Have you ever gone into a mental paralysis? The kind that especially seems to strike when you have plenty of things on your ‘To do’ list! Yikes! Last year when I quit my job, I was quite jubilant that I will really have the time to do all the things I really really love. Like cooking and baking. Ok I need to be specific there. Cooking and Baking regular meals for my family and cooking and baking Paleo and AIP meals for myself. And of course the soccer mom part – driving the kids to and from all their activities! OK after that comes blogging. And instagramming. And recording youtube videos. And watching gardening videos on youtube (yes that has been my craze all winter) ! All this was fine and the days moved exactly as I had planned them to be – lazy and leisurely! Until I decided to add one more ‘thing’ – the NTC program to my list! Yeah, I started the Nutritional Therapy Consultant course earlier this year thinking it should be a breeze, after all, I have 3 Master’s degrees to my credit, two of them being in the health sciences. Right? Wrong!
I have soooo much work every week now that all my food related activities – like food photography, recipe capture, writing a blog post etc etc have taken a back seat. Of course feeding my family and myself healthy meals has to be somehow squeezed in! OK so what’s my point? Well, I wasn’t really trying to make a point….just looking for solutions I guess since I absolutely love the program and cannot wait to complete all the Modules!. I just need to get more organized I guess and plan my days in advance. But wasn’t that the reason I quit my job ? Because I did not like deadlines? And because deadlines=stress? 🙂 Anyways, I absolutely need some planning in my life right now. So if you have any ideas, please let me know!
Meanwhile here’s an awesome recipe that I have made several times over the past several weeks but because of my lack of planning, I couldn’t post this until now 🙁 I really really like this since it is so simple and easy to make but is packed with so much flavor! I love the addition of cashew nuts in this – boy, am I glad to have cashew nuts back in my life! But for those of you who still cannot tolerate any nuts, this recipe is still fabulous because the addition of saffron makes this a special dish. Raisins are also normally added to pilafs in general but I avoid them since I am very sensitive to dried fruit and cannot do much of it.
I wanted to call this pilaf ‘Shahi Pilaf’ since Shahi in Urdu means ‘meant for royalty’. Yes, eating this simple dish indeed makes you feel very special and very loved. Hey, now don’t we all deserve some love folks?
Sharing this delicious paleo pilaf (pulao) recipe at the weekly Paleo AIP recipe Roundtable hosted by Phoenix Helix.
- 1 tbsp coconut oil or ghee (use coconut oil for AIP)
- 8-10 cashew nuts (omit for AIP)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds (omit for AIP)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 one inch piece of cinnamon stick
- ½ head of cauliflower (or 2 cups cauliflower 'rice')
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 3-4 saffron strands
- fresh cilantro leaves, chopped fine about 2 tbsp
- handful of raisins (optional)
- Using a food processor, make cauliflower rice using fresh cauliflower florets. (I use this inexpensive chopper which works really well for this). keep aside.
- Heat a medium size sauce pan and add the coconut oil (or ghee). When hot, turn heat to medium and add the cashew nuts (if adding). Saute these for a couple mins until the cashews turn golden brown. Add the cumin next (if adding) along with bay leaf and the cinnamon. Stir for 30 secs and then add the cauliflower rice. Add the salt and turmeric and stir to mix everything well. Cover the sauce pan with a tight fitting lid and cook on low heat for 3-4 mins until the cauliflower rice is well-cooked and soft. Turn heat off. Add the saffron strands and cilantro and mix well.
Just started my first week of AIP and made this to eat alongside curries, and it’s delicious!!! Thank you, Indu, for all of your amazing recipes! They give me hope that I can do AIP while enjoying what I eat! Thank you! 🙂
I appreciate your feedback greatly! Thanks so much!