Sweet Soft "Avanti's" Style Bread!

I was born and raised in the community of Normal, Illinois! It was a GREAT place to grow up, not too big not too small, 2.5 hours to Chicago and home of Avanti's Restaurant!! If you grew up in Central Illinois you for SURE know about Avanti's and their famous bread. :-) I live on the West Coast now but still have a yearning for that sweet soft bread, this recipe is dead on and will fool even the most diehard Avanti's bread fan.  Its a lot of work but very worth it.

This recipe yields 6 loaves, I typically get 9 out of it but as you can see my loaves are a tad smaller.

Ingredients:

2 pkg. Active Dry Yeast

3 cups water

3 Tbsp. oil

3 Eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 1/4 C. sugar (its sweet)

10-11 cups ***gulp*** flour! Thats a lot of flour

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water; add remaining ingredients& knead for approximately 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth& elastic.
2. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to bring greased side up.
3. Cover with a cloth& let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until dough has doubled in bulk (1 1/2 to 2 hours).
4. After first rising, punch dough down in bowl& turn over; let rise again until double (30-45 minutes).
5. Cut dough into 5 to 6 portions, each about the size of a grapefruit.
6. Let rise, covered for 10 minutes.
7. Flatten dough, pressing out all the air, and form into long loaves, about 12" long.
8. Place loaves on greased& floured cookie sheets; cover& let rise again (50-60 minutes).
9. Preheat oven to 350F.
10. Bake loaves for 20-25 minutes, until tops are golden brown& loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Iron Skillet Pizza

We moved into our new home 2 months ago now and I am now the proud owner of a beautiful Electrolux Gas Range! I have started to make my pizza's in a iron skillet...crispy and delicious.  Oh the adventures I have yet to experience! 

Our submission for the website Cats in Refrigerators

Loki was a sport!  

Paleo Pancit WOW who needs rice???

I made this for dinner last night, it was a HUGE hit!  The only thing I would do differently is buy a larger head of cabbage and tone down the quantity of meat used!  I cannot wait to adapt this recipe to some of my other favorite Asian foods, you HAVE to make this, Paleo or not its DELICIOUS.

Ingredients:

1 Large head of cabbage

3 bunches of green onions

1 lb. of pork tenderloin 

1/2 lb. wild caught shrimp (uncooked)

1.5 lbs. chicken

4 carrots

2 Tbsp. Tamari or Soy Sauce (adjust to taste)

2 Tbsp. Fish Sauce (MUST HAVE INGREDIENT)

2 Tbsp. olive or coconut oil

Preparation:

1.Slice cabbage into thin strips, set aside in large bowl

2.Shred carrots, I used my food processor add to bowl with cabbage

3.Thinly slice green onions, save some for garnish if you like. Add to bowl with other veg.

4.Cut the chicken and pork into small bites, place in med. sized bowl

5. Add Soy or Tamari and let sit for 1/2 hour, I added about 5 cloves of crushed garlic as well but that is not necessary, we just LOVE garlic.  Ginger is good to add here too if you have it.

6.Remove shells and devein shrimp, place in small bowl

7. Heat up wok with olive or coconut oil

8.Add pork and chicken, stir fry for 5 min. or until cooked.

9.Remove meat to another CLEAN bowl, set aside

10. Add cabbage, carrots and onions to wok with fish sauce, fry at high temp for aprox. 8 minutes or until cabbage is cooked but not mushy. I think I overcooked mine but it was still good, cabbage is a very forgiving veg.

11.  Add shrimp and stir fry until pink

12.  Add pork and chicken, stir fry for a few minutes and its DONE!!!

I did add some crushed red pepper for a little heat, it is totally no necessary but we like our  spicy food around here! :)  I hope you try it, we LOVED it..

Example of a delicious Paleo lunch!

This is a pretty straightforward lunch when eating Paleo! OH OH OH I have lost 4 lbs., I don't expect this to be my normal weekly weight loss but I am pretty darn happy..:)  OK so this salad consists of 1 whole organic tomato, load of chopped romaine lettuce, 2 Tbsp. shredded cheese, 1/2 avocado, 1 can tuna (not albacore due to mercury) packed in water and a fairly large amount of hot banana peppers (my guilty salty pleasure).  I used a store bought organic balsamic vinaigrette, not sure how Paleo friendly it is but if I am going to eat salads like a crazy fool I do have to have tasty dressing!!! :)  

English Peas My FAVORITE Snack

Yummy Paleo Breakfast and Why I have ignored my blog!

Hello BLOG I sure have missed you!

Life certainly can get in the way at times and my poor blog has taken quite a hit, for that I am sorry. :(  I will continue to post my yummy bakery creations but you will find that I will be posting mainly Paleo deliciousness.   YES folks, I am on a D**T...I am pretty darn tired of hauling around this extra weight and kinda really want to look good in a wetsuit..HAHAHA  The best thing about Paleo is I can have both spinach and wine so I did not need to change the name of my blog! YEA

The above plate is what I had for breakfast this morning!  If you are not familiar with Paleo eating, it can be summed up pretty simply NO PROCESSED FOOD AND NO GRAINS.  Its not low carb as such (I hated Atkins), I can eat all manner of fruits and veggies and of course lean protein.  Today I had 1/2 zucchini cut into thin strips sautéed with a small leek in 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tomato and a small amount of Creekside Smokehouse Cold Smoked Salmon (the best on the planet).  I am attempting to watch my sodium so the only "salt" came from the salmon and my guilty pleasure TAPATIO.  

OH and the reason I have not been blogging is because I suffer from extreme Procrastination Disorder with a tinge of Laziness Disease! I am working on that too...:)