Even though I’m no longer on Paleo, I have ingrained myself to think grain-free (see what I did there?). My family (meaning siblings and parents) mostly wonder how you can sustain such a life. well, my brother has been on South Beach, so he gets it. but, i do think my felow clan members are all carb addicts and i still marvel how things have changed since I was a kid, living in a household where white rice was served at every evening meal.

We don’t even keep white rice in the house these days, as I’ve probably mentioned before. The kiddo vacuums the stuff up when given the chance. Pretty soon i will really need to make a real effort to manage her carb intake so as to not repeat the mistakes of predecessors. For now I create substitutions likes using spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti. Or making cauliflower rice instead of rice. Fine for some meals. But, sometimes if a meal calls for rice, nothing else will do.

And so was the case with this meal. I created a sweet and sour marinade that included soy sauce, tamari, brown sugar green onions and various other spices and poured it over a whole fryer. Slow cooker and 4ish hours later this sucker was falling off the bone. Would have been great over a small bed of white rice. Would have been good over brown rice. But instead I cuisinarted cauliflower, pan-fried it with some five-spice and while it was okay, it wasn’t the same. Husband didn’t complain, though. And he will tell me if he doesn’t like it. Kiddo wasn’t impressed. It’s that carb-addict gene she got from me.

sweet and sour chicken with cauliflower rice

The chicken finished cooking before I was ready. Slow-cooker timing can be tricky when you can’t count properly.

Slow cooker Recipe from NYMSCC.
Cauliflower rice recipe from NomNomPaleo. Don’t get me wrong. I like it, just not this day.

shrimp and chicken jambalaya

 
I am a nervous nelly when it comes to watching my favorite teams play in big games. I fret. I groan. I yell. And I cheer, but sometime not too loud for fear of jinxing the next play. Husband hates this. So he didn’t watch the AFC championship game when my Pats were playing (pretty terribly). The Seahawks, too, when they were rockin’ the playoffs, but we did tune into the Super Bowl together. I was much more relaxed. Didn’t have much vested in the game, except to root against th 49ers. Division rivals! No way am I cheering for that team!

Enjoyed a cheat meal for Super Bowl. Paying homage to the New Orleans locale I made slow cooker shrimp & chicken jambalaya. The rice was not fully cooked at kick off, though the shrimp was just right. Of course, it being a slow cooker, by halftime the rice was just right, and the shrimp a bit overdone. Was pretty much full by then anyway. Next time I’ll either cook the rice separate, time the brown rice better, or go with traditional white rice.

Next time, Seahawks!

I always sing that Billy Joel song in my head when I think of this dish. This was super easy. I just lightly browned the chicken and went with the flow. Must be before Paleo because no doubt I used a little flour to get the sauce so thick. I passed on the rotini but went for the lightly toasted rosemary bread instead.

some goodness right there

here is Lily’s plate, the meal deconstructed for higher probability of eating:

aka pasta and chicken

Another slow cooker win!