may 18, 2013 dinner

we picked up a few cuts of meat from three sisters farm on whidbey island last weekend, and decided to try the tri-tips with mel's insanely delicious moroccan dipping sauce, as well as brussels wrapped in foil in the campfire. the perfect meal!

july 25, 2012 lunch

lunchtime in meatball country. 

july 24, 2012 lunch

more meatballs, more salad. i've mentioned i call these meatballs sneaky meatballs for all of the veggie goodness i manage to sneak into each batch. it's not as if i'm trying to trick a toddler into eating them, but i imagine it would do the trick!

july 23, 2012 lunch

returned to an old standby for this week's lunch - garden fresh meatballs from everyday paleo. this time we added a bunch of fresh basil and sun-dried tomatoes to the usual mix of ground turkey, ground beef, egg, yam, spinach, roasted red pepper, zucchini, garlic and almond flour. a simple green salad of greens from my boss's garden, tomatoes and cucumber plays sidekick to the meatballs.

july 20, 2012 dinner

attended a goodbye potluck barbeque at ella bailey park in magnolia. it was a nice seattle summer evening, sunny and breezy, with the rain clouds from the morning dissipating. the view from this park is amazing - you can see elliott bay, downtown seattle, west seattle, and queen anne. the way it's situated on a grassy hill with its panorama and houses on hills reminds me of parks in san francisco. anyways, i had a delicious meal of a grass-fed beef burger, topped with garlicky guacamole, and a side salad with bell pepper, avocado, and some of the leftover smoked salmon from yesterday shredded on top.

addison's fancy hat looks on.



july 14, 2012 breakfast

we left early (our friends snoozing at our place, with the extra key and a fresh pot of coffee), and boarded the ferry to bainbridge island. i'd been eyeing these primal pacs for a couple of months at ken's market, and finally decided that a ferry ride breakfast was as good a time as any to give one a go. the verdict: quite tasty and a good all-in-one meal. grass-fed beef jerky, dried mango and cranberries, marcona almonds and a couple of macadamia nuts. it's so hard to find jerky without nitrates, corn syrup solids, soy sauce, etc. so that was worth the price of admission right there. ($3.99 in case you're curious.)

july 11, 2012 dinner

tonight was my first outdoors tai chi class (we usually practice inside), and it was a beautiful, sunny evening in the park. it feels totally different to practice with springy grass and soil underfoot instead of floorboards - i like it!

it was also 'eat what's in the fridge night', so we fried up some grass-fed ground beef and had burgers served open-faced on butter lettuce, with mustard, tomatoes and red onions. sides are oven roasted broccoli (we hesitated firing up the oven on such a warm evening, but roasted broccoli sounded so good) and kale cooked in bacon grease, with smashed garlic, crushed red pepper and black pepper too. good stuff!

july 5, 2012 dinner

leftover stovetop pork carnitas with salsa and guacamole on butter lettuce leaves, with a side of steamed artichoke, with grass-fed butter and lemon juice for dipping.

july 3, 2012 lunch

hoo boy, that beanless chili right there might be one of the hottest things i've ever eaten. i'm a three to three-and-a-half star spice eater, but man, this thing was off the scolville charts. i think because it has three kinds of peppers: ancho, chipotle in adobo, and dried red peppers in it, with ground cayenne just to give it that little extra painful kick. the flavor beneath the raging capsaicin fire is really nice, though. it has two kinds of meat (round steak and grass-fed ground beef), red and green bell pepper, tomatoes, and onions.

note to self: although i habitually consume my veggies first, in this case, it would have been nice to have a little coleslaw or greek salad to douse the flames!

also, i think those olives are huddling together in fear and awe of the chili. (didn't your momma tell you not to anthropomorphize your food?)

june 14, 2012 lunch

lunchtime! meatballs, again. and greek salad, again. but good enough for me! more variety tomorrow, i promise.

june 13, 2012 lunch

lunch is everyday paleo's garden fresh meatballs, aka sneaky meatballs (turkey and beef let their guard down, and spinach, zucchini, roasted red pepper, yam, green onion and garlic snuck in), plus greek salad, and a few garlic and jalapeno double-stuffed olives, just for funsies.

june 12, 2012 dinner

we've got ham, what to do with it? i found this recipe online, and it was actually pretty easy to pull off. in the casserole are a couple of eggs baked atop a sauce of tomatoes, red onion, garlic, jalapeno, salt, pepper, and fresh basil from my apartment balcony. under that, ham, torn into pieces and quickly pan-fried before going into the casserole. more pepper on top and into the oven with it for 12 minutes or so at 350 degrees, then topped with even more basil. (my poor plant has been nearly picked clean, but hey, it encourages new growth!) to the side is a purple artichoke, steamed, with a side of melted grass-fed butter and lemon juice. this dinner earned not one, but TWO high fives from matt, my fellow eater in crime.
and yes, the backdrop is my leopard-print snuggie.

june 12, 2012 lunch

lunch is meatballs (organic ground turkey and grass-fed beef with spinach, zucchini, yam, roasted red pepper and garlic mixed in), greek salad, and some roasted seaweed. i usually eat roasted seaweed as a standalone snack, but i wanted to round out my lunch, and that mouse doesn't look edible.

june 11, 2012 dinner

monday night dinner is copper river sockeye salmon topped with herbs and shallots, cooked in butter from cows that munch on grass, paired with roasted brussel sprouts and a curious wind-up rabbit.

june 11, 2012 lunch

lunch is garden-fresh meatballs out of everyday paleo (ground grass-fed beef and organic ground turkey with zucchini, spinach, yam, roasted red pepper, garlic, egg, almond flour, and spices), greek salad, and hey, howabout sliced steamed octopus? ok, a little schizophrenic, but delicious nonetheless.

june 7, 2012 dinner

it's a meatza! crust is grass-fed beef with italian seasoning, fennel, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper, prepped by baking in a 400 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. instead of red sauce, i made arugula pesto in the food processor, whirring up arugula, garlic, walnuts, olive oil, and a wee pinch of kosher salt. after saucing up the crust, i layered it with cooked bacon, cracked an egg on top, and slid it back into the oven for about 10 more minutes. topped it all off with super fancy french-cut green onions (every once in awhile, you gotta let the super fancy out), drizzled it with olive oil, and ground just a little black pepper on top. it was crispy and crunchy and chewy, with good flavor. not bad for my first meatza attempt! next time, i'm going to take it out a little sooner, because i like a little more liquid gold in my egg yolk, but overall, no complaints.

the side dish was an experiment turned revelation. there was leftover bacon grease in the pan (can't let that go to waste!), so i tossed in a cubed parsnip and carrot, let them brown for awhile, added a handful of green onions and a half pinch of kosher salt and black pepper, and just let it keep browning and cooking. the parsnip and carrots ended up creamy, and the bits of green onion frizzled in the pan, creating an interesting texture and smoky oniony flavor. the ingredients sound a little odd, but some kinda alchemy happened in that pan, i swear!

june 6, 2012 lunch

some familiar faces here. the last of the leftover rogan josh, coleslaw, and greek salad for lunch. the spices really came together on the lamb in the last couple days.. the cayenne certainly packed a punch. yes, i am that coworker with the garlicky, cumin-y, bacon-y office. like that old shampoo gee, your hair smells terrific, but it's my office, not my hair.

(for the record, my hair smells pretty terrific too.)

june 5, 2012 lunch

lunch consists of leftover rogan josh atop an eye-rollingly-good rutabaga hash, homemade coleslaw, and the usual but yummy greek salad. good stuff.

june 4, 2012 dinner

happy-making rogan josh! it took some doing, but that there is braised lamb cubes (grass-fed),  generously salted and peppered, then started off at medium-high heat in ghee to sear the outsides (the trick is to wait for the meat to release from the pan on its own - when it's ready, it will let you know). i then added a paste of ginger, garlic, shredded coconut, and boiled, peeled almonds, a chopped onion, coconut milk, and a mix of many fun spices, including cumin, cloves, coriander, bay leaves, mace, cinnamon, aniseed, fennel, well, you name it, really. simmered for about an hour and a half in a dutch oven.

all this on top of rutabaga hash. perfection.

june 2, 2012 dinner

saturday night dinner, complete with pine needles, the audubon field guide to the pacific northwest, and some thoroughly scorched asparagus (we donated the really charred ones to the campfire). the copper river salmon (fresh, not frozen, and wild-caught) was quite a treat. especially with all that frizzled shallot goodness, cooked in butter from grass-fed cows. dr0000l..