Chicken Satay with Sweet & Spicy Cole Slaw

Y'all - this was so good. MAKE IT. Tonight!

I took 2 chicken breasts and cut them up (while raw) into cubes about this size. Then I lightly doused them in Bragg Liquid Aminos put the pieces in a pan with a little olive oil and a little coconut oil (for flavor). The best thing about cooking chicken this way is time - it easily cuts your time in half.

While the chicken sauteed, I made the sauce as well as the cole slaw.

The recipe for the sauce was adapted from HERE.  I used my regular Liquid Aminos instead of coconut aminos. Note: this is derived from soy but is FAR better than soy sauce. You can read about the product here.

Sunflower Sauce (I halved this recipe for just the 2 chicken breasts): 

1/2 Cup Sunflower seed butter 
1 Cup coconut milk 
Juice of 1 lime or 2 Tbsp lime juice 
2 Tbsp Coconut Aminos (I used Bragg Liquid Aminos) 
1 Tsp Freshly ground ginger 
2 Garlic cloves chopped 
1/2 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes 
Combine all ingredients. 

Sweet & Spicy Cole Slaw: 
Note: I used the pre-shredded container of cabbage/carrots from Whole Foods. I highly recommend doing this.
3 cups shredded cabbage 
2 carrots - shredded
2 Tbsp yellow mustard 
3 - 4 Tbsp raw honey
1 - 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 
1 pinch of cayenne pepper (leave this out if serving kids) 
salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients. 

The sunflower sauce is like peanut sauce you'd get at an Asian restaurant. When the chicken was cooked through, I poured it straight into the pan with the chicken to warm it a little.

The slaw is so light and has a kick to it. I love that you can still have cole slaw without having to use mayo (the honey acts as a binding agent).  

This entire meal took 15 minutes! Gotta love that. Happy Eating Friends!

Baked Salmon with...Brussels Sprouts!

This post isn't meant to be a genius concoction, but just an idea and an example of a quick weeknight meal in our house. Tonight was another missed day at the gym, so I wanted another dinner that would bake itself while I worked out in the garage. While this bakes, you have enough time to do 3 rounds of:

500m row (or 600m run)
30 squats
10 burpees 

Sounds easy, right? It's a quad KILLA. And - better than nothing.

For 2 servings, you'll need:

1 10 oz salmon fillet (skin off)
10 brussels sprouts
1 lemon 
crushed garlic
salt & pepper
olive oil

I preheated the oven to 375 and sprayed one large Pyrex baking dish with olive oil.

I halved about 10 brussels sprouts and drizzled in olive oil, kosher salt, and crushed garlic. These went in the oven for 10 minutes while I prepped the salmon.

In my opinion, the easiest way to deal with salmon is to order a salmon fillet from the fresh fish section of the g-store and have them cut the skin off for you. I can't stand dealing with scaly fish skin. I bought one 10 oz fillet for two of us, and sliced it in half when I got home. 

I squeezed lemon juice on each half, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and added a lemon slice on top of each. Then, I placed the salmon in the same baking dish as the brussels sprouts, which had a head-start.

375 for 20 (additional) minutes - and you're done! So fresh and delish.

Sidenote: my salmon fillet was about 1 inch thick. If you get a thinner piece, you'll want to check it after about 15 minutes to make sure your salmon isn't overcooking- aka getting soggy.

The best part about this is that we used ONE dish! You'll be happy to know we even used gluten-free paper plates.

What the heck? You mean to tell me the paper plates I've been using all this time aren't gluten free?! ;)

Baked Chicken Breast with Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Obviously this is not rocket science - but it sure was G-O-O-D! I missed the gym today so decided to work out at home. As such, I wanted something that would bake itself while I busted out a half-Cindy in my garage (another story completely which ended in a huge hand rip).

I have a new favorite food - roasted brussels sprouts. I just cut the end off of these, cut them in half, and laid them out on a silicon-lined baking sheet. Then, I drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled them with crushed garlic and kosher salt. I love the crushed garlic in the jar - makes everything faster.

Do you like my super glam award-winning iPhone photography?

I hammered these organic boneless, skinless chicken cutlets so they were all the same thickness and coated them in the exact same stuff - olive oil, crushed garlic, and kosher salt. Easy peasy.

Update: My chicken breasts were about 3/4 of an inch thick. If you pound them thinner, you'll want to reduce the baking time so they aren't too dry. 

375 degrees and 35 minutes to healthy, crunchy goodness. My main source of good fat here was olive oil. 

 So good I promise. So flavorful! I don't even miss cheese or blackberry cobbler right now. 

Xo,

Alyssa

Quick Steamed Eggs

Today is the first day of daylight savings time. As I drove to the office in the dark I was so confused about the lack of traffic - then it hit me. Spring Break! Oh yea.

Point being, I'm way early and I have just enough time to get this little post up for the early birds. So, we eat these eggs pretty much every weekday. Paleo doesn't leave too many choices for breakfast unless you want to get fancy with protein-packed baked goods, so we do these every morning and mix it up on the weekends.

I have had this little Black & Decker steamer since my freshman year in college. My grandmother - bless her heart - gave it to me for school so I could steam vegetables for myself every night. I think she would have driven to college station to beat me had she known I was actually eating Whataburger 4 times a week. Anyway...the steamer can be purchased for probably $30 at Walmart.

I also have these little baby Pyrex cups (the kind they use on food shows to add spices, etc). These are the perfect size for one egg. I spray these little babies with olive oil and crack an egg into each. I do whole eggs for Ryan and one whole egg, one white for me.

 My steamer holds 4 of these. They have several new versions of the steamer that are oblong and would probably hold more. I set the timer for 12 - 13 minutes and finish getting ready for the day. This makes them a little more like hard-boiled. If you like softer (poached) I'd set the timer for about 10 minutes.

On my way out, I pull out my little cups and leave Ryan's in the steamer. If you recover them quickly they'll stay warm in there for about an hour. I use a spoon to pop them out of the Pyrex like so.

 I've been using this salsa for a while and I LOVE IT. For the longest time I could only find it at Whole Foods, but they have it at HEB now. It's just avocado, cucumber, and peppers. Get some. YUM.

I eat this with 2 slices of turkey bacon - microwaved for 1 minute. And yes, this is a paper plate. Remember - PRACTICAL paleo.

I know that seems like a lot of instruction for something that literally takes 2 minutes (besides steam time), but I'm kind of new to this food blogging thing, so bear with me. ENJOY!

Xo,
Alyssa