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Paleo Beef Stroganoff

Things I’ve learned since moving out of my parents’ house to a humble apartment in Chicago’s Lincoln Park area: I. Was. Spoiled. Not only was I saving enough money to afford a $200/month crossfit membership, oh no, that’s just the beginning of it. I also had a 15-minute commute to work (now it’s an hour) so I had extra time to attend said crossfit classes about 5 times per week. Further, every single night I came home to a hot meal cooked by my step mom. Of course, she knew I was trying to follow a low carb, high protein diet, so dinner always, always included a meat, hot vegetable, side salad, and typically a starch I just didn’t eat. Oh, and that’s not all. Nine times out of 10 there would be dinner leftovers for me to take to lunch, so pretty much my life couldn’t be easier.

Since I’m a girl who likes to use her resources, I still go home for family dinner night about once every other week, sometimes more. Of course the main reason I go is to visit with family, but the free (always amazing) dinner doesn’t hurt. How lucky am I to be a part of a family with amazing cooks that adapt to my strange diet??

This Paleo Beef Stroganoff was repurpose recipe using leftover beef tenderloin from family dinner night. I always used to love when my mom made beef stroganoff with egg noodles, so I decided to create the healthy version of the comforting classic. Trust me, you won’t miss the canned soup or cream in this recipe! The coconut milk gives it a creaminess, but I promise you can’t taste the coconut. Serve it over a bed of your favorite veggie noodles and DEVOUR … er, I mean enjoy!

IMG_2796

Paleo Beef Stroganoff
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Ingredients

  • 1 lb top sirloin steak, cut into strips (I used leftover beef tenderloin)
  • 6 tbsp butter or other cooking fat
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Heat a large skillet over a medium-high heat and allow 2 tbsp of your cooking fat to melt. Add the beef strips and cook on each side for just one minute, until golden brown but not cooked through and then remove from the pan and set aside.
  2. Saute the mushrooms in the same pan, just enough time so that they begin to take a golden color. Remove and set aside.
  3. Saute the onions and garlic until tender. Leave them in the pan and add the white wine. Cook for a few minutes so that the alcohol burns off and the brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan come up. At this point add the coconut milk and beef broth, stirring until a consistent creamy sauce takes shape.
  4. Return the beef and mushrooms to the skillet and allow them to simmer slightly for 5 to 7 minutes. You may need to turn the temperature down to prevent the sauce from boiling. Serve!
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https://smilesandwich.com/2014/05/09/paleo-beef-stroganoff/

 

 

Paleo Nachos

A month ago, if you would have told me that I could eat nachos while on paleo, I would have told you to get out of town. That was, until I came across a photo of Paleo Nachos on Pinterest and thought … duh, Jordan, nachos can be made clean if you just avoid the cheese and make your own sweet potato chips. So what else would I do with my Saturday than make said Paleo Nachos. And they …. were delightful.

Paleo Nachos

I got impatient and pulled my sweet potato chips before they really got crispy, but I was okay with them being  a bit softer (like fries) and I just ate the nachos with a fork. Think of it like …. Paleo Irish nachos. Sort of. But, if you prefer crispy chips, just be patient. Read a book. Do a puzzle. Anything to keep your mind off the fact that you will soon be devouring glorious nachos.

I made extra ground turkey taco meat and ate it for lunches with tomato and avocado. This can also be made with ground beef. Or chorizo. Get crazy with your bad nacho-eating self.

Paleo Nachos

 

Paleo Nachos
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Ingredients

  • For the sweet potato chips:
  • 1 skinny sweet potato
  • 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • For the taco meat:
  • 1 pound ground turkey (or beef, bison, whatever)
  • 1 jalapeño, minced
  • 3 teaspoon Cumin
  • 1 teaspoon Paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon Oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
  • ½ teaspoon Onion Powder
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
  • For garnish:
  • Tomato, chopped
  • Avocado, chopped
  • Cilantro, chopped
  • Green onion, chopped
  • Salsa
  • (lettuce, olives, or whatever else)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Use a mandoline or a knife to cut your sweet potatoes thin. Put some parchment paper down on a cooking sheet. Place sweet potato rounds on the parchment paper.
  3. Melt coconut oil and use a pastry/cooking brush to paint some coconut oil on top of each sweet potato round. Sprinkle salt and pepper.
  4. Place in the oven to bake for around 8-10 minutes. Flip sweet potatoes over and bake for another 5 minutes or until edges are brown and have curled up a bit. Set aside.
  5. In a large skillet, sauté jalapeño until soft. Add ground turkey and brown, stirring to break up the meat –about 10 minutes. Turn heat down to low and drain fat from turkey.
  6. Mix together taco seasoning. Add ¾ warm water to taco seasoning and stir until mixed. Pour on ground turkey and simmer 5-10 minutes.
  7. To assemble, layer sweet potato chips with taco meat and any toppings you'd like!
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https://smilesandwich.com/2014/04/15/paleo-nachos/

Clean Eating Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes

BIG NEWS: I have created a Smile Sandwich Instagram account. Instagram is super great because I can easily search Paleo recipes and scroll through thousands of delicious photos. BUT … it’s really, really not great in the sense that I probably spend multiple hours a day on the app, get a million different cravings each time, and my list of recipe ideas is ever expanding.

Enter: pancakes. An innocent weekend Instagram scroll presented multiple photos of healthy pancakes, and next think I know, I’m in my kitchen whipping up a batch of these amazing Clean Eating Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes. Because when your body wakes you up at 7 a.m. on Saturday, you really don’t have a choice.

chocolate chip paleo pancakes

I have a big bag of oat flour I got from an Amish grocery store, but all you have to do to make your own is grind old fashioned oats in a food processor. All I know is, you’ll never buy Bisquick again after tasting these delicious gems.

So go ahead and whip up a batch of these Clean Eating Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes next time you’re wanting a healthy breakfast that feels much naughtier than it is.

Clean Eating Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes
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Ingredients

  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup oat flour
  • Chocolate Chips
  • 1 teaspoon coconut oil
  • For the peanut butter drizzle:
  • 1/2 tablespoon peanut butter
  • 1 teaspoon coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Mash the banana and beat with egg and flour. Stir in chocolate chips. Heat coconut oil in a pan. Pour batter onto pan, carefully spread the batter out to desired thickness. Once it starts to bubble on top, flip the pancake over and cook about 1 minute more.
  2. For the drizzle: heat peanut butter and oil in the microwave until smooth. Drizzle over pancake stack.
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https://smilesandwich.com/2014/04/10/clean-eating-sugarless-chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-pancakes/

The Best Healthy Broccoli Salad

Deli salads are a strange thing. I grew up going to potlucks and family gatherings where people just loved to mix miscellaneous savory ingredients with mayonnaise and call it a salad. Of course, I’ve never been too much a fan of deli salads … that is until I tried my recipe for super awesome fauxtato salad with sweet potatoes! Since then, I’ve been on the hunt for lightened up versions of classic deli salads, and this is yet another success.

Basically, you can throw whatever random produce you have in this and it will be good. Trust me … these ingredients may seem like an unlikely combination, but the sweetness of the raisins and saltiness of bacon along with crunchy, fresh vegetables all mix together to form one heck of a delicious broccoli salad. Helllloooo spring.

Broccoli-Salad-2 Broccoli-Salad

 

The Best Healthy Broccoli Salad
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Ingredients

  • 1 head broccoli florets, chopped
  • 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup sliced celery
  • 1/2 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup cooked crumbled turkey bacon
  • Honey Yogurt Dressing
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup plain Greek nonfat yogurt
  • pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. In a large serving bowl, add broccoli and all remaining salad ingredients.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients together. Toss dressing with vegetables.
  3. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
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https://smilesandwich.com/2014/04/04/the-best-healthy-broccoli-salad/

Tilapia Tacos with Cabbage Slaw

A day in the life of Jordan includes a bus, a train, another bus, work, another bus, one more train, and yet another bus. Since I leave my apartment at 6:10 a.m. and get home at 6:35 p.m. every night, I’m usually lucky if I have the energy to throw a turkey burger on the George Foreman. (Yes, I own a George Foreman. And I love it more than the average college boy).

So a quick and easy dinner like these Tilapia Tacos with Cabbage Slaw is perfect. I’ve tried to like grilled fish tacos, but they’re just not as good as the panko crusted kind! So, I sacrificed health for taste in this case, and it was definitely worth it.

fish-tacos

 

I would highly recommend making the slaw the night before – it will have time to marinade plus it cuts down on cooking time!

 

Tilapia Tacos with Cabbage Slaw
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Ingredients

  • Slaw
  • 2 cups red cabbage, sliced thinly
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons white or red wine vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 4 tablespoons oil
  • Tacos
  • 1.5 pounds tilapia, sliced
  • 1 egg, whisked
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 8 flour tortillas
  • Cilantro
  • 1 lime, sliced

Instructions

  1. Prep - Ideally the night before
  2. 1. Whisk together vinegar, cumin, honey, salt and oil. Add cabbage and cilantro and toss everything together. Season to taste with any other seasonings you prefer and let marinate overnight in the fridge.
  3. Make Tacos
  4. 1. Rinse and dry fish thoroughly with paper towels, slice into 1/2-inch pieces and place into a bowl.
  5. 2. Whisk egg with paprika and a pinch of salt. Pour over fish and toss thoroughly.
  6. 3. Combine panko, cumin, salt, and oil in a plastic bag, place the fish in the bag and shake to coat.
  7. 4. Heat oil in a skillet and cook fish pieces until golden brown.
  8. 5. Warm tortillas and fill with cabbage slaw, fish and cilantro leaves. I also added plain Greek yogurt and a squeeze of lime. Enjoy!
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https://smilesandwich.com/2014/03/30/tilapia-tacos-with-cabbage-slaw/

Chicken Fajita Stuffed Bell Peppers

Is it just me, or have stuffed peppers recipes been everywhere lately? I had never had the classic stuffed pepper until my step mom made them the other week and filled them with rice and ground beef. Needless to say, I dug it. But since I can’t do anything like a normal person would, I decided to make this exciting variation – Chicken Fajita Stuffed Bell Peppers. They’re good. Like, really good.

Chicken-Fajita-Stuffed-Bell-Peppers.jpg

One of the joys of moving into a new apartment is realizing everything you never think of needing until you need it and don’t have it. Which was exactly the case when I was uber pumped and ready to make these awesome chicken stuffed peppers, and realized I didn’t have a baking dish. So, I did what any savvy apartment owner would do and used my baking sheet. It worked out since I boiled the peppers first, but if you want to skip the boiling step make sure you have a shallow baking dish, and perhaps even fill it with a tiny bit of water so the peppers don’t dry out!

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Check out my pretty Amish cutting board! Ooohhhh … Aaahhhhh …

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Chicken Fajita Stuffed Bell Peppers
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Ingredients

  • 2 organic chicken breasts, sliced in half lengthwise
  • 3 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1/4 cup cilantro
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • Pinch chili powder
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • 4 bell peppers, washed, seeds removed, cut in half
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced
  • 1/2 tomato, diced
  • Coconut or olive oil
  • 1 cup shredded organic cheese

Instructions

  1. Mix lime juice, cilantro, and all spices in a medium bowl. Place raw chicken in the bowl, stir to coat and marinade at least 1 hour or overnight.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a casserole dish. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil bell pepper halves until soft, about 3 minutes, pushing them down with a spoon if they float. Once done, remove from pot and set aside.
  3. Heat oil in a medium pan and sauté chicken until cooked. Remove from pan, shred with two forks and set aside.
  4. In the same pan, sauté onion until it's soft. Turn off the heat, and stir in the chicken and tomato.
  5. Arrange the pepper halves open side up in the casserole dish. Fill each pepper with chicken mixture and cheese. Bake, covered with foil, about 15 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 minutes more until cheese is melted. Garnish with fresh cilantro.
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https://smilesandwich.com/2014/03/17/chicken-fajita-stuffed-bell-peppers/

 

 

Healthy Shamrock Shake

It’s not often that I eat something at McDonald’s and immediately want to make the copycat version, but when it comes time for a Shammy Shake, I simply can’t resist having one every year. Problem is, those mint shakes are as fattening as they are delicious. So I created this copycat Shamrock Shake recipe … the healthy way!

Now, I’m not going to rave about how this Healthy Shamrock Shake tastes just like the ice cream-packed one you get from McDonald’s, but it is good enough to satisfy that March-time craving.

Healthy-Shamrock-Shake

You can also make this a protein shake by adding a scoop of your favorite brand of vanilla protein powder.

Healthy Shamrock Shake
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Ingredients

  • 2 large bananas, peeled, cut into chunks and frozen
  • 3/4 cup fat free milk (almond, soy, dairy, coconut)
  • 3/4 tsp mint extract
  • 1 handful kale
  • 1 Tbsp cocao nibs (or chocolate chips)
  • Sweetener of choice, to taste (honey, dates, agave)

Instructions

  1. Place the handful of kale in a blender with 1/4 cup of milk and blend thoroughly.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Adjust sweetener to your liking and garnish with cocao nibs.
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https://smilesandwich.com/2014/03/10/healthy-shamrock-shake/

Paleo Sweet Potato Layered Breakfast Casserole

So, I was just about to add a different, much less appealing recipe and came across this photo sitting in my media folder. OHHHH! How could I almost forget about this one? It’s a paleo breakfast casserole that’s layered with eggs, sweet potato, turkey sausage and vegetables. And it is amazing. It was my breakfast for a whole week during the time that I was in cruise-preparation mode.

Now this isn’t my first or second sweet potato breakfast recipe, but this might be my favorite. I’m not a huge fan of sweet breakfasts, so savory recipes that can be made ahead of time are sort of my thing. This one’s perfect because you can cut it, freeze it, and take a piece to work for breakfast each day! It reheats beautifully … a perfect quick paleo breakfast casserole recipe if you ask me.

Paleo-Sweet-Potato-Breakfast-Casserole

Paleo Sweet Potato Layered Breakfast Casserole

What you need:

2 small sweet potatoes

3 tablespoons coconut oil

1 bag precooked turkey sausage crumbles (you can use any sausage you like!)

½ onion, diced

1/2 green and orange bell pepper, diced

5 eggs

½ cup coconut milk

¼ teaspoon sage

Red pepper flakes (to taste)

Sea salt and pepper (to taste)

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Grate the sweet potatoes, place in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 2 minutes to soften them up. Pat with paper towels to get rid of extra moisture.

3. In a medium skillet, heat coconut oil and sauté the onions and bell peppers. If your sausage is not precooked, cook it at this time in the same skillet.

4. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then stir in coconut milk, sage, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Spray a 9 x 13-inch casserole pan with cooking spray, then assemble the casserole. Spread the sweet potatoes on the bottom, then add the sausage, then the vegetables. Pour the egg mixture all over the top.

5. Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

 

2-Minute Paleo Tuna Salad

GUYS! I’m moving out! Although I’m beyond excited to move to the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago, this also means that I will be a blogger on a budget. SO, prepare yourself for budget-friendly, super easy, don’t-require-a-ton-of-dishes recipes. 🙂

Which brings me to one of my favorite quick lunch solutions. When you just don’t have time to meal prep, and you just don’t have energy, and you just happen to have a can of tuna sitting in your pantry, make this 2-Minute Paleo Tuna Salad! It’s so delicious and takes minutes to throw together. Tuna is one of those cheap ingredients I like so much that I buy it at Costco.

2-Minute Paleo Tuna Salad

And just because I took this picture on my dysfunctional iPhone before I ate it at work doesn’t mean it’s not delicious! Please note that this is not strict paleo but life is about breaking the rules.

2-Minute Paleo Tuna Salad

2-Minute Paleo Tuna Salad
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Ingredients

  • 1 can albacore tuna in water
  • 2-3 tablespoons homemade pesto (see recipe below)
  • 2 tablespoons pine nuts
  • 1/4 cup tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/4 cup bell peppers, chopped
  • *Note: These are estimated quantities - I suggest just throwing in however many vegetables and nuts you like!

Instructions

  1. Drain the tuna. In a small bowl, mix to combine the tuna and pesto. Stir in the pine nuts, tomatoes and bell peppers.
  2. For best results, refrigerate for a few hours before eating.
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https://smilesandwich.com/2014/02/28/2-minute-paleo-tuna-salad/

Healthy Homemade Pesto

1/2 cup raw almonds

1 clove garlic

1 cup fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup cheese of choice (Pecorino)

1 cup olive oil

1. Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. You may need to add a bit of water to get the correct consistency.