Crockpot Chile-Lime Chicken, Christina Wilson

This is a collaborative blog

and each post is the opinion of the person submitting it.  

Not everyone will agree with every post,but our individuality is 

one of the things that makes our group great !

As a teenager I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona.  Growing up in the southwest I think you begin to take the lively flavors of Mexican-fusion food for granted.  In fact, I can't recall the last time I craved treating myself to Mexican food. With my conversion to a Paleo lifestyle, this hadn't really improved... Until recently.  

I mean, have you had green-enchilada sauce on fried eggs, sweet potatoes, and bacon?  No?  GO TRY IT NOW AND THANK ME LATER.  

However, I digress.  Because that's not the delicious goodness that you came for.

Around this time of year in Arizona there are a lot of tortilla and rice soups, as well as lime infused chiles.  This is actually perfect for the season of sniffles and the flu, if you think about it.  Limes for the vitamin C, chile for the immunity and thermodynamic boost.  I'm always amazed at how intuitive our food choices are, when we listen to ourselves and our surroundings.

In an act of rarity, I became nostalgic about these local staples whilst trying to concoct a couple of "big meat" basics for the week.  And then this little piece of genius salsa'd out of my head and into a slow-cooker.

Your mouth is going to dance with a perfectly quintessential alchemy of fresh summer and hearty fall flavors.  All this, rolled into one delicious and seriously easy meal.   Preparing this meal in your slow cooker almost has a ceviche effect--really ramping up the summery lime to compliment the hearty chile in the chicken and tomato sauce.  

The cooked chicken can be used for lettuce-wrapped tacos, omelets, salads, lettuce wrap sandwiches; you could also make a stew out of it by throwing the finished chicken and tomato sauce into some big stew-tomatoes, fresh herb, greens, and various veggies... The possibilities are endless.  I personally made some Mexican faux-rice (cauliflower) and piled chicken, sauce, and various veggies into a bowl.

Don't be shy in sharing the creative ways you use this chicken for your meals in the comments!

Crockpot Chile-Lime Chicken

Ingredients: 

1 whole chicken

1 sixteen oz. can of diced tomatoes

1 medium yellow onion quartered

1 handful of cilantro

4 cloves of fresh garlic

2 jalapeños deseeded (optional)

3 green onions, diced

3 limes

Dried oregano

2T Chile powder

2T Cumin powder

2T Cayenne powder

Sea Salt

Pepper

Directions: 

Wash and dry your chicken on the inside and out.  Salt and pepper your chicken from the inside out generously, and place it in the fridge for 2-24 hours.  The longer it sits the more tender it will be after you finish cooking it.

In a bowl combine equal parts chile powder, cumin powder, and cayenne powder to create a dry rub.  You may need to adjust this depending on the size of the chicken.

Take your chicken out and allow it to come to room temperature.  Then generously rub (and I mean RUB) your dry-rub mixture into your chicken.  Make sure you have a little dry-rub seasoning left over.  Place your chicken in your slow cooker.  Some people might want to stick this in an oven bag for easy clean up.  

Now take your limes out, and roll them like tennis balls on the counter, gently pushing your palm into the lime as your roll it.  This helps to loosen it up a bit.  Now cut them in half.  Squeeze 4 of the lime halves all over the top of your chicken.  Roll the remaining 2 halves in the extra dry rub, and stuff in the cavity of the chicken. 

In a blender or food processor, combine your diced tomatoes, onion, cilantro, garlic, jalapeños (optional), and oregano to taste.  Puree, and then pour into your slow cooker around your chicken.  

Sprinkle your green onions on top of the chicken.

Set your cooker on high for 6-8 hours.  I did mine for about 7 hours and 20 minutes.

Allow it to cool a bit when the chicken is finished cooking.  Your chicken is going to fall apart at the touch--be prepared!  Take your chicken out and shred it up, removing the bones (I saved mine to do a bone broth later).  Then run your sauce through a sieve to catch any missed bones and the 2 lime rinds.  Store shredded chicken with sauce in a container for up to 4 days.

Nom and prepare for a post-meal siesta.  :) 

Christina Wilson is a proud single mother and online business owner.  When she's not taking over the marketing world, she's spending hours perfecting Paleo goodness in the kitchen and exploring the crescent city on bike with her toddler.

You can reach her directly at:

Christina Wilson, Founder, Paint Your Brain

www.PaintYourBrain.com
Facebook.com/PaintYourBrain

direct: 480.381.8543

Christina@PaintYourBrain.com

about.me/wilson.d.christina

A Crapatarian's Migraine Solution - Tamara Warren

Please disregard the Oompa Loompa!  :-)

My life has changed drastically in the last few years.  Until four years ago, I had been a vegetarian for 22 years.  Well not exactly a vegetarian, I was more like a carbotarian.  I stayed sick and my weight steadily increased.  I lived from one weight watchers meeting to the next. I read labels and counted calories. I ate those little 100 calories packs and sprayed the margarine spray on everything.   There is no way I was eating more than 1200 calories a day.

Apparently, I wasn’t reading the right part of the nutritional label.  I had been jumping from one neurologist to the next trying to deal with my daily migraines.  I was taking meds to stop the migraines then medicine for the side effects.  I also had special “booster” meds for those migraines I couldn’t shake within the typical four days (after I had maxed out all other medication).  I desperately wanted off the drugs.

I was miserable in almost all aspects of my health.  I felt like I lived in a fog and had to write everything down on notepads.  I wasn’t sleeping.  My skin was riddled with cystic acne. I seemed to have constant sinus infections and never ending belly issues.

On a mission, I was willing to see every neurologist in New Orleans, if nesseccary.  The third neurologist told me that I wasn’t going to like what he had to say, but I was miserable and open to anything!  He said that I was my own worst enemy. He said that I probably had a food allergy, but he couldn’t follow me around and watch everything that I ate.  He said it especially gets difficult when you eat nothing but processed foods that have so many ingredients.  It makes it almost impossible to  narrow down to the problematic ingredients. 

I honestly didn't believe that I was allergic to anything.  How can you discover an allergy in your mid-thirties? I've had these migraines since I was in elementary school. I don't even have seasonal allergies!

His suggested I only eat meat, veggies, nuts, seeds and fruit.  He even suggested that I give up the flour until I could rule it out.  I had nothing to lose and still convinced that I wasn’t allergic to anything! I was determined to prove it to him so I followed his instructions. I still was apprehensive about eating meat but gave in quickly.  Without the bread and the pasta, I couldn’t continue for long.  I honestly thought I was going to starve to death on veggies alone!  LOL! The transformation was pretty quick.  Within a few days, I noticed my migraine lifted until they were completely gone.

I continued to follow the neurologist's instructions for three week before reintroducing items back into my diet.  I didn’t get past the first day before I ended up with a severe migraine.  Come to find out, I’m allergic to MSG and most things hydrolyzed, modified, or autolyzed. 

Life began to change. My weight fell off. My skin cleared up.  My head colds disappeared.  I began to sleep deeper and become more satisfied with my food.  

I can't imagine ever going back to a SAD (Standard American Diet).  Of course, my cravings outweigh my better judgement at times, but I pay the price every time!  I need those occassional bad days to realize what I've really given up.

I researched the Paleo diet and decided that was how I was going to live the rest of my life. It was hard at first but got easier and easier over time.  The only down side to my new paleo lifestyle was I felt so alone in New Orleans.  I wanted to connect to other paleo people who understood,  who knew I wasn't going to die from lack of those "heart healthy grains". 

I joined an inactive group on Meetup and pushed for get-togethers.  I then moved the group over the Facebook and it took off! We started with 10 of us and now the NOLA Paleo group has over 300 member and steadily climbing.

My new mission is to push the Paleo movement as far as I can in the New Orleans! I want people to know that with the right support, this lifestyle can be easy.  And if we join together we will be a force that local restaurants in New Orleans won't be able to ingore. They will have to acknowledge our paleo, primal, and gluten free lifestyles. 

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Tamara Warren, founder of NOLA Paleo

Email: nolapaleogroup@gmail.com

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nolapaleo/ (please join us!)

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/NolaPaleo

Website: www.nolapaleo.com

Seven Steps to Regaining My Health, Jodi Stewart (www.knowgluten.me)

This is a collaborative blog

and each post is the opinion of the person submitting it.  

Not everyone will agree with every post, but our individuality 

is one of the things that makes our group great!

The last four years of my life have been tough on my health. My daughter was born in August of 2009. That Christmas we moved to Canada. Then in April 2010 I became a "grass widow" for a year and a half while my husband worked in Pittsburgh. Then we moved to Thailand.

When we left for Thailand I was a healthy, very toned146lb P90X grad. When we came home a year later, I was a 172lb ball of mush that could barely climb the stairs, fully equipped with a newly diagnosed Auto-immune thyroid disorder, and a stomach so big it took up it's own space in bed.I was retaining so much water I couldn't even see my ankle bones. It's amazing what just one year can do to your health. It was a stressful year, full of financial and family worries, I existed mainly on rice, fruit and popcorn in order to avoid gluten in products with ingredients I couldn't read and in restaurants where I couldn't communicate. Wow. Stress and sugar will ruin your life.

It's been a year since we've moved back to the US, but I've finally gotten a handle on my life and my health. I've been gluten free for a decade, but I've needed to make even more, very drastic changes to turn things around. I needed to take a totally different approach to diet and health. Here are a few things that helped, they're not in any particular of usefulness, they all made a pretty fantastic difference. This isn't medical advice, but if you're in really bad shape like I was, some of these suggestions may help you too.

Following a Paleo Diet:

Already being gluten free, I realize the huge effect diet can have on health. When I returned to the US, I started to cut out more and more of the foods that trouble me. I'm not the strictest at maintaining a Paleo diet, but I've found that drastically reducing my intake of grains, dairy, sugar and legumes has been life changing. I have more energy (as in, I only need 6.5 hours of sleep to totally rock my day), I have less pain, and way more flexibility. (Hey toes!! How's it been! Long time no see!) I notice a huge difference when I cheat. I can maybe get by with one Ghirardelli square, but a bowl of ice cream or a slice of gluten free bread causes fatigue, pain and stomach problems for a couple of days.

Seeing a Doctor who is also a Naturopath:

I found an MD who is also a naturopath. She's amazing. She ran tests I didn't know existed. It turns out that in addition to hyperthyroidism, I have a couple of other things going on including some pretty severe vitamin deficiencies. She's working with me to manage my autoimmune problems and heal the damage I've done to my gut.

Taking Supplements:

Instead of giving me medicine to fix my symptoms, my doctor prescribed supplements to help heal the problems. She's focusing on repairing my gut, boosting my immune system, and replacing all those lost vitamins. I actually didn't realize how much intestinal distress I was having until I started taking supplements to fix it. And I can honestly say that my stress level has gone down since upping my vitamin intake.

Juicing:

When I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism I remembered an article I had read about a woman who caused hypothyroidism by eating too many cruciferous vegetables, in her case, bok choy. I decided to try it with broccoli. Honestly, t's hard to eat that much broccoli so I started juicing it. I drank broccoli juice every single day. It's not nice. Not even when disguised with a bunch of other vegetables. But it got my thyroid numbers back down to normal! My last test, after months of drinking broccoli juice, showed that my thyroid is no longer hyper. I've been juicing for my thyroid for a year now, and I can tell when I need to add more or less broccoli in order to deal with my symptoms.

Bullet Proof Coffee:

I'm really not sure why adding 3 tablespoons of fat in the form of coconut oil and grass fed butter to my coffee every morning made such a difference, but it did. I was finally able to eat a meal with out the immediate ten pound weight gain, my water retention started to go away. But even more amazing than that, my brain became super charged. It's fantastic. Ideas never stop. Writer's block doesn't exist. I can help my kids with math like never before. I think it might be that my brain was so sugar-logged that it rejoiced at the chance to use ketones instead.

Losing Weight Gradually:

In the past when I've gained a lot of weight in a short time, it's been because of a pregnancy. And when I wanted to lose weight, I just hit the gym, exercised way too hard and ate nothing (literally) for a couple of weeks. Easy Peasy. This time has been different. The fasting thing isn't working (probably because the fasting thing ruined my metabolism). I'll get down ten pounds, but when I eat, I gain it all back. In one meal. No joke. It frustrates me to tears. I've had to take another approach. I have twenty pounds left to lose. I'm aiming for a pound a week for the next five months. Slowly, gradually. No heavy exercising, no fasting. I've been doing half of a workout video and walking a mile a day while following a paleo diet. Fingers crossed. I'm not sure how it will work, but I know that a gradual approach has changed my perspective and my expectations (and reduced the tears!). It's also made me committed to sticking with it instead of expecting instant results.

Getting Support:

I haven't done any of this alone. I've found support through groups and blogs. I'm so thankful to have found NOLA Paleo. I love that it's such an active community and offers support and advice so willingly. NOLA Paleo has been so helpful as I've changed my approach to health and diet and regained my life.

How about You?

How has Paleo and a natural approach to health helped you? Do you have any tips to offer that could help me on my own journey?

Jodi's Bio

Originally from Canada, Jodi is a former nomad and humanitarian worker, living all over Canada, the US and in Africa and Asia before finally settling down in Denham Springs just outside Baton Rouge. She began blogging in 2009 to chronicle her adventures, but when she discovered that many of her readers were interested in her gluten free recipes, and wanted more information on going gluten free, she started Know Gluten - A gluten free beginner's guide to share her ten years of gluten free experience.

Jodi is married to her high school sweetheart Scott, homeschools her four amazing kids ages 4-16, slides down the slides at Kidz Korner Playland, and puts Tabasco Chipotle Sauce on everything. In her spare time, (or when she's avoiding housework) you'll find her reading Sci-Fi on her Kindle and drinking a bullet-proof coffee.

Find Jodi Online:

Blog: http://knowlguten.me

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/KnowGluten

Twitter https://twitter.com/knowglutenjodi

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/nextmalawi/

IG http://instagram.com/knowgluten

G+ https://plus.google.com/100436970902545253948/posts

Tumblr http://know-gluten.tumblr.com/