Tag Archives: paleo

Chicken Tikka Masala

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I love Indian food. Once in a while I will get together with some girlfriends and order a huge load of it. The restaurant always thinks the amount of food we order is crazy, but somehow we end up finishing it all. Burp. Eating Indian while following Whole30 is pretty tricky. Lots of legumes, dairy and wheat to navigate. Channa Masala (curried chickpeas) is one of my faves, but definitely something to avoid during a strict clean eating program like Whole30.

During the latest of these decadent nights out (where I magically avoided the butter chicken, naan, bhatura, channa masala and MORE), I chose some Chicken Tikka Masala and Baingan Bharta (Eggplant). Deelish. The only problem was that it left me wanting more. I set out to make a paleo-friendly Chicken Tikka Masala to fill that spot in me that was still craving some butter chicken.

Chicken Tikka Masala – serves 8-ish

  • 2 lb of cut up boneless skinless chicken pieces – breasts or legs, doesn’t matter.
  • 1T cumin
  • 1t cinnamon
  • 1t pepper
  • 1/2t cayenne
  • few grinds of salt
  • 3T ghee
  • 2T lemon juice

Combine all ingredients, marinate for an hour

The flavours in a curry dish can be very complex depending on the quantity and quality of spices that you use. Methods of preparation can also vary, and I’m still tweaking my perfect approach. For this one, I aimed for speed over perfect flavour.

Sauce 

  • 1 jar passata or crushed tomatoes
  • 1 onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 3T fresh ginger
  • 1t garam masala
  • 1/2t coriander seeds
  • 1.2t cumin seeds
  • 1/2t tumeric
  • 2t cumin
  • 2T curry paste (I use Pataks)

Have you ever used passata? It is just a tomato puree with nothing added to it. I like that it comes in glass jars. It makes a great base for recipes.

Get the onions, garlic and ginger ready with your spices

Add the sauce ingredients to a pot. I had intended on making this in a slow cooker until I realized that I didn’t have enough time. You can also soften your onion, ginger, garlic and spices in a skillet before you add the tomato.

Simmer it for 30 minutes or so until it begins to reduce

Here are some photos of my attempt at making Baingan Bharta. It wasn’t very good, so I’m not going to share my version of the recipe.

Serve with Cauliflower rice.

Enjoy the delicious Indian flavours. Serve with fresh chopped cilantro sprinkled on top. And some chutney, if you are so inclined.

Super Porktastic Meatloaf

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This is another recipe from the NomNomPaleo ipad app ! Awesome.  Like usual, I kind of improvised the recipe, but you can see my trusty ipad in the photos to prove that I actually kind of read the recipe this time. You can see the full recipe on nomnompaleo.com too!

Bacon topped meatloaf. Pork on pork action with a side of spinach. Yum. Yes, I burnt the bacon because I got distracted. Whoopsie.

Super Porktastic Meatloaf from Nomnompaleo.com – Serves 4-6

  • 1 pound frozen chopped spinach
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (or coconut oil)
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion (from 1/2 medium onion)
  • 1/2 pound Cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup coconut cream or coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup small-dice celery (from about 2 medium stalks)
  • 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh Italian parsley leaves
  • 1 pound ground pork (the original recipe calls for 1 ¼ pounds of pork, veal, or beef but I only had 1 pound of ground pork defrosted)
  • ¼ cup coconut flour
  • 1 medium garlic clove, minced
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3-5 bacon slices
  • Tomato sauce, warmed, for serving (optional)

 

Chop your celery, shrooms and onion. Don’t get your iPad dirty.

Frozen spinach is your friend. One of the store-brands (Compliments) packages it in these nuggets rather than a brick. It is very handy to just use half a package instead of the whole thing.

Frying the chopped shrooms and onions

Coconut flour, nutmeg, spinach, pork

Added in the eggs and the blend of coconut milk, celery, that you mixed with your immersion blender

I baked it in mini loaf pans. With bacon on top. Mmm bacon.

And when I broiled the bacon I got distracted by a phone call. ARGH. So it burnt a bit.

I would venture a guess that this would freeze well uncooked and you could just pop it in the oven once thawed.

Egg, bacon and avocado salad

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I probably saw this on Pinterest or something. But the idea popped into my head to make this. I love egg salad. But I am extremely picky about it and have to make it myself. Nothing is more repulsive than pre-made slimy egg salad sandwiches.

Even more importantly, nothing is more disappointing than when you send your husband to the fridge in the birthing unit’s patient kitchen to find you something to eat in the middle of the night because you are starving, exhausted, in pain, fiddling around in the dark attempting to breastfeed your one day old baby… and he comes back to report there is nothing there except a few lonely egg salad sandwiches. No thanks. I’ll starve. Thank goodness there was a grocery store nearby and for kind friends who delivered all my favourite foods to me from the other end of the city. Hospital food sucks. Especially sketchy egg salad on wonder bread. Anyhow…

The pic is kinda crappy, and no progress photos because posting this was an after thought, but make it anyway. Ok?

Avocado, egg and bacon salad – this made three servings, served on lettuce as pictured

  • 5 hard boiled eggs, chopped
  • 2 small avocados, chopped
  • a few slices of bacon, chopped and cooked
  • 1/4c of homemade mayo
  • Salt and pepper
  • a squirt of lime juice and chopped cilantro (optional)

Mix it all up and enjoy! If you want to save it or pack it in your lunch, put it in a sealed container and press plastic wrap right up against it. This will help reduce the browning from the avocado. Yummy.

Paleo Orange Chicken with Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice

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Paleo Orange Chicken. You know, we don’t even need to call this paleo, really. It’s just damned delicious. I have passed this recipe on to friends who think paleo is nuts, batshit insane “wtf, what DO you eat?”, and everyone who has tried it has given it rave reviews. It’s delicious. Amazing.

It’s not my recipe, but one from Health Bent, and I think you should try it. Why else would I post it? Sheesh. I won’t re-post all the ingredients because I follow it pretty much as written. (Although, helpful tip… if you don’t have fresh oranges because your husband and son ate them on you, you can always use frozen orange juice concentrate!).

Paleo Orange Chicken from Health-Bent.com with Cilantro lime cauliflower rice.

To make the rice, just simmer 2-3 cups of riced cauliflower in half a can of coconut milk, the juice and zest of one lime, and 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro. Cook it over low-medium heat until slightly reduced.

Note: If you haven’t made riced cauliflower, it looks like this. I rice it and freeze it in bags big enough to make a meal. You rice it by pulsing it in the food processor until it is a texture that resembles grains of rice. You can also use the shredder blade.

 

 

Paleo [not-Pad] Thai

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I’ve been obsessed with making Paleo pad thai lately. But then I thought to myself… it ain’t going to be pad thai if it’s paleo. At all. So rather than trying to make some imitation meal that wouldn’t come anywhere close to the real thing, I used a few recipes for “paleo pad thai” as inspiration (i.e. from Health-Bent, Primal Palate and Well Fed) and came up with a dish that is delicious in its own right. Paleo [not-Pad] Thai, we shall call it.

Paleo [not-pad] Thai – serves two

  • One batch of Sunshine Sauce. I kind of improvised the recipe for mine, using this as a loose guide. But just follow this one as written, because I said so. Melicious got it right.
  • Three small zucchini
  • Handful of sugar snap peas, sliced thinly on the diagonal
  • a handful of chopped green onion
  • two chicken breasts, cooked
  • one T of coconut oil
  • chili garlic sauce, chopped macadamia nuts, cilantro and lime for garnish

Use a julienne peeler or a mandoline to slice your zucchini. Use a sharp knife (or dull.. ha) to chop your sugar snap peas and green onions.

Put the zucchini in a hot pan with coconut oil. Saute for a few minutes

In a separate pan, toss in your sliced cooked chicken (or if you are cooking your chicken right then, use the pan you cooked your chicken in!) and the sugar snap peas in with a wee bit of coconut oil. You are just warming this stuff up, not cooking the crap out of it.

Throw the sunshine sauce in with the zucchini. Stir it. Gently.

It looks like this. Simmer simmer. Reduce the sauce a little bit.

Plate it. Top with cilantro, lime, chili garlic sauce (missing: the chopped nuts because I forgot them on the cutting board in my excitement to get outside and eat!)

 

 

 

Sweet potato, apple, sausage and egg hash

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I started my first Whole30 on June 1! I’m excited. This is definitely something I want to do right now. It’s been a very stressful time in my life, and I want to devote some time and energy into making me feel my best physically so I can support those around me in difficult times. It’s only been a few days, and this is a meal I made on day one.

Also, I am relieved to report that black coffee is kinda growing on me. However, I can no longer disguise mediocre coffee with cream. Has to be good stuff. A Starbucks Americano (black) is currently my favourite.

I got the idea for this recipe from the Whole 30 Success Guide. There was a recipe for an apple and sweet potato hash in there that intrigued me (or maybe I’m lying to you. I can’t remember and I can’t be bothered to check). I made this for dinner, but you could make it for breakfast and omit the eggs if you are looking for some egg-free options. It would also reheat well, but if you are going to store and reheat it, cook your eggs separately.

Sweet potato, apple, sausage and egg hash - Serves two very hungry adults and one toddler going through a picky phase (“No yummy meat, mommy!”)

  • One shallot, thinly sliced
  • One apple, peeled and julienned
  • One large sweet potato, peeled and julienned (I used the food processor)
  • Three sausages – any type. I used garlic from a local grocery store with no fillers (read your labels!)
  • 1 tsp of allspice
  • four eggs
  • 1 T of coconut oil

Turn on your oven’s broiler. Over medium heat, Saute your shallots in coconut oil or ghee

After a few minutes add the sausage (casings removed and crumbled)

Once the sausage is browned (it’s okay if it is not fully cooked yet), add the sweet potato

Add the julienned apple (I would have used the food processor for the apple too, but my potato was shredded before I froze it!). Sprinkle on the allspice. Cook for another 5 minutes until the mixture is reduced.

Once the mixture is cooked, crack your eggs onto the skillet.

Pop it under the broiler for 5 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking. These ones were a soft-medium poach consistency. Maybe a minute overcooked for a soft poach. Scoop it into a bowl and enjoy!

Mushroom faux-breaded chicken

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When I was a kid I loved chicken fingers. Like loved loved loved. They made my world go round. My family ran a restaurant. I “helped” in the kitchen a lot. I knew how to use the deep fryer. I knew where the chicken fingers were stored. I was a master chicken finger chef. Probably the reason I was an obese child…

I still love those disgustingly delicious salty, breaded flavourful pieces of heaven. Arby’s has the best ones, for the record. BUT, I don’t eat them anymore. I still love me some “breaded” chicken though. I came up with this recipe that uses ground almond, ground flax seed and magic mushroom powder.

Magic mushroom powder is a concoction from nomnompaleo.com. The full recipe is available on the iPad app, but essentially it is a mixture of salt, thyme, red pepper flakes, pepper and dried mushrooms all pulverized to a powder. The original recipe uses 1oz of mushrooms and 2/3 c kosher salt. I would cut the salt in half next time. You can play with these ingredients to get the mixture as you like it. I think the original recipe was intended for it to be more of a seasoning salt, so the way I used it in this recipe made it WAY too salty. Almost inedible salty but we ate it anyway.

Mushroom faux-breaded chicken – Serves 4

  • 4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 1/2 c of magic mushroom powder
  • 1/4 c of ground flax meal (I use Bob’s Red Mill… only because it’s the only one I seem to find!)
  • 1/4 c of ground almond
  • 1/4 c dijon mustard
  • 1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put the flax meal, mushroom powder and ground almond on a plate.

Mix it all up

Mix 1/4 c dijon with an egg.

Dunk your chicken breasts and mix well

Toss in the “breading” mixture

Place on a baking tray and put in the oven for 35ish minutes. Until they are done. Use a thermometer if you want to make sure.

Yum.

I served them with fiddleheads for dinner, but you could just slice them up and eat them (maybe I did that, maybe I didn’t…) or I also put them on a salad with microgreens and some olive tapenade. They are yummy cold too!