Paleo Pesto Salmon Skewers

Pesto Salmon Skewers

We loved this recipe!

The other day we posted a recipe for Dairy Free Pesto which we used on these salmon skewers.  Hindsight, although the lemon slices on the skewers made the dish look pretty, the lemon over powered the pesto...but it still tasted great!  (the lemon was inspired by this photo -- we might try this recipe too!)

The asparagus was ok...but this bunch was so skinny it was difficult to put them on the skewers -- they kept splitting.

This made a nice, light dinner for us on a humid Sunday evening.

RECIPE:
Serves: 6 skewers
Prep time: not including making the pesto, approx 15 minutes
Cook time: we used a grill pan, so we could only grill 3 skewers at a time, approx 16 minutes

24 cubes of wild caught salmon (approx 1 1/2 lbs.)
3/4 c. Dairy Free Pesto
18 slices of lemon (optional)
veggies if you like (we would have used cherry tomatoes if the male half liked them)
6 bamboo skewers (soaked in water for an hour)

Marinate your salmon in the pesto (we left it in the bag for about 30 minutes) -- we used a large ziploc bag.  Thread salmon and lemon on the skewers.  Heat a grill pan over medium heat.  We lightly wiped our pan with olive oil then place the skewers on the grill pan.  Grill for approximately 3-4 minutes on each side, cook until done.  The salmon we picked up was from Costco and definitely isn't fresh, so we don't like to eat it underdone.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Cheddar Rosemary Bread

UPDATED 7/1/2013 - Thanks to reader Stephanie K. for pointing out we forgot to mention what to do with the eggs!  This recipe was originally posted back in 2011, but we've bumped it up since we amended the instructions.  

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: It's ok, I'm not a bread kind of guy.
SHE SAID: Pretty good for non-fat and no flour!

Cheddar Rosemary Bread

Once in a while we miss having sandwiches...especially our favorite, Chicken Philly from Island Subs.  For the most part, we haven't craved sandwiches or bread since starting Dukan, partly because the male half of this couple doesn't get excited over bread (only when he's hungry) and the female half is determined to drop two sizes!

Came across this Dukan bread recipe on mydukandiet.com and since the female half of this couple loves cheddar and rosemary and we wanted more oat bran options, we decided to try this recipe out using rosemary instead of dill.  It makes a small loaf, but we had these with over-easy eggs and it hit the spot.  The original recipe calls for 3 t. of fresh dill, but if you're using dried spices, use between 1/4 and 1 t. of your desired spice. The bread does come out slightly on the spongy part, but it's easy to get over that.

RECIPE
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 28-30 minutes, 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Serves 1-2

1.5 T. fat free cream cheese
1.5 T. non-fat Greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 egg white
1 t. baking powder
2 T. oat bran
1.5 T. wheat bran
3/4 t. dried rosemary (ok to use fresh herbs - use 2-3 t.)
couple dashes of salt and pepper
1/4 c. fat free cheddar cheese, grated

Soften cream cheese.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Mix yogurt and cream cheese (it won't mix well until you add the brans).  Mix in the 2 whole eggs, then the 1 egg white.  Add the brans, baking powder, salt, pepper and rosemary, stir well.  Stir in grated cheese.  Pour into a small loaf pan (not the mini loaf pans) lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 28-30 minutes, toothpick should come out clean when done.

Enjoy!

Slowly Getting Back Into the Swing Of Things

We hit the ground running after our business/vacation trip....tenants moved out...wow, people do not clean their living spaces anymore!  Gross!  We did takeout (mostly salads because we're trying to get back into eating lower fat and it's been pretty humid here) most of the time but last week I did get a chance to cook.

I haven't downloaded the photos of the food yet, but will try to get that done this weekend.  The dish I really liked from this past weekend - a lighter version of Moo Shu Chicken without the plum or hoisin sauce and made with turkey instead of chicken.  Even before we started Dukan, I already stopped using hoisin sauce on my Moo Shu Chicken.  

The only reason we used turkey is because we had some leftover turkey I wanted to use up.  It's a labor intensive dish if you clean your bean sprouts like we do...picking off all the browned ends.  It took me over half and hour just to prep the veggies.  While I cooked the dish, I vowed outloud to never make Moo Shu again because of the time spent in the kitchen but I really enjoyed the taste...so I may make it again...maybe without bean sprouts this time!

While on our trip, I did gain a couple pounds...I ate everything, no dieting.  Did a lot of walking and hiking...which may be why I only gained two pounds.  The male half didn't gain anything!  Arrgh.

In the last two weeks though, I've been eating more salads and pretty much have been eating like I'm in Cruise (but no PP days) and I've lost about 3 pounds.   We'll slowly but surely get back on track...we have to!

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 and Paleo Update

I will be on a business trip soon and have lots to prep for the trip.  Cooking in our household will be on hold until I return.

While we haven't committed 100% to Paleo, we are still following the Dukan Diet but still haven't been able to lose weight.  I'll probably need to go back to Attack when I return from my business trip to jump start the weight loss.  We're keeping away from carbs and still eating a very low fat diet.  In addition, we are back to exercising 5-6 times each week (cardio and muscle toning).  We've definitely gained a little bit of muscle, but argh!   Luckily though, no weight gain.  Whew!

Guess June will be a reboot for us!

We're still trying to find recipes that would fall under both the Dukan Diet and the Paleo Diet and have found several great tasting recipes.

Hope to be cooking again by mid June!

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!

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!

Paleo Crockpot Pork Chops, Bacon and Apples

Crockpot Pork Chops , Bacon and Apples

We enjoyed this recipe...can't say we loved it, but it was tasty and different for us.

We removed a lot of the fat from our pork chops -- of course, our pork chops turned out a little dry.  Well, I should say some came out dry and some came out almost dry.  No complaints from the male half of this couple though...he was happy to have something different.  We also cooked it quickly - 4 hours on high, but wish we had more time to slow cook it.   We found many recipes online for Crockpot Pork Chops, Bacon and Apples -- then came up with our own version.

Will definitely try other pork chop/bacon/apple recipes in the future.

We ate this while in Dukan Consolidation but if you feel it's too much fat for you, you can wait until your weight has stabilized.  This dish didn't effect our weight at all.  We had these pork chops with steamed broccoli.

RECIPE:
Serves 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low

4-5 small lean pork chops, some fat removed
4 strips bacon, cut into large chunks
2 apples, cut into 1" pieces (or around there)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, sliced
salt and pepper to season the pork chops
1/2 t. chili flakes

Place apples, garlic, onion, bacon and chili flakes into a lined crock pot.  Season pork chops with salt and pepper, place them in the pot.  Cover and cook for 4 hours on high or preferably 6-8 hours on low.

Enjoy!

Paleo Banana Bread

Grain-Free Banana Bread

We loved this recipe!

When we first looked into the Paleo diet, one of the first recipe blogs we came across was Civilized Caveman's blog.  What a find!  George has a great inspirational story and he comes up with some fabulous recipes!

I had been bugging the male half of this couple to incorporate more Paleo foods into his diet.  Weekday breakfasts are always a little tough for us...he only likes to eat certain things at work for breakfast.  I knew he loved bananas so I decided to try the Civilized Caveman's Paleo Banana Bread and wow, it is close to banana bread made with white flour!

If you're on the Dukan Diet, definitely try this once you get to Consolidation.  I'm still trying to lose weight, so I sampled half a slice and the male half enjoyed the rest of the loaf for his breakfast.  I offered to make Banana Bread French Toast for him...but he doesn't like to eat French Toast at work.  It has no added sweeteners!  I liked it as is, the male half of this couple drizzled organic honey on his.

NOTE: We made a second batch of this for the male half of this couple.  Don't skimp on the bananas...we were shy 1/2 c. or so of bananas and wow, it makes a difference.  The second batch is drier than the first.  It's not horrible, but not as fabulous as the first loaf.  We didn't have enough bananas and read a comment posted by another blogger on the Civilized Caveman's site that they used less bananas and it still came out great.  We wouldn't recommend it!

RECIPE:
Makes 1 loaf
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Bake Time: 30-40 minutes (check for doneness)

2 1/2 c. mashed ripe bananas (approx 3-4 bananas)
4 eggs
1/2 c. almond butter
4 T. grass-fed butter or coconut oil, melted
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. vanilla
pinch of pure sea salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a metal loaf pan.

Combine bananas, eggs, almond butter and grass-fed butter until smooth - we used a handheld mixer.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Ours cooked in 30 minutes (landlady installed a new range!).  Check for doneness with a toothpick.

Let cool, cut and serve.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Crockpot Enchilada Stew (it's Paleo too!)

Enchilada Stew

We loved this recipe!

This recipe came from a Paleo site, Paleomg.com.  She blogger is pretty funny and we've tried a couple of her recipes...very good!  We actually tried this recipe back while I was getting over an illness so we never worked on a post for it.  It was very tasty, but a little too spicy for us so we added an additional can of tomato sauce.

This made a LOT of food for the two of us.  Leftovers went into a frittata and the rest in the freezer. The male half of this couple enjoyed his stew with a couple slices of avocado.  We left out the coconut oil since we didn't have any, but the stew still came out great!

RECIPE:
Serves a lot (depends on how you eat it...I ate it as is, the male half had his with brown rice.)
Prep time: 10-30 minutes (we removed fat from our chicken)
Cook Time: 6-8 hours on low

Enchilada Stew

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (some fat removed, too much fat removed will result in a very dry chicken dish)
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
2 jalapenos, seeds removed, chopped
1 - 4oz can chopped green chiles
1 - 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 - 7 oz can tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. ground cumin
1 T. chili powder (use less if you prefer less heat)
2 t. dried oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
bunch of cilantro, for garnish, chopped
avocado, sliced (if you're not in Cruise)

Rinse and pat dry chicken.  Place chicken in a lined crock pot.  Add the rest of the ingredients on top the chicken in any order.  Cover and cook on low for approximately 6 hours.  Shred chicken before serving.

Enjoy...we sure did!

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

Crockpot Cilantro Lime Chicken

We have mixed feelings about this one...mostly because we didn't follow the recipe all the way and we're guessing that may be partly why it didn't come out to our liking.

This is a very flavorful marinade, but it was too lime-y for us.  It may be because we used 8 boneless chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken...but one of us doesn't like looking at or touching a whole chicken!  I'm hoping someone else will try it with the whole chicken because the recipe we found, the photo on the blog made the chicken look so yummy!   Here's the original recipe.

Here's what we did:

RECIPE:
Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes plus overnight marinading
Cook time: 6 hours on low

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, most of the fat removed

Dry Rub ingredients:
1 t. pure sea salt
1 t. black pepper
1 t. chili powder
1 t. cayenne powder
1 t. ground cumin

1/2 c. lime juice (about 4 limes for us...if we try this again, we've going to try 1/4 c. lime juice)
2 generous handfuls of fresh cilantro, chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 T. extra virgin olive oil (optional if you're on Dukan)

Rinse and pat dry your chicken.  Place in a large ziplock bag (we don't recommend using a crock pot


liner - ours leaked.  Apply the dry rub onto the chicken, make sure to put an even coating on the chicken.  In a food processor, combine lime juice, cilantro, garlic and olive oil.  Pour marinade over chicken.  Seal bag pressing out as much air as you can.

Marinade chicken overnight.  The next day, place chicken in crockpot along with any leftover marinade, cook on low for 6-8 hours.  We cooked ours for 6 hours.

Hope this turns out better for everyone else...maybe one day I'll get over my whole chicken fears!

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 :-)

Cauliflower Fried Rice (Dukan and Paleo)

Cauliflower Fried "Rice"

We loved this recipe!

Thank you Nomnompaleo.com for sharing your recipe!  We can't wait to try different variations of this fried "rice".  We may have mentioned before, but we are not big fans of cauliflower, don't really care for the taste.  In the past, we never made cauliflower at home, it's expensive here in Hawaii and it's usually a side dish at a restaurant, steamed with not much seasoning.  We've experimented with Cauliflower Pizzas and now enjoy cauliflower!  (We'll post the Cauliflower Pizza recipe soon).

We did change the recipe a tiny bit to accomodate either what we could find at the Farmer's Market and what we had in our fridge.

We made the Paleo version of this recipe but it's easy to change it to a Dukan recipe...many Paleo recipes are!  For Dukan Dieters, omit the bacon if you're worried about fat and use a lean meat or you can go meatless too.  Also use non-stick spray instead of the bacon fat.  Easy!

RECIPE:
Serves 4-6
Prep time: at least 20 minutes (we have a tiny food processor, the male half said we could buy a larger one if I start using ours on a regular basis :-))
Cook time: around 20-30 minutes (sorry I forgot how long it took us)

1 small head of cauliflower, washed and cut into florets
3 slices of uncured bacon, diced small
2 eggs, beaten
1 inch piece of ginger, grated fine
1/2 yellow onion, diced small (you can use a whole one)
4 oz. shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 green onions, chopped
2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
2 T. fresh basil, chopped
kosher salt and black pepper to taste
splash of vinegar
splash of Red Boat Fish Sauce (don't leave this out!)

Pulse cauliflower florets until they are the size of rice (we over pulsed ours).  Cook bacon in a pan over medium heat.  While the bacon is cooking, chop the rest of your ingredients.  Remove cooked bacon and some of the bacon fat (leave enough to cook the egg).  Beat eggs, add salt and pepper, then fry a thin omelet in the pan.  My mother used to chop the omelet up into small pieces when the egg was almost done cooking, so we did the same.  Remove egg from pan.

Turn the heat up to medium-high (add bacon grease or spray pan with non-stick spray) and add chopped onions with a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper.  When the onions are softened, add the mushrooms and stir fry until mushrooms are almost cooked through.  Add ginger, stir fry for 30 seconds.  Add cauliflower and some salt and pepper, stir.  Put a lid on your pan and lower your heat to low and let cook for about 5 minutes.  When the cauliflower is tender, add the egg and herbs.  Mix, add salt and pepper if needed.  Top off your fried "rice" with a splash of fish sauce and serve.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Blog Name Change and an Update

Hope everyone had a nice and Dukan successful weekend.

This morning we were fiddling with out blogger template, trying to change things up a bit and decided to rename our blog (the URL will remain the same for now).  Decided to simplify our blog name to "Dukan-ing in Hawaii".

Our recipes can be used in many different locations around the world but for the most part, we usually change recipes because we're using what's available in Hawaii and what's not going send us to the 'poor house'.  Every place has its perks and challenges when it comes to ingredient availability -- for Hawaii it's being a state that imports a lot of its goods and our humid weather.  Don't get us wrong, we rather run around in flip flops and shorts pretty much every weekend of the year versus dealing with snow and temperatures below zero!

So, the big hula competition is over....we enjoyed over 18 hours of live hula coverage!  It was a long hula day yesterday but we managed to bake a Paleo Banana Bread for the male half of this couple.  That recipe will be posted in a week or so.  Dukan'ers can enjoy this recipe during Consolidation and Stabilization...and it doesn't have any grains or add sweeteners!

This coming weekend will be a cooking weekend.....hope to have more recipes up throughout April.   We're keeping up our 30 minute cardio workouts almost daily.  We haven't done a Pure Protein day in forever -- will have to plan one this week.  Speaking of food, the weather has been unusually cold in Hawaii for this time of year (with the exception of yesterday).  We've been dipping down into the low sixties, upper 50's...which I know doesn't seem bad compared to other places, but it's just something we're not used to nor are we prepared with a lot of warm clothes.  I looked back to what we ate in February and March -- mostly Nabe (Japanese hot pots).  It was a way for us to eat healthy, simple and warm!

Dukan Avocado Tartare (it's Paleo too!)

Avocado Tartare

We loved this recipe!  Well, I loved it and the male half thought it was tasty even though it has raw onions in it.

We used a recipe we found on Foodland's website and tweaked it a bit (and at home we refer to it as "Avocado Salsa".  We used less oil, less lime juice and left out the fresh oregano since we didn't have any.   Even with less lime juice, it was still very tart and tangy...we'll probably use even less next time.    We actually used way too much cilantro...we didn't want to waste it...the recipe below shows the correct amount you may want to use.

For Dukan Dieters, you may want to wait until Consolidation and Stabilization to consume this due to the fat content of the avocado and the amount of olive oil used.

RECIPE:
Serves 4-6
Prep Time: approx 20 minutes

2 ripe, large avocados, pitted and diced (skin removed)
1 jalapeno or serrano chile (seeds removed), diced (we used a jalapeno)
1/3 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
1/3 c. red onion, chopped
1/8 c. fresh lime juice (approx 1 lime)
salt and pepper to taste
1 t. Tamari (wheat free, gluten free low sodium soy sauce)
1/2 - 1 T. olive oil

Mix all ingredients to together.  Add more salt and pepper if needed.  Chill for about an hour and serve.

This Avocado Tartare goes great with our Seared Ahi Tuna Recipe!  You can use it on tacos, quesadillas, served over a southwestern style steak, etc.

Enjoy...we sure did!