Breakfast Chicken Liver Pate

Breakfast Chicken Liver Pate - Healing and Eating

This breakfast chicken liver pate is for all my breakfast and bacon lovers out there. It’s especially great, for all the chicken liver newbies out, and for all my bacon loving paleo people. Trust me, bacon makes everything taste better, and if you’re not a fan of chicken liver, you should still give this a try.

My husband actually came up with this idea. Since my traditional chopped chicken liver, uses hard boiled eggs anyway. It was a really easy to add bacon to the recipe, to give it more wonderful breakfast flavors. Plus, I was able to caramelize the onions in leftover bacon fat, which means a ton of bacon flavor. Chicken liver is the mildest of the livers, but it can still be a strong, unpalatable flavor, especially for those who aren’t used to eating it. So, it’s best to cook it with strong flavors, otherwise the liver flavor will overpower the dish and turn off people to offal. Which would be a shame, since it’s such a powerhouse of nutrients.

Breakfast Chicken Liver Pate
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 package of bacon (8 oz)
  • 1 large white onion
  • 2 hard boiled eggs
  • 1.36 lbs of chicken liver
  • 1 tsp sea salt (or more to taste)
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 large cucumber
  • (optional) garnish with 1 tbsp fresh chives
Instructions
  1. Hard boil eggs set aside.
  2. Fry up bacon in large pan, set aside bacon and save fat in pan.
  3. Chop up white onion, and caramelize in bacon fat, then set aside.
  4. Leave leftover bacon fat in pan, and saute chicken livers 4 minutes per side or until inside is pink.
  5. Then, in food processor, blend up bacon and onions first so there are no chunky bacon bits. Then add chicken livers and blend until desired smoothness.
  6. Lastly, add hard boiled eggs, sea salt and black pepper and pulse food processor a few times.
  7. (Optional) Serve on sliced cucumbers, and garnish with chives.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4-6

Tropical Soft Serve Ice Cream

Tropical Soft Serve Ice Cream - Healing and Eating

This tropical soft serve ice cream was really easy to make in the Vitamix. It’s made without additional sweeteners or dairy. The frozen bananas give it a creamy texture, and the fresh ginger gives it a little bit of a spicy kick. My husband and I both love sweet and spicy flavors, so this was definitely a new favorite. We’ve been wanting to get an ice cream maker for awhile, but if you’re without one, like us, this is a crazy easy alternative.

Tropical Soft Serve Ice Cream
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 pineapple chopped
  • 2 bananas chopped
  • 1 tsp of fresh grated ginger
Instructions
  1. Chop bananas into small half inch slices an freeze on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  2. Chop of fresh pineapple, freeze half of the pineapple on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and save the rest of the non-frozen pineapple.
  3. When fruit is frozen, add non-frozen pineapple to bottom of Vitamix, then put frozen fruit and fresh ginger on top for easier blending.
  4. Then blend as best you can, using the Vitamix plunger. If you still have some frozen fruit chunks, don't stress, it will still taste amazing.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2

Spartan Race Giveaway

Spartan Cruise - Healing and Eating

With the world championship coming up, our awesome friends at Spartan Race are giving away a kick ass vacation, a free race code, and a discount code for all the races. You can sign up for the cruise here: http://bit.ly/spartancruisegiveaway – This contest includes, a trip for 2 including airfare and a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas with a Spartan Sprint on a private island. This cruise is out of Miami (US residents only).

Can’t get enough Spartan Races? NBC Sports has partnered with Spartan Race to film 6 episodes of Spartan Races culminating with the World Championship race at Killington VT this Sept 20th 3 P.M. EST on NBC. Check out this link for the full schedule.

On this blog, I will be doing a giveaway for a free race code. The code will work one time for any open heat (non-confirmed start time) in any 2014 Spartan Race in the continental US. Plus, just for reading to the end of this post, you get a free code that will give you 10% off of any race:  SPARTANBLOGGER

Awesome right?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Homemade Egg Noodle Soup

Egg Noodle Soup - Healing and Eating

This homemade egg noodle soup is easy to make and great for breakfast or dinner. These paleo friendly noodles are made by slicing up a two egg pancake into pretty thin ribbons. That’s it. No fancy flours or complicated equipment. In the future, I hope to be able to use one egg and make the noodles thinner, but I’m still practicing my technique. So, I recommend two eggs for beginners. A low heat will prevent the thin egg pancake from burning, and be sure to grease the pan so it’s easy to flip over.

This was surprisingly easy to make and will definitely be a repeat when  I want a healthy carb free breakfast. It was filling, even though it’s only two eggs per person. Must be the broth. I love chicken broth almost as much as I love eggs!

Homemade Egg Noodle Soup
 
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Serves: 2 bowls
Ingredients
  • 1 large mason jar of chicken bone both (1.5 liters)
  • 1 carrot peeled and chopped
  • 4 pastured eggs
  • 1 tsp sea salt (or more to taste)
  • 2 tsp of coconut oil
Instructions
  1. Grease one small pan with coconut oil. Then on low heat, pour in two eggs whisked.
  2. Let one side cook for 3-5 minutes before flipping. Set aside to cool, and repeat for last two eggs.
  3. Thinly peel and chop carrot so it cooks quickly. Throw in chicken bone broth and simmer for 10 minutes or until carrots are cooked to desired firmness.
  4. Thinly slice egg pancakes into thin noodles, and add to soup.
  5. Then, time to serve.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2

Organic and Sustainable Wines in Napa Valley

Healthy and Sustainable Wines in Napa Valley - Healing and Eating
Patio view at Auberge Du Soleil Restaurant

For our honeymoon, we visited as many vineyards as possible that made organic and sustainable wines. Plus, I had no problem finding dairy free and paleo options everywhere I went. I was in foodie heaven with all the fresh local ingredients, accommodating restaurants, and gourmet grocery stores. Even the grocery store had their own vineyard (I’m not kidding) as well as their own jellies and jams. I had their caramelized red onion and fig jam that I ate with some gluten-free dairy-free crackers.

Oakville Grocery
Oakville Grocery Front Window

Our favorite organic winery was Frog’s Leap Winery, which had a lovely outdoor patio, a lily pod with frogs, and beautiful organic garden and winery. When we mentioned it was our honeymoon, they gave us a small jar of their own citrus marmalade, although we did buy two bottles and two tastings.  In fact, I’m drinking their 2012 Zinfandel as I type this. It’s just as good as I remember, not that I’m a wine expert, but I want to remember what I liked. I mentioned that we were trying to taste all the organic and sustainable wines in the area and they gave us a nice printed list. So be sure to ask for that when you go. We also purchased a 2013 Sauvignon Blac. Shameer and I usually purchased one or two bottles when we visited a winery, but we opted for the less expensive bottles. Since we’re not winos, we just got what we liked, at the price we liked.

Another winery we loved was Mumm Napa Winery. Seriously, we went there twice. Although they are not organic, they are certified under the Napa Green Winery Program that requires certain sustainable practices such as recycling, water and energy conservation, and pollution prevention. Plus, they had a beautiful outdoor patio, where you can relax and drink your champagne. They even told me they were going to renovate and improve it, if that’s even possible. You can order a snack plate with your champagne, which was one of the few things I could eat while wine (or champagne) tasting. It had dried fruit and nuts, which was awesome since most wineries serve bread and cheese. Arghh!!! You can also take your champagne to their photography gallery, which includes an Ansel Adams exhibit. Seriously, it was awesome, but I love landscapes. Notice the lack of selfies on my blog.

We also went to a tasting at Robert Sinskey Vineyards, which is another great organic winery. The tasting was indoors at a bar, but it was still lots of fun and we got two bottles. One bottle was the Abraxas 2012, and the other POV 2010. They had a nice little gift shop too with all my favorite cookbooks. Although, we decided to wait and go to the Culinary Institute for a crazy large selection.

We also visited the Heller Estate on our way to Napa Valley, which was in Carmel Valley. We purchased a 2012 Chenin Blanc, and red one that I can’t remember because we drank it right away by the pool at our B&B in Napa Valley. Anyway, this was definitely one of my favorite vacation spots. We went sight-seeing (which in Napa means visiting wineries) and we still had plenty of time to relax in the sun. We went the first week in June and the weather was absolutely perfect! Good thing too because Carmel was on the chilly side.

If you liked this post, you might like Honeymoon Part: 1 Monterey (which includes Carmel) and Honeymoon Part 2: Big Basin. We drove up the Pacific Coast highway, but our last stop was Napa Valley.

Thai Cucumber Noodle Salad

Thai Cucumber Noodle Salad - Healing and Eating

I attempted recreate a cucumber noodle salad from my favorite thai restaurant. This salad is paleo and raw vegan friendly, so it’s super healthy, and I was pleasantly surprised at how close to the original it tastes. This is something that I crave all the time and now I can make it at home! Can you tell I’m excited? This is so yummy, I might make it in bulk and chop the ingredients instead of peeling them. I used a julienne peeler to make the noodles, and although it’s convenient for one, it would be a lot of work to do in bulk. But sooo worth it. Definitely quicker and cheaper than delivery.

Thai Cucumber Noodle Salad
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 cucumbers
  • ¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro
  • juice from 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp of finely minced jalapeno
  • ½ thinly chopped red onion
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
Instructions
  1. Peel carrot and cucumbers, then use a julienne peeler to create noodles.
  2. Rough chop fresh cilantro and add to noodles.
  3. Thinly slice red onions and add to noodles.
  4. Remove all seeds from jalapeno and finely mince 1 tbsp.
  5. Squeeze lemon juice over noodle salad. Be careful not to get lemon seeds in salad.
  6. Then, add sea salt and mix all ingredients together.
Notes
Use a fork to hold cucumbers and carrots, when using the julienne peeler for safety.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1-2

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