Green Chili Turkey Burgers with Cabbage Avocado Slaw

This recipe came together in no time! It'd be a great weeknight meal. I prepped all the burgers over the weekend and cooked them on Sunday. I made a half batch of slaw at a time and ate the leftovers the next day. The slaw kept well for a day or two but I recommend you try not to prep that more than 2 days ahead.

Hope you enjoy!
Cabbage Slaw

-1 bag of shredded cabbage or slaw mix
-1 1/2 avocado (mashed in)
-juice of 1 lime
-juice of 1 lemon
-1 tsp cumin
-1/8 tsp cayenne
-sea salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix up. Mash the avocado with a fork into the slaw.

Turkey Burgers

-1 tsp minced garlic
-1/4 medium yellow onion (diced)
-1 lb. ground turkey breast
-1 tsp cumin
-dash cayenne
-salt/pepper
-squeeze of lemon

-Mix all ingredients into a bowl until well combined.
-Evenly distribute mixture for 4 patties
-Heat non stick skillet to medium high heat
-Add all burgers
-Brown for 4-5 minutes on each side
-Continue to cook until meat is well done (10-15 minutes total cook time)

Chicken, Sweet Potato & Kale Stew

If only there were more hours in the day...

Time and time and time again, my clients tell me that the biggest challenge to eating well is busy schedules and lack of extra time.  Meal planning, grocery shopping and food prep often fall by the wayside in lieu of getting ahead at work, soccer practice, homework and squeezing in some "me time." 

And time and time and time again, I encourage my clients to plan a few meals using easy ingredients at the beginning of the week.  Prep your ingredients on Sunday if needed.  You may even double a recipe to make in bulk, and freeze half for another busy night down the road. 

This is one such recipe.  There are many time saving adjustments you can take to make this easier than it already is.  Now, there is no excuse for enjoying a healthy meal on any night of the week!

For this slow cooker recipe, I recommend prepping some of the ingredients ahead of time- cube your sweet potatoes, trim your kale, chop your onions and mince your garlic the night before. 

Time saving tip- you may substitute the following to get this delicious dish on the table even faster!

* pre-washed and trimmed kale
* pre-cubed sweet potatoes
* frozen chopped onions
* jarred minced garlic

With all your ingredients prepped the night before, all you will need to do is wake up in the morning and throw your ingredients into the crockpot!  Start by placing the chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Pour your sweet potatoes on top of the chicken, then layer on your kale, onions, garlic and diced tomatoes.  Whisk your tomato paste with 1 cup water and the sage, parsley,  cayenne and black pepper.  Pour mixture over your vegetables along with remaining water and chicken broth.

Place your lid on the slow cooker, and cook on low for about 8 hours.  Pull the chicken breast out of the crockpot and shred with a fork.  Stir chicken back into stew.  And there you have it- easy, full of disease preventing nutrients, chock full of protein, and super comforting for a chilly day!  This recipe freezes well and makes for good leftovers to bring to work for a healthy lunch.  Enjoy :)

Chicken, Sweet Potato & Kale Stew

4 chicken breasts
4 medium sweet potatoes, cubed
1 bunch fresh kale, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1 can low sodium diced tomatoes
2 Tb tomato paste
2 cups water
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 tsp dried sage
2 tsp dried parsley
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1. Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker
2. Pour your sweet potatoes on top of the chicken, then layer on your kale, onions, garlic and diced tomatoes. 
3. Whisk your tomato paste with 1 cup water and the sage, parsley,  cayenne and black pepper.  Pour mixture over your vegetables along with remaining water and chicken broth.
4. Place your lid on the slow cooker, and cook on low for about 8 hours.
5. Pull the chicken breast out of the crockpot and shred with a fork.  Stir chicken back into stew.  Serve hot!

 

Nutrition Analysis per serving (makes 6 servings)



327 calories
5gm fat, 1gm saturated fat
101mg cholesterol
330mg sodium
31gm carbohydrate
6gm fiber
8gm sugar
39gm protein

Coffee Brownies (Raw/Paleo)

Sometimes you just need a chocolate fix. I happen to like the sweet/salty flavor combo. These brownies satisfy that craving without all the extra refined sugars and overly processed ingredients. These brownies taste a lot like the Jocalat Larabars. You can customize theses bars by swapping the coffee grounds and cutting the vanilla extract in half and adding a different extract (orange, coconut, peppermint, etc.). Go ahead, give it a try!

recipe adapted from mynewroots.org 

Coffee Brownie

-1 cup almonds

-1 cup walnuts

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-20 medjool dates (small)

-1 c. cocoa powder (unsweetened)

-1/2 tsp coffee grounds

-dash of sea salt

-Combine almonds, vanilla, 1/2 of cocoa powder, salt, and coffee grounds in food processor. Pulse until well combined and crumbly. Then add in dates and walnuts. Pulse until it looks like dirt (literally). When you mash the mixture between your finger tips it should stick together.

-Line a brownie pan with parchment paper and pour mixture inside pan. Pat down firmly and place in the freezer until firm (a few hours). Then remove, cut into squares and enjoy! I store mine in the freezer for a nice old treat, I also prefer the texture when they are frozen.

Beet Hummus

Dear Mom,

If you're reading this, as I'm sure you are, I'm sorry. You may want to stop reading now. I'm pretty sure this recipe is considered betrayal to my arab roots.

Love you,

Z



No self respecting arab tries to tamper with a good thing, except me. Funny story, this one time I asked for baked falafel, turns out, that's gross. The falafel turned into hockey puck like saucers that my family then threw around the dinning room table. I don't think they'll ever let me live that one down.

Chickpeas aren't paleo and I miss them. So I decided to try to recreate a food I grew up on. I read a few blogs talking about beet hummus but they added silly things like cumin to their hummus. Why? I don't know. The first time I made this I used red beets, magenta hummus? I think not. Second time around I used golden beets, at least the color is closer.

I DO think this tastes great. It's a fun dip for raw veggie or to mix into chicken salad or tuna salad recipes. It's no traditional hummus though. I'm convinced nothing will ever compare. I can't ever stop eating hummus forever. It just feels wrong. Having said all that. Go ahead and try it. This is a great way to get in an extra vegetable, healthy fats, and fiber. Also, beets are great pre workout fuel! They are vasodilators, which enhances blood flow and means more oxygen travels into your muscles. YEY!

It should look like this when you're all done

Beet Hummus

-6 small to medium yellow beets (boiled and skinned)
-2 Tbs. Tahini
-1/2 + 2 extra squeezes of fresh lemon juice
-1/2 Tbs. minced garlic (you can use garlic powder too)
-1/4 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
-dash of salt

1. You'll want to boil your beets until they are fork tender. Then let them cool and peel the skin with your hands. It's the easiest way to cook up beets (in my opinion).
2. Toss all your ingredients in the food processor and pulse until smooth (I let it run about 3-5 minutes)

Enjoy with baby carrots, diced cucumbers, peppers, sliced mushrooms or anything!

Paleo Chicken Meatballs and Eggplant Bake

This was one of those recipes that I came up with on the fly. I opened my fridge and pantry, took a quick inventory and decided I had a lot of produce to use up. The eggplant bake is a little like ratatouille.  It pairs well with pretty much any protein (fish, chicken, beef, etc.) and take very little prep.

You could also make the chicken meatballs into larger patties and puree the eggplant bake (to form a sauce). Think of it as an open faced burger with a nice veggie sauce. Add a little feta cheese (if you'd like) and you've got another great meal! Throwing veggies in the blender to make a puree is a great way to sneak extra veggies into a picky eaters' diet!


For the Meatballs…

Chicken Meatballs:

-1 lb ground chicken breast
-1/8 c. egg whites
-1/4 c. coconut flour
-3/4 tsp minced garlic (or more if you like it garlicky)
-1 tsp. dried parsley
-1 tsp dried thyme
-1/2 tsp pepper flakes

Step 1

Mix until well combined. This will be kind of sticky but you can slightly dampen your hands with water to prevent them from sticking when you roll.

Step 2

I rolled them into golfball sized balls and put them into a lightly oiled non sticky skillet on medium high. Let brown on each side (5-8 minutes).

Step 3

Then flip over and let brown again. You can continue to bake here but since I'm adding them to my eggplant bake I pulled them off the stovetop to finish cooking in the oven.














Eggplant Bake:

-1 whole eggplant (small-medium) diced

before baking

-1  orange pepper diced
-1 yellow pepper diced
-1/2 large yellow onion diced
-5 strips turkey bacon diced
-1 carton crushed tomato sauce
-1 T. minced garlic
-1 T dried thyme
-1 T dried parsley
-Salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 Degree.

Throw all ingredients into a ceramic baking dish. Add meatballs from above (or not if you are making this solo). Mix together and bake for 30-45 minutes (until eggplant fork tender and meatballs fully cooked). You can enjoy this plain or on top of spaghetti squash.