A New Year... times of transition and rejuvenation

A new year is starting in just a few days and it's an exciting (and maybe a bit anxiety filled as well) time for me. I FINALLY graduated from college! After a 6 1/2 year journey, I'm done. At least for a little while. So now it's time to look for jobs and start a life on my own! When I started this journey of going back to school, I was living with 5 girls and was newly unemployed. I decided a career in healthcare was the best option for me. I had been laid off 3 times in less than 2 years and my career choice just wasn't panning out. Event management is so fickle. I love it but whenever companies start to have troubles, the 5 and 6 figure events are the first thing on the chopping block. I didn't like the outlook on my career life. Constantly looking for new work is tough!

So, I thought the sciences were the best way to go. I was sure I would never struggle to find work with a science degree, especially as a woman. There's just not that many of us. Looking back on it, I'm not sure it was the greatest idea on my part. It's been a tough journey for me. It's just not a strong suit of mine, especially the chemistry that I was required to do. I'm much more creative minded instead of logical. But I made it. I'm alive, although there were definitely moments of doubt and many nights of tears and anxiety.

I think God really protected me this last semester. Last spring, I was suffering from debilitating migraines and even landed myself in the hospital when my arm went numb and they thought I was having a stroke. I was falling further and further behind and to be honest, I wasn't even sure if I would pass the semester. But my professors were so understanding and they got me caught up and on track to graduate. This fall semester, I got a wonderful new job that allowed me to do homework and thanks to a combination of medication and diet, my migraines have almost disappeared! So even though I actually increased my school load to 8 classes (a total of 19 credits. I actually needed to get special permission to take that many) and work hours, I finished with a better GPA and a healthier body and mind. I know many of you were praying for me this past semester and I just wanted to say thank you and your prayers were felt!

So, in conclusion, here's a new recipe or two for you. Because that is what I blog about! I got a bunch of new kitchen/household items for Christmas this year as I venture out on my own and these recipes allowed me to use 4 of my new gadgets :) Thanks mom and Jeremy! Enjoy!

Chicken Mulligatawny Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrot, chopped

2 bay leaves 

2 Tbsp curry powder

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs

3 cups chicken stock (homemade is best!)

2 cups water

1 Tbsp sea salt

1/3 cup green apple, diced

1/4 cup basmati rice (or substitute 1 cup chopped cauliflower)

1/4 cup coconut cream (I used Trader Joe's)

1. Saute onions, celery, and carrots in olive oil for 5-6 minutes until onions are translucent. Add curry and bay leaf and stir to coat.

2, Add chicken thighs, stock, salt, and water. Simmer for 45 minutes until thighs are tender. 

3. Remove thighs onto a cutting board and chop or shred into small pieces. Add back to soup.

4. Add rice and apples to pot. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes until rice is tender. 

5. Stir in coconut cream. Serve hot!

Cilantro-Lime Dressing

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup water

2 tsp lime juice

1 Tbsp honey

Salt and Pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a tall blender bottle or glass measuring cup. Blend together with an immersion blender or regular blender. Pour over salad. We serve this over a mandarin orange salad. Very yummy! 

A Warm Up

So... week one down. Two more to go. It's strange to me that this time through the 21-day Sugar Detox seems different to me. I feel different and have different symptoms than when I went through the plan last year. Last year, I didn't feel very well day 3 and 4. This time, it was only day 1 that I felt tired and had a headache. And I'm not really sure if that had anything to do with the detox or not. But I've been SO hungry this whole week. Like all the time. Doesn't seem to matter what I eat, two hours later, I'm hungry again. While this sugar detox isn't about limiting how much you eat, just what you eat, I don't want or need to consume 2,000 calories everyday! I don't think I need that many calories in my day! I'm not athletic (just stating facts!) and I'd like to continue losing weight! 

Last year, I also just felt better after the first 5 or 6 days. I slept better, was more energized, and my body just seemed to like the eating plan better. I can't describe it really, but my body seems to be rebelling this time. It's not something I can really put my finger on though. I still sleep fine, for the most part. It's summer and I have plenty of time to sleep in if need be :) Ah, the sleep of a student on summer break. It's heavenly. And rapidly coming to an end. But I digress. 

I don't know. It's just not the same. But I'll continue. Maybe next week will be better. I have lost 6.8 pounds so far. So there's that :) 

Here's a new recipe for you all. I had this dish for the first time from a food truck in Manhattan a few years ago. It's now my mom's absolute favorite! I don't think it tastes exactly like the one I had in NYC but it's still super yummy. I made it with cauliflower rice for myself but everyone else ate it with regular white rice. 

P.S. The Harissa red sauce can be found at Briarmart on Academy and Woodman if you're wondering. It comes in a bright yellow (very expensive!) can. Or buy it online at Amazon. I'm not sure if it's available anywhere else in town. Maybe Whole Foods? 

Halal Chicken and Rice (recipe pieced together from Serious Eats, Huffington Post, and my own tweaks) 

Chicken Marinade

• 2 T lemon juice
• 1 T chopped (or dried) oregano
• 1/2 t ground coriander
• 3 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 T olive oil
• 1/2 c plain greek yogurt
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed
• Kosher salt

• Directions:
• Mix spices, lemon juice, yogurt, and 2 T olive oil together in large bowl. Add chicken and marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Preheat grill and grill chicken until fully cooked inside. Roughly chop and set aside. 

White Sauce

8 oz Greek Yogurt

1/2 c mayonaise (I use Spectrum because it doesn't have sugar in it)

1 T salt

1 T vinegar

1 T lemon juice

1 T olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves

2 tsp dill (dried or fresh is fine)
1 T horseradish (not that horseradish mayo stuff. The real stuff!) 

1 T water

• Directions: Blend all ingredients together (I used an immersion blender) and chill for a couple hours. 

Other Ingredients

Lettuce, shredded

Roma tomato, diced

Harissa red sauce, for drizzling

Layer chicken over rice. Top with lettuce, tomato, white and red sauce. Serve warm. 

Round and Round We Go

I've decided to start the 21 day Sugar Detox again. Yesterday was my first day and I had a terrible headache all day! I'm not sure if it was because of the detox, or if I would have developed it anyway. I don't usually experience symptoms the first day on any diet. Usually it's 2-3 days in.

My mom has been doing the detox as well for about a month now. She felt terrible for about 2 full weeks! Although, she went with the Ketogenic plan instead of Paleo. Keto is much lower in carbs than Paleo is. They try to stay under 25 grams of Carbohydrates per day! To put that into perspective, a roma tomato (something we've been eating A LOT of lately) has 7 grams of carbs in a single tomato. Man, oh man! That is difficult to adhere to! I applaud my mom :)

I made some Indian food for dinner. While it was a recipe I had made many times before, I didn't love the way it came out. I'm not sure why. The only thing different I did was use tomato sauce instead of tomato paste. I didn't have any paste in the house at the moment. But normally, it's one of our family's favorite meals. I also made Against All Grain's Saffron Cauliflower Rice to go along with it. You can find the recipe HERE. We usually eat it with regular rice, when not sugar detoxing!

Originally, this recipe I found online somewhere. However, over the years, I've adapted it substantially to suit our tastes. I don't know what the original recipe was like anymore! LOL

Indian Butter Chicken 

Ingredients 

1 lb Boneless, Skinless Chicken (either breasts or thighs), cleaned and cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Salt - to taste
1/3 C Almond Meal or Flour (I usually use Trader Joe's Almond Meal- this is your thickener)
Fresh Ginger & garlic – 1 t. each, grated
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Chili powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1 Large Onion – diced          
2 T Oil 

1/4 c Tomato paste
1/4 c plain yogurt or coconut milk

2 T butter 

Directions

• Fry onions in oil till transparent.
• Add cinnamon and let it fry for 5 minutes
• Then add ginger & garlic along with a little water
• Stir continuously.
• Add turmeric, chili & coriander powder with salt and mix well.
• Pour in tomato puree and almond meal.  Mix well with a little more water. It will be thick!
• When it starts to boil, add the chicken.   Add additional water so that the chicken is barely covered. 
• The gravy should get thick or according to your requirement. Before switching off add butter and yogurt or coconut milk.  Serve over rice.

Veggies Galore!

It's smack-dab in the middle of summer and gorgeous vegetables and fruits are available at my local farmers market. I love it so much! I found some beautiful looking brussel sprouts and decided to try a new recipe that I had seen a picture of on Pinterest. There wasn't a recipe included with the picture, but it was only two ingredients, Brussel Sprouts and Bacon. We grilled them on the grill and they were pretty good! I think next time I'll brush them with something sweet like maple syrup or something. Or maybe just use maple bacon?

Brussel-Bacon Skewers

A bunch of large brussel sprouts
Bacon
Olive Oil (for brushing)
Coarse Salt

-Wash and trim brussel sprouts
-Parboil sprouts in water on stove for 10 minutes or so. The bacon will burn before the sprouts are done if you don't do this step!
-Thread a piece of bacon onto the skewer. Add brussel sprouts so that the bacon threads around the sprouts
-Brush with Olive Oil and sprinkle with salt
-Grill for 15 minutes until soft
-Enjoy!

Goulash: A family recipe

Years and years ago, my dad got my mom a microwave for their Anniversary. I know you're thinking, "I know better than that! You NEVER get household appliances for your wife for your anniversary!" But my mom really, really wanted that microwave! She was thrilled with it! And they lugged it all over the country for about 12 years until it died. The microwave came with a microwave cookbook with a single gem of a recipe that we've made countless times over the years. It's called Hungarian Goulash. It's all of 8 ingredients. Ingredients that I'm sure are commonplace in your kitchen. If not, they're easily attainable at any grocery store. We serve this dish over noodles, usually small shells or ditalini sized pasta. This time, I served it over Cappellos Almond Flour Fettuccine (which is awesome by the way!), making this dish totally Paleo and SO incredibly easy.I hope you try it. It's definitely comfort food and was perfect on this blizzardy night!

Hungarian Goulash

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1.2 cup thinly sliced celery
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (16 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano leaves
Dash of cayenne, optional

1/2 lb macaroni, small sized like shells or ditalini

Directions
1. In a large saucepan, saute onion, celery, and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add ground beef and brown until no longer pink. Drain if desired
2. Add all remaining ingredients (except pasta) into pan and stir to combine. Simmer for 15-20 minutes to cook tomatoes and blend flavors.
3. In a separate saucepan, cook pasta according to directions on box. Drain and mix into goulash mixture. Serve immediately.

P.S. I top mine with Parmesan or Romano cheese. The rest of my family thinks I'm weird. Try it if you'd like!

Consistency: My New Year's Resolution

I'm terrible at consistency. No, not sauce consistency. My sauces are just fine, thank you very much! But following through with something for a extended period of time, forget about it! i.e. I haven't updated this blog since August! Wow, that's pathetic! I had a rough time of it this semester. That's my excuse. I just never seemed to be able to stay ahead with everything that needed to get done. My classes weren't that difficult this semester but they required A LOT of homework. Which I'm terrible at. Plus I got a new job which was hard. Time management is not my strong suit.

So that's what I want to work on this coming year; following through with things. I got off track with eating too so I want to get back to that. I haven't felt that bad (fewer headaches then I have had in years past) but I do feel sluggish and have had some difficulty concentrating. Hopefully, I can turn that around!

I asked for one main thing this Christmas, a spiralizer! I got two different ones! I tried out one tonight and it worked pretty well but it's kind of bulky and hard to wash. I also got a smaller, handheld one that I'm going to try next week and see how well it does because that I can just pop into the dishwasher. But overall, I was pleased with how it worked.

I made a new recipe tonight with zoodles (zucchini noodles). This is another one of my own creations! It wasn't completely Paleo, though it could easily be adapted that way. I started cooking this and realized I was out of almond meal which is what I usually use to bread the eggplant. I ended up using Panko crumbs. NOT gluten free. Oh well.  This dish is vegetarian also. I hope you try it and enjoy it! My whole family liked it, even my dad!


Eggplant Parmesan with Creamy Tomato Basil Zoodles

For the zoodles:
3 medium zucchini
1 can diced tomatoes (fresh would be fine too)
2 T dry red wine
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp salt
2 T ricotta or cream cheese (omit if you'd like dairy free)
Pinch red pepper
Pinch black pepper
( I also used a teaspoon of italian herbs that I had but you don't have to)

For the Eggplant:
1 large eggplant, sliced
1/2 C almond meal
2 eggs, beaten
Mozzarella cheese or Parmesan cheese (I used mozzarella for my dad's. That's what's pictured above. I used Parmesan for mom and mine because we were being stricter with the dairy)
salt to taste
Olive oil to fry in

1. Combine tomatoes, wine, and spices. Let simmer till thick, about 20 minutes. Add ricotta and mix together. You can add some water if the sauce is too thick for your taste.

2. Spiral cut the zucchini. Stir fry slightly in a pan with olive oil. Do not overcook! They get mushy quickly! Sprinkle with some basil and salt if desired. Add sauce to coat and stir.

3. Slice eggplant bias cut. Dip in egg and then the almond meal. Fry in olive oil until brown.

4. Slice mozzarella or parmesan and lay on top of the eggplant. Broil for 1 minute until the cheese melts. Top with tomato sauce and serve!

P.S. You could also add a bit of tapioca starch or some other gluten free flour to the almond meal if you'd like. It makes it crispier if you do that. Sometimes I find the eggplant is a little soggy if you just use the almond meal but it depends on how much water is in the eggplant.

Alcohol on the Paleo diet: Good or Bad?

Is alcohol Paleo? Most people would say no, it's not. Though, fermented drinks have been traced back to the Neolithic time period so it's quite possible that the Paleolithic man did drink some type of fermented drink. Probably because, without refrigeration or preserving mechanisms, things will ferment on their own :)

But some alcohols are actually quite good for you in small doses. Red wine for example. It's high in antioxidants and has been proven to lower your risk for heart disease and prevent blood clotting (which can lead to strokes). Just like the saying goes, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away", a glass of red wine a day keeps death at bay. Not really :) But that would be cool! Wish I wasn't allergic to alcohol.

I know you're thinking, "what did she just say?!". Yep, totally allergic to alcohol. In the same way people are lactose intolerant, my body doesn't process ethanol. It's actually fairly common in Asians. My mother and brother both have the same condition. I have it to a lesser degree than both of them. I can have maybe 1/8 cup of wine or beer and be ok. Most days. If I'm tired or not feeling well to begin with, alcohol will exacerbate that. But I can cook with it because when you cook alcohol at a high temperature, you'll burn off the alcohol.

So here's a new recipe for you. I kinda took the Pioneer Woman's Steak Bites recipe and revamped it. I struggled with what to pair this recipe with. In the end, I decided on mashed cauliflower (potatoes for my dad, as he has not gotten on board with the whole Paleo thing and won't eat mashed cauliflower!) but I considered noodles. I think egg noodles would be good with this if you're not eating gluten free. Or quinoa pasta if you are.

Meal total: For steak bites, $4.85. I added peas and mashed cauliflower which adds $2 to the meal. $6.85 total

P.S. I just remembered that peas are not strictly Paleo either. Oh well, I already ate them :) But if you're wanting a truly Paleo meal, try come carrots or green beans instead. But might I add, those peas (Green Giant's select baby peas) were probably the best peas I have ever eaten! They fairly exploded in my mouth! They weren't mealy or mushy at all! Maybe that was due to my extraordinary "cooking" skills. And by cooking, I mean boiling them in the microwave. Probably not.

Steak Bites in a Red Wine Reduction

1-2 lbs sirloin steak, cut into cubes
4 T butter
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup chopped shallots
2 cloves garlic
2 T honey
1/2 cup beef broth
Fresh parsley
Salt and Pepper, to taste

-Heat a large skillet on high. Add butter and heat it till it's slightly browned
-Add cubed sirloin to butter and sear until nicely carmelized on one side. Flip bites over and sear again, maybe 3-4 minutes. Cook these on high so that they brown quickly without fully cooking the insides. That's the secret to cooking sirloin. Don't overcook sirloin or it'll be chewy.
- Remove meat to a bowl.
-Add more butter to pan if necessary and saute garlic and shallots together till translucent.
-Pour wine into pan to deglaze the pan. Cook for a few minutes.
-Add broth and honey to pan and cook on high for several minutes until sauce starts to reduce. Add meat back in and serve immediately.