Yesterday was a pretty epic food prep day in my kitchen. While at the grocery store in the morning, I was irresistibly drawn to a gorgeous eggplant and was inspired to make some kind of roasted eggplant dip/spread/ something…. I also got one red and one yellow pepper to roast alongside the eggplant.

Before I get to the details of how I made this, I just want to express very clearly that I do not measure anything. So the “quantities” I include in this “recipe” are estimates at best.

Ingredients:

1 whole eggplant

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 onion, roughly chopped

5 cloves garlic

extra virgin olive oil (approx 2-3 tbs)

balsamic vinegar (approx 2-3 tbs)

cumin (1-2 tsp)

salt & pepper to taste

Procedure:

Since I had just grilled some chicken and the grill was already hot, I decided to “roast” the eggplant and the peppers on the grill. I just put the veggies directly on the racks, and grilled them over very low heat (approx 300) for about 45 minutes, turning occasionally. I knew they were done once the peppers were charred all the way around and the eggplant was soft to the touch.

Once the veggies were off the grill, I set them aside to cool down a bit. While I was waiting, I chopped up an onion and peeled some garlic and tossed them into a 400 degree oven to roast for about 20 minutes.

I peeled and seeded the peppers, scooped the flesh out of the eggplant, and put everything into the food processor. I added the roasted onions and garlic, salt and pepper, and a few glugs of olive oil (that is a very precise measurement), and then blitzed the processor for a few seconds.

When I tasted the mixture, there was something missing. If there had been a lemon in my fridge, I would have added some lemon juice to brighten up the flavor, but there wasn’t, so I added some balsamic vinegar instead. After a few more seconds in the food processor, I was satisfied with the taste and the texture, so it was done.

If there had been parsley available, I would have chopped that up and mixed it in as well.

Let me be clear: this stuff tastes amazing. I ate it on top of chicken last night, and am planning to do the same for lunch today. It would also be phenomenal on burgers, or with lamb, or on pasta (if you eat pasta). You can also just eat it with a spoon. It’s that good.

Enjoy!

It’s been an embarrassingly long while since I’ve actually posted anything to the blog, but that’s not because I haven’t been cooking. It’s mainly because I never write anything down, so I can’t remember exactly what I put in a given dish.

Last night, when I made this spicy citrus chicken, I didn’t write anything down either, but I think I mainly remember the quantities of what I added. I’ve gotten much more confident with just throwing a bunch of stuff in the instant pot, as the results have been consistently amazing. And since some people out there have been clamoring for recipes, I decided that I’d make an effort to actually post one.

4 frozen chicken breasts (yes, you can actually start them from frozen. That’s one of the absolute best things about the IP.)

1/2 cup orange juice

juice of 1 lime

2 tbs gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos

5 shakes fish sauce (probably about 1-2 tsp)

2 tbs chili powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

I also added the remnants of a bottle of Primal Kitchen Honey Mustard Salad Dressing. See, this is why I don’t post recipes. I throw random stuff in the pot, it comes out amazing, and I’m never able to recreate it exactly.

And here’s why the IP is awesome… all you have to do is throw everything in the pot and turn it on. Because the chicken was frozen, I added a few minutes to the recommended “poultry” cook time, which is 15 minutes. I let this go for 22 minutes, and it was perfect. I quick released the pressure, and that was that.

I made this soup a few weeks ago, but I didn’t write down any of the quantities. Well, I finally got around to making it again, and this time I made sure to pay attention to what I was doing.

This soup was incredibly delicious, and since I made it in the crock-pot, it was also incredibly easy.

And look how pretty it is, even before it’s cooked!

Ingredients:

3 lbs chicken thighs, cut into 1-2″ pieces

1 onion, roughly chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped (I used rainbow carrots because that’s what was in the fridge, but any carrots will do.)

2 cups diced tomatoes (I used fresh cherry tomatoes that I cut in half. I would imagine that canned tomatoes would work just fine as well.)

2 tbs tomato paste

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1 lb potatoes, cut into pieces about the same size as the chicken (I used a potato medley from Trader Joe’s. You can see some of the different types of potatoes in the “before” picture.)

2 cups chicken broth

2 tbs dried oregano

1 tbs garlic powder

2 tbs dried shallots

2 tbs vinegar (I used a Pinot Grigio white wine vinegar that I happened to have around, but a nice balsamic would work just fine as well.)

Salt & pepper to taste

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Process:

Put everything in the crock-pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Seriously. That’s it.

Alright…  here’s a little more detail.

I put all the veggies in first in the order they appear in the ingredient list. Then I added the broth and the spices, then the potatoes, and then the chicken. I mixed everything around a little bit and then tucked in the rosemary spears.

I served it with some flat bread that I made with cassava flour, and it was a perfect meal.

 

Lately, I’ve been hearing more and more about cassava flour as a fantastic gluten free flour alternative. Now, those of you who know me know that I don’t do much (or any) baking. Ever. Something about all the precise measuring just really doesn’t appeal to me; that’s just not the way I operate in the kitchen. (Incidentally, the more recipes I come up with, though, the better I’m having to be about measuring ingredients.) So I wasn’t sure that I would actually use the Cassava flour to its full potential.

But I was finally persuaded to buy some Otto’s Cassava Flour because I was wanting to try a new tortilla recipe that I saw online at forkandbeans.com.

The recipe I found online is also the recipe on the bag of Cassava Flour, so I figured that it had to be good.  It only has 3 ingredients and was super quick and easy to make. That being said, the texture of the tortillas wasn’t quite right for the enchiladas that I planned to make with them, so instead, I decided that they were flat bread and served them with an amazing Rosemary Chicken & Potato Soup that I made last night, the recipe for which will be up soon.

The flat bread was absolutely delicious; Mike ate it with butter, and it was a perfect accompaniment to the soup.

I have plans to create a gluten free Naan out of this flour, so stay tuned for that as well.

And before you go, here are a few fun facts about cassava.

*Cassava is also referred to as Yuca.

*It is a root vegetable that, in its raw form, actually contains the toxin, cyanide. Take home lesson: don’t eat raw cassava.

*Cassava flour is made by peeling, drying, and grinding the cassava root. Tapioca flour is also made from the cassava root, but it is made by a different process that involves washing and pulping the root. Tapioca flour and cassava flour are NOT interchangeable.

Every weekend I do food prep for the week ahead. There are a couple of things that I make every weekend because they go in Jackson’s cooler for daycare each day, almond milk and egg muffins; and then I typically make at least one meal that will have leftovers and one big batch of something in the crockpot that we can eat for a few meals during the week. If I’m really planning ahead, I’ll also prep something that I can take to school for lunch so that more of the leftovers from dinner can be used for another meal at home.

Typically, Friday night dinner is whatever is left in the fridge. This Friday, though, because I had managed to go grocery shopping during the day, I actually made a really nice (but extremely simple) dinner. I’ll start with that recipe and then move forward throughout the weekend.

Friday night: Pan Seared Scallops with Roasted Green Beans (I don’t make that much seafood, because Mike doesn’t like it, but since he was out of town, Jackson and I got to eat some delicious scallops.)

There isn’t really a “recipe” for this meal. I roasted some green beans with olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper at 425 for about 20 minutes.

For the scallops, I melted some ghee in a large frying pan over medium high heat, and once the pan was hot, I added the scallops. After the scallops were in the pan, I sprinkled them with garlic salt, paprika, and some black pepper. I let them cook for about 5 minutes and then flipped them over and let them cook for another 2-3 minutes.

On Friday night I took some pork shoulder and some chicken breasts out of the freezer in anticipation of the cooking that I planned to do over the rest of the weekend. I also soaked about 3 cups of raw almonds in water overnight because I wanted almond milk in my coffee on Saturday morning, and I had used the last of it for Jackson’s cooler on Friday.

On Saturday morning I made the almond milk. Although my inspiration for the almond milk I make every week comes from this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo, I don’t measure anything, and I always use at least 2-3 cups of almonds so that one batch can get us through the week.

Almond Milk

2-3 cups raw almonds

3-4 cups of water, plus extra to soak the almonds

a splash of vanilla extract

a dash of sea salt

Soak the almonds overnight in a large bowl or pitcher. I use a pyrex measuring cup.

Strain the almonds, rinse them well, and put them in your blender. I have a Vitamix, and it works very well for this application (as it does for everything).

Add 3-4 cups of water, vanilla, and salt to the blender. PUT ON THE LID (please don’t forget this crucial step), and blend on high for about 2 minutes.

Now you have to strain out the almond meal. I use a nut milk bag for this, but cheese cloth works fine as well. Pour the blended milk into your bag, and squeeze the milk out into a pitcher. You’ll have to use some muscle here, but it’s definitely worth it.

You’ll be left with almond meal, and I know that some people dry this out at low temps in the oven and use it for almond flour, but I’ve never been quite this motivated, so I just throw it out.

The resultant milk is creamy and delicious, and it keeps in the fridge all week. I’d imagine it would last up to two weeks, but we always use it up faster than that.

For Saturday night dinner, I made some pork meatballs with spaghetti squash.

I hacked the spaghetti squash in half with the amazing cleaver that I got for Christmas and popped it in the crock-pot on high for 3 hours.

For the meatballs, I used about 2.5 pounds of a pork shoulder that I had in the freezer. After thawing it, I cut it into approximately 1 inch cubes. I laid the cubes on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then I put the meat into my food processor to grind it. I did it in 4 batches so as not to overfill the food processor. It ended up being a nice coarse grind, which I like for meatballs.

Pork Meatballs

2.5lbs ground pork

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 tbs grated fresh ginger

3 tbs coconut aminos

1 tsp fish sauce

3 tbs sesame seeds

1 tbs chopped cilantro

1 tsp ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 425.

Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl. Once the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, form into balls and place on a rack on a rimmed baking sheet. I ended up with 28 meatballs. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes.

I served with spaghetti squash and broccoli, and it was an amazingly delicious meal. There are also plenty of leftovers for lunches early in the week.

 

 

On Sunday morning, before I even made breakfast, I got the crock-pot going with dinner for that evening: Hatch Green Chile Chicken.

I made a version of this dish a couple of weeks ago and was astonished by how fantastic  (and extremely easy) it was, so I decided to make it again and write everything down this time. A few months ago, I had bought a package of frozen hatch chiles at Trader Joe’s without even really knowing what they were. When I made the first incarnation of this meal, I just tossed some chicken thighs and these chiles in the crock-pot and hoped for the best. As I said, it turned out great, and I got a lot of mileage out of that batch, using the leftovers for enchiladas a few days later.

 

 

Hatch Green Chile Chicken

2-3 lbs chicken (I used thighs the first time and breasts this time)

1 onion, diced

6-8 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 tbs cumin

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 cup pico de gallo

1 package Hatch Chiles (from TJ’s)

Put onions and garlic in the bottom of your crock-pot. Add the chicken. Add spices evenly over the chicken. Pour in the pico and the Hatch chiles. Cook on low for 8 hours. See, super easy. 🙂

And the last thing I made on Sunday was a batch of egg muffins. I make these every week, and send two each day for Jackson’s breakfast. He loves them, and it makes prepping his food each night for the next day that much quicker.

There’s no real recipe for these: I just beat up 12 eggs with some salt and pepper and pour them into my silicone muffin cups. This time, I added some crumbled bacon that was left over from breakfast, and also a little bit of shredded cheese that we had in the fridge. I baked them for 25 minutes at 350, and that was that. 

So while that may seem like a lot of food prep to do over the weekend, I know that we’ll make it through Tuesday with leftovers (I hope).

Oh, and one more thing that I did was to chop up a bunch of bell peppers, onions, and carrots to add to my canned salmon for lunches at school. That way I’m sure to get some veggies in during the day.

Have a great week!

I know, I know…  It’s hard to believe. I’m typically not a huge fan of “paleo” versions of “standard” foods like waffles and pancakes, but somehow I got it into my head a few weeks ago that it would be fun to have waffles for breakfast on Sunday morning.

I remembered hearing about a waffle recipe on one of the podcasts I listen to, so I decided to hunt it down and give it a try. This recipe by Brittany Angell is truly amazing! (I made the second version, the Paleo Waffles.) Brittany Angell is known for being an incredible baker, but since I really don’t bake, ever, I haven’t ever checked out any of her recipes before. But based on the success I’ve had with these waffles, I will definitely look to her recipes again if I ever do decide to bake something.

This past Sunday, I also made syrup from fresh blueberries and peaches. A few weeks ago, I had too much fruit in the fridge, and it was in danger of going bad, so I just chopped up the peaches and threw them and the blueberries into the freezer.  To make the syrup, I put about 2-3 cups of frozen fruit into a small sauce pan with 1/2 cup of water and heated it slowly over low heat. Once the fruit was thawed, I mashed it up a bit and then blitzed it with an immersion blender so we wouldn’t have lumpy syrup. And then I just let it reduce until it reached the right consistency. I did add about a teaspoon of maple sugar, but when I make this again, I’ll probably skip that step as the fruit was plenty sweet on its own.

And so a new tradition is born: Waffle Sunday!

Well, it’s that time of year again, when I feel like it’s only been summer vacation for about 5 minutes, but somehow, it’s time to go back to school again.

Now don’t get me wrong, I really love teaching. A lot. But I also REALLY love being on vacation. More than anything.

But it’s ok…  Once school actually starts, it’ll take about 3 days before I forget that summer vacation was even a thing, and I’ll be totally immersed in the excitement of the school year.

Since Jackson has still been going to daycare a few days a week while I’ve been off, I figured that this was an opportune time to write a post about what I pack in his cooler each day. (I still have time now to write fun blog posts before the craziness of the school year sets in for real…)

He gets three meals, Breakfast, Lunch, and Snack, every day, and I also pack a thermos with milk and a bottle of water for him.

I’ve posted a couple of pics recently over on Instagram and Facebook of his meals: 

These are pretty standard days of food for him. Breakfast is always a couple of fried eggs and some fruit. I fry the eggs in ghee the night before, and even though he has to eat them cold the next morning, he still seems to enjoy them.

Lunch is almost always leftovers from the night before. On the left, it’s pan seared salmon with roasted veggies, and on the right, it’s roasted chicken breast with shredded brussels sprouts sautéed with bacon and a balsamic glaze.

For snack, he usually either gets prosciutto (I buy it at Costco: the only ingredients are pork and salt) or organic grass-fed hot dogs from Applegate Farms. I buy those at Trader Joe’s, and they are very delicious. The pickles are also from TJ’s; there are no weird additives or unnatural colors added. The plantain chips are Inka Chips that I get from Thrive Market. (Thrive Market is a fantastic new resource that has wholesale pricing on lots of paleo friendly pantry items. I can’t recommend them highly enough. If you sign up through the link above, I get a bonus for referring a friend, and once you’re a member, you can refer friends too!).

As we get into the school year, I’ll try to post periodic updates about his meals, especially if I come up with something super interesting. In the meantime, enjoy these last few days of summer vacation!