I love lemon. It makes me happy. It makes me think of spring in the midst of these dreary February days. It’s fresh, zesty and blends wonderfully with sweet and savory ingredients!

I also love rice. I think rice was the main staple of my diet in college. I’ve come a long since my days of Minute Rice with butter and salt at the University of Maryland College Park. Now I whip up fancy rice salads like this one which combines two of my favorite things!

This salad has no oil so it stays low-fat and is perfect served on a bed of greens. I used Jasmine Rice for the nutty flavor that it offers, but you can sub other rice types. Just remember that the Instant Pot cooking times in the recipe below are specific to Jasmine Rice. If you change it, then you need to cook the rice you choose to the proper times in the Instant Pot.

Check out a video on how to make this rice salad here and don’t forget to subscribe!

Dressing for this salad adapted from Ordinary Vegan

I know why Northerners laugh at Southerners when it comes to weather. I know because I was a Northerner for the first 22 years of my life, but I’ve been a Southerner for the last 19. I remember opening the front door when I was in high school and seeing the snow over waist high. I believe it was the Blizzard of ’93 in Maryland. We were holed up in our house for days with good reason. But now, I live in Tennessee and we too are currently holed up in our home because of less than 1.5″ of snow. My kids haven’t been to school since last Thursday. They cancelled school on Friday because it was supposed to snow. It didn’t. Today is Tuesday and we did have a good snowfall today. School is already cancelled for tomorrow. My husband has bets that it will also be closed on Thursday.

I get it. Tennessee is not equipped with enough plows and salt trucks to quickly service entire counties, especially in rural areas. Safety comes first, and I totally agree with that. It’s just the hysteria that gets me. There was no national news shown on TV this morning, just live coverage of the snowfall and slush from every corner of the state. (Wait, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.) The bread and milk shelves were emptied last Thursday. The kids refuse to go outside and play because it’s “too cold.”

What to do? For me, I cook. And cook, and cook, and cook. I whipped together a comforting chicken vegetable soup in my Instant Pot using what I had on hand – because you know I couldn’t get to the store. Best part was that both kids really loved it, and I loved seeing them actually eat their veggies!

One little note – you can definitely use fresh chicken. If you do, put the chicken in your soup in the IP for 10 minutes and then release. Remove chicken and chop. Add back to the pot and then cook for another 5 minutes high pressure with a quick release. If your chicken is frozen, then set the IP for 15 minutes instead of 10. Chop and return to the pot for another 5 min high pressure with a quick release.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links which help to directly support the life of this blog. When you use my links for purchases, you help keep Modern Day Fox alive! Thank you!

“Carrot soup? That sounds… um, not good.”

That’s what I said when my best friend, Kelley, suggested we throw together an Instant Pot soup for my blog. But, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of disguising a serving of vegetables into a smooth soup. Make it tasty enough and no one in my family would know they were eating a full serving of veggies. Heck, I hardly noticed myself!

Both Kelley and I deal with food intolerances in our households, so we immediately knew we would make it gluten and dairy-free. We strive to create dishes that are easy, and that meet the needs of our loved ones too. Our end result was a rich, almost buttery-tasting soup that was a cinch to throw together. Even my six year old wolfed down a bowl, and that says something – trust me!

We hope you enjoy it too!

Check out the prep video here:

xo Jaime

Note: This post contains affiliate links that directly help support the life of this blog. When you use my links for purchase, you help keep Modern Day Fox going! I’m not sponsored by any company, and anything I recommend in this post I have actually purchased myself.

I frequently feature my neighbor, Sharon, on my blog so she can share her wonderful recipes. She is a dynamite cook! Today she is sharing her Thai Spring Rolls and two dipping sauces. Take it away, Sharon!

Hey y’all!!!

I’ve been wanting to try these Thai spring rolls for a very long time. I’m not going to lie – they were a little time consuming, but in my opinion, worth it! Once you get all set up and do the first two or three rolls, it’s a piece of cake!

I discovered Thai Spring Rolls in Cali at my favorite Thai place. When I went in to pick up my roasted chicken and rice and egg rolls, I became very curious about them sitting on display in the case. One day, while in line, I noticed all the people in front of me and several opeople behind me all ordered the spring rolls. On my next visit, I went for the gusto!

After much searching, I found a International Grocery Store that carries all sorts of wonderful Thai ingredients in the Tennessee town where I now live.  I purchased the wraps and rice noodles some time ago, but they’ve collected dust in my pantry waiting to be used. Finally, I decided today was the day!

First, I baked two chicken breasts at  425°with olive oil and  multi-seasoning for 20 minutes. After they cooled, I used two forks and shredded the chicken.   You can also use cooked shrimp if you prefer that over chicken .  Or,  you could go veggie all the way!

Next, I julienned an English cucumber, carrots, two jalapenos, and two avocados.  Thank goodness for my garden! I had kale, cucumber, jalapenos, basil, cilantro, chives and mint right at my doorstep.  You can find wraps with many different combinations of these ingredients.  I decided to use ALL of them!

I then brought water to a boil in a pan large enough to lay the wraps in. No need to boil the wraps, but you will give them a quick dip in the hot water before rolling them. Before dipping the wraps, I boiled the noodles, pulled them out and strained them. (See my note about this below.)

Now it was time to build the wraps.  I learned some lessons while building these so I’ll try to make your experience a little easier than mine! After dipping the wrap in the warm water, I first started on parchment paper and they dried out quickly and stuck to the paper. I found it best to roll them directly on my granite countertop. I also learned that it is better to put the noodles back in the water on the bottom of the pan during assembly because they stuck together. I pulled them out as needed and drain them as much as possible before laying them on the wrap. Finally, less is more!  Do try to get a little bit of everything in your wrap. But, be aware- the more you the use, the harder they are to roll.

Here is the order of ingredients I used when building of the wraps:

• Rice paper wrappers
• Rice noodles
• Kale (stack up from here with kale on the bottom)
• Avocado
• Mint
• Cilantro
• Jalepeno
• Carrots
• Chicken
• Basil
• Chives on one side of stack
• Cucumber on other side of stack

Lastly, I put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and laid them on the parchment as completed.

I prepared two different sauces for dipping -a peanut sauce, and Nuoc Mam Pha.

Peanut sauce

• 1 clove garlic grated or 1 inch Squirt from tube of garlic
• 1 thumb of Ginger grated or 1 inch squirt of Ginger from tube
• 2 T Tamari
• 2 T maple syrup
• 1/2 T srirachha
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup water

Nuoc Mam Pha

• 1 cup hot water
• 5 T sugar (I used stevia)
• 2 T fish sauce
• 2 1/2 T fresh lime juice
• 1/2 t sambal olek (you can find this at most groceries in the international section!)

It’s hard to get vegetables into this body of mine. I do my best, but a disguised vegetable is my favorite vegetable. That’s why I drink Shakeology religiously, and that’s also why I was super intrigued by this recipe from my favorite blogger, Juli Bauer at PaleOMG. The recipe for Juli’s PaleOMG’s Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup  caught my attention because I love any and everything “buffalo,” but the soup base consisted of nearly all vegetables pureed into a smooth, velvety soup. To make it even better, it came with Instant Pot directions.  After a long drive back from a very short trip to Charleston this weekend, this easy soup fit the bill. Stay tuned for a post on what to do with one day in Charleston. I was in foodie heaven in that gorgeous town!

Check out the ingredients below direct from Juli’s recipe and head over to her blog for the full recipe and instructions. Juli also has three incredible cookbooks with tasty Paleo recipes.

• 2 tablespoons ghee (I used butter)
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• ½ white onion, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups cauliflower florets
• 32 ounces chicken bone broth
• ⅔ cup Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or less, to taste)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 rotisserie chicken, pulled and shredded
• fresh cilantro, for garnish
• chopped green onions, for garnish
• Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Ranch, for garnish

I counted this as 1.5 green and 1/2 red per serving. Great way to get those green containers in!

Happy food prepping!

xo Jaime

This post may contain affiliate links which directly support this blog. Thank you for supporting Modern Day Fox!

I have been obsessively watching cooking YouTube videos lately. It’s amazing how engaging some of these people are and you can easily see why they have so many followers. Chef Buck is one that I really enjoyed. This guy is no-frills, sounds like he comes from NOLA, and used to be overweight and unkempt in his videos. That last detail made the videos even more engaging because it just seemed so backwards that this guy would be making cooking videos. The recipes he was dishing out, however, were top notch and his following grew over time. More recently, Chef Buck found a razor and found a new interest in cleaner cooking.  He clearly got healthier, lost weight and worked on his image, but he kept his same down-home charm.

One of his most popular recipes is his Best Brussel Sprouts. I just happened to have a bag in my fridge that I needed to use. He wasn’t lying when he said these would be these best Brussel Sprouts I’d ever put in my mouth. They were! I’ll be making them again and again.

Check out this video here and subscribe to his channel:

And here is how mine turned out!

My parents recently sent me a text that said a “Sushi Bazooka” was on the way and to watch for it in the mail. What the heck? A what?? My mom said that my dad saw it on television or Amazon or somewhere, and he decided that they needed one. He also decided that my brother and I needed one. Alrighty then! I can’t laugh at my dad too hard. My love for kitchen gadgets clearly comes from him. He texted me the other day to tell me he had just found a pressure cooker in the garage he’d never even used and forgot he had. I’m going for a visit to Maryland this weekend and though my parents will be out of town, I’m staying at their house. I might have to see what else in that garage!

Anyway, the “Sushi Bazooka” post will be coming soon since you know I have to review and link you up to this contraption. In the meantime, I want to share a 21 Day Fix Approved sushi “unroll.” This sushi bowl is sure to hit the stop for you raw fish lovers out there. I found my “sushi grade” tuna at Sprouts. The butcher recommended that I trim a very thin slice off each side of the steak and wash well before consuming. She said that although the tuna is “sushi grade,” it is still cut on the same board as the other fish. I’m very glad she told me that, and I certainly took her advice.

Now that I know I can successfully work with raw fish, I am ready to tackle my Bazooka! Stay tuned!

Wanna see me make it live? Check out my youtube video and make sure you subscribe!

Also, here is a link to Steve’s Kitchen where I found the great instructions for the sushi rice.

Want more info on 21 Day Fix! Hit me up with questions! I’d love to have you join my team. The fastest way to get a message to me is through my Facebook page! Hope you are following me!

You probably already know that I love my neighbor, Sharon, since I feature her on here frequently. She loves to cook just like I do and we have a blast texting each other recipes and swapping samples. Good neighbors make life so much more fun.

Sharon texted me the other night very excited about a steel cut oats recipe she saw on The Chew. Sharon never leaves a recipe the way she found it, and neither do I. So, I took Sharon’s recipe that she had adapted from The Chew, and I made my own changes based on the ingredients I had. Of course I also had to adapt it for the Instant Pot too!

What resulted was a breakfast dish that not only tasted good, but has incredible nutritional value. As Sharon said, “If I can get high fiber, anti-inflammatory antioxidants, and a proper glycemic index all in one bowl, I’m good!” Not to mention that steel cuts oats are very filling and help keep your bowels moving.

Print Recipe

Sharon's Dang Good Oats [Instant Pot]

Course

Breakfast

Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

25 min including time to pressure and release

Servings

Ingredients

• 1 TBSP Tahini Butter
• 1 TBSP Butter
• 1 cup Steel Cut Oats
• 1 can Coconut Milk Lite or Full Fat
• 2 cups Water or fill your empty milk can
• 1 pinch Salt
• 3 TBSP Flax Meal
• 2 TBSP Maple Syrup or Honey Add more after cooking if you prefer sweeter oats
• 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Cinnamon

Course Breakfast Prep Time 5 min Cook Time 25 min including time to pressure and release Servings Ingredients 1 TBSP Tahini Butter 1 TBSP Butter 1 cup Steel Cut Oats 1 can Coconut Milk Lite or Full Fat 2 cups Water or fill your empty milk can 1 pinch Salt 3 TBSP Flax Meal 2 TBSP Maple Syrup or Honey Add more after cooking if you prefer sweeter oats 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract 1 tsp Cinnamon

Instructions

1. Set Instant Pot to Saute. Melt tahini and butter. Add oats and toast for 2 minutes, stirring continuously. Add in remaining ingredients and stir well.
2. Turn off Pot and reset on Manual HP for 3 minutes. Allow pressure to release naturally. Stir and add additional sweetener to taste. Serve hot and enjoy!

   

Recipe Notes

This recipe was adapted from one seen on The Chew.

1 cup of dry steel cut oats should only be considered 2 servings, but this is an extremely filling recipe. I could have easily fed my family of 4 and still had leftovers.

Share this Recipe

Happy Sunday, all! This weekend I am full of mixed emotions – happy and sad at the same time. Why is so hard to let go of “stuff?” The husband and I are on a mission to plow through a list of things we want to do to our house. On that list, I begrudgingly agreed to sell my bedroom suite that we have been keeping in our guest room. We decided to sell it for $500 which was ridiculously cheap for such high quality furniture, but we needed it gone fast to get started on projects in that space. I put a post on Facebook and it was sold in less than two hours, and picked up and gone in less than 24 hours.

I got that furniture when I moved back to Nashville after a rough patch in my life in ’05. It went with me from my downtown Nashville apartment to crashing in a basement belonging to my late friend, Gary. From there, it went to a house that my best friend, Ted, let me pick out for him sight unseen in the Germantown district of Nashville (he was living in Africa). After three years there, it went to my future husband’s house. Finally, it ended up in the house I now call home with FotoJo and our two boys. Throughout a lot of changes in my life, that bedroom set was the one thing I “owned.” I knew I had a bed wherever I would land. It was kind of like the “everything’s gonna be alright” furniture. High quality and familiar no matter where it was. After settling in our new home, it was replaced by a bigger and better set and and sat pretty much unused for that three years except for the occasional house guest. We now have big plans for that guest room – a Murphy bed so we can utilize the room more efficiently and a place for a massage chair that we have always wanted to buy. In order to make room for change, I had to say goodbye to something I loved. Isn’t it that way with so many things in life? It’s hard to explain to other people why you hold so tightly to material things, but it shouldn’t make you feel bad to have those feelings. Only you understand why your “stuff” means so much. At the same time, you have to allow yourself to grow and change, and that means sometimes letting go and moving on. The lady that bought the furniture just bought a house in Nashville and I know she will take good care of the set. I hope it becomes her “everything’s gonna be alright” furniture too.

Geez, who knew I could get so deep about furniture? How about we lighten this post up with some yummy pancakes? I’ve been experimenting with these ‘cakes for quite a while and I think I’m pretty close with this recipe. Before you make these, however, I need to give you fair warning. If you are expecting these to be the same texture as your Cracker Barrel pancakes, don’t even bother. They are more egg-y than fluffy, but they are tasty and very moist. Best of all, they soak up your maple syrup in the most perfect way. I have even eaten them topped with some savory meats like Beef Barbacoa to add a unique twist to dinner.

Important note: Because these are heavy in the egg department, you absolutely must cook these at a medium temperature or they will burn.

Modern Day Fox Paleo Sweet ‘Tater Cakes

(Makes 10 – 3″ pancakes)

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 mashed sweet potato (about one large potato)

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBSP Tapioca Flour

2 TBSP Coconut Flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

Big pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

First, cook your sweet potato until soft and peel skin. I used my Instant Pot and put my potato in my steamer basket. I added one cup of water to the stainless steel liner pot, and set the pot to 25 min HP with QR. The peel slid off easily. Mash the potato until smooth and let cool.  When cooled, mix in eggs and vanilla extract in a medium size bowl. In a separate small bowl, mix the remainder of the ingredients. Then, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until thoroughly blended.

Preheat a lightly greased griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Drop batter mixture onto the prepared griddle forming 3.5″ pancakes, and cook until golden brown (approximately 2 minutes per side), turning once with a spatula. It is important to cook over medium heat so that pancakes do not burn. Recipe yields about 10 3.5″ pancakes.

If you like some crunch in your cakes, add pecans in the batter or on top! I love to top these with Enjoy Life dairy-free chocolate chips for a breakfast dessert!

21 DAY FIX counts – 2 pancakes equal 1 YELLOW, 1/2 Red

You know those women who go loco for all things pumpkin? Yeah, that’s not me. Pretty much the only dessert I will turn away in a heartbeat is pumpkin pie. Pumpkin?? In a pie?? Who’s idea was that? Pies are meant for three things: fudge, cherry, and lemon meringue. Not oversized gourds. Anyway, you get it. I’m not a “pumpkin person.” I am, however a “muffin person.” Muffins bring me lots of joy. When I saw the post for PaleOMG’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, I was very hesitant. Two out of three things in the recipe title made my heart fill with glee. Chocolate chips and muffins? Yes, please. But, pumpkin? Aw, come on!! After following a strict Paleo diet for a couple weeks, I was Jonesin’ for a treat so badly that I probably would have happily eaten pumpkin pie. I gave it a shot, and the results were oh-so-delicious. The pumpkin is an afterthought, in my opinion, while the chocolate chips and beautiful texture take center stage.

Here is what you need for this recipe:

• ⅓ cup pumpkin puree
• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
• 3 eggs, whisked
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup coconut flour
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• ⅛ teaspoon powdered ginger
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• ½ cup Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips

And then you need to hop on over to Juli Bauer’s incredible blog, and find out to make them! Here is the link right to her recipe. Warning! You might get distracted and end up reading her posts for hours. She is quite funny and engaging! I have all three of Juli’s cookbooks and they are well-loved. Check out her latest cookbook here!

Enjoy!

xo Jaime

(This post contains affiliate Amazon links for products I use and love. I am not sponsored and my opinions are my own! If you use my links, you support this blog!)