Coach Kirstin

So dinner tonight came about because one night I had chicken and I really didn't have a very good plan.  I decided to scan my cabinets and see what I had.  Diced tomatoes and tomato paste it was.  Here is what I ended up using 3 cans diced tomatoes (I'm a nerd and had organic) 1 can tomato sauce (because I'm paranoid its going to burn while I'm gone) 1 small can tomato paste 4 cloves garlic ~ 1 tbsp basil ~1  tbsp oregano few dash's of salt, I prefer to add this after I tossed it all in the crock pot the night before and went to bed.  Not pretty but this was my masterpiece. Plugged it in and went to work.  Of course the can of tomato sauce was completely unnecessary but I'm paranoid.  Came home and all I had to do was cook a veggie.  I was really craving Kale with Bacon and with my boyfriend out of town, I can cook it with even more apple cider vinegar than usual.  Its my favorite side to cook because its easy and quick. ...

So I have a recent affair to confess to...my crockpot. It has made my life exponentially simpler. I come home and he has a hot meal prepared and waiting, what's not to love? Except every recipe I google is cook this and that and then put it in the crock pot....I'm using the crock pot so I can just dump it in an forget it, why would I want to cook anything before I put it in the crock pot. I get it, you can make some pretty amazing stuff. But lets think about my life...its planned out in 15 minute increments still and I'm not even fighting anymore, the prep work involved in that is not my style. Sooo I am working on a new section of my blog of no prep crock pot recipes. I am sure to have a few fails. So this was my first experiment. We were short on time and had a lot of chicken thighs in the freezer. So into the bottom of the crock pot went 6 chicken thighs On top of that I added: 2, 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes 6 oz can tomato paste 1/2 onion coarsely chopped ...

So lasagna is like that rare homemade treat that I just love but no one ever makes me, I now know why...they are a pain in the ass.  Fantastic none the less.  Since I began researching Paleo recipes I had noticed the use of zucchini in place of pasta, notably in lasagna.  I actually love zucchini, probably my fav veggie other tomatoes.  So I had been dying to make one.  Low and behold, guess what arrives in our veggie box.  4 zucchini.  Opportunity.  Minor problem.  Ive never made a lasagna in my life.  Thank goodness for Google.  I knew the things I liked in my lasagna, some things I wanted to try.  So I searched away and the best recipe I found was this one by The Pioneer Woman .  I had found much fancier ones but thats not really what I was looking for.  And all the paleo ones take out cheese.  Lets be honest, your waisting your time with a lasagna that doesn't have cheese.  Life just isn't worth living w...

About three years ago I was in NM visiting for a friends wedding and my dad convinced me to eat tomatoes.  I had protested prior to this for texture reasons.  But these were from his garden.  And honestly, Ill do pretty much anything my dad asks me to.  They were pretty fantastic but that spoiled me, there are few things as good as tomatoes picked when they are ripe from a garden in your back yard.  Though I still eat them almost every day.  They are a staple to my diet, even in winter when they don't taste that good, I just put more salt on.  Or in this case, add a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic and mozzarella and put it on top of chicken for a little grilled chicken bruschetta .  Im always looking for ways to make chicken because lets be honest, it gets really quite boring.  There is only so much that spices can do.  The hard part is keeping it within the diet.  This is a pretty good combo and has now been added to the...