Mexican Chicken Salad

Monday nights have become very short on time for us! I've started doing a makeup course (one of my many other loves) which starts at 7, so by the time I walk home from work (yes I am lucky enough to live close enough to my work to walk! Having lived in Melbourne I REALLY appreciate it!!) get changed and redo my make-up for the course there isn't much time leftover to make a delicious and nutricious meal for Simona and myself! (Annie's food is pre packaged up in little bags of tasy meat rice and vegies so we just tip it in her bowl and she is happy!) But us humans have been sufering slightly. Eggs on toast has become a regular occurance, and though Simon hasn't complained (he'd eat eggs on toast every night of the week if I let him) I feel a bit slack, and after slacking off slightly on the weekends I feel like something healthy!!

 

It was such a nice day yesterday, it felt like summer, so I got all excited and decided to make a salad!!

This one is super simple yet deliciously tasty, and like a lot of my recipes modifiable for your dietry requirements. Its gluten free, dairy free, wheat free, leave out the chicken for vegetarian/vegan options and you can remove the beans and corn if you are paleo (although it would eliminate the "mexican" edge a fair bit)!

Mexican Chicken Salad 

 Serves 3-4 for a light meal

1 capsicum

1 red onion

1 chilli

2 tomatoes

Lettuce (as much or as little as you want)

1/2 cup- 1 cup of chopped fresh coriander

1 cob of corn

1 - 2 chicken breasts and thigh meat from a previously roasted chicken

1 tin of three bean mix

1 -2 lime

Teaspoon Cumin

Teaspoon Garlic Powder

Teapsoon Paprika

2 tablespoons olive oil

 

Method

1. Chop the capiscum, red onion, chilli, tomatoes, lettuce and place into a large salad bowl.

2. Tip your beans into a colander to strain, then tip beans into your bowl.

Remove the leaves and "hair" from your corn and cut off the kernals. I find it easiest to lay the cob  horizontal and slice off the kernals in a big strip, then turn and do another strip and so on until all the kernals or off. Put into your salad bowl.

3. Chop your chicken roughly and into the bowl!

4. In a seperate little bowl squeeze your limes and mix together with the cumin, garlic powder, paprika and olive oil until combined. Pour into your salad bowl with the other ingredients.

5. Toss your salad. ha ha

 

Serve! The lime comes through in little bursts of freshness as oes the coriander. You could serve with homade tortillas! Leftovers make a great lunch when you remember to get the container out of the fridge before you walk out the door :(

 

Happy cooking! (from scratch)

Erica xx

Super Quick and Easy Poached Chicken!

How to poach chicken for salad, pizza etc... In under 20 minutes?! EASY!

This recipe is for ONE chicken breast which will easily feed two people possibly three depending on the dish you are preparing the chicken for. It last us two meals. so really it fed four, but we don't eat large amounts of meat, on the occasions we do eat it :) I would simply increase the cooking and resting times if you are poaching a larger amount. I am yet to poach a whole chicken, I will give it a go soon and let you know how long to do it for!

Super Quick and East Poached Chicken

Ingredients

1 large chicken breast

2 cloves of garlic

Few slices of lemon

2-3 Bay leaves (optional)

Method

Pop all ingredients in a pot of water and bring to the boil

Simmer for 10 minutes on medium heat with the lid on

Remove from heat and leave sitting in the pot with the lid on for a minimum of 10 minutes

Your poached chicken is done! Told you it was easy!!

I made a roast vegetable salad and topped with chicken, but have also used the chicken for sandwiches and on pizza!

Roast Vegetable Salad

Raw Walnut Chocolate Tart

Please see my last post for an explanation or if you don’t have time, basically a friend asked me to cook something that came under the banner of both Paleo and Clean Eating. I wanted to make a dessert too, to show that even a treat doesn’t have to be laden with sugar and white flour!

I hope you enjoy!

This original recipe has been adapted from Our Paleo Life. Please give me a shout out if you go over to visit them!

 

 

 

Raw Walnut Chocolate Tart

Ingredients

2 small tart tins roughly 10- 15cm across

Crust
1 cup of nut flour.

(I used walnuts as I had them in the cupboard but use any nut you like (except peanuts). Whiz them in a blender until they are very crumbly and a bit flour like. Not too long though or they will turn into butter!!)
2 tsp Raw Cocao
3 Tbsp Coconut Oil, melted (20sec on the microwave)
1 Tbsp Pure Maple Syrup (or Rice Malt Syrup for Fructose Free!)
⅛ tsp Sea Salt

Filling
3 Tbsp Coconut Oil
4 Tbsp Coconut Milk
 3 Tbsp Maple Syrup (Or Rice Malt Syrup)
6 Tsp Raw Cacao Powder
½ tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Method

Crust
In a medium bowl, add all crust ingredients and stir with a fork until evenly combined.
Divide mixture in half and press evenly into the bottom and sides of the prepared tart tins.

 

Filling
Heat coconut oil, coconut milk, and maple syrup together in the microwave until the coconut oil has melted. I did two bursts of 30 seconds.
Whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth and glossy.
Whisk in the vanilla just until combined.
Pour the filling mixture evenly between the 2 prepared tart tins.
Place the tarts in the fridge for 1 hour or until they are set (mine didn’t take that long :D)
Garnish with some berries, stir together some coconut cream and vanilla essence and pour over the top.

Enjoy!

 

I found my tarts were a little bit… tart, or had that bitterness that very dark chocolate does. If you are not a fan of that bitterness, or you are an absolute sugar lover then I recommend you add a bit more maple syrup (rice malt syrup) and vanilla essence!

 

 

Happy Cooking (from Scratch!)

 

Erica xx

Paleo and Clean Eating Challenge... Mexican Mince in Cabbage Leaves

I love a challenge in the kitchen, but sometimes find it hard to think of new things that I would like to have a go at cooking. I’ve just gone live with my Facebook page and a friend suggested to me that I allow people to send through a request on something, either a certain food or meal, or cuisine, they would like to me see me come up with a recipe for. GREAT IDEA I said, you can be first!!!

 

A healthy lifestyle is very important to her so she asked if I would be able to make a meal that was both Paleo, and considered clean eating. What a task!! Have you ever seen the do not eat list for Paleo? You can check it out here. We eat a considerable amount of it, in particular beans and legumes, a staple food in a lot of my vegan meals!! We don’t eat a huge amount of sugar so that was easy, but I do love nothing more than freshly baked bread out of the over, so that was definitely out too! I wanted to make something that was filling, but that adhered to the allowable food on Paleo (which actually is A LOT, avoid beans and legumes, wheat and grains, sugar and starchy vegetables like potato and I think your headed in the right direction) and also make a dish that was clean, which as far as I understand, means whole foods like meat and vegetables and keeping the food as close to its original form as possible. I hope I achieved both please let me know if you have any tips for me or you think I haven’t got it quite right! Surprisingly a lot of the food we cook at home is actually Paleao and a lot of it is also Clean (I probably tend to use my homemade shortcrust pastry just a wee bit too often haha)

I made a main and a dessert, just to show that delicious tasty treats don’t have to be packed full of sugar and can fit under the “Clean” and “Paleo” headings! The main was stuffed full of vegies and also tasted delish!!

 

Please enjoy

Mexican Mince in Cabbage Leaves

(perhaps it needs a new name… doesn’t sound exceptionally appetising hahaha)

Ingredients

1kg Mince (I used beef, but any mince will be nice!)
2 grated carrots
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic squished, or very finely chopped
Big bag full of baby spinach
50g of pinenuts
1-2 chillis chopped and de-seeded (de-seeding is optional depending on your desire for heat)
½ cup chopped coriander
1 large red capsicum chopped
1 tin tomatoes
2 tablespoons each of cumin and smoked paprika
1-2 teaspoon of sea salt
1 whole baby cabbage

 

Method

Pop a bit of oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Once heated put in your garlic and onion until soft then put in mince and brown.

While mince is browning chop up the capsicum and grate the carrot. Add to the mince along with the chilli, baby spinach, pinenuts, coriander and tin tomatoes.

Add your spices, and salt.

Reduce heat to low, give everything a good stir and let simmer, stiring, and tasting occasionaly for around 30 minutes or most of the liquid has evaporated. Add more spices and salt as needed.

While the mince is cooking pop your whole baby cabbage in a steamer over a pot of water on medium-high heat. Remove from heat once the cabbage starts to feel “soft”.

Remove cabbage from steamer and very very gently peel back the leaves. You will need to cut them at the base to remove from the cabbage.

Put some cooked mince mixture into a leaf then roll like you would a burrito! Fold the top and the bottom over then one side over, then the other side, pulling gently but tightly. Once you have done all your cabbage rolls, sit them back in the steamer over medium heat for 5 minutes. This will help the cabbage to seal.

I tried both red and green cabbage… while the green cabbage went a bit transparent it stuck together much better than the red. Both tasted nice!

If you would like to challenge me to cook something, whether it be a type of food or a particular item of food, leave a comment below or email me at yearofcooking@outlook.com.au 

 

Happy Cooking (from scratch!)
Erica xx