Meal Share Monday V.2 (Paleo Chicken Veggie Soup)

#mealsharemonday v.2 

(use this hashtag on instagram or twitter to link up your favorite meals!)

I'm writing this as Sandy moves in over the area... hoping we don't lose power but we'll see :) So far, it is windy and rainy but we have food to eat and stir crazy children, what more can you ask for??? :) 

Speaking of food, this week I prepared 2 BIG pots of chicken vegetable soup for our church family that was volunteering to get our church building ready for our ribbon cutting service we had yesterday. It was super tasty but there were only a few people working and lots of food so 1.5 pots came home to me. Yay for reheat meals- especially during a storm when all you want to do is sleep! 

Honestly, there isn't anything super original about this recipe but it is yummy and all my kids shovel it in.

Paleo Roasted Chicken Vegetable Soup

Roasted chicken:
1 Whole chicken
-3 cloves grated or finely choped/minced garlic
-salt & pepper
-garlic powder
-onion powder
-basil
-whatever other seasoning you like for your chicken
-EVOO

combine olive oil w/ garlic & all the seasons and then rub under the skin and on top of the skin. Bake @350 for 45 min-2hrs depending on the size of your chicken. When it is finished, let it cool some & pick the chicken off the carcass & set aside.

Homemade Chicken Stock:

After picking chicken from carcass, place all the bones in a pot w/ about 12 C of water & season w/ garlic, onions, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, basil, oregano & whatever else you may like. Heat slowly and simmer (not boil) for about 3 hours. After simmering, strain out all the bones, onion & garlic and even any meat that happened to come off in the water. At this point, that stuff doesn't have much flavor or nutritional value so don't feel bad tossing it.

Soup:

Homemade chicken stock
picked chicken
seasonings
3 cloves garlic (grated or finely chopped)
1 onions chopped
5 or 6 stalks celery chopped
1/2 head of cabbage chopped
1 lb bag of baby carrots (I cut them in half lengthwise)

When I made this, I split the stock into 2 pots and then added more water (in this case, pretty much double the veggies). If you just want one pot and don't care to have stock to freeze or use later, you could probably just use all the stock and not add water & season to taste :) Throw in all the veggies & chicken and bring to a boil. Allow it to simmer until all the veggies are soft (maybe 30-45mins).

Enjoy!

Meal Share Monday V.1

#mealsharemonday

If you know anything about my family, it is that we like to cook/eat. My husband has a natural gift for putting really good flavor together. He can grill, smoke, saute, etc. just about anything and it will taste good. He hasn't baked much but that's all good since sugar is evil. :) That being said, it isn't a surprise that even with the changes we've made to our diet, we still eat really.good.food. 

Probably the #1 question I get when I say we are now eating paleo is, "WHAT do you eat?!" Honestly, it is easier to answer that with what we DON'T eat. (i.e. sugar, grains, pretty much anything processed & legumes)

Last night it occurred to me that we could be sharing some of our creations with the world... 

Enter:

Meal Share Monday

Each Monday I will share at least one of our favorite meals from the past week including a recipe so you can attempt to recreate (if you so please) in your own kitchen :) 

First up, this one happens to be created by the ladies (Me & my friend Kelly):

Grilled Chicken w/ Dirty Greens & Baked Sweet Potato

Serves 4 Adults

Chicken of your choice that you like to grill (We used boneless skinless chicken breast & bone-in chicken thighs- whatever you prefer/have on hand) seasoned to taste. (Thank you Papa Cain for your grilling skills :))

-4 Sweet Potatoes

-~2 C balsamic vinegar

-1/2 T agave

-~1/4C coconut milk

-cinnamon

-nutmeg

-1t vanilla extract

-4 slices of bacon (nitrate/nitrite/sugar free)

-salt&pepper to taste

-Kale (about the equivalent of 3 bunches) I'm actually not 100% certain how much kale we used because one of Papa Cain's co-workers gave us literally a black trash bag FULL of fresh picked, pesticide free kale straight from his garden. #blessings

-bacon grease from 4 slices of bacon

-3 cloves of garlic (minced or I just use a hand grater and grate it right into the pan)

-salt&pepper to taste

-hot sauce of your choice (watch out for sugar and added ingredients though)

The chicken is pretty easy- season & grill it.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap sweet potatoes in aluminum foil and bake for about 45 mins- 1hr or until soft. 

Heat balsamic vinegar on stove top and simmer until reduced to a kind of thick saucy yumminess. 

Sizzle up some bacon in the pan you are going to cook your kale in. When it is finished remove bacon and set aside, leaving the grease in the pan. Clean and tear apart the kale from the tough stem and put it in the pan. Go ahead and throw in whatever you are seasoning it with- garlic, salt, pepper, etc. Let that hang out for quite a while until the kale is nice and soft. After you plate it, drizzle with some hot sauce & be very, very happy :)

When the potatoes are nice and soft, remove from oven and unwrap. Slice the potatoes open and scoop out the insides and put in a large bowl. Add coconut milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla & agave and mash together. Scoop the potatoes back into the shells and sprinkle with bacon & drizzle with balsamic vinegar reduction. 

Information only: I don't really write recipes so I hope this makes sense. If you have any questions, just comment below- I'll do my best to help you out. Also, the sweet potatoes were as good as dessert. I'm not kidding you.