Gumbo

Gumbo

adapted from several recipes

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cooking Time: 4 hours, 15 minutes

Makes: 2.5 quarts (8-10 servings)

Ingredients

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs or 1 rotisserie chicken, pulled apart

1 lb smoked sausage

1 lb smoked ham

1/2 cup bacon grease

6 TBS coconut flour

6 TBS almond flour

2 medium onions, chopped (about 2 cups)*

1 large green bell pepper, chopped (about 1 cup)*

1 large celery rib, chopped*

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 - 32oz boxes Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Stock

3/4 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground red pepper

Hot cooked cauliflower rice

Directions

Cut the chicken, sausage and ham into bite sized pieces. Cook the chicken over medium heat in a large dutch oven until browned.  Put into a separate bowl and wipe out the dutch oven. *You can skip this step if you use rotisserie chicken.

Heat bacon grease in dutch oven over medium heat. Gradually whisk in the coconut and almond flours. Continue whisking constantly until the roux is a deep mahogany color. It will almost look like really dark peanut butter. 

Stir in onions, celery and green peppers. Cook about 5 minutes and add in garlic. Cook another 5 minutes or until tender. Gradually add the chicken stock while whisking. Add the meats, thyme, red and black pepper. 

Bring mixture to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 3 hours. Serve over hot cooked cauliflower rice. 

*I make my life easier by buying a cajun mirepoix mix in the vegetable freezer section at my local Kroger. 

**You can omit the chicken and add 2 lbs medium raw shrimp (peeled and deveined) in the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Enjoy!

Green Goddess Chicken Salad

This is one of my favorite summer salads from growing up. My mom actually got this recipe at a cooking class in 1985. That makes this a timeless, classic. 

Green Goddess Chicken Salad

adapted from Marilyn Harris

Ingredients for salad:

8 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

1 can sliced water chestnuts

1 lb asparagus

Green Goddess Dressing (see below)

Salt and pepper to taste

Place cooked chicken in a bowl large enough to toss with ingredients. Drain and dry water chestnuts, place in bowl with chicken.

In a shallow saucepan, large enough for the asparagus, bring water to a boil. Trim the tough ends of the asparagus. Prepare a bowl of ice water and set to the side. Place asparagus in water for 3-4 minutes. Immediately place in ice water bath following. Dry asparagus and cut into thirds. Place into bowl with chicken and water chestnuts.

Ingredients for dressing:

1 cup mayonnaise (I used Hellman’s - you can make your own too)

1/2 cup greek yogurt (I used Fage 5%)

4 green onions, trimmed and sliced

1/2 cup fresh parsley 

2 TBS lemon juice

1 tsp Swerve

Add mayo, yogurt, green onions and parsley to food processor. Blend until it’s well mixed and you only see green flecks. Add lemon juice and Swerve. Mix until incorporated. 

Add dressing to chicken, water chestnuts and asparagus. You may not need to add all of it. Use only to your preference. Chill for about one hour before serving. 

Enjoy!

Green Goddess Chicken Salad

Sloppy Joe Bowls

These were sooooo good! Especially if you are craving some comfort food. It may seem super weird to put sloppy joe meat over zoodles, but I promise you it's a perfect match. Now hubby does not eat zoodles, so I put his on a whole wheat bun. Regardless, its delish both ways. Plus you aren't getting all those weird ingredients like you would with the stuff from the can. 

Sloppy Joe Bowls

adapted from Jay's Baking Me Crazy

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 6-8

Ingredients

2 lbs lean ground beef (grass-fed if Whole30 or Paleo)

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1.5 tsp onion powder

2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup coconut aminos 

1.5 cups homemade ketchup

2 TBS tomato paste

Before you get started, make up your homemade ketchup!

Put your ground beef in a medium sized dutch oven over medium-high heat. (I love my Le Creuset!) Once the meat is mostly browned, toss in your garlic and turn the heat down to medium. Toss in the onion powder, salt and pepper. Cook for about 1-2 more minutes. Add coconut aminos, ketchup and tomato paste. Stir to combine and turn the heat to low. Allow the mixture to simmer for 20 minutes. 

While your sloppy joe meat is simmering, make up your zoodles. I use a Paderno vegetable spiralizer to make my zoodles. It's amazing. It has several different blades. I've used it on other veggies too, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips. 

Once your zoodles are ready, top them with the sloppy joe meat and eat!

Enjoy!

Crockpot Pork Carnitas

I won't lie. I googled the word "carnitas". I took French in high school and college so shoot me. I just didn't want to look like an idiot by titling this "pork carnitas" if carnitas meant pork. You feel me? Good. Now that that is out of the way, I did learn that carnitas actually means "little meats" and it's meat that's been braised in oil or lard. I did nothing of the sort here. So I guess I can't technically call these carnitas, but whatever. They are darn good. You are also welcome for the Spanish lesson. 

PS - You can see from the pic below that I used this in Pork Carnitas Bowls with Cilantro Lime Caulirice!

Crockpot Pork Carnitas

adapted from The Recipe Critic

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 8-9 hours

Servings: 10+

Ingredients

4 pound pork shoulder roast

1 TBS chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1.5 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 oranges, juiced

2 limes, juiced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

In the bottom of your crockpot, put the last 4 ingredients. Place your roast down in the crockpot. 

In a small bowl, combine your dry spices. Sprinkle these over the roast. Set the crockpot for 8 hours on low. 

Once it's done, I shred mine right in the crockpot and left it sitting in the juices for another 30-45 minutes on low. 

Now if you really want to be fancy, take the meat out of the crockpot after it's been bathing in those juices in the crockpot for the last 30 minutes and place it on a sheet pan. Put it in the oven under the broiler for about 5 minutes. This will make some of the bits a little crispier. 

Enjoy!

Cilantro Lime Caulirice

I have to say that this is such a great substitute for rice if you are Whole30, 24 Day Challenge or just trying to clean up your diet. Now I made my own cauliflower rice, but if you are short for time or don't have the right tools, I have seen "cauliflower crumbles" or "riced cauliflower" at Trader Joe's and Target. Anything you can do with rice I'm pretty sure you could do with caulirice. The only thing I will say is that it's pretty stinky while it cooks!

Cilantro Lime Caulirice

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

A head of cauliflower
Bunch of cilantro, chopped
4-6 limes, juiced
Kosher salt, to taste

Directions

Remove the leaves and stem from the cauliflower. Chop the florets into uniform pieces about the size of a tangerine. Toss into the food processor and pulse until evenly chopped. It should have a "rice like" consistency to it. Put your riced cauliflower into a sauté pan over medium heat. You could drizzle a little olive oil in the pan if you aren't using a non-stick pan. Sauté for about 10-15 minutes depending on how soft you want it to be.

Dump your caulirice in a bowl. Now I like mine pretty limey so I would put the juice of all 6 limes in there. It's really to taste. Toss the cilantro in there too. Lastly, sprinkle a little kosher salt over it to help bring out the flavors. 

Enjoy!