Dinner Last Night: Green Curry & Lime Chicken

I recently checked out Diane Sanfilipo's Practical Paleo cookbook for the library, and my mind is blown!  This is one of the most comprehensive Paleo resources I've ever seen.  It is beyond a cookbook, it gives a thorough explanation of of how eating a Paleo diet benefits numerous lifestyles and medical conditions.  It gives suggestions on lifestyle changes, and a meal-by-meal plan for beginning your journey to clean eating.  I perused the book cover to cover and I barely scratched the surface.

Anyway...I'm all about Diane's methodology, and since I've jumped on her bandwagon, I decided to start bookmarking recipes, among which included Thai Green Curry and Lime Chicken.  The marinade is savory, tart, and packs a citrus punch.  We left it in the broiler a bit longer to crisp up the skin for extra crunch.  Eaten with our favorite coconut rice and tamari-roasted broccoli, I think it's official we've added a new favorite to the dinner rotation.

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Dinner Last Night: Slow Cooker Creamy Lentil Soup with Dry-Rub Sweet Potato Steaks & Green Bean Slaw

In light of a New Year's detox, I opted to make this easy slow cooker creamy lentil soup.  Pretty easy, just dump the ingredients, let them marinate for 7 hours and then puree 1 can of chickpeas, lemon, and water for the "creamy" factor.  Delicious!  

I paired with a recipe from Deb Perelman's newest Smitten Kitchen cookbook, dry-rub sweet potato steaks with green bean slaw.  Never had sweet potatoes this way, and man oh man, were they good!  The "slaw" is made up of blanched green beans mixed with a tangy vinaigrette.  Would post the recipe if I could find a link online, but alas, there was none...

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Dinner Last Night: Slow Cooker Butternut-Apple Soup with Crispy Leeks

Continuing on my dairy-free, and mostly gluten-free journey, I've been seeking out good soup alternatives as the weather gets chilly.  Historically I'd be all about a great cream-based or baked potato soup (yummm!), but, for the time being, I'm shelving those cravings and looking forward to healthier alternatives.  This Butternut-Apple Soup with Crispy Leeks is from the Skinnytaste: Fast and Slow cookbook (which I highly recommend).  It's sooo crazy simple!  You can dress it up or down, I've made it with frozen butternut squash, and apple with skin on it, and a yellow onion - although leeks does elevate it a touch.  All you need is an immersion blender or food processor to blend the final product, and voila!

Ingredients:

2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed

1 leek (white parts only), rinsed well and roughly chopped

1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled and roughly chopped

1 medium carrot, roughly chopped

2 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth*

1/2 cup canned coconut milk

For garnish:

1 tablespoon olive oil

3/4 cup thinly sliced leeks (white parts only), rinsed well

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Coconut milk, for drizzling (optional)

*Read the label to be sure this product is gluten-free.

Cooking Directions

For the soup:

Place the squash, leek, apple, carrot, and broth in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours, until the squash is soft and cooked through.

Stir the coconut milk into the soup mixture. Puree the soup in the cooker with an immersion blender until smooth (or in a stand blender, in batches).

For the garnish:

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the oil and leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp, about 10 minutes. Season with the salt.

To serve, pour the soup into 6 serving bowls and garnish with the crispy leeks. If desired, drizzle with a little coconut milk.

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Weekend Baking: Birthday Cake (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

Was channeling my inner domestic goddess this weekend as I made two birthday cakes from scratch for my son's birthday party.  For the majority of our gluten and dairy eating guests - my son included, I made this delicious chocolate cake which is my go-to for birthdays, topped with this peanut butter frosting.

Since my best friend was in town (who's been GF/DF for years) and not wanting to miss out on the cake festivities myself, I made this gluten and dairy free chocolate cake with coconut cream frosting (note: recipe reads as vegan, but I subbed 4 flax eggs with 4 eggs).  Not trying to toot my own horn, but the cake was pretty delicious!  Highly recommend for anyone with dietary restrictions that just wants a real honest to goodness moist and flavorful chocolate cake that tastes like chocolate cake!

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Weeknight Baking: Chocolate Zucchini Bread (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan)

While our summer garden is fading fast, we recently picked the few remaining zucchini off the vine, and with no other plans for the produce, we opted to make zucchini bread!  My daughter made chocolate zucchini bread at a cooking camp this summer, and has been eager to replicate the recipe in our own kitchen ever since. Thus, my little sous chef and I decided to make this delicious chocolate zucchini bread together.  While it wasn't quite her recipe, she did enjoy grating the zucchini, sifting the cocoa powder, and stirring the various ingredients into the batter.

The recipe listed is vegan, but I substituted 3 eggs for the flax eggs listed, and it turned out just fine; moist, flavorful, and oh-so-chocolatey.  You really can't tell there's any zucchini in this bread, and it was sure was delicious!

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Weeknight Baking: Pumpkin Bread (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

One of my biggest cravings this time of year is pumpkin bread.  I love it, I love it!  Pumpkiny goodness wrapped up in a delicious bread?  Sign me up.  Now, with some dietary changes, it was necessary to find a suitable gluten and dairy free alternative.  

This recipe is also written as vegan, but I have no problem eating eggs, so I substituted 3 eggs for the flax eggs listed.  It was delicious, moist, and flavorful, we gobbled it all up within one and a half days. Will definitely be making this again very soon!

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Dinner Last Night: Collard Wrap Spring Rolls with "Peanut" Sauce (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

I've been gluten and dairy free for a little shy of three weeks now, and feeling pretty good.  So good in fact, that I've decided to up my recipe game on the blog, are clearly label "gluten free" and "dairy free" recipes to make these more accessible in my archives (should anyone be looking).

This recipe for collard wrap spring rolls with "peanut" sauce was a huge hit and I'm here to announce that collard greens are excellent for edible wrapping.  Who would've thought? I typically do recipes in butter lettuce, but after blanching the collard greens (sans step) they were just a tad softer, malleable, and foldable.  These spring roll style wraps folded up nicely, had a pleasant crunch, and flavor.  I actually ended up forgetting to include the avocado and cucumber by accident, and they still turned out delicious.  Note: you can also "cheat" like I did and just cook your chicken breast in a can of coconut milk in the crockpot instead of taking the extra step to poach.

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Dinner Last Night: Harvest Roast Chicken with Grapes, Olives, and Rosemary (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

After about a month of unexplained stomach pain, I've been gluten and dairy free for two plus weeks now, and am feeling pretty good about it!  Sure, it was hard to cut the cream in my coffee and bread, oh, how I do love bread...but so far, I'm feeling excited and invigorated by the abundance of grain and dairy free recipes available out there, especially with the recent popularity of Whole30.

Dinner last night was Smitten Kitchen's harvest roast chicken with olives, grapes, and rosemary.  For all you skeptics, the grapes and olives pair amazingly well together.  Salty + sweet at its best.  Served with some grilled zucchini from our garden seasoned with lemon juice and table salt.  Delicious!

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