Chipotle Chicken Stuffed Mini Peppers

I had an open can of chipotle peppers from the Chipotle Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes I made the other day, so I decided to use a few more of the peppers. I also happened to stop by Sam's Club after work last Friday and found mini sweet bell peppers, and I stopped at the Whole Foods on the way home from crew practice and bought pasture-raised split chicken breast. And so I decided to combine the results of my grocery shopping sprees.

Chipotle Chicken Stuffed Mini Peppers

1 lb chicken breast, pasture-raised, grass-fed (Paleo)
2 1/2 cup spinach, thoroughly rinsed and dried
1/3 + 1 Tbls cup olive oil
2 Tbls lime juice
5 small cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1/4 onion, chopped (you can use more if you like, but I don't really like onion)
3 chipotle peppers, minced
3 tsp adobo sauce (the sauce that the canned chipotle peppers come in)
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
20 mini peppers (you can only see 14 in the photo, but trust me, you'll make enough for 20)
1 quart-sized Ziploc bag

1. Chop 4 cloves of garlic and the chipotle peppers. Put into a small bowl and mix with 1/3 cup olive oil, lime juice, oregano, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper.
2. Place your chicken breast into the Ziploc bag and add 2 Tbls of the mixture. Place in the fridge for 2-3 hours.
3. While the chicken sits, chop off the tops of the mini peppers, and scrap out the seeds and fleshy insides. Set aside.

4. After the chicken has soaked in the chipotle seasoning for a couple hours, heat the oven to 350 F. Cook the chicken for 20 minutes, or until thoroughly cooked. Remove the chicken from the oven and set aside to let the chicken cool.

5. While the chicken cools, heat 1 Tbls olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and 1 clove of garlic, minced. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the spinach and wilt the spinach.
6. After the chicken has cooled, shred with your hands. Add into the pan with the onions, garlic, and spinach. Mix in the remaining sauce. Cook for another few minutes until the sauce has been absorbed into the chicken.
7. Stuff the mini peppers with the chicken mix and spread on a tin foil-lined baking sheet. Place the pan into the oven and cook for 20 minutes at 350 F.

Make It Paleo

On Tuesday night I was fortunate to share a Paleo meal with Hayley Mason and Bill Staley, authors of the books Make It Paleo and the soon-to-be-released Gather, as well as the blog Food Lovers Kitchen. I literally sat directly across from them at the table. How cool is that? Their website was one of the first blogs that I used when I started Paleo a little over a year ago. It was like meeting Paleo rock stars, but super chill. It was really exciting for me.

Hayley and Bill also have an app that will help you meal plan. Check it out:

http://www.primalpalate.com/store/mykitchen-app/

Here's the menu... everything is delicious!

Sadly, I only had my cell phone with me so the photos aren't great:

I didn't eat this cheesecake, but it tastes yummy.

And yes, ALL of the food is Paleo!

Toward the end of the evening, one of the waiters told me, while he was refilling my water glass, that I "look like a doll... So pretty." All folks, you heard it, I'm a doll. Well, shucks!

Bone Broth Follow Up

Here's the nice layer of fat that I pulled off of the cooled Slow Cooker Bone Broth that I made the other week:

And here's what the gelatinous bone broth looks like:

A couple tips for those of you intending to make the bone broth and freeze it for later:

• Don't fill the container all of the way to the top. The bone broth, like water, expands when frozen.*
• If you're going to use Mason jars, don't fill up all of the way to the top, and allow the bone broth to freeze before putting on the lid.

How do I know this? Well, I apparently filled my Mason jars too full, so the bone broth managed to pop the tops off of the jar and in one case, broke the jar. Cue failure music now. So learn from my mistakes, people.

*H₂O in its frozen form has a hexagonal crystalline structure because of hydrogen bonding between different water molecules. Each water molecule is hydrogen bonded to 4 other water molecules. This structure makes ice less dense than its liquid form, a.k.a. why ice floats and why 1 mL of liquid water would take up less space than 1 mL of frozen water.

Chipotle Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

I found this recipe last week and wanted to give it a try. Here's the original recipe:
http://www.halfbakedharvest.com/healthy-chipotle-chicken-sweet-potato-skins/

Really all that needs to be done to make this recipe Paleo is to not use cheese or Greek yogurt, depending on how Paleo/Primal you are. I changed the heat and timing a little to suit my oven. I also made a little more sauce.

Chipotle Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

3 sweet potatoes

1.5 pound boneless skinless chicken breast

2.5 cups spinach

Chipotle Sauce

1/3 cups olive oil

1 1/2 Tbls lime juice

4 cloves garlic, minced or grated

4 whole chipotle pepper, minced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp cumin

2 1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Wash your sweet potatoes and prick all over with a fork. Place in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until fork tender. Place your chicken in a baking dish and rub with a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in the oven with the potatoes and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and shred the chicken with your hands. When the sweet potatoes are done cut in half and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.
2. While the potatoes and chicken are baking... In a medium size bowl combine the olive oil, lime juice, garlic, chipotle peppers, oregano, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper.
3. Heat a small skillet over medium heat and wilt the spinach (this can also be done in the microwave). Toss the spinach and shredded chicken together, set aside and keep warm.
4. Scrape the sweet potato out of the peel, leaving a medium size layer of flesh inside with the peel and place in a baking dish. Brush the skins with with a little of the chipotle sauce and bake for 5-10 minutes until nice and crisp. While the skins bake mix the spinach, chicken and chipotle sauce together.
5. Remove the skins from the oven, and top with your chicken mixture and fresh cilantro. Eat. Enjoy.

Which is worse: gluten or dairy?

My friends (BK and DK) and I went to a basketball game last night. As you can see, I wore my glasses so that I could actually see what was happening on the court. The most exciting part of last night was that we magically got upgraded from our level 4 seats to level 1. And by magic I mean that as we were riding the escalator up to the 4th floor, a guy on the escalator (who works for the team) asked us if we wanted better seats. We said yes. We got new tickets, and all was well with the world.

Anyways, I got myself a G&T and was Paleo-bad and ordered a buffalo chicken tender basket. Surprisingly there was a separate  "restaurant" for gluten-free food available, but most of it was hot dogs (I shudder at the meat) and cheese-covered options. And for me, I choose gluten headaches over dairy-induced stomach cramps.

I often wonder which is worse for me, and I'm not really sure. I know that I react poorly to both, but overall it's a person-by-person sort of decision. I fell like every time I eat dairy, it's with gluten, but no necessarily the other way around. So if I have to pick one or the other, I choose gluten, plus I love bread. Though a lot of Paleo people out there would say gluten is worse.  What's your thoughts on the matter?

(Of course after I got my food, I realized that there was a salad place just past the gluten one. I smacked myself in the head for that smart move. Note to self: put on glasses when looking at things far away.)

I'm being healthy at work though. Here's what I ate for lunch today:

Chipotle Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (recipe to come soon), Thrive Brussels Sprouts, and salad with carrots, celery, and a hard-boiled egg.

My snacks for this week have been: celery, carrots, plantain chips, roasted unsalted pistachios, bananas, oranges, and almond butter.

Thrive Brussels Sprouts

Last month, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article about Atlanta restaurant Thrive's Brussels sprouts. While I was in Atlanta two weekends ago, I tried out their recipe, and decided it was good. Yesterday, I decided to make it Paleo by changing the unsalted butter to ghee and using olive oil instead of canola oil (ewww). Oh, I also cooked more Brussels sprouts. See the original recipe here.

3 Tbls EVOO for sauteing

2 cup Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, cut in half

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup chicken stock (I used chicken broth because I didn't have any stock at home)

1 tablespoon ghee

1/2 tablespoon honey

3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

Heat the EVOO in a skillet over medium heat. Place sprouts cut side down in a single layer. Sear sprouts until they are golden brown, then turn, searing the other side. (I cooked mine a little too long on the first side because I got distracted. It should be about 3 minutes per side.)

Season with a few shakes of salt and pepper. Add vinegar and cook until vinegar has reduced by half. Add chicken broth, ghee, honey and pepper flakes and continue to cook until sauce has reduced to a glaze, about 5 minutes.

Green Eggs

This morning I had Green Eggs for breakfast after my 5 a.m. workout. It's very easy and yummy if you like artichokes, but fair warning, the artichokes changes the coloring of the eggs a little bit...

Green Eggs

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 cup spinach

1/4 cup canned artichoke hearts, quartered

2 eggs

Salt and pepper

1. Thoroughly wash and pat dry your spinach, pulling off the stems.
2. Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat (mine was set for level 3). Once ready, toss in the spinach and cook until wilted.
3. Gather roughly 1/4 cup of quartered artichoke hearts and cut in half so that the leafy bits are loose. Add these to the pan and heat for a few minutes.
4. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and whisk. Season with salt and pepper (but don't use too much salt, it can be overbearing with the artichoke).
5. Pour the eggs into the pan and heat, stirring frequently for even cooking. I'm sure you know how to scramble eggs, and it's the same thing here, just with green bits thrown in.
6. Transfer to a plate/bowl/cup/frisbee/whatever you use to serve food. Pick up fork/spoon/stick, scoop the Green Eggs onto your utensil, and raise to your open mouth. Close, chew, swallow, enjoy.

Paleo Talk

Here's a video you might enjoy...

I'm exhausted from being awake since 5:30 a.m. and going to crew practice tonight, so this video is all you're getting from me right now. Enjoy!

Slow-Cooker Bone Broth

I was browsing through a cookbook this past weekend and came across a recipe for bone broth, which stated that it's a good option for cancer patients going through chemo. This is not that recipe, however it got me thinking about making bone broth. It's on my list of foods to try. So I figured, why not? Here goes...

Slow-Cooker Bone Broth

3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 white onion, roughly chopped
8 cloves garlic, smashed
4 lb beef bones (grass-fed)
2 bay leaves
sea salt
2 Tbls apple cider vinegar
water

Toss your chopped veggies and garlic into your crock pot.

Layer the beef bones on top.

Add in the bay leaves, and a few shakes/twists of sea salt. Drizzle the vinegar over the bones, then add water until all of the ingredients are covered. Set your crock pot on low for 10 hours.

After cooking, strain the broth, and dispose of the solids.

Pour your broth into a large container and place in the fridge. After letting it cool overnight/throughout the day, remove the solid layer of fat that forms. From here you can freeze the broth, it'll stay good for a few months, or eat within the next week or so.

As a FYI, the remaining broth under the fat should be gelatinous. It's basically beef jello. The gelatinous bits of meat really freak me out, reference my post here for how well I handled ripping chicken meat off of the bones... it was all because of the jelly-looking bits.

Food for Thought

My mom sent me a link to an article on Everyday Health titled: "Processed Meat May Kill You, Study Finds." Processed meats include smoked and cured meat (ham, bacon, and sausage), as well as deli meats and meat from fast food restaurants.

“Overall, we estimate that 3 percent of premature deaths each year could be prevented if people ate less than 20 grams of processed meat per day," Sabine Rohrmann, PhD, study author and assistant professor of chronic disease epidemiology at the University of Zurich, said in a statement.

I fully support cutting down on processed meats, especially from fast food restaurants, but I do believe that some minimally-processed meats are acceptable. For example, I'm going to believe that it's okay for me to continue eating grass-fed and/or nitrate-free bacon (based on what's available). When you don't have a lot of options for what to eat, I recommend going for the most Paleo option. If in doubt, aim for the item with the least ingredients. If you're choosing between dried bananas (no-sugar added) and dried bananas made with sugar and canola oil, go for the one that only contains bananas.

Ham and Veggie Pasta

I really do think that going Paleo has made me a better cook. I used to have to follow recipes (and for some reason I always went for extremely complicated ones), but now I've gotten more confident in my own skills at throwing something together. Tonight was like that. I didn't know what I wanted to eat so I checked out the fridge/pantry to see what I had available to me. This is what I ended up with:

1 spaghetti squash
1 onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1/4 orange bell pepper, sliced
1/4 red bell pepper, sliced
2 carrots, quartered and sliced
1/2 cup ham, cut into small chunks
1 can diced tomatoes
4 Tbls extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp basil
3/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp rosemary
Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil.
2. Slice the spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds, and rub 1 Tbls olive oil into each half. Place cut-side down on the baking sheet. Put into the oven, and cook for 40 minutes, or until the skin gives when you poke it.
3. While waiting for the oven to heat, prep your veggies.
4. Heat 2 Tbls olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. To determine when the oil is hot, get your hand a little wet and then flick the water into the pan. If it sizzles, it's ready. Add the onions, cooking until it starts to become translucent. Then add the garlic, and cook for a couple more minutes.
5. Toss in the rest of the veggies, cooking for about 5 minutes to soften they carrots.
6. Add the diced tomatoes with their juices, as well as the basil, oregano, rosemary, pepper, and salt. Stir in the meat and cook until the tomatoes and ham are hot.
7. By this time, your spaghetti squash should be about done. Remove from the oven, and drag a fork across the flesh to get your spaghetti.
8. Put about 1 cup of the squash into each bowl, and top with roughly 1 cup of your veggie/ham mixture. Pour yourself a glass of wine. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Business Trip: Part 4

So, fair warning, this post has little to no reference to Paleo, besides the fact that I tried to stay Paleo while I was in Scotland. But I imagine that you might enjoy some photos...

Wednesday night after I got back from my work meetings, I signed up to go on the Rabbies: Oban, Glencoe, West Highland Lochs & Castles Day Tour on Thursday. I was debating between that one, the Stirling Castle, Loch Lomond National Park & Whisky Tour on Thursday or Friday, and Lochs, Glens, Wallace Monument & Whisky Day Tour on Friday. I ended up picking the Oban one because I figured that it would be better for me to spend the day in Glasgow on Friday since I was flying back early on Saturday, and because I've been to Stirling Castle three times already. I would have liked to go to a whisky distillery, even though I don't actually drink whisky (it's much too strong for me). I went to Oban with my choir when I was 12, as well as Loch Lomond. I've also previously driven through Glencoe when I went to Scotland with SD a couple summers ago and did the Haggis Adventures: Island Explorer tour. As a side note... apparently the restaurant at which my choir ate dinner during my first Scotland trip was burned down in a fire a couple years ago (Oban Times: McTavish's Kitchens).

The tour started at 9:00 from George Square. We stopped by Loch Lomond, the Rest and Be Thankful Stop, and Loch Fyne on the way to Inverary, where we saw the Duke of Argyll's castle.

We were supposed to go to Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe after that, but it was closed off by the police because a person had gone missing in the area and the police divers were in the Loch. Instead, the tour guide took us to St. Conan's Kirk. The Kirk was interesting because it was designed and built by Walter Douglas Campbell because his mother wanted to attend a church that was closer to her because the drive to the closest church was too far for her liking. Because Campbell designed the architecture himself, it's a bit eclectic  There's different styles combined together and there's even grape decorations on the roof of the cloister (despite the fact that grapes don't grow in the area). All I have to say for the matter is that I'm glad I don't go to church there. It was very cold inside and we could see our breath while we explored inside.

We ate a late lunch of fish and chips in Oban (so not paleo) and then stopped for a bit to take photos of Castle Stalker, which is a castle on it's own little island. We didn't stay for long because the rain was starting at that point. 

Castle Stalker

From there, we drove on/through Glencoe. Parts of Harry Potter and the recent James Bond movie were filmed in this area. I took lots of pictures of mountains during our short breaks (the rain got a bit heavier before it eventually turned into snow).

After a couple more hours of driving we got back to Glasgow around 19:00. I promptly headed back to my hotel, dropped off some things, and then went across the street from my hotel to a Wetherspoon (chain-pub/restaurant). It was jam-packed, and I realized that while I'm okay with sitting in a not so busy pub by myself, sitting alone in a very crowded pub is not my thing. So I walked over to The Piper on the Square, located at the southeast corner of Glasgow, right across the street from City Council. From what my friend told me and from what I gathered when I went there, it's a bit of a locals pub. The bartenders know the names and usual drink orders of most of the people that come in. They were hosting their first ever open mic night, which mainly consisted on one of the waitresses and one guy singing, so it was basically like karaoke. I had a couple Magners ciders there and talked to a couple people that had come in. Apparently they heard my Southern accent (yes mom and dad, according to everyone but us, I have a Southern accent) while I ordered a drink and wanted to talk to me more because I am American. Fun times.