Recipes – Page 47 – Gastography

Crunchy Kale & Cabbage Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

March 15, 2014December 29, 2014Recipes4 Comments

Yeah, yeah, yeah – another salad. I’m on a homemade salad kick lately, and inspiration seems to be striking hardest during lunch. So: salads. This particular rendition combines my favorite salad green – kale – with sweet peppers, crunchy cabbage and a nice kicky, fatty dressing for something that is both healthy feeling and hearty enough to carry you through the afternoon.

Paleo, gluten-free and Whole 30 compliant

Crunchy Kale & Cabbage Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

5 ounces or so chopped kale (I used half a bag of the organic chopped kale from Trader Joe’s)
1 medium carrot
1 orange pepper
1.5 – 2 cups shredded cabbage (red would be fantastic here, but all they had at the store was regular green – which was also tasty)

Dressing

2 Tbsp. tahini
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar (Bragg’s ftw)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp. grapeseed oil
3 big pinches citrus salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 clove garlic
2-3 Tbsp. water

Julienne your pepper & carrot (I used a mandoline), chop your kale if needed, shred your cabbage and mince the garlic. Combine the veggies in a large bowl and all dressing ingredients in a shaker or bowl. Whisk or shake the dressing ingredients to combine, adding more water if needed to reach a pourable consistency.

I like to massage my dressing into my greens when I’m having a hearty green like this.

Optional add-ins: roast chicken, hard boiled eggs, sliced scallions, some sort of nut. I had chicken the first day for lunch and eggs the second. Scallions would have been great here, and nuts may or may not have added anything worthwhile to the party.

Makes 2 big lunch salads

French-Ish Chicken with Leeks, Parsnips and Preserved Lemon

March 8, 2014December 29, 2014Recipes1 Comment

I wanted something warm, comforting and French-ish for dinner that incorporated the root veggies I had chilling in the crisper and the jar of homemade preserved lemon I had yet to remember to crack. This dish ticked all those boxes and made a great weeknight winter meal.

Paleo, gluten-free and Whole 30 compliant

French-Ish Chicken with Leeks, Parsnips and Preserved Lemon

1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 leeks (light green and white parts only)
1 pound parsnips
16 ounces chicken stock (I used Imagine organic stock because it didn’t have any added crap)
A bunch of thyme (I used 3 sprig bundles)
1 tsp. caraway seeds
1/4 to 1/2 of a preserved lemon (I used 1/4, but the lemon taste could stand to be more pronounced)
2 tsp. ghee
Salt & pepper

Wash your leeks and cut into think coins. Add to a large pan with 2 tsp. ghee and sautee over medium-low until beginning to soften, hitting with a sprinkle of salt and a few cracks of black pepper as you go.

While the leeks are softening, chop your parsnips into roughly 1/2-inch pieces. When the leeks are good to go, add the parsnips to the pan and toss. Sautee, stirring every few minutes, while you prep the chicken.

Partially de-fat the chicken and cut into inch or so chunks. Nestle into the pan among the veggies when done. Hit with more salt and pepper and add the chicken stock.

Add the thyme and carraway and let simmer, stirring every so often, 15 – 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the parsnips are softened. During the last 5 minutes or so, mince the preserved lemon and add. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.

Serves 2 for dinner + 1 for lunch

Kale Pesto & Chicken Sweet Potato Noodle “Pasta”

March 1, 2014December 29, 2014Recipes1 Comment

I finally broke down and bought a spiral slicer. I got the GEFU Spirelli and after making this dish two ways – once with my speed peeler and once with the spiralizer, I’ve got to say I’m digging the spiralizer. It feels a lot less dangerous in my hands, and while there is some waste – it’s pretty much on-par with the speed peel method (at least for me – I’m kind of a sharp object hazard).

This dish is satisfying on many levels – the pesto is great, the noodles (when spiralized carefully) can just about be twirled, and the chicken lends a great fattiness to the dish that really brings it all together. A knockout weeknight meal.

These sweet potato noodles can also be used a thousand different ways – I see them becoming a staple in this household; maybe yours, too. Serve with bacon, garlic & sauteed spinach; with a bright popped tomato sauce; alongside mini-meatballs; carbonara-style; with briny olives and creamy goat cheese; with sliced steak and chimichurri … and that’s just off the top of my head.

Paleo, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Whole30

Kale Pesto & Chicken Sweet Potato Noodle “Pasta”

Adapted from Gourmande In the Kitchen’s Sweet Potato Noodles with Kale Pesto

1 longer than it is fat sweet potato per person
2-3 chicken thighs per person (I prefer boneless/skinless)
2 big hands chopped kale (I used half a 10 ounce bag of Trader Joe’s organic cut kale)
Handful parsley
Big hand full almonds
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
Big pinch red pepper flakes
Pinch kosher salt
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. Red Boat fish sauce
Coconut or olive oil for cooking
Salt & pepper
Extra Virgin olive oil to serve
Pecorino Romano or Parmesan to serve (completely optional)

First, put a large pot of salted water on to boil. When the water is boiling, add your kale and blanch 2 minutes. Drain and let sit in the drainer while you prep everything else.

Next, get your chicken working. If you’re using boneless/skinless, chop into roughly bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. Put into a large pan with 1-2 Tbsp. coconut or olive oil. Sautee over medium to medium-high heat until cooked through. Set aside when done.

While the chicken is cooking away, prep your sweet potatoes. Wash and peel and either shave with your vegetable peeler into ribbons or use a spiralizer for long curly strands. Set aside until the chicken is finished. When the chicken is done, add the sweet potato noodles to the leftover fat in the pan – adding a little more coconut or olive oil if needed (you want 2-3 Tbsp. here). Sautee 3-5 minutes, or until the noodles are softened and just beginning to brown.

On to the pesto. Toast your almonds in a dry pan and add to the bowl of a food processor when done, along with the garlic, parsley, drained kale, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, fish sauce and salt. Blitz to combine, adding the oil in a steady drizzle as you go. If the mixture is too dry, add a Tablespoon or so water.

To serve, add the chicken and some pesto (2-3 Tbsp. per person) to the sweet potato pan and toss (gently!) to combine. Serve sprinkled with a nice stout cheese if you eat cheese (Pecorino Romano and Parmesan make good serving buddies) and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Serves 2 if you use 2 potatoes & 6 small chicken thighs – with enough pesto leftover for 3-4 more servings. Could easily serve 4-6 with enough sweet potato noodles & chicken.

Quick Lunch Salad – Confetti Broccoli Slaw with Chicken

February 22, 2014February 22, 2014RecipesLeave a Comment

Sorry about the hiatus, guys. If you couldn’t tell already from my Picture of the Day posts – we’ve moved! This past week has been full of not-cooking as my new kitchen has slowly taken shape. I’m finally back in business – and not a minute too soon. This lunch was the first thing I actually made in the new place, and it came together quick. Just the ticket for a healthy and vegetable-packed lunch.

Those of you that have been reading for awhile might recognize my favorite salad ingredient, broccoli slaw. I think I have an obsession issue with the stuff. I hate soggy lettuce with a passion, and home made salads always seem to disappoint – unless I use broccoli slaw. Then all is well with the world. I can’t get enough.

Quick Lunch Salad – Confetti Broccoli Slaw with Chicken

1 bag broccoli slaw (I use the organic broccoli slaw from Trader Joe’s in a 10 ounce bag. Dole also makes a good one)
2 baby endive, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
2 big handfuls pepitas, toasted
Leftover roast or grilled chicken – or what I had on hand, a chicken patty (1 portion per person) – Omit if you want a vegan or vegetarian salad

Dressing

3 Tbsp. grapeseed oil
3 big pinches citrus salt
3 tsp. apple cider vinegar (I use Bragg)
2 tsp. mustard (I went for grainy here, but only had smooth Dusseldorf style)
1 clove garlic, minced

Chop your veggies and add to a big bowl. In a small bowl or mason jar, combine the dressing ingredients & shake/whisk. Combine the dressing with the salad and toss.

Makes 2 huge lunch salads, or 3-4 more reasonable servings

Alternate seasonings: For lunch the next day, I decided to go a more curry route and added half a chopped apple and curry chicken to the salad mix plus 1 tsp. curry powder and 1 tsp. cumin powder to the dressing. Yum.

Whole30 Slow Cooked Balsamic Short Ribs

February 9, 2014December 29, 2014Recipes6 Comments

This is another of those recipes cobbled together from random inspiration on the Internets. I had short ribs, I’m in the middle of a balsamic vinegar obsession, I have fallen in love with my new slow cooker – and bam. This.

Paleo, gluten-free & Whole30-compliant

Whole30 Slow Cooked Balsamic Short Ribs

1 lb. boneless short ribs
1 15-ounce can plain tomato sauce (check your labels!)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
4 dates, minced
8 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
2 tsp. Kosher salt
1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. aleppo pepper
2 tsp. black pepper
Beef stock (optional)

Set the beef in your slow cooker. Mix together the rest of the ingredients (minus the beef stock) and pour over the meat. Add a few splashes of beef stock until the liquid barely covers the meat. Latch your lid down if your slow cooker has latches and let cook 4-6 hours on High. When done, the meat should shred like butter.

If you then reduce the cooking liquid on the stove, the resulting gravy will be great.

I served with a simple parsnip mash (parsnips cooked in the rest of the beef stock for 8-10 minutes and whirred in the blender with a few splashes stock to even out).

Serves 2 for dinner

Spicy Whole30 Mini Turkey Meatloaves

February 7, 2014December 29, 2014RecipesLeave a Comment

Mmmmm…. meatloaf muffins. I love meatloaf muffins. This recipe came about from looking to see what was out there in the realm of turkey meatloaf tastes, taking some of that to heart, and managing to cobble something together in the kitchen.

Warning: as this recipe is written, it is kinda spicy. Not ‘omfg I’m going to die’ spicy, but it has a kick. You’ve been warned.

Spicy Whole30 Mini Turkey Meatloaves

1 pound ground turkey – dark meat is best if you can get it
1/2 cup diced celery (about 1 – 1.5 ribs)
1/2 cup diced carrot (about 1 medium)
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper (about 1/4 of a pepper)
1/4 cup diced shallot (1 medium)
1 egg
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. coconut aminos
2 Tbsp. Red Boat fish sauce
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. chipotle powder
4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. white pepper
1-2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted

Preheat the oven to 350. Prep your muffin tins by brushing with a little melted coconut oil so things don’t stick.

If you haven’t already, prep your veggies. Add to a bowl with the turkey, egg and spices. Combine however you like – I prefer with my hands – and load your muffin tins (winter themed ftw) to about 3/4 of the way full.

I got 9 muffins out of my tins – your mileage may vary, depending upon how large your muffin cups are.

Bake 20 minutes, or until cooked through (knife inserted in the middle comes out clean and the tops start to pull away from the sides of the tin). Let cool 10 minutes before popping out of the pan.

Serves 3, providing you have 9 meatloaves.

Bastardized Whole30 Chicken Curry

February 2, 2014December 29, 2014RecipesLeave a Comment

Why bastardized? I was *supposed* to be making my friend’s recipe for semi-traditional Thai-style green coconut curry, but nooooo – ran off half-cocked, thinking I had Thai Kitchen green curry paste (it’s W30-compliant) and couldn’t be bothered to double-check before starting dinner. Well, as it turns out, I don’t have any – and most likely haven’t had any for at least a year (unless of course I managed to use a whole jar without really remembering it – also very possible).

So what did I do? I improvised. And dinner turned out great. A little different flavor profile than I had intended – more on the tomatoey end of curry than the green end – but the sauce was thick and luscious and I’m kinda sad I don’t have any more left over for lunch. Also kind of happy that my hubbs wasn’t home the night I made it, so I didn’t have to share.

Bastardized Whole30 Chicken Curry

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 red bell pepper
1/2 onion
2 medium carrots
2 ribs celery
1 medium zucchini
1 Tbsp. coconut oil or ghee
1 15-ounce can coconut milk (check your labels!)
1 4-ounce can tomato paste (check your labels!)
4 cloves garlic
1 inch fresh ginger
1 jalapeno
2 Tbsp. Red Boat fish sauce
1 tsp. cumin
2 Tbsp. curry powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground turmeric
2 big pinches salt
2 Tbsp. cilantro
2 Tbsp. lime juice

Chop your vegetables and chicken. Mince the garlic and ginger. De-seed and dice the jalapeno.

Heat up a large pan to medium – add the cooking fat, onions and a sprinkle of salt. Sautee 1-2 minutes.

Add all the spices, garlic and fresh ginger and sautee for a minute or two until fragrant.

Add coconut milk and tomato paste and bring to a simmer. Taste. Add another big pinch salt if needed.

Add the chicken and remaining vegetables and stir to combine. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is done and the veggies are where you want them – 10 – 20 minutes.

While that is working, chop the cilantro and get your lime juice ready. When your curry is cooked through, taste for seasoning – add salt if necessary. Stir in the lime juice and cilantro before serving.

Serve alone or over cauliflower rice. If you eat the curry alone, this recipe makes 2-4 servings depending upon how much you like to eat. I had a double portion for dinner that night and two smaller portions for lunch in the following days. On lunch days, I ended up supplementing with almonds. If you serve over cauliflower rice, I imagine this recipe will easily stretch to feed 4. I happened to be too lazy to make rice that night.

Whole30 Slow Cooker Balsamic Beef

January 31, 2014December 29, 2014Recipes4 Comments

This recipe is tasty. Not quite what I had envisioned (I had visions of sticky almost tart beef dancing in my head), but good. A great ‘cook once and use as the backbone for many meals’ recipe.

I’ve served over brussels sprouts, eaten straight of the container, and paired with mashed cauliflower this week – I’m also dying to try it as a “pizza” topper, as a “taco” filling, and with more and varied greens. Yum.

Whole30 Slow Cooker Balsamic Beef

Adapted from Balsamic Roast Beef by Add A Pinch – thanks go out to one of my husband’s Facebook friends who posted the recipe that got the obsession rolling

2-4 pound boneless beef roast (chuck or one of the rounds – I used top round)
1 cup beef broth (check your labels!)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (check your labels!)
2 Tbsp. Red Boat fish sauce
2 Tbsp. coconut aminos
1/2 a date, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
Big pinch red pepper flakes

Plop your meat into a slow cooker. Combine all other ingredients and pour over top. Cook on High 4-8 hours. When your beef can shred with a fork, it’s done. Remove to a platter and go to town.

Place the cooking liquid into a pan and reduce by half for a nicely flavored gravy. Drizzle with extra balsamic before serving for an extra kick of taste. (and if you have some sticky aged balsamic? Heaven.)

4-8 hours? Can you be more specific? Here’s what happened: The original recipe calls for 4 hours on High or 6-8 hours on Low. This is the second time using my new crock pot and we weren’t sure if we needed to latch the lid down while cooking or if that would cause some sort of meatsplosion, so we left it unlatched. Came back 4 hours later and the meat was about half done. So we latched the lid and put it on for another 4. If you know how to operate your crock pot properly, I’d go with the original cooking directions and work from there.

Makes a bunch. I’ve gotten at least 2 dinners for two out of it + 3-4 lunches and I still have 1-2 days’ worth of lunch portions leftover.

Almost-As-Good-As-Having-Salsa Sweet Potato Bowl

January 26, 2014December 29, 2014RecipesLeave a Comment

I realize this is not the best photo, nor is the most exciting dish out there – but it did do make a little dent in the craving I was having one night.

I love salsa, guacamole, lime juice and tacos – I could live off of them happily. Sadly, tacos (at least tacos with corn tortillas + the tortilla chips they come with) are a no-go on Whole30.

One night it was just me for dinner and I was having a wicked craving for salsa. Like full-blown nothing else would do in my life craving – but I had no W30 tomato products in the house but tomato paste, and that’s not happening. I briefly considered picking around the corn and beans in the jar of salsa I had – but a: that’s cheating, b: that salsa wasn’t what I wanted, and c: the bean and corn to tomato ratio was too high.

And since I’m lazy and it was arctic cold out, I decided to rough it out with what I had in the house. I’m happy to report, that while this dish isn’t beautiful – it did fit the bill.

Almost-As-Good-As-Having-Salsa Sweet Potato Bowl

1 medium sweet potato, baked (pierce with fork, bake @400 for 45 minutes – bake a few at once so you don’t have to go through that drama again when you want a quick dinner)

1/2 an avocado

1 tsp. aleppo pepper

2 tsp. lime juice

pinch cumin

pinch garlic powder

pinch onion powder

1 burger patty

Reheat your sweet potato under the broiler if it’s a leftover; bake if not. While that is working, cook your burger to your liking – I do 3 minutes per side in a medium-hot pan.

When the potato is done and cool enough to handle, slip the skin of however you can. Add to a bowl and mash. Add the avocado and spices and mash some more.

Top with the burger patty and go to town.

Serves 1 for dinner

Italian Sausage and Zucchini Ragout with A Fried Egg

January 24, 2014December 29, 2014RecipesLeave a Comment

This is another example of a recipe that came about due to leftovers in the fridge + it’s cold and I need comfort + I want some freakin tomatoes in my life. One of my Nerd Fitness buddies said the description looked like exactly what he was wanting, so I figured you guys might like it too.

Italian Sausage and Zucchini Ragout with A Fried Egg

Tomato sauce – I actually used a sugar and crap-free jarred prepared variety of marinara (a standard sized glass jar full) and doctored it up with spices because I wanted to see if it could be done without tasting horrible. It wasn’t bad, but I would have much preferred the fresh marinara from this recipe – sans wine, or from this recipe as-is

1 – 1.5 lbs. hot Italian sausage (check your ingredients!)
10 ounces to a pound of crimini (or button) mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
2 eggs
Salt & pepper
Coconut oil or grassfed butter
Red pepper flakes

Set a large tall-sided pan over medium heat. Slip the sausages out of their skins into the pan and break up with a spoon into small bits. Brown. Drain most of the fat and add the onions and mushrooms. Sautee until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are beginning to break down.

Add the tomato sauce and stir. Taste for seasoning – add salt, pepper and red pepper as needed. Cover. Drop the heat to a simmer and let go 20 minutes to half an hour.

In a separate pan, heat 1 Tbsp. coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini, hit with salt and pepper and sautee – stirring frequently – 5 minutes or until al-dente. Add to a bowl.

Heat a Tablespoon or so of coconut oil or butter over medium heat. Add the eggs and fry to your liking, seasoning with salt & pepper as you go.

To assemble: zucchini chunks on the bottom, top with a generous half cup or so of sauce, and top with the eggs.

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