Salmon with Mustard Dill Sauce

Its been a crazy weekend, and not much time to cook or get to the grocery store. If you all are anything like me, you probably have a bag of some type of frozen fish lurking deep in the back of the freezer. I had two pieces of salmon vacuum packed and ready to be released from freezer hell. Found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and liked it for the most part, although I would probably bake or grill the salmon next time instead of poaching it. The sauce was tasty though and I would use it on any type of fish.

Salmon with Mustard Dill Sauce
Ingredients:
2 salmon or other fish fillets
1 cup wine
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup greek yogurt (if you allow dairy)
1/4 cup dijon mustard (I used trader joe's aoili garlic mustard sauce)
1 tbspn honey
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tbspn chopped dill

put wine and water in saucepan and add fish. Poach with lid on for 10-12 min over med heat until fish is flaky. Meanwhile, mix yogurt, mustard, honey, lemon juice, and dill to serve on top.

POWER FOOD ALERT**

FYI, salmon is a fantastic source of omega 3's. Offering both DHA and EPA omega 3 acids, these can help lower triglyceride levels and blood pressure and may even alleviate symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Other nutritional benefits:

• high in selenium, an antioxidant that protects healthy cells by fighting off free radicals
• High in niacin, B6, B12, and Vitamin D

Make sure you buy wild Alaskan salmon over the farmed variety, it is safer and offers more nutrients.

FUN FACT - when wild salmon swim upstream from the ocean into rivers and streams to spawn they help replenish those freshwater habitats with nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

Beets N Sweets

I have had a bunch of beets sitting in my fridge all week waiting for some attention, so tonight I am bringing out the beets. Allrecipes.com is my first go to recipe site because it has such a large library of recipes, and the comments and pictures are super helpful. I picked Beets N Sweets because well, I had all the ingredients, and I thought it would go well with the Carne Asada from Trader Joe's I am cooking tonight. I will report back after I test it out on the family.

Beets N Sweets

Ingredients:

3 tbspn olive oil

1 tsp garlic salt

3 beets ends cut and peeled, cut in cubes

1 large sweet potato - peeled and cut in cubes

1 sweet onion - cut in cubes

1 tsp sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400. Toss beets in olive oil and lay out in single layer on cookie sheet - cook for 15 min alone. Meanwhile - toss rest of ingredients in a bowl and add to cookie sheet to bake for another 35-45 minutes.

Power Fuel Wrap

Hey Folks, back from a long weekend in Winter Park, Florida with Margaret and Nikki for our Crossfit Level 1 cerfication. Great weekend! While we did not stay strict to Paleo this weekend, we had some AWESOME food and I came back with a couple of non-paleo meals that I will attempt to tweak for the cavemen followers out there. First up is The Power Fuel Sandwich - peanut butter, strawberries, granola, and drizzled honey served in a pita.

Power Fuel Wrap

Wrap Ingredients:

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1/4 cup egg whites

1/4 cup coconut milk

2 Tbspn flaxseed meal

Filling:

1 banana

2 strawberries

chopped pecans or paleo granola

drizzle of honey

2 Tbspn sunflower butter or almond butter

For wraps - mix ingredients and heat up a non-stick mini pan or full sized pan. Spray with pam if you have any sticking issue with your pan. For the mini pan pour in 1/2 the batter and tip pan around until full bottom is covered in thin layer of batter. turn when edges start curling up -(use a non-metal spatula) cook on other side until set and slide onto plate. Repeat with rest of batter or make one big crepe style wrap with a big pan. Spread wrap(s) with sunflower or almond butter, top with banana slices and strawberry slices, drizzle with a small amount of honey and sprinkle chopped pecans or paleo granola on top. Fold in half, roll, or just dig in!

Paleo Pizza

I have been sitting here feeling guilty because I have not posted in a couple of days. My eggplant chicken and spaghetti squash with meatsauce have been holding me over the last couple of days so my cooking has consisted of reheating. Luckily Matt sent me a link to Paleo Pizza which he has tried and says turned out good. So - here is the link to the recipe on the crossfit genius website - PALEO PIZZA .

FYI, there is a little controversy on several of the paleo recipes that stray away from caveman like simplicity, attempting to recreate the processed modern dishes that have been the root of our declining healthy diet. Many of my recipes contain ingredients that should be considered "occasional" foods, and not mainstays of the daily paleo diet. These include almond flour, dates, fruits, sweeteners, etc. I personally need occasional treats like paleo brownies, paleo pizza, bacon-wrapped sweet potato fries to keep me on track with a paleo lifestyle. But because the treats are posted frequently don't mistake the importance of getting the majority of your nutrition from lean high quality protein sources, vegetables, and good fats.

I am off on a trip this weekend, but will be posting back next Tuesday with hopefully some good meat and vegi type dishes. PLEASE send me any good recipes you have!

Eggplant Chicken Sandwich

Hold the Bun Please! I don't know about you all, but I can only eat so many salads before I start jonesing for anything that comes between two pieces of bread - you know, a sandwich! Meat just seems so much happier when its tucked inside two pieces of something, anything, to give it a warm happy home. Well, bread is a no-no for those of us trying to live a Paleo lifestyle so I have a couple of go to options for transforming my meals into "sandwiches". For burgers I love to roast a big portabella mushroom cap. Deli sandwiches are great wrapped in a couple of large pieces of lettuce (think Jimmy John's Unwich). Tonight I am trying an Eggplant Chicken Sandwich.



Eggplant Chicken Sandwich



Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts - beat thin with mallet
olive oil or pam
favorite spices (I used garlic herb for 1/2 and lemon pepper for 1/2)
eggplant - cut in 1/2 inch slices
any toppings that you wish (I topped with spinach, garlic aioli mustard)

Preheat oven to 300. Pat breasts dry and rub with oil and spices. Lay in pyrex dish and bake for 30 min with a pan of water on shelf underneath (makes really moist chicken ). Cut eggplant in 1/2 inch rounds and lay out on a paper towel and salt. After chicken is done increase temp to 400 and place eggplant on sheet sprayed with pam. Drizzle olive oil over eggplant and roast for 15 min. while keeping chicken warm. Turn eggplant and broil for another 5 min. Spread with garlic mustard (or garlic mayo, sundried tomato pesto, get creative) and top with chicken, spinach, tomato, again whatever you want. Do me a favor - if you try this, comment on what you think and what toppings/spreads you tried.

Bacon-Wrapped Sweet Potato Fries

Anyone who really knows me, knows that sweet potato fries are my ultimate weakness. If they are listed on a menu, they must be ordered! So, when I found this recipe on a paleo friendly website ( www.thefoodee.com/blog ) I started salivating immediately. My sweet potato slices are soaking as I type and I plan to bring these along with me to my superbowl party tonight - secretly hoping that I can hide them in a corner and eat them all myself.

Bacon-Wrapped Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

2 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut in thick matchsticks

bacon (I will let you be the judge of how much, I can't stomach too much bacon grease so I will use sparingly)

Optional dipping sauce:

1/2 cup mayo

1-2 chipoltes

juice of 1 lime

Soak sweet potato matchsticks for 6 hours in a bowl of cold water. This apparently removes most of the starch from the potatoes (you will see the white glob at the bottom of the bowl). Rinse and pat dry. Cut bacon slices in 1/2's or thinner lengthwise and wrap around sweet potatoes. Arrange leftover non wrapped fries around wrapped ones so the grease will spread. Bake at 425 for 25 min and then flip and cook another 10-12 minutes. Squeeze lime juice over the fries and serve with mayo and chipoltes pulsed together in food processor.

Superbowl Snacks

Superbowl weekend is here and I am thinking we need to post some paleo friendly snacks for all the noshing we will be doing on Sunday. If you have any great recipes PLEASE shoot them to me in the comment section or email me. I will put my thinking cap on and report back today or tomorrow with hopefully some tasty suggestions.

Curry Chicken with Butternut Squash and Portabella Mushrooms

It has been crazy around the Teague house the last couple of days with the "Historic" storm of 2011 - yeah, whatever! We ended up getting a couple of inches of ice pellets and maybe an inch of snow. What we also got was a houseful of teenagers for the last three days, with no end in sight. School is off again today and I have had a minimum of 5, max of 10 large smelly teenagers reeking havoc in my humble abode. Needless to say, my cooking has been limited to mac n cheese, ramen noodles, and eggs and bacon to feed the masses. We did have chicken n dumplings the other night and I managed to pull out a couple of chicken breasts to whip up my own creative curry dish with what I had left in the fridge. Here is my modge podge recipe, it actually turned out pretty tasty.

Curry Chicken with Butternut Squash and Portabella Mushrooms

3 chicken breasts boiled with onion
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 portabella mushroom caps, cubed
1 jar Trader Joes Yellow Curry Sauce

Cook the chicken breasts how ever you like. I happened to boil them along with some others I was using for another recipe. Preheat oven to 400. Spray pan with pam and lay out squash and mushroom cubes in single layer. Roast for 1/2 hour or until tender. Shred or chop chicken into bite size pieces. Mix chicken, curry sauce, and vegis and serve.

New cooking method for Chicken:

I met a very nice lady at Dierberg's the other day who got to talking with me about Paleo and other healthy topics and she sent me an email on her favorite way to cook chicken. Sounds great to me and I plan to try it next time I have a couple of chicken breasts.

Preheat oven to 275-300 degrees. Pound chicken breasts with a mallet until thin and rub with 2 Tbspn olive oil and cover with preferred herbs and spices. Bake in pyrex glass dish for about 30 minutes. **Place a pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven. Chicken comes out moist and delicious - can't wait to try!

Hope you are all fairing well in the ice and cold!!