Recipe: Crock Pot Chicken (sans-tortilla) soup

I've been pretty obsessed with my crock pot lately, now that it is finally a little bit colder at night, soups and chilis sound more and more appetizing after a long day of work and working out.

Yesterday I was inspired by a paleo recipe and decided to try a little something of my own in the crock pot. It's a lot like chicken tortilla soup, without the tortillas. It was really good! Dave loved it and ate two large bowls.

Ingredients:

3-4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
6 cups chicken broth
3 sweet potatoes (about 3 cups cubed)
3-4 large carrots (about 2 cups cubed)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups arugula or spinach (I used arugula and the peppery flavor was quite good!)
1 jar of fresh salsa (I used mild salsa by 365 from Whole Foods)
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp onion powder
2 teaspoons lime juice
zest of 1 lime (the leftover lime from the juice works great)

Garnish: chopped fresh cilantro & avocado slices

Step 1. In a large crockpot bowl, add the chicken, chicken broth, salsa, garlic, lime juice, lime zest, onion powder and salt. Set on low for about 8 hours.
Step 2. After 8 hours, add the cubed sweet potatoes & carrots, making sure they are still submerged in the broth. Set the crock pot on high and leave for another hour.
   *** Side Note: You can probably chop up the sweet potatoes and carrots and put it in with the first step ingredients. I just didn't have time in the morning and had to quickly do it in between getting off work at 5:00 and making it to boot camp at 6:00. I'm sure cooking them all day does wonders to the veggie flavor.
Step 3. Once everything is cooked, scoop out about 2-3 cups worth of vegetables and broth and place in a blender for about 15 seconds. Make sure the chicken stays at the bottom of the crock pot so it doesn't make it into the blender. With two large forks, start shredding the chicken in the crock pot by pulling the forks away from each other. Once the chicken is fully shredded, add the blended mixture back in, along with the arugula. Once the arugula has cooked down (this took all of 2 minutes in my crock pot) the soup is ready to serve.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and avocado slices. SO DELICIOUS.

Paleo cookies

My bible in the kitchen is Against All Grain by Danielle Walker. Whenever I am needing a little creativity in the kitchen, I turn to her book for guidance. Lately I have been marking a lot of pages in her book of recipes to try (and possibly modify for myself) and last night I tried this recipe. I've been jonesin' for cookies lately (of the cinnamon oatmeal raisin variety) and this one was a pretty close substitute, but way healthier.

I didn't have ALL of the right ingredients (surprise surprise) but I was pretty darn close to having them. I substituted dried cranberries instead of raisins, and added pepitas to the mix for an added crunch.

Here are the ingredients I used:

2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tbsp palm shortening
3 dates, pitted
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (I like a stronger vanilla flavor)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (I used this much because my dough didn't seem thick enough)
2 tbsp chopped dried apricots
2 tbsp dried cranberries
2 tbsp pepitas

Aside from the ingredients I followed her recipe completely. I have a vitamix, and it was a little difficult to blend everything, so I think a food processor is the next item on my list of things to buy.

All in all, this recipe was pretty good. These cookies don't really have any allergens to them, and I believe they're even vegan. They taste a lot like banana bread and the coconut flour actually works in this recipe. You would never know there wasn't flour in these cookies.

Gluten free.
Grain free.
Dairy free.
Soy free.

I can dig it.