Midweek Snack // Paella

We had a slight delay in this house, getting started on our 2016 "recipe trial calendar" because G has been struggling with feeling well - and we recently found out she has a hyperactive gallbladder. Super rare condition. We have some 'band aids' in place to help her feel somewhat normal while we figure out whether she should have it removed or not. So, on such weeks that she's not feeling like complete ass, we take advantage with some recipe making!!

Everything I've made and posted for the past two months have been tried and true recipes, or things that I've thrown together myself on the fly that worked out great! It's been fun sharing those with you as well, and will continue to, on weeks that I didn't try a new recipe.

So the first recipe we had on our calendar from January was Paella from Juli Bauer's Paleo Cookbook. And we were pretty enthusiastic about it because we've both been craving shrimp lately and have a 2lb bag sitting in the freezer waiting for us to cook up! Shrimp + Sausage + Chicken + delicious veggies = YUM

If you're interested in the recipe, I am emailing it out to my newsletter recipients tomorrow morning including my personal edits/preferences. You can sign up on the home page of my blog!

My Assessment

Taste: 5 out of 5 stars

WOW- this dish was an instafave! I almost always go to the trouble of doubling a recipe. Which means that I double everything, including the spices. I also usually make some minor substitutions, either for the efficiency clause or the I-don't-like-mushrooms (or whatever offending ingredient) clause. When I send out the recipe, FYI, I always send it in its original form with notes on how I changed it, so if you do love mushrooms, you're not going to miss out on that. I'm making this note to you because the taste may rate differently with you depending on how you make it. The way I made it, it was top notch.

Ease: 3.5 out of 5 stars

As far as one-pot recipes goes, that gives the recipe an automatic 3 stars because not having a million pots and pans is a huge win on the clean up front. One potential down side to the one-pot recipe is the many phases of cooking that go on in the single pot. I love recipes like the Pork Fried Cauliflower Rice, because each ingredient gets added in after the next and it just builds until it's finished. In this recipe, you cook one part, take it out. Cook a second part, take it out. Cook a third... and so forth. Then combine at the end. So while you might have just 1 pot, you have 482 bowls to hold all the stuff that is cooked already. Each piece is relatively easy, not a lot of complicated prep work or weird spices, though.

Make Again Potential: 5 out of 5 stars

I would definitely make this again! I know that I need to have a little time on my side for prep, but if I'm craving all of the meats, and want a dish with built-in fiber rich veggies and loads of flavor, I will come back to this for sure. We're having this for multiple nights of dinners, but because you can litterally eat it with one bowl and one spoon, it's a great meal to have cooked ahead to take-with for lunch at the office as well.

#Nourish #Meals