Tender Flavorful Beef Carnitas - Clean Eating, Paleo, Gluten Free

Shredded Beef Carnitas served over top a fresh Mexican salad.

These Beef Carnitas are very tender and mildly sweet and spicy. If you use raw or fresh (not cooked or pasteurized) pineapple juice, it will tenderize your meat further by the bromelain content that pineapples contain. This recipe is very similar to my Pork Carnitas, I just added a bit more garlic to the beef version. See my Pork Carnitas recipe on my other blog called BeauteandtheFeast.blogspot.com.

You can make these carnitas in advance but it is super easy to make 4 hours before you plan on eating dinner. You will have a lot of leftover meat, unless you are feeding quite a large family. The left over meat is perfect for filling chimichangas, burritos or tacos, or use in a Mexican-style casserole, or as a Mexican salad topper, ... Yum.

What I love about meats that have been simmered in well-flavored broths or sauces, is that it usually keeps the meat from tasting oxidized when the meat is reheated as leftovers. Oxidation is prevented by the use of herbs and spices. Adequate salt in the cooking liquid helps all the flavors to permeate the meat, bringing the flavor throughout nicely. Reheating the meat on the stove instead of in the microwave keeps the leftover meat tasting fresh.

I am one of the unusual (weird?) people who can taste that oxidized off-flavor in meat. Rarely have I ever met people who can taste that like I can. It's been really annoying actually, because I can't stand leftover roast beef, chicken (strangely, Costco's rotisserie chicken, boned and packaged air-tight has tasted great), turkey (bleh, although brining it with herbs has helped), pork, let alone game meat. Microwaved meat is the worst! I see other people enjoying their leftover reheated whatever, and I can't eat it with out feeling sick, and I have to pick the meat out. It makes it hard for me to get the protein I want. I can usually eat meat if its freshly prepared with out a problem, unless it's old, improperly stored meat. Believe it or not, I do not like being a vegetarian. I will eat that way a lot, but I listen to my body in it's requests for good meat. It took me until I was in my late 30's to even figure out what that yucky "taste" was. I was doing research on professional food manufacturing and how a company was attempting to deal with the off-flavors of oxidized meat, extending it's shelf life. I found out I wasn't crazy after all....I'm just a "Super Taster." I should have a Super Hero cape made for that.

On to the recipe...


Beef Carnitas Recipe:

2 t. chili powder (gluten-free)
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. BioSalt or sea salt
1/2 t. onion powder
1/2 t. garlic powder (or granulated garlic)
1/2 t. fresh ground black pepper
3 to 4 pound beef roast, fresh or thawed
1 to 2 T. deodorized coconut oil
24 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice (can use 6 oz frozen concentrate plus 18 oz water)


Method:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Mix the spices and salt together. Rub onto the entire surface of the meat.

Heat a large dutch oven (with a tight-fitting lid) on medium-high, add the coconut oil and sear the roast on all sides until brown, about 2 minutes per side.

Pour the pineapple juice over the roast, cover and place in the preheated oven for about 4 hours, or until the meat is fall-apart tender.

Shred the meat in the pot with 2 forks, stir into the juice and cover to keep warm.

Use in your favorite Mexican-style recipes.

Photos of the process:

Rub all sides of the roast with spice mixture.

Brown all sides of the seasoned roast in deodorized coconut oil in a dutch oven

Pour the pineapple juice over top and place on the lid.

Bake tightly covered at least 4 hours, until fall-apart tender.

Shred the Meat once it is fall-apart tender

Stir the shredded meat into the juice.

Serve hot with your favorite Mexican meal (this salad is dairy-free and grain-free).

Enjoy,

Leila.

Easy Beef or Buffalo Mexican Taco Meat (No commercial flavor packet used!)

Favorite taco meat

Here is our family's favorite taco meat. it is incredibly easy to make and it tastes so much better than taco meat made with those commercial flavor packets you can buy at the store. I actually hate the taste of those flavor packets, but my mom always made hers from scratch...Yes, I know I'm spoiled.

You can make this taco meat with either organic ground beef, ground buffalo, or beefalo. Even ground turkey works.

At times, I have also added up to 30% of a soy protein meat substitute into the mix, to extend the meat. I pre-hydrate the meat substitute first before adding it to the rest of the meat. Then I add the onion, garlic, and seasonings and saute it all together. I do prefer the 100% meat version, but my family hasn't seemed to notice the difference.

I like to make a big batch of taco meat and keep the leftovers in the refrigerator for quick meals later in the week. This meat also freezes well.




Best Taco Meat Recipe:

2 pounds organic free-range ground beef or buffalo
2 onions, minced
8 cloves garlic, smashed with the salt
1 t. sea salt or BioSalt
1 t. onion salt
2 t. Ancho chili pepper powder
2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. paprika
1 t. organic beef base
40 grinds black pepper
1/4 t. psyllium husk powder
1/4 c. purified water


Method:

Brown the meat with the onions and garlic over medium-high heat in a large skillet, until the onions are translucent and the meat is cooked through. Break the meat up as it cooks.

Add all of the seasonings, psyllium, and water and simmer until thickened.

Taste for seasoning and serve while hot.

Serve as a topping for a taco salad, inside organic corn tortillas, or gluten-free flour tortillas.

Saute the meat with the rest of the ingredients.

The finished taco meat- beef in this case.

This large grater is fun for shredding the cheddar cheese.

Heat deodorized coconut oil until a piece of corn tortilla sizzles and quickly browns.

A piece of corn tortilla sizzling away...

Fry your desired amount of corn tortillas.

Fry the tortillas until they start to brown. For stiff shells, bend in the center and fry a little longer.

Place tortillas between layers of paper towel.

Putting the taco fixings on the table.

Start putting on your taco fixings: first the meat, then cheese, then lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, etc.

A beautiful plate of tacos!

YUM!

Enjoy,

Leila.

The Best Bacon Salt Recipe - And It's Healthier Too!

If you like bacon, you will love this bacon salt! 

Have you ever tried a good bacon salt? A potent bacon salt packs quite a smoky punch and livens up almost any dish you can dream up.

Bacon Salt

We love to sprinkle a bit of this amazing seasoning on grilled burgers, our Roast Chicken, eggs, hash browns, Our Copy-Cat Costco Rotisserie Chicken Salad, breakfast casseroles, mac & cheese, potato salad, pop corn, grilled cheese sandwiches, B-B-Q chicken pizza, baked potatoes, scalloped potatoes, oven fries, savory nut mixes, vegetable casseroles, grilled corn on the cob, tuna topped garden tomatoes, steamed or roasted asparagus, and any other place you'd want bacon in.

We have perfected the art of bacon salt making here at the Kitchen Cheetahs test kitchen. Most homemade bacon salts are oily, clumpy, and weak on the smoky bacon flavor. We set out to solve these problems. This recipe is the result of these efforts.

This bacon Salt is very fragrant and flavorful. A little goes a long way. We love it!

Bacon alone does not give the flavor punch we were looking for, so we added a high quality smoke salt and a nutritional yeast product called "Bakon Yeast". It is a natural hickory smoked Torula yeast product that is used as a smoky bacon flavored seasoning for snack foods, sauces, meats, and vegetarian foods.

We also use our in house BioSalt recipe in pace for regular salt. We like our salt because it is balanced for the body and does not promote water retention. BioSalt is a staple in our kitchens.

Feel free to make this recipe to suit your tastes. You may add more or less bacon, vary the type of smoke salts used, and add however much salt you want here. Have fun with it.


My research shows that you can find this Bakon Yeast here:


Bakon Yeast Products are available from Ohly Americas located in Hutchinson, MN.  Their website is :http://www.ohly.com .  
MN telephone: 800-321-2689



Some online retail sites carrying it are:


http://abchealthfoods.com/index.php/brands/bakon-yeast.html


http://stores.wholesome-essential.com/bakon-yeast-hickory-smoke-seasoning-2-oz/



Best Bacon Salt Recipe:

1 c. well rendered bacon (1 to 2 pounds raw smoked bacon)
1/2 to 1 c. BioSalt or sea salt, to taste
1/4 to 1/2 t. of your favorite smoke salt, to taste
2 T. Bacon-Yeast
1 t. fresh ground black pepper, optional, to taste


Method: 

Use the healthiest, most flavorful smoked bacon you can find.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Spread the strips of raw bacon onto a cooling rack set over a rimmed baking sheet.

Place the bacon in the oven and bake for at least 30 minutes, or until very crispy and quite dark in color. Render the bacon long and slow to remove as much fat as possible (or the bacon salt will really clump together - not good).

Remove bacon from the oven and let cool completely. Dab with paper towels to remove fat.

Process the rendered bacon in a food processor until it looks like grainy bits.

Add the salt, to taste.

Add your chosen smoke salt to taste.

Emphasize the bacon salt flavor by adding the "Bakon-Yeast" seasoning.  The Bakon-Yeast also helps to absorb some of the oil from the bacon.

Add the pepper if using. Taste and adjust flavors as desired.

Store air-tight.


Tip: Alderwood smoke salt is good. Mesquite smoke salt is good for mexican foods.


Enjoy, 

Leila & Nancy.

Porcpines - Old Fashioned Beef & Rice Meatballs (Gluten-Free and Sugar-Free)

Here is another Delicious home-style 

American supper.

I found this old recipe in my recipe box when I was trying to figure out what to make the Missionaries for dinner last night. It has been many long years since I have eaten this dish and I thought it would be fun to serve for a Sunday family dinner.

This recipe is made from scratch but still is very  easy to make. no commercial canned tomato soup here. With this recipe you have more control over your ingredients, which is great for those people who are off sugar and gluten. Canned tomato soup generally has lots of questionable ingredients in it. You may use brown rice or white, but please do not use instant or converted rice

This is a fun recipe because at the start, these look like innocent little meatballs. Part way through the cooking process however, watch out! They turn into prickly porcupines (hence the name). The rice as it cooks, swells and emerges from the meatballs, giving them a spiney texture.

I personally like more sauce, if you do too, make more sauce by increasing the recipe to 1 and 1/2 times the original. ie. 3 cups tomato sauce, 3 T. xylitol, 1 1/2 T Worcestershire, 3/4 t. cinnamon, and 6 whole cloves.

I decided to make some Perfect Baked Potatoes (recipe on this blog) to go along with it. Served along  with a green side salad, it makes a simple yet delicious meal.


Porcupines Recipe:

1 lb organic hamburger
1/2 cup RAW rice (brown Basmatti or Jasmine rice tastes great)
1/4 c. finely minced onion
1/4 c. finely minced sweet red or green bell pepper
1 t. BioSalt or sea salt
1/2 t. celery salt
2 c. tomato juice
2 T. xylitol or Lakanto zero-cal sweetener (or sugar)
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. cinnamon
4 whole cloves (or a pinch of ground cloves)
Tapoica starch and water slurry, to thicken if desired (I usually do not use)


Method:

Rinse the rice well in a strainer and drain.

Combine the rice with the hamburger, onion, bell pepper, salt, and celery salt. Mashing everything together with your hands works best.

Form into meatballs about 1 1/2-inch in diameter.

Mix the tomato juice with the xylitol, Worcestershire sauce, cinnamon, and cloves.

Heat the sauce in a skillet and place the meatballs into the sauce.

Cover tightly and simmer 50 minutes, turning meatballs over half way through the cooking time.

After the meatballs are done and the rice is tender, serve them with the juice as-is, or remove the meatballs and thicken the juice with tapioca starch (a corn starch replacement) to make a sauce.

Serve hot.


Note: I find that the rice in the meatballs thickens the sauce enough.

Variation: You may substitute bouillon for tomato juice and spices (not the way I think it tastes best).



My family really liked this dinner, I hope yours will too.

Enjoy,

Leila.

Comforting Ham & Potato Casserole

This "Meat and Potatoes" casserole is

traditional American comfort food. 

Our family is having company over for dinner tonight. They are young missionaries with hearty appetites, who have been away from home for a while, which means they have been missing out on home-cooked meals. So, I'm cooking homey food that I hope will fill them up.

The rest of my menu is steamed butter & chive carrots seasoned with onion salt and fresh ground pepper and a green jello salad (a corny Utah tradition) with crushed pineapple. For dessert, I'm serving banana pie pudding which is vanilla pudding with lots of fresh bananas and sweetened whipped cream, poured over a graham cracker crust. We usually don't eat this way. But I don't have an issue with it every now and then.

This casserole is a good way to use up leftover ham. It is hearty and delicious. I hope you enjoy it.





Ham & Potato Casserole Recipe:

Serves: 3 

4 T. organic butter
1 small onion, diced
2 1/2 T. flour (or gluten-free flour)
2 c. organic milk
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. onion salt
1/2 t. BioSalt or sea salt, totaste
30 grinds fresh black pepper, to taste
3 c. chopped ham
3 c. boiled diced potatoes
1 cup grated cheese, divided


Method:

Brown the onion in the butter.
Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir and saute until it starts to brown.
Slowly stir in milk and gently simmer, with stirring until thickened. Do not boil hard or it may curdle.
Season with garlic, onion salt, salt and pepper, to taste.
Add the ham and potatoes and gently stir to combine.
Add 3/4 c. of the shredded cheese and stir to blend in.
Transfer the mixture to a small baking casserole and sprinkle the top with remaining 1/4 c. cheese.
Cover casserole with a lid or foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until hot.
If you want to bake the casserole later, cover and refrigerate. Bake for 45 minutes, since it is cold.


Tip: This casserole doubles well and will fit into a large casserole dish (I always double the recipe).



Photos of the process:

Prep the the casserole ingredients.

Saute onions in butter.

Add flour to the cooking onions.

Cook the flour and onion mixture to brown and develop more flavor.

Add milk.

Add seasonings.

Cook gently until sauce thickens.

Add the ham.

Blend in the ham.

Add the potatoes and mix in.

Add most of the cheese.

Mix well.

Transfer to a baking casserole.

Top with the rest of the cheese.

Bake in a 350 oven.

The finished casserole along with the sides.

Dinner is served.

Banana Pudding dessert.

The dessert plate.

So dinner was served and the Missionaries were happy. We really enjoy having them over. I sent them home with all of the banana pudding dessert. Like we need to eat more of that!

Enjoy,

Leila.