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

All we need is a chicken...

Several years ago, I spent a week in Costa Rica with one of my closest and oldest friends.

Somewhere in our journey to the coast, we ended up on one of those buses. Anyone who's traveled in Central or South America knows exactly what I'm taking about. It wasn't quite as rickety as the quintessential latin-american bus, but it was packed to the gills with locals and their stuff, so we had to stand in the aisle with our largish backpacks until seats became available. Standing there, trying not to annoy the people sitting all around me as we traversed over bumps and turns, I said to my friend, "the only thing this bus is missing is a chicken."

You know the old adage, be careful what you wish for... well, it should be: be careful what you say, because sure as chicken-shit, the next stop boarded a man and his chicken. Said chicken was in an aerated box, but still, there was a real live chicken on my bus to Quepos, Costa Rica.

It made for a good laugh and a good memory, though.

And though this was years ago, it got me to thinking.

What would you do, if you were just a regular José in Costa Rica and you had to take your chicken to...

Where the hell would you be transporting your chicken to? 

Maybe you're selling it, or giving it as a gift to your would-be in-laws as a down-payment on their daughter (do they still do dowries in Costa Rica?), or maybe you just love your chicken and won't leave home without it. Nonetheless, how would you travel with your chicken from town-to-town in Costa Rica?

By Bus, of course.

So it's not so ridiculous that this guy would enter my bus with his chicken.

And it was quite considerate of him to give his chicken a portable coup in the form of a box. Thanks for that, José.

Until we meet again, Costa Rica and your busses, I say to you,

 BAWK, BAWK!

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