This is a recipe inspired by a garam masala spice blend I picked up almost a year ago. I finally got around to using it in April and have slowly refined the recipes these past few months. I think it has finally turned out perfect:
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts (tenderloins also work well)
Slice up chicken breasts into 1/2 inch thick strips or if using tenderloins, use whole.
Melt coconut oil in saute pan over medium-high heat.
Add chicken and garam masala to pan. Brown.
When browned and most liquid is cooked out, add white wine.
Add lemongrass and blend in with white wine.
Add coconut milk and stir.
Add peas, cover, and reduce heat to low.
Let cook for 10-20 min until peas are heated through and chicken is no longer pink in the middle.
Serve and enjoy!
This goes well over cauliflower or cauliflower rice. There is some debate over wether or not peas are primal. I guess technically they are a legume so it’s up to you if you want those in your primal diet. They’re something I’ve decided to include occasionally in my diet and they usually make their appearance with this recipe. Of course, they are optional to this dish and could easily be substituted with some other vegetable.
Hope you like! I’ll try to get pictures added to my recipes in the future.
A couple months ago I was in a town that had a several Starbucks with a nice selection of quiches and strata’s. I gave their Spinach & Artichoke Strata (or Quiche, one place called it a Strata, one a Quiche) a try and fell in L-O-V-E. It was DIVINE.
So upon returning home I set out to find a recipe that could compare and that could be made primal, and I think I’ve come pretty close (Yeah!). So here we go with a strata (meaning layers)…
Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 medium onion
1 package of mushrooms (about 2 cups)
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp nutmeg
8 oz. spinach (fresh or frozen)
1 can of artichoke hearts
10 eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1-2 cups Italian blend cheese
Directions:
Finely chop onions, melt butter in a frying pan with nutmeg, add onions and mushrooms and saute until softened. Add salt and pepper to taste.
If using frozen spinach, defrost and squeeze any excess liquid from the spinach. If using fresh, saute with onions and mushrooms until softened. Set aside.
Open up your can of artichoke hearts and cut off the ends. You may need to peel the first layer of the hearts off as they can be a little difficult to chew. Separate the layers or lightly chop. Set aside.
In a separate bowl mix eggs, whipping cream, and dijon mustard.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a casserole dish, begin layering your veggies. Lay down a layer of the onion/mushroom mix, put spinach and artichokes on top, then sprinkle the layers with some of your italian cheese blend.
Continue layering until all veggies are used. I usually only get 2 layers.
Pour the egg mixture over the top of your layers.
Cook for 45-55 minutes, until you can pierce the center with a toothpick and it comes out clean (I usually do 55 minutes).
Slice and serve.
For variation, you could also add bacon or pork sausage. Also, I’m not really sure if the nutmeg adds much flavor so feel free to experiment with other flavorings. I’d love to hear what spices you like. Personally I love the dijon mustard and I don’t actually measure how much I add – I point and squirt until I think I’ve got enough (might actually be closer to 4 tbsp).
This freezes and reheats well for meals through the week. Adding the bacon or sausage makes it a good dinner option (who doesn’t love breakfast dinners?).
One more thing, this is crustless but a crust could be made easily using a little butter and some almond meal. I’ve done that before but to save energy I opted to go with crustless.
If you’re not permitting dairy in your primal/paleo diet, this probably isn’t the best recipe for you. Remember when buying your dairy to get as close to raw as you can – it’s so much better.
All this week I’m going to share primal recipes that I’ve been experimenting with over the past few months to get myself on a healthier path. I’ve experimented, I’ve doctored, and I’ve emerged with some tasty goodness that leaves my appetite well sated. Yum.
Special thanks to Realistic Recovery for inspiring this Recipe Palooza. I’ve been slacking on posting lately and a comment from him about checking out my recipe section pushed me to get my rear back in gear. So, thanks! Hope you enjoy!
This is turning into week one of getting my stuff together. And I like it.
My food plan has been great – I’ve been successfully primal in my eating except for a mild sidetrack today when I met a friend for chinese food. I still made sure to make good primal choices, but I did allow myself to splurge on crab rangoon, an eggroll, and small piece of a swirl cake they always have on their dessert bar. Compared to what I used to consume at the dessert bar, this is a HUGE improvement. And I have to say, I LOVE chicken on a stick.
I’ve also been rocking the workouts. I swam laps at the YMCA on Monday where I was required to share my lane with 3 other people so I had to keep moving. I rested tuesday and then did a short kettlebell workout and repeated the push-up and sit-up test I did on Saturday. This time around I managed 25 push-ups (on my knees) and 20 sit-ups (arms flailing) within 2 minutes each. Rock on!
Today my butt and thighs and abs and arms and chest are like “WTF did we ever do to you!?” But I feel pretty awesome about it – especially since I hit the Y again and swam laps tonight.
I’ve got some good momentum going here and I love it. LOVE IT!
Back in January I declared that I wanted to get into good enough physical condition that I could pass the physical fitness testing for the army. I did the research, figured out what I’d need to do, started down that path, and then got derailed by an injury. Eesh.
The injury, falling hard on my right knee, is still a bit of an issue, but it’s not keeping me from moving around and being active. But at the time it happened, I made it a convenient excuse to not exercise and frankly, I’ve milked it for long enough.
I was visiting with a friend last night who is an army recruiter and he told me about the PT test he’d just had to take that morning. Apparently there’s a little more too it than I had realized:
You start out doing push-ups for 2 minutes
Then you almost immediately switch to sit-ups with a partner, one of you holding down the feet, the other doing the sit-ups, for 2 minutes.
When you do the sit-ups, you interlock your fingers behind your neck and your arms get fatigued from holding this position as you sit-up.
The person who is holding down the feet is also fatiguing their arms due to the pressure they’re applying to keep the feet grounded. AND because of the way they sit when holding the feet, kneeling, but sitting back on their heels, their legs also become fatigued.
Then they all hop up and run 2 miles with fatigued arms and fatigued legs.
Apparently I’m just strange, but the idea of being able to overcome my fatigue and pass these tests makes something in me sit up and grunt with excitement over the challenge. So I’m getting off my ass and picking up with the army strong challenge again.
I tested today to see what my starting points were for push-ups and sit-ups:
Push-ups = 16 (only 1 regular, the rest were girly push-ups on my knees)
Sit-ups = 16 (with my feet pinned under a big chair and using my arms for momentum to get myself set-up).
So there’s a starting place in that regard. I’ll figure out the 2-mile run later . . . I’m pretty sure I can count on it taking me about 35 minutes alternating walking/running. It’ll be a while before I’m up to running even a mile.
But I’m going to get there. Army strong, here we go.
