This was my first attempt at grilled flank steak. We live in an apartment so I used a nonstick grill pan (instead of an actual grill) from Costco, which I’m kind of loving. I also made some homemade chimichurri to go with the steak and zoodles. The chimichurri drips down through the pieces of steak and get all over the noodles, and makes them taste so good. Seriously, I could drink chimichurri. Plus, the extra will make great salad dressing for the week. If you don’t have a julienne vegetable peeler for zoodles I highly recommend the Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler. 

 

This was my first time making a Peruvian dish, and I am very happy with the results. I used a spice blend from RawSpiceBar called Peruvian Spice Rub, and it smelled and tasted heavenly. It contains smoked paprika, ancho chiles, cumin, ground black pepper, and Mexican Oregano.

RawSpiceBar is a subscription service for $6 a month that sends you a large envelope with three spice blends to try that are good for one or two dishes. Each box features a theme, and as you can probaly guess, this month features Peruvian spices and recipes. Each package contains three recipe cards featuring each of the spice blends, and a description card that gives you some background information on the cuisine and regional flavors.

If you’re like me and love trying new spice blends, but don’t want to commit to a ful sized bottle or bag, then this would be a great service for you. At $6 a month, it’s not very pricey for some high quality samples, but keep in mind they are still samples. Don’t expect to get a large portion in each packet. That being said, it’s a great way to step outside your comfort zone in the kitchen, without making a large monetary commitment. It’s also a great way to learn more about food, and it may inspire you to create some exciting new recipes.

RawSpiceBar also gives you the option of purchasing this as a gift for a friend or family member who loves cooking. Subscription services make great gifts, because the gifts keep coming each month. At $36 you can get them a subscription for six months! Personally, I think that would be really fun to get in the mail. There is also a large social media following, so you can share your creations with the RawSpiceBar community.

Disclaimer: I’m not being paid for this review. RawSpiceBar sent me this complimentary packet in the mail for me to try out.

This chorizo chili has a ton of flavor, and is really easy to make. I used pureed cauliflower as a secret ingredient, (which is not so secret now) to thicken up the chili, without spending a ton of time on the stove top. It also allows you to sneak in even more nutrition into this recipe. If you’re worried about the chili tasting like cauliflower, don’t be. The seasoning from the chorizo will overpower the delicate flavor of the cauliflower.

This chilli would taste great over sweet potato hash or an omelet, for an awesome breakfast, or mix it with some spaghetti squash for a Mexican style paleo pasta. You could also add some homemade bone broth and turn it into a soup. This makes great leftovers, so don’t be afraid to make a lot!

This easy zucchini pasta  is an easy paleo friendly meal, that you can make ahead of time. The longer you saute the pasta, and evaporate the water released from the zucchini, the creamier and less watery the pasta will become. (The blended pine nuts in the sun dried tomato pesto, will make the pasta sauce feel and taste creamy) That makes this dish great for reheating later, especially if you under-cook the pasta a bit.

I used a Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler to create the noodles. It’s only $18.94 on amazon, and it’s really easy to use. Use a fork to hold the zucchini, since the peeler is crazy sharp. If you don’t want to make a ton of zucchini noodles, and they will cook down giving you less volume as well, consider turning this into a side dish. My husband and I baked some chicken to go with this and ate it with the leftover pesto. We enjoyed it so much we had the same thing the next night!

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Sun-Dried Tomato Zucchini Pasta

This paleo friendly acorn squash bowl is inspired by Thanksgiving! It has all my favorite fall ingredients including ground turkey, poultry seasoning, acorn squash, and dried cranberries. I used salt-free poultry seasoning to flavor the ground turkey from Frontier. I love the smell of this spice blend. It reminds me of thanksgiving since I use it in my stuffing. This seasoning includes sage, thyme, onion, marjoram, black pepper, celery seed and cayenne. You could easily make an AIP friendly version if you mix your own spice blend and eliminate the cayenne.

I used organic sweetened dried cranberries from whole foods. Last year I tried to make my own in the dehydrator, but they ended up too hard and bitter. You could always remove the cranberries from this recipe if the ingredients in dried cranberries don’t fit in with your elimination diet. There is only a half a cup in the whole recipe and I thought it would be fun to have another thanksgiving flavor.

This recipe for chorizo and spinach stuffed sweet potato is really great for an easy weeknight meal. You can even bake the sweet potatoes ahead of time, and then quickly saute the chorizo and spinach together when you are ready to eat. Instead of baking the sweet potatoes in foil, like I normally do, I baked them in salt instead. I’m still working on the best way to get an amazing potato crust, so I need to do a bit more trial and error to get it right. However, I do think baking them in salt was an improvement. I didn’t have to poke holes in the sweet potatos, and as a result, the final result looked a lot less messier. Although I did have to increase the amount of time I kept it in the oven.

The chorizo has a ton of great flavor, so it makes the spinach taste delicious. The spinach get’s to cook in all the tasty fat and flavor from the chorizo. Honestly, I think the chorizo and spinach would make a delicious side dish all on it’s own. It would also make a great filling for an omelette or quiche as well. I definitely plan to cook with these ingredients again.