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The Low Energy Guide to Healthy Cooking

Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Chicken

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This easy recipe takes just a couple of ingredients and can be thrown together in mere minutes, but produces flavorful shredded chicken that’s perfect for tacos, burritos and burrito bowls, and taco salads.

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you may have noticed that we tend to love dark meats, such as chicken thighs. But chicken breast can be delicious too! This recipe is suitable for most gluten-free, grain-free, paleo/primal diets. I most often eat this on the THM (Trim Healthy Mama) plan as part of my E meal.

For those of us coming to THM from the traditional foods world, eating some meals that are higher in the slow carbs, but lower in fat is a real transition. However, look at how satisfying this meal is below!

What’s in this bowl: Brown rice, pinto beans, Mexican shredded chicken, cabbage slaw tossed with a teaspoon of oil and lime juice, fresh garlic and salt, salsa, and nonfat Greek yogurt.

If you are interested in why I decided to start combining what I had learned from other experts in the holistic world with THM, you can read my story here and learn about my coaching as well.

For an S meal, or other Mexican-inspired recipes, check out this juicy Carnitas recipe as well as my Simple Mexican Coleslaw. Delicious!

But regardless of your dietary lifestyle, this recipe is delicious!

Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

  • 2-3 Chicken Breasts
  • 1 and 1/4 cup salsa or Picante sauce
  • 1 teaspoon each chili, cumin, garlic powder
  1. In a 6 quart Instant Pot add the salsa or sauce. An IP needs at least 1 cup of liquid, so if your salsa is dry, add chicken broth. Add the chicken and spices.
  2. Secure lid, set steam release valve to closed, and program for ten minutes on high on manual.
  3. Let rest for five minutes, and then release. Check to make sure chicken is cooked all the way through.
  4. Shred chicken, then pour the sauce over it. Enjoy!

Tender Instant Pot Carnitas (shredded pork for tacos)

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One of my kids told me after my last tweaks to this recipe, “Mom, this is so good! I feel like I’m at Chipotle!” and that was highest praise from this particular child. My kids usually grow tired of recipes I’m testing for this blog. But this was one they happily ate as I continued to perfect it.

This recipe for carnitas has been on our table repeatedly in recent weeks. Cooked to perfection in a pressure cooker, carnitas can be used for tacos, burritos, burrito bowls, or taco salads. 

Our kids enjoy their carnitas in tacos with all of the toppings, while I make mine into a grain-free carnitas bowl using my Simple Mexican Coleslaw recipe, along with guacamole and salsa. When I’m eating dairy, I’ll also add sour cream and cheese. So good! This makes a Trim Healthy Mama “S” meal.

I tested this recipe in a pressure cooker, the large Instant Pot. This is where pressure cookers really shine, as they cook meat quickly, and it comes out so tender. However, I also have provided notes on how to make this in a slow cooker, or stove/oven. 

It’s worth noting that traditionally carnitas were slow-cooked in lard until tender and crispy, with not quite as many spices as this recipe has. That is a lovely way to enjoy a traditional recipe. But this recipe is easier for me to put together, and I find it plenty fatty enough just from the fat produced from the roast. 

Related Recipes:

Tender Instant Pot Carnitas

  • 3-6 pound pork butt roast or shoulder roast
  • Salt and pepper
  • Avocado oil, or oil/fat of choice
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder (optional)
  • 1 heaping tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 heaping tablespoon ground cumin
  • 8 garlic cloves, peeled, and minced
  • 2 heaping teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 cup chicken broth 
  • ½ cup lime juice (orange juice is more traditional, and delicious as well, but we preferred lime).
  • 2 teaspoons salt and generous amount of freshly ground black pepper
  1. Cut roast into, roughly, largish two-inch squares (mine were very irregular, and that’s fine). If they are very wet, pat dry, salt and pepper generously.
  2. Using the sauté function, heat enough oil in the Instant Pot until hot (but not smoking), and using tongs, place some of the squares into the bottom of the pan. Don’t overlap, and do multiple batches. Turn once, browning both sides. Remove to plate, and then repeat until you have finished all of the meat.
  3. Turn the sauté function off, add meat back into the IP, and add the rest of the ingredients.
  4. Put lid on, and hit “manual” and set for 40 minutes on high. Once done, let it release for 10-15 minutes.
  5. Remove lid, and remove meat into a large bowl. Shred with two forks (my kids like doing this!). We also remove any fatty pieces.
  6. Put into a serving dish and pour some of the sauce over it, and serve.
  7. OR, if you would like it browned, you can place on a large sheet pan, and brown it in the oven on broil for around five minutes. The other options would be browning it in a large frying pan on the stove. My kids prefer it straight from the IP.

Directions for slow cooker: Brown meat in a pan in as many batches as needed. Place in slow cooker, and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-5 hours, until the meat is fork tender.

Directions for stovetop/oven: In an oven-safe dish with a lid, brown meat in as many batches as needed. Add the rest of the ingredients, put the lid on, and place in a preheated oven at 300F, and bake for 3 to 4 hours until the meat is fork tender.

Roasted Frozen Broccoli

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This is not only a simple recipe, but it's delicious and kid-friendly too. Yes! Even frozen vegetables can taste good!

We have a problem. If we don’t like how I prepare vegetables, they are pushed around on our plates and barely touched. This is no good, as I believe that vegetables are not only important for our health, but they can also be a delicious part of our daily diet as well. 

So when we made our big move to South Dakota, I faced a new problem. Back in Portland, Oregon, I had a large array of options for vegetables. Here? Not so much. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of stores and some good options, but I found that I was eating less vegetables, they were costing a little more, and I wasn’t getting as good of a variety into our diets. Because of the climate here, we simply don’t have as many local options for produce. 

I needed to change my game plan, and that meant being willing to try more frozen vegetables. I have, admittedly, long eschewed frozen vegetables, and we mainly used them as a stop-gap. But I realized that there were many great frozen vegetables options here and I needed to figure out how to make them a little more delicious. I’m proud to say that we now eat them on a regular basis and all of us love them. Why? 

Can You Roast Frozen Vegetables?

Well, it turns out that you can roast them just like you do fresh vegetables! Why does roasting make fresh and frozen vegetables so much better? For a number of reasons: It helps crisp vegetables while they cook and if you leave them in long enough they will start to caramelize and give you a savory depth of flavor. 

Steamed frozen vegetables can sometimes have a mushy texture once cooked, or be very bland in flavor. I did find that the recipe I used for my cooking like a Roman day, using a spiced wine sauce with frozen broccoli, was really delightful. So you can absolutely have good steamed frozen vegetables. 

However, roasting them is a more fail-safe way for delicious vegetables that takes very little hands-on time. 

It’s also very versatile. We’ve done frozen Brussels sprouts, a carrots, broccoli and cauliflower mix, and both cauliflower and broccoli. The only thing we haven’t really been fans of is the frozen carrots. They were far better when roasted than steamed, but we found we preferred the other vegetables. 

Basic Method for Roasting Frozen Vegetables

Basic Method: Roasting vegetables is very easy. The basis concept is to toss frozen vegetables (don’t defrost) with oil, salt and pepper and roast in a hot oven until they are browned and crispy. I often don’t even set a timer. 

Additions: You can also toss them with dried herbs, fresh garlic before they go in the oven, or toss with a splash of balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs right after they come out of the oven. Or, roast with chopped bacon. This is the type of recipe where knowing the basic method is helpful, and then you can have fun trying a variety of vegetables and herbs and spices. 

But to get you started, here is a basic recipe for Roasted Frozen Broccoli

Roasted Frozen Broccoli

1 package of frozen broccoli (16 oz) 

2-3 tablespoons of oil or melted fat of your choice 

Salt and pepper 

  1. Preheat oven to 425F. I use parchment paper because I use sheet pans that are aluminum, but you can an unlined sheet pan as well. 
  2. Toss broccoli with oil/fat and salt and pepper. Place in oven and cook until browned to desired doneness. (between 15-35 minutes). 

Variation: My favorite variation is adding some sliced fresh onions to the broccoli before it cooks and then tossing with chopped fresh basil and a splash of balsamic vinegar once it’s out of the oven. Fabulous! 

Paleo Tigernut Waffles

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Paleo Tigernut Waffles - A wonderful baked good for a grain-free diet, and also a source of prebiotic fiber!

These gently sweet waffles are not only grain and dairy free, but they are delicious! Tigernuts have been eaten for thousands of years and are not a nut, but actually a small tuber. They are a good source of prebiotic fiber and are also a grain-free carbohydrate. I created this recipe for a couple of reasons.

  1. I temporarily am doing a grain-free diet again. I find that it helps reset my digestive system and gives me more energy (usually I eat gluten-free). Grain-free waffles are some of the fastest grain-free baked goods I can make myself and hence valuable to my time-strapped schedule.
  2. I am also experimenting with adding prebiotic fiber into my diet as a way of increasing my microbiome health. Tiger nut flour happens to be a great source of it. You can read about the possible benefits of prebiotic fiber in the following three studies: Health Effects and Sources of Prebiotic Dietary Fiber, Fiber and Prebiotics: Mechanisms and Health Benefits, Dietary fiber and prebiotics and the gastrointestinal microbiota. Note: I’m not making any health claims about the following recipe, and I have just begun my own self-experimentation in adding prebiotic fiber.
  3. When I’m eating a grain-free diet, I do have to be careful to add at least some carbs into my diet. If I go too low carb, I don’t feel well. However, I quickly get tired of sweet potatoes, so tigernut flour and cassava flour allows me to expand what I can eat.

Non-Toxic Waffle Iron?

Before I share the recipe, I also wanted to mention that I recently bought a new waffle iron, as we no longer owned one, and it has worked well for us! It has a nonstick ceramic surface and doesn’t contain PTFE or PFOA and so is considered a more non-toxic choice. I found that my gluten and grain-free waffles won’t brown well in it unless I turn the knob all the way to high, or nearly so. Waffles stick the least in this waffle iron of any I have tried. This picture was taken after making a batch of them! This is the (affiliate links following) waffle maker I bought. You could also check out the cast iron versions, like this one.

Notes on Ingredients and Recipe:

  • You can see the brands of tigernut and cassava flour I used by following the links.
  • If you used all tigernut flour in this recipe it would be very dense and fibrous, which is why I added another grain-free flour. Even with that, keep in mind that the high-fiber tigernut flour will make these waffles have a slightly more fibrous texture.

Paleo Tigernut Waffles

  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup water or milk of choice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¾ tigernut flour
  • ½ cup cassava flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil (plus more, as needed, for waffle pan)
  1. Plug waffle iron in and start preheating.
  2. Put the eggs, water or milk, and vanilla extract into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk.
  3. Add the flours, salt, and baking powder.
  4. If your coconut oil isn’t liquified, gently melt on the stovetop or in a cup in the microwave and add to bowl and whisk right away until smooth.
  5. Brush pan with oil/melted fat of choice, as needed, and put about ½ cup (or amount appropriate for your waffle pan). Cook until done, and lightly browned.
  6. Remove with fork, and repeat the process until done with batter.
  7. Makes between 2-4 waffles, depending on how full you fill your pan, and how large your waffle pan is. I recommend a half waffle as a serving size since this is a very fiber-rich recipe (that said, I’ve definitely eaten a whole one for dinner!) You can also reheat in the toaster oven or toaster.

Print Friendly Recipe:

Paleo Tigernut Waffles
 
 
Ingredients
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup water or milk of choice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¾ tigernut flour
  • ½ cup cassava flour
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil (plus more, as needed, for waffle pan)
Instructions
  1. Plug waffle iron in and start preheating.
  2. Put the eggs, water or milk, and vanilla extract into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk.
  3. Add the flours, salt, and baking powder.
  4. If your coconut oil isn’t liquified, gently melt on the stovetop or in a cup in the microwave and add to bowl and whisk right away until smooth.
  5. Brush pan with oil/melted fat of choice, as needed, and put about ½ cup (or amount appropriate for your waffle pan). Cook until done, and lightly browned.
  6. Remove with fork, and repeat the process until done with batter.
  7. Makes between 2-4 waffles, depending on how full you fill your pan, and how large your waffle pan is. I recommend a half waffle as a serving size since this is a very fiber-rich recipe (that said, I’ve definitely eaten a whole one for dinner!) You can also reheat in the toaster oven or toaster.