The Cook & The Coach Blog

Curry Meatloaf with Cilantro Yogurt Sauce

2/5/2018

East Meets West...

All the comfort of my grandma's homemade meatloaf combined with all of the flavor you would get from some of the best Indian curry dishes that I've had. Sounds about perfect, right???

This dish is pretty straightforward to make, nothing fancy, unless you want to make your own curry powder. If you do make your own curry powder with fresh roasted spices, please let me know how you do it or let me know where I can buy it. Even without your own curry powder this is one of those dishes that you can make and impress the heck out of some friends or family.

Don't take my word for it though. If you like meatloaf but love some ethnic food, this is a great combo. Pair it with one of your favorite veggies. We did some roasted asparagus but anything will work. Can't wait for you to try. After you do, we would for you to come back and let us know what you thought.

Ingredients

Meatloaf Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds of ground turkey
1 medium onion, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes
3 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 eggs, beaten

Yogurt Sauce

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
Juice of one lime, roughly 2 tbsp
Juice of 1/2 lemon, roughly 2 tbsp
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Pinch of salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a skillet add your coconut oil and sautee the onion, carrot and celery for roughly 10 minutes until softened and mostly cooked through.
In a mixing bowl add the remaining meatloaf ingredients and mix thoroughly before adding the cooked veggies.
Stir to combine well.
Spay an 8" x. 8" baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer meatloaf mixture to the baking dish and spread out to an even thickness.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the meatloaf begins to pull away from the edges and is cooked through.
While the meatloaf is cooking, you can add all of the yogurt ingredients to a small dish and stir to combine.
The meatloaf should make 6 decent size portions once cooked. Serve each piece with a tbsp or 2 of the yogurt sauce and garnish with some fresh cilantro.

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Fish and Veggie Red Curry

8/17/2016

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Laura loves curry!!! So what do you do when your wife loves curry, you make curry for her. Sometimes I'm all about doing things from absolute scratch. In the case of curry, it would be fantastic to toast my own spices then grind them fresh and use my mortal and pestle to make a paste. But let's be honest that takes time and energy.

Instead we found a pre-made curry paste, added in some fresh veggies and fish and a couple other ingredients and we had a delicious dish in under 30 minutes. This was my first time ever using fish in a curry and it turned out pretty great. If you are completely scared of fish or don't like the flavor, too bad, try it anyways. I think you will be surprised that the curry is the dominate flavor and not the fish, so it is a good way to give fish a try.

Feel free to add your favorite veggies to this dish. You don't have to use what we used, we just had these on hand and that is why we love curry dishes so much, because they are so versatile. You could also sub out the quinoa for rice or even zoodles or sweet potato noodles if you want to go grain free. The possibilities are endless. We hope you enjoy this one as much as we did.

Ingredients

1 lb of your favorite white fish, we used flounder but you could easily use cod, haddock, pollock, even walleye
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 large carrots, chopped into bite size pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups fresh or frozen green beans
3 tbsp Red Curry paste from Thai Kitchen
1 tbsp coconut sugar, palm sugar, or brown sugar
1 15 oz can of coconut milk
1 1/2 cups of water
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 cups dried quinoa
1/4 cup fresh cilantro

Directions

In a large saucepan or dutch oven add the coconut oil and melt over a medium high heat.
Add the carrots, peppers, and onions and cook for 8 minutes.
Add red curry paste and cook and stir for 1 minute, then add the coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.
This is where timing things out comes in handy. Depending on the type of grain; quinoa or rice, you should possibly start that before you start cooking any of the veg and curry sauce. For me I started the quinoa in our pressure cooker when I was cooking the veg. If you are doing it on the stovetop you might need to start sooner. When your grains have approximately 8 minutes left add your fish cut up into 1-2" pieces and your green beans or any other frozen veg.
Simmer the sauce with the fish and all the veg for that final 8 minutes with your pan covered. Try not to cook the fish for much longer than 8 minutes otherwise it will just start to fall apart.
Once your quinoa or rice is done, serve a couple large spoonfuls in the bottom of your bowl and top with the curry sauce. Finish with some freshly chopped cilantro and enjoy.

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Gluten Free Gumbo and New Orleans Food

4/20/2016

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Currently we are in New Orleans. When we travel we like to eat what the locals eat. We avoid chain restaurants and try to find the off the beaten path places to grab some food. A couple places we checked out while we've been here are Blue Line Sandwich Co. We did breakfast here last week and it was really good. Definitely was a local hangout. Cochon was another place we checked out which I believe is in the Uptown area. This place was great, we shared some oysters and their traditional dish and namesake, the Cochon. Both were great!

We also checked out John Besh's restaurant Lüke for breakfast yesterday. A little bit on the spendy side but the food was fantastic. I had the southern breakfast and instead of the grits they gave me some roasted potatoes that were just awesome! Laura had the egg white frittata which was also delicious! We also made a stop at Cafe Du Monde and had some coffee and Laura and Eli had some beignets.

As you can see a big piece of what we like to experience when we travel is FOOD!!! Both of us would rather spend $100 on an awesome dinner, then go to a concert or a show. We don't mind those things but we just love food and experiencing the different preparations and flavors is so fun. This has definitely helped me in the kitchen too. I get to see how dishes are made and assembled. I get to taste different combinations of that I would never have thought of on my own. In the traditional version of gumbo, you make a roux from wheat flour, so I had to modify that a bit and I think it worked pretty well.

My goal with a lot of the food we come across is to find great local ingredients, do a little bit of research on what the base of a dish is, then make it your own! For those of you that follow us on Facebook you might have actually seen me make this entire dish on a Live Broadcast. If you want to watch that you can click HERE, then go the videos section. We've also had a lot of people ask about how they can Live Subscribe and get notified when do our live videos. I finally figured it out! If you click on the image below, it will take you to our page, from their click on the videos section, then then in the upper right hand corner click the arrow then choose Turn On Live Notifications. This works if you are on your desktop. From a phone, go to our page, The Cook and the Coach, the select to Follow Us, not just Like our page, then scroll down a few posts and find our last live broadcast and in the upper right hand corner you should see an option to Live Subscribe.

From a Computer

From a Phone or Tablet

So finally the recipe! If you are like me, you probably just skipped to this section! Hope you enjoy this recipe. If you want, you could certainly modify it to your taste, by adding things like shrimp or crawfish. You can also tailor the spice level to what you like and how spicy your andouille is that you buy.

Ingredients

Gumbo Ingredients

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3/4 lb of andouille sausage, chopped
1 pound of chicken, can you use thighs or breast meat
2 medium onions, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tbsp of butter, we use Kerrygold brand
4 tbsp, gluten free flour blend. If you don't have a preblended mix I would recommend 2 tbsp rice flour and 2 tbsp tapioca starch
3 oz of tomato paste
1 tbsp cajun/creole seasoning, I used Emeril's Essence seasoning mix
2 tsp gumbo file
32 oz or so of chicken stock
1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Rice - Multi-Cooker Instructions

2 cups brown rice
2 1/2 cups of water

Directions

In a dutch oven over medium heat add your oil and the andouille sausage. Cook until some of the fat starts to come out and it begins to brown.
Remove sausage from the pan using a slotted spoon, trying to get all the sausage drippings in the pan. Then add the chicken and cajun seasoning. Cook for 7-8 minutes until chicken is almost cooked through.
Remove the chicken from the pan leaving as much fat behind in the pan.
Add butter and let it melt. Then add your flour mixture and whisk for minimum of 10 minutes. The longer the better and the more flavor you will get out of it. This is your roux. It should be slightly runny and shouldn't seize up. If it does add more butter or oil of your choice. DON'T WALK AWAY DURING THIS PROCESS. If you do your flour will burn and you have to start over. Trust me it will be worth it.
After you have whisked that sufficiently, add the onion, celery, pepper and garlic. Stir that for 2 minutes.
Add your tomato paste and cook for another minute. At this point it should be getting pretty clumpy.
Slowly pour in your chicken stock about 8 oz at a time and raise your heat to high. You want to get this up to light boil. Your sauce will begin to thicken. Keep adding liquid until you have a fairly thin gravy consistency. You might need less stock or more, there is no perfect amount here.
Once you get it to a boil, reduce your heat to low, add the gumbo file. Also add back in your sausage and chicken. Cover and let simmer for 25-30 minutes.
Meanwhile cook your rice however you prefer, we like using our multi-cooker. You could start this the same time you put the lid on your gumbo or if you have a helper have them start it while you are making the gumbo.

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New to Healthy Eating? READ THIS!!!

5/16/2015

How long have you been on your healthy eating journey? 6 months? 2 months? 1 week? Starting tomorrow? This post is to help you out in those first few days, weeks, and months so that you can stay on track. If you are an experienced "clean eater" why the heck are you reading this, didn't you read the title? Ha, just kidding hopefully you can even learn something too. The advice I want to share is something I wish someone would have told me when I first started out on my healthy eating journey, so hopefully you can relate.

Here are the 5 tips that I hope will help you stay on track and continue down a road of health, happiness and straight up awesomeness. Because we all know you can't be awesome unless you eat kale...

Tip #1: Spice is the Spice of a Healthy Life

Healthy food doesn't have to taste like you are chewing on styrofoam. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they are preparing healthier foods is forgetting the seasoning and spices. There is nothing wrong with a little salt and pepper in your diet.

Another key is stocking up on tons of dried spices, they last a long time and can add a ton of flavor. Some essentials in our pantry include: garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano, parsley, cumin, tumeric, curry powder, paprika, ginger, tarragon, sage, thyme, rosemary, 5 spice, cayenne, and chili powder. I'm pretty heavy handed with these spices and herbs, most recipes out there get pretty shy with how much spice to add. My tip is to season, taste, then re-season!!!

Other flavor enhancers include fresh citrus and fresh herbs. We almost always have cilantro, lemon, and lime laying around. They are super cheap and will elevate the taste of a dish.

Tip #2: Don't Fear the Fat

Fat doesn't make you fat, just like blueberries don't make you blue! Fat has gotten a bad reputation. If you walk down any grocery store aisle you will find products that claim to low fat or no fat. It's a sad state when food manufacturers are well aware of the health benefits of fat but they simply market products this way because consumers have been brainwashed into thinking fat is bad. Usually when a package says low fat, it means high in sugar (or fake sugar) or high in chemicals. Avoid these products. Yes low fat foods usually have fewer calories but for every 1 gram of fat (9 calories/gram) that is removed they can add 2 grams of sugar (4 calories/gram) and still cut the total calories. Sugar is more likely to be stored as fat, raise cholesterol, raise blood sugar and cause inflammation than fat. Also I'm not a fan of counting calories. If you want to know why, check out our other blog post, Stop eating LESS and exercising MORE.

Another reason to eat fat: it's ESSENTIAL to helping your body function. You may have heard of essential fatty acids. Those are fats that your body can't produce and they NEED to be consumed in the food you eat. The key one here is Omega 3 fatty acids, which are found in foods like salmon, sardines, shellfish, grass fed beef, walnuts, flax seed, and chia seeds. The goal would be to get your ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fats below 4:1. The current American averages around 16:1. This means getting more of the Omega 3 rich foods and less of the processed oils that are found in nearly every packaged food item (soybean, canola, grapeseed, cottonseed, sunflower, corn).

Don't be afraid of saturated fat either, the science is now showing that saturated fat doesn't have the negative side effects once thought...as long as it is balanced with other healthy fats. The visual that people usually have is that if you eat butter, it will harden and coagulate in your arteries. Well by that same logic shouldn't bananas and carrots also harden when they enter your blood stream, I mean they were solid at one point too. Cooking with saturated fats is actually a lot healthier than using unsaturated fats due to the higher smoke point. The fat won't become oxidized and oxidation is the one of the leading causes of inflammation in the body.

Tip #3: Protein Doesn't Make you Big, it Makes You Lean

I have to be honest and say that this tip isn't really one that I was scared of when I first started eating healthy, but I DO see it from a lot of the women that I coach. I'm sorry to pick on the ladies, but eating 3 healthy servings (30 grams each) of protein a day will not make you look like a body builder. In order to get that "muscley" look, your job needs to become eating protein and lifting weights...not to mention the genetics you'd have to have lined up on your side. So if you are the 1/2 of 1/2% of people that those things all line up and you take my advice, I'm sorry.

For the rest of you: protein will help you maintain muscle mass which boosts your metabolism and your awesomeness. If you want a flat stomach, work on getting strong legs. Healthy servings of protein will also help keep you full longer. It digests slower than carbs and therefore won't trigger hunger hormones as quickly, which means less running for the donuts that your coworker brought into the office.

Tip #4: Be Adventurous

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again...and then try one more time. If you've been at this healthy eating for a bit, I'm sure you have had some terrible tasting "healthy" food. Or maybe the consistency was way off. If your first experience with broccoli was a terrible one, don't write off all broccoli. Try a different way to cook it!! Try it steamed, try roasting it, or sauteing it, or whatever. Try some new seasonings. I'm not just talking about broccoli, this goes for anything and everything too. Don't give up on foods if your first attempt wasn't a home run.

Also step outside your comfort zone and try some NEW foods. Try some chia seeds, or kale, or tempeh. Don't rule anything out because of what you've heard or read somewhere. Once you've given something a fair shake and you still don't like it, then it can go on your food blacklist.

Tip #5: Learn a Little Bit

I think this is REALLY important in sticking with your new diet. I use the word diet to focus in on the things you eat...not some calorie restrictive term that has been hijacked by magazine covers. I would credit my education in nutrition for getting me to give up certain foods and desiring to eat other foods. I mean once you know that hydrogenated oils have almost the exact chemical makeup as plastic, you will put down the margarine and go back to real butter. Once you learn that broccoli sprouts can actually cure and prevent you from getting cancer, you will find ways to add them to your daily diet.

If you want to find some quality nutrition advice, talk to some of your "nutrition friends" and ask them who they trust and follow. Don't ask just one either, there are a lot of viewpoints out there and it's good to get some info from a few sources. If you don't have any "nutrition friends", you can just follow us, and we will provide everything you ever need to know...or at least we'll try! Honestly though if you need some help navigating the nutritional world, we would love to help you find some quality resources that are out there. Just hit us up with an email or comment below.

I hope some of this stuff is new advice for you if you're just getting started on your new healthy lifestyle. Or maybe if you've been at it for a while, these are just some good reminders! My hope for you would be that you continue to learn and grow and become an influence to the people that are closest to you.

If you have other thoughts on what has helped keep you on track, we would love to hear what has helped you!!

Mediterranean Lasagna with Eggplant Noodles

6/16/2014

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No offense to my mother but I decided to try to tweak one of her best recipes to give a little more of a Mediterranean flare. So instead of your traditional Italian lasagna I hopped around the Mediterranean region, from Morocco with tumeric, coriander, and cinnamon to Greece with the kalamata olives. The big change more than the spices that are used in this recipe is that you use eggplant in place of pasta. To be honest I could barely tell the difference using the eggplant versus the noodles.

So if you are anywhere on the gluten sensitivity spectrum this would be a great substitution for you. Feel free to tweak as needed to suit your tastes. If you don't like as much spice cut back on the chili flakes. Laura doesn't like olives so I just added those as a garnish at the end but you are olive eaters I would recommend mixing it directly into the sauce. Hope you enjoy this one, we sure did!

Ingredients - Sauce

For the Sauce

1 lb ground turkey or beef
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1- 2 tsp red chili flakes
2 roasted red peppers, with skins removed
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1 7 oz can of tomato paste
1 tbsp tumeric
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp parsley
1/4 balasamic vinegar
1/2 cup kalamata olives, chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Ricotta mixture

1 15oz container of Whole Milk Ricotta
1/2 cup shredded parmesean cheese
2 tsp basil
2 tsp parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper

Additional Ingredients

2 medium eggplant
1 lb shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup shredded parmesean
Fresh parsley for garnishing

Directions

Begin by roasting your red peppers and egg plant. To roast the peppers place in a 450 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes until skins are lightly charred. If you can't get them to stand on end you will want to rotate at least once during the cooking process. Remove from the oven and seal in aluminum foil to allow the steam to soften the skins so they are easier to remove. Allow them to sit for 15 minutes or so then remove the skins and seeds trying to keep as much liquid as possible. Transfer to blender or food processor and blend into until smooth.

To roast the eggplant you will first want to cut them into 1/2 strips. You can use a mandolin or if you have good knife skills go ahead and rock it out that way. You will need roughly 18 slices to put your lasagna together. Once you have them cut into slices, layout on a sheet pan, driizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the same 450 degree oven. Rotating once halfway through.
While your veggies are roasting feel free to start making your sauce. To do this you will begin by sauteing the onions for 4-5 minutes in a little olive oil, then add your meat, chili flakes and garlic and cook until meat is browned.
Drain any extra grease from the pan, then add the remaining ingredients including your pureed red peppers, and simmer for 25-30 minutes.
While your sauce is simmering you can mix together all the ingredients for your ricotta mixture and set aside.
So to put your lasagna together you will layer the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan with eggplant, than top with 1/3 of the sauce mixture, 1/2 the ricotta mixture, and 1/2 of your shredded mozzarella.

6. Repeat another layer of eggplant, sauce, ricotta, and
mozzarella. On the final layer, add the eggplant, sauce and
parmesean.
7. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes until cheese on
top is slightly browned. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.
Then garnish with fresh parsley. ENJOY!

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Homemade Taco Seasoning

2/21/2014

Do you like to know what goes into your food? Here is a super simple way you can take control of another dish that is a staple in most homes, TACOS!!! This is super easy to mix together and I just through it into an old spice jar. You’ll have more than enough seasoning to get your through a few batches of tacos.

Ingredients
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp tumeric
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp tapioca starch (optional but it will give your sauce a little thicker feel)

Curry Meatloaf with Cilantro Yogurt Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Fish and Veggie Red Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Gluten Free Gumbo and New Orleans Food

From a Computer

From a Phone or Tablet

Ingredients

Directions

New to Healthy Eating? READ THIS!!!

Tip #1: Spice is the Spice of a Healthy Life

Tip #2: Don't Fear the Fat

Tip #3: Protein Doesn't Make you Big, it Makes You Lean

Tip #4: Be Adventurous

Tip #5: Learn a Little Bit

Mediterranean Lasagna with Eggplant Noodles

Ingredients - Sauce

Directions

Homemade Taco Seasoning