Chili Chicken--hakka-style

So I'm sitting in the kitchen at my work the other day, eating my leftovers for lunch, and my co-worker (my mentor, my Indian guru) says to me (with this really sly smile) "I make Chili Chicken last night".  She has a thick accent,so that's really what she said.  She knows she's said something to really hook me.  Chili Chicken--those are magic words.

She shows me the food in her container.  It LOOKS like hakka-region style Chili Chicken.  The very kind that haunted me, that was the bane of my existence after I switched to a paleo diet.  It was the one take-out food that could bring me to my knees-literally-because I could not say no to it, and I totally could not digest it.

"Taste it", she says.  "Iz ok, I use corn starch."  So I tasted it.  I love JP, love all the food she's had me taste, all the things she's taught me about traditional cooking, and I loved her Chili Chicken.  It had never even occurred to me that I could re-create such a dish.  Sure, I know how to make the chili-garlic green beans with shrimp that we've gotten there.  But Chili Chicken?  Oooooh yea!

Now, hakka-region style Chili Chicken is kerpow-hot.  It'll knock your socks off.  And it's full of those crazy, skinny little indian hot peppers--I think they use serrano.  Those little gems are not-so-hot in the mouth, but when they get to your belly, they burn their way back up the esophagus and then downwards, too, causing some people to have a little 'cleanse' after their first hakka experience.  I won't do that to you here, don't worry.  I couldn't even find serrano peppers around where I live, so I had to get creative and use jalapeno peppers, hot banana peppers, and sriracha sauce in place of the regular chili sauce.  Once cooked, jalapenos and banana peppers become quite mild.  Even my spice-hating kid didn't complain.  So if you can find the serrano peppers, experiment with one or two in the dish, along with the jalapenos.  If you DO use the serrano peppers, you might want to try using a mild chili-garlic sauce in place of the sriracha sauce, just for balance.  Or not.  Your choice.

Of course JP told me how to make the dish, but JP's instructions were something like this "Toss the chicken in starch and turmeric.  Then you make the sauce with soy sauce, hot sauce, garlic, cut up chilis and onions"...  And that was about all I could retain of what she said.  So I had to Google a recipe that sounded like what she told me.  Because I'm like that.

This is what I found at a website called Curry and Comfort.  I soooo have to stalk that website a little more later.  Anyhow....a few paleo and taste bud tweaks, and I arrived here:

Serves 6 if served with cauli-rice
Takes about 1/2 hour

Ingredients:

(Sauce)
2 Tbs tomato paste
3 Tbs tomato sauce
2 Tbs sriracha sauce*
4 Tbs gluten-free tamari sauce**
2 tsp coconut sugar***
1 1/2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

(For chicken)
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken (I used thigh meat)
2 Tbs tapioca starch or arrowroot powder
1 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 spanish onion, sliced
2 jalapeno peppers
2 banana peppers
2 serrano peppers, optional
pinch hot pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp minced ginger

Method:

First, mix chicken, tapioca starch and turmeric, then set aside.  Then, mix all the sauce ingredients and set aside.  Heat up a large non-stick frypan (I like ceramic pans for this kind of stuff) to med-high.  In cooking oil of choice (I used coconut oil), fry up your chicken until no longer pink and crispy bits begin to form.  Set aside.  While chicken is cooking, seed and chop your peppers, slice your onions, dig out and prep your onions and ginger.  Once the chicken is out of the pan, add onions and peppers in and saute.  When onion is almost done, add ginger and garlic, cook 1 minute more.  Then, reduce heat to medium and add your sauce and simmer for 1-2 minutes.  Then add chicken back in and heat through.  taste and add salt and pepper as necessary.

This is a dish you can throw in a casserole dish and set in the oven to keep warm until you make any side dish.  It stays warm well, it re-heats well.  I set mine aside in the oven at this point and made my Fried Cauliflower Rice, just omitted the pork (and broth cubes) and used it as a side dish.  Voila.  Try it.  I think you'll love it!

* you can use any asian-style chili sauce in this depending on your heat preferences and what you own
**you can use coconut aminos here, too
***you could soak two dates in boiling water, puree, and use them instead if you're avoiding all sugars

BBQ Chicken Enchiladas

I am in love with Mexican food.  Really, truly, deeply in love with it.  I clip and save recipes for Mexican foods that I can in no way ever eat--not just a few recipes, but rather, hordes of them.

And every now and then, I am tempted to convert them into a more paleo-appropriate version because very few of the Mexican foods I crave are in any way appropriate to eat.

This is just one attempt.  And yes, it IS delicious.  Or WAS delicious, because we ate it all up.

Now, you can make any kind of paleo-ified tortilla you want.  I've tried them all--thin omelettes, plantain tortillas, cauli-bread tortillas--but by far, the tortilla that Orleatha Smith at LvlHealth.com makes are THE BEST.  Her tortillas are one of the absolute best paleo-converted foods I've eaten to date--and one that helps me to stay away from corn and grains when these Mexican cravings hit.  The recipe I've linked to makes 4 tortillas--so I had to triple it.  If you've never made a tortilla from scratch before, and do not own a tortilla maker (I don't)--divide the dough into 4 balls and cover them with saran wrap to keep moist until you roll them.  Roll them between 2 pieces of parchment paper--remember to always work from the middle of the dough outward, just like pastry.  Loosen the top piece of paper, putting the top piece back on, flip and loosen the bottom paper, so that when you flip the whole thing into the frypan, it comes free without tearing apart.  There's a knack to it that you'll get quickly, trust me.  Fry them up and set them aside until it's time to assemble this dish.  If you're smart, you'll prep these on a Sunday and slide them into a ziplock bag and keep em in the fridge until you're ready for them.  If you're not inclined to make this recipe tripled, you could easily make one batch of the tortillas, dividing the dough into only 3 balls (making 3 larger tortillas) and bake up a bbq chicken enchilada pie, like my original Beef Enchilada Pie here, or you could double the tortilla recipe and make a bbq chicken lasagna casserole.  No one will judge you.

This recipe was inspired by a recipe I saw in Kraft, here.  They do take such nice pictures, don't they?

The recipe took me about 1 1/2 hours total.  That includes de-boning the chicken (and making me some cracklin's with the skin), making quick tomato sauce and bbq sauce, and tortilla-making time.  If you're tortillas are already assembled, it takes about 40 minutes.

Serves 5-6.

Here's what I did...

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c tomato sauce (see cheat #1, below)
1/2 c bbq sauce (see quick recipe cheat #2, below)
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken
2 green peppers
1 onion
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp cumin
12 paleo tortillas (here)
1 cup cheddar cheese, optional

plain yogurt, salsa, and guacamole for garnish

Method:

First, make your sauces (instructions below).  Debone and chop your chicken.   Chop your onion and green peppers.  Heat your large skillet to med-high and saute the onions in a bit of fat.  When the onions are translucent, add your chicken, spices, and both the sauces.  Turn the heat to medium and cover, poaching the chicken for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.  Stir in peppers and half the cheese, then set aside.

While your chicken is poaching, heat up a non-stick skillet (preferably ceramic) and cook up your tortillas, rolling the next one as the first one is cooking.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Pull out your lasagna dish.  Spoon a bit of the sauce from your chicken enchiladas into the bottom of the dish and spread it around.  Just a bit.  Now, ladle about one heaping spoonful into each tortilla, roll, and place seam-side down in the casserole dish, pushing them tight against each other as you go along.  If you have extra meat and filling when you're done assembling, spoon it around the tortillas.  Spoon any excess sauce overtop of the tortillas and spread it around.  Top with remaining cheese.

Bake in oven 15 minutes until heated through.

Serve with garnishes!

Cheat #1:  Don't have tomato sauce in your cupboard or tomatoes in your freezer?   Take 1 5-oz can of tomato paste, add 1 1/2 cans water, a couple of shakes garlic powder, onion powder, and oregano.  It will seem watery, but as you cook it, it will thicken quickly.

Cheat #2:  Easiest bbq sauce ever!  I saw this recipe on Practical Paleo, here, and can't get over how easy and tasty it is!  I basically took 1 can tomato paste and added an almost equal amount of balsamic vinegar to it, a few shakes garlic powder, onion powder, and chipotle powder, and threw it in the fridge (where it will thicken up quite a bit).  It makes roughly a cup worth, so you'll have some leftover to experiment with after this recipe.

Chicken Chili Verde

I finally got it right!

This is one of those recipes that pre-paleo, my family ate often--which is saying a lot since we rarely ate the same dish twice.  Of course, pre-paleo, this recipe required that I fry the cubed up boneless chicken in italian salad dressing, and it was chock-full of white navy beans.

When I first switched to a paleo-type diet, I tried really hard to convert this recipe to something I could still eat.  I tried to "paleoify" it several times, several ways, and each time the results were less-than-great.  Without the salad dressing, the flavour was flat.  Without the beans, the chili was thin and watery--not very sustaining at all.  But when I tried to fill the chili out with turnip or celery root, the taste of root vegetables overwhelmed the delicate flavour of this dish.  When I filled out the dish with green peppers, the texture went all wrong.  Everything about it just went wrong.

Until the other day.

It suddenly dawned on me to try it one more time--and this time I think it tastes just like the old recipe, only without all the crap that I no longer eat.

There's something really delicious about green chili.  Even though it is much more mellow than traditional chili, it can still be quite fiery, and is much more about the unique flavour of cilantro upfront.  The flavour is so delicate that only chicken will do, as far as I'm concerned.

So give it a try, and let me know what you think.  I use bone-in chicken in the recipe, but you could just as easily de-bone the chicken first.  I just find that wasteful, personally, since boiling the meat off of the bone gets the bones cleaner, and allows you some of the benefits of the minerals in the bones, too.

You will notice that I use salsa verde and canned green chilis interchangeably.  While I slightly prefer the taste of salsa verde in this recipe over canned green chilis, the two taste close enough to be used the exact same...

So here's what I did.
Serves 5-6

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 lbs bone-in chicken (skinless--fry that chicken for cracklin's instead!)
2 cups chicken broth
1 green pepper, chopped
1 Tbs zesty italian dressing spice mix
1 tsp cumin
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 cup salsa verde (or 2 cans green chilies)
1/3 cup fresh or frozen cilantro

optional garnishes:  cheddar, yogurt, olives, avocado

Method:

On medium heat in heavy dutch oven, saute onion, celery and parsnips in fat until onions are translucent.  Add spices and cook 1 minute more.  Add chicken to pot, along with broth, salsa verde and vinegar.  Add green pepper.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 1/2 hour until chicken is cooked through.  Using tongs, carefully remove chicken from pot and de-bone it, returning chicken to pot to heat back through.

Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.  Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary.  Garnish with cheddar, avocado, and plain yogurt, if using.

Enjoy!

Creamy Tomato Chicken Spaghetti

Thank you again Kraft Kitchens for giving me so many neat ideas and inspiring this recipe...

Sometimes the best food is fast and simple.  This recipe is creamy and filling, but deceptively easy and fast to whip up.  I love dishes that can be prepared in a half hour or less.  And I love recipes that use only a few ingredients. 


























So first things first.  Do you have the Zesty Italian Dressing already whipped up?  No?  Ok, so that's step 1.  Don't worry.  It takes like 3 minutes to prepare.  And its the simplest, tastiest "zesty" Italian dressing you will ever make. 


Zesty Italian Dressing:

1/2 Tbs garlic salt
1/2 Tbs onion powder
1 Tbs dried oregano
1 Tbs Cajun spice
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp ground celery seed

Mix spices in a small spice jar.

In a 1-cup mason jar, or any old glass salad dressing jar you have saved from your past life, mix

1/4 c red wine vinegar (purists can use ACV)
1/3 c light-tasting EVOO
1-2 Tbs water
2 tsp honey
2 Tbs of the spice mix you just made

Tastes even better next day.  This will keep in your fridge for a long time, but its so versatile, it won't last that long.  Use the extra/leftover spice blend in any recipe that calls for Italian seasoning.  This blend has a bit more kick; I think you'll like that.

Alright, now onto the real thing....

Creamy Tomato Chicken Spaghetti

makes 5-6 hearty servings
ready in 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash
1 green pepper, chopped
1/3 onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped
5 Tbs "zesty Italian dressing", divided
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
small pkg goat cheese
Parmesan, to taste

Method:

Stab spaghetti squash all  over and place in microwave-safe dish; cook in microwave for 8 minutes.  Uncover, open up to cool slightly, and set aside.

Heat 2 Tbs of zesty Italian dressing in large fry pan over med-high heat.  Saute chicken, onions and green pepper until chicken is no longer pink.  Stir in tomatoes and the remaining 3 Tbs zesty Italian dressing.  Simmer on med-high for about 10 minutes, until tomatoes begin to break down and begin to turn into chunky sauce.

While your sauce is simmering,  take a fork to your spaghetti squash and separate it into spaghetti threads.  You may need to wear an oven mitt to hold onto the hot squash peel.  Set spaghetti aside.

Reduce heat to med-low, add goat cheese to skillet and stir until cheese melts and sauce becomes a creamy pink.  Stir in spaghetti squash and remove from heat.

Serve with a tiny bit of Parmesan, if you roll that way.

Enjoy the quiet dinner.  Everyone will be eating.  No one will be complaining.  About anything.

Highway Cobbery

I don't know where they got the name Cobb Salad from.  There is no cob in my salad.  I hate canned corn, and those tiny baby corn cobs.  I used to pick them out of everything.  Anywhoo, a Cobb salad is really any layered salad.  This one was simple--I wanted meat with my meat.  Sometimes that's just the way I roll. 

Its hot here in Toronto right now.  Don't get me wrong; summers are short and hot and dry normally, though we've had some short, wet and cold summers lately, so I'm glad to have the heat back.  But that doesn't mean I want to heat up the kitchen.  No.  I threw the chicken in the crockpot in the early morning, poured in a splash of water and some salt and pepper on it, and walked away and forgot about it until dinner time.  You could cook it any way you like, but my way meant all the goodness from the bones was cooked into my food.  But that's just me.  At the end of the day, all I had to do was boil some eggs and fry some bacon.  Who can't do that?!  Simple.  Life should always be this simple.  Cooking should always be this simple.  Intuitive.  Flexible.

And look, this recipe is not a casserole, and not served with gravy.  I'd say not with sauce, but there was salad dressing, so there ya go.  Sauce.  I love sauce.  Any sauce.  Of course I loved this sauce.  But I think you'll like this sauce, too, as much as I did.  Taste it and you'll know.  I'm right.  I'm always right.

So,

 

Among 5 plates, I divided...

7 hard-boiled eggs

10 strips of bacon

2 tomatoes

4 chicken breasts

3 romaine hearts

1 cup cheddar

1 cup shredded carrots

And for the dressing....

1/2 cup garlic-basil mayo (recipe here )

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp fresh dill, finely mashed

2 tsp parsley

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 scoops stevia powder or 1 tsp honey

salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients. 

Eat on a patio, or deck, or something like that.  Get outside and enjoy the weather.  And the flies.  There's always flies.

    

Use What You Have:
Meat	Cheese	More Veggies
Steak	Blue	red onions, sweet peppers, blanched asparagus
Ham/ Peameal	Cheddar	peas, cherry tomatoes
Tuna	Provalone	green onions, olives
Salmon	none	green onions, avocado

Brown Butter Lemon Chicken with Greens

Alright, so I veered into Cindiland and just cooked some chicken and some greens MY way and totally forgot about the recipe that I planned on following.  The end result was lightly lemony, tasty comforting food.  Nothing complicated.  Fast, easy and very well-liked by all.  Sure, you could return the chicken to the skillet and poach it in the (unthickened) sauce, and that would be classy and all, but I didn't want the coconut flour soaking up all the yummy sauce--I wanted lemon sauce on my bok choy!!

Uh-oh.  My Brit is showing again.  Things cooked in butter and sauce just taste better, don't you know?!  Rule number one!!  (Ok, Canadian Rule number one...)

So here's what I did...

Feeds 5-6
Takes about a half hour

Ingredients:
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
coconut flour
2 eggs
garlic salt
black pepper
1 c chicken stock
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 tbs tapioca starch
5 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs butter

1 lb bok choy
1/2 bag green beans

Method:

Pound chicken flat.

Thoroughly wash, separate and chop your bok choy and green beans, set aside.

Crack eggs into a flat pie dish and whisk with a bit of water.  Sprinkle some coconut flour, maybe a half cup or so, in another pie dish and add a few shakes of pepper and garlic salt.

Heat up a large skillet to medium-high.  Add a fair amount of fat for cooking.  Set your oven to 180 degrees (just to keep chicken warm).  Lightly dredge your chicken pieces in egg, then coconut flour.  Place chicken pieces in skillet and fry, in batches, until browned on both sides and cooked through.  Remove to oven as they are done.  When all of your chicken is cooked, remove skillet from heat but do not wash it and do not turn off element.

Using a different skillet, heat it to medium.  Place your wet bok choy stems and green beans in the skillet and cook, covered, for a couple of minutes.  Add your greens and cook for another minute, until the greens start to wilt.  Cover, remove from heat and set aside.

Return chicken pan to heat element.  Add your chicken stock, butter, lemon juice, and fresh garlic to the pan and bring it all back to a simmer, scraping up the brown bits.  In a small bowl, dissolve your tapioca starch in a bit of cold water.  While stirring the liquid in the skillet quickly, add the tapioca and water mixture.  As soon as it thickens to gravy-like consistency, remove from heat and serve everything together. 

Spanish Chicken and Shrimp

Ok, I was a bit lazy the other night, and I have to say, nothing beats a dinner that you can have on the dinner table in a half hour or less.  This recipe was just that kind of simple.

So this is a variation on my Smokey Paprika Paella, the lazy version, and I have to say, I actually like this one even better than the original.  And its fast.  Can I say that enough?  Real fast.




Serves 5
About 1/2 hour total


Ingredients:



Sauce:

1/3 c EVOO

1/4 c sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

2 tsp fresh minced garlic

1 tsp dried cumin

1/2 tsp dried lemon zest or lemon peel

2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp 2 tbsp lemon juice

1 5-oz can tomato paste

The Rest:

1 head cauliflower

1 1/2 lbs chicken

1/2 lb cooked shrimp

1/2 spanish onion

2 cloves minced fresh garlic

2 fresh tomatoes

Method:  

First, get everything ready; chop your chicken into bite-sized pieces, de-tail the shrimp and rice the cauliflower, chop your onions and tomatoes.  Next, blend all ingredients for the sauce in a blender (or a magic bullet).  Set sauce aside. 

Heat up 2 frypans.  In one, heat on med-high, add a bit of fat of choice, add chicken and onion and saute until chicken is cooked through and onion is translucent.  Add garlic and continue cooking for another minute until fragrant.  In other frypan, heat to med-high, add a pat of butter or ghee, and saute cauliflower just until it begins to soften and brown.  Do not overcook it. 

When chicken is no longer pink, add tomatoes and cook just until they begin to soften.  Add shrimp and sauce and heat through.  Serve over riced cauliflower.  This will have a bit of heat on its own, but if you like more heat, add sriracha sauce.  Enjoy!

Smokey Paprika Paella

Ok, so here's what inspired me to try to cook paella this week.  This lovely picture came in the Insider's Report flyer.  The Presidents Choice makes such awesome sauces.  They've been making them since the first Sechewan Peanut Sauce came out (and rocked my boxed-foods world way back when).  The caption stated it contained "pure olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin, chili peppers, lemon, garlic and fire-roasted tomatoes".  Oh, I could so make that.  Who doesn't love that flavour combo?  They had me at smoked paprika and cumin.  Heck, I'd poach fish in that combo.  But I didn't this time.  Because I was making paella.

Serves: 5
Time: about 1/2 hour Sorry for the grainy shot, but this is the picture they stuck with it.  I chose to skip the green peas, you're welcome.  And I could have barbecued all of my ingredients, too, it would've looked this fabulous, but would it have tasted fabulous?  No, because the flavours would not have had time to "mingle."  So I didn't, and I spared both you and me a lot of time fussing around in the kitchen.  Sometimes they do this stuff to make a good photo without taste in mind.  I like simple and tasty, presentation isn't a priority for me.  So here's how it went down:

Ingredients:

Smokey Paprika Sauce

1/3 c EVOO

1/4 c sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

2 tsp fresh garlic

1 tsp dried cumin

1/2 tsp dried lemon zest or lemon peel

2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes cayenne

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp lemon juice

1 fresh tomato 5-oz can tomato paste

The Rest

1 lb boneless chicken (white or dark)

1/2 lb cooked shrimp

2 large tomatoes

1/3 large spanish onion

1/2 c shelled pistachios

1 red pepper*

1 head cauliflower

Ok, first throw all of the ingredients for the Smokey Paprika sauce into a blender--I used my magic bullet-- and just puree everything together.  Set aside.  **(see notes below on added uses)

Rice your cauliflower. Chop your tomatoes and onion.  Chop your chicken into bite-sized pieces (and if you buy your chicken skin on, make cracklin's in another frypan at the same time as you cook dinner to snack on while you cook....)

Alright, in a large skillet, brown chicken on all sides (chicken may still be a bit pink in the middle).    Add onions, cooking just until the onions begin to turn translucent.  Reduce heat and add cauliflower, red pepper, sauce and tomatoes.  Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until cauliflower begins to soften.  Add shrimp, stirring and allowing to heat through.  Remove from heat and add pistachios.  Eat!

   

Your sauce will be thicker and more red than mine is here; I used a fresh tomato in the sauce the first time around.  Using tomato paste will make for a far richer, fuller flavour and thicker sauce that coats the "rice".

This has a hint of heat to it already due to the cayenne, but feel free to add sriracha sauce if you're anything like me.  My family agreed this was a keeper recipe; they'd eat it again and again.  No one argued that it was too spicy, but no one else added extra heat, either.  Hmm.  Must be just me.

**You could throw this sauce into the fridge and it would stay fresh for weeks because of the olive oil base. This sauce would be very good on many things; fish, pork, ribs, sauteed okra...  On a lazy night, just stir-fry some chicken and shrimp with a couple of chopped tomatoes, add this sauce and serve it over top of steamed cauli-rice.
*I used a fresh red pepper because that's what I had.  If you have the time or happen to have one on-hand, use a roasted red pepper for a more intense sweet.

Some of These Things Just Ain't Like the Others!

Now, don’t get me wrong—there are a million benefits of adopting a paleo/primal diet and lifestyle.  The health benefits are awesome, indescribable at times.  The food is fantastic and the recipes are brave and creative and full-flavoured, but sometimes... I miss the foods I used to eat pre-paleo—not all the foods, heck no; I am eating WAY better foods now than I used to.  (Goodbye “foods from a box”)....  But you know—certain foods, special foods...  There are foods that just cannot be converted into a paleo-acceptable alternative.

Baked beans

Macaroni and cheese

Fettuccini Alfredo

Now you know what I mean.

Ironically, this is as much as Steve and I can think up.  3 things.  Because for everything else, where there is a will, there is a way.  We’ve been eating this way for so long now; we can’t recall what we’re missing.  Our taste buds have changed and we’ve become accustomed to how we eat.

Of course, we’ve learned so much now that eating out has become harder instead of becoming easier.  Our stomachs have adjusted and – healed? -   it is no longer as easy as ordering a side caesar with a steak and maybe some sweet potato fries.  We go home thinking we ate pretty good, and two to four hours later, stomach issues begin.  Nothing hideous, just discomfort, and we realize that there was hidden crap in the food.  Maybe sour cream in the caesar dressing.  Maybe those fries were lightly floured when I thought they looked dipped in egg white.  And then 3 days of bloating begins.

We used to be so laid-back.  I called us primal, not paleo, because while at home we did everything we could to eat clean and appropriately, we would still have soya sauce and full-fat dairy and our butter and meat was not grass-fed.  And while I still want to be laid-back and not go to any extremes (isn’t never eating a grain or boxed/processed foods, sugars and starches extreme enough??) it would appear that my stomach has other ideas.

The bloating and discomfort have been returning lately.  The “food baby” look is back.  Slow weight gain, nothing major, but annoying.  First, I blamed it on my cheats—the weekly hakka meal that was full of wheat flour.  I had to say goodbye to that cheat meal.  It is no more.  I can no longer have wheat even as a small cheat.  My guts have only begun to heal a week after hakka, and I then I go and bombard them again.  I was still meeting the 80/20 rule, but I wasn’t doing my stomach any favours. 

And when that wasn’t enough??  I blamed my dairy.  I know I’m lactose intolerant, but I have always been able to handle yogurt because of the live bacteria, and my home made yogurt was DELICIOUS and FULL of active bacteria.  Seriously.  The recipe doesn’t work if there are not enough bacteria.  But I had to say goodbye to dairy, too.  Damned stomach.  It’s fussy. 

So I go through spells of experimentation.  I love to collect recipes, I hoard them.  I get all these recipes emailed to me, all the time, from Chatelaine Magazine, from Canadian Living, from Kraft Kitchens.  And 99% of them are completely inappropriate, but that 1% are almost there, or have the potential to get there, so I try.

Sometimes it works out, but some recipes, while tasty and grain-free and sugar-free, just don’t work so well.  Maybe they don’t have enough protein.  Maybe they’re too high in carbs.  Maybe they just aren’t filling which would trick the body into eating more than it should.  For example, I converted a recipe this week that was a cold overnight oatmeal.  Delicious?  Yes.  Grain-free and sugar-free?  Yes.  It contained nuts, chia, banana, almond milk and vanilla.  It was light and fluffy.  But who wants to eat light and fluffy?  I had to gobble down a hard-boiled egg just to feel fed.  The naturally sweet taste made me want more—and a whole banana is way too much carb for MY level of activity. 

So this week I had a hankering for fettuccini alfredo.  Crazy, I know—it’s 2 evils at once—dairy and grains.  So I made some adjustments to a recipe I’d made before with chicken and zucchini, and the recipe turned out delicious, everyone ate it without a word of complaint (a rarity in my house).  But did it taste like fettuccini alfredo?  No.  So we won’t call it alfredo because its not and never can be.  If you can do dairy, you can get really close, but I can’t. So here is my it’s-not-alfredo recipe.  You’ll definitely like it.  But don’t expect it to taste like alfredo sauce.

Zucchini Grand-Style

Feeds about 5

Takes about 40 minutes from start to finish

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of chicken, light or dark, deboned and cut up small
• Fat of choice, for sautéing
• 4-5 zucchini
• ½ large Spanish onion
• ¼ c chicken broth
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 can full-fat coconut milk
• 3 tbs arrowroot powder or tapioca starch
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp mustard powder
• Red pepper flakes, to taste
• Salt and pepper

Add-ons:

• Cherry tomatoes, chopped
• Green onions, chopped
• Bacon, cooked and crumbled

Directions:

Pull out your handy mandolin.  Slice your zucchini into thin spaghetti-like strips.  Place all the zucchini into a large strainer, layering with salt, and allow to drain over your sink or over a plate.  The salt will draw some of the excess moisture out.  Set aside.

Cook up your bacon and chop your add-ins, then set aside.

In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté your chopped onion and garlic with a bit of fat just until onions become translucent.  Do not scorch the garlic.  While this is cooking, debone and chop up your chicken.  Salt and pepper the chicken.  Now, in the skillet; add your butter, coconut milk, broth, nutmeg, mustard powder and red pepper flakes.   Bring it to a simmer.  Add your chicken and let it poach for about 20 minutes or until cooked through.

In a small bowl, whisk your arrowroot/tapioca starch with a bit of cold water to dissolve.  Slowly add it to the chicken and sauce, stirring and allow it to thicken.  Honestly, you want this stuff as thick as possible, overtly thick, because the water in the zucchini will thin it back down.

Once your sauce is really thick, stir in your zucchini and let it just heat through.  Adjust to taste with more red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper. 

Serve it out onto plates, then top with add-ins.

Enjoy! 

Quick note—this recipe does not make good leftovers.  Re-heating the zucchini causes it to release more water, which turns the sauce into soup.  Unless you happen to like zucchini and chicken soup.

Flattened Garlic-Lime Chicken

Flattening a chicken makes it cook waaay faster--this bird cooks in about an hour and fills the kitchen with beautiful aromas.  This is adapted from a Chatelaine recipe that I tore from the magazine many years ago.  While the recipe calls for whole chicken, rubbing the seasoning over chicken pieces would work just as well.  I've heard you can put the lime slices in a tinfoil roasting pan and roast your chicken in the bbq this way, too, but I haven't tried that yet.

Ingredients:

3-lb whole chicken
2 limes
2 whole heads garlic
1 tbs butter at room temperature
1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp chili flakes

olive oil

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  On a cutting board, with strong scissors, lay chicken breast-side down.  Starting at neck, cut down entire length of both sides of the spine.  Don't worry, that section of spice will make good broth.  Then flip bird over and flatten with hands.  Don't worry, you can't hurt it.  It's already dead.

Grate rind from 1 lime and place in small bowl.  Add soft butter, salt, pepper and hot pepper flakes.  Rub the mixture all over the chicken.

Cut both limes into thick slices and lay on bottom of a large casserole dish.

Lay your chicken over the limes.  Cut the tops off the heads of garlic and lay them in the dish, too.  Drizzle olive oil over the garlic, then cover just the garlic heads with tinfoil.   

Roast uncovered in oven for 30 minutes.  Then begin basting periodically while continuing to cook for another 20 minutes.  Then turn oven heat up to 400 degrees and continue to roast for 10 more minutes.  Check for doneness.  Let "rest" for 10 minutes before carving.  You can rub the garlic cloves all over the done chicken, if you want.  I think it's delicious without, but I love roasted garlic so I tend to hog all the garlic to myself.  No one comes near me all night after that.

She's beautiful, no?

Now, there's going to be pan drippings.  Do NOT, really do NOT use the pan drippings.  The lime has made them taste bitter.  But if it makes you feel better, do use the carcass for broth later on.  Any leftover garlic cloves go great in the broth, too...

Serve with veggies of choice.  Me, I steamed broccoli, then lightly sautee'd it in bacon grease and gave it a quick splash of lemon juice at the end.  Enjoy.

Zucchini Spaghetti with Chicken in Cream Sauce

Why am I so effin' hungry lately?  Hungry, headachy, achy, crappy, really.  Ok, achy because I keep hurting myself.  But we'll talk about that one later.  I think the body wants carbs.  Not grains, heck no, but 1 1/2 fruit a day just ain't cuttin' it, and neither is a handfull of nuts.  (Though that half cup of homemade coco cashew butter did it--but let's not do that one again or I will grow some cottage cheese thighs, ok?)  Pardon me while I go pop a B vitamin and hope that makes it all better. 

Anywhooo, many years ago, when I was in college in the little town of Lindsay, they had this awesome and corny restaurant called the Grand Experience and they made the best fettuccine Alfredo "Grand Style" ever--with deli ham and green peas and fresh tomato.  Everywhere I travelled around the province after that had me tasting fettuccine Alfredo in every tiny little mom-and-pop restaurant in every backwoods town.  (BTW, Wiarton used to have an awesome little place that not only did a great alfredo, but escargot as well... but I haven't been there in forever.)  So it spawned a love of fettuccini alfredo that came to a grinding hault when I became lactose intolerant.  Oh, how I missed it.  It wasn't the noodles I missed, but the silky, creamy texture. 

I found the original recipe idea for this on Family Living Simple, and I'm sure to adapt it again and again until I can make it "Grand Style" just like I remember (without the gut explosion that would surely come from that now).  So here's where it's at right now--

Serves about 5

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs chicken, light or dark, de-boned and cut up into small pieces
fat of your choice for poaching with chicken--I used chicken fat
3-4 zucchini
1/2 large spanish onion, chopped
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs butter
1 can coconut milk
1-2 tbs arrowroot powder, dissolved in a bit of water
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp mustard powder
red pepper flakes, to taste

Directions:

Do you have a mandolin yet?  Because you should.  It's really important.  Set the blades to cut the zucchini into really thin noodles--as thin as you can go, really.  Cut up all the zucchini and set on paper towels, add some sea salt to help dry them out a bit so they don't cook all soggy. 

Next, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chicken, fat, and broth, then cover and simmer chicken until cooked through.  Move chicken to a plate and turn the heat down to medium.  Put the onions in the pan, stirring, until they become translucent and most of the liquid is absorbed.  Then add your garlic (not whole, silly--through a garlic press!)  And stir just until you begin to smell it cooking.  Now add your coconut milk and bring it to a slow simmer.  Now add your spices and pepper and salt.

Once it's simmering a bit, begin to add your arrowroot and water mixture, stirring it in and letting it thicken the sauce.  If you over-thicken it a little, that's ok, because the zucchini will thin it back dow a little bit.  But get it thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.  Add your zucchini and chicken to the sauce and heat through, stirring frequently, just until zucchini is hot and beginning to soften.  Don't let it go soggy.

Serve, and add more nutmeg and red pepper flakes if you think that's necessary. 

If you're feeling fancy, garnish with green onions and chopped fresh tomatoes.  One day, I will get it perfect, and rename it Zoodle Alfredo "Grand Style".  But not yet.  It's very tasty, don't get me wrong, but not quite like the "Grand Style" I remember just yet.....

Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore

I first learned how to make Chicken Cacciatore in an "International" home-ec class in high school.  We had some pretty creative classes at my high school.  Know what else  I learned how to do in that class?  Debone a chicken.  And we used fresh ginger in the "asian" part of the course, something I would have never, ever seen at home since in my family we ate "foods from a box" with meat on the side.  Yea, I don't come from a foodie family.

Anyhow, I liked the Cacciatore so much that it became one of the first things I cooked for my family at home, over and over, because it was so damned easy.  It translates perfectly into the crockpot, too.  Now, when I made this on sunday, we gobbled it up so fast that I failed to take a picture of it.  So this very artistic photo is not my photo.  I wish it was.  I need to learn how to take such great photos...

Serves 4-6 (6 if you make paleo bread)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chicken (I used boneless skinless thighs this time, because that is what was on sale, but bone-in is actually better)
• 1 pkg muchrooms (I used cremini; they were on sale)
• 1 sweet pepper (I like to use yellow or orange because they're sweeter)
• 1/3 spanish onion
• 1 28-oz can tomatoes, drained
• 1 5-oz can tomato paste
• 1/4 c balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 c red wine, your choice (I'm a shiraz fan)
• 1 tbs italian seasoning
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 of my chicken "flavour cubes"

Directions:

Throw it all into the crockpot, stir, close lid and set at 5-6 hours on high or 10-12 hours on low.  You might be looking at the red wine and thinking of omitting it, and you CAN add more balsamic vinegar to compensate, but traditional Cacciatore uses red wine and it does impart an important part of the flavour.  Your choice.  The alcohol will cook off in the crockpot.

We decided to make some paleo irish soda bread to go with it, just for a bit of nostalgic bread-dipping.  It was totally unnecessary.  The food was awesome on it's own.  The kitchen was full of all these great aromas.  I love my crockpot.

Old-fashioned Chicken Stew

It's interesting how the flavours we grow up with influence our taste buds.  My taste buds definitely tend towards the British, I think, since a lot of Canadian cuisine is basically British-influenced.  I love all things in gravy and sauce, casseroles and creams and this is no exception.

Growing up, my mom loved convenience.  She was no slave to the kitchen.  Our dinners came from the freezer in boxes and were accompanied by packages of "noodles and sauce" or "rice and sauce".  Sorry mom, you know its true.  But what she did right was boil down every chicken and turkey carcass to make stew.  When my kids were little, I started adding Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup to mine to make them creamier, so since I no longer eat that, I kind-of miss that creamy thickness I'd grown used to.  In this recipe, I tried adding canned coconut milk (because I'm avoiding dairy right now).  I love coconut milk, but it was a bit too strong for this mellow stew, so then I ended up doubling the spices to compensate, and voila, came out just right in my opinion (and everyone gobbled it up).  I also learned something after this recipe--you can save those chicken skins, cut them into thin strips and fry them in the pan--they crisp up like bacon!!  They're called cracklings and they are awesome and I will never waste another piece of chicken skin again!!

Serves 4
Total time:  About 1 1/4 hours

Ingredients:

2 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1/3 large Spanish onion, chopped
hand full carrots, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
1/2 package button mushrooms, chopped
2-3 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp celery seed
pepper and salt to taste
hand full sweet peas (c'mon live a little!  Or omit if this is going to keep you up at night)
2-3 cups chicken stock, or 2-3 of those little stock flavor packets if you're brave
1 can full-fat coconut milk--I like the red label Rooster brand

Directions:

Heat dutch oven over med-hi heat (if you don't have one, use a fry pan then move it all to a soup pan after adding some juices to lift all the good crispy stuff off the pan, because you want those flavours in the stew!).  Throw in whole chicken thighs and fry, turning often, until skin is a bit crispy and all kinds of chicken juices have come out--the meat should be at least halfway cooked.  Then remove chicken to a plate.  In those chicken juices, saute the onion, celery, carrots and mushrooms.  While veggies are cooking, pull the skin off the chicken (and set aside for re-frying if making cracklings).  When the veggies are halfway done, add the spices--thyme, rosemary, celery seed, sage, some salt and pepper.  When onion is translucent, place the skinless thighs back on top of the veggies and add chicken stock until it is all just barely covered with liquid.  Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is fully cooked through, close to an hour.

Once chicken is done, use tongs and lift chicken back out, careful not to lose any cartilage parts in the stew.  Shred chicken using a couple of forks, making sure you get all the cartilage out of the meat.  Return chicken to pot, add peas and coconut milk, add a bit more liquid if necessary, and bring back to a simmer to heat through.  Remove from heat and adjust seasonings to taste.

BTW:  You can save those chicken bones--just freeze them, and later make chicken stock/bone broth in your crock pot when you have enough saved up.