I come from a Puerto Rican family and the food I ate from my grandmother's kitchen was crazy delicious. That’s the thing with cleaning up your eating… you think you have to sacrifice all the flavor, but that is far from the truth. The power of simple spices and fresh ingredients can liven up any protein or vegetable.
If you are looking for recipe ideas, I highly suggest you follow Paleo OMG. Juli Bauer finds ways to make your favorite foods way healthier. I’ve made this Puerto Rican inspired recipe that I found on her blog and it was approved by Coach Lee and Coach Jack. :) I will warn that it is a little labor intensive but it makes a big casserole and it’s SO WORTH IT!
Photo Cred: paleomg.com
Recipe (Serves 3-4):
INGREDIENTS:
- 6 strips of bacon
- 3 yellow plantains (you want them to be slightly brown, but not green)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- salt and pepper, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large pan over medium heat, cook bacon until slightly crispy. Set aside.
- Drain excess bacon fat, leaving behind about 1-2 tablespoons.
- Cut off the ends of the plantains and remove the peel. Thinly slice the plantain lengthwise into 3 slices. Repeat with other 2 plantains.
- Add plantain slices to bacon fat pan and cook about both sides for about 2-3 minutes until they are slightly browned. Set aside.
- In the same pan, add minced garlic clove, ground beef, onion and salt and pepper. Cook until meat has broken down and completely cooked through.
- Now for the stacking of the casserole, you can do this any way you'd like.
- Place 3 plantain slices on the bottom, then 2 slices of bacon on top, then a couple spoonfuls of the ground beef mixture. Repeat two more times on top of the ground beef mixture.
- Put in oven and cook for 12-15 minutes. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
- Scoop out and serve.
