Last year I joined the Whole Life Challenge and had moderate success with it: I dropped about 14 lbs in 8 weeks! It was, however, a very restrictive diet. It was a good short-term kickstart I needed back into healthy eating and, but I prefer an “everything in moderation” diet. I can’t cut things out entirely, or else I feel deprived and end up bingeing.

But while it wasn’t a feasible long term diet for me, it did expose me to a whole new world of food! Having to cook compliant meals with almost no dairy, cheese, carbs, or sugars forced me to find alternative recipes, and also introduced me to some awesome new things that I was afraid to try (hello, almond flour!).

One recipe I discovered was these Paleo Crab Cakes. At first I was scared – I’d never cooked with crab *or* almond flour before. But after a week or two of “meat and sweet potatoes with TONS of veggies” meals, I was desperate for something different. So I snagged a recipe from a friend, adapted it to fit the challenge’s rules, tried it out a few times, and bingo! They’re messy to make, and might take a few tries to get them just right, but trust me when I say: you’re going to love these!

Paleo Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs minced crab meat (you can get it in cans in your grocery’s seafood dept.)
  
• half one small onion, minced
• 1 small pepper, minced
  
• 2 small cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 cup Almond flour (or more as needed)
• Old Bay Seasoning
• Butter & Olive Oil for cooking

Directions:

In a pan with butter or oil, sautee the onions and pepper and throw in garlic at the end for a few seconds. Remove from heat and put into a bowl.

In another pan, heat up some butter and olive oil on medium heat, let the butter melt.Then add the almond flour a little bit at a time, stirring as you go to make a thick paste.Turn off the heat and let it cool for a bit.

Once it’s cool enough to work with your hands, in the same pan, add a spoonful of Old Bay seasoning to your paste, then slowly add everything else: crab, egg, and your onion/pepper/garlic mix. Mix everything together very well, and form into crab cakes. *This is where it can get messy: to keep things from sticking together and not to your hands, add almond flour as needed.

Once you’ve got some cakes ready, throw some butter or oil into your first pan (where you sauteed the onions and garlic) and set it to medium heat. Once it’s nice and hot, toss your crab cakes in and cook them on both sides, a few minutes on each side until their nice and brown.

They might fall apart, but that’s ok – just cook them to your liking and devour them! I usually serve mine with some arugula and a mustard vinaigrette dressing, but they’re great on their own or even as a side dish. Give them a try and let me know what you think!