dairy free Archives - A Calculated Whisk

Grilled Lemon Chicken Kebabs

March 26, 2018 By Becky 10 Comments

These grilled lemon chicken kebabs are packed with flavor, easy to make, and paleo/Whole30 compliant. They’ll be a huge hit at summer BBQs!

Who’s ready for spring? I certainly am! After a tease of gorgeous spring weather here in Chattanooga at the end of February, it’s been downright dismal for most of March. Despite the gloomy weather, I lugged the grill out of the garage and made these grilled lemon chicken kebabs. Perhaps by grilling, I can encourage spring to make a true and lasting appearance soon!

Sheet Pan Baked Eggs with Sweet Potatoes, Kale, & Cilantro-Pepita Pesto

January 29, 2018 By Becky 14 Comments

These sheet pan baked eggs with sweet potatoes, kale, and cilantro-pepita pesto are packed with flavor and nutrition, but free of gluten, grains, dairy, and nuts!

Hello, happy Monday, and welcome to breakfast week! It’s nothing formal, but I have several scrumptious breakfast ideas coming up that I’m so excited to share with you, starting with these sheet pan baked eggs with sweet potatoes, kale, and cilantro-pepita pesto. This recipe is something I make versions of for myself all the time for quick breakfasts and lunches, because the combination of roasted sweet potatoes, crispy kale, and runny yolks is pretty much irresistible.

Dairy-Free Slow-Cooker Spinach & Artichoke Dip

January 26, 2018 By Becky 12 Comments

This post is sponsored by Cost Plus World Market.

This dairy-free slow-cooker spinach and artichoke dip is a snap to make and perfect to snack on while watching the big game. It’s also totally acceptable and delicious as a lunch!

Who’s excited to watch some football (read: eat some snacks)? My husband is a big football fan and I love a good snack, so we are both pretty pumped. This slow-cooker spinach and artichoke dip will totally be on the menu on game day, but if you’re not a football fan, I think it’d also be a great recipe to whip up to show your valentine how much you love them.

Instant Pot Meatballs

November 28, 2017 By Becky 22 Comments

These Instant Pot meatballs are so easy and quick to make–no stove or oven required–and are the ideal paleo & Whole30 comfort food.

How was your Thanksgiving?? Mine was pretty good. I made an apple galette first thing in the morning and we left for Atlanta around 11 to go to a big family Thanksgiving at Ben’s cousin’s house. Amazingly enough, traffic from Chattanooga to the ATL was very light, and we made it in under two hours. I managed to eat only a relatively appropriate amount of dessert and even brought some galette back home, which made a perfect Black Friday breakfast.

Bok Choy Salad with Apple and Persimmon

November 14, 2017 By Becky 6 Comments

This vegan and paleo bok choy salad with apple and persimmon is healthy enough for a detox but beautiful and tasty enough for your Thanksgiving table!

Is anyone else in need of something delicious and fresh, but still kind of festive? I’ve got you covered with this bok choy salad with apple and persimmon. Amidst all the pie and stuffing and mashed potatoes and even a few early cookies, I am fairly sure that we all could use something like this.

If you’re surprised that bok choy can be eaten raw in a salad, you are not alone. I just learned this recently myself. A couple weeks before our wedding I decided to do Alisa Vitti’s four-day detox, and this bok choy salad is based on a very simple one that she shares as part of the cleanse. I was initially quite suspicious that a combination of raw bok choy, onion, and apple could ever taste good, but since I get bok choy all the time in my CSA and it cooks down to almost nothing in a stir fry, I decided to give the salad a try.

Hubbard Squash Soup with Pistachio Gremolata

October 9, 2017 By Becky 18 Comments

This easy hubbard squash soup with pistachio gremolata will quickly become a favorite in your fall weeknight rotation. The slightly sweet soup and punchy gremolata complement each other perfectly.

It’s October (how?!?), and it’s time for squash soup. Posting squash soup has become an inadvertent fall tradition here at A Calculated Whisk, beginning with butternut squash soup with fried garlic and chili oil in October 2014. The tradition continued with 2015’s parsnip and pumpkin soup and last year’s butternut squash and potato soup (with bacon and pomegranate on top!).

Autumn 2017’s squash soup feature is this hubbard squash soup with pistachio gremolata. I invented it on a whim when I got sick a few days after my wedding and have not been able to stop eating it since. The soup is rich and delicious on its own, but worlds better with a few dollops of pistachio gremolata swirled in.

I originally made this soup with a red kuri squash from my CSA–the one pictured in the top right of this photo. Since then, I’ve had trouble getting my hands on another red kuri, so I turned to buttercup squash (pictured above), which is another member of the hubbard squash family. I have a slight preference for red kuri squash and am constantly on the lookout for it, but either will work (and other orange-fleshed winter squashes like butternut will probably work, too).

Pitaya Peach Smoothie

September 21, 2017 By Becky 16 Comments

This pitaya peach smoothie has quickly become my go-to power breakfast because it’s easy, healthy, gorgeous, and delicious. What more can you ask for in the morning?

Thank you to Rodelle for providing products for use in this post!

Big news: Ben and I are married! We started dating almost six years ago, before the idea of starting a food blog had even crossed my mind, got engaged almost three years ago, and tied the knot on Saturday. I’m so happy and in a way amazed that we are finally married, mostly because we’re not the best at planning big events. However, we somehow pulled it off (with a huge amount of help from our families and especially my mother, who put together all the little decorative elements and details into something better than I’d ever imagined) and are so thrilled to be husband and wife. Also, Ben’s sister and her husband threw us an outdoor rehearsal dinner that was so fun I worried the wedding itself couldn’t top it, complete with a gorgeously decorated tent in their driveway and a late-night fire pit. I could go on and on about our wedding weekend, but should probably save it for a separate post since I also have lots to say about these smoothies. If you’re interested, though, here are a couple of photos from our first look shot by my dear friend, bridesmaid, and photographer extraordinaire Lindsey Lowe.

So, smoothie time! I have been making smoothies all spring and summer long, and this pitaya peach smoothie is my very favorite. I shot a cookbook written by someone else this summer (more details coming!) for the first time, and had 60 photos due just over two weeks before my wedding date. As if photographing a cookbook and planning a wedding wasn’t enough, I also continued to work 30 hours a week as a speech therapist and took on several other freelance projects. To say I didn’t have time to cook breakfast would be an understatement. This is such an easy breakfast, especially if you use an immersion blender like I do–you can make your smoothie in a big jar and drink it from there, too!

Pinchos de Pollo from Latin American Paleo Cooking + Giveaway

September 5, 2017 By Becky 17 Comments

These pinchos de pollo (Puerto Rican chicken skewers) from Latin American Paleo Cooking are a snap to make, packed with flavor, and super healthy.

So, hi! I’m back from what I think was my longest blogging hiatus ever, and I have really missed you. I have a post coming up soon with details on what I’ve been up to in case you’re interested (spoiler alert: planning our wedding and lots of freelance work!). From now on I’ll be sharing recipes more regularly again, and am really excited to get back in the game with this amazing and super simple recipe from Amanda Torres’ new cookbook, Latin American Paleo Cooking. Amanda is the brilliant recipe developer and writer behind the blog The Curious Coconut, and she wrote the cookbook with her mother in law, Milagros Torres, who grew up in Puerto Rico and has been cooking since she was ten.

The book is full of tempting recipes for family dinners, party food, quick and easy meals, sides, cooking essentials like sauces, and desserts from many different Latin American countries. Since I’m trying to slim down for my wedding (it’s in less than two weeks!), I have not even looked at the dessert chapter. However, I’ve been poring over everything else and have a huge list of what I want to make. Empanadas are at the very top of my list (and the top of the cover of the book–don’t they look amazing?)!

Bolognese Stuffed Zucchini with Pesto

June 14, 2017 By Becky 36 Comments

This post is sponsored by Uncle Steve’s Italian Specialties.

These bolognese stuffed zucchini with pesto are a satisfying and summery Whole30 meal made with organic tomato basil sauce, ground beef, and plenty of fresh pesto on top.

How is summer treating you so far? Here in Chattanooga it’s been nice and hot (just the way I like it!) and we’ve been getting in a lot of swimming. I’ve also been working on my tan while doing my farm share work, and loving the first rounds of summer produce showing up, like zucchini, basil, and even a few tomatoes.

I used my early squash to make these bolognese stuffed zucchini with pesto, which combine seasonal vegetables and a few pantry staples to make an easy but hearty paleo dinner.

And no, I’m not suggesting you make a true bolognese sauce that needs to simmer away for hours in this heat. This is a bit of a cheater’s bolognese, because we’re letting Uncle Steve’s do the hard work for us. Their organic tomato basil sauce is so flavorful that all we have to do is brown the ground beef with a little onion, and stir in the sauce. The resulting filling will fool all your lucky dinner companions into thinking you worked all day to handcraft an authentic Italian sauce.

Roasted Beets & Sweet Potatoes

June 5, 2017 By Becky 4 Comments

These roasted beets and sweet potatoes are a paleo and vegan-friendly side dish that goes well with almost anything.

I know–it’s June, and I’m suggesting cranking up the oven to roast some vegetables. It may not be the most summer-friendly cooking method, but to me it’s worth it. Beets just started appearing at local farmers markets and in my CSA box, and my favorite way to enjoy them is roasted alongside the last of fall’s sweet potatoes (or perhaps the first of summer’s crop!).

To make this dish extra colorful, I opted for a mix of orange and purple sweet potatoes and chioggia beets, which are striped inside and won’t stain your hands nearly as much as regular beets. The sweet potatoes end up tender inside and satisfyingly crispy along the edges. The beets don’t crisp up, but their earthy, springy flavor is a great counterpoint to the sweet potatoes. A little thyme adds herbal freshness and savory notes, but can be omitted if you don’t have any on hand.

Carnitas con huevo

April 24, 2017 By Becky 40 Comments

Try carnitas con huevo–crispy slow-cooked pork with fried eggs–for a hearty and irresistible paleo breakfast. There’s avocado crema involved, too!

I’m sorry for the silence here last week! I hadn’t planned on taking a week off from sharing recipes, but suddenly Easter and several deadlines for freelance work and a few other things snuck up on me. I’m back, though, with one of my favorite breakfasts of all time: carnitas con huevo (slow-cooked, crispy pork with an egg on top) with avocado crema.

If you’ve by any chance been reading since I started this site in 2013, you may recognize this recipe as one I posted back then during my first attempt at a Whole30. It was long overdue for a reshoot, though. Just for fun, I’ve included one of the original photos below right before the recipe card. I’m constantly working on improving my food photography and styling, but looking back on photos from a few years ago makes me feel really good about how far I’ve come already.

Vietnamese Beef Lettuce Wraps

March 27, 2017 By Becky 10 Comments

These quick Vietnamese beef lettuce wraps are my new go-to light dinner for spring. They’re gluten free, dairy free, paleo friendly, and easy to put together.

I am a huge fan of Vietnamese food. When Ben and I lived in Boston, our neighborhood had a lot of Vietnamese families and businesses. There was a great little supermarket within walking distance where I could pick up everything from fish sauce to rice paper wraps to long stalks of fresh lemongrass. One of our favorite restaurants, Pho Hoa, was just blocks away. I usually ordered the house special vermicelli plate. It had pretty much everything: grilled pork, shrimp on sugarcane, meatballs, grilled scallions, pickled carrots, chopped peanuts, and even a sliced spring roll all on top of vermicelli. It also came with rice paper wraps and a bowl of hot water so you could make your own fresh rolls.

These fast and easy Vietnamese lettuce wraps are loosely based on the flavors of that dish. Instead of vermicelli and rice paper wraps, we’re using fresh leaves of lettuce with a little jasmine rice inside to soak up the saucy beef. You could definitely use rice noodles or cauliflower rice instead if you prefer! The beef is quickly cooked with a little garlic and a sauce that combines tamari (or coconut aminos), fish sauce, honey, and sambal oelek. The result is an umami-packed flavor with just the right balance of sweet, salt, spice, and funk.