Spinalcat's Crafty Adventures

Here's a quick guide to where I find recipes. You can expect these sources to be free of grains, soy, and legumes. Some of these sources may call for dairy in some recipes. If you are on a strict challenge (hi, CFWG buddies!) or are dairy-free, you can always substitute coconut oil for ghee or butter and you can usually substitute coconut milk for cream. Skip the cheesy stuff (sad, I know). Websites- chowstalker.com http://www.chowstalker.com/ recipe aggregator with most of the popular blogs and some obscure ones (like mine !) Try one or both of the following tags if you are completely avoiding dairy- http://www.chowstalker.com/dairy-free/ http://www.chowstalker.com/whole30/ Nom Nom Paleo http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex This is the site that kind of started it all for me. She's a local Bay Area blogger, so a good place to get the scoop on restaurants and local markets too! She tends to do a lot of protein sous vide which I'm not currently interested in, bu...

Slow Cooker Chicken No-tortilla Soup about 5-6 servings This recipe is adapted from some recipes in a slow cooker cookbook I own. It leaves out the beans, corn, and tortilla chips from the typical tortilla soup and adds some other vegetables. This is incredibly easy to throw in the slow cooker before work! 3-4 chicken breast halves 2 15-oz cans Mexican stewed tomatoes or Rotel tomatoes      (I used 1 can regular stewed tomatoes and 1 can tomatoes with green chiles) 1 cup salsa (I used a tomatillo-based salsa) 1 4-oz can diced green chiles 1 15-oz can tomato sauce 1 cup green beans, cut into bite-size pieces (I used up some frozen green beans. You can add whatever vegetables you like.) Combine in slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours. Check for seasonings when done. If you do not use tomatoes with Mexican spices, add 1tbsp each chili powder dried cumin top with sliced avocado and cheese and sour cream if you do dairy. Homemade root vegetable chips wo...

Here's a tweaked version of my tangy chicken salad recipe . I started putting curry powder in my chicken salad just because I recently bought some from Penzeys , then just a day or two later I found curry sauerkraut from Farmhouse Culture (my favorite!) at the Ferry Building farmer's market! So I feel it's evolved into something that deserves its own post. Farmhouse Culture is only available in California or a couple spots in Nevada. Diane from Balanced Bites came up with this recipe for making your own fermented raw sauerkraut after she moved away from the Bay Area. For every 2 cups of cooked chicken - 4tbsp homemade mayo from the previous recipe , with or without the additional spices and lemon. I originally used an olive oil/avocado oil blend, but then I couldn't find avocado oil and used macadamia oil for half the total oil instead. Either one is great. 1/2 cup broccoli slaw (easier and more interesting than celery!) 2 tbsp curry raisin sauerkraut (...

Here's the deets on how to make my favorite lunch- chicken salad with paleo-friendly (ie, non-canola) homemade mayo. After I got friendly with fat but before I started avoiding industrial seed oils, I was in love with this stuff called Lemonaise. Now I have a homemade version that I think is even better because the oils I use now have actual flavor. A lot of paleo mayo recipes call for "light tasting" supermarket olive oils. After reading Extra Virginity , I am pretty squeamish about that. Even if it does actually contain olive oil and not seed oils(staggering amounts of fraud in the industry), it is probably a lesser grade product that has been deodorized and refined. The whole point of making my own mayo is to avoid "vegetable" and seed oils, so I've gone with a mix of avocado oil and the Artois Ranch EVOO by California Olive Ranch that is naturally a bit milder than some EVOO, but still very flavorful. It might not be for everybody, but I've ...

Oh, hi! I just found this post from the holidays which was languishing as a draft. The season for wintery treats is mostly over, but here it is. Over X-mas, I tried out a few more grain free treat recipes. These vegan pecan bars were great despite my skepticism about the lack of eggs, even though the crust wasn't initially cooked all the way. We're pretty picky about pecan pie-like treats, being from Texas. "My" antique gas oven is incredibly uneven and I'm just now figuring out how to optimally use it. The top looked fairly brown, so I went ahead and poured on the topping (which initially didn't look voluminous enough but was really fine) and put it back in the oven. After letting it cool, I sliced into the bars to discover an oozing crust! I put a lid on the dish and put it back in the oven on the lowest rack until the crust firmed up. These pumpkin bars (which happen to be vegan as well if you follow the recipe) were amazing! I couldn't find a...

Quick note of explanation- Thanks to the Read it and Weep Podcast and Violet Blue stoking my curiosity, I read Tim Ferriss's 4 Hour Body back in May and started the slow carb diet. I ended up adding in more healthy fats and leaving out beans at most meals after being influenced by a lot of paleo recipe blogs. I've had a ton (well, 33 lbs) of success and would highly recommend it to anybody. I'll probably write a post with more details and resources, but I wanted to get this recipe post out there while it's still the holiday season. I wanted to try a grain free Thanksgiving 1) because it would be interesting and perhaps challenging 2) to keep it low-ish carb (lower than traditional Thanksgiving, anyway) so I could enjoy the leftovers and 3) so I wouldn't feel super sick afterwards. I still do the 4HB style cheat day thing, but I often keep it wheat-free if I don't want to feel like crap all day. Bird- Herb Roasted Turkey Breast with Pan Gravy from Rachael...