Great Paleo Side Dish- CSA veggies

 Straight from the garden, CSA or the farmers' market, this is one of my favorite side dishes.! Starting at the left~ red, white and blue potatoes, then stripped beets, golden beets and your standard reds, then Delicata squash! OMG this is my favorite squash ever~! The came from my garden and the potatoes and beets came from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share. So the CSA works like this- We make an advance purchase from the farm of let's say $500. This gives us a box of veggies once a week for 20 weeks. Once a week we go to our designated location and pick a box of freshly picked veggies from our CSA farm. They put in the box what ever is in season of  these veggies~ carrots, beets, butter or romaine lettuce, onions, garlic, kale, potatoes, cucumbers, radishes, herbs, fennel, asparagus, peas, beans and a variety of squash. The contents of the box should feed a family of four. Every week we get fresh in season veggies that are grown within a few miles of our home. Talk about local!
This also makes me cook veggies I would not usually try. Like beets for instance, we were just talking about this over dinner tonight. I was saying that we have only been eating beets for the last few years because we didn't even know we liked them. Roasted beets are the way to go. They are sweet and a wonderful substitute for those of us that don't eat night shades like potatoes.
Do you get your veggies from a CSA or farmers market? I'd love to know! Please leave a comment.

Homemade Paleo Hamburgers

There are a few more days of summer left in the Pacific Northwest. We are die hards out here. We will barbeque through the rain to get that last hamburger on the grill! Paleo hamburger have been a favorite this summer. Fresh zucchini makes it easy. You can also add carrots to this recipe. Just substitute some of the zucchini for carrots. I have made this recipe with only carrots. It seemed to turn out just fine.
So you can use wheat free buns if you chose or we just use ice berg lettuce in big chunks. OMG it tastes so good with that crisp lettuce and burger juices running down my chin!
Ok So here is the recipe. You may notice that it is similar to the meatloaf recipe. It is virtually the same idea. Just form the meat into patties.

Paleo Hamburger Patties
2 lbs of grass fed ground beef
1 egg
1 c shredded zucchini
1 Tbsp Lawry's Seasoning salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Mix all the ingredients together. I like to use my hands so that I can be assured that everything is mixed well. Form into patties. With this recipe you should get eight 1/4 patties or Four 1/2 pound patties. It's great to make up a few extras for your lunch. You can freeze the cooked burgers and add to a sweet potato and there you have an instant homemade paleo lunch.

Where do you get your beef? We get asked this question a lot. We buy a half or a quarter cow from a local farmer. We end up paying about $3 a pound for grass fed, anti-biotic free beef. I know the farmer she only raises about five cows a year. Mostly they do as a hobby.  It's not their main gig. They give the cows a lot of love and attention and it shows. The produce excellent meat.We choose the cuts we want. So we are $3 a pound for ground beef, steaks and pot roasts. Of course you can only get a few of some cuts but it is well worth it. Our beef comes wrapped in brown paper not plastic.

Where do you store a half a cow?!? We bought a stand up full size freezer. And think of how much we've saved in the last four years! Now it can be a little rough coming up with $400-$800 to pay for meat in one month. But we always know in advance that that bill is coming our way. It's a great money saver and it certainly is worth the health benefits to our family.

Please leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you all!

Paleo Meatloaf is easy to make!

One of our family's favorite dinner is meatloaf and it is easy to make Paleo.  My son loves this dinner with roasted sweet potatoes and I love to add roasted beets, especially this time of year. Add a fresh green salad and there is nothing better in my opinion!

Paleo Meatloaf
2 lbs of grass fed ground beef
1 egg
1 c shredded zucchini
1 Tbsp Lawry's Seasoning salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce


Mix all the ingredients together with your hands. Ensuring that it's mixed thoroughly. Form meat mixture into a shape of a loaf of bread and put into a bread pan. Cook for 1 hour at 375 degrees.  

The zucchini adds enough moisture to keep this dish super yummy and not tough. Also that sneaky vegetable virtually disappears in the meat loaf. So no one would really know there is a whole cup of zucchini in there! You could add bacon to the top for a little extra yum. Criss-cross the bacon for a fancy look!