Katie's Thai Almond Chicken & Veggie Stir-Fry (Healthy, Low-Carb/Paleo/Keto, VAALT)

Marcus and I recently went to a pot-luck and the hostess enjoyed our dish so much, she asked for the recipe. I wrote her an email, and of course it ended up being more detailed & info-heavy than I initially planned, so Marcus thought the email/recipe deserved to be on my blog.

Hey,

Sorry it’s taken me a few days! I knew putting this email together would take a little time since I almost always modify recipes based on our eating style, Marcus’s expertise and the VAALT* diet (Marcus's creation) of course!

VAALT is an acronym: Vegan, Anti-inflamatory, Animal Low Temperature 
Everything must be organic or better on the VAALT diet.

Here’s the note: Marcus (& I) would rather you spend time filling out your 4-day summary than making this recipe so we can help you get over your health issues - however, I did tell you I’d send this to you, and maybe your hubby will make it!!

Here are the two recipes that I used as research for my dish. I tried to include all notes below on how I modified them… Once I have a team (including an assistant), these modified recipes will go into our book or website, but for now, I’m still getting all that together!

Thai Peanut (Almond) Chicken
http://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2014/04/crockpot-thai-peanut-chicken-recipe.html

You know we use all organic so keep in mind that’s implied for all the recipes! All degrees are in Fahrenheit. 

I doubled the Thai Peanut (ALMOND) sauce for this recipe because I used 2 packages of TJ Organic free range chicken legs… which I think was about 5-6 pounds.

We bought this crock pot http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-33462-Portable-6-Quart/dp/B009RKIPW4 because it uses relatively little energy (I think on “warm” lowest setting stays at a great temperature, usually below 150°, and it pulls 4 amps/25 volts; it takes less energy in summer when temperature is warm). I had to research in reviews to find one that works for our purposes. Some don’t have the warm setting & low is too hot for us (usually 180°+). We check temp periodically when we cook meat & keep our meat at 135-150° to ensure bacteria is killed but we don’t oxidize fats or denature the proteins, or glycate the sugar/fat/protein. We use the same crock pot, on warm, to make plain broth out of prather bones (with 1-2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar). It takes 24 hours for first batch, then we take out half, add water & make probably 1-1.5 gallons of broth out of 1 bag (1-2 pounds) of prater bones. It’s incredible! My hair & nails are stronger than they have ever been & I’m sleeping better, feeling fantastic and I think it’s because of the low carb diet (Marcus’s VAALT diet) and bone broth! We drink about 1-2 cups per day with 1-2 teaspoons of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.

Back to Thai Almond recipe!

1 large red bell pepper, 1 large onion, sliced & laid at bottom of our crock pot. 
Wash chicken legs & lay out on top of pepper & onion.
Pour Almond sauce on top. I followed the recipe above from familyfreshmeals but substituted 
ALMOND BUTTER or Almond Meal
Maple Syrup for Honey: And HALFED the sugar because I’m low-carb, and used maple syrup instead of honey - when you cook honey it turns into a high fructose source (kills enzymes & insulin), and it is very hard on the liver, whereas maple sugar has lower glucose ratio… hence we usually sub Maple Syrup when cooking. The caveat about honey - because the hive is warm, honey does handle some heat, but not ever above 120-125° depending on the type of honey.
Bragg’s liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce 
I think I used about 1/4 less Aminos than they called for cuz the sauce tasted right & cuz it’s easy to add salt, hard to take away). 
Lime Juice: I like it with lime, but lemon works fine too. 
Have made it 2xs. 1st time with Maranatha Organic Roasted Almond Butter (MORAB purchased for $6 at Grocery Outlet). It turned out delicious! BUT, cooked nuts aren’t great for liver issues. 2nd time I didn’t have MORAB, so I used some organic almond meal that I ground up to make into a finer almost-butter (if I were patient or had a vitamix or felt like using our green star, it would’ve turned into butter better but I was impatient!). Anyway, the recipe you tried had almond meal in it, not almond butter, but finely ground (I ground in our blender). It also used lemon since I didn’t have limes at home.

So that’s the first part of the recipe. I cooked it for about 24 hours in the crock pot and the temperature reading was averaging 145°. The sides & bottom of crock pot get warmer (I think around 185-200° which isn’t great) but the chicken stays low temp because it’s insulated by sauce & veg.

Once chicken is finished it falls off the bone! I take out the drumsticks & put them in storage as is or pull meat off bone & serve with some of the sauce (it also makes a great thai pizza but that’s only for my high-carb meal of which I get 1 per week). There’s lots of sauce, so I usually jar the sauce separate from the chicken.

2nd part of recipe.
Veggie Thai Peanut (Almond) Stir Fry
http://hurrythefoodup.com/easy-vegetable-stir-fry-with-creamy-peanut-sauce/

I followed this recipe VERY loosely… And I’ve made a ton of different stir fries (my favorites are panang or red curry but I haven’t found a good curry paste that’s organic, and sometimes curries can get too high carb… Let me know if you find one; I’ve made curry paste from scratch but have so-far been unimpressed.)
I sauted in our wok with coconut oil (which we ran out of so I used sustainable organic palm oil in the recipe you tasted):
1/4-1/2 cup oil
1 large Onion
thumb-sized piece of Ginger Root (peeled & chopped finely)
2 cloves Garlic
1 medium carrot
2 zucchini
Broccoli & Cauliflower (didn’t have any, but would add them if I did as I love both in veggie stir-fry dishes)
1 package Flax Tempeh (berryvale has this), cut in cubes.
2-3 stalks celery
3-4 chopped large crimini mushrooms (all we had, would’ve used more we both love mushrooms)

Once all that’s sautéed, I added in the almond sauce leftover from above chicken & cooked it all together to integrate flavors. I think that’s everything, but I might’ve forgotten something. Honestly, it’s a bit of a creative process for me, so… it’s a bit open. I think I added some organic dried cayenne powder & organic chili powder for spice - obviously that can be modified for preference.

Warning: My recipes with carbs with not help with weight loss, it could help GAIN weight and mass. I eat the vast majority of my foods now (2 months) with zero to little added carbs - so I omit rice, noodles, bread or chips - I’m at about 30 NET carbs per day & I feel better than ever & have lost some pounds and fat so that’s good too as I had gained about ten pounds over the last year. I hope you can get on a program that helps you be as healthy & beautiful as you are & deserve to be!

XO
Katie