New Tradition: Healthy Meals with Friends - Part 2

My friends and I held our second healthy dinner on Sunday. We all seemed to be on the same page when it came to veggies because we ended up with two dishes of each veggie: broccoli, carrots, and Brussels sprouts. There was steamed broccoli and Brussels sprouts, roasted broccoli and carrots, sweet and spicy roasted carrot fries, and a shredded Brussels sprouts salad. So it was three veggies, two-ways, and it was delicious.

The meat entrée was Chicken Coconut Curry based on Tyler Florence’s recipe, and dessert consisted of fresh fruit with whipped coconut cream. Here's how you can make the whipped cream...

Whipped (Coconut) Cream

1 can coconut milk – chill for a few hours first and DO NOT SHAKE THE CAN

1.5 tsp vanilla
1 Tbls raw honey

Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

1. Open the unshaken can of coconut milk and scoop out the top solidified portion of the coconut cream. If you shake the can, you won’t have the thick coconut cream that you’re looking for. Or if you want to be super crafty, open the can from the bottom and pour the liquid into a storage container, then scrape out the cream. The liquid/milk can be used for smoothies.
2. Combine the vanilla, honey, cinnamon, and coconut cream in a stand mixer or bowl. Mix/whisk well (3-5 minutes), until you get the fluffy whipped cream consistency. This may take longer, especially if you’re hand-whisking.

I was a little off my game this past week due to the ridiculous BBQ cold/flu I came down with at the Rodeo Cook-off. Quite a few people on my team came down with something. I ended up staying home and in bed (or on the couch when I couldn't stand my bed anymore) for most of the week. It was a very pathetic week.

Is gluten-free worth it?

Is avoiding gluten worth it? The only answer is: It depends. Your body may be able to handle gluten just fine. Me? I know that gluten does bad things to me: migraines, upset stomach, bloating, mental fog, tiredness - all of these things happen when I eat gluten. I’ve known this for years thanks to first going gluten-free for a month four years ago, and then to going Paleo three years ago. Despite this knowledge, I kept eating grains for the last eight months. I’ve been cutting down significantly since January 1st of this year, but hadn’t completely given it up because I kept craving bread. This past weekend was a bit of an eye-opener for me though. Let me share…

On Saturday, I went out to lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant with a couple friends. I ate chips and salsa and queso, and then the taco salad. The food was good, and the conversation was better. We ended up sitting in the restaurant for two-and-a-half hours, and by the time we got around to leaving, all of us felt like we needed a serious nap. I’m not much of a napper; I usually only take naps when I’m ill. So, I fought to stay awake and be productive Saturday afternoon. I felt miserable though. My head felt pinched and throbbing, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, and my sinuses started acting up - my nose, cheeks, eyes, and ears all became a burning type of pain. I ended up laying down, but not sleeping for an hour Saturday evening before heading to a friend’s house for a Candlemas party. My friends and our conversations kept me there for the duration, but I felt worse and worse as the night wore on.

On Sunday, I ate no gluten and no cheese. I still ate some grains, like quinoa, but I managed to steer clear of the pizza, brownies, and bread at the superbowl party. The result? No headache. No stomachache. No lethargy. I didn’t notice it during the day, but by the time I was heading to the party, I realized how much better I felt then than I had 24 hours before. It was incredibly satisfying to feel energetic and not to have a low-grade headache in the background of my life. So I made a pit stop at My Fit Foods and picked up a gluten-free salmon dinner to eat instead of the pizza I had been planning on eating. It’s only been five days so far, but reminding myself of the huge improvement in how my body felt between Saturday and Sunday has been giving me enough motivation to say no to those urges to eat a cookie or stop at the store on the way home to buy some pita bread and cheese.

Here’s hoping I can keep it up…

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a recipe:

Butter Chicken
1.5 lb chicken, cut into 1-2" chunks
2 Tbls coconut oil

1 - 14 oz can coconut milk
0.5 cup tomato paste
1 sweet onion, diced
5 cloves, garlic, smashed and minced

3 Tbls arrowroot flour

1 Tbls garam masala

1.5 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp chili powder

0.5 tsp cinnamon

0.25 tsp cayenne

salt and pepper to taste - I used about a pinch of each

1. Heat the coconut oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the diced onion and garlic, cooking until the onion becomes translucent.
3. Mix all of the ingredients except for the chicken into the pan. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
4. Mix the chicken into the sauce and transfer to your slow cooker. Set on low and cook for 6 hours. Then enjoy.

I seem to have a think for Indian food these days. Stay tuned for my next post on Paleo naan.

W30D16

What can I do with all of that chicken that I roasted the other day? Easy. Time to pull out that crock pot...

Spinach, Pepper, and Chicken Quiche

12 eggs

1 cup coconut milk

2 cups shredded chicken (for me, this was all of the meat from the wings and thighs)

1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 cup chopped bell peppers (I used red, orange, and yellow)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3/4 tsp hot sauce (cayenne pepper)

1. Whisk the eggs and coconut together. Mix in the spices.

2. Spread the chicken, spinach, and peppers in the bottom of the crockpot.

3. Pour in the egg and coconut mixture.

4. Set crockpot on high and cook for 2.5 hours.

5. Slice into six pieces and serve.

Look at that thick slice of quiche. Isn't it pretty?

ECD8: 1 hour Krav Maga Flex (yoga)

Slow-Cooker Paleo Pad Thai

Hi, folks!

If you're from the US, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! If you're not, well, I hope you had a great week anyways. You probably didn't overeat like the rest of us. I really enjoyed my week; I took the entire week off from work. It was glorious, but it's back to the grindstone tomorrow morning. I've been working a lot these days, given that I'm currently performing two roles at work. Nothing like taking on a second job part-time while your first job gets busy. I've been eating horribly, that is when I do eat. To be completely honest, my life prior to vacation basically consisted of waking up, going to work, eating lunch while working, going home, and going to sleep. I was only eating one real meal per day and snacking for the others. I've barely been working out and I need to change that. So I took today to clean up my room a little bit, try to prep for the week, and relax before getting busy again. Right now, I'm currently watching/listening to "The Perfect Human Diet." I highly recommend checking it out. It's on Amazon Prime and Netflix, just so you know.

With that, I'll leave you with an easy recipe that I threw together once I returned from the airport last night.

Slow-Cooker Paleo Pad Thai

1 1/2 lb chicken

1 1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

Chicken Seasoning

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Sauce

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup chicken broth

3 Tbls sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)

1 Tbls coconut aminos

2 tsp fish sauce

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 bunches green onion, chopped

"Pasta"

2 zucchini, julienned

2 carrots, julienned

1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced

Optional Toppings

chopped cashews

green onions

cilantro

1. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a pan on the stove. Chop the chicken into roughly 1" pieces. Season with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Place the chicken into the pan and brown the chicken. It doesn't have to be thoroughly cooked yet because you'll be cooking more later.

2. Mix together the ingredients for the sauce in the crock pot. Stir until the sunbutter has broken down and is fully combined.

3. Stir in the browned chicken.

4. Place the "pasta" ingredients on top of the sauce/chicken. Do not stir to combine.

5. Cook on low for 6 hours. If you have a programmable slow-cooker, you probably don't have that option, but just set it on low and check it after 6 hours. If you cook it too long, the "pasta" will brown a bit more than you might like.

6. Remove from the crock pot and serve with any of the optional toppings if you so choose. It'll be a bit spicy, but sneakily so (at least to me). Enjoy!

Pumpkin-Acorn Squash Soup

Yesterday I decided to try out intermittent fasting (IF). IF basically just means going through periods of time of not eating (drinking water and low-calorie drinks such as tea) and eating

It's one of those things of which I've been skeptical. I mean, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? Well, that may still be true, but there is an argument that IF can aid weight loss by increasing fat oxidation, decreasing fasting insulin levels, and increasing insulin sensitivity. Head to Mark's Daily Apple for more information.

Despite a few hunger that hit around 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., I felt great. I drank water and tea. I wasn't hungry and I wasn't struggling with cravings for food throughout the day. My stomach did start rumbling pretty loudly after my Krav Maga class yesterday evening, so I ate some food after practice, even though I still didn't feel terribly hungry. I ended up feeling like I ate too much at dinner though, so that'll be something to work on in the future. I lasted a full 24 hours without food. I've mentioned before that I'm an emotional eater. If I'm stressed, bored, tired, etc., I tend to eat. Plus I seem to also use grabbing a snack as a short break. Yesterday I didn't have that option, but I survived without much effort.

Compare that to today. I started out the day with a mug of Pumpkin-Acorn Squash Soup (see recipe below). Within 2 hours, I wanted to eat something else. I know that I didn't have my usual protein for breakfast, so that could be part of the culprit. But I find it interesting that on my IF day, I wasn't hungry and didn't have to put any effort into restraining my snacking, but today, when I started off the day with food, I wanted more food, more frequently. I guess that's your body heading into starvation mode.

Pumpkin-Acorn Squash Soup (10 servings, 1 cup per serving)

1 pie/sugar pumpkin

1 acorn squash

2 Tbls coconut oil

1 Tbls olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

3 Tbls thyme, fresh, leaves

4 cups chicken broth (1 Mason jar)

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/3 cup coconut milk

1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil.

2. Slice the pumpkin and acorn squash in half. Scoop out the seeds and set aside seeds for a different use.

3. Brush the flesh of the pumpkin and acorn squash with coconut oil. Place the halves, cut side down on the baking sheet. Place in the oven for 50-60 minutes, until the skin is easily punctured with a fork. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes so you don't burn yourself. During this baking/waiting time, you can do something else, or chop onions, or whatever you want. After cooling, peel the skin off of the flesh or use a spoon to scoop out the flesh.

4. Once the pumpkin and acorn squash are cooling, heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the onion and thyme, cooking for 5 minutes or until soft.

5. Add the pumpkin and acorn squash flesh to the pot along with the chicken broth. Bring to a boil for 10 minutes, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

6. Transfer the mixture in small batches to a blender. Process each batch for a minute or until the mixture is smooth and creamy. You can also use an immersion blender, but it may not end up as creamy.

7. Once the entire pot has been blended, stir in the remaining ingredients. Reheat on the stove and serve immediately. Top with sage if you feel like it.

Here's how much soup I got out of this recipe.

Here's a nutrition label based on the results from inputting my recipe to PaleoTrack.com. These values assume a serving size of 1 cup, with roughly 10 cups of soup altogether.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

Yum! Pumpkin Hot Chocolate. How can you have Paleo hot chocolate? you ask. Well, I'm happy to help you there. And to incorporate one of my favorite foods: pumpkin. Here goes...

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

1/2 cup + 2 Tbls coconut milk

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp pumpkin spice

2-3 Tbls cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

3 Tbls maple syrup

1 pinch of salt

1. Combine the coconut milk and pumpkin puree in a small saucepan over medium heat.

2. Once the milk and puree are completely combined and warm, stir in the remaining ingredients.

3. Serve immediately. It's really thick.

If you don't drink it all immediately, then you can put the rest in the fridge and use it as pudding.  Yeah, that's what I did.

Pumpkin Sausage Soup

In honor of the first week of October happening this week, I've decided to do a week of pumpkin recipes. Someone forgot to tell Texas weather that it's fall, but the spirit of fall is in the air. Grocery stores are displaying tons of pumpkin desserts, Halloween stores are open, and Christmas decorations are already on sale. But then again, I've seen Christmas decorations in stores since June. Anyways, pumpkin recipes will be happening for the week. I'm pretty excited, but since I'm cooking for one, and apparently never cook small batches of anything, I'm going to be eating pumpkin at EVERY meal this week. I would say that I'm concerned about getting tired of pumpkin, but I LOVE pumpkin, so I think we're safe.

Pumpkin Sausage Soup

2 Tbls olive oil

1 pound sweet Italian sausage (bulk if you can find it)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, diced

1.5 Tbls sage leaves, chiffonade

3/4 cup white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)

1 1/4 cup chicken broth, homemade if you have it

1 bay leaf

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Salt and pepper, to your taste

1. Heat 1 Tbls of olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Once the olive oil is hot, add the sausage. If you couldn't find mild (a.k.a. "sweet") Italian sausage, and instead have the sausage itself, make a light cut lengthwise along the sausage, then fold flip the sausage inside how, keeping hold of the casing. Use your hands to break up the sausage to smaller chunks.

2. Cook the sausage for a few minutes, until it's thoroughly cooked.

3. Transfer the sausage to paper towel, to allow the fat to be drained.

4. Heat another 1 Tbls of olive oil to a skillet and toss in the garlic and onions. Cook for 5 minutes until onions are soft.

5. Now add the sage, bay leaf, and wine to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes to allow the wine to reduce. (To chiffonade the sage, roll up the leaves, and then make small slices from the rolled edge.)

6. Mix in the chicken broth and pumpkin puree. Once the concoction starts to bubble, reduce the heat to low.

7. Stir in the coconut milk and the sausage, and cook for 5-10 minutes to allow the soup to thicken.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

I think this may be one of the dishes that I was most excited about making. It's been on my list of foods to Paleo-ify for over a year, but I just never got around to it. I think I was a bit intimidated of attempting an Indian dish, which I've never ever tried before. And there's a large number of ingredients, but it's all pretty easy to throw together, especially when you do a slow-cooker version. Win! It tastes delicious. And if you're like me and don't eat a ton of meat at each meal, this concoction can last you for a while. I made this last Thursday. So far, I've had it for breakfast on Friday, breakfast and dinner on Saturday, breakfast and dinner on Sunday, and breakfast, lunch, and dinner today. And I've still got enough left for another 4-5 meals. That's a total of 12-13 meals, that I got out of one crock pot. Double win!

Anyways, I hope you LOVE this as much as I do! And did I mention that this is Whole 30 and 21DSD-friendly? Well, now I have...

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

3 lb chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces

1/2 yellow onion, finely diced

1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbls grated ginger

2 small jalapeños, stemmed, sliced in half, and seeded

1 - 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, salt-free

1 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, whole

3 Tbls tomato paste

2 Tbls coconut oil

2 Tbls lemon juice

2 Tbls Garam Masala

1 Tbls cumin

1/2 Tbls paprika

2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper (for extra spice, add an extra 1-2 tsp)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 can coconut milk (shake well before opening)

cilantro, chopped for serving

1. Mix all of the ingredients, excluding the chicken in a large bowl.

2. Pour half of the tomato mixture and half of the can of coconut milk into the slow-cooker. Add the chicken, then cover with the remaining ingredients.

3. Set on low for 8 hours.

4. Remove bay leaves and jalapeño.

5. Serve by itself or over cauliflower rice.

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

I told you I'm on a dessert kick...

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

2 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup + 1 Tbls cup maple syrup

2 Tbls pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. In a large bowl, blend ingredients together.

3. Fill six small (roughly 4") ramekins to 3/4 full. You may have some left over... I'll get to that in a tick (or in tomorrow's post - link to be provided soon). Alternatively, you can use a larger baking pan, but it won't look as adorable, and you'll have to adjust baking times.

4. Bake in the oven for 25-40 minutes. Check after 25 minutes to determine if it's done. When done, a toothpick will come out clean when inserted into the center. If not, check in 5 minute intervals until the dessert is done.

5. Let cool for a few minutes, then serve. It can be served with some coconut milk on top, or just plain. Yum.

After cooling and carting to work for a mid-afternoon snack

And OMG, this is good. I think my pumpkin cravings have returned. At least I'm prepared for Thanksgiving this year. Yes, my family has already started making plans... only four months in advance!