Coconut Curry Chicken

What you need:
1 lb chicken thighs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp curry powder
1 cinnamon stick
1 jalapeño, finely chopped
1 fresh green chili, finely chopped
2 heirloom tomatoes
1 can coconut milk
2/3 large carton chicken broth
1 pinch cayenne powder
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

What to do:
Add olive oil to a large pot over med low heat.
Mix in the onion, garlic, and ginger.
Cook for 20 min.
Add in the tomato paste, cinnamon, chicken broth, cayenne, curry, salt and pepper, and coconut milk.
Stir well and cook another 20 min on med low.
Add in the chicken, tomatoes, lemon juice, and cilantro.
Let simmer for 1 hour.
Taste periodically and adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Serve with roasted sweet potatoes and parsnips.

Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken

What you need:
10 skinless chicken drumsticks
1 onion diced
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, minced
6 cloves fresh garlic minced
zest of one lemon
juice from 1/2 lemon
pinch of anise seeds
pinch of ground fennel seeds
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
3 tablespoon coconut aminos
1 cup coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

What to do:
Place the diced onion on the bottom of a crock pot and spread evenly.  Lay chicken over the onion.  Combine all other ingredients in a mixing bowl and pour over chicken.  Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours.  When chicken is done the meat should pull right off the bone.

Healthy Chicken Salad

What you need:
1 rotisserie chicken, pulled
2 large celery stalks, diced
1 cup baby carrots, diced
1/2 cup purple seedless grapes, diced
1 handful sliced almonds
Sea salt and fresh pepper to taste

What to do:
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.

Simple Healthy Spaghetti

Sometimes you just need some spaghetti.  To me this is every bit as good as the real thing, and you don't feel glued to the couch afterward.

What you need:
Two large spaghetti squash
1 lb lean ground turkey
One jar Amys premium organic pasta sauce (found at whole foods)
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 bell pepper coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped baby portabello mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste

What to do:
Poke six holes in each squash with a knife, and put them in a large microwave safe casserole dish.
Nuke for twelve minutes.  Let squash rest for five minutes, then cut in half lengthwise.  Remove the seeds with a spoon, then take a fork and scrape the meat of the squash out.  The squash should come out in strands, much like spaghetti.  One squash will make enough for two people.  I use two so that I can have leftovers the next day.
While squash is cooking, heat olive oil in a large skillet over med high and add the onion and bell pepper.  Cook for three or four minutes, then add the turkey and cook until turkey is browned.  Add the pasta sauce and the mushrooms, and cook over med for five minutes.

Serve sauce over the spaghetti squash.

Better Beef Jerky

 It's always good to have some easy protein around to get you through the day.  Making your own beef jerky is more cost effective, and you can control what you want in it.  This batch is way lower in salt than anything you will get off the shelf, but has a great flavor.

What you need:
3 lb of lean beef (I used 2 london broils), cut into 1/4 inch thick strips, across the grain
     Or have your butcher cut it (normally they are happy to do it and it saves a ton of time)

1 bottle coconut aminos
1 heaping tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp crushed red chili pepper
1/3 tsp ground cayenne
1/2 tsp garlic powder
fresh ground black pepper to taste

What to do:
Mix the coconut aminos and all of the spices in a mixing bowl.  Taste it and adjust spices if needed.
Place the sliced meat in a 1 gallon ziplock bag and fill with the mixture. Squeeze any excess air out of the bag and close it, then squeeze the bag a few times to make sure all the meat is covered.  Put it in the fridge overnight.  When marinating is done, place the meat on a drip rack and put that on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet.  This amount of meat will require two racks.  You want to allow just a sliver of room between each piece of meat for air flow.  Put the meat into a 200 degree oven for 6 hours or so.  You will know it is done when the meat cracks but does not break when bent.  
When it's done I put it in a ziplock and put it in the fridge.  It should last for a couple months, but you'll never know because it'll be gone by then. 

Salmon with Steamed Brocolli

What you need:
2 salmon filets (skin on)
2 cups brocolli, washed and cut into florets
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper
1 lemon

What to do:
Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat
Place salmon filets face down (skin up) for five or six minutes until they get some color,
Flip filets and turn down heat to med, let cook for another six minutes or until meat is flaky but moist.  Garnish with lemon slices.
Steam brocolli in microwave for three minutes while fish cooks.
(Sometimes I will turn on the oven if the meat looks like it is going to burn before it cooks all the way. I'll throw the skillet in the oven for about ten minutes, usually turns out perfect.)

Lemon Rosemary Chicken with Baby Spinach and Pear Salad

What You Need:
4 thin sliced chicken breast cutlets
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 small handful fresh spinach per person
1 pear
pinch salt and fresh ground pepper
3 tbsp olive oil

What To Do:
Preheat oven to 400
Place the chicken in a glass casserole dish.
Mix together 1 tbsp lemon juice and 3 tbsp olive oil.
Pour mixture over chicken and sprinkle salt and pepper on top.
Place two sprigs rosemary on top of chicken along with a few thin slices of lemon.
Bake chicken for forty five minutes.
While chicken is baking wash the spinach and cut the pear.
I also steamed some cauliflower in the microwave for a couple minutes.

Simple Chicken Soup

Today was a little rainy and I had some extra time so I made a chicken soup that will last us a couple days.  Cooking the whole chicken provides nutrients you wouldn't get from the meat alone, and the leftovers only get better with time.  This recipe does take a couple of hours, but only about twenty minutes of real work.  It's worth it. Easy to do, hard to mess up.

What you need:
1 whole fryer chicken, preferably organic and free range, more for the nutrients than the hippie factor.
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
2 leeks, sliced
5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
Pinch of dry cilantro
Pinch of dry turmeric
Pinch of dry thyme
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of cayenne powder
Teaspoon minced garlic
2 bay leaves
Fresh ground pepper
Sea salt
32 oz low sodium organic chicken broth

What to do:
Place the chicken in a large pot, pour in the broth and add water till the chicken is covered.
Bring to a boil and then drop the heat and simmer for an hour.  
While the chicken is cooking, chop the vegetables.
Remove chicken and use a fork to separate the meat from the bones.
Replace the meat back into the broth along with the vegetables, herbs, and spices.
Let simmer for an hour or two.

Oven Roasted Chicken with Carmelized Shallots and Blackberry Salad

This recipe comes from  David Lebovitz.  I was looking for something quick and easy that I could do in the little time I had to work with today.  This turned out great and was really simple.  I'll make it again for sure.  I made a side of carrots and squash to roast, and put together a quick salad while everything was in the oven. Can't get much more low maintenance.

You need:
8 pieces of chicken, I used four drumsticks and four thighs, bone in
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce, I used lower sodium
salt and fresh ground pepper
It called for 4 large shallots, peeled and minced, I used 3 and I think for me that was plenty
1 handful flat leaf parsley

For the salad:
One small handful of baby field green salad mix per person in a medium bowl
large handful of fresh blackberries rinsed and dried gently
top with pecans and dried cranberries
no dressing

For the side:
1 cup of baby carrots whole
2 small squash cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

What to do:
In a glass casserole dish, mix the olive oil, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, salt and pepper, and shallots.
place the chicken in a single layer in the dish, and use your hands to mix the chicken with the marinade until the chicken is coated.

In a separate dish, coat the carrots and squash with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Put both dishes in a a 425 degree oven.
Turn the chicken once after about twenty five minutes, when it is beginning to brown.  Let the chicken cook for another twenty five minutes or so until the skin and shallots are nice and brown.  Let the carrots and squash cook the whole time the chicken is in.  When they are ready, remove from oven and garnish chicken with parsley.  Serve with the blackberry salad. 

Chipotle Chicken with Strawberry Salad and Sweet Potato

 Marinade 1 lb chicken breasts in glass casserole dish with Lowry's Baja Chipotle 30 min marinade
( I'll let you guess how long)

While chicken is marinating:
Preheat oven to 400

Peel and cut sweet potato into rounds of similar size (you may have to cut some into halves).
Place potato into a different glass dish large enough for each piece to touch the bottom, salt and pepper lightly, add 1 tbsp olive oil and mix with hands until potatoes are coated evenly.

Make salad
     2 cups arugula and baby spinach salad mix
     Handful of strawberrys sliced small
     Add small bits of honey goat cheese to taste
     Top with small handful of crushed pralines
     No dressing
     Set in fridge


When chicken is ready, place it and the potato in the oven on the middle rack.
Bake 1 hr and serve with salad.

Easy Taco Salad

I have become addicted to this one, its so quick and easy and tastes great. Mostly healthy too, has a little salt, but you can always go skimpy if you want.
Here's what you need:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb lean ground turkey
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 avocado, sliced
1 handfull of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 or 3 heads romaine lettuce, sliced
1 packet low sodium taco seasoning

What to do:
Add olive oil to skillet and heat to medium high
Add onion and heat till they are just starting to get some color on them, four or five minutes
Add turkey and cook until done
While turkey is cooking,clean and chop the tomatoes, avocado, and lettuce
When turkey is done, add taco seasoning and water and bring to a boil
Once boiling, turn heat to low and give sauce a few minutes to thicken
Toss lettuce with tomatoes, top with turkey, garnish with avocado and maybe a little hot taco sauce

Honey Lime Chicken

Tonight was night two of the dinners we froze this weekend. Check out the post on Making Meals Ahead of Time for more info. It was honey lime chicken, and it was good. I was off work today, so I took the premade chicken out of the freezer and threw it in the crock pot about 2:30. Then about half an hour before my wife got home, I put some carrots in the oven to roast and boiled some red quinoa. The chicken was really tender, the honey and pineapple had just started to carmelize, and it was the texture of pulled pork that has smoked on the bone all day (even though it was chicken, and it had been cookin in the crock pot). Some fresh avocado was mixed in with the carrots when they came out of the oven. Sounds like a few steps, but really with the chicken already made, the rest only took me a few minutes to throw together. Will do this one again.

Curry Chicken

We tried the Curry Chicken that we made yesterday, and it was really good. Like I said yesterday, I was a little skeptical, but honestly this stuff turned out nicely. I wondered if it would have enough moisture in it to cook right in the crock pot, and it did. I just took it out of the freezer and threw it in the crock pot on high. After about half an hour I walked by and noticed it was still frozen, so I took a meat tenderizer mallet and hit it a couple times to loosen it up. After that I just let if go for a total of about three hours. Can't be much easier.

I'll post of the rest of the meals from the "Make Meals Ahead of Time" post as we eat them, and let you know how they turn out.

Healhty (Enough) Late Night Snack!

Ok, so you eat healthy stuff all day long, then you sit down to relax and watch some tv before bed and what happens? You want something to eat... but you want something that isn't gonna ruin the whole healthy eating thing you had going on all day. Well, here ya go. You can make these Chocolate covered banana chips during any commercial break, and they only take about half an hour or so to cool down. Not an every night thing, but it is fun and something different. Here is what you need:

1 banana, cut into quarter inch pieces

1 bar of dark chocolate, at least 70%, organic if you can find it, nuts optional

A microwaveable bowl, glass

A small dash of olive oil, just a few drops

Break the chocolate into pieces and put them into the bowl with the olive oil. Put it in the microwave for thirty seconds, then take it out and stir. Repeat this a couple times until the chocolate looks smooth. Then gently dip the bananas in the chocolate and place them into a freezable container lined with foil. I dip some cashews in whatever chocolate is left over after the banana is covered and put them in the freezer with the bananas. Throw it in the freezer for about half an hour, and enjoy... I like them cold but still soft, so don't leave 'em in there too long, or take them out and let them sit for a bit if you are eating ones you have already made.
Friggin yum!