Dukan Southwest Turkey Burgers (it's Paleo too!)

Southwest Turkey Burger

We loved this recipe!

This was very simple to make and very tasty!  We used Rachael Ray's recipe and made some changes so the meal would fit both Dukan and Paleo.   We did use bacon which we wouldn't use in Cruise (too much fat).  We used lettuce in place of a bun.

Not sure if it's just my imagination, but the leftovers tasted even better.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: approx 15-16 minutes, we cooked our burgers in two batches

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey
2 slices bacon, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 large shallot, finely chopped
1 t. dried thyme leaves
2 T. freeze dried or fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 small bell pepper, seeded and chopped finely (any color)
2 small serrano peppers, seeded and chopped finely
2 t. ground cumin
2 t. adobo seasoning (Paleo folks, making your own is best)
4 pieces of romaine lettuce to fit burgers like buns

Heat a grill pan over medium heat.  Mix all ingredients except lettuce together.  Form 4 large patties and
grill.  For the Dukan folks, spray your pan lightly with non-stick spray and for the Paleo folks, extra virgin olive oil or your choice of fat.

Grill patties approx 4 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.  It'll depend on how thick you make your patties.

Serve with lettuce pieces.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Grilled Ono with Aji Criolla Sauce (it's Paleo too!)

Grilled Ono with Aji Criollo Sauce

We loved this dinner!

It was very, very simple.  We made the Aji Criollo sauce from this post to go with this simply grilled Ono or Wahoo recipe.  We were feeling the need for a healthy, lean and easy to prepare meal, so we pulled out the Ono we had in our freezer from our fish guy.  It was perfect and the Aji Criollo gave it a nice kick without making the dish heavy.  The male half is not a fan of sauces, but he actually like this since it was spicy and light.

You don't have to use Ono for this recipe...Mahi Mahi or most other fishes would go nicely with the Aji Criollo.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2
Prep Time: less than 5 minutes (not including the making of the Aji Criollo)
Cook Time: around 10-12 minutes, depending on how thick your fish is

1 1/2 lbs. of Ono or pretty much any other fish that tastes great grilled
adobo seasoning (for the Paleo folks, we will be making our own adobo seasoning soon and will post the recipe)
Aji Criollo sauce

Heat your grill pan over medium heat.  Cut fish into pieces (not too thick and not too thin).  Rinse and pat dry your fish.  Lightly season with adobo seasoning ....you can use more...we have high blood pressure, so we usually go easy on the adobo seasoning.  

Place fish on grill pan (lightly sprayed for the Dukan folks and lightly wiped with extra virgin olive oil for the Paleo folks).  Cook until half way done, flip the fish over and finish cooking.  Be sure to cook your fish through if it's not fresh but don't overcook or it will dry out.

Top fish with some Aji Criollo sauce.   We had ours with some grilled asparagus.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Aji Criollo (it's Paleo too!)

Aji Criollo Sauce

We loved this recipe!

To be honest, it didn't wow us by itself, but when eaten on fish or an omelet, it's yummy!  It's a great low cal sauce.

We came across this recipe...ours looked closer to the second photo on Laylita's blog post.  We used jalapenos since that's all the farmer's market near us carries but we'll be trying this recipe with other peppers.  We actually have a couple aji amarillo peppers in our freezer we'd like to try.  NOTE: remove seeds from the peppers if you don't want your sauce too hot.

We've eaten a similar Aji Sauce at a Peruvian restaurant in San Francisco which they serve with bread...mmm!  We used this sauce on some ono or wahoo we grilled up.

RECIPE:
Makes about a cup and a half, sorry I forgot to measure!
Prep Time: less than 10 minutes
Blend Time: just a couple of minutes

4 hot peppers, seeds removed
1/2 bunch cilantro (stems and leaves)
1/2 c. water
3 garlic cloves
Juice from 1/2 a lime (or lemon, we used lime)
3 T. green onions, finely chopped
Pure sea salt, to taste.

Cut peppers into smaller pieces for the blender.  Add peppers, cilantro water, garlic and lime juice to the
blender and blend until peppers are very small pieces.  Pour sauce into a bowl, add green onions and mix well.   Add salt to taste.  We chilled ours before using it on our fish.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan and Paleo Rockin' Turkey Meatloaf

Rockin' Turkey Meatloaf

We have mixed feelings about this recipe...it was tasty and easy to prepare but the almond flour made it a bit mushy.  Texture-wise, not the greatest.

This is the original recipe in case you want to try it.

We're definitely planning on making this again and hope to try a couple substitutions to see if we can get the texture right.  We halved this recipe since it's just two of us in our household and we didn't add spinach (none at the Farmer's Market).  Half the recipe made a lot for the two of us.  We had it for dinner one night, the next morning I had a couple slices with an overeasy egg and a couple more slices the following day.

If you're on the Dukan Diet, use oat bran instead of almond flour and the carrot can be optional if you're in Cruise and omitting carrots from your diet.  In addition, for those in Cruise, omit the bacon.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 with lots of leftovers or 4-6 people

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: approx. 45 minutes or until juices run clear

3 slices of bacon, chopped into fine pieces (we removed some of the fat)
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into smaller pieces (for food processor)
1 small handful of basil
1/2 small onion, chopped into smaller pieces (for food processor)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 - 7 oz. can of tomato paste (or half if you can use the other half for something)
1.25 lbs. ground turkey
1/4 c. almond flour
1 t. pure sea salt
1/2 t. black pepper

Over medium heat, cook bacon until it starts to brown and crisp up.  While your bacon is cooking, start on the veggies.  Place the chopped carrots, basic, onion and garlic in a food processor and process until fine.

Add veggie mixture to bacon and saute until veggies are soft (shouldn't take too long).   Add tomato paste, stir to mix.   Transfer mix to a mixing bowl and let cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Add ground turkey, almond flour, salt, pepper and mix.   Line a baking pan with parchment paper and shape your mixture into a loaf.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 45 minutes or until cooked.

Enjoy...we kind of did!

Paleo Pizza Crust - Take 2!

Last month we posted our first attempt at trying a Paleo Pizza Crust made from Tapioca Flour.    We figured we made a mistake which led to a gooey dough and after baking the gooeyness, we ended up with a pizza cracker!

We tried the recipe again (even though I'm supposed to be losing weight)...we had extra homemade pizza sauce and Canadian Bacon leftover.  It came out great!  Once I lost the weight I want to lose, this is going to be our 'go to' pizza recipe...although we can't promise it'll be our only pizza recipe we'll use...we still have to try the coconut flour pizza crust recipes we found.

Back to this one....it is a bit oily for me and I may experiment using less oil to see how it comes out, but as a once in a while treat, this is great!  You don't feel bloated or sluggish after eating it.

Sharing some photos of our pizza crust...so, if you try this recipe, be sure to let your oil boil a minute or two before removing from the stove.  That's the mistake we made...we took our oil off the stove as it started to boil.

Paleo's Whole 30 Rules

Although Whole 30 isn't exactly like Dukan's Attack Phase, the concept is similar.  I've started to collect recipes that qualify as Whole 30 recipes and eventually when I have time I want to go through all my recipes to see which ones qualify as Whole 30 recipes or can easily be changed to fit.  Take a peek at your existing recipes, you'd be surprised how many are already (or close to it) Whole 30 or even Dukan recipes.

This post is what we refer to when reminding ourselves what's not allowed during Whole 30.   It's a great, simple list that's easy to understand.

Dukan Crock Pot Herb Chicken (It's Paleo too!)

Crock Pot Herb Chicken

We loved this recipe!

We've mentioned in the past we are trying to ease our way into the Paleo Diet (but I'm still more Dukan since I need to lose weight again!).  So we've been trying to find recipes that are both Dukan and Paleo friendly.  Last week we decided to read up on Whole 30.  It's a similar concept to Dukan's Attack Phase where you cut out sweeteners of all kinds, etc.   There are a lot of differences too but the bottom line is, if you weren't already on a sweetener free diet, you may have sweetener cravings during this stage.  Oh and Whole 30 lasts for 30 days.  Wow.  I'm not sure I could do a whole 30 days and the male half of this couple has no desire in following all the rules of Whole 30 for even a week.

We both agree on natural foods (not processed), little to no chemicals, etc.  He isn't quite ready to give up white and red potatoes although he's been a good sport about trying to eat more sweet potatoes and we no longer cook rice at home.  (FYI - for a lot of Hawaii people, rice is a daily thing for us!)  He has also been a good sport about eating pretty much whatever I cook, but once in a while he wants Rosemary Red Potatoes and if we have friends over, he eats rice with them.

That said, I proposed we try Whole 30, sent the male half this great post and from there the negotiations began haha!  He even got his mother's opinion which is "her parents lived into their 90's and they ate grains and potatoes all the time and were pretty much disease free"...I pointed out they lived and grew up in a different time with much less toxins, they didn't eat a lot of processed foods like we were brought up on but I could see I wasn't going to win the battle.  After some negotiations, we settled on me proposing Whole 30 recipes I think he's gonna like, he'll have a say on whether we'll try it or not.

So far, the three meals I proposed (I snuck one in, only had two approved ha ha!) he really enjoyed

with the exception of the Paleo Meatloaf we will post soon.  He didn't hate it, he just didn't care for the texture.

Back to this recipe....it was easy to make, tasty and moist.  If you're in Cruise, nix the carrots if you prefer.  We forgot to buy Sage at the Farmer's Market but the chicken was still yummy!

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 6-7 hours on low (used our 4 qt crock pot)

6-8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (free range if you can)
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped (omit if you're in Dukan Cruise)
1 medium red onion, peeled and chopped (yellow is ok, we had red on hand already)
3/4 c. organic chicken broth
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. fresh rosemary, minced
1 t. dried thyme (1 T. if you use fresh)
optional - 1 T. fresh sage, minced
pure sea salt and pepper to taste

Rinse and pat dry chicken.  Remove extra fat, we left some on so the chicken wouldn't dry out.  Spritz chicken lightly with olive oil.  Rub chicken with spices and garlic.  Place carrots and onion in the crock pot.  Place chicken on top of vegetables.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Pour chicken broth over everything.  Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or until chicken is cooked.  We cooked ours for 6 hours.

We had our chicken with som grilled lemon pepper asparagus.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Crockpot Salsa Chicken (it's a Paleo recipe too!)

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

We loved this recipe...even though we overloaded it with salsa.

A couple years ago we invested in our very first crock pot (slow cooker).  Then we found a fabulous crock pot recipe blog and tried a few of the recipes.  We loved this one - simple and tasty.   After I saw the recipe for 'Fire Roasted Salsa' we just made, I wanted to make the crock pot salsa chicken again...but had to nix the corn, store bought salsa and black beans.

Not feeling very creative, we decided to just use salsa and chicken but overcompensated on the salsa.  We should've stuck to the one cup of salsa.  We had way too much leftover salsa in the pot.  It was very tasty though.

If you come up with additions to this recipe, please share them in our comments section.  We'd love to try variations!

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4 people
Prep Time: approx 15 minutes (not including making the salsa)
Cook Time: 6-7 hours on low

6-7 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (we used antibiotic free chicken - 'Open Nature')
2 c. fire roasted salsa (adjust to 1 c.)
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped and reserve for garnish

Rinse and pat dry chicken.  Remove excess fat.  We left some fat on so the chicken wouldn't dry out.  Cover evenly with salsa.  Cover pot and cook on low for 6-7 hours.  We cooked ours for 6 hours and it was perfect.  Garnish with cilantro before serving.

The male half had his with avocado, I had mine plain.  We also had asparagus with this.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Ono Fish Tacos (It's Paleo too!)

Dukan Ono Fish Tacos

We loved this recipe!

Decided to use up our leftover Fire Roasted Salsa for the tacos and another avocado salsa recipe to garnish our tacos.  The male half of this couple is not a big fan of sauces so I figured the salsa and avocados were enough.  These were very tasty.  We followed most of this recipe which we found while searching for Whole 30 recipes.  We used Ono instead of Salmon because we already had it on

hand.

We'll try this recipe again but with a softer fish (but not too soft).  For me, the Ono was a bit too stiff...the male half of this couple didn't mind.  The fish was frozen, but when we purchased it it was fresh from the fish auction so after defrosting it still tasted great!    Oh and we didn't have coriander (darn beetles got to them) but the original recipe does call for 1 t. ground coriander).

A couple notes relating to Dukan - while in Cruise the first time around, we didn't eat avocado but the second time around, we've had avocado on a couple of occasions but not often and not a lot per serving.   So for those in Cruise still needing to lose weight, have this without the avocado salsa!

Speaking of the avocado salsa, it was good, but not one of our favorites.  We actually prefer our Avocado Tartare recipe.

We ate three tacos each!  It was a nice refreshing dish on a very voggy and humid day.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 very hungry people
Prep Time: 30-40 minutes (not including the time to make the salsa)
Cook Time: about 15 minutes or so

1 1/2 lbs. fish (your choice, depends on what you like in your fish tacos or what you can get your hands on, we used Ono)
olive oil spray - we spritzed our fish with olive oil, I think we used less than 1 t)
nonstick spray if you're on Dukan, olive oil for the pan if you're on Paleo
small head of romaine lettuce or lettuce of your choice
Fire Roasted Salsa


Fish seasoning
1 t. pure sea salt
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. paprika
1 t. onion powder
1 t. black pepper

Avocado Salsa ingredients
1 avocado, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 sm. red onion, diced small
2 jalapenos, seeded and diced (I wish we minced ours)
Juice from 2 limes
1 T. extra virgin olive oil (we used less than this)
2 T. cilantro, finely chopped
Pure sea salt to taste (we added very little due to high blood pressure)

Rinse and pat dry fish.  Cut into 1 1/2" sticks that are approximately 3 -4 inches long or whatever shape
you can make from your piece of fish.    Mix fish seasoning together in small bowl, spritz fish lightly with olive oil, place fish in a large zip lock bag, rub seasoning all over fish and let marinate in refrigerator at least 30 minutes.

Remove fish from refrigerator.  Start on avocado salsa.  Add all ingredients to a bowl, mix gently and chill until the tacos are ready to assemble.  Rinse, clean and drain lettuce.  We made 3 tacos for each of us.

Heat your grill pan on medium high heat.  Coat pan according to which diet you are on.  Cook fish.  When fish looks about half cooked, flis fish over and cook until done.  Ours took about 3 minutes on each side.  While the fish is cooking, dry your lettuce.

When fish is done, assemble tacos.  We placed a piece of fish in the lettuce, drained as much liquid as we could from the salsa, added a layer of the drained salsa to the fish and topped with some avocado salsa.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Fire Roasted Salsa (it's Paleo too!)

Fire Roasted Salsa

NOTE: We're not very good at planning out meals in connection with holidays like a lot of other recipe bloggers are...but we have noticed all the Cinco De Mayo recipes being posted and remembered we have a Fish "Taco" recipe and this salsa recipe scheduled to post next week.  So, we're pushing out this salsa recipe and tomorrow, the Fish "taco" recipe in case you want to use it for your Cinco De Mayo celebration.

We loved this recipe!

Made this the other weekend, we only had one jalapeno and the jalapenos at both the Farmer's Market and grocery stores looked old and wrinkled.  We could have used at least one more jalapeno in our salsa but this is very tasty and easy to make.

We made the salsa for our Crock Pot Salsa Chicken recipe which will be posted soon.  Thinking about using the Paleo Pizza Crust recipe we tried the other week to make "chips" for the male half of this couple to eat with the rest of the salsa.

We're definitely making this again!  Forgot to take more photos of the salsa.

RECIPE:
Makes between 3 and 4 cups (I forgot to measure it)
Prep Time: approx. 10 - 15 minutes

2 - 15 oz. cans of organic fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 jalapenos, chopped into smaller pieces, seeds removed (leave some seeds if you want some heat)
1/2 cup cilantro, rough chop
2 cloves garlic, minced
juice from 1/2 a lime
1/4 t. cumin
1/4 t. oregano
Pure Sea Salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into a food processor or blender and blend until thoroughly combined and in small enough chunks.  We like our salsa less chunky.  Chill for 30 minutes.  Yummy!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Articles Page - Paleo Diet Info.

We've mentioned this page before, but now that we have a page to collect articles and posts, thought we'd post it.  We read a couple times on Flamidwyfe's blog about the Paleo diet...sounded interesting, so almost an entire year later I decided to look into what the Paleo Diet was all about.  This is one of the first article/post we came across.  It was informative, in layman's terms and humorous (not to the point the humor discredited the post).  I emailed it to the male half of this couple and said "let's discuss over lunch".  He read it and that same day we were discussing the pluses and minuses of trying the Paleo Diet.  

The male half actually read up on information similar to the Paleo Diet when his father had bypass surgery years ago.  The dietician his father saw not only recommended exercise and a low fat diet, but he encouraged "cleaner" eating.  While the male half hasn't committed to trying the Paleo Diet 100%, he will eat the Paleo/Dukan meals we make and has even tried the baked goods I've been baking for him.

Our lives have become a little crazier, so we have even less time to cook but as soon as things get back to normal I am going to push for us to eat Paleo for all meals.

Hope you enjoy nerdfitness' rundown of the Paleo Diet.

New Page - Articles

For the past couple of months we've been reading online articles on various blogs about the Paleo or Caveman Diet.  We started with Flamidwyfe's blog and branched out from there.

We haven't gone completely Paleo yet...still trying to lose weight -- so we're on the Dukan Diet but we try to make our meals as Paleo as we can without adding too much fat.  It's been a challenge, but a good one.  I wish I kept all the articles I came across RE: Dukan and Paleo -- but I didn't.

Today we decided to add a new page to our blog to collect some of the articles that continue to inspire us.  There's just a few articles but as we add articles, we'll post about it too.  A note about us and the articles we come across -- like many others, we always take in information with a grain of salt understanding that many times an article is one person or persons opinion or views on the subject or what they researched.  We try to do additional research to weigh various opinions on the subjects, etc.  We are not endorsing any opinions shared in these articles -- these are articles that inspire us to research more, understand more, care more, etc.

Our first addition is this article on inflammation we found on Deliciously Organic's blog/recipe site.   Inflammation is something we dealt with a lot in the past and we're all for natural cures.  During the Attack and Cruise Phases of the Dukan Diet, we didn't notice as much inflammation.  At my lowest weight during Dukan, I was feeling great.  After spending some time in Consolidation and adding back a serving of whole wheat to our diets, the inflammation returned.  We noticed a decrease in inflammation after experimenting with Paleo (reducing our grains to almost nothing).

We hope to move towards a completely grain-free diet in the near future.  For now, we eat grain-free as often as we can!  Less tummy bloating for us :-)

Dukan Greek Chicken Stew (it's a Paleo - ish recipe too!)

Greek Chicken Stew

We loved this recipe!

His only having a fruit smoothie and protein bar all day could have been the reason the male half of this couple loved this recipe.  It was pretty good.  This stew was perfect for us.  Easy to make, tasty, light but it warmed us up during that cold, windy weekend.

We found this recipe while googling "healthy stew recipes" -- as soon as we saw how easy it was and it had cauliflower, we knew we had to try it.  The male half loves cauliflower.   Our finished dish did not look nearly as good as the photo on the NY Times site though.  We left out the olives (male half doesn't like them and the author mentioned the salt content and we need to be a little more careful with our salt intake) and the feta cheese.

We also pulsed our tomatoes more than the author of the recipe did because the male half of this couple doesn't like chunky tomatoes.  This recipe is both a Dukan recipe (Cruise, Consolidation and Stabilization) and is a Paleo - ish recipe.  Use organic tomatoes and free range chicken to get closer to a Paleo meal.  We found some Paleo people against vinegars and some use in moderation.  This recipe calls for 2 T. which to us is not a whole lot.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2 if you're not having any starch (this actually could have been three servings, but as mentioned above, the male half only had a fruit smoothie and protein bar that day and I didn't want to leave one piece of chicken left on the pot -- I was stuffed and uncomfortable for a while after dinner -- note to self: save the one piece of chicken)
Prep Time: 10 minutes or so
Cook Time: 1.5 - 2 hours

1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 - 8 boneless and skinless chicken thighs, some of the excess fat removed, rinse and pat dry (we used 6)
2 T. red wine vinegar
1 - 28 oz. can organic chopped tomatoes, with juice, pulsed in a food processor
1/2 t. cinnamon
sea salt and pepper to taste
1/2 t. dried thyme
2 cups cauliflower florets, sliced about 1/2" thick
1/2 T. dried parsley

The original recipe has you frying your chicken in a tablespoon of olive oil but we used our nonstick pan and fried the chicken without spray or using oil on the pan.  Fry chicken over medium high heat, browning each side, in batches if necessary.  Takes approximately 5 minutes on each side.  Remove the chicken and place on a plate.  Pour off any excess fat from the pan leaving the fried bits in the pan.  Add vinegar to pan and scrape up all the bits from the bottom on the pan.

Add the olive oil and turn heat down to medium.  Add the onion and a generous pinch of salt and cook, stir often and scrape the bottom of the pan until it begins to soften, about 5 minutes.  Turn the heat to low, cover and let the onions cook for about 10 minutes, stirring from time to time until lightly browned and very soft.  Add the garlic, stir together for about a minute, until the garlic is fragrant.  Add the tomatoes and their juices, cinnamon, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a simmer and simmer 10 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the mixture is reduced slightly.

Return the chicken to the pot along with any juices accumulated on the plate.  If necessary, add enough water to barely cover the chicken.  We didn't need to add water.  Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add the cauliflower and simmer for another 20 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender and the chicken is very tender.  We cooked ours about 20 minutes longer than the recipe recommended, it took a while for our cauliflower to cook.  Stir in the parsley, taste and adjust seasonings.

We ate this as is, no starches or grains.  We save the leftover tomato sauce in the pan for an omelet the next day.

According to the author of the recipe, the stew keeps for 3 to 4 days and freezes well.  We ate all of ours but hope to make more!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Persian Turkey Burgers (it's a Paleo recipe too!)

Persian Turkey Burgers

We have mixed feelings about this one...

It was a little on the plain side but it's always nice to try something different.  We went back to see if we did something wrong and we probably could have increased the amount of each spice since the recipe calls for 1 pound of meat and the ground turkey at Safeway only comes in 1.25 lbs -- we didn't want to save .25 lbs. of ground turkey, although we could have used it for something.  It could also be because we used ground turkey instead of ground beef.

Anyway, we also didn't try any of the sauce recipes listed on the recipe page and the yogurt sauce would've been a good one to try with these burgers.  So, this wasn't a bad recipe, the burgers were juicy, just not one that knocked our socks off because it was bursting with flavor.  We'd definitely try this recipe again.

The nice thing about this recipe -- it fit both the Dukan and Paleo diets without any changes...well, except we didn't cook ours with ghee.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4 (we ate it as a Cruise/Paleo meal, so with veggies only, no starch)
Prep Time: less than 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10-20 minutes

1 1/4 lb. ground turkey or 1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, diced finely
1 egg
1 t. kosher or sea salt
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. dried oregano

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  Form patties (we made 8 small patties).  Heat grill pan over medium.  If you're on the Dukan Diet, spray your pan with a little bit of nonstick spray.  If you're on Paleo, use your choice of fat.  We lightly brushed on a small amount of extra virgin olive oil on our pan for the first round of patties and didn't need any additional oil for the second round of patties.

Cook patties until they are half cooked, then flip patties over and cook until done.  We usually cook ours about 3-4 minutes per side or until there are no pink juices coming out of the patties.

We had ours with steamed broccoli.  The leftovers were broken up into small pieces and made into a Persian Burger Scramble for my breakfast.

Dukan Stir Fried Shirataki Noodles

Stir Fried Shirataki Noodles

We loved this recipe!

We didn't use the Shirataki Tofu noodles, we just used regular shirataki noodles which to us are still Dukan friendly and low carb.  This was a nice light side dish to go with our beef hekka...the male half who doesn't care of Shirataki Tofu noodles used as a substitute for pasta actually liked this!

The great thing about shirataki noodles -- we both never feel bloated after we eat it -- we usually feel bloated after eating regular pasta.  Shirataki noodles are Dukan friendly and we found a Paleo - ish recipe for Fried Shirataki noodles -- although it does state that some wouldn't agree on shirataki being allowed.

Another, light and healthy dish to start of the new year!

Slice up cabbage, regular cabbage works too.  Bean Sprouts can
be added or substituted as well as other veggies.

In a dry, hot wok or pan, stir fry your noodles to remove moisture

Remove noodles from pan and add veggies, stir fry until soft, but not
too soft!

Add meat (optional) and stir fry, we would slice the meat thinner than
this.  Your meat will heat faster and less chance for it to dry out.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4 (if we had this on its own, we probably could have finished the entire wok of noodles)

Prep Time: 10-20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes or so

2 - 13 oz bags of shirataki noodles (I'm sure the Shirataki Tofu noodles would work too)
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 pieces of won bok (Napa cabbage), sliced
a handful of sliced shiitake mushrooms, soak them in water first if yours are dried
2 slices of left over Rump Roast (optional, but if you do use the leftovers, it may be dry, try to cut the leftover roast into thin slices so you don't have to cook it long to heat it)
1 - 2  t. sesame oil
2 T. Gluten Free Tamari, low sodium soy sauce or Bragg's Amino Liquid - depending on which diet you are on

Rinse and drain noodles.  Over high heat and in a dry wok or pan, stir fry your noodles to dry out your noodles out.  We fried ours in two batches.  Place the dried, fried noodles in a dry colander.  Spray your wok with a little non-stick spray or olive oil if you're on the Paleo diet, stir fry garlic until fragrant.  Add veggies and stir fry until soft.  Add meat and stir fry until heated through.  Add noodles back to pan and stir everything up.  Add tamari (or soy sauce or Bragg's) and 1 t. of the sesame oil.  Stir and taste.  If you need more tamari/soy sauce or sesame oil, add a little more.  Be careful not to add too much sesame oil, a little goes a long way and too much can be overpowering...not to mention, it's oil!

We added a handful mizuna (another green) but it's optional.  Bean sprouts would have been great with these noodles also!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Rump Roast (it's Paleo - ish too!)

Juicy Rump Roast

We loved this recipe!

The male half doesn't like to eat much meat these days, but he really enjoyed this rump roast.  As we combed the internet for Paleo recipes, we saved the Domestic Man's Perfect Eye of Round Roast recipe.  Wow, lean, inexpensive meat can be tender?  Yes, it can -- but the leftovers weren't as tender as the first meal we had from the roast.

We actually ended up with a Rump Roast -- couldn't find Eye of Round at any of the markets near us, only round steak but it was only about a pound.  We made two mistakes -- the first being we opened the oven because our roast fell over in the pan and the second being we took the roast out 10 minutes early -- so, our roast was a little underdone.  We bought a meat thermometer...but a cheap one and it's going in the trash since it didn't work :-(  The other issue with our oven is, it's our landlady's oven and it's probably as old as me or older -- it cooks unevenly, it's hard to bakes cakes or anything in that oven.  We turned the oven back on after realizing it was undercooked and followed the Domestic Man's instructions of 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes and cooked it to a medium rare (which is what I like).

We'll probably try this again.  It wasn't fatty, it was tender and juicy...but as mentioned earlier, the leftovers ended up well done and tough.  So, if we do try this recipe again, we'll make it when we have company over.    It was a nice comfort type food to have without it being super fatty.  We made a gravy with the pan drippings, cornstarch and water because we were worried the roast would be dry - but in our opinions, it really didn't need it.  The seasoning on this roast and the juiciness was just perfect.

We're classifying this recipe as a Dukan and Paleo - ish recipe since we didn't use grass-fed beef.

We ate about half of the roast.  The male half had his with mashed potatoes and I had it as a pure protein meal.  The other half we used in a frittata and a stir fried shirataki noodle dish -- recipes to come.  Next time we'll try adding some carrots to the pan.

RECIPE:
Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 7 minutes per pound plus 2.5 hours with the oven off

2-8 lbs. rump roast or eye of round roast (we used 2.5 lbs)
1 t. kosher salt
1 t. black pepper
1/2 t. dried thyme
6 cloves garlic, minced

Mix together your seasonings then rub all over your cleaned roast (rinse and pat dry).  Leave your roast sit out for 30 minutes to allow it to come to room temperature before cooking.  Preheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.  We don't have a roaster or a dutch oven, so we put our roast in a 9x13 baking pan lined with foil.  Place your roast in the oven and bake for 7 minutes per pound -- ours came out to 17.5 minutes.  Then turn the oven off and do NOT open the door.  Leave your roast in the oven for 2 1/2 hours -- if you follow instructions (not like us), your Eye of Round or Rump Roast should be perfectly cooked.

Take the roast out of the oven and use a meat thermometer to check the temperature, it should read between 130 and 150 degrees.  If it doesn't, do what the Domestic Man recommends and put it back in the oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes and check it every 10 minutes until it reaches 130-150 degrees.  Place your finished roast on a cutting board or plate and cover with foil and let it rest about 10 minutes before carving.

The Domestic Man says you can also roast the meat at 170 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.  Just remember, like our old, falling apart oven, results will most likely vary.

We had enough pan drippings to make some gravy with cornstarch but it wasn't necessary.  I had this by itself since I'm in the Cruise Phase of the Dukan Diet and it was my PP day.  The male half had his with broccoli since he's not trying to lose weight and he can do a PV day everyday.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Follow Us On....

Finally made some time to add "follow us" buttons for Twitter and Pinterest.  Whatever's your pleasure!  We haven't created a Facebook page yet, but we probably will do that this year.

You'll find the Twitter and Pinterest "follow" buttons in the right hand column (near the top) of our blog.  We also moved our "search this blog" function to the top since that's one of the first things we do when we come across a new recipe blog.

You can still follow us by email...follow us whichever way is easiest for you!

If you have any suggestions or comments on how we can make our blog easier for you to use, please email us at hapacouple@gmail.com or leave us a comment on this post.  We can't promise we'll know how to implement the improvement, but we will certainly try!

Thank you for visiting and following our blog!

Dukan Chicken Hekka

Chicken Hekka

A note about this dish -- for us, hekka is more about the sauce -- if you can't find bamboo shoots and other asian ingredients, feel free to use other veggies!

Another healthy recipe!  This recipe was ok -- but let us explain!

Chicken Hekka is something the female half of this couple grew up on.  I believe it was first cooked during the Hawaii Plantation days...fast, easy, nutritious, inexpensive, etc.  I've never seen Hekka on menus in Japan.  Back to our explanation -- our family ate Chicken Hekka at least once a month...sometimes more.  It was made with chicken thighs, canned bamboo shoots, canned button mushrooms and canned shirataki noodles (not tofu shirataki, but regular shirataki noodles.  When on sale, most of these ingredients were fairly inexpensive and you ended up with leftovers.  You can add other things like won bok (Napa Cabbage), other greens and you can even use beef although we never did.

Instead of making Hekka they way my family's made it for years, I decided to try someone else's Hekka sauce recipe and hindsight, I should have known it would be too salty for us...it called for a LOT of shoyu or soy sauce.  Actually, I do not have a recipe per se for Hekka -- we always, threw the chicken pieces in our wok, stir fried it, add the veggies, stir fried, then added soy sauce (you know, eyeballing it) then a little sugar (again, eyeballing it and of course, tasting it to see if we got the taste down).

We'll leave it up to you if you want to try this recipe.  We watered down the sauce significantly and it actually tasted better two days later when we used the sauce to cook beef and bamboo shoots.

We're classifying this recipe as a Dukan recipe even though it has a tablespoon of sake in it...we actually never used sake in our family hekka so you can leave it out if you like.  We're also considering this a Paleo - ish recipe since we used Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce (still have to transfer my two bottles of Bragg's Amino Liquid to the male half's house).  We're not sure if water chestnuts and bamboo shoots are on the Paleo or Dukan list, but it was a healthy dinner and I ended up dropping some weight this weekend!

RECIPE:
Serves 2 - 4 (two if you're in Cruise or on the Paleo diet and eat this by itself, 4 if you're in Consolidation and are having some sort of whole wheat starch)
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: approx 20 minutes

1.25 lbs of chicken thighs, cubed (we would have just used 1 pound but we were in the Japanese market and they had chicken thighs cut up to make karaage or Japanese fried chicken so we bough the precut pack and removed as much fat as we could.
2 bamboo shoots, sliced (try to use fresh, we had canned ones on hand and wanted to use up)
1/2 can water chestnuts, sliced (optional)
8 pieces of won bok or Napa Cabbage or a similar green, sliced into small pieces
1 pkg. shirataki noodles (or tofu shirataki noodles) - depending on how strict you are on Paleo, you can omit the noodles if you aren't including these in your diet
a handful of mizuna cut into 2 inch pieces (optional, it was on sale this week)
1/2 c. Reduced Sodium Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce or Bragg's Amino Liquid (this was too salty for us - we ended up adding in about 2 - 2/12 c. of water, so you may want to start with 1/4 c. or less until you find a taste you like)
1 T. sake (optional)
1-2 T. natural sweetener (we used xylitol, although some Paleo peeps wouldn't agree on the use of xylitol), taste as you add
2 T. green onions, chopped

Other items you can add: shiitake mushrooms (sliced), button mushrooms (whole or sliced), tofu (if you're not on the Paleo diet), etc.

Mix Tamari (soy sauce or Bragg's Amino Liquid) with the sake and natural sweetener in a bowl -- see note above, start with small amounts of your soy sauce choice or else you may end up adding a lot of water like we did.

Depending on which diet you are, you can use non stick spray (Dukan) or a little bit your choice of fat if you're on the Paleo Diet -- to your pan over medium high heat.  Add chicken to pan and stir fry until 30% cooked.  Add veggies to your pan, cook until soft (usually just a couple minutes).  Add shirataki noodles, mix.  Add sauce, mix and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

Serve as is for a Dukan Cruise meal or a Paleo meal or with brown rice if you're in Dukan Consolidation.  We ate this as a Dukan Cruise/Paleo - ish meal so it fed just the two of us for one meal.

NOTE:  We kept the leftover sauce and used it for a throw together Beef Hekka the next night.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! (Happy New Year)

Kadomatsu display and Kagami mochi

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  Thank you to everyone who visited our blog and we hope our recipes were useful to you :-)

We spent this weekend baking and prepping for New Year's Eve.  As mentioned in a previous post or two, New Year's Eve is a big thing here in Hawaii with our various customs and traditions.  One would be consuming mochi or sweet rice cakes.  At one time our family actually pounded mochi, displayed the traditional Kagami Mochi, bought a kadomatsu or two, burned long strands of firecrackers at midnight to ward off evil spirits and ate Ozoni on New Year's Day.   Today, we still buy our kadomatsus, but now we buy our Kagami Mochi display and as the older generation passes, our display becomes smaller and smaller.  We have a new fireworks ban, banning certain fireworks, so as a family we've decided to just enjoy fireworks on the television.

This year since New Year's Eve landed on a Monday, we took advantage of the weekend and baked 3 pans of mochi - chocolate and custard.  Yes, we cheated, we sampled the mochi (eeek!).  We also made some kamaboko dip.  The male half who is from the mainland never even heard of kamaboko dip but he liked the dip!  Kamaboko is a fish cake and we ate tons of it growing up...every New Year's Eve every party we went to had kamaboko of different colors and shapes cut up as an appetizer.  Both of these recipes are not Dukan or Paleo friendly, but we may post them as Celebration Recipes.

Every Thursday we usually plan out our weekend meals and shop for our weekend groceries.  Unless we are meeting friends on the weekend for dinner, we generally eat at home and is the easiest time for us to eat healthy.  As mentioned in previous posts, once the female half of this couple reaches her weight loss goal, we will be easing into a Paleo or Caveman-like diet.  The more research we do on the internet and on prices of organic, natural products here in Hawaii and on Amazon, it's looking like we will be moderate Paleo people.

With that in mind, for the rest of our Cruise Phase, we are sticking to Dukan, but if our Dukan recipe can easily be Paleo'd without compromising Dukan Rules, we have been Paleo-ing our recipes too!  Once we get to Consolidation (around February of next year), we'll stick to the Consolidation Rules but add in the Paleo rules -- mainly the no grains rule.  The no processed foods will probably need to be less processed foods for now.

This weekend, we made 4 meals -- all were Dukan Cruise Phase recipes and were Paleo'ish.  The male half actually has three meals with no grains, yay!  He actually could have had all his meals without grains, but we didn't want to waste the brown rice and mashed potatoes given to us.  (BTW, our other meals, like breakfast I don't count as "made meals" since most times we have yogurt with oat bran, Appelgate natural deli meat, low fat cheese with Dijon mustard and steamed broccoli on PV days.)

The results, a pound loss (we only exercised once this weekend, wonder how much more we could have lost had we stuck to our aerobic exercise), no bloated tummies for either of us, no sluggish Kanak Attacks (a local saying after you eat a heavy meal and you just want to sleep or lay around).

Again, Happy New Year to everyone and here's wishing all of us a healthy 2013!

Product Review: Victoria All Natural Marinara Sauce

Photo from the Victoria
Fine Foods Website

For the male half's birthday, we made a Baked Rigatoni.  We had a ton of baking to do that night so making our own Mushroom Marinara was out of the question.  The other night, luckily I happened to take a peek at the marinara sauces at Costco expecting to only find sauces loaded with junk stuff but was quite happy to find Victoria's All Natural Marinara Sauce.

It's Dukan friendly on PV days and Paleo friendly!

We decided to use the sauce as is although we were tempted to add some balsamic vinegar and fennel seeds to add some additional flavor...we really wanted to get the true taste of this marinara the first time around.  A note about balsamic vinegar, most websites will tell you balsamic vinegar is not Paleo friendly, but many still use it in moderation...that's the key, in moderation.  We would have used about a teaspoon for one jar...I think that qualifies as "in moderation" :-)

We both enjoyed Victoria's All Natural Marinara Sauce.  For us, it had that slight tang/zest to it...still debating whether or not to adjust the flavor with balsamic vinegar.  It's definitely a nice alternative to making your own when you don't have the time.  We'll be stocking up on this sauce and hope Costco continues to carry it.

We'll be using the second jar for Christmas...our first attempt at making a zucchini lasagna!  Oh and the recipe for our Celebration Baked Rigatoni meal will be posted soon after Christmas.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas if you're celebrating Christmas :-)