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Candida Diet Day 1

candida, recipes, whole30 April 20, 2018 Leave a comment

Breakfast

Scramble
1/2 cup red onions, chopped
1 cup curly kale, chopped
2 eggs, scrambled
Decaf coffee with 1 tbsp coconut cream (not creamer, it’s in a can on the Asian Foods aisle)

Sauté the red onions in 1/2 tbsp of butter until soft. Add the kale and sauté until wilted. Scramble the eggs in a bowl and add salt and pepper then add to the pan once the kale is wilted. Stir to integrate everything together and serve immediately once eggs are cooked.

Lunch

Salad
1 cup mixed baby greens
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup thin sliced radishes
1 small avocado, chopped
1 green onion, thinly sliced
3 oz wild caught tuna in spring water
1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds
drizzle of freshly squeezed lemon juice
drizzle of sunflower oil
salt & pepper

Put all ingredients in a large bowl and enjoy your salad!

Dinner

Salmon & Veggies
6 oz lemon-dill salmon
1/2 cup roasted purple cauliflower
1/2 cup sautéed asparagus with lemon, garlic and ginger
1/2 cup roasted Brussel sprouts

Preheat oven to 425.

Cut cauliflower into 1 inch florets and half or quarter Brussel sprouts, mince 2 cloves of garlic. Toss all ingredients in a bowl with a little oil of your choice and salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes.

Rub sunflower oil on the bottom of a baking dish and place salmon filet in dish. Squeeze some lemon juice over the salmon then sprinkle lemon zest and tear some fresh dill to sprinkle over the salmon as well. Add sea salt and a little freshly cracked pepper. Put in the oven for the last 12-15 minutes that the veggies are cooking.

While everything is in the oven, heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Trim the ends off of about 8 asparagus spears and mince 1 clove of garlic and a little fresh ginger root. Once the oil is hot, add asparagus, garlic, ginger, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to the pan. After a few minutes, add a splash of organic chicken broth to the pan. Sauté until everything is tender, about 8 minutes.

Whole 30 – A Realistic Meal Plan – Week 4

recipes, whole30 September 22, 2014 Leave a comment

I forgot to post this when I actually finished but I did the entire Whole 30! By the end of it I felt really good, lost 8 pounds, and changed my relationship with food. I was SO tired of cooking that I honestly didn’t eat as much just because the thought of cooking yet another meal was enough to keep me from eating. I will definitely keep a lot of these habits moving forward though. Following the whole 30 shopping guidelines and meal plans at home for the most part but being able to eat out occasionally would be sustainable for a long time. Overall, I would recommend this plan, definitely one of the best cleanses or detoxes that I have done over the years!

Day 22:
Breakfast – Pork Hash and blueberries
Lunch – Red Curry with Chicken (leftover)
Dinner – Tarragon Cream Chicken with sautéed broccolini

Day 23:
Breakfast – Apple with Almond Butter
Lunch – Tarragon Cream Chicken (leftover)
Dinner – Chili over a baked yukon gold potato

Day 24:
Breakfast –Pork Hash
Lunch – Italian Chicken Stew (made night before)
Dinner – Chili over a baked yukon gold potato

Day 25:
Breakfast – Pork Hash
Lunch –Italian Chicken Stew (leftover)
Dinner – Steak with Roasted Purple Potatoes and sautéed broccolini

Day 26:
Breakfast – BLAT “Benedict”… without the egg
Lunch – Italian Chicken Stew (leftover)
Dinner – Ate out – side salad with grilled chicken, no dressing

Day 27:
Breakfast – BLAT “Benedict”… without the egg
Lunch – Apple with Almond Butter
Dinner – Seared Yellowfin Tuna with Roasted Broccolini

Day 28:
Breakfast – Banana
Lunch – Ate out at a Paleo Bistro
Dinner – Roasted Brussel Sprouts & Purple Potatoes

Day 29:
Breakfast – Pork Hash with mushrooms
Lunch – Apple with Almond Butter
Dinner – Pot Roast Stew

Day 30:
Breakfast – Pork Hash with mushrooms
Lunch – Pot Roast Stew
Dinner – Steak with Roasted Purple Potatoes and sautéed broccolini

Whole 30 – A Realistic Meal Plan – Week 3

recipes, whole30 August 18, 2014 Leave a comment

Cold-pressed black coffee may be my new favorite thing on earth…which means my taste buds are seriously changing doing this program! Also, I would say that while I don’t have crazy “tiger blood” energy, I DO have energy that last all day. After work I run errands, cook, do chores around the house, work on our Spain to-do list, and never notice my energy draining during the day, even when I’m ready go to bed. The hardest thing about the Whole30 is just cooking every single meal. That is the only real struggle that I’ve had – the only convenience I can find is if I planned ahead and worked for it. I’m 22 days in now though, there’s no turning back from here!!

Day 15:
Breakfast – Pork Hash with Mushrooms
Lunch – Green Curry with Chicken (leftover)
Dinner – Italian Chicken Stew

Day 16:
Breakfast – Smoked Salmon with sliced tomatoes and blueberries (Gil had 2 boiled eggs)
Lunch – Italian Chicken Stew (leftover) and a nectarine
Dinner – Pot Roast

Day 17:
Breakfast –Smoked Salmon with sliced tomatoes and blueberries (Gil had 2 boiled eggs)
Lunch – Pot Roast Stew (leftover)
Dinner – Naked Chile Rellenos (omit cheese from original recipe) with tomato and avocado

Day 18:
Breakfast – Pork Hash with Mushrooms
Lunch – Pot Roast Stew (leftover)
Dinner – Tarragon Cream Chicken

Day 19:
Breakfast – Pork Hash with Mushrooms
Lunch – Tarragon Cream Chicken (leftover)
Dinner – Naked Chile Rellenos (omit cheese from recipe) (leftover) with tomato and avocado

Day 20:
Breakfast – Apple with Almond Butter
Lunch – side salad with shredded chicken, no dressing (out at an Italian restaurant)
Dinner – prime rib with roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus (family dinner at a Steakhouse)

Day 21:
Breakfast – Apple with Almond Butter
Lunch – Peach & almonds (we were moving so I went by a grocery store for lunch)
Dinner –Red Curry with Chicken

Paleo Pot Roast

recipes, whole30 August 17, 2014 Leave a comment

Pot Roast reminds me of Sunday lunches after church with my family when I was growing up in Texas, serious comfort food. It still one of my favorite meals, this is serious comfort food!! I have adapted this recipe by borrowing ideas from quite a few sources and combining them all to make a gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo, Whole30 compliant, etc. version of this traditional dish, and it’s still really delicious! Ina Garten’s Company Pot Roast is my primary source of inspiration for this, her technique is really great for thickening the sauce even without the flour, butter, and wine that she uses.

This recipe takes some time, but you won’t need to be in the kitchen the entire time. You’ll need about an hour for chopping, searing, and stirring during the afternoon and then it needs to cook for 2.5 hours after that. You’ll then need about 15 minutes to finish the sauce and serve. So if you want to serve dinner at 7, get started around 3:15.

Ingredients:
3-4 lb. grass-fed chuck roast, tied
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 leek, chopped (white and light green parts)
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups small yellow potatoes, halved or quartered depending on size
4 cups organic beef broth
28 oz plum tomatoes in pureé
sea salt & freshly cracked pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees fahrenheit and begin chopping all of your veggies, I chopped mine a few hours ahead to speed up cooking time.

Pat the beef dry with a paper towel. Season the roast all over with salt and pepper. In a large, oven-safe Dutch oven pot, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the roast and sear for 4 to 5 minutes on each side as well as the ends, until nicely browned all over. Remove the roast from the pan.

Add about 2 more tablespoons olive oil to the Dutch oven. Add the carrots, onions, mushrooms, leeks, garlic, more salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until all of the veggies are tender but not brown, like the picture below.

Add the beef broth and deglaze the pan (scrape all of the brown bits off of the bottom) then bring to a boil. Add the tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Add the potatoes and then put the roast back into the pot, try to make sure the liquid is covering almost all of the roast and veggies. Bring to a boil once again, cover, and place the covered pot in the oven for 2 1/2 hours, until the meat is fork tender.

Remove the roast to a cutting board. Skim off as much fat as possible from the sauce. This is really important part: transfer quite a bit of the sauce and vegetables to a blender (enough to fill up a fairly large blender) or a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pureé until smooth. Pour the pureé back into the pot, place on the stovetop over low heat, and return the sauce to a simmer. Taste for seasonings and let the sauce continue to simmer. Meanwhile, remove the strings from the roast, and slice the meat. Serve warm with the sauce spooned over it. The sauce is so good that my husband was literally drinking the extra sauce off of his plate!

For leftovers, I cut the rest of the meat into bite size pieces and add them back into the sauce and serve it as a stew, seriously tasty! Hope you enjoy this one as much as we do!

Italian Chicken Stew

recipes August 14, 2014 Leave a comment

This is one of those meals that was a complete experiment and it actually turned out really well. It’s kind of Roman Chicken meets Seafood Cioppino…kind of. However you describe it, it’s delicious and hearty and an excellent Whole30 compliant meal and (bonus) it’s really easy too!

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1 yellow onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
6 baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can organic petite diced tomatoes
1 cup organic chicken broth
2 cups of fresh kale, chopped
oregano
salt and pepper
olive oil

Heat olive oil (just enough to cover the bottom) in large pot over medium heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken then place in oil in bottom of pot in a single layer. Be careful putting the chicken in the oil! Cook about 3 minutes until starting to turn golden brown, turn chicken and cook 3 minutes on the other side, then remove from pot.

Add onions and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until they begin to soften and become translucent. Add red pepper and cook for another 4-5 minutes. You can add a little more olive oil also, if needed. Next, add the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Add garlic and cook for about 1-2 minutes until you can smell the garlic but it isn’t yet burning.

Add chicken stock and deglaze the pan (scrape the brown bits off the bottom and into the stock). Add a sprinkling of oregano, salt & pepper and stir. Add tomatoes and return chicken to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add kale and mix into the liquid well, then simmer for 5-10 minutes until the sauce is the consistency you want. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Tarragon Cream Chicken – Whole30 Compliant

recipes August 13, 2014 1 Comment

This is one of the only recipes I actually like that is based on a master recipe from the Whole30 program. I followed their directions once and tweaked it the second time and I preferred that version, which is here. To be fair, I haven’t tried all of their recipes (after 2 bad ones I completely gave up and have made up all of my own since) but of the ones I have tried, this one and a slightly modified version of their chili which I will post soon, are the only 2 I’ll make again.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, sliced
1 tbsp tarragon (fresh is best)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup coconut milk (culinary, in the can)
8 oz mushrooms, I like baby portabella, sliced
1 green onion (including the green part), chopped
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt & freshly cracked pepper

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle sliced chicken with salt and pepper then brown in a single layer for about 3 minutes per side until golden brown, remove from pan.

Add 2 cloves chopped garlic to the pan as well as the sliced mushrooms and green onions. After about 15 seconds, add 1 cup of chicken broth and 1/2 cup of coconut milk and deglaze the pan (scrape the brown bits off of the bottom). Allow mushrooms to cook for a few minutes until soft and then add tarragon and chicken back to the sauce and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes until sauce has reached thickness you want, I like it to just coat the spoon when I pull it out of the sauce. This dish is great with roasted veggies or potatoes as a side. It’s also really good heated up for lunch the next day which makes lunch at work a little more enjoyable than just a salad. Enjoy!

Whole 30 – A Realistic Meal Plan – Week 2

recipes August 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Week 2 was a crazy week at work for me, so you’ll see a lot of the same things over and over. Not very creative, and Gil has now vetoed roasted broccoli for at least a week, but this is real life. We’re crazy busy but still making it work with the Whole 30.

Side note: Week 3 is already shaping up much better, my menu plan is a lot more creative and it was actually even cheaper than last week despite me buying everything at Whole Foods because I didn’t have time for 2 separate grocery trips.

To give you an idea of approximately what this meal plan costs, for all meals for Week 2 combined I spent $66 on organic produce, spices, coconut milk, etc. at Sprouts Farmers Market (I choose which veggies and fruits we will eat for the week based on what is on sale in the circular since, for the most part, all of my fruits and veggies are interchangeable in my recipes) and $78 at Whole Foods on grass-fed, organic meat and wild-caught fish. I bought some higher end proteins like swordfish steaks so it is possible to spend even less if you choose less expensive fish and cuts of meat. So I spent a total of $144 on groceries for 21 meals for 2 people which comes to $3.43 per person per meal. So not only is this meal plan really healthy but, even with high-end organic meats from Whole Foods, it is literally cheaper than eating at McDonalds.

I still need to write up some of these recipes, I’ll get them posted as soon as I can.

Day 8:
Breakfast – I felt too bad to eat (migraine) but I had planned to eat Pork Hash with Mushrooms
Lunch – Mexican Chicken (leftover) with a peach
Dinner – Swordfish Steak with Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli, Green Beans, and Mushrooms

Day 9:
Breakfast – Pork Hash with a peach
Lunch – Spinach Salad with Guacamole and Burger Patties
Dinner – Tarragon Cream Chicken with Roasted Asparagus and Green Beans and Mixed Potatoes

Day 10:

Breakfast – Pork Hash with a slice of tomato (Gil also had 2 boiled eggs)
Lunch – Spinach Salad with Guacamole with Tarragon Cream Chicken (leftover)
Dinner – First attempt at eating out – Sea Bass with Spinach and Mushrooms at True Food Kitchen

Day 11:
Breakfast – Smoked Salmon with Blueberries
Lunch – London Broil with Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli
Dinner – Chicken Sausage with Roasted Broccolini and Sliced Tomatoes

Day 12:
Breakfast – Peach and almonds before working out
Lunch – Chili on a bed of spinach
Dinner – Apple with Almond Butter (we went to a dinner party and didn’t eat and were starving when we got home but it was too late for a meal)

Day 13:
Breakfast – Smoked Salmon with Blueberries (and Scrambled Eggs for Gil)
Lunch – Chicken Sausage (leftover)
Dinner – Chili (leftover)

Day 14:
Breakfast – Pork Hash with a slice of tomato (Gil also had 2 boiled eggs)
Lunch – Green Curry with Chicken (my own recipe and it’s delicious! post coming soon)
Dinner – Chilean Sea Bass with Sautéed Broccolini and Roasted Purple Potatoes

Naked Chicken Chile Rellenos

recipes September 11, 2013 Leave a comment

I’m a Texas girl and when I found out about my allergies, one of the very hardest things to give up was Tex Mex. No corn, no flour, no cheese, no eggs…at first that all seemed to add up to no Tex Mex and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty upset about it. Last summer at the farmer’s market I saw some beautiful poblano peppers and decided to fix this gaping hole in my life. I started experimenting with chile relleno adaptations and this probably took more effort than any other recipe I have come up with, but it was worth it. This is a work intensive recipe but it isn’t difficult and it freezes really well so make a big batch and save some for another night when dinner will be wonderfully easy to make up for the work you put in on the first round!

4 poblano peppers
1 chicken breast
1 quart low sodium chicken stock
manchego cheese (sheep’s milk)
1 packet gluten free taco seasoning
olive oil

Set your oven to broil and rub a very light coating of olive oil all over the poblanos. Place them in a baking dish and broil them for 12-20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so, until the skin has charred and bubbled.

While the peppers are in the oven, bring the chicken stock and 1/2 of the taco seasoning to a boil. Add the chicken breast in the stock and boil for 10 minutes then cover and simmer for 20 more.

When the skin on the peppers has bubbled and the peppers look like the picture above, peel the waxy skin from the peppers then slit them lengthwise – one side only, leave the pepper intact as much as possible – and scrape the seeds out as well. Turn the oven to 350 and set the peppers aside on the counter for now.

After 20 minutes of simmering, pull the chicken breast out of the stock and shred it using 2 forks. Add the shredded chicken back to the stock to soak up the flavor.

Place the seeded, skinless peppers back in the baking dish and place slices of manchego cheese inside the peppers. Scoop chicken, with just a little of the stock into each pepper and then add one more small slice of cheese on top of the chicken and pull the sides of the pepper back together. (Note: If you are going to freeze some, freeze them at this point in the recipe.)

Bake the rellenos at 350 for 20 minutes then enjoy the fruits of your labor!!

I pulled the seam apart a little in the final picture so you can see inside them a bit.

Rare Beef Pho (Vietnamese Soup….with an Americanized shortcut)

recipes June 10, 2013 Comments: 2

I love pho. I mean, I’m a little obsessed with it. There haven’t been many weeks this year that I haven’t gone out for pho at LEAST once. I have to admit though, that I am a little intimidated by Asian food when I cook at home. It is one of the very best cuisines for my allergies, and the type of food I choose almost every time I go out, but somehow I have only ventured to try really basic stir fry at home. I think it’s that everything is different, the spices, the techniques, the ingredients, and maybe just the fact that I didn’t grow up around anyone that knew how to make it, but I have always been a little afraid to try.

Recently I decided to give it a shot, to try to make pho at home, so I started researching pho recipes and almost gave up on the spot. To make it authentically takes 1-2 DAYS, involves bone marrow and all kinds of strange ingredients (I refuse to touch bones or eat meat that wasn’t removed from the bone before I laid eyes on it….one of my little quirks), not happening. So my experiment with an extreme shortcut to pho began and I have to say, it’s pretty darn good. It has passed the test with a few pho-obsessed friends and I think I’m ready to share.

Ingredients, for approx. 3 people:
– 20 oz Organic Gluten-Free Beef Broth
– 32 oz carton of Pacific Brand Organic Beef Pho Broth Soup Starter
– 1/2 tbsp chopped ginger
– 1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
– 8 oz grass-fed organic round steak sliced as thin as possible (I ask the butcher at the store to do this for me)
– 3 whole cloves garlic
– 1-2 tbsp gluten-free soy sauce
– 4 oz rice noodles (either pad thai style or vermicelli style)
– 3 tbsp fish sauce (get an authentic brand (one you can’t read the label of) not Thai Kitchen)
– 1-2 cups fresh spinach
– sriracha sauce to taste

About an hour before you want to eat dinner, put the steak strips, soy sauce and smashed but intact whole garlic cloves in a ziploc bag to marinate. Every recipe I found had you put the steak in with no seasoning, which is how it is traditionally made. However, when you aren’t making the authentic broth, the beef is very bland and I have found that this really simple marinade makes a huge difference.

About 30 minutes before dinner, put both types of broth, the chopped ginger, chopped garlic, and fish sauce in a large pot with a lid and bring to a boil. Boil at a low boil / rolling simmer for about 25 minutes, covered. Keep an eye on it, it sometimes has a tendency to boil over. Side note – the reason for the two different broths is this: most recipes for pho call for cinnamon and anise to infuse the broth as well. I have tried and tried but the flavor of these two is always overwhelming when I use an actual cinnamon stick. The Pacific pho soup starter has both of these ingredients already in it so that guesswork is taken care of and I mix it with the regular broth so that I can still infuse it with ginger and garlic to my liking.

While the broth is simmering, prepare rice noodles according to package directions. Once cooked, place the noodles in the bottom of the serving bowls. Place fresh spinach on top of the noodles and place the raw steak (just the steak, not the garlic or soy sauce) evenly spread out over the bowl. Try not to overlap the steak very much since the broth will actually cook the steak to rare in the bowl and if it is stacked on top of each other, it won’t cook properly. See picture below.

After simmering 20 minutes, strain the broth to remove the ginger and garlic pieces and immediately pour the broth in the waiting serving bowls, be sure the broth covers the meat so that it will cook it. I like to add a little sriracha for some spice, that’s completely up to you though.

Is it easier than going out for pho? No. Is it cheaper? Honestly, probably not. But it’s a fun, unique dish to make on your own and the best part is that when I make it at home, I can fully control the ingredients and knowing I’m eating all organic food and that I am not allergic to any ingredients is certainly worth it. An added bonus: it’s delicious. Hope you enjoy it too!

Jalapeño Poppers

recipes January 1, 2013 Leave a comment

This is one of my favorite recipes. I love jalapeño poppers but they are so unhealthy and full of cheese and gluten that I really thought I would just give them up completely when my diet changed. After having success with baked, unbattered chile rellenos though, I decided to try making a version of jalapeños that I can eat and I honestly like them a lot better than the original. These jalapeño poppers have become a party staple and they freeze really well so I make a big batch and keep them on hand in the freezer for get togethers or as a side with a good steak. They are a little labor intensive but they are so worth it! Bonus: they are a lot healthier! They aren’t fried, there’s no bacon, and I use sheep & goat milk for easier digestion.

3 oz Sliced Prosciutto (Nitrate free if you can find it)
4 oz Dill & Garlic Goat Cheese (If your store only has regular goat cheese you can make your own. Let the cheese come to room temperature in a bowl then add some garlic powder and dried dill and mix it well with a fork)
3 oz Manchego Cheese (Spanish sheep’s milk cheese)
10-14 fresh jalapeños

First, you need to clean your jalapeños (if you are wearing contacts I strongly suggest you take them out for the day before starting this, or wear gloves). Slice each jalapeño in half lengthwise, it will look like the pepper on the right in the picture above, your goal is to make it look like the pepper on the left. Use your knife to separate the stem at the top from the seeds and membrane inside and along the edges of the pepper. I find it easiest to use my fingers to pull the seeds and everything out but you can continue using your knife and spoon if you want to avoid the peppers as much as possible. The more white membrane you leave, the hotter the pepper will be so if you are looking for a milder flavor you may want to clean it out even more than I did above.

Once you have cleaned all of your peppers, lay them out on your cutting board or the cookie sheet you will use to bake them. Slice the manchego cheese into small long blocks, about the size of the bottom of a hollowed out jalapeño and place them in each pepper.

Now stuff the remaining space in each pepper with goat cheese. Again, while it’s very messy, I find this easiest to do with my hands but 2 spoons can work if you don’t want to touch the peppers. As an alternative, you can use only manchego or goat cheese. The reason I use the 2 cheeses together is I like the creaminess of the goat cheese but it’s a stronger flavor so the 2 balance each other out really well.

Take each slice of prosciutto and slice into 3 pieces lengthwise, then wrap each strip around one jalapeño half. Start at the top and wrap around the pepper until you run out of prosciutto. Push each end of the prosciutto into the goat cheese lightly and it will hold itself in place.

This is the point at which you separate the peppers you are going to freeze from those you are going to cook. Place the peppers in the bottom of a tupperware container then place plastic wrap over the first layer and you can stack more on top. Place plastic wrap between each layer to keep them from freezing together.

When ready to cook, place the peppers on aluminum foil in a pan or cookie sheet and put in the oven preheated to 375. If room temperature, cook 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and prosciutto is beginning to get crispy. If frozen, cook about 20 minutes until you get the same result.

Enjoy! One last tip: if you plan to take these poppers to a party, make quite a few. They tend to go really fast!

healthy meals with sarah