Paleo Cooking Challenge Checkin

Time for a check-in on my little personal paleo cooking challenge - where I stand on the grocery bill front, what I plan on cooking this week, and what's already prepped for the week ahead!

This week I got my CSA box full of vegetables and planned my two weeks of cooking around what I had in the box: lots of string beans and snap peas, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, zucchini and BASIL! More basil than I knew what to do with...guess that meant I made pesto (see below)!

Here's the menu for the next two weeks:
Yellow chicken curry
Pot roast
Pesto chicken
Sugar snap peas with bacon (AGAIN! soooooooo yummy)
Cucumber Asian Salad

To complement my CSA box, I bought the following items from the co-op grocery:
Chicken breast
Coconut oil (I was out...)
Thai Kitchen Yellow Simmer Sauce (2 bottles)
Lemon
Ginger root
Garlic

Not a whole lot of groceries this week, and I only spent $30. I also had to go pick up a chuck roast from the farmer's market from Darryl of Blue Gentian Farm - total for 2.45 lbs was $11. That brings my monthly grocery bill to about $243. Uh oh....looks like I may have a little trouble staying below my initial $250 budget for the month, but I still think it's going to be a major improvement from previous months' bills - it's amazing what you can accomplish if you just hold yourself accountable to a set goal!

Now for the good stuff: food recipes!

Basil Pesto
This pesto doesn't use cheese since that is technically not paleo. I LOVE this sauce as the basil I used was super fresh, so it tasted mildly spicy. I made it now so that the basil wouldn't go bad, but I don't plan on using it until next week on some chicken breast. I read online that pesto sauce freezes well and lasts for months, but can also last in a cold refrigerator for 2 weeks. Here's what you'll need:

3.5 cups fresh basil
1 cup walnuts
6 garlic cloves
1 cup olive oil
1 tsp sea salt (give or take)
1/2 lemon, juiced

In a food processor, combine the walnuts, garlic, olive oil and salt. Blend until smooth. Then add the leaves and the lemon juice and blend until smooth. Presto pesto!

Yellow Chicken Curry (makes about 6 servings)
Curry is the easiest thing to make in a pinch and is so versatile. In my year of living in Minneapolis so far, I've made it at LEAST six times...more than anything else I've ever cooked! You can add any vegetables you want, I usually deal with what's on hand. I use Thai Kitchen's Yellow Simmer Sauce, available in any Asian grocery aisle. It's got all the stuff pre-mixed in it, but if you're not as lazy as me, you can also buy the raw paste and mix it with coconut milk, some fish sauce, and some brown sugar (usually the proportions are on the back of the curry paste). Once you get the sauce simmering, here's how the curry is made:

2 bottles Simmer Sauce
1 pound chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 cups chopped vegetables (I used zucchini, carrots, string beans, and onions)
1/2 cup sliced basil

Bring the sauce to a boil over high heat in a large pot. Add the chicken and cook until about halfway done (about 4-5 minutes). Add the vegetables and simmer together another 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in the basil.

I plan on making the pot roast tomorrow, so check back soon for more recipes!