I have a bunch of apples from our weekend family apple picking adventure.

Today I followed a simple recipe from the blog, Civilized Caveman’s Cooking Creations.  These burgers were easy to put together and had lots of flavor.  A hit with all four members of our family.

I followed all of George’s advice and even fried some eggs to top off our burgers.  I sprinkled the salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I doubled the recipe so that we would have burgers for leftovers and lunches.  For those of you that are trying to make the most out of your time in the kitchen, plan on cooking large batches of some recipes so that you have planned leftovers.  If you are going to have to get a cutting board, knife & large bowl dirty to make this recipe…why not get a couple of meals out of it? Also, having some cooked burgers in the fridge is a great snack for kids.  Instead of eating a bag of potato chips for an after school snack, teach them to wrap a burger in lettuce and snack on! Much more filling and nutritious than a bunch of processed carbs!

All in all, a filling, tasty meal with only a handful of ingredients! This will be in frequent rotation at our house.

1. Place all the above ingredients except the egg in a mixing bowl and mix well.
2. Use your hand to form 3 even size burgers.
3. Have your grill on medium heat (350-400 Degrees F) and grill for approximately 5-6 minutes per side or until done to your liking.
4. Once you place your burgers on the grill, fry your egg in bacon fat on the stove and set aside.
5. You can now plate your burgers how you see fit.  I used romaine lettuce as a base. Added the burger, grilled onions, and topped with the fried Egg.
6. Enjoy

I won’t call this a recipe.  But, it was good.  An easy weeknight dinner.  This is truly what eating paleo is about: meat plus veggies.    So, not a recipe, but some guidance for how to make a weeknight paleo meal that is really easy. On a side note, the picture has 2 lettuce wraps.  Please understand that I ate 6, maybe 7.  Paleo is not about calorie counting or watching portions.  That takes care of itself.  You eat when you are hungry.  I was hungry. 

We used Boston Head Lettuce for our lettuce wraps, because it is our favorite.  But romaine or even iceburg work well.  Ideas for lettuce wrap fillings: lunchmeat (use lettuce instead of the bread), Asian style chicken or shrimp (think P.F. Chang’s), Mexican filled instead of taco shells, BLT’s (use bacon, tomato and avocado), or Greek seasoned beef/lamb with lemon/olive oil/kalamata olives and feta.  You are only limited by your imagination.  Hot fillings taste really good inside the crunchy, cold lettuce. 

Check the ingredients in your sausages, some have gluten.  Trader Joe’s has an amazing selection of different flavors that are all precooked, so you only have to saute them to warm them up.  It makes for an easy weeknight salad, soup or egg scramble.  I found these sausages at Local Harvest, it was an Apple Cinnamon flavor, locally farmed.  (Yum!)

Sausage Sweet Potato Lettuce Wraps

• 1 package sausage (I used a locally farmed apple/cinnamon sausage from Local Harvest)
• 1 large sweet potato, grated
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 head Boston Head Lettuce

1. Cook sausages according to directions.

2. Saute sweet potato in the coconut oil. Season with salt and pepper. 

3. Rinse lettuce and separate leaves onto a serving plate.

4. Fill lettuce leaves and eat!

My favorite dinner is the one that is ready when we get back from activities all afternoon.  Love the crockpot.  It only took about 10 minutes to put this together in the morning.
I used a recipe a couple of weeks ago to prepare sweet potatoes for a dinner at the Ronald McDonald House.  My oven was not working so I needed to use my crockpot.  I found this recipe and I thought they turned out well.

Crock Pot Sweet Potato Recipe from Betty Crocker:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/slow-cooker-sweet-potatoes-with-applesauce/1dceea16-d320-440a-96ad-45da9d12cac8
Basically, you cube up sweet potatoes and layer in the crockpot with applesauce, butter, cinnamon and sugar.  I skipped the sugar, for obvious reasons.  Applesauce is plenty sweet.  It cooks down into soft sweet potatoes in a cinnamony sweet sauce.  Great for a big group!

Now I am going to express my love for Penzey’s spices.  Seriously, if you have never been or shopped online, you should.  Their stuff is just better than what you can get at the grocery store. Not to mention some of their blends are awesome.  Like Tsardust Memories seasoning.  Something about the garlic and the salt with the cinnamon.  The Russians are genius!  I love this stuff on sweet potatoes.  http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysrussian.html  I don’t know the ratios, but you could probably blend this up on your own and it would be fine.  The ingredients are as listed: salt, garlic, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, marjoram.  Everybody has the first 5 in their spice rack. Go for it.  Or order some, along with some other yummy stuff from Penzey’s.  They will send you a killer catalog in the mail that will tell you everything you every needed to know about each spice and gives great recipes.

So for a one dish dinner tonight, I started by slicing a pork tenderloin into medallions about 1 inch thick.  I layered them in the bottom of the crockpot to make sure they were thoroughly cooked. Sprinkled with Tsardust seasoing. On top of that I layered cubed sweet potatoes, applesauce, slices of butter and more seasoning.  I cooked on low for 8 hours, stirred it about halfway through.  OMG, so yummy.

Another reason I dig this is it is the perfect paleo/primal recipe.  Meat plus sweet potatoes plus fat (butter).  Nothing complicated.  My aunt commented on FB “Sounds like yummy downhome food.” And she is right, it is! Nothing “weird” about it.  No chemicals, preservatives, prepackaged crap.  I was able to find some applesauce that was unsweetened.  That took a little looking.  I did have mine with some cauliflower that I had cut up.  Biggest difference between my dinner and the average person’s: I don’t need a side of bread to go with it.  When people say that my diet is “weird” or “I feel sorry for you that you have to eat that way” or “I could never do it”, I get it, but then again I don’t.  I know that the average paleo/primal baking recipe can be kind of weird with almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot starch or coconut milk. But, if you are capable of eating a big chunk of meat, sweet potato (with BUTTER) and veggies, then you can eat paleo.  Just skip the bread basket.  It isn’t complicated.

Warning: I will try to write out the “official recipe” as requested, but I don’t measure much while I cook, so I am going to give my best estimates.

Crockpot Pork Tenderloin & Sweet Potatoes

1 pork tenderloin (serves 3 to 4)
1 bag cubed sweet potatoes (2 large sweet potatoes)
3/4 jar of applesauce
1/2 stick of butter
1 and 1/2 Tbsp Penzey’s Tsardust Memories Russian Seasoning

1. Spray or grease crockpot for easier clean-up. Please don’t use those plastic liners they sell. Cooking your food for hours in plastic = who knows how many chemicals leaching out into your food? Gross.

2.  Cut pork into 1″ thick medallions and layer on bottom of crockpot.  Okay to make a 2nd layer if you have a lot of pork.

3. Sprinkle with 1/2 of your Tsardust seasoning (or your own blend).

4. Pour 1/2 of your sweet potatoes on top. Pour about a 1/2 cup applesauce on top of that and a few pats of butter.  Sprinkle with seasoning. Repeat with the sweet potatoes, applesauce, butter and seasoning.

5.  Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4-6 depending on your situation.  I stirred mine 1/2 way through because I was at home.