Chicken Delight

After an extravagant week of eating out and eating a lot, it's time to detox.  I decided to turn to "You Are What You Eat" by Dr. Gillian McKeith for some detox inspiration.  A recipe that looked yummy and easy and accessible to try was her Chicken Delight Recipe.  This recipe was super easy to put together.  Cooking the chicken with a bit of liquid in the oven makes for a very moist chicken breast.

Chicken Delight
3 chicken breasts sprinkled with pepper
Handful of Basil Leaves
1 Tomato, chopped
1 tsp boullion
1/2 cup boiling water
Handfuls of Spinach

Preheat the oven to 400F

Lay a sheet of foil in a baking tray and place the chicken breasts on the foil.  Tear the basil leaves and add the basil and tomatoes over the chicken.  Pour the boullion and water mixture over the chicken and tomatoes.  Fold over the foil to make a packet and bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve over handfuls of spinach (raw or lightly steamed)

Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

Lunches during my week of detox is this light Fall soup from "You Are What You Eat" by Dr. Gillian McKeith.

This soup is quite easy, minus all of the chopping of the vegetables.  I adapted the recipe slightly because my store did not have some of the ingredients (fennel for example).  The soup is actually quite filling even though it's just veggies.  It's the perfect soup for fall and after a heavy Thanksgiving week!

Squash and Sweet Potato Soup
6 cups of water
2tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chicken bouillon
1 butternut squash, cubed
1 sweet potato, cubed
3 large carrots, sliced
1 onion
1 clove of garlic

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and add all of the vegetables and cook until the veggies are soft (about 10-20 minutes)  Add the bouillon and 6 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Cook for about 20 minutes and either blend or leave the veggies whole.  I blended the chilled soup the next day.  Waiting until the next day is much safer than blending hot liquids!

Buns experiment- Gluten Free and Whole Wheat

So what happens when you take the perfect recipe for buns and then decide to change it using gluten free flour, whole wheat flour and then finally go back to the original?  The below photo is what happens!

For the gluten free version I took my favorite recipe and make a few changes

Favorite Buns

Ingredients

1 tablespoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (110° to 115°)

1/6 cup vegetable oil

1/8 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups Gluten Free Flour

1 tbsp Flax Seed mixed into 3 tbsp boiling water

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar; let stand for 5 

minutes.  Add the egg, salt, flax seed and enough flour to form a soft dough. 

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 4 pieces (about 5 oz each); shape each into a ball. Place 3 in. apart on greased baking sheets and flatten the ball so they look like discs

Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

For the completely whole wheat version, I just used whole wheat flour and didn't have the flax seed.

In sum, be careful when baking.  In this case, halving the recipe, may not have been a smart idea.  Gluten Free flour is still hard to work with!  Stay tuned to see if I make gluten free buns again!

Pumpkin Ravioli

It's the week of Halloween and it was time to break into some canned pumpkin.  I saw a recipe a few weeks ago in Self Magazine for some pretty easy and delicious looking ravioli.  I said, "Great! This looks like a yummy and easy recipe to try!"  This is easy, so just go ahead and make this already!

I followed the Self Magazine recipe pretty well, but I ended up with more ravioli than they made.  I also did not make the butter sage sauce they had, but instead went with olive oil and parmesan cheese.  There are two ways you can cook the prepared ravioli.  The first way I've tried was to simmer them in hot water and then drizzle with olive oil and cheese.  The second way is to directly cook them in the oil in a pan.  Cooking them directly in olive oil, makes them crispy!  Both ways are equally delicious!

Pumpkin Ravioli
Self Magazine

1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 lightly beaten egg yolk
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1 tbsp bread crumbs
Salt and Pepper
16 wonton wrappers
1 egg white lightly beaten

Combine all of the ingredients (minus the wonton wrappers) in a bowl.

Arrange the wonton wrappers on a sheet of parchment paper.  Place a rounded tsp of filling near the corner of the wonton wrappers. Brush edges with the egg white and fold over.

Cook!
Version 1: Cook the ravioli in simmering water for 4 minutes or until they start to float.  Place on a plate and drizzle with olive oil and cheese
Version 2: Heat olive oil in a non stick pan over medium heat and directly place the ravioli in the pan until they start to bubble.  Flip and cook on the other side.  Add cheese.  Eat

All lined up!

Close Up!

Folded and Made

Close Up

Cooked by simmering

Crispy!

Turkey Meatballs

When you eat a lot of ground turkey, meatballs are likely going to be something you make with it.  This recipe for turkey meatballs features a power punch of veggies.  I wanted to include some more veggies, just to see what happened and you can't taste them! These are a healthy and tasty meatball. I served mine with quinoa most days, but tried with spaghetti squash one day.  Another tasty treat is to stuff a bell pepper with the quinoa and turkey! Yummy!

Turkey Meatballs

1.5 pounds of ground turkey

3 egg whites

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup baby spinach, chopped fine

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

10 basil leaves, chopped fine

Red Pepper Flakes, Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 375F

Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix to combine.  Portion the meatballs using a cookie dough scoop or make them into a large tablespoon size.  Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake the meatballs for about 30 minutes or until they reach 165F.  Serve anyway you want with a little cheese!

Turkey Meatballs in a roasted green pepper

Turkey Meatballs with Spaghetti Squash

Turkey Meatballs with Quinoa

How to Open a Spaghetti Squash and Why "Spaghetti" is a Misnomer

A few weeks ago, I purchased a spaghetti squash from Trader Joe's.  I was excited to try this seemingly magical and innocent winter squash.  People of the internet have shared the wonders of this happy little squash and I wanted to be part of the action.  What people don't explain, is just how difficult of a shell this little guy has.  The happy pale yellow flesh of the squash has a mean secret and this guy is one tough cookie to break.  I tried to slice it and that was impossible so it sat on my counter for a few weeks.

I finally worked up the nerve to attempt to open the squash and get through to this magical spaghetti.  I threw it into a preheated 350 oven and let it soften for about 20 minutes.  After time spent in the oven, the squash was very easy to open.  I sliced in half very easily, scooped out the seeds and threw it back in the oven after increasing the temperature to 375.  I let it roast for another 20 minutes and decided that was long enough.

The internet promised that the squash could easily be scraped into thin "noodles".  The internet was true!  You can easily scrape out the flesh with a fork and it looks quite interesting.  It's not exactly like spaghetti, but it was pretty neat to see such delicate strands come from such a difficult gourd to open.

I decided to use the remaining turkey meatballs I had to have "spaghetti" and meatballs.  This was hugely disappointing.  My squash was crunchy and flavorless.  It was not the best introduction to this "fantastic" carb replacement.

I went back to the internet and discovered a hash brown casserole made with the squash.  I decided that this would be what would make the most sense for this squash and you know what, it was.  Going forward I'm calling spaghetti squash, "hash browns" squash.  As hash browns, the inherent crunchy texture of the squash works perfectly.  When you top the hash browns with sunny side up eggs, the yolk will become absorbed into the squash just has it would with potatoes.  This is the best comfort food breakfast without feeling like a complete fatty afterwards!

Spaghetti Squash "Hash Browns"

1 tbsp butter
One medium sized Spaghetti Squash, already roasted and prepared
1 tbsp your favorite All Purpose Seasoning.  I used Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium high heat and add the butter.  Once the butter is melted add the squash in an even layer and add the seasoning.  Allow this to cook until the bottom side is brown, about 5 or so minutes.  Flip over and allow the top side to cook for about 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Serve with eggs or your favorite breakfast dishes.

Close Up of the Squash

Check out that Steam Action!

Clean Breakfast Burritos

A breakfast staple of mine has been breakfast burritos.  I've been using a recipe from bodybuilding.com and it's quite delicious.  This is very simple to put together and they're very tasty.  I've decided to use sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes, because I think they taste better than regular potatoes.  I like to serve mine with a little fruit on the side, and a little yogurt mixed with salsa.  It's delicious!

Breakfast Burritos
Bodybuilding.com

1 1/2 sweet potato

1 onion

8 egg whites

salt and pepper

cayenne pepper

1 tbsp coconut oil

6 low carb tortillas

Microwave the sweet potato until soft.  I do mine for 3 minutes, stir and then another 3 minutes
cook the onion in the coconut oil until soft. then add the sweet potatoes.  Add salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and the egg whites.  Scramble together until the eggs are cooked.  Divide into tortillas and serve with yogurt and salsa if desired.

Breakfast!

Yogurt Marinated Chicken with Potatoes

Lunch this week is this tasty combination of chicken, sweet potatoes and red potatoes.  I marinated the chicken overnight in yogurt with spices and boiled the potatoes until tender.  I cooked everything together in one pain and divided into tupperware.  This is super easy and super tasty!  If you try it, let me know how it goes!

Yogurt Marinated Chicken and Potatoes
1 pound chicken breast, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 cup plain greek yogurt
2 tbsp Emeril's Spice Blend
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
6 small red potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces
Salt and Pepper

Put the chicken in a bowl and sprinkle the spice blend over, making sure every bite will have some spice.  Spoon the yogurt over the chicken and mix well.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight to marinate.

The next day....
Put the potatoes into a pot and cover with water and sprinkle with salt.  Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender and drain.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large nonstick pan.  Add the chicken, discarding any excess marinade and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add the potatoes and stir everything together to combine.  Double check the temperature of the chicken (165F) and then divide into 5 servings for lunch for the week!  

Enjoy!

Kinda blurry picture

All divided up and ready for lunch!

Gluten Free Bread: Experiment 2 and 3

This post is a picture story of experiments 2 and 3 in gluten free testing.  I used one recipe and made it two different ways.  I think the pictures will speak for themselves on how the experiments turned out.  

Gluten Free Experiments 2 and 3 were quite interesting.  I used a different recipe and a different flour blend.  This time I used the Gluten Free Flour from Trader Joe's a touch of coconut flour.  I used flaxseed instead of xanthan gum because, who really wants to pay $12 for xanthan gum, and I already have the flaxseed.  

For Experiment 2 I used whole milk and For Experiment 3 i used almond milk.  I don't think this made too much of a difference and that's a good thing!   In experiment 2 i used flaxseed dry and experiment 3 I used flaxseed mixed with twice the amount of water and then microwaved for 30 seconds to create a gel.  I don't know if this made a huge difference in the overall structure of the bread, but maybe it did.

Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

Courtesy: King Arthur

3 cups Gluten Free Flour (I used Trader Joes)

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (or 1 1/4 tsp flaxseed with 3 1/2 tsp water mixed and heated to form a gel)

1 cup warm milk (110F)

4 tablespoons softened butter

3 large eggs

Place the flour, sugar, yeast, salt and flax seed (or xanthan gum) in a bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer.  Mix until combined.

Using an electric mixer, drizzle in the milk, beating all the time.  The texture will be crumbly, but it does come together.  Add the butter and beat until blended.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then beat at high speed for 3 minutes.  The dough will be very smooth and thick. It reminds me of a thick brownie batter.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rise for 1 hour.  Grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan (or a 9"x5" if you're scared it'll overproof)

Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl, gently deflating the dough in the process.

Scoop the dough into the pan. Press it level, using a spatula or your wet fingers.

Cover with greased plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until the loaf barely comes to the rip of the pan.  This should take about 45-60 minutes.  Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake the bread for 38 to 42 minutes, until golden brown.  Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out of the pan, and cool on a rack.  Enjoy! (hopefully)

Ingredient List for Experiment 2.  Just change out the Whole Milk for Almond Milk for #3.

Here's what the dough looks like after mixing

Here it is after rising!

I put the bread in the oven and after 8 minutes I smelled something burning.  I rushed to see what had happened and the bread exploded; or it vomited in the oven.  I did not have it on the cookie sheet, so the bottom of my oven was a mess!  Luckily the dough isn't sticky and cleaned up very well.

Here it is after baking and after an emergency transfer to a bigger pan.  It did not rise again and resulted in a very short loaf.  This will eventually turn into bread pudding.  

Experiment 3

Dough made with flaxseed gel and almond milk

I think this is after the rise... either way, it's not a good picture.

Here it is in the pan ready to rise!

Here it is ready after the rise, ready to go in the oven!

Baked! This one came out a lot taller than the other and has usable slices for sandwiches! Yay

Scotch Eggs

I've been reading my new Paleo cookbook and was going through the beautiful pictures to decide what to do for breakfast for the week.  I came across a picture of Scotch Eggs.  I had no idea what Scotch Eggs were, what they tasted like, or how to make hard boiled eggs.  Nevertheless, I knew I wanted to try it for an easy breakfast for the week.

These eggs are pretty easy to make too! They require just a bit of work with hard boiling the eggs and peeling, but it's well worth it! I read that some people have problems with getting the meat around the egg, but this wasn't a problem for me.  Make sure your hands are wet so that the meat doesn't stick.

These eggs are a great way to get your protein in the morning! I served mine with a side of fruit and it was quite tasty!  Let me know what you think!

Scotch Eggs
Insprired by Well Fed- Paleo Recipes
1 1/2 pounds of ground meat ( I used a combination of chicken breakfast sausage and ground turkey)
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled.
2 tbsp tomato paste
Handful of fresh basil, chopped
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp parsely
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375F  Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper

Place the meat, spices, tomato paste in a bowl and mix together.  Take a handful of the mixture and wrap around the egg.  Place on the pan.  Do this with all the eggs.

Bake for 25 minutes and then increase the temperature to 400F and bake an additional 5-10 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.  Enjoy!

 Raw Balls!

Cooked!

Served! I actually made perfect hard boiled eggs!

Shepherd's Pie

I was looking for something comforting this week for dinner but was still healthy.  I got a new cookbook filled with Paleo recipes and saw a recipe for Shepherd's pie that looked super yummy and it is!  This shepherd's pie has tons of great comforting Fall flavors with a little bit of spicy heat.  I like the combination of using two different kinds of meat and I like using sweet potatoes, because well, they're delicious!  The original recipe called for cauliflower, which would be yummy too, but I had some leftover sweet potatoes that I wanted to use.

Let me know what you think!

Shepherd's Pie
Inspired from: Well Fed- Paleo Recipes
4 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion diced
2 pounds of ground meat (I used 1 pound of turkey and 1 pound of bison)
Salt and Pepper
5 tsp Moroccan Ras el Hanout
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup chicken broth
3 egg whites, scrambled until frothy*
paprika

Preheat the oven to 400F

Heat a large skillet over medium low heat.  Add the coconut oil and once it's melted add the onion.  Allow the onion to cook until soft.  Add the meat and break up with a spoon and cook until brown (about 10 minutes).

Add the tomato paste and spices and cook together for about a minute.  Add the broth and bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes or until most of the liquid is gone.  Let the mixture cool for about 10-15 minutes and add the egg whites.

Spread the meat into a 2 quart baking dish.  Gently spread the mashed sweet potato on top of the meat.

Place in the oven (and on top of a baking sheet if you want an insurance policy from drips)  and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is brown.  Cool for about 10 minutes before serving and Enjoy!

*I read that the egg whites serve as a thickening agent and will help the meat and liquid stabilize so that this can be cut into squares.

Meat Mixture!

Glamour Shot

Sliced Up

Gluten Free Experimenting

I've started reading "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis and while I haven't gotten very far into it, it's been interesting so far.  I've decided that this Saturday should be a day for Gluten Free Experimenting!

I went to Trader Joe's to search for gluten free flours and stopped by Big Lots first, just for fun.  Much to my surprise, I learned that they had a huge selection of products from Bob's Red Mill! I stocked up on quite a selection of products and got a gluten free flour mix from Trader Joe's too.

Here's the selection!

For my first experiment in Gluten Free Baking I decided to start off easy with the mix that specifically said it was for making a "wonderful" homemade bread.

Does it make a good loaf?!

I followed the directions exactly this time and decided to use ingredients as close to my normal loaf as possible.  I used whole milk and butter instead of using almond milk or coconut oil, which was my second choice.

Here's what it looks like after everything is all mixed up!  It does not smell like normal bread and the dough looks like thick cake batter.

I let it rise and bake according to the directions and here's what it looks like!

Looks pretty good! It tastes pretty good too!

Blueberry Chocolate Chip Oat Bran Muffins

I've read that Oat Bran is a super delicious and nutritious food to try and I saw some Oat Bran recipes and I knew I wanted to join in all the fun.

I found a recipe to try on a bodybuilding.com forum, but I decided to really change it up a bit.  What I ended up with was a blueberry and chocolate chip muffin.  The muffins are pretty tasty and if you like oatmeal, you will like these muffins.  Fair warning: DO NOT EAT MORE THAN ONE!

Blueberry Chocolate Chip Oat Bran Muffins
2 1/4 cup oat bran
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup egg whites
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp flax seed
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 425F.  Spray a muffin tin with Pam

Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.

Divide the batter equally in the muffin tin. (For me, it was about 2tbsp per muffin)

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool and eat!

All lined up!

Close up!

"Fancy" Chicken

New diet starts this week and it's loaded with healthy fresh food. This new diet, is just clean eating at it's core.

This recipe will be used for lunch and there is a lot of chopping involved! Once all that is done, you just throw everything in a pan and throw it in the oven. So it's an easy recipe as long as you can use a knife!

"Fancy" Chicken
7 servings
2.5 lbs chicken, chopped
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
6 small red potatoes, chopped
1 package of crimini mushrooms (it was 6), sliced thin
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
4 carrots, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
4 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 350F
Line a 9x13 pan with a large sheet of parchment paper

Dredge the chicken pieces in the 1/2 cup flour. Dump all the ingredients into the pan and tuck in the parchment paper to cover.  Bake in a 350 oven for 60 minutes and enjoy!

Strike a Pose

Portioned out for the week!

Sloppy Joe Turkey Meatloaf

This is my last week on the Abs Diet and I wanted to try the turkey meatloaf again.  What I learned from the last try was that it got watery for some reason.  To try and get rid of that, I added some wheat germ in place of bread crumbs.  I also wanted to play around with the flavors so I decided to just start over in the sauce department and used the Abs Diet Sloppy Joe Sauce!  

This is delicious, but for next time, I'm going to make an extra 1/2 cup sauce and mix it in with the turkey mixture.

Sloppy Joe Turkey Meatloaf

2 1/2 pounds extra lean ground turkey

2 eggs

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

Salt and Pepper

1 1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

4 tbsp yellow mustard

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine the turkey, eggs, wheat germ, spices in a bowl and add 1/2 cup of the sauce mixture to the turkey mixture. Stir together and divide between two 9x5 pans (or whatever pans you have).  Divide the remaining sauce between the two pans.  Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160F.

Enjoy as a sandwich with blitz bread!

Sandwich Glamor Shot

Slice of Meatloaf

A crafty item!

I also do some crocheting in my spare time and wanted to share a recent project that is pretty cool. This is my outdoor American Flag rug made out of polyrope and mason twine!  

Abs Diet Chili

This chili is pretty tasty, but the spices need to be amped up a bit.  It's a hearty meal for sure and i made just a few changes and additions to it.  I had an open can of beer in the fridge, so I decided to use that instead of the chicken broth.  I also had about a 1/4 cup corn in the freezer and I wanted to use that too.  Just a few small changes, but otherwise keeping the integrity of the dish.  Let me know what you think!

Three Amigos Chili

Men's Health

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion diced

1lb ground turkey

1 can diced tomatoes (or use a can of Rotel style tomatoes and omit the green chiles)

1 small can green chiles
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained rinsed

1 can beer

1/4 cup frozen corn

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp cinnamon

Hot Sauce to taste

In a pot heat the oil over medium heat and cook the onion until soft (about 10 minutes). Add the turkey and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes with the juice, all the beans, beer and corn and spices.  

Stir and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Divide into six servings and call it a day!

Single Serving

All lined up and ready to go!