When Overachievment Strikes

As promised, I'm going to share with you some of my favorite Paleo recipes I made during my Whole30 challenge.  As I looked back over what I ate that month, I realized everything could be grouped into three different categories based on the amount of effort on my part it took to prepare.  Of course, my overachiever spirit was high and strong for the first few days and gradually depleted over the course of the month.  So I'm going to start with a day in the life of an overachieving Paleo cook.  These are by no means difficult recipes, but more time consuming than anything else.  You know, for those days when you don't have anything better to do than spend most of your day in the kitchen because you have that much free time.  Funny...I know...insert sarcastic eye roll here.

Breakfast - Prosciutto Egg Cups

Making these ended up being one of the best things when I needed a quick breakfast days later.  They were a little time consuming for a morning put together breakfast, but reheated well.  The cook time on this will provide you with an egg that has a cooked through white and a slightly runny yolk, so adjust your time if you like your eggs more or less done.  I found for reheating, 30-45 seconds in the microwave was perfect.  Here's what you need:

6 slice prosciutto ham
6 eggs
1 leek; cleaned, thinly sliced white part and 1 inch of green part only
3 cloves garlic; finely minced
salt and pepper

1 - Arrange the ham slices in a muffin tin, one slice per muffin.  There's no need to grease your pan since the fat from the ham will provide enough grease to keep them from sticking.  Make sure all areas of the individual tins are covered with ham.
2 - Evenly divide the leeks and garlic between the 6 muffins.
3 - Crack one egg into each cup.  Don't break the yolk unless you would like the yolk to cook through as well.  Season with salt and pepper.
4 - Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Lunch - Chicken Salad with Cucumber Chips

I know what you're thinking.  Why would I consider chicken salad an "overachiever" lunch?  The time it took to make this particular chicken salad is what puts it into that category.  Typically, when I make chicken salad, I used canned chicken and store bought mayo.  But I just couldn't do that in this situation now could I?  Instead of canned chicken, I boiled chicken breasts and made my own mayo.  Homemade mayo is completely Paleo and tastes much better than store bought.  If you've never made it before, click here for a fool proof easy way to whip it up.  Works every time!  Of course, I made more than I needed for today's lunch to have leftovers for those days when things got crazy.  Here's what you need:

6 chicken breasts
homemade mayo
6 stalks celery; diced
1/4 c fresh dill; chopped
salt and pepper

1 - Boil the chicken breasts in salted water until internal temperature reaches 155 degrees.  Allow to cool then dice into bite size pieces.
2 - Add to the chicken enough mayo to help the pieces "stick together".  I'm not a huge fan of heavy mayo chicken salad, so adjust this to your liking.
3 - Mix in celery and dill, adding more mayo to bring it all together if needed.
4 - Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Dinner - Grilled Chicken with Roasted Sweet Potato Fries and Cucumber, Avocado Salad

A while back, my cousin got married in Chicago.  As party favors, the bride and groom gave out vials of seasoning mixes from their favorite shop.  I have never received a better party favor!  Unfortunately, there aren't any ingredients listed so I can't give you the scoop about what exactly was inside the Brisket BBQ rub I used for the chicken.  Rubs aren't that hard to make though and fun to play around with.  So throw some spices together to make your chicken tasty or buy a premade rub from the store and grill those puppies up!  Just make sure to check the ingredients of any store bought rub when you're doing Paleo to make sure nothing sneaky gets into your diet.  I used skin on thighs in this picture, by far my favorite part of the chicken!  And since your not eating sweets on Paleo, feel absolutely no guilt about eating that chicken skin!!

For the roasted sweet potatoes, I sliced them up like fries, drizzled them with olive oil, a little chipotle powder and salt and baked them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Toss them once or twice throughout the cooking process and don't let them get to mushy.

To cool things down a bit, I finished the plate with a cucumber and avocado salad.  This was a huge hit and paired so well with the spice in the fries and the smokiness in the chicken.  Here's what you need:

2 avocados; cut to medium dice
1 English cucumber; cut to medium dice
1/2 red onion; small dice
1/2 red pepper; small dice
1 T lemon juice
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper

1 - Mix everything together in a nonreactive bowl, careful not to break the avocado up to much.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Stay tuned to see what happens with overachieving gets old...