Tag: dinner

Asian Chicken Soup

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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.

Italian Style Chicken with Cauliflower Rice

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I am all about easy of preparation. So one pot meals are a lovely thing in our house.

And this chicken is no exception. It packs major flavor thanks to the roasted garlic sauce from Thrive Market and the bone-in, skin-on chicken hindquarters from my favorite farmers market. 

What I love about this dish is how easy it is. It’s the easiest, fancy-looking thing I made during our recent Whole30. Brad was so impressed by it, and it literally had 3-4 ingredients.

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What you need:

  • Two chicken hindquarters (that’s the thigh and leg together), bone-in and skin-on
  • Coconut Oil
  • Whole30 compliant marinara sauce (I used this one from Thrive Market.)
  • A combo of Italian Seasoning, Garlic Powder, Sea Salt and Pepper
  • A bag of cauliflower rice

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

In an oven safe pot with a lid, heat up the coconut oil to medium high heat. Season the chicken with the combo of seasonings listed above.

Please chicken pieces skin side down so it gets golden brown and full of flavor. Don’t move the chicken for at least five minutes. Turn the chicken and sear the other side for 2-3 minutes.

Add tomato sauce to the hot pan. Watch out for splatters. Make sure the chicken is covered in the sauce. Add a pinch of Italian seasoning over the top.

Cover the chicken with a lid, and put the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the lid and cook the chicken an additional 30 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked.

While the chicken cooks, throw your bag of frozen cauliflower rice into a skillet on the stove. Cook on medium heat until it is defrosted, about 5-7 minutes, and all the water has cooked out. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Keep warm until chicken is fully cooked.

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Serve chicken with sauce over the bed of cauliflower rice, and enjoy.

Chili Dogs

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Who says Whole30 has to be filled with boring dinners?

Not me.

I’m all in for flavor and healthy.

So how does chili dogs apply to that?

One big and flavor packed way.

Applegate makes Whole30 compliant hot dogs. I happened to be at Whole Foods (shopping for Amazon discounts) when I spotted them.

Then, it hit me.

Chili dogs.

So I made the classic chili recipe from the Whole30 book, and Whole30 chili dogs were born.

And we weren’t sad about it.

Only thing not pictured in the photo was a squiggle of mustard.

It was a favorite of ours.

And it will happen again soon.

How to Do Fancy Dinners on Whole30

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Whole30 is a fantastic program. Until there is something to celebrate.

Holidays. Birthdays. Weddings. Babies. Good days.

In my world, celebrating anything is about the food. What are we going to eat?

September had three things we had to combat: Labor Day and Brad’s mom’s birthday and our anniversary.

Since Ladonna’s birthday fell during the middle of the week, I promised her a big fancy family dinner.

So I spent the week preparing the menu and getting everything together so I could make her a birthday celebration.

What was on the menu?

Herb Roasted Chicken from the Farm at Barefoot Bend

Balsamic Dijon Roasted Root Vegetables

Sautéed Zephyr Squash

Paleo Apple Crumble

It was a dinner of firsts.

First time to roast a whole chicken. First time to make a Paleo dessert that was Whole30 approved. First time to make homemade chicken stock.

But the best part was we are well. We celebrated a special lady’s birthday. We were 100 percent Whole30 compliant, even if some of the items were considered a Paleo treat (or as the Whole30 creator calls it sex with your pants on foods).

We ranted and raved about how good a truly free range farm chicken tastes. It was a delightful experience I was happy to create and center around good food.

What are your favorite ways to celebrate something when you are trying to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle?

Taco Tuesday

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My love of tacos runs deep. I think I could eat them for every meal. While Brad would pick pizza or salsa and chips to live off of forever, I would pick tacos.

Tacos are life. I love the variety you can make, but a classic taco is hard to beat. Whole30 can make Taco Night a little challenging, but I love getting to enjoy extra veggies and eating more of the good stuff since I’m not filling up on chips and tortillas.

This time around I went with a romaine lettuce boat for my taco shell. But I stuffed it full of cauliflower rice, grassfed ground beef, salsa, guacamole and hot sauce.

Brad ate his with a Siete cassava flour and coconut flour wrap. And we both enjoyed a little cauliflower rice taco bowl for round two.

We left the dinner table full and happy. It was one of my favorite meals during this round of Whole30.

We have some big celebrations coming up this month. It’s Brad’s mom’s birthday this weekend, and Brad and I are celebrating our Two Year Anniversary the following week.

I’ve got grand ideas to celebrate his sweet mom’s birthday. I’m thinking roasted chicken with root veggies and some sort of sweet treat. It will be such a pretty presentation. I can’t wait.

But our anniversary has me stumped. I usually like to go out to eat so we can have a date night. But it falls on a Wednesday, and Little Rock isn’t the most paleo-friendly city. And Whole30 makes things extra complicated. So I’m open to ideas.

Any Whole30 fancy pants meal ideas for anniversaries?