I know I told you last Monday that we were working to clean up our diet this month. The holidays really got me off-track and if it weren’t for the flu, I’m sure I would have gained much more than the 4 extra pounds I saw on the scales last week. I’m incorporating some low-fat dairy into my daily diet and trying to eat potatoes only once a week or so. We are trying hard to cut out wheat completely, but don’t be surprised if you see an occasional tortilla make the plate. Josh is being much more stringent than I am. He isn’t drinking anything but water and is eating completely wheat and potato free. We’re trying to incorporate recipes that fit those criteria for us, but can be modified with a few ingredients for the girls. We’re working on their diets slowly and hoping that by making changes to our own plates, they will learn by osmosis. I’m planning to share a few recipes each week that we’ve tried and let you know what we think about them.On Monday we had paleo slow-cooker chicken fajitas. I remembered seeing this recipe on the interwebs somewhere in the last few weeks, but couldn’t manage to track it down. Instead we pieced together things we liked about several different recipes and it turned out pretty great. It’s just an added bonus that the house smelled like heaven while it was cooking.
On Tuesday we had breakfast for dinner. We’ve always loved to do this, but in the past it has included a pile of buttery biscuits and a heaping spoonful of jelly. This week we had scrambled eggs, fresh colby cheese slices {my pop works at a local dairy a few days a week and keeps us stocked in cheese} and bacon. Sometimes we sub in sausage patties and we made grits and whole wheat toast for the girls.
Wednesday is my small group Bible study, so my family is on their own! I stopped by Jason’s Deli with a few girlfriends and picked up a massive chopped salad for dinner. I had mixed greens, bell peppers, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots & bacon. It was so good!
Thursday night, we had pot roast. I wouldn’t call it clean since we use canned soup in ours, but I skipped out on the potatoes this week and we had steamed veggies instead. It’s a really simple recipe and gets zero complaints around here. We use the leftover meat for lunches for the rest of the week.
Friday night was family night and we used up our cheat meal for the week. We had cheap Mexican and took the girls to see The Nut Job. There was NOTHING clean or healthy about all that was consumed.
On Saturday, we had taco salad for dinner and it is a crowd pleaser. It is one of the easiest recipes to modify for paleo/clean eating. We used to use store-bought taco seasoning, full fat cheese, very few veggies, sour cream and as many tortilla chips as possible. Now we eat it more like a salad — on a big, fat bed of chopped romaine hearts — topped with low-fat cheese and fresh pico de gallo. Josh opts out, but I like to add a small amount of tortilla strips on top for a little crunch. You could easily leave those out and add grilled veggies and avocado.
Last night, we were so excited to have our oven operational again that we decided on steaks, sauteed veggies and oven roasted potatoes {which, of course, Josh avoided}. It was quick, thirty-minute meal and it might have been my favorite of the week!
Check out this week’s’ recipes below.
PALEO SLOW-COOKER CHICKEN FAJITAS:
- 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts {I used two and saved the last one for Josh to cook for lunch the next day}
- 1 each of red/yellow/green bell pepper, cut into strips
- 1/2 white onion, cut into strips
- 1 TB olive oil
- Juice from 1 lime
- 1 TB vegetable oil {or substitute with your oil of choice}
- 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 2 TB chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp light brown sugar {you paleo friends can leave this ingredient out}
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- sprinkle of black pepper
Combine last ten ingredients and whisk to create marinade. Cut chicken breasts into 1 inch cubes, coat in marinade and place into slow-cooker. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Combine peppers and onions {I used half of the veggies and stored the rest in a freezer bag for Josh to use in stir-fry and omelets for lunch the rest of the week} and layer on top of chicken in slow-cooker one hour before you’re ready to eat. Continue cooking on low until veggies are tender.
Josh ate this on a bed of lettuce with salsa and I used whole-wheat tortillas and low fat cheese for fajitas.
SLOW-COOKER POT ROAST:
- small beef roast
- 1 can beef consomme
- 1 can french onion soup {we strain out the onions}
- 1 bag of baby carrots
- 2 dried bay leaves
- Salt
- Pepper
- a few good shakes of minced onion
Place the pot roast in the bottom of your slow-cooker and cover with salt, pepper and minced onion. Add remaining ingredients and cook on high for 4 hours and low for 2-4 hours. Remove bay leaves before serving.
We cooked a freezer bag of steamed veggies to add to our plate.
KRISTIN’S PICO DE GALLO:
- 6 small vine ripened tomatoes {cut in half, scoop out seeds and finely dice}
- 1 medium red onion, finely diced
- 2 jalapeno peppers, finely diced {remove seeds unless you want some spice}
- handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
- juice of 2 limes
- salt to taste
Place first four ingredients in a bowl and mix, squeeze in lime juice and add a splash of water, salt to taste. Pico de gallo is ALWAYS better if you let it sit in the fridge overnight before serving. We use it on taco salad, grilled chicken breasts, hamburger patties, fajitas, omelets, pitas and almost everything else we can think of. I like to make a big batch on Sunday afternoon to use all week.
TACO SEASONING {via Caveman Food}:
- 2 T chili powder
- 1.5 T cumin
- 1.5 T paprika
- 1 T onion powder
- 1 T garlic powder
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1.5 tsp red pepper flakes
Place ingredients in a ziploc bag and shake. Brown 1 pound of ground beef in a deep skillet and drain. Add 1/4 cup of water, 3 T of taco seasoning and mix well. Simmer on low/medium for 5 minutes.
I like to triple the recipe and keep it in a plastic container so that we always have some on hand. It is just as flavorful as store-bought seasoning, but doesn’t include any unnecessary preservatives!
STOVE-TOP STEAKS:
- 2 NY Strip steaks, room temperature
- Olive oil
- 2 TB Grass-fed butter {we use Kerrygold, which Publix carries}
- Salt
- Pepper
- Herbs {try ground thyme or rosemary to taste}
Pat steaks dry and allow to come to room temperature. Coat both sides with olive oil, salt and pepper. Heat cast iron skillet over high heat. Drop a splash of water in the skillet and if it sizzles, you’ll know it’s ready! Cook steaks for 4 minutes on one side — do not move around or touch the steak while it’s cooking. Flip steak and cook for 3 minutes on the other side. Then add butter and herbs and baste the steak for a minute or two until melted. Remove steaks from heat and allow to rest for 3-5 minutes before serving. DO NOT cut steaks prior to serving. 4-5 minutes on each side will give you a medium-well steak. Shorten cook time for rarer finish.
OVEN-ROASTED POTATOES:
- 1 large, russet potato
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Onion salt
- Garlic powder
- Rosemary
- Oregano
Preheat oven to 400*. Rinse potato and slice into 1/4 inch slices. Cut slices into quarters. Coat with olive oil and place in a foil lined baking sheet. Sprinkle remaining ingredients liberally and cook until crispy. You could use any combination of spices for these potatoes, but I think you MUST use onion salt! 1 large potato is enough for 2 servings.
SAUTEED VEGGIES:
- Fresh green beans
- Broccoli florets
- Olive oil or grass-fed butter
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic Powder
This clearly isn’t a “recipe”, just how we like to cook veggies. You could pretty much cook anything that sounds good to you! Add oil or butter to skillet over medium/high, add veggies and seasoning and stir until tender.
We’ve already planned a list of yummy recipes to try this week and since my oven is FINALLY working {thanks to my amazing husband who spent Saturday morning with his head in the oven} we are trying quite a few oven recipes this week. Come back next week to see how we liked them!
sausage, egg & cheese breakfast muffins
chili-lime-cilantro slow-cooker chicken
garlic mashed cauliflower
meat-loaf stuffed bell peppers
