Chicken Taquitos

This blog has become something of a relationship for me.  The more attention I give it, the better it is.  When it's neglected, the space between us grows and grows - sometimes I find myself speaking telepathically to my blog as I pass by my computer, "I'll sit down with you soon, I promise.  Maybe even tonight after the kids are in bed..."  But then the kids go to bed and I come back downstairs, some nights I pour myself a glass of wine and if I take a second too long to wind down, it's like my whole body fills with lead and I can't move a muscle, much less type. 

So, here we are, over a week since my last post - maybe even 2, I'm not sure.  In any event, I do love blogging and sharing the little that I do.  Before we hit the Paleo update and a recipe, allow me to let you in on a few random thoughts of mine as of late:

Some days, I'd like to ship my pre-teen away and pick him up when he's 28, married and has his first child.  Do you ever feel like that?  I have a pretty thick skin, but boy, I can tell I'm going to have to really grow it a little thicker to withstand the beating I expect it to take over the years.  Just the typical attitude stuff... moments of pure goodness and innocence and then moments when I wonder if we need to perform an exorcism to release the beast from within...  

As much as I love - and I mean LOVE - being outside on a nice afternoon like the 70 degree one we had earlier this week, I am hoping and praying for a week straight of cold temperatures - and I mean ICY cold - so that we kill off some of these viruses that are going around - kill the little bugs in the air - just clean things out...

Did you know that Georgia is one of only 9 states which allows a man to change his name upon marriage?  Other states include:  California, New York, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, Iowa, North Dakota.  Brad Jolie, Tom Holmes (back when they were together), Chris Paltrow... has a nice ring to it, ey?

I'm completely 100% in love with my Vita Mix blender.  I've made breakfast smoothies for the kids and after school smoothies, all made to order, but when they're not looking I throw in things like nuts, vegetables, protein powder - I feel like a good witch - ha ha!  My favorite is my strawberry smoothie - plain Greek yogurt, a handful of roasted almonds (no salt), a handful of frozen strawberries, a drizzle of honey, almond milk, a splash of vanilla extract and sometimes a little bit of protein powder... fabulous and filling and the kids love it!  It's pink, so Brooke thinks it's especially suited for her. 

I sneak Christmas music every now and then - at my desk at work or in my car when I'm by myself.  I find it so calming and it truly, as I've written before, fills me with joy and peace. 

Enough with the random thoughts!  Let me update you on the way I am eating.  Four weeks have passed since I removed all gluten from my diet.  I ate the Paleo way for about 2 1/2 weeks and then I got a little tired of how limiting that diet is, so I began to add in some gluten free foods - like dairy and corn tortillas, some gluten free crackers, etc.  Then I picked up the book, WHEAT BELLY, and it is proving to affirm for me my decision to remove gluten from my diet.  The book is astounding. If nothing else, it will cause you to really look at what you put into your mouth.  I'll leave this topic with this thought - just because the foods on the shelves of our grocery stores have been approved by the FDA doesn't mean they're safe for you.  Whole grain is not necessarily GOOD for you.  I urge you to pick up a copy - might be the best thing you ever do for your health!

And let me tell you about my neighbor who's daughter was just diagnosed with Celiac last week.  She used to have random episodes of throwing up and stomach pains.  She had eczema.  Eight days eating gluten free and her eczema is gone and she no longer has stomach pain or throws up.  Seeing something like that first hand is, for me, evidence, that there may just be something to this whole gluten free push.

Physically, I feel wonderful - not ever so full that I feel bloated - I don't experience dips in energy like I used to experience.  I don't really crave food.  I eat when I'm hungry and have really come to enjoy the flavors of healthy foods like plain fruits and vegetables and meats.  Now, you know me... I love to eat and I love to cook.  Bare in mind that I will always allow myself the joy of veering off the straight and narrow path that the gluten-free diet has paved - and if I'm dying for that piece of caramel cake, I'll enjoy some!  Or when I can't resist a brownie, I'll let myself indulge.    

Out of the cookbook, Weelicious, that Allison gave me, I made the yummiest, most fun meal the other night.  The kids loved it - we all loved it!  I think this was the first meal that I made that was gluten free but not Paleo - so Matt and I thought we were in heaven as we bit into our crunchy corn tortillas filled with chicken and cheese.

This is an easy, quick, go-to-in-a-pinch kind of a meal.  First you cook your chicken.  I boiled a couple of bone in chicken breasts until they were cooked (I like to simmer mine in water for 2 hours with the lid on so they get nice and slow cooked and tender).  Shred the meat with two forks.  When you are cooking chicken for this recipe, cook extra so that you can go ahead and shred it and put it in the freezer for a meal later on. 

Mix together the shredded chicken, garlic powder, salt, cumin and shredded cheese.  

Heat your corn tortillas so that you can work with them. If you try to roll up a corn tortilla without heating it first, it will break or crumble.  I took two wet paper towels and put two tortillas in the middle of them - microwaved them for 20 seconds and then put about 2 TBS of the chicken mixture inside each one.  Place them on a cookie sheet, seam side down.

After they were all rolled, I sprayed them with PAM and popped them in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.   

They came out crunchy and delicious.  I made some guacamole to go on the side - and I served them with guac, sour cream and salsa and a salad on the side.  Huge hit!!

Enjoy these super easy, kid-friendly and delicious taquitos!  Click here for the recipe.

Holiday Weekend and Chocolate Chip Malt Cookies

I am writing this today as a 38 year old!  Saturday was my birthday and it might have been just about the best one I've ever had!  I felt celebrated, special and so very thankful for my family and friends.  It was a full day - a perfect day!  It started out with a morning jog with Debbie.  We had a nice run with great conversation, as always.  Then I cooked a big breakfast for my family and headed out to have my hair cut and colored (a three hour affair that involved some conversation, magazine reading, a little dozing off....) - it was fabulous! 

{SIDE NOTE:  I do want to take a moment to plug my salon.  I have been going to Joyce at Allie J Salon for over 10 years - she has gone from one stylist working in a salon to now owning her own salon, Allie J Salon.  They have recently moved into their own space on Hammond Drive in the Lowe's shopping center.  They are professional, fun, and you feel pampered whether you're there for a hair cut or color or everything.  I have been having my hair highlighted for years now, and it's always healthy and vibrant... So, if you're looking for a new salon or hair dresser, please call Allie J Salon!  404-256-1192.  I have sent several friends there over the years and they are now as loyal to Joyce as I am!}

After my hair appointment, it was off to kids' sports and then out to dinner with my main squeeze.  What a lovely day. 

Matt and the kids bought me a Vita Mix blender for my birthday - total splurge.  Holy moly is this thing AWESOME!  It's a high powered (commercial grade) blender.  You can throw anything into it and it makes it drinkable.  You can make smoothies, salad dressings, soups, pasta sauces, etc. in this thing.  Hopefully I'll be posting some fabulous smoothie recipes soon!  This morning, we had a smoothie with blackberries, raspberries, orange, spinach and a little almond milk.  Talk about healthy!  I'm excited to make some good protein filled smoothies for the kids before school this week!  And just yesterday, I made the most delicious broccoli pesto... will be sharing that one soon.

Allison, my wonderful sister-in-law, gave me a new cookbook.  Oh, cookbooks, I read them cover to cover as if they are a good and juicy novel.  I can tell you from one read-through of Weelicious, my new cookbook, it's a keeper.  I can't wait to make some of the dishes in this cookbook.  I've already read through it twice and am so excited to put my hands on so many of the recipes!

Being that it was a holiday weekend - both in the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. and in the name of my birthday, I have not adhered to my Paleo Diet so well.  It began on Thursday.  Let me back up for a minute.  Atlantans can attest... last week was one rainy week - a very soggy week, one could say.  Day after day of rain and clouds - and more rain... On Thursday, I thought it would be nice for the kids to come home to some chocolate chip malt cookies.  These are my favorite homemade cookies - incredibly easy to make - and just different enough with the malt powder to taste extra special.  Years and years ago while watching the Food Network, I watched someone make these and I copied everything down on a piece of paper.  I thought I blogged about them before but couldn't find them when I did a search (yes, this affirms the fact that I am not a very organized person - this blog is just off the cuff.. no rhyme, reason or organization - I have no idea at any given time if I have blogged about this or that, or not...).  And let me preface this by saying that while making these cookies, I was inflicting major torture on myself - because this was nowhere close to the Paleo Diet.  I was feeling very sorry for myself throughout every step of this process.  Read on....

First I mixed the eggs, butter, vanilla and sugars together.  Yum. 

Then I sifted the flour, baking soda and salt together - and added that to the egg mixture - with the malt powder (special ingredient that takes these cookies from normal chocolate chip cookies to something really quite extraordinary).  Drop by little rounded teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.

 

This is the point when I broke free from Paleo.  I released the no carb chains and dipped my finger into the bowl after I put the cute little teaspoonfuls out on the cookie sheet.  Normally, I would have scraped the bowl and licked the spoon.  Brooke took care of that for me :).

 

 

They spread out very thin and very flat when they bake for 10 minutes:

I let them cool just a little bit before removing them from the cookie sheet.  If you remove them too soon while they're still piping hot, they will fall apart. 

 

Click here for the recipe. 

Champ and our cute neighbor friend, Demi, enjoyed a few cookies and then Champ walked her home in the rain with an umbrella so she wouldn't get wet (she lives 2 houses over; otherwise, I would have driven her :) ).

Next time you're in the mood to make cookies, these are so super deliciously good!  And you know what's really good?  The next day when you're about to enjoy one, pop a couple in the microwave for 15 seconds - oh, they will melt IN your mouth - and the flavor is so rich and delicious that one or two cookies will satisfy your sweet craving!

How's Paleo Going? Check out this "Rice" Recipe!

Alright - so I've been eating this Paleo diet since January 2.  Thirteen days.  It feels like I've been eating this way for much longer.  I suppose I have settled into a bit.  I was starving and tired the first few days - suffered a couple of bad headaches (my body releasing the craving for processed foods, I guess?) - but now I'm used to it and my cravings for cheese and starch have subsided.  I reach for a piece of fruit or a (large) handful of almonds instead of a double serving of crackers.  And you know what?  The fruit tastes wonderful.  I think our taste buds get abused by all the junk we eat on a day to day basis and when you take out all the stuff with ingredients that you can't pronounce, your taste buds go back to the way they were intended to operate.  And an apple which used to seem boring, becomes juicy, sweet and flavorful - you can feel your little taste buds dancing on your tongue again!  I feel fantastic.  I no longer experience that 2:30/3:30 dip in energy that I used to experience and that in and of itself is reason to continue eating this way, in my mind.  I need all the energy I can muster for my kids alone!  I have allowed myself a glass (or 2) of red wine most nights - hey, a girl's gotta have some sort of vice! 

As far as the food goes... I've had some wows in some of the dishes I have made - and then I've have quite a few days where I'm bored with cooking this way.  I'm a big lover of food - all kinds of food - so adhering to this way of eating puts a bit of a damper on my culinary creativity.  I'm limited to vegetables, meat, and fruit.  Eating this way has taken me from living to eat to eating to live.  I haven't been 100% strict because to be a true Paleo, well - you may as well raise your own livestock and grow your own vegetables.  After the first 10 days, I allowed myself some cream in my coffee, which I now enjoy every morning.  And the other night, Matt and I were at a neighbor's dinner party where she served her famous chocolate chip cake. Normally, I would have offered to help serve it and pass out plates (so that I could sneak an extra bite in the process); instead, I enjoyed one bite.  And surprisingly, that was enough!  I enjoyed that bite and really didn't want anymore than that.  Instead of focusing so much on food, I find myself focusing more on everything else - the conversation that comes with meal time... things like that. 

Will I continue to eat like this forever?  Likely not this strict - but keeping aspects of it, absolutely.  I like not feeling bloated - ever - in my stomach area.  I like not having spikes and dips in my blood sugar and this is a big deal for me as we have a history of diabetes in my family.  And being that I had it while I was pregnant with Brooke, well, I need to be even more careful when it comes to my diet. 

I ran a 15K (9.3 miles) race on Sunday - the Hot Chocolate Run.  Matt and I ran it and I must say that I was really nervous prior to the race start!  I wasn't sure if this diet of ours would give us what we needed to finish the race. We had a nice plate of bacon and eggs (and avocado) for breakfast - no bread, no carbs.  And we ended up having a really great run!  We didn't run super fast, and we stopped at every drink station along the way where we took a few swallows of Gatorade (I'm sure this is not on the Paleo diet but the carbs sure gave us what we needed to finish!).  Aside from being sore from not training properly, we had a great race!  We ran it with friends of ours and capped it off with a nice brunch - and that is what makes it so fun!  Being outside, doing something active and healthy, and enjoying it with friends is what makes it such a fun experience.  We hope to go something like that once a quarter this year.  For all you Atlanta folks, the Color Run is coming in April, I believe.  It's a 5K - would be a great family outing!

So - I'd like to share with you a WOW meal.  I read that one can use cauliflower to make "rice."  So, I made my own simplified version of "gumbo" over "rice."  And boy was it fabulous - no real recipe here - just a little of this and a little of that.  I cut up some organic chicken and browned it in some olive oil with salt and pepper.

After the chicken was cooked, I removed it from the pan and put it into a bowl to reserve for later.  Then I sauteed red bell pepper and onion (both chopped into small pieces).

I cooked it until it looked like this (about 8 minutes):

Then I added cut up Andouille sausage (YUM):

I cooked that until the sausage was well cooked - almost brown in some areas.  I put the chicken back in along with some diced tomatoes - a little salt and pepper - and I let it simmer on low in a pot for about 30 minutes. 

Now for the fun part - the cauliflower "rice."  I cut up a head of cauliflower into chunks and put the chunks into my food processor.

I pulsed it until it looked like this:

Then I put the cauliflower into a covered microwavable safe dish and microwaved it for about 6-7 minutes.  I added no water (the cauliflower has water in it already) - no nothing!  Out it came and I put some into a bowl (as if it were rice) and spooned the gumbo mixture on top...

We thought we'd died and gone to heaven!  We ate it for the next three days!  Matt had no idea until I told him that he was eating cauliflower and not rice! 

So, if you're looking for a low carb rice replacement, look no further than cauliflower!  It was fantastic!!

If you're considering trying this out, it's really quite easy.  Have some good snacks on hand all the time - dried fruit, almonds, cashews, fruit of all kinds, veggies... and you can always find something at restaurants that will work - namely salads or meat and veggies.  If everyone ate like this, we wouldn't have the obesity problem we have in our country.  It's all related to sugar - and I don't mean just the sugar in sweets, but the sugar in processed foods. Our bodies were not made to consume all of that. 

Off my little soap box I jump... I'm off to take Matthew to the doctor to see about his separated shoulder.  Who knew that basketball can be rougher than football?








     

New Year's Resolution and Lemony Brussel's Sprouts

Happy New Year!  I hope that you and yours enjoyed the holidays!  I felt like I really soaked up each and every minute of the holiday enjoyment there was to have.  But it still went by too quickly!  I took a lot of time off work and really loved being home with the kids.  We stayed busy between ice skating, shopping, our traditional holiday get togethers, the Nutcracker, spend the nights, a farm trip... We have much to be thankful for, that's for sure!  I've taken Christmas down - Matt and the boys enjoyed burning our "shrub" of a tree in their little fire pit in the backyard - the ornaments and table decorations are back in their boxes in the basement resting up for Christmas this year.  Thank goodness that Comcast channel 933 is still playing Christmas music!  It helps ease me out of the holidays. 

Over the break, I learned a new Brussels sprouts recipe from Allison, my sister-in-law.  I served this alongside my beef strogonoff and it was the perfect side dish to accompany the creamy rich main dish.  It paired well because this Brussels sprouts recipe is fresh and light and full of lemony and herby flavor (like those two words?  Just made them up).

There isn't a real recipe for this - one of those that calls for a little of this and a little of that - but when the sprouts, lemon juice and herbs come together, it really makes a great dish!

Wash your sprouts, peel off the tough outer layers, and if they are medium to big in size, cut them in half.

Put them in a bowl and squeeze a bunch of fresh lemon juice over them all.  Then chop up fresh thyme, sage, and rosemary. 

Stir it all together, throw some plastic wrap on top, put them in the fridge and let them marinate for 1-2 days (the longer the better!).  I stirred them up every so often throughout the day - just whenever I was going into the fridge for something. 

When you are ready to bake them, put them on a cookie sheet and spread them out - drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over them all and put them in a 400 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. 

 

When 10-15 minutes is up, take them out and add some fresh pine nuts and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. 

Bake them for another 5 minutes.  Serve immediately. 

They are so fresh tasting and delicious! I ate the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.  They were delicious!  (and pretty!).

For the first year in many years, we did not make New Year's resolutions.  We have traditionally written down pages of things we want to work on - for the kids, it's typically things like making their beds every day, not fighting with each other, making good grades, etc. And for us, it's usually related to health and things like that.  What ends up happening is our list is way too long and therefore we can't focus on just one thing - we never end up keeping them and blah blah blah - it seems pointless to keep making them.  It's better, I think, to focus on one or two things. 

So while this isn't a resolution, we have decided to try a new way of eating for 30 days.  After a month of eating everything I wanted at any time - whether hungry or not - (I'm surprised I don't have diabetes at this point - perhaps I do but don't know it yet).... Anyway, after a month of eating like that, my body felt abused - lethargic - not good.  So, we've gotten together with Debbie and Steven and decided to try the Paleo way of eating - to feel better, increase our energy, and shed the few pounds of holiday weight gain.  This is day three and I must say I'm feeling pretty darn good!  I'm posting pictures of my meals and snacks on Instagram (follow me - ChristaBDavis).  It has been fun to be so in tune with everything I'm eating - it takes forethought and planning, but we are enjoying paying attention to every little thing we put into our bodies.

The Paleo Diet is referred to as the cave man's diet - what the cave men ate way back when so lots of vegetables, meats, some fruit, nuts - but no dairy, legumes, grains, etc.  I love eating this way, but I must tell you that the one thing that I really miss - make that two things - are creamer in my coffee and cheese.  On day 1, I had a massive headache halfway through the afternoon - perhaps it was my body missing sugar (and by sugar, I don't just mean the sweet stuff - but rather the sugar that is in crackers, breads, etc.).  Yesterday (day 2), I felt fantastic and I didn't experience that mid-afternoon dip that I normally have. I had energy!!  This morning (day 3), Debbie and I ran and we were a little energy depleted.  We both typically get up early and run before we eat anything, but I'm thinking that we may have to start with a handful of almonds or something to give us some fuel for our run. But sitting here now, I feel terrific.  I had a great breakfast - sautéed spinach, scrambled egg, crumbled bacon and diced bell peppers.  I think I'll be full til lunch!

I'm curious to find out if not including dairy in my diet will make me feel different or better somehow.  Honestly, I hope not.  If not, I will re-introduce it next week and at least be able to enjoy coffee with creamer and the occasional slice of cheese :).  I'll keep you posted.

I made some fabulously wonderfully delicious chicken lettuce wraps last night.  I had 8 of them and Matt had about 8 as well.  That'll be my next blog post.

So, happy new year to you!  What is your focus for yourself as you begin this new year?