Caribbean Seafood Stew by Everyday Paleo

Sarah over at Everyday Paleo has quite the following, and if you haven't checked out her website yet, DO IT. She comes up with some pretty original dishes. With three kids, she needs to stay on top of her game to keep them interested, and she does a fantastic job. Take a look at this recipe she posted yesterday (Mango Chicken Salad with Chipotle Mayo)... I'll be cooking this soon.

Tonight however, I tried her Caribbean Seafood Stew. I've been meaning to try more dishes with coconut milk. So far I've only been using it for smoothies, but I'd love to find other tasty ways to get more coconut in my life.

The Recipe

Her picture looks way better

The Good
Light dish
Very tender fish
Delicate coconut flavor

The Bad
A little bland

Overall - 2/5 Stars
This dish was a little underwhelming. I felt like it was missing an ingredient or two. The coconut milk gave the dish a great base, but it wasn't enough for me to enjoy this recipe. That being said her directions are spot on. We simmered the fish for 4 minutes and it came out perfectly tender.

Did you have a different experience with this dish? I'd love to hear what your opinion is.

Your Guide to Paleo Cooking

The blogosphere is filled with people who are passionate about their health, fitness and food. But in the niche segment of the paleo lifestyle, there are tons of brilliant and knowledgeable people contributing to a flourishing community. Everyone is here to interact, share and learn (with varying degrees of each). And while we may only know each other by our online personas this is the first time I have ever truly felt part of a tribe. Our common interests bond us, and being able to share my experiences and relate to others has peeked my interest in the field of health and nutrition. 

It’s great to talk about the more popular bloggers such as Mark Sisson or Robb Wolf, the latter of which got me turned on to the paleo diet. But the community has much more depth than that. As I dive deeper into this subculture, I am continuously finding everyday people doing spectacular things. Over the past few months I have been fortunate enough to interact some of these great people. 

One such blogger in the paleo community is Sébastien Noël over at Paleo Lifestyle Diet. Sébastien is a gifted writer, but where he really shines are his recipes. A few weeks ago, I was given a copy of his newly released eBook to review, and I must say that I am very impressed. I have a ton of cookbooks, but this was my first electronic cookbook. I was a little intimidated, because the PDF is 395 pages - that's a lot of recipes. I thought about going to staples to print out a copy, but a color copy of his recipe book would have been over $200 (c’mon staples).

Don’t Be Afraid of the eBook
Usually, while reading, I like things printed and in my hands, but having an online version makes the recipe book very searchable. It is easy to reference and browse recipes. I just typed in what food I had and the search showed me all the recipes containing my ingredient. In addition, Sébastien did a great job with the organization; the book is broken down by category and really well layed out. The design of the PDF is clean, easy to read, and aesthetically pleasing.

As far as taste goes, I'm not sure I could speak any higher of Sébastien. I made his Beanless Texas Style Chili that blows away Mark Sisson's Bison Chili. The great thing about his recipes is that they are simple. Most have less than 10 ingredients and he doesn't use anything that you'll have to find at an uber fancy grocery store. The combination of spices just work.

I also tried his Pork Chops with Apple and Onions and his Guacamole recipe both with success. But the one that really won over me over was his Baked Salmon with Asparagus and Roasted Beets. My mom made this the other night, and the salmon was so tasty my dad could not stop taking about it. The fish was so moist it almost melted in your mouth, and the asparagus was perfectly crispy. The beets came out a little undercooked, but the rest of the meal made up for that. I will definitely be cooking that again.

Just Try It
All in all, my family and I have loved cooking with Sébastien's recipes. He makes them very easy and approachable, but that doesn't mean they lack flavor. Check out his website where he has a ton of free recipes to try like Sweet Potato And Sausage Soup, Spicy Pulled Pork, Kale Chips, and a ton more. If you like what you see then take a look at his eBook where he compiles over 350 recipes, as well as cooking tips, a meal plan, and an herbs and spices guide (that is beautifully designed). Sébastien is doing great work over at his blog, so I am happy to recommend his recipes. They are simply delicious.

Day 32 - The End of My Paleo Challenge

I'm done. I can start eating what ever I want now. My 30 day Paleo Challenge is over! But what do I want to do. This experiment certainly had its highs and lows. Do I want to continue? Let's see if I can organize my thoughts on this.

The Good

• Eating more vegetables
• Cooking more
• Better performance in hockey and workouts
• Eating 3 meals instead of 5 per day 
• More involved in the food chain (farmers market)
• Noticeably better looking skin
• Overall feeling of limberness

The Bad

• Consistently feel lower level of energy than before
• Bad breath is more common
• More expensive than mostly grain based diet

The Ugly

• I still miss cereal !!!

Overall, I am very impressed with the effect that eating this way has had on my body. I am going to continue to use it as a blueprint for my nutrition and just tweak with some of the variables. Perhaps, I have to add in more carbohydrates because I feel a lack of energy.

All in all there are not a lot of downside to this approach to nutrition. Have you tried the 30-day challenge yet? If not, give it a shot. It's not too late to make it your New Years Resolution. As for me, it's time to decide my cheat meal, so I can see how the grains, dairy and legumes will affect my body now that my gut has healed. Mmmm, I'm thinking either Captain Crunch or a nice PBJ should do the trick.

Day 16 - Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now that I got that out of the way... My family is very traditional usually cooking a lasagna for Thanksgiving. This year however, that was not going to fly for me so, I scrounged up some recipes from the web, and sent them to my mom in advanced. We used:

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Cranberry Sauce

Paleo Pumpkin pie

Recipes from EverdayPaleo.

And we did a roasted root vegetable.

We usually host thanksgiving at our house, but this year the relatives were going to be in San Fransisco (I don't blame them). So, it was just going to be my mom, dad, sister and I.

After watching the Patriots dismantle the Lion. C'mon! Didn't anyone see that coming? I can't even believe that the Lions had a lead at one point. Look at this nice, easy 79 yard td Deion Branch had today.

Like I said, after the dismantling, we had already put the turkey in the oven and were working on our other recipes. The paleo pie was so easy; the crust is only three ingredients (hazelnuts, pecans, and butter). The cranberry sauce was equally as easy. I tossed in the ingredients and let it boil down. I thought it tasted fantastic too, definitely tart, slightly sweet, and bursting with real cranberry flavor. Much tastier than that store bought crap. Eventually, my sister and dad walked in the kitchen and we had the whole family cooking. It was great.

I usually help my mom with a side dish every year, but this is the first year I had my hands on a bunch of dishes. I think everything turned out great. I owe a lot to Sarah at Everyday Paleo. Her recipes are simple, delicious, and paleo (grain, dairy, legume free).

This year my brother was still in San Diego working on more films. But that didn't stop him from making an appearance at our table. We propped him up at the head of the table while we ate dinner, and it was almost like he was with us.

Being home reminds me of how great family is.