Tag Archives: marinade

Quick and Easy Low-Carb Dinners

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This isn’t going to be an original recipe from me… but this is going to give you a few quick ideas.

I’m in a spring “diet and exercise” accountability group and we are all trying to get ourselves “summer and swim-suit” ready like everyone else! One of the things I’ve found is that I need something “quick” sometimes. That can be hard when you are trying to eat CLEAN and FRESH and LOW to NO carb. So… I’ve searched and found a few great recipes that should be pretty quick to whip together.

From Rachael Ray there is some BBQ chicken wraps:

Barbecued Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Another GREAT option would be to use Quinoa! It has so many great things in it, and I love to use quinoa to boost my protein without necessarily having to add meat to a dish. You can boost this dish with all sorts of veggies too! Giada has a great recipe here:

Giada’s Quinoa Pilaf

 

Another quick and easy idea? FRIED RICE! My kids LOVE fried rice. I do have to skip the eggs for my sweet little boy… but we can have it as a main dish if I’m feeling like taking it easy, or as a side dish with anything from chicken nuggets, to shredded pork, to wings!

Food Network Fried Rice

(I consider rice a good carb… just not in excess… it’s pretty close to it’s natural from in comparison to other carbs)

Lastly…

Grill out! Take your burgers, hot dogs, steaks, potatoes, veggie kabobs, etc… and GRILL! You can wrap your meat in some lettuce, or put it on top of an amazing salad! If you have a gas grill, it’d only take about 15 minutes to grill something! Before you leave for work, pop your meat and veggies in a ziploc with some marinade and then quick toss it on the grill for dinner when you get home! Seriously… 15 minutes later you’ve got dinner!

Need a quick marinade that’d work for meat or veggies?

Universal Marinade

(personally I’d use coconut or soy aminos that taste JUST LIKE soy sauce… but you use what tastes good to you!)

 

Ok… so that’s it for now, good luck cooking!

And now, for the song of the day:

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Chicken Tacos… All “Thai’d” Up!!!

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In my hiatus from this blog, I HAVE been cooking. I usually take 1-2 days per week where I do not do a lot of cooking… we eat leftovers, or eat at a Chipotle or Zoe’s or something… or MOES! 🙂 But… I definitely have been cooking. I have so many pictures of meals that I have made over the past couple of months, I’m trying to organize them and figure out which recipe that I wrote down, the pictures correspond to. Oops! It’s been a bit overwhelming around here lately, but in a definitely good way! I’m BACK though! I may take a hiatus here and there, but I will always return to share some new, fun, FRESH and whole ingredient recipes!!

So, I found a great Thai Chicken taco recipe, but they used a lot of peanut butter and peanuts in the recipe. I personally do not use either in my home… so this is my “re-vamped” peanut-free version. And… it’s DELICIOUS!!!! It has SO much flavor… seriously… BURSTING.

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Chicken Tacos – Thai’d Up

Serving Size – 3-4

Ingredients:
For Marinade:
1/2 cup orange juice – I juice some clementines I had in my fridge that worked PERFECTLY
1/4 cup Liquid Aminos OR Soy Sauce (low sodium)
2 tablespoons local honey
1 tablespoons grated FRESH ginger
1/2 lime, juiced
1/8 tsp cayenne powder
s&p to taste or preference

For Dipping Sauce:
2 tablespoon Sunflower Seed Butter (Or any nut butter of your choice)
2 tablespoon liquid aminos (as referenced above… you can also use soy sauce)
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons honey
1/8 tsp cayenne powder

For Thai’d Tacos:
4 large organic carrots, julienned
2 sweet mini red peppers, deseeded and sliced  thin
1 head of cabbage, pull 6-10 whole leaves, thinly slice or shred rest
5-6 chicken tenderloins
2 TB coconut oil
1 tsp minced garlic
salt and pepper
Cilantro, limes wedges, sriracha sauce for topping

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Directions:
For marinade, combine all marinade ingredients in a large bowl, whisk, and add chicken tenderloins.  Cover and marinate as long as you can. I marinated for 30 minutes because I was a bit more rushed. You can even marinate overnight for even better results!! If needed, just marinate while you chop and julienne all of the veggies.

When ready to cook, heat the coconut oil in medium to large size skillet. Combine all ingredients for dipping sauce in a bowl and mix well.  Refrigerate sauce until ready to serve.  Remove chicken from marinade and cut into 1 inch cubes. Put chicken into the heated oil, along with the remaining marinade. Cook chicken until no longer pink (8-10 minutes) and when the chicken is about done, toss in the julienne carrots and the peppers and slightly toss until they are heated, but not soft. Assemble your Thai tacos with chicken, red pepper slices, shredded cabbage, dipping sauce, cilantro,and any other condiments of your choosing.  Enjoy!
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And now, for the quote of the day:

Steak and Potatoes Revisited

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Steak:

I marinated the steak in the following: (I only marinated it in the fridge for an hour, over night would be best!

Marinade
  • 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
  •  3 Tb honey
  • 1 scallion (green onion), thinly sliced
  • 1 Tbls Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp garlic, minced
  • fresh ground pepper to taste
  • sea salt ground – approx 1/2 tsp

After the steak has been marinating the the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, place on grill, OR the grill pan. Grill for 7.5 to 8 minutes per side for a medium temperature steak. Enjoy!!!

(If you use the grill pan, drain all marinade extra marinade off of steak, and place onto HOT grill pan that has been sprinkled with sea salt)

Let your steak rest for 8-10 minutes on a plate before you cut into it.

Potatoes, Onions & Carrots

Wash and cut 8 potatoes into 8 pieces each. Then peel and cut carrots into large chunks. Then, cut up onion into large pieces. Put them onto a tin foil-lined cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. spread them out on the cookie sheet and cover with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and fresh rosemary. (about 1/2 tsp of each). Then cut up 2 TB of butter into small pieces and put over the vegetables. Put into the oven at 425 degrees for 40 minutes. Do this BEFORE the steak!!!!! (or as it finishes marinating!)
Take out when the carrots and potatoes fall apart from the fork.

Enjoy!