Yes, cavemen and women ate seafood

Eating like a caveman (ok cavewoman) sounds absurd, just the idea that you won't eat things that cave-folk were unable to eat.  Then you start thinking about it, that means no boxed/preserved food right? Not so crazy.  Yes, I miss Cheetoes...oh well. It also means no legumes, no dairy and no grains.  Again, you're probably thinking I'm crazy.  Maybe I am but I also am in the best shape I've been in in years, I recover substantially faster from tough workouts than I have ever and I'm learning that I have no limits, eating like a cavewoman is only a small piece of the puzzle but it's definitely helping.   So to keep myself interested in what I'm cooking and to keep what I'm doing from becoming 'routine' I have to stay creative, which means 'paleo-fying' recipes I already loved and finding new and interesting things. 

A lot of people who make major dietary changes look for ways to force their old tastes into the box of their new diet, I'm not sure I feel that is the best answer.  If this is going to stick it's better to make the switch, embrace it and on occasion allow myself a treat that is paleo but is paleo masquerading as non-paleo goodies.

In keeping with my love of the Farmers Market (and the whole, it should be wild thing that Paleo folks recoomend), I have been buying 99.9% of my seafood from a super vendor at my local market, K&S Seafood, they always have an amazing assortment of Gulf seafood, from shirmp and oysters to tuna, flounder or snapper.  All summer long I would pick up seafood from them almost on a weekly basis, for no reason other than the fact that everything I've gotten from them has been top notch.  So in the spirit of catching up on tasty things and bringing down the queue of recipes I haven't blogged here are two of my seafood delicious dishes from this past summer.


Crab Stuffed Zucchini
1 Large Zucchini, halved with the center scooped out
1/2 Pint Cherry Tomatoes, halved
1 Medium Sweet Onion, diced
1/3 Cup Dessicated Coconut (Unsweet)
1/2 Bunch Green Onions, chopped
1 lb Lump Crab Meat, separated to remove any bits of shell
Extra Virgin Olive Oil




1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Once the oven is hot, place the zucchini halves in large glass baking dishes, put about 1 inch of water in the bottom of the dish and rub a small amount of olive oil along all exposed sides of the cut zucchini.  Salt and pepper zucchini and heat in oven until fork tender.
2. While zucchini is cooking, saute sweet onion until tender in a tsp of olive oil.  Then after onion is translucent, add remaining zucchini (what you scooped out of the center) and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Turn off heat, mix in cherry tomato halves, fold in crab meat.
4. Stuff zucchini with zucchini-onion-tomato mixture, top with coconut and green onions and put back in oven to brown.
5. Let zucchini brown, if the water has completely evaporated add another inch of water to keep things from drying out.

Poor Girl's Cioppino
1lb Snapper Filets, cut into 2 inch cubes
1 lb Lump Crab Meat, separated to remove any bits of shell

2 Fresh Hatch Chiles, seeded and stemmed
1 Bunch Green Onions, chopped
1 14.5oz cans of fire roasted chopped tomatoes
1 Medium Sweet Onion, Diced
1 Tbsp minced garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. Saute sweet onion and garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil until onion is translucent.
2. Once onion is cooked add 1 diced hatch chile and saute for about two minutes.
3. Add tomatoes and one can of water, let it come up to a boil.
4. Turn down heat so that broth/soup is simmering, let it simmer for 20 minutes.  Add salt/pepper to taste.
5. Add snapper and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of the pieces you cut, you just want the fish to cook in the broth) then turn off soup and add crap in.
6. Serve topped with a slice of hatch chile and chopped green onions.

Crabby Summer Delights

After last summer's oil spill Gulf seafood has been back on the market and better than ever. My first foray into using coconut flour came when I picked up an amazing container of lump crab at the farmers market a few weeks back, I was confronted with a big pile of really fresh sweet crab..everything that came to mind involved things I shouldn't be eating so I was stumped. No crab-mango salad (mango is on the 'unfavorable carb list for now), no crab gratin (cheese isn't on the list either), crab cakes would be fabulous but the breading...how to solve the breading problem? Then, while wandering around the internet I found the solution...coconut flour!

First up, Paleo Crab Cakes...

1 LB Crab Meat
2 Tbsp Finely Diced Shallot
2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 Tsp Minced Garlic
Creole Seasoning, to taste
1/8 Tsp of Ancho Chile Powder
1/4 Cup Egg White
2 Tbsp Coconut Flour
2-4 Tbsp Coconut Oil

1. Mix the crab with the shallot, mayo, garlic, sea salt, pepper, chipotle, egg, lemon zest and coconut flour.
2. In a large skillet, heat the coconut oil over medium heat for 1 minute or until hot enough that a sprinkle of water in the pan makes the oil sizzle.
3. Form the crab cake mixture into palm size patties and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown. Makes approximately 10 crab cakes.

I served these atop a salad that was lightly dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. If you follow a zone diet, these crab cakes are 1.5 blocks of protein and 0.25 blocks of fat each.



Since turning my crab into cakes I've used canned salmon (not idea but it was on hand) to the same effect, turning my salmon cakes into a Thai inspired tasty lunch treat!

Thai Salmon Patties
1 Tsp Red Curry Paste
6oz Can Salmon, drained
2 Tbsp Coconut Flour
1 Tsp Minced Garlic
1 Diced Shallot
1/4 Cup Egg White
2-4 Tbsp Coconut Oil

1. Mix the salmon, curry paste, garlic, shallot, egg white and coconut flour.
2. In a large skillet, heat the coconut oil over medium heat for 1 minute or until hot enough that a sprinkle of water in the pan makes the oil sizzle.
3. Form the mixture into palm size patties and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown. Makes approximately 3 medium sized salmon patties or 2 large sized patties.

I served these atop a salad that was lightly dressed with a mixture of sesame oil and rice wine viengar. If you follow a zone diet, these salmon patties are 3 blocks of protein and 1 block of fat each.



Side note, I know that these both look the same, the salmon vs. the crab, if you used fresh salmon and cubed it up or flaked a freshly cooked piece of salmon vs. canned you would see a more 'pink' patty. I was pretty excited about the possibilities here and plan to try a mixture of raw tuna with the coconut flour, etc, raw salmon or even diced shrimp to create tasty burgers patties too. Needless to say these don't taste like 'health' food to me!

Baby it's COLD outside!

Sorry, been inspired by some of my favorite Christmas tunes lately : ) In all seriousness the cold weather makes me want two things: warmth and comfort. So why not encapsulate those into one dish, and one that's not soup because as much as I love soup I'm just not one of those folks who can eat soup 24/7.

Southern Seafood Mac 'n Cheese
1 cup Celery, chopped
1 cup Bell Pepper (green and red), chopped
1/4 cup Parsley
1 clove minced Garlic
1/4 cup Onion
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Tabasco
1 tsp Black Pepper, freshly ground
6 tbsp Lemon Juice
2 lb Crab Meat
1/2 lb shredded Fontina Cheese
1/2 lb shredded Swiss Cheese
1 cup Panko
3 strips bacon, cooked and chopped
1lb pasta shells

Roux
3 cups milk
1 1/2 sticks of Butter
1/2 cup Flour
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
2 tsp Nutmeg, freshly ground
2 tsp White Pepper

1. Saute onion, celery and bell pepper and garlic in a tsp of olive oil in a small skillet until onion is tender, remove from skillet then set aside.
2. Heat milk over medium high in a sauce pan. While milk is heating, heat butter in a large skillet. When butter begins to bubble, add flour, whisk until well incorporated.
3. Pour milk into butter, whisk until thick.
4. Remove from heat and season with black pepper, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, tabasco and salt. Add 1.2 of cheese and set aside.
5. While mixing up sauce, cook pasta to al dente. Strain pasta and toss the seafood, parsley and sauteed veggies with the pasta.
6. Prepare a 13x9 pan by spraying/greasing it then pour pasta/seafood mixture into pan. Slowly pour the cheese sauce over the pasta so it is even then layer the top with bacon, bread crumbs and remaining cheese.
7. Bake in an oven at 350F until the top is bubbling and browned.



While many folks have pushed this summers Gulf Oil spill out of their minds those of us on the Gulf have not. As the commercials say, oil hasn't been spotted in a while but unfortunately people aren't flocking to the tourist locations and even less are buying Gulf seafood, so I will make my plea to those of you who can, go buy some, it's delicious (and safe)! As a good Gulf coast girl I have to make my plea here.