Breakfast Sausage Sticks

Hubby is very picky about his sausage, and he said these were the best of this type he's ever had. I'm sorry I don't have a picture, but we've been having camera problems lately. They look like the Brown n Serve frozen sausages, but taste better!

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork
1 tsp. sage
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. savory
dash of cayenne pepper
pinch of cloves
1 tsp. honey (optional)
1-2 Tbsp. lard or bacon grease for frying

Method

Combine dry ingredients in a medium glass bowl. Rub with your fingers to crush and thoroughly mix. Add ground pork and mix well with your hands. Add optional honey and mix through. Heat 8 inch skillet over medium-low heat. Form sausage into small link-shaped sticks. Saute until browned and cooked through, turning at least twice to brown all sides.

You can partially cook these ahead of time and freeze for a quick breakfast, lunch or dinner in the future. Just them out of the freezer and brown before serving.

Pork N' Beans

This would go very well with a side of greens cooked with salt pork, or would be good with greens added in before baking.

INGREDIENTS:

 2-4 T cooking fat
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1-2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ginger powder or grated fresh ginger
1 cup tomato sauce or puree
1/4 cup honey
2 cups GAPS-legal beans, cooked and drained
2 cups cooked pork, shredded or chopped into pieces
1/2- 1 cup broth

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

In a large skillet, melt the cooking fat and add the onions.  Cook for about 5 minutes or until the onions begin to soften.  Then add the garlic and spices and stir.

Add the tomato puree or sauce and the honey.  Stir thoroughly and cook for several minutes.

Add the beans and pork and stir to coat, then add enough broth to reach desired consistency.  Pour the mixture into a greased casserole dish
(I used an oval dish that measured 9" x 13").

Bake for about 30 minutes.

NOTE-

You can vary the ratio of beans to pork as long as you keep the total at around 4 cups.  If you use only beans, it would essentially be baked beans. 

Gormeh Sabzee (Persian Parsley Lamb Stew)

This soup has a rich flavor that is a little different than the other soups on this blog and a nice change.

INGREDIENTS:

4 T butter or fat for cooking
1 onion, chopped
3-4 c lamb (cubed if raw, in chunks or shredded if already cooked)
2 bunches of parsley, chopped (about 4 cups)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 quart lamb broth (or more if you prefer more of a soup then a stew)
juice of 1-2 lemons, to taste

METHOD:

Melt the butter or fat in a heavy-bottomed pan.  Saute the onions for several minutes until soft.

Add the salt and spices and stir, then add the parsley and stir again.  Continue to cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes until the parsley turns dark.

Add the meat (if already cooked) and the broth.  Bring the soup to a boil, then let it simmer for 15 minutes to heat the meat through and to give the flavors a chance to blend. 

Add the lemon juice and cook about 5 minutes more.  Remove from heat and adjust the seasonings.

NOTE:

I like this soup as a way to use leftover meat from a leg or shoulder of lamb.  If using raw meat, brown it first in the fat and then remove it to a bowl, cook the onions and parsley in the fat, then return the meat to the soup when you add the broth.

Beef may be used instead of lamb if desired.

It is traditional to make this stew with beans as well.  If you are able to tolerate beans, you can add about 2 cups to the soup.

Cowboy Stew

No actual cowboys were harmed in the making of this stew.

INGREDIENTS:

 2-3 T cooking fat
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 Annaheim or Poblano pepper, chopped
1 large yellow summer squash or 1 medium zucchini, chopped
1-2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1-2 tsp chili powder (optional)
1 lb ground beef
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 quart beef broth
1/2 - 1 cup chopped cilantro, loosely packed (optional)

METHOD:
Saute the onions in the fat until they begin to soften, then add the garlic and stir a little longer.

Add the spices and salt, and stir.  Add the chopped peppers and zucchini and saute for 5-10 minutes, or until they soften.  Add a little of the broth if the vegetables start to get dry.

Add the beef and keep stirring to break it up and let it brown a little.  Pour in the stock and add the tomatoes and bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and let it cook, covered, for about 30 minutes.

When it is done, remove it from heat, stir in the cilantro if using, and taste it.  Add more salt and spices if needed.  You can also crush a clove or 2 of raw garlic in at this point if you want it to have more "bite". 

Lamb Curry

This is a flavorful dish that will fill your house with fabulous smells.  You can use different vegetables to give some variety, and it would work well with all vegetables instead of meat.  I buy my curry powder from Mountain Rose Herbs which provides high quality spices with no fillers, or you can find a recipe and make your own.  Curry powder is easy and fun to make. 

INGREDIENTS:

2 T coconut oil
1 lb cubed lamb meat or lamb stew meat (ground meat would probably also work)
1 large or 2 medium onions
3-4 carrots
1 T grated ginger root
3 cloves of garlic
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 c broth
1 c coconut milk


METHOD:

Cut the onion into large pieces and chop the carrots into 1-inch lengths, set aside.

Melt the coconut oil in a large pot and brown the meat.  Remove the meat and set aside, leaving the fat in the pan.

Saute the onions on mediumuntil they soften, about 10 minutes.  Then add the garlic, ginger, and curry powder and saute a little longer.  Add the carrots and continue to stir to coat them with the spice mixture.

Pour in the stock and scrape up any brown bits that are still stuck to the bottom of the pan from browning the meat.  Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. 

Add the meat back in and simmer for 30 minutes.

Apricot Rosemary Turkey Breast

This is a simple and delicious way to roast a turkey breast, as well as a way to include some broth.  The sauce that results from this dish is light and tasty and my otherwise broth-averse 8-year-old loved it.  It goes well with cranberry sauce and celery chestnut stuffing.

INGREDIENTS:

1 4 lb turkey breast (I prefer bone-in)
1 c meat stock
1/2 c apricot jam
        OR 1/2 c pureed fresh apricots, or 8 dried apricots
1/4 c honey 
1 T dried rosemary (or fresh if you have it)

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Rinse the turkey breast, pat it dry, and place it skin side up in a roasting pan.  Place in the oven and set a timer for one hour and fifteen minutes.

Combine the stock, apricot jam (or pureed apricots), honey and rosemary in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Simmer for about 10-15 minutes to allow it to thicken and reduce.  Set aside.  NOTE- if you are using dried apricots, pour boiling water over them and let them stand until soft.  Drain them and add them to the stock mixture as you would the jam, but puree the mixture BEFORE adding the rosemary. 

When the timer goes off, pour the apricot mixture over the turkey breast and return it to the oven for another 15-30 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 170 degrees.

Classic Hamburger or Cheeseburger

We've been eating hamburger patties since nearly the beginning of the diet, which we enjoy, but we really wanted "the real thing" the other day.  For the bun we used large bread-like pancakes which held together remarkably well.  We topped off our burgers with homemade mayo, Bubbie's pickles (which are raw and lacto fermented), sliced tomatoes and GAPS-legal mustard.  You could also make your own ketchup for this.

Here's the basic recipe we use for hamburger patties:

1 lb ground beef or buffalo
1 egg
1 T honey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/4 cup marrow or liver (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and kneed with your hands.  Form the meat into patties (we prefer to make 6 patties from 1 pound of meat).  The patties can be fried in cooking fat, broiled, or grilled.  We like ours topped with melted cheese and fried onions.

Chile Verde

 This was a delicious treat after being in a GAPS rut for awhile.  It was a time-consuming meal, especially since I started out by going into my garden and harvesting the tomatillos!  If you make a lot of the sauce ahead of time and freeze it, this would be an easy crock pot dinner. 

Amazingly, the recipe I used was the first one that came up in a google search.  The steps of the recipe are nicely pictured, which I appreciated.  The only modification I made was not to drain off the excess fat.  Here's the link:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chile_verde/

Lentil Stew with Greens

This may not sound like anything special, but it is delicious.  This has been a favorite recipe of mine since my college days, and the original recipe is GAPS legal- the only modification I made for our current use was to substitute other greens for spinach (because spinach is so high in both oxalates and histamine). 

INGREDIENTS:

2 T butter or ghee
1 large onion, chopped
3 (or more!) cloves of garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
2 cups of lentils, soaked for 24 hours and drained
2 cups of chopped greens, somewhat tightly packed
1 quart (or more) of meat stock
1 T vinegar or lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
optional- equivalent of 1 can of chopped tomatoes in juice

METHOD:

Saute onions in butter for several minutes until they become soft.  Add the garlic, salt and spices and continue to saute on moderate heat another 5 minutes or so.

Add the lentils and greens and cook another few minutes.  Add the stock, tomatoes and juice (if using), and bring to a boil.  Simmer until lentils are tender, 30-50 minutes depending on lentils.

If the stew is thicker when done than you want, add more stock and heat through.  Remove from heat and add lemon juice or vinegar (real balsamic vinegar is the best if you can get it).  Taste and adjust the seasonings. 

VARIATION:
This stew is delicious with meat.  You can either use leftover meat (I added 3 leftover sausages to the batch pictured), or fresh ground meat or stew meat.  Add the meat, cut into pieces, at the time you are adding the spices.  Depending on the flavors in the meat (if sausages or leftovers), you may want to reduce or alter the spices used.

Churasco Burger with Chimichurri Sauce

This recipe comes from the book "Great Burgers" by Bob Sloan.  This is one of the few cookbooks that I have bought since beginning the GAPS diet- even though it is not technically special diet at all, many of the recipes are GAPS-legal without any modification, and most of the others require only minor adaptations.  I particularly like that the recipes in this book provide many ideas for using ground meat, something that I am wanting to use more of to save money, as well as recipes that are very flavorful and with a wide range of flavors to help bring more variety into the diet.

INGREDIENTS:

For burgers:
1 1/2 pounds of ground round (beef)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint
3 T finely chopped or crushed garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 T red pepper flakes (optional)

For sauce:
1 cup packed fresh parsley leaves
1 cup packed fresh mint
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
3 T finely chopped garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 T red pepper flakes (optional)

METHOD:

In a medium bowl, combine the ground meat with all of the burger ingredients except the salt.  Mix gently until just blended.  Form into 4-6 patties, depending on how large you want the patties.  Sprinkle both sides of each patty with salt.

Grill on high heat (around 500 degrees) for 4-5 minutes per side, depending on how rare or well done you like your meat.  You can also fry the burgers in a very hot skillet for about 5 minutes per side.

To make the sauce, blend all ingredients together in a food processor.  According to the recipe, this sauce also goes well with steak and chicken.

Tandouri Lamb Burger with Cumin-Yogurt Dressing

I recently got the book "Great Burgers" by Bob Sloan from the library, and am loving it.  Because the focus of the book is meat patties with seasonings, most of the recipes are GAPS-friendly (some are entirely GAPS-legal) and offers ways to include more variety of flavor into the diet as well a a way to use more ground meat (which I have been wanting to do to save money).  This was the first recipe from the book that I tried but there are many more that I am eager to get to.  These were absolutely delicious and my 8-year-old LOVED them, he said they tasted just like food from an Indian restaurant.  This recipe did not require modification, and even includes a yogurt sauce that is diet-legal.  Did I mention that I love this book?

For the meat patties:

1 lb ground lamb
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 T finely chopped garlic
2 T finely chopped (or grated) peeled fresh ginger
1 large egg
1 T curry powder (I get mine from Mountain Rose Herbs)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I left this out)

METHOD:

Combine all ingredients (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer).  Form into 4 patties. 

To cook them, the book suggests putting them into a 500 degree oven for 8-10 minutes in a skillet on the middle rack of the oven.  The idea is to mimic a tandouri oven.  I did this and while the burgers were cooked and tasted good, they didn't brown and were very soft.  In the future I plan to broil them on a rack.

Serve with slices of red onion, tomato, and lettuce leaves.  Cumin-Yogurt dressing is optional.

For the dressing, combine the following ingredients in a small bowl:

1 cup yogurt
1 T freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Stuffed Bell Peppers

We are growing bell peppers in our garden this year and wanted to find a special way to use them. These were delicious, my 8-year-old ate 3! This is one of those recipes that you can just "eyeball" as you go along, and is infinitely variable. I'll list out approximately what we did and estimates for amounts, but have fun with this! It's hard to go wrong!

INGREDIENTS:

5 bell peppers
1 medium onion
1 pound ground meat (we used buffalo)
grated cauliflower, optional
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp cumin, or more!
Oregano or Mexican seasoning blend to taste (I use blends from Mountain Rose Herbs)
hot pepper, such as jalapeno (optional)
salt to taste
chopped cilantro
1/2 cup- 1 cup meat broth
1 tomato
cheese if you can have it to melt on top

METHOD:

To make the filling, heat some cooking oil or fat in a large skillet. Finely chop the onion and saute on low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the seasonings and crushed garlic cloves, and stir. If using hot or other peppers (such as Anaheim or Poblano for flavor) dice and add them now. Once these have cooked together, add the meat and saute until meat is just done. If you want "rice" in it too add some grated cauliflower about 5 minutes before the meat is done. Turn the heat off and mix in chopped cilantro, then taste and adjust the seasonings if needed.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To prepare the peppers, you can either cut them in half lengthwise if they are long and thin, or cut the tops out if they are short and round (in the picture you can see one of each). Remove the seeds.

Oil the bottom of an oven-proof pan with a lid that is big enough to fit all of the peppers in a single layer on the bottom. Carefully fill each pepper or pepper half with filling and place open side up in the pan.

In a small bowl, mix together the broth and the tomato, chopped. Season with salt and crushed garlic if desired. Pour this mixture around the peppers. Place the lid on the pan and bake for 30-45 minutes. Melt cheese onto them at the end if desired. Delicious with fresh salsa and guacamole.

VARIATION: use a variety of chopped veggies instead of the meat for veggie-stuffed peppers.

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

This dish is great for summer barbecue parties. The recipe works well with shrimp, and would probably work well with other meats as well (pork, etc). I suggest making a lot of it and using the leftovers for easy lunches.

INGREDIENTS:

For the marinade (per pound of meat used):
1 tsp dry white wine
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp curry powder *
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp powdered ginger (or grated ginger root)
1 clove of garlic, crushed

*I use the curry powder from Mountain Rose Herbs, but there are many recipes online to make your own, and there is also a good recipe in Raman Prasad's book "Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet".

For the Peanut Sauce:
1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut or seed butter)
1 T apple cider vinegar
2 T toasted sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 T honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 T grated ginger root
1/4 cup coconut milk

METHOD:

Combine the ingredients for the marinade, multiplying the units in the ingredient list by the number of pounds of meat to be used. Chop the meat into bite-sized pieces and marinade for at least 30 minutes, preferably several hours (in the refrigerator). If using shrimp, marinade whole.

Put the meat on skewers and grill it on both sides until done. The meat can also be cooked in the broiler, about 5 minutes per side, but check often. Cooking time will vary depending on how small the pieces are.

Combine the ingredients for the peanut sauce and serve along with the meat for dipping. The peanut sauce can be thinned by adding additional coconut milk if desired.

Jambalaya

We were able to special order GAPS-legal Andouille sausage from the meat department of our local grocery store, which naturally led to a foray into adjusting Cajun recipes for GAPS. This recipe is the first success from this adventure. It was inspired by this recipe on this wonderful blog of New Orleans cooking:
http://neworleanscuisine.blogspot.com/2005/03/jambalaya.html

If you can't get ready made Andouille sausage, you can still make this recipe with other meat, but if you are feeling adventurous, this blog has a recipe for Andouille that you could adapt:
http://www.nolacuisine.com/2005/11/14/andouille-sausage-recipe/ (make sure to replace the powdered milk!)

INGREDIENTS:

2 T butter or ghee
2 cups Andouille sausage, chopped*
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup green bell pepper, diced
4 T garlic, minced
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup tomato sauce (or additional chopped tomatoes)
2 1/2 cups of chicken stock
2 cups grated cauliflower
2 cups additional meat (chopped raw chicken, shrimp, ham, etc)

Seasoning Mix:
1/4 tsp cayenne (or to taste)
1 1/2 tsp white pepper
2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp rubbed sage
3 bay leaves

*If you can't find Andouille sausage, you can use Kielbasa, chorizo, other sausage, ham, or other meats if you want to experiment.

METHOD:

Melt the butter and saute the sausage until lightly browned, then add 1/2 of the onions, celery, and green pepper. Saute about 5 more minutes, then add the chopped tomato, tomato sauce (if using), and garlic and saute several more minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (including the other half of the onions, celery, and peppers). Mix thoroughly and cook another 5 or 10 minutes to make sure all the veggies are meat are cooked through. Garnish with parsley and chopped green onion.

Cilantro Lime Chicken

I came up with this recipe as a way to use the chicken meat left over from making meat stock. Soup with meat has not been a big hit around here, and I find the leftover meat too well cooked to use for many things such as chicken salad. My 7-year-old, who is not normally a big fan of chicken, loves this dish. The meat called for in this recipe is the meat from 3 or 4 chicken legs that have been boiled for several hours. This recipe is great served with fresh salsa and iceberg lettuce leaves as taco shells or on top of a salad. At the bottom of the recipe there is a suggestion for making this on the intro diet.

INGREDIENTS:

Meat from 3 or 4 chicken legs, or equivalent
2 T fat for cooking
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 Anaheim or Poblano pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
salt to taste
pinch of chipotle powder
1-2 tsp cumin powder
3 cloves of garlic (or more)
1-2 tsp dried oregano or Mexican seasoning mix*
Meat stock, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup
1 large handful of chopped cilantro

*I use the Mexican seasoning blend from Mountain Rose Herbs, it is a pure spice blend.

METHOD:

Remove the meat from the chicken legs. It can be in chunks or shredded.

Melt the fat for cooking (I use coconut oil) in a large skillet. Add the chopped onions and saute for several minutes to let them soften. Add the chopped peppers and continue to saute several more minutes.

Add the garlic, salt and dry spices and let cook for several minutes while stirring. Pour in some meat stock and continue to saute for about 10 more minutes, pouring in more stock as the mixture becomes dry or to keep it from burning. This part is not precise, it is just to allow the veggies to cook well while staying moist.

Add the chicken and stir to incorporate into the mixture. Add the lime juice and cilantro, and cook and stir just long enough to mix thoroughly and heat everything through. Remove from heat.

Adjust seasonings. You may want to add in more crushed garlic at this point.

For intro diet, start by heating just enough broth to make a stew with the meat. Add in chopped veggies that work for you- possibly peppers, a tomato, greens, chopped zucchini, chopped onion- and let cook until the veggies well cooked. Add in the meat and lime juice, and if you tolerate them, crushed garlic and fresh cilantro. You can cook the cilantro a little if that helps you. Season to taste with whichever spices from the above recipe that you can tolerate. You can stir in egg and probiotic liquid once it has cooled enough.

Pot au Feu

This is French-style pot roast. The broth is supposed to be thin, so you won't feel bad that you can't use flour or corn starch to thicken it. This is a go-to recipe for me, but I don't have a picture right now. I will post one as soon as I can.

Yield: About 4 servings

Ingredients

4 lbs. beef chuck roast, with or without bone
4 quarts good quality homemade beef broth with marrow, if possible
3 sprigs parsley
3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/8 teaspoon whole cloves
2 onions roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, cut into three inch lengths
1/2 lb. carrots peeled and cut into 3 inch lengths

Method

Place meat in a large stock pot. Cover with homemade broth. Add parsley, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns and cloves (can be tied into a cheesecloth to make later removal easier). If your broth is unsalted, add about 1 tsp. salt. Cook until meat is very tender, about three hours. About half an hour before meat is done, add onions. About 15 minutes later, add celery and carrots. Remove herbs and spices.

Cut meat into serving size pieces and place in bowls. Cover with broth and cooked veggies.

Lamb Shoulder with Braised Onions

I am thinking of having this for our Easter dinner, it looks delicious! Thanks Tracy!

Braised Lamb Shoulder with Onions

Several pounds of lamb shoulder (with the bone)

2-3 large onions, depending on the size of your pan

As many cloves of garlic as you can possible handle

Rosemary

Salt and Pepper

½ cup of water (divided)

This dish is all about prep work and starting early. Do not attempt to make this dish half an hour before dinner. Lamb shoulder is a tough but immensely flavorful piece of meat that will turn fork-tender for you if you allow it enough time to cook. This makes an elegant dish that is suitable for company or a holiday dinner. We enjoyed it for New Years Eve with company. Plan at least 3-4 hours in the oven, and at least half an hour of prep time. This would be perfect for a crock pot, but I like to use my large 4-quart covered casserole dish in the oven because it makes the house smell so good.

Methodology:

MEAT: In a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan, fry the lamb shoulders in generous amount of olive oil over medium-high heat. The purpose of this is to get them nicely browned on both sides. As they finish browning, lay them into the casserole dish. When all of the shoulders have been browned, pour ¼ cup of water into the pan and use a spatula or flat whisk to scrape all the browned bits off the bottom, making a flavorful broth. Pour this over the meat in the casserole.

ONIONS: For those in a hurry, it is perfectly acceptable to simply slice the onions, brown them a bit in olive oil, and dump them over the meat. Make sure to rinse out the pan and scrape up the brown bits to add to the casserole dish. For company, I like to take a little more time with my onions. I slice off the tops, and carefully peel down and remove the skins, leaving the root end intact. I then lay the flat side of the onion (the top you sliced off) on the cutting board and carefully quarter the onion, slicing through the root end each time, so that the onion quarters don’t fall apart. The root end, if you are careful, will hold them together. Heat some olive oil in the frying pan and carefully lay the quarters in the oil (cut side down). Give them time to get a nice brown on them, and then carefully turn them to brown their other cut side with a spatula. Gently place them in the casserole, on top of and around the meat. Make sure to rinse out the pan with ¼ cup of water and add the onion “broth” to the casserole.

SEASONINGS: I add rosemary (at least ½ tablespoon). I have a rosemary bush so I usually add two sprigs that are at least 4 inches long. Also toss in several cloves of garlic (5-10, depending on how much you love garlic.) Make sure the garlic is around the sides of the meat, or touching the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper the meat to taste, and place in a low oven (300 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least 3-4 hours. Or you could put it into a crock pot on low in the morning, and it will be ready for you by dinner time. The meat is done when you poke it with a fork and it falls apart.

OPTIONAL: We are on a yeast diet, so are avoiding fungus. However, you could add whole or quartered mushrooms to the dish or any other vegetables that you like, such as carrots.

This dish produces a tremendous amount of meaty-flavored broth. It is lovely served with bean and turnip mash, onion torte, and a fresh green salad. (Note- while turnpis were recently moved from the SCD legal to SCD illegal list, many people report eating them with no trouble. This seems to be issue of personal choice).

Navy Bean and Turnip Mash:

Rinse, pick over, soak overnight, and drain 2 or 3 cups of navy beans. Boil them in heavily salted water until very tender/mushy (at least an hour to an hour and a half). Peel and quarter several turnips, so that you can have equal parts beans and turnips. This is no rocket science, just eyeball it. Boil the turnips and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic in heavily salted water until very tender. (Note: if you are using canned navy beans, you may be able to simply drain the beans, and then boil them along with the turnips.) Drain the beans and turnips and garlic, and process them in a food processor with lots of butter and fresh herbs (I used parsley, oregano, and some thyme that we had growing in my mom’s herb garden). I had to do mine in batches because it made so much. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve by making mountains of the mash and then forming a crater with your fork to fill with the meat juice.

Pork Ribs with Coleslaw

My kids love pork ribs, and since they are inexpensive, we love them too. Pork ribs can handle a lot of flavor so I wanted to find a way to really "jazz them up". I came up with this recipe today and it was a real hit! It went very well with coleslaw, and had I had time, I would have made a pot of collard greens and Teri's onion torte (to stand in for biscuits) as well.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds of pork ribs
1 onion, cut into slices
1 lemon, cut into wedges
5 cloves of garlic, crushed (or more!)
2 T butter, ghee, or animal fat
2 tsp grated ginger
1 bay leaf
2 star anise pods
1 tsp prepared mustard
2 T Apple Cider Vinegar
3 T honey
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Put the onion slices on the bottom of a large dutch oven or large oven-proof pan with a lid. Place the meat on top, and put the lemon slices and garlic around the meat. Liberally sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the meat. Throw in the bay leaf and the star anise.

In a bowl, mix the fat with the remaining ingredients, just enough to blend- it can still be chunky. If you can have tomato, I'd add at least 1 cup of tomato sauce or several T of tomato paste at this point. If you like your food strongly flavored, you may want to go a bit heavy on the spices.

Spoon the mixture over the meat and and spread it around. Do not add extra liquid- plenty of liquid will cook out of the meat, onion, and lemon. Cook on low for 3 hours. Adjust seasonings before serving.

This dish goes very well with cole slaw.

Tacos with Salsa and Guacamole

This has become one of our favorite dinners, both because it is delicious and because it is relatively quick to make. We use iceberg lettuce leaves as the taco "shells", and fill them with taco meat, salsa, guacamole, and top them off with green olives.

For the meat, we prefer ground buffalo, but any ground meat (or shredded leftover meat) will do. First, I saute an onion (sweet onions work well) in coconut oil, then stir in cumin and oregano. If tomatoes sit well with you then adding homemade tomato paste would be good. I add the meat and lightly brown it. If you are early in the diet, you can add broth and simmer the meat instead. Once it is close to done, I add in crushed garlic, lime juice, salt, and chopped cilantro. Adjust the seasonings and mix thoroughly, then serve!

The salsa is simply chopped tomatoes, red onion, chopped cilantro, and whatever else we have on hand that seems appropriate. We sometimes add bell pepper, mango, or cucumber as well. This would be delicious with fire-roasted chiles. Once everything is chopped, I add crushed garlic and dress with olive oil, lime juice, salt, and apple cider vinegar. In the photo above I have also made a mango cucumber salsa. The recipe for this is in the post featuring fajita salad.

Guacamole is simple and many of you probably already have your own favorite way of making it. For ours, we mash the avocado with lime juice, salt, and cilantro. If we're in the mood we may add onions.

Shepherd's Pie

Many people already have their own favorite recipe for this dish, which shouldn't be difficult to adapt for GAPS. I had a pound of ground lamb that needed to be used, and some leftover mashed cauliflower, so this dish was very quick and easy to make.

I chopped half an onion and sauteed it in butter, then added some chopped carrot and celery. I added the meat and seasoned it with crushed garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme. When the meat was cooked through I spread it on the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish and covered it with a layer of the mashed cauliflower. I dotted the top with butter and baked for about 45 minutes at around 350 degrees. It was simple but good. There are so many ways to make this dish that it is fun to experiment with. Later in the diet I may try it with lentils and chestnuts instead of meat for variety.