Tag: cooking

Chicken Pesto Pasta

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Chicken pesto pasta was a mainstay in my house growing up. It was served with extra pine nuts and bowtie or shell pasta, and it was often eaten straight out of the tupperware standing in front of the refrigerator. Yes, I love pesto. We’ve made some other pesto-related dishes, but it was really time to take a stab at the classic. We used our awesome spiralizer to make zucchini noodles (or zoodles) that rival the wheat-based pasta we no longer eat.

Make this chicken pesto pasta for a weekend picnic, or when planning out meals for the week. We ate almost all of it in a matter of hours, but the two leftover servings we set aside were great during the week as well. Enjoy this recipe, and check out the bottom of the post for more of our pesto-rific paleo recipes!

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Simple Grilled Barbecue Chicken

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A mainstay of the summertime is barbecue. We love barbecue chicken, ribs, and more; but we often don’t make the time to get it done. The one exception is Memorial Day—I usually get up at 7 am to start smoking ribs for dinner. That being said, we love chicken drumsticks and thighs. Not only are they a great meal, we can cook them in bulk and pack them in meals for the week.

This recipe uses the rib rub we put together for our Memphis Dry Rub Ribs, and is less involved than our other Split Barbecue Chicken recipe. You’ll love these alone, or with a side of our barbecue sauce. Happy grilling!

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Lamb-Wrapped Asparagus

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Last week, we created a recipe for Baeckeoffe, and we had a few pounds of pork shoulder, lamb shoulder, and beef chuck remaining. We froze the beef, but decided to use our handy meat slicer to make thinly slices of the pork and lamb. Stir fry! That’s what we would do with the pork. Easy. Deciding what to do with the lamb was less so.

By Saturday, I knew we had to use the lamb—or else it might spoil. So, as I wandered through Costco, I searched for inspiration. It came when I saw the asparagus. Bacon-wrapped asparagus is amazing. Why not try it with lamb? I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Plus, it’s simple, but looks quite fancy. You’re friends definitely will be impressed. So, I highly recommend it for a dinner party!

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Baeckeoffe (Laundry Day Stew)

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Even in warm weather, Heather and I are big fans of stews. Our time in Germany introduced us to many hearty recipes, and during our travels we came across this recipe as well. We had heard of it before, but never made it ourselves. While we didn’t order this at any restaurants, we came home determined to make it ourselves.

This “laundry day” stew has an interesting background, originating from the Alastian region of France, which borders Germany. According to Wikipedia, “women would prepare this dish on Saturday evening and leave it with the baker to cook in his gradually cooling oven on Sunday while they attended the lengthy Lutheran church services once typical to the culture.” Some versions even called for making this with quartered pigs feet—we love cooking with pig feet (talk about gelatinous broth) but left it out for those who either can’t, or don’t, want to use them in the kitchen. This stew is very filling and is a winner cold or warm. Let us know how you like it!

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Gurkensalat (German Cucumber Salad)

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The day after the FIFA Women’s World Cup match between Germany and USA (Let’s go, USA!), it felt appropriate to reflect on our recent trip to Germany. In May Heather and I spent almost two weeks there, touring mostly Munich and even spent a day and a half in Berlin. We were also fortunate enough to celebrate a family wedding with Heather’s extended family—the Germans sure know how to throw a wedding. Did you know it’s custom for the best man (in Germany called the First Man) to steal the bride the night of the wedding? We had already sent ourselves to bed, but the bride was indeed “stolen” into town, where the groom had to find her and pay their bar tab. Let’s just say the wedding party was not exactly rested at breakfast the next morning.

Despite being known for heavy meat and potato style dishes, Munich also had plenty of lighter options. We did a lot of shopping at the local grocery stores to be price conscious, and we found a cucumber salad we had to recreate. If you haven’t noticed before, I love cucumber. We have quite a few different cucumber-centric salads on the blog (I’ve made a short list at the bottom of this post), but we think this one really adds to the variety. Traditionally made with dairy, we were able to get the same creaminess without the cow. This recipe improves even more with age, so make a double batch and pack your weekly lunches—you won’t regret it.

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