Taking Back Weeknights: Paleo Ramen Noodle Soup

Hi friends!

Last week, while I was fighting a summer cold, I made a killer Paleo Ramen Noodle Soup that was so quick and easy and packed with flavor and veggies and protein that I just had to share it. This recipe uses spiralized squash noodles instead of ramen noodles, and I promise you won’t miss the grains in the least. Also, there is lots of room for mixing and matching in this recipe, so take the base recipe below and make use of whatever you have on hand – it will turn out delicious, I promise!

Don’t you feel better just looking at it?

Paleo Ramen Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

Broth:

• 2 cups stock (any will do, I used chicken)
• 1 TBS Sesame Oil
• 1/3 cup Coconut Aminos
• 1/3 cup orange juice (I use this primarily as a sweetener; you could also use honey, molasses or brown sugar, depending on your dietary preferences, or leave it out entirely and see how that tastes)
• 1 TBS hot sauce (sriracha would be good here, but I just used my trusty Louisiana Hot Sauce)
• 1 TBS minced garlic
• 2 TBS minced ginger
• 1 TBS rice wine vinegar

Add Ins and Toppings:

• 1 thin pork chop (beef or shrimp could also work here!)
• 1 summer squash or zucchini, spiralized (or rice noodles or spaghetti squash noodles, depending on allergies and preferences)
• 1 or 2 eggs
• Snap Peas, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, shaved carrots, bell peppers
• Chopped Cashews or Peanuts, lime wedge, jalapenos, fresh cilantro or basil

Directions:

• Prepare your protein: In a medium sized wok sear your pork chop on all sides over high heat. Err on the side of underdone with your protein, because it will continue cooking in the broth. Remove the pork chop from the pan and allow to rest for a moment.
• Prepare your broth: Turn the heat down to medium and toss your garlic and ginger straight into the wok and allow to caramelize a bit. Then add in the broth, coconut aminos, sesame oil, hot sauce, vinegar and orange juice. Stir well and give the broth a taste. Adjust as needed to your preferences.
• Mix and Match Ingredients: This is my favorite part, friends, because it is basically a choose your own adventure story in a pot. First, thinly slice your pork and spiralize your squash. Then throw your protein, noodles, and whatever add ins you have on hand straight into the pot and let simmer until all ingredients are cooked through. I like to crack an egg straight into the broth and let it cook until it is soft-boiled . If that weirds you out, you could also fry an egg in a separate pan and add it on top or you could skip the egg all together, although that would be sad. So so so sad. You’ll want to be strategic with your cook times here – fresh, delicate, veggies should go in last (think snap peas, peppers, etc), but eggs and carrots will take longer. Your protein can also be a bit tricky because you don’t want it to get over done and become tough. I usually throw it in right at the end unless it is much less done than I prefer or is safe, in which case, I’ll put it in when I put the egg in. All told, you’ll probably need to let things simmer for 3 to 6 minutes.
• Add Toppings: As a bonus, you can top this with chopped peanuts or cashews, a lime wedge, fresh basil or cilantro, jalepeno slices, avocado slices or a fried egg. #nom

Sunday Food Prep: Blueberry, Lemon and Mint Tea

This week is going to be delicious!

This morning, while my brunch (parsnips, sweet potatoes and carrots roasted with bacon and topped with a fried egg and some avocado and hot sauce #sogood) roasted away in the oven, I tackled all of my weekly food prep. Today’s prep included hard-boiling eggs, chopping veggies for roasting (carrots, sweet-potatoes and butternut squash), cutting up an entire watermelon, making a big salad with lots of bell peppers, and making a pitcher of blueberry, lemon and mint tea (recipe below!)… For whatever reason, all of these tasks feel easy on Sunday mornings and so so daunting when I get home late from work on Tuesday nights. Anyone else know this struggle??

Food prep also involved organizing the fridge to make sure that healthy foods are in sight and easily accessible. Here is the end result:

Strategic Fridge Moves: When I open the fridge, I want to be visually triggered to eat healthy things, and there should be lots of healthy options that are easy to grab, so I put the food I need to eat in the most visible and accessible locations.

This week, I decided to make a batch of Blueberry, Lemon and Mint tea that will be great for taking on the road in the morning. This recipe takes 10 minutes or less to come together and will make your mornings 25% more joyful!

Blueberry, Lemon and Mint Tea

Ingredients:

• 8 cups of hot water (straight from the tap is fine) plus 1/2 a cup for the blueberry mixture
• 3 large cold brew iced tea bags (you can swap out hot brew bags, but just follow the directions on the package)
• 1 quart of blueberries
• 1/3 cup of lemon juice
• 6-8 large mint leaves, roughly chopped
• Ice
• Optional garnish: lemon wedges or more mint sprigs
• Optional sweetener: honey (personally, I find the berries sweet enough, but taste it and adjust to your preferences!)

Directions:

Follow directions to steep tea as usual (for me, this meant steeping three large tea bags in 8 cups of hot water for about 5 minutes, but may be different depending on your tea brand). While tea steeps, heat blueberries, lemon juice, mint leaves and 1/2 a cup of water over high heat in a medium sauce pan. Allow the mixture to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and either:

• Blend the mixture in a blender until very smooth, and then pour the whole thing straight into your tea. This option gives you the benefit of all the nutrients in the berries, but will make your tea a bit thicker.
• Use a mesh sieve to strain the juice from mixture (use a spoon to get as much juice as possible out), then pour the juice into your tea and discard the solids.

Stir your tea, taste it and add honey or another sweetener if desired. Serve over ice and garnish with sprigs of mint or a lemon wedge.

Breakfast of (Whole Food) Champions!

MC and I got together yesterday to make an awesome grain-free brunch, where MC made this life altering breakfast pizza and I made the Carrot Muffins from Practical Paleo. All that brunching got me thinking about the quick and delicious (and hearty and protein-packed!) breakfasts that I’ve been eating lately. In the Whole 30 world, one of the common pieces of advice that is given is to stop thinking of breakfast as breakfast, and dinner as dinner, or, in other words, you can eat chicken and leftover soup for breakfast and it is fine as long as your body is getting the nutrients it needs. That being said, I still really love breakfast foods (and bacon. Lord, do I love bacon.), so I thought I’d do a quick round up of breakfast hacks that save my day on the regular.

Roasted Veggies + Avocado + Egg + Hot Sauce = Oh. Em. Gee.

1. Roasted Veggies and Breakfast Sausage: This has been my go-to breakfast this week because it is so easy – a one-pan dish that basically cooks itself. I prep it first thing when I wake up, before I do any other parts of my morning ablutions (10 points to Gryffindor for word choice??), and then it does its magic while I’m in the shower.

• The Recipe: There isn’t really a fancy recipe here. Basically, I just roast sausage links and veggies drizzled in olive oil, garlic salt and cracked black pepper at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until those particular veggies are tender with crispy, caramelized edges. The magic of this recipe comes in its speed and versatility and how DELISH it always is when you are done.
• Notes On Veggies: I usually use frozen veggies (frozen broccoli, butternut squash, beets and brussels sprouts are all favorites), I also usually use part of a sweet potato, so I like to chop sweet potatoes in batches and keep them in a bag in the fridge or freezer to avoid sweet-potato-chopping-fatigue which is a real thing in my life. I also use baby carrots (usually sliced in half, to cut down on the cooking time, since carrots tend to take much longer than many veggies to get tender). On that note, the one thing that you have to be careful about is balancing the cooking times of different vegetables. You can do this by thinly slicing denser veggies like beets and carrots to about a 1/4 to an 1/8th of an inch thickness (a mandolin can help with this!). Sweet potatoes can be bigger – closer to 1/2 inch rounds. Broccoli, brussels sprouts and butternut squash should all be in as large pieces as possible so that they take a bit longer to cook. If you buy them pre-chopped and are worried that they are too small and are going to burn, you can substitute the sausage for bacon and lay the bacon over the more tender veggies to roast. The bacon will crisp up and will protect the veggies from burning as they cook.
• Notes on Sausage: I use Applegate frozen sausage links – they aren’t Whole 30 compliant because they have a little added sugar, but I love the flavor and I haven’t found an alternative in my area grocery stores. Read your labels!
• Add Ons: Top this with some Louisiana Hot Sauce, half an avocado and/or a fried egg if you are feeling fancy! Trust me, you’ll love your life if you do because the egg yolk and hot sauce will run all over everything to make a great sauce, but a bowl of veggies and sausage will be very delicious as is, too!
• Variations I’ve Made Recently:
  • Sausage, Sweet Potatoes, Baby Carrots and Broccoli with hot sauce (pretty standard for me)
  • Baby Carrots and Bacon with hot sauce (this is great for when you are running low on time or groceries because you can just dump some carrots on a pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, layer on some bacon and leave it, and I almost always have bacon and carrots in my fridge, even when I’m out of most other things.)
  • Butternut Squash, Cauliflower and Sausage (this one didn’t take long to cook at all because it had no dense veggies)
  • Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes and Bacon (#nom)
  • Beets, Sweet Potatoes and Sausage with hot sauce and an egg and avocado (Had a few extra minutes this day. So much deliciousness.)

2. Homemade Coconut Lattes: For me, one of the hardest things about doing the Whole 30 was giving up my daily McDonald’s McCafe vanilla latte (as I’ve said before, I know, I’m fancy.). Eventually, I acclimated to drinking black coffee (especially on the go, since there are no coffee shops in the Delta that sell coconut milk, and I’ve heard that Starbucks’ coconut milk isn’t Whole 30 compliant so that is out on the off chance I travel to a city with Starbucks), but for my morning coffee, I splurged and bought a very basic milk frother so that I could make my own coconut lattes at home – it takes 90 seconds and feels so luxurious compared to drinking my coffee straight.

• A note on what coconut milk to use: You’ll get different amounts of foam depending on what kind of milk you use. I use coconut milk from the can – usually Kroger brand full-fat coconut milk. I shake it before I open the can, use a little for my coffee, and keep the rest in a mason jar in my fridge for the rest of the week. I always have several cans of coconut milk in my cupboard, usually a couple of different brands because they all have different fat contents and therefore I use them for different things. For your latte, you want coconut milk that has actual cream in it – the stuff out of the carton usually won’t foam very much – but you don’t want a brand that has so much cream that it is completely solid (save those brands for making coconut whipped cream or frosting!).

3. Egg Cups: Growing up, my mom always made egg cups for special occasions. Her recipe uses bread, so it isn’t really an option on the Whole 30, but I’ve found many variations that are great. These make awesome breakfasts because they are so good right out of the oven, and they also keep well for the week.

• Recipe: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a muffin tin with olive oil or coconut oil. Line each muffin cup with ham slices, bacon, or prosciutto. Layer in veggies of your choosing: I like bell peppers and onions or asparagus and green onion. Crack a whole egg into each muffin cup and sprinkle each one with sea salt and black pepper. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the egg has set. Eat one as soon as you can get it into your mouth without burning yourself. Save some for the week to eat with fruit for breakfast, or as an afternoon snack.
• Variations: There are so many possible variations, depending on what vegetables you want to put in there. You can also skip the bacon all-together and try Avocado Eggs (shout out to my roommie for the suggestion!).

Go forth and breakfast well, my friends!

-MM

Sunday Meal Planning: Crock Pot Fajita Chicken

Marisa here!

It’s Sunday afternoon, which in my world means it is time to make sure my fridge is packed with easy to grab breakfasts and lunches for the week. I’m constantly on the look out for ways to make eating whole a whole lot easier, and I thought I’d share a few of my current favorite go-to meals.

Breakfasts:

If I am being honest, my weekday breakfasts often consist of hard boiled eggs (I make a bunch on Sundays, peel them using this life altering hack and keep them in a container in the fridge), hot sauce (we are Louisiana hot sauce fans in this house), and a bag of veggies (often carrots, but sometimes I feel fancy and throw in peppers instead). I live a glamorous life, I know.

You want the big bottle of this stuff. Promise.

This week, though, I decided to make Marissa’s breakfast casserole, made with spiralized sweet potato (or shredded sweet potato, if you are like me and have a wimpy spiralizer), breakfast sausage, onions, and eggs. This casserole is life changing, and it keeps really well in the fridge, making easy breakfasts all week. Full recipe coming soon!

I am also making a batch of chia pudding as a mid-morning snack, because chia pudding is delish and full of all sorts of healthy fats and anti-oxidants. Check out my Ode to Chia Pudding for recipes!

Lunches:

Lunches often consist of leftovers from the night before – I always try to make extra of whatever protein I am cooking each night. Right now, I have leftover lemon-garlic chicken just waiting for my Monday lunch box as an easy salad topping.

To avoid surviving solely on left-overs and hard boiled eggs, I always try to make at least one or two dishes each weekend that I can eat throughout the week. This week, I decided to break out my trusty old crock pot (I inherited mine from my mom when I moved to Mississippi – it is pretty ugly and is missing a handle but it works like a charm!) for fajita chicken, which I’ll use in wraps and on salads all week. This recipe could not be any easier or delicious, so I’m sharing it with you!

Frozen veggies aren’t cute but they are cheap and they cut down on prep work!

• 1 lb chicken breast, cubed
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 1 bag frozen peppers and onions (or just 2 cups of fresh chopped bell peppers)
• 1-3 c frozen kale or other veggies if you want to sneak extra veg. into your diet
• 1-2 c organic, sugar free chicken stock
• 1 tbs garlic salt (more or less to taste)
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1 tsp red pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1 tsp cumin (more or less to taste)

Brown the chicken and the onions in a frying pan (or skip this step, you’ll lose a bit of flavor, but you’ll save on time and dishes. #priorities).

At this stage, if you are like me, you’ll be tempted to just eat the chicken and the onions because they look so deliciously caramelized. Hold out, though, my friend, because greatness is coming your way.

Next, pile on all the veggies, add your spices, cover with a little bit of chicken stock, give it a stir and let everything cook away in the crock pot on high for a good 4 hours. You’ll know things are ready when the chicken shreds easily with a fork.

LOOKS. SO. GOOD.

When everything has become all wonderfully entangled, serve this mixture over salads, in lettuce wraps, or as a stew. You could also dip plantain or sweet potato chips in this if you are feeling fancy, or make some of Against All Grain’s grain-free wraps for a burrito. #nom

Whatever you make, top it with avocado, fresh cilantro, hot sauce or salsa, lime juice, and possibly some salt or pepper and enjoy!

An Ode to Chia Pudding

MM here! As I was preparing meals for the week, I was really missing my old breakfast standby of overnight oats, so I decided to make some chia pudding for breakfast tomorrow.

What are chia seeds?

Chia seeds are tiny edible seeds that come from a plant in the mint family that is traditionally grown in Mexico. Chia seeds have gained a lot of popularity in recent years because they are so full of Omega-3 fatty acids, protein, fiber and anti-oxidants (you can read more about chia seeds from the experts over at WebMD). Chia seeds are not something I eat everyday, but I definitely enjoy a great chia pudding with breakfast now and again!

In the Mississippi Delta (and other such places), where do you get chia seeds?

When I first started buying chia seeds, I really had to hunt to find them and when I did find them somewhere, I would stock up. I had the best luck in the exotic foods aisle of TJ Maxx, and barring that I would buy from Amazon or sneak off to Whole Foods when my work trips would bring me to a big city. In the past six months, though, our local Kroger has beefed up their natural foods aisle and has started carrying chia seeds, which is wonderful (though sometimes I still buy my chia seeds at the TJ Maxx just out of loyalty).

Why would I want to eat this?

If you are new to chia seed pudding, don’t freak out and stay with me! Chia pudding has a texture sort of like tapioca and takes on the flavor of whatever you put in it. I usually make mine with vanilla extract, coconut milk and mango, which is pretty magical. Eating chia pudding is a fairly similar experience to eating one of those vanilla pudding cups that used to come in your school lunches in elementary school, but with zero chemicals and all the healthy sources of energy.

So, how do you make this magical pudding?

There are lots of recipes out there for chia pudding and if you are like me, you might feel a little bit overwhelmed as you try to sift through them all to find one that will be simple, Whole 30 compliant and still delicious. After some reading and some experimenting, I have learned that all chia puddings follow the same basic formula:

2 cups of liquid + 1/4 cup of chia seeds + flavor + time = magic

You can double that recipe, or halve it, but you have to keep the 4 parts liquid to 1 parts chia seed ratio right or you end up with not magic. VERY not magic.

A note on time: All of these recipes require at least an hour in the fridge for the magic to happen. I like to make mine on Sunday evenings and then it is ready to rumble the next morning when I have a case of the Mondays and am in need of a pick me up.

My favorite combinations:

I pretty much always make the same base:

2 c. coconut milk + 1/4 c chia seeds + 1 tsp vanilla extract

And then I mix in whatever sounds most appealing the next day: frozen mango; banana; sliced apples and cinnamon; pecans; shredded coconut; almond butter; coconut manna. THERE ARE SO MANY CHOICES. You really can’t go wrong, as long as you get that ratio right!

Doesn’t that look delish??

In The Beginning

We are just finishing up our first Whole30, and after spending the past month eating only healthy, whole foods, we are converts to the grain-free, dairy-free, additive-free Paleo lifestyle. At the same time, as busy young professionals, living in rural Mississippi, living whole isn’t always easy. We are writing this blog in hopes of making whole living more accessible for others. We believe that whole living needs to be delicious. It needs to be affordable. It needs to be easy to understand and convenient and not intimidating or exclusive. Whole living is for all. 

Who We Are:

Two Maris(s)as: We started out as co-workers. We had the same name, the same job title, and the same zodiac sign (our birthdays are two days apart, is life not wonderful??). We later found out that we share a middle name (also with different spellings) as well as a love for yoga and dogs and cooking and rainy day naps and writing letters by hand. We also share a passion for equity and education and doing what we can to make this world more just and well and fair.

What’s the Whole30?

The Whole 30 is a thirty day program where you only eat healthy fruits, vegetables, meats, and nuts. You specifically avoid all grains, all dairy, all added sugars, all sulfites and other additives, and all processed foods. The purpose of doing this is twofold: 1) by eating foods that are easy to digest and that our bodies are designed to consume, you are able to heal your gut and cut down on inflammation in the body and 2) by eliminating foods your body may be sensitive to, you are able to pinpoint how your body reacts to different foods. After the 30 days, you may choose to experiment with dairy or natural sugars to see how your body reacts. For more information, visit the Whole30 site here to learn more about the program guidelines, check out the awesome resources and community, and read about all the benefits of eliminating grains and added sugars.

Two Maris(s)as’ Food Philosophy and Guidelines:

Now that we have finished our first Whole 30, we are both transitioning to a set of guidelines that is a bit more lenient than what is required under the Whole 30. Here is the deal:

Marissa: Growing up food was the central element of every gathering. I learned tricks and tips about preparing tasty staples at an early age and loved picking raspberries from my dad’s backyard garden to use for pies on my imaginary one-woman cooking show. In my early college days, I had a number of vegetarian friends, and it was the first time I was aware of how central meat was to the meals I grew up eating. I started cooking mostly plant-based meals from college on and loved being inventive with veggies. My digestive system has always struggled with dairy and some gluten and I’ve often wondered about food intolerance. When MM proposed the Whole 30 challenge, I was instantly interested. The last month was the first time in years I’ve consistently added meat in my diet and have been able to completely stay off dairy. I noticed changes in my energy levels, skin and more. I don’t believe there is a right diet or lifestyle for any one person. I believe we all must be aware of our bodies and find what is right for our own health. These are the guidelines I hope to follow as I maintain a healthy lifestyle but I know that food has and will always be a celebration of life, people and place so I’ll be leaving wiggle room for those little joys.

• Largely whole 30 approved foods = aiming for about 75 percent of my diet to be whole veggies, fruits, and nuts. I plan to include fish and small portions of meat 1-3 times throughout the week.
• As a lover of baked goods, I’ll be experimenting with grain-free treats as much as possible allowing for honey and maple syrup.
• I’m continuing to slowly add dairy into my diet with awareness of which dairy is okay for my body. I plan to minimize processed grains in my diet as much as possible.

Marisa: I am a huge skeptic of fad diets, so I was a little leery of the Whole 30 at first, and the paleo label makes me cringe, but it is hard to be skeptical of a diet that simply encourages you to eat tons of fresh fruit and vegetables and humanely raised, additive-free meat, right? That same natural tendency towards skepticism comes out in full force when I see Paleo recipes that call for complicated ingredients like fermented cod liver oil. I really believe you should know what you are eating, where it came from and how it was made, as much as possible. At the same time, I’m working really hard to beat my sugar addiction and to find ways to make eating Whole quick, easy and affordable. With that in mind, here are my guidelines for myself and for the recipes I’ll post:

• For the most part, I plan to continue eating Whole 30 approved foods.
• I am particularly focused on making sure that most of my meals consist of proteins, healthy fats and non-starchy vegetables, though honey or maple syrup for baking is fine.
• I believe that food should be a joyful experience, so I am leaving room for occasional treats that are off plan, like wine, great cheese, or a croissant. Like all things in life, they should be consumed in moderation, though.