Not only is this dish fast and easy but its DELICIOUS. Things that don’t normally go together.
Besides that, its delicious and SKINNY 🙂 Chock full of veggies and loads of protein from the shrimp.
Easy is a 3 ingredient sauce. Make as much or as little as you want. Make it as hot as you want. Make it as sweet as you want. I’ll give you the basic recipe and you can tweak it to your taste.
Just combine the sauce ingredients while your shrimp is sizzling up in the coconut oil and set aside.
After you’ve cooked up your shrimp in the coconut oil, add another tablespoon of oil and fry up those veggies for a few minutes, just to soften a bit. Combine cooked shrimp and veggies with the sauce and top some riced cauliflower.
I used to buy my cauliflower rice from Trader Joe’s but now it’s becoming way more mainstream and my local grocery store carries it. You make so many things with it so if you have any left over, maybe make some Cauliflower Cheese Sticks or Cauliflower Pizza Crust (Gluten Free). I bought mine at Costco recently.
But you could use regular rice if you wanted, that’s up to you. Either way, you will LOVE this dish.
2 Tablespoons arrowroot starch (can substitute with flour or corn starch)
¼ cup coconut oil for frying
Instructions
SAUCE:
Combine the 3 sauce ingredients, set aside.
SHRIMP:
Once your shrimp has be de-thawed (I de-thaw mine by just soaking in a bowl of water for a few minutes, then drain off water), combine with arrowroot starch so that shrimp is coated lightly.
Heat your coconut oil in a cast iron or large frying pan over medium high heat. Add shrimp once oil is very hot.
Cook shrimp for 2 minutes each side. I just set my microwave timer because shrimp can be rubbery if over-cooked.
Remove shrimp and place on a paper towel lined plate to drain off excess oil.
Add broccoli and carrots to the same pan. Stir frequently and cook until slightly softer. Add a tablespoon of coconut oil if necessary.
Combine the shrimp and cooked veggies with the sauce coating everything.
Marsala wine is walking a fine line by calling it paleo but then I’ve been known to have 18 items in the “15-item only” line so I’ll be a rebel with this one. But by all means, if you find a suitable paleo substitute for marsala wine, knock your socks off. That being said, this recipe is paleo(ish), dairy free and gluten free so that’s pretty good I’d say.
First of all, I want to give mad props to http://www.grandbaby-cakes.com/2015/03/skinny-chicken-marsala/ for providing the basis for this recipe. I changed up a couple of things like using arrowroot starch (paleo and gluten free) and using bone broth instead of chicken stock because I wanted to amp up the nutritional stats.
First, split each chicken breasts in half (you’ll have 4 pieces total) and place them between plastic wrap or in a big plastic bag and hammer away. Pound those babies till they are about a 1/4″ thick. Normally I would use a meat mallet but I don’t have one so I improvised.
Season generously with sea salt and pepper then dredge in the arrowroot starch. You can use regular or gluten free flour if you aren’t concerned with being paleo. Tap off the access and repeat until all 4 pieces are dredged.
Heat a large non-stick pan over medium-high heat a 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and a 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter. When good and hot, place chicken in pan. Leave chicken untouched for around 3 – 4 minutes to brown. Once browned, turn over and repeat on the other side. Set aside.
I cooked my chicken 2 pieces at a time so they wouldn’t be too crowded in the pan. If you have a really big pan, you can cook them all at once.
While your chicken is cooking, chop your shallots and slice mushrooms. I used my new portable food processor for the shallots and bought pre-sliced shitake mushrooms so the only thing I really had to chop were the button mushrooms.
Once chicken is done, place on a plate and set aside. Add another 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and another 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Add shallots and garlic to the pan. Saute for a couple of minutes until shallots are soft.
Add mushrooms next and sprinkle with a 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt. Saute for about 4 – 5 minutes until mushrooms are browning and soft, not mushy though. Add the remaining tablespoon of arrowroot starch and stir for about a minute to thicken up the sauce.
Add marsala wine and cook it down for a minute, scraping any burnt bits off of the bottom of the pan. Add your bone broth and continue cooking until it thickens up a bit. About 2 or 3 minutes.
Return chicken to the pan and nestle the breasts in the mushrooms sauce, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 3 minutes, flip breasts over and cook for another 3 minutes.
You can eat it ‘as-is’ or top some organic brown rice, quinoa, farro or zucchini ‘zoodles’.
Hubby’s review: He gave me the thumbs up and said “good chit babe”. Pretty legit review <3 Enjoy.
***I ALWAYS RECOMMEND USING ORGANICS WHENEVER POSSIBLE***
2 large chicken breasts
8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced
½ cup shallots, diced
½ cup chicken bone broth (can substitute with regular chicken broth)
½ cup + 1 Tablespoon arrowroot starch, separated
⅓ cup marsala wine
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1½ teaspoon minced garlic
¼ teaspoon sea salt
pepper
Instructions
Butterfly each chicken breast in half making a total of 4 pieces.
Place pieces between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and pound to about ¼ inch thick.
Salt/pepper each piece generously.
Dredge each piece in arrowroot starch and shake off access.
Heat ½ tablespoon of olive oil and unsalted butter in a large non-stick pan on medium/high.
Place chicken in pan and leave untouched for about 3 - 4 minutes until browned. Turn over and repeat on the other side, set aside.
Heat other ½ tablespoon of olive oil and unsalted butter.
Saute garlic and shallots until shallots are softened. About 2 minutes.
Add mushrooms next and sprinkle with a ¼ teaspoon of sea salt. Saute for about 4 - 5 minutes until mushrooms are browning and soft, not mushy though. Add the remaining tablespoon of arrowroot starch and stir for about a minute to thicken up the sauce.
Add marsala wine and cook off for a minute, scraping the burnt bits from the bottom of the pan if any.
Add bone broth and cook for 3 - 4 minutes.
Return chicken to the pan and nestle the breasts in the mushrooms sauce, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 3 minutes, flip breasts over and cook for another 3 minutes.
Serve over brown rice, quinoa, farro or zucchini noodles or eat 'as-is'.
A friend of mine posted this recipeand I immediately knew I was going to make it in the very near future. Well, today was that day. I was craving something sweet but healthy. This totally did it for me. I just changed a couple of ingredients but I’m sure the original recipe is just as fantastic.
This sweet filling treat is also dairy free, gluten free, paleo, vegan and has loads of protein. Hullo!! Next variation will be made with cocoa powder so it resembles coco wheats!! Add some strawberries to that and whoa nelly, you’ve got a chocolate covered strawberry superstar!! Sorry, I’m usually one recipe ahead of myself. Back to this delicious recipe….
Lets run down the ingredient line up here and you’ll see why I’m so jacked up about this treat.
The 1/2 cup of pumpkin has 3.5 grams of fiber and 1.5 grams of protein
The quinoa has 6 grams of fiber and 12 grams of protein. 12!!
The 2 tablespoons of flax seed has almost 6 grams of fiber and almost 4 grams of protein
Getting excited yet? That’s not even the best part. It’s DUH-LICIOUS!
Plus it’s super easy. You are heating stuff up and stirring it. So exercise your stirring hand and make this deliciously filling healthy treat!
Easy Thai Coconut Curry Scallops with Jasmine Rice
A friend recently went to Vegas and was talking up a coconut curry scallop dish they had at the Bellagio. Well then all I could think about was coconut curry scallops so I needed to try out a recipe and see how things went.
I found this recipe on line that had ingredients I could tweak to make it paleo and gluten free. It was unbelievably easy to do. Just a couple of small tweaks is all you need sometimes. Which goes to show that very few recipes can be off limits to you if you just know what to substitute. The taste is the same, just better ingredients,
To make this recipe really easy as far as steps go, I chopped everything I needed first. This took about 10 minutes. It went fast. I put all the ingredients in their own little piles so I’d be ready for them in a snap. This dish cooked up in a little over 30 minutes and you’ll look like a kitchen ninja 🙂
Next I made the sauce. All I did was put in all the ingredients called for. No fancy schmancy crap, easy like weezy. While the sauce is simmering, salt and pepper the scallops.
After sauce has been cookin’, add your thawed scallops. Cook scallops about 3 minutes on each side. To test doneness, cut one open and make sure it’s white, not opaque. You don’t want to overcook the scallops though, they can get rubbery.
I made some jasmine rice to go with the scallops so if you do that, start it as soon as you start chopping the ingredients because the rice takes about 35 minutes. You could also use brown rice or quinoa, whatever floats your boat.
Look at you cookin’ delicious healthy thai food. You friggin’ rock!
2 Tablespoons minced or grated peeled fresh ginger
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
4 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce (I used sriracha)
1 can full fat coconut milk
pinch salt and pepper
Optional: ¼ cup chopped peanuts
Instructions
Chop all your veggies and herbs first.
Finely grate zest from one of your limes. Using the remainder of the lime, squeeze 2 Tablespoons. Cut second lime into wedges for garnish.
Heat coconut oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chopped shallots, carrots and minced ginger; saute until shallots are tender and carrots soften, about 5 minutes.
Stir in curry paste, sriracha, coconut milk, fish sauce, lime peel zest and 2 Tablespoons lime juice. Simmer gently, stirring often for about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle scallops with a pinch of salt and pepper on both sides. Add scallops to curry sauce.
Return heat to a gentle simmer and cook just until scallops are opaque in center, 5 to 6 minutes.
Gently stir in cilantro and basil.
Serve over your favorite rice. I used jasmine but you could use brown rice or even quinoa.
Easy Greek Lemon Chicken with Olives and Artichoke Hearts
When I say this recipe is easy, I really really mean it. Not only is it easy but its paleo, gluten free and low carb. Not to mention, delicious.
I found this recipe at Beauty and the Foodie, a great food blog that I found recently. Check it out if you get a chance. I made a couple of changes to their recipe like using boneless chicken breasts and kalamata olives for example.
Start to finish, this delicious Greek chicken bake took less than an hour. And it really could not have been easier. Serve topped with some crumbled feta if that’s your thang or some lemon slices for some extra zing. Yum-may!
Easy Greek Lemon Chicken with Olives and Artichoke Hearts - Paleo, Gluten Free, Low Carb
1 - 10 ounce package grape or cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced in half
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, canned
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon dried thyme
2½ teaspoons minced garlic
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
*Optional: crumbled feta cheese for topping
*Optional: lemon slices for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cut chicken breasts into large pieces. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt and pepper and place in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, lemon juice, salt, pepper, thyme, garlic and olive oil. Stir gently until everything is thoroughly mixed.
Pour mixture over chicken evenly.
Bake for 35 - 40 minutes. Check at 35 minutes. Slice the largest piece of chicken to see if it is cooked thoroughly. If not, put back in oven for another 5 minutes and check again.
Using a slotted spoon, serve and spoon a little of the lemon juices over the top.