In an effort to save Dave from his captors I’m posting this recipe to secure his freedom. Gluten free crust doesn’t have to be bland, take this pork crust for example. Just give this Mushroom Mackerel Meatza recipe a try. :)

I’ve made a few different Paleo pizza recipes and we’ve gone out to eat with the Paleo Chicago Meetup group to try a few different meatza’s around town but this time I wanted to try something new. I’ve had this can of mackerel staring back at me in the fridge for a while so I decided to give it a try on pizza.

Jeff was a little leery about having fish as an ingredient but by the time he finished the entire thing, he wasn’t a skeptic anymore. The crust is made from ground pork and isn’t flimsy where you need a fork to eat it, although I have no problem eating my pizza with a fork.

If you give this combination a try, let me know what you think and if you make your own meatza don’t forget to send me a pic. :)

Finish off the meal

Paleo Endive Chipotle Salad

Paleo Pesto Zucchini

Coconut Banana Berry Smoothie

Mushroom Mackerel Meatza Recipe with a Pork Crust appeared first on Paleo Porn.

I’m not a huge fan of meatloaf. I never really liked it as a kid so I’ve probably made it twice in my life, and this was the second time. Quite frankly I’m glad I gave it another chance because this Paleo Meatloaf with Bison and Bacon completely changed my POV! I mean how could you go wrong with adding a little a whole bunch of bacon? ;)

Speaking of bacon & bison, U.S. Wellness Meats is where I shop for the majority of my meat. I mentioned their bacon all throughout Pigskin Paleo as a superior option to the majority of the processed and packaged varieties found in the grocery store.

U.S. Wellness May Featured Chef

In April I was contacted by the amazing folks at U.S. Wellness and they asked if I would be their May Featured Chef. Me?! I was so excited and honored that they chose to feature me. So cool! So if you go to their site right now you’ll see my face on the home page, grinning back atcha. :)

What’s even more fun is seeing the reaction of my friends. Courtney tagged me on Facebook as soon as she saw. :)

I did an interview with them and spilled all my deepest, darkest secrets about cooking, so you’ll probably want to go read that right away. PLUS! This post is quite recipe heavy. Not only am I sharing this Paleo Meatloaf recipe but I’m giving you the keys to the castle with a link to four recipes I created for U.S. Wellness (which you’ll also find in Los Paleo!). If you give them a try don’t forget to let me know how they come out.

And if you’ve picked up a copy of Los Paleo, it would be amazing if you left me a review on Amazon! One more thing about Los and then I’ll stop, I promise. Amazon reduced the price of the paperback so if you’ve been waiting on that $25 steep price tag ;) …go take a look. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Then, get cookin’!

Have a great weekend everyone, I’ll be under the bright lights on stage at the Mrs. Illinois pageant tomorrow night!! So you can surely expect a recap on the pageant next week. :)

Complete the meal and serve the following with Your Meatloaf

Baby Kale-Rocket Salad

Thyme for Butternut Fries

Primal Apple Pie [in a bowl]

Paleo Meatloaf with Bison and Bacon appeared first on Paleo Porn.

I’m kinda backed up over here. Oh, get your head out of the toilet, I’m talking about blog posts silly. I have about 50 drafts that I’ve started and not published so I’m just gonna start pumpin these puppies out (at least that’s my plan). So let’s start with this Paleo Pumpkin Blueberry Bread recipe. :)

I know, I know…pumpkin is a fall vegetable but if you happen to be like me and freeze pumpkin in large quantities during the fall then you may just have some in your freezer. And, if not, you’ve got a couple different options. Go pick up some canned pumpkin from the store (just be sure Pumpkin is the first, and only, ingredient on the list) and second pin or bookmark this recipe and save it for later. :)

Pageant Update

Saturday is quickly approaching and we’ve had amazing weather this week. 79 and sunny = awesome tanning weather and that will definitely help me look less like a pale-white hibernator on stage under the bright lights. How’s the weather where you’re at?

More Paleo Desserts

Paleo Chocolate Coconut Haystacks

Paleo Peaches and Cream

Paleo Cherry (Not-So-Green) Smoothie

Paleo Pumpkin Blueberry Bread appeared first on Paleo Porn.

I made these bad boys as gifts for both my mom and my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day. Not including the freeze time these took me mayybe 15 minutes to prepare. These Paleo Chocolate Coconut Haystacks (also referred to as Macaroons) are a great mix of chocolate, coconut and sweetness, thanks to the raw honey.

This is my last full week before the pageant so no more sweets for me until Sunday. I mean look at these cookies! Thank goodness I gave the majority of them away otherwise it would have been a disaster having them in my freezer – staring back at me all week. :)

For Mother’s Day we took our families out for brunch and to see The Great Gatsby. Apparently Mother’s Day is the #1 eat-out holiday and boy am I glad I added a large enough buffer before the movie otherwise we may have been late for sure.

As for The Great Gatsby, I really enjoyed it. The blend of modern music throughout was so fun. I absolutely love movies based in that gangster/flapper period of history. Have you seen it yet? What did you think?

Back to the cookies! I thought having an additional drizzle of chocolate on top would be a nice topping but really they don’t even need it. These haystacks can absolutely stand alone.

If you give them a try, let me know what you think. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

More Paleo Porn, for your Mouth Hole…

Paleo Chocolate Pear Tart

Primal Apple Pie [in a bowl]

Coconut Banana Berry Smoothie

Paleo Chocolate Coconut Haystacks appeared first on Paleo Porn.

Many people complain that a Paleo lifestyle seems complicated and expensive. Well this recipe is neither. The aroma of this Italian Style Paleo Pork Neck Bones recipe made my mouth water…all damn day!

Pork neck bones are not your typical protein source and for that reason you can get them pretty cheap. I bought a package of almost 3 pounds of bones for less than $3.00. Now think about that, what can you buy for $3?! I have to admit there’s not a ton of meat on the bones BUT you simply can’t beat the price and flavor they create. Plus, this gives you a good chance to amp up on your veggies.

Create your own neck bone based stew by adding your favorite veggies to the slow cooker, I promise the scent of this meal will have you salivating until it’s time to dive in.

Link up to this post, leave a comment below or tweet/facebook a photo my way so I can see YOUR neck bone creation!

More Paleo Porn, for your Mouth Hole…

Winter Makes Me Bitter Salad

Orange Endive Salad

Los Paleo

Paleo Pork Neck Bones, Italian Style appeared first on Paleo Porn.

Cinco de Mayo Marla is finally here! Never you mind the fact that May 5th is celebrated just one day a year, Mexican Paleo recipes can now be enjoyed any day or night with Los Paleo. :)

For a little taste of Los, I’ve whipped up a Paleo Porn Quickie to show how easy it is to make Paleo Spanish Rice. Watch the video to see how quick it is to rice cauliflower. I can do it in 1 second flat ;)

I had so much fun putting this video together. Stay up to date on all the Paleo Porn Quickies still to come by subscribing to my newsletter (enter your name & email below) and subscribe to the Spyr Media YouTube channel. :)

To get the full recipe for Paleo Spanish Rice, pick up your copy of Los Paleo: Mexican Paleo Recipes. Not only is Los Paleo available in paperback on Amazon but, unlike Pigskin Paleo, it’s also available in digital format.

Hop on over to the Los page to get a sneak peak at every recipe, play around with the sorting feature to see what heat level category and badge each recipe has and if you pick up a copy, let me know what you think below in the comments or via Twitter, Facebook, G+ or email.

Introducing Los Paleo: Mexican Paleo Recipes appeared first on Paleo Porn.

I have always been inspired by strong female figures. When I used to watch more TV, I would always land on shows with a strong female lead character. Shows like Alias, where Jennifer Garner was the main badass, working for the good and bad guys (when she had to), in order to get the job done. Which means I may be the only fan out there of the movie Elektra… remember that one? The follow up to Daredevil. Yeah, Jennifer Garner was the star and played a similar role like she did on Alias. One badass superhero assassin with a pair of sai as her weapon of choice. :)

Now, one of my favorite shows is Castle. Not only do I love anything with Nathan Fillion in it but Stana Katic’s character is just a gorgeous and fun counterpart to Fillion’s role of Castle.

But enough about TV, what I really wanted to talk about was a real, live person: Erika Ebbel, to be more specific!

With my focus being spread out in so many directions lately, and the pageant a little over two weeks away, I was recently sent this video and really wanted to share.

To give you a little background, Erika Ebbel is a biochemist and she was featured on The Secret Life of Scientists. But…SURPRISE!…she also was Miss Massachusetts, 2005. Doesn’t seem like a typical combination does it? :)

The video below is a recap of Erika explaining her background in both science and pageants. She wrapped it all up in 4 short videos that will take a whopping total of 7:36 minutes of your time. The vid is short and sweet and covers some fun and interesting reasons for competing in a beauty pageant. You can skip to the third part which starts around 3:31 or simply start from the beginning. Either way, Erika provides a fun perspective on competition. :)

Watch Erika Ebbel: Biochemist on PBS. See more from Secret Life of Scientists.

My favorite quote from this video is:

“I like to compete…competition encourages you to improve.”

and I whole heartedly agree.

What do you think?

The Secret Life of Scientists: Erika Ebbel appeared first on Paleo Porn.

Hey to all the Paleo Porn newbies! :) I’ve been way beyond stressed with all the approaching deadlines in May but don’t you worry, I’ve got something fun coming, so stay tuned. :) Hopefully today’s 2 ingredient paleo snack will hold you over, or at least give you a new lens to think about creating your own two ingredient concoctions! :)

So before I get into this super easy recipe… I woke up yesterday morning after having a nightmare. I’m sure this wouldn’t be a typical nightmare for the majority of people but it was for me.

First a little backstory.

You know how when you’re dating someone and for some reason the immediate reaction by family is “so when are you cute kids gettin’ hitched?” Well at least for us, we got that question A LOT! Jeff and I dated for 8 years before we got married, so I’m sure you can imagine the number of times we were asked, even after we got engaged. Of course, once we were engaged and then married the next question that was bound to be asked hundreds and hundreds of times was “so when are you having kids?”. But I put the kibosh on that one from the very start! All my family and our close friends knew our stance on kids…sure yours may be cute (and I’m sure it would be really cool to see what Jeff & I will create) but we have zero interest in pursuing that thought any further than the simple reply of “yeah, maybe one day”.

Over the weekend we went to the 5th birthday party of a family friend and although we haven’t been asked in a really long time about kids, the question came up because everywhere we looked there were kids, kids and more kids. We’re at that age well I guess I should say beyond the age where we should already have our house, 2.1 kids and a dog already, but that’s not the path we have chosen. I’m quite content with our family the way it is. Alpha + Jeff and me makes 3. :)

Not surprisingly the question came up at the party. My typical response just wasn’t gonna cut it this time and I really got to thinking about it. It’s not that I hate kids, that’s really far from the truth actually, I just have different priorities. My standard line about, maybe when we’re 30 just doesn’t cut it anymore since you know? ahem, we’re 30. :p Well, future Marla has become present Marla in that scenario, so time to revise that one. If in the next five years I feel it’s time then maybe once we’re 35 I’ll come back to planning to expand our family but for right now, it’s just not even close to what we want.

All that being said, I think you see where this is going. I woke up with a start yesterday morning after having dreamt that we were traveling and all of a sudden I was pregnant and then immediately we had the baby. Not sure what my subconscious was trying to tell me there, or if hanging with all those kids over the weekend finally seeped in, but I was wide awake and ready to get to work after that one.

I’m always curious to hear about other people’s thoughts on having kids. If you don’t have kids do you plan on it and have a timeframe in mind? And if you already have kids, when did you decide to start?

Back to the Food

After I made my savory Paleo Ham recipe there were plenty of leftovers in the fridge. A couple days later I was scrounging for a snack and came out of the kitchen with these quick paleo snacks. What’s fun is you can swap out the peppers for any kind you may have on hand and swap out the meat for any type of leftovers. Quick and painless, right? Whadaya think?

Oh! and you can warm up the ham, but for something quick that you can even take with on the go, cold ham accentuates that smoky flavor.

Quick Paleo Snacks: Ham Stuffed Peppers appeared first on Paleo Porn.

A few months back I cooked up some recipes for Lava Lake Lamb and a couple photos of their recipes have already been featured on their blog but this Paleo Beef and Spinach Throw Together, which they referred to as Joe’s Special, has yet to make an appearance. For a quick dinner (that also makes for easy leftovers for breakfast or lunch) give this one a try.

Some days I have a whole bunch on my mind and really nothing much to say. This is one of those days, so I’ll just let the food do all the talking.

I’m still planning for the pageant, which is almost exactly a month away and I’ve been busy cooking up a storm in the kitchen this week. What’s been on your Paleo plate lately? :)

Paleo Beef and Spinach Throw Together appeared first on Paleo Porn.

Have you ever noticed how every ham recipe is somehow sweet? I’ve seen pineapple ham, ham with cranberries, honey ham, etc. So when Jeff’s mom asked me to take care of the ham recipe for Easter I decided to go with herbs over fruit and this Paleo Ham recipe is all sugar-free.

When I was trying to figure out which photo I liked the best and asked Jeff for his opinion on which to post, his response was that they all look like “the Grizwald family turkey, like when you cut it, it would deflate”. He didn’t think any one of these photos looked like ham. I guess since this was the first time I had made ham, I can’t blame him. The funny thing is the only request Jeff’s dad made about me making the ham was for it not to be too seasoned. Fortunately everyone enjoyed it anyway, even though I couldn’t stick to a simple recipe. :)

So, if you’re looking for a ham recipe that’s not sweet, this is it! Start with the petite sugar-free ham from U.S. Wellness Meats. It’s smoked, uncured, nitrate-free, weighs in at approximately 2.5 lbs and the ingredients are pork, water, sea salt. Put together the quick little dressing and viola, you’ve got a tasty sugar free ham.

More Paleo Porn Snack recipes

Quick Paleo Snacks: Ham Stuffed Peppers

Bite-Size Greek Salad Skewers

Belgian Endive Stuffed with Marinated Calamari

Paleo Ham Recipe appeared first on Paleo Porn.