Paleo-ish Bacon Treat

Crossfit Asheville held a New Year's Day Paleo Potluck with a series of lectures on eating Paleo to kick off a 90 day Paleo challenge. Several people mentioned how yummy the bacon wrapped dates were and wanted the recipe. My friend Amanda made them from a recipe she found in the internet - unfortunately I did not get to taste one that day. Having some friends over for dinner recently gave me the excuse to make them as an appetizer- they are amazing and very easy to make. I came across several recipes on the internet for them and used one from the blog Paleo Mama, which goes something like this:

Ingredients:
Bacon - I was able to use Earthfare brand that is nitrate-free
Whole dates - either buy pitted ones or pit them
Almonds
Almond butter
Toothpicks
Baking pan that is lined with foil and a wire rack (this will make a place for the bacon drippings to go)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice raw bacon into about 2 inch sections, open the date length-wise and spread a small amount of almond butter and place a whole almond inside where the pit used to be. Wrap the bacon section around the date and secure it with a toothpick - place it on the wire rack inside backing pan. Make as many as you wish and bake for about 20 minutes or until the bacon is cooked. Let them cool and then enjoy the mixture of salty and sweet.


Stuffing the date


Wrapped and ready for baking

Eating Paleo is difficult to explain but it is basically comprised of eating whole foods and avoiding refined foods in the spirit of our paleolithic ancestors which predates agriculture. Essentially it says that you should eat mostly lean meat (hence the Paleo-like title for the bacon recipe), vegetables, nuts and seeds. Eat little starch, some fruit and no sugar. There are tons of great websites and blogs out there explaining it in detail if you are interested. I have been eating paleo about 70-80 percent I would guess since Jan 1 and it actually feels great. I hope to include future posts on the Paleo topic as well as some simple recipes.

Happy Eating!