Primal Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs Go To A Dinner Party

We had an elegant dinner party last night with our friends.
It was classy and the food was well prepared.
Naw! Just fooling.
It looked more like this...

Our one set of friends came late to the party...and had to be punished.
We made them eat on the baby plates and drink out of the sippy cups.

They were good sports about the whole thing.
My husband even gave Carla a paddle...

But she loved it!
I decided to make Primal Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs and serve them in a red sauce.
Usually meatballs are made with breadcrumbs, and being Primal people we shun the bread and grains.
I decided to try using the coconut flour biscuits that we use as bread as the bread crumbs for our Primal Meatballs.
It worked out perfectly.
Here is the recipe for these moist cheesy delights.

Primal Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs:

Primal Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs

 

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (I used basil flavored)
2 pounds grass fed ground sirloin
2 large eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
1/2 cup minced into small pieces coconut flour biscuits
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup organic heavy cream
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
2 tablespoons oregano
2 tablespoons basil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
20-24 Mozzarella balls

Preheat oven to 35o degrees F. and grease 9×13-inch baking dish with oil.

Place beef, egg, onion, biscuit crumbs, Parmesan, cream, garlic, Worcestershire, mustard, spices, salt, pepper and garlic powder into a large mixing bowl, stirring until just combined.
Take a chunk of the beef mixture and press into center with your thumb to make room for cheese ball.
Place cheese in middle then cover with the beef, making sure the cheese is completely enveloped.   I rolled it around in my palm to be sure no cheese was showing.

Place meatballs into prepared baking dish and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until cooked through.
I let them rest for a half hour, then simmered them in some of my homemade roasted tomato sauce.
It made 24 large meatballs.

These were great, and gone too quickly.
I hope you make these Primal meatballs and enjoy them too!

Primal Steak Stroganoff and The Hunger Games

My husband and I are taking a load of teenage girls to the midnight premier of The Hunger Games.
We don't plan on making it home until 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning after dropping everyone home.
I am going to be one cranky momma in the morning.
My daughter and I loved these books, not as much as Harry Potter, but better than Twilight.
My husband was all in to go this time too, most likely it was how violent I had said the books were.
Men...they love them some blood sport!
You would never have caught him at the Twilight movies with us.
This will be my first movie that I have been out to since we went Primal at the end of December.
We love getting our movies from the Red Box for a dollar, and being able to eat yummy Primal snacks at home.
I am going to try not to miss the popcorn and candy...I know the popcorn smell is going to knock me over with it's goodness...but I will try to resist.
I am going to bring a 85% dark chocolate bar and a baggie of Primal Cheddar Crackers (I will post that recipe soon). I think the salty and sweet combo should keep me out of trouble tonight.
Before hand we need a dinner that is rich and hearty enough to keep us full till the movie starts, so I am making Primal Steak Stroganoff for dinner.
It will be different having it without the thick cut egg noodles underneath, but I'm a stronger girl now. I'm thinking about spaghetti squash or even having it on top of left over creamy cauliflower.
Mmmmm...that sounds good!
Wish us luck tonight, and here is the recipe.

Primal Steak Stroganoff

1 lb top sirloin, sliced into thin strips

6 tbsp butter

8 oz mushroom, sliced

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup dry white wine or red if that is your favorite

1 cup beef broth

1 cup sour cream

1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

salt and pepper

1. Heat a heavy skillet over medium high heat add 1 tbsp of butter and add half of steak slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Flip steak pieces over and brown the other side, about one minute. Remove steak to a plate.
3. Repeat with another tablespoon of butter and the remaining steak. Remove to the plate.
4. Add another 1 tbsp of butter and the sliced mushrooms. Sprinkle mushrooms with salt and pepper. 
5. Turn heat down to medium and the last 2 tbsp of butter. Add onions and garlic and saute until soft.
6. Add white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up the tasty bits in the pan. 
7. Once wine has cooked off add sour cream and beef broth, stir and heat until smooth. Add steak and mushrooms back into sauce. Stir and simmer until hot. Garnish with the parsley.

This made a nice hearty meal that was rich in taste and very satisfying. I enjoyed mine over the leftover creamy cauliflower, but my son and husband just had bowl fulls of it.
I hope you try this recipe and enjoy it as much as we did.


P.S.  The movie was great! The girls and I really enjoyed it. It followed the book pretty well. For my husband who had not read them, it left him a bit confused and he was less enthralled as we were.
Still it was a great movie and a fun night with all those giggly girls.

Cave Dude Beef Stew

I have been living like a cave-dude for 65 days now, and as of this morning I have lost 30 pounds.
YAY!!!!!!!!!
It has to be said that I am quite a large girl to begin with, so there is a lot to lose.
I am thrilled with my way of life.
I have slept better, feel better, have so much more energy, and my joints don't hurt at night.
It has not been difficult to live this way at all.
Sure in the beginning when your body detoxes itself from the sugar and the carbs, you get a little freaky, but I made it through.
I crave different things now that my body is processing clean foods.
It used to be I needed something sugary in the morning for breakfast. Captain Crunch, waffles with syrup, berry yogurt with bran buds, to name a few.
This morning I came down stairs and thought...I think I'll have beef stew for breakfast!
Seriously...65 days ago you could not have paid me to have beef stew for breakfast. I needed that sugar carb rush to get me going out the door.
My daughter about gagged when she saw what I was eating. She is still a hold out on our new way of eating, I think all 15 year old girls are most likely difficult to deal with, but we will break her yet.
Not only did I have beef stew for breakfast, I also had a spinach salad to boot!
Too freaky!
Here is the recipe for my Cave Dude Beef Stew.

Beef Stock

3 cups of beef stock
2 pounds of beef cubes (we used the grass fed beef)
6 celery stalks, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 box of mushrooms sliced
1 can of diced tomatoes
Salt and Pepper
Spices, whatever kind you enjoy in any amount you choose.
Olive oil

Saute the onions, garlic, and carrots in some olive oil till they are tender and wilty.
Remove them to a large bowl.

Saute the mushrooms and celery in olive oil till tender.
Remove them to the same bowl.

Saute the beef in small batches so they can brown evenly. It took me four batches to get mine done.
Remove to the bowl.
I then added a cup of stock to the pan turned the heat down and de glazed the pan.

I added all the meat, veggies, and stock to my crock pot and cooked on low from morning till night.
The beef was tender and juicy, the veggies soft and yummy.
It has made for several healthy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.
I hope you try this recipe and enjoy it too.

Getting Lean By Beefing It Up

Chewy being himself

Since my Mother In Law passed away, I have been following in my kitty cat's example.
Sleeping more, staring out the window mindlessly, not giving a crap...basically.
It has been a few weeks and we are all starting to move forward again. The grief has given way
to fond remembrances and happy thoughts of her instead of weary sadness.
It has been easy to stay on course of our new way of eating for the most part.
It's now become a habit...a norm.
I hadn't weighed myself since January and now at the end of February I thought it might be nice to do it again.
Total elation!
I have so far lost 25 pounds and dropped 2 pant sizes.
I have never felt this healthy or this strong.
I have lost so many things in my life by living in the Paleo / Primal way.
I have lost heart burn.
I have lost the tightness in my chest that I always felt.
I have lost the anxiety that used to plague me (even though things are pretty good for me)
I have lost the bloated, thick, and uncomfortable feeling in my middle.
I have lost the winded feeling when going up stairs.

I read a few blogs every morning, and one of them is Nom Nom Paleo.
This woman eats very well and has a wide variety of meats and veggies that she cooks daily.
I have wanted to get more grass fed meats into our diet, but was leery of ordering them off the Internet and having them shipped.
I have been researching a few farms in Ohio that might be good to purchase from, but many have certain times of the year that they butcher and you have to wait till summer or fall to receive it.
I remembered there was a shop not ten minutes away from out house that had a big board outside claiming different meat specials of the week.
I never went in there. I mean...really! I got my meat from Costco.
A huge amount of meat for a cheaper price.
That's how we used to do it, until I had watched several videos (US Wellness Meats has a very explanatory video) and read countess articles about the differences of grass fed beef versus traditional grain fed beef.

I went to Luigi's Market on a lark.
Just to see if I could get free range poultry or bones to make my soups.
To my suprise they carried grass fed beef as well as the poultry and humaine raised pork!
They have been the nicest people to deal with.
I bought 25 pounds of chicken breasts, 40 pounds of bones to keep frozen and make my stocks from, and 30 pounds of grass fed beef.
They will cut and package everything just how I would like it and even carry it all out to the car.
Heaven!
Nothing has tasted better than that grass fed beef.
It has a wonderful texture and flavor.
The first thing I made was a slow cooked roast that I was able to pull apart with forks...yummy!

Pull Apart Beef

Here is the recipe for one amazing grass fed beef recipe (we have eaten it for breakfast too!)


Pull Apart Beef:

3 pound beef roast
2 cups of my homemade totmato sauce (you can use any sauce you like)
2 tablespoons of Bragg's apple cider vinegar
1 small onion chopped
5 pieces of garlic smashed open (you can use chopped from a jar)
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
1 tablespoon rustic tuscan seasoning (you can use any spices that make you happy)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
I also used a few good shakes of dried kelp flakes


I let the roast thaw a bit, rinsed it and patted it dry.
Place it it an oven safe pot or baking dish on top of a large piece of foil.
Fold the foil up around the roast to hold the sauce in when it is poured on top.
Next mix the sauce with all the other ingredients.

Sauce for the roast

Next pour the sauce on the roast and fold the foil together so it makes a good tight package.
Some liquid might make it out, but that's ok...it happens.

Looking saucey

All ready for the oven

I baked it at 320 degrees for five hours. When I unwrapped the package I put the meat in a bowl, shredded it apart with two forks and added a bit more of my homemade sauce into it.

It was so good we had it for dinner and then breakfast the next morning.

We were so hungry I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

I hope you try this recipe and love it like we do.

Have a great day.