some lower carb/nutrient dense recipes
hi there! recently hubby and i have started a 30 day slim down which is a program through Nancy Anderson Fitness that is supposed to help you lose some extra fat, rebalance hormones and make your blood sugar better. i have been wanting to do this program for awhile now especially since i want to balance my hormones post-pregnancy. a couple years ago, before i got pregnant with my third baybay, i had started to cut out most processed sugar and carbs and most dairy. so i basically replaced bread, pasta, rice, etc with veggies. i was doing it back then because i was having lots of stomach issues and had gone through some of the suggestions from my doctor with no success. so i was trying to cut out anything that might be aggravating my stomach issues. for a few reasons i really felt like it was because of a hormonal imbalance. but anyway, one of the consequences of cutting out these foods from my diet is that i lost about 10 lbs real quick. that wasn't my purpose back then, but it is now!
i would like to drop some of the baby weight but honestly i don't even care how much i weigh. i just want to not have this mom pooch. and be so jiggly. i mostly want to firm up and lose some extra fat around my middle. everything else i am fine with. to be honest though the biggest reason for starting this protocol this time around is to balance my hormones, get my A1C back down, and eliminate the foods that i know trigger migraines. i just want to feel good. howeverrrrrr my core needs a lot of work and that's a huge motivator for me, too. so in addition to diet changes i am implementing a deep core and ab program as well. i am so tired of my back, neck, and sciatica giving me so much pain every day.
so anyway, i had recently posted a picture of some of the meals from the first few days of this 30 day slim down and a bunch of people asked for recipes. i don't really have recipes for most things because a lot of the meals i kind of just through together based on the foods that we like or used the recipes from the 30 day slim down but adjusted them or added things to them. also, because i have kind of done this type of diet change before, i have some experience in what works. anyway, these meals are gluten and processed sugar free, dairy and soy free. you can use them as a start and adjust in whatever way you want to fit your needs or preferences:
this is some sort of green smoothie, the recipe was included in the 30 day slim down package:
1 scoop of vegan protein powder (i didn't have this and i eat lots of protein so i skipped it, but if you are looking to add more protein into your diet then add it). it kind of tastes like horchata or cinnamon oatmeal:
-2-3 cups raw spinach
-1 T chia seeds
-1.5 cups unsweetened almond milk
-handful of ice
-pinch of cinnamon
-dash of organic vanilla extract
blend
lettuce wraps:
there are lots of different types of lettuce wraps you could make, so it's a great base and then just season and add ingredients to fit your needs. here are two of my different takes on the lettuce wrap. oh, also, i dislike the logistics of eating a lettuce wrap so i actually just shred my lettuce and pile everything on top and eat it like a salad. but if you like meat juices dripping down your arms and chicken and veg falling out of the lettuce wrap then by all means go ahead and wrap that shiz up:
basic lettuce wrap would be a meat or whatever protein you want to eat (tofu?), veggies, seasoning, all wrapped up in a delicious butter lettuce leaf. i like butter lettuce for this since it's soft and tasty but you could also use romaine, leaf or even iceberg (although i don't know why you would use iceberg, it literally tastes like nothing, hahaha)
here is my taco seasoning inspired lettuce wrap:
-1 cup cooked chicken (breast, thigh, whatever you want. for this, i happened to use some meat from a costco rotisserie chicken that we had previously frozen. but if i was starting from scratch i would cut the chicken meat into small chunks, and then sauté in a pan with coconut oil, salt/pepper, cumin, coriander, chili powder, onion powder. actually, even though the costco rotisserie chicken was cooked i did sauté it with those things to give it flavor) (oh, and you totally don't have to sauté all the veg, you could eat everything raw. i just happen to love the flavors of the sautéed veg here)
-4-6 lettuce leaves
-1/2 lime
-1/2 small onion, diced
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1/4 red bell pepper, chopped
-1/4 yellow bell pepper, chopped
-6 or so mushrooms, chopped
-cumin
-coriander
-chili powder
-salt/pepper
cook or reheat the chicken as stated above (on medium heat) in a pan with coconut oil and seasonings. set aside. to the pan add some more coconut oil (maybe a T or so?), add onion and sauté until soft, add bell pepper and sauté until soft, add mushroom and sauté until soft. add the minced garlic and seasonings (i season to taste, but it's generally 1/2-1 t of each spice depending on your preference, and a season with S&P to taste) stir altogether for about 30 seconds then turn off heat. add chicken into veggies and stir.
arrange lettuce on plate and fill with the chicken/veg filling. or shred lettuce and add filling on top of lettuce. squeeze lime on top to taste. super easy.
ok the other lettuce wrap i make a lot is a non-specific 'asian' inspired flavor. sometimes i do more specific flavors (vietnamese, korean, etc), but this is very general. it's a little more work than the wrap listed above. but it's super nummy:
-protein of your choice (for this one i used hanger steak but you could also use boneless short ribs, chicken, tofu, whatever)
-lettuce of your choice, chopped or shredded
-2 carrots, julienned or grated
-1 cucumber (we use english cucumber), julienned
-a few cups of vinegar
-1/2 or so of roasted peanuts, chopped (we have a bunch of plain shelled peanuts in the freezer so i just pull some out and roast in a pan on the oven until my desired roasted-ness. during roasting i sprinkle on some salt. let cool and then chop
- a few t of cilantro
-rice vinegar
-3 cloves garlic
-1 T grated fresh ginger
-1-2 green onions, chopped
marinade the protein in soy sauce or tamari and sesame oil. i used about 1 lb of meat and marinaded in about 3 T tamari and a couple t of sesame oil. while the meat is marinating, chop up the veg. i shredded about 2-3 cups of lettuce per person and put on plate. cut up the carrots and cuc. i like to grate the carrots but you could also julienne them. i like them grated so it's not so hard to chew. so many veggies to chew. julienne the cuc. you could also chop but julienne is more fancy. you could also slice up some radish if that's your thing. put cuc and carrots (radish?) in a shallow dish and cover with vinegar. you will add enough vinegar to just barely come to the top of the veggies. i use plain white vinegar for this because i don't want to waste my precious rice vinegar. you're essentially just doing a quick pickle of these veg. i used to bring the vinegar to a boil on the stove and then pour over the veg. you could do that, too. but i have found that just soaking them in white vinegar for 30 min or so works just fine for our tastebuds. if you are eating sugar you could also add 1 T of sugar to the vinegar to help bring down the bite of the vinegar. or mix the vinegar with some water, like a 30/70 water/vinegar ratio. ok so let the veg soak. chop up the roasted peanuts and cilantro and put those aside for serving. when ready, cook the meat. for this version i kind of seared/stir-fried the meat. i used a cast iron skillet, heat up a couple T of coconut oil on medium-high heat, adding about 1/3 of the raw meat at a time to cook. once all the meat is cooked, i turn the heat down to medium, add a bit more oil and then cook the garlic and ginger for about 30 seconds, make sure to stir it around the skillet so it doesn't burn. lower heat if you need. i then add the meat back to the skillet, and some salt and pepper and then turn off the heat. you could also grill the protein, but maybe add the ginger and garlic to the marinade.
set the meat on top of the plated lettuce and add the however much of the pickled veg that you want. sprinkle with cilantro, peanuts, green onion and rice vinegar to your preference. oh yea, if you want to do the whole lettuce wrap thing, don't shred the lettuce obviously, and just add the meat, veg and toppings into the lettuce wrap. you could also turn this into a bowl by serving the lettuce, veg, meat and toppings over asian rice like calrose, if you are eating rice. it's delish.
spinach, steak, quinoa salad:
cook the quinoa. i take about 1 cup of dry quinoa, add to a pot with about 1 t of oil (avocado or coconut), over medium heat. stir the oil and quinoa constantly for a few minutes until the quinoa starts to smell nutty. add about 1 1/4 cups of water (you could also use broth if you wanted) to the quinoa and let simmer until almost all the liquid is gone. turn heat to low and cover the pot with a lid. let steam for about 5 minutes. remove from heat but leave covered to continue steaming until ready to use---offheat!
for this, i pan seared the meat and then finished in the oven, but you could just as easily broil, grill or stir fry the meat. whatever you want to do. here's what i did with the meat in this recipe:
-rib eye and/or filet mignon
-2 T butter, softened
-1 t each fresh rosemary and thyme
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-several cups of greens like lettuce, spinach, kale, etc
-any other veg that you want to add to your salad
-shallots or green onion
-olive oil
-some sort of acid like lemon, balsamic or rice vinegar
-S&P
alright, there are probably lots of recipes you could look up on the inter webs on how to pan sear a rib eye or filet but this is what i did: season with S&P, set aside for 30 minutes. pre-heat oven to 400. put cast iron skillet on stove on medium to medium-high heat. add 1-2 T of coconut oil to pan. when oil is hot, add one steak at a time to sear the front and back, about 2 minutes or so each side. turn off heat and place all the steaks in cast iron and put in the oven until meat reaches your desired done-ness (use a meat thermometer to determine temp). put butter in a small bowl, add minced garlic, thyme and rosemary and mush altogether, set aside for later. remove steaks from oven a few degrees before your goal temp so that you don't overcook. take steaks out of skillet and set them aside on a plate. heat skillet to medium on stovetop and add the butter compound. once melted, add one steak at a time to the skillet, tip the skillet a little bit to pool the butter/herbs and take a spoon to spoon the butter/herbs over the steak until the steak reaches your desired doneness. this way is awesome because the browned butter has such depth of flavor. but, if you didn't want to do this step you could just slather the butter compound on the top of the steaks immediately after you take them out of the oven. your choice. but try the browned butter. mmmmmmm. let steaks rest for about 5min before cutting into them.
while the steaks are in the oven, you will cut up whatever form of salad you want. to make it quick, i just used the power greens mix from costco. it has kale, spinach and chard. you could use whatever greens you want. this is where you can add whatever extra flavors you want. i kind of wanted the meat to be the star since we were using such good cuts, the rib-eye and the filet. so i kept it simple. but you could add whatever other veg you want. cuc, tomato, avocado, raw thinly sliced brussels, asparagus, carrot, bell peppers, any of those would be good. so chop up your lettuce and whatever other veg you want, and the green onion or shall, mix together in a bowl and add however much of the quinoa that you want. drizzle the salad with olive oil and your preferred form of acid (lemon, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, etc), add S&P to taste and mix.
plate the salad and add the meat on top.
Chicken and berry salad:
this one is really easy. i had some leftover rotisserie chicken, so i heated it up in a pan with coconut oil and some seasonings. then i put it over a spinach salad. you can do this with pretty much whatever protein you want.
about 4-6 oz of protein per person (i used chicken here)
1 carrot, grated
3 cups of spinach
chopped pecans
rinsed blueberries
sauté the chicken in a pan with about a T of coconut oil, garlic, lemon pepper, salt, coriander. mix the salad together; spinach, grated carrot, pecans, blueberries, and add the chicken on top. drizzle with olive oil and rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar. you can sub literally any protein and any veg.
OK, i will leave it for now, but will probably post some more recipes later if it's helpful!
i would like to drop some of the baby weight but honestly i don't even care how much i weigh. i just want to not have this mom pooch. and be so jiggly. i mostly want to firm up and lose some extra fat around my middle. everything else i am fine with. to be honest though the biggest reason for starting this protocol this time around is to balance my hormones, get my A1C back down, and eliminate the foods that i know trigger migraines. i just want to feel good. howeverrrrrr my core needs a lot of work and that's a huge motivator for me, too. so in addition to diet changes i am implementing a deep core and ab program as well. i am so tired of my back, neck, and sciatica giving me so much pain every day.
so anyway, i had recently posted a picture of some of the meals from the first few days of this 30 day slim down and a bunch of people asked for recipes. i don't really have recipes for most things because a lot of the meals i kind of just through together based on the foods that we like or used the recipes from the 30 day slim down but adjusted them or added things to them. also, because i have kind of done this type of diet change before, i have some experience in what works. anyway, these meals are gluten and processed sugar free, dairy and soy free. you can use them as a start and adjust in whatever way you want to fit your needs or preferences:
this is some sort of green smoothie, the recipe was included in the 30 day slim down package:
 |
1 scoop of vegan protein powder (i didn't have this and i eat lots of protein so i skipped it, but if you are looking to add more protein into your diet then add it). it kind of tastes like horchata or cinnamon oatmeal:
-2-3 cups raw spinach
-1 T chia seeds
-1.5 cups unsweetened almond milk
-handful of ice
-pinch of cinnamon
-dash of organic vanilla extract
blend
lettuce wraps:
there are lots of different types of lettuce wraps you could make, so it's a great base and then just season and add ingredients to fit your needs. here are two of my different takes on the lettuce wrap. oh, also, i dislike the logistics of eating a lettuce wrap so i actually just shred my lettuce and pile everything on top and eat it like a salad. but if you like meat juices dripping down your arms and chicken and veg falling out of the lettuce wrap then by all means go ahead and wrap that shiz up:
basic lettuce wrap would be a meat or whatever protein you want to eat (tofu?), veggies, seasoning, all wrapped up in a delicious butter lettuce leaf. i like butter lettuce for this since it's soft and tasty but you could also use romaine, leaf or even iceberg (although i don't know why you would use iceberg, it literally tastes like nothing, hahaha)
here is my taco seasoning inspired lettuce wrap:
 |
-4-6 lettuce leaves
-1/2 lime
-1/2 small onion, diced
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1/4 red bell pepper, chopped
-1/4 yellow bell pepper, chopped
-6 or so mushrooms, chopped
-cumin
-coriander
-chili powder
-salt/pepper
cook or reheat the chicken as stated above (on medium heat) in a pan with coconut oil and seasonings. set aside. to the pan add some more coconut oil (maybe a T or so?), add onion and sauté until soft, add bell pepper and sauté until soft, add mushroom and sauté until soft. add the minced garlic and seasonings (i season to taste, but it's generally 1/2-1 t of each spice depending on your preference, and a season with S&P to taste) stir altogether for about 30 seconds then turn off heat. add chicken into veggies and stir.
arrange lettuce on plate and fill with the chicken/veg filling. or shred lettuce and add filling on top of lettuce. squeeze lime on top to taste. super easy.
ok the other lettuce wrap i make a lot is a non-specific 'asian' inspired flavor. sometimes i do more specific flavors (vietnamese, korean, etc), but this is very general. it's a little more work than the wrap listed above. but it's super nummy:
 |
-lettuce of your choice, chopped or shredded
-2 carrots, julienned or grated
-1 cucumber (we use english cucumber), julienned
-a few cups of vinegar
-1/2 or so of roasted peanuts, chopped (we have a bunch of plain shelled peanuts in the freezer so i just pull some out and roast in a pan on the oven until my desired roasted-ness. during roasting i sprinkle on some salt. let cool and then chop
- a few t of cilantro
-rice vinegar
-3 cloves garlic
-1 T grated fresh ginger
-1-2 green onions, chopped
marinade the protein in soy sauce or tamari and sesame oil. i used about 1 lb of meat and marinaded in about 3 T tamari and a couple t of sesame oil. while the meat is marinating, chop up the veg. i shredded about 2-3 cups of lettuce per person and put on plate. cut up the carrots and cuc. i like to grate the carrots but you could also julienne them. i like them grated so it's not so hard to chew. so many veggies to chew. julienne the cuc. you could also chop but julienne is more fancy. you could also slice up some radish if that's your thing. put cuc and carrots (radish?) in a shallow dish and cover with vinegar. you will add enough vinegar to just barely come to the top of the veggies. i use plain white vinegar for this because i don't want to waste my precious rice vinegar. you're essentially just doing a quick pickle of these veg. i used to bring the vinegar to a boil on the stove and then pour over the veg. you could do that, too. but i have found that just soaking them in white vinegar for 30 min or so works just fine for our tastebuds. if you are eating sugar you could also add 1 T of sugar to the vinegar to help bring down the bite of the vinegar. or mix the vinegar with some water, like a 30/70 water/vinegar ratio. ok so let the veg soak. chop up the roasted peanuts and cilantro and put those aside for serving. when ready, cook the meat. for this version i kind of seared/stir-fried the meat. i used a cast iron skillet, heat up a couple T of coconut oil on medium-high heat, adding about 1/3 of the raw meat at a time to cook. once all the meat is cooked, i turn the heat down to medium, add a bit more oil and then cook the garlic and ginger for about 30 seconds, make sure to stir it around the skillet so it doesn't burn. lower heat if you need. i then add the meat back to the skillet, and some salt and pepper and then turn off the heat. you could also grill the protein, but maybe add the ginger and garlic to the marinade.
set the meat on top of the plated lettuce and add the however much of the pickled veg that you want. sprinkle with cilantro, peanuts, green onion and rice vinegar to your preference. oh yea, if you want to do the whole lettuce wrap thing, don't shred the lettuce obviously, and just add the meat, veg and toppings into the lettuce wrap. you could also turn this into a bowl by serving the lettuce, veg, meat and toppings over asian rice like calrose, if you are eating rice. it's delish.
spinach, steak, quinoa salad:
 |
for this, i pan seared the meat and then finished in the oven, but you could just as easily broil, grill or stir fry the meat. whatever you want to do. here's what i did with the meat in this recipe:
-rib eye and/or filet mignon
-2 T butter, softened
-1 t each fresh rosemary and thyme
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-several cups of greens like lettuce, spinach, kale, etc
-any other veg that you want to add to your salad
-shallots or green onion
-olive oil
-some sort of acid like lemon, balsamic or rice vinegar
-S&P
alright, there are probably lots of recipes you could look up on the inter webs on how to pan sear a rib eye or filet but this is what i did: season with S&P, set aside for 30 minutes. pre-heat oven to 400. put cast iron skillet on stove on medium to medium-high heat. add 1-2 T of coconut oil to pan. when oil is hot, add one steak at a time to sear the front and back, about 2 minutes or so each side. turn off heat and place all the steaks in cast iron and put in the oven until meat reaches your desired done-ness (use a meat thermometer to determine temp). put butter in a small bowl, add minced garlic, thyme and rosemary and mush altogether, set aside for later. remove steaks from oven a few degrees before your goal temp so that you don't overcook. take steaks out of skillet and set them aside on a plate. heat skillet to medium on stovetop and add the butter compound. once melted, add one steak at a time to the skillet, tip the skillet a little bit to pool the butter/herbs and take a spoon to spoon the butter/herbs over the steak until the steak reaches your desired doneness. this way is awesome because the browned butter has such depth of flavor. but, if you didn't want to do this step you could just slather the butter compound on the top of the steaks immediately after you take them out of the oven. your choice. but try the browned butter. mmmmmmm. let steaks rest for about 5min before cutting into them.
while the steaks are in the oven, you will cut up whatever form of salad you want. to make it quick, i just used the power greens mix from costco. it has kale, spinach and chard. you could use whatever greens you want. this is where you can add whatever extra flavors you want. i kind of wanted the meat to be the star since we were using such good cuts, the rib-eye and the filet. so i kept it simple. but you could add whatever other veg you want. cuc, tomato, avocado, raw thinly sliced brussels, asparagus, carrot, bell peppers, any of those would be good. so chop up your lettuce and whatever other veg you want, and the green onion or shall, mix together in a bowl and add however much of the quinoa that you want. drizzle the salad with olive oil and your preferred form of acid (lemon, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, etc), add S&P to taste and mix.
plate the salad and add the meat on top.
Chicken and berry salad:
about 4-6 oz of protein per person (i used chicken here)
1 carrot, grated
3 cups of spinach
chopped pecans
rinsed blueberries
sauté the chicken in a pan with about a T of coconut oil, garlic, lemon pepper, salt, coriander. mix the salad together; spinach, grated carrot, pecans, blueberries, and add the chicken on top. drizzle with olive oil and rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar. you can sub literally any protein and any veg.
OK, i will leave it for now, but will probably post some more recipes later if it's helpful!
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