Tag Archives: paleo chicken

Grilled Chicken with Walnut Pesto Sauce and Warm Arugula Salad…

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Pesto is an amazing sauce; it makes anything taste good from scrambled eggs to salad – so I have been working on a decent paleo version.  I think I came up with a pesto recipe, that in my humble opinion is better then most pestos which are laden with parmesean – and it’s super easy to put together.  Tonight I grilled some chicken and poured the green goodness on top and served this dish with a Warm Arugula Salad, and our favorite Smashed Cauliflower.  I have a bunch of left over pesto that I can’t wait to use as a topping for whatever else I eat tomorrow!! 

Grilled Chicken with Walnut Pesto Sauce

Chicken

3-4 Chicken Breasts

Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning to taste (or just some cracked black pepper)

Pesto Sauce

4 oz fresh basil (3 ½ cups)

1 cup walnut halves and pieces

6 garlic cloves

1 cup olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

Juice from ½ a lemon

Heat your grill over medium high heat for approximately 10 min.  Sprinkle both sides of the chicken breasts with either the Trader Joe’s seasoning or with just some black pepper. Turn grill down to low and place the chicken on the grill.  Close the lid and grill for 7-10 minutes.  Flip the chicken, close the lid, and grill for another 7-10 minutes.  Remove the chicken and cover with tinfoil and set aside.  Now it’s time for the pesto.  In a food processor add the walnuts, garlic, sea salt, and olive oil.  Process until smooth.  Add the basil and lemon juice and process again until smooth.  Slice the chicken and spoon the pesto sauce on top to serve.

Warm Arugula Salad

6 strips nitrate free bacon diced

2 shallots finely chopped

7 oz arugula

1/4 cup olive oil

Handful of chopped walnuts

Ground black pepper to taste

Place the arugula in a large salad bowl and set aside.  In a medium sized skillet brown the diced bacon.  Add the shallots and saute with the bacon until the shallots are translucent.  Add the olive oil to the pan and heat just until warm.  Pour the olive oil, bacon, shallot mixture over the arugula and mix well.  The heat from the bacon mixture will slightly wilt the arugula – this is what you want!  Add some fresh ground black pepper and serve immediately topped with a sprinkle of walnuts. 

 

Three “No Excuses” Lunch Ideas and Magazine Update

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The Woman’s World magazine hit the stands yesterday with the Paleo story making the cover promoted by a picture of the beautfil CSI Miami star Eva La Rue!  Prior to finding out yesterday, totally unbeknown to me, there is a celebrity promoting the paleo diet – look how mainstream paleo is quickly becoming!!  Very cool!  The article within the mag highlights Dr. Cordain and promotes his book - which is also great.  I am also in the article, a little pic of what I look like now and a before pic as well and a few quotes from my interview.  Overall I am happy that the magazine shed paleo in a positive light, and I WAS correctly quoted in saying that paleo for me is now my lifestyle and not just a diet.  Out of respect for the magazine sales, once this issue is off the stands I will try to scan and post the article on my blog – or ya’ll can  just go buy one!! : )

Ok, on to food!!  Here are three easy chicken based recipes that can be made in abundance and packed to go so there are no excuses at lunch time…  I have also made the last salad recipe with canned salmon and it’s awesome this way as well!

Chicken Stir Fry over greens…

1 package already cooked chicken from Trader Joe’s or 3 -4 cooked and diced chicken breasts

1/2 package of sliced mushrooms

1 head of organic broccoli chopped

2 organic carrots sliced

2-3 green onions (i used 1 giant one from the farmers market…)

1/2 a bag of frozen onions and bell peppers from Trader Joe’s

1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts

1/4 -1/2 cup organic free range chicken broth

grape seed oil

crushed garlic, black pepper, sea salt, and dried basil to taste

2 bunches of greens to your liking (chard or kale is good…)

Chop up your greens and either steam or saute until tender, set aside.  In a large skillet, pour enough grapeseed oil in to cover the bottom and heat over medium.  Add frozen onions and bells until thawed and add broccoli and carrots.  Cook broccoli and carrots until crisply tender and then add remaining veggies, artichoke hearts and chicken.  Stir together until warm, add seasoning and chicken broth, stir and simmer for just a couple of minutes.  Serve over a bed of greens.  Make a double batch and pack in Tupperware for next day’s lunch!

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Salad

4 diced chicken breasts or whatever leftover chicken pieces you might have

1 jar sun dried tomatoes

1 diced apple

1/2 a bag of sliced almonds

1/2 a head of shredded green or purple cabbage

olive oil, black pepper, and white balsamic vinegar to taste

Mix all ingredients together.  When I make this I fill up a huge Tupperware and it’s ready in the fridge for school lunches and of course for me.  My two year old loves this salad…

Warm Chicken and Bacon Green Salad

1 chicken breast diced (or 1 can of wild salmon)

4 strips of cooked diced bacon

1/2 an apple diced

2 big handfuls of salad greens

olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and black pepper to taste.

Pretty easy and straight forward but if you take the time to warm up the chicken and then adding the warm bacon on top of the crisp greens and then all that lovely olive oil, it just tastes too good to be so easy..

Enjoy and No Excuses!!

Easy and Amazing Roast Chicken

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This is a recipe for a whole roast chicken that I found on Epicurious that I revised to make even easier.  It seems to0 easy to even be good but this was sincerely the best roast chicken I have ever had.

Roast Chicken

1 free range/farm raised 4-5 lb chicken

Sea salt

Preheat oven to 450. Wash chicken and thoroughly dry the chicken inside the cavity and out with paper towels.  Place the chicken in a roasting pan and generously sprinkle the entire chicken with sea salt (inside the cavity as well).  The recipe on epicurious said to “rain” the salt down on the chicken, maybe that’s the secret…. I did not tress it, add any butter, thyme, or even pepper, just the salt, and after about an hour in the oven, the chicken was crispy golden brown on the outside and incredibly tender, juicy, flavorful and delicious on the inside!  The best parts of the chicken is what we could pick right off the bones – my two year old ate most of his dinner before we even got the chicken to the table…

I served the chicken with mashed cauliflower that I seasoned with garlic powder and black pepper as well as a fresh arugula and spring mix salad with diced apples, olive oil, and lemon juice. 

Enjoy!!

Paying homage to Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde.

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I have recently discovered that Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde makes just about anything rather delicious so this is my homage to the wonderfully inexpensive and tasty green concoction:

Salsa Verde over eggs:  Pour it over scrambled or over easy eggs and top with diced avocado.

Salsa Verde as a dressing:  Toss left over chicken with some salad greens, green onions, diced tomatoes, cilantro, and diced bell peppers.  Use the Salsa Verde for a refreshing taco salad-ish dressing.

Meat cooked in  Salsa Verde: I have made this several times, my two favorites have been Pork Loin and Chicken.

Pork Loin:

Place entire pork loin in the crock pot.  Sprinkle the loin with some sea salt.  Add two cans of diced green chilis and two jars of Salsa Verde. Cook all day on low.  Make lettuce tacos or serve over kale, chard, or whatever greens you might like.

Chicken:

Put a whole chicken in the crock pot.  Add 3 chopped carrots, 4 chopped celery stalks, and 1 sliced red onion.   Pour in two jars of salsa verde and one can of diced tomatoes.  Cook all day on low.

Salsa Verde for tacos: Brown 1 lb of grass fed beef, season with cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, a little cayenne, and a little sea salt. Pour in a jar of Salsa Verde and bring to a simmer.  The possibilities of this mixture are endless: Lettuce tacos, taco salad, serve the meat over sliced purple cabbage, scramble the meat mixture with eggs, it’s all good!!!!

“Breaded” Baked Chicken and Curried Cauliflower

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When cooking with kids, measuring ingredients often goes out the window and I have learned over the years to become much more relaxed in the kitchen.  I love to get my kids involved in meal preparation – and a quick tip for the parents out there trying to get their kids to eat Paleo – kids who are allowed to help make the food they are expected to eat are much more likely to eat it!!  Praise your kids for their efforts in the kitchen, let them make a mess, don’t worry about exact measurements, and have fun!!  Here’s our recipe for “Breaded” Baked Chicken and Curried Cauliflower.

Curried Cauliflower:

Poor a generous amount of olive oil into a large mixing bowl (I use about 1/2 a cup)

Dump in a lot of curry powder (about as much as a 6 year old would deem appropriate), garlic powder, a few shakes of turmeric, a few shakes of chili powder, and a dash of sea salt.

Chop up an entire head of cauliflower and add to the bowl of olive oil mixture.  Mix until the cauliflower is coated with the oil, spread evenly into a baking dish or cookie sheet and bake for 40-45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Breaded Baked Chicken

2 lbs of chicken thighs (or whatever chicken parts you want to use)

1 cup almond meal

1 cup coconut flour

garlic powder and black pepper to taste

3 eggs

coconut oil

Scramble eggs in one dish and in a separate dish mix almond meal, coconut flour, garlic powder and black pepper. Dip chicken pieces one at a time first in the egg and then cover both sides of the chicken in the breading mixture.  Place in a baking dish that has been greased with coconut oil. Bake for 45 min – 1 hour in a 350 degree oven.