Tag: recipe

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.

Paleo Pancakes

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

A Taste of Fall

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love coffee. Lattes, especially.

They are so creamy and warm. And just….perfect.

When I shared my post about Whole30 Lattes, I was just messing around trying to make creamy, delicious coffee.

But as I got to searching on the Internet and Pinterest, I ran across Against All Grain’s Pumpkin Spiced Latte.

And I can honestly say it is a dream come true.

Warm and frothy with a light pumpkin flavor. It is heaven in a coffee mug.

I added a little MCT oil to my mixture and left out the maple syrup for now because of Whole30.

But it is a decadent treat. And I will be keeping a the pumpkin base mixture in the fridge and add it to my coffee to welcome the cooler fall weather.

What are your favorite ways to enjoy pumpkin?

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?