Five Paleo Dinners To Cook Next Week #104

This is, potentially, a very weird—and possibly unwise—thing for a cookbook author to admit, but…

Sometimes I really get tired of thinking about food.

Don’t get me wrong: I still want to eat delicious things, and I want them to be healthy while they’re tasting good. But right now, I have other things on my mind: Our upcoming trip to Bohemian Switzerland! The thrilling Philip Kerr book I’m reading! Brass Avenue Band on Saturday! More food photography! Eating right now is a means to an end: I need good energy to do all the things I want to do!

So this week, I chose recipes that are easy to make and produce big quantities for leftovers, just in case you’d rather think about splashing in the pool or taking a nap than planning dinner. Happy cooking and relaxing and adventuring!

Dinner Ideas (Whole30 compliant)

Buffalo Chicken Chopped Salad

Cookup Tips: Make the dressing, poach the chicken, and chop the vegetables in advance, then when it’s time to eat, just toss it together and dig in.

Recommended Sides: This recipe includes protein, veggies, and fat, so you don’t need to add a thing. But if you want to, Crispy Sweet Potato Fries are a yummy choice.

Citrus Pork Carnitas

Cookup Tips: This can be made over the course of a lazy weekend day, then turned into kickass meals all week long. It requires almost no hands-on work, and it’s crazy good.

Recommended Sides: I know I’ve been pushing plantains a lot lately, but pork+plantains is such a delicious equation. And it’s choose your own adventure: you can go for Crispy (green) or Sautéed (yellow). For Crispy, you can boil the plantains in advance, then crisp-up just before eating. The carnitas are also awesome with the Cucumber-Pineapple Salsa listed below and Cauliflower Rice with your favorite salsa.

South Indian Curry

Cookup Tips: This curry is ridiculously easy to make and so luscious and comforting! You’ll need to add protein to this to make it a complete meal: roasted chicken, poached shrimp, browned ground beef or lamb, or cooked salmon are all good choices. (Use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store or canned salmon to make it über-easy.) Or try it for breakfast topped with a few fried eggs! Make the sauce during your cookup, then just reheat with your favorite protein when it’s time to eat.

Recommended Sides: A bed of raw baby spinach underneath the whole shebang is very nice. The hot curry wilts the spinach and makes the whole thing quite luscious.

Bacon-Potato Salad

Cookup Tips: This tastes best after a day or two in the fridge, so you can make it during your Cookup and enjoy it later in the week.

Recommended Sides: To make this a complete meal, add Roasted or Grilled Chicken Thighs to your plate; bonus points if you throw together this quick Super Simple Spring Salad.

Tropical Tacos with Jicama Slaw

Cookup Tips: Shred the veggies for the slaw in advance and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. When it’s time to eat, add the lime and cilantro to the slaw and cook the pork.

Recommended Sides: None required! But if you want a little something-something, Oven-Roasted Cauliflower Rice would be great!

Condiments (Whole30 compliant)

Chimichurri

Cookup Tips: You can make this during your Cookup in, like, 5 minutes, and it stays fresh in the refrigerator for about a week. You can use Chimichurri on all kinds of meat and veggies: burger patties, broiled steak, roasted chicken, steamed shrimp, tossed salad, steamed veggies, and the Carnitas recommended above!

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