Modern Cave Woman: Spicy Soutzoukakia

A couple years ago I used to frequent my Greek friend's house. He would always cook fabulous soutzoukakia (meatballs, if you will). They were so yummy I had to procure the recipe! While I typically ate this dish with rice or potatoes that were cooked in the pan with the meatballs, I've ditched the carbs and starches for an acorn squash and doctored the recipe to be paleo. Find the paleo recipe below!




Spicy Soutzoukakia
Preheat oven to 380°F

* 1 lb ground beef * 1 lb ground pork * 1 egg * 2 large onions * 4 garlic cloves * 4 tsp ground cumin * 2 Tbsp fine ground black pepper * salt (I used 1 tspn) * 1/2 C almond flour * 1/4 C red wine vinegar * 3 Tbsp olive oil * 1 large can crushed tomatoes, for sauce

In a large bowl whisk your egg. Use a food processor to blend the onion and garlic cloves until completely pureed and add to the egg. Add the spices, almond flour, vinegar, and olive oil. Mix and then add the meat. Mix with your hands until thoroughly mixed. At this point you can choose to let the mix sit in the fridge for a couple hours, or, if you're starving you can go ahead to the next steps. Form the meatballs with your hands and put them into a large pyrex or large dish you can bake in. I made about 12 HUGE meatballs so that the moisture would be retained, also, I was starving. Once the meatballs are in the dish, pour the crushed tomatoes over the meatballs-- make sure they are submerged at least half way in sauce. You might need to get some more sauce. Cover the pyrex with foil and bake at 380°F for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and reduce the heat to 325°F and bake for 50 minutes. Add water if the tray becomes dry (it probably won't). Cool and enjoy!

I ate my meatballs with half an acorn squash but go ahead and get creative! If you like this recipe I urge you to check out some more food popping out of a Greek kitchen stationed in Barcelona!

Modern Cave Woman: Paleo Muffins

I actually made these on day three of my Paleo exploration. They were supposed to turn into pancakes but after a day of experimenting I decided I had no patience when it came to watching food cook in a pan on very, very low heat. I ended up "scrambling" all four pancakes into something that looked like grits. Yes, it looked disgusting, so I needed to find a better way to take the same ingredients and turn them into something presentable. Thus, the Paleo muffin was born!

Ha ha, that exclamation point was so dramatic.

Paleo Muffins

1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp cinnamon, or the more the merrier
1/4 tsp sea salt
muffin liners and pan

I used the Paleo pancake recipe found here and slightly altered it.

Preheat your oven (or toaster oven if you're super lazy like me) to 350°F. Mix all of your ingredients together in a bowl. Yeah, that was easy. Take your muffin pan liners and line your muffin pan. Carefully scoop in about 1/3 cup of batter. You can be more zealous in your scooping, but just know your batter won't really rise that much and that your muffins may require longer cooking time. Obvious. Anyway, pop those babies in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. You probably want to make sure the inside is cooked to your liking too by taking a peak. :)

I slathered on some applesauce and blueberries. Yum!

Hunting for more recipes? Look no further.

Modern Cave Woman

I will spare my reasons for another post because I do not feel ready to put them down in e-ink yet. Nevertheless, it's been an interesting past seven months, and while the journey has just begun, I am about to start a new 21 day journey into the Paleo world. Yes, that's right, I'm going to eat like a man from the Paleolithic era for 21 days. Go ahead, denounce it and call me crazy.

It's going to a a crazy and probably emotionally laced journey in which I try to resist all the things I've grown to love (maybe too much). Those things would be all common carbs, legumes, sugar, and dairy products. What does that leave me with? Lots of meat, seafood, eggs, and green things. Goodbye delicious Thai food and Dim Sum (which I have ironically set up a mass group meeting for tomorrow morning-- to torture myself), hello bacon.

Before you totally decide I'm off my rocker, let me leave you with an awesome paleo recipe for Brussels sprouts.





Brussels Sprouts & Bacon

1 lb Brussels sprouts
1/2 large onion (white is what I used)
4 strips thick cut smoked bacon
1-2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
salt & pepper

Take your sprouts and cut the large ones in half and leave the small ones in tact. Steam your sprouts lightly. Take a pan and cook your bacon in it. Once it has turned brow but is not yet crispy, remove it from the pan (do NOT discard the oil) and cut it into small pieces. Finely chop the onion and add it to the bacon oil pan. Cook on medium heat until the onions turn translucent. Add the sprouts, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. When the sprouts are warm and slightly golden add the bacon, stir, and you're done!

Yum. One thing Paleo does is let you eat tons of animal fat. It sounds counter intuitive but you'll just have to read up on it to discover why it works!