January 18

Breakfast:

1 soft boiled egg
finished off the roasted vegetables
carrots and tapenade
2 slices of jicama with fresh lime-the best veggie snack

I also made some hard boiled eggs when making my soft boiled egg this morning-multitasking!

It is a snow day here, more snow than I have ever seen. Since everyone is at home my husband is baking peanut butter cookies with the kids. Damn, that smells good. But I am fully satisfied with my delicious Paleo options!

Lunch:

Leftover chicken drumstick
Green olives
Jicama with lime juice

Post-sledding meal:

Finished off the chili with half an avocado
Carrots and tapenade

Dinner:

I wanted something to warm me up after a day in the snow (although sledding down and running back up hills will certainly keep you warm). I opted to make the ginger, lime, cayenne soup I made one day one of this 30 days. Tonight I used fresh ginger, a shockingly small piece, some ancient lemongrass, green peppers, portabella mushroom and some chard. I also mixed in some chicken broth. The only bad thing was I didn't make enough for leftovers. This is a great dish, very flavorful and easy to throw together if you have ginger, lime and cayenne on hand.

Dessert:

A few slices of walnut fig bread.

No pictures or recipes. Just a day to clean out the fridge and take it easy.

January 17

Breakfast was quick this morning.

2 hard boiled eggs
A bowl of roasted veggies
coconut chai tea that was pretty gross

Lunch:
Small handful of almonds and big handful of coconut flakes, a few pecans
Left over chili with 1/3 an avocado

A Costo trip led me to buy more macadamias...guess I will have to demonstrate more will power.

Dinner:

Spiced Grilled Chicken
Brussels Sprouts with Prosciutto

Inspired by my husbands cooking last night I actually looked up a recipe. Of course we didn't have the right ingredients or the 24 hours to marinate, so I altered it. From our Moroccan cook book I made Djej Mechoui, Spiced Grilled Chicken. Only mine was baked, not grilled.

Ingredients:

Chicken wings and drumsticks

pinch of saffron threads
1 t. coarse sea salt
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 t. paprika
2 t. cumin
1/4 t. cayenne
1/2 t. black pepper
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. olive oil
Lemon, cut into wedges

Set over to 375 degrees. Poke holes in the skin of the chicken, set aside. Place saffron and salt in a mortar and pound with pestle. Add garlic and make a paste. Add the spices, lemon juice and oil. Work it all together to form a runny paste. Rub the paste mixture all over the chicken. I even rubbed some underneath the skin since this didn't get a chance to marinade as the original recipe called for. Bake for 50 or so minutes at 375 degrees.

This was decent, not mind blowing, but a great week night dinner. The wings were better than the drums, perfect ratio of fat, skin and rub. We had no lemons which was a shame because the was screaming for a dash of lemon. It would have been perfect. I will definitely save this recipe for summer BBQ. Along with some grilled lemons and an adult beverage, this would be a great summer meal.
My one year old at about three drumsticks and my three year old had one.

I made brussels sprouts because they were in the refrigerator. I'd have to say brussels sprouts with prosciutto don't really go with Moroccan chicken, but they are so tasty.

Brussels sprouts with prosciutto recipe:

Halve brussels sprouts, boil until soft, 5 minutes or less. Cut thinly slices prosciutto into little pieces. When sprouts are done to your liking toss with prosciutto in a skillet. Super easy, super good. I like brussels sprouts the day after, the age well.

After dinner I had a couple pecans (I was reading in Bon Appetit about a New Orleans style party and they had pecan praline turtles. It got me craving.)

January 16

More snow on this holiday Monday!

Breakfast:

Leftover roasted vegetables
1 egg, sunny side up

I heated some olive oil in a pan and cooked up the veggies, getting the hot and a little crisp on the outside. Threw in an egg, viola! Comfort breakfast.

Lunch:
1/4 apple with walnut butter
leftover chicken scraps with mustard, 1/4 tomato and avocado
8 pecans
tea

Dinner:

I am a lucky lady. My husband has a knack for picking really good recipes, tweaking them and getting great results. Tonight was two winners.

Parcel of Minced Chicken with Macadamia (inspired from The Indonesian Kitchen)
Spicy Chard with Ginger (inspired from this recipe)


Ingredients:
Parcel of Minced Chicken

2 chicken breasts and 2 thighs, minced
1/2-1 C. coconut milk (or more)
1/2 C. shredded coconut milk
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 t. grated/finely chopped fresh ginger
2 oz. ground/finely chopped macadamia nuts (plus more for topping)
1/2 t. ground cloves AND freshly grated nutmeg
2 serrano chilies, seeded and thinly sliced (ours were very dry)
salt and pepper

Mince, chop, slice, grate everything per instructions above. Combine, mixing well. Fill about 6 ramekins with the mixture and top with crushed macadamia nuts. Place ramekins in a tray half filled with hot water and bake for 20-25 minutes. (Tonight my husband kicked it up to 400 for five minutes and then broiled for another 5 minutes to brown the tops.)

Ingredients:
Chard
1 bunch Swiss/rainbow chard
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 sliced jalapenos (we used our extra old serranos)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
half a can of coconut milk (or whatever is left after making the parcel)

Separate stems and leaves from Swiss chard. Chop leaves and dice stems small. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high. Add chard stems, minced peeled fresh ginger, and jalapeno slices; cook until stems soften, 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add chard leaves, cover, and cook until wilted, 3 minutes. Add coconut milk. Uncover and cook until tender, 4 minutes.

Verdict:

Delicious. The chicken would be great to pack in a lunch. Would probably be good with ground meat so all that work of mincing chicken could be avoided.
The chard could have used a little more spice. The fresh ginger and creaminess of the coconut milk offset the bitterness of the chard stems. I was excited to see a use for chard stems since I usually chop them off and compost them.

I did eat some macadamias while the were being crushed but lucky for me my kids polished them off so I won't have to worry about eating too many. And both kids enjoyed both dishes tonight. Proud parent right here!

Awesome husband continues: since we chopped up two chickens this weekend he decided it was time to make stock. We store our chicken bones in the freezer and once we have enough we make stock. The time has come and he is cooking away. What a man!

January 9

Breakfast:
Soft boiled egg
1/2 chicken apple sausage
veggies with baba ganoush
5 macadamia nuts

My kid kept eating my sausage so I was left with half of one. I added some veggies and nuts to balance out the protein in the egg and sausage.

This morning I woke up feeling really rested. Finally, the quality sleep of clean eating is coming!

Lunch:

Hard to say...a pile of macadamia nuts and a slice of roast beef late in the afternoon. A lot of nut snacking going on today.

Dinner:

Pork Tenderloin with Braised Cabbage and Steamed Broccolette

Pork tenderloin is so easy it's a no-brainer for dinner. Tonight I used powdered mustard, fennel salt, celery seeds, fennel seeds and black pepper.

Since the broccolette was such a winner with the kids I steamed up a bowl and the two little ones ate the majority of it.

I love cabbage in all forms. We had some thing like this a few Christmases ago and it was great, so I am trying it again tonight.

Recipe:

1 head cabbage (purple is prettier)
onion
ghee or whatever flat
1 apple
1/2 C broth
1/3 C apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper

Chop up all the vegetables. Heat fat in a pot, saute onions, add apples until soft, add cabbage and broth until wilted. Add vinegar, salt and pepper. Cook for 20 minutes stirring every now and then. I was out of apple cider vinegar and used red wine vinegar and it was still good. A little more vinegar flavor, but nothing the cabbage couldn't stand up to.

I have been hitting the macadamias hard today. It's hard to kick the habit.

January 3

Breakfast:

2 hardboiled eggs
1/3 baked sweet potato

Today my breakfast was a post-workout meal, so carb dense potatoes and protein via the eggs. Not too glamorous but it all fit in a Tupperware and was easy to eat while driving from the gym to a playdate where the kids out numbered adults 2:1.

Lunch:

Leftovers. Last nights Paleo spaghetti was great for lunch. I added some macadamia nuts and green olives for fat. My kids love green olives, so they went through a small mountain themselves.

In the afternoon I had my typical carrots and macadamia nut butter as well as some more olives and macadamias here and there.

This evening I did something unheard of, 3 x 800 meter sprints. After that burner I finished off the leftover Christmas potatoes and began work on dinner.

Dinner:

Baked salmon
Steamed broccolettes

I had also bought collard greens because I want to learn how to cook them, but what little I know is they should be cooked a long time, and since I was starting dinner at 6:45 I put them in the fridge for another night.

Salmon recipe

1.5 lbs wild caught salmon
pepper
lime juice and slices
olive oil
1 avocado

I sprayed a roasting pan with olive oil, laid the fish on it, peppered it a bit, squeezed about half a lime on it and then put lime slices all over it. Baked for about 12-14 minutes at 350 and done. Ours was a little overdone on the edges but better in the middle, thicker parts. Serve with avocado slices.

The broccolette was my impulse buy at Costco. Earthbound Farm Organic (know as "The Man" organics in our house) had a big ole bag of ready to steam broccolette. Easy enough to throw in a pot and call done.

The fish was not the most exciting thing in the world. My talented husband whipped up some aioli, but sadly it had sugar in it therefor not compliant with my rules for this month. I am sure a nice limey aioli would have complimented the salmon and avocado quite well.

Kid report on this meal: Excellent! My three year old ate everything and wanted more of it all. The one year old was all about the avocados and broccolette. Usually the little one is a meat eater, but he was all about the greens tonight. No complaints here. He might add broccoli to his vocabulary that currently contains cheese, sausage, cashew, please, thank you and water.

January 1

Breakfast:

There were some leftover sweet potatoes so I sauteed them up with a little olive oil and fried two eggs.

Lunch:

More leftovers...we had this for Christmas eve and there were two slices left. I had them with some sauteed apples, also leftover from Christmas. (If you didn't click on the link, it was prosciutto wrapped pork loin stuffed with chard, ground pork, mushrooms, apples and spices with roasted apples.)
A too large handful of almonds.




Snacks:
Pecans, cashews, almonds
Carrot sticks dipped in homemade macadamia butter (Easy to make. Take macadamia nuts, put in a food processor. Done. I have made pecan, walnut and pepita butter. I don't recommend pepita butter.

Dinner:

Ginger, lime, cayenne stir fry

Dinner was a creation that at first seemed to limey but by the end of the meal the flavors melded together nicely. The heat from the cayenne might have numbed my taste buds and cleared my sinuses.

Recipe:
toasted sesame oil
1 each green and red bell pepper
1 carrot
3 cloves garlic
1 package sliced mushrooms
few leaves of chard
1 lb. chicken breast
minced ginger
juice of one lime
cayenne pepper
1 small can coconut milk

Slice up all your ingredients to appropriate size. Heat oil in a wok or large pan, throw in carrots, wait a few minutes, then add peppers. Cook a few more minutes then add the mushrooms and chard. Add chopped chicken and scoop in some minced ginger, add lime juice, sprinkle with cayenne. Once pretty well cooked stir in coconut milk along with a little water. Simmer and then serve. It reminded me of tom kha gai, a Thai soup that has strong ginger and lemongrass flavors.

Overall a good day. Too many nuts, but our fridge is very empty so I didn't have many snack options.

Poblano stuffed chicken

These poblano peppers have been sitting in the refrigerator for a long time so I finally put them to good use. Using ingredients on hand this delicious dinner was made.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 poblano peppers
3-4 cloves of garlic
1/4 onion
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
10 cherry tomatoes
handful of greens-spinach, bok choy, chard, whatever you have
salt
12-16 tooth picks

Method:

Roast the peppers. I did this by putting them under the broiler for about 5-6 minutes per side. Once all done place in a paper bag and seal it up quickly so the heat stays in the the skin begins to bubble up a little more.
While the peppers are sitting chop garlic through greens into little pieces. Mix all together in a bowl with a little big of oil from the sun dried tomatoes. Add a dash of salt.

Hammer the chicken breasts to about 1/4 inch thickness and set aside. Placing the chicken between plastic wrap is cleaner. A plastic baggie would also work.

Get your poblanos and peel the skin. It should come off rather easily but if it doesn't slip right off don't worry about it and leave it on. Cut along one side starting at the tip going up to the stem, then work around the stem removing seeds to keep the pepper whole. Lay one chicken breast on your work surface, lay the open poblano on top and fill with a few scoops of the mixture in the bowl. About 3 tablespoons per chicken breast. Make sure the pepper is at the very bottom of the chicken, closest to you, even hanging about 1/2 an inch off the chicken. Tightly roll chicken, pepper and stuffing away from you. Secure with 3-4 toothpicks. Repeat until all ingredients used up.

Bake for about 45 minutes at 350.

Roasted poblanos are the bomb. So good...and this goes really well with a little sour cream.