Curried Chicken & Sweet Potato Quinoa (Paleo)

So I got this idea from my beautiful hairdresser and friend, Maggie! ❤  She is the only person I’ve ever met that can do wonderful things to my hair AND feed me while she’s creating these masterpieces! 🙂 Here’s my new hair cut…

And HERE, is a delicious meal that you won’t want to miss:

Ingredients:

• 3 chopped garlic cloves
• 1/2 medium chopped onion
• 5 cubed chicken thighs
• 2 medium chopped sweet potato
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• Large handful of green beans
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 tbs red curry paste
• 1 cup Quinoa (I used red for this dish)
• 2 green onions, chopped
• Handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
• 1 tbs EVOO
• 1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

Directions:

1. Over medium heat, put two tablespoons or so of EVOO in a large skillet. Add garlic and onion. Sauté until onions are translucent. Add chicken and cook for approximately 1 minute. Lower the heat and add sweet potato, carrots, and green beans.

2. While everything above is cooking, start your quinoa. In a saucepan, over medium heat, add coconut milk and red curry paste, mix until combined. Add quinoa, green onions, cilantro, EVOO, and sesame oil. Turn heat to low, mix, and cover for approximately 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on it and stir as needed so it doesn’t stick to the bottom.

3. Once the quinoa is done and the veggies are done to your liking, turn off heat, add quinoa to the chicken and veggies and mix.

4. Serve with a green salad (if desired) and ENJOY!!!! 🙂

Pork & Avocado Enchiladas (Paleo!)

These enchiladas are so tasty… AND PALEO! That’s right, Paleo tortillas! Change.Your.Life!

(I like my enchiladas a little crispy, so I kept mine in for a couple minutes longer)

Ingredients:

For the tortillas

• 6 egg whites
• 6 tablespoons canned coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons coconut flour
• 1/4  teaspoon baking soda

For the insides:

• 1.5 cup chicken broth
• 1 lb pork butt
• 1 tablespoon seasoning salt (I use “Pappy’s” from Costco)
• 5 garlic cloves – chopped
• 1 sweet onion – chopped
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 whole dried “chilies de padron” (feel free to use your favorite dried chili – this one is nice because it has some spice but it’s not super spicy hot)

For the avocado sauce:

• 1 jalapeño
• 2 avocados
• juice of 1 lemon
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup left over broth (from cooking the pork butt)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 3 tablespoons canned coconut milk
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper

Instructions

1. I like to prep my crockpot meals the night before… because I’m just that lazy in the mornings. Start by adding the broth to the crockpot bowl, followed by your pork butt rubbed with the seasoning salt. On top of that add your chopped onion and garlic, and finally, the oregano, bay leaf, and dried chilies.
2. Go ahead and put the top on the crockpot and place in the fridge for the night. In the morning plug that baby in and set to low for 8 hours.
3. No peeking throughout the day (which is really hard for me since I work from home). Open the crockpot after the 8 hours and use two forks to make sure that it shreds easily (if it does not, it may not be done yet). Once you’ve shredded the meat, add the onions to the meat and mix. Set the shredded meat aside.
4. Whisk all of the tortilla ingredients together until all lumps are gone. Spray a large skillet with oil and put over medium heat. Pour a small circle in the center of your pan (I usually pour about 1/4 of a cup) and tilt the pan around in a circle to spread the batter thinner and into a lager circle.
5. Cook the tortilla until the edges start to brown and turn up (about 1 minute). Carefully slip your spatula under the edges of the tortilla to free it from the pan, aaaaaaaand FLIP! Cook for about a minute on the second side and set aside. Don’t worry if the first one doesn’t turn out, you’ll get better at it the second or third time around! After my first batch of tortillas I felt like a Pro!
6. Once you’ve finished making all of your tortillas, put all of the ingredients for the avocado sauce into a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.
7. Time for the assembly line! Lay out a tortilla, put some shredded pork butt and onion mixture in the middle of the tortilla and roll up. Here is where I change my recipe each time… sometimes, I add some zucchini or some of the avocado mixture, or if I’m feeling like some spice, some sliced jalapeños.
8. Once you add all your fillings, roll up the tortilla and place in a baking dish. Continue wrapping up your enchiladas with delicious fillings until they are all lined up in the baking dish.
9. Turn on your broiler and put in your baking dish. Cook for 6-8 minutes or until the tortillas become crispy and lightly browned. Remove baking dish from the oven and cover the enchiladas with the avocado sauce then put it back in the oven for 5 minutes.
10. Top with a couple fresh cilantro leaves and serve! ENJOY on their own or with some hot sauce! Our favorite is Cock Sauce (Sriracha) or Franks Red Hot. Mmmmm!

Sweet Potato and Bacon Frittata (Paleo)

This frittata is a tasty and healthy way to start off your day and it’s nice to have ready in the fridge for a quick out the door breakfast that will keep you full for hours! I absolutely LOVE this recipe (and it’s husband approved)!!! Props to “Uncle Jesse” for the inspiration for this one! 🙂

Ingredients:

 

• 10 eggs
• 1 small sweet (or yellow) onion, chopped
• 4 strips of thick cut bacon, chopped
• 1 medium sweet potato, chopped – not a yam… yams are orange… you want a sweet potato that look like this:

• One green onion, chopped

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add bacon (be careful not to get grease splatter on you). Once the bacon is cooked, remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel.
• Pour 3/4 of the grease out of the pan and into a jar, mug, old tuna can… just don’t pour it in the sink or directly into your trash please. I like to use bacon grease in some of my cooking – just a little adds the best smoky flavor.
• Add sweet potato and onion into the pan and make sure they are mixed and covered in the remaining bacon grease. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid from anything sticking or burning.
• While it’s cooking, crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk together. I usually add just a tablespoon or two of water or almond milk to the eggs when I beat them to add a little puff to the final egg dish.
• Once the sweet potato is cooked through and the onions are translucent, turn off the heat, add the bacon and eggs. Add your green onion and carefully use a spoon to dunk them into the egg.

• Bake for 25 minutes. The edges should be golden brown and if you shake the pan a little, the whole egg dish should move as a whole (no jiggly soupy middle). Cut like a pie and serve! Enjoy while hot!

Chicken Thighs, Garlic Mashed “Potatoes”, and Green Salad (PALEO)

Tonight I decided to make a typical dinner: Chicken and Salad. Considering we’re trying to save as much as possible for our honeymoon to Spain in November, I’m happy that this dinner is a cheap (and in this case, AMAZING) meal. This recipe is one of my faves because it really spices up what could quite possibly be a very humdrum and bland dinner. For anyone who is scared by the fact that it’s Paleo – just know that it was husband approved! 🙂 Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 6-8 chicken thighs
• Coconut oil
• Optional: Italian seasoning (you can also use your favorite poultry seasoning)
• 1 large head cauliflower
• 1 head of garlic
• 2 tbs butter (grassfed)
• Salt & pepper (to taste)
• 1 head of lettuce (I like red leaf lettuce)
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 c sliced cucumber
• 1/4 c pomegranate seeds

Ingredients (salad dressing):

• 1 lemon
• 2 fresh garlic cloves
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• 1/4 c walnut oil
• 1/8 c white balsamic
• salt & pepper (to taste)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Heat 1 tbs of coconut oil in a skillet. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, and other seasoning (optional – skip salt if the “seasoning” you use already contains salt) and rub in. Add chicken to the skillet once hot and cook for about 1 minute on each side until they are lightly browned.
• Peel the garlic head so that it’s still attached, however you can see the individual cloves in their casings. Cut the tips off of the cloves and put in tin foil. Smother it in the coconut oil and sprinkle a little salt on top. Close the tinfoil around the garlic and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes (until lightly golden brown). This is what it should look like:

• Remove chicken from pan when done and put in a baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes.
• Fill a large pot with about 2 inches of water, put over high heat with lid until it boils.
• While waiting for the water to boil, wash and trim a large head of cauliflower and put it in a steamer. Once the water in the pot is boiling, put the steamer in the pot. Put a lid on the pot and steam for about 10 minutes.
• Once cauliflower is done, put it in the food processor. Add the butter and garlic (pull the little golden nuggets of deliciousness from their shells). Blend. Once smooth, add salt and pepper to tast (I added about 3 tsp of salt and pepper).
• Chop the lettuce for the salad, put in a bowl. Making the dressing: I like to use a small mason type jar or a small tupperware with a lid so I can shake the crap out of the dressing to blend it. You can also put the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. Put all salad dressing ingredients (except for the walnut oil) into the container of your choice. Blend.
• If you are using a whisk and a bowl, slowly add the oil while mixing. If you are shaking your salad dressing, you can put the oil in all at once and then shake again to blend. Pour onto the salad in the bowl and mix to cover.
• Slice the avocado and cucumber, put on top of the salad with the pomegranate seeds.
• Plate the chicken, salad, and mashed “potatoes”. YUM!

***Gotta give a shout out to Suzanne for turning me on to chicken thighs; it’s a whole new world.