Creamy chicken and zoodles

I got inspiration to this recipe from PaleOMG but I changed the recipe a little bit.

Ingredients
serves 2
2 large zucchinis, julienned
2-3 chicken thigh fillets, diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 small piece of cabbage, finely diced
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1½ tbsp homemade mayo
2 tsp sriracha chili sauce
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
butter for frying

Make noodles from zucchini using a julienne peeler or cut into thin strips. Place zoodles in a strainer or colander. Sprinkle noodles with salt, toss and let sit for 10-20 minutes to release liquid.
Drain water from zucchini and pat dry with paper towels. Heat butter over medium heat and add in the zucchini for a couple of minutes.
Prepare all you other ingredients. Fry the chicken in some butter together with some salt and pepper on medium-high heat, until browned and cooked through. Remove from pan and place in a separate bowl.
Add the onion, garlic, carrot and cabbage to that same pan and fry on the same heat until the onion is translucent. Add in the zucchini, mayo, sriracha sauce and parsley and mix around. Add more salt and pepper if necessary.

Nut crumbed fish with lime and coriander butter

We made this dish last night and it turned out to be incredibly tasty. I got the recipe for the butter from http://eatdrinkpaleo.com.au/ and the fish I came up with myself. We served it together with some steamed broccoli and green beans and put some butter on top of it all at the end. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of it but you just have to believe me that it looked good too. Also, you'll probably have some chopped nuts left over after making it but then you can always use that for some other yummy recipe.

Ingredients
serves 4 
80 ml macadamias
160 ml walnuts
200 ml almonds
100 ml coconut flour
2 eggs
4 white fish fillets
100 g butter
2 tbsp coriander
zest and juice from 1 lime
butter for frying
salt and pepper to taste

Place the nuts together in a food processor and chop to your liking.
Beat the eggs lightly in a shallow bowl and place your chopped nuts and coconut flour on two separate plates. Firstly dust the fish fillets in the coconut flour, then dip it in the beaten eggs and lastly crumb it with the nut mixture. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on each side. Fry on medium heat for about 3 minutes each side or until golden.
Place 100 g butter together with the coriander, lime zest and lime juice in a food processor and process until completely mixed together. Season to taste with salt and pepper a mix again.

Brussel sprouts and bacon salad

Last night we decided to have a barbecue and it's always a question of what to have as a side dish. I bought the cook book from Eat Drink Paleo yesterday and found this recipe in it. Luckily both me and my other half love brussel sprouts so it was an easy decision.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
500g brusselssprouts, washed and halved
3 slices of bacon, diced and crispy fried
1–2 tbsp macadamia or coconut oil
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp hot mustard
½ lime, juice
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Toss brussel sprouts in macadamia orcoconut oil and roast for 30 minutes, until crisped and browned. Stir half way through.
Whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Add fresh cherry tomatoes and bacon to roasted brussel sprouts and toss together with the dressing. Serve in the same roasting tray or in a salad bowl.

Chicken fajitas

We're moving in about a week now so I'm trying to empty the freezer. I found this super easy chicken fajitas recipe and it turned out to be really tasty.

Ingredients
serves 2-3
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sea salt (optional)
500 g boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into strips
1 tbsp coconut oil
½ red onion, sliced
2 red capsicums, sliced
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lime

In  a bowl, combine garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and salt. Toss chicken in mixture until fully coated and set aside.
Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When pan is hot, add the coconut oil.
Saute the onion for 3 minutes, add chicken and continue to cook until chicken is almost fully cooked (about 10-15 minutes), stirring often.
Just before chicken is done, add the capsicum, lemon and lime juice. Stir and cook for 3 more minutes.
Serve with a salad and top with guacamole.

Banana and cashew butter brownies

Today I had an extremely unproductive day at work and I felt so unmotivated to do anything. So, I had a look on the internet for some recipes with cashew butter since I knew I had some at home and it's been there for quite a while and I wanted to finally use it. I found this recipe on http://www.cleanfoodcreativefitness.com

Ingredients
makes 8 pieces
80 ml cocoa powder
60 ml almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cashew butter
2 eggs
1 mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla powder
2-4 tbsp cashew butter for decoration

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Combine your cocoa, almond flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.
Using a hand mixer add in the ripe mashed banana, honey, 60 ml cashew butter and eggs.
Lastly mix in your vanilla.
Once blended pour into a greased 20x20 cm baking pan.
Drop your remaining cashew butter by the teaspoon on top of your batter. Use a knife to swirl into the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Garlic and lemon prawns with zoodles

I love zoodles (zucchini noodles) and I keep trying to find easy and delicious recipes to have it more often. This time I found a very easy recipe at fastpaleo.com but I changed the recipe a bit.

Ingredients
serves 2
2 medium zucchinis
12-15 large prawns, peeled and deveined
½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
1 tbsp minced fresh parsley
Zest from one lemon
Juice from ½ lemon
½ avocado, mashed
pinch salt and pepper
1 tbsp butter
2 cups baby spinach

Mix together olive oil, avocado, crushed garlic, lemon juice, zest, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.
Make noodles from zucchini using a julienne peeler or cut into thin strips. Place zoodles in a strainer or colander. Sprinkle noodles with salt, toss and let sit for 10-20 minutes to release liquid.
Drain water from zucchini and pat dry with paper towels. Heat butter over medium heat and have all your ingredients ready to go.

Add shrimp and cook for about 30 seconds. Flip the shrimp, cook for another 30 seconds, then add the zoodles. Toss a few times to coat. Add spinach, continue tossing gently and cook for a minute or two until zoodles are cooked to preference and shrimp is cooked through. Turn off the heat and mix in the avocado mixture.

Paleo mixed veggie lasagna

Eatdrinkpaleo.com.au is a great site living down here in Australia because it is an Australian site which means that the things she uses should be easy to find in the stores here. This recipe doesn't really have anything unusual in it and it certainly is delicious. We put some cheese on the top so it's not really Paleo but you can easily leave that out. The red wine in the meat sauce really makes it extra yummy.

Ingredients
serves 4
500 g grass-fed beef mince
1 onion, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
160 ml dry red wine
720 ml tomato passata (it’s basically a fresh tomato puree, comes in large jars or you can puree your own from scratch; diced canned tomatoes are fine, just process them into smoother consistency first)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter or coconut oil
2/3 tsp sweet paprika
2/3 tsp black pepper
1 +2/3 tsp sea salt
1 large parsnip, peeled and sliced into thin disks
1 large eggplant, peeled and sliced into disks (a little thicker than the parsnips, about 1/2 cm)
3 medium zucchinis, sliced vertically into thin ribbons
4 mushrooms, sliced
A handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
2-3 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
Butter and olive oil for cooking
Optional topping –  100 ml grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Peel and chop onion and garlic. Slice the eggplant and sprinkle with salt to let some of the moisture out, set aside in a bowl.
Heat a frying pan with 1 teaspoon of butter to high. Break beef mince into small pieces and fry on high heat until the colour changes from red to lightly brown. Break the meat apart as it tends to clump together during cooking. Stir frequently to make sure all mince pieces are fried evenly. This should take about 5-7 minutes.
Add red wine, chopped garlic, pepper, paprika and salt to cooking meat and fry for a further 3-4 minutes. Add tomato passata, bring to boil and turn the heat down to simmering temperature.
Heat another frying pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil to medium. Sauté chopped onion with a pinch of salt for 5 minutes. Add onion and the olive oil to cooked in to the mince sauce, stir through and simmer for a further 10 minutes.
While the sauce is cooking, peel and slice parsnip into thin disks. Drizzle the bottom of a large, deep baking tray with some olive oil. Place a layer of parsnip slices overlapping each other. Put in the oven to start cooking while we prepare the rest of ingredients.
Pre-slice mushrooms and zucchini.
For the eggplant layer, we need to slightly pre-cook the aubergine slices. Heat a large frying pan to medium high. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of butter. Add the first batch of eggplant slices making sure they don’t overlap. Fry on each side for 1-2 minutes, just to cook them slightly. Repeat oil, ghee and eggplant until all disks are pre-cooked.
By this stage, all of our ingredients should be ready. Take the baking tray out of the oven and start layering the lasagna in the following order: pre-cooked parsnips, ½ of tomato meat sauce, eggplant, basil, mushrooms, the rest of the meat sauce pressed down evenly, baby spinach, zucchini, drizzle of olive oil and some cracked black pepper. Cook in the oven at 180-190C for 35-40 minutes.
If adding grated cheese, take lasagna out at a 20 minute mark and add the cheese on top. Put back in the oven and turn it up to 200 degrees Celsius for a further 10-15 minutes.

Carrot bread

Ok, I must admit that I do miss bread and although I do have the real thing occasionally I've been searching for a relatively easy Paleo recipe so that I can have it a bit more often. So when I found this recipe on http://undervarttak.blogspot.se/ I was really happy. I was a bit scared when making it since the previous times I've tried to make Paleo versiouns of bread they've turned out really dense and not great tasting. I made this and not only was it really simple to make, it was also really tasty. Wish I could've taken a better photo for you but I'm afraid I'm not the best photographer.

Ingredients
makes about 12 pieces
400 ml almond meal
50 ml coconut flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk
50 ml crushed linseeds
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp 'bread herbs' (I crushed some caraway seeds, fennel seeds and cumin together)
200 ml finely shredded carrot (approximately 2 small carrots)
6 eggs
200 ml water
olive or coconut oil to grease the pan

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Peel and shred the carrots finely. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, add the eggs and water and whip them together. Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and mix together until it forms a dough. Lightly squeeze the liquid out of the carrots and mix these into the dough. Let the dough sit and expand for about 5 minutes.
Grease and ovenproof pan (approximately 20x30 cm big) with one of the oil.
Add the dough to the pan and push it down with your hand until it's evenly flat.
By using a fork make a dotted pattern in the bread.
Cook the bread in the oven for about 20 minutes and has got a nice light brown colour and your test stick comes out clean. Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool slightly.
Cut the bread into squares, break apart and let it cool completely on a rack.

Cauliflower fried rice

Who doesn't like a good fried rice? I certainly do, so I found this recipe on http://www.familyfreshmeals.com and it was super easy and really delicious. One of our new favourites. It's not quite Paleo but sometimes we do decide to "cheat".

Ingredients
serves 2-3
720 ml grated raw cauliflower (about ½ large head)
120 ml frozen peas
120 ml carrots, thinly sliced (1 large carrot)
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, diced
½ tbsp olive oil
2 eggs, scrambled
3 tbsp soy sauce

In a large pan, saute garlic and onions in olive oil on a medium/high heat, until onions become soft and transparent, about 2-3 minutes. Next add in peas, carrots and cook until carrots begin to soften and peas are heated through, about 3-4 minutes. Next stir in scrambled eggs, cauliflower and soy sauce. Cook stirring frequently for about 5-7 more minutes.

Fennel gratin with garlic and parsley

I like fennel and sometimes they have it on special in the supermarket and I buy one just because it's nice but I never really have a clue how to cook it. I found this recipe on http://undervarttak.blogspot.se and I decided to give it a go. It turned out to be quite tasty. We had ours with some roasted pork fillet and steamed broccoli.

Ingredients
serves 4
500 g fennel
200 g leek
10 sundried tomatoes (not in oil)
2 garlic cloves
fresh parsley
salt and pepper
300 ml coconut milk
coconut oil to fry in

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Rinse and cut the leek into approximately 1 cm big pieces. Put some coconut oil in a pot and fry the leek slightly. Slice the fennel and the sundried tomatoes. Add the fennel and sundried tomatoes to the pot with the leek and mix around. Crush the garlic clove into the mixture. Add salt, pepper and parsley to taste. Mix around and let it fry for a couple of minutes. Add the coconut milk and simmer slowly for 5 minutes. Pour the mixture in an ovenproof dish and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes.