Anyone on the paleo diet knows it can be hard to give up some of your favorite typical American foods. Like cheese and bread. My husband and I just started the autoimmune paleo diet, which is even more strict. It also eliminates nightshades and all nuts and seeds. This makes finding a bread replacement even harder!
I’m Sick and Tired
Why bother with such a strict diet when I’d love to stuff my face with chocolate cake? I have hypothyroid, adrenal fatigue and a leaky gut. My husband has genetic psoriasis. I’m tired of sleeping 13 hours a day and never feeling like I have any energy. I’m tired of the brain fog, the bloating and the stomach pains even after giving up gluten. My husband is tired of the constant acne, dandruff and insomnia.
The solution? We’re trying to heal our guts and allergies with an autoimmune diet. And even though it is really strict, with a little bit of creativity there are some really delicious food options out there!
Why Autoimmune Paleo?
Sarah Ballantyne is the scientific brains behind this diet and she wrote the AIP “bible” explaining the whys behind why this diet works to help the gut and immune system heal. You can find her book here. There’s also a cookbook that goes along with that book available here.
Mickey Trescott is another fabulous person who has contributed to AIP cooking and you can find her AIP cookbook here. This comes with meal plans, simple lists of the allowed and not allowed foods, shopper’s guide and tips for batch cooking. I’m falling in love with batch cooking lately, because as much as I love cooking, I’d like to not live my whole life in the kitchen.
One of my favorite recipe resources right now is the website “He Won’t Know It’s Paleo.” She has some phenomenal, AIP desserts. And when you can’t use flour, sugar eggs or butter, that’s quite an accomplishment!
Cheesy Love
This recipe was inspired by above mentioned site’s queso sauce. I think we have used this sauce for everything under the sun these past 2 weeks. It really is soo smooth, creamy and cheesy! It’s great on hamburgers or sweet potato fries and tastes really good on some bacon and potatoes or broccoli. Oh my goodness I’m drooling right now.
I digress.
As great as this sauce is it can help make taco night a reality again. Sometimes I feel like on the Paleo and especially the AIP diet all I can eat is meat and veggies, so this recipe helps widen the field a bit. Even if you aren’t on an autoimmune diet, this recipe is worth making!
AIP Tostadas with Cheese
- cheese sauce (I doubled the nutritional yeast)
- 2 c riced cauliflower
- 1 lb beef
- Flatbread (I used this recipe)
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp lard or coconut oil
- avocado slices
- roughly chopped lettuce
- chopped chives or onions
Please ignore my messy counter, but here’s a tip for making the “tostada” part. The dough is hard to work with so I sandwiched it between two layers of parchment paper and rolled it out this way. Be careful you don’t roll it too thin though or you’ll have lots tears.
Directions:
- Place the beef and salt in a skillet and begin to brown. When it’s almost done, add the riced cauliflower. Cook just until cauliflower is tender, not mushy. Add water as needed to avoid burning and stir occasionally.
- While the beef is cooking, saute the garlic and onions in the lard or oil. Set aside.
- Place a piece of flatbread on a plate. Sprinkle on some beef mixture, onions, lettuce and avocado. Cover with some cheese sauce. Repeat this 1-2 times, ending with the flatbread on top.
- Cover with more cheese sauce and garnish with chives.
Note I use a large amount of beef and rice mixture in this so there would be ample leftovers. Make it once, enjoy it twice! This would make a great stir fry the next day with some veggies.
How to Make Riced Cauliflower
Ricing cauliflower can be quite a process! You could grate it manually and hope you have some skin left on your knuckles when you’re done. Or you could attempt it in the food processor and get large pieces mixed in with mushy bits.
This video below though shows the easiest way I’ve seen to do it. Within a few minutes you have perfectly riced cauliflower, without bloody knuckles.