Garlic Chicken

• 2lbs chicken, cut in bite sized pieces
• 1 carton crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced 
• 2 shallots, coarsely chopped
• 6-10 cloves of garlic
• 1 carton chicken stock/broth
• 1/4 c. white wine (optional--not to be used during the first 30 days)
• creamed coconut
• coconut oil/ghee/evoo
• Salt & Pepper

1. Add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to a large saute pan and melt over medium heat.  Alternately, melt ghee or warm evoo.
2. Add chopped shallots.  
3. Saute shallots until translucent, about 5 minutes.
4. Add sliced mushrooms.  Allow mushrooms to cook about 3 minutes before stirring to let them caramelize a bit.  Continue cooking, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.
5. Season with a heavy pinch of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste.
6. Remove shallots and mushrooms from pan and hold in a heat proof dish.
7. Increase heat to medium-high.  Using remaining fat in the pan (add more if needed), quickly brown chicken pieces.  It is not important for them to be cooked thru at this point.  It is only important they be browned to develop their flavor.
8. Add white wine (if using) or water to deglaze pan.  (To "deglaze" means to add a liquid to the pan to loosen the caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan--use your spoon to help loosen the bits. This adds depth of flavor)
9. Add enough chicken stock/broth to cover the bite-sized chicken pieces. Reduce heat to low and allow the liquid to reduce by half.  
10. Add the shallots and mushrooms to the pan.
11. Add creamed coconut one spoonful at a time until the sauce is a rich creamy texture.  (About 2 tablespoons, but adjust to taste)

Once upon a time, in my pre-paleo days, I would serve my garlic chicken on top of jasmine rice.  And I still do.....every once in a great long while.  In my experience, rice every now and again is ok, but you need to make the personal judgement call based on how you look, feel, and perform.  

Now, instead of rice, I serve this on top of zucchini "noodles" (thin sliced zucchini strips blanched in boiling salt water and sauteed for a minute or so with some coconut oil or ghee), kelp noodles (http://www.kelpnoodles.com/), or every now and then, Paleo Pasta (http://www.paleopasta.com/).  Also great to leave the chicken in whole breast pieces and top with the mushroom and shallot sauce.

Enjoy!

Back in the saddle....again

It's been a LLOONNGG time since my last post--but with good reason!

I have been blessed with an amazing and very close family....and that sweet family of mine has been through some pretty tough challenges in the past few months! Hours after my last--and first--post, my husband's great grandmother, Hattie Woodall of Scottsboro AL passed away. My hubby had been out to sea for quite some time and she passed the day after he got back--we got on a plane the next day to be with the family.

A week later, my grandmother, Janice Wallace, took a pretty brutal fall. She had severe bruising and even swelling of the brain. We weren't sure how she would fare, so I flew home to help care for her. Thankfully, she pulled through! She is still plagued with headaches and is still a little tipsy some days, but most definitely on the mend :)

Shortly after returning home from helping with my grandmother, my sweet grandpa John Pritchard became very ill...he has been struggling for a long time with heart and other health issues. I almost went to Minnesota to be with family, but after 36 or so hours of being 'touch and go' my grandpa seemed to improve. My hubby and I really wanted to go visit; our schedules are just so crazy we thought it would be a few months before we could make the trip. Sadly, my grandpa passed away last week. We made the trip to Minnesota to say our goodbyes.

All of the family things...and the holidays...and even a HHUUGGEE snowstorm that left us without power for a few days really threw a metaphorical wrench in my paleo gears. In the midst of all of the upset in my family, I did conclude a 'challenge' in my boot camp group--despite my 'slip ups' in diet and understandable inconsistent workouts, I managed to improve over 50% in all areas of my workout--pushups, upright rows, sumo squats, and wallsits. All due to--in my belief--the positive changes in my eating thanks to being Paleo and the amazing strength gained in my boot camp workouts :)

I did ultimately put eating clean and really committing to my workouts on a shelf...with some pretty icky consequences. No regrets--I did what I did and put my family first! But man oh man did my tummy let me know that I really do need to eat like a cave woman and that the 'Standard American Diet' is truly super icky!!

I'll spare you all the details and just sum it up--I had been eating a clean healthy paleo diet and working my bum off in my workouts. I lost weight, was sleeping well for the first time in years, and all in all felt amazing!! When I quit doing that I really paid the price with tummy aches, severe fatigue, headaches and all and all just feeling plain crummy!!

Before my trip last week to Minnesota, I had committed to a full 21 days of pure paleo...I quit after a week when I went to visit my family. But in that week, I truely felt an amazing difference! By day two, the tummy aches were gone--day 4 no headache--and day 6 I felt my energy coming back!

Now--I am back home--no immediate emergencies on the horizon--and am ready to really commit to this! I'll be starting a fresh 21 day cycle of pure clean paleo eating and some awesome kick butt workouts through eplifefit.com (AMAZING resource and community--check it out!!) I am truely excited to get back on my path to health and fitness :)

Stay tuned--I am excited to share my success and discoveries along the way!

Naomi
the "Paleo Pupil"