Tag Archives: dinner

Beet & Walnut Salad

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

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!

Chicken soup for the..

3 Replies

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!).

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!

Easy Southwest Black Bean and Chicken Crockpot Soup

1 Reply

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! 🙂

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 🙂

Salmon, potato and spinach soup

2 Replies

I’ve been making a lot of soups recently – especially since we are having this unusual cold spell with temps in the teens at night and barely above 32 in the day! Brrr…! Hot soup to the rescue – easy, yummy and quick!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 leek (white and pale-green parts only) — halved, rinsed and thinly sliced (or 1 onion, chopped)
3 cloves garlic, minced
4-8 small red or gold potatoes, scrubbed and halved (some paleo purists don’t eat white potatoes, so cauliflower would be a great substitute)
Salt and pepper, to taste
5 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 1/2 pounds salmon fillet — skinned, boned and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup half-and-half (or coconut milk for paleo)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (I used 1 tsp dry)
5 ounces baby spinach

Directions

Melt butter in a heavy sauce pot over medium heat.
Add leek and garlic, stirring occasionally, until leek is soft, about 5 minutes.
Stir in potatoes and cauliflower; season with salt and pepper.
Pour in stock and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until vegetables are fork tender, 7 to 9 minutes.
Add salmon and simmer until just cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes.
Stir in half-and-half, dill and spinach and briefly cook until spinach wilts and soup is heated through.

You can make this paleo by substituting coconut milk for the dairy.

Chicken with Sauteed Spinach and Gingery Peanut Sauce

3 Replies

This is another crowd pleaser at my house. Even though I sneak spinach in there! Hey, what’s not good smothered in a peanut sauce??

I originally got the recipe from Real Simple’s “10 things to do with rotisserie chicken” It’s the last one “Gingery Peanut Noodles with Chicken”, but made a few changes. One of which is that I don’t use a rotisserie chicken. I’m not a big fan of the dark meat, so I only use the breasts. To each his own though!Ingredients

1/2 cup peanut butter
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (I cheat and use this)
Box of Pasta or use Quinoa or…nothing at all. It’s great on it’s own! This time I used quinoa.
4-6 Chicken Breasts. Depends on how many people you have and how soupy you want it. I use 6 and either cube it and then cook or have the Huz grill them on the BBQ and then cube after (this is obviously my preferred choice :))
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
5-6 cups of spinach.

2 green onions sliced (optional)

Directions

Either cube the chicken breasts and cook in a large pan with a little olive oil, salt, and peopper or toss the breasts in olive oil, salt, and pepper and BBQ it and then cube.
Start to cook the pasta/quinioa/whatever you want to use/not use.
While all of that is cooking…
In a blender, combine 1 cup water with the peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, and ginger. Blend until smooth.
Add the peanut mixture to the cooked chicken, and toss in the spinach. Serve over the pasta, quinoa, rice or serve alone! Garnish with the green onions. DELICIOUS! I add Siracha on mine too~mmmmm.

Paleo Spaghetti.. before the Italians even invented Spaghetti!

1 Reply

I was inspired by Elana’s Pantry’s post on how to EASILY make Spaghetti Squash. It IS super easy, super fun, and makes super awesome paleo noodles! 🙂 Yes it takes a while to bake, but plan ahead, throw this squash in the oven while you are doing other things and the actual preparation part (scraping out the flesh into noodles takes <1 minute)! Serve with a hearty Bolognese meat sauce, like this Paleo Sloppy Joe’s sauce, or simply as a dessert with some butter (or coconut butter) and cinnamon! 🙂

Ingredients

One large spaghetti squash (~3 lbs)

Directions

Place whole (uncut) spaghetti squash on a parchment paper lined baking sheet
Bake at 350° for 60-80 minutes
Allow to cool
Cut squash open (long side) with a knife
Scoop out seeds
Scrape the flesh out of the squash into stringy noodles
Voila!

Carmelized Onion Tart

1 Reply

This is a delicious onion tart. Not quite paleo with the dairy, but great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Ingredients

3 onions
2 Tbsp butter
5 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream, half’n’half, milk or plain Greek yogurt
1 cup Swiss or cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

Melt butter in large frying pan
Thinly slice onions by running them through the food processor on the slicer blade (takes <60 seconds)
Saute onions in butter for 30 mins on medium heat, stirring once in a while, until onions are translucent, soft, and started to brown and caramelize
If they have not started to brown, turn up heat and caramelize them a bit, stirring so as not to let them burn
While onions are cooking, whisk eggs and milk or yogurt
Cover glass pie pan with cooking spray, add onions, cheese, and pour egg/milk mixture evenly over it
Bake for 30 minutes on 350* or until golden brown around edges, bubbly and hot
Serve warm, great paired with soup and salad!

Spicy Pork and Sweet Potato Stew

3 Replies

This is a wonderful hearty fall stew. Serve with a crisp apple cider!

Ingredients

1 Tbsp high-heat oil like coconut
1-2 lbs boneless pork shoulder or pork loin, cut into 1″ cubes
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsps. ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced, plus 2 Tbsps adobo sauce (look for gluten free as some adobo sauces have wheat as an ingredient)
salt/pepper, to taste
1 (12 oz) bottle beer
3 cups chicken stock
2 large sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
Top with fresh cilantro and sour cream

Directions

Heat oil in large heavy pot over medium-high heat
Brown the pork and transfer to a bowl and set aside
Reduce the heat and add onion and cook, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pot, until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes
Add the garlic
Add reserved pork, cumin, coriander, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, salt and pepper, stir to combine
Pour in beer and chicken stock and bring to a boil
Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for an hour, stirring occasionally
After 1 hour, add sweet potatoes and simmer until pork is tender and potatoes are cooked through, ~30 minutes or so
Serve with cilantro and sour cream (or omit sour cream and add avocado as a paleo option)

French Onion Soup

2 Replies

French Onion Soup.. mmm, a classic, hearty fall soup. Dress it up with some protein or serve as is. Of course some toasted baguette and melted cheese would be amazing!

Add some protein to make this an even heartier meal (shown here with grilled and sliced venison).

Ingredients

8-10 onions
Butter or other fat
One quart of beef stock
Splash of sherry (optional)
Sprigs of fresh thyme
Garnish with gruyere or cheddar cheese (if not paleo)

Directions

Melt butter in large soup pot
Thinly slice the onions (using the slicer blade on a food processor works well!) and add to pot
Let onions sauté over low-medium heat until they start to sweat
Cover the pan with a lid and saute for about an hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes
The onions will turn golden brown and while the bottom of the pan may be a dark caramel, make sure it doesn’t burn
Add some sherry or stock if you are skipping the sherry and use this to deglaze the pan
Add rest of stock and bring to a boil
Let cool a bit and ladle soup into bowls, topping with cheese and some fresh thyme

Paleo BBQ pork in the crock pot

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