Category Archives: Food

Frozen Banana Bonbons

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Happy Valentine’s Day! These are delightful tiny frozen treats – made these early this morning before school & work! They take ~10 minutes to prepare. Love bonbons? We do too! Did you know –

“..the name bonbon (or bon-bons) refers to any of several types of sweets, especially small candies enrobed in chocolate. The first reports of bonbons come from the 17th century, when they were made at the French royal court. Their name arose from infantile reduplication of the word bon, meaning ‘good’. In modern French and several other European languages, the term simply refers to any type of candy or small confection.” (Wikipedia)

Blog chocolatebanana1  Blog chocolatebanana2e

Ingredients

  • 1 banana, cut into ½ -inch slices
  • 1/2 bag chocolate chips
  • unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)

Directions

  • Place sliced bananas on a parchment paper lined plate
  • One by one, using a small heart shaped cookie cutter, cut banana slices into hearts
  • Put chocolate in microwave safe dish and heat (~45 seconds) until melted, stir
  • Dip sliced banana hearts into chocolate, then sprinkle with coconut
  • Place on parchment lined plate to set
  • Freeze for 1 hour or more

Thanks Elana’s Pantry – see the original Paleo Frozen Banana Bites.

dit-elle-Esther

Chicken Chilaquiles

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This is a wonderful and easy dinner to prepare! Not paleo, but gluten free and so yummy!

Blog chickenchilaques

Ingredients

  • 2 cups shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onions
  • 1/2 – 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeno peppers (divided)
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • salt/pepper to taste
  • 12 (6″) corn tortillas
  • Cooking spray
  • Sour cream for garnish

Tomatillo Sauce

  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 (11oz) can tomatillos, drained
  • 1 (4.5oz) can chopped green chiles, drained (come in mild or hot varieties)

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 375*
  • Combine chicken, green onions, half of the Monterey Jack cheese, Parmesan, chili powder, salt and pepper in a medium bowl and toss well to combine
  • Place milk, cilantro, tomatillos, chiles in a food processor and blend until smooth
  • Spray 11×7 or larger baking dish with cooking spray and pour 1/3 cup of the tomatillo sauce in bottom
  • Arrange layers of tortillas and chicken mixture ending with a tortilla layer and pouring the rest of the sauce over
  • Top with cheese
  • Bake at 375* for 20 minutes or until bubbly and golden
  • Serve with sour cream and chopped fresh cilantro

dit-elle-Esther

Pork and Beans // Crockpot

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I modified this from a recipe that my dad recently made up.  It was delicious when he made it, and it was delicious with the modifications I made.  Basically….play around and get a yummy meal 🙂  That said…it’s not pretty haha, but who cares?!Blog Crockpot Pork and Beans-1Ingredients 

    • 2 Cups uncooked beans
    • 2 Pork Sirloid Tips or tenderloins
    • 1 large onion
    •  2 1/2 Cups low sodium chicken Stock
    • 1 1/2 Cups of red wine
    • 2 Tablespoon brown sugar
    • 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
    • 1 teaspoon cumin
    • 1 teaspoon chili powder
    • 1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
    • Salt and Pepper

Directions

The night before-

  • Soak beans overnight.  Put them in the crockpot and cover with 4 inches of water.
Day of cooking
  • Drain water from beans
  • Dice onion and put into the crockpot.
  • Dig holes for the pork and place them into the crockpot.
  • Add Chicken Stock
  • Pour wine into measure cup and add spices, garlic, and mustard.  Stir it all up until blended (try not to cry over wasted wine, because it really adds some great flavor-alcohol burns out :))  Pour that into crockpot too.
  • Grind salt and pepper over it.
  • Cook on low for 6 hours.
  • Garnish with whatever you want.  I did avocado and Siracha.

This makes a lot!  I’m feeding 5, and still had leftovers for another meal.  Modify how you want, or freeze for delicious leftovers!

  • dit-elle-Lauren

Paleo Morning Glory Muffins

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Good morning sunshine! Bananas, dates and pineapple make these muffins delicious and sweet. Enjoy hot or cold or freeze for later.

Blog morningglorypaleo

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 1 ripe banana mashed
  • 1 cup of carrots, shredded
  • 1/2 cup chopped pineapple
  • 4-6 dates, chopped
  • 1/2 shredded coconut, unsweetened
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Directions

  • Beat eggs till creamy (food processor works great!) and add oil and banana and blend well
  • Mix in shredded carrots, chopped dates, coconut and pineapple
  • In separate bowl mix flour, baking powder/soda and cinnamon
  • Mix everything together
  • Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes or when a fork comes out clean

dit-elle-Esther

Baked Salmon

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Blog Baked Salmon with Salad-1I don’t know why I used to be scared to cook fish.  I guess it was the fear of the unknown.  Ok, and kind of the smell haha 🙂

Living in the NW, we are SO lucky to have access to amazing fresh fish, so I decided to get over my fear.  What I found out?  It’s EASY!

Honestly, I change up the marinade depending on what’s in my fridge, but usually I do something sweet + something salty + a little kick.  It’s Here’s what I did this last time…

Ingredients

    • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
    • 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
    • 1 tablespoons real maple syrup
    • 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (I cheat and use this)
    • 2 Tablespoons chopped chives (happened to have some left over from a previous dinner 🙂
    • A little sea salt and Pepper
    • 3-4 salmon filets

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 450
  • Line a baking pan with tin foil (makes the clean up SO easy!) and lay salmon skin side down.
  • Mix all the ingredients in bowl and pour over the salmon
  • Bake for 12-14 minutes (depends on the size of your filets)
  • Serve with a side salad and some crusty bread (<–not paleo), and you’re done!

In case you were wondering if it’s child friendly, Maya CHOWED this down.Blog Baked Salmon with Salad-2dit-elle-Lauren

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus

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Bacon & Asparagus Spears! This is a wonderful paleo appetizer/snack! 🙂

Blog baconasparagus

Ingredients

  • 1 lb fresh asparagus (16-20 spears)
  • 8-10 strips bacon

Directions

  • Wash & trim asparagus spears
  • Cut bacon strips in half crosswise
  • Wrap one half strip bacon around 1 or 2 asparagus spears (depending on how fat/skinny they are), leaving tip and end exposed
  • Lay on cookie sheet or large baking dish and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until bacon is cooked
  • Serve warm or at room temperature

dit-elle-Esther

Beet & Walnut Salad

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This combination of beets, oil & vinegarette and toasted walnuts is delicious! Great as an appetizer, side or salad. 🙂

Blog beetwalnutsalad2 Blog beetwalnutsalad1

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds beets
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • dash of salt and pepper
  • 1/4 cup olive or walnut oil
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 3/4 bunch green onions, sliced
  • 1/4 red onion, sliced into thin half-moons (optional)

Directions

  • Steam or boil beets until fork tender, it will really depend on their size, but about 20-40 minutes. Cut off root and stem ends and slip off skins under cool, running water while beets are still warm (easiest way to do this is to sort of ‘massage’ the beets and the skin will come right off). Cool beets.
  • Whisk together vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and oil until dressing is blended.
  • Cut cooled, peeled beets into 1-inch wedges and toss with dressing.
  • To toast walnuts, preheat oven to 350° F. Spread nuts on a cookie sheet and toast for about 4 to 5 minutes. Let cool. Roughly chop toasted walnuts.
  • Add walnuts, green onions and red onions to dressed beats; toss to combine.

Super mom tip: Beets can be cooked days in advance and stored in the fridge. Just keep them unpeeled until you are ready to use.

Thanks PCC deli and recipes! :)

dit-elle-Esther

Chicken soup for the..

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Everything! A hot steaming bowl of chicken soup served for lunch or dinner is especially nice on icy damp January days like we’ve been having around here. Also great for sore throats, a perfect simple protein/veggie meal for little tummies, and the ultimate comfort food. This paleo friendly recipe is extremely easy to throw together, although there is some ‘de-boning’ work involved in the prep, but makes a large batch (for freezing/reheating, yay!).

Blog chickensoup2

Ingredients

  • One whole fresh chicken (usually found bagged in the refrigerated mean section of store)
  • 2 + 3 carrots, divided
  • 2+ 3 celery stalks, divided
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • Fresh ginger (optional)
  • Bay leaves
  • Salt/pepper to taste

Directions

  • Rinse chicken and put the entire bird in a pot
  • Fill with water, so it just covers chicken
  • Add a couple of roughly chopped carrots and celery stalks, garlic cloves, onion also roughly chopped, ginger and bay leaves
  • Bring to boil and let simmer for an hour or so
  • Remove chicken from pot (but save broth!) and let cool
  • Save all the broth, but discard veggies, bay leaves, ginger and anything else you don’t want in broth
  • Note that carrots/celery/onions/garlic get mushy after an hour cooking, so you will add new ones later. Mom tip: Carrots tend to be perfect for mashing into baby food though! 🙂
  • Once chicken is cooled, pick all the meat off the bones
  • Put broth back on heat and throw in sliced carrots and chopped celery
  • Bring to a simmer, add the now de-boned chicken back to soup
  • Season with salt & pepper and serve hot!

 

dit-elle-Esther

Simple Island Breakfast

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We just spent a few weeks on the beautiful island of Kauai eating papayas and avocados every day for breakfast. Papaya is very sweet and is beautifully balanced with the tartness of lime juice. Here’s my favorite way to eat and serve papaya – with lime and coconut milk! Aloha! 🙂 Blog papaya1

Blog papaya2

Ingredients

  • Fresh papaya (you’ll know it’s ripe when the skin starts to get yellow and the fruit is soft)
  • Fresh squeezed lime
  • Coconut milk (from a can)

Directions

  • Cut papaya in half lengthwise and scoop out and discard seeds
  • With a spoon or knife, carve some papaya chunks from the sides
  • Top with plenty of fresh squeezed lime juice and coconut milk

dit-elle-Esther

Easy Southwest Black Bean and Chicken Crockpot Soup

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Lately, I’ve just been throwing stuff in the crockpot and hoping it turns out.  There are so many other things to worry about/spend time doing.  Cooking just isn’t one of them right now.  Don’t get me wrong.  I actually do like to cook.  When I have time… I haven’t had a surplus of that lately though, so the crockpot has been my helper.  This is was so ridiculously easy and delicious.  Healthy too-TRIFECTA! 🙂Blog SW Black Bean Chicken Crockpot Soup-3

Ingredients

    • 6 Chicken Breasts (I only had time to partially thaw the frozen ones I had and it was fine)
    • 1 Cup Pico de Gallo (or any salsa you have on hand/like)
    • 2 Cans of black beans with the liquid
    • 1 Onion diced
    • 1 1/2 Cups Chicken Stock
    • 1 Tsp Chili Powder
    • 1 Cup Quinoa (could also use rice)
    • 1 Adobo Chili finely diced
    • Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

  • Throw it all in the crockpot on low for 5 hours (more wouldn’t hurt it, I don’t think).  Shred the chicken with fork and enjoy!!

Below is a picture I took with my phone after I dumped it all in the pot.  I often wonder what things look like before they cook, just to make sure I’m doing it right 🙂Blog SW Black Bean Chicken Crockpot Soup-1dit-elle-Lauren