The Cook & The Coach Blog

Bacon Apple Butter

4/30/2018

One of the big things that separates a good meal from a great meal is a sauce! If you like to eat out at nice restaurants like we do, that is something that they all have in common, a fantastic sauce pairing that goes along with the main course.

It can provide a balance of flavors, it can tie a dish together, and it can provide a needed level of moisture/fat with a leaner cut of meat. After years of watching cooking shows and a little experimentation myself I've learned some basics in sauce making and how to combine flavors. If you are novice learning some basic skills in this world will certainly help.

Here is a link to an article talking about the 5 French Mother Sauces. Might sound a little fancy but most sauces that exist in the world are a spinoff of these base sauces. From this you can play with flavors that pair with your main dish. Another thing I would recommend is a book that I pull out on occasion, The Flavor Bible.

This book is fantastic in that it allows you to look up a food, say pork, then it gives you a list of other foods, veggies, and spices that pair well with it. So combine that with the basics of how to make a sauce and you are pretty much set!

The cool thing about The Flavor Bible is that it highlights the ingredients that work best. For this Bacon Apple Butter, I knew we were making pork so take a look at pairings above...

Apples; in ALL CAPS means it is great
Bacon; highligthed
Butter; also highlighted
Cinnamon; also highlighted
Lemon; ALL CAPS
Onions; can't see it here but ALL CAPS

You could call me a good cook/chef but I'm just a rule follower! Pick things that pair well together and it is a lot harder to screw up flavors.

Ingredients

4 strips thick cut bacon, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 apple, skinned and diced
1 cup applesauce
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup water
Salt and pepper

Directions

Add the bacon to a medium saucepan, and render out the fat.
Remove bacon bits and most of the bacon grease, leaving behind about 1 tbsp.
Add onion and apple and cook for 6-8 minutes until onion is softened. Add the remaining ingredients, including 1/2 the bacon bits, cover and simmer on low for 15 minutes or up to 45 minutes.
Use the remaining bacon bits as a garnish on top of your finished dish.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

1/16/2018

I know some people that begin to drive heave if they are threatened to eat a brussel sprout. A couple are in my immediate family. Growing up my mom on occasion would make them but they were usually either steam or boiled with some butter on them. Although I could probably stomach that now, at the time it was one of the most disgusting flavors. The smell was similar to what a Band-Aid smells like and I could only imagine what they taste like.

Had my mom prepared sprouts this way, I'm guessing there would have been a 50/50 chance that I would have actually eaten them. I mean they are still green and green food in our house was immediately met with rejection, unless it was Jello. That stuff was delicious! Just don't ruin it by putting fruit in it!

The process of roasting brussels is pretty straightforward. One key is making sure you start with fresh brussels not the frozen version. If you get the frozen ones, they will be more apt to just steam and bring you and I back to that Band-Aid flavor and smell. So start fresh! Then all you need to do is trim a little bit of the chewy stem off of them if there is some. We like to half or quarter ours from there depending on the size. You could roast them whole but they would take a LONG time so that's not advised. Once you halve them, spread them out evenly on a baking sheet. Drizzle with roughly 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil per pound of brussels. Season generously with salt and I like a little pepper also but not always.

Once seasoned, put them the oven that was preheated to 425. Depending on the size they should take anywhere from 20-30 minutes and I like to stir them half way through. What you are looking for is for them to start turning slightly brown if not black. In the cooking world that's called carmelization! Do it! They aren't burnt, they are perfect that way. It will bring out some of the natural sugars that are in a plant that is inherently bitter and if prepared poorly can taste like Band-Aids!

Try it this, I bet you will like brussels for the first time! Or at worst you won't hate them.

Want to take this next week off from planning your own Healthy Meals? Let us do the work for you! Follow the link below and we will give you are 5 Day Meal Guide for free!

Pumpkin Spice Protein Pancakes

11/1/2017

It wouldn't be fall if we didn't throw a pumpkin recipe at you. Since we love pancakes here you go! We've been making a variation of these pancakes for the longest time. However the texture on those other ones just wasn't quite where I would like it when it comes to a pancake. So just a couple little tweaks and we have this new one which I think will be our go to pancake recipe for a quite some time.

If you are wondering what the hell the broccoli is doing in the picture, I thought this was a pancake recipe, you aren't the first one to think that is a weird combo. This combo is a great a solution for a number of people that we work with on a regular basis. Two staples that people usually fall short of on a daily basis is protein and veggies. Why not start your day with a healthy dose of both?

Why are protein and veggies important? Particularly for people trying to lose weight these two things will likely be your biggest help in seeing measurable progress in a short period of time. By getting adequate protein, 20-40 grams, per meal you will fill yourself with bulk but with lower calories. Same goes for the veggies, due the high fiber in veggies you are adding bulk without adding calories. It's because of this that you are able to eat to the point of being full all while staying in a calorie deficit.

If you are curious how much protein and fiber you should specifically be eating head over to our Calorie Calculator page and submit some information and I will get you a customized plan to let you how much of each you should be eating. This will be based on your size, activity level, and your goals.

Otherwise enjoy the heck out of these pancakes, we sure did!

Macronutrient Information

Calories: 95
Protein: 10.9 g
Fat: 4.4 g
Carbs: 3.5 g
Sugars: 0.9 g
Fiber: 1.6 g

Ingredients

1/2 can of pumpkin pie filling, roughly 3/4 of a cup plus a little bit
3 eggs
3/4 cup of unflavored whey isolate protein powder
1 tsp vanilla extract (omit if using a vanilla protein powder)
3/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Dash of ground clove
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt

Directions

Add the wet ingredients, pumpkin, eggs, almond milk, vanilla to a bowl or blender and mix to combine. We like to use our Vitamix to mix these in.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. I've found different flax and almond meals tend to absorb liquid at different rates. You may need to a little more water or almond milk to an appropriate consistency. What you are looking for is something that easily pours and spreads out on a griddle.
Heat a griddle to medium heat or 300 degrees if you have an electric one like us. Spray with a nonstick spary, we use a coconut oil variety.
Pour batter onto griddle making about 4" pancakes. With this recipe you should get about 10 pancakes out of 1 batch.
Enjoy!

Deconstructed Egg Roll

7/30/2017

One food that I have yet to find since going gluten free is a fried egg roll...they just don't exist out in restaurants and we didn't opt for the RV with the deep fat fryer. We've had a number of our challengers post in our accountability groups about creating different versions of this dish. I finally got around to make some myself and have to say it hit the spot.

We were a little spoiled too, since the two days before this my aunt picked most of the veggies that went in this dish straight out of her garden. Fresh cabbage, fresh carrots, and fresh onions!!! The only thing we added to the dish was some red pepper, garlic and the pork. Oh and a few spices and some asian sauces!

Ingredients

1 pound pork sausage
1 small onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 large carrots, sliced
3 tbsp minced garlic, roughly 3 cloves
4 green onions, sliced
1 small head of cabbage, grated or sliced, roughly 5 cups
1 inch of ginger, minced or 2 drops of ginger essential oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup tamari, coconut aminos or low sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp coconut nectar or brown sugar (optional)
1 tbsp siracha (optional)

Directions

In a large skillet or dutch oven add the sausage and cook over medium heat until cooked through.
Remove sausage from the pan leaving the drippings behind. Add the carrot, bell pepper, ginger, and onion and cook for 8 minutes until carrots begin to soften and onion is translucent.
Add garlic, cook for 2 more minutes.
Add the cabbage along with all the other ingredients, cook over medium heat for 5 minutes stirring frequently.
Cover, and reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes stirring once or twice.
Serve and eat as is if you are wanting a low carb meal or you can serve over the top of some prepared rice. Garnish with a little cilantro and enjoy!

Gluten Free Turkey Meatloaf with Savory Mushroom Sauce

1/13/2017

Meatloaf... it was a staple in our house growing up! My mom would always make it with beef and slather on the ketchup sauce on top. It was actually quite tasty, except for the onions. I despised onions when I was a kid. Not the flavor as much as the crunch that you would occasionally get from one that wasn't cooked enough.

Times have changed quite a bit! The breadcrumbs that you would normally add to meatloaf would now make me breakout in a rash. The high fructose corn syrup in the ketchup, yeah... we are just going to avoid that if we can. That's the backstory on how this recipe got created.

I suppose with mushroom sauce this maybe is closer to the salsibury steak that we would occasionally have in our tv dinners. No matter what you call it, I hope you call it delicious! We certainly enjoyed it!

Ingredients

Meatloaf

2 1/2 lbs of ground turkey
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp grassfed butter
1 cup of mashed sweet potato
3 eggs
2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Savory Mushroom Sauce

3 cups sliced bella mushrooms
2 tbsp grassfed butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tbsp sherry wine
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 -1 cup water or broth
1 tsp galic powder
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp red chili flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Meatloaf

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a skillet saute the onions in butter and season with salt and pepper. Cook until it they become slightly caramelized.
In a large bowl combine the other ingredients along with the cooked onion. Make sure to not throw your hot onions on top of raw eggs otherwise you end up with scrambled eggs. Either mix the eggs or onion into the meat first.
Once everything is thoroughly mixed transfer to a large baking dish or loaf pan. We used a 6" x 9" baking dish and it fit right up to the top!
Bake for one hour or until the inner temp gets to 170 in the center of the meatloaf. The ends cook faster.
Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.

Savory Mushroom Sauce

In the same skillet you cooked the onions, add butter, oil and mushrooms and cook over medium heat until the mushrooms have reduced in size and started giving off some liquid.
Add the sherry wine and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the tapioca starch and stir until the starch dissolves into the liquid in the pan. Add 1/2 cup of water or broth and stir until well incorporated. You should have a gravy-like texture at this point.
Add in the remaining seasonings and stir occasionally.
The sauce will take 15 minutes or so to make. You can start cooking it when your meatloaf has a few minutes left to cook. Feel free to add more water to the sauce if the texture starts getting too thick. The longer you cook it the thicker it will get.
Once your meatloaf has rested, cut and serve with a spoonful of the sauce over the top. We enjoyed it with some grilled asparagus and side salad! Hope you enjoy and let us know if you try it.

Bacon Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Orange and Pecan

12/20/2016

We are creatures of habit. When we find something we like we don't change. Brussel sprouts and the way we prepare them is a prime example. Our normal preparation is clean, cut, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and roast in the oven. If we are feeling crazy we might add a little bacon, balsamic or galic. I've learned to not mess with Laura's brussels!

This past weekend we did a Chrismtas dinner with my side of the family and my mom had found some beautiful brussel sprouts. I've tried exposing to my family to brussels before and other than my mom and sister in laws haven't had much luck. So I figured what the heck let's try something different in the hopes they will try it. It got a couple more to try but I don't know if I turned them to be brussel fans.

This recipe was simply inspired by what was in the kitchen. We had brought some fresh pecans home from Texas. We had an orange that we didn't eat on our flight up to Minnesota and I had saved some bacon grease from our breakfast that morning!

The orange definitely livened the dish up quite a bit and pecans added a nice texture contrast, so I would say this is a win and we would love to hear what you think if you make it yourself.

One variation you could certainly try would be to add bacon to the dish. We didn't since we had it for breakfast that morning. But if you wanted to, just chop and cook the bacon in your skillet until the fat is rendered out, remove the bacon and start the brussel sprout process listed below. Then just re-add the bacon pieces the same time as the pecans.

Ingredients

1 lb brussel sprouts, cleaned and halved
2 tbsp of bacon grease
1 orange, zested and juiced
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 tbsp of vinegar of your choice, we used red wine because that is what we had but balsamic probably would have paired better
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Clean and prep your brussels
In a large skillet, add the bacon grease over a medium high heat.
Add brussel sprouts and cook for 10-15 minutes until they begin to carmelize. You will need to toss them frequently to keep from sticking.
After brussels are carmelized add the zest, juice of the orange, and vinegar, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir once or twice during this time.
Add the chopped pecans and toss with brussels over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until the brussels are cooked the whole way through.
Season with salt and peper and serve!

Flax Pancakes with Orange, Pecan Sryup

12/4/2016

We are currently parked in a campground in central Texas between Houston and San Antonio. There isn't anything super fancy about this park or its location. One upside though is that there are pecan trees everywhere and it's pecan season! If I had the patience I could easily fill up a 5 gallon bucket in less than hour. We've been snacking on them a bit but decided to try to use them the other morning in combination with a new pancake recipe.

If you follow us you know that we love our pancakes and they are a weekend tradition. You also know we need gluten free options since I can no longer eat anything glutenous! I wouln't consider these pancakes health food but they are close. The flax in them provide a ton of Omega 3 fats which are super good for you. You also get a decent dose of protein and fiber too!
The sauce/sryup that I made is the thing that turns a fairly healthy pancake into a bit of a treat! Enjoy it though because it's delicious and a much better way to enjoy pancakes then use a boxed premix.

Ingredients

Pancakes

3/4 cup ground flax seeds
3/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp coconut sugar
2 1/2 cups almond milk
Pinch of salt

Syrup

1/3 cup toasted pecans
2 tbsp grassfed butter
Juice of 1 orange
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup real maple syrup

Directions

Pancakes

Combine all ingredients in a blender or mixer and mix!
I would recommend adding the liquid last and 1/2 cup at a time until you get a good pancake batter consistency. It took me right around 2 1/2 cups.
Cook on a 325 degree griddle for 5 minutes then flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes until fully cooked.

Syrup

Since we had raw pecans I add them to a small saucepan and cooked over a medium heat for 5 minutes until you could start to smell the toasted nut flavor. Make sure to stir often, if you are toasting your own.
Add the orange juice and zest next, followed by the butter and syrup. Simmer for 5 minutes. The skin on my orange was a little nasty so I opted for using some 1 drop of orange essential oil to up the organge flavor instead.

Crispy Baked Sweet Potatoes

10/19/2016

I've tried a couple dozen different ways to make baked sweet potato fries and most of them haven't turned out until now! The two things that have typically happened are either horribly burnt fries or soft squishy fries. Been there?

I wish I could remember where I saw this trick but it made all the difference. I know I saw it on some Facebook cooking school type page. They talked about the differences in sweet potatoes vs regular white potatoes. The thing that separates the two is the starch to sugar ratios. White potatoes are higher starch less sugar and sweet potatoes are just the opposite. If you are somewhat experienced cook you know that sugar burns. It's because of this and this balance that makes sweet potato fries harder to get that nice crispy texture without burning.

You could approach this problem a few ways. Cook them incredibly fast so they don't have time to burn, aka fry them. Not the worst thing in the world if you are using a quality oil like coconut oil, but that becomes a pretty expensive batch of fries if you are using a whole jar of coconut oil to make them. The next option is to reduce the sugar content, that's not really an option as far as I know. The last one would be to up the starch content. That can be done!

The process of adding starch is pretty simple. You could use a number of different starches to do this but I would recommend tapioca, arrowroot or corn starch/flour, I used tapioca. You create a slurry of the starch plus a little water and toss the potatoes in the slurry while they are warm and slightly softened from boiling. That way the starch mixture gets absorbed into the potato.

I'm going to continue to experiment with this process and hopefully fine tune it a bit more. For now, we hope you enjoy this little tip. I would also love to find the perfect fry seasoning to add to these. If you have any suggestions drop them in the comments.

Boiled potatoes covered in tapioca starch slurry

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes cut into wedges
2 tbsp tapioca starch
1/4 cup warm water
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Get a pot of water boiling and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Peel and cut your sweet potatoes into wedges.
Add potatoes to salted, boiling water for 6 minutes.
While potatoes are in water add tapioca starch and water to a large bowl and whisk until fairly smooth.
After potatoes cook for 6 minutes add them directly to the bowl with starch slurry in it. Toss in the slurry until all wedges are fairly well coated. Try to be fairly gentle during this process in order to not create mashed potatoes.
Place potatoes onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until some brown spots start to show. Rotate halfway through the baking.
Once they are finished baking, season with salt and pepper or whatever seasoning you wish.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

10/10/2016

I don't know why I don't always have a batch of this soup in our fridge. So good!!! Five years ago I would have laughed at you if you would tell me that soup can be an entire meal. I guess I was used to terrible canned soups or the tiny cup of soup that you get at restaurants. Oh how the times of changed.

Now my view of soup is basically it is liquid salad! Seriously though if you make a good soup it should resemble a salad. So if you don't like to eat salad, I suggest you try soup instead. This version of chicken tortilla soup is loaded up with veggies, quality protein, and of course some amazing chicken stock.

When I make soup I love to make a huge batch because it tastes better the next day! Feel free to scale this recipe up or down but it makes about 6 large bowls of soup. Also as a little bonus here is a how I like to make my chicken stock at home which is super simple.

Homemade Chicken Stock

Ingredients

5-6 pound whole chicken
1/2 pound chicken feet (optional but not really but this is where you get all that amazing gelatenous goodness!)
2 large carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, smashed
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dry thyme
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Water

Directions

We use our pressure cooker if you don't have one you could do this in a stock pot or even in a slow cooker. It will just take longer.
Put your chicken and all your vegetables in your cooking vessel along with 2 cups of water. If you using a pressure cooker you will need to cook for approximately 45-60 minutes depending on how big your chicken is. Similar on a stove top and multiple hours in a slow cooker.
After the chicken is cooked, remove it from your pot. You can let it cool or if you are tough feel free to dig right in and start removing the meat from all the bones. Add the bones back into the pot that still has the vegetables in it.
Set your meat aside for later and discard the skin and gristle.
Add the remaining seasonings and ingredients and fill up your pot with water. We have a 6 quart stockpot and this amount of vegetables and spices works well with that amount of liquid.
Pressure cook for 2-3 hours depending on how much time you have. If you are using a stovetop or slow cooker you are looking at more like 24-48 hours.
After cooking, strain it so you are just left with the liquid, store in the fridge for up to a week.

Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb of shredded cooked chicken meat
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
0-3 jalepenos, seeds removed
2 tbsp of minced garlic
4 cups of pureed tomatoes
4 cups chicken stock
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp smoked paprika
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Garnishes/Toppings

Green Onion
Cilantro
Corn Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt
Hot sauce

Directions

In a large pot add the oil, then add the onion, peppers and garlic and cook over medium heat for 8 minutes or until softened.
Add tomatoes and stock to the pot along with spices and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a low, add the chicken and simmer for minimum of 15 minutes or up to an hour.
Your done, add with some of your favorite toppings and enjoy!

Classic Lemon Vinaigrette

8/25/2016

One thing we really encourage a lot of our clients to work on is to be more veggies, especially greens. One of the easiest ways to get more greens in is to eat more salads. We love our salads, and try to it one 5 days a week. We aren't just talking about a little side salad with dinner. We are talking full on, stuff my face and stomach salad that is loaded with greens and veggies. We see a lot of people that grasp that concept which is awesome, but then they douse all those quality veggies with some low quality salad dressing.

A couple of tips if you do buy store bought dressings;

Avoid "Low Fat" dressings! Low fat usually just means high sugar or as one of my favorite memes out there states, Low Fat = Chemical Shit Storm!
Try to find dressing with fewer ingredients. Most salad dressings should contain a vinegar and an oil and maybe some seasonings. Avoid artificial colors, sweeteners, and flavors.
Avoid veggie oils, canola and soyben are the big ones used in cheap dressings. These easily oxidize and will likely cause inflammation in your body. Not to mention most canola is genetically modified.

Sound like a lot of work to follow those rules? Well the easy solution is to buy some of those base ingredients and keep them on hand so you can make your own dressings. Here is a simple one to get you started.

Ingredients

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp raw honey
Season with salt and pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients other than the oil in a blender and mix until well combined.
Drizzle the olive oil in slowly over the course of 30 seconds while the blender is running.
Serve over your salad, and store the extra in the fridge. This should be enough dressing to last an entire week at least.

If the idea of eating more veggies and cleaning up your eating sounds like something you would be interested in, we will be hosting a special group on Facebook in a little over a week. The group will revolve around having a salad a day for week. We will provide recipes like the one above and some more tips on how to put together an amazingly healthy salad. If you are interested click on the image below and RSVP.

About Us

Dan and Laura Suedbeck have embraced an entrepreneurial lifestyle. They are constantly challenging the status quo and challenge others to do so too. They believe that you don't always have to change your situation, sometimes you just need to change the lens you view the world through. Their focus is helping people find purpose and passion with their lives all while getting healthy. Click here to find out more about them.

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