Strawberry Lime Shake

We started out this road trip after some serious planning together with Atzin.  He looked up the schools, planned the route, and set the appointments for the visits.  I assisted and planned the food and hotels.

I thought this was the perfect smoothie to start our road trip.  It was very simple to make; quick when you want to get out the door quickly in the morning and used the left over coconut milk from one of the recipes that I prepared for the road trip.

Here it is:

1 1/2 cups canned coconut milk
3 tsp of fresh lime juice
1 10oz bag of frozen strawberries
1 TBS coconut oil (optional)

Blend the ingredients in your high speed blender.  That's it!

Coffee Rubbed Steak Strips

I haven't had a chance to post while traveling, so I am very behind on sharing my cooking adventures while on the road.

I am so proud of myself for the meal planning I have done on this trip.  Today was the first day I had to go to the grocery store to re-stock on snacks and I still have enough food for two more dinners.  The challenge was knowing that we only had a car trunk for five passengers.  So that meant we would only be able to fit one cooler and maybe two grocery bags of food in the trunk with our luggage.  This is certainly not like the luxury of road trips in our now deceased Toyota Siena (How I miss my Siena!).  We would carry two coolers and not have to limit the grocery bags.  Well, I did manage to plan meals carefully so that I was carrying just what I needed and was able to fit the food in my car's trunk.

Pictured here is our first cooked meal on the trip.  From the previous posts, you saw that I had prepared Thai chicken drumsticks that could be eaten cold, a Paleo No Potato Salad, and I haven't blogged about a Chicken Salad.  The meal described in this post was dinner on Monday night in Williamstown. We visited Williams College (The college that is now my son's #1 - I think).  I couldn't wait to share this with all of you because I was so excited about discovering the use of an electric skillet and pre-prepared ingredients ready to just add to the skillet!  This was awesome and it really works.

The prep for this meal meant that I had one zip lock bag of pre-cut beef and the marinade.  I had a vegetable side dish for this meal (this was a prepared that I just heated up on the electric skillet as well because the room we were in did not have a microwave).

Here is the recipe from the book: Make Ahead Paleo

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1 1/2 tsp finely ground coffee
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 TBS granulated onion
1/2 tsp dry mustard
3/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 TBS honey

3 lb. of lean beef steak

Coconut oil for the skillet (I just brought a can of the coconut oil spray with me).

1.  Mix all of the ingredients listed above.
2. Place the beef in a zip lock baggie.
3. Add the marinade to the zip lock baggie.
4.  Once in the bag, zip it and make sure the marinade covers the pieces of beef completely.
5. Put it in your cooler until it is ready to use.

Creamy Cilantro No Potato Salad

Source: Make Ahead Paleo

This salad was a hit!  As Atzin, my son said, "Mom, this was questionable, but it was really good!"  He had a huge serving both on the night I prepared it and on the road.  We had this as a side with the Thai Lime Chicken Legs.

I made this ahead as well and packed it for the road trip.

One head of cauliflower
1/2 cup dill pickles (finely chopped)
3 ribs of uncooked celery (finely chopped)
1 cup of sliced black olives
1/2 cup cilantro (chopped)
1/2 cup onion (finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1 TBS mustard
1 TBS fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
5 boiled eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise

1. Steam the cauliflower fro 5-7 minutes.  It should still be a bit crunchy (soft, but not too soft).
2. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate them for about 15 minutes.
3. Combine the eggs, pickles, celery, olives, cilantro, onion, garlic, mayo, mustard, lime juice, sea salt, and pepper.
4. Remove cauliflower from the fridge and chop it up. Add it to the rest of the salad.
5. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

Thai Chicken Drumsticks

Source: Make Ahead Paleo

So far I am on the end of day two of the road trip.  I feel like we've eaten enough for a week so far!  I'm so grateful I planned so many meals on the road because these boys certainly do have an appetite.

Well, this dish I'm sharing here was our first lunch on the road.  I pre-prepared these chicken drumsticks and they were great.  The boys loved it.

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs. uncooked chicken drumsticks
1/2 cup cilantro
2 cloves of garlic
2 TBS fish sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
2 TBS fresh ginger
1 medium shallot
2 TBS olive oil
1 TBS honey
2 TBS canned coconut milk
2 TBS coconut aminos (substitute for soy sauce)

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a food processor.
2. Place the chicken legs in a baking dish and pour the marinade on the chicken legs.  Make sure each chicken leg is covered in the marinade.
3. Bake for about 45 minutes.

So easy, they tasted great cold.  The boys ate these up! And so did mom!

Paleo Shrimp Scampi

911 operator:  "911, what is your emergency?"

Mom:  "My daughter is trying to kill me!!"

911 operator: "What is your daughter doing to you?"

Mom: "She is trying to feed me healthy food and won't give me any tortillas! She is killing me!" 

This is the conversation I envision between my mom and the police.  My mom's idea of healthy is a breakfast with steak, 3 eggs, a side of pancakes, and hash browns.  Getting my mom to eat better is difficult!  So the most I can do is cook my way when I'm there.  She almost always likes what I cook (as long as I add a tortilla!).  I always joke with her and tell her that one day she will be calling the police to tell them that her daughter is killing her by feeding her healthy food.  Anyway, I try.  On the other hand, my dad really likes to eat healthy.  He will eat well as long as it's provided for him.  I know with my dad's arthritis and other conditions, a paleo diet is perfect for him.  I wish I lived closer so that I could share my regular meals with them.  

Today was a day that I spent with my parents, caring for my mom and dad.  I went to my mom's infusion appointment at the hospital.  It's amazing to me how BAD hospital food is for people working on their healing.  My mom's lunch while at the hospital consisted of chicken and rice soup, a sandwich with huge whole wheat bread and deli turkey (not even lettuce on the sandwich), mayo for the sandwich, and peaches in syrup.  How can it be that people with illnesses such as cancer are given foods that do not promote their health.  Imagine if at a bare minimum, the hospital gave people a real peach instead peaches in heavy sugared syrup.  

Normally when we go for treatments I carry my big lunch bag with plenty of healthy snacks.  This time I didn't have time to pack anything.  So while we were out, hospital food it was.  However, the morning started out with almond flour pancakes and dinner was Paleo Shrimp Scampi.  At least I made up for it.  Here is the recipe for the shrimp scampi.  It is super easy and quick.  I was able to make this while my mom napped after her appointment.

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The biggest take-away from this post is the spaghetti squash noodles.  As I started to eat gluten free, I had transitioned to rice pasta, and eventually I transitioned to kelp noodles.  Now that I discovered spaghetti squash, I use those almost always.  I have sad and lonely kelp noodles in my cabinet because I will usually opt for the spaghetti squash.  The spaghetti squash noodles are delicious and I love to eat a huge serving knowing that they are really low in calories and loaded with only the good fats that you add to them - or even nothing at all! They can be eaten in so many ways.  We also eat these noodles when we make "spaghetti" with marinara sauce and lean ground beef.  So you can adapt the spaghetti noodles recipe to other dishes that have pasta.  

For the Pasta:

1 large spaghetti squash or 2 small ones

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Sea salt and pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the squash on a baking dish and put in the oven.  If it is a large spaghetti squash, it will take about an hour to bake.  Smaller ones can take about 45 minutes.  When it's done, take it out and cut it in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds and discard.  Take a fork and scrape out the "noodles."  It's like magic!  Put it in a bowl, drizzle some olive oil and add the spices.  Toss it so that olive oil and spices is distributed throughout.

For the Shrimp Scampi: 

16 oz shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 TBS butter

2-3 TBS olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Sea salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1 TBS fresh parsley, chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

Melt the butter over medium heat, add the olive oil and garlic.  Suate the garlic for 2-3 minutes.  Add the shrimp, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  Cook for about 5 minutes until the shrimp is cooked through.  Remove from heat and add the desired amount on top of the spaghetti squash on your plate.  Toss with lemon.  

My dad loved this.  He doesn't eat much anymore.  He asked for a second serving.  For my mom, I did the exact same thing, but used chicken since she doesn't like seafood.  My mom of course asked, "Do I get a tortilla with this?"  I said, "No.  Just like this."  

This was incredibly fast.  The only thing that takes long is the spaghetti squash, but I will typically bake it ahead of time knowing I will be using it later.  You can also steam it which is faster, but I prefer the baking.  Baking is very forgiving.  If you go over the hour a little bit, it's no big deal.  With steaming, you have to get the timing perfect or you will end up with mush instead of noodles.  

Piedad's Turkey Tacos

I named this dish after my sister Piedad because I first had a dish like this at her home.  I loved it so much and my son loved it so much that I decided to give it a try at home.  It has become a regular dish in our household because it is delicious and so fast to make.  It easily makes a quick dinner and if I have more time, I make a shrimp thai soup to go along with it and some thai spring rolls.  So you can make it fancy if you have time, or just keep it simple for a quick dinner.

This was the perfect post game dinner again, because we got home late, we were hungry and needed something that cooks really fast.  This dish can be done in 20 minutes.

1 1/4 pound of ground turkey breast
1/4 cup of green onions, chopped
3 TBS gluten free soy sauce (or coconut aminos to substitute the soy sauce).
2 TBS fish sauce
2 tsp chili paste
2 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS lemon grass
3 TBS cilantro
1-2 heads of butter lettuce


1. Sauté the ground turkey with a spray of olive oil and about 1 TBS of sesame oil in a non stick skillet.
2. Add all the other ingredients and continue to sauté a bit more until it is fragrant and fully cooked.
3. Serve on pieces of butter lettuce using the butter lettuce as "taco" shells.

This is about 4 WW points per serving. 

White Hot Chocolate

It was a cold day today!  I thought we were done with hot chocolate season, but apparently not.  Atzin finally had his first baseball game of the season and it was almost unbearably cold out there.  I'm so glad I had my parka, hat, and gloves.  I still wimped out and sat in the car for most of the game.  Atzin and Rolando were outside the whole time.  So, the perfect post game drink for Atzin was the white hot chocolate that he absolutely loves.

1 cup of water
1 1/4 cups of coconut milk
1 1/2 ounces raw cacao butter (the first time I made this I used an organic raw cacao butter from nuts.com - and it was divine but oh so expensive.  Now, I purchased a different non-organic kind which was less money and is still good, but really nothing compares to the organic raw from nuts.com).
1 TBS honey
8 drops of vanilla creme stevia
pinch of sea salt

1. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients.
2. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.
3. Continue simmering until cacao butter is melted.
4. Blend in a vitamix or other blender.
5. Serve and enjoy!!