Almost Primal Chipotle Southwest Sauce

I'm in love with Subway's Chipotle Southwest sauce. But I don't eat sandwiches and the "sandwich artists" always hate me when I ask for a bread-free flatbread breakfast sandwich (Subway despises our kind) and their salads are ridiculously cheap for being so overpriced. 


So, with a super-quick Google search, I found this: 

Almost Primal Chipotle Southwest Sauce*

http://www.grouprecipes.com/80038/subways-chipotle-southwest-sauce.html 

And I'm as happy as the rest of the reviewers were. 

What I did differently: 

• 4 tbs chipotle in adobo puree instead of 2
• a few more squeezes of lime juice

This ended up tasting amazing on an omelet with green peppers, Canadian bacon, and Mexican-blend cheese. Andrew will definitely want it again, so I'm considering making a bunch more and freezing it so as to not waste the rest of my 7-ounce can of Chipotles. 

*The recipe calls for mayonnaise. My mayonnaise had soybean oil, which I try my best to avoid, but my very (very) generous grandmother gave me the jar and as far as the research shows, soybeans are pretty harmless when used infrequently and as condiments. 

In the future (when I can afford tons and tons of olive oil...the career world better find me this fall) I'll be making mass amounts of primal mayonnaise:
http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2010/06/03/the-secret-to-homemade-mayo-patience/

Primal Strawberry Coconut Crust Pie

My roommate randomly decided to make a pie two weeks ago and I decided I'd mimic her swagger. And, since she brought home a new pie pan, I had to start establishing rapport with it-I'm gonna get real good at making pies one day.


This pie crust recipe turned out perfectly:

Primal Coconut Flour Pie Crust

http://www.smarteatsusa.com/articles/recipes/coconut-flour-pie-crust

My Strawberry Coconut Pie: 

• Coconut flour crust (I doubled the recipe to have top and bottom crust)
• Two cups sliced strawberries
• 1/3 cup Dark Coconut Sugar

400, 15 minutes. 

Before, I used almond flour to make pie crusts. They were incredible and better than the white flour crusts I had before, but almond flour isn't something I eat frequently (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/are-nut-based-baked-goods-healthy/#axzz1qN2zIDon).

I consider fruit an occasional treat, but this pie seems reasonably healthy to me. It just doesn't taste healthy :) 

Primal Eggplant Parmesan

I had never had eggplant parmesan before. Andrew has, and we both agreed it was really good. I recommend this right next to a green salad with the homemade creamy Italian dressing. 

Primal Eggplant Parmesan

http://primaleats.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/eggplant-parmesan/

What I did differently: 

• 1/4 cup Coconut Flour and 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan (instead of 1/2 cup Coconut Flour)
• added Provolone cheese to the Mozzarella
• had the timer set for 45 minutes, but it was done at 30

Primal Creamy Italian Dressing

Tonight's salad, set alongside eggplant parmesan, would not have been so supreme without this: 

Primal Creamy Italian Dressing http://www.antihousewife.com/2012/01/the-og-ish-italian-salad-dressing/

One thing she doesn't mention: the eggs have to be room temperature if you want the added olive oil to emulsify. This will make it creamy and consistent. To emulsify it, I had the blender with all of the ingredients on low while I slowly, slowly, slowly poured in the olive oil. It took several minutes with my hand holding up the measuring cup and keeping the stream of oil at its skinniest, but the dressing turned out beautifully. 


What I did differently:

• Left out the marjoram (what's majoram?) and celery salt. 
• Also, I didn't have white wine vinegar. I'm cheap. I have regular white vinegar. I have no idea whether this would earn me a noob badge in the cooking world, but I used 1/2 cup of white vinegar and 1/4 cup of white cooking wine instead. 
• I paired this with Grated Romano Cheese

What I wish I had done:

• halved the recipe. I ended up with a much drier-looking bottle of olive oil (ouch- didn't think that through. Thanks, careless youthfulness.) and I gained about three jar's worth of dressing. Andrew and I don't eat much, so I'll probably be passing some of it up to my upstair's neighbor who supplements me with delicious homemade win on occasion. 

Primal Zucchini Bread

Spring break is finally here! I can craft dinners with a lot more time :) 

First order of business: Zucchini bread. I had never had this before, so I figured the best time to try it out would be with completely primal ingredients. I'm not sure how this stacks up to regular wheat-version zucchini bread, but the commenters on the site say it's better:

Primal Zucchini Bread

http://theprimalhome.blogspot.com/2011/09/grain-free-zucchini-bread.html

What I did differently:

• butter instead of coconut oil (can't afford it atm, but still pass it in Acme with a longing gaze)
• added about 1/3 cup of chopped pecans and walnuts
• had my timer set for 40 minutes, but it took at least ten more than that. 

What I wish I had done: 

• added a lot more pecans and walnuts

This was still pretty mushy (no less delicious, though) until I had it in the fridge for a few hours. Now it's a perfectly soft loaf of zucchini bread. I'm guessing this is going to be one of the new staples of my fridge with it's being so healthy for a bread-y treat :)  

Primal Chocolate Coconut Cake

A couple Saturdays ago, our buddy Josh had his 23rd birthday. I compulsively make birthday cakes for people, but this was the first actual cake I've made for someone since my evolution to Primal. So after hours of sifting through recipes and comments and negotiating search terms with Google, I found this:

Primal Chocolate Cake with Coconut Flour

http://www.elanaspantry.com/chocolate-cake-coconut-flour-continued/ 

What I did differently: 

• A total cup of combination coconut oil and butter instead of the grapeseed oil
• 1.5 cups total of maple syrup and agave nectar

What I wish I had done: 

• used coconut sugar or sucanat. It needed a lighter sweetness than the maple and agave. 

For the frosting, I used:

• heavy whipping cream, whipped
• maple syrup

Then I stuck a bunch of Reese's Pieces on top, because we like to party.

This was gone pretty quickly and it's much healthier in comparison to what I had been making every year prior. I'll definitely be using this recipe many more times.

Primal Coconut Flour Biscuits

This is the recipe I fall back on the most. I think it's the only one that may be permanently committed to my memory. I always have a tupperware full of these, as they're the perfect replacement for bread. 


It's listed as optional, but I highly recommend using sweetener. I've tried honey, coconut sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup, and sucanat, and I haven't been disappointed yet. Buckwheat honey makes for the earthiest, most bread-resembling biscuit. 

Primal Coconut Flour Biscuits

http://wellnessmama.com/2233/coconut-flour-biscuits/ 

This recipe is pretty versatile. The other day, I decided to throw in some random stuff and make uberbiscuit-flavorlords.


(Please forgive the lack of creative names)


Cinnanut- Cinnamon, coconut sugar, maple syrup, and marginalized pecans. They were decent, but I was stingy with the sweetener, so they weren't too exciting on their own. To solve: I added a frosting made with whipped heavy cream, maple sugar, and cinnamon. At least, I would have made it with whipped heavy cream, but I didn't have any and I did have Cool Whip. Please don't judge me.


Almochococonut- Just what you'd imagine: almond butter, cocoa powder, agave nectar, dark chocolate chips, almond butter, and whatever else looks tasty. Your cooking time will be altered slightly depending on your ratio of almond butter/coconut flour/cocoa powder.


Parmegarliconut- Garlic powder, Parmesan, and Italian seasoning. I'm still building my spice 
and seasoning skills, but these turned out to be pretty decent. Their descendants will work well toasted and buttered next to some spaghetti squash.