Paleo treat meals

For two major foodies, deciding to go down the Paleo pathway and abandon many of the kitchen cupboard staples like flour, bread, pasta, cereal etc was a little daunting, but has overall proven to be quite a fun challenge to a new way of eating and living healthy!

Ernie is a resident MasterChef, while for me, notsomuch!! I like to dabble in desserts and easy-to-do meals. Recipes are restricted in this kitchen, instead we tend to use them as guidelines for experiments with flavour, so apologies in advance for the lack of precise measurements. Half the fun of cooking comes from the pride and ownership of making a delicious dish specific to your own taste buds! The fact that it comes from good quality, fresh products and supports a lifestyle you’re interested in living is the other part!

Anyway, hopefully some of the dishes will inspire you to try some new things, and diminish some of the daunting aspects of food preparation that comes with changing a major habit. In fact, it won’t take long until you’re saying that “eating the gluten-free way isn’t that hard at all!”

Ok, so the picture isn’t all that appetising – but who doesn’t love a good spaghetti-bol?

This is a super easy, cheap and quick meal to put together. There are no rules to this one, and the best part is that whatever you have in the fridge will go great in it.

The main ingredients are mince (pork or beef – or half-half, grass-fed if possible) and none of that “lean” “low-fat” nonsense; onion; garlic; carrot; tomato – tin or the funky nearly rotten ones you forgot to eat. You can then add whatever other veggies you like: broccoli; eggplant; cauliflower; capsicum; celery (chemical free biodynamic or organic is always best) you name it. Add oregano, cinnamon, chilli powder, organic white wine and sea salt and pepper to taste.

Saute the onion, garlic and carrot until onion is transparent. Add the mince, salt and pepper and let simmer until meat is brown. Add some wine, (not the bottle) and allow the alcohol to evaporate a little. Add tomatoes, and other veggies. Add spices to taste and let simmer on medium heat for as long as you have (the longer the better).

Now these are a super easy, nutritious, yummy snack or desert.

You’ll need a food processor or blender.

The main ingredients are dates, nuts (anything but we typically use almonds & walnuts), cacao, cinnamon, coconut oil, and desiccated coconut. You can also add flax meal, protein powder, acai powder or any other like products. I love to add a blueberry to the centre of each ball as a little extra burst of flavour and goodness.

After many cases of trial and error, we found the best results come from roughly chopping up the (seedless) dates first, and heating them in a fry/saucepan with some coconut oil. The flavour that then comes from the dates is extraordinary, like little caramels Granny always makes.

In the food processor, start by adding all of the nuts and blend until they’re fairly small and even in consistency. Add the cacao, cinnamon and whatever other powders and mix. Finally add the dates and blend well. A tip is to start out with small amounts (especially with a blender) and gradually add more dates so the food processor can cope better! When it’s all combined, the mixture should form a thick paste that is can be moulded into an easy ball.

Have three bowls ready (one with desiccated coconut; one with some blueberries and one to put the finished balls in) and a sink close by! Then it is as simple as grabbing some of the mixture, whacking a blueberry in the middle, roll it into a ball and then roll it in the coconut!