Turkey Picadillo, a Cauliflower Rice Trick: Ideas For Dinner This Week
Project 365, Day 199/365
I’m back on my no-grain, no-sugar, no-dairy, no-soy, no-gluten diet. It’s truly when my body felt at its best, and the last time, I did a crap job of reintroducing to see what might be triggering some things I’m feeling. This whole past week, I gotta be honest…I did not eat well. Mostly because I didn’t cook a single thing besides the occasional breakfast. And guess what? I didn’t feel great. Surprise, surprise. 🙂
So, I’m tightening the gears and gaining back my control, and figured I’d share what I was making. I wanted to keep things easy, so I went straight to one of my go-to websites with a variety of easy, healthy, delicious recipes: Skinnytaste.com. All four recipes below are things I’ve made time and time again, and they never disappoint, which I think is the key to surviving any sort of limitation in your diet. Find the things you can eat, and just make sure you enjoy how you’re putting them together.
One-Pot Spaghetti Squash and Meat Sauce
Okay look, I actually do not enjoy spaghetti squash that much. It’s a decent enough substitute…a vehicle for sauce, but no one will ever be able to convince me that it’s “just like pasta!”. Yeah…nope. Specifically, I found that even when I roast it and squeeze it, a pool of squash water collects at the bottom of my bowl, watering down my sauce, but I muscle through eating it just to fill my belly. This meat sauce isn’t like…the best ragu there is. What it is is a quick, easy, weeknight-friendly sauce without too much fuss. I always finish it off with balsamic vinegar because I find that adds just the right amount of je ne sais quoi I prefer in my tomato-based sauces.
Turkey Picadillo
I prefer my picadillo with red meat, but I try not to eat it more than once a week, and that box will already be checked by the meat sauce above. This is pretty solid, easy, and flavorful enough to offset the cauliflower rice I’ll be eating this with. Like spaghetti squash, no one can convince me that cauliflower rice is “just like rice!” because it’s not. Like…shape-wise, sure okay. Taste and texture-wise, get out of here. BUT I’m trying something different this week. I normally buy frozen cauliflower rice which has that same puddling problem I mentioned earlier. Instead, I went with fresh cauliflower that I’ll process myself and bake, which I’ve done once before and it was far superior.
Chicken and Lentil Soup
This is not the first time I’ve shared this soup. It’s wonderful, fast (in the pressure cooker), and really hearty and satisfying. You could easily do this without the chicken and it would still be yummy. I highly recommend pairing it with a great baguette or whole-grain loaf…which I will not be doing. I’M A BALL OF FUN!
California Grilled Chicken Avocado and Mango Salad
Ohhh boy do I love this salad. I actually haven’t made it in ages, but mangos are wonderful right now so when I saw it on the website, I immediately knew I would add it to my list. A nice tip if you don’t love red onions is to either use shallots or to soak your chopped red onion pieces in water for 30-40 minutes to take the edge off. I personally prefer the creamy texture and sweetness of smaller yellow mangos than larger green or red mangos, but if that’s all you can find, just make sure it’s ripe! It’s a wonderful pairing to the white balsamic vinaigrette.
Alrighty, that’s all I’ve got for you tomorrow.
See you tomorrow, FOAS.