Balsamic Grilled Kale and Romaine

If you are looking for a different, new, simple summer grilled dish then this is it! 

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This past weekend my parents and I went down to our river house and celebrated a belated Father’s Day. We made a delicious dinner Saturday night on the grill that included Hawaiian Pork Skewers (a guest post from Canada Girl Eats Paleo from a while back!) and grilled kale and romaine.

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Ingredients:

1 bunch of Dino Kale

1 head of Romaine

Olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Get your grill ready! I used a charcoal grill on this occasion.

Kale first: Wash and dry your kale. Toss the kale lightly with some olive oil (about 1-2 tbs., you don’t need much). Next, lay the leaves of kale in an even layer over the grill and generously drizzle Balsamic over the kale leaves (trust me, Balsamic is your best friend tonight, you want to use way more then you think). Let the leaves cook for about 1-2 minutes then use tongs to flip them. Generously drizzle the Balsamic on this side of the leaves and again cook for 1-2 minutes or until the leaves start to char on the edges and the leaves look crisp. Place on a serving dish.

Romaine next: If you are using hearts of Romaine, cut them in half. If you are using a full head of Romaine, cut into quarters. Wash and dry the Romaine. You DO NOT need to coat the Romaine with olive oil. Place your Romaine on the grill and generously drizzle with Balsamic (like you did the kale). Let the Romaine cook for about 3 minutes before flipping and repeating the process. Again, pull the Romaine once it begins to crisp up and char on the parts that were touching the grill. 

Serve along some grilled meat and you’ve got a new play on boring lettuce. 

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Easy, Crispy-Skinned, Oven Roasted Chicken

I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while. My life has been VERY busy this past month. I had to finish off school, get through finals, I graduated, and then I was traveling for a week. I’m finally back in my apartment with NO HOMEWORK! WOOHOO! 🙂 

I haven’t had much time to cook and I’ve been stress eating or celebrating eating which means lots of junk food (gluten-free) has been going down. I’m so happy to finally be able to relax a little and focus solely on treatment and eating right. I was originally planning to do a very strict elimination diet to try and figure out my tummy troubles but honestly I don’t have the willpower right now and I’ll be traveling around this summer so I won’t be able to stick to it. PLUS, I want to enjoy my last summer in Colorado so I want to be able to indulge every so often. BUT, I will be doing the Autoimmune Paleo protocol. I started today! You can read more about AIP here (Mickey Trescott) and here (The Paleo Mom).

I’m going to try my very best to stick to it but I know I may not be 100% until I reach my final home destination in August. I will also be keeping my diet very simple for the first few weeks as I adjust. This means I probably won’t have many recipes to share but I will share what boring meals I am consuming with you all. Although, lucky you guys, I already have a yummy, easy recipe for you: A basic roasted chicken. I had to share this because the skin came out so crispy and delicious! Too good not to share. I usually roast my chicken in a crock pot but my crock pot was occupied with bone broth so I oven-roasted my chicken and it is to die for.

ImageOMG look at that delicious skin and that bite that I already took out of the leg… 🙂

Ingredients:

1 whole roaster chicken (mine was about 3 lbs)

2 tbs. coconut oil

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

Sage and basil (or any italian seasoning blend you like)

SALT (the good kind, trust me, you’ll want to use that pink himalayan)

Preheat oven to 450 F.

First, rinse of your chicken and pat COMPLETELY dry. Place your chicken in the baking dish and rub the coconut oil under the skin and inside the cavity of the bird. Rub a little on top. Next, take your italian spices and rub them ALL over that bird! Cover it to your liking. Now, immerse your bird in salt. I’m being serious here, you want to salt that baby up. Rub salt all over the outside and the inside. If you think you have used to much, you haven’t, that’s perfect. Lastly, place your peeled garlic cloves inside the cavity.

Place your bird in the preheated oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165 F. Take your chicken out and let sit for 10 minutes. Now, place the bird on a cutting board to rest for another 10 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH during the resting phase except to move the bird to the cutting board. 

While your bird is resting, you will be making a gravy. Take all the drippings from your baking dish and place them in a skillet or sauce pan (it doesn’t matter what you use). Bring to a simmer and add 1 tsp. of coconut flour. Stir occasionally until the gravy thickens some. Take the garlic out of the bird, chop it up and mix it in with the gravy. If you would like your gravy to be smoother, feel free to run it through a blender quickly.

Now you are ready to slice up your bird, skin and all, drizzle it in gravy, and devour it. Enjoy!

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Image Lunch time meal of roasted chicken and carrots. What could be better?

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