Chinese Honey Chicken...Paleo Style

I was having a severe craving for some Asian food...soy, teriyaki, anything! I found this recipe for honey chicken and was excited until I read "cornstarch", "flour", "rice vinegar"...none of which are paleo!! I'm often hesitant to take non-paleo recipes and attempt to make them paleo, mainly because I hate when I screw up dinner, but also because certain paleo ingredients (cough, cough, almond flour, cough, coconut flour!) are expensive and I hate to waste!! I'm also fairly new to the paleo world, so I usually just take a paleo recipe and change up some things here and there.
I am so glad I attempted this recipe because it was awesome. And by awesome, I mean AWESOME!!

So, here goes!
What you need:

• 1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” chunks)
• Coconut/Olive/Macadamia Oil (for deep frying) 

Batter:

• 1 tablespoon coconut flour
• ¼ cup almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup water
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white (equivalent to 2 tablespoons egg white)

Sauce: 

• 1 ½ tablespoons oil
• 3 tablespoons garlic (minced)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup water
• 2 teaspoons coconut flour

What you do: 
1. In a large bowl, mix all batter ingredients together until smooth. Add chicken and cover with plastic wrap or foil for 30 minutes. 
2. Heat a deep fryer to 350 degrees OR fill your pot of choice with a moderate amount of oil (olive, macadamia, coconut)...enough to cover the chicken. Fry chicken in small batches so as not to significantly lower the temperature of the oil. I used a pot on the stove and it took about 5 minutes per batch to fry. Using a deep fryer, allow to cook for about 2 minutes. For more info on deep frying without a deep fryer, check out this website. 
3. To make the sauce, heat olive oil in a wok, or similar saucepan. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add salt, honey, vinegar, and water. Add 2 teaspoons of coconut flour to thicken. Simmer for 2 minutes.  You can add more or less honey to achieve thicker or thinner sauce.
4. Coat your chicken with the sauce by pouring it over, or (which is what I did) toss the chicken in the wok and stir! 

Seriously...SO GOOD!

*NOTES about the recipe: when you deep fry the chicken, some of the batter will flake off. I have noticed that this happens when cooking with almond and coconut flour. It doesn't "stick" to the food as well as regular flour does. I just scooped the excess batter out with a slotted spoon and put in the saucepan for flavor! 
Keeping a food journal? You'll be pleasantly surprised at these facts: Paleo Honey Chicken

Paleo Pancakes/Belgian Waffles

One of the things I missed most when I first went Paleo was pancakes! My husband and I would have pancakes, waffles, or french toast every weekend. He would cook and I think that's why I loved it so much!! We went several months on the paleo diet before I found this fantastic recipe! The original Silver Dollar Pancake recipe calls for less honey. I added an extra tablespoon and found that the pancakes are more moist and less dense :) 

What you need:

• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons agave nectar, real maple syrup, or honey (the nutrition facts below are figured with honey)
• 1 ½ cups almond flour
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• olive oil or coconut oil for cooking

What you do:   

1. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, water, vanilla, and honey.

2. Add almond flour, salt and baking soda and mix until thoroughly until combined 

3. Heat olive/coconut oil on skillet over medium low to medium heat or on a griddle at 250 degrees

4. Scoop 1 heaping tablespoon of batter at a time onto the skillet/griddle

5. I let pancakes cook for a couple of minutes on each side. Bubbles do not form with almond flour. I usually check one pancake and if it looks good, I flip the rest. If not, I wait another minute. :)

6. Remove from heat to a plate

7. Repeat process with remaining batter, add more oil to skillet as needed

 You can use the same batter in a waffle maker and make Belgian waffles:

Yields 16 pancakes or 4 Belgian waffles

Keeping a food journal? Paleo Pancakes or Paleo Belgian Waffles

Paleo Brownies

I have tried several paleo brownie recipes, and this is BY FAR the best one! They taste just like regular brownies! Here we go...
What you need:

• 1 lb of walnuts
• 1 egg
• 1 c honey
• 1/2 c baking cocoa
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 oz unsweetened dark chocolate, chopped *

What you do: 
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease an 8x8 baking dish.
2. Using a food processor or blender, grind up the walnuts until they are smooth...like this:

If there are a few pieces of walnut that don't get ground up all the way, it's ok...nuts are good in brownies!!

3.In a large bowl, beat an egg. Add in the walnuts, vanilla, and honey. Stir to combine.
4. Add in cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Stir in chopped baking chocolate.
5. Pour batter in greased baking dish and bake for 25-35 minutes.
6. Let brownies cool for 10 minutes, cut and eat.

Brownies will puff up in the oven and settle once removed and cooled. They will look like this:

YUM!!

*Recipe Note: If you are feeling less than paleo when making these, or it's a cheat day, you can use 1 oz of baking chocolate and 1 oz of dark chocolate chips!


Keeping a food journal? Here is the nutritional 411: Paleo Brownies

Kale Chips

This recipe is really simple, but really delicious. It is a fantastic alternative when you need something salty. My husband LOVES these!! You can also change up the spices to whatever you are feeling (chili powder, pepper, onion powder...the possibilities are endless!).
What you need:

• kale, roughly 2 cups
• garlic powder, 2 tsp
• salt, 1 tsp
• cooking spray *
• cayenne pepper

What you do:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Tear off pieces of kale, leaving the stem attached. Place kale on a baking sheet lined with foil or      parchment paper
3. Lightly spray olive oil cooking spray evenly over kale pieces.
4. Sprinkle garlic powder, salt, cayenne pepper (or whatever spices you choose). Don't over salt...trust me!
5. Cook for 8 - 10 minutes, until kale is crispy.

 *NOTE: Some recipes call for olive oil to be drizzled in lieu of cooking spray. You can use whatever you have on hand, just note that using olive oil will change the nutritional value considerably.

Keeping a food journal? Here is the nutritional info: Kale Chips

Hello world wide web!

Welcome to Cavegirl Kitchen! This is my very first blog post and, without lying, I'll say that it took me a good 20 minutes to come up with what you've just read!! I'm excited to finally have a blog up and running! This blog will, for the most part, be devoted to (amazing!) paleo recipes that I have tried, changed, and tried again! I will walk you through with pictures (who doesn't love pictures??) and suggestions on different ways to try the recipes.
If you landed here and are wondering, "What the heck is Paleo?", wander over to THIS SITE for lots of info! If you really want some great information on the Paleo diet, I suggest you read Dr. Loren Cordain's The Paleo Answer. You can buy it here! It is a fantastic read on what the Paleo diet is and why we should follow it!
I started my Paleo journey back in November of 2011. I was 3 months postpartum from having my son and desperate to lose the baby weight. I was working out consistently doing CrossFit with my husband, Ted. Working out alone was not cutting it! Ted suggested we do the Paleo diet as he had been reading The Paleo Solution, by Robb Wolf. At first, I was "sort of" doing the Paleo diet: I cut out grains (breads, rice, cereals) but continued with the dairy (I love milk!!).
In January, I went full Paleo! Honestly, it is really hard sometimes! I love carbs (pasta...drool), cheese, and chocolate...none of which are paleo! My solution to staying sane was to take all of my favorite recipes and make them paleo! Some work and some don't...I save the ones that don't for my cheat days!

ENJOY!