When people tell you not to do something…do you want to do it 10x more? I do. When people told me they didn’t want me to post fashion pictures, I did it more. When people tell me they don’t like that I cuss, I cuss WAY more. This behavior came from being told not to do something as a child, which meant I absolutely did it. It’s pretty much a lose-lose situation with me. Want me to do something, I might do it. Want me to not do something, I definitely will. So if you feel as though I shouldn’t cuss, please don’t waste your breath asking me not to. I’ve been emailed many times, received many comments all over social media channels and been asked by my mother probably hundreds of times to not cuss, and I continue to. Cuss words aren’t offensive to me, they are a way to express your feelings with exuberance and passion. That’s all. Stop taking life so seriously, buttercup!
I think I’m officially back to normal after stuffing my face all weekend in Austin with my friends. I stayed completely gluten free while I was there, which is pretty easy to do, but I still ate WAY more than I usually do and had WAY more sugar than I usually do, so it was pretty tough on the body. My stomach hurt, my joints ached and I wasn’t sleeping well. But I’m back on track after doing 3 workouts in a row and limiting my sugar.
But those weekends are so worth it. And since I didn’t have my normal Paleo(fx) recap this year, I wanted to share a quick recap of all the places we ate and the grub we chowed down on! You ready? Let’s do this!
I’ve been staying with the same lovely group for the past few years now! Sean and Suzanne from Pastured Kitchen, Anthony and Katrina from We Are Primal Two, Cassy from Fed and Fit, Vanessa from Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind, and this year I met Lexi from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen for the first time! We always rent a new house, make meals together and eat out for LOTS of meals. It’s a pretty wonderful weekend.
As soon as we flew into Austin, we did our normal routine: getting food at 24 Diner. Because it’s always so incredibly good. I grabbed the blue cheese burger with a side of bacon braised green beans. So bomb.
After settling in, we headed straight out for Dolce Neve. Which was interrupted by a down pouring of rain. Normal Texas behavior at this point. This gelato spot was started by a man from Milan who only uses grass fed dairy. I grabbed the sea salt caramel and dark chocolate sea salt. So salty, so sweet, so cute! Gelato is so much better than regular ice cream. DON’T FIGHT ME ON THIS ONE!
Every time we are in Austin (seriously, every time) we always hit up Picnik. They have THE BEST butter coffees and the best paleo/primal treats with amazing ingredients. I almost always get a mocha chocolatte and absolutely always get their almond butter blondies. They are f*cking UNREAL. I can’t emphasize it enough how good they are!
So last year we waited in line for Franklin’s BBQ for 5 HOURS and wanted to try something different this year. My first year at Paleo(fx), I tried La Barbecue and absolutely loved it. I personally thought La Barbecue was better than Franklin’s so I was pumped when we decided to grab that this year. Luckily my friend Vanessa is obsessed with BBQ so she found a line sitter kid who sat in line for us in the rain and we just took his place to get food. No waiting for us! And he made $50 and waited for only 2 hours. $25 an hour at 13 years old is doing too bad, right?!
If you’ve never heard me talk about Siete, I don’t know how that’s possible. I use Siete Foods paleo tortillas almost weekly. And I know the family run company on a personal level as well. So when they asked our group to come over for a 5 course dinner, I was SO PUMPED. Not only to hang out with the awesome company, but to try the food they made! And you guys, I was absolutely blown away. Out of all the food I had that weekend (Salty Sow being one of our favorites that is pictured), the Siete Foods dinner was by far the best. The friend and chef that had cook for us did an absolutely outstanding job. Every single bite of these plate was some of the best food I’ve ever had. EVER. So unreal.
So we always go to Lick in Austin because it’s been one of our favorite forever now. And they always have the best flavors. But I still always just get the salted caramel because I think it’s the best. Personally, I like Dolce Neve more, but that’s just my gelato-love preference.
With my business, I rarely ever meet the people that I work with in person. It’s all emailing and calling. Luckily, Paleo(fx) brings together so many of those people to one place. This year, I got to meet Emily and Antony of Real Plans, the meal planning service I just announced that I partnered with! We ended up meeting for breakfast at a popular place called Olivia. Honestly, I wasn’t crazy impressed with my breakfast burger. But that could have been because I was going on 3 days of overindulging. Who knows.
If you’ve seen my instagram, you know that I’m slightly obsessed with kimchi. Kimchi and curry. So when I saw that there was a place with kimchi loaded fries from Chi’Lantro, I was ALL OVER IT. And these fries did not disappoint. You top them with beef and you can add all sorts of other stuff like guac and I don’t know what else. All I know is that it was UN.REAL.
For our last meal, we decided to hit up Odd Duck because so many people recommended it. It’s a tapas style restaurant which means you don’t get much food for a lot of money. That’s what they should say when they tell you they serve their food tapas style, “Hey, you’ll feel broke soon and still slightly hungry.” Since we had a big group, we ordered 2 of everything. Then Vanessa ended up ordering the sweet potatoes 5 more times. I guess she was into those. Everything was delicious and super fresh. Looking back, I loved every single thing we tried, I just don’t see myself going back because I like a little more bang for my buck. But it was definitely awesome and flavor mouth explosions all over the place!
That was all I ate. Just a small amount. After we were done with the weekend, we all agreed we needed to include more outdoor activities next year. We just get so excited about all the amazing food that we forget that we also have limbs that come move about and do cool things around the city, other than just moving one arm from table to mouth. Next year will be different…probably not. Just more walking involved. Which means less cute wedges. Sacrifices.
Enough about food. Let’s talk about more food!!
Lemon Basil Seared Scallop Pasta
- Yield: 3-4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 package Cappello’s Fettuccine
- 1/2 pound bacon, diced
- 1 pound scallops
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 shallot, minced
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of 2 lemons
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- pinch of black pepper
- small handful basil, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Cook Cappello’s fettuccine according to package instructions and set aside. (You will reheat these in a pan later on)
- Place a large saute pan over medium heat and cook bacon until crispy, about 8 minutes. Remove bacon with slotted spoon and set aside. Pat scallops down with a paper towel until completely dry. Sprinkle with a bit of salt on both sides. Cook scallops on both sides for about 2 minutes per side, until scallops are browned and bounce back when you press on them. Remove from pan and set aside once they are done cooking and cover with foil to keep warm.
- Add garlic and shallot to the pan and cook for about 1-2 minutes, until the shallot becomes translucent. Then add lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil and red pepper flakes. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any of the left behind from the bacon and scallops. Let mixture reduce for about 1 minute. Add bacon and fettuccine noodles to the pan and toss to coat and warm through. Then add scallops back to the pan, add black pepper and basil and toss everything to coat.
- Serve once warmed through!
______________
You May Also Like:
Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter
________________
Click Here To Get All My PaleOMG Recipes Into Your Meal Planner With Real Plans!
I may be compensated through my affiliate links in this post, but all opinions are my own. This compensation helps with expenses to keep this blog up and running!
Hm, well it depends! If it doesn’t involve getting myself killed or ridden for life, then possibly! When people told me I shouldn’t be getting a job freshman year of college, now I want one, haha!
So for this pasta–could I also sub for zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash, even? I don’t usually buy regular pasta!
sure thing!
I am in shock at the price of the Coppello’s Fettuccine. Never in my lifetime will I pay that much for any kind of pasta. That being said the recipe sounds very tasty and I will use other forms of pasta instead. It makes me sad to see the huge expense of working towards being healthy. It should be the other way around. Also, I am not allowed Tapioca flour.
perfect, just make you own!
You NEED to stop posting pictures of Jackson. It is out of control!!
Thanks!
what?
Sorry. I was trying the reverse psychology thing but it may not work on the Internet as well as in person. I LOVE Jackson and was hoping for more pictures
hahahaha that makes way more sense now!
This might be my favorite post ever – so much food porn! I visited Austin last year & ate at some many amazing places but you just added more fuel to the fire to get back. And that scallop recipe?? Happening ASAP! I’m heading to Denver at the end of July & have a few of your ‘regular’ digs pinned on google maps but think it would be AWESOME if you did a similar Denver-style blog post with your fav paleoish/g-free places to hit up while in town. Keep being a fantastic human (especially the cussing), love your recipes & blog!
Dani
boom: https://paleomg.com/eating-gluten-free-staying-active-in-myrtle-beach/
You rock!
What shoes are you wearing in the 4th pic?
http://rstyle.me/n/bqea8abq557
This was excellent. Made it on the cast iron over the grill so the house wouldn’t smell like scallops for a week but this was exceptional. Keep up the great work.
Juli, I have followed your blog for several years now, own all of your cookbooks and have made countless recipes of yours which are always excellent. I made this recipe and just had to take a moment to let you know you knocked it out of the park with this one. It is next level. My family absolutely loved it. Thanks for creating and sharing such amazing recipes.
juli, i’ve adored your site for the better part of the past two years- i’m such a fan of your recipes, and have recommended many of them to my friends! i’ve just left texas for massachusetts for work- and am so thrilled- but man, i miss it… ha, your photos prompted me to share. thank you for sharing your many gifts so freely with us. your generosity is very dearly appreciated.
Would bay scallops work for this recipe, or would you recommend sea scallops? This will be my first time making scallops! eek!
i used sea scallops but you can use whatever you find or prefer! bay scallops are smaller so they won’t cook as long
So I ended up making this for my fiancé’s birthday, using the sea scallops and pancetta in place of bacon. I served this with a nice beef tenderloin steak and green beans, and my fiancé said this was in his top 3 favorite dinners I’ve ever cooked for him! Thanks again for another amazing recipe!
On a side note, when he asked where I found the recipe and I said your name, he said “oh is that the one with the Frenchie?” Clearly I show him your Jackson snaps a lot haha!
awwwww yay!! that’s so awesome!! i’ll keep trying to make even better recipes just so I can hear cool moments like this!!! thanks so much for sharing it with me!
Are you able to find the Capello pasta in stores (specially in Denver??) Or are you ordering online? Thanks!
yep, at whole foods!