Healthy Eating Challenge
Are you ready to get your healthy on? Call it Paleo. Call it Primal. Call it whatever you want. Just get on the Hotness Train. After about eight weeks of this new approach to food, people will be checking out your booty where ever you go. To get you started, here's a week of dinner suggestions.
Some of the recipes are already posted. Some are new. I gave you links to the existing recipes and included the new recipes this post, but I'll revisit them (hopefully this week). I'll be adding photos and categorizing them so you can find them quickly, if you want.
Sunday
Perfect Roast Chicken
Roasted Carrots
Salad of mixed baby greens, crumbled chevre, red onion, sliced apples, craisins, roasted pecans and balsamic vinaigrette
Monday
CrossFit Leftovers
2 cups cooked chicken
¼ cup chopped onion
1 small green pepper, chopped
4 to 6 oz fresh chopped mushrooms
2 T oil or butter
¼ t freshly ground black pepper
2 T cornstarch
1 cup milk
½ cup cream
1¼ cups stock or broth
Cauliflower Rice
In a large skillet, heat the oil or butter and sauté the onion for 2-3 minutes. Add the green pepper and mushrooms, and cook until softening. Add black pepper and the cornstarch. Cook for 2 minutes. Add liquids, bring to a simmer and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add chicken, heat through (about 10 minutes).
Serve chicken mixture over cauliflower rice.
Don’t use any veggies you don’t like, but be sure to substitute something else.
Recipe from Mark's Daily Apple
Tuesday
Steak Bites
1 lb sirloin
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 T butter
Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle generously with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, and toss the meat to coat it with the seasonings.
Heat a skillet over medium high to high heat. As the pan heats, add about 2 tablespoons butter to the skillet. Allow the butter to melt and then brown, before you add the meat.
Place some of the meat in the pan in a single layer. If the pan is hot enough, the meat will sizzle loudly when it hits the pan. Don’t stir or disrupt the meat for 30-45 seconds. You want it to sizzle and brown on one side. Scoop as many steak bites as you can with your spatula and flip them over. Repeat until all the meat is turned. Cook for an additional 30 to 45 seconds—just long enough to sear the outside of the meat but not cook the inside.
Remove the meat to a clean plate. Add a little more butter to the pan and repeat the cooking process with the next batch just as before. Before serving, pour all that browned/blackened butter all over the meat.
Recipe from The Pioneer Woman.
Coleslaw (I made this meal with Lemony Peppery Green Beans last week, but in the Challenge, green beans are illicit. Don't eat them or else you will go to Paleo Jail - a very bad place.)
Oven-Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Follow the receipt for Roasted Butternut Squash, using around 3 large sweet potatoes cut into spears and only ½ the butter, syrup, salt and pepper.
Wednesday
Sandy Creek Farms Italian Sausages
Marinara Sauce – homemade or jarred organic sauce
Salad of Romaine letter, shaved parmesan cheese, sliced tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers. Drizzle with red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
Thursday
Swiss Chard Frittata
Oven-Roasted Broccoli
Friday
Artic Char (or Salmon) Chowder
1.5 pounds Arctic Char or Salmon. Thicker fillets are easier to cut into cubes
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1-2 cups vegetable broth
28-ounce can crushed tomato (no salt added)
1/2 t dried thyme or 1 t chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 whole bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)
Make sure the skin and bones removed from the fish. Cut the fish into 3/4 inch cubes and salt and pepper lightly.
Melt butter in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook for 5 minutes. Add the broth, tomatoes, thyme and bay leaf.
Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Add the fish and cream. Mix to incorporate cream and then simmer, covered or uncovered, for another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the bay leaf. Adjust the seasoning if needed and if you have any fresh herbs on hand (tarragon or thyme are especially good) add a bit for extra flavor.
Recipe from Mark's Daily Apple
Fresh raw vegetables, cut or sliced, such as carrots, red, yellow or green bell peppers, celery
Edamame Hummus
Saturday
Pork Carnitas shredded and served with lightly sauted onions and pepper slices, guacamole, salsa and sour cream over chopped Romaine lettuce.
