Dinner Recipes
From our partner over at 4 Hour Body Recipes the following recipes and tips will make you healthier from the inside starting with the first bite. Many of these recipes are courtesy of Mark’s Daily Apple which is a great site for Slow Carb recipes
Click Here For >> Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner
Aromatic Whole Grilled Chicken
As reader Rich Freund pointed out when submitting the following recipe, meals like whole roasted chicken are just as good, if not better, when cooked on a grill. The trick lies in a culinary technique with an extremely technical term: spatchcocking (we swear we did not make that term up). Spatchcocking involves slicing the bird down the backside to remove the backbone before cooking. This makes a chicken more flexible so you can flatten the bird out, insuring that all parts cook evenly. — Submission from Rich Freund -Recipe courtesy of Mark’s Daily Apple
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 whole chicken
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1 Tbsp ground pepper (try a mix of white and black)
- 1–2 Tbsp smoked sweet paprika (or just sweet paprika if you can’t find the smoked variety)
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder or dried minced garlic
- 1 tsp turmeric
DIRECTIONS:
- Get the grill started first, so it comes up to at least 325°F before you put the bird on.
- Mix the dry ingredients together and set the rub aside.
- Set the chicken breast-side down and remove anything that’s inside the cavity.
- Using a sharp knife or kitchen shears, cut down each side of the backbone to remove it. The backbone runs right down the middle of the chicken.
- When the backbone is removed, the chicken will fold open. Rub the bird with olive oil then rub the spice mix generously all over the bird.
- Cook the chicken with the grill lid on, checking and turning the bird every 15 minutes. Watch out for flare-ups and try to avoid letting the chicken come in direct contact with flames.
- Cook until an internal temperature of at least 165°F is reached.
| Active Cooking Time | 10-15 min |
| Total Time | 30-45 min |
| Servings | 4-6 |
Baked Fish in Parchment
“This is one of the healthiest ways to prepare fish. The bonus is that the recipe is a one-dish meal (well, okay, one-pouch meal).” Recipe adapted from Cooking Know How cookbook by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. —Jaden Hair, www.steamykitchen.com
INGREDIENTS:
- Two 16-inch parchment paper sheets (or tin foil)
- 2 rosemary sprigs (or cilantro or parsley or thyme)
- 1 5-6 oz. skinless fish fillet
- 1⁄2 cup diced zucchini
- 3 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 small artichoke hearts (canned) quartered
- 1 Tbsp dry white wine Salt and pepper Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat your oven to 450 ̊F. Lay one parchment paper over another, long side of the paper horizontal. Lay herb sprigs in middle of the parchment. Season fish on both sides with salt and pepper. Lay fish on top of the herb sprigs. Spoon the zucchini, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts over the fish. Season the vegetables with a pinch more of salt and pepper. Pour the white wine over everything.
- Seal the packet closed by rolling and crimping the long sides together over the fish and vegetables [Note: A step-by-step video on how to fold the parchment pouch is available here: http://steamykitchen.com/7458-baked-fish-parchment-recipe.html]. Then roll and crimp the ends closed so no steam can escape. Place on baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the fish is cooked through. Timing depends on thickness of fish: 10 minutes for 1⁄2-inch fillet, or 15 minutes for 1-inch fillet. If you are cooking more than one packet, add another minute to cooking time for each additional packet. Just before serving, carefully open the packet (hot steam!), and add a squeeze of lemon juice over everything.
| Active Cooking Time | 15 min |
| Total Time | 20 min |
| Servings | 2 |
Garlic Pulled Pork
Search through a few cookbooks or food blogs for a pulled pork recipe and you’ll find that everyone has a slightly different approach. We like the approach Pat “Allbeef Patty” Levine submitted because it’s straightforward, fool-proof, and still has tons of flavor. — Submission from Pat Levine – Recipe courtesy of Mark’s Daily Apple
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 pork shoulder cut (butt or picnic), weighing 3–4 lbs
- 1–2 Tbsp kosher salt
- 1⁄2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp of black pepper
- 1–2 Tbsp of granulated garlic or garlic powder
- Optional: 6 fresh garlic cloves, peeled
- Juice of one lime
- 1 onion
- 1 bay leaf
DIRECTIONS:
- Mix together salt, cumin, black pepper and granulated garlic. Juice the lime over the seasonings and rub the mixture all over the pork. If you love garlic as much as Pat does, you might want to use fresh garlic, too.
- Optional: use a knife to slice six thin cuts in the pork and push each clove securely inside each cut. You don’t want the fresh garlic to fall out and touch the cooking vessel or it will burn and affect the flavor of the meat.
- The meat should marinate out of refrigeration for a half hour before you put it in the oven. This ensures that it will cook evenly throughout. If you want to let the meat marinate in the rub longer than this, put it in the fridge for an hour or even overnight.
- When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 250°F. Place the roast in a pan with one sliced onion and a bay leaf. Cover and roast for three to four hours, or until the middle of the roast reads about 190° and falls apart easily when pulled with a fork.
- Let the roast rest for twenty minutes or so, then uncover. You’ll notice a lot of liquid at the bottom. Use it as a sauce for the meat, which you will now viciously attack with two forks. It’ll fall apart pretty readily, and you’ll get the idea of the shredding method after a couple of pulls. Enjoy!
| Active Cooking Time | 10-15 min |
| Total Time | 4-5 hours |
| Servings | 6-8 |
Shrimp, Sausage, and Summer Squash Casserole
We were amazed by the way a few simple ingredients baked up into such a rich and satisfying dish. But what made us really happy was discovering a new, inventive way to cook up summer’s seemingly endless bounty of squash. — Submission from Rachel Virden – Recipe courtesy of Mark’s Daily Apple
INGREDIENTS:
- 4–5 lbs yellow crookneck squash (or zucchini), sliced
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 6 slices bacon, chopped into pieces
- 1⁄2 lb Italian sausage (spicy or regular)
- 1 lb raw shrimp (peeled/deveined/tails off), chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 2 eggs
- Butter, if needed for sautéing
- Optional seasonings: salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning or hot sauce
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- 2. Cook the bacon and sausage together in a large soup pot or other deep pot.
- When fat begins to render, add the onion.
- Sauté until bacon is slightly crispy, sausage is crumbled and cooked, and onion is soft.
- Add the sliced squash (it may be easiest to add it in several batches) and stir to coat with meat and rendered fat.
- Turn the heat to high. If the sausage and bacon have not rendered enough fat to cook the squash, then add some butter to the pot. The squash is done once it is slightly browned and there is no liquid sitting in the pot. By this time, the squash will have reduced by about half.
- Season with your choice of salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning and/or hot sauce.
- Remove the pot from the stove and let it cool slightly.
- Beat the eggs in a small bowl and pour over the squash mixture. Add the raw shrimp.
- Stir to combine all ingredients then pour into a casserole dish.
- Bake until hot and bubbly, approximately 30 minutes. Enjoy!
| Active Cooking Time | 20-30 min |
| Total Time | 50-60 min |
| Servings | 6-8 |
Mediterranean Stuffed Pork Loin
A pork loin is a fine cut of meat, tender and easy to cook, but because it’s the leanest cut of pork it also tends to be the least flavorful. This is where Jade steps in with a perfect solution: stuffing. Breadcrumbs are nowhere to be found in his rich and flavorful filling that evokes the best of Mediterranean cooking. — Submission from Jade Kendall – Recipe courtesy of Mark’s Daily Apple
INGREDIENTS:
- 1–2 lbs pork tenderloin
- 1 red pepper, finely chopped
- 1–2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 6 oz spinach
- 1⁄4 cup chopped almonds
- Pitted kalamata olives
- Olive oil or butter for sautéing
- Optional: 1⁄4 cup crumbled Feta cheese
DIRECTIONS:
- Drizzle some olive oil or butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add red peppers and garlic to the pan. After a few minutes add the spinach and cook until it wilts. Remove from heat.
- Butterfly cut the pork tenderloin (cut vertically down the middle until almost through, but not quite through the pork). Place saran-wrap over the butterflied pork and pound it as flat as you can without breaking through the pork (use a meat tenderizing hammer for best results).
- Once the pork is thin, add the ingredients from the pan on top of the pork, spreading it all over. Add the almonds, and optional feta cheese and olives.
- Gently roll the pork into a tube/roll. If you are using a smaller pork loin, or were not able to pound it very thinly, you may just be folding the loin over rather than rolling it. In this case, securing the loin with toothpicks or kitchen twine will be necessary.
- Drizzle the pork with olive oil and butter and bake at 375°F for about 40–60 minutes (depending on the size of the pork roll).
- When the pork is cooked to your liking, let it cool slightly and then slice.
| Active Cooking Time | 15-20 min |
| Total Time | 1-1.5 hours |
| Servings | 3-6 |