Tag Archives: autoimmune

Crockpot Chicken Stew

| 2 Comments | AIP, Beatty Protocols, Meals, Recipes

Crockpot Chicken Stew | grain-free, paleo, AIP | AmandaNaturally.comWhen people ask what my favourite kitchen tool is, most expect me to say my Blendtec. And while I LOVE this luxurious item, it’s #3 on my list. First and foremost is my food processor. If I had to choose just 1 kitchen gadget, it would be that, without a doubt! But in a very close second, comes my slow cooker. It is an incredible tool for saving time, not to mention making delicious meals! 

When I first got my crockpot, however, I struggled with how to use it. Every recipe I found was complicated and involved at least 20 minutes of prep. Or the length of time recommended was only 5 or 6 hours. Since mornings were notoriously busy, and I was gone for a minimum of 8-9 hours every day, I struggled to find recipes that worked for me!

After a while, I started to experiment. Turns out most food can cook a LONG time in the slow cooker…and it only gets better!! Here’s my general formula for creating a delicious crockpot meal, in less than 5 minutes on a busy morning:

Tougher, fattier or bone in cut of meat (e.g. chicken thighs/legs, pork butt steaks, flank steak, beef shanks) seasoned with sea salt and pepper

+

A bit of liquid (either ½ a cup of broth or a can of tomatoes)

+

1-2 chopped onions

Cook on low until you get home.

Crockpot Chicken Stew | grain-free, paleo, AIP | AmandaNaturally.comCrockpot Chicken Stew | grain-free, paleo, AIP | AmandaNaturally.com

Crockpot Chicken Stew | grain-free, paleo, AIP | AmandaNaturally.com

You can even put in frozen meat if it’s going to cook at least 8-9 hours! 

Take it up a notch, if you have a few extra minutes in the morning, by adding in additional root vegetables on top of the meat.

For those of you who appreciate more exact directions, here’s my recipe for easy Crockpot Chicken Stew.

Crockpot Chicken Stew
Simple. Nourishing. Quick. Delicious.
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Prep Time
10 min
Prep Time
10 min
Ingredients
  1. ¼ - ⅓ cup of broth
  2. 4 pastured chicken thighs
  3. 1 bay leaf
  4. sea salt
  5. black pepper (omit if strict AIP)
  6. 2 onions, chopped
  7. 4-6 carrots, chopped
  8. 3 celery stalks, chopped
Instructions
  1. Pour broth into slow cooker. Add bay leaf.
  2. Season chicken breasts liberally with salt and pepper. Place in bottom of slow cooker.
  3. Throw veggies on top.
  4. Turn on low and cook until you get home (8-12 hours).
Notes
  1. Get creative! Use other spices or change to a flavoured sea salt.
  2. Other root vegetables work great as well! Try sweet potato slices or beets.
Amanda Naturally http://www.amandanaturally.com/

 So tell me, what’s your favourite quick meal to make in the slow cooker?

Harvest Breakfast Hash

| 4 Comments | AIP, Apps, Snacks & Sides, Beatty Protocols, Breakfasts, Recipes

Harvest Breakfast Hash | Egg-Free | AIP | Paleo | AmandaNaturally.comHave you ever thought about how many different variations of flour + dairy + sugar make up our breakfasts in North America? It’s pretty astounding! Whether it’s a bagel & cream cheese, a bowl of cereal, toast with jam, eggo waffles and “maple syrup” (i.e. corn syrup + maple flavour), a muffin and a double double from Tim’s – it’s all the same thing, in a different form. And most importantly, it’s all crap. None of the foods we consider breakfast foods are actually food. They’ve all gone through an incredible amount of processing, and we’re left with nutrient-poor, albeit incredibly tasty, food-like products.

The one exception is eggs so boy oh boy do I capitalize on those when I’m working with clients! 

Interesting side note: someone can eat a bagel and cream cheese, or toast and PB every day for breakfast and not get bored of it, but try suggesting eggs every day for breakfast and you’ll immediately get a firm “but I couldn’t eat them every day, I need some variety”. Very interesting…

Anyways, eggs are super awesome in so many ways. They’re full of incredible nutrients, healthy cholesterol (yes I said healthy!) and lots of protein. Still worried they’re causing heart disease? Think again my friends and go read Eat the Yolks by Liz Wolfe from Real Food Liz.

Harvest Breakfast Hash | Egg-Free | AIP | Paleo| AmandaNaturally.com
Step 1: Chop Veggies
Harvest Breakfast Hash | Egg-Free | AIP | Paleo| AmandaNaturally.com
Step 2: Pile on the Bacon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As awesome as eggs are for you, they’re also, sadly, a super common allergy. Not to mention they must be eliminated if you’re in the early stages of recovering from an autoimmune condition. And since we’ve already eliminated the other normal breakfast foods, once we eliminate eggs, we’re pretty much without breakfast foods. 

Now, when you’ve been following a real food diet for long enough, you start to think of food as food, and meals as meals, instead of breakfast food and breakfast. Heck, my favourite breakfast these days is soup – but that’s probably because bone broth makes my body feel so much better. Oh and soup’s awesome.

However, I can absolutely appreciate when my clients are a little hesitant about eating regular food for breakfast. I used to be a strict “breakfast food before 11am” person – it took me a while to get to soup and leftovers for breakfast. So with that in mind, I’ve created a delicious breakfast hash brown recipe, made with foods that are often consumed at breakfast and is egg-free! I bring you: Harvest Breakfast Hash!

Harvest Breakfast Hash | Egg-Free | AIP | Paleo| AmandaNaturally.com

This beautiful dish is filled with delicious goodies. Roasted sweet potatoes, smoky bacon, sweet apples and (this is going to floor my mom) fennel! Let me explain that comment in parenthesis…I hate fennel. Like absolutely despise it! I have always hated the flavour of black licorice, even as a kid, and fennel tastes like black licorice. Interestingly enough, black licorice is in the legume family, and since I have such a severe intolerance to legumes, I like to think my fierce aversion to licorice was my body’s attempt at protecting me! Now if only it had done that with milk…

Harvest Breakfast Hash | Egg-Free | AIP | Paleo| AmandaNaturally.com

So last week our food bin brought us a beautiful fennel bulb and I felt sick about throwing it straight in the compost. I had also read recently that roasted fennel is a much more mellow flavour. Also, I had used up all my eggs making banana muffins, so we had no eggs for Sunday brunch. So I figured I’d use the fennel in an egg-free breakfast hash – something I’ve been meaning to try for all my egg-free clients! And heck, if I hated it, I knew my husband would happily eat it all. So what happened?

I loved it!!

If you’re not sure, or you think you hate fennel, try it roasted in this recipe. If you really don’t like it, this recipe is still awesome with out it. Also, if you are lucky enough to tolerate eggs, slap a fried egg on top and let this hash soak up all the yolky goodness!

 

Harvest Breakfast Hash
An egg-free, autoimmune protocol-friendly breakfast that is packed with flavour! Makes an awesome side dish or salad topper as well!
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Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
45 min
Total Time
1 hr
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
45 min
Total Time
1 hr
Ingredients
  1. 8 cups sweet potato, diced
  2. 1 bulb fennel, chopped
  3. ½ red onion, chopped
  4. 2 apples, cored and chopped
  5. 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
  6. sea salt
  7. black pepper (omit if strict AIP)
  8. 1 lb pastured bacon, chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425F.
  2. Combine sweet potato, fennel, red onion, apple and garlic in a large roasting pan. Alternatively you can use 2 smaller pans or baking sheets.
  3. Add a liberal amount of sea salt and black pepper (if not strict AIP) and stir to combine
  4. Top with bacon pieces.
  5. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times.
  6. Broil for the final 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
  1. Omit fennel if you don't like it!
  2. Substitute butternut squash for SCD.
  3. Top with a fried egg if tolerated!
Amanda Naturally http://www.amandanaturally.com/

Harvest Breakfast Hash | Egg-Free | AIP | Paleo| AmandaNaturally.com

 

So tell me, have you gotten over the breakfast food for breakfast hump yet? If yes, what is your favourite non-traditional breakfast? If not, give it a go and report back!

Lemon Parsley Couscous

| 2 Comments | AIP, Apps, Snacks & Sides, Beatty Protocols, Recipes

Lemon Parsley "Couscous" - Amanda NaturallyCouscous is a funny food. Somehow it is thought of as healthy, kind of like quinoa (not saying quinoa is a superfood, but it’s certainly better than wonder bread…for some people). I can’t even count the number of times someone has said this exact phrase:

“We eat really healthy – lots of vegetables, salads, couscous etc.”

It really blows my mind! Why? Because couscous is pasta. That’s it. It’s made of durum semolina, which, according to Wikipedia, is the only tetraploid species of wheat of commercial importance that is widely cultivated today. Translation:

COUSCOUS = WHEAT

There are so many reasons why wheat is not good, but first and foremost is this: wheat (and gluten) causes Leaky Gut. If your gut is “leaky” your whole body is susceptible to all sorts of damage. This is the case even without an allergy or sensitivity! The good news is couscous is pretty darn tasteless on its own, the reason it’s delicious is it picks up the flavours you cook it with. So it is super easy to re-create the same type of feel, using a healthier food! Enter:

CAULIFLOWER!

Lemon Parsley "Couscous" - Amanda Naturally

If you’ve been dabbling in the real-food, paleo, ancestral, WAP, primal, gluten-free, grain-free, low-carb or creative cooking world at all, you have probably come across a recipe for cauli-rice. I used it in my recipe for Sausage Stuffed Delicata Squash a few months ago, but never gave it it’s own blog post. So today I bring you, cauli-couscous! Or more specifically:

Lemon Parsley Couscous

By simply chopping up a cauliflower into teeny pieces, you can mimic the feel of couscous, or rice for that matter, really easily. The best part is it sops up sauce or gravy like the real thing. Even better? It’s jam-packed with nutrients and full of insoluble fibre to feed the healthy gut bacteria, all while being low in carbohydrates so it won’t damage your insulin sensitivity, cause small intestinal bowel overgrowth or lead to fatigue! 

Lemon Parsley "Couscous" - Amanda Naturally

Key tips:

1. Don’t over pulse the cauliflower. It should look like this:

Lemon Parsley "Couscous" - Amanda Naturally

2. Be liberal with your fat use! It really needs the fat to get the right taste and texture.

3. Similarly, be liberal with your use of sea salt.

4. It’s pretty hard to overcook this, but you definitely don’t want to undercook it. Better to get started earlier than planned, and if it’s done early, simply turn the heat down and cover until you’re ready to eat.

5. Serve with anything! This recipe goes great with middle eastern spices, like the Cracklin’ Pork Belly from Beyond Bacon.

Lemon Parsley "Couscous" - Amanda Naturally

Lemon Parsley Couscous
Serves 4
A grain-free, gluten-free, low-carb, nutrient-dense alternative to couscous!
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Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
20 min
Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
20 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 head of cauliflower
  2. 2 small onions
  3. 3-4 cloves garlic
  4. 2 tbsp butter (or ghee, goat butter, lard)
  5. 2 tbsp olive oil
  6. sea salt
  7. ½ cup parsley, chopped
  8. zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
  1. Heat a large pan over medium heat, add in butter or lard and olive oil.
  2. Meanwhile, in your food processor, mince garlic. Throw in onion, pulse until roughly chopped.
  3. Scrape into pan and cook for 5 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, chop your cauliflower into smaller pieces.
  5. Throw half into the food processor and pulse until it resembles couscous or rice.
  6. Toss into pan.
  7. Repeat with the second half of the cauliflower. Season liberally with sea salt.
  8. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  9. When the "couscous" is done, remove from heat, stir in parsley and lemon zest.
Amanda Naturally http://www.amandanaturally.com/
Lemon Parsley "Couscous" - Amanda Naturally

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