Spicy Slow Cooked Beef Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Avocado-Cilantro Cream

I really love being able to toss ingredients into my slow cooker in the morning in order to have a meal ready to go later in the day, don't you? There's just so much less stress, and I feel so organized, with a clean kitchen going into dinnertime! This recipe for tomato-free, paleo slow cooked beef can be used in a multitude of ways. If you don't want to stuff it into baked sweet potatoes then you could use it as a taco filling for corn tortillas, Brown Rice Flour Tortillas, or simply served with sautéed kale and cabbage! If you or some of your family members eat dairy you could put the beef into the sweet potatoes and then top with shredded raw cheese and place in your oven under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese (some of my children like this)!

I first made this with some of my lacto-fermented hot sauce (yes, I cooked my precious sauce)! After that I wanted to recreate it using some of the same ingredients from my sauce that everyone could find and use. This recipe contains bell peppers and hot peppers, but no tomatoes, and it's not too spicy (my children eat this). If you are following our Elimination Diet and have tested out ok for peppers and beef then you can enjoy this during the rest of Phase 3. In fact, you could even use this recipe for testing beef in Phase 3! I hope you enjoy it!

Chicken Fajita Salad with Spicy Avocado Dressing

When summer's produce is in abundance we like to create meals that revolve around it, like this one. If you are vegan or vegetarian you can substitute cooked blacked beans or sautéed tempeh for the chicken. I think you'll find the Spicy Avocado Dressing rather addicting! Tom and I like to make a batch of this dressing with the whole jalapeño—seeds and all, but for the children we make it without the seeds.

Did you know that eating a small avocado with a meal containing carotenoids (found in the tomatoes, peppers, and salad greens) helps to absorb these beneficial compounds? Carotenoids, like beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, gamma-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-cryptoxanthin all need to be consumed with fat to optimize absorption in the intestines. One also needs to have a functioning small intestine for this to occur (gluten, antibiotics, yeast overgrowth, and environmental toxins can damage the gut and impede absorption of fats and fat-soluble nutrients). Once in the body these carotenoids act as powerful antioxidants mopping up free radicals. Some of these carotenoids can also be converted into vitamin A (all-trans-retinol). We need vitamin A to assist with gene transcription, proper development of an embryo, various reproductive processes, night and color vision, skin health (acne), cellular communication, and proper immune function. Vitamin A is found in liver, meat, and dairy products. In order to convert carotenoids from plants into vitamin A we need to have adequate zinc and proper thyroid function as the T3 thyroid hormone helps in the conversion process. When pregnant and lactating the need for preformed vitamin A increases quite a bit so be sure to consume enough carotenoids from plants and vitamin A from animal sources, or if you are vegan, be sure to consume enough iodine, zinc, and selenium-rich foods for proper thyroid function so you can properly convert carotenoids from plants into Vitamin A.

Raw Kale Avocado Salad

The Farmer's Market was bursting with luscious dark leafy greens on Saturday. I couldn't help but buy at least one bunch of every variety of kale! I made this raw kale salad tonight and my children devoured it. They are accustomed to eating many different types of greens, but for a child who isn't, below are a few tips.

Tips for adding more variety, vegetables, and greens to your child's diet:

• Make sure your children are hungry and have not been snacking all afternoon or evening; hungry children are more likely to try and eat new foods.
• Serve the new vegetable or salad first. This is especially true for a young child between 2 and 4 years of age.
• Sit down as a family and talk about everything but the meal. Focusing on the food can lead to food battles. 
• Suggest a "try-it-bite" for a child who seems really uncomfortable about trying something new. They may spit it out and that is okay. Sometimes it can take 10 "try-it-bites" over a series of weeks for a child to accept a new food. 
• Start early! As soon as you have introduced citrus to your toddler's diet offer them a plate of this salad. A one year old won't digest much of it but will gain so much in the way of programming his or her taste buds to accept these types of foods. We put salad greens on our twin's plates by the time they were twelve months old and now they beg for salads at three years old! 
• Young children learn how to eat and what to eat by watching the adults and caregivers around them. This starts from infancy on. 

My new cookbook as a large chapter devoted to raising healthy eaters, beginning from conception on. These are just a few of the tips on mealtimes with children. I know many of you keep asking when the new book will be available for pre-order. I expected that it would have been ready by now but it is not. I don't have the long focused hours now like I had with my first cookbook. Being pregnant and having four children makes it a little more challenging. It will be done when it is done, that is all I can say. It is close, the recipes are done, but I am still finishing up the content in the beginning. I am confident that you will love it though!

Avocado Fudgesicles

Well, it finally feels like summer here today in the Pacific Northwest. We actually turned the heat on a few days ago because it was so chilly and rainy here! School is out, the sun is out and it is time for frozen treats....popsicles and fudgesicles!

I really like to make my own blended fruit popsicles for the kids. Homemade popsicles can be made in a snap using fresh or frozen fruit, nut milks, water, or coconut milk. Plus, by using reusable popsicle molds, we cut down on unnecessary packaging and waste. Check your local co-op or just about any store at this time of year for popsicle molds. If you don't want to use plastic, then check out these stainless steel popsicle molds!

Bean and Rice Breakfast Bowls

I have had numerous requests for more breakfast ideas that don't involve eggs or soy, and of course without gluten or dairy. Here is a tremendously simple idea for you to take into your kitchen.

Beans and rice. With a Spicy Avocado Sauce recipe.

The idea isn't a new one. Cultures all over the world consume these two staple foods for most meals of the day.

Here in the United States these foods go almost unknown in most households. So now, I invite you to try them out for breakfast. Notice how you feel for the remainder of the day. For Tom and I, we feel energized and satisfied. I am not really all that hungry during for the remainder of the day when I start out with this meal.

Why are beans and rice so beneficial for breakfast?

In Tom's words: Breakfast is a very important meal. The literal meaning of the word is to break-the-fast of your evening rest. Part of what wakes you up in the morning is the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is increased in a state of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. The brain needs sugar to function, the body knows this. Whole grains and beans have the necessary carbohydrates to fuel the brain and calm the cortisol. Because of their high fiber, amino acid, B vitamin, and magnesium content, they supply the necessary carbohydrates in a time-released fashion. This sets up a pattern of a steady blood sugar-to-insulin response for the entire day.

As long as you have your rice and beans pre-cooked, throwing together this meal is a snap! I like to use Sticky Brown Rice that I have made the night before. You can find the recipe here. Any kind of beans can be used. Yesterday Tom cooked a large pot of pink beans which are similar in flavor and texture to pinto beans. Black beans would be good too.

A basic lesson on cooking beans:

1. Buy your beans in bulk from a co-op or health food store. If you let your beans sit for too long in your cupboard or pantry they will have a difficult time cooking and may never cook thoroughly. Tom and I did this once with some black beans we had in the cupboard for too long. I had soaked them overnight and then cooked them the next day but after 2 1/2 hours they still were not cooked, just slightly crunchy in the center. So I composted them and threw the rest of the bag into the garden. Pretty soon we had black bean plants popping up everywhere! That Autumn we enjoyed our first crop of fresh black beans! Lily was 2 years old at the time and had so much fun shelling the beans!
2. Sort though the beans and pick out any rocks or shriveled, discolored beans. Place them into a bowl, rinse them and fill the bowl with water. Let them soak for at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours. If you wish to sprout your beans before cooking then drain off the water (after soaking for 8-24 hours) and cover with a damp cloth, rinse and drain every few hours until you see a very tiny sprout form on the beans. Then they are ready to cook.

3. Drain off the soaking water and rinse well.

4. Place the beans into a large pot and fill with fresh water. Add a 3-inch strip of kombu seaweed. This will help to break down some of the indigestible sugars to make eating beans more enjoyable.

5. Simmer until the beans are cooked through (timing will depend on what variety of bean you are cooking, see the bean cooking chart in my book, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook). You can take a few beans out of the pot every once in a while and taste them, if they are soft and mash easily then they are done.

6. Once the beans have cooled a bit, I place them into containers for freezing. Make sure you pour some of that bean cooking liquid over the beans before freezing. They seem to freeze better if suspended in liquid. Store the remainder of your beans in glass containers in the fridge.

Salmon Salad Sandwich with Avocado Mayonnaise (egg-free)

Living in the Pacific Northwest we are blessed with a bounty of fresh, wild salmon, some of which comes from the pacific coast and some from Alaska. My cooking creativity is sparked just by looking at the plump and glossy, pink-hued fillets. You'll find recipes such as Spiced Citrus Salmon, Basil Balsamic Salmon, and Salmon with Lemon, Garlic, and Thyme in my cookbook, just to name a few.

But what does one do with leftover salmon? I find many ways, but with my strange need to always create something new I thought of doing a spin on the old tuna salad sandwich. But what about the mayo? I have never been much of a fan so when a friend told me she made mayonnaise with avocados I thought the combination would be quite delicious. Salmon Salad Sandwiches using homemade avocado mayonnaise....what a nutritious combination!