My Paleo Adventures

Greetings!! 

It's a rainy, cold day with the threat of a snow storm. It's the perfect kinda day for writing and sharing, no? Sometime back I mentioned that I was looking into changing my eating habits and giving Paleo a nudge. I like the fact that it's a lifestyle and not a diet... My bestie gave me a really good starting point by recommending Michelle's Nom Nom Paleo! Her website is fun to read, her recipes seem very easy and so far are radly delicious! I must admit tho, that I've only made one recipe so far which is her Garbage Stir Fry which included:

Chicken
Bell Peppers
Onion
Broccoli
Garlic
Carrots
Spinach

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Last week to get my feet wet, I decided that I was going to go a week without bread! I am the sammach queen, so this was a big deal for me. :) For our dinners I cooked nothing but meat and veggies and I was really pleased with the results! It forced me to be more creative with what I was cooking instead of relying on breads and pastas which is pretty standard around my house. I even ended up losing 2 lbs! Yip yippie!

I really enjoyed last weeks eats and so I figured why not try it again with the meat & veggies thang. So this week I'm going to try another recipe from Nom Nom Paleo & cook  Sauteed Shrimp & Veggies! I've got my fresh shrimp and broccoli ready to roll for tonights meal and for the rest of this weeks line up I'll prepare Grilled Chicken, Broccoli & Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Another Garbage Stir Fry, and Baked Chicken, Corn on the Cobb, & Roasted Brussel Sprouts with a Bacon Aioli sauce. Yum!

I know that I'm not full on practicing the Paleo lifestyle, but I need to bring in all the changes like a stealthy ninja. Quietly and slowly so that my brain doesn't freak out! Ha Ha. So let's consider this Phase 1 on implementing a new program. Have you tried any new recipes lately?

Ciao!

Photo Source ~ Primal GRITS 

Food Experiment: Fried Green Tomatoes

Salutations!

If you read my last post, then, you know I went home a couple weeks ago. Often times The Mom and I like to cook stuff when we're together and this time was no exception. Instead of the normal eats, we decided to branch out and tackle Fried Green Tomatoes! I must tell you that whenever I think of the food, I immediately think of the movie! It's one of those things you watch when you're alone at home with a lot of time on your hands.

I've had them one other time than this and I thought they were rather tasty, so I gave the thumbs up to the challenge! I will admit now that I really didn't have too much hands on action with this. I was too busy snapping the pictures and being excited. :)

We pulled out all of the ingredients first to get them ready:

*Flour ~ Cornmeal ~ Baking Powder ~ Salt ~ Cayenne ~ Milk ~ Eggs ~ Tomatoes ~ Butter *

Then it was time to get elbow deep in some Southern cookin! The tomatoes were expertly cut by my mother into nice thick slices and then given a frothy milk and egg bath. Next it's a dunk in the cornmeal and seasonings and finally a rest on the pan to before being thrown in the cast iron skillet..

They fry up quick as a flash and are crunchy on the outside and firm and hot on the inside!  Some got a little darker than expected, but even they still had a good flavor. 

I would totally make these on my own. It reminds me of frying up some pork chops except it takes a lot less time. Have you made fried green tomatoes before? How did it go? 

Until the next time.. 

Ciao! 

I Challenge You!

~Photo Source~
 

Greetings!

I'm excited to talk about today's blog post! I pretty much like anything that involves being creative and cooking is no exception. I don't know about you, but I like sitting down and watching cooking shows. They make me feel inspired to cook lavish and extremely tasty meals. I was talking with a co-worker last month (Ok, we were lollygagging because we didn't feel like working) and I came up with the idea to do a Pinterest Challenge! A lot of times, I pin quite a bit of recipes yet I never bother to cook them. There are plenty of  Pinterest challenges for clothes or DIY's, so why not food too?

So here's the deal: We decided to cook one recipe from Pinterest per week and bring the other person a serving of it. So it's kind of a double whammy of trying the foods of Pinterest.. Bam!

Because I'm in love with all food that is Latin/Mexican/Tex-Mex, my first dish is Chicken Tortilla Soup. Here's what it calls for:


1 lb of raw chicken 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 medium onion, diced

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
1 cup frozen corn (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
2 cups (or 1 can) of chicken broth
1 T cumin
1 T chili powder
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 T chopped cilantro

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All the ingredients got thrown in a crock pot on low heating and left to cook all the day is long. I did all of my prep last night as far as chopping up the onion and garlic and I pre-measured all of the spices. Looks like I'm getting at least one of my Weekly Wishes done! (yay) I used canned chicken by Tyson because well.... it's my go to chicken for everything. It needs no seasoning to taste good and who really wants to deal with raw chicken. Not I! Blech...

Can I just tell you that it turned out awesome! Did you really have any doubt that it would though? I didn't. Haha! You can't really go wrong with a crock pot meal unless you under season.

 

 So are you in this with me??? Go ahead and try that recipe that you salivated over. Share it with friends or like me with co-workers. Share it right here with me too. I wanna read about about it! Until the next time.. 

Ciao! 



An InLinkz Link-up

A Day Off = Chicken Pot Pie Day

Greetings!

It's that time again..... Food Experiment Time! 

I really like to cook and try new things I haven't done before, because....... well it's fun. Being me, I always find a recipe to follow and then don't follow it all the way, b/c there is some ingredient that I don't have in the house or one I know I'm not gonna buy. Why don't I buy it, you ask? Because... what if I make the dish and find that I don't like it and then I have something like a bottle of white wine that I'm not gonna use again? So yeah, I end up pretty much making the new and improved version of a recipe that I've never tasted anyway. lol! 

It all started with Granny's apron..

And Aunt Lukie's Chicken Pot Pie recipe... She has the ONLY.... and I seriously mean the only chicken pot pie recipe that I've ever liked. Ever............

I will admit that it's somewhat altered.... again.. you gotta work with what you got. 

A few carrots.. (and some peas not shown)

Some rough chopped onion..

Garlic, Salt and pepper to taste..

And then........ a pie was born!!! bwahahahaha!

All done! This is only the 3rd pie I've ever made in my entire life. The first two were for Thanksgiving quite a few years back. They didn't turn out so well. Never mix baking your first pie, with using your oven in a new apartment for the first time either. You only end up with two burnt and rock hard Chess pies. This one almost when to the darkside as well, but I smelled it before it was too far gone. I totally had the timer on... it just didn't take 40 mins to cook is all. :) 

It was still yumtastic though, so I'm happy with the results. Did you have a food experiment lately?

*Peace*

A. Sparkle