Beef Bulgogi Bowls

Beef Bulgogi Bowls - A simple and nutritious low carb/high protein lunch meal prep! 

Originally, I created this recipe for Emily Schromm’s April edition of Empress but since most of my followers want more meal prep recipes, you are getting this recipe, too! 

If you are wanting something quick and easy to make on your #sundaymealprep days, then look no further! For this recipe, you are simply creating a marinade with ingredients that most would have in their pantry and allow your protein to marinate as you assemble the add-ins for your bowl!

If you notice in the add-in ingredients, there is hardly any prep to this meal! For example, I like to use pre-washed organic spinach, this brand kimchi, and frozen cauliflower rice! That’s pretty much it!

Now, let’s get to the recipe!

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with! 

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Beef Bulgogi Bowls - A simple and nutritious low carb/high protein lunch meal prep! 

Ingredients

Marinade

• 1.5 lb flank steak (can sub skirt or sirloin steak)

• ½ pear 

• ¼ cup coconut aminos

• 3 cloves garlic

• 1 Tbsp fresh ginger knob

• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seed oil

• 1 tsp liquid smoke

Add-ins

• 2 heaping cups spinach

• 1 cup carrots (chopped)

For assembling the bowls

• 3 cups cauliflower rice

• 1 cup kimchi

• 4 fried free-range eggs

• Green onions

• Sesame seeds

Directions

1. In a blender or processor, add the pear, coconut aminos, garlic, ginger, oil, and liquid smoke. Add blended ingredients to a large bowl. *If you do not have a blender, finely chop pear, garlic, and ginger and whisk all marinade ingredients in a large bowl. 

2. Add the sliced beef to the bowl with the marinade and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate the beef for a minimum of two hours and up to overnight.

3. When you are ready to cook the steak, heat 1 Tbsp oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the beef strips and chopped carrots into the skillet. Pour in any remaining marinade also. Cook the beef and carrots, stirring occasionally until all of the marinade juices thicken and begin to caramelize. The beef will be coated with the sauce and will absorb all of the sauce flavors. 

4. Cook for about 10-15 minutes or once the sauce has cooked down enough so it is just coating the meat pieces and the carrots are soft. For the last five minutes, add the spinach.

5. Assemble the bowls: Divide the rice among four serving bowls and top it with the beef bulgogi. Top each bowl with a fried egg (optional), a portion of kimchi, and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds. 

Notes

• If you are strictly paleo, you can sub out the sesame seed oil for avocado oil. 

• This recipe is great for meal prep - if you are wanting to add an egg to your meal, simply fry an egg in the morning or boil an egg beforehand for an easier way to pack your lunch!

Tropical Papaya Chia Pudding

Tropical Papaya Chia Pudding - A simple and nutritious breakfast escape! Meal prep, blood sugar stabilizer, and healthy fat friendly!

During the summertime, I want to eat all the tropical fruits - mango, dragon fruit, coconut, guava, pineapple, you name it!

But one of my favorite tropical fruits that I can’t seem to get enough of these days are papayas! Now, I have noticed that people don’t typically put papaya in their grocery cart. They either have no clue what to do with them or they don’t want to buy a large semi-expensive fruit and worry if they will like the taste or not. Well, I am here to give you the low down on this sweet tropical “nectar of the gods” fruit while providing my favorite go-to breakfast recipe!

Before I unpack the nutritional value, papaya - when eating ripe, is sweet and has a flavor comparable to a melon. If you pick unripe papaya, you may have little to no flavor at all. 

Tip: Papaya is fully ripe when it is bright yellow so look for papayas that are mostly yellow and a little green to fully ripen at home from the grocery store! Also look for firm, smooth skin, and heavy for their size. 

Now that you know how to pick ripe papayas, here are the nutrition facts:

• Immune system booster as it contains an absorbent amount of vitamin C.

• When eating a balanced amount, papaya has a hypoglycemic effect on the body which decreases blood glucose levels. 

• Plays a major role in fighting inflammation as it contains the enzyme, papain, which is a group of proteins that help regulate inflammation. 

• Bloating or constipation issues? The high fiber and water content help to improve digestion by reducing bloating and easing constipation while encouraging regular bowel activity. 

So now that we have established that papayas are pretty amazing, let’s dive into my go-to breakfast recipe - chia pudding! Even though we know that papaya is a fruit, it still contains an adequate amount of natural sugar. So to make sure we are balancing our blood sugar for the morning, we are pairing this fruit with protein and healthy fats that come from the chia pudding mixture. You can use any chia pudding recipe as the base for this recipe, but I like to #levelup with canned coconut milk, vanilla extract, and fresh ginger! The ginger is my favorite part if you like a more Thai inspired dish but if you don’t, that’s okay! Keep it simple with just vanilla extract. 

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with! 

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Tropical Papaya Chia Pudding - A simple and nutritious breakfast escape! Meal prep, blood sugar stabilizer, and healthy fat friendly!

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp chia seeds

• ½ cup of canned coconut milk

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger (optional)

• ½ cup papayas (diced)

Garnish

Shredded coconut flakes, fresh lime, bee pollen, raspberries, honey

Directions 

1. Soak the chia seeds with minced ginger (optional), vanilla, and milk for at least an hour or overnight - stirring occasionally until a gel forms. You can make your chia seed pudding thicker or thinner by reducing/adding liquid. You can also use your favorite plant-based milk for this recipe as well! 

2. Pour the chia seed pudding into 2 serving glasses, top with diced papayas and top with the garnishes. 

3. Store in the fridge as a leftover, enjoy chilled or at room temperature. Great for breakfast, dessert, or a snack! 

Notes

• Don’t have papaya? That’s okay! Use whatever tropical fruit that pairs well with ginger like mangoes, pineapple, kiwi. This recipe is very versatile and any fruit/topping combination will work as long as you have the chia pudding ratio right! 

• Need more protein? Add a scoop of collagen peptides to the mixture and add ¼ cup more milk to the mixture. You can also drizzle nut butter over chia pudding when ready to eat.

Curry Chicken Nachos

Curry Chicken Nachos - A fun and healthy crowd-pleasing dish that is bursting with flavor and texture!

So earlier this week, I posted my red curry sauce on the blog. And as I discussed in that post, you can put red curry sauce on just about anything and everything! But today, I wanted to share a fun and crowd-pleasing recipe that will get your weekend starting strong - Curry Chicken Nachos!

These are so much fun to make and will take you less than 30 minutes to prepare. If I am cooking over a lb of chicken - Instant Pot is my friend! So if you are crunched for time and would like to make this recipe on the fly, I would highly recommend cooking the madras curry yogurt chicken in the Instant Pot. 

For the curry sauce, you simply blend all ingredients into a blender, Nutri bullet, processor, or simply sub fresh ginger for ginger powder and heat in a small saucepan to thicken the sauce. That’s it! 

Last but not least, salsa! Other than the sauce, it’s my favorite part! We are following the same base as most salsas except we are using Indian influenced produce like mango, cilantro, fresh ginger, and pomegranate seeds. You can also use leftover salsa to put over grilled chicken, eggs, and fish. 

Every element in this dish is Indian inspired so welcome to FlavorTown! Did I just write that? :|

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with! 

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Curry Chicken Nachos - A fun and healthy crowd-pleasing dish that is bursting with flavor and texture!

Ingredients

Madras Curry Yogurt Chicken

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

• ¼ cup unsweetened greek yogurt (or DF)

• 1 tsp madras curry (or regular curry powder)

• ¼ tsp pink Himalayan sea salt

• ¼ tsp turmeric

• ¼ tsp cayenne

• Pinch of organic cane sugar

Red Curry Sauce

• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk 

• 2 Tbsp red curry paste

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

• 2 Tbsp curry powder

• 2 scoops collagen peptides (optional but helps to thicken the sauce)

• 2 tsp (heaping) organic white miso paste

• 1 Tbsp liquid aminos

• 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

• 1 tsp pure maple syrup

• Juice of ½ lime

Mango Pomegranate Salsa

• ½ mango (diced)

• ½ tomato (diced)

• ¼ red onion (diced)

• 2 Tbsp pomegranate seeds

• 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro (chopped)

• 1tsp - 1tbsp* fresh ginger (minced) Depending on preference

• ¼ tsp pink Himalayan sea salt

Toppings

Lime wedges, fresh cilantro, a dollop of Greek yogurt, tortilla chips 

Directions

1. Start by cooking the chicken: Add seasonings to yogurt until combined and coat chicken with the yogurt sauce until completely covered. Either cook in Instant Pot (meat setting; 20 min with less pressure or preferred setting), grill, or bake until chicken is cooked through. *If cooking in Instant Pot, I love adding about ¼ cup chicken bone broth and using the rack so it can keep the chicken extra juicy!  

   1. Allow the chicken to cool and then shred using two forks. 

2. Curry Sauce: While your chicken is cooking, prepare the curry sauce by adding all ingredients to a blender or nutribullet and blend until the mixture is in a sauce form. *If you do not have a blender, you can sub fresh ginger for ginger powder so that the sauce is smooth and consistent in texture. 

   1. At this point, taste sauce and see if it needs more umami (miso paste/liquid aminos), cheesy (nutritional yeast), bitter (lime juice), spice (curry paste/powder), or salt.

   2.  Pour sauce into a small saucepan and heat on medium heat. Stir sauce until the sauce is about to boil and turn the heat off. Make sure you are constantly stirring so as to not burn the sauce. 

   3. As the sauce cools down, it will thicken. Collagen helps to thicken the sauce so if you are adding more collagen, make sure the sauce is hot enough for the collagen to blend well so that you don’t get clumps! 

3. Salsa: While the sauce is cooling, prepare the salsa by adding all the ingredients into a small serving bowl. 

   1. You can easily double this recipe so as not to waste produce! 

   2. If you have leftover salsa - it’s great to have over grilled chicken, fish, or eggs!

4. Prepare the rest of the toppings, and start building your nachos!

   1. Tortilla chips < shredded chicken < dollop of yogurt/sour cream < salsa < curry sauce < cilantro < lime juice < devour! 

Notes

Products that were used in the curry sauce: coconut milk, curry paste, collagen peptides, nutritional yeast, white miso paste, curry powder, maple syrup, liquid aminos. 

Red Curry Sauce

Red Curry Sauce - A tried and true healthier version of the traditional red curry sauce. Less than 10-ingredients, gluten-free, dairy-free, keto, and paleo-friendly.

Y'all. This sauce is what dreams are made of! As an obsessive curry lover, I’m always on the prowl for a good curry recipe; whether it be from a restaurant or from a blog. Well, low behold, I found the perfect red curry sauce at this local Asian restaurant that used to be but only a block away from me! Needless to say, curry ran through my veins in those four years of living in that area!

So now that I am many...many blocks away from that restaurant, it was only a matter of time that I started to recreate the sauce. Long story short, we have arrived! 

Luckily for you, this is a much healthier version but tastes just as creamy, full-bodied curry sauce that you ever laid your taste buds on! For this recipe, I used many condiments that I already had in my pantry, as I am sure you have them in yours as well. 

And don’t fret if you don’t have them, I listed all the products I used for this sauce in the recipe notes below.

One condiment that transforms this umami flavor bomb sauce is using miso paste. Now, I understand that soybeans are not considered “paleo”, but most paleo eaters will choose to add this into their dishes because of the way it’s prepared. 

Miso is the product of fermented soybeans, water, fermented grains (called koji), and salt. Koji, the final product of fermented rice, barley, or soy, requires the use of a fungus called Aspergillus oryzae, which activates the fermentation process. Asian cooking often requires a number of fermented products like miso, which are all fermented with koji. So that umami flavor you get when eating at an Asian restaurant will most likely have miso in it! If you would like more health facts on miso paste from a paleo perspective, here’s the link.  

One thing I will note is that I created this recipe for a sponsored post for Vital Proteins. I used them for two reasons. One is that it’s a fun and creative way to incorporate collagen peptides into your meals and two, it is used as a thickening agent. 

If you don’t mind having a more liquid sauce then it’s fine without using collagen peptides. But if you are a pro in the kitchen, feel free to experiment using other thickening agents like flour or arrowroot starch. I will report back if this work but for now, collagen powder is the way to go!

Feel free to use this sauce on just about anything and everything! Next week, I will be posting a chicken curry nacho recipe but in the meantime, here are some ways you can use red curry sauce: on eggs, chicken, rice, veggies, dipping sauce, condiment, pasta, marinade/sauce for a protein source, or just straight out of the bowl - possibilities are endless!

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A post shared by Candace Dorsey| From the Roots (@fromtherootsblog)

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with! 

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Red Curry Sauce - A tried and true healthier version of the traditional red curry sauce. Less than 10-ingredients, gluten-free, dairy-free, keto, and paleo-friendly.

Ingredients

• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk 

• 2 Tbsp red curry paste

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

• 2 Tbsp curry powder

• 2 scoops collagen peptides (optional but helps to thicken sauce)

• 2 tsp (heaping) organic white miso paste

• 1 Tbsp liquid aminos

• 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

• 1 tsp pure maple syrup

• Juice of ½ lime

Directions

1. Prepare the curry sauce by adding all ingredients into a blender or nutribullet and blend until the mixture is in a sauce form. *If you do not have a blender, you can sub fresh ginger for ginger powder so that the sauce is smooth and consistent in texture. 

2. At this point, taste the sauce and see if it needs more umami (miso paste/liquid aminos), cheesy (nutritional yeast), bitter (lime juice), spice (curry paste/powder), or salt.

3. Pour sauce into a small saucepan and heat on medium heat. Stir sauce until the sauce is about to boil and turn the heat off. Make sure you are constantly stirring so as to not burn the sauce. 

4. As the sauce cools down, it will thicken. Collagen helps to thicken the sauce so if you are adding more collagen, make sure the sauce is hot enough for the collagen to blend well so that you don’t get clumps! 

5. If you are making a meal like chicken curry with rice and vegetables, heat the sauce into the cooking veggies if using a skillet to do this. If not, serve over anything and everything!

6. Store in an airtight container for at least two weeks in the refrigerator. 

Notes: 

Products that were used in the curry sauce: coconut milk, curry paste, collagen peptides, nutritional yeast, white miso paste, curry powder, maple syrup, liquid aminos. 

Watermelon Ice Cubes

Watermelon Ice Cubes - Refreshing way to use leftover watermelon chunks! Add to your water, coconut water, cocktail, mocktail, smoothie, the sky’s the limit! 

If you haven’t figured it by now, I am absolutely obsessed with watermelon. If I’m not posting about watermelon on my Instagram, I’m posting watermelon recipes on the blog. There is nothing that stands in the way between me and watermelon...nothing. 

With that said, I thought it would be fun to post about the many ways you can use leftover watermelon. Do you find yourself cutting a large watermelon and basically having an entire half watermelon leftover? What do I do with the rest of it? 

Well, I am here to solve your problems! To start off, we will get into this quick and simple recipe! Using half of a large watermelon, cut your melon into large chunks and add to a blender. You can blend as is or boost the watermelon flavor with citrus like fresh lemon or lime juice! Sometimes I get a little wild and add fresh mint or jalapeno slices when I want to make frozen spicy watermelon margaritas. 

You can either strain the liquid using a milk bag or cheesecloth or freeze as is. Tip* If juicing, skim the foam off of the watermelon juice. When frozen, add a few cubes to a glass of water, coconut water, smoothie, or make into a mocktail/cocktail. The sky's the limit with these cubes! 

Now that you know of one amazing versatile trick using leftover watermelon chunks, here are a few more ideas! 

• Slice watermelon into triangles and make watermelon popsicles by inserting a popsicle stick into the rind. Freeze them, grill them, or eat as is! 

• Slice watermelon into small chunks and toss into a summer salad (picture above)

• Add fresh mint, feta, lime, and balsamic glaze for a quick watermelon salad picnic!

• Make watermelon margaritas, frescas, or granita! 

• Use a cookie cutter to make fun shapes for a party or for the kids! 

How would you use watermelon cubes or leftover watermelon? Share below, I love hearing your ideas!

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Ingredients

• ½ large watermelon

• Juice from two limes

• ½ cup filtered water or coconut water

Optional add-ins

• Fresh mint

• Jalapenos (to make spicy margaritas)

Directions

1. Cut the rinds off the watermelon and slice into large chunks.

2. Add watermelon chunks to a blender and add lime juice, water, and optional add-ins. Blend until smooth.

3. Either strain the juice using a milk bag or cheesecloth or pour mixture directly into ice cube trays. *Skim the foam off the liquid for smoother texture. 

4. Freeze and enjoy in filtered water, coconut water, alcohol, smoothie, kombucha..sky’s the limit!