I love cincinnati chili, and I love my slow cooker, so that makes this recipe doubly lovable. You can eat this just as a plain bowl of chili, or you could put it over spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes or white rice. All these options are considered safer starches and will help you feel nice and full. I actually ate this with japanese sweet potatoes last night, since that’s all they had at Whole Foods. We don’t have that much fall produce in LA yet. It’s crazy hot here right now and and the weather keeps geting hotter and hotter. I wanted to do a cold weather recipe anyway, since pinterest has me craving fall classics. So, I decided to blast the AC while my slow cooker was heating up my apartment. It kind of worked.
Anyway, I was really happy with way this recipe turned out. It made leftovers, which is always a good thing and it tasted delicious. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that spicy, so consider it a good base for a mild to medium chili, and add in extra cayenne pepper if you need to.
I recently got a new kitchen gadget that makes zucchini noodles! I have a spiralizer that doesn’t work very well, and have been meaning to get a more expensive one that hopefully will work. In the mean time, I got this awesome Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler, which was less than $20, and I thought it worked great. The reviews on amazon said it was really sharp, so you should hold your vegetable with a fork. Overall, I’m happy with my purchase.
As you can see, I put a ton of pesto on my zucchini. I love pesto, and I don’t love the taste of raw zucchini, so I thought, what the hell, and put all the pesto I made into the “noodles”. I’ve been known to eat pesto outside my fridge with a spoon, you know, like normal people do with ice cream. So I figured why not? It’s healthy, and I haven’t had Italian for awhile, so I’m going to eat every last bit…immediately. I hope you guys enjoy this recipe as much as I did.
It’s kinda crazy how easy this is to make, which I love. Plus, my husband loves it when I make this for dinner so we are both happy. I’ll admit, I use a short cut and buy an amazing spice blend from Frontier called Seafood Seasoning (the original with real sea salt). It tastes amazing and it’s all organic so I’m okay with it, and I throw it over the shrimp after I steam them and they taste soooo good. My husband loves this seasoning so much he threw it over the steamed broccoli as well. Not joking.
I love ordering a whole fish at restaurants. It feels like real primal food, as if I were an actual cave “woman”. This was my first time cooking fish whole, so my recipe may not be perfect, but I thought it tasted delicious and moist. Even though you will want to gobble it up quickly, take it slow and beware of fish bones. They can be pretty annoying but bones mean flavor, so I would rather have it than not. I made this with my easy fig salad, which I just posted.
Baked Whole Branzino With Lemon, Rosemary, & Thyme
Since I couldn’t eat her normal eggplant parmesan, Nonni made this paleo friendly eggplant and meatball casserole instead. Everyone was surprised at how good it tasted, especially Nonni. This dish is grain free, gluten free, and dairy free … just the way I like it. Thanks Non!
Chop eggplant into quarter of an inch slices. Then liberally salt them.
Let salted eggplant drain for 30 minutes to an hour.
Make egg wash with eggs and water. Set aside.
Rinse salt off eggplant and pat dry.
Grease cookie sheet with coconut oil.
Then dip eggplant in egg wash and place on greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees until eggplant browns. Then take out eggplant and let it cool.
Add sauce to bottom of casserole dish, then layer eggplant, then a halved meatball on top, then some fresh basil, and repeat until all eggplant is used.
My Italian grandmother on my mom’s side, Nonni, made these for me before we left to go back to LA. She eliminated the breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese that she normally adds, and baked them instead of frying them in olive oil, which is how I used to eat them when I was younger. Everyone, except myself (of course), was surprised at how delicious these tasted. In fact, they were so good that Nonni added them to the separate paleo eggplant casserole she made for me, since I wouldn’t eat the traditional eggplant parmesan, because of the cheese and breadcrumbs. I plan on posting the casserole recipe for everyone as well. Since she used these meatballs in that recipe, I wanted to post this one first. My now husband, Shameer (we just had our wedding!) loved the paleo meatball and eggplant casserole so much that he asked me to make it for him this time! It was really that good.
which was less than $20, and I thought it worked great. The reviews on amazon said it was really sharp, so you should hold your vegetable with a fork. Overall, I’m happy with my purchase.
