Quick Paleo Chili

So, I went Paleo about three months ago, and to my continued astonishment, I'm finding it really easy not to eat grains, or sugar. Industrial seed oils are harder to get away from, given how much we eat in restaurants, but I'm working on it.

My Beloved is not on board with the whole paleo thing, sadly; he's a grainivore to the core, and has not even entertained the idea of giving up bread, crackers, pizza crust, corn, etc., blah de blah. He is, however, content to modify what I cook to include some of his treasured grain. I make taco or fajita filling, and he has it with tortillas and I have it over salad.

On the weekend, I made Quick Paleo Chili, with a few modifications to suit what I had. And it was delicious and spicy, and Beloved hardly even commented on the lack of beans in it. Not more than once, anyway.

Mostly Paleo Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb grass-fed ground beef
3 links spicy Italian sausage, cut into bite size chunks
1 medium onion (chopped)
2 tbsp olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic (minced)
1 can diced tomatoes 14.5oz (mine weren't organic)
1 red bell pepper (chopped)
1 tin green chilies (again, not organic)
2-4 tbsp chili powder (depending on how you like the heat :)
2 tsp dry oregano
1-2 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper
1-2 tbsp tomato paste

Directions:

Add olive oil to a pan on medium heat, brown ground beef and sausage with chopped onion and minced garlic. Then add tomatoes, bell pepper, chilies, chili powder, oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper. Then simmer the mixture for 20 mins or until the meat and green peppers are tender and the tomatoes cook into a sauce (I let it simmer for nearly two hours).

I served this up (for him) with a dollop of sour cream and a bit of cheese on top, and with a spoon for me. Deeelish!

Grass-fed beef

We ate the first of our organic, grass-fed beef tonight. T-bone steak. Grilled. With grilled asparagus. And salad.

Thawed the steaks in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Air-dried overnight. Seasoned with salt and pepper only. Grilled to rare, and served with aforementioned sides.

The beef was tender, juicy, and both more intensely and more delicately flavoured, if that makes sense. (The intensity might be because of the meat being on the bone; we usually eat boneless steaks, and it's been yonks since I ate a T-bone.) The sirloin side of the steak was delicious and tender and flavoursome and wonderful. And the tenderloin side was like a little slice of heaven.

Grass-fed beef. A bargain at $6 per pound, for the variety we got. And oh, so worth it.

Also, grilled asparagus? Best ever way to eat asparagus.

On a related note, but not to do with this evening's meal, grilled pineapple actually is a little slice of heaven. Cut the top and bottom off a whole fresh pineapple. Take the outer layer off so that there are no brown bits in the flesh. Slice into 1-inch thick slabs. Season with a little salt and pepper if desired (no, really). Grill until just juicy and tender. Let cool, and then cut into chunks, being sure to discard the hard core. While still warm, top with a bit of good quality vanilla ice cream (or similar), and enjoy.

It's here! And it fits. Phew.

Here's how my freezer looked last night, after I did a hasty review and rearrangement of the contents ("Coffee? What's this doing in here? Rossana would be horrified! Oh, man, did you know we had all these burgers? Good thing we have all these burger buns, too! And wow, we need to eat this shrimp at some point..."). This was necessary because I got an email advising that my Freezer Pack was available for pickup. I confess to being concerned about the amount of available space, because that there doesn't look like much, and the door was already pretty full. Still, deep breath.

So today after work, I went to pick it up. And it's a doddle! The farmer asked me if I needed any help getting this to my car, but heck, I swing heavier weights than this around at the gym. (Well, OK, I don't swing the 40 lb kettlebell. But I do lift it!) And looking at this, I was pretty sure it would fit in the available freezer space.

Got it home, and broke into the package, and here's what I got:

• 2 x Top Round Roast
• 1 x Bottom Round Roast
• 1 x Chuck Steak Roast
• 1 x Sirloin Tip Steak Roast
• 2 x T-bone Steaks
• 2 x Rib Steaks
• 1 x Sirloin Steak
• 2 x Stewing Beef (approx 1 lb)
• 9 x Ground Beef (approx 1 lb)

I weighed it all and wrote the weights on, because that's the only thing the butcher didn't think to do (and wrote it in both pounds and kilos, because I'm Canadian and that's how we roll), and took photos, and then stuffed it all into the freezer. And it all fit, as you see.

Yay! We have a fair amount of beef (and other things) that needs to be eaten before we get into these butcher-paper packages. I'm told - by someone whose brother used to raise beef cows - that organic beef has a stronger taste than commercially-produced beef. I'll be sure to let you know.

Where's the Beef?

My beef is ready. The 30 pounds of roasts, steaks, cubed, and minced beef I ordered in April is now ready for pickup. I have to pick it up today, after work.

I let my beloved talk me out of buying a chest freezer to accommodate this purchase. I hope I don't live to regret that. We haven't eaten nearly as much of our fridge contents as we intended, over the last couple of months. The weather has been crappy, so grillin' hasn't been on the agenda pretty much at all, which hasn't helped. There is space in the freezer, yes there is. I'm just not sure there's 30 lbs of space.

Time to start planning some more meals. Must call the beloved, tell him to defrost some chicken for tonight. Tandoori chicken on the grill. Yummeroo.