Ranch Turkey Loaded Sweet Potato Fries

Because everyone loves a bowl of loaded fries. AIP, paleo and allergy-friendly, get your family and friends around the table and tuck into a pile of these. 

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I totally love loaded fries. 

A good plateful of sweet potato (or your other favourite fries, or wedges) topped with meat, veggies, avocado (always), red onion and whatever sauce you like. 

I was surprised that there wasn't a loaded fries recipe already on the blog, because I eat them quite a lot. 

And this is my favourite one. 

Minced/ground turkey flavoured with Ranch-style herbs and spices - dill, parsley, garlic - and then fried until browned. I've drizzled it in the garlic sauce from The Healing Kitchen cookbook. If you don't have the book, it has over 175 AIP recipes - it's by Alaena Haber from Grazed and Enthused and Dr Sarah Ballantyne, of The Paleo Mom. And that garlic sauce is on repeat in our house. Takes seconds to blend up and then it's there in your fridge ready for some garlicky goodness whenever you need it. Like on these fries.

Give it a try yourself and let me know what you think. 

Ranch Turkey Loaded Sweet Potato Fries
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 large sweet potatoes
2 tsp olive oil (or mild coconut oil)
400g turkey thigh mince/ground turkey thigh
1 tsp dried chives
1 tsp dried parsley
half teaspoon dried oregano
half teaspoon dried dill
quarter teaspoon garlic salt
2 pak choi cabbages, or other soft-leaved green, like chard, spinach, etc. 
2 avocados, peeled and the stone removed and then diced roughly
1 small red onion, peeled and chopped finely
freshly chopped parsley, for serving

garlic sauce, to serve (optional)

Method
Heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 4 and get out a baking tray or oven proof dish. Chop the sweet potatoes into wedges or fries and clatter into the bottom of the tray/dish. Drizzle with the 1 tsp of the oil and slide in to bake for 25-30 minutes, or until tender and sizzling. 

While the sweet potatoes are cooking, get on with the turkey. 

Heat the remaining 1 tsp oil in a frying pan and fry the mince until just cooked and no traces of pink remain. Add the chives, parsley, oregano, dill and garlic salt and stir through. Wash and then roughly chop the pak choi (or other greens, if using) and stir into the turkey mixture. Stir-fry until the turkey is cooked, the herbs are aromatic and the greens have wilted. Turn off the heat. 

The sweet potato fries should now be cooked. 

Transfer them, using tongs, to a serving bowl (or individual bowls), making sure they fill the bowl, arranging them outwards. Pile up the cooked turkey mixture on top, in the centre, topping with the diced avocado, finely chopped red onion and a scattering of fresh parsley. 

Serve straight away and allow everyone to dig in and help themselves. 

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Carob 'Chocolate' Covered Sea Salted Dates

A sweet treat of carob-covered Medjool dates sprinkled with flakes of sea salt. Totally paleo, AIP compliant and allergy-friendly. 

This post contains some affiliate links. This means that if you decide to click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission that goes back into keeping the blog going. Thanks for your support! 

We used to have this friend that was allergic to chocolate. 

CHOCOLATE. 

In that they couldn't eat anything at all with chocolate in it. They'd order a coffee and it would come with a powdery dust of cocoa over the top, and they'd have to send it back for a new one to be made. They'd always have to be on the lookout for lurking chocolate chips in muffins or pastries. I felt really sorry for them. 

So it was, that I was thinking about them the other day and all the things covered in chocolate that you can get. Why not come up with a version that they could eat? Or that fellow AIPers could eat, knowing they were staying totally autoimmune protocol compliant? 

And so these were born. 

Sticky Medjool dates, with the stones taken out (we don't want you cracking your teeth on these bad boys), dipped in a carob mixture and left to harden, but not before scattering with sea salt flakes. 

Even if you're not allergic to chocolate or on AIP, carob still gives a distinct flavour of its own. Like chocolate, but kind of earthy-flavoured with some toffee flavours going on too. It's worth a try if you fancy a change.

Heaven. 

Carob 'Chocolate' Covered Sea Salted Dates

Makes 6

Ingredients

6 large, Medjool dates

2 tbsp mild coconut oil

2 tsp carob powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of sea salt flakes

Method

Take the dates, make a slit in the length of each one and then take out the stone. 

Warm the coconut oil slightly so it's liquid (I do this for 10 seconds in the microwave) and then add the carob and the vanilla extract and whisk to combine. 

Dip each date into the carob mixture, and turn so it's well-coated and place on a greaseproof paper-lined plate and then slide into the fridge for 5 minutes to set. Take out of the fridge after the 5 minutes and give them another dip, before returning to the plate. Quickly scatter with sea salt flakes and slide back into the fridge for another 4 minutes until set. 

Once set, eat! 

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Lemon and Mint Iced Camomile Tea

A fruity, refreshing iced camomile tea, with lemon and mint. 
Allergy friendly and easy to make!

This post contains some affiliate links. This means that if you decide to click through and make a purchase, I might receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) that goes back into the blog. Thank you for your support. 

Back in April, I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum on Exhibition Road, in London.

Oh my word what a place. 

I love history. And art. And to have there, as you walk in, immaculate sculptures of gods and goddesses that were made thousands of years ago, is, to me, immense. I saw a dress from the 1700s that a lady would have had to have shimmied through doors sideways in her dainty little box-like pointy shoes to fit through. I saw Henry VIII's writing desk and an ancient gold necklace from pre-Roman times. I stood in awe at the Raphael paintings, lit in semi darkness to preserve them. So much culture. 

It was AMAZING.

My kids love the Natural History Museum opposite. But next time, they can drop me off here on their way. 

It's probably my favourite place in the world. 

And all this staring up at paintings and sculptures wide eyed and open-mouthed made me thirsty. So I stopped in at their beautiful Victorian tea room to have a cuppa.  

And there, in the V and A cafe, I saw advertised Camomile and Lemon Tea. 

Camomile and lemon. That would taste nice. 

I ordered one, and when I sat down to drink, I realised I'd been given plain camomile instead. So I drank it up anyway, and headed home to experiment. 

Camomile has that sweet, earthy, daisy-like quality to it. And lemon is also sweet (depending on the lemon) but sharp and zesty. And mint - well, mint just freshens the whole lot up. And I knew that a camomile and lemon combo - definitely needed ice - lots of it.

And here it is. Deeply refreshing, cooling and reviving. 

Even the colour will cheer you up. 

Try it.

Lemon and Mint Camomile Iced Tea

Serves 1

Ingredients 

1 camomile tea bag (or 2 tsp loose camomile flowers tea)

300ml hot, not quite boiling water (just over 1 cup)

handful of ice cubes

handful of fresh mint leaves, washed

1 lemon, sliced

Method

Make the camomile tea by steeping the tea bag or the loose camomile tea in the hot water for about 5 minutes. Leave to cool to lukewarm and then take out the tea bag/strain the loose tea. 

Fill a glass with the ice cubes and push in the fresh mint leaves and lemon slices, squeezing them amongst the ice. 

Pour the cooled camomile tea into the glass - these are the ones I use - over the ice. 

Add a couple of (paper) straws and slurp, preferably in the sunshine, with your feet up. 

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