Recipe: "Winter Is Coming" Pear Smoothie

Winter Is Coming...

Literally. It's almost December. How does time pass so quickly?

Time however, did not pass quickly this morning, and so I found myself wandering about after a light workout wondering what I could pass off as a healthy interlude between breakfast and lunch. I didn't have milk or soy milk for a smoothie, and water with those sounds pretty gross. However, I did have coconut milk in the pantry and then had a genius idea to use up some of the fruit I had left from last weekend's market run.

Turns out, it was a shame to waste one of the most delicious pears I've ever had in a smoothie, but it was still delightful in this creamy and spicy snack. 

Pear Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 ripe pear, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 1 ripe banana, chunked
• 5-6 tbsp coconut milk (or however much to make it your preferred consistency)
• small dash of nutmeg and cloves
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• handful of ice cubes

Instructions

No more simple than this: put it all into a blender, pour into a glass, top with another little dash of nutmeg and cloves, and drink up! A perfect sweet and spicy blend to welcome in the winter! 

Recipe: Grilled Avocado with Fresh Salsa

Sorry it's been almost 3 weeks since my last post - how shameful! Work got totally nuts and I absolutely (mostly) fell off the paleo bandwagon. For shame. 

However, I am back to enlighten you all on the merits of avocado. Seriously, this is the best food item on the planet. Versatile, yummy, fantastic for you. It's amazing. And I just discovered how wonderful it is when you grill it. You heard me - break out those grills! 

Plus, this is all entirely paleo! Special thanks to Relay Foods for always providing amazing produce. I love you guys!

Grilled Avocado

Ingredients

• 1 Ripe Avocado
• Lime or Lime Juice
• Olive Oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

It can't get any easier than this, folks. Cut the avocado in half and take the pit out. Brush it with a combination of olive oil and lime juice (not a ton, just brush it), salt and pepper it a little, then toss it on a medium-high grill for 5-7 minutes, flesh side down. 

Then put them on a plate, put fresh salsa where the pit used to be, and top with some more salt and pepper. Et voila. You have an excellent side dish (one half), or you have a healthy, filling lunch (both halves). 

Fresh Salsa

Ingredients

This is all up to you with proportions/ingredients/etc. But here's what I used today because I had it all on hand:

• 1/4 onion
• 1/3 pint grape tomatoes
• 1/3 jalapeño pepper
• bunch of cilantro (from the garden - aren't you proud of me?!)
• splash of lime juice
• 1 tbsp (ish) of olive oil

Instructions

Put it all together in a blender and pulse it until it's the consistency you want! (That simple, folks...there's no excuse to not make your own salsa all the time.) You can leave out some of the olive oil - that's what's made it a little different colored in the photo above. 

Recipe: Easiest Ever Roast Chicken

This chicken never disappoints. 

Boyfriend is a ridiculously lazy cook, as well as a garbage can for food, so imagine my skepticism when he "cooked a chicken for dinner". With reluctance, I ate some of what he'd sliced and, to my glorious discovery, it was moist, delicious, and had crispy skin! Hurrah! An easy recipe with little to no effort involved is actually delicious.

You can thank me later.

Easiest Ever Roast Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 3-4 lb young chicken (I got a Kosher Valley Young Chicken at...you guessed it....WF)
• 1/2 small onion, cut into wedges
• 1/2 apple, cubed
• Fresh Spices: Thyme, Rosemary, Sage
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly 
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Sea Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven at 350F. While you're waiting, take out the "innards" from your chicken (mine didn't have them included - yay!), and stuff it with your onion, apple, spices, garlic and cinnamon until it's full. The cavities in young chickens are pretty small, so you might have to get a little extra friendly with your chicken to make it fit...

2. Rub olive oil over the entire chicken, and then season with as much salt and freshly ground pepper as you like. I like mine pretty seasoned. 

3. Place on either a broiler pan or - if you're having a "me" moment - just put it on a baking rack over top of a cookie sheet lined with foil. It cleans up pretty easily. (A trick one of my coworkers suggested: if you want to just put it on the cookie pan, surround it with rice or potatoes, and they'll soak up some juice so your bird still gets crispy.)

4. Put in the oven for ~20 minutes per pound; then you'll want to raise the temp to 425F for an extra 20 or 25 minutes so it gets the skin nice and crispy.

5. Pull it out of the oven, and wait 15-20 minutes before carving !

How to carve a chicken (yeah, I didn't know how to, either):

My first attempt was a butchery, but hopefully it'll improve with time!

Thanks for Reading!

CJ

Recipe: Mexican Chicken Lime Soup

I've been terrible with Paleo lately. I haven't committed, I've scrounged, and I've been digging into the candy dish at work. So I need to step it up. Life's been a bit on the difficult and stressful side recently, which has also contributed to the sheer lack of motivation. So I'm working on it. See, nobody's perfect...you just have to keep trying, and you'll get there.

That being said, the other night I was feeling highly unmotivated, but also starving and craving Mexican food. Scouring the awesome Paleo websites out there, I found this gem of a recipe, and wanted to share (with my amendments, of course!).

(also, I may have scarfed down my bowl before remembering to take a photo, so the stock one from Paleoaholic will have to do...)

 Mexican Chicken Lime Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp (ish) of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 finely chopped medium-sized onion
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, pressed (or sliced thinly, if you don't have a press)
• 3 chicken breasts, cut into slightly larger than bite-sized pieces
• 3 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, plus some extra sauce (this is to your taste. I think I used like, 5 peppers, but mine was a little spicy, even for me. If you just want the flavor, and not the heat, just use one!).**Note: Make sure the can you buy doesn't add high fructose corn syrup. Most have sugar in them, but you don't want any HFCS. Yuck.
• 4-5 cups of chicken broth, depending on how brothy you like your soup
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 handful of fresh, roughly chopped cilantro
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 Hass avocado per serving, sliced thinly

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil over medium in a large pot (this one is the one I use, that I can't live without), put garlic and your onions in there and let them get nice and translucent, and the garlic will get fragrant (about 5 minutes). Toss in your cubed chicken, salt and pepper to taste, and stir your mixture every so often for the next 5-7 minutes, or until you can tell the chicken is cooked. Then add your peppers and adobo sauce, and give it a good stir.

2. Move the pot to a cool burner, take two forks, and carefully pull your chicken cubes, so they're a little bit smaller, and not so chunky. It makes for a much nicer eating experience. Paleo doesn't have to be lazy! Move your pot back onto the hot burner, and add your chicken stock.

3. Let this simmer for anywhere from 15 - 30 minutes; the longer you do this the more the flavor melds together. Right before you serve, add the lime juice to the pot and stir. 

4. To serve, place some slices of avocado in the bottom of your bowl, ladle in the soup, and top with some chopped cilantro and some extra avocado! Depending on your dairy tolerance, you can probably add a dollop of sour cream here, or some pepper-jack cheese to make it extra yummy. 

(Note: this soup is EXCELLENT the next day, too, because all the flavors come together much more overnight. So make plenty!)

Thanks for Reading!
CJ

Recipe: Shrimp and Avocado Salad

Guess what, everyone?! I actually stuck to my budget at WF today! They overcharged me for 2 things, and I ended up buying some "extras" that I forgot I needed (i.e. Mayo), but those aside, I hit the mark!

And in celebration of actually sticking to a grocery list, here's what I made for dinner:

Shrimp and Avocado Salad

(taken sort of from The Paleo Mom)

Ingredients

Marinade:

• 2 Tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 1Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2 Tbsp Lime Juice
• Chopped Cilantro (to your taste)
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Dash of Salt

Salad:

• 12 - 15 pre-cooked shrimp (frozen, then thawed and dried off) per serving
• 1/2 Avocado per serving
• 1/4 head of red cabbage, shredded
• Lettuce of your choosing
• Diced Tomato (optional)
• Cholula Hot Sauce (optional)

Instructions

1. Thaw the shrimp in a colander under a faucet for 8-10 minutes with cold running water. Then cut these into bite-size pieces and dry them off.

2. Mix Olive Oil, Lemon and Lime Juice, chopped cilantro, pepper, salt, and shrimp in a large bowl. Let this marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour (the longer, the better!). If you have more than 2 or 3 servings, you might want to adjust the juice and olive oil up a bit. Just don't put too much olive oil in like I did...

3. Chop your leaves (red cabbage, lettuce, etc.) and put them on a plate (or in a bowl) along with bite-sized pieces of avocado. Put the shrimp salad on top, then top with diced tomatoes and some hot sauce, and devour! 

Thanks for Reading!

CJ

Recipe: Bacon Sweet Potato Soup

Oh. My. Gosh.

This is heavenly, and I'm purloining it almost exactly from The Clothes Make The Girl. 

Ingredients

• 6 slices of bacon - cut into 1/4 inch slices (preferably nitrate-free)
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 tbsp-ish Ras el Hanout (just add equal parts ginger, cumin, cinnamon, and a smaller amount of cayenne, coriander, and allspice/cloves/nutmeg). No need to be spot-on.
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 lbs sweet potatoes (2-3 large) - peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• dash of salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Cut bacon into 1/4-inch slices and place in a cold soup pot. Heat the pot over medium-high heat and cook the bacon until it’s crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate covered with paper towels and set aside to drain and crisp.

2. Keep 1 tablespoon of the fat in the pan and discard the rest. Re-heat the fat over medium-high heat, then add the onions, Ras el Hanout, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, about 5-7 minutes. Toss in the garlic and stir, cooking until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Add the sweet potatoes, broth, and water to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes.

4. Take the pot off of the heat, let it cool for a few minutes, and then use an immersion blender until it’s smooth. Taste, and adjust seasonings. Ladle into bowls, then sprinkle with a little bacon and chives. Both the bacon and soup hold up well in the fridge for a few days.

Thanks for reading!

CJ

Recipe: Paleo Fish Tacos

Paleo Fish Tacos

Walking around Whole Foods and seeing some of their seemingly astronomical prices on things is sometimes awfully discouraging. Until you remember that YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. So I swung by the seafood counter the other day, and they had nice Tilapia fillets on sale for $7.99/lb. Turns out, a single fillet is a little more than 1/4lb, so my dinner for that day was only $2.50 or so. Success! 

However, when I got home, I realized I had no idea what I was going to do with it. So I looked in my fridge and there I miraculously found some butter lettuce, tomatoes, and some bell peppers. It sounded "taco-y" enough, so I went with it. This is very much a veggie garbage-can meal...