Tag Archives: paleo

menu monday: back at it

It’s been a while since I’ve done a menu monday post, for no reason other than I haven’t menu planned in a very long time. Over the weekend I made a few goals for the rest of August and one of them is to get back to weekly menu planning. Not menu planning (and traveling, etc.) has lead to really sub-par eating the last month or two. I’m ready to get back to eating what makes me feel good and I know from experience that for me this requires being organized and planning ahead.

breakfast: Leftover Southwest Frittata from last week; hard-boiled eggs with mayo and hot sauce. Lately I’ve been adding 1/2 an avocado and a good-sized serving of sauerkraut to my meal.

Weekend breakfast: diced sweet potato, eggs, avocado, sauerkraut.

lunch: Salmon salad with veggies*; lamb stir-fry with middle eastern seasoning and veggies. I used canned salmon with skin and bones + a little mayo and a ton of chopped veggies to make my “salad”.

dinner: Greek Beef Stew over veggies; slow cooker spare ribs with veg.

Greek stew over sautéed cabbage.

bonus: My CSA box had tomatillos this week, which I’ve never worked with before. It was fun to try something new (and easy). First I removed husks, cut in half, and broiled them for 4 minutes. Then they were turned into salsa verde and tossed in the crockpot with two pounds of chicken thighs for emergency protein in the freezer (based on this re cipe).

I might never buy salsa verde again – it was so easy to make and tasted amazing.

*I’m still in love with my weekly CSA box and find it easier to not “assign” veggies to each meal and instead pick whatever needs to be used next (or sounds good) to go with the protein de jour.

I’m all about keeping things simple right now and limiting the number of recipes I cook versus meals that can be prepped without a recipe or specific ingredients. I’m also looking for recipes that make a good amount of leftovers to maximize my cooking time. Down the road (i.e. when school is done and it’s not ten million degrees in our house every day), I’m hoping to get back to cooking through Well Fed 2 and having more time in the kitchen. For now though, my goal simply is to start eating better.

menu monday: csa week one

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I picked up our first summer CSA box on Thursday evening. I wasn’t loving the home delivery one we had and found a more traditional box. It’s delivered to a home in our neighborhood every Thursday and we get a mix of what’s in season that week. After several months of not having a CSA, I decided to start again for a few reasons.

Simplicity: Lately I’ve been making a lot of recipes and it’s getting exhausting. I’m looking forward to a summer of easy meals – grilled meats, quick salads, sautéed greens, fresh fruit, etc.
Time Saving: I’m spending a lot of time planning and shopping. I like the idea of picking my box up on Thursday and making do with what we get and what we already have.
Money Saving: My grocery bills have been pretty high lately. My goal is to have several weeks this summer where I don’t go to the grocery store at all. We have tons of protein and plenty of fresh veg now. It should be possible.
Variety: I tend to buy the same vegetables over and over again at the store, and make the same recipes. I’m looking forward to getting a good mix of local veggies throughout the summer to get out of the rut.

I love that since this particular CSA only does local food and because we’re in WA we’ll get more vegetables than fruit. I like to view fruit as more of a treat and some of my other boxes have been fruit heavy. This week the box included strawberries and cherries. I have the Martins to thank for my love of cherries; before my first visit to the orchard I had a silly notion that I hated cherries. (For the record, I still think maraschino cherries are disgusting.) We got a good mix of greens (purple kale, lettuce, spicy salad mix, and spinach) and other vegetables (radishes, asparagus, sprouts, sugar snap peas, garlic scrapes, and spring onions).

I still plan on meal planning for the week as it helps me make sure I have enough defrosted and prepped food for the week. My inside freezer was getting really full, so I’m getting off extra easy this week eating a lot of already prepared food*.

Breakfast: Bacon + eggs, Pork Breakfast Skillet*, Salmon Cakes*

Lunch: Egg + Radish Salad, dinner leftovers, Bolognese* with spaghetti squash and spinach

Dinner: Steaks, Carne Asada salads, salmon, pork chops, shrimp

I don’t typically love radishes, but this salad was a definite winner. Perfect for a summer lunch. To not be wasteful, I lightly sautéed the radish greens and tossed them in the salad as well.

Super simple summer meal, ready in ten minutes. Greg grilled the steak while I cooked the asparagus and snap peas. The mango salsa was leftover from Friday night (and bought pre-made).

menu monday: new well fed 2 recipes

menu monday: no menu, but freezer tips!

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We spent our weekend on Oahu (post to come!) so I haven’t meal planned or shopped for this week. I did prepare ahead of time by making extras of several meals over the last two weeks for the freezer. We’ll be good to go for the first few days of the week while I get my act together. In the meanwhile, this seems like a good time to share my tips on freezing foods. So, straight from a cabana in Waikiki, here’s how I make my freezer work for me:

Foods That Freeze Well

Breakfast casseroles that are egg based freeze great. I typically bake, slice into single servings, wrap in aluminum foil, and toss in the freezer. (Disclaimer: After recently studying the mineral module for my NTP certification, I’m looking for a new alternative to the aluminum foil solution.) I try to plan ahead and defrost in the fridge, which leads to a much better texture than nuking in the microwave from frozen.
Mealballs are so easy to make in bulk and then freeze, it’s a no brainer.
Salmon cakes freeze well! This is a recent discovery for me and I’m excited. Since I prefer to eat my salmon cakes room temp, I let them defrost first. If you prefer them warm/hot, you could try heating from frozen.
Ground meat is a freezer staple of mine. Often times when I’m making taco meat or another seasoned ground meat, I will double and freeze one pound. It’s an easy way to get a stash of meals going in your freezer without a lot of extra work.
Stews and chili taste great post-freeze. I hadn’t thought of this rule of thumb before, but I’m thinking that if you can make it in the crockpot, you can likely freeze it. These meals typically don’t loose their texture once defrosted. I like to reheat on the stovetop as that helps with some of the liquid that seems to accumulate while frozen.
Soup is souper (ha!) easy to freeze. I try to always double a batch of soup and freeze half for later. Such an easy vegetable side for dinner and usually has the added bonus of bone broth.
Speaking of, bone broth! Keep a freezer stash full and you will never again have to use store bought broth with it’s long list of ingredients.
Vegetables are more tricky (for me at least). Grated sweet potato is about all I freeze. Suggestions? Leave ’em in the comments, please!

Crockpot Freezer Meals

I wish I had a long list of ideas for you here. Crockpot ready frozen meals seem awesome in theory and I love the idea of once-a-month cooking. Salsa chicken verde (there are a million recipes out there) is the only idea I’ve had that meets my ingredient requirements and doesn’t turn out mushy. I start by tossing all the ingredients in a freezer bag (make as many freezer bags/meals as you have space to freeze!). The night before I want to cook it, I toss it in the fridge to defrost. You could skip this, but it might be hard to get the food out of the freezer bag if it’s rock solid. Then I toss it in the crockpot to cook. If you have other ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Tips for freezing food

Follow safety standards. I’m not an expert here so read up on your own and do what you need to do. I always make sure to let food cool before putting it in the freezer. I buy the freezer safe glass jars and never fill past the indicated max fill line.
Label your food. I know you think you will know what it is, but I promise you won’t remember. I use either painters tape or masking tape to write on with a sharpie. Include the item, the date, and the number of servings or amount.
Buy smaller glass freeze ware. I find that freezing and defrosting single (I do double as well since there are two of us in the house) portions is the most likely way for me to actually make it through my food stash without wasting. I like knowing I can defrost one or two meals worth of something and not be eating a stew for the next six nights in a row.
Freezer friendly mason jars are great as well, I’ve been using them for everything lately (both in the freezer and just as tupperware now that I’ve thrown out almost all of our plastic). I use both the pint and the two pint sizes.
Also freeze non-meal food in different quantities so you don’t have to defrost more than you need. I try to have varying amounts of bone broth frozen (ice cube sized, 1 cup, and 2 cup). For shredded sweet potatoes I often do a few 1 cup and a few 2 cup portions.
If space is a concern, try freezing soups, stews, chili, and broth in freezer bags, laying them flat. Once frozen they will be nice and flat and you can stack several on top of each other, or “file” them standing upright.

Enjoy your week!

menu monday: it’s bbq season!

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Though I try really hard to enjoy and be thankful for every day, it’s not big secret that I live for summer and fall. As far as I’m concerned we can do without January through May. This weekend we celebrated what might be my favorite weekend of the year, the start of BBQ season. We had a 1pm Sounders game and 75 degree weather. How do you not follow up a 4-0 victory on a sunny day with a BBQ?

I’m still cruising along with my 12 week challenge (week three starts today!) and Whole30. I wanted to make a meal that everyone would enjoy and that would be compliant for me as well. A bit of Pinteresting later and I had decided on build your own kabobs. This is perfect for our Sounders group, as we have big carnivores (me) and those who much prefer mostly veg with a bit of protein (my dear friend Becca). With this set-up, everyone made their kabobs to order and threw them on the grill as they wanted another one. Note: the potatoes are not Whole30 compliant.

You could totally change the recipes and do you own thing, but I went the easy route and copied The Meanest Mommy’s plan exactly as she posted (skipped the hot dogs as we only had 7 people eating). All the meats got great reviews, though I think my favorite was the chicken. Not sure I’ve used tarragon much before and I really like it. I prepped all the meat and chopped the veggies before the game (took about an hour) and there was almost no work once we were ready to eat. I get made fun of every time, but I don’t believe a party is truly a party if there are not some sort of food labels.

We ended up with leftovers so my menu plan for the week is looking really easy. It’s one of those weeks where I’m just going to eat the same thing for each meal all week because it’s easy and, if it’s something I enjoy, I totally don’t mind the repetition. That really is the key to eating the same meal over and over. You need to make sure it’s a meal you love. I do not recommend planning to eat a chicken breast and roast broccoli for lunch four days in a row. I guarantee (from past experience) the pizza in the cafeteria will call your name by Wednesday.

Breakfast: Tropical Salmon Cakes with Spicy Coconut Mayo from Well Fed 2 (recipes not available online so go get yourself a copy!). I am loving salmon cakes for breakfast. They are easy to make ahead, something different from eggs, help me get a daily serving of seafood (a new goal I’m working on) and with a little mayo easily keep me full until lunchtime. Well Fed 2 has about 10 different variations which help change it up a bit.

Lunch: Turkish Doner Kabob with Zucchini Noodles and Tahini Sauce. A new Well Fed 2 recipe, finally! I need to do a recap of where I am with my cooking through the book. Clearly taking much longer than anticipated, but I also didn’t expect to start a complete career change this year.

Dinner: Leftovers from the BBQ with whatever veggies I find in the fridge.

The week ends in pretty much the best way possible: a super quick weekend trip to Waikiki with my hubby. It will be my first traveling Whole30 and I’ll try to write a bit about how I plan (and succeed!) to tackle that next week.

menu monday: kitchen gadgets I love (oh yeah, and another Whole30)

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I did a ton of food prep today and I’m really excited about it. I was feeling a little overwhelmed and exhausted in general so I decided to cancel plans and clear the calendar so I could stay in my pajamas all day. I’ve caught up on class work, organized the house, got myself ready for the week ahead, spent good time with G + A, and have a ton of food ready to go in the fridge and freezer. Win, win, win, win, and win.

Greek Meatballs
Southwest Frittata
Barbacoa
Jalapeño Garlic salmon
Moroccan Dipping Sauce
Broccoli Salad
Rogan Josh Spice

I’m sure I’ll go into this later, but I joined a Kettlebell gym and am doing a 12 week summer challenge (because we all know I can’t resist anything with the world challenge it in). Part of the challenge is following the Whole30 guidelines for the duration. Which I guess makes it a Whole84? Let’s just pretend it’s a Whole30 for now. Here’s what I prepped for the first week of the challenge.

I started with a double batch of Southwest Frittata. This should last Greg and I all week with an extra serving or two. I put a few days worth in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. The freeze really well and taste best if you defrost in the fridge rather than microwave frozen.

Since I needed two cups of grated sweet potato, I went ahead and grated all the sweet potatoes I had on hand. These freeze great and defrost in a bowl of water super quick. Why get your food processor dirty multiple times when you can just do it once?

Next up was lunches for the week. For the first part of the week I’ll be having lamb meatballs with kebab sauce and a tomato cucumber salad with Tessemaes dressing.

The second part of the week I’ll be having ground pork seasoned with Rogan Josh over spaghetti squash with Moroccan Dipping sauce. One of my favorite meals ever. I made the seasoning myself this time and the pork is cooked and waiting in the freezer. I didn’t find a spaghetti squad at Whole Foods this weekend and still need to track one down. The dipping sauce is in the fridge ready to go.

I have barbacoa in the crockpot right now. I found the mix called for in the recipe at Whole Foods, but it had brown sugar so it’s a no-go on the Whole30. Instead, I found a jar of compliant Red Sauce. I’m hoping it tastes okay – the ingredients were pretty similar to the barbacoa mix.

We’ll be having the barbacoa with coleslaw. I love this recipe from Well Fed 2. I used the food processor for all of the veggies and I think it’s going to be even better this time.

For the next little while, until I can pass out of the basic kettlebell class, I have to work out in the evenings. I know, it’s really not my thing and will be awful. But it is what it is. I made prosciutto egg cups to have as a pre workout meal since I’ll be going after work and it will be hours post-lunch.

Since I’m heading into 84 days of super clean eating, at precisely noon today I asked Greg to open a bottle of white wine. It was delicious.

5 Kitchen Gadgets I Love

1. Crockpot: The crockpot is on our counter pretty much nonstop. I make broth in it once a week and probably use it weekly for cooking a meal as well. It is definitely a huge help when it comes to eating a home cooked meal when you’ve been at work all day. We got this one as a wedding gift to replace my old one that had become a fire hazard; so far I have no complaints.

2. Food Processor: This is one of those items I didn’t know I needed until I had one. It has made my kitchen life so much easier. I make mayo in it weekly and I use it to shred veggies all the time. It took me about five minutes to peel, shred, and package the 9 cups of sweet potatoes this morning. It’s also great for making sauces like pesto. I like the 14 cup size but I’m sure the others are great as well.

3. Meat Grinder: Since I’ve gone down the path of being a ‘nutravore’ I’m constantly trying to sneak organ meat into our meals. I’ll be honest and say that our Kitchen Aid mixer gets very little use. I don’t enjoy baking, we don’t eat grains at home, and it just rarely ever was used. Then I realized I could get a meat grinder for under $50 that runs off the mixer and it is in rotation much more often. I throw in slightly thawed organ meat to mix into ground beef recipes that have a good amount of seasoning.

4. Emersion Blender: I use this all the time. I make coconut milk lattes on the weekend and they just taste better if they’ve been blended a bit. It’s great for vegetable soups, so much easier (and safer for those of us that are accident prone) than pouring into a blender. Also good for pureeing any vegetables (hint: the more butter the more delicious). Less than $40 and probably the gadget that most makes things easier in the kitchen.

5. Zoodle Maker: A few years ago my sister bought me a little gadget that makes zucchini noodles. I can’t find it online to link to it, but it is awesome. There is much less zucchini wasted when I use this little contraption then when I used to use a julienne peeler.

Occasionally I use my mandolin and a small food processor. Even less frequently I use a popcorn machine, blender and the ice cream maker attachment to the stand mixer. They are all great and worth taking up space in my kitchen, they just don’t get used as often.

Next week I’ll share five kitchen gadgets on my wish list.

menu monday: the low prep version

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This week is very low prep as I’m creating meals mostly from what is already in the freezer. Greg’s birthday is next week and I pulled off a surprise night away and amazing dinner at the Inn at Langley. There will definitely be a post later this week about our adventure. It involved a lot of food, wine, and HGTV. My MIL kept Alfred for a few extra days and we picked him up this afternoon while also enjoying a Mother’s Day BBQ. Yay for good weather! Since we’ve been gone most of the weekend there was no time for prep. These weeks are exactly why I always try to have a good amount of prepped food prepped in the freezer.

Cincinnati Chili from Well Fed 2
Spaghetti Squash Bolognese from Practical Paleo
Jalapeño Garlic Lime Salmon from A Spicy Perspective

Easy 20 minute dinner: Preheat oven to 400*. Remove steaks from the fridge. Mix caesar dressing. Toss with pre-washed and cut kale (or with kale you prepped over the weekend). Throw in the fridge to chill. Heat a cast iron pan and add some fat. Bacon fat is the best. Collect your ingredients for strawberry avocado salsa. Salt and pepper the steaks. Throw them in the pan. Chop your strawberries. Flip steaks. Chop the rest of the salsa goods. Carefully put the steak pan in the over. Mix your salsa, adding remaining ingredients. Plate your salad and salsa. Remove steak when done to your liking. EAT!

Single girl dinner. Combined leftover kale caesar with strawberry avocado salsa and had a can of salmon on the side. I love the sea salt canned salmon from Loki Fish – skin and bones included for extra nutrition!

Quick weeknight dinner of bolognese over zucchini noodles. I made the bolognese over the weekend (triple batch, my new motto is “cook once, eat many times”). I snuck in 1/3 lamb kidney an 2/3 ground beef. We didn’t notice anything odd with the taste.

Egg cups are always fun for breakfast and very portable. Grease a muffin tin with coconut oil and then line each with a piece of prosciutto. Make sure there are no holes for the egg to seep through. Drop an egg in each one and bake for 15 minutes at 400*. Let sit for a few minutes to settle. (Recipe idea courtesy of the Whole30 Instagram feed.)

Happy (& healthy) eating this week!

menu monday: back in the kitchen

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I finally got back in the kitchen this weekend after my crazy two weeks of work + school + work. My recipes this week are from all over. Rather than look through cookbooks to get ideas, I found recipes for a few things that sounded good.

Shrimp Avocado Bowl from SkinnyTaste
Spinach Bacon Salad from The Creative Caveman
Bacon Lemon Greens Egg Muffins from Paleo Lunches and Breakfasts on the Go
Strawberry Avocado Salsa from Free People
Caesar Dressing from The Paleo Mom
Spaghetti Squash Bolognese from Practical Paleo
Jalapeño Garlic Lime Salmon from A Spicy Perspective

Yummy eats from this weekend:

Shrimp avocado bowl

Spinach bacon salad with pork chop

A few items prepped for later in the week:

Egg muffins for our breakfasts the first few days of the week

Triple batch of bolognese to fill the freezer (2 lbs ground beef; 1 lb lamb kidney)

The fixing for weekday lunch chicken salads

On a whim, Greg and I decided to do some spring cleaning and clean out the fridge. We’re crazy like that. We took it all apart, washed everything, tossed what we don’t use. It is so nice to open the door and find a clean fridge with plenty of room.

Happy (& healthy) eating this week!

menu monday: two week cook-up

menu monday: you win some, you lose some

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So last week I had a great menu planned. And you know what happened? We ate out every single night. I didn’t do much prep last weekend. Sometimes the less busy weekends end up being the ones where I do less work in the kitchen. I guess I just don’t feel the pressure to get it done and it never ends up happening. Not all the evenings out were because of lack of preparation – we had a fun date night on Wednesday.

The real fun though happened on Thursday night. I got food poisoning like I didn’t know could happen. I’m assuming it was from a salad I ate for dinner at a local restaurant, but hard to know for sure. It was awful and I’m glad I’m feeling better, though still pretty exhausted from a lack of food the last 48 hours.

It’s now Sunday morning, I have nothing planned or prepped and haven’t been shopping. I did a quick store run to pick up veggies and a chicken, but since we didn’t use much from last week I still have a fair amount to work with.

In general, I think I’ve been biting off too much. I’m planning menus that require a lot of prep and are recipe heavy while trying to keep up with work and school. This week I’m trying out going really simple. I’m throwing together a breakfast casserole with what I have in the fridge already. The one actual recipe I’m linking to (Nom Nom Paleo’s Kalua Pork) includes three ingredients and about 5 minutes of prep time (it’s also the most amazing recipe ever!).

I love cooking, but with everything going on I’d rather increase our likelihood of eating at home than failing at executing an elaborate meal plan. I do want to make sure we’re still getting nutrient dense food so somehow I need to work broth and organ meats back into a simple menu, but that’s not a problem I’m going to solve today. Maybe next week. It’s far too sunny out right now to think about menu planning for another minute. Have a great week!

West Coast Martins

our adventures, documented.