Is that for here or to go?

Posted on April 4, 2014 by chatty

Panera Bread’s Power Menu

If I was a good girl, I would bring my lunch to work every day and not spend money eating out. Seeing as how I’m just an okay girl, I feel lucky if I bring my lunch once or twice a week, usually Mondays and Tuesdays, when I have time to think and cook and stuff. Wednesday through Friday, it’s sort of up for grabs. Fortunately for me I work in downtown Bellevue, which offers a number of different establishments that have become my go-to spots when I don’t feel like going to the work cafeteria.

Here are a few places that have menu items that you can paleo-ize, or turn into almost-paleo meals.

Specialty’s. I always order online, because it’s way easier to order ahead of time then walk over and pick up. You don’t have to wait in line while people in front of you ask all sorts of questions. Also, online you can personalize, so always remove the focaccia bread and croutons. Ordering online also helps me stay one step ahead and not cave when a server asks if you want to add a dessert or pastry to your order. Here are my go-to salads with changes:

The Spinach-Bacon Salad, no croutons, no focaccia, and swap the poppy seed dressing with raspberry-walnut vinaigrette. There may be sugar in that dressing. I don’t drench it. I think I’ll live.

Greek Goddess. No feta, no focaccia, add chicken breast (again, the goddess dressing may have items in there, so either skip the dressing altogether or just use it sparingly)

Spicy Thai Peanut is good for off-paleo days, (note the peanuts in its name). But if you remove the won ton strips and focaccia and add the chicken breast, it’s grain-free.

Okay, so maybe all of them weren’t perfect. Let’s try again.

Evolution Fresh. You could probably get any one of the smoothies, and I used to be a Smooth Green girl for a long time until an EF lunch collided head-on with a stomach virus that has stopped me from ordering it ever again. Strawberry Mint, which they had over the summer, was a nice change of pace. I also like their Cucumber Pineapple Ginger juice, available at stores. I’ve only bought it once. Still it was delicious.

My current favorite order is the Lani’s Quinoa Spinach Salad. It seems it’s not on the web site so I can’t tell you the full official name, but it is in the Bellevue store. Here I ask them to remove the chickpeas, but add the grilled chicken breast. In addition to the quinoa and spinach there are other vegetables, herbs and seed mix and a lemon-tahini dressing.

My non-paleo usual is the Kevin’s Quinoa, Organic Kale & Butternut Squash Bowl. It includes feta and black beans, too, and uses a mild harissa sauce. I also have them add chicken.

Any of these can be served as a “simmer” with broth soup, or in a wrap, though I always order it as a cold salad.

I recently added Panera Bread to the lunch mix, because they have an unlisted Power Menu, perfect for Paleo. The “Power Mediterranean Turkey Salad” serves sliced turkey breast over lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, kalamata olives and comes with a side of olive oil and lemon wedge. Super simple.

Finally, there is Jimmy John’s. Dear, sweet old Jimmy John’s. They actually have an option posted on the menu, called the “Un-wich” where you can order the sandwich without the bread and it comes wrapped in, well, I guess the lettuce and the paper. I always get the Turkey Tom (#4). Depending on if I’m feeling sassy or not I may order it with cheese. And, seriously, if I’m at Jimmy John’s I’m NOT going to skip the bread, are you crazy? There’s a reason why I go there, and it’s to get a SANDWICH and guess what, Sandwiches have BREAD. So, needless to say I haven’t been to Jimmy John’s in about three months. Sigh.

Dear, dear JJ’s <3

My thanks go out to the servers and wait staff for adjusting their usual habits to create these dishes for me.

Lazy dinner

Posted on April 3, 2014 by chatty

Sometimes I can’t stand the thought of cooking. On days like that, sandwich-eaters could just make a sandwich. Pizza-eaters could order a pizza. I haven’t called in our usual order into our neighborhood Chinese food joint lately (pot stickers. Beef with Chinese broccoli. House special fried rice with brown rice). So what are my choices? How about a turkey burger, sans bun. I have a few frozen turkey burgers from Trader Joe’s as a just in case for days like these.
I sliced up the avocado to make it fancy, and roasted some leftover veggies.

Easy-peasy.
The non-paleo family member heated up some lime shrimp from the store and created a burrito. The non-paleo child in the family ate the burrito ingredients, without the tortilla. Makes up for her bunny pancakes from breakfast.

Quick paleo hacks, etc

Posted on March 31, 2014 by chatty

Number 1:
Here is a quick trick I learned from the Interwebs. Mix tuna with mashed ripe avocado for a slightly green, but great-tasting tuna fish. Kiddo couldn’t figure out the secret ingredient, even though she is an avocado aficionado.
Cucumber slices are the ideal vessel to shovel this into my mouth.

Number 2:

I spent my leftover pumpkin trying to find a reasonable single-serving pumpkin pie custard, and didn’t succeed. My final concoction was good, but a bit eggy. I thought it could work as a weekend breakfast alternative, so I call it Paleo Pumpkin Porridge, because I like alliteration:
1/3 c canned pumpkin
2-3 tbsp light coconut milk
1 egg
2 tsp raw honey
Pumpkin pie spice.
Preheat oven to 375. In a ramekin combine all ingredients, and add the PPS to your desired taste. Honey, too. I kept it light here.
In the oven for 30 minutes (I don’t own a microwave, so I just make do)
Take walk in the woods while porridge cools. Lock doors so Goldilocks can’t steal the goods.

Number 3:

I tweaked the paleo granola, which the kid and I like to call bird food. Less oily, less sweet, less burnt than my first batch. I’ll add updates to the original post.

Chicken stir fry with shredded cauliflower

Posted on March 31, 2014 by chatty

Here’s the key to cauliflower “rice” … don’t call it rice. These paleo hacks always disappoint me when I so just want a bowl of the real thing and can’t have it. The thing is, I will never be 100% paleo 100% of the time, and I’d rather just stick it out for a few weeks and then enjoy the real thing every now and then as opposed to pretending I’m enjoying something that is good, but clearly not rice. There I said it.
So, having said all that, here’s the recipe I cribbed for the “rice”, which henceforth I shall be calling shredded cauliflower. The real key is to season the heck out of it. Let it cook for many more minutes than you think, as cauliflower, I’ve learned this week, holds a lot of water. Let that steam out.

Now, here’s the basic instructions for how I do the stir fry (in the pic above you can see the cauliflower peeking out). This is one of the dishes I’ve been doing forever. Hard to mess up, but I have messed up before. I can’t give you exact directions, I play everything by ear, every time. There is an order of tasks I do every time, though, which I’ll go through here.
First, marinate the chicken pieces. I used coconut aminos, grated ginger, salt and garlic, and a dash of sesame oil. I let it chill for the time it take me to chop up the veggies.
Use a wok. Cook the chicken first, set aside, wipe down the wok, add more oil for the veggies. Seasoning the oil is the same: garlic and ginger.
Start with sautéing the onions. Then, add in the veggies in order by how long it takes for them to cook, so I add broccoli and carrots in early, and mushrooms last. I add in the chicken near the end, and add a little but not a lot of aminos into the wok itself. I tend to keep it light in seasoning, though. Husband often adds teriyaki sauce to his mixture, and we’re both happy.
It was weird for some reason, sitting down to this meal, without a grain in site. I honestly felt like something was missing. The stir fry over the shredded cauliflower was a good combo. It just wasn’t, you know, rice.

Cheat meals. Go big or go home.

Posted on March 30, 2014 by chatty

If I’m going to lose points for this nutrition challenge then it better be for a) good food b) good company c) a AND b!
First, Westward for happy hour. So, oysters, of course. I also ordered the wild salmon gravlax. Oh, and a glass of Malbec. Okay, 2 glasses. I was nearly compliant, but I planned to cheat so had to enjoy the crostini, the bite of lamb burger (with the bun) and the potato chip (dipped in mayo. Mayo!). For dessert, a couple of these little doughnuts.

Can’t go wrong with fried dough, am I right?

Next night, date night! Both of us were dead tired from lack of sleep (I can’t say I know what kept the husband awake, but I am a poor sleeper after a couple glasses of wine, especially when I’ve been abstaining and my tolerance isn’t up), but weren’t going to lose this chance. Pub at Third Place, here we come. Hale’s Cream Ale, truffle popcorn and a burger.

We split the burger. Sounds dorky, but it was a smart choice.

The chattychaw slaw

Posted on March 25, 2014 by chatty

Remember my previous confession about frugality? Well, I had one additional ingredient in the fridge which I wanted to play with, and I found the solution. We had a half of a head of cabbage from our St. Patrick’s Day dinner. Something we do not normally include in our repertoire. So, how about … A cole slaw? Better yet, an Asian slaw?
It’s no coincidence our kitchen is somewhat stocked with Asian/Chinese provisions, so here goes. The dressing can be tweaked depending on your preferences. I personally do not like heavily dressed salads. The husband laughs at me when he sees how sparingly I use condiments and dressings. It is kind of ridiculous. So, what is agreeable to me may not be to you, which is why I suggest tweaking to your tastes. You may want to add a little honey into the mix, or more aminos. Again, since I just used what was on hand, I didn’t have a complete dish. Some cilantro and scallions would have made it better.

2 cups green cabbage, shredded
12-ish slices of cucumbers, the cut into strips
1/2 c carrot matchsticks
1 tbsp almond butter
1 tbsp coconut aminos
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Ginger root*
Sesame seeds

Combine all the veggies.
In a small bowl combine the dressing ingredients until we’ll combined. If it is too thick, add a little water to thin it out. Taste and adjust ingredients to your desire (want it spicier? More red pepper flakes. More tangy? More vinegar. Etc)
*A note about the ginger root … On a tip from NomNomPaleo I took my little knob of ginger root and froze it. Now when I need some I take it out of the freezer, peel off the skin and grate using a microplaner. Voila, the essence of the ginger, without the intensity of accidentally chomping on a matchstick or coin. So, just grate this to your taste.
Pour dressing over veggies and mix well. Sprinkle sesame seeds over and shake/mix well.

The dressing is reminiscent of a Peanut Noodle dish I side to loved to make in college. It was, more or less, spaghetti dressed in a sauce made of peanut butter, sesame oil, rice vinegar and sugar. And now it’s not such a wonder why I gained so much weight during the college years.

I’m letting it sit in the fridge overnight. In addition to the cilantro, maybe some grilled chicken for a little protein? Write that down!

Baked spaghetti-like squash casserole

Posted on March 24, 2014 by chatty

File this under “tastes way better than it looks.” For this casserole dish I heavily cribbed from PaleOMG’s Almost 5 ingredient pizza spaghetti pie. What caught my eye was the pizza part of the name. But the taste most definitely reminded me of a baked spaghetti/pasta dish (yes, I know I just ranted about how this squash doesn’t taste like pasta … baked like this I need to rethink my original declaration). The kiddo, upon further investigation of her plate, actually asked, “Mom, is this… spaghetti?”

Now, what a decision point. Do I lie and say yes, with the hope that she’ll eat it? I mean, I’ve already committed a lie of omission by not mentioning the chopped onion. Do I dare test the karmic waters?

“It’s spaghetti… squash!” I exclaimed. Couldn’t do it. Eventually she would figure it out and then would use it against me, I’m sure. And fortunately for us she still ate most of her portion.

So, this is a baked casserole, made with our favorite pizza ingredients: sausage, mushrooms, onions. Rather than repeat PaleOMG’s recipe, I’m going to send you all there, and list out the tweaks I made here:
Instead of ground pork sausage, I used two Mild Italian Chicken Sausage links (approx 3/4 lb) from Whole Foods, which I cooked/browned then sliced before adding into the sauce mix.
I added sliced mushrooms to the sautéed onions, and used Italian Seasoning instead of dried basil.
I beat two eggs with 3 tbsp of liquid egg whites.
I also grated a small amount of Parm-Reg on top while it rested, which I easily could have done without. I’m playing to a mixed audience, here.

Presented with a salad and steamed broccoli.

The verdict was three thumbs up. Husband went for thirds. I probably ate more than I intended to. Reheated the next day for lunch, still great-tasting.

Not-quite quiche

Posted on March 22, 2014 by chatty

I like quiche. Homemade crusts. Eggs. Cheese. Butter and milk. Did I mention the crust. I had considered doing a sausage pizza-like casserole for dinner but the husband wasn’t feeling it. Too much pork this week, which I couldn’t argue. So. How about a crustless quiche?

I was anticipating a child revolt, so on half of the dish I grated parm-reg on top, then while it rested added shredded cheddar cheese.

Mommy, usually the quiche has something else on the bottom … Like a crust? Wow. Nothing gets by you, kiddo. Still, she ate her serving, which is always a win.

Husband also gave it the approval, though his feedback was if you don’t expect it to be quiche, then it’s fine. I often feel that way with paleoized meals, so I understand. Despite the coconut milk, it does not taste coconutty. It does get a custardy texture though. So call this a savory egg custard. Call it a not-quite quiche. Call it a tasty meal.

1-2 tbsp choice of fat (I used ghee)
1 small yellow onion, chopped
6-8 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 c baby spinach
5 eggs
3 tbsp egg whites
1 c full fat coconut milk
Salt/pepper
Nutmeg
6 or more grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat oven to 350.
Heat oil in a sauté pan, med heat. Add onions around 5-8 minutes. Add mushrooms and spinach and cook for a few more minutes. Doesn’t need to be cooked thoroughly. I’m just looking to soften and flavor. Season with salt, pepper. Set aside
In a large bowl beat eggs/whites thoroughly. Whisk in coconut milk, season and include grated nutmeg, or whatever else you want to season with, and mix well.
Coat a square casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Pour a little of the egg mixture on the bottom, enough to just cover the bottom. Add in the onion/mushroom/spinach mixture, draining as much liquid as possible beforehand. Spread it evenly around, then pour remainder of egg mixture into dish. Top with halved tomatoes.
Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Check for doneness using the toothpick test. Also, the edges should be brown and trying to separated from the side of the dish.
Remove from oven, cover and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
Divide into quarters or eighths. Serves 4, with a salad and veggie on the side.

Kiss me, though, I’m not Irish

Posted on March 17, 2014 by chatty

I’m not Irish, but I married into the Irish, and suddenly I’m all into making this St. Patrick’s day meal. Last year was my first attempt as corned beef and cabbage, so I did pretty much a repeat of last year’s dinner. The downside for me is that it’s in the middle of my nutrition challenge (really?!). That just means, a low-point day for me. I couldn’t NOT add Guinness into the crock pot. Just had to use a little brown sugar for the corned beef. I couldn’t not make Irish Soda Bread. I mean, I could have, but this is a once-a-year meal, so I indulged.

Corned Beef & Cabbage, with root vegetables and Irish soda bread

The corned beef was a pacakged deal from Met Market, Wagyu Beef that included seasonings. The recipe from NYMSCC was quite similar to the other ones I found online. I placed red potatoes, quartered, a couple of small carrots and a parsnip on the bottom of the slow cooker then added the beef on top with additional spices. Poured in a can of Guinness then added additional water, so that the beef was just covered (per the recipe), though it seemed to me like a lot of liquid, I went with it.

Turned the SC on low for 9 hours, I took out the beef and vegetables and put them on a platter. Then added the cabbage, cut into wedges and held together by some kitchen twine. On high for 15-20 more minutes while the meat rested. Soup’s On.

The entire family enjoyed the meat and potatoes and not so much the bread. I will have to find a different version that doesn’t have raisins next time (I like the raisins, no one else does. I brought it to work for the crew to finish up and it disappeared from the kitchen pretty quickly, i suspect).

This was last night’s work. Tonight, the actual day, we had leftovers (which means no cooking for the husband three days in a row. That must be a record). As the finale the kid and I made a Green Smoothie. Recipe below:

Green Smoothie

Blend together a cup of chopped kale with a cup of coconut water. Based on what was in my kitchen 1/2 large banana, 1 small apple (peeled and chopped), a handful of frozen grapes. Blend until mixed. This made enough for two 8-oz glasses or so (see above).

This recipe idea courtesy of Pinterest! Woot.

Erin Go Bragh, as the Irish say.

Chicken tenders, paleo-style

Posted on March 16, 2014 by chatty

Lots of recipes online for a paleo chicken fingers, and what I love about bloggers and the interwebs is with every version of a recipe, other users comment on how to make it better. It leaves you with tons of ways to go about it. Hopefully everyone is civil about it but hey, it is the interwebs…

At Trader Joes in the spice section they have this thing called “Everyday Seasonings“. It’s a bunch of the same spices you always use, in a bottle with its own grinder so you can grind and use as needed. I am a big fan, and used it with the flour in addition to the other spices, as you’ll see below.

Almond-Crusted Chicken
1 lb boneless chicken breast, or a pkg of 2 breasts
2 eggs
Juice of 1 lemon
1-1.5 c almond flour
1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp coriander seeds, ground with the mortar and pestle.
1 tsp TJ’s Everyday Seasoning
Paprika, for the chicken.

Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spray that with nonstick cooking spray.
In a bowl beat eggs with lemon.
On a plate combine the flour and seasonings well.
Slice up the chicken into even pieces. Tip 1: one blogging chef suggested sticking the chicken in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm it up and make it easier to slice. Each breast gave me 6 or 7 pieces.
Season the chicken with salt and paprika.
Dredge the chicken in the egg mixture, then roll it into the almond flour, place on the sheet. Dredge, roll, place. Season the crusted pieces before throwing into oven.
Bake for 25 minutes, turning once.
I’m anal when cooking chicken, so I always use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. 180 degrees.

The chicken was good, not great. A tad dry. Might want to brine the chicken next time around.
Other notes: on a few of these I double dipped (dredged and rolled twice before sending to the baking sheet) though I’m not sure I could tell the difference between those and the single dunk ones.
For the non-paleo eaters in the house, I used the microplane and grated parm-reg on a few. I used a paleo BBQ sauce as a dipper. Husband used sweet rays BBQ sauce.
Served on the side, “crunchy” green beans, ( i.e. stir-fried, seasoned with lemon zest, ginger and garlic.)
I also had a garden salad with olive oil and vinegar. Husband and kid had a side of onion rings. Must be nice.

Chatty Cha

dessert first

Category Archives: food