I do paleo/primal or paleo 2.0 or whatevertheheck you want to call it. But I do it as a single person and on a tight budget, so I figured I’d share the few recipes I actually use on this blog (this will in no way ever be a “cooking blog”!). I call it “Paleo for One” (see “categories”) because so much of the paleo/primal cooking suggestions are for people have families or disposable incomes (or both). Would I buy organic, grass-fed beef if I could? You betcha. In the meantime, no-brand grocery store ground chuck hamburger meat it is!
(FYI a “remix”, in fandom parlance, is where someone takes the basic premise of a story and rewrites it, usually as a homage to the original story)
I originally got the general recipe from In the Night Farm’s older blog Nightlife. It looked like my favorite kind of cooking: easy “one pot” dish that would give me leftovers, so I tried it out. I bulked it up so that it would make two, possibly three meals because I’m not a cook by nature, so anything I can do to cook in bulk once or twice a week is what I aim for. I also have to buy food on the cheap, so I use items I get from the local grocery.
Primal Hamburger Casserole Remix
- 1+ lb. ground beef (not lean! Go for chuck or “market”, which is cheaper too)
- 1 med. onion, chopped
- 8 oz. fresh mushrooms
- 4 oz. can of sliced black olives, drained
- Butter or coconut oil for sautéing
- Seasoning to taste (Worchester and steak seasonings work well, or use a taco seasoning mix)
- Sundried tomatoes to taste
I usually mix the meat first with some seasonings, salt and/or steak seasonings, and let it sit while I start on the rest. Order is important! Skillet stays near high for all of this. I use my heavy-mama 10 inch cast iron skillet, but any large size one will do.
Add the butter or oil to the hot pan, and let it just get to melted. Toss in the onions and cook them until they are soft but not translucent, with some crispy edges to them (the way to get crispy edges is to NOT STIR…let the suckers fry!). Push them to the edge of pan then add the mushrooms, repeating the process of letting them get cooked and a little scorched but not mushy. Push them to the edges to sit with the onions. Add the ground beef and mash it down pretty flat. Dump the olives on top. Once again, let it sit so the meat gets nicely browned (five minutes or so). Then start stirring everything up, and keep stirring until the meat is 100% cooked. The onions and mushrooms should be soft but not mushy by that point, the olives lightly cooked. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then chow down!
Seasonings: if you are using Worchester and steak seasonings, add them to the onions while they cook, and again when you start stirring the meat. If you are using some kind of taco seasonings (your own or packaged) then add it last, right before the cool down stage. What I love about this recipe is the flexibility of what you can add: hate olives? Leave ’em out! Love garlic? Toss it in! Serve it with a dollop of your favorite bar-b-que sauce or sour cream! Serve it over salad! Put a fried egg on top! So, while the basic recipe is easy, you can create a lot of different meals around it.
This recipe makes a lot of food, and travels well for work/school lunches.
