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 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 Seared Ahi Tuna

Seared Ahi Tuna

We both loved this recipe!

Why we've never tried to make it at home...we just don't know.  Last week we got back in touch with our fish guy...for those new to our blog, we are very lucky to know a guy here in Honolulu who enjoys going to the fish auction.  What this basically means is, we pay his much lower weight for fresh fish which is sometimes less than 1/4th the cost in a market like Whole foods.  The taste is also fresher.

Originally we envisioned baking or grilling our fish but our fish guy was so excited to tell us he just cut some ahi tuna and it sashimi grade...for those not familiar with the term, it basically means it is a very good quality and can be eaten raw.  Our fish guy said "you're not going to cook this are you?!"  So, we decided to have Seared Ahi Tuna.

This is a very tasty and easy dish to prepare.  The fish cooks VERY quickly since you're searing it, not cooking it through.  We used Tom's Blackened Seasoning from allrecipes.com...we used Truvia instead of sugar, but other than that, we used the recipe as is....oh except we made only a quarter of the recipe.   For the ahi, we followed Foodland's recipe...we made the avocado tartare too...that recipe will be coming up on Monday, April 8th!  This can be Paleo - use Stevia as your sweetener for the seasoning.

We are definitely making this again.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4 (depends what you're having it with, if you're having a starch, etc.)
Prep Time: approx 20 minutes
Cook Time: less than 10 minutes

2 - 6 oz. sashimi grade ahi tuna blocks (we tried to cut ours into 1 - 1 1/2" blocks, try not to cut your fish too thin or it'll cook too quickly)
1/2 T. extra virgin olive oil
blackening spice (see below)

Blackening Spice ingredients:
1/4 T. paprika
1 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. onion powder
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 T. natural sweetener (we used Truvia) - use Stevia if you're on Paleo (but I would try less than 1/4 T. first)

Wash and pat dry your fish.  Heat your pan on high heat for a couple of minutes.  Brush fish with olive oil and season evenly with blackening spice (if you're in Attack, omit the olive oil, rub the seasoning on your fish and spray your pan with a little bit of non-stick spray).  We didn't add any more salt but you can season your fish with salt before the blackening spice if you wish.  Place fish into hot pan, sear on all sides until brown on the outside and opaque on the inside, about 1 minute per side.

Remove fish from pan and place on a plate lined with paper towels.  Let fish cool before slicing.  We used this time to make our Avocado Tartare.

The male half of this couple had his fish with our Sesame Cucumber Salad, Avocado Tartare and Okinawan Sweet Potatoes.  I had the same minus the potatoes.    This can be eaten as is - Pure Protein or served with veggies.

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 and Paleo Pulled Pork

Easy Pulled Pork

We loved this recipe!

Ok, first of all, our first time on Dukan, we stayed away from fatty meats...hardly used our slow cooker.  This time around, instead of just a 30 minute walk per day, we are trying to do 30-45 minutes of aerobic exercise which is why during Cruise, we weren't afraid to have pulled pork.   I usually eat Pork Adobo once a week from a little Filipino shop near my work -- it's made with pork shoulder -- I discard all the fat and eat only the meaty pieces and I've lost almost half the weight I set out to lose.   If you've still got a lot of weight to lose and you're not doing some sort of almost daily aerobic exercise, you may want to wait until Consolidation to try this recipe.

The first week of January it was rainy and windy here...almost every day.  It seemed like the temperature was always 68 degrees when I checked my phone.  So, Thursday, our usual 'meal planning' day, we pulled out a Greek Chicken Stew recipe and this Crock Pot Pulled Pork recipe.  They were perfect for the rainy, windy and chilly weekend.

We found this recipe soon after we decided to start easing into the Caveman way of eating.  Saved it and didn't intend to use it until we lost all our weight and truly eased into the Caveman diet.  We couldn't wait :-)  This recipe is very easy and very tasty -- oh and it's a lot for two people.  We froze half the pulled pork and the other half we ate for two meals with no rice or bread.

Mix your dry rub.

1/2 the onions line the bottom of the crock pot

Rub all your dry rub on your pork (before placing it in the pot of course)

Place the rest of your onions on the top of your pork, cover
crock pot and cook according to the directions below

RECIPE:
Serves: a lot (see paragraph above)
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes (we cut some fat from our pork shoulder)
Crock Pot Cook Time: 5-6 hours on high, then 3-4 hours on low
6 Qt. Crock Pot used

4-5 lb. pork shoulder/butt (some fat removed), rinse and pat dry
1-2 yellow onions, sliced (we used one)

Dry rub:
3 T. chili powder
1 t. coriander
2 t. ground cumin
2 t. onion powder
1 T. dried parsley
1/4 t. chipotle chili powder
2 t. kosher or sea salt

Mix all dry rub ingredients together, set aside.  Rub dry rub all over pork.  Be sure to use all the dry rub.  We let our pork sit out on the counter for about 20 minutes.  Line your crock pot if you have liners (they make clean-up so easy!).  Place half your onions on the bottom of the crock pot.  Place your pork in the pot.  Place the remainder of the onions on top of the pork, cover and cook on high for 5-6 hours (we cooked it for 5 hours).  Then cook for another 3-4 hours on low (we cooked it for 3 hours).  After the 8 hours of cooking, we opened the pot, checked to be sure the pork was falling apart, then pushed the pork into the juice.  Turn your pot to warm and cover to let the top part of the pork that wasn't in the juice to soak up some liquid.

In the meantime, prepare any veggies you will be having with your pork.  Depending on which diet you're on and if you're not trying to lose weight, you can make a gravy with the drippings and use sparingly.  We dipped our pork in the juice to add a little moisture...it was very tasty just like that!

Remove pork from crock pot, take two forks and shred pork removing fat as you go.  We had this with sauerkraut and broccoli.  Made an omelet with some of the leftovers and are considering lettuce wraps with the half we froze.

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!

Dukan Riceless Temaki (Sushi Handrolls)

Riceless Temaki Sushi Handrolls

We loved this recipe...and you can use a lot of different ingredients to make a temaki or handroll and they are very easy to make once you get the rolling/tucking technique down.

We don't recommend anything too wet that may soak through your nori or seaweed wrapper.

Ever since I can remember, my grandmother (and later all the female grandchildren) always rolled makizushi for New Year's Eve (and Day) -- a traditional "round" roll and we always used an odd number of ingredients for good luck.  Our makizushi usually consisted of sliced shiitake mushrooms, kampyo (strips of dried gourd reconstituted in the same water you boiled the shiitake mushrooms), egg omelet cut into strips, unagi (eel), dried ebi (shrimp) -- both colors -- red and green and carrots.

This year we didn't make sushi -- we knew we would most likely eat just one piece if we did make sushi.  So, on New Year's Day we decided to make some Riceless Temaki Handrolls with nori (seaweed wrapper), poke (seasoned raw fish) and an egg omelet made with tobiko or fish eggs.  You can really use a lot of different ingredients in a handroll.  We have lots of tobiko in our freezer and it was a PP day.  If it were a PV day, we would have definitely added either cucumbers, sprouts, seasoned lettuce, enoki mushrooms or other veggies.   Other items you can use - our kamaboko dip (recipe coming!), imitation crab, etc.)

Nori -- Seaweed wrap

Regarding nori (seaweed wrapper), check the package when purchasing -- there's usually sushi nori and musubi or omusubi (rice ball) nori.  We find the musubi nori a little chewier.  Some stores also sell already cut temaki (handroll) nori but if you buy the sushi nori, you can easily cut your nori in half for handrolls.  We don't usually buy Korean nori, but it is very tasty -- we've noticed it's stickier.  Try not to buy super cheap nori, those are generally very thin and break easily.  Most nori will have a shiny side and a ridged side.  We usually place the shiny side out.  As far as we can tell, nori or seaweed is Dukan and Paleo friendly.

Nori cut in half for handroll, front piece is the shiny side, back piece
is the ridged side.

If you've never rolled a handroll, it's fairly easy once you get the hang of it.  This is the first time we've posted a video on Blogger, so we're hoping it works...it's a short, simple tutorial on how to roll a handroll (it's posted just before the recipe below).

Place your omelet piece down at an angle facing the left

Place some poke on the omelet

Pick up the nori and hold in your left hand, use your right hand to push
left bottom corner up and start to tuck under the right side of the
omelet.

Keep rolling and tucking carefully.  It's one of those -- be firm but gentle.
Too firm and you'll smash everything up, too gentle and your handroll
will be too loose.  It may take you a couple of tries, but almost anyone
can learn to make a handroll!  Don't give up!

RECIPE:
Makes 4 handrolls
Prep time: 10-20 minutes
Roll Time: once you get the hang of it, rolling won't take long at all

1/8 lb. Ahi Limu Poke (Seasoned raw tuna with seaweed)
1/8 lb. Salmon Poke (Seasoned raw salmon)
2 full sheets of nori cut in half
2 eggs
1 T. tobiko (fish eggs) - this is optional, these are usually on the salty side for us, so we didn't add anything else to the eggs, but if you're making just a plain omelet or some other kind of omelet, you may want to season it -- even with hot sauce if you'd like

Beat eggs in a bowl (be sure to get some air in there!).  Add tobiko and mix.  Fry omelet in a pan over medium heat -- cook they way you like them.  We don't like our eggs runny, so we usually cook them a little more well done.  We used non stick spray in our pan but if we were making a true Paleo meal, we probably would have used a little bit of bacon grease or a small amount of olive oil.

Remove egg from pan and cut into 4 pieces (see photo above).  If your egg is longer than the nori wrapper, fold your egg.

We rolled two handrolls at a time for the photo taking session but normally we roll one at a time and we usually lay all the ingredients on one plate and roll as we eat...this way your nori doesn't get soggy -- it ends up chewier and for us, a little more difficult to eat.  If soggy nori doesn't bother you, go ahead and wrap them all before eating...it's really up to you.

Place your egg on the left side of the nori, angled to the left.  Place some poke on the egg.  Pick up your nori carefully and hold in your left hand (see photo above).  With your right hand, start rolling and tucking the left bottom corner of your nori under the egg.  Keep rolling and tucking until you have just the bottom right corner of the roll sticking out.  Dab a little water on the corner and close your sushi.

As mentioned above, rolling sushi is one of those things where you have to have a firm, but gentle touch.  Too firm will smash everything and too gentle will result in a loose handroll that will fall apart with the first bite or sooner.  Practice before you roll for a party!  Handroll parties are fun too!

Enjoy...we always do!

Dukan Spice Rubbed Salmon

Spice Rubbed Salmon

We loved this recipe!

We don't eat spiced rubbed anything too often, but saw this recipe pop up on Skinnytaste.com's blog and decided to stash it away.  It was easy to prepare, tasty and something different for us.  We skipped the Black Beans and Corn part of the recipe.

We ended up using 6 smaller pieces of salmon since we were using the tail end of our Costco slab of salmon.  If you're using pieces not similar in thickness, remember to throw the thicker pieces on the grill before the skinnier pieces!

I had this by itself on our PP day.  The male half had his with red rice.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2-4
Prep Time: 10 minutes or so

Cook Time: 8-10 minutes (it really depends on how thick your salmon is, ours were fairly thin so they cooked up fast)

Spice Rub:
1 t. smoked paprika
1 1/2 t. Splenda brown sugar (we'll probably use 1 t. next time)
1/2 t. chipotle chili powder
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 t. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 lime, juice of
4-6 pieces of salmon (depending on the size again)
lime wedges for serving

Combine all spice rub ingredients in a bowl.  Squeeze lime over both sides of your salmon, then rub your spice rub on both sides of the salmon and let it rest for 5 minutes.  Just before the 5 minutes are up, heat a grill pan over high heat, spray with nonstick spray and place salmon on grill pan.  Cook for 3-5 minutes undisturbed until the salmon is half way cooked, then flip your salmon pieces over and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until your salmon is cooked.  Do not overcook.

Enjoy...we sure did!  And we'll probably use this rub for steaks or chicken in the future.

Dukan Pork Chops (aka No Recipes' Easy Pork Chops)

No Recipe's Pork Chops

We loved this recipe and we're going to invest in a meat thermometer.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we love Marc's blog "No Recipes".  Last month Marc posted a "Best Pork Chops" recipe and we just had to try it.  We don't eat a lot of pork but once in a while to have something different and if it's on sale, we'll pick up some pork chops.  As children, we both were raised eating pork chops pan fried with all the fat left on and a mushroom "gravy" made from the pork chop drippings and cream of mushroom soup.  One of these days we'll make pork chops this way but using fat free cream of mushroom soup.

Gravy seems to be the only thing that saves our pork chops.  We are guilty of always overcooking it trying to be sure we don't get sick eating undercooked pork.  We tried Marc's recipe and although we slightly overcooked it, the brined pork chop was yummy!  We're definitely trying this recipe again -- that's why we're asking Santa for a meat thermometer!

We rarely use our Wii for games (mostly use it for exercise) but we decided to challenge each other to bowling -- which lead to a baseball challenge, then a tennis challenge and if we owned two Wii Nunchucks, we would have boxed each other too ha ha.  This lead to dinner being prepared late which meant we made mistakes while rushing to get dinner cooked.  Eeek!  Our pork chops did not look as beautiful as Marc's with all of our rushing, but the recipe below is what he uses.

Our pork chops came out a little on the sweet side.  We'll adjust the recipe the next time around.  It may have been the full amount of Splenda Brown Sugar we used or the honey in the wine sauce.  We also used more wine than we are allowed, but if you look at it this way -- there were 4 pork chops, 1 cup of white wine would break down to 1/4 c. white wine per pork chops...but I'm sure it doesn't work that way.  In any case...we had this on Saturday night (Cruise PP) along with some other Dukan meals we prepared and this morning, we lost a pound!   It's up to you if you rather wait until Consolidation or Stabilization or perhaps the later half of your Cruise Phase -- you can always reduce the wine and honey or make this pork chop with fat free cream of mushroom sauce instead of the wine glaze.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4 (depends if you're having a starch, I had two pork chops with broccoli and no starch, the male half of this couple had one pork chop, broccoli and red rice)
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes (plus 4 hours or overnight brine time)
Cook Time: depends on how thick your pork chops are, approx. 10 minutes

4 - 1 inch thick pork chops, excess fat removed (ours were thicker, our local store didn't have 1 inch thick chops)

Brine:
2 T. Splenda brown sugar
2 T. salt
4 c. water
1 clove garlic (we have the Costco minced one, so we used that)

1 T. olive oil to fry chops in or nonstick spray (we went for the olive oil)
1 large onion, sliced thinly (oops, we sliced ours too thick)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. white wine
2 T. honey
1 T. whole grain mustard

In a gallon size sealable freezer bag, add the brine ingredients.  Seal the bag and swish it around to dissolved the sugar and salt.  Add the pork, press out as much air as you can, then seal the bag.  Let pork chops sit in the brine for at least 4 hours, we chose to brine them overnight as Marc suggested.  (We also placed the bag in a pan just in case it leaked).

Remove the pork chops from the brine and use paper towels to remove as much moisture from the surface of the chops as you can.  Marc explains if there's water on the surface, the chops will not brown.

Add the oil to your pan and heat over medium high heat.  As you can see from our photos, our pan was not large enough for 4 pork chops...try not to overcrowd your food like ours.  Under normal circumstances we would cook two chops, then cook the next two...but since we were late in getting dinner started, we squeezed all 4 into the pan.  Place the chops in the pan while the pan is still cold.  Marc explains since the chops are brined with sugar, they'll burn before the cook through if you place them in a hot pan.

Fry the chops undisturbed until they are golden brown on one side and have gone from pink to beige about halfway up the sides.  Flip the chops over and fry the other side until well browned and an instant read thermometer reads 141 degrees Fahrenheit.  Transfer them to a place and let them rest.  Please see Marc's post about cooking pork - eventually you'll want to get your pork chops to an internal temp of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

Drain most of the excess oil out of the pan and add the onions and garlic.  Saute until the onions are soft (we used red onions which we didn't care for in this recipe).  Add the wine, honey and mustard and turn up the heat to boil off the alcohol and thicken the glaze.

When the glaze is nice and thick, add the pork chops back to the pan and flip them over repeatedly to coat them with the glaze.  Once there is no liquid left in the pan, the pork chops are done.  Top with caramelized onions.   Serve as is on Pure Protein days or with a side of veggies on Protein Veggie days or with brown rice during Consolidation.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Chopped Steak

Chopped Steak

We loved this recipe...and it's easy to adjust to your own taste!

For some reason, we craved an old time Hawaii favorite -- Chopped Steak.  Everyone had their version of it...this one is close to our grandma's except we thickened the sauce a little too much.  Next time we probably won't thicken the sauce this much.  Sunday was a PP day for me, so we made our Chopped Steak the "classic" way -- beef and onions.

Grandma sometimes added bean sprouts or celery and carrots.  The sauce is basically a teriyaki sauce.  It's quick, easy and you can change the beef out for chicken or even tofu.  The thickened sauce worked for me because I had it plain....the male half of this couple had his Chopped Steak with a scoop of red rice, so a runnier sauce would have been fine for him.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2-4 (we got three servings out of ours)
Prep Time: 10 minutes, plus 20 minutes to marinate steak
Cook Time: less than 10 minutes

1 lb. beef, thinly sliced (we used a NY Steak and removed the excess fat, not our favorite cut, but it was reasonably priced)
1 yellow onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 t. cornstarch mixed with 1 t. water (optional or you can use less if you want a runnier sauce)

Marinade:
1/4 c. low sodium soy sauce (we used almost a 1/4 c. and filled the rest of the cup with water -- high blood pressure)
2 to 3 t. natural sweetener (we used 2 t., start with 1 t. and taste as you add your sweetener to find a taste you like)
1 t. vinegar
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced or grated

Combine marinade ingredients.  Add beef and marinate for 20 minutes.

Heat pan over high heat, spray lightly with non stick spray; add onions and cook until soft.  Remove onions and set aside.  Place beef in pan with marinade.  Stir fry until cooked through (ours took 3-4 minutes).  If you want to thicken your sauce, remove beef leaving sauce in pan, if you want to leave your sauce as is, skip this step.  Add your cornstarch/water mixture, stir constantly and lower heat.  Simmer until sauce thickens.

Return beef and onions to pan and stir to coat.  Serve as is or over a bed of brown or red rice.

If you're adding vegetables like bean sprouts, we would toss the veggies in after you remove the onions, cook until veggies are tender, remove veggies and continue with cooking your beef, etc.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Cuban Style Burgers

Cuban Style Burgers

We liked this recipe.  It was tasty but if we were to make it again, we'd just make the burger part.  The ham and cheese part was a little too much for me...but it was delicious.  We had this on our Pure Protein Day, so we didn't have the pickle, it really needed the pickle.

Closet Cooking is another of our favorite recipe blogs.   He's very creative and we like his "trying not to eat the same thing over and over" style.  We love Cuban sandwiches so we knew we would enjoy Closet Cooking's Cuban Burger recipe.

We didn't have these on buns so we skipped the mayo and mustard.  The male half of this couple had his burgers with red rice and I had mine plain.  Next time I think we'll use some fat free mayo and mustard just to add flavor to this dish.  We also used a lower fat ham and reduced fat Swiss cheese.  We made ours with ground turkey only because we don't care for the ground pork sold at Safeway, has a funky taste.

RECIPE:
Serves:  Makes 6-8 smaller burgers or 4 large burgers (there's just two of us, we had leftovers)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: Approximately 10-15 minutes, depending on how many burgers you can cook at once)

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 handful cilantro, chopped
1 t. lime zest
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. ground cumin
1 lb. ground turkey (or pork)
1/4 c. oat bran
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
2 slices of low fat ham per burger
1 slice of reduced fat Swiss cheese per burger
2 -4 slices of dill pickles if it's your PV day
Dukan bread if you prefer eating this as a burger on a bun.
If you're using a bun or even if you're not, mix 1 mashed garlic per tablespoon of fat free/Dukan mayo (use 1 T per burger) as a dressing.  You may also use 1 T. dijon mustard per burger if you wish.

Mix the garlic, cilantro, lime zest, oregano, oat bran, egg and cumin into the ground turkey.   Form 4 larger patties or 6-8 smaller patties.  Spray a grill pan with a little bit of non-stick spray and over medium high heat start grilling your patties.  They should take approximately 3-5 minutes per side.  We wrapped our cheese in our ham, folded them up and grilled them along with the last two burgers just to melt the cheese and heat up the ham.  Serve burgers with ham/cheese on it.  Add dressing from above recipe if you wish.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Grilled Balsamic Chicken

Grilled Balsamic Chicken

We didn't care for this recipe...but we're posting it in case others may want to try it and hopefully improve it!

It wasn't bad, it just wasn't for us.  We love balsamic vinegar...especially when we're dipping our bread into the vinegar/olive oil mix at an Italian restaurant so we thought we'd love this recipe.   First of all, ours didn't look as good as 'For The Love of Cooking's' chicken did.  Ours started to char a lot.  The chicken ended up juicy and tasty, but perhaps we should have used less balsamic vinegar or something.

We followed the recipe with the exception of the flour and butter...oh and of course, we cooked ours in our grill pan.  The sauce was a bit too strong for us.

If you try this recipe and it comes out better for you or you tweak it in some way, please do share!  The nice thing about this recipe is we ate it during Attack.

Good luck!

Dukan Mongolian Beef

Mongolian Beef

This is a schedule post...we are on the road again!  It may take us a while to respond to comments...thank you!

We loved this recipe!

We'll probably try it with chicken since the beef was a bit dry and we're trying not to eat beef.  This is another recipe from our archives...just didn't have the energy to post it.

We love cooking Chinese stir fry type of dishes...they are flavorful and cook up pretty quickly.   We had this during Cruise even though it has a small amount of oyster sauce and sesame oil....it's up to you.  We didn't experience any weight gain from eating it.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (he had red rice with his and I had mine plain)
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes, plus 30 minutes marinating time
Cook Time: Just a few minutes

1 lb. lean beef, sliced into small pieces
2 stalks of green onion, chopped (or sliced)
1 inch ginger, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced

Marinade:
1 t. cornstarch
1 t. soy sauce
1 T. water
1 t. Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing)

Sauce:
2 t. oyster sauce
2 T. low sodium soy sauce (we used 1 1/2 T. plus 1/2 T. water)
2 dashes pepper
1/4 t. sesame oil
1 T. natural sweetener or to taste (we used Xylitol)

Marinate beef for 30 minutes.  Heat up wok with a small amount of olive oil.  Stir fry beef until halfway done.  Remove beef from wok and set aside.  Add more olive oil if needed, saute garlic and ginger until fragrant (a minute or two).  Add beef back to wok, then sauce and stir fry until beef is almost done, then add green onions.  Stir a couple more times and serve.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Shoyu Chicken

Shoyu Chicken

 This is a scheduled post.  If we do not respond to your comments right away, it's because we are on the road!  Thanks!

We loved this recipe...and our Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker.

This is the first savory dish we've made in our Deep Covered Baker and we are definitely going to use it again.  Our boneless skinless chicken thighs came out moist!  This recipe can be made on the stove as well.

The Deep Covered Baker in the microwave

In Hawaii, the 'plate lunch' is a big thing.   It's something we grew up with as children...as a matter of fact, our parents did too.  We remember when plate lunches came in a box while others came wrapped neatly in butcher paper.  The plate lunch was always 2 scoops of rice (or as the local people say '2 scoop rice'), 1 scoop macaroni salad (no potatoes in the salad) and your main entree which many times would be covered in brown gravy or something not too healthy.  The plate lunch like many other restaurants across the U.S. and probably the world has evolved.  Most restaurants serve their plate lunches in styrofoam or 'green' containers and offer healthier selections along side their 'heart attack on a plate' selections.

Shoyu chicken is on most plate lunch menus and we don't really order it due to the amount of soy sauce and sugar used.  Plus, most restaurants will leave the skin and fat on the chicken thighs.  This is an easy, tasty dish to make and it really only takes 20 minutes in the microwave (Deep Covered Baker) or on the stove in a regular pot.

This recipe came from Rainbow Drive In in Kapahulu near Waikiki a very popular local style restaurant.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4 people
Prep Time: 10-20 minutes (it took us longer since we removed all the fat from our chicken)
Cook Time: 20 minutes

2 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (fat removed)
1/2 c. natural sweetener (we used Xylitol)
3/4 c. low sodium soy sauce (we watered ours down)
1/4 c. white vinegar
1/8 t. kosher salt
1/8 t. pepper
1 clove garlic
1 inch ginger, crushed

Wash and drain chicken.  Place in Deep Covered Baker or pot.  Combine sauce ingredients.  Pour sauce over chicken.  If using a Deep Covered Baker, cover and cook on high in your microwave for 20 minutes.  If cooking on the stove, bring to a boil and cook for 20-30 minutes.

We didn't thicken our sauce, but if you would like to, use some cornstarch.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Vietnamese Beef Salad

Vietnamese Beef Salad

We loved this recipe...but we're using chicken thighs next time.

We made this back in July...it was a perfect addition to our salad on a humid summer day.

We haven't mastered the art of cooking lean beef...it usually comes out on the drier side...not beef jerky dry though.  We try not to eat beef, but the female half was in a beef mood!

This recipe comes from one of our other favorite recipe sites, Noble Pig.  Noble Pig has a great looking site and of course, everything looks yummy.  Everything we've tried from this site has been delicious.  Their recipe isn't a salad recipe, but we had it over a bed of romaine and didn't need dressing.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4 (4 if you serve it with rice or quinoa)
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 6 minutes or so

1 lb. lean beef, sliced into small pieces, fat removed
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T. olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper
1 small red onion cut into 1/4" wedges
2 green onion stalks, chopped (we forgot to add ours in!)

For Sauce:
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. lime juice, freshly squeezed
1 1/2 T. splenda brown sugar
1 T. fish sauce

In a small bowl, combine sauce ingredients.  In a separate bowl, combine the garlic, oil and pepper.

Season the beef with salt and pepper.  We cooked ours in a wok over medium high heat using some non-stick spray.  When wok is hot, add 1/2 the beef in a single layer.  Cook without turning until browned, 1-2 minutes.  Using tongs, turn beef and brown the other side, 1-2 minutes.  Transfer to a boil or plate and cook the other half of the beef using the same method.

Spray wok or add a small amount of olive oil and heat until shimmering hot.  Stir fry onions until tender, a couple of minutes.  Add garlic mixture, stir constantly until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Return beef with juices to wok and stir to combine.  Add soy sauce mixture.  Stir until sauce thickens.  Remove from heat and serve with quinoa, brown rice, over a salad or by itself.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Curry Turkey Burgers

Curry Turkey Burgers

NOTE: This is a scheduled post...trying to catch up!

We loved this recipe!

The male half of this couple enjoys curry...the female half doesn't....but we came across some curry turkey burger recipes (can't even remember how we came across it) and it sounded pretty good.  We're glad we tried the recipe.  (Note, the female half does love Thai curries, but doesn't care for Indian curry).

You can adjust the amount of curry to the type of curry you want to use.  We actually used curry powder we found in Chinatown here.

RECIPE:
Makes 8 burgers
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: Approximately 20 minutes

1 lb. ground turkey
1 small shallot, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. curry powder (adjust to your taste)
1-2 t. red chili flakes (we used 2)
1 egg
1/4 c. oat bran
kosher salt (I think we used 1-2 t.)
pepper (approx 1/4 t)

Mix everything in a bowl and portion our 8 servings.  Make each serving into a patty and fry over medium high heat...we used our grill pan.  Cook the patties for approximately 6 minutes on each side or until there's no pink juice coming from your patties.

The male half had this over brown rice and the female half had it with a side salad.  Have it alone on Cruise PP days or even during Attack.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Easy Chinese Pork Stir Fry

Easy Chinese Pork Stir Fry with Rice (his portion, mine = no rice)

We loved this recipe.

Happy New Year everyone!  The holidays are over and it's time for us to get back on Dukan.  For us, it'll happen next week :-)

This recipe was quick, easy, and tasty!  You can make this dish with or without veggies, with pork, beef, chicken, turkey or fish.  We took a simple Kung Pao sauce recipe and made some adjustments.  We actually made this before New Year's but haven't had much time to blog.

We were pigging out over the holidays and didn't have many PP days during the last three weeks of December.  Yike!  Decided a PP day was a must and luckily we had two lean, uncooked pork chops left from one of our other meals.  The two small pork chops were actually not quite enough for a PP meal for two people, so we are adjusting the recipe to make a meal for two.  If you're having this with brown rice or quinoa or adding a lot of bulk veggies like broccoli, two thick cut pork chops should be enough for two people.

RECIPE
Serves 2
Prep Time: 45 minutes (30 of those minutes are for marinating)
Cook Time: less than 10 minutes

3/4 - 1 lb. lean pork chops (no bone), thinly sliced (slice at an angle)
2 Thai red chili peppers or something similar (deseeded and cut into thin strips)
5 thin slices of fresh ginger (skin removed)
2 garlic cloves (we used minced since we have the Costco bottle or you can thinly slice your garlic)
1 stalk green onion, chopped (next time we'll probably do two inch strips)

Marinade:
3 t. cornstarch
2 t. soy sauce
1 T. Shaoxing rice wine or your choice of substitutes

Sauce:
1 1/2 T. soy sauce
1 t. natural sweetener
1/4 t. black vinegar (or regular white vinegar)
2 T. water
1 t. cornstarch

Rinse pork slices and pat dry.  Mix marinade ingredients, we usually mix ours in a ziploc baggie, then add meat, mix again (using your hands on the outside of the baggie), then refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Mix your sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.  Heat up a stir fry pan (high heat), spray a little bit of  non stick spray (we use a coated nonstick stir fry pan), cook marinated pork until 70% cooked.  Set aside.  Clean pan, spray with non stick spray again.  Add ginger and garlic to pan, stir fry for a few seconds, then add red chilies.  Stir fry until it is aromatic (about 20-30 seconds).  If your pan starts sticking, spray a little more non stick spray.  Add pork back to pan and continue to stir fry.  For a celebration meal or during consolidation, add cashew nuts or peanuts.  Add in sauce and continuously stir fry until pork is coated with sauce.  Turn heat off, add green onions, stir and serve immediately.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Baked Tilapia

RECIPE RATING:
We actually enjoyed this.

Baked Tilapia

We were a bit skeptical about using oat bran as a coating even though other Dukan-ers have used it successfully.  It just didn't sound appetizing.  We found a recipe for Baked Tilapia on a low fat recipe website which we Dukan'd by changing the breadcrumbs out for oat bran and adding some italian seasoning instead of just oregano as the recipe called for.

This recipe is simple and you can use a variety of spices...not just italian seasoning.   You can also use different types of fish for this recipe.

RECIPE
Serves 2
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 8-12 minutes (425 degrees Fahrenheit)

4 tilapia filets (ours were very thin)
1/2 c. fine oat bran (if you have a grinder, grind your oat bran up)
1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated (the kind from the can)
1 t. garlic powder or garlic salt
1 t. italian seasoning (next time we will use 2 t..we love this stuff)

Mix all dry ingredients (we put our mixture on a plate).  Rinse and pat dry fish.  Spray fish lightly with olive oil spray, coat fish with oat bran mixture, spray fish lightly again, coat one more time with oat bran mixture.  Place coated fish in a foil lined pan (spray foil lightly with olive oil spray).  We sprayed our coated fish lightly.  Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-12 minutes or until fish flakes easily.

We sprayed our fish a little too much so some sections were soggy, but it still tasted great.

Enjoy!

Dukan Japanese Pork Roll Ups

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Very good!
SHE SAID: I could eat these every day!

This is a photo of our students pork roll ups, we
don't have a pic of ours yet but ours uses thinner slices or
pork and no carrots or mayo dip

One of our students made these pork roll ups sauteed in a typical Japanese sauce...shoyu (soy sauce), sake and sugar for a potluck they hosted.  You can use mirin too.  You roll up veggies in thin slices of lean pork tenderloin.  After we started the Dukan Diet, we Dukan'd the recipe!  It's very tasty and is a great dinner or snack.  We serve it with more sauteed veggies and silk tofu.

Asparagus, celery, baby bok choy, choi sum and a lot of other veggies can be rolled up in the pork slices.  We use the shabu shabu cut pork tenderloin.  The cuts at Marukai market are very thin, very lean and when on sale, very reasonable.  One tray (just under 1/2 pound) usually has around 16 slices.

If you're in the Attack Phase or want to have these on your Pure Protein day, just roll the pork up and saute them, they are still great this way!

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes (if you have a small pan, less if you have a larger pan)

1 tray shabu shabu pork tenderloin (if you don't have shabu shabu meat at your market, ask the butcher to cut the meat paper thin)
2-3 T. low sodium shoyu
1 T. water
4 T. white wine
Veggies - thinly sliced (as much as you want to put in the roll ups, we would recommend not more than 2 items and cutting them thinner than carrot sticks to cook quickly)

Place veggie(s) on a slice of meat, at the end nearest to you.  Roll tightly.  Pour liquid ingredients in pan. Turn stove on to medium high heat.  Once pan is hot, start cooking roll ups.  Put your roll ups in the pan with the flap end down.  Once it starts to cook, it'll stick together and not unravel.

The thin pork slices cook quickly but be sure to cook them thoroughly.  The glaze formed in the pan is the best part!

For those not on the Dukan Diet, these are great on a bed of hot Japanese rice!

Enjoy!

Dukan Buttermilk Chicken Tenderloins

Looks dry, but it was moist.  This was actually
what was leftover.

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID:
SHE SAID: It smelled so good while we were cooking it!

Decided to try another recipe from Dukanitout.com since everything we've tried from this site has been delicious.  Again, we altered the recipe just a tad to use what we had in the kitchen and what we could find in the market.  We fried these up in our stir fry non-stick wok because the Forman grill seems to make everything way too dry.  Also, we live in two separate households and the female half of this couple forgot to bring her grilling pan.

Still, it smelled so yummy while we cooked the chicken up.  We had this chicken with some green salad which was just right.

RECIPE
Serves 4-6 people
Prep Time: 10 mins, plus 4+ hours to marinate chicken
Cook Time: 10-20 minutes, depending on how large your pan or grill is

1 1/2 lb. chicken tenderloins, skinless
1 c. soy milk
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. dijon
1 T. honey
1 1/2 t. dried rosemary
1 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. fresh ground pepper

Make buttermilk by combining 1 cup soy milk with 1 T. lemon juice and let sit for 5 minutes.  Then add all other ingredients except chicken, mix well.  Rinse and pat dry chicken, place in a large baggie and pour marinade in the baggie.  Seal and place baggie in a foil pan (just in case) and refrigerate for 4+ hours, but no longer than over night.  Grill or pan fry chicken until done.

We haven't used any spray or oil in our non-stick stir fry pan and everything fries up nicely without sticking..plus, it's been easy to clean.

Enjoy!