Honey Lemon Peppered Chicken

I am all about some easy, fast dinners around the house these days! Especially, since sometimes it's close to 9PM when I start cooking for me and Shane.

This took me probably all of 20-30 mins.

ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts bundle of asparagus 1 C kale 1/2 lemon Mrs. Dash Salt free Lemon Pepper seasoning rice vinegar coconut oil local honey

I started by cooking the asparagus and kale in coconut oil and rice vinegar (this has become one of my new faves. It is not strong vinegar at all and just adds a really good taste to your veggies. I use this ALL the time!).. remove from the skillet when cooked thru. Add cut up chicken to skillet in coconut oil as well.. add lemon pepper seasoning (I didn't measure how much, just whatever you little heart desires) .. drizzle honey over the chicken.. Just before I put the dish together in a bowl with my veggies I squeezed a little fresh lemon juice over the chicken.
Hubby LOVED it and I even got a "Babe, you have been cooking it up lately!!"
ENJOY!! 

Paleo Cashew Chicken

Sorry in advance for these not being better quality photos for blogging but now that there is a new boss in town, you just gotta go with what you can do at the time!

I'm really trying to crack down on eating paleo all the way the last time I did it before I was pregnant I felt AMAZING!!! So while I was at the grocery store Sunday, I googled for some recipes and found this from the Ultimate Paleo Guide. 

INGREDIENTS:

2Boneless and skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1 chunks)

1 Red bell pepper (cut into strips)

1 Onion (cut into strips)

1 Garlic cloves (minced)

1/2 cup Raw cashews

2 tbsp Coconut oil

2 tbsp Honey

1 tbsp Coconut aminos

1 tbsp Rice vinegar

1 tsp Fresh grated ginger Sea salt and black pepper (to taste)

3 Scallions (sliced)

Pour coconut oil onto large skillet over medium heat..

Add onion and red pepper and cook for a few minutes..

Toss in the chicken and cook 4-5 minutes..

Mix in garlic and cashew. Cook for another 2 -3 minutes..

Stir in honey, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, grated ginger and season with salt and pepper..

Cook another 4-5 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Serve and garnish with scallions.

It was absolutley amazing and Coach has already requested that we have it again!!

I'm not a fan of ginger so I left that off and also the scallions..

And, if you are like me and don't really know where a lot of stuff is at the grocery store... rice vinegar can be found on the baking aisle near the pickles. I just happened to look up and there it was! 

And, this precious little joined me for some cooking fun.

Let me know if you try it! I have no doubt you will love it too!

Happy Heart Day to You!

Funny story! I took some time Monday to make a batch of cupcakes and was just documenting with photos like it was my job... and then realized as I was uploading pics that, wait just a minute.. I think I have already put this recipe in a post. 

Ha!

Soooo if you need a cupcake recipe today, just go here for the details!

Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!

I was trying to find an old picture to share of me and Coach and ran across this one from our wedding. It is SO hilarious to me! Coach just staring at me like I'm crazy while I'm trying to break it down trust me.. I am no dancer by any means.

Spinach & Artichoke Dip

I'm not really sure what got into me yesterday, but I came home from the grocery store and stayed in the kitchen for several hours. 

One of the things I did want to do was have Coach some dip for the Superbowl. For some reason, I had Velveeta cheese (no clue why this was in the pantry), picked up a can of Rotel tomatoes and chips at the grocery store and Coach had him a little snack for the game!

I wanted to have a healthier dip so I found this original recipe and oh my it was DELICIOUS! This one is definitely going in favorites recipe folder.

If you checked out the original already, you would see it called for cashews.. well, in my haste to get to the grocery store, I only read the ingredients and decided I didn't want cashews in my dip.. lesson learned, I will start reading the instructions as well.

I didn't fret tho! Out of no where came this brilliant moment where I decided I would replace the cashew flour with greek yogurt. I don't think that's actually Paleo and that's why I didn't call my version "Paleo".

Ingredients:

2 (14 oz) cans artichoke hearts, chopped

16 oz frozen spinach

1 cup cashews, roasted and unsalted (replaced with Fage Greek Yogurt)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Add frozen spinach and artichokes to large saucepan over medium heat..

Original says sprinkle with salt but I hate the taste so I didn't add it.

Here is where you are supposed to make the cashew flour. Please see original if you chose to make it with cashews.

Instead, I mixed my seasonings together..

Measured about 3/4 cup Fage Greek Yogurt..

And started mixing both together with the spinach and artichokes that I had transferred to a bowl.

In all, I ended up adding about 1cup of greek yogurt.

Paired it with these chips I found at Ingle's!

The seasoning's that went into this dip made it absolutely delicious! I had plenty left over and thought it would be a healthy snack for the next couple days! Sweet potato chips do sound amazing with it.. need to find a recipe for that.. My sweet potato fries never turn out crispy so I need to look into that recipe.

PaleoOMG had a second version with 2 ounces of goat cheese. I picked some up at the grocery store and completely forgot to add it! Oh well!

Cheesy Zucchini Enchiladas

Photo Cred Amber

ORIGINAL SOURCE

Is this turning into a food blog or what??!

I do believe I am seeing a pattern here with some of my food selections... I just want spicy, spicy, spicy!!

A couple days ago I made a new kind of Paleo Chicken Salad and I added Sriracha sauce to every bite! Talk about opening up your sinus'.

So the bestie made these for dinner last night, tagged me with the news on facebook, and today I showed up for lunch. HA! She is so awesome like that to feed me, especially when Coach is out of town. I mean, seriously. If you had her cooking you wouldn't want anyone else's either. When I grow up, I wish to have her mad cooking skills.

Anywayyyy, it's all I could think about after I got back to work, so on the way home I made a quick stop by the grocery store, and had them for dinner too!

Thank goodness they are on the skinny side!

(Check out the original source link above for the nutrition facts. I LOVE SkinnyTaste!)

I would have taken pics for you guys but I was too busy trying to get those yummy enchiladas in the oven!

Ingredients: 

 cooking spray

1 tsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 medium scallions, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

2 medium zucchinis, grated

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1 1/2 cups grated reduced fat mexican blend cheese (Sargento)

4 Large La Tortilla Factory Low Carb tortillas

chopped scallions (optional)chopped cilantro (optional)

For the Enchilada sauce:

1 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp chipotle chilis in adobo sauce (optional for more heat)

1 cups tomato sauce

1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder (to taste)

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup fat free vegetable broth

kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste

Directions:

For the enchilada sauce: 

In a medium saucepan, spray oil and sauté garlic. Add chipotle chili powder, cumin, broth, tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Set aside until ready to use.

Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium nonstick skillet, sauté garlic and scallions in olive oil over medium heat for about 3 minutes; add zucchini, salt and pepper to taste and cook about 4-5 minutes.  

Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup cheese; mix well.

Divide zucchini between in each tortilla, roll and place seam side down in baking dish.  

Top with enchilada sauce (I did not use all of the sauce) and remaining cheese and bake until hot and the cheese is melted, about 20 minutes.

Can serve with chopped cilantro, scallions, and reduced fat sour cream.

I held off on the garlic again and I even added extra adobo sauce and it still wasn't as spicy as Amber's. Oh well! I'll just have to take lessons from her.

Still hit the spot tho for sure!

Shrimp & Poblano Peppers

Well, thankfully today I had somewhat of an appetite and some foods actually looked good.

While browsing around on Pinterest before heading to the grocery store I found this yummy sounding recipe.

You can find the ORIGINAL HERE.

 Ingredients:

2 lbs medium precooked shrimp

2 poblano peppers, sliced with seeds removed

2 yellow/orange bell peppers, sliced

1/2 cup green onions, diced

1/2 yellow onion (optional) sliced thin

2 cloves minced garlic

3 TBSP olive or coconut oil

salt/pepper to taste

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add peppers and cook for about 5-7 minutes, until starting to brown and become tender.

Add garlic and cook for a few minutes.

Add shrimp and cook until heated through.

I did add the onions but held off on the diced green onions..

I used coconut oil..

And only 1 clove of garlic..

When we had this recipe with garlic, when I first found out I was pregnant, it almost made me sick so that's why I didn't add the full amount.

Coach suggested adding a little bit of Old Bay seasoning and I added a tad bit of Sriracha Sauce for mine on the side.

SO DELISH!!

We will DEFINITELY be having this again... it went in my official recipe notebook!