The Cook & The Coach Blog

Chicken Roasted in Coconut Milk

3/30/2015

I found this on Pinterest and made this when Dan was out of town a few years ago but haven't made it since. I've told him about it...and raved about it...but he thought it sounded weird so we never tried it again! UNTIL last night :)

We buy whole chickens at Costco because they're so cost effective and delicious. We then stick them in the freezer to use at a later date. Earlier this week Dan took one out of the freezer and was going to throw it in the crockpot, but then forgot about it...which gave me the perfect opportunity to cook something for him for a change! Plus, it gave me a chance to prove him wrong and show him that this is actually a delicious way to cook chicken. Win-win!

Here's the original recipe: Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk

It's pretty simple...but here's what I did:

1. Preheat the oven to 375

2. Season the chicken with salt/pepper. Brown the entire chicken in 3 tbsp of butter & 2 tbsp of coconut oil. Brown one side and then use a tongs to flip it and brown every side

3. Put all these ingredients into the dutch oven with the chicken.

1 can of coconut milk (do 2 cans if you can, I didn't have a second one so I used an additional 1/2 c of almond milk)
1 tbsp lemon juice (didn't have any fresh lemons for the zest)
1 cinnamon stick
2 tbsp of minced garlic
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tbsp of dried sage

4. Bake for 90 minutes

Wa-lah!!

I also figured I'd throw in this sweet picture...just because.

A boy and his dog. They're so sweet!!

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Sweet Potato & Black Bean Hash with Eggs

3/30/2015

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We wanted to switch it up for you guys this week and give you a great breakfast option for a meal. I know we've focused more on dinner type meals but everybody loves breakfast, right? This would be a great dish/meal to throw together Saturday morning for the whole family. Feel free to scale the spice level to the people for which you are cooking. You could also double this recipe and have leftovers for the entire week. This recipe will give you about 3-4 servings of the hash.

We really love our breakfast hashes because they are super easy to prepare and usually just involve throwing together whatever ingredients are available. Some easy swaps even with this recipe would be to use regular potatoes. You could also throw in some leftover taco meat from last night. We love adding greens to our hash, so some spinach, kale, or chard would be a great add on to this dish. If you want to go vegetarian you could easily leave the bacon out of this dish and you still get a serving protein and veggies. So many options!

If you are new to hashes, start with this recipe and feel free to venture out and get creative with ingredients you like. The key is adding veggies to your breakfast. It is easy to add fruits and breads to breakfast and start your day on the sweet side and also high in carbohydrates and low in protein. This is one of the keys that we promote with our coaching clients to burn fat and manage hunger throughout the day.

Ingredients

5 pieces of thick cut bacon, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, cubed
½ large large onion, diced
Pinch of red chili flakes
15 oz can of black beans, liquid drained
1 tbsp taco seasoning
¼ cup water
2 eggs
½ tbsp. butter or coconut oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro, rough chopped for garnish

Directions

Add the chopped bacon to a skillet over medium heat. Cook until fat is rendered out and bacon is crispy.
Remove the bacon from the pan and leave half the bacon grease behind.
Add potatoes, onion, and chili flake and cook for 8 minutes or until onion is soft.
Add the black beans, taco seasoning, water to the pan and cover. All the potatoes to steam for roughly 5 minutes. Depending on how big the pieces of sweet potato it may take more or less time to cook through.
While your potatoes are cooking heat a small skillet, add your oil or butter and cook a couple of over easy eggs… or however you like your eggs.
Garnish with some cilantro, maybe some guacamole, hot sauce and ENJOY!!!

Download Recipe Card for Sweet Potato & Black Bean Hash with Eggs

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Brunching in the MSP - Blackbird Cafe

3/25/2015

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I like brunch...a lot.

It's one of my absolute favorite things to do on the weekends so we've been trying to make it more of a habit lately. So we figured why not document our brunch journeys and share them with you guys?? Because honestly...who doesn't like pictures of breakfast food??!

This last weekend we went to Blackbird Cafe - a "farm to fork" cafe in Minneapolis. It's one of those places where no matter when you go (lunch, brunch, dinner) it's ALWAYS delicious and the service is always great. Pictured below is one of my favorite breakfast items, the Oxtail Hash: oxtail & root vegetables topped with two basted eggs & hollandaise. with toast and homemade jam.

Dan ordered the Veal Sweetbreads Benedict which came with two poached eggs, fresh baked english muffin, steamed spinach & hollandaise.

If you go there for dinner there are some really delicious options as well...a few of my favorites:

The Spicy Peanut Noodles with smoked chicken confit, roasted shiitakes & poached egg
The Longhorn Sandwich: braised beef brisket, caramelized onions, tomatoes, provolone, horseradish mayo
The Banh Mi: slow roasted pork, jalapenos, pickled vegetables, pate, cilantro & mayo

The Twin Cities definitely has a lot of delicious, local restaurants. We'll be sharing a few of our favorites every week...so stay tuned!!

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Build Your Own Lightbox

3/25/2015

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It's been about a year since we started our blog. When we first started our focus wanted to be on sharing recipes with all of you. Personally when I search for recipes, food pictures are usually what draws me in to read more and see if sounds like something I want to try making. I would like to think that I am pretty normal on this one, so if I like pictures other people probably do too...right? We made every effort to take quality consistent photos early on. Living in Minnesota where the sun goes down at 4:30 in the winter time this made lighting an issue 6 months out of the year.

Laura's sister, Sara, a fellow blogger and photographer, mentioned to us that we should consider using a light box to create some consistent lighting for photos. Oh by the way if you don't follow her blog you should, check out The Nesting Gypsy. So I did some research on light boxes but then never did anything with it until this past weekend.

I stumbled upon this image on Flickr and thought it sounded pretty easy to make. I made a few modifications to my box for the space that I had and also added an extra bar that I put a roll of heavy duty paper on. I added this since a majority of our pictures would be food pictures I knew that we would stain the paper and rather than have to run to the store to get new cardstock, I just bought a roll. I don't have the exact cost on everything but I would guess it came out to be around $50 and that includes a tool that I bought to cut the PVC pipe.

Paperroll on the top of the box

So here is the finished product, and I'll be honest...I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Materials Needed

I've provided links to the items just in case you might not know what they look like.

3 10 foot pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe
10 x 1/2" 90 Degree Elbow Fitting
8 x "T" 1/2" Fitting
2 x 1/2" Cross Fitting
2 x 1/2" 45 Degree Fitting
3 Clamp Lights
4 Pack of 100W CFL Daylight bulbs
Roll of Project Paper
3 1/3 Yards of White Cotton Cloth

PVC Cuts

4 x 18" (Vertical pieces)
4 x 25" (Center horizontal pieces and piece the paper roll goes on)
2 x 20" (Bottom pieces that add depth)
4 x 9.5" (Top pieces that add depth, a "T" fitting will connect 2 of these pieces)
8 x 2.5" (Connects the "T" fittings to corner elbow fittings on the top and bottom)
2 x 5" (Extends up in the back so that you can add on the roll of paper)
2 x 19.5" (Angled pieces that extend upward to hold the lamp on top of the box)
1 x 5.5" (Connects the two angled pieces at the top)

Assmbly

This should be pretty self explanatory based on the PVC cuts and the pictures. If you do have any questions feel free to reach out. I would say the only tricky part for me was getting the fabric to the right dimensions and sewing sleeves to slide the PVC into. If you have any sewing equipment this will be a piece of cake. For the sleeves, I folded over a 2 1/2" piece of fabric and sewed the length. You could also tape the cloth to the PVC if you don't want to go to the trouble of sewing.

Good luck making yours and we would love to see what your final product ends up looking like. Shoot us an email with a pic of your final product!

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Lemon and Herb Chicken Breast Medallions with Roasted Sweet Potatoes in a Bourbon Cinnamon Sauce

3/23/2015

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Do you ever have that night where you've been chasing around and crazy from 4:00-8:00 and finally realize that you haven't given dinner a thought yet? Well that situation is how this dish was born. Chicken medallions is just a fancy way of saying I was too lazy thaw chicken breasts so the only way I was going to get them to cook through completely is to chop them up into smaller pieces. The sweet potatoes were an easy side and so was the steamed broccoli. Don't worry the bourbon sauce doesn't taste like bourbon it actually gives it a bit of sweet flavor.

All together this meal took 30 minutes to make from when I pulled the chicken out of the freezer to when we were sitting at the table. Super easy and packed with some good flavor. Hope you enjoy it!!!

To stay up to date on all of our new meals that we share on Mondays, just add your email address below.

Ingredients

Chicken

2 chicken breasts, cut into 1" slices
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp dried sage or whatever dried herb you have handy
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Sweet Potatoes

2 medium sweet potatoes chopped 1/2" cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup bourbon
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper

Broccoli

Broccoli that's it!

Directions

If you are throwing this together last minute like I did, the first thing you will want to do is take the chicken breasts out of the freezer and soak in hot water for a couple minutes while you chop sweet potatoes. Also preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
While your chicken is quasi thawing or if it is thawed, start here. Peel and cut your sweet potatoes and transfer to a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake them in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring once at 10 minutes.
Once you get the potatoes going, cut your chicken and begin cooking in a skillet with the coconut oil. Season with salt and pepper and sage.
Cook the chicken approximately 4 minutes on each side. At that point add your lemon juice to the pan and cover and let them cook for another 4 minutes.
For the bourbon sauce, add the bourbon to a small saucepan and bring to a light boil. Simmer for 6-8 minutes until the liquid is reduced to a 1/3 of the original amount.
Add the butter and spices to the saucepan and stir until butter is melted. Once your potatoes are done transfer them to a bowl, pour the sauce on top and stir to evenly coat the potatoes.
Steam the broccoli either in a saucepan or microwave, season and serve. We like a little coconut oil and salt.
Enjoy!!!

Download Recipe Card for Lemon Herb Chicken Medallions

Download Recipe Card for Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon Cinnamon Sauce

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Chicken and Chickpea Stew, #MakeANewMealMonday

3/16/2015

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So this is our first #MakeANewMealMonday recipe and dinner idea. The idea behind this hashtag is twofold: we want to try some new stuff and have gotten into a rut with food and we hope to help you out with some new meal options too!

So what can you look forward to? Most of the recipes we will post will be healthy, made from scratch meals. Sorry no shortcuts here, we eat real food. A majority of the recipes will likely be dinner type meals that you can scale up or down depending on how many you have to feed. Some meals will be kid/family friendly, some will be a little bit more sophisticated for the adventurous types. I can't promise that all of them will be crazy delicious because they are going to be brand new creations for us too, and sometimes you don't get it quite right the first time.

We will post these recipes on our Facebook Page, The Cook & The Coach on Mondays so feel free to follow us over there. If you want to make sure you get all of these recipes delivered to your inbox just plug your email address into the section below and we will email you once a week with our recipe from that week along with any other blog posts we put out.

This first meal was a bit of a throw together meal but it turned out pretty tasty. This dish had a bit of a Moroccan feel to it. We had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge so it made this pretty easy to throw it together. Depending on who you are cooking for, you can either keep the spice level on the low side or really kick it up.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
3 cups shredded chicken, white and dark meat
1 15 oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes
½ cup dry quinoa
2 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp cinnamon
Pinch of red chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro, rough chopped for garnish

Directions

In a large pot or dutch oven, add your olive oil, onions, garlic, celery and red chili flakes and cook until all the vegetables are tender, roughly 10 minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a gentle boil.
Cover your pot, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until the quinoa is cooked.
Garnish with some cilantro and ENJOY!!!

Download Recipe Card

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#Hashtags#, We Love Them

3/12/2015

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If you've followed us for a little bit you've seen us use some fun hashtags to connect some of our posts. I wish I could say that we did it for you guys but the truth is, doing #weirdvegwednesday or #weirdpushwednesday kept us accountable to go out and try some new veggies and it made us think of new ways to do push ups. If it helps you great. So often we can get stuck doing the same things over and over and our decisions become mindless. I think a lot of people that eat unhealthy foods don't do it necessarily because they enjoy those foods incredibly, but because it is a habit and it is easy.

So with that we have a new hashtag and we hope it will help bring some creativity to your meals.

#MakeANewMealMonday

Why Monday??? Well because we like alliterations when it comes to our hashtags, that's it. For the next 52 weeks my goal is to come up with a new, fun, healthy recipe that we will try out and we will share with you. We would love it if you used the same hashtag to tag your posts. You don't have to type up full recipes unless you want to, but use the hashtag as motivation to try some new meal ideas. It will also be a great resource for everyone to use to go find inspiration to try some new things.

We will post these recipes on our Facebook Page, The Cook & The Coach on Mondays so feel free to follow us over there. If you want to make sure you get all of these recipes delivered to your inbox just plug your email address into the section below and we will email you once a week with our recipe from that week along with any other blog posts we put out.

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Homemade Corned Beef with Nitrates, OH MY!!!

3/11/2015

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We are one week away from everyone's favorite holiday, St. Patrick's Day!! Ok, that might be a stretch. After green beer the thing that screams, "Let's Celebrate!" is corned beef...am I right?? It's funny that corned beef and more specifically corned beef and cabbage is synonymous with St. Patrick's Day even though in Ireland it really isn't a staple dish. They actually serve bacon and cabbage, which is definitely not a bad alternative. Corned beef was substituted by Irish immigrants when they came to the United States. You can thank me for your food history lesson later. .

Last year was the first year where I decided to make corned beef from scratch. I thought we would have people over for St. Patrick's Day, eat some beef and drink some beer. I hadn't done a lot of research into how to actually make it, so a couple days prior to wanting to serve it, I went out and bought some brisket, thinking you just need to add some pickling spices to it as you cook it. I was a little shocked when I found out that the curing process actually takes 7-10 days depending on the size of your brisket. Oops...

Well that didn't stop me from making it. I just had to procure (no pun intended) some unique ingredients that I wasn't able to just walk into a regular grocery store and pick up. The two ingredients that I had to order online were juniper berries and saltpeter. Saltpeter is another name for potassium nitrate. Yeah, I added potassium nitrate knowingly to food that I was going to eat.

Before you go and call the nitrate police, I would suggest you read this article from Chris Kresser, The Nitrate and Nitrite Myth: Another Reason Not To Fear Bacon. The following stat is from his article which he gives reference to and I thought it was a pretty big eye opener.

It may shock you to learn that one serving of arugula, two servings of butter lettuce, and four servings of celery or beets all have more nitrite than 467 hot dogs. (2) And your own saliva has more nitrites than all of them!

Assuming you are eating fairly healthy, there is a chance you are consuming a decent amount of nitrate rich vegetables. Numerous brands, like Applegate, have cashed in on the fear of nitrates by providing meat products that are branded "No Added Nitrates." I wonder if we should start demanding nitrate free celery. Sounds kind of silly right? The funny thing about companies that claim to have "nitrate free" or "uncured" products is that a majority of them use celery powder to "naturally cure" their products. If you look at Applegate's bacon there are asterics after the saying "No Added Nitrites or Nitrates." Those asterics direct you to a statement that says "Except for those naturally occurring in sea salt and celery powder." It doesn't say how much of those ingredients are added but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they are adding those things to essentially give you the same product as the rest of the bacon on the shelf. I will give Applegate credit for using pork that hasn't been treated with hormones or antibiotics.

There is one problem that has been linked to nitrates is if they turn into nitrosamines. I learned about this by reading an article at Authority Nutrition, which links to some research study abstracts. If you want to read it, click here. If nitrates are exposed to high heat (350 degrees and up) during the cook process than some of those nitrates will turn into nitrosamines. This goes for all nitrates but when was the last time you grilled some celery?? The way to safeguard your bacon, ham, and hot dogs is to cook them at lower temperatures. If you are grilling hot dogs in the summer time don't cook them until they are charred. With your bacon, cook it at a medium to low heat. With your corned beef, cook it slow in a slow cooker or dutch oven.

I hope this has made you think twice about the fear of nitrates in your food. If you want to make your own corned beef, I say go for it. You might be a little late for St Patrick's Day this year, but in my opinion any day of the year is a good day for corned beef. The recipe I used comes from Alton Brown and the Food Network website. The only thing that I changed was that I followed the curing instructions that were on the saltpeter container that I got rather than using the 2 tablespoons that he recommends.

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BEACHBODY ON DEMAND

3/3/2015

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That's right, a number of Beachbody's most popular workouts are available to stream online as long as you have access to a web browser and the internet. Just like Netflix revolutionized online movie space, we feel this is going to be a game changer in fitness world.

We have been able to use this platform for the past month and blown away with the quantity and quality of the workouts that they have included. It's also extremely easy to use. We have accessed it from both our computers and our phones and it works great. We were able to stream workouts to our TV using Google Chromecast and I'm pretty certain you could do the same using Apple TV.

So how does it work??? When you log in this is the first screen you will see.

Right now there are 11 Full programs available and they have a New & Noteworthy section that you can preview all of the latest programs that have been released and some classics that haven't made their way into the Member Library yet. The 11 programs that are included are: Insanity, TurboFire, Brazil Butt Lift, P90X, P90X2, P90X3, Chalene Exreme, Hip Hop Abs, 10 Minute Trainer, Tony 1-on-1, and Insanity Asylum. The New & Noteworthy workouts will give you access to 1 individual workout from 8 of Beachbody's other programs. Also coming by the end of March 2015, there will be a Purchased Products section which will give you access to certain programs that you have purchased by DVD.

After you select a program, you will have access to all of the workouts and program materials for that particular workout. For example with P90X3 you would also get Quick Start, Fitness Guide, Calendar, Nutrition Guide, and Extras. All of these are downloadable.

Once you hit play you will be prompted with a disclaimer screen. Beachbody is really good at making sure if you go all insane doing Insanity that it isn't their fault. A couple clicks and you are ready to start working out. Plus after you hit this agreement on the disclaimer you won't have to do it again for that workout series, which is nice.

Here is a short video showing some of Beachbody's celebrity trainers getting a first look this new function.

Club Member Benefits

10% discount on purchases of Beachbody® fitness programs, gear, and supplements.
Personalized meal plans, nutrition tips, and delicious, healthy recipes that make it easy to lose weight—a $120.00 a month value.
VIP access to our celebrity trainers. Watch their videos, ask them questions, and read their motivational articles.
Get us as your own personal Coach to provide you with all the support, tools, and motivation you need to reach your goals.
Share advice, get community support, and find workout buddies to help you hit your goals on our Message Boards.
Access to the Online SuperGym®, where you can schedule and log your workouts and easily track your progress.

Frequently Asked Questions:
Will I need to buy the fitness program to stream them?
No. Programs inside Beachbody on Demand’s digital library come with a membership to Team Beachbody Club.

Will there be an extra cost per workout watched?
No. Unlimited access is included in Team Beachbody Club membership at no extra cost.

Will I be able to stream workouts internationally?
Yes. You will be able to stream abroad as long as you have a valid internet connection.

Will the workouts be available to download and watch offline?
No. Programs inside the digital library come with a membership to Team Beachbody Club.

How much will it cost?
The current price for a Team Beachbody Club Membership is $38.87 which is paid quarterly. So essentially it is $13 per month. The CEO of Beachbody eluded to the fact that this price may go and you would be able to lock in the current price if you sign up before the price comes out. You are also able to buy a Club Challenge Pack which is a combination of 3 months of membership plus a 1 month supply of Shakeology for $140.

If this feature sounds like something that will help you stay on track and see the results that you've been hoping to accomplish, we would love to chat with you. Feel free to shoot us an EMAIL or comment below and we will be in touch.

If you KNOW this is going to be the difference maker for your fitness, click the button, JOIN THE CLUB, below and feel free to go through the sign up process. Oh and in case you want to combine a club membership with a month's supply of Shakeology, click JOIN THE CLUB + SHAKEOLOGY. That combination is on special this month and you will save $30 when you bundle them together.

JOIN THE CLUB

JOIN THE CLUB + SHAKEOLOGY

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Chicken Roasted in Coconut Milk

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Hash with Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Download Recipe Card for Sweet Potato & Black Bean Hash with Eggs

Brunching in the MSP - Blackbird Cafe

Build Your Own Lightbox

Materials Needed

PVC Cuts

Assmbly

Lemon and Herb Chicken Breast Medallions with Roasted Sweet Potatoes in a Bourbon Cinnamon Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Download Recipe Card for Lemon Herb Chicken Medallions

Download Recipe Card for Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon Cinnamon Sauce

Chicken and Chickpea Stew, #MakeANewMealMonday

Ingredients

Directions

Download Recipe Card

#Hashtags#, We Love Them

#MakeANewMealMonday

Homemade Corned Beef with Nitrates, OH MY!!!

BEACHBODY ON DEMAND

The Cook & The Coach

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