Sunday, May 6, 2012

New Spring Menus

Since we moved, Q and I have fallen into bad eating habits so for the last two weeks, we've gone back to eating pretty much following Whole30 rules during the week. We've been eating whatever we want on the weekends but that's going to have to stop. We really do feel better overall when we're not doing grain and sugar (the other stuff doesn't seem to affect us as much). Last time we were eating this way was during winter and we relied on a lot of braised/roasted sorts of winter foods with lots of root veggies. That felt very wrong for this time of year so I dug up some new recipes to throw into the mix. These first four have been excellent successes - and they're all relatively fast and easy.

Curried Coconut Chicken - oh my goodness, so delicious. We served this with artichokes and used the sauce for dipping the leaves which meant we didn't miss the rice for the curry or the butter for the artichoke. I threw some scrambled eggs into the leftover sauce the next day for a phenomenal breakfast.

Sweet Potato Chicken Salad - This was a wonderful hot weather meal because it's served cold. I prepared it a few hours before dinner and then fridged it to let the flavors meld a little. The leftovers had gotten a little overpowered by the onion flavor the next day. I wondered about storing them separately and then mixing them in just before serving if I knew I was making it in advance or using milder or sweeter or just plain less onion.

Tuna Noodleless Casserole - It's best to think of this as a "Casserole featuring Tuna" so it doesn't get unfairly compared to something loaded with noodles and cheese and cream. It's super delicious though but it does take a fair amount of preparatory chopping. We used all yam and no white potatoes.

Pork Chops with Mushrooms - Okay, I totally cheated on the Whole30 thing here because I knew my tweaks would make it better and who can't resist making more tasty food? I added a little butter to the cooking onions along with the olive oil and deglazed the pan with some red wine after the mushrooms/onions cooked. Still paleo, but tweaks just the same, I used beef stock instead of chicken and half fresh and half mixed dried mushrooms (soaked) because that's what I had. Nom nom nom. All in all, still a pretty healthy dish for the amount of rich flavor it carries.

Let me know if anyone else tries any of these and what you think (especially if you come up with ways to make them even more delicious). Also, give me links if you have any other favorite recipes that fit the paleo/primal diet.