Our rental house in Vermont has plenty of room to spread out, and frequently, our extra-large dining table is surrounded by Dave's classmates from the Center for...
Read MoreFive Paleo Dinners To Cook Next Week #15
I’ve been eating a lot of kipper snacks and smoked oysters lately. I eat them like an animal… a sea lion, specifically.
My go-to lunch (and breakfast, if I’m being totally honest) is a bed of baby spinach topped with roasted chicken breast, some kind of canned fish, and sliced apples, cucumbers, carrots, with a few olives on the side. When I’ve been heads-up and made a batch of pickled eggs and beets, they go on there, too. It’s kind of like when I create a totally badass salad at a restaurant salad bar, only there’s no sneeze guard and I don’t have to ask someone to refill my water glass.
Do you think I’m turning into a sea lion?!
Anyway… as delicious as my salad plates are, I don’t expect you to embrace the canned-fish-is-bliss idea as much as I do, so I’ve collected recipes for five dinners—plus a crazy-good sauce and a paleo staple—that are equally delicious and nutritious (and won’t make you feel like a sea lion. Probably.)
Dinner Ideas (Whole30 compliant)
Paleo Rogan Josh
Cookup Tips: This curry is simple to make, and it’s very, very luscious. You should probably make a double batch; I’m not even kidding. This recipe is great for Cookup day because once you get it going, you can just forget about it while it simmers in the background.
Recommended Sides: Cauliflower Rice is definitely the way to go. If you’re feeling fancy, you could opt for Cauliflower Rice Pilaf instead and make some Mint Chutney, too.
Thai Yummy Salad
Cookup Tips: This salad is bright, crisp, fresh, and load with irrestible umami. You’ll need to add protein to make a complete meal: roasted chicken, poached shrimp, and cooked salmon are the best choices. (Use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store or canned salmon to make it über-easy.) You can make the dressing and cut all the veggies in advance and store them in covered containers or baggies, then when it’s time to eat, just toss and devour.
Recommended Sides: You really don’t need anything else, but if you wanted to make a layered Thai bowl with Oven-Roasted Cauliflower Rice on the bottom, salad in the middle, and a some hot-from-the-stove chicken on top, I wouldn’t stop you. The contrast of hot rice with cool veggies is pretty awesome.
Firecracker Tuna Salad
Cookup Tips: If you make a batch of mayo in advance, you can whip up this tuna salad in almost no time. Or use your Cookup time to make a double batch of tuna salad so it’s ready to grab all week.
Recommended Sides: Colorful veggies are the way to go: Simple Red Cabbage Salad, a bed of baby spinach, and lots of crudité with Cumin-Lime Dressing for dipping.
Fiesta Pork Chops
Cookup Tips: This one really tastes best when you make it fresh, but it’s a fast recipe!
Recommended Sides: I like these chops with green beans (steamed and tossed with ghee), Mashed Cauliflower, or boiled potatoes with ghee. You could also do a simple sauté of wide strips of onion with green and red bell peppers and a pinch of chili powder.
Paleo Pad Thai
Cookup Tips: Make all the components during your cookup—roast or grill the chicken, cut the veggies, roast the spaghetti squash, make the Sunshine Sauce—then when it’s time to eat, you’re, like, 10 minutes from slurping the squash noodles.
Recommended Sides: This has everything you need for a complete meal, but if you made the Thai Yummy Salad above, you could have a two-course Thai meal, and that would be rad.
Condiment (Whole30 compliant)
Best-Ever Stir-Fry Sauce
Cookup Tips: You can make this during your Cookup in under 10 minutes, and it stays fresh in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. That means you can make a simple stir-fry in less time than it takes to order take-out.
Staple (Whole30 Compliant)
Perfectly Peelable Hard-Boiled Eggs
Cookup Tips: Make a dozen hard-boiled eggs during your Cookup and add them to meals all week long! You could chop them and sprinkle over the Thai Yummy Salad, slice them to eat alongside Firecracker Tuna, toss slices into your Pad Thai during the last sauté step, or use them to make Pickled Eggs to add zing to your salads.
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Ohhh…I love these Thursday posts!
Believe it or not, this week I’m especially excited about your egg guidance. We moved from Florida to Colorado earlier this month and are now blessed with beautiful new options for food sourcing–including for local, pasture-raised eggs. Problem is, they aren’t peeling quite as easily (likely because they’re fresher)…so we definitely need some tips!
I recently tried pressure cooking my eggs- 6 minutes on low pressure then cool in cold water bath- they peeled very well.
Hope you’re enjoying Colorado; that sounds awesome! Let me know how your eggs turn out!
Canned fish IS bliss! 🙂
I made the Rogan Josh, Pad Thai, and Pickled Eggs for my cook-up today. We ate the Rogan Josh with oven roasted cauliflower and asparagus for dinner tonight. It was so so so delicious. Thanks a bunch for these posts. I love the weekly menu ideas!
I’m so glad these posts are helpful to you! Thanks for letting me know. Hope your pickled eggs are perfectly pink 🙂