Fried Beef Kidneys with Cranberry and Kumquat Chutney

Organ meats are a key part of eating paleo. Considered nature’s multi-vitamin, The Paleo Mom, Sarah Ballantyne, PhD, recommends eating two servings of organ meats a week.

Since starting the Paleo Approach Autoimmune Protocol I have discovered more ways to cook with the kumquats growing just outside our kitchen door than in the 10 years since we planted the tree.

Cranberries and sliced kumquats added to red onion and garlic sauteed in coconut oil and cooked down with red wine vinegar.

Fried pastured beef kidneys with cranberry and kumquat chutney

Recipe from: The Paleo Approach

Chicken Gizzards and Hearts with Cauli-Rice

Orange Cauliflower. Too bad this picture doesn’t quite represent the lovely orange color of this high vitamin C veggie.

Cauli-“rice”. All cauliflower, no rice.

Pastured chicken gizzards and hearts in gravy.

Chicken gizzards and hearts and gravy on cauli-“rice” served with homemade sauerkraut.

Chicken Liver Paté

1 lb pastured chicken liver

Browning chicken liver with onions in beef tallow

I took this paté and a sliced cucumber to a football-watching gathering. Made for a different game food/dip for sure. Enjoyed by the adventurous.

Nutritional powerhouse: 1 oz of this paté provides 78% daily Vitamin A among other benefits.

Recipe from: Balanced Bites

Keeping it Simple Today

Lunch: 50/50 beef & heart burger, wilted beet greens and warmed blueberries

I took advantage of a day and evening at home alone to tackle some outstanding projects, so it was helpful to have some quick and easy meals available for lunch and supper. For the noon meal I cooked up a 50/50 burger patty that I had ground, shaped and frozen last week. To go with it, I wilted some beet greens in the same skillet and then warmed some frozen home-grown blueberries in the same skillet. Easy and so delicious. I enjoyed eating lunch in the open air.

Browning pastured beef oxtail in virgin palm oil

In between doing some paint touch up work and rinsing brushes and roller and tending to other projects, I started a pot of oxtail soup. We were out of carrots, and I am putting a pause on eating onions, garlic and leeks (FODMAPs), so I decided to forego adding anything else. Just strip it down to basics. I used a total of three ingredients: pastured beef oxtail browned in virgin palm oil, followed by topping the beef with water and simmering it all afternoon.

Serving oxtail soup for supper a few hours later. Plus a bit of homemade coleslaw, roasted butternut squash and a second bowl of oxtail soup.

Late in the afternoon I popped a butternut squash into the oven and by the time I had finished up my projects and cleaned up, supper was waiting for me: oxtail soup–two bowls of it–the first of which I added some pink himalayan salt, the second I didn’t, butternut squash and another sampling of my sauerkraut (day 6).

Tomorrow I will get to the grocery store and stock up on carrots and greens and other non FODMAP veggies and fruits. More winter squash, easy to prepare and so nutritious.

New-To-Me Salad Toppings

• Purple asparagus, raw
• Broccoli-flower and
• Thinly sliced pastured beef liver, (leftover from last night’s supper) on organic mixed greens with sliced radishes, evoo (extra virgin olive oil) and fresh-squeezed lime juice.

Perfect and easy late lunch following a morning getting an MRI done on my right foot and running errands.

A chat with an acquaintance and her 10-year-old son in the waiting area of the imaging center puts my minor RA-related aches in perspective. They are dealing with uncertainties and worries following his fall out of high bed resulting in an injury near his eye that has triggered dizziness and behavioral change. Prayers to them both.

Beef Heart and Ground Beef Burgers

I guess it was only a matter of time before this granddaughter of a butcher got the old meat grinder out and put it to use grinding some pastured beef heart to add to some pastured ground beef.

I got to these bits below (vessels) and I wasn’t sure how to proceed. Include or not?… Since I am eating connective tissue and increasing intake of animal fats I decided to go for it. It took a little more forceful arm pressure to grind through it, but the grinder did not clog.

It was noon and I was hungry, so I shaped a patty and got it cooking pronto in the cast iron skillet. When the patty neared completion, I added some frozen wild blueberries to the skillet. Served the beef and berries up with my cauli faux-tatoes from yesterday drizzled with pesto oil.

Whoa! That was awesome!… I am looking forward to repeating that for supper tonight with my spouse.

Nose-to-Tail Movement

This morning I updated my morning yoga class about the state of my wellness, since I feel that my wellness impacts my teaching. I mentioned the idea I had come across in my research of eating what ails you and how that had led me to start preparing and consuming pig’s feet bone broth. (In fact I am going to drink some in a sec). One of my students remarked that she would have to eat the whole animal. Which got a chuckle. And is profound in its deeper significance. So I wanted to note here for readers who might be unfamiliar–there is a Whole Animal/Nose-to-Tail movement. Chef Fergus Henderson might be the spokesperson for the movement with his book: The Complete Nose to Tail. I can’t say for sure. All this is newish for me too. Some chefs are bringing the movement to their restaurants.

Here is some science for you about the nutritional benefits of eating organ meat, from PhD and author Sarah Ballantyne (The Paleo Mom), who has eased some of her own autoimmune issues by following the plan she developed.

Broth time.

Day 4

Breakfast: 2 homemade pastured pork sausage patties, muscadines, orange, cup of green tea

Lunch: 8 oz bone broth, beef heart with onions and blueberries, dandelion greens with olive oil and lime juice

Day 2

Leftover beef kidney with some beet greens thrown in. Dandelion greens with avocado oil. Muscadines. Cup of green tea.

Lunch: Acorn squash soup with avocado and kale & onions.

Supper: Stir fry beef with celery, carrots, bok choy.

A couple of bananas today.

Muscadines. Nectarine.

Beef Heart

Pan sauteed these beef heart steaks for supper. Inexpensive, quick and nutritious.

UPDATE: Oh, and good!

Recipe from The Nourished Caveman.