Holistic Instincts

An empanada is pretty much a hand-held pie, with fillings ranging from savory to sweet.  Usually fried, I baked these flavorful beef empanadas, and they came out darn good that way! For the dough, I used Primal Palate's wrapper dough recipe from their book Make it Paleo II .  I have listed a few options for dough below.  If you are not following any dietary restrictions, wonton wrappers should work well here (these are NOT Paleo, though). Leftover empanadas store beautifully in the refrigerator and can be eaten cold.  They are also portable, making them a great lunch-box option. Beef Empanadas For the dough: Yucca dough by Predominantly Paleo Cassava flour dough , also by Predominantly Paleo AIP pie dough by Eat Heal Thrive (omitting the maple syrup and vanilla) Or 1 package prepared wonton wrappers (not Paleo) For the filling: 1 tablespoon olive oil, or cooking fat of choice 1/2 onion, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 lb organic ground beef 3 teaspoo

I have been making this pasta sauce for YEARS and it is definitely one of our family favorites!  It is absolutely easy and quick to make with the aid of my best friend, the electric  Instant Pot (you have one, right?),  And over the last few months, this is a recipe that my 14 year old has been in charge of since it is one of his favorite meals. First, a couple notes: An electric pressure cooker is used for this recipe.  I am sure this can be adapted to be prepared on the stove - I might follow all instructions, and just increase the final cooking time to an hour. If your family tolerates dairy, I HIGHLY recommend adding a hunk of rind from wedge of real Parmesan cheese before simmering the sauce.  The rind may seem odd but every part of this delicious cheese is traditionally used, including the rind.  Mo mystery stuff from a green can here, please!  The cooking process softens the cheese rind, leaving it almost spongy, and it imparts an incredible depth of flavor to the sau

The recipe is a little different than most, in that it uses essential oils for some of flavorings.  Now, you may know that I love Young Living essential oils for many reasons .  They are a therapeutic-grade essential oil, and unadulterated, unlike most essential oils available.  And Young Living has an extensive line of dietary-grade essential oils, called Vitality ™, that can be used to as a dietary supplement or added to food and beverages (ordering info here ). I used Ginger Vitality ™ essential oil because fresh ginger is simply one of those ingredients I rarely have on hand.  And powdered ginger always tasted dusty to me.  I used the Lemon  Vitality ™ here because it sounded good and again, I didn't have fresh lemons laying around and we are not getting started on bottled lemon juice, right? I suspect that Lime  Vitality ™ will work wonderfully in this Asian-inspired recipe.  I kept the red pepper flake to a minimum because I still have a kid that prefers things on the