Kale Salad
Ingredients:
One bunch kale
1/4 red onion thinly sliced
1/2 red, yellow or orange pepper, thinly slices
1/4 avocado oil or your favorite salad oil
1 T. coconut vinegar or apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. **coconut aminos or soy sauce
1/4 tsp. toasted sesame seed oil
1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, more if you like it spicier
toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions:
1. Prepare kale by cutting tough midrib from the leaves. Stack the leaves and cut into 1/2 inch ribbons. Wash.
2. Blanch the kale. To do this set aside a large bowl of ice and water. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once the water boils, and working in 3 small batches, place the first batch into the boiling water for 30 seconds, remove to iced water using a slotted spoon or spider. Repeat with the last two batches. Drain the beautifully, bright green and blanched kale, and spin dry in your salad spinner or over tea towels.
3. Whisk together oil, vinegar, coconut aminos or soy sauce, sesame oil, and pepper flakes.
4. Toss kale, onions, peppers and dressing in a large bowl until well coated. Place in 4 half pint mason jars for lunches on the go, or in a bowl and let marinate for at least one hour in the refrigerator for a nice meal at home. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds. Serves 4.

**Coconut Aminos is a soy-free flavoring sauce that takes the place of soy sauce in the paleo diet.  It can be found in your health food store or at Whole Foods. Load up when they go on sale. It is a fizzy sauce, so it must be kept upright while travelling home from the grocery store- it likes to leak.

The Mason Jars have helped the kids understand portion control. Hey if I don’t teach them at home, where will they learn it?  I tried a new “Oreo Cookie” substitute for  this recipe called “Back to Nature” which tastes nice but contain Safflower Oil, one I avoid.  Drats. Anyone know of a good Oreo substitute or have a good recipe for home baked ones?

Cookies and Cream Popcorn- adapted from Whirley Pop
Ingredients:
10 cookies and cream cookies, crushed fine
3 T. cocoa- I used Penzeys Dutch processed Cocoa
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1/3 cup organic popcorn kernels
1/4 cup oil- I used organic ghee, or you can use coconut oil (I can’t)
1/4 cup sugar- I have yet to try a sub for this
5 more cookies and cream cookies, broken

Instructions:
You will need a Whirley Pop Popcorn Maker for this recipe. (If not, simply make 2 bags of microwave Kettle Corn Popcorn and while hot, toss with cocoa, salt, and crushed cookies. Once mixed top with broken cookies.)

In a very large bowl mix broken cookies, cocoa, and salt.  Set aside. To your Whirley Popper, add popcorn, Ghee or oil, and sugar. Over medium high heat, with the lid closed- duh, and turning continually, cook popcorn until the kernels begin to pop, stir a bit faster and continue until the popping subsides. Remove from heat immediately, it likes to burn, and toss with the cocoa mixture. Once mixed well top with broken cookies.  Makes about 12 cups or 12 servings.

More Popcorn!
Captain Jack’s Movie Night Popcorn- Cinnamon!
Rainforest, Pepperoni Pizza, Chocolate Malt, and Sweet Chili Popcorn

I would love  suggestions for home baked Cookies and Cream cookies or a health food store brand- gluten-free perhaps. Thanks!

Last Saturday night Zuzu’s game was a late one, so we turned it into a nice dinner out by packing a special picnic in the decorative tiffin Himself had gotten me while deployed in Haiti many years ago. We ate like kings and queens on the bleachers with people asking us where we got our lovely food. “Big Red Kitchen,” Himself told them proudly, while I meekly said, “me, I made it all.” They asked if I cooked like that all the time? “Not during baseball season!” I replied. But that night was special. I had packed Shrimp Cocktail, Kale Salad, Guacamole (from an excellent little organic market by my house) and chips, and Cookies & Cream Popcorn. I also made some Cucumber Sparkling Water Coolers (slices of cucumber in sparkling water in 12 ounce Mason Jars) and wrapped them up in cloth napkins with a fork to prevent breakage and condensation from soaking the paper plates that they nestled against in the bag, plus to make them look attractive. We thought our picnic was pretty swanky, but nothing beat seeing Zuzu make his first RBI of the season, and watch his team take the best team in the league into extra innings with an incredible tie. Yup, another tie-breaker game added to our already full schedule. This may call for another tiffin picnic. Or vodka.

Tip #1 Options over Obstacles

**Sign up for my RSS feeds by clicking on the “follow” button on the top right of my site, because you don’t want to miss the recipes for the Kale Salad and Cookies & Cream Popcorn coming later this week. No you don’t.

We will still host “Cranky Pasta Nights” for Himself’s company’s Summer Associates, I have promised my vegan friend I would teach her how to crank out homemade pasta (sans eggs), and I still love the idea of hanging pasta from hangers all over my kitchen to dry. Those events are few and far between, so for the day to day interludes with pasta, I will enjoy adding  Onion “Pasta” Noodles to my repertoire of pasta impostors. The sweet vidalia, cut in thin slices, rings separated, drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper creates a sweet, savory, nutty, and surprisingly flavorful substitute for pasta under the mass of my Bolognese Sauce.

Roasted Onion “Pasta” Noodles
Ingredients:
4 large vidalia onions
olive oil
Kosher or finely ground sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

One Recipe Bolognese Sauce- If you are strict Paleo, leave out the Parmesan Cheese

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut root and stem end from the onions, peel, and slice into 1/4 inch slices. Separate rings and place in a large roasting pan. You may have to use 2 pans.  Drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes or until onions become tender and begin to brown, some pieces may even toast up a bit- yum! You may want to give them a stir halfway through roasting. Plate and top with Bolognese Sauce, or another sauce or stew of choice. Serves 4.

Note: I case you were wondering, I did not experience any re-belch-a-burp-atation with the onion pasta. But a breath mint is suggested.

Need more Paleo Recipes- Click Here

Dear Biz, I know you are gagging right now! Hee hee.

I am currently enjoying “Under the Tuscan Sun,” the novel, not the movie, and am completely enamored with Frances Mayes’ description of the beauty that surrounds her home of Bramasole in Tuscany.  The thought of being able to walk out onto my land and harvest figs, olives, apricots, herbs, and berries seems all so magical to me. I want magic in my life too. Bramasole, to yearn for the sun. I yearn for the sun, I yearn for that Holiday feeling in my every day life, I yearn for simplicity, I yearn for touches of beauty. What do you yearn?   But what I yearn is already here right before my eyes, it has been going on for a while now. For almost a year I have been creating Mason Jar Meals for my family, these meals are magical.

They come down to two things: Simplicity and Design.  Jars of pre-roasted onions and peppers, chicken, and steak becomes a flash-in-the-pan Fajita Fiesta on a busy week night when I barely have time to breathe, let alone cook.  Jars of homemade Marinara Sauce become useful for a fast pizza night or pasta night.   Some of my meals are baked up right in the jar. I enjoy the Simplicity these little jarred meals have added to my life.   I must say that these  glassy little meals are also aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I mean, we do eat first with our eyes. Right?  Design. The layered salads,  Peanut Butter Pies, and Mini Quesadillas are just a few ways I have sent my family out the door with  beautifully designed meals to bless their soul as well as fill their bellies. 

For today’s Mason Jar “Small Plates” type meal, layer in a quart-sized Mason Jar- Roasted Grapes (inspired from Plums in the Ice Box via Chowstalker) and Red Pearl Onions first; then Roasted Shrimp; topped by a layer of Hard-Cooked Eggs; and here is the icing on the cake, a cupcake paper liner filled with Raw Almonds with a large strawberry and a nice teeny tiny piece of dark chocolate, Divine Chocolate to be exact. Add a cloth napkin, a small cedar plank for a reusable plate, a jar of Cucumber Mint Sparking Water, and ta-da, you have added nourishing beauty to your day. “Small Plates” is my most favorite way to eat. Little bits of this and that, all so healthy and flavorful.   

I like to think of myself as an artist. My medium? The Mason Jar.

Roasted Grapes, Red Pearl Onions, Shrimp, and Eggs
Ingredients:
few clusters of green seedless grapes
one heaping cup red pearl onions- root ends cut off
2 raw eggs
4 extra large shrimp
olive oil
finely ground sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a strainer place grapes, onions, eggs, and shrimp, and give them a nice rinse, draining well. In a small baking dish, I used and 11×7 inch glass dish, place the rinsed items being sure to place the eggs in foil or silicon cupcake cups liners. Drizzle all but the eggs with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper. Bake for 25 minutes but removing the shrimp after 6-12 minutes- if you are using fresh shrimp check it at the 6 minute mark, it will be done when pink and curling into a “c” shape. Mine were frozen so was perfectly done at 12 minutes. Finish baking the rest of the items so that they have been in the oven for a total of 25 minutes. I had only cooked mine for 20 minutes total and the egg could have used 5 more minutes. Remove from oven and place eggs in an ice bath to stop cooking. Once cooled, peel the eggs and cut in half lengthwise.  Makes enough for 2 snack jars on the go. Don’t forget the strawberry, almonds and chocolate!

Note on Storing:  Place each food on a paper or foil (foil may be best in this case due to the olive oil) cupcake liner and layer in a jar for immediate travel. Or place each in their own jars and layer just before leaving the house- we wouldn’t want flavors to mix by storing them already layered in the jar. I store my jars of food up to 3 days, if I am at the three day mark, and if the food is freezable, it goes in the freezer.  I believe the grapes, onions, would freeze fine. The shrimp would get fishy, and the eggs would be terrible.

Note: To eat the pearl onions, pinch the stem end, bite down on the onion, root end in your mouth, and the onion will pop right out, into your mouth. Pish posh, who needs peeling- it’s finger food!

Cucumber Mint Sparkling Water Coolers
Ingredients:
Sparkling water
crushed ice
fresh mint sprigs
4 slices a cucumber

Instructions:
Using 2 (12 ounce) tall mason jars, place a sprig of mint and 2 slices of cucumber in each jar. Fill completely with crushed ice and then fill to the very top with sparkling water. Lid and carry with you for a refreshing beverage on the go. Makes 2 jars.

Related Post: The Beauty of a Lunch Box

Masonated Yet? Start Here

Another way BRK is Keepin’ it Glassy