Grilled Swordfish & Peach Avocado Salsa

I have once again found myself with peaches, galore! Last time I had an abundance I made this awesome chicken salad - which I also did this time around! Man, that stuff never gets old! My goal, this time around, was another simple recipe (surprise, surprise) and I found one on Juli's website, PaleOMG. This recipe included a fish that I had never had paired with a refreshing salsa! This salsa would be good on ANYTHING. I made enough of it so that I could enjoy the salsa right out of the container for a few days.

Ingredients:
For the swordfish marinade:

• 2 swordfish fillets
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• pinch of cayenne
• pinch of salt & pepper

For the salsa:

• 2 peaches, diced
• 1 avocado, halved and diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 red onion, minced
• 1/2 jalapeno, minced
• Juice 1 lime
• salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Place all of the swordfish marinade ingredients, minus the swordfish, in a shallow bowl, mix together. Put swordfish in marinade, flip to coat both sides, then let swordfish marinade for 1-3 hours.
2. While swordfish is marinading, make the salsa by combining all salsa ingredients. Cover and refrigerate to chill.
3. Once the swordfish has marinated, place a skillet over medium heat. Cook swordfish for approx 5 minutes on each side. 
4. Plate swordfish and top with salsa. Enjoy! 

Tropical Chicken Salad

I am not one of those people that HATE mayonnaise, you know, those people that despise the word and the thought of seeing mayo would make them sick...... I actually liked it on some things (gasp!)! However, when I decided to adopt the Paleo lifestyle, it was the first thing I threw out. I didn't miss it much for the first few months...but then...the craving for chicken salad hit. There are about a million paleo recipes out there in cyberspace for paleo chicken salad and they all required homemade paleo mayo. SCORE!!! Except.....have you tried to make paleo mayo?? While it is possible, and pretty tasty, it is really time consuming and it doesn't take much to mess up and have to start all over again. Believe me. BUT I wanted chicken salad and that was what it required. Unfortunately for me, I am too lazy to make paleo-mayo chicken salad as often as I craved it.

That is, until now! I recently read on a paleo-bloggers website (If I could remember which one I would totally give them due credit here) that they used COCONUT CREAM as a sub for mayo!!! #brilliant This is, without a doubt, the best chicken salad I have ever had. And I have had a lot of chicken salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked chicken, cubed - I used left over rotisserie chicken (EASY!)
• 2 peaches, chopped
• 2 Tbsp dried, unsweetened cranberries
• 1/4 cup toasted walnuts
• A few shakes of dried chives
• A handful fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup chilled coconut cream *
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Mix the first 6 ingredients in medium sized bowl
2. *Chill a can of full fat coconut milk. I stuck the can in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
3. Once the can is chilled, open the can and scoop out the firm cream on top into small bowl
4. Using a fork, mix the creme around to loosen it up a bit
5. Mix the cream with lemon juice, salt and pepper, then stir into chicken salad
6. Serve on top fresh spinach leaves 

Venison Sliders & Cinnamon Raisin Apples

Adam and I were the lucky recipients of smoked deer sausage! I couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to prepare it and thought for weeks, literally, about what to do with it. Then I thought, Why do I have to do something fancy???? Just be simple and cook it - let the natural flavors of the deer and the smoking process make the statement! That is exactly what I did, and it turned out fabulous! Now, any sausage will work and if you don't get it smoked, just add some fun seasonings! The deer sausage we had was in casing, so I just removed it then mashed all the meat together. I had a suspicion that the sausage was going to be a bit spicy for me, so I paired it with sweet apples and raisins, as well as homemade sweet potato fries.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs smoked deer sausage, casing removed
• 3 eggs
• 1 large fuji apple, diced
• 1 1/2 Tbsp raisins
• 1 1/2 Tbsp chopped pecans
• Cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Mix sausage and eggs then form patties to preferred size
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook deer patties, flipping a couple times, until fully brown on both sides. (approx 3-5 minutes on each side)
3. While the sliders are cooking, dice your apple. Once the sliders have finished cooking, remove from pan and add diced apples, raisins, and pecans to the same pan. Allow to cook and absorb the flavor of the drippings from the sausage, until the apples are soft. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon.
4. Plate a couple spoonfuls of apple/raisin mix on to plate, then top with venison sliders.
5. Consume!

Pineapple Salsa

There is a new health foods store in town, Earth Fare. I have been a few times and for the most part, I like it. There are a few things in which I prefer the Whole Foods way, but all-in-all its good! One of the awesome things they do is send you amazing coupons! So far I have gotten, FOR FREE, a 4lb whole chicken, a pint of blueberries, and a pineapple! The blueberries were used in this recipe, the chicken is in the freezer for a meal later on in the week, and so it was time to cut up the pineapple! I have never cut a pineapple before, but it's really easy. Just Google it. I should have taken a picture of each step - that's what a good blogger would do....

I decided to make salsa with the pineapple because I LOVE salsa. This would be a great topping for chicken, steak, or fish as a light summery meal; or if you aren't "paleo" have it with some tortilla chips! Now THAT would be good :)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pineapple, cut into rings
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 small red onion, minced
• Juice of 1 lime
• Fresh cilantro, for garnish

Instructions

1. Cut the pineapple into rings, then in a skillet over medium heat, grill the pineapple rings for approx 3 mins on each side. You want the pineapple to have a slight golden color.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the bell pepper, onion, and cilantro
3. Once all the pineapple rings have been seared, cut them into small pieces
4. Mix pineapple, bell pepper, onion, lime juice, and cilantro in bowl
5. Consume!

Apple Chips

I can't remember if I have mentioned this or not - but I finally purchased a dehydrator!!! It took me a while to convince myself I needed one, but I am so glad that I went ahead and got it! I ordered it off Amazon and it was pretty cheap. It's not the nicest one they have but it gets the job done EVERY time. Since it arrived, I have been making lots of jerky and apple chips! This recipe for the apple chips produced the best apple chips that I have tried! I got the idea to boil them first from Marks Daily Apple - I loved that the cinnamon was cooked right in to the chip and not sprinkled on top.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unsweetened apple juice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 large apples

Instructions:

1. In a large pot, add apple juice and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil
2. Meanwhile, remove the top and bottom of the apples and thinly slice them. Remove the seeds from the individual slices
3. Place apple slices into boiling juice and let boil for approx 6 minutes, or until the become almost translucent. Remove with a spatula and pat dry
4. On a baking sheet lined with a cooling rack, bake the apple slices for about 40 minutes in a 250 degree oven
5. At this point they should still be a little wet and flimsy. If they are dried and crisp then stop here! You got lucky.
6. My chips were still soggy so I put them in the dehydrator for about 2 hours. You want to watch them so they don't get too brittle and burned

Fruit Roll Ups

Tomorrow there is an event hosted by IronTribe called TribalWars that I will be competing in. Each team consists of 4 people and there are THIRTY FOUR teams competing! That is 136 people!!!! All the teams are extremely competitive and there has been a lot of smack talk going around! Every one is really serious about it. I even had t-shirts made (a lot of teams are also!) that has our team name, Wall Ballers, on the front, our individual nick names on the back, and on the sleeve it says 'ITF Tribal Wars 2012'. We are bringing our A game and are pumped to compete! The event begins tomorrow morning at 8:00 and is scheduled to end at 12. Each team will compete in 3 different WODs that will really test our skills and push us to our limit! I will be taking tons of pictures and will update everyone with a post next week. This is the second annual TribalWars and it is going to be amazing.
I am so excited that I literally could not sleep last night, and I have a feeling I won't be able to sleep tonight either.
This week I have been busy making treats for my team (and Adam's team too!). On the menu: fruit roll-ups, apple chips, beef jerky, pepita clusters, and pumpkin donuts (I will post the other recipe's next week, too) I will also be stocked with dark chocolate espresso beans, trail mix, Lara Bars, raw veggies, hard boiled eggs, and beer for afterwards! Here is the recipe I used from dkgetsfit.com for the fruit roll ups. They turned out pretty good and they have a little spice to them which adds a nice dimension. Next time I am going to try a peach and mango combination! The options are endless for these delicious snacks!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups frozen strawberries
• Sea salt to taste
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2-3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Instructions:

1. Puree fruit in blender until liquefied. Add sea salt, honey, pepper, and balsamic vinegar. Blend until well combined
2. Line 2 cookie sheets with tin foil, then line the foil with plastic wrap. Using a few pieces of tape, tape down the sides of the plastic wrap to the foil. I know this sounds crazy but trust me on this step
3. Pour approx 2 cups of fruit mixture on to each cookie sheet and tilt/shake it until evenly distributed
4. On the lowest setting possible for your oven, dehydrate the fruit for approx 10-12 hours. My oven was set to about 140 degrees. I left my oven unattended for a few hours and everything was fine, so don't worry. 
5. Once the fruit is no longer sticky to the touch remove from oven and (after removing the tape) roll the leather and then cut into individual servings. I then used some butcher's twine to tie each piece.

Fun food Friday - Spring Chicken

Spring. I love that word. It brings to mind: sun, lake, tank tops, flip flops, outdoor concerts, pool, baseball (and now T-ball; go Wyatt!) cookouts, fresh herbs, afternoon rain storms, all-day-daiquiri-days, vacation, sun-kissed cheeks, fresh fruit (hello mango!), farmers markets, iced coffee....I digress. With the onset of spring, I made this delicious Spring Chicken. The chicken tastes and smells of spring and is quite possibly the best I've made. I topped the chicken with strawberry salsa which gave it a totally different - but still spring - fruity kick. There will definitely be some of this chicken at a cookout and the salsa would work wonders on pork, steak, and salad! I have to give credit to George at CivilizedCaveman for this creation and thank him for a new favorite! Pure genius.

For the chicken-

I topped mine with mango, because I love it.

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 lemon, zested (is that even a word???)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup EVOO
• 1 garlic clove

Instructions:

1. In a food processor, combine all the above ingredients, except the chicken, pulsing until you get a nice marinade.
2. Place the chicken in a bowl and pour about half the marinade over chicken - rub marinade on said chicken.
3. Heat a non stick skillet over medium heat and once hot, add the chicken. Pour reserved marinade over chicken and cook for approx 6 minutes on each side, or until cooked all the way through.
4. Top with Strawberry Salsa

For the Strawberry Salsa-

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fresh strawberries
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno, seeds removed and diced
• 1 lime, juiced

Instructions:

1. Combine all the above ingredients in a food processor until you reach desired salsa consistency. 
2. Serve with Spring Chicken, or anything else you can think of! 

Honey Baked Pears

I am trying I not bake as many Paleo Treats, but I still have a huge sweet tooth and LOVE dessert!! I was trying to think of a dessert I could prepare that didn't involve almond flour or dark chocolate. I had some spare pears laying around, and since fruit is natures dessert, I figured I could come up with something good!!

Ingredients:
• 2 pears
• vanilla extract
• honey
• cinnamon
• sea salt
• crushed walnuts

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2) Core and halve pears
3) Drizzle with vanilla extract and honey
4) Sprinkle with cinnamon and a pinch of sea salt. Top with walnuts
5) Bake for approx 20 minutes