Recipe: All-In-One-Meal – Roasted Salmon with Crab Meat Topping and Asparagus

11 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by ByCandace in Food

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Tags

#allinonemeal, #asparagus, #easyandfastmeal, #paleo, #recipe, #wildcaughtsalmon

Tools:

Chopping Board
Knife
Paper Towels
Parchment Paper or Silpat
Large Zip Lock Bag or Large Bowl
Pan (Short Lip)
Small Bowl
Spoon

Ingredients:

1lb Wild Caught Salmon – (I found it at Trader Joe’s)
1 Bunch of Asparagus
6 oz. Can White-Lump Crab Meat
1.5 Tbs of Avocado Oil
1 – 1.5 Tbs of Apple Cider Vinegar
4 – 6 Tbs Mayonnaise (to taste and creamy consistency)
2 Tbs of Chives (to taste) – (I used homemade dried)
Lemon Pepper (to taste)
Garlic Powder (to taste)
Salt (to taste)Fish Seasoning Blend of Choice (to taste) – (I used Northwoods Seasoning by Penzeys Spices)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven or toaster oven to 375 degrees. Cover a short-lip pan in parchment paper or silpat.

Rinse the fish in cold water and lay on paper towels and then use additional paper towels to dry the fish on the top side. Place dried fish on the lined pan bottom side up and season with salt, garlic powder, and seasoning blend of choice. Flip over (top side up) and repeat seasoning. Set fish aside.

Cut the ends off the asparagus, place in zip lock bag, add avocado oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon pepper, and garlic powder (optional) and seal the bag. Shake and rub the mixture into the asparagus. Set aside to marinate.

In the small bowl, mix together the crab meat, mayonnaise, chives, lemon pepper (to taste), garlic powder (to taste), and salt (to taste). Place the crab meat mixture on top of the salmon.

Place the asparagus around the salmon and add small amounts of butter over the top.

Place in the oven for 20 minutes. Broil for an additional 2-5 minutes at 450 – 500 degrees.

Done. Eat. Enjoy

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Thrive Market allows you to shop for all the healthy food items you know and love at discount prices, because they cut out the middle man, and it gets delivered to your door so it also saves you time. Not only to you save money, but for every paid membership Thrive Gives a membership to a family in need.

The second best part, aside from saving money, is that all your favorite pantry items will be delivered to your door and you don’t have to go to stores which also saves you time and energy. And who can’t use more money, time, energy?!?!

Book Review: Well Fed Weeknights by: Melissa Joulwan

12 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by ByCandace in Book Review

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Tags

#45minutesorless, #bookreview, #burgers, #chickenpaillard, #cookbook, #dinner, #fishandseafood, #hotdogs, #leftovers, #mealplan, #meatandtaters, #paleo, #stirfry, #tacotuesday, #weeknights

I’m totally in love with this cookbook! It is so fun! It is food you want to cook and eat!

The book boasts “complete paleo meals in 45 minutes or less” – and it delivers.

Here’s the breakdown….

After the Table of Contents, Melissa J. (aka: M.J.) then goes through a few pages about Paleo, yes/no foods, her story, and other cookbooks (which I own).

About This Book (p11) – this section talks about it not being a diet book and doesn’t have nutritional breakdowns, it is whole-food healthy recipes folks – don’t freak-out! A bit on “how-to use this book” and about the “mini cook-up”.

The Recipe Pages (ps13-15) – these pages discuss how the recipes are broken down, about food quality, and cooking tips – her humor is great.

Sample Menus (ps16–17) – She provides Weeks 1 – 4 of menus with the name and page number of suggested recipes. Then 8 weeks of menus with unique themes (super-fun sporty suppers, 2 weeks of distinctive dinner salads, balls & bowls, a break from red meat, international taste buds tour, comfort food, all the time, and seven of her favorite recipes).

Cooking & Storage Tips (ps18-20)

Mindful Eating practice (p21) and Dining Out guide (pgs23–27)

Essential Kitchen Tools (ps30-31)

Your Paleo Pantry (ps32-33) – She discusses her suggested pantry items, why, and how to use them.

Herbs and Spices (ps34-35) – She discusses the ones used in her recipes, about it, and it’s qualities – this page is super helpful for learning how to put flavors together.

Mini Cook-up (ps39-40) – M.J. provides a 9-step “Mini Cook-up” that allows you to do some minimal meal prepping for the week that helps to make your dinner cooking sessions each night “45 minutes of less”.

Beef Recipes (ps71-105)

Pork & Lamb Recipes (ps109-151)

Chicken Recipes (ps155-195)

Egg Recipes (ps199-217)

Fish & Seafood (ps221-244)

Resources (p249), Shopping Lists & AIP Modifications (p250), International Conversions (p252)

Why It’s Unlike Any Other Cookbook!

My absolute favorite part of this book is what M.J. calls “Super-fun Sporty Suppers” (p17).

Meat & Potatoes (p43) – M.J. walks you through how to pre-cook the potatoes so that you have that part already done, which cuts down dinner cooking time tremendously. She provides 12 M&P variations.

Velvet Stir-Fry (p57) – M.J. walks you through a preparation process that is super easy and fast that applies to all the stir-fry variations. She provides 8 stir-fry variations.

My favorite is No.2 – Cashew Chicken

The Ultimate Salad Bar (p61) – M.J. walks you through the steps on how to build the perfectly dress salad in 10 quick steps. I was super-duper surprised about some of her tips in this section that I didn’t know!

In this section she provides lists of all the types of salad fixings (ps62-63). Then on (ps66-67) she provides 25 “super salad combos” variations for easy-breezy-no-thinking salads to build.

On (p65) she provides 6 salad dressings and on (p66) a list of 14 more salad dressing recipes throughout the book.

Burger Night (p79) – M.J. walks you through the 5 steps to create/build a great burger! She provides 8 burger variations, some of which I would have never thought of…..

What you eat with your burger is up to you, however using some of those pre-cooked potatoes you did is a quick and easy side dish….or….while your burger is cooking pulling out some of your pre-cut veggies and building one of her scrumptious salads is easy too.

Taco Night (p93) – M.J. walks you through 6 steps to achieve your best taco ever! I personally skip step No3 – you’ll have to see for yourself.

I like to vary my taco base…. I use gluten-free tortillas (p94), lettuce wraps, taco bowls over cilantro lime rice (add butter, fresh chopped cilantro, lime zest, and lime juice to a pot of rice) or cauliflower rice (p.203), over a Mexican style salad (p.66) the Cumin-Lime Dressing (p46) or eat all the goodies on plantain chips or gluten-free non-GMO corn tortilla chips cooked in avocado oil or coconut oil.

Hot Dog Night (p141) – M.J. walks you through 5 steps for this quick dinner night! She provides 8 recipes varieties that are new to the palate. I tend to get in a rut and go with spicy brown mustard and raw sauerkraut….but her recipes are FAR more exciting than that!

Side Note: Please make sure you are purchasing Organic Grass-fed 100% Beef or Pork hot dogs. You can find them in dang-near every grocery store these days. They are completely worth the little bit of extra costs to avoid the hormones, antibiotics, soy, and bad fats associated with conventionally raised cows.

Tuna Salad Platters (p229) – M.J. walks you through 5 steps for yummy varieties of tuna salads. She provides 8 recipe varieties that will wake-up your taste buds! She also gives a recipe to make your own mayo (p229). I personally am not one to make my own mayo, despite how easy folks say it is….I use Sir Kensington’s Organic Mayonnaise.

If you only use the recipes from these 7 sections of the book, you will have 76 recipe variations to choose from. 76! If you cook dinner 7 nights per week, that is 10+ weeks of dinner recipes without ever repeating a recipe variation. Mind blown!!

What I like to do is sit down with the cookbook, a small piece paper, and pen for a few minutes (10-15) toward the end of each week (usually Saturday AM sometime) and assign a theme to each night of the week (which I typically do not deviate far from, from week to week). Then each week pick a recipe from that area of the book and make a grocery list. Now I have a plan for each night and I know exactly what I need from the store to make it happen. Easy-peasy!

My Weekly Sample:

Monday: Stir-fry Night (p57) – cause it is so fast and easy.

Tuesday: Taco Night (p93) – cause it’s a thing.

Wednesday: Hot Dog Night (p414) – do this theme on a night you know is either super busy or you know you’re going to be tired. Then you can put your significant other in charge of “Hot Dog Night” – since it is so easy.

Thursday: Burger Night (p79)

Friday: Fish & Seafood Night (ps221-244) – Fast protein cook, cause I’m quite tired on Friday evenings.

Saturday: Meat & Tater Night (p43)

Another wonderful and easy recipe is the Chicken Paillard (p167) that can be served with 1 of 7 toppings (citrus-mango relish; Greek olive tapenade; pesto; cucumber-pineapple salsa; onion-pepita relish; mushroom & pancetta jam; or tomato, bacon, & avocado relish) for variety.

If and or when you find yourself in need of a little comfort, M.J. lists out her 50 Comforting Things (p205).

What is terrific about this book is that you can easily meal plan for each week aaaannd have variety at the same time. This book is all about variety without having to think too hard about it, which as a full-time working wife I completely appreciate.

To Buy or Not to Buy….That is the question……I say YES!

Diet – The Short Version….

13 Saturday May 2017

Posted by ByCandace in Books, Lifestyle, Nutrition

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Tags

#change, #eatallthethings, #eatrealwholefood, #norestrictions, #paleo, #priorities, #uncomplicated

THEN

Back in the 1990’s and 2000’s I was all about a Low-Fat diet. I thought I had to eat low-fat to be fit and health. Keeping in mind I was in my early 20’s I was fit, but I was not healthy. At all. Then I also became un-fit as well. I yo-yoed back and forth for years.

Side note: Even when I was eating low-fat, I was never really able to eat as low-fat as I thought I “should” be eating. I still don’t know what people eat to maintain super low fat intake.

Enter “The Paleo Solution Diet” by Robb Wolf. This is a great book – I highly recommend it!

I again was not healthy. At all. So, I dove into Paleo face first. Over a few years I became very health and fit again. It was fantastic! I felt great – I preformed great – I looked great!

Somehow I ended up messing around with a super low carbohydrate diet. Between the low carbohydrate diet and poor lifestyle factors, and after some time…I became unhealthy and un-fit yet again.

I’ve been working to flight my way back ever since. This time my body broke down to levels I did not know existed and wish I didn’t know.

NOW

Through all of my diet and health struggles…..this is what I’ve learned.

Paleo is not dogmatic (you’re the only person that can impose rules on yourself)
Low-fat diets will eventually break you
Low-carb diets will eventually break you
Excessive exercise will eventually break you
It takes longer to heal the broken than it takes to break

I will no longer cut out a whole macro groups (protein, fat, carb) from my diet ever again. It isn’t necessary and in the long run it will break you.

Eating protein, fat, and carbs is required.

I know….I know…. everyone is either still in the low-fat camp or all about the ketogenic diet – it is everywhere and I’m sure most people are super confused about it all.

Truth is everyone’s dietary requirements are different from everyone else’s and each person’s dietary requirements change throughout their lifetime.

Recommended Books

Soooo…..I’m not a man…I realistically cannot speak to that….but I can tell you….as a women….while we can adjust our macros (protein, fat, carb) of how much of each we take-in we need to be eating all three. Maybe not at every meal and maybe not every day, but you need all three in your face…in your body if you want to maintain your life, health, well-being, fitness, hormones, sleep….etc.

I find that I personally do not do well with restriction. Restriction in anyway will send me into a tailspin. So, now….I do not tell myself that I cannot have something. I can have anything I want any time I want. It is my responsibility and my choice to eat something or not to eat something that I choose…knowing that it either helps me or hurts me and it either gets me closer to my goals or further away from my goals. I own it and I suffer or reap the consequence of my choice one way or the other (I don’t feel bad about it either way).

UNCOMPLICATED

This whole thing is less complicated than what folks make it out to be.

Eat whole real foods.

If you can answer yes to these three questions, then it is real whole food.

Did your food grow out of the ground, fall from a tree, or have a mother?
Will it spoil?

There are times when we will eat foods out of a box or a bag; this day in age it is inevitable.

Can you pronounce all the ingredient’s names? (if not, find a better quality product with simple/less/pronounceable ingredients)

Go back to basics.

Trust me I get it….while this is a simple approach….it isn’t necessarily easy. BUT there are lots of tools out there to help (including me). I have found that we can and will do anything that we determine is important to us.

Book Review: One-Pot Paleo Cookbook by: Jenny Castaneda

01 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by ByCandace in Book Review

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

#bookreview, #cookbook, #onepot, #paleo

I have to admit that I’m a bit of a recipe and cookbook junkie. I read cookbooks with the same enthusiasm that other people read novels. I particularly enjoy cookbooks that have lots of pictures of the food in them.

Honestly there aren’t very many of them that I use with any regularity, but I think this one is going to be an exception. I work full-time and struggle with making sure that we have healthy meals throughout the week that are easy and fast.

Enter….the One-Pot-Paleo cookbook!

The first thing that I love about the book is on page 10. “the recipes in this book, you’ll find some that are quick and easy and come together in less than an hour, which are perfect for weeknights. Those that are simmered or braised for hours to achieve maximum flavor are ideal for weekends, and those that are marinated overnight can be prepared the night before, therefore transiting into a quick-and-easy meal the next day.” I would venture to guess that the recipes that simmered or braised for hours could be done in a slow cooker or in the oven at low temperatures all day while one is gone to work to come home to a delicious easy meal.

Although this cookbook says “Paleo” on it, due to the author’s heritage of Filipino and Spanish, she includes ingredients that are not squeaky clean Paleo like white rice, butter, wine, Worcestershire, arrowroot, and tapioca flour. On page 11 she has a short table of ingredient alternatives to these to provide other Paleo options. I personally have no issue with any of those ingredients and will likely not make swaps.

On pages 194 – 196, she has a “Recipe Allergen Index” to easily reference for those with dairy, nut, grain, and egg allergies. Beware that it is noted here too that all the recipes contain nightshades so they may be difficult for those following an Autoimmune Protocol (AIP).

In the Appendix, on page 192, she has a page that gives helpful tips for “Weekend Prep for Weeknight Meals”, which is fantastic! Seriously, who doesn’t want to make their weekday evenings easier?!

For those that aren’t quite so experienced in the kitchen, I think this would be a great book for you. Not only are we talking easy one-pot meals, but there is a section in the book called “The Basics” on pages 184 – 191 that has bone broth recipes, condiments, rice variations, and common sauces.

It is also nice that it is noted on each recipe that it serves between 2 and 4 people, which is great for those of us with small households. For those with larger occupancy, each recipe can be doubled (I assume that larger families already have to do this and are prepared to do so).

The pictures in the book are beautiful and will make you hungry.

To Buy or Not to Buy….That is the question……I say YES!

Book Review: The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook by: Diana Rodgers

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by ByCandace in Book Review

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#cookbook, #homegrown, #homestead, #paleo, #sustainability, @sustainabledish

I was lucky enough to catch Diana Rodgers of Sustainable Dish when she was in Houston, TX at the end of May this year. We met at the Last Organic Outpost, which is worth going to and checking out what great work they are doing.

She spoke to the guests about sustainability and Paleo with a Q&A followed by book selling and signing. I purchased The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook and Paleo Lunches and Breakfasts On the Go that day. I want to share my thoughts on The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook with you.

First of all, the book has been well produced. It is made of good sturdy materials. The pictures are beautiful. I love the pictures on the front cover of the book.

Although I thought I was purchasing the book for the recipes, because I’m a recipe junkie, I got the book home and realized what a fascinating and fantastic resource this book is. I learned so much from the front section of the book; almost like an interesting text book or encyclopedia…..in the best possible sense.

The book starts out talking about sustainability. Then teaches you how to raise your own food animals (chickens, turkey, ducks, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, cows, bees) including slaughtering and processing. She also covers seafood and hunting. The book then discusses growing your own vegetables and fruits (building your soil, planting, composting). Also, how to forage off your land.

One of my favorite areas of the book is “The Ideal Homestead Setup” on pages 144 – 145. These two pages breakdown, in pictures, how much of each animals etc. you can fit on your various size land parcels.

Then the book goes into the recipes. Since the book is centralized around the sustainability idea she has the recipes sectioned out into seasons: early, mid, and late.

I found that generally speaking the recipes are not necessarily dishes I would make everyday. They tend to be more items I would make for a dinner party. Some of the recipes have longer ingredient lists, which I tend to stay away from, some of them though are ingredients that most Paleoers keep in their kitchens on a regular basis. The other recipes are simple, few ingredients, and look good and easy to cook. I like that she also covered the basics on homemade fermenting (example: Kombucha).

The ending section of the book is quite thoughtful and creative. She continues the sustainability application by showing how to do fun lifestyle things like….naturally died Easter eggs, making beeswax candles, goat milk soap, pig roasting, and making a clambake to name a few. She also discusses the importance of giving back or paying it forward.

I do not have a homestead or parcel of land to apply most of the book, however she covers growing food in small spaces and container growing. She did a good job of making this book apply to everyone. The beginning of the book is inspiring to this country girl…who lives in the city.

This book can easily be used as a “coffee-table book”.

To Buy or Not to Buy….That is the question……I say YES!

Food Fitness and Fun – ByCandace

~ Good Health Made Simple

Tag Archives: #paleo

Recipe: All-In-One-Meal – Roasted Salmon with Crab Meat Topping and Asparagus