Chris Kresser links to the best recipes! I found this recipe for Paleo Swedish Meatballs last weekend in one of his posts. Holy cow. These turned out sooooo delicious! They were a lot of work for a weeknight meal, as you need to cook the meatballs in batches on the stove top until they are all done. But they are so worth the effort. Here are a couple of notes – I used a 2 inch scoop for the first batch of meatballs, and I had a really hard time turning them without them falling apart. I scaled down to a 1.5″ scoop after that, and those meatballs were much easier to handle, and they cooked much more evenly. Also, I was 85% sure that the “gravy” would not turn into gravy. It was super runny all the way up until I added the 3rd tablespoon of tapioca starch. Then, magically, it started to firm up to gravy consistency. So rich and tasty.
For a side dish I made roasted brussel sprouts because I found some local ones at The Food Hub for 2.99/lb. I used this recipe as a guide; however, instead of making the glaze, we poured the gravy over the cooked sprouts. I have to say, we were not super happy with how these turned out. They were very dry (maybe I didn’t add enough oil?). So, when we stored the leftovers, we mixed the sprouts and the meatballs and gravy together. The sprouts marinated in that rich gravy overnight and were super moist and tasty when re-heated.
I also tried this recipe last week: Crockpot Ropa Viega with Cuban Style Rice. This turned out OK. Tim and I both thought the dish was a little over-spiced, and the meat didn’t turn out as tender as I hoped. Tim ate the leftovers with white rice, however, which cut down the spice level a bit, and he said that was really good. However, this recipe did provide us with supper and enough leftovers for two more meals.
So on to my next piece of news. For our anniversary Tim got me an amazing pair of yoga capri leggings from Onzie. I wore them to an hour and 15 minute yoga class, and they kept me very cool (the fabric is really thin). I also wore them running, and they were very comfortable. He got me the Prizm print. It a cacophony of patterns, and it gives you something really interesting to look at while in downward dog. I don’t know if yoga pants are the proper dristi for yoga, but looking at them made me happy, so I think Yoga would approve.
I start my yoga teacher training class on 1/9, and I feel as if I really need at least one more pair of yoga pants for the class. Unfortunately the prints I really love at Onzie are all sold out of my size. I’m going to keep my eye on it though.
And finally, the last topic of my post. Ever since we were little, my mom has made us awesome crocheted slippers (the slippers are courtesy of Mom – the hair is courtesy of Lucent):
Mom has shown me a couple of times how to make them, but once she is not next to me, I forget how. So I found this YouTube video on granny squares (the slippers are basically 3 small granny squares stitched into one big granny square). With his help and a few texts back and forth to Mom, I was able to successfully make all the pieces for a pair of slippers:
And this is currently where I am stuck. Over the phone, Mom walked me through how to stitch the pieces together, but my first attempt ended very poorly. I was distracted by David Bowie’s hair and other things in The Labyrinth and didn’t have the pieces lined up well enough, so they didn’t connect where they should connect. I’m going to try it one more time, and if that doesn’t work, make Mammacita sew them together for me. 🙂
So that’s my week in a nutshell. Hope you are having a great Sunday and can get out and enjoy this 40 degree day. Take some Vitamin D and eat some salmon, and you won’t even miss the sun!