Paleo Cuban Salad with Avocado Vinaigrette

I love it when a Paleo plan comes together. Last week, before we moved to Virginia Beach, we took a day trip to Roanoke to wrap up some last minute errands, and we stopped to have lunch at a Cuban restaurant downtown. We've been there before, and we usually order the crispy pork with Mojo sauce, green and sweet plantains, and the house Cuban salad with avocado vinaigrette. Before the Paleo Police come arrest me, let me say that we know that this meal is not completely Paleo. There is probably sugar in the Mojo sauce, the pork is not pastured, and the plantains are probably fried in canola oil. When we are eating out, we make the best choices we can while still enjoying ourselves and living in the moment. So #saveithaters. We have never claimed, nor will we ever claim to be Paleo perfectionists. At least we didn't order the black beans and rice. I used to love those! Oh well...

One reason I think it is ok to eat out on occasion is because you can draw inspiration from the meals you experience, and take the ideas home and turn them into completely Paleo meals that can be enjoyed guilt-free on a regular basis. I knew that I could easily recreate the crispy pork using the Citrus Carnitas recipe from the Well Fed Paleo cookbook, and also that I could use the Cuban Spiced Plantain from Beyond Bacon (which, by the way, is available now on Amazon and in stores!!). I was so excited to be able to make the carnitas with Polyface Pastured Pork! I can't believe that I have access to a store that is the exclusive retail establishment that sells their meat 6 days a week, 10 minutes from my new home.#blessed So all I had left to do was assemble a salad similar to the one I had and create my own recipe for an Avocado Vinaigrette. The salad we were served was plated in a deconstructed style, like a Cuban version of a Cobb Salad, and I encourage you to serve it this way, so that your guests can enjoy the beautiful presentation and also choose what ingredients they would like to have on their plate. Although I don't get it, not everyone likes onions or avocados, and plating it this way allows them the flexibility to get what they like without seeming rude for picking things out of a mixed salad. I also highly suggest you prepare these three dishes together, because they make a fantastic Paleo Cuban Feast!

Citrus Carnitas from Well Fed Cookbook

Cuban Spiced Plantains from Beyond Bacon Cookbook

Avocado Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

Flesh of 1 ripe hass avocado
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
Juice from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lime
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
1/3 cup of purified water
1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Blend all ingredients in a mini-food processor or blender. If the dressing is too thick, you can add a bit more water. Make sure to taste to check for seasonings and adjust to your preference.


Deconstructed Cuban Salad

Ingredients:

1/2 a bag of organic Arugula ( I bought mine at Trader Joe's)
1 small organic heirloom yellow tomato, sliced
1 small organic heirloom red tomato, sliced
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup of sliced green olives
1/2 a sliced avocado
1/2 a diced mango

Directions:
 1. Lay a bed of arugula on your serving platter.
2. Arrange your ingredients in sections, like you would a cobb salad. Make sure to fan the avocado, and also to layer the tomatoes alternating colors for the best visual effect. We eat with our eyes first, after all!
3. Season the salad with fresh ground pepper and sea salt.
4. Serve with Avocado Vinaigrette 
 
I loved the weird, but completely wonderful combination of the fatty avocado, sweet mango, briny green olives, sharp red onions and savory tomatoes with the creamy and tart vinaigrette. I probably wouldn't have come up with that combination on my own (mangoes and green olives - what?!?!) , but that doesn't mean I can't improve upon the idea with superior, high quality ingredients that I trust. I encourage you to not be so much of a Paleo perfectionist that you avoid restaurants completely. You might miss out on some great ideas that you can "paleo-ize" and incorporate into your regular routine. Date night out is also good for the soul on occasion -- just try to keep it to way less than the average, and you will enjoy it all the more. :)

Also, I highly suggest both books mentioned in this post, and they are recommended in my "What the heck is Paleo anyway?" post. Well Fed is from the talented Melissa Joulwan from the blog "The Clothes Make the Girl," and Beyond Bacon in from Matt and Stacy from the awesome site, Paleo Parents. Melissa has another cookbook coming out, Well Fed 2, and I can't wait! It's available for pre-order now on Amazon. These two bloggers have extensive, free recipe indexes on their websites, so go check them out!

I hope you guys enjoy your Paleo Cuban Feast!

We are MOVING!

    So I have been quiet for at least a week, maybe longer. There is a really good reason for that: we are moving to Virginia Beach! We officially only have only 4 more sleeps in Danville. I cannot tell you how excited I am! Ok, well maybe I can, and I'm going to try to tell you all the reasons I am excited.

     Last week we ventured to our new town to explore and apartment hunt. We looked at A TON of apartments. We looked at some in Chesapeake first, and then at my urging we looked in the Virginia Beach area. Why did I want to live in Virginia Beach? Weeeellll.... the Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are in Virginia Beach. The BEACH is in Virginia Beach. AND there is a farmer's market in VB that is open 6 days a week. At the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market, there is a grocer called Virginia Garden Organic Grocery and they are speaking my language. They carry only locally sourced organic produce and pastured/grassfed protein, INCLUDING protein from Polyface Farms. Jackpot. The grocery store website even says that they have lists of the ingredients used in the feed of the proteins they offer that we can read before we buy anything. How awesome! There are also a number of other farmer's markets throughout Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Chesapeake, so if I wanted, I could hop from market to market all day long on Saturdays to my heart's content. I AM SO DARN EXCITED!

      We don't normally eat a lot of meals out, but since we were traveling we did eat out a fair amount, and the Tidewater area doesn't disappoint. Two restaurants we liked so much that we went back twice to each one.

      One night we ventured down to a neighborhood called Ghent in the downtown Norfolk area. And then we went back again the very next night. The restaurant was a VERY cool "gastropub" called The Public House. They had me at DUCK FAT FRIES. (Yes, some paleo peeps eat white potatoes on occasion. #saveithaters) They also featured many items on their menu containing locally sourced ingredients, and they also had several items on their menu that featured Duroc humanely raised, hormone and antibiotic free pork. Yes, it's technically not pastured, but it is a good step up! In particular we had the Pork Belly Confit with butternut squash puree and sauteed broccoli. Delicious. It was supposed to come with a buttermilk biscuit, but we just asked them to leave it off, and they had no problem obliging. Of course when you eat out and you are paleo, you KNOW that nothing is guaranteed to be perfect, but it is nice to have good options! They also had awesome looking salads and burgers ( that we could order bunless). We will definitely go back.

    The second place that we went back to twice was a breakfast spot called the Egg Bistro in Chesapeake. It was a great breakfast place with lots of mostly-paleo-friendly items. A particular highlight was a side dish of grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon and topped with hollandaise. Again, I'm not saying this place was all organic with pastured eggs or anything, but they had better offerings than a chain that will go un-named that puts freaking pancake batter in their omelets. Feel what I'm touching? The place was super busy on the weekday mornings that we went, and rumored to be packed with a line out the door on weekends. We will definitely take our mom's when they come to visit!

     I also noticed that Virginia Beach is VERY gluten-free friendly. Many restaurants pride themselves on sourcing their ingredients locally and organically. We also tried a Mediterranean restaurant in Virginia Beach that had a LARGE gluten free menu and also boasted using organic olive oil for cooking. We ordered paleo (well, we did eat a bit of white rice, but that is the ONE grain that we will eat on occasion because it is less irritating than most), but the waitress did bring out some complementary jalapeno hummus for us to try. It was served with cucumbers rather than pita (probably because she noticed that we were ordering off the gluten free section) and I was a dummy and ate some because it was free, and she asked if everything was ok when she noticed we weren't eating it. That was a poor choice on my part. Ian however didn't touch it, and looked down his nose at me for eating it. You know how sometimes you say to yourself, "Hey, it's gluten free! How bad could it be?" Well, I learned my lesson. My tummy hurt later. Hello Katy, chickpeas are NOT paleo for a good reason. Lesson learned. I will go back and try it out again, while refraining from those damn chickpeas to see if I do better (which I suspect I will) and then I will review the restaurant more fully because I think it is a great paleo option... if you remember that you don't eat legumes for a reason. Again, lesson learned and a good reminder of what doesn't work for me.

     I am also currently researching Crossfit boxes in the area. I need to bite the bullet and just start. I'm not going to lie, I'm scared, but I NEED to be working out, and I agree with what Crossfit is doing for people. Most people start with Crossfit and then become paleo. Well, I'm doing it backwards, but I need to do something to start getting leaner. The wedding is a little over 6 months away, and I need to fit into the dress that I bought, and look fabulous for all those pictures. My arms need work. I hate having pictures made, and I need to develop some more confidence in that area. Hopefully doing crazy WODs will help with that, and as a bonus, I might make some paleo friends!

     Lastly, I took a peak on Paleo Physician's Network and found an ACTUAL MD that is within a reasonable driving distance. I'm excited about that possibility as well.

    I can't wait to get settled into our new digs, twenty minutes from the ocean, and I can't wait to explore more of the city. I also can't wait to get back to developing new recipes for you guys, learning more about photography and food styling, and blogging on a regular basis, but for now, I gotta finish packing and then unpacking. Have a great week and I'll see you back here on the other side!

Paleo Eats Out in Atlanta

Most of the time I am really commited to eating my meals at home so that I am in charge of the ingredients, but sometimes this cavegirl needs a break. I am here to tell you that it isn't that hard to eat a mostly paleo meal out, as long as you put your brain to it. So in this post, I'll share some of my recent eats out in Atlanta and a few tips and tricks I use when eating out.

First of all, I always try to research the menu before I venture out. If you can look at the menu ahead of time, you can decide what you are going to have before you set foot in the door. It helps me to have a paleo plan ready so that I am not tempted by all of the grain and sugar filled distractions on the menu. I use the Urbanspoon App on my phone quite often to find restaurants, and a Google search is always the all-knowing fallback. I have even typed in "paleo eats in (insert city)" and wound up with great results.

Mot recently that same Google search led me to Farmburger in Atlanta. I grew up in Atlanta and I also went to culinary school there, but I have since moved away, and I always enjoy a trip back. Farmburger is a new restaurant with a location in Decatur and in Buckhead that offers grassfed beef and local produce. It is a casual place where you place you order at a counter, and you can customize your burger with any number of gourmet toppings. In particular, a few toppings popped out at me: fried local eggs, porkbelly and ROASTED BONE MARROW. Can you say paleo heaven?

Both me and my man opted to build our perfect paleo burger on top of a salad made with local greens, squash, radishes and onions and tossed in the mustard seed vinaigrette. We topped our delicous grassfed beef patties with a fried local egg, porkbelly and tomato, and we also added a roasted bone marrow to our plate. YUM! We will be back! What a great date for this cave-couple!

The next morning we decided to go for a late breakfast at The Flying Biscuit. I love this place despite the fact that their claim to fame is a grain-filled "gutbuster" because they have awesome scrambles. My man ordered the special scramble of the day which had chicken, peppers, onions and spinach with fruit on the side and an order of turkey bacon. I opted for the veggie scramble with mushrooms, peppers, onions and spinach with fruit on the side with an order of chicken sausage. When the food arrived, we ignored all onlookers and split everything down the middle, enjoying the best of both worlds. As a sidenote, our server was great and paid attention to our special orders and did not bring us the complimentary biscuits as we requested. Both me and my man work in the restaurant industry and we appreciated his excellent tableside manner and attentiveness.... wish I could remember his name to give him a shout-out.

I am traveling across the country next week to Portand, so make sure to check back for some more paleo eats out! I am so excited to share with you the restaurants I have researched!