Shredded Mexican Chicken

This dish was inspired when I was looking for a quick and easy meal that could feed a lot of people - my current go to dish if I'm having a party or going to one is to make a crock pot of Paleo friendly pulled pork.  If you're going to a non-paleo place you can bring along some small rolls and you can eat your pork and know that it's 100% Paleo and everyone is content.  I've been on a Mexican kick lately, had just bought a family pack of chicken and decided that I would tackle creating a slow cooked shredded chicken dish.



What I put in the crock pot (other than the chicken)



 Ingredients:

• 8 chicken breasts
• 1 large onion
• 1 large red pepper
• 2 large green peppers
• 1 jar of Trader Joe's Salsa Verde
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (no sugar added!)
• 1/2 - 1 cup of chicken broth
• 2 - 3 tsp Mexican chili powder
• 2 - 3 tsp Cumin
• 2-3 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• Sprinkle of red pepper falkes (optional)
• Salt & Pepper

Add everything into a crockpot or slow cooker (chop the veggies please!) and then cook on low for 6 hours.  The result = some delicious shredded chicken!  It has a bit of heat, if you're not a cayenne pepper person you can sub a mild hot pepper or some red pepper flakes instead.  I'm sensitive to cayenne and felt like this packed a little heat, but others that ate it thought it was delicious!

What dinner looked like the first night

I ate it along with a plate full of sauteed kale, but you could also eat these in lettuce wraps.  If you do dairy, some cheese on top would have been delicious, also a bit of guacamole or diced avocado on top would be a nice cooling complement to the slight heat of the Mexican chicken.

Paleo Spaghetti

Autumn is officially here and so are all of the yummy winter squashes.  Here is a great and easy recipe for those of you that are missing pasta - you can get spaghetti squash almost everywhere right now, I got a great deal at the farmers market a few weeks ago where each squash was only 75 cents!  This is a dish that is great to reheat, take to work for lunch, or have for breakfast if you're so inclined.  It's easy to do so give it a try - no excuses!

Roasted Spaghetti Squash - Paleo Spaghetti


Heat oven to 400 degrees and put a halved, seeded spaghetti squash in a baking dish or baking pan, lightly coated with coconut oil. I always put mine face down, so that the inside of the squash is on the bottom of the pan.  Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, remove and let cool. Once cool, use a fork to scrape the squash out from the shell, it will have a "spaghetti" like consistency.

To save time you can also half and seed the squash, and cook in the microwave for 6 to 8 minutes. Follow the same process to scrape the squash out.  For this recipe where I took the pictures we cooked the squash on the plate in the microwave instead of in the oven.

Grilled Chicken Kabobs

What's for dinner?  I ask myself that question often, almost everyday actually.  This weekend we decided to make the most of the summer weather (hitting 80 in October is definitely summer weather when you live in the north east) and make some grilled chicken kabobs.  It was really easy and turned out delicious.

What you need:

• 1 - 2 pounds of chicken thighs
• 1 large green bell pepper
• 1 large red bell pepper
• 1 large onion
• Minced garlic
• Olive Oil
• Oregano
• Salt and Pepper
• Kabob Skewers - wooden or metal

Sunday Cooking

I took advantage of everyone recovering from the flooding Post Hurricane Irene to do some Sunday cooking to get ready for the week.  So what did I make?

• Egg Cassarole (for 2 to eat all week for breakfast)
• Sweet Potatoes (for dinners and post workout)
• Pot Roast (Sunday Dinner and Monday Dinner)



Sunday Cooking!



I did all of this cooking at the same time, so that while my Pot Roast is cooking on the stove, I'm chopping up my sweet potatoes.  For the first 15 mins of cooking the sweet potatoes I'm chopping the veggies and cracking eggs for the egg cassarole.  After everything is in the oven/cooking on the stove then I clean up everything I used to prepare.  I like cooking, and when I'm cooking I tend to listen to podcasts - I'm a big Robb Wolf fan, and to me there is nothing better than cooking up a whole bunch of Paleo goodies while listening to Robb Wolf (I know I'm a bit of a nutrition-dork!).

 

Grilled Chicken Fajitas

I love Mexican food, trouble is when you eat Mexican out a lot of times its loaded with corn, beans, rice, and cheese.  You can make delicious Paleo friendly Mexican food as well, and you won't even miss the rice and beans or the cheese and sour cream that would come along with this dish in a traditional Mexican restaurant.  I made this on a Friday night and it was delicious, it was great as leftovers the next day as well. 

Grilled Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients (makes 4 - 6 servings):

• 4 chicken breasts, cut into thin even strips
• 1 large onion, cut into thin slices
• 1 yellow or orange pepper, 1 red pepper, and 2 green pepper, cut into thin slices
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1 large ripe avocado
• Romaine or bib lettuce
• Olive oil
• 4 tsp chili powder
• 4 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper

Cooking / Grilling Directions:

Mix 2 tsp of chili powder, 2 tsp of cumin, and 1 tsp of paprika along with a little bit of olive oil in a bowl. Add a little salt and pepper along with the spices and mix until the chicken is evenly coated.

Cut the onion and peppers into slices and mix in a separate bowl with some olive oil and salt and pepper. mix the vegetables until they are evenly coated. Put the vegetables into the grill basket for easier grilling.

Wash the lettuce and wash and cut the tomato and avocado into slices. Arrange the lettuce, avocado, and tomatoes on a plate.

On the grill, first add the grill basket with the veggies you’ll want to grill the veggies for about 10 to 15 minutes. After the veggies have been on for a few minutes, place the chicken strips directly on the grill and grill approximately 3 – 4 minutes each side depending on the thickness of the chicken. When you flip the chicken, stir the veggies in the grill basket as well.

Remove the chicken and the veggies and place on top of the pile of lettuce, tomato, and avocado and enjoy!

Seafood Medley Recipe

Following a Paleo lifestyle involves a big committment to taking the time to cook and prepare your food.  Cooking should be fun, but I often find myself in a rut, making the same things over and over again.  I recently discovered a seafood medley at Trader Joe's which was under $8 and contained shrimp, scallops, and calamari.  I made this dinner that felt gourmet but without any of the fuss or price.  Try it out from your local TJ's, I served it with sauteed spinach but you could also serve over spaghetti squash to stretch it a little farther.  It served 2, but with more substantial sides you could stretch this to serve 4.



What's for dinner at your house?

Seafood Medley

• 1 bag of Trader Joe’s Seafood Medley (shrimp, scallops, and calamari)
• 1 Shallot, sliced
• 3 Cloves of Garlic, minced or finely chopped
• Splash of white wine and/or chicken broth
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Sautéed Spinach

•   Bag of baby spinach
• 1 pound of cremini mushrooms (baby portabellas)
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Olive Oil
• 1 clove garlic
• Salt and Pepper to Taste 

In a shallow pan, add about olive oil, minced garlic, and sliced shallots. Cook for a few minutes until the garlic become fragrant and then shallots start to become translucent. Add the defrosted seafood medley, white wine, and chicken broth (depending on how much ‘sauce’ you want) and stir constantly. Cook for about 5 to 8 minutes until the seafood is fully cooked. Turn off heat and cover until spinach is ready.

In a second pan, heat olive oil and garlic, and add sliced cremini mushrooms. Cook for about 4 minutes, until the mushrooms begin to soften. Add spinach, salt, pepper, and cherry tomatoes halved. Cook until all of the spinach is wilted.

Plate, serve, and enjoy!

Holiday Balance

How did you do this Thanksgiving holiday - Did you survive Turkey Day?  Did you stay true to your normal clean eating habits or did you "go off the rails" on a grain and sugar binge?  This holiday was the first holiday where I really felt comfortable maintaining my eating habits - I decided that I wanted to stay as close to my normal eating routine as possible and made the exception of having more "sugar" than I normally would by having some Paleo friendly desserts.  Both sides of my family humored me and made sure that there were things that I could eat - even altering traditional recipes so that I would also be able to eat it - which was very much appreciated by me!

One important thing about maintaining a Paleo lifestyle over the holidays is to stay true to your normal routine - eating clean and continuing to work out - but also finding balance.  Keep your normal routine, do a workout and eat clean for the holiday weekend and then make a cognizant decision to have one dessert or eat your mom's candied yams.  Just make sure you don't use the beginning of the holiday season as an excuse for why you are abandoning what you've been doing before the holidays started.  In addition to navigating the holiday meals, anyone that works in an office also has to face the piles of desserts, cookies, candies, popcorn, etc that begin to show up in office kitchens everywhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Remember to find balance, but also decide is eating that cookie really worth it?  Tasting some of my co-worker's famous home-made biscotti last year was worth it for me - plan what you're going to try and don't beat yourself up if you do have somethings that you wouldn't normally eat or drink over the holiday.  What is most important is that you CHOOSE to eat it or not, and that you don't use a small indulgence or exception to your normal eating and fitness habits as the catalyst to abandon all of the healthy lifestyle changes you've made.  Keep on track and know that you are in control of your food choices and maintaining your workout schedule - whatever those choices are they are yours.

So remember this holiday season is yours to enjoy and the choices you make are exactly that - choices that you can make.  Just like vacation (but the holiday season is a little bit longer) remember to live a little but do what you want to do!  There are many great Paleo or Primal alternatives out there that you can share with others as well.

Here are some great resources that I've found to help you stay on track over the holidays, and also to give you a little guidance when you slip up.  Are there any other resources you use, recipes you tried over Thanksgiving that were a big hit?  Please share what you tried.

• From Nell Stephenson's Paleo Nutrition and Fitness Blog: Planning for Holiday Parties and 30 Days of Paleo Holiday Ideas
• From the Whole 9 - Great Thanksgiving Recipes (could also be used over the winter holidays) Steal this Meal Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 and the Guide to Eating Dirty 
• Everyday Paleo - Delicious Paleo Pumpkin Pie recipe and Paleo Cookie recipe

Mark's Daily Apple - Iron Chef Challenge

Those of you who have been following Mark’s Daily Apple’s 30 Day Primal Challenge will recognize this entry for his Primal Iron Chef contest. Mark challenged his readers to come up with a primal recipe a la the cooking show Iron Chef America.


Here are the details on the Contest: Primal Iron Chef from Mark’s website:

“Cue the dramatic music, take a bite of your favorite vegetable, steel your fiery gaze at the audience, because it’s time to play Iron Chef: Primal Edition!!! (hold for applause). Reader Nate came up with the idea for this one. For anyone not familiar with the popular Japanese import cooking show, chefs are tasked with creating an assortment of dishes that all include one secret ingredient. For the MDA version…

1. Create a recipe using the secret ingredient.

2. Write a step-by-step walk-through describing how to make the recipe in 1000 words or less.

3. Include pictures of the finished recipe as well as pictures showing the process.


SECRET INGREDIENT: COCONUT. In whatever form you choose”

3, 2, 1....Go! Keeping the timed theme of the Iron Chef show, for Iron Chef Primal addition my creation can be made in about 20 minutes. Now that you've changed you lifestyle to eat primal, what do you do with your ice cream maker?  For today’s challenge  I'll show you how to make a great primal dessert...

Coconut Ice Cream!

 

What you need: An ice cream maker and an already cold insert and a few primal ingredients that you may have on hand already. Coconut ice cream can be made simply with just coconut milk but it gets more exciting when you add a variety of ingredients - be creative with what you have around. In the past I've added unsweetened cocoa, strawberries, bananas, mango, bits of dark chocolate and various nuts to create different ice cream variations. Try one version and see what other flavor combinations you think would be delicious together.

Coconut-Banana-Almond Primal Ice Cream



Ingredients used for today's challenge



1 can of coconut milk

2 bananas (preferably frozen)

1/4c unsweetened coconut flakes

A handful of chopped almonds

Cinnamon for garnish (optional

 



Pour in coconut milk first



Turn the ice cream maker on, and immediately add the can of coconut milk already chilled if possible. Then add in the 1/4c of unsweetened coconut, it adds some additional texture to the ice cream and keeps the coconut flavor prominent. To freeze bananas, cut them into small pieces first and thread them on a wood skewer, put them in a baggie or container and stick them in the freezer. Keep these frozen bananas for a tasty frozen treat or to make things like smoothies and primal ice cream.  To use the frozen banana, take the banana off of the skewers and mash it up a little bit, to a consistency that you want in the ice cream. I like to mash them a bit so the flavor is incorporated throughout the ice cream instead of eating big chunks of banana mixed in. If your banana is fresh, you should mash it a little more since the banana isn’t already cold.







Mash and then add the frozen banana



Stir the ice cream liquid to incorporate the banana if necessary, and then let the machine do the work for about 15 minutes. You can pass this time preparing another dish, cleaning any dishes you just got dirty, or even squeezing in a few primal sprints outside!  You can serve this dessert to a group of primal eaters or to a group you are trying to convert, it has a great flavor and consistency and will especially appeal primal kids in the middle of summer.



Almost done, nice a creamy



At the 15 minute mark take a look at the consistency, it should be thickening up now looking more like whipped cream than like the liquid you started with. At this point, add the chopped almonds if you’re including them and then leave the ice cream in the maker for another 5 minutes (for a total of 20 minutes).

Turn off the ice cream maker, and scoop the fluffy coconut ice cream into 4 small bowls. Dust with cinnamon if you want to, and serve with a spoon and eat immediately. The final product looks and tastes delicious and is a special primal treat.

Makes 4 servings



Ready to eat!