WCCF Recipes

Cabbage and Chicken Stir Fry by Ashley

I love making stir fry, it's a great way to eat a lot of vegetables and it always holds up well for leftovers. This combination of ingredients works really well together, the almonds and sesame seeds add a nice crunch to the vegetables and chicken and it's just good. Hope you all enjoy.

1lb of chicken thighs cut into bite size pieces

1 small carton of mushrooms cut in half

2 cups of chopped fresh or frozen broccoli

3 green onions chopped

3 inch piece of ginger, skin removed and diced

3 cloves of garlic diced

1/2 a head of purple cabbage, core removed and thinly sliced

2 stalks of celery chopped

1/2 a cup of sliced or slivered almonds - raw and unsalted

3 tablespoons of sesame seeds

3 tablespoons of coconut oil or sesame oil

Handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

In a large pan, turn the heat up to a medium high and add in two tablespoons of fat. When I made this I used 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and one tablespoon of sesame oil, but use what you have. Add in the chicken and cook for three minutes, add in the mushrooms and broccoli and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes. Add in the cabbage, celery, garlic, ginger and green onions and last tablespoon of fat and mix everything together. Cook for 4 minutes, add in the almonds and sesame seeds. Before you serve, top the stir fry with a healthy amount of cilantro and enjoy.

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Cauliflower Pizza

Cauliflower Pizza by Ashley

Happy New Year everyone. It's a new year and I know a lot of you are eager to start it out by eating better and by starting to cook for yourself, it's the first step in the right direction. This year, I'm going to try very hard to step up the amount of healthy recipes posted on our WCCF site and wanted to start the new year with one that I have been making for a few months now that is simple and really tasty. It's a play on pizza using cauliflower as the crust. Though, I'll be honest, the crust is not as crispy as the thin crust we have all sampled through out our lifetimes, but it's really good and I highly recommend playing around with the timing of how long the crust is cooked to come out to your liking. As well, you can do any combination of toppings and change it up a bit. I've also made the crust and kept it as a bread supplement and added in some salami and mustard and rolled it up as a faux sandwich and it's great. Hope you all enjoy.

1 cauliflower head riced

1 egg, beat

1 tablespoon of sea salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

2 garlic cloves grated

Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. To bake the crust, you want to use a baking sheet, flip it over and add a piece of parchment paper on the flat side.

To rice the cauliflower head, cut in the cauliflower in half and remove the core. You can actually do this two different ways, by either using a food processor or a cheese grater. Cut up the cauliflower into even pieces and either add them into the processor and run it, but watch closely as you do not want the cauliflower to turn into mush, or start grating using a cheese grater.

Take 1 cup of the riced cauliflower and add it into a big bowl and add the egg, salt, pepper, garlic and mix with a spoon. Dump the cauliflower onto the baking sheet lined with parchment paper and press evenly using your hands. You want this to be as thin as possible to get the best results. Sprinkle the top of the crust with olive oil and then place in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or to your liking, and remove from oven. Take a spatula and run it under the crust to unstick it from the parchment paper. Now it's topping time! Whatever you decide to add on top of the crust, make sure it's fully cooked so it doesn't water log the crust. I decided to use a little tomato paste broken down with a touch of water, some meatballs and some jalepeno pepper slices. Once you have the toppings on, pop the crust back into the oven for an additional 3-5 minutes.

Some other good ideas for toppings:

Capicola and artichokes

For spring/summer - Fresh tomato, basil and garlic

Pepperoni and Tomato

Sausage, Mushrooms and Green Peppers

Sausage and sunny side up egg

Hope you all enjoy!

**Note - You will have about 3-4 cups of riced cauliflower after ricing the entire head. Put this in a container and it will keep for up to one week, which means, more pizza!

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Pot Roast

Pot Roast by Ashley

Pot Roast, hands down is my favorite meal. The warm sauce that accompanies the meat and vegetable is so good that I can drink it plain. It's so filling and so good, especially during these up coming cold months, there is nothing more perfect to eat on a Sunday night. The following recipe is really easy and cheap, just takes a little bit of time but is worth every minute. Hope you all enjoy.

3 lbs of chuck roast

1 large white onion cut into large pieces

2 garlic cloves crushed

1/4 cup red wine

2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce

Beef or veal stock - 3 cups

2 bay leaves

3 carrots, peeled and chopped into big pieces

1 small container of mushrooms

1 small bundle of fresh thyme

1 tablespoon of sea salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

2 tablespoons of fat

Preheat oven to 350

Dry off the chuck roast with paper towel and season with salt and pepper on all sides. Let the cut of meat come to room temperature prior to cooking. Heat a large dutch oven to medium/high heat and add in fat of choice. Place the chuck roast on one side into the pan, let sear for three minutes, flip and cook for another three minutes, remove the meat and place on a plate. Drop heat to medium, add in onion and garlic and stir everything to cover evenly in the beef fat. Let cook for 5 minutes. Add the chuck roast on top of the onions. Combine the wine, worcestershire and stock in a small bowl and mix everything together, pour on top of the chuck roast. Add in bay leave and thyme and add enough water so the meat is covered up 3/4 of the way. Add to oven and let cook for 90 minutes. Add in cut up carrots and mushrooms after 90 minutes, mix sauce and cook for 120 minutes. At this time, remove the pot from the oven and taste the sauce. If it needs more salt, then add for your taste but be careful to not add too much. Take two forks and shred the meat. It should come apart effortlessly. If there is some force needed, then add the pot back to the oven for another 20 minutes and check again.

Serve over some mashed cauliflower or mashed winter vegetables. Great for leftovers and will taste better each day it sits.

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Best Roasted Nuts Ever

The Best Roasted Nuts Ever by Ashley

Since we should all be reading labels of the food we consume, you probably have noticed that roasted nuts that you pick up from the local grocery store whether it's Trader Jos's, Jewel or even Whole Foods, are all roasted with either canola oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil which is not good for our bodies. These oils omega 3:6 ratio is way off which will effect your health eventually. Don't take my word for it, do some research and see what is out there. Many are just loaded with sugar and extra sodium, which is not what we want to add to our bodies in large quantities. Roasting your own raw nuts can actually be a lot of fun. There are so many flavor combinations that are out there to try and you can control what you choose to put into your own mix. The following recipe is one I just sort of threw together and it tastes really good. The lime zest gives it an extra zing that you will not find in pre-purchased roasted nuts. Give it a try, it's relatively easy, pretty much the same price as buying pre-roasted and flavored nuts and will be a great snack.

1 bag (16 oz) of raw nuts - Trader Joe's sells a bag called Fancy Raw Mixed Nuts that is on sale for 6.99
1 large tablespoon of coconut oil
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 a teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1/2 a teaspoon of chili powder
The zest of one lime

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spread the raw nuts on a baking sheet and once the oven is heated, place the nuts in. After 10 minutes, shake the pan and flip the nuts over, cook for another 5 minutes. Remove nuts and place into a big bowl. Add in the coconut oil and stir until the nuts are evenly coated. Add in all the spices, mix, then add in the lime zest and mix. Pour the coated nuts back on the baking sheet and let sit out until cool. I usually package these in a tupperware container or a zip lock bag, either work great once the nuts are cool. Enjoy.

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Paleo Pumpkin, Sausage and Sage Soup

Paleo Pumpkin, Sausage and Sage Soup by Ashley

A lot of what I make lately is based on the local CSA I belong to and what vegetables I get for the week. This past week I was given a pumpkin and I was excited to try my own version of a pumpkin soup with sausage. I've seen this recipe made by several different restaurants and chefs and it's usually the same ingredients but it's always really good. You don't even need to buy a pumpkin, you can use canned pumpkin instead and it will be just as good. Hope you all give it a try and enjoy.

4 mild italian pork sausage links, raw

2 spicy italian pork sausage links, raw

1/2 a yellow onion chopped

4 fresh sage leaves chopped

1 15 oz can of pumpkin, make sure you do not buy pumpkin pie filling but 100% real pumpkin in a can or you can use two small pie pumpkins, skin removed, cleaned and seeds removed, chopped into small pieces

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

1 tablespoon of sea salt

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of chili powder

1 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

4 cups of organic chicken broth, check ingredients make sure it's low in sodium

1 cup of water

Heat a large pot or dutch oven on medium heat. Remove the casings from the sausages by cutting a slit in each sausage and squeezing the pork out and add to the hot pot. Stir the meat around until it's fully cooked, about 7 minutes, then remove all of the sausage and place to the side. Add the onion and sage leaves and stir all the ingredients together in the pork fat and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add in the canned pumpkin or chopped up fresh pumpkin, all of the spices, sea salt and coconut oil and mix everything together and lower the heat to medium low. Cook everything for 12 minutes or until you can easily insert a fork into one of the pieces of pumpkin. If you are using fresh pumpkin, at this point you want to add all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend everything until smooth, then add back into the pot. Then add in the chicken broth and water and take a whisk and make sure everything is blended well. Bring everything to a boil and then lower to the lowest setting on your stove. Add the sausage back in and cook for another 20 minutes, then serve.

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Pork Shoulder Sunday Stew

Pork Shoulder Sunday Stew by Ashley

I love the pork shoulder, it's relatively cheap and super easy to make. For me, the greatest thing about this recipe is that it will last me several days and I can easily take this for lunch during the week. You can also either make this in a slow cooker or in the oven, but either way this will come out pretty close to amazing. You can literally put anything in this stew that you enjoy and can put as much of what you like as well, there is no real recipe for this, so feel free to modify as you would like. Some ideas of things you can add are peppers, thyme, root vegetables, you really cannot mess this up. Also, pork is also great braised in alcohol, so experiment with the final addition and if you do not drink, then use water as the pork will let out enough of its natural juices that shouldn't be covered up by chicken stock.

1 2-3 pork shoulder or pork butt with bone (the bone will add more flavor and is actually a cheaper cut of meat then without)
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 teaspoons of sea salt
Several cranks of fresh cracked pepper
2 large tablespoon of bacon fat, coconut oil, grassfed butter, etc.
1 large onion peeled and quartered
4 garlic cloves peeled but kept in whole
3 carrots peeled and cut into thirds
2 slices of celery with leaves cut into thirds
5 tomatoes chopped
1 12 oz beer or white wine or water if you prefer

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

Combine the paprika, cumin, salt and pepper in a small bowl and massage it into the pork shoulder on all sides. Set aside and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes is over, heat up a large pot or dutch oven to medium high heat, add in your fat of choice and let melt a few seconds, then sear each side of the pork shoulder for 3 minutes to form a nice crust then remove the pork from the pot. To this same pot, add in everything except the beer and toss the vegetables in the fat and then add in the beer. At this point, start scraping up anything from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to get all those good tasty bits incorporated in your dish. Bring everything to a simmer and then add back the pork shoulder. Cover the pot and add it into the oven for two hours. After two hours, remove the cover and see if you can easily pull the pork from the bone with two forks. If you are able to shred the meat, then remove from the oven at this point and start shredding all of the pork. If not, then add the pork back to the oven and check on the pork every 20 minutes until you can easily shred the meat with two forks. You will more then likely have a large piece of fat that will come off the pork shoulder, remove this from the pot with the bones and serve everything else.

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Coconut Shrimp - Paleo-Style

Coconut Shrimp paleo style by Ashley

It's business time when we're talking about shrimp. I was recently reminiscing about spending my summers at the beach as a kid and one of my all time favorite restaurants, which is located between the mosquito lagoon and the atlantic ocean, has the best coconut shrimp I have ever had. Every time I go back home to Florida I always try to make a trip back here as the coconut shrimp is as good as ever. With that said, my brother and I decided to make these but make them paleo because really it's just switching a few ingredients and it's pretty easy and tastes amazing. Hope you all give these a try soon while summer is still here.

24 10-15 u count shrimp, peeled, deveined and cleaned with the tails still on

1 cup of coconut flour or almond flour

1/2 cup of ground macadamia nuts

1 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut

4 egg whites beat

1 15 oz jar of virgin coconut oil

The messiest part of this is peeling and deveining the shrimp. You can ask the fish monger to do this but honestly it could be up to $5 more a pound, so do it yourself. The best way is to turn the sink on cold water and peel the shrimp underneath the water. The take a small knife and cut it down, not all the way through the shrimp, the shrimps body to the tail to butterfly each shrimp, place to the side. This could take up to 30 minutes to do, so just be prepared.

Place the coconut flour and macadamia nuts on a plate and season with salt, then place the shredded coconut on a separate plate. Beat the egg whites with a fork until they start to get a little foamy and place the bowl in between the two plates with the flour and coconut. Before you start breading the shrimp, place a cast iron skillet or pot on medium high heat and add in all of the coconut oil. You want to heat the oil to 350 degrees prior to cooking the shrimp which will take 10-12 minutes to heat up. As the oil is heating, start by drying off the shrimp with paper towel so the breading sticks easier. Take the first shrimp and place it in the flour mixture and then dust off any remainder, and move to the egg mixture, then dip in the shredded coconut and place to the side. I highly recommend breading all of the shrimp before you start frying to keep things organized and clean. After all the shrimp are breaded, you will want to fry 5-6 at the most, don't over crowd the pan. These will fry really fast, you are looking for the shrimp to curl up and the tail to become pink. I fried each shrimp for one minute, then flipped them and fried them a second minute, so it's quick. Once the shrimp are finished frying, place on a some paper towel so the excess oil can be absorbed and enjoy.

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Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup by Ashley

I have been really sick this past week, we're talking stomach flu for days, fever and chills and I haven't eaten in two days and am just starting to build my hunger again and of course what goes hand in hand with being sick, chicken soup. I was really craving it but didn't feel like eating all the sodium and crap that comes in a can, so I figured since I was home, I might as well make some from scratch. This is a really good recipe, very simple and tastes as good as grandma's if not better. It does take some time, so make this on a Sunday or day you'll have at least 5 hours to dedicate at home, but it's worth it.

Ingredients:

1 roasting chicken (4-5 lbs)

1 big white onion, peel on and cut into quarters

2 carrots, halved

2 stalks of celery with leaves, halved

1/2 a head of garlic, with peel and everything

1 tablespoon of sea salt

1 teaspoon of whole black peppercorns

5 thyme sprigs

5 dill sprigs

7 parsley sprigs

4 carrots, cut into disks

2 stalks of celery cut

1 big zucchini quartered and cut into bite size pieces

handful of fresh parsley chopped

smaller handful of fresh dill chopped

Remove the chicken from the plastic it came in and rinse under cold water, then place into the largest stock pan you have, I used my 6 qt stock pot and that worked perfectly. Add in the onion, halved carrots and celery, garlic, sea salt, peppercorns and all the herbs and cover everything with fresh water up until the top of the vessel you are cooking in. Turn up the heat to high and when a boil hits, drop the heat to medium low and simmer for 45 minutes. At this point, you will remove the whole chicken and place it on a cutting board. We are going to cut off the breasts of the chicken and put them to the side and then place the remainder of the chicken back in the cooking vessel and fill it up with water again as some has evaporated from cooking.

How to remove the breasts of a chicken:

Step 1: There is a piece of cartilage that runs in between the breasts of a chicken, place a very sharp knife a little off center and cut straight down until you hit bone.

Step 2: Turn the knife to 5 pm and cut down on the angle

Step 3: Cut down between the leg and the breast and cut back into the previous slice you made to remove the entire breast. Repeat on other side.

Once the chicken body is back into the broth, give it a taste and really at this point you can tell how amazing this will be. We are going to keep simmering the broth for another 3 hours. During this time, if you notice some evaporation taking place, add in some water to bring the level back to the top. After three hours is up, you will try to remove the entire chicken, but it will easily come apart. Remove as much as you can before we start to drain everything. Set aside a big bowl and place a strainer on top and strain everything into the bowl. Return the broth back into your big pot and add in all the chopped carrots, celery, zucchini and fresh herbs and turn the heat on medium. While the veggies are cooking, go through all of the chicken remains and shred the meat and add it back into the broth. Do not add in the skin or bones. Also shred the chicken breasts by hand and add that meat back in as well. Cook the soup for an additional 30 minutes and serve.

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Frozen Banana with Dark Chocolate and Almond Butter

Frozen Banana with Dark Chocolate and Almond Butter - by Ashley

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a full blown addiction to sugar. I’ve tried so many times to stop eating it and nothing has been successful. This summer I started to make healthier sweet alternatives that I can go to when that craving strikes and I created this recipe which has been working out quite well for myself. The best part is that once they are finished, I just store them in a plastic container in the freezer and one piece really does it for me. Now I try not to eat these every day, but again it's something nice to have as an alternative to Reese's PB cups or gummy worms. Hope you all give them a try and enjoy.

2 bananas peeled and cut into bite size chunks
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
2 big tablespoons of almond butter, sun butter or any nut butter you desire
Pinch of sea salt
Unsweetened coconut

Combine the chocolate chips, almond butter and big pinch of sea salt in a microwaveable bowl and heat on high for 30 seconds and mix. You will probably have to do this several times to get everything melted together, but you do not want to heat the chocolate longer then 30 seconds at one time or the chocolate will burn. Trust me, don’t get lazy.

Line a plate with either parchment or wax paper.

Dip the banana pieces into the bowl that now holds the melted chocolate and almond butter, then place on the wax paper and sprinkle with unsweetened coconut if you desire. Once all the pieces are dipped in chocolate, place the plate in the freezer for at least an hour and a half then enjoy.

Again, you can store these in a plastic container and keep in the freezer if you don't eat them all at one setting.

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Cauliflower Fried "Rice" with Bacon

Cauliflower Fried "Rice" with Bacon by Ashley

This recipe might not be earth shattering, it’s all over the paleo web but I had to post it because it is really that good and a great substitute to the usual fried rice. As I type this, I am eating some for breakfast, that is how much I love it and I brought some into work and told people it was fried rice and tricked a handful of people which I love doing. My philosophy on posting these recipes is trying to use the most natural ingredients as possible and I try to stay away from bottle sauces or flavors, but I had to breakdown on this one and purchase Coconut Aminos in place of soy. If you have not heard of coconut aminos, then do a little googling and see how amazing this stuff actually is. It’s gluten free, dairy free, low glycemic, vegan, etc etc etc and I’ll say it is pretty fantastic if you like tamari. Okay, down to the recipe, it took a little while to prep and get everything together as there are four separate cooking steps, but again well worth it and it’s pretty cheap to throw together and a nice way to get in a lot of vegetables. You can put any vegetable you like or have at home in this, I just used what I had in my kitchen.

Ingredients:

1 small head of cauliflower, stems and core removed and cut in small equal pieces
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
2 eggs used to make a small omelet
3 slices of nice thick bacon
1 carrot cut into thin discs
½ a white onion chopped
Big handful of button mushrooms cleaned and chopped
½ a cup of frozen peas
2 garlic cloves chopped
2 inches of ginger peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons of Coconut Aminos
1 tablespoon of sea salt
3 green onions, bottom white part and an inch of the green sliced

Because there are so many steps, I’m going to write this up a little different, think of the song Step by Step by the NKOTB while reading and don’t pretend you don’t have that song flagged as a favorite on your ipod. Corey Dyer, I'm looking at you.

Step 1: Heat a small pan on medium and add in a tablespoon of coconut oil and swirl around the pan. Scramble the two eggs in a separate bowl and then add into the hot pan and make sure the entire bottom is covered with egg. Let cook for a minute, then loosen the bottom of the omelet and flip it over. Its okay if this doesn’t happen as effortlessly as a professional as it’s going to be mixed into the cauliflower. Let the egg cook for another minute on the other side, then remove the egg to a plate and place to the side.

Step 2: You want to steam the cauliflower at this point. If you have a steamer, then use it and if not, then pour about an inch of water into a medium pot and bring to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat and add in the cauliflower and cover and let sit for 6 minutes. Check the cauliflower at this time and see if you can easily put a knife through one piece of the cauliflower, if you can, it’s ready and place the cauliflower on the side, if not, then let steam for another minute or two. At this point, you want to turn the steamed cauliflower into a rice like mixture. If you have a food processor, use it and pulse the cauliflower 4 or 5 times into a smaller mixture, make sure to not turn it into mash. If you have a good blender, use that and do the same. If you don’t have either, then use a knife and just chop away.

Step 3: Cook the 3 slices of bacon to your liking. Once finished, chop the bacon into small pieces.

Step 4: Once the bacon is removed from the pan, add in all of the vegetables, garlic and ginger except the cauliflower. Toss everything together and coat the vegetables with the bacon fat and cook for 6-7 minutes. Add in the cauliflower, egg and bacon and toss everything together. Add in the salt and coconut aminos and again, toss everything together and taste and add in more salt or aminos as needed.

Step 5: Sprinkle the “rice” with the green onions and enjoy!