Mojo Chicken with Charred Onions

As a kid I was always a picky eater - think plain hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. If a dish had more than two ingredients to it, I wasn't going to touch it. Once I got to high school and became interested in cooking, I started forcing myself to try new things. I started with the basics: you know, common fruits and vegetables I told myself I never liked. Eventually I branched out and developed a love for trying new foods. Now I not only like trying new dishes but I also love cooking them as often as humanly possible.

Not too long ago I stumbled upon this recipe from Laughing Spatula. Since I recently finished my first round of Whole30, a simple chicken dish with clean ingredients seemed right up my alley. A few quick tweaks to the recipe and 45 minutes later, I ended up with what will surely become your new favorite summer recipe. 

• 6-8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 red onion (thinly sliced)
• Juice of 1 orange
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1tsp minced garlic
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup chicken stock (I use sugar free)*
• 1tbsp cumin
• 1tsp salt
• 1/4tsp pepper
• 1/4tsp oregano

Combine all ingredients, except the red onion, in a gallon sized ziploc bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Heat a grill pan to medium-high heat. Once heated, add chicken and cook for 6 minutes on each side. Move chicken to a plate and add red onions to the grill pan. Cook onions until slightly charred, about 2-3 minutes per side (do not add any oil to the pan). Allow chicken to rest on a plate covered with foil until the onions are done.

Serve with rice and garnish with lime wedges.

*Whole30 Approved if sugar free

Whole30 Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Today is a big day for me. Ok, not really a big day but still somewhat of an accomplishment. Sixteen days ago I embarked on a journey to better my health. I made the decision to start what will be my first of many rounds of Whole30 and today, day sixteen, means I am officially more than halfway through!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Whole30, it's a "short-term nutritional reset, designed to help you put an end to unhealthy cravings and habits, restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and balance your immune system" (Whole30.com). For 30 days, I willingly gave up added sugar (real and artificial), alcohol (not even for cooking), grains, legumes, dairy, MSG, and sulfites. For most this sounds terrifying but I saw it as a challenge; a way to expand my culinary knowledge in relation to nutrition and to try new things.

We are creatures of habit and often times choose not to deter from what we know we like. We go out to the same restaurants over and over again and often order the same thing every time; and why wouldn't we, our trusty favorite dish never fails us right? Eating the same foods over and over gets boring and following the Whole30 guidelines can seem scary for a lot of people when you truly realize how limited you are with ingredients. I realized this on day one but I also chose to accept the challenge and to really push myself to try new things and experiment with different foods. Thankfully not only am I loving the way I feel, but I am LOVING the recipes I have come up with along the way.

One of the struggles of the Whole30 program is fighting off the cravings. When you give up a lot of foods you think you can't live without, you find yourself daydreaming about them. This becomes a true test of willpower. Fortunately for me, I haven't had many cravings throughout this journey but I owe it all to the foods I'm eating, especially meals like this. These meatballs are not only 100% Whole30 approved, but they also taste amazing and seem indulgent. Oh, and did I mention, they come together in less than 20 minutes. 

Yield: 12 meatballs

• 1lb ground chicken
• 1/2 cup grated carrots
• 1/4 cup diced celery
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup buffalo sauce (to keep this Whole30 use Tessemae's buffalo sauce or a mix of Franks hot sauce and ghee)

Preheat oven to 475°. Lightly grease a mini-muffin tin with oil. Add all ingredients except the buffalo sauce to a bowl and combine until mixed. Shape into 12 equal sized meatballs and place into the prepared pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Once the meatballs are done, transfer to a large bowl and top with sauce; toss to coat and serve.

Mini Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Scones

For the longest time I was very intimidated by scones. I'm not sure why I thought making them would be the most difficult thing in the world but I did. Last year I finally conquered my fear and made these carrot cake scones with cream cheese frosting. They were good. They were really good actually but scones aren't exactly the healthiest dessert choice. I decided to make it my mission to come up with a recipe for something that seemed indulgent but wasn't going to put people into a food coma after eating one. This past Friday we had a food day at work and what better chance to test out a new recipe than on my coworkers. This recipe makes 16 scones and after bringing these into work I was left with nothing...absolutely nothing, not even one single crumb in my container to take home. I'll take that as a compliment even though I didn't get to save an extra one for myself...

Yield: 16 scones • Serving size: 1 scone

Calories: 150 • Total Fat: 5g • Total Carbs: 24g • Fiber: 1.75g • Sugar: 11.5g • Protein: 3.5g

• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 3/4 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp red food coloring
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• Cooking spray
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp milk (I prefer almond or cashew milk)

Preheat oven to 375°. In a glass measuring cup, add milk and vinegar and whisk until just combined. Allow mixture to sit for 5-10 minutes to thicken (this is will end up being your "homemade buttermilk"). Once the mixture has thickened, add food coloring then vanilla and egg and whisk until combined. 

In a large bowl, combine the two flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt; whisk together. Cut in chilled, cubed, butter with a pastry blender until mixture looks like tiny pebbles. If you do not have a pastry blender you can use your hands but don't spend too much time mixing, you want the butter to stay cold. Add chocolate chips to flour mixture and mix so the chocolate chips are coated in the flour (adding the chocolate chips to the dry ingredients prevents the chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of the dough). 

Dump dough onto a floured surface and form into two disks so that each is about 1/2" tall and 6" across. The dough will be sticky so make sure you have enough flour on hand to add to it if necessary. Using a knife or pastry cutter, cut each disk into 8 pieces. 

Place scones about 1" apart on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat or sprayed with cooking spray. Brush tops of scones with egg white then sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. While scones are cooling, make the frosting: in a small bowl mix the powdered sugar and milk until the frosting is just thin enough to drizzle (if it is too thick, add more milk 1/8 tsp at a time). Using a spoon, drizzle over cooled scones and allow frosting to harden. Serve. 

Recipe heavily adapted from: Skinnytaste

Chicken Dumpling Soup

It's very rare to have a perfect weather day in the midwest. It's the beginning of January and within the past two weeks we've had an ice/snow storm, rain, intense fog, and weather in the teens then a day later it's in the mid 40's. I can't really ever tell if it's winter or spring. With that said, what I do know, is that it's perfect soup weather.

Any time it's gloomy all I want to do is sit in sweatpants, catch up on some reading, and eat homemade soup. Anyone else weirded out by the mushy veggies in canned soup? No? Ok it's just me then. Anyways....

When I was in high school, the one thing I could not live without was chicken dumpling soup from Vegas in Antioch. I had their soup schedule memorized and would die a little inside if I ever missed my chance to get their soup. It was the BEST. Now that I have moved away and their hours have changed (I'm still upset about this), I don't get the luxury of enjoying their soup. So, naturally, I took to my cookbooks to learn how to make my own.  

This recipe is pretty easy so don't be intimidated and it's a lot healthier than buying canned biscuits from the store and throwing them in some broth. Bonus: it makes for amazing leftovers (just ask my coworkers).

Yield: 4-6 servings

• 3 chicken breasts (poached and shredded)
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 white onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 48 oz reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup cold low fat buttermilk
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter (melted and still hot)
• 1 large egg white
• Fresh parsley (for garnish), optional

In a large pot, heat canola oil over medium heat. Once hot, add carrots and onions and sauté until softened (about 10 minutes). Add broth, thyme and shredded chicken. Bring to a low boil and simmer while preparing the dumplings. 

In a large bowl whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, stir chilled buttermilk into hot melted butter until small clumps form then whisk in egg white. Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until combined. If you're having trouble getting the dough to combine, use your hands. 

Using a greased spoon or your hands, scoop and drop dumplings into simmering soup (about 1" apart). Dumplings should be about 1-2" in size. Wrap the pot's lid with a clean kitchen towel, cover pot, and cook on low heat for 14-16 minutes or until dumplings have doubled in size. To prevent towel from touching heat source, use a rubber band (or in my case a hair tie) to hold excess towel together overtop lid. Serve and top with parsley.