Creamy Chicken and Rice

Serves 4 people 

Ingredients:

• 1 large head of Cauliflower (“Paleo Rice”)
• 2 Chicken Breasts
• 2 Cups Chicken Broth
• 2 Cups Almond Milk
• 1 Tbsp Salt
• 1 tsp. Black Pepper
• 1 Celery Stalk
• Optional: Carrots

Process:

1. Place Chicken, Milk, Broth, Salt and Pepper in a crock pot and cook on low heat for 2 hours
2. In a food processor, pulse the Cauliflower florets until they are small and a rice like consistency
3. After two hours add your Cauliflower and Vegetables
4. Cook for 2 more hours on low heat
5. Add more Salt and Pepper to taste if you want and use two forks to shred the chicken
6. Mix everything together and serve using a slotted spoon if you don’t want too much creamy broth

Don’t forget to get out and play!

Ingredients:

• 2 Large Chicken Breasts ( 1 Breast makes two rolls)
• 2 Kale leaves
• 1 Roma tomato, sliced thin
• 4 Tbsp. Bacon pieces
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 Cup Almond Meal

Process:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Place Chicken between two pieces of parchment paper and flatten with a Meat Tenderizer
3. Slice the breast in half so you have 4 pieces
4. Salt and Pepper each piece
5. Layer each breast with 1 Tbsp. of Bacon, Kale and Tomato slices
6. Roll each Chicken gently and hold together with a tooth pick
7. In a bowl, whisk an egg and and dip each Chicken roll in the egg
8. Lightly coat/ pat each chicken roll with almond flour
9. Place Chicken Rolls on a Tin Foil lined cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 25 minutes
10. Remove toothpicks and serve with your favorite sides

*These can be made ahead of time by following all of the process’ and freezing them in a parchment lined tupperware container before you cook.

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
• 1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1 Red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 2 Cups Chicken stock or Water

Process:

1. Place all ingredients except the peppers in your crockpot and cook on low heat for 3 1/2 hours.
2. Slice and chop red and yellow peppers.
3. Add peppers to the crockpot and cook for another 1/2 hour.
4. Serve with lettuce, tomato, fresh salsa, your favorite guacamole and your favorite Mexican toppings.

We followed up with a little dessert platter to watch the ball drop and bring in the New Year!

Happy 2013 to all of you! We are excited to see what the year brings us!

It is official, we are training for a half marathon in December. This time I am training with a paleo diet. We did 7 miles today and I have not eaten any bread, grains or gluten! So excited with my energy and achievements so far. I don’t feel like I am lacking in my training and I am definitely training harder and better than my pre- paleo trainings. I’ve been using Practical Paleo‘s book to guide my meal planning for athletes. It is so informative and has great meal guides. I was nervous training because I was used to the classic “carb- load” training!

Orange Ginger Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 Chicken Breasts
• Sea Salt, Pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp. Ginger
• 1/4 tsp. Cumin
• 1 Orange
• Olive oil

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place chicken on a greased cookie sheet.
3. Sprinkle all 4 breasts with some olive oil, salt, pepper, ginger and cumin. Use a brush to spread the spices all over the chicken.
4. Repeat step 3 on the other side of the chicken.
5. Squeeze a 1/4 of an orange’s juice on all 4 breasts and top with a thin orange circle.
6. Bake for 35 minutes.

Baked Squash

Ingredients:

• Squash
• Butter
• Salt and Pepper

Process:

1. Cut the squash in half and throw it on the same cookie sheet as the chicken.
2. Bake for 45 minutes
3. Remove the seeds and then scoop out the meat onto a plate.
4. Top with as much Butter, salt and pepper as your taste buds like and enjoy!

Today we had a lot of cleaning and organizing to do before my summer vacation officially starts. We went through and organized the kitchen, our attic and our bedroom. In this process we began trying on clothes and realized that in 3 months we had to box up and store another container of “too big for us” clothes. We can’t afford to lose anymore weight, clothes are expensive. Thank God it is summer and we mostly wear our bathing suits!

While we worked around the house I made a crock pot meal. It was great to enjoy this dinner on the back porch after a long day of working. Enjoy!

Cajun Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 32 oz. Organic Chicken Broth
• 32 oz. Water
• 1/2 Tbsp. Sea Salt
• 1 tsp. Hot sauce
• 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Creole Seasoning (I use Slap ya’ Mama)
• 1 tsp. Celery Seed
• 1 Tbsp. Fresh Parsley

Process:

1. Combine all ingredients in a crock pot.
2. Turn on low heat for 3 hours.
3. After 2 1/2  hours,remove and shred chicken.
4. Once chicken is shredded, add back into the pot for another 1/2 hour.
5. After 3 hours remove chicken pieces. Add 1 Tbsp. of Tapioca flour to the chicken stock and whisk well this will make it a little thicker like a gravy.
6. Place chicken over top of a bed of Cauliflower Mash and drizzle with the Chicken stock.
7. Serve with your favorite greens or biscuits.

Collard Greens

Ingredients:

Sea Salt
Garlic Powder
Chef Salt (I use The Stone Broke Chef but any spices and herbs will do, you could try Lawry’s season salt)
1-2 TBS Butter
1 group of fresh Collard Greens

Process:

1. Heat butter in a sauce pan over medium to low heat.
2. Cut off the leaves of the Collards and cut into bite size pieces.
3. Place Collards in the sauce pan and allow them to heat and wilt.
4. Occasionally mix the collards.
5. Once they have been cooked to a wilt, add sat, garlic, pepper, Chef Salt.
6. Cook to your liking, I like them with a little crisp but Brandon likes them cooked all the way through.
7. Keep warm and enjoy!

Horrible phone pictures but this was a delicious meal!

1. In a skillet, Cook bacon to a crisp.
2. Slice carrots, onions and Cucumbers into long thin slices (this will give it a nice crisp in every bite.)
3. Slice thin slices of tomato and avocado.
4. Prepare 4 Big leaves of Romaine for wraps
5. Cut chicken breasts into bite size pieces. 
6. On one Lettuce leaf, stack your ingredients in the center. Then top it with a 2nd lettuce leaf.
7. Roll it into a burrito shape and eat or roll it into tin foil for a picnic meal. 

     For our picnic dinner we had these wraps, a bowl of strawberries and blackberries and sweet potato chips. We enjoyed a nice walk along the lake and some bird and people watching on a bench while we ate. I hope that Brandon’s  pre-race nerves were calmed and he is all set for his Swimming weekend. 

   My body is tired. I think I will take the day off tomorrow! I am actually physically exhausted, I couldn’t finish my swim tonight because my goggles were fogging up and leaking but rather than pushing through I just stopped and sat on the side waiting for Brandon to finish swimming his 2 miles. UgH! Sometimes we just need to relax and take a rest. Now I am eating some almonds and sitting on my couch in silence. It is WONDERFUL!


   Tonight dinner was: Look, my hot oregano is thriving in my garden, what can I make with it? Italian dinner!

Baked Italian Chicken
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Bake Chicken on a lightly greased pan for 20 minutes.
2. While Chicken is baking, mix the flour, seasonings and herbs together on a plate. This amount will cover 4 large Chicken breasts.
3. After 20 minutes, remove chicken and pat each one with the crumb mixture.
4. Bake in the oven for another 20-30 minutes. Bread crumbs should start to brown a little.
5. Remove Chicken and top with pasta sauce and Cheese.

1. Place back in the oven  for about 6-10 minutes until cheese melts.
2. Serve with your favorite Italian side- spaghetti squash, a big salad or roasted veggies with garlic and butter.  (non- paleo, pasta noodles would be delicious with this)
3. Enjoy!

Pepper to taste

1. Whisk all ingredients in a bowl.
2. Line a muffin tin with muffin cup foil or paper.
3. Fill muffin cups with egg mixture.
4.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
5. Enjoy!