Tag Archives: Healthy Dinner

Grilled Orange Chicken with Onions and Quinoa

Last week I posted a recipe for a easy, refreshing, delicious Clementine Goat Cheese Salad. I mentioned in that post, that I made this dish to go with it, and here it is!

I rarely use recipes (ironic, no?!), but one thing I love doing, is repeating flavors in the different dishes of the meal. I used the same flavors in the chicken, the quinoa, and also the salad. It cuts down on needing a bunch of different ingredients, and makes everything go so well together!

blog-orange-onion-chicken-and-quinioa-1 This tastes great on it’s own, but even better when paired with the salad…

What You Need… (feeds 4)

4 Chicken Breasts
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tsp Minced Garlic
1 Sprig of Rosemary or 1 Tablespoon
1 Medium sized Orange
1 medium sized onion
1 Cup uncooked Quinoa (Omit or sub out with cauliflower rice for Paleo/Whole 30 option)
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste.

What You Do…

Pour Olive Oil, Garlic, Rosemary, and juice from half the orange, into a small bowl and stir.
Take 2/3rds of the liquid and pour over chicken breasts in a large bowl or zip lock bag. Slice the other half of the orange and place inside bag/in bowl. Salt and Pepper to taste. Let that all marinate for 30+ minutes. If you want to do this in the morning and let it marinate in the refrigerator all day…even better!
Slice Onion in 1/2 inch slices and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Light your grill to medium heat and let it get hot.
Take quinoa and either place in a rice cooker (what I did) and add left over 1/3rd mixture from above and cook. It’s usually done in 20 minutes.
Or, if you don’t have a rice cooker, cook on stove top with 2 cups water plus added 1/3rd left over mixture. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and let it cook covered for another 15 minutes. Let it sit for another 5 minutes covered but with the heat turned off. Fluff it up.
While Quinoa is cooking place chicken, onions, and orange slices on the grill. Cook on each side for 7-8 minutes (depending on breast size).
Layer quinoa in a serving dish (I drizzled a little of the salad dressing over the top, but you could just drizzle with a little olive oil), then top with chicken, onions, and oranges.

Enjoy!!

Salmon Avocado Mango “Tacos” | Paleo // Whole30

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This was a leftover meal from the already ridiculously easy Salmon Avocado Mango Salad with Soft Boiled Egg that I made a few weeks ago. I meant to do a follow up post right away, but…

You know….LIFE! Summer has been kicking my arse lately!

In any case! This is a great two-fer meal. Make one and then the other the next day. Isn’t that the mom holy grail???!!

Adjust the measurements as needed! 🙂 Blog Whole30 Paleo Salmon Avocado Mango Lettuce Tacos-1 From the original post (makes both meals!)

Ingredients (Would serve 4)

3 6oz cans of wild Alaskan Salmon
10 grape tomatoes (cut in half)
1 large avocados
1 Mango diced
1/2 and inch slice red onion diced (or a scallion)
1/3 cup diced pickles
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste
Head of Butter Lettuce
For garnish and a bit of heat- my favorite…Garlic Hot Sauce

Directions

Drain Salmon, place in large bowl, and break it up.
Dice tomato, avocado, mango, and onions and stir into salmon
Salt and Pepper to taste
Scoop into butter lettuce cups, and pierce with a toothpick and an extra tomato for garnish

Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken, Onion, and Pepper Shish Kabobs

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It’s summer, and what screams summer more than grilling?!! Ok, pools, popsicles, all of Esther’s yummy cocktails (!!)….ok, a lot of things scream summer. BUT…grilling. YUM!

I’ve talked many times about my love of grilling. Ok, the EASE of grilling!! It used to intimidate me, but now I LOVE it! I usually do whole chicken breasts, but decided to try and do shish kabobs. SO GOOD! Blog Whole30 Paleo Grilled Chicken Peppers Onions Shish Kabobs-1 Ingredients (varies people you want to feed)

Chicken Breasts (cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes)
Bell Peppers-I used red, yellow, and orange (cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes)
Large Onion (cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes)
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Trader Joe’s Every Day Seasoning

What to do

It’s not absolutely necessary, but if you can marinate the chicken a few hours before you’d like to grill, that’s the best. Just put the cubed chicken in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, and grind the Trader Joe’s Every Day Seasoning over it. I honestly had all these ideas of various spices I was going to add, and then (OF COURSE!) was running late and reached for what’s easy, and good!
Do the same for the veggies (not as necessary to have those marinate!)
You can use wooden sticks to spear all the meat and veggies. If you do, make sure you soak the them for a good 10 minutes prior.
Preheat your grill to medium heat.
Evenly spear chicken and veggies until everything is used up.Grill for 7-8 minutes on each side. Oh, and Maya is in this stage where she doesn’t want her picture taken, UNLESS I’m trying to take pictures of something other than her… haha.

Enjoy! dit-elle-Lauren

Salmon Avocado Mango Salad with Soft Boiled Egg | Paleo // Whole30

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Anyone else guilty of thinking up recipes about 30 minutes before you need to start making dinner?

There’s benefits to thinking on the fly, but a lot of times I’ll forget what I did. That makes it hard to recreate if it turns out well. I’m also forced to use what I have on hand, as a trip to the supermarket is out… Somehow, they always turn out ok…

This one was more than ok! Light and refreshing, yet totally satisfying with lots of healthy fats!

So glad I wrote it all down 🙂 Blog Paleo Whole30 Salmon Avocado Mango Salad with Soft Boiled Egg -1

Ingredients (Would serve 4)

3 6oz cans of wild Alaskan Salmon
10 grape tomatoes (cut in half)
6-8 eggs (The Huz and I each had two, but Maya only had one)
1 large avocados
1 Mango diced
1/2 and inch slice red onion diced (or a scallion)
1/3 cup diced pickles
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste
Head of Butter Lettuce

Directions

Boil water and cook eggs for 7-8 minutes (I accidentally forgot to set the timer and cooked mine a little longer than I had planned) 7 minutes for a runny yolk, 8 for a soft one as pictured. Take off burner and add cold water and ice until they are cool. Very important to have them fully cool, in order to peel properly. Set aside while you make everything else.
Drain Salmon, place in large bowl, and break it up.
Dice tomato, avocado, mango, and onions and stir into salmon
Salt and Pepper to taste
Set butter lettuce in a bowl, and scoop large cub of mixture on top. Top with eggs.

Enjoy!

Next week, I’ll show you how I ate this for lunch the next day! It was almost better!!

BBQ Pulled Pork Sweat Potato Bun Sandwiches | Whole 30 & Paleo

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Truth be told…these were too messy to pick up and eat like a sandwich! BUT…the flavors are so good together, and it looks so good as a “sandwich”!!

🙂 Blog Paleo Whole 30 BBQ Pulled Pork Sweat Potato Bun Sandwiches-1 Ingredients (feeds 4 with leftovers)

1 Large Pork Loin or 2 small
1 Can of Low Sodium Chicken or Vegetable Stock
1/2 teaspoon crushed ginger
1/2 Teaspoon crushed garlic
2 Medium size sweet potato
1 Medium Avocado
1 Medium to Large Onion
Olive oil + Salt + Pepper to lightly coat the sweet potato
BBQ Sauce. If you aren’t on any dietary restrictions use whatever you’d like. There are lots of healthy options out there that are Paleo and Whole 30 approved. Try here.

Directions

Place Pork Loin(s), Chicken/Vegetable Stock, Crushed Ginger, and Crushed Garlic in the crockpot, and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5.
When it’s done, drain all but 1 cup of the liquid. Shred with a fork, stir it all up in the liquid, and pour half a jar of BBQ sauce on.

When you are closer to dinner… Blog Paleo Whole 30 BBQ Pulled Pork Sweat Potato Bun Sandwiches-3

Light Grill and set to medium heat.
Cut sweet potato in 1/2 inch slices (lengthwise not width wise.) Then they actually look like buns!
Cut Onion in 1/2 inch slices
Lightly coat both and in olive oil (or oil of your choosing), and salt and pepper to taste
Grill both 7-8 minutes on each side.
Layer a flat sweet potato round, pork, slice of grilled onion, slice of avocado, and top with the end piece of the sweet potato! Drizzle more BBQ sauce over if you’d like!

Enjoy!

You might also like Esther’s Bacon Avocado Chipotle Sweet Potato Burger

Healthy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas | (can be made gluten, dairy, and soy free)

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Chicken enchiladas are pretty simple to make. There are a bunch of different things you can throw in there, and let’s be honest…if it’s drenched in yummy sauce you can’t go wrong. 🙂

When Maya was 5 weeks old, she was diagnosed with a dairy and soy allergy. Since I was breastfeeding…that meant no dairy or soy for me either :(. Dairy isn’t so hard, but finding things that don’t have soy is REALLY HARD. Making dinners was really hard (wait did I say that already?). I had to get creative. Did I mention I have two hungry teenage stepsons? SO…I made this recipe just thinking of things that would taste good that didn’t have dairy and soy.

Maya is still what I’d call “dairy intollerant” (she gets really congested), but we have a little bit here and there and she does ok. The entire recipe only has 1 cup of cottage cheese, and 1/2 a cup of shredded cheese. Adds the perfect amount of creaminess to the enchiladas and a hint of cheese on top.

They are packed with low fat protein and taste delicious! Blog Gluten Free Healthy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas-1 Blog Healthy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas-7

Ingredients

Bag of Tortillas. I love these, and you could easily sub in any gluten free options.
7-8 chicken breasts (depending on size) Basically each enchilada has almost a full chicken breast!
Large jar or can of enchilada sauce. I go back and forth between red and green.
Small yellow onion
Jar of diced chiles (they aren’t that spicy if you’re worried and add a great flavor and moisture to the mix)
Can of refried beans (I like to use black bean, but use whatever!)
1 C low fat Cottage Cheese (I love the one that has Chive in it!) don’t use for dairy free
1/2 C Shredded cheese don’t use for dairy free
2 TBL of Olive Oil

Directions

Start boiling your water for the chicken. I have NO idea why I boil the chicken! I saw a friend do it once, and then have done it ever since when making enchiladas! It’s easier, doesn’t have any added fat from cooking it with oil, and it requires less attention-WIN.
Add chicken and cook for 10-12 minutes (until they rise to the top) They will cook more in the enchiladas, so you want to make sure you don’t overcook them.
Put olive oil large a non stick pan. Add onions and stir for about 5 min (or until they start to get soft).
Once chicken is cooked, let it sit on a cutting board/plate/bowl. You will want it to cool before you shred it (I’ve burned my fingers WAY too many times) Oh, and note-if you have a dog…don’t let the chicken sit out on the counter. Do I need to tell you what happened when I did that?? 😦
Dump refried beans, chilis, cottage cheese (opt out for dairy free) into the pan with the onions. You can add a little bit of your enchilada sauce to the mixture if you aren’t using the cottage cheese to make it a little moister. Start finger shredding the chicken into this mixture and stir. (or do it all in a big bowl) Maya loved helping stir it all together!
Pour about 1/4 C of enchilada sauce into a 9×13 pan, so they don’t stick.
Scoop about a cup of mixture into each tortilla, roll and place (seam side down) into 9×13 pan. Repeat until all tortillas are filled or you run out of mixture.
Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas and add cheese on top (opt out for dairy free)
Bake at 350 for 20. Garnish with avocado, some plain Greek Yogurt, salsa (or all three!)

Keeping it real…

I actually first wrote this post 2 and a half years ago, but hated the picture I took. The kids were hangry haha. SO, I never posted it. I was super excited to find it in the archives after making it again for dinner on Monday! This time I snapped a few slightly better rushed picture before we ate (oh, to have TIME!!), and had the post all ready to go-WIN!!

Here’s the first picture from 2.5 years ago with green sauce… 🙂 Blog Healthy Chicken Enchiladas-9 Enjoy!!

Sweet Potato, Guacamole, Chicken Sausage, Soft Boiled Egg…Breakfast for dinner?

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I know I’m not the only person that loves breakfast for dinner! And, I also know that it’s kind of a repeat for me, but…it’s easy and DELICIOUS! Who wouldn’t want that?!

I literally came up with this meal 30 minutes before I was supposed to make it, and it took me approximately 30 minutes to make. Admittedly, because I ran inside while Maya was playing with our neighbors. I turned on the oven, peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes, seasoned them, and turned on the pot for the eggs, in…less than 5 minutes. Then…we played for a few more minutes.

THANK GOD FOR LITTLE DISTRACTIONS, NO?!!!

And, precooked chicken sausages are a godsend in our household. I freeze them for later, and soak them in a warm water bath right before I need them!

Diced up for a pasta meal, or sliced in half for this! SO easy, delicious, and healthy!

Blog Sweet Potato Guacamole Chicken Sausage Soft Boiled Egg Whole30 Paleo Gluten Free-1 What you need…

One sweet potato (for 2-4 people)
Olive Oil
Sea salt
3 Pre Cooked Chicken sausage (Depending on the amount of people you want to feed! I did one per adult, and half for Maya) I love Aidell’s, but there are so many good ones!
Avocado (or pre-made guacamole-yes, I cheated on this one!)
Eggs (2 for me and the Huz, one for Maya)

What to do…

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut sweet potato in 1/2 inch slices
Lightly coat in olive oil (or oil of your choosing), and salt and pepper to taste
Start a pot of boiling water. For me, it’s a LOT easier to soft boil eggs for more than two people. If you want a runny egg and there’s more than 2, it’s way too much for me to manage on top of everything else!!!
Bake the sweet potatos in the oven for 20-25 minutes, flipping over half way through.
At the half way mark add chicken sausages that are cute in half.
In that time, remove the eggs from the boiling water. 7 minutes = runny yolk, 8 minutes, less, so…I remove ours at 7, and then turn the heat off for Maya’s while ours then run under a cool water bath.
Once the sweet potatoes are crispy on the outside, take them and the chicken sausages out.
Layer everything and enjoy!

Thai Chicken, Broccoli, and Peppers with Healthy Noodles

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This is one of those recipes that I repeat A LOT!! In it’s most basic form, I posted it here, but I mix it up all the time with what I add to it. The sauce is just so good!! And SO EASY! Blog Healthy Thai Broccoli Pepper Chicken with Noodles-1
Ingredients

For Sauce

1/2 cup Almond Butter (use Sun Butter for Nut free or any nut butter if you don’t have any dietary restrictions!)
1/2 Cup Coconut Milk (I used Light, but full fat would be amazing too!)
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (I cheat and use this)
1 Cup Water

For the rest of the dish…

2-3 bags of Healthy Noodles (or can use any noodle, quinoa, or skip it!)
4-6 Chicken Breasts. Depends on how many people you have and how soupy you want it. I use 6 and grill them on our grill. Less clean up and the flavor is so good!
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 head of Broccoli
1/2 of each of a yellow, red, and orange pepper
1 small onion diced

Directions

Marinate chicken breasts in olive oil, salt, and pepper and cook on BBQ 8-10 minutes each side (depending on size) or cube the chicken breasts and cook in a large pan with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.
While Chicken is cooking outside, chop all your veggies.
Add a couple Tablespoons of olive oil (I add garlic too!) and cook onions til soft (5-8 minutes)
Add in broccoli and peppers and cover to steam cook for 2 minutes. Just THIS is delicious, so you could stop right here 🙂
In a blender, combine 1 cup water with the whatever nut butter you choose, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, and ginger. Blend until smooth.
Rinse out the noodles with water (that’s IT!! NO COOKING THEM!!)
Add the sauce and noodles to the pan, stir, and let sit for 2 minutes to soak in all the flavor of the sauce. Again…you could stop here if you wanted to keep it vegetarian. SO yummy!
Once Chicken is cooked, dice and add on top. I added Sriracha to mine for a little kick, and it was SO good!! Enjoy!

Crock Pot Rosemary Pork Loin with Apples + Onions | Paleo + Whole30

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Every time I make a meal in my crock pot, I think…

“WHY don’t I do this more often!??” As in…ever single day?! HA!

Alas, I get brain dead with the day to day, and fail to think ahead. That is pretty much the only prep time with a crock pot meal. Thinking of it ahead of time. Once you do. You toss everything in to the pot in the morning/early afternoon. Your entire house smells amazing ALL DAY LONG, and then when it’s dinner time-it’s DONE! Seriously, what’s better than that??

NOT MUCH. 😉

BUT…can we all agree that crock pot meat does NOT look appealing? Everything you cook ends up looking about the same color, BUT all that really matters is that it tastes delicious! I may have thrown a few greens on top to break up the monotony haha 🙂 I snapped these pictures about 5 minutes before we ate dinner, as always (with a flash *UGH*)…yet wished I could have made the meal look a liiiiiiiittle more appetizing. Styling dreams that may never come true.

Added bonus? The meat easily shreds, so no slicing on a cutting board necessary, aka child friendly and one less thing to clean!! Blog Paleo Whole30 Crock Pot Rosemary Pork Loin Apples Onions-1 What You Need…

Pork Loin (depends on how many people you want to feed) I used one pack from Costco, which is equivalent to 2 small ones from other grocery stores.
1 Can of Chicken Stock (have it cover about half the pork loin)
1 teaspoon Rosemary
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 small apples or one large apple (I used Gala, but any strong flavor type would be good)
2 small onions or one large onion
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

What to do…

Chop the onion and apple into approximately 1 inch slices.
Layer everything into your Crock Pot and cook on high for 4-5 hours or or low for 7-8 hours.
THAT’S IT! 🙂

Serve with any kind of side or all by itself!

Enjoy! dit-elle-Lauren

Spaghetti Squash with Chicken Sausage, Carrots, and Avocado

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I don’t know why it took me so long to try spaghetti squash, but now that I have…I’m hooked!!

I won’t lie and tell you that it tastes like pasta, or that you will never crave pasta again, but…it’s a great healthy alternative, and a great way to get your kiddos to eat veggies!

I’m pretty lucky that Maya will eat just about everything. She will even sit down with a bowl of raw veggies as a snack! The teenage boys are another matter. I have to figure out ways to hide veggies in things. The first few times I made this, I added about half a box of veggie pasta, and they devoured it!! I made this version when it was just me and Maya. She devoured it, and I think I might actually try it out on the boys! Or…add some quinoa? Really, you can add whatever you want or eat as is!

The avocado adds a creamy healthy fat. I mean…what isn’t better with avocado on top??! Blog Whole 30 Paleo Spaghetti Squash with Carrots and Avocado-1 What you need…

1 spaghetti squash
4-5 Pre-cooked Chicken Sausages (I used True Story Organic Italian Chicken Sausages)
1/2 a large yellow onion (or one small) diced
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/4 Teaspoon crushed garlic (not necessary)
Large Handful of baby carrots sliced 4 ways lengthwise (use pre-shredded to save time!)
1 Jar of your favorite Pasta Sauce (check labels if you are strict on paleo or whole 30)
1 Large Avocado

What you do…

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Cut the ends off your spaghetti squash, cut lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds.
Place it flesh side down in a pan that has about 1/4 of water. I like to sprinkle sea salt and thyme in the water, because I swear the squash absorbs some of it! You could use any kind of herb! Cover with tin foil and bake for 35-40 minutes or until flesh is soft.
While the spaghetti squash is cooking, dice up your onions, and add it to a large pan with a little bit of olive oil and crushed garlic.
While the onions are cooking cut up your baby carrots, or add the shredded carrots in after the onions have been cooking for about 5 minutes.
While the onions and carrots are cooking, dice up your chicken sausage.
Add the chicken sausage into the mix and stir until hot.
Add the jar of pasta sauce and let it simmer until the spaghetti squash is done.
Once spaghetti squash is done, take it out and let it cool for about 5 minutes. I usually am too impatient and just hold it with an oven mitt haha 🙂
Scrape the insides of the squash out into your pan. You can get almost ALL the flesh out, leaving only a thin skin.
Toss it all together, and top with diced avocado!

Blog Whole 30 Paleo Spaghetti Squash with Carrots and Avocado-3 It’s been so cold and blustery here in Seattle. 2 bowls of this, and a cozy blanket just sounded like heaven. And..it was 🙂 Ps- Don’t be afraid to let your children help you. Maya wanted to help me stir, and at first I thought about all the different ways she could make a mess-PASTA SAUCE! Then…I put an apron on her and let her. Her exact words.

“Oh BOY! This is AWESOME!!!”

Blog Cooking with Toddlers (taken with my phone) And the hand behind her back?? LOVE!!!

Enjoy! dit-elle-Lauren

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