Mexican Chicken Lettuce Wraps

After crossfit and walking the dogs at the beach, i was starving...i had Mexican Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I had prepared chicken/red&green capsicum/chilli/cumin yesterday, so i just heated it up in the microwave and used lettuce as a base. Topped it off with some salsa. Delicious!

Sunday Prep

Bought and de-boned a BBQ chicken for the week, made paleo peppermint fudge babies for sweet cravings, picked up ingredients for Mark's slow-cooked beef stew (I will get that started tonight to cook overnight), washed some cos (romaine) lettuce and wrapped it in damp paper towel and in a plastic bag (keeps longer).

My 'main dish' for the week is mexican chicken wraps. I will use cos lettuce for the 'wrap' part. I sauteed some sliced red & green capsicum and onion in canola oil, and added a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, a green chilli, some onion powder, cayenne powder, and cumin. After cooking the veggies I removed from the pan and added some sliced chicken breast to cook, then mixed it all up together. I will reheat in the microwave when needed, and use the lettuce to wrap it all up. I also have some salsa in a jar (very little sugar and no additives) to add as well.

I picked up some skinless, boneless chicken breast on sale yesterday, 2 kgs. The rest of the chicken was diced and frozen into 3 portions - i can use this later this week to make some chicken curry. Life is so much easier when I have stuff ready at all times!! I'm still getting through the roast veggies I did on Thursday, i reheat these quite quickly and throw in some BBQ chicken and walnuts for a quick meal.

Mmmmm.....STEAK!

No, I haven't stopped my paleo eating...I am just eating same/same most days now so not much to report. On Sundays I make up a batch of either beef chilli, or green curry chicken, or bolognaise sauce. I prepare, chop, and spiralise veggies. I eat the meat on a bed of veggies for breakfast. Lunches usually consist of shredded BBQ chicken, nuts and salad, and dinners are meat and veggies. So nothing really different there. We also seem to go through those peppermint paleo fudge babies fairly quickly!

Tonight I had a yummy steak, salad (roma tomatoes, red onion, fresh coriander and lebanese cucumber) and some sauteed sweet potato and pumpkin with a dash of sea salt.

Last night, circumstances dictated that for dinner i had Maccas's: a quarter pounder, chips and a diet coke. It was fairly disgusting actually, and I'm feeling the effects today. It is difficult to find paleo-friendly food when out and about and in a hurry. Planning is The Key to paleo success. And I'm finding I'm missing my sourdough bread, so I bought a loaf today, sliced it and shoved in the freezer, I will eat it as toast with my eggs on weekends only. I can't give up everything!

Paleo tacos

After crossfit and walking my dogs on the beach, I was STARVING, so i had a big fat paleo taco...it was fabulous. I used a big leaf of cos (romaine) lettuce as the taco, and filled it with the taco meat i had prepared last night (heated in the microwave) and topped it with the red cabbage colesaw (which was also prepared last night). It was messy but yummy. 10/10! Having things ready ahead of time is a fantastic time saver.

Sunday evening cook-a-thon

Well, Sundays are turning out to be quite busy in the kitchen. Today I made some peppermint fudge babies (and then was trying out my new camera and being creative!). They are sooo delicious. This variation had 1.5C of pitted dates, a splash of peppermint essence, 4T cocoa powder and about 2C cashews. Into the food processor and then rolled into balls and chilled. Mark is getting very good at rolling them!!

Since I am fairly good at multi-tasking (I am a woman, after all), I chopped up some root vegetables and roasted them in sizzling bacon fat and dried Italian herbs...yummy! I used turnip/swede, parsnips, carrots, sweet potato, zucchini and peeled garlic cloves.

While those were roasting, I seared some diced chunks of stewing beef, deglazed the pan with red wine, and threw it in the slow cooker with sweet potato and peas for Mark (he is not a vegetable lover so I need to be careful with what I can sneak into his meals).

And then! yes there's more!! I sauteed some onion and garlic in olive oil, and then added some hot chicken stock and raw broccoli, simmered for a while and then pureed it. Voila, broccoli soup! I was going to add some coconut milk but in fact it looks quite creamy on its own.

Okay. Then I cooked up some spicy beef mince: onion, grated zucchini, chilli flakes, and a jar of medium salsa. Now I used 'Doritos salsa' which was my only option. All these American blogs talk about the great stuff you can buy at Trader Joe's...well I don't think we have that here in Australia, and lots of the organic salsa I have seen has loads of sugar in it. At least in this one, sugar is the 7th ingredient, so I'm good with that small amount. I chopped up some jalapeno peppers to throw in. This will go into my paleo lettuce tacos tomorrow.

To go with the taco meat, I shredded some red cabbage, carrot, red onion, and squeezed half a lemon over it all, then added a grated green apple. I am hoping the lemon juice will help the apple NOT brown overnight! This delicious coleslaw will be a topping on my tacos.

So now I have washed a whole heap of dishes, eaten some of the roast veggies with sausages for dinner, and I feel great about what I have accomplished today!!

Chilli Prawns

I marinated some green prawns with tails on, in olive oil, freshly squeezed lime juice and a couple of cloves of fresh garlic plus chopped basil and coriander. Mark BBQd them for me, while he was doing that I made myself a salad with:

finely diced roma tomato, red (spanish) onion, lebanese cucumber
freshly squeezed lime juice, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, fresh herbs

I was at B-Fresh the other day, having a coffee with Danielle, and checked out their selection of local and imported products including organic stuff. I found this: Roza's Rocket sauce, here are the ingredients:

organic red chillies
ginger
garlic
bush honey
vinegar
spices

It is delicious, and HOTTTTTT! I used it as a dipping sauce for the prawns.

Kelp noodle stirfry

I'm kind of addicted to kelp noodles. This morning I made a stirfry with shredded roast chicken, kelp noodles, toasted slivered almonds, a dash of wheat-free soy sauce, shredded cabbage, spiralised carrot and zucchini, and broccoli. Basically i toasted the nuts first, then removed them from the pan, and threw in everything else with a splash of olive oil and heated it all through. Nothing really needed cooking, just heating (although i did steam the broccoli in the microwave first).

KELP NOODLES (quoting from the label);

Healthful, delicious, easy to prepare and fun to eat!
Made with mineral-rich sea kelp
Low in carbs and calories and fat-free
Free from all allergens
Ready to eat
Neutral taste

Ingredients: water, kelp, sodium alginate

Kelp noodles are a sea vegetable in the form of an easy to eat noodle. Made of only kelp (a sea vegetable), sodium alginate (sodium salt extracted from a brown seaweed), and water, Kelp noodles are fat free, gluten-free and very low in carbohydrates and calories. Their noodle form and neutral taste allow for a variety of uses including salads, stirfries, hot broths and casseroles while their healthful content provides a rich source of trace minerals including iodione, which kelp is known for. Their unique texture completes the package, making Kelp noodles a one-of-a-kind healthful and tasty alternative to pasta and rice noodles. Best of all, no cooking is required. Just rinse and add the noodles to any dish and they are ready to eat!

Pork Medallions

Dinner the other night was pork medallions, marinated in a little olive oil and grilled on the BBQ. I ate that with some softened pumpkin and zucchini with a clove of crushed garlic mixed through. Delicious!