Chili in a Flash (About 10 Minutes)

Sometimes you can take your sweet time lovingly crafting a meal for your family...and then there are nights like this past Thursday night - happens at our house a lot. The seasonings and veggies here produced an exceedingly mild chili, which happens to be exactly how my husband and 4-year old like it. If you like heat, I suggest adding some seeded and chopped green chile peppers and a generous amount of chili pepper.

Chili in a Flash
Serves 4 generously

Ingredients:
2 lb. grass fed ground beef (I got mine at Trader Joe's)
1 lb. small diced variety of veggies (I used Trader Joe's Healthy 8 chopped veggie mix)
12 oz. (half a large jar) tomato sauce of choice (I used my beloved Victoria)
1/2 tbsp. cumin
1/2 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 heaping teaspoon salt
(Note: adjust seasonings as desired)

As desired, to top:
Sour cream (whole fat, of course!)
Shredded cheese
Guacamole

Directions:
In a large saucepan, combine ground beef and veggies on medium-high heat. (Do not drain the fat as it cooks.) Stir in seasonings, and lastly the sauce. Allow to simmer until veggies are barely tender and the beef is just barely cooked, about 10 minutes. Serve hot and garnish as desired.

Beef and Broccoli Sesame Slaw

This is a very quick recipe that comes together easily with leftover steak. A great cold meal alternative as the weather warms - and a nice option for picnics. Monitor the taste of the dressing as you add the tamari - it is very salty and so your preference for it may vary.

Beef and Brocolli Sesame Slaw
Serves 4 as a main dish

Ingredients
1 ten-ounce bag of brocolli slaw
1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro (omit if you're one of those folks who doesn't "do" cilantro...or substitute fresh diced basil leaves)
20 oz. steak, cooked medium, chilled, and sliced very thin (I use kitchen shears to shortcut this!)
1/4 c. cold-pressed extra virgin sesame oil
1/4 c. vinegar of choice (apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar are good options)
Tamari, to taste

Directions
Combine first three ingredients in a gallon zip bag. Add sesame oil and vinegar, zip bag, and toss to coat. Add tamari to zip bag a spoonful or two at a time, shaking in between added spoonfuls to combine, until desired taste is achieved.

Shrimp and Veggie Stir-Fry

I love shrimp. They're tasty, they cook up really fast, and there are never complaints from the peanut gallery seated with me at the dinner table on shrimp nights. Here's a dish we had on Friday night.

Shrimp Veggie Stir-Fry
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 lb. raw shrimp, tails and shells off, deveined
2 carrots, sliced into very thin coins (they must be thin if they will cook at the same rate as the shrimp)
1/2 green pepper, sliced into thin 1 inch pieces
2 yellow mini peppers (or 1/2 yellow peppers), sliced thin into 1 inch pieces
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. tamari
2 tbsp. coconut oil

Directions
Combine all ingredients except coconut oil, and stir to combine. Heat coconut oil in a large pan at high heat until melted, then add shrimp and vegetables. Stir fry for a few minutes, until all shrimp are pink. Remove pan from heat to avoid overcooking the shrimp, and serve immediately.

Bacon Spinach Leek Sauté

This one came together in a desparate bid for a quick Saturday lunch. It turned out tasty - the bacon, tamari and Worchestershire give it a hearty, smoky base, and the lime juice cuts it just enough with the bright citrus note.

Bacon Spinach Leek Sauté
Serves 4 as a main course

Ingredients:
1 pack bacon (I used 12 oz. pack of Nature's Promise), cut into 1" x 1/2" pieces
3 large leeks, the white part cut into 1/4" thick coins
2 cups loosely-packed baby spinach leaves, stems removed, torn into smaller bites
Juice of 1 lime
Dash tamari (wheat-free soy sauce)
Dash Worchestershire sauce

Directions:
Put bacon and leeks in deep pot on high heat, and sauté, stirring continuously for a few minutes, until the bacon has reached your desired crispness. Add lime juice, tamari, and Worchestershire, and stir continuously for about 2 more minutes. Toss spinach in and stir to combine. Serve immediately, while spinach is bright green and just wilted.

Bacon Zucchini Quiche

This came together very quickly, which is all you can hope for when it's the witching hour and you've got a hungry family ready to pounce, am I right? The mix takes about 10 minutes to assemble, and once it's in the oven, you can concentrate on other things, like
feeding the baby
assembling the salad.


The original plan was to use yellow summer squash, but that got used up making the Crackeroni and Cheese, and the zucchini added a much-needed punch of color to the quiche, I thought. But, you could still sub the yellow squash easily!

Bacon Zucchini Quiche
Serves 4 as a main course

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter (I used salted Kerrygold)
1 small green zucchini squash
6 eggs
1/2 cup half & half (could sub heavy cream)
1/2 cup full fat cottage cheese
1 heaping tablespoon of yellow mustard
Generous dash nutmeg
3 handfuls crumbled bacon (6 strips cooked and crumbled, or cheat like I did and use precooked precrumbled)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Add 2 tablespoons butter to a 9"x13" pan, and place in oven to melt while the rest of the quiche mix comes together.

Shred zucchini (I used the smallest shred setting on my box shredder) into large bowl. In smaller bowl, scramble the eggs, and then mix in half & half, cottage cheese, mustard, nutmeg, and bacon - in that order.

Pull pan with melted butter from the oven, and ensure that the butter has spread over all of the bottom of the pan. Pour quiche mix into pan, and bake at 350 for 40 minutes, or until edges brown. I like to finish off the baking with about 2-3 minutes under a 550 degree broil to further brown the top of the quiche, 'cause that's how I roll.

Coconut Curry Chicken & Spinach Soup

When that nip in the air starts to come back, I get really excited. I love cold weather, and I love cold weather comfort foods. This fall will prove a new challenge as I try to Primalize some of my longstanding fall/winter treats, but I'm up for it.

Soups, though, aren't that hard to conquer in terms of Primalizing. This one is super simple, warming, and comes together in less than 15 minutes. Great for a nourishing lunch!

Coconut Curry Chicken & Spinach Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 c. small pieces of leftover roasted chicken
2 c. organic baby spinach
1 can coconut milk
2 tbsp. coconut oil

Warming spices, any/all to your liking:
garlic powder
onion powder
ginger
nutmeg
cardamom
curry powder
turmeric
cumin

Directions:
Melt oil in medium-sized pot on medium. Add spices to your liking and let them simmer in the oil for a minute or two. Add chicken pieces, and stir to coat with oil and spices. Add coconut milk, and stir to combine. Let simmer for just a few minutes so that flavors blend and the coconut milk is warmed through. Just 3-5 minutes before serving, add the baby spinach. Serve while spinach is bright green and just barely wilted for maximum flavor.

Salsa Guac

Sorry - no pics this time. The guacamole - served with tonight's fried tilapia - got eaten so fast that there wasn't time to compose any compelling shots. But you still get the recipe for this ridiculously easy guac! I would definitely serve this to company in the future with a veggie tray for dippin'.

Salsa Guac

Serves 1 very generously

Ingredients

1/2 cup of tomato-based salsa (I use a premade tomato/cilantro/lime juice based salsa from my grocery store's produce section)

1 Hass avocado

Directions

Combine the salsa with chunks of avocado - in your electric minichopper (I got mine at WalMart about 5 years back for $9.99) or your food processor. 

***

According to Nutritiondata.com, the salsa-guac mix for 1/2 c. salsa with 1 cubed avocado is roughly:

262 calories

20 g carbs (11g fiber)

5 g protein

21 g fat (woo!)

Quick 'n' Dirty Sweet Potato Fries

Quick 'n' Dirty Sweet Potato Fries
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes, sliced into 1/2"x3" fries
Very generous drizzling oil of choice (I used macadamia oil)
1 tablespoon garam masala spice (or more or less, to taste)

Directions:
Heat oven to 400 F. Toss all ingredients into a gallon zip bag, and shake to coat. Bake fries in foil-lined dish for 30 minutes. If desired, broil for 1-2 minutes at the end to brown fries.

Microwave Nutmeg Ginger Banana Pudding

Quick primal meals are harder to come by. But I serendipitously discovered this one this weekend! Yay for a microwavable breakfast. Ideally this would be paired with a couple of eggs or a smoothie featuring protein to slow the impact of the banana on the blood sugar.

Microwave Nutmeg Ginger Banana Pudding
Serves 1

Ingredients
1 banana, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Kerrygold butter
1 shake ground ginger (or more to taste)
1 shake ground nutmeg (or more to taste)
1/4 c. heavy cream
Handful walnuts, to top (if desired)

Directions
Add all ingredients except cream and walnuts to a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute. Remove bowl from microwave, add cream, and stir vigorously to combine (this will further break down the bananas, too). Within a minute, it will take on a pudding-y consistency. Serve warm, and if desired, topped with walnuts.

I can tell that I will be making this a lot this winter!