Category Archives: lunch & dinner

“Gravy”

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Tools required: Immersion blender
Serves 4

Ingredients

1 slice bacon
Chicken giblets
Chicken juices reserved from Mediterranean Chicken recipe
Dried oregano and rosemary to taste
2 Tb mashed cauliflower (for use as thickener)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In pan, cook the bacon – it adds wonderful flavor.
Remove the cooked bacon, but keep the grease (this is what we’re after anyway – feel free to snack on the bacon).
In the bacon grease, cook chicken giblets and remove from pan for more snacks (this step deepens the flavor of the gravy).
Now, add the chicken juices reserved from the roasted chicken and stir.
Add a tsp each of oregano and rosemary if you like.

Once combined, pour into your 2 cup measure along with 2 Tb mashed cauliflower.
Blend with immersion blender until you reach a gravy consistency (you may need to add more mashed cauliflower to reach your desired texture).
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour liberally over EVERYTHING. Seriously, this is delicious.

Smoked Salmon Cucumber Rounds

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No special tools required
Serves 4 as a light snack, or 2 for lunch

Ingredients

Smoked salmon
1 cucumber
4 hardboiled egg yolks (Trader Joes sells peeled hardboiled eggs, making this super easy)
1 lemon, zest and juice
Salt to taste
Dill for garnish

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Chicken – 5 ways

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We all get tired of chicken – so here’s 5 different ways to mix it up! Prepare a whole tray so you can eat it throughout the week.

Ingredients: 

Chicken parts – a whole tray full of legs, thighs, breasts or wings
Olive oil

Seasoning Variations:
Use 1/2 teaspoon of each seasoning indicated

-Mediterranean – sea salt, sage, rosemary, thyme
-Italian – juice from 1 lemon, rosemary and garlic infused olive oil (fabulous on salmon also!)
-Moroccan – sea salt, cumin, coriander, turmeric, curry, cinnamon
-Greek: sea salt, lemon salt, oregano, black pepper
-BBQ style: sea salt, paprika, cinnamon, black pepper

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Sweet Potatoes – 2 ways

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This is one of our go-to paleo sides. It’s easy to make a big batch and it reheats well. We’ve come up with two different variations here.

Ingredients: 

3 Sweet potatoes – scrubbed and chopped into 1″ squares
1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil

Variation 1 –
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon thyme

Variation 2 –
1 star anise, finely crushed
1″ piece fresh ginger, grated
1 lime, zested and juiced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon Fresh ground pepper

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Zucchini Pasta

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If you’re craving pasta, this vegetable-based version will hit the spot. It’s easiest if you have an attachment on your mixer that will make nice noodles for you, but a similar effect can be gained by using a potato peeler to create long strands of zucchini.

Ingredients: 

3 Zucchini
Olive Oil
Tomatoes – chopped into 1/2″ cubes
Basil (preferably fresh)

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Instructions:

Either peel the zucchini by hand or use the spiral attachment
Toss with olive oil
Pan fry for just a couple minutes – so the “noodles” just start to soften up
Mix in fresh tomatoes and basil
Enjoy!

Turkey Meatballs with Kale & Zucchini

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The best part about these meatballs is that they’re actually half vegetable! Double the recipe to make a whole pan so you can bring them to work throughout the week for lunch.

Ingredients: 

1 pound ground turkey
2 zucchini – shredded
1 bunch of kale – chopped in food processor
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

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Hemp Veggie Burgers

So honestly when we were making some of these hemp themed recipes, we weren’t sure how well they would turn out. We were pleasantly surprised with how well these came out. We’d make these again even if there wasn’t a hemp theme to the day! We got a couple recipes for some veggies patties and then improvised heavily to get the following –

Ingredients: 

2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups cooked quinoa
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup finely chopped kale

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Hemp Day

While most people are familiar with the 4/20 holiday less people are familiar with the 4/21 Hemp Day Holiday. Hemp is a superfood that comes in many edible forms –  seeds, hemp hearts, oil, butter, protein powder, milk and flour. There’s now hemp beer, hemp granola and a plethora of other healthy (and not so healthy) hemp snacks on the market these days. Yet hemp has a lot of other practical uses in many other industries. The same plot of hemp that you can make a variety of foods from can also be used to make lotions and soaps; the fibers can be used for textiles, insulation, bio-composites, rope; and the dust can even be used as a byproduct to soak up oil spills or compressed into a pellet and sold to coal companies as an energy source for carbon offsets. Additional products that can be made from hemp include: paper, carpeting, paints, ethanol/biofuel, diesel fuel, animal bedding and animal feed, mulch, flour, solvents and lubricants. Why do I know or care about all this hempy goodness? My roommate from grad school is a hemp-obsessed Fulbright Scholar that know more about hemp than anyone else I’ve ever met! So for hemp day we used some of these ingredients to make some tasty hemp food, all while enjoying hemp beer!

Zucchini Patties

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I was at a friends house and spied a library book called 21 Day Sugar Detox. Never being one to pass up a book, much less a cookbook, I flipped through it and was immediately intrigued. The cookbook lays out a 21 day plan for curbing your sugar cravings, and not only that gives three different levels of detox plans. I snapped a few photos of some recipes and figured I find the book at my local library later. I immediately went home and made these delightful little snacks/sides!

Ingredients:

4 cups grated zucchini or carrots – well drained
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup coconut oil

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Pork Chops Stuffed with Prosciutto

We found this recipe in the great Italian Gourmet Cooking magazine that’s out on the newsstands now!

Ingredients:

4 bone-in, thick-cut pork chops (center cut rib chops)
8 sage leaves, cut into ribbons
8 thin slices mozzarella
4 slices prosciutto
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper

 

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Squid Ceviche

Ready to eat!

Thanks to Local Catch Monterey Bay for another week of seafood adventures! This week we were lucky enough to get a bag of squid, when we had a big bag of limes that needed to be used. Hence the ceviche! It’s a very basic recipe, made from referencing a few different websites, and adapted to the ingredients we had on-hand.

Ingredients:

1 lb squid 
6-8 limes
1 bunch cilantro 
3-4 tomatoes
1/2 – 1 large onion 

Instructions:

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Honey Spiced Brussel Sprouts

These days, being in grad school, I need things that are fast an easy that I can make while soon other things. In an attempt to make cooking brussel sprouts easier and also copy some of the best brussel sprouts I’ve ever had from Michael’s On Main in Capitola I came up with this ridiculously easy method.

Ingredients

Brussel Sprouts
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
handful of roasted pecans

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 F
Chop the brussel spouts into quarters, making sure to remove the bottoms
Coat the brussel sprouts with olive oil and then season with salt and pepper
Bake for 20-30 minutes total, stirring half way through
Meanwhile, melt the butter, honey and cinnamon in a sauce pan 
Once the brussel sprouts are done cooking, pour the honey butter over them
Top with chopped up pecans
Enjoy!  

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Zucchini Crustless Quiche

Ingredients:

3 small zucchini
1 onion, chopped
2 pieces of bacon (cooked)
6 eggs total
1/2 cup parmesan (shredded)
1/2 cup feta (shredded)
8 oz Monterey jack cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup fresh parsley
2 pieces of toast cut up into small pieces

 

Instructions:

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Tomato Dill Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 red Onion
2 small leeks – white and light green pieces only
3 Tbls butter
2 lbs tomatoes (from our garden!)
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 tsp fresh ground blk pepper
sea salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp dried dill
herbed goat cheese to top it off

 

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Spinach, Black Bean, Pesto Sausage & Egg Breakfast

Here’s an easy recipe for busy mornings… pre-make individual serving egg dishes! Here’s what we used, per person:

3 eggs
1/4 cup chopped spinach
1/4 cup black beans
1 chopped up sausage (optional)

Mix everything together in individual oven-safe dishes

Bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes
(or until egg has cooked through)

Let cool.
Refrigerate if you’re going to eat them in the newt couple days, freeze if longer.
To reheat, place cold dishes in oven
Reheat at 250F for 30-60 minutes (cover with foil to prevent additional browning)
Now you have time to go for a run or get the kids out the door while your breakfast cooks!
Or simply microwave if you’re in a hurry!

“Man Salad”

Over a bed of lettuce, layer chopped up cucumber, celery, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, avocado and, of course, bacon. Dress with a pre-made vinaigrette or olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

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Steak fajita bowl with taco

Dinner time! Grilled up some chunks of steak from trader joe’s, sautéed the onions and bell peppers, layered all that on top of black refried beans and quinoa. Served it up with a taco filled with sour cream, avocado, cheese and bell peppers. Easy, yummy dinner!

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Waldorf Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
2 medium celery ribs, diced
green onions, minced
1 large crisp apple, cored and diced
6 tablespoons chopped, toasted walnuts
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Salt and ground black pepper
1 teaspoon celery salt

 

 

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