When Hubs started a Paleo challenge with his gym, I panicked just a little because most of my recipes are NOT paleo. In fact, we don’t eat a lot of meat, and that’s a big problem when you eat like a caveman. Never heard of the Paleo diet? In a nutshell, it’s the hunter-gatherer diet. You can eat anything a caveman would have eaten. Fruits, veggies, meat, eggs. No grains (so hard! goodbye bread and pasta and rice and all the other things I love). No beans. No dairy (which is somewhat debatable, but his particular set of rules banned it). No sugar. Nothing processed. Nothing agriculturally produced. Not even corn or potatoes (too starchy). A lot of recipes are easily adapted, like traditional beef stew, but I’ve had to really reach outside my cooking comfort zone and try a lot of new things!
Beef Stew
3 lbs stew meat
4 cups beef broth
1 butternut squash, peeled, cut into bite-size pieces
2 medium carrots, cut into rounds
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 small apples, peeled and diced (your favorite variety)
12 oz vegetable juice
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
2 sprigs parsley, minced
dash of thyme
salt & pepper to taste
Sprinkle the stew meat with salt and pepper and sear over medium-high heat. Add to slow cooker. Saute the onion until fragrant and browned. Add onion and all remaining ingredients to slow cooker. Set to low and cook for 6-8 hours.
*I was going to add sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes, but Hubs said he’d rather try butternut squash. We loved it with the squash, and didn’t even miss the potatoes!
