Tomato Basil Meatballs

In early June our family decided to start following the Paleo lifestyle. We have removed grains, dairy, refined sugars, legumes and nightshades from our diet. It has been pretty amazing. I've been pretty challenged by the necessity of cooking all of our food. Granted we can still eat out if we do major modifications to our meals, but for the most part, we are eating pretty tasty home cooked meals. I have been so grateful for all the people out there who love blogging! there are so many people who live paleo and have tons of great recipes on their blogs. We have enjoyed all kinds of foods that stay within the paleo limits. Including cake, brownies, cookies, hamburgers and pizza! I've really enjoyed trying to come up with good recipe's of my own too. So here is the first one that I feel like is absolutely amazing. I feel silly putting that out there because I realize that everyone has different tastes, but I think this is pretty good.

Tomato Basil Meatballs

Makes approx 36 meatballs

3 lbs Grass-fed ground beef

1 pint cherry tomatoes diced

5 bunches of fresh basil

1/3 cup of garlic cloves

11 oz tomato paste

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3 eggs

1/2 tbs Honey

turn your oven to 400 degrees

Lightly grease an 9 x 13 and 9 x 9 baking dish

Place eggs, garlic, tomato paste, basil leaves, salt and pepper and honey in a food processor or blender until mostly creamy, but still has a few bits of garlic and basil.

In a large bowl place the ground beef and tomatoes. Add the contents of the blender and combine using your hands or a spatula. Once combined roll into golf ball sized balls and place in the baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Enjoy!!

"Boat Dinner"

I'm trying to change my family's eating style to primarily Paleo... I've had a hard time recently because I (and Nathan) have felt like a lot of the Paleo food I've been making is a whole lot of the same thing... so, I researched a bunch of blogs and found lots of ideas and that is where the inspiration for this "boat dinner" came from (Zeke calls it "boat dinner." Cutie).

Boat Dinner

2 Delicata Squash halved

1 TBS Coconut Oil

Salt

Pepper

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Filling:

1 lb Ground Beef

1 red bell pepper

1/2 a yellow onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 inch of Serrano Pepper

1 small bunch of Broccolini cut into bite sized pieces

Heat oven to 415 degrees use coconut oil to cover the insides of the delicota squash and place skin side down on a baking sheet. Sprinkle seasonings on the squash to taste. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the squash become soft. Remove from the oven.

Meanwhile, brown the ground beef and in a separate skillet saute the onions, garlic and Serrano pepper on medium heat. After about two minutes, add the peppers and broccolini.

Put a thin layer of the veggies in the squash then top with ground beef and place in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Combine the remaining beef and veggies. Once the squash are done, top with the remaining mixture and serve. Yum!

Cookies!!!

I was looking around online trying to find a recipe for cookies that don't contain flour, sugar or dairy and I ran across this blog. I ended up tweaking it a bit and came up with this!

Raisin Spice Cookies

1 c. Almond Meal

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbs unsweetened Apple sauce (for a chewier cookie, use 1 tbs Apple Sauce and 1 tbs avocado.)

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla

1/3 c. Raisins

combine dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. whisk together egg, vanilla and apple sauce. mix in dry mixture and raisins.

Place tablespoon sized portions on an un-greased cookie sheet (it should make about 20 cookies) and pat down to the preferred shape (they hold whatever shape you give them at the start). Place in the oven at 350 for 8 minutes or until the edges look crispy.

They are so good! the raisins and apple sauce sweeten them just enough! I feel great feeding them to Zeke too! He also thinks they're a smash hit!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. Almond Meal

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 Egg

2 Tbs Unsweetened Apple Sauce

1 tsp Vanilla

1/4 c. Chocolate Chips

Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. whisk together egg, vanilla and apple sauce. mix in dry mixture and Chocolate Chips.

Place tablespoon sized portions on an un-greased cookie sheet (it should make about 15-20 cookies) and pat down to the preferred shape (they hold whatever shape you give them at the start). Place in the oven at 350 for 8 minutes or until the edges look crispy.

I prefer the raisin ones. They taste like a breakfast muffin or something. I really like them. :)