Ghostly lamb stew

here's a pretty standard lamb stew, but this time with Ghost Pepper.  It also goes by the name Naga Bhut Jolokia.  Apparently, it was once thought to be the hottest pepper on earth.  Read more here.

All I can say is "be careful".  A small amount goes a long way with this stuff.  This is about 1/2 tsp for a whole pot.  Not sure how it's going to turn out, but better safe than sorry.

Standard stuff.. Lamb, bacon, onion, black pepper & cayenne

Veggie layer:  japanese sweet potato, yellow squash, asparagus

Oh, and brussel sprouts and tomato sauce

and 2 cups of coconut milk

And some aquatic grass... aka   wild rice

This Week's Gruel - Pork Shoulder Stew

This weeks gruel is a bone-in pork shoulder roast from Frolona Farm.  I've buying both ground beef and pork from them for a few weeks at the East Atlanta Village Farmer's Market on Thursday afternoons.  Very tasty.

Ingredients:
2 lb bone in pork shoulder roast
tomato sauce
cauliflower
cippolini onion
purple potato
yellow squash
carrot
mustard greens

Okay, so here we go on the photo sequence:

Turmeric, black pepper, and cayenne for spices

Patient kitchen helper:  Got any plans for that bone?

This Week's Gruel - Return of the Bone Broth

This is pretty much a standard week's slow cooker recipe:

Grass fed beef shoulder roast and liver, yellow squash, onion, broccoli, cauliflower...  and red potatoes
Turmeric and black pepper
Organic tomato sauce
1/2 can of Trader Joe's light coconut milk
3/4 cup of bone broth

Here's the NutritionData.com profile... but of course, there's no "bone broth" in the database.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/recipe/2652284/2

I finally got organized enough to make some Bone Broth the day before, so I added about 3/4 cup to this week's gruel (Bone Broth recipe from NomNomPaleo).

Okay, here's the step by step part.  15 minutes start to finish...

Red potatoes! A dose of the "safe carbs"... 

Chop it up and throw it in the cooker

Spices

Beef shoulder roast and beef liver

And, with liver in the mix, that means Rufus got some more tasty liver strips.  These were cooked in leftover  bacon grease.  Double yum!

1/4" strips - bake at 300 for about 15 minutes - 300 keeps the bacon grease from smoking 

Finished product - really no reason I couldn't snack on these, too.

Lamb Korma (sorta)

Here's this week's gruel - a spicy Indian lamb stew.

I adapted this recipe to ingredients I had on hand.

http://chriskresser.com/recipe-lamb-korma

1 lb lamb stew meat
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp masala
1 tbsp turmeric
4 cloves garlic
1 small cippolini onion
1/2 lb frozen blue kale
1 cup chopped broccoli
2 cans coconut milk
10 oz tomato sauce
3/4 cup ground cashews

It smells really good so far

Ground cashews and spices

Add the coconut milk (and tomato sauce)

Add the kale and lamb

Stir it up...  Slow Cooker on high for about 3 hours, then turn it down to low for another 3 - 5 hours

This Week's Gruel - More Beef and Liver - with Dog Treats

This week's gruel is pretty much like last week's:

48 oz tomato sauce
1 shallot
10 baby carrots
6 large brussel sprouts
broccoli
kale
1.3 lb grass fed beef roast
1/4 lb grass fed beef liver

However, the twist was baking some liver treats for Rufus.  I cut 1/4 lb of liver into strips and baked in an oiled pizza pan at 300 for about 15 minutes.  Yum! says Rufus.

Here's the pics:

Ready in 6-8 hours...

Almost forgot the Kale!

This was 1/2 lb and I don't "love" liver yet, so I split it with Rufus

1/4" thick strips - baked at 300 for about 15 minutes.

Finished product - keep in the fridge for a week's worth of treats.

Are these to your liking, sir?

Be careful when feeding - I almost lost a finger.

This Week's Gruel - Beef Stew w/ Coconut Milk

Nothing really special about this week's gruel, just another week of eating Paleo lunches rather than fast food or whatever the cafeteria serves up.

• Beef Top Round 
• Shallot
• Carrots (A few extra because my little buddy Lucy won't be eating her share anymore)
• Golden Beet
• Brussel sprouts
• Chopped tomato
• Broccoli Rabe
• Fire roasted diced tomato
• Coconut milk
• Spices:  Turmeric, Cayenne, Black Pepper

Turmeric (curcumin) is some really good stuff... It may fight infections and cancer and Alzheimer's and other inflammatory diseases.

The base layer...

More good veggies

Coconut milk - it's good for you!

Add the tomato sauce and coconut milk

Add the meat and spices - I was using up a bottle of Turmeric...

Add the 1/2 of frozen Broccoli Rabe... turn on the crock pot and wait 6 - 8 hours

This Week's Gruel - Beef Shoulder Roast Stew

Here is this week's slow cooker recipe.  This one has a bone-in grass fed beef shoulder roast along with

shallot
golden beet
brussel sprouts
broccoli
tomato sauce
black pepper

Here's the photo evidence:

the veggie layer

Grass fed beef shoulder roast

Some bone broth action in this one...

~ 60 oz of organic tomato sauce & 1 tbsp of black pepper

Did someone mention marrow bones?

This Week's Gruel - Beef & Beef Liver Stew

Bone Broth in the Mix

Here's a typical week's "gruel" - a slow cooker recipe.  I call it gruel based on a concept from Paul Pitchford's book called Healing with Whole Foods.  It's a great book because it integrates Chinese Medicine with Western medicine.  It does allow grains, but there's still a lot of great content in that book.  The chapter on Oils alone is worth the purchase price.

Also, in that book he describes how we are confronted with over 50,000 types of food, and the idea is that drains our mental energy.  Gruel is simple.  Mostly the ingredients are just the foods themselves with a little black pepper.  People ask "what does it taste like?"   Well, like food tastes... but not like Doritos or other chemically engineered foods.  (See the 60 Minutes episode - Tweaking Tastes and Creating Cravings on that topic).

Ingredients

Meat:  Grass Fed Beef and Liver, Beef Broth

Vegetables:  Squash, Onion, Broccoli, Green Onion, Cauliflower, Tomato Sauce, and Kale/Collards/Mustard Greens

Spices:  Black Pepper, Turmeric, and Crushed Chili Peppers

This makes 4 bowls, which I bring for lunch during the week.

Pictures

I made this a few weeks ago. This was in the freezer. Saved the fat for other purposes.

Grass Fed Chuck Roast 

I smell BEEF!!!

Spices - not a lot

There's the Liver

There's 1/2 lb of frozen mixed greens

Scallop Stew Adventure

I've never made this before, and I did not read any recipes...

I had 1lb of frozen scallops that I thawed and considered grilling them.  However, I also needed some lunch food for the upcoming work week.

Here's the starting materials:  Asparagus, Onion, Garlic, Tomato, Golden Beet, Red Potato, Brussel Sprouts, Coconut Milk, Scallops.

Clean and chop (and peel) the asparagus and beet.

Put the potato, 1/2 of the vidalia onion, and 4 cloves of garlic in the food chopper thing.

Lucy came in to help out.










Dice the tomato and brussel sprouts.

Add spices - in this case, kelp w/cayenne, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.

Put it all in the crock pot with 2 cans of coconut milk.  Add about 1/2 can of water.

Stir it up, set the slow cooker on Low, and wait ~4-5 hours.

Here's the breakdown of this meal according to Nutrition Data dot Com.   (I'm assuming that this makes 3 bowls).

Calories:   1027
Fat:           77g  (63%)    - 66g saturated fat - yay!
Protein:     47g  (17%)
Carb:         50g  (20%)


Omega 6:3 ratio ~1.7 : 1   (pretty good)
Omega 3:    627mg
Omega 6:  1061mg

Vitamins

Amounts Per Selected Serving

%DV

Vitamin A

2468

IU

49%

Vitamin C

42.4

mg

71%

Vitamin D

~

~

Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol)

~5.3

mg

~27%

Vitamin K

~96.4

mcg

~121%

Thiamin

0.6

mg

43%

Riboflavin

0.4

mg

24%

Niacin

7.8

mg

39%

Vitamin B6

0.7

mg

35%

Folate

401

mcg

100%

Vitamin B12

1.8

mcg

30%

Pantothenic Acid

~1.5

mg

~15%

Choline

~210

mg

Betaine

~33.5

mg

Minerals

Amounts Per Selected Serving

%DV

Calcium

287

mg

29%

Iron

12.3

mg

68%

Magnesium

257

mg

64%

Phosphorus

986

mg

99%

Potassium

2610

mg

75%

Sodium

490

mg

20%

Zinc

8.0

mg

53%

Copper

1.8

mg

88%

Manganese

~3.5

mg

~176%

Selenium

71.0

mcg

101%

Fluoride

~39.8

mcg

Also note, the Kelp added about 3mg of Iodine