entree – that paleo couple

Olive and Artichoke Stuffed Chicken Breasts

August 22, 2018August 21, 2018 by Brent Schrader 1 Comment

This week’s recipe is inspired by something Heather and I had when visiting my parents earlier this year. These chicken breasts were stuffed with a combination of kalamata and Spanish olives, marinated artichoke hearts, and garlic.

We decided to take on the task ourselves at home this weekend, and it did not disappoint. Normally, we’re more likely to prepare an entire chicken and stuff the cavity with aromatics, but this is a great option for batch cooking meals for the week or if you are strictly counting calories and macronutrients for health and performance goals. I’m dialing in my food at the moment to prepare for a couple of races in the fall, so we’ll see how it goes! More on that in a future post, but for now, enjoy the food!

Pork Belly Buffalo Keto Bites

May 30, 2018 by Brent Schrader Leave a comment

A few weeks ago Heather and I decided to pick up a large package of pork belly at Costco (never go to Costco hungry, folks). We had no plan for what to do with it at the time, but we went ahead and picked it up. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs that shopping trip, so we ended up with way more food at home than we needed and it came to a point where we needed to cook or freeze this pork belly. Since I’ve been mainly following a keto diet for the past 5 months, I decided to pan fry some of the pork belly for fun. As a fan of spicy foods, I quickly tossed the fried pork belly in some Frank’s Red Hot, and I was blown away with how much these taste like tiny, boneless buffalo wings. They’re addictive and super easy—my favorite combination. My only warning is to wear an apron and use a splatter guard, as they kick up a bit of hot grease (especially if you’re making multiple batches).

Enjoy these as buffalo bites, or experiment with your favorite buffalo wing flavors (barbecue, curry, asian sweet and sour). We’ll do a follow up post some time soon with some variations. Happy eating!

Keto-Friendly Chicken Fried Steak

February 21, 2018February 20, 2018 by Brent Schrader 1 Comment

Heather and I are doing a great job eating well to kick off 2018. That means we’ve avoided most fried foods, and definitely avoided ordering in junk food. We feel great, and are fitting into clothes better, and that says a lot considering we’re also sleep training our almost nine (!##@!) month old son. Despite our good habits, we still have the occasional craving.

Chicken fried steak wasn’t a big staple for either of us growing up, but let’s be honest—it sounds amazing. Amazing in that it sounds like it’s too unhealthy to really be something you should eat. We didn’t let that stop us from making a low-carb friendly version. I’ve been strictly keto for the past 2 months, and eventually I’ll write more about my results either here or elsewhere, but for now, here’s a recipe for your keto kitchen. If you want to hear more about what I’ve been doing (and how I’ve lost about 30 pounds) let me know in the comments.

Enough yapping, on to the recipe…

Caesar Marinated Chicken Thighs

February 7, 2018February 6, 2018 by Brent Schrader Leave a comment

Over the past 6 weeks, Heather and I have been trying to focus more on eating real food and making straightforward recipes. There’s something about having an eight-month-old at home, and working on sleep training, that makes one want to minimize any extra work outside the essentials. In that vein, we’ve always been a big fan of batch cooking, and sheets of chicken thighs (or other cuts of chicken) have always been a standard. In a pinch, we’ll bake chicken thighs with just salt and pepper, but usually we prefer more flavor.

Last year we cooked up a delicious, mayonnaise based Caesar dressing that knocked our socks off. We figured it would make a good marinade as well, and we were right. This adds a nice flavor and a thin crust to the thighs that take the flavor up a level. You can eat these on their own, or slice them up and add them to a chicken Caesar salad! However you choose to eat them, you won’t be disappointed.

Curry-Rubbed Top Round Roast

January 17, 2018January 16, 2018 by Brent Schrader 1 Comment

We’ve had an eventful start to the new year—a few days after returning to work, our son Otto woke up with pink eye. To add to that, he had a persistent cold (that he happily shared with mom and dad) which developed into a mild ear infection. His temperament has been cheery, but he hates his antibiotic with a passion. If that didn’t seem to be enough, just a few days ago, Otto started to crawl. As amazing and exciting of a milestone as this is for him, we were not (and are still not) ready to be landlords of a mobile baby.

Despite these life events, we’ve been busier in the kitchen than ever. Part of this past weekend was conducting recipe testing for our friend Russ, in anticipation of his new cookbook (read more about that here), and we found ourselves left with a nice cut of top round roast. You know the story: our choices were either a 1.5 lb roast or a 5 lb roast when we only needed 3 lbs. What do we do with leftover meat? Make new recipes.

With that, we decided to dry-rub the roast in curry. If you’ve been with us for some time, you know we’re fans of curry (here are a few select examples). Fun fact: the concept of curry is a completely British/American invention, as there isn’t one “curry powder” in traditional cuisine. Indian and African dishes that require a blend of spices (what we call a curry), vary in ingredients and ratios, and were often ground for the meal being prepared. This is partly why store-bought curry powders often taste similar, but not exactly the same—there’s no master formula. We used the West African Curry blend from the Teeny Tiny Spice Company of Vermont for this recipe, but I think any curry powder will work.