Broccoli Pizza

This is actually a recipe for a no carb pizza crust, but I just ate these alone as a snack. You could also add pizza sauce, toppings, and cheese and throw them back in the oven.

Ingredients:

1 cup shredded cooked broccoli

1/2 cup grated Mexican blend cheese

2 eggs

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp dill

1 tsp parsley

2 Tablespoons chia seeds

First have your assistant mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Spray a piece of foil or parchment paper with nonstick spray and

spread the mixture thinly and cook for 20 min at 400.

Cut into 6 pieces.

Each piece:

88 calories

5 g protein

4 g fiber

6 g fat

0 g carbs

Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients:

Two previously baked sweet potatoes
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced into rings
4 pieces crumbled bacon
1 pound ground beef.
salt and pepper.

Brown the pound of hamburger in a large skillet, adding salt and pepper as desired. In a separate skillet, cook the bacon then brown the onion in the leftover bacon grease until it begins to carmelize. Dice the sweet potatoes,and add to the mixture. Stir in the browned hamburger, and mix thoroughly. Turn the heat to low, and let the mixture heat through, stirring frequently.


(I added 1/4 pound liverwurst as well)

Primal Thai Beef

The beef and vegetable mixture:
1 lb ground beef
1 red or yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 small red onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced

The sauce:
3 tablespoons almond butter
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

For garnish:
½ cup cilantro
2 green onions, sliced

12 romaine lettuce leaves

Brown the beef in a large skillet.  When the beef is about halfway done, add the vegetables and cook until beef is cooked through and peppers are tender-crisp.

Meanwhile, mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl.

When the beef mixture is done cooking, add in the sauce and mix together.  Spoon onto romaine lettuce leaves and top with green onion and cilantro

I have to say this really surpassed my expectations. It's the sauce ingredients that make it so good. I've also been adding liver to every recipe that uses ground beef,  it adds extra nutrition and you can't taste it at all.

Sweet Potato Chews

These are more the consistency of dried fruit than sweet potato chips. They're pretty portable and also easier to make than the chips.

First bake the sweet potatoes at 325 for about an hour. I used 2 huge sweet potatoes this time so I baked them for 1 1/4 hour. When cool, peel the skins off and cut them about 1/2 cm thick.

Next melt 1 T Coconut Oil and mix in 1 T Cinnamon. Paint the mixture on the sweet potato slices with a pastry brush.

Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes.

Thumbs up!

8 million calorie porridge

I make this by mashing banana, almond butter, and coconut milk together. Hopefully that will keep her full for a few hours!

Tomato, Mozzarella, and Mushroom Skewers

I used 2 cups cherry tomatoes, 1 jar marinated mushrooms, and 1 container of mozzarella balls (cut in half). Comes out to 15 calories per skewer, and as a bonus they can be assembled by your 4 year old while you do other things!

Today's Meatballs

Meatballs with Heart and Liver

This is one of my favorite meatball recipes yet. It forms very nice meatballs that cook evenly in the oven. And you really can't taste the liver!

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
¼ pound chicken liver, pureed in food processor
½ pound ground beef heart
15 ounce jar Marinara Sauce
1 package ground pork rinds
1 T soy sauce
1 tsp dried onion flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Mix together all ingredients except marinara sauce.
2. Form meatballs.
3. Cook in the over at 350 for 30 minutes.

4. Remove from oven and add marinara.

Ginger Cauliflower Rice

I've tried to make cauliflower rice a few times over the years, and it has always been passable, but not so much like rice. This recipe was so much better. When combined with the chicken and veggies I don't even think I would have known it was cauliflower. Plus I have tons of homemade chicken stock in the freezer and this is a great way to use it up.

We grated the cauliflower the slow way, using a cheese grater. I have a food processor and a "ricer" at home which might save time.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups cauliflower rice (cauliflower grated in the food processor)
• 2 cups chicken broth

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

• 5 peeled and minced shallots

• 5 peeled and minced garlic cloves

• 1 tablespoon peeled and finely chopped ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Process about 1/2 of a medium sized head of cauliflower in a food processor until the texture is rice like. Heat coconut oil in a saucepan. Once hot, add shallots, ginger, and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant and soft. Add cauliflower rice and stir-fry another 3 to 4 minutes. Add salt and chicken broth. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil until the liquid evaporates to the level of the rice and steam holes appear. Turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes until liquid is absorbed.

We ate the rice with chicken, this yummy Sweet Chili Sauce, and a tomato cucumber salad.

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey
4 T coconut oil
1 red onion, finely diced
1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile
1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 1/3 cups water
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
Zest and juice of 1 lime

Garnish:
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Sour cream
Shredded cheese

Preparation:

Heat 2T oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute ground turkey then remove. Add 2T more oil, onion and potato and cook, stirring often, until the onion is slightly softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle, lime zest and salt and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add water, bring to a simmer, cover, reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the potato is tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Add turkey, beans, tomatoes and lime juice; increase heat to high and return to a simmer, stirring often. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook until slightly reduced, about 4 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro, sour cream, and shredded cheese.

Chicken Curry Clafouti

This is what the Clafouti looked like in the online recipe:

And this is the one we made:

The edges in ours didn't puff up quite as much, but we also used a much deeper pan. We used my mom's new Le Creuset dutch oven, which worked great. We ate the Clafouti for breakfast and it was delicious, more delicate and flavorful than a regular quiche.

Ingredients:

 6 eggs
 6 tablespoons melted butter cooled to room temp. + 1 pat for greasing pan
 3/4 cup coconut milk
 4 cups cooked, chopped chicken
 2 tablespoons curry spice
 Salt & Pepper 1 tsp each

Directions:


Preheat oven to 400° F.
Butter a 10” round or 13×9” baking dish.
Whisk together eggs, butter & coconut milk until frothy.
Mix in chicken and spices and pour into baking dish.

Bake about 30-45 minutes or until top is golden brown and puffy. We cooked it for 45 minutes, I think it would cook more quickly at lower altitude. (We cooked this in Aspen)

Middle Eastern Dinner

This was our dinner in Aspen last night.

First we made the falafel:

2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2 red onion

1 garlic clove

1 tsp coriander

1 cup parsley

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

We mixed it all up in the food processor, made little falafel balls, and fried them in coconut oil.

The falafels didn't hold together too well, so they really didn't taste like falafel. We're going to try them again tomorrow, with more of a deep frying method.

This is the yummy salad my mom made, with spinach, tomatoes, olives, and green peppers. We were going to put feta cheese in there, but we forgot.

I made the tahini, which was probably the biggest success. I never knew that tahini and tahini sauce were two different things. I bought raw organic tahini, and I was surprised when I opened the jar and it didn't taste good. I looked up this recipe online at the last minute and it was delicious.

1/2 cup tahini

3 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp salt

3 T olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 T parsley

1/4 tsp cumin

1 T cilantro

2 T water

Mix it all up in the food processor, it was great with the falafel and we dipped orange pepper slices in it too.

Fiddlehead Ferns

No recipe here. Just wanted to say I made fiddlehead ferns for dinner. How often do you get to eat a veggie you have never eaten before? They are like little corkscrew asparagus. Sarah didn't want any, not sure why.

Chocolate Candies

I got this nifty little silicone candy mold from Amazon and decided to make chocolate coconut candies with it, sort of like little almond joys.

 

For the chocolate I used sugar free chocolate from Maine Cottage Foods, which I ordered online. It's made from erythritol, unlike the stuff you buy in the stores. For the coconut layer I mixed shredded coconut with coconut oil.

I melted the chocolate and put a layer in each heart, then a layer of coconut, then another layer of chocolate. Then I refrigerated them overnight.

 

These were yummy. The sugar free chocolate by itself is not that great, but made into the coconut candies it was much better. Plus, they were really pretty!

Sardine and Avocado Salad

Ingredients
‐ 1 tin sardines
‐ 1 avocado
‐ 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
‐ ½ red onion, chopped
‐ 1 clove garlic
‐ juice of ½ lemon
‐ handful of parsley

Portabella Mushroom Pizzas

After cleaning and scraping out the gills of each mushroom, place them for 4 minutes on each side under the broiler until they become tender. Then fill them with whatever you like, I used marinara sauce and sauteed spinach. Top them with some fresh mozzarella and place back under the broiler a couple of minutes until the cheese turns golden brown.

Chocolate Avocado Ice Cream

Okay, I don't have a recipe, and the photos are terrible. I just want to announce that we made chocolate avocado ice cream tonight and it was delicious. The ingredients were coconut milk, regular milk, avocado, vanilla, cocoa powder, and truvia. Next time I'll try to measure stuff and take some decent photos, and I'll check tomorrow to see how well it freezes. It's really really good!

Eggs en Cocotte with Pesto and Marinara

I've been having the Eggs en Cocotte every morning, they are my new favorite thing. I tried 2 variations this week, one with pesto and one with marinara.

Pesto Eggs en Cocotte

Marinara Eggs en Cocotte

I've also been making them in mini Pyrex containers, which are easy to take to work and reheat.

I thought the pesto version would be amazing, but it turns out the marinara was the winner.

Here's the nutrition breakdown for the regular version:

Calories 185

Carbs 1.5

Protein 10

Fat 15

Sodium 160

Depression Brownies

I found this cake recipe online, I read it was popular during the depression because it doesn't have any eggs. I made some substitutions and tried to make cupcakes out of it. They turned out delicious- kind of like cookies on the outside, easy to hold without getting your hands dirty, and like half cooked brownies on the inside. I let Sarah have some (even though they have Splenda, bad mommy) and she loved them.


Ingredients

•1 cup Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

•1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

•8 packets Splenda

•1/2 tsp Salt

•1 tsp Baking Soda

•2 T Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

•1/4 cup melted coconut Oil

•1 tsps Vanilla Extract

•1 T Torani sugar free syrup

•1 Tbsps Distilled White Vinegar

•2/3 cups Cold Water



Directions
Mix everything together.
Divide between 6 muffin tins.
Bake at 350°  for 20 minutes.

Nifty New Gadget and Zucchini Spaghetti

Here's Sarah demonstrating our newest fun kitchen gadget, the World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer.

She's making zucchini spaghetti!

I sauteed the spirals in some coconut oil.

It made super long strands.

Yummy!

This is Sarah's lunch for tomorrow, chicken in marinara sauce over the zucchini spaghetti.

 

 

 

Eggs en Cocotte

Ingredients:

Eggs
Heavy Cream
Cheese
Salt and Pepper


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and put a cup of water in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Butter ramekin, or spray with cooking oil. Put about a tablespoon of cheese in the bottom. I've used parmesean and feta which were both good. Break egg into ramekin, taking care to not break the yolk, and top with a bit of salt and pepper.

Pour a Tablespoon or so of heavy cream or half and half on top of the egg until just covered. Place all of the ramekins in an ovenproof casserole. In the larger casserole, but not in the ramekins, carefully pour the boiling water so that it reaches a half to two-thirds up the sides of the ramekins.

Carefully place the casserole, uncovered, in the preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the white is set but the yolk is still hot and a bit runny.

Variations:

• Use a sharper cheese, like Gruyere.not meatless, but oh so good! And a great way to use up a tiny bit of leftover meat)

• Add a tablespoon of pesto to the bottom before adding the eggs

• Saute a bit of spinach in olive oil and garlic and add to the bottom of the ramekin to make Baked Eggs a la Florentine

• Add marinara to the bottom of the cup (or top and bottom) for an Italian Baked Eggs

• Add chopped meat or fresh herbs

Thai Consuming Salad

I'm calling this the "Thai Consuming Salad" because it took freaking forever to make!

Ingredients:
1/2 head of Napa Cabbage, shredded
2 cups chopped, cooked chicken or seafood
2 bell peppers (red, yellow, or orange) cut into matchsticks
2 large carrots cut into matchsticks
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1 cup fresh sliced shitaki mushrooms
1 cup roasted macadamia nuts, finely chopped
1 cup chopped cilantro leaves

In a large bowl toss the shredded cabbage in some of the dressing,. Arrange the cabbage on a large platter., Scatter the cooked chicken or seafood on top of the cabbage. Artistically arrange the prepared bell peppers, carrots, green onions, and tomatoes around the edge of the salad, and scatter the mung bean sprouts on top. Whisk the dressing and spoon some more evenly over top.

Garnish the salad with 1/2 cup of the chopped macadamias and the cilantro. Pass more dressing if desires.

Spicy Dressing

3/4 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 cup organic cold pressed sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
Juice of one lime
2 tablespoons minced garlic
4 tablespoons microplaned ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

In a bowl whisk together all the dressing ingredients. This dressing keeps well in the refrigerator.

Thumbs up from my assistant!