Tag Archives: protein

Buffalo Chicken Dip

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This is an old standby for football Sundays, game night and parties, but with baseball Opening Night in Seattle this evening, figured it would be in order to blog about! Thanks Rj for this recipe! 🙂

Blog buffalochixdip

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of cooked shredded chicken
  • 1 pkg cream cheese (8oz)
  • 1/4-1/2 cup hot sauce (e.g. Frank’s hot sauce)
  • 1/2c blue cheese dressing (ranch dressing if you don’t like blue cheese)
  • 1/2 c blue cheese crumbles (optional)

Directions
Mix everything together and bake for 25 mins @350. Stir once done, serve hot with tortilla chips.

dit-elle-Esther

Quick Quiche

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Make this basic quiche and get creative with the filling! You can do it with a premade crust or simply crust-less!

blog quiche2 blog quiche1

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 c. milk
  • ground pepper
  • Optional: 1 frozen pie shell (there are good gluten free options out there!)

Filling (Mix & match from the following options – my favorite combos include: just spinach & cheese! Or artichoke, spinach, ham, sundried tomatoes and goat cheese! 🙂

  • Spinach
  • Artichoke
  • Broccoli
  • Onion
  • Mushrooms
  • Ham (Canadian bacon), bacon, smoked salmon
  • Cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, goat)

Assembly

  • Put the desired filling ingredients in your pie shell or directly in a greased pie pan (I use a 9″ deep dish round pan)
  • Put milk & eggs in a blender and mix it up, then pour over filling
  • Sprinkle with cheese

Bake @ 350 for 45 minutes or until knife inserted in middle shows firm (non-runny) center

dit-elle-Esther

 

Egglets with spinach & bacon

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Good morning! These egg muffins are gluten-free and dairy free! They make a great protein snack as well.

Blog egglets2

Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • 1 package of bacon – or 6 strips each cut in half to make 12 short strips (optional)
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 10 oz spinach, from frozen or freshly steamed
  • 1 large Roma tomato, diced (or a handful of sundried tomatoes, diced)
  • 2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped (I used dried parsley as a substitute)
  • 2 Tbsp chia seeds, soaked for a few minutes in water
  • sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  • Oven to 350*
  • Beat eggs with some water and add remaining ingredients, mixing well to combine
  • Prepare muffin tin with nonstick baking spray or line each muffin tin w/bacon strip
  • Pour egg mixture evenly into cups
  • Bake 30 minutes or until set
  • Serve warm!
Blog egglets1

Add some cheese for extra deliciousness!

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

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

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

Salmon, potato and spinach soup

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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!

Blog salmonspinachsoup

 

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.

dit-elle-Esther

Carmelized Onion Tart

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

Blog oniontart1 Blog oniontart2

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!

dit-elle-Esther

Spicy Pork and Sweet Potato Stew

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

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)

dit-elle-Esther

Paleo BBQ pork in the crock pot

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BBQ pork is one of the few recipes that does very well in the crock pot. Pair with *polenta (or riced cauliflower for a paleo alternative) and some sautéed spinach or steamed broccoli.

Blog pulledporkmeal1 Blog pulledporkmeal2

Ingredients

  • 2 pork loins
  • 1 onion, sliced in rings
  • 2 c ketchup (or contents of a 24 oz bottle) – HFCS/sugar free
  • 1/2 warm water
  • 1/4 c apple cider vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp coconut sugar or brown sugar (optional and omit if paleo)
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
  • 1 tsp Tabasco sauce (optional)
  • salt as needed

Directions: place meat into the stoneware with onion rings. Stir ketchup, warm water, vinegar, sugar, and sauces. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until meat shreds easily with fork.

*Nothing says comfort food like polenta! Especially with parmesan cheese. So not paleo, but so yummy. Polenta is super easy to make. 1 cup polenta to 3-4 cups water, a dash of salt, bring to boil, constantly stirring, simmer for 20-30 minutes or so. At end whisk in some olive oil or butter and parmesan cheese. Serve hot.

Love BBQ pork and want more recipes to try? Lauren posted an awesome looking Pulled Pork Sandwiches recipe as well!

Super mom tip: You guessed it – BBQ pork freezes well. Polenta does NOT though! 🙂

dit-elle-Esther