The Fit Femmes Studio

My clients often ask me about what the types of food they should be eating. Once you build a rapport with your clients and give them results, it’s not surprising that they want you to guide them in other areas of their wellness. Following restrictive diets or having to measure each and every ounce of food you consume is not sustainable. I’m a big believer in teaching moderation while still getting people the results they’re looking for.  My online clients as well as some of my local ones rely on me for meal ideas and I LOVE sharing with them recipes that are simple and made with mostly all natural ingredients and condiments. Like the ones below!

Summertime means lots of grilling at the Hickman House. Even though my hubby is the Grillmaster of the house, I’m usually the one finding or creating the recipes and doing the prep work. I love finding easy, healthy yet flavor-packed meals that can be easily modified. To my luck, I came across Madison Park Foods, a local brand of seasonings and rubs and, after a quick look at their website, I knew I had to try them out. I have partnered with them to create the recipes below. As always, all opinions are my own.

The first recipe here is a Bloody Mary encrusted chicken with sweet corn on the cob. Frank loooves Bloody Marys (the spicier the better) so I was excited to create a meal using this lovely red rub that could work double duty. Please note that both of these recipes make about 3-4 servings.

Bloody Mary-Encrusted Chicken with Sweet Corn on the Cob

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds chicken breasts
• 3-4 teaspoons Madison Park Foods Bloody Mary seasoning
• 2 ears of corn
• Madison Park Foods Bloody Mary seasoning to sprinkle on corn
• Lime juice

Instructions

1. Drizzle olive oil on chicken breasts, then season generously with Madison Park Foods Bloody Mary seasoning. Cover and place in fridge for 1 hour.
2. Preheat grill on high, 5 minutes. Once hot, carefully use tongs to rub an oiled paper towel over grates to clean and ensure no food residue or dirt.
3. Using long tongs, place chicken breasts on grill and cook, covered on high, 3 minutes. Flip breasts and continue cooking on high, 3 more minutes.
4. Reduce grill heat to low and flip chicken again. Place ears of corn on grill. Cover and continue cooking, 3 minutes more. Flip chicken again and cook 3 more minutes on low.
5. To serve, remove chicken and corn to plate. Squeeze lime juice on chicken.

We served this with a Greek-style salad made with spinach, cucumber, tomatoes and olives; inspired by a salad my friend Nisha brought over for dinner recently. I drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and a dash of salt on it, but I would even do a sweeter dressing to offset the spiciness of the Bloody Mary rub. And we rimmed our tequila glasses with it as well.

To my delight, Madison Park Foods also has a Chimichurri rub that I knew right away I would try on my next asado. Before I even tasted it, I loved looking at the colors in the tub. This versatile mix has garlic, onion, salt, red bell pepper and parsley and cilantro as some of its ingredients. Don’t be shy to try Chimichurri on other types of meat though; we love it on white fish too!

Beef Sirloin Asado with Chimichurri

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

• 1 ½ teaspoons Madison Park Foods Dos Gauchos Chimichurri Mix

Instructions:

1. Season both sides of steak with 1 teaspoon of Dos Gauchos mix and let sit for 1 hour.
2. Prepare the grill on high heat. Mix olive oil and remaining Dos Gauchos mix and grill the steaks to desired doneness, about 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare, turning steaks 1/4 turn after 1 1/2 minutes to form crisscross grill marks, if desired.
3. Transfer steaks to cutting board; let rest 5 minutes before serving.

We served the asado with a side of store-bought French fries (can be substituted with sweet potato fries or forgone altogether) which we also threw on the grill. You can certainly brush your steak with a little more olive oil but we chose to take it easy as we were having not-so-healthy fries as our side. We did do a chopped salad made with cabbage, romaine lettuce, some kale, green onions, carrots and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds and used a sweet onion dressing over it.

Both of these recipes are simple and perfect to make for these last summer grilling days with the all natural seasonings from Madison Park Foods. I can’t wait to try more of their products soon!

Xo,

Julia