Grilled Thai Beef Skewers

Grilled Thai Beef Skewers from Nourish cookbook (by Rachael Bryant), p 49.

I made these in the oven and they were great. We didn't have any leftovers though, so it needs to be paired with a side dish. The thai curry recipe took a little bit of time to make, but I made a double recipe and can freeze it for later use.

Autoimmune Protocol + meal plan critique

This is not going to be a normal post. It is all about food though, so I will post it here and not on my other blog. The last 4 weeks I have followed the autoimmune protocol. To make it easier to start, I bought a meal plan that I followed exactly for most of the time. It was called 28 Days of AIP.

This was immensely helpful. It was totally worth buying. However, there were some issues with it (and spelling errors). It is designed to feed 2 people, so recipes usually have 4 servings. She builds her recipes around 1/4 lb of protein per person. That's a fine amount, but there were times when she oversimplified. For example, 1/4 lb of chicken wings is not enough for a serving. That is only a single wing. That was the very first dinner I made, and thankfully I realized I needed to buy more so we weren't all hungry. Also--she often says to buy 1 lb of sardines (pantry list), but she really means 4 tins of sardines in olive oil that are 3.75 oz each. Stuff like that.
There were no instructions for batch cooking. There were some weeks where you made chicken like 3 or 4 times, but it did not give a heads up that you could make it all at once. I tried to study the meal plans and look at all the recipes before shopping, but I still had issues.
Also, many of her salad recipes call for 2-3 times the amount of dressing you need. I foolishly mixed up everything to realize I had a salad with a cup of dressing left afterward. So keep that in mind with her salad recipes. Some of the salads also call for a random meat to make it a complete meal, but those random meats are not on the shopping lists. Also in week one there should have been 2 more cups of broth on the shop list.

There were a few meals that were pretty terrible, which is so discouraging when its all there is to eat.
This is my terrible list:
green smoothie (it is fine without the avocado, and with loosely packed greens. I put in 2 cups packed and it was horrid)
Nomato sauce (this may have been worse because I used vidalia onions instead of yellow, so was over sweet)
Root Vegetable Stew
Thai Whitefish Curry

Weird:
Sweet Potato, Artichoke, and Bacon soup

Did not make:
Pineapple Chili
Savory Plaintain Soup
--these were toward the end of the meal plan when I stopped making things that looked sweet or strange. There were times when I went hungry because I didn't want to eat the food, so I became more cautious.

Fantastic (or good):
Spiced Chicken Wings
Ranch Dip
Sausage and Apple stir-fry
Hawaiian Burgers
Spiced Sweet Potato Fries
Chicken Waldorf Salad
Strawberry-basil salad
Thai coconut soup (w/chicken added)
Veggie Delight Salad (w/o pickles though)
Spicy Coconut Whitefish
Five-Veggie Stir-fry
Moroccan Stew (more good than fantastic. i added pureed cauliflower to this too).
Apple Avocado Salad (Dressing is great too--but makes way too much)

The rest of the food was fine and does not stick out in my memory. I was not able to make every side dish, but I did make most of them. These recipes are all on the Clean Plate website. http://www.acleanplate.com/

Also, a word on her liverwurst and Kidney Stew recipes--I really can't stand organ meat. I made the food, and I ate it with my nose plugged. I really can't judge how good they were since I am not an organ meat fan. I think the stew would have been great if it had been regular stew meat. I liked the celeriac and collard greens in it.

I will stay on AIP, but make my own meal plans now, since I realize how valuable they are. I purchased Nourish, which I am thrilled about, and will use that as the base for meal plans.

Paleo Stroganoff

Paleo Stroganoff from Frugal paleo cookbook. https://books.google.com/books?id=DfyyAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT20&lpg=PT20&dq=stroganoff+%22frugal+paleo%22&source=bl&ots=VJ14agZg7K&sig=CTO4E4d0YCSxrawFFLZAJ7hRN4c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cjqQVab8EITYoATVn4XwDQ&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=stroganoff%20%22frugal%20paleo%22&f=false

I really enjoyed this. I wish I'd written it down but I'll have to get it again from the library!

Paleo Apple Crisp [almost-AIP]

http://thecuriouscoconut.com/blog/autoimmune-paleo-apple-crisp
Paleo Apple Crisp

This turned out really good. I used 1.5 lbs of green apples. I did not have the brand of coconut butter she specifies, but I did have Lets do organic Creamed Coconut which is coconut butter-like. The recipe worked well in my 2 qt casserole dish. I wanted to eat all the leftovers but I was sooo full I couldn't believe it. I think the coconut in it makes it more filling.

Update: I found out sucanat is not strict AIP legal. So the topping would be less crunchy with maple syrup sweetener I believe, but maybe the recipe is still worth another try.

Green Plantain Pancakes -egg free [AIP]

http://thecuriouscoconut.com/blog/egg-free-green-plantain-pancakes-autoimmune-paleo
Green Plantain Pancakes

These made 8 pancakes, not quite enough for our family of four. I should do 1.5x or 2x recipe next time. I only had 3 T of gelatin instead of 4, and the pancakes seemed to work just fine. It did have the gooey middle mentioned in the recipe, but that didn't seem to bother anyone.

Chocolate Cake

https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=184&name=HERSHEY%27S-PERFECTLY-CHOCOLATE-Chocolate-Cake
Chocolate Cake

I made this and the frosting for David's birthday. I added a drained can of tart cherries too. I wasn't able to eat any of it, but everyone seemed to like it well enough.

Homemade Strawberry Yogurt II (or any fresh fruit)

http://blog.williams-sonoma.com/how-to-make-fresh-fruit-flavored-yogurt/
http://eurocuisine.net/recipes.php?recipe_id=5&fc_id=1
http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/reader-question-how-much-starter-do-you-really-need-to-make-yogurt

I used the recipe linked first as the base idea, but that recipe is similar to the second link. The third link is just a great troubleshooting site so I link it for future reference.

This recipe worked.  I measured an overflowing 1 cup of frozen strawberries and 2.5 T sugar, and cooked it down in ~1 cup water until it was thick and not much liquid. I did use a stick blender to blend the strawberry leftovers, but I'm wondering now if it would work better without the fibrous part. There is a recipe online that strains strawberries so I may try that trick sometime. I don't like to waste any fruit though so I will tinker with other stuff first.

I mixed it into the 1 quart scalded (normally to 180, but this batch I accidentally heated to 205) and cooled milk just after I added 3 T of plain yogurt starter. I also sprinkled some gelatin on the top and whipped it in. I didn't measure it, next time I will. I would do 1 tsp per pint since that worked when I made plain yogurt before.  Then pour it into glass jars and incubate. I did it for 10 hours, but David says it wasn't as tart as the TJ kind. Maybe I will try it for 12 hours next time.

This will make about 2.5 pints.

It turned out pretty well, except it is definitely grainy and has extra liquid separating from it. I think I didn't use nearly enough gelatin. The grainy part looks like the first pic in the 3rd picture set from the 3rd link at the top. Based on that picture, I may have used too much starter too. So I will experiment more and see.

But Ila liked it and ate it, and David says it is less sweet than the trader joes kind so that was my goal. It was not runny but not as thick as I wanted so more gelatin is needed.

Update: I made this again with 2 teaspoons of gelatin soaked over 1 quart milk, prior to heating to 180. The texture of the final yogurt was perfect. I think it needs more strawberry flavor though, so next time will add 2 heaping cups instead of 1 heaping cup of frozen strawberries. ALso, I cooked it 13 hours and it a little too tart. I think I will do 10 hours next time. Also, this time I used only 1 tsp of starter --plain lowfat anderson erickson yogurt, stirred into milk mixture after it cooled. I think that was a good change too. So for next time, do this:

1 tsp starter yogurt

2 heaping cups strawberries

2.5 T sugar

1 qt whole milk

2 tsp gelatin

let go for 10 hours

9/30/15: I made the changes I recommended, but the texture turned out even more grainy. More fruit only made it more grainy. Next time I will strain out the fruit while following the same steps otherwise, and see if that works better. The fruit syrup left behind should be boiled down as small as possible.

Strawberry Yogurt

http://be-it-ever-so-humble.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-to-flavor-homemade-yogurt.html

This did NOT work. I did everything it said. My strawberries were thawed, but the water would have been present whether thawed or not.  I am really bummed. Now I have a bunch of strawberry yogurt drink that kids won't eat.

I should say, that it was fine and made plain yogurt, but it did not set up in the fridge after adding the fruit and other extras.