1/2 of a garlic head in half and place on the baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.Mix with your hands so all the veggies are gently coated.

The bake for about 20 min or until golden brown and soft.

Then add veggies to your food processor or blender.  Blend the veggies till in a smooth puree.  I added a little vegetable stock to help keep the puree smooth.

Melt butter in your stock pan.  Then add your puree and vegetable stock.  Add your spices.  Heat to a simmer and stir occasionally to keep from burning.  Simmer for about 30 min and then serve.  Feel free to add extra vegetable stock if you would like a thinner soup. 

Clean lifestyle

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had an amazing, revitalizing, and yummy holiday.  I know I sure did!  I had 5 Christmases, which meant 5 helpings of decilicious, tantalizing, not really healthy, and scrumptious meals.  To say the least it was wonderful to spend all that time with family and friends.  Though I did get off track of healthy, clean, and whole food cooking and eating.  But that is ok.  In my opinion living a lifestyle vs a diet means it's ok to splurge on family favorites and eat sugar from time to time but you don't let that derail your lifestyle. You simply re start and get right back at it like you never left.

As it is the new year, anyone with a tv will be inundated with weight loss ads and excersise programs.  I am a firm believer in having a healthy lifestyle and being active.  Diets are short term that end once you reach your goal or are too starved to keep doing it.  Lifestyle exactly what it sounds like, it is how you live your life. 

Living a whole food, clean lifestyle to me means eating whole foods with the least amount of processing.  If your eating less processed foods that includes sugar.  Cutting out the use of cane sugar which is hidden in most things processed is a huge part of this.

  By buying ingrediants in their most natural form you can control what goes into your body.  This means shopping the outside of the super market where you will find the fresh ingredients: vegetables, fruits, meats, fish and dairy are usually found on the outside of the supermarket and not deep inside the aisles.  It also means cooking.  Really cooking and not just reheating in the microwave.  

If you are cooking with spices and fresh ingrediants you know exactly what you just ate.  You know how much sugar, salt, and fat was in that meal.  This is so much simpler then standing in aisles reading convoluted labels and really just guessing sometimes.

Also think about high startch food like potatoes. Your body turns startch into sugar and energy.  Which is all fine and dandy if other foods you eat aren't being laced with sugar. Eating less startch items means less sugar in your diet.  Now I love a good potatoe in some stew just like the next person, but sweet potatoes which have less startch can be substituted.  Or if your gonna splurge with a potatoe just think less is more and in moderation.

Another piece of clean eating is eating organic.  Why, organic? Well if we are trying to eat the freshest ingrediants in their natural form that means no pesticides and chemicals. You want to eat food that has no additions. 

 Try to imagine how your great grandmother cooked and grocery shopped.  She probably had a garden in the back yard and went from the bakery, to the butcher, ect. She knew her meat and dairy came from the farmer from the next county and her carrots came from her backyard.  She knew who touched her food.  She never questioned that someone had modified the seed (GMO) or that someone washed her berries in pesticides. She also knew she had to cook and create her food.  That she couldn't buy something wrapped in foil through a drive thru. 

Now that you have envisioned how your great mother cooked her meals, now imagine you basically wanting to replicate that in modern times.  Buying organic, non Genetically modified, fresh ingrediants is the way.  Cooking your food from scratch. It doesn't have to be hard.  In fact simple food tastes delicious.  Also pack your lunch with left overs from dinner from the night before.  Two birds one stone. 

Is organic more expensive? yes, it can be. Why is it more expensive? Because organic farmers have to prove to the government that food was grown organically which costs money.  Are some foods more important to eat organic than others yes.  Visit the EWG (environmental working group) for the dirty dozen list at http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php

Now that I just did a real quick break down of what eating clean is, I want to say we all do the best we can and starting a new lifestyle is hard. Start small, with some new recipes.  Or try it for one week.  I promise your body will feel different.  I am a 2 can of diet mountiam dew a day convert that couldn't imagine going back to my old eating habits.  When I eat clean I feel better, when I don't my body tells me and I feel it.  

Please ask questions or comments.  I'm learning things everyday and I would love to help others with their lifestyle changes. At the end of the day remember to love yourself; part of that is loving your body.