Southern Paleo Dinner!

So I've been cooking up a storm since The Soldier came home.

He deserves it. I never can thank him enough for what he does so instead I cook. And to welcome him home I thought he might want a Southern Dinner of "Fried" Catfish, Collard Greens and some beautiful Watermelon! The Collard Green recipe sorta comes from Nom Nom Paleo's recipe. I added a few things, but she basically taught me how to cook the greens and make them pretty. As always, you should really really check out her website. It's awesome.

 Here you go!

Collard Greens; Here's What You Need!

A bag (16oz) of Collard Greens

1 1/2 tsp of Salt

1/4 C Chicken Broth

4-6 strips of bacon, cut into about an inch sized pieces.

Half of a tomato, diced.

Here is What You Do!!

Bring a big ole soup pot of water to a boil.

Add the salt and the greens, stirring until they are pretty wet.

Cover and let boil for about 6-8 minutes.

Then drain the greens and immediately transfer to a bowl of cold water. Or you can dump the hot water and refill that same pot with cold water.

While the greens are cooling, cut your bacon up into small pieces and throw them in the skillet and start cooking them.

Then go back to your greens and take them out of the cold water and SQUUUUUUUEEEEEZE them free of water.

When the bacon is pretty brown, throw the greens in the skillet, mixing well with the pig fat.

Then add the chicken broth and the tomato and then cover and let cook for a couple of minutes.

Take off the burner and enjoy. It's super wonderful.

"Fried" Catfish: Here is What You Need!

1 lb of catfish

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 C of Coconut flour

1 TBSP of garlic powder

A decent sized pinch of cayenne.

1 to 2 TBSP of Coconut Oil

Here is What You Do!!

My filet's were huge and long, so I cut them in half.

Then I beat my eggs.

Assembled the dry ingredients.

Heated up the coconut oil. I always throw some water on the oil when I think it's hot enough. If it pops? It's ready!

Then I took the catfish and dipped it in the egg. Then the flour mixture and then threw it in the pan.

I didn't notice the time, but let it sit there in the pan for about 2 to 3 minutes, checking to make sure you aren't burning the fish. Then, when the first side is pretty brown, turn em over.

I served this with some beautiful watermelon and it just hit the spot.

My dinner plate was fantastic!!

Love me some Southern Cookin!

Un-Paleo foodz and then? Some Paleo foodz!

I know, I know…it’s been awhile. But cut me some slack. Things have been non-stop crazy go here!!

About two weeks ago, my Mamaw and my Aunt Stephany drove all the way from Texas to spend a few days in Savannah. We saw the sights and ate some really terrific (yet, VERY VERY un-Paleo) food.

This is a pretty cool restaurant's take on Shrimp and Grits with some greens. It was Ahhhh-mazing.

Then we went to The Full Moon Brewery to take part in a Sampler (what I like to call torture for a beer drinker like myself).

I became a member. I mean, come on. The place is haunted and has been on TV and has a beer that has rosemary in it. Can anyone say Thanksgiving beer? (me, I can).

Then we went to Paula Deen's brother's restaurant called Uncle Bubbas. There was no Paleo had here. Mamaw had fried oysters, I can't remember what Steph had but she said it was good.

I had his famous pulled pork. (I was semi good...I didn't eat the bread or the onion rings).

Mine was better. But we really went there for his famous famous grilled oysters. Basically he drowns them in a garlic butter, covers them with cheese and then grills them.

I don't even have words to say how fantastic these things are. We split a dozen and I could have eaten 2 dozen on my own!

Then we went to the beach which was awesome and perfect. Mamaw loves the beach and we hit a great day for it. But we had to rush back into town because Steph wanted to hit The Chart House for their awesome happy hour specials.

We split this hummus platter. It had three different types of hummus; regular, edemame (what?? it was good.) and roasted red pepper hummus.

It was served with pita slices and plantain chips. I need to figure out how to make my plantains look as awesome as this.

Then we split some great calamari with a marinara sauce and a sweet and sour sauce. Mouth watering.

And for the finale? We had Ahi Tuna Nachos. I'll say it again, AHI TUNA NACHOS.

Never tasted anything like them. Delish times a hundred. And we eaten with the most dangerous Mango Mojito. Dangerous because I could have had 10 without even knowing that they had alcohol in them.

So...you would think I would be all un-Paleo'ed out by this point. Of course not. I had to get ready to board the Crazies and hop on a plane to get to Chicago (a town I've never been to) and help my best friend from back in high school, KateMo, get married!! I love weddings!!!

So...I ate awesomely horrible there as well. KateMo had the "rehearsal dinner" at Gino's East, a deep dish pizza place with light beer and all sorts of amazing Italian appetizers. But the pizza?

Holy cow. So wonderful. But one slice was a meal! And then...more beer.

Batch 19 is my new favorite beer. It's new at Miller/Coors where KateMo's bro works so we got plenty of it. I don't even know how to describe it but it's a tasty brew. Sadly, it's not coming down South for a couple more months.

So then there was KateMo's wedding food...which was per-fec-tion.

I had two of EVERYTHING (and prolly more).

Beautiful set up to go with the food.

I remember one girl gave me a look and tried to educate me about being meat-less as I devoured the lamb chops.

To bad I had food in my mouth, otherwise I would have Paleo'ed her.

We had more beer and cupcakes! And then we had Wedding-Hangover-Breakfasts.

Now, that was good, although I stayed away from the taters. I had to. I was feeling horrible!!

But the wedding was beautiful. On a huge patio on the 8th floor overlooking the water.

And let me tell you something...the bride?

Flawless.

And then? I came home...but not to an empty house!!! THE SOLDIER WAS HOME!!!! So it was certainly time to start cooking Paleo again. I decided to make my own tortillas the other day. I didn't take pictures because I was SURE I would fail.

But I didn't!

So we had burrito type of tostada type of dinner with my tried and true butternut squash, apple, bacon and spinach salad. THAT was good!

We cut up some pumpkins and roasted some pumpkin seeds.

Mine are pretty easy; get the seeds out of their home, wash em, dry em, then sprinkle a little Lowry's salt on them and roast them at 350 for about 20 minutes.

And then The Soldier (Cookie Monster) requested some cookies so...I searched and searched and found this little recipe from The Food Lovers Primal Palate. These guys are great and have very awesome recipes all the time. In fact, they have a cookbook coming out (I pre-ordered mine! GET HERE GET HERE!!!!) called Make It Paleo. So try these guys out. They are JUST like the old school chocolate chip cookies.

Here is what you need!!!

3 cups Almond Flour

1/2 C coconut oil (solid)

1/2 C Maple Syrup

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Vanilla

1 1/2 C chocolate chips (organic and dark!)

Here is what you do!!

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Combine all the dry ingredients.

Beat the eggs, syrup and vanilla with the hand mixer.

Once mixed, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with the hand mixer.

Take your solid coconut oil and melt it. Took me about a minute in the microwave.

Pour the coconut oil in the mixture and blend again! (I love my hand mixer!!!).

Then stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon the dough out onto some parchment paper lined cookie trays. Make sure you use about a TBSP size when making the cookies. I didn't and they were HUGE (not that The Soldier complained).

Bake for 15 minutes and then let cool for a bit.

Then eat. Try and save some for later!