Monthly Archives: January 2014

Grilled Chicken Thighs

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These are quick and tasty! I have marinated them for more than 24 hours and for less than 2, and they are still good.

INGREDIENTS

1-2 lbs chicken thighs
1/3 cup low sodium tamari
1/4 cup coconut palm sugar or maple syrup
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp powdered ginger, or 1 T freshly grated ginger

Rinse and pat dry the chicken thighs. Place in a casserole dish or shallow bowl. Combine the next 4 ingredients. Pour over the chicken and turn the chicken a few times to make sure all the thighs are covered. Refrigerate overnight or for several hours. When you are almost ready for dinner, turn on the grill.  Grill for about 5-7 minutes on each side. Or bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes, and kale salad.

Tessa’s Kale Salad

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Just when I thought I had found the best kale salad, I tried Tessa’s. Lemony and slightly sweet, it brightened my day. Toss it with toasted almonds, and a generous amount of parmesan cheese.

INGREDIENTS
1 bunch kale, any kind, the fresher the better
1/2 t sea salt
2 T lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 T honey
1/2 t dijon mustard
4 T olive oil
toasted almonds
parmesan cheese

Wash the kale, remove the stems, and chop into small pieces. Sprinkle with sea salt and massage the kale with your hands. Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake intensely until blended. Toss with the kale, almonds, and parmesan cheese.

Special Occasion Ribs

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These aren’t really special, it’s just that ribs are a real treat in our family!
Thanks to Erin Quon, amazing chef and food stylist, for showing me how to make these.

INGREDIENTS

2 racks of baby back pork ribs
favorite bbq sauce

Place the ribs on a jelly roll pan lined with foil. Add 1 cup of water to the pan and cover with foil. Place in a 300 degree oven for about 1-1/2 hours. You can do this ahead of time.

About 30 minutes before you are ready to eat, light the grill and wait for it to come to a moderately high temperature. Grill the ribs, turning them and brushing them generously with barbeque sauce. Since they are already cooked, the grilling is more for getting the bbq sauce to caramelize on the ribs. Remove from the grill when they look delicious, cut into pieces , and serve.

Birthday Kale Salad

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For Mom and Dad’s 70th birthday dinner, we had ribs and this kale salad. The ribs were great, but we were literally elbowing each other out of the way for the kale leftovers the next day. Something about the salty cotija cheese mixed with the toasted pine nuts makes this crave-worthy.

INGREDIENTS
1 bunch kale
8 oz cotija cheese, or feta, crumbled
1/4 c pine nuts, lightly toasted
olive oil

Wash and stem the kale. Chop in small pieces, or whirl it in a food processor to very fine ribbons. Toss with cheese, pine nuts, and olive oil to taste.

Almond Biscuits

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These grain-free biscuits are adapted from Elana’s Pantry. They are simple and allow the almond flour to absolutely shine. I have substituted mixtures of cashew flour, golden flaxmeal, arrowroot, and probably several other things I can’t think of right now, but my advice is – don’t. They are best made with pure almond meal.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

INGREDIENTS
2-1/2 c almond flour (use blanched for a biscuit that is lighter in color)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 c butter, coconut oil or earth balance
2 eggs
1 T honey

Combine the dry ingredients in a stand mixer or food processor and mix together.
Add the butter, eggs, and honey and blend.
Lightly flour your hands with almond meal, and carefully form biscuit shapes on a cookie sheet. Depending on the size you make, this recipe could make about 8-10 biscuits. Bake for 15 minutes. Keep an eye on the bottoms so they don’t get too dark. Serve with raw honey or jam.

Fluffy Biscuits

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Ahhh…the perfect biscuit! From Erin and Tatum Quon’s Cooking Together. This recipe is for straight up wheat and butter biscuits, but can easily be made gluten-free or vegan. If you want a paleo biscuit, check out Almond Biscuits.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour or gluten-free blend
2 T brown sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
pinch of salt
6 T cold butter, cut in pieces
3/4 c buttermilk (or 3/4 c any milk with 1 t vinegar)

Whisk together the dry ingredients, either in a bowl or a stand mixer.
Cut in the butter and mix to blend until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add the buttermilk and blend gently with a fork until the dough comes together.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface, gather into a ball, and gently press into a fairly thick disk. Don’t flatten the dough too much or your biscuits won’t be fluffy. Cut biscuits with a biscuit cutter or the ring top of a canning jar. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Pork and Tomatillo Stew

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We had this for Alice and Leo’s birthday dinner, and again for New Year’s Day. It’s delicious and very easy.

INGREDIENTS
3 lbs pork shoulder, cut into 2″ pieces
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1 15-oz can tomatillos
1 4-oz can diced green chilis
2 yellow onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 t ground cumin
2 t dried oregano
2 cups chicken broth

avocado and limes for garnish

Sprinkle salt on the pork and set aside.

Cut the stems off the cilantro and put the stems in the blender along with the tomatillos and chilis. Purée until smooth.

Brown the pork in two batches, about 5 minutes on each side. Remove the meat and set aside. In the same pan, sauté the onions and garlic until nicely softened. Add the oregano, cumin and salt. Pour in the broth, the tomatillo purée, and then add the meat.

You can either cook this in the oven at 350 degrees for 1-1/2 hours, or put it into the slow cooker on low for 7-8 hours.

Ladle into bowls, or over rice, and garnish with chopped cilantro leaves, diced avocado, and lime wedges.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

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I saw this in Oprah. It’s from Ellie Krieger, host of the Food Network’s Show, Healthy Appetite.
Yesterday we were using mashed bananas to make pudding. Today, avocado!
I’m posting this for Emily who wanted to try it, and for mom, who has already has!

Ingredients

2 large avocados, pitted and peeled
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 Tbsp. honey
¼ cup skim milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. instant coffee or espresso powder
Toasted coconut flakes, for garnish
Orange zest, for garnish
Flaky sea salt, for garnish

DIRECTIONS
Using a food processor fitted with a metal blade, blend avocados, cocoa powder, honey, milk, vanilla, and instant coffee until completely smooth, then chill, covered, in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.

Garnish with coconut, zest, and sea salt.

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/food/Chocolate-Avocado-Pudding-Recipe#ixzz2pSf3CshE

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

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potpie

The kids love chicken pot pie, but if you’ve ever make the whole thing from scratch, it can feel like an all-day affair. Here is a quicker way to have it for dinner.

INGREDIENTS (adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

About 1-1/2 or 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 T butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
3/4 cup frozen peas

4 T butter
1/2 c flour or gluten-free/grain-free flours (for example: cornstarch, potato starch, coconut flour, arrowroot, tapioca starch)
2 cups chicken stock
1-1/2 cups milk (whole or 2%, or dairy-free)
Salt
Ground white pepper
Nutmeg

DIRECTIONS
Put the chicken in a large saucepan and cover with 2 cup broth and enough water to cover. Poach the chicken for about 15 minutes, or until done. Reserve 2 cups of the poaching liquid (and rinse out the pan to use for the white sauce so you don’t accumulate too many dishes). While the chicken cools, make the vegetables.

Heat 2 T butter or oil in a skillet. Add chopped vegetables (except for peas) and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Set aside while you make the white sauce.

Melt 4 T (1/2 stick) butter in a saucepan, and add the flours, whisking together until blended. Slowly add the chicken broth and milk and keep whisking. It may look like a gloppy mess, but just keep at it until the sauce becomes smooth.

Dice the chicken and add it to the white sauce along the the vegetables and peas. Salt generously to taste, and add a sprinkle of white pepper and nutmeg. A squeeze of lemon juice is also a nice touch to brighten the flavors.

Ladle into bowls and serve with fluffy biscuits or almond biscuits.

If you have a pie crust or some puff pastry on hand, you can bake it in fun shapes. The kids can eat their soup with pie crust cookies.

If you are making pot pie, put it into a 9×13 casserole dish and cover with pie crust. Bake at 375 deg for about 30 minutes.

Banana Cream Pie

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Banana Cream Pie à la Paleo

We love banana cream pie, and always make it on Thanksgiving. When Amy went Paleo right before the holidays, we started to think about how to make this pie without the usual good stuff, and still make it good! Although there are many steps involved here, it’s a very simple and delicious recipe, and can be made in about an hour.

Crust (thanks to Elana’s Pantry)
2 cups almond flour, preferably the blanched kind
1/4 t of kosher salt
2 T coconut oil
1 egg

Place flour and salt in food processor and pulse briefly – or toss with fork.

Add coconut oil and  and egg and pulse mixture forms a ball or blend with fork

Press dough into a 9-inch pie dish. It’s crumbly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes. It may have cracks in it, but it’s still good.

Filling (adapted from Great Pies and Tarts by Carole Walter)
2 -1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar or sweetener of your choice -divided
4 egg yolks
3 T cornstarch
2 T tapioca starch or more corn starch
1/4 t salt
1-1/2 t vanilla
1 T butter
3 firm, ripe medium bananas

Whisk egg yolks, 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar, salt, cornstarch and tapioca starch together

Heat in sauce pan until warm 2 -1/2 cups milk with the remaining 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar

Add 1/4 of the warm milk mixture to the bowl mixture stirring well to blend. Pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan and using a whisk, and blend the mixtures.

Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring with whisk. As it begins to thicken, stir more vigorously until smooth. Continue to cook for a minute gently to prevent cream from scorching on the bottom of saucepan. Do not over mix.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla

Dot the top of the filling with the 1T butter and set aside to cool. Take a large bowl and fill with ice and water and put sauce pan in the ice water bath to cool – stirring occasionally. (We really do this, since we can never wait the few hours for it to cool in the fridge!)

Add three sliced bananas into cooled mixture

Add  filling to crust cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge to cool

Top with whipped cream and candy nuts before serving

Whipped Cream
1/2 pint of heavy cream
2 t vanilla
1 T of coconut palm sugar

Whip the cream and add the vanilla and sugar at the end.

EAT, finally!