Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! It's been a long hiatus for me, I've been travelling quite a bit for my work; last week I broke 5 weeks of being on the road. Since it's my first post of the year, I want to share not only a yummy recipe but also some thoughts on side benefits of paleo.

I find it quite interesting that since I started cooking paleo, I feel a need to continuous need switch up recipes and come up with new interesting food. If I look back at my non paleo cooking days,  there was a definite trend in my diet: rice! I love rice and practically grew up eating chinese food. White rice and then later brown rice had become a daily staple of my diet. It was easy to prepare 2 cups of rice in my rice cooker and then prepare veggies and meat to go along. I cooked a tremendous amount of asian inspired dishes: thai curries, indian curries, korean stews... On the other hand, my mom grew up in the italian part of Switzerland and thought me italian cooking. I love fresh pasta, ravioli, tortellini, and lasagna. 

Wheat and rice ... two of my previous daily staples are not part of paleo. I always tried to cook at least one vegetable along with meat or several vegetables on their own but it was rare for me to only make meat and veggies or just veggies except on nights I made a salad or potatoes. 

So back to my original thought, since going paleo, I switched from a diet consisting of staple meals with a little variation here and there, to a much more balanced and varied meal plan. Somehow not being able to use the same ingredients pushed me to reinvent my cooking style. Now I could have chosen some new staples and then continued cooking the same recipes over and over again: turkey salad for lunch, and fish and vegetables (both from the frozen section) for dinner. Now instead, to make it more fun or I guess more exciting to switch lifestyles, I have realized that I have been cooking with a lot more varied ingredients and following seasonal availability more closely. Although I would love to go fully locavore and seasonal, I believe it would be quite tough at the moment combining it with paleo.

Another benefit from paleo has been that my increased time cooking has helped me increase my knife skills, mise en place and refine my cooking techniques. Wait a second? Am I saying that spending more time in the kitchen has been a benefit?  Absolutely. I have always prided myself in being able to put together some very tasty meals in little time, a skill that my mom has always stressed upon as being critical when you have hungry children crying for food (or a hungry spouse). My switch to paleo has pushed me to consistently cook breakfast, lunch and dinner (or enough dinner for the next day lunch).  When you spend a lot more time in the kitchen, it pushes you to pay more attention to important details like mise en place. Do 3 trips to the refrigerator increase your prep time? Yes. Does having all your ingredients laid out and cut properly reduce your cooking time? Yes. Do better knife skills help? Yes. These are all logical answers, but it's not until one has to that one usually pays full attention to detail.

So back to the recipe: Leftover roast with seasonal vegetables. 

Ingredients

1/2 lb cleaned brussel sprouts

1/2 butternut squash cleaned and sliced

1/4 cup roasted pine nuts

a handful of raisins

Leftover meat (turkey, roast, etc.)

1 diced tomato

1/2 diced onion

1 diced garlic

a dash pepper

1/4 cup fresh parsley

Instructions

Start to make the salsa for the roast by cooking the onions until translucent in a pot with a little oil. Add the garlic and after a minute the diced tomato. Allow the salsa to boil then reduce to a simmer. Add the pepper and the parsley. You can add any other ingredients to flavor the salsa: red peppers, cumin, oregano. Put a pot of water to boil for the squash. Add the sliced squash and cook until squash is tender. 

Meanwhile heat 1 tbsp of oil (I like to use a flaxseed/olive oil blend or coconut oil) in a pan. Add the brussel sprouts and let them roast for about 5 mins. Once they are slightly browned, add about 2 tbsp of water and cover to allow the brussel sprouts to steam. This process takes about 10 extra minutes. I like to determine readiness by tasting or frequently checking tenderness. Brussel sprouts also release a very distinct aroma once they are done. Towards the end of the cooking time, add the raisins to allow them to soak up some of the juices. To serve, toss the pine nuts with the brussel sprouts. 

Finally heat up the roast slices in a preheated cooking pan. You can use a little oil or use the cooking juices instead. Remember you are just reheating the meat, do not overcook it and do not allow it to dry out.