Monday Meals: Seafood Season

June 23, 2014Andrea 2 Comments

This week I felt like I was running a little behind since I didn’t have even the slightest outline for a meal plan. We still ate really well (whew!) but I definitely felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants.

Because I do better with calendars and lists that are actual pieces of paper (I like to make notes and I’m still old school about some things), I have decided to print off a meal plan for each week. I got the template from Real Food Liz, and you can get one too. Click HERE.

Just a side note, tangent, I bought a huge Paleo bundle of ebooks a little while back and it included a lifetime membership to Good Food For Bad Cooks. It has recipes, you can make shopping lists, there are food guides. It’s a pretty neat little site with lots of info so if you are looking for something to help you meal plan and for more recipes, definitely check it out. (That is not an affiliate link and it’s not a plug. I just like the site.)

Ok on to meals!

BREAKFAST:

Chicken with spinach that I added a little homemade tomato sauce too and sprinkled with parm. It was delicious! I always forget how much I like chicken for breakfast.

Blueberries and nectarines with coconut cream, crushed almonds, and coconut flakes.

Scrambled eggs with a black bean sauce. The sauce was really simple. In a blender, I added:

Black Beans (about 1.5 cups)
Salsa
Chicken Stock
Salt
Chili Powder

Blended till it was smooth, and heated it in a medium sized pot over medium heat. Brought it to a simmer and let it reduce just a bit so the sauce thickened up.

Easy and quick sauce. I froze the rest to save for enchiladas at some point.

Blueberries, grain-free scone, and drizzled with coconut cream. Please note that if you refer to blueberries as “bluebs”, we can no longer be friends. Sorry, but that’s life sometimes.

Veggie fritatta! I sauteed up some baby kale, red pepper, and half an onion in some ghee and let that mixture cool. In a bowl I whisked 5 eggs, a splash of whole milk, and some dijon mustard. Added in the veggies and then added that mixture to a greased skillet (I used ghee) that was heating up on the stove. Heated it for about two minutes then put the pan in a 425 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Topped with diced tomato and a sprinkle of parm.

We had that with some ham slices and some roasted sweet potatoes.

Another big breakfast of scrambled eggs (look how yellow they are! The yolks in these farm fresh eggs were gorgeous.), roasted potatoes, and sausage.

Random picture of a smoothie, sliced apple with almond butter. Sometimes if I have a large breakfast then I have smallish snack as lunch. I don’t normally show these pictures because they aren’t exciting and I’m not sure if you are interested in seeing them. If you are, just let me know and I’ll share what goes in the smoothies. Spoiler alert, it’s usually always the same.

DINNER:

Leftovers, sausage, kraut, and coleslaw. I had spinach and feta sausage from Whole Foods and Scott finished the other sausages. I have to say that I’m not super impressed with our local Whole Foods sausages. I probably won’t get them again unless something really catches my eye.

Glorious salmon! Copper River salmon was in season so I stocked up and purchased a couple of sides. Please note that if you are local, our Whole Foods does not remove the bones from the fish so either you have to do it or you can ask for it to be done. If you ask, the workers tend to get really pissed off, at least they did for me. And they still didn’t remove many bones, Scott and I were picking them out as we were eating. Good times.

I brushed the salmon with some coconut oil and sprinkled with:

Lemon Pepper Mix (by Simply Organic)
Garlic Powder
Dill

I also laid it on some lemon slice while it roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

We had the salmon with roasted asparagus and rice. Fish + rice is one of my favorite combinations. We used to eat this all the time on “Fish Tuesdays” and I think I need to bring that back.

This provided us with leftovers and I was so hungry and excited when we had leftovers that I forgot to take a picture! It was salmon with a side salad. Nothing fancy but delicious!

And lastly, crispy shrimp with roasted eggplant. I whisked together 2 eggs, a splash of milk, and some hot sauce. The coating was a mix of coconut flour and tapioca starch seasoned with chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder. The shrimp went in the egg bath first then to the coating. I cooked the shrimp in a cast iron skillet in some lard.

This was the first time I used coconut flour and tapioca as a coating and I really liked the way it turned out. The tapioca provides a nice thin coating on the shrimp that really crisped up and turned a lovely golden brown color.

The eggplant was sliced, seasoned with soy sauce, salt, garlic powder and roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

For The Locals:

All chicken and eggs from Jodar Farms.

Sausage, ham, and seafood from Whole Foods.

Milk from Morning Fresh Dairy.

This Week:

I have my meal plan all printed out and I’m ready to get started on this week! I already have some chicken and pork chops thawing in the fridge so we will be having that this week. The chicken will last at least two days, so that is three days covered already. Now to figure out the rest of the week.

How did you do last week and what are your plans this week?

Grain Free Chicken Enchiladas With Roasted Green Chili Sauce

May 7, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

The first thing that I made with my batch of grain free tortillas, was some chicken enchiladas. I wanted to see how the tortillas handled being rolled and how well they stood up to baking.

They worked beautifully!

I will admit that I didn’t bake them covered in sauce. Since this was my first time working with grain free tortillas, I wasn’t sure how they were going to stand up to baking and I didn’t want to risk making them soggy with sauce.

Instead I heated up the sauce on the side and we were able to use as much sauce as we wanted to top our portions.

I do think that if the tortillas were covered in sauce and baked that they might fall apart so stick with keeping the sauce warm on the side.

Andrea’s Grain Free Enchiladas with Roasted Green Chili Sauce

**For the Filling:

4 Chicken leg quarters, cooked, and shredded

2C Shredded Carrot

1 Bunch Kale, stems removed

1/2TBSP Ghee

1tsp Salt

1tsp Garlic Powder

2tsp Chili Powder

6 Grain Free Tortillas

Place the kale in a food processor and pulse until the kale is finely chopped. In a medium sized saute pan, heat the ghee over medium heat. Add in the kale and the carrots. Saute for about 2-3 minutes then add in the shredded chicken. Season with salt, garlic powder, and chili powder. Add in 1/2C of the sauce (see recipe below). Stir and cook for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

For The Sauce:

1 Medium Sized Onion, chopped

1 Green Pepper, seeded and chopped

4 Roasted Green Chilies (your choice, I used anaheim)

1 14.5oz can of Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies

1TBSP Ghee

1tsp Salt

2TBSP Coconut Sugar

In a medium sized sauce pot, heat the ghee over medium heat. Add in the onion and peppers and sauté for about 5 minutes until the peppers and onions start to soften. Add in the diced tomatoes, salt, and coconut sugar. Bring to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove sauce from heat and pour into a blender. Blend until the sauce becomes smooth and free of lumps. Pour sauce back into sauce pot and keep warm over low heat.

Assembly and Baking

Preheat an oven to 4oo degrees. In a 9×12 casserole dish, pour in 1/2C of the sauce. Spread it around so it coats the bottom. Place 1/2C of filling in each tortilla. Roll and place in the casserole dish. Cover dish with foil and bake for about 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. Portion out onto plates and top with sauce. Makes 6 portions.

Please see notes at the bottom.

**Notes:

This dish can be prepped ahead of time. Once the enchiladas are made, cover with foil and store in fridge until you’re ready to heat them up. Place in a 400 degree oven and bake, covered, for about 1/2 an hour or until the enchiladas are heated through. While they are baking, the sauce can be simmering on the stove.

The filling makes enough for two batches of enchiladas. You can make two batches right away if you’re feeding more than two people. Or you can freeze the remaining filling and use it another time. Since the tortillas and the filling freezes well, that’s already another meal you have prepped and ready to go! The filling is also great as a topping for salads, mixed with scrambled eggs, or eaten on it’s own.

I added the coconut sugar to help tone down the heat from the chilies. If you love spicy foods feel free to omit the sugar.

We topped our enchiladas with chopped tomato, green onion, and cheddar. Some sour cream and chopped cilantro would also be great as well!

This dish is really easy to make despite what might seem like a lot of steps. Perfect way to use up some leftover roast chicken and turn a weeknight meal into something a little more exciting.

Have fun guys, and remember, always play with your food! Enjoy!

Healing a Cold: The Two B’s, Broth and Bourbon

May 2, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

Scott travels for work and he always seems to catch a little something while traveling. Altered sleep patterns, a wonky schedule, and not the best of eats will do that to just about anyone.

Since he always comes back with what I called, Conference Crud, I make sure to have things ready for him to get back on track.

The two things that consistently work for us when dealing with a cold are The Two B’s:

Broth
Bourbon

I always make a big batch of homemade stock that’s ready for when he gets home. Some of the broth goes towards soup and then the half is just for drinking. I typically make chicken but you can make whatever flavor broth you like.

Hot broth helps soothe sore throats and it also provides nutrients to help boost up the immune system. It also comes in really handy if the person has a stomach bug or perhaps their appetite is a little off. This way they aren’t drinking empty calories.

Next on our cold combat list is bourbon! I think that this surprises people because most people don’t think about alcohol or hard liquor when they are feeling ill.

Here bourbon is on the front lines for battling colds. We mix it with hot tea and local raw unfiltered honey. You can use any tea you like though I will caution against green tea. It doesn’t seem to pair well with bourbon. Rooibos and black teas work really well with bourbon.

To one mug of large tea add:

2 oz Bourbon (any brand you like)
1/2-1 TBSP Honey

Mix and sip. I recommend 2 mugs of this before bed. The bourbon and honey help soothe sore throats and open up nasal passageways. The bourbon is also relaxing and the cold sufferer gets a little better rest at night.

This latest trip, I shoved soup at Scott as soon as he walked in the door and then he sipped on tea and bourbon. The next morning he was noticeably better, less congested and his cough had improved.

It’s important to make sure to eat real whole foods as well (no junk!) and get plenty of sleep. I’m not a medical doctor (clearly) but this routine is what works for us.

Do you use natural remedies to battle colds?

Breakfast Soup

April 23, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

One of the first things I made when doing the Spring Clean Eats challenge, was Breakfast Soup. I’ve seen some other paleo folks have soup for breakfast and the idea intrigued me.

I didn’t want anything too heavy, like a stew, and I didn’t want anything that was going to be loaded down with protein and veggie.

I wanted a light soup with some protein, a little veg, and lots of flavor. I started thinking about how to approach this and decided that egg drop style soup seemed like it fit the bill.

I played around with the recipe and now have a new favorite way to eat some eggs and veggies in the morning.

Breakfast Soup is quick to make and perfect for those mornings when you might be feeling a little sluggish or chilly days when you don’t want to get out of your PJs.

If you like savory breakfasts, this soup will hit the spot!

Andrea’s Breakfast Soup

4C Chicken Stock

1/4-1/2 tsp Soy Sauce**

1/2tsp Garlic Powder

Large Handful (or about 2C) of Spinach, finally chopped

3 Green Onions, thinly sliced

2 Eggs, Whisked

In a large sauce pan, bring the stock up to a simmer. Add in the soy sauce and the garlic powder. Then add in the spinach and allow to cook until the spinach is fully wilted. Start whisking the soup with a fork and slowly drizzle in the eggs. The eggs will puff and cook immediately. Continue until all the eggs are in the soup. Bring soup back up to a simmer. Remove from heat and ladle into soup bowls. Garnish with green onions and serve immediately.

Serves two.

**If you want to make this completely paleo, substitute coconut amnios for the soy sauce.

You decide how much soy sauce or coconut amnios you want to add. I usually do 1/4 tsp but you can do up to 1/2 tsp without overpowering the soup too much. Feel free to add in a few drops of fish sauce as well! Or toss on some chopped cilantro as a garnish for extra kick.

We love this soup, it has a comforting quality to it and makes us feel energized. It’s a soup that will stick with you and not leave you feeling hungry after an hour.

If you’re looking for something new to try for breakfast, go for soup!

Spring Clean Eats: Days 26-28, Fake ‘Em Steak ‘Um

April 14, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

I needed a break from the computer last weekend but it was worth it because I got a chance to experiment with recipes!

The good: I experimented a lot in the kitchen and made some delicious things these past few days.

The bad: I totally forgot to take any pictures of food on Saturday. I spaced and was more into eating than I was taking pictures. Whoops!

BREAKFAST

Day 26: Scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes, and chicken breakfast sausage. I really like the Al Fresco line of sausages. They are flavorful, minimal ingredients that I can pronounce, and are gluten free. If you see them out, give it a shot! Lots of flavors to choose from. The roasted red pepper and asiago sausage is great on pizza!

Day 27: Unpictured but much of the same. Replace the scramble with hard boiled eggs and add in a big bowl of mandarin oranges.

Day 28: Paleo scones with coconut cream sauce and some bacon. More mandarins on the side. I experimented making the scones and they turned out really well! I want to play around with the recipe a little more but I’m on the right track. Finally got some bacon! I’ve been meaning to make it for ages and had the chance on Sunday morning to cook up a huge batch.

Kitchen Tip: I make 2lbs of bacon at a time. I bake it in the oven for more even cooking and less mess. Cooked bacon also freezes really well and can be reheated quickly and easily! Once you have a stash of cooked bacon in the freezer, you can pull out as much or as little as you need.

No lunch on any of those days because breakfast was filling!

DINNER

Day 26: Paleo Chicken enchiladas! Recipe coming up once the challenge is over. This experiment I am very proud of! The benefit of using paleo tortillas is that it makes the dish way more satisfying. I couldn’t even finish two entire enchiladas and Scott was “very full” after eating his two. Definitely will have to make double batch next time!

Day 27: You know Saturday is Odell Day! We got a growler and some fries and sausages from Common Link.

Day 28: Fake ‘Em Steak ‘Ums with roasted asparagus! Applegate sliced roast beef, when cooked in a skillet tastes exactly like old school steak ‘ums to me. Of course, Applegate is much healthier than the questionable “beef” from the Steak ‘Um boxes. For me personally, thin steak with caramelized onions is one of the best combos. I rolled with that for Sunday dinner.

I caramelized some onions in ghee and some leftover bacon fat (hell yes), then I added in a pound of the roast beef that I also chopped. Cook for a bit and added a little Worcestershire sauce. Placed that on some romaine lettuce leaves with shredded carrot and a small sprinkle of shredded pepper jack cheese.

Dinner was filling and satisfied an old school craving.

Getting close to the end of the challenge! Two more days!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 25, Bad Choices, Interesting Results

April 11, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

We are in the home stretch! This is the last week of the challenge and I admit that I’m pretty excited about that. Not because I’m going to go crazy and have foods that were not allowed on the challenge (spoiler alert: I totally won’t) but because posting everyday takes a lot of planning!

I’ll be posting a follow up post about the challenge once it’s over. Then I will be posting all of the recipes that I developed during the challenge. If there’s a particular one you’d like to see first, let me know!

On to the eats!

Breakfast was one of my favorite combos, eggs with avocados. Two fried eggs topped with some quick and dirty guacamole and hot sauce. Two mandarin oranges on the side.

I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen developing a paleo tortilla recipe. I was getting frustrated with recipes I was finding online and decided to see if I could create my own. I’m proud to say that my experiment was a success! Here’s a sneak peek, recipe will be posted after the challenge.

After walking the dogs yesterday, we swung by Odell to pick up a growler of a pilot beer that just got tapped. It’s all kinds of barrel-aged and we couldn’t pass that up!

The Waffle Lab was there and we also decided to get some waffles. Now I didn’t swear off grains completely for this challenge. I said my goal was to limit them. Since I haven’t had any grains, save for some small tempura shrimp, I didn’t have a problem getting waffles. The Waffle Lab’s waffles are damn good!

Scott also came back with chicken and waffles. I also didn’t think much about this till I opened the container up.

Oh snap! I had no idea this dish would be covered in sausage gravy.

That’s a lot of food. A lot of heavy and very rich food.

I had a couple of bites and then had to call it quits. Don’t get me wrong, this dish is tasty and done very well. However that was just too much for me to handle for lunch.

Way too heavy.

That was the first time in almost a month that I’ve had that much grain and gluten. Again, didn’t think much about it but my body sure let me know that it was too much too soon. Interesting reaction! While I’m not a big carb eater normally, I really didn’t expect to have such a strong reaction to it when it got introduced again.

I ended up making a small salad because I needed some veggies STAT.

And then later I had a smoothie. Not the prettiest thing ever but it was tasty and did the trick.

1C Carrot Juice
1C Water
2 Large Handfuls of Spinach
1C Frozen Blueberries
1 Frozen Banana

Blend, makes 2 smoothies.

When I asked Scott if he also wanted a smoothie, he practically yelled, YES. So I know it was sitting a little heavy for him too. Which is also interesting because he’s not one to notice stuff like that. I did feel bloaty and blah the rest of the day.

5 more days left! Whoo!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 14, Two Week Check-In

March 31, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

Started the day with a huge breakfast so I could fuel up for an afternoon spent at an event. The event was going to be through lunch and into the late afternoon so I knew I needed something hearty to get me through since I wouldn’t have time to eat during the event.

I had a large plate of chicken and spinach (one wee little slice of sausage left from the previous day). Unpictured is a large bowl of mandarin oranges that Scott and I split.

This did the trick and I didn’t get hungry until about 2ish. I packed a Luna bar to take with me and ate that. Not challenge friendly in the least but it was all I had. I meant to pack some fruit and nuts but didn’t get a chance to before I had to leave.

Spent the afternoon at Verboten Brewing down in Loveland chatting to folks about Animal House. It was a blast and such a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. While it was overcast, it was still warm and made for a nice spring day.

By the time I got home, I was starved and ready to eat my arm off. Thankfully I planned ahead and had something cooking in the crockpot!

Yes I realize this is not a flattering picture but in my defense, it’s hard to take a good picture of pork and sauerkraut. I’m sure I could take the time to try and style it but when you’re hungry that’s the last thing you care about.

Country ribs (local pork from Jodar farms) with sauerkraut on top of some mashed potatoes. The best thing I ate all damn week.

We have reached the halfway point of the challenge! I will say that the challenge is going faster than I anticipated. At the start I was feeling like 30 days would be so. damn. long. But really it’s not a big deal.

Both Scott and I feel great and are enjoying trying out this new lifestyle change. I feel like the meals are going well and since I am not a big pasta/bread person anyway, I don’t really miss that stuff at all. So far I’ve learned that:

I need to plan ahead more
I need to have more “friendly” snacks on hand
We have a lot of two meal days
I eat less when I include protein with meals

The exercise portion I’m still working through. Lately I’ve had a lot of stuff going on leaving me with not much time to fit in exercise. Not an excuse, just an observation. I need to be better about that obviously.

Only two more weeks and then we are at the end of the challenge!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 13, Shoot Em

March 30, 2014Andrea 2 Comments

While out running errands earlier this week, I picked up some locally smoked salmon. This smoked salmon isn’t like the thinly sliced style. This is a fillet of salmon that has been smoked and it flakes apart.

I love the texture of this more than the very thin kind.

I knew that I wanted the smoked salmon for breakfast so I decided to add it to a scramble. The scrambled eggs had horseradish and dijon mustard added. Once they were almost finished cooking, I seasoned with a little salt and pepper and then added in the salmon and some green onion.

Delicious and very filling breakfast! Some fresh fruit on the side as well.

We took the dogs to their Saturday morning playgroup so they could see all their friends and socialize. On the way home we stopped for provisions.

You know Saturday means it’s Odell Day! We got some growlers and some food from Commonlink.

Andouille sausage with kraut, cajun fries and some fresh blackberries on the side. We also had a kombucha with lunch.

The dogs were sacked out for the rest of the day and since the sun kept hiding behind the clouds, we stayed inside and played video games.

Dinner was quick and easy, mixed greens with chicken on top. The dressing was a super simple honey dijon dressing with balsamic.

Definitely could have used more veggies yesterday. Next Odell day, I’ll probably make a smoothie and have a salad with lunch.

I have an event to attend today so Saturday ended up being the perfect relaxing day!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 12, Much Better

March 29, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

Woke up in the morning and felt much better but not 100%. Since I didn’t eat much the day before I knew that I wouldn’t have the energy or fuel to do any kind of workout. Which sucked but not much I could do about it.

I started the day off light and had some scrambled eggs and a mandarin orange for breakfast.

That sat a little funny in my stomach but it stayed put.

WHEW!

Later lunch, early dinner when we got back home after running a few errands around town.

Roast chicken (not sure if roast chicken is becoming our “thing” for Friday nights) with parsnip mash and sauteed shaved Brussels sprouts.

The parsnip mash was amazing! I want to make it again but look for that to be a recipe soon. It surprised me by how good it was! The Brussels sprouts I chopped and sauteed in some ghee with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

I know this is a short post but it’s amazingly sunny outside and the pups and I are itching for some sunshine!

Spring Clean Eats: Day 11, Return to Sender

March 28, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

Let’s start the post off with the great news first then we can discuss how the day just fell apart after that.

Early morning, I got the dogs taken care of and I headed out for my run. I took Wednesday off since I had a really horrible night’s sleep but Thursday I started the day off feeling great.

I did my normal 1 mile loop and I RAN THE WHOLE THING.

Hellz yes! No walk breaks and no legs that felt really tired. I pushed myself to see if I could do it. I told myself that I had to run until I got to the last street by my house and I made it. Since that’s the end of the run, I said I needed to run until I hit that one mile mark.

And I did! Hooray! I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to be a distance runner again since the elevation totally kicks my ass but I can see myself at least getting up to 10K distance.

Oh the run is still slow as molasses on a winter’s morning but I did it! I can see the light at the end of the running tunnel.

Thankfully I got my run done in the morning because the rest of the day was spent on the couch and making multiple runs to the bathroom. UGH

For breakfast I sauteed up some mustard greens and added in the leftover pulled pork. I seasoned all that with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a small bit of maple syrup to cut the bitterness of the greens.

This is where things started to go down hill. That pork didn’t sit right with me and I was paying for it the rest of the day.

Lunch was basically a snack because I couldn’t keep much in my system so I didn’t want to over do it.

I had a large mug of broth for some powerhouse nutrients and a large apple with some almond butter.

Stomach churned the rest of the day but I was able to stay out of the bathroom. Whew!

Dinner was also very light because again, I didn’t think I could handle anything heavier. We had some oven fries, both were seasoned with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and chili powder. One set had some shredded cheddar added.

I was able to keep that down as well!

I hate to blame the BBQ takeout but this all started after I ate that for breakfast. No. More.

More light foods are on the menu for today, not taking any chances!

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