Scrumptious Spinach

In looking over my blog, I've realized that most of my postings are entrees... I'll post some sort of protein and then just have some random veggie side.  Since going paleo, Curt and I have been eating a TON more veggies.  Needless to say, steamed broccoli or green beans, although delicious, can get somewhat boring.  I've had to get a bit creative and try new recipes to make sure I don't get bored! Here's one of my new favorite sides!  Spinach!  I was never a huge fan of spinach, but I had this in a tapas restaurant once and LOVED it, so I tried my hand at it... super simple and super delicious!

Sauteed Spinach with Raisins and Pine nuts

* 1 bag baby spinach

* 1 shallot, minced

* 1/4 cup raisins

* 1/4 cup pine nuts

* 1 Tbs butter

So this recipe is so easy that anyone should be able to do it!  First, I melted the butter in a pan, then I added in the shallots.  I let the shallots cook for a few minutes to soften up a bit.  Then, I added in the pine nuts and raisins.  From here, I just let everything saute and heat through. 

 Easy so far, right?!

Next, I added in the entire bag of spinach.  I'll warn you that it looks like a lot, but spinach really cooks down to nothing.  If you are cooking for 2 people who like spinach, you should definitely double the recipe!  I let the spinach cook through and heat up.  This really only takes about 2 minutes to cook.  Just make sure you stir the whole mixture together so that the spinach is cooked (I either like mine cooked or raw... not half way wilted... I feel like that's a bit to indecisive for me!)

Voila! There you have the easiest spinach dish ever.  I did see a few recipes that asked for some sherry cooking wine to be added.  I tried this with and without and didnt' notice much of a difference... but if you have some sherry on hand, go ahead and throw in a bit (1 tbs or so) to see if you notice a difference!

So there you go... super easy, right?  It's also done in just a few minutes, making it the perfect side for a quick last minute meal!  I think I paired this one with a hamburger patty or something of the sort.  Does anyone have any yummy spinach recipes?

Rosemary Proscuitto Chicken

I find it ironic that I'm not a huge fan of Rachel Ray, however, I've posted about 3 or 4 of her different recipes!  I bought some chicken thighs from the grocery store and wanted to do something with them.  Usually, I grill them and throw them on my salads... this time, I just wanted to make something a little different.  I went to foodnetwork.com and searched for chicken thighs and found this incredibly easy recipe by Rachel Ray... it was totally paleo and totally easy!

Rosemary Prosciutto Chicken Thighs

* 8 chicken thighs

* 2 tbs fresh rosemary, chopped

* 1/4 lb thinly sliced prosciutto

* 5 cloves garlic

* 1/4 cup olive oil

This shouldn't take long at all to make!  First, you chop the rosemary and the garlic.  Then throw it in a dish and pour the olive oil on top and mix it all together.  I added in some salt and pepper (which just so happens to be my new favorite spice- highly underrated!!!).

Next, you throw in the chicken thighs and coat them in the herb/oil mixture.  You want to make sure the chicken thighs are evenly coated.  You could let the chicken marinate for a while and just bake/grill it as is... however... I wanted to add that extra touch :) Hence... prosciutto!

 

You take each chicken thigh and wrap it in the prosciutto.  The prosciutto was sliced perfectly to wrap around the chicken thighs.  Next, you need to place it, seam side down to rest for a bit.  It didn't take long to wrap the chicken.  I liked how neatly packaged these little flavorful chicken parcels were. :) 

 

You can bake the chicken, but I wanted to use my cast iron grill.  This is the same one that I have a love/hate relationship with.  Sometimes it's great... othertimes, its a smoky burnt marinade mess... this time, however, it was a love experience.  I heated up the grill pan and greased it a bit with some bacon grease that I always have on hand.  Next, I just placed the chicken thighs on the grill and let it cook.  You want to make sure the chicken is seam side down, that way, it sort of seals the prosciutto so it won't open and the chicken won't spill out.   After the chicken had cooked for a few minutes and the prosciutto had crisped up, I flipped them over and cooked the other side. Then, after only about 10 minutes, the chicken was done!  As my students would say, it was "easy peasy lemon squeesy" (I teach 5 year olds!).

I'd love to say that this chicken was delicious.  I'd love to say that it was cooked perfectly and seasoned well.  I'd love to say that the rosemary flavored the chicken really nicely and complemented the prosciutto.... unfortunately, Curt ate it all before I had a chance to try it.

 

Of the 8 pieces, I had packed 6 for Curt's lunch.  I paired it with some steamed broccoli and a salad.  The very next night, the GIANT tupperware came home empty.  Curt had eaten it all in one day.  I had placed the last 2 pieces in a tupperware for me to eat with some broccoli.  I forgot it in the fridge on that first day.  The next morning, I reached into the fridge to grab my lunch for the day and found that my lunch had been kidnapped!  So, sadly, I have no idea how this dish tasted.... but judging by the fact that Curt ate all 8 pieces of chicken within 2 days is probably a good sign!

Cashew Coconut Mahi Mahi

So it's been a little while since I posted some recipes, but we are currently remodeling our kitchen, meaning that we literally took EVERYTHING out of the cabinets and set it on the living room floor, then painted all of the bases, and just had granite countertops put in... it's still a work in progress, but it's looking GREAT!  You'll be seeing some pictures soon, I'm sure :)

Anyway, on Wednesday night, Curt and I had a nice workout at the gym... the only problem was that afterwards, we were both STARVING and there wasn't really anything at home.  I stopped by the grocery store and found some frozen wild caught Mahi Mahi.  I grabbed the bag and headed towards the veggie section to find something to go with it.  I had planned to just broil the fish with some lemon and oil, but I turned over the bag of fish and lo and behold, I found this awesome recipe!  The original recipe called for cornstarch, but it was something that I could easily alter.  So here we have:

Cashew Coconut Mahi Mahi

* 2 (6 oz) filets of mahi mahi

* 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper

* 3 tbs of coconut flour

* 1/3 cup of coconut milk

* 1/2 cup of chopped, toasted cashews

* Salt & Pepper

I had raw cashews that I picked up from Trader Joes, but I wanted to toast them.  I think that toasting them really helps to warm up the oils and bring out a lot of the yummy flavor.  Keeping this in mind, I heated up a pan (without any sort of oil or spray) and threw the cashews in.  I put the heat up to medium and shook the pan every minute or so to make sure each side of the cashew was getting some color.

While I was waiting for the cashews to toast up, I mixed the coconut flour and the cayenne pepper.  I would suppose you could use any sort of flour type substance like almond flour or cashew flour.  I thought the coconut flour would go nicely with the coconut milk, so that's what I used.  You definitely want to coat the fish with something, though.

Once the cashews had some color, I chopped them up into tiny little chunks, not to the point that they were minced, but just to where they were small enough to fit nicely on the fish without it falling off all over the place.

Next, I dipped one side of the fish in the coconut flour mixture.  You don't need a ton, but you do want to have enough so that it sticks nicely to the fish.  This flour mixture is what allows the coconut milk to stick to the fish.

Now, onto the coconut milk.  Once the fish has a nice coating of coconut flour, you want to dip it, flour side down, in the coconut milk.  Make sure that it is all coated and yummy looking.

Next, I put the fish, coconut milk side up, in an oven proof pan.  I forgot to mention that I preheated my oven to 350.

Now, you pour the chopped cashews on top of the fish.  Some will fall off the sides, but it will be ok.  Just pack on all of the cashews that you can.  Then stick the whole thing into the preheated oven.  The fish only took 20 minutes to cook and then voila!

Cashew coconut mahi mahi!  This was absolutely delicious!  I'm really going to have to make this over and over again.  The fish was cooked through, but not tough.  The coconut milk helped to keep the fish tender and give a nice light coconut flavor.  I didn't feel that it overpowered the fish at all. 

This was another of those dishes where I was really suprised at how good it would be.  It's a definite keeper because it's deliciously paleo, really really simple, very quick, and fabulously tasty!  You all should DEFINITELY give this one a try!

Creamy Lemon Chicken Soup

 When the weather outside is cold and windy, one of my go to meals is soup.  There's nothing like having a nice big bowl of soup while you're curled up on the couch with a good movie.  When we had all of that snow a few weeks ago, all I wanted was soup.  I wasn't able to go to the grocery store while the snow was really, really falling.  I did have a few things in the fridge, so I decided to create this soup. Here we have:

Creamy Chicken Soup with Lemon and Spinach

* 1 quart chicken stock (I use homemade)

* 1 box thingey frozen spinach (maybe 10 oz?)

* 1 1/2 lb of shredded chicken

* the grated peel and juice of 2 lemons

* 2 tbs olive oil

* 4 cloves of garlic, minced

* 3 eggs, beaten

* 1/2 onion, minced

(I had planned to use the broccolini, but then thought it might be a little weird in a soup... I had some spinach in the freezer, so I used that instead)

I started off by sauteing the onion and garlic in the olive oil.  Onions and garlic are the base of pretty much every dish I ever make, so no need to switch things up too much.

While the onions were sauteing  I set to grating the peel off my lemons.  The zest contains a whole lot of citrus oils which packs a punch of flavor.  It's amazing how a little bit of zest can really liven up a dish.

Once the lemons were zested, I used my little juicer thingey and got all the juice out.  It ended up being a pretty good amount of juice.  I always prefer freshly squeezed juice... the bottled stuff says it's fresh, but it's never quite the same.

Once the onions were softened, I added in the frozen spinach.  I didn't bother really thawing it out because the extra water just added to the liquid part of the soup.  I like my soups really brothy, so this worked perfectly for me.

When the spinach was warmed through and combined thoroughly with the onions, I added in the chicken stock.  You could use chicken broth too, but I always have homemade chicken stock in the freezer, so I use that... plus, if I make it myself (it's super easy to make), I know what goes into it so I can guarantee there's no other chemicals and junk in it.

Next, I added in the lemon zest and stirred until everything had come to a gentle boil.

While waiting for the soup to come to a boil, I whisked the eggs in a bowl and added the lemon juice to the egg mixture.  I stirred it all together and set it aside until the soup boiled.

I had shredded chicken from earlier in the week when I had roasted a whole chicken for dinner.  I just threw that into the soup and turned the temperature down to medium.

Next, it was time to add in the egg.  Now, you don't want to add the egg to the hot soup.  If you do this, the egg will scramble and you'll have little chunks in your soup.  I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of scrambled egg soup.  To avoid this, I took a ladle of the soup and added it to the egg mixture and immediately started mixing it all together.  I added in one more ladle full of the soup into the egg and stirred a bit more, just to be safe.

Finally, I poured the egg/soup mixture into the big pot of soup and started stirring.  The egg really helps to thicken the soup without adding any of the gut irritating grains like flour or cornstarch.

Overall, this soup was pretty good!  I liked the spinach flavor, as well as the garlic and lemon blend.  I will say that I think it was a bit too lemony for me.  Next time, I might try to cut down the lemons to just one lemon (zest and juice).  If it isn't lemony enough, I can always add in more later.  This was a yummy and unique soup.  You could probably add in more veggies if you wanted to... carrots, celery, etc... it's worth a shot!

Paleo Lasagna!

I have never been a really big fan of lasagna.  Don't get me wrong, lasagna has a lot of really yummy flavors, but I honestly don't think I've ever ordered it at a restaurant.  I wanted to experiment though to see if I could make a primal version of lasagna... As I was walking through the store, I saw some ricotta made from grass fed cow milk, so I picked that up... I also had some leftover goat's milk mozzarella that I wanted to use up, so I decided that now was as good a time as ever to use it, so here goes nothin!

Paleo Lasagna

* 3 zucchinis

* 2 cans diced tomatoes

* 1 onion, diced

* 6 cloves garlic

* 3 portobella mushroom caps

* 1 lb ground beef

* 1 lb spicy Italian sausage

* 1 cup shredded mozzarella (optional)

* 8 oz ricotta cheese

* 1 tbs dried oregano

* 1/2 tbs dried basil

* 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes



First, I browned up the beef and the sausage in a pan with some olive oil. It didn't take long to cook through, but I just wanted it browned and in nice little crumbles. In the meantime, I diced up the onion.  After the meat was cooked, I removed it to a plate. 

I threw the onions in the pan and let them soften up... heaven forbid there are crunchy onions in Curt's food!

I let the onions cook while I chopped up the portobello mushrooms.  Typically, I wouldn't chop them up so small, however, Curt doesn't like mushrooms... soooooo... I just chopped them up really really small so that the chances of him finding them were slim to none.

I tossed the mushrooms in the pan and let them soften up too.

While the mushrooms and onions were cooking, I set to cutting up the zucchini.  I decided to use zucchini instead of pasta noodles because 1) grains are terrible for you and 2) I happen to love zucchini.  This would have been easier if I had a mandolin slicer, but I haven't gotten around to buying one yet.  Instead, I just took a long time to really slice the zucchini thinly.

This took a while, but it was definitely a good replacement for noodles!  Here, you can see how thin the strips were.

Once the mushrooms and onions were cooked nicely, I added the meat back into the pan and let it all warm through.  Then, I added in both cans of tomatoes and the dried herbs.  I stirred everything together and let it all simmer until it smelled like a delicious meaty pasta sauce!

While the meat sauce was heating through, I took some time shredding the cheese.  If you don't do dairy, then you can always leave this part out and I'm sure it would still be delicious.  I had some leftover cheese that I wanted to use up, though, so I shredded it up and added it in.  I'm not a milk girl, but I do occasionally like cheese (with wine!!!) and I always use half and half in my coffee... but back to the food!

I mixed the shredded mozzarella with the ricotta and also (even though I didn't write it in the ingredients) I added in a few shakes of dried parsley.  I mixed it all together and set it aside.

Once the meat sauce was cooked and once the cheese mixture was mixed and once the zucchini "noodles" were sliced, I was ready to assemble!

First, I put a layer of the meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.

Then, I set layered on the zucchini. Then topped it with the ricotta cheese mixture.  Then, another layer of the zucchini.

Then some more of the meat mixture.  I just kept this up until I was out of ingredients.

I had saved a bit of the shredded mozzarella so I topped the lasagna with the cheese and popped it in the oven at 350 for 1 hour.  About half way through, I put a bit of aluminum foil on top so that the mozzarella wouldn't burn.

Here's the final product!  I thought it was absolutely delicious!  The lasagna "noodles" were yummy and they held up well through the cooking process.  I figured the dish would be pretty good, but I was really surprised to see how great it really did taste! Curt really liked it too.  We went through 1 pan in just a few days!  Curt really liked it a lot and I only saw him pick out one tiny little bit of mushroom.

I would assume that you could do this same dish and just leave out the cheese.  It'd probably still be really good!