Paleo French Toast

October 16, 2017Leave a comment

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But when you do a Whole30 or live a mostly Paleo lifestyle, breakfasts can get boring.

I mean you can only have eggs so many ways before you get tired of them.

Enter Paleo French Toast.

I’ve been trying all different kinds of grain free breads. Last week, it was Simple Mills Artisan Bread. This week I made Against All Grain’s Blender Bread.

So I whipped up a batch of French Toast.

Sometimes you just need a little sweetness to start your day.

What are your favorite Paleo inspired breakfast items?

Finding Food Freedom

October 15, 2017Leave a comment

I’ve successfully completed the Whole30 program three times, but I’ve never keep up my good habits longer than a couple weeks.

This time it’s different, and I can feel it.

It’s been 15 days since we completed the September Whole30. And I’ve kept the spirit of Whole30 alive while making “worth it choices.”

I love The Fold. It’s one of my favorite restaurants in Little Rock.

I like it because I can make good choices. If I want tacos, I get corn tortillas. The salads are huge and delicious. And they allow you to substitute or eliminate problem foods. For me, that is gluten and dairy.

Knowing those foods create problems for me is so freeing. Knowing I can still eat them from time to time and not feel guilty is even more freeing.

The Whole30 is not about depriving yourself for 30 days so you can “eat whatever you want.” It’s about learning your body and how it reacts to certain foods. It’s about understanding your habits toward emotional eating. It’s about stopping the binge eating of “foods with no breaks.”

Take control of your relationship wth food. Try the Whole30. It could be your saving grace.

Quick Chicken Curry over Mashed Sweet Potatoes

October 11, 2017Leave a comment

I have a new found love of Indian food.

Curry powder is a new favorite of mine. So flavorful. Very few ingredients came become a masterpiece of a dinner.

This chicken curry was so yummy.

What you need:

Two chicken breasts, cubed
A small nob of ginger, minced
One onion, roughly chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
A couple handfuls of fresh green peas
1 can coconut milk
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
Salt, pepper, curry powder and cayenne, to taste

Heat up a pan with a little avocado oil. Sauté the chicken with curry powder, cayenne and pepper.

Add in the veggies. Cook until onions soften, about 10 minutes. Add more curry, cayenne and salt, if you want.

Stir in tomato paste and coconut milk.

Cube potatoes and put in a pot of water. Bring to a boil. Boil for 20 minutes until potatoes are soft.

Drain the potatoes. Put back in the warm pot. Mash. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Asian Chicken Soup

October 5, 2017October 2, 2017Leave a comment

This soup is a serious nod to Nom Nom Paleo’s Chinese Chicken and Bok Choy Soup in the Whole30 cookbook.

Sometimes I stand in my kitchen and look aimlessly around the room and hope I generate a delicious idea. And sometimes I need a nudge in some direction.

This nudge came from her Asian inspired soup.

It’s cooling down here. And it happened to be a little rainy the evening I made it. But all the stars aligned to create this goodness.

So thank you Nom Nom Paleo for the inspiration.

What you need:

Four chicken breasts
Garlic powder
Ginger powder
One carrot, cut in half moons
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1 packet of baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 cup bok choy, roughly chopped
6 cups chicken bone broth
1 big spoonful of Red Boat’s Fish Sauce
1 big spoonful coconut aminos
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a skillet in the stove to medium heat to cook the chicken. Season the chicken liberally with ginger and garlic powder. Sauté until chicken is cooked completely. Set aside.

Heat a large pot on medium high heat. Add coconut oil with the carrot and onion. Season with salt and pepper. Let cook until onions start turning translucent, about 7 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and season with a little more salt and pepper. Cook about 3 minutes. Pour in chicken broth (I used broth made from my big fancy dinner chicken)and add bok choy, coconut aminos and fish sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Right before serving, dice up the chicken and add to the pot. Cook 5 more minutes to combine all the flavors.

Serve and enjoy.

This soup is definitely a favorite of ours. And I’ll have to make it again and again. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Paleo Pancakes

October 2, 2017October 1, 2017Leave a comment

The one thing about Whole30 that gets me down is the you-can-only-have-eggs-for-breakfast thing. Sometimes, a girl just wants a stack of pancakes.

So with September Whole30 coming to a close, we thought it would be a good idea to try out some paleo pancakes.

Originally, I had planned to make them from scratch. But wondering the aisle of Whole Foods, I found this little beauty.

Here are the ingredients: almond flour, arrowroot, organic coconut sugar, organic coconut flour, cream of tarter, baking soda and sea salt.

You mix in eggs, milk (I used the Original flavored Nutpods) and oil (I used coconut oil).

And you have delicious paleo pancakes.

I topped my pancakes with Thrive Market Crunchy Almond Butter and a little dab of Cinnamon Pecan Creamed Honey from Lake in the Willows Apiary from my favorite farmers market.

The only non-compliant things on this gorgeous plate is the creamed honey topping and the coconut sugar in the pancake mix. Coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than traditional sugar, supports good gut bacteria and has less fructose than other forms of sugar. The honey just made it decadent.

But here’s the thing. We both had full plates, but we didn’t eat everything. We ate until we were full. And then we acknowledged that we were indeed full so we stopped eating. Food Freedom Rule 1: Don’t eat it just because you think you have to.

I’m excited to share our Food Freedom journey with you. It’s always a learning process, but this time it feels different to me. I plan on finding paleo alternatives whenever possible and go back to the Whole30 rules when I feel like I’m losing control.