Just Veggies

A little while ago, I was really, really in to fresh veggies: cucumbers, red peppers, green peppers, red onions, tomatoes, all tossed together with a light dressing.

I would eat that stuff daily.

DAILY

And then, I guess I just got over veggied out. It happens, you know?

But ... it's summertime and the peppers, the cucumbers, the tomatoes, everything looks so dang appealing in the produce stores that I just have to scoop them up ... to hell with the Freezer / Pantry / No Spend Challenge!

I could justify the purchases, honestly.

It is, afterall, Summertime! And that's the time when the full fledge BBQ/Pool/Outdoor parties are kicking in ... and psst ... it's also Whole30/Paleo approved but don't tell no one THAT!

Sunday morning rolled around and Princess and the Boyfriend texted us to say they wanted to maybe come over later in the day to hang out.  Not quite lunch time, not quite dinner time ... 

and because Princess is currently in AA (long story, but for her, alcohol does NOT improve her personal being) I (me, myself AND I) try to eliminate the alcohol factor when she's around, and really stay focused on healthy, happy foods. Well, just because, that's what a mom does to encourage their child, adult or not, to stay focused and on track (right?) ... 

Hence, Veggies.

Good, ripe, in season vegetables.

Lets get to it, shall we?

2 cucumbers (mine were seedless and picked up from ALDI for $1.29 each)

1 red pepper (picked up from Trader Joes, 79 cents a piece)

1/2 red onion (ALDI, 99 cents for 2 pounds)

3 roma tomatoes (picked up from ALDI, like 8 per bag for 99 cents)

3 tbs olive oil (Trader Joes)

2 tbs red wine vinegar (ALDI)

a generous sprinkling of oregano (Costco)

dash of salt and black pepper

Peel them cucumbers, slice in half and half again so you have 4 long spears. Chop up into bite size pieces.  If you have seeds in them and they are really seedy (not in THAT way), scrap the seeds out before cutting up. Toss in a large bowl (which I always, always pick too small of a bowl!)

Cut the red pepper in to bite size pieces and toss in the bowl.

Grab your tomatoes and cut in to 4 wedges. If really juicy, pull out the seeds and juicy stuff and then cut in to bite size pieces.

Dice the red onion in to small pieces. Not, like, tiny pieces, but certainly smaller than bite size ;-) Toss those in the bowl, as well.

Grab a small little bowl and mix up the oil, vinegar, oregano and salt and pepper and then pour that over them fresh veggies. Give it a quick stir to distribute the dressing, put a lid on it, and ideally, let it chill in the fridge for an hour or so. Not necessary, but it does taste even better chilled.

Me? I didn't have time. I was close to lobbing off a finger or two from those secret snatches of the fresh chopped veggies.

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

*This post may contain affiliate links ... click here to read my disclosure :-)

Mexican Beef in the Instant Pot

We've been using the InstantPot a little more lately because it's QUICK and doesn't heat up the kitchen!

I mean, seriously, what other reason do you need?

Yup, lunch at my desk was pretty exciting! I had this with riced 

cauliflower and green beans ... yummm

So ... this recipe comes from Nom Nom Paleo ... same place That Damn Fine Chicken came from ... and a few other recipes to be shared very very soon as well!

Anyway.

I'm waiting for the beef to go on sale, or for when I can finally make a quick trip to Costco to pick it up cheaper as beef is just expensive lately! The protein alone on this one cost me $17 or so ... and no, it was not grass fed, groomed, petted or anything else special like that. It was just Publix. Luckily, I used a $5 off $40 coupon, but still ...

Ok, lets get to the recipe, shall we?

TIP: 

Make this a DAY BEFORE you want to eat it, honestly! It's so much better the next day! I was in heaven at lunch for 2 days with this at the office ... yummmm

2 1/2 pounds of beef - I used a chuck roast but you can use brisket, boneless short ribs, flank, etc.
1 tbs chili powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs ghee
2 onions, cut in half and sliced thin (I used a red and a yellow)
1 tbs tomato paste (freeze the rest in a small ziploc!)
6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 tsp fish sauce
dash of black pepper
cilantro

Cut yo' beef in to cubes, like 1 1/2 inch cubes. Seriously. Does ANYONE measure their cubes? I just cut mine in to a little bigger than a generous bite size ;-)  Toss the beef in a large bowl and season with the chili powder and salt.

Turn the InstantPot on Saute and add the ghee and onions and saute til just soft. Add the tomato paste and garlic, give a quick stir and cook til just fragrant. Uhm, I LOVE the smell of garlic and onions cooking!

Add in the beef, tomatoes, broth and fish sauce. Cover and lock the lid in place, making sure the vent is CLOSED.

Press the keep warm button (to turn saute off) and then press the "meat" button which sets the time at 35 minutes.

Go find something to do for 35 minutes. Wash dishes. Watch the news. Blog. Browse Pinterest. Stalk the kids on Facebook.

After 35 minutes are up and you hear the InstantPot beep, you can either press the warm button to turn off the pot and let it release naturally, OR you can leave it as is and let it stay on warm and release naturally. Whichever way you go, just don't do a quick pressure release (where you hit the vent open!).

Pull the beef out and add a little bit of the juice to the dish with the beef.

Serve this up with some riced cauliflower or over some zucchini noodles and garnish with cilantro if that's your thing!

Enjoy!

TIP: If you have leftovers, you can certainly freeze this either in a dinner size portion OR individual portions for later in the month of your Whole 30!  I'm looking forward to making this in September, 2016!

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

*This post may contain affiliate links ... click here to read my disclosure :-)

BLT Boats

All three times I've tried to do the Whole30 (and have NEVER EVER EVER made it past Day 14!), I always come across some really great and tasty recipes that are definitely keepers!  This would be one of them!

THIS TIME HOWEVER, I PLAN ON DOING A FULL 30 DAYS 

#SEPTEMBERWHOLE30

These are perfect since you don't use regular bread, but instead, yummy butter lettuce or baby romaine lettuce leaves come in to play here ...

This recipe was made for ONE (ME!) but could easily be doubled, tripled, quadrupled and so on if you wanted to serve these as an appetizer for a party or a dinner (or lunch, breakfast, etc.!)

Lets get cooking, shall we?

4 lettuce leaves ... I used butter lettuce as that was what I had on hand that needed to be used up
3 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled (look for low sodium and then look at the ingredients, 80% of the time this is also sugar free)
6 grape tomatoes, sliced in half and then cut in half again
1/2 avocado, diced (I need to perfect my dicing and separating skills)
1 stalk of green onion
dab of mayo (isn't it time you learned how easy it is to make?)
dash of olive oil
dash of dried italian seasoning
dash of salt and pepper

Lay out the lettuce leaves on a plate and pat dry if they are still a little wet.

Toss your tomatoes in a small bowl and add the olive oil, salt, pepper and italian season. Stir and set aside.

Walk to the other side of house, stand in that soon to be missed guest kitchen and try to remember WHY you walked all the way over there. Open fridge, stare at the items there and wait for something to jump and say "hey, me!" and think, crap, I don't remember why I walked over here!

Come back to the food in the main kitchen and give them tomatoes a stir after about 10 minutes of staring in the fridge. Drain the excess liquid if any out of the bowl.

Add a bit of mayo to the center of each lettuce leaf, smear a little to spread out.  Add the tomatoes to each lettuce leaf.

Sprinkle with the bacon pieces.

Sprinkle with the avocado.

Garnish with the sliced green onions.

Remember that you walked to other side of house for a can of LaCroix to drink. Doh.

Serve up and Enjoy!

This is totally Whole30 approved, Paleo, Grain, Gluten and Dairy Free ... perfect!

Looking forward to sharing with some of these Great Parties ... go check them out!

Chicken and Broccoli

I think I am finally convincing Hubby that it really does matter what you eat ... 

Yeah. slowly, but surely, he's following along ...

I've been craving Japanese/Chinese ... and I know, they are NOT the same, but you know what I mean ... so I've had this recipe on hold for quite a while ... and kept telling Hubby this past week to NOT touch the fresh broccoli or chicken thighs as I was making dinner one night. Took me 3 nights to get to it but the wait was totally worth it.

Seriously. THIS IS WHOLE30 APPROVED!

2 pounds of chicken thighs, cut in to bite size pieces
1 large head of broccoli, cut in to bite size pieces
3 tbs sesame oil
2 tbs ginger ... I'm not a fan but I used this stuff
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2/3 c coconut aminos
1 tbs arrowroot powder  to thicken
Riced cauliflower (Trader Joes!) or zucchini noodles, if desired

See, not a whole lot of stuff ;-)  AND ... it only took 30 minutes of cooking time so get chopping in the morning before you head out to work!

Heat up a large skillet over medium heat and add the oil, ginger, coconut aminos, salt, garlic powder and them pepper flakes.  Add the chicken in and give a quick shake to coat a bit. Cook til chicken is about half cooked through.*

Add the broccoli, shake the pan a bit, turn up the heat and put a lid on the pan. I used a lid that sat just inside the pan as I didn't want it 100% covered.  Lift lid and give a stir every few minutes to get the broccoli coated a bit.

Once the broccoli has started to get soft, if desired, add a sprinkle of arrowroot powder over the mixture and stir with a large spoon. This will help it thicken a little.

Serve over zucchini noodles OR riced cauliflower.

Me? I ate mine just as is in a bowl. I may have had more than one serving as well ... and went ahead and packaged up my lunch for tomorrow as well. It's a good thing, Hubby loved it and said it was a keeper. Huh. Did he know it's Whole30/Paleo Approved? Well ... he knew that I used the coconut aminos instead of soy sauce ... so that should have led him to believe ... but then again, he's been using the coconut aminos instead of soy sauce ever since I told him soy sauce isn't good for women ;-) I guess that means he loves me? I love him too! Any how ....

This was pretty damn good and it will so be happening again!

Enjoy!

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

*This post may contain affiliate links ... click here to read my disclosure :-)

*So for the record: I followed the original recipe from the start and was sorry as soon as I added the chicken in. The chicken NEEDS to cook first other wise you will have raw chicken on top of quickly dying broccoli. I ended up scooping the sad broccoli out in to a bowl while the chicken cooked, adding it back at the end with more raw broccoli so I wouldn't have sad broccoli throughout.

The Perfect Veggie Dish

A little while ago, I was really, really in to fresh veggies: cucumbers, red peppers, green peppers, red onions, tomatoes, all tossed together with a light dressing.

I would eat that stuff daily.

DAILY

And then, I guess I just got over veggied out. It happens, you know?

But ... it's summertime and the peppers, the cucumbers, the tomatoes, everything looks so dang appealing in the produce stores that I just have to scoop them up ... to hell with the Freezer / Pantry / No Spend Challenge!

I could justify the purchases, honestly.

It is, afterall, Summertime! And that's the time when the full fledge BBQ/Pool/Outdoor parties are kicking in ... and psst ... it's also Whole30/Paleo approved but don't tell no one THAT!

Sunday morning rolled around and Princess and the Boyfriend texted us to say they wanted to maybe come over later in the day to hang out.  Not quite lunch time, not quite dinner time ... 

and because Princess is currently in AA (long story, but for her, alcohol does NOT improve her personal being) I (me, myself AND I) try to eliminate the alcohol factor when she's around, and really stay focused on healthy, happy foods. Well, just because, that's what a mom does to encourage their child, adult or not, to stay focused and on track (right?) ... 

Hence, Veggies.

Good, ripe, in season vegetables.

Lets get to it, shall we?

2 cucumbers (mine were seedless and picked up from ALDI for $1.29 each)

1 red pepper (picked up from Trader Joes, 79 cents a piece)

1/2 red onion (ALDI, 99 cents for 2 pounds)

3 roma tomatoes (picked up from ALDI, like 8 per bag for 99 cents)

3 tbs olive oil (Trader Joes)

2 tbs red wine vinegar (ALDI)

a generous sprinkling of oregano (Costco)

dash of salt and black pepper

Peel them cucumbers, slice in half and half again so you have 4 long spears. Chop up into bite size pieces.  If you have seeds in them and they are really seedy (not in THAT way), scrap the seeds out before cutting up. Toss in a large bowl (which I always, always pick too small of a bowl!)

Cut the red pepper in to bite size pieces and toss in the bowl.

Grab your tomatoes and cut in to 4 wedges. If really juicy, pull out the seeds and juicy stuff and then cut in to bite size pieces.

Dice the red onion in to small pieces. Not, like, tiny pieces, but certainly smaller than bite size ;-) Toss those in the bowl, as well.

Grab a small little bowl and mix up the oil, vinegar, oregano and salt and pepper and then pour that over them fresh veggies. Give it a quick stir to distribute the dressing, put a lid on it, and ideally, let it chill in the fridge for an hour or so. Not necessary, but it does taste even better chilled.

Me? I didn't have time. I was close to lobbing off a finger or two from those secret snatches of the fresh chopped veggies.

Go ahead, give it a try! Those BBQ/Pool/Outdoor parties are coming and you MUST be prepared!

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

*This post may contain affiliate links ... click here to read my disclosure :-)

Whole30 / Paleo Ranch Dressing

I woke up this morning and realized that I was out of my favorite Tessemae's Lemon Garlic dressing ... it was 7:45am and I needed to get to work fast!

So, instead of stopping at Whole Foods and spending $5.49 for a bottle of dressing, I made this instead, in minutes.  

Yes, by 8:00am, I was out the door ... 

It's Whole30 approved. Dairy Free. Grain Free. Obviously, Gluten Free!

And easy easy EASY to make!!

This recipe is totally from Whole Sisters and I give them FULL credit ... this is just me saying I made it, I loved it and I want to share it with the world!! Give the girls a drive by and check out their site, it's chock-full of good stuff!

Here's how I made it

egg, room temperature
1 tbs lemon juice, room temperature
1 cup olive oil
2 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
3/4 tsp onion powder
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
handful of parsley, leaves pulled off and stems discarded
dash of dried dill

Grab yourself a tall jar and make sure your immersion blender fits in the top ;-) I speak from experience! Place everything in jar, insert your immersion blender and let it rip. Make sure you go up and down to pull the parsley in to the blades. Once everything is combined and creamy, give a taste, say "yummm, real ranch" and cap that bad boy and place in the fridge. 

I just poured some in a small jar to take to work with me for that salad that salad I made earlier ... I am looking forward to using it to dip my chicken in this evening at dinner time as well ... 

Go ahead, make it and you will NOT be disappointed! 

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

*This post contains affiliate links ... click here to read my disclosure :-)

Shallot Chicken Thighs

This recipe comes from Paleo Girl 99 who I found on Instagram ... doing the Whole30 had introduced me to a whole new class of bloggers!

So. The first time I made this, I didn't have the deyhdrated shallots, but had dehydrated onions, so I improvised and used the onions.

Yeah. Hubby was in love.  Asked me for 3 days if this was really the only thing that I did to make it taste so good. Was I sure it was just the dehydrated onions and not the "fried onions"  and on and on.

Good grief. He just can't accept that something so simple would be so tasty. I did NOT share that this was Whole30 approved as some things just don't need to be said out loud.

Then I put this on the menu again and said, hmmm, let me just order some shallots from Amazon. Well. The first thing that popped up was $1xx.00 to buy. No thank you ... so I kept shopping and finally came across a $12 bottle. Thank you one click ordering!

So, here's how I made it the first time with GREAT success!

2 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, extra fatty stuff removed
generous amount of black pepper, salt and garlic powder (we have it premixed sitting next to stove)
generous amount of dehydrated onions or shallots

Rinse and pat dry the chicken thighs, lay them flat in a glass baking dish.

Generously season with the black pepper, salt and garlic. Flip and lightly season the other side.

Now. Go to town with the dehydrated onions or shallots (whichever you choose).  I mean, really go to town. Honestly, I really liked them with the onions!

Bake these in the oven for 25 minutes at 425 degrees.  Because Hubby is different, he wanted to finish them off on the grill. So we cooked on the grill, over medium heat, til golden brown. Alternatively, you could broil to achieve the golden brown topping.

Serve up and enjoy!

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

*This post may contain affiliate links ... click here to read my disclosure :-)