Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy the day with family and friends! We are off to Moab for some Thanksgiving riding and hiking, but I wanted to post one more recipe to put your turkey leftovers to good use. Enjoy!
Compliments of marksdailyapple.com


Crisp Apple and Turkey Salad

2 c leftover turkey cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cups celery, diced
2 cups apple, cored and diced
¼ cup golden raisins (yes, they’re kind of high in sugar, but when used in moderation – such as in this dish – they can be part of the Primal lifestyle)
2 tbsp mayonnaise (extra credit if you make your own)
2 tbsp plain yogurt
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, combine mayo, yogurt, and spices. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine turkey, celery, apple and raisins. Fold in yogurt mixture. Season with salt and pepper and serve atop a salad of mixed greens and tomatoes.

Apple Crisp

Topping:
1 Cup Nuts (A lot of recipes call for all almonds, I used Almonds, Pecans, and some Macadamia)
3 Tablespoons Arrowroot
1/4 teaspoon Salt (I omitted this because some of my nuts were salted)
4 Tablespoons organic coconut oil or coconut butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 Cup Agave Nectar*

Fruit:
5-6 Apples (I used Granny Smiths, McIntoshs, and Galas)
Juice and Zest of 1 Lime & 1/2 Orange (most recipes called for lemon but I used what I had)
1 Tablespoon Arrowroot
2 Tablespoons Agave
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Fresh Nutmeg

*I'm still on the fence regarding the use of agave nectar, but since I don't rely on it for my day-to-day nutrition, this recipe is nothing I worry about.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients of topping mixture in work bowl of food processor, pulse till nuts are small chunks. Add agave, coconut oil/butter, and vanilla. Pulse until incorporated.
Peel and chop apples in a separate bowl. Add juice, zest, arrowroot, agave, cinnamon, and nutmeg, mix.

In a sprayed baking dish, add apples, then top with blobs of topping mixture.
Bake for 45 minutes, til golden brown and bubbly.

This was delicious. Very delicious! It's not as sweet as traditional apple crisp, but I thought you really got a feeling for a true sweetness of the apples without missing out on the too-sweet goo that you have come to expect with a good apple crisp. The nuts got all toasty (be careful not to burn them) and made for almost a cookie tasting topping. We love this one.

Roasted Turnip & Rutabaga w/ Apple and Mushroom Stuffing

2 turnips peeled and cut into 1" pieces
2 rutabaga peeled and cut into 1" pieces
a few whole garlic cloves, unpeeled
half of an onion roughly chopped
several sprigs of fresh rosemary
olive oil
salt, pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
1 portabella mushroom OR 8 crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 peeled apple, chopped in small pieces
poultry seasonings (with sage etc.)
fresh rosemary sprigs
fresh basil leaves, julienned, to taste

Heat oven to 450 f and place your turnip and rutabaga cubes in roasting dish or cookie sheet with a few garlic cloves, chopped onion, and fresh rosemary. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes and reserve, discarding the rosemary and removing the (still unpeeled) garlic cloves. Keep at least two of the roasted garlic cloves for usage in the recipe later.
Add some olive oil (less than 1 tbsp.) to a dutch oven or cast iron pan on medium or medium high heat and saute onion until it begins to turn transparent. Toss in mushroom pieces in a single layer, moving onions aside so mushrooms are in direct contact with the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Sear mushrooms until golden brown and then turn. When the mushrooms are browned on both sides, you may wish to remove most of the onions and all of the mushrooms from the pan for optimal browning of the apples. If desired, add a touch more olive oil (1 tsp or so) to the pan and heat. Throw in your apple chunks and season with poultry seasoning. Let them brown to taste, turning a few times. Then add your mushrooms, onions, and roasted turnip and rutabaga to the pan with the apple pieces. Add extra seasonings and more fresh rosemary. You may wish to add the contents of 2+ of the roasted garlic from the veggie roast, but make sure to evenly distribute the contents throughout the dish. Cook for a few more minutes to let the flavors mingle. Then take off the burner and sprinkle with basil, folding into the dish.

Paleo Thanksgiving

I have had many requests for recipes that can be used for Thanksgiving. The next few posts will be recipes that can be helpful during Thanksgiving meal planning. I have been impressed with the number of people that are eager to continue eating paleo (or just plain eating WELL) during the holiday season. Enjoy!

Stuffed Butternut Squash

1 squash per two people, multiply recipe as needed

1 butternut squash, medium

1 large onion, chopped

1 bag frozen leaf spinach

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

pinch nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

Cut squash in half vertically and remove seeds and strings. Place squash, cut-side down in a pan with an inch of water in it.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until tender, about 45-60 min. depending on size of squash.

You want it firm enough to hold it's shape for stuffing, but soft enough to remove the flesh.

When done, remove from oven, and when cool enough to handle, carefully take out some squash flesh but leave the shells intact. Put the removed squash flesh in a bowl and set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet or heavy bottomed pot. Saute onions in oil over medium low heat until very golden, about 10-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper and frozen leaf spinach and turn up heat to medium/med.high, stirring frequently to break up spinach as it thaws. Add nutmeg and cinnamon.

When tender, add to the squash flesh in the bowl and mix well. Put a scoop of the mixture into each squash shell and return to the oven and heat through, about 10-15 min.

Serve hot.

Variations: add raisins and/or pine nuts to the spinach mixture. If you do dairy, grate some smoked gouda into the spinach mixture, and top the stuffed squash a little more cheese. It's really good melted on top.

Bombay Chicken Salad

recipe courtesy of paleodiet.com



2 whole skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon curry
4 fresh pineapple slices, diced
1 cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
4 tablespoons flaxseed mayonnaise (see recipe below)
1 tablespoon garam masala spice mixture
1 tablespoon raisins
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Skin the chicken breasts, remove any visible fat and place in a pot filled with water and 1 tablespoon curry powder. Slowly simmer chicken until completely cooked. Drain the chicken and cool. Cut the chicken into 1/2 inch cubes or smaller. In a medium sized serving dish combine the mayonnaise, spices and fruits and vegetables. Add in the chicken chunks and mix well. Serves 4. (This could also be served over a bed of leafy greens!)

Flaxseed Oil Mayonnaise
1 whole egg (omega 3 enriched type)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

1 cup flaxseed oil

Put egg, lemon juice and mustard in blender and blend for 3-5 seconds. Continue blending and slowly add flax oil. Blend until the mayonnaise is thick. Scrape mayonnaise into a snap-lock plastic container and refrigerate. The mayonnaise should keep for 5-7 days.

What Soft Drinks are Doing to Your Body

Article by Dr. Maoshing Ni

Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.

Soft drinks are hard on your health

Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives.

A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease. (See: Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming Americans' Health.)

Why the sugar in soft drinks isn’t so sweet

Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!

Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy?

Well, to start, let's talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.

Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet. (See: Hoehn, SK et al: "Complex versus simple carbohydrates and mammary tumors in mice." Nutr Cancer 1979; 1: 27.)

The health effects of diet soda

You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.

Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.

Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.

Carbonation depletes calcium

Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis. (See: AJCN)Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body’s calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.

Chicken "Parmigiana"

1 1/2 c finely chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 c peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes (2lbs)
1.5 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp pepper
4 (4oz) chicken breast halves
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/4 c almond flour

Sautee onion and garlic in some olive oil, covered over low heat for 15 minutes or until tender. Add tomato and next 3 ingredients, simmer, uncovered, 45 minutes. Set aside.
Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Flatten to 1/4" thickness, using meat mallet (or your husbands favorite hammer - ha! Kidding)
Dip each chicken breast in egg white; dredge in almond flour. Drizzle olive oil in pan and heat over med-high heat and cook chicken 2 min. on each side until just browned.
Arrange chicken in a baking dish and pour tomato mixture over chicken. Bake, uncovered, 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

**You can lightly sprinkle some fresh mozzarella over tomato mixture if you are not paleo**