Paleo contest with the kids. In truth, it's not a real contest, it's more of a mandate
because I provide all their food so they kind of didn't have a choice but we're
calling it a contest. They like that and also, they kind of know that they are
getting their dollar-a-day-in-October prize either way.
Having said that, I am proud to say that the kids are still on the Paleo-train
and I'm still driving that train.
I have two recipes to share today but no pictures because I am feeling way too lazy to
upload any from phone, hence the name of the first recipe. But check out the stock photo above - looks like some darn fine photographer took that picture!
Anyway, our two recipes today are the Lazy Girl's Shwarma and Eggplant Sticks.
Both are paleo-friendly and both are super easy although I will admit that the chicken is
way faster than the eggplant. And you know what, I made them both up. I kind of knew how to make shwarma but not really, so I winged it and it worked. And the second, well, it's almost the beginnings of an eggplant parmesan recipe, but not.
I've been doing a lot of cooking these past two weeks and I'm all about a shortcut. Except
that my kids fell in love with shwarma recently and shwarma is a very involved
meal to make - there's the dicing of the chicken cutlets, the marinating and the
sautéing and or frying on the stove, and um, yeah, I can't do that right now.
But you know what works instead?
Not dicing the chicken.
Not marinating the chicken.
And yup, not frying it.
Mix together the spices, pour over the chicken and bake and you know what - it tastes exactly the same!
Lazy Girl's Shwarma
Here what I did:
Pour 1/3 cup olive oil into a small bowl.
Add 2 tbsps. cumin
1 tsp curry
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp. garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
And then mix it all up.
Here's the hard part. Ready?
Pour it over your chicken - I use a chicken cut into 1/8ths - but I don't cut it, it comes like that.
Bake.
You're done.
I know. It couldn't be easier.
And if your pan is big enough and you have room to throw in a bag of frozen cauliflower and a bag of frozen broccoli in under the chicken, do it. The vegetables come out amazing. It works with potatoes too.
The next recipe is a little bit more involved, but just a little.
Slightly Less Lazy Girl's Eggplant Sticks
For this recipe, you're going to need:
1 eggplant, peeled and cut into sticks - maybe 1/2" thick and 4" long but please, promise me
you won't measure.
olive oil or
coconut oil
3 eggs
honey
mustard
brown rice
flour or almond flour or any gluten free flour
For the record, I went with brown rice flour because
1. They sell it at Winn Dixie and that's where I was this morning and
2. I can't afford almond flour.
Start by mixing the eggs, honey and mustard in a bowl. I used about 2 tbsp. each of
the honey and mustard. If the honey won't mix in well, add a little boiling
water to soften it, but don't add too much because then you'll scramble your
eggs. Add maybe a tbsp of boiling water and mix it well, quickly.
Pour some of the flour into another bowl, but don't pour too much - this stuff is pricey and
once you dipped an egg-covered eggplant in the bowl, you can't pour the flour
back into the package - but you can always add more, so err on the side of caution.
Add the eggplant pieces into the egg mixture, mix well to coat and then let the eggplant
soak up the egg for a few minutes.
Heat your frying pan, add the oil and while it's heating, start dipping the egg-soaked
eggplant into the flour.
Add the eggplant to the hot frying pan one at a time, being careful not to let the oil
jump up and burn you.
Let the eggplant fry till it's golden and crispy on one side, flip them and do it again
on the second side. I can't say for sure how long it will take because we each
cut our own eggplants, you know? But it's not long. A few minutes, max.
When they're done and yummy looking, use a slotted spatula to lay them on a paper towel to soak up the oil.
I haven't served these to the kids yet, but I just had a few and they're very very good. You
can dip them in ketchup if you like, but they're already honey-mustardy so you don't really need to.
For what it's worth, I'm going to serve this tonight with unstuffed cabbage and roasted
carrots.
Wishing you a great Shabbos!
:) Jen