All Day Breakfast Frittata!

Hey Everyone!

So my hubby's away on a business related trip for a while and I am cooking for one...Sad day! It turns out there is a huge difference between cooking for one as opposed to two; especially when the other person is a very active young man!

I decided to make a frittata for breakfast this morning and ended up eating it for the whole day! It was a spur of the moment thing, but it ended up turning out really well and I wanted to share it with you.

Ingredients:

• 1 small sweet potato, diced finely
• 2 preservative-free sausages, diced
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup of chopped greens
• salt and garlic powder to taste
• 1/4 cup smoked Gouda cheese, grated (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 420 degrees.
2. Place the sweet potato chunks, sausage, and oil into a cast iron skillet and bake for 20 minutes or so until the sweet potatoes are soft.
3. In the meantime, beat the eggs together and add the seasonings.
4. Place the skillet onto medium heat on the stovetop, dump in the greens and pour in the eggs.
5. Cook until the sides of the frittata are set and then sprinkle the cheese on top and place back into the oven and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until the center barely giggles when moved.
6. Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. You can cut and serve like a pie right out of the pan, or attempt to flip the frittata onto a plate and serve (good luck!).

Until next time!...

Zucchini Boats!

Hey there everybody!

I literally just made this recipe! I was scrounging around in my fridge for something to make and I realized I had some zucchini that needed using and some leftover chicken that also needed a final resting place =]

These zucchini boats are delicious and very healthy! Packed with protein and nutritious veggies, these make the perfect all in one dinner for almost any diet*.

Ingredients:

• 2 largish zucchini
• 1 can organic diced tomatoes
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1/3 cooked chicken meat, diced (from whole roasted chicken)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp oregano (all I had was Mexican oregano, so that's what I used)
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and then again width-wise, so that you have 8 quarters of the zucchini.

Scoop out the flesh, leaving a 1/4 inch border all the way around. This forms the "boat".

Place the boats in a glass baking dish and dice up the leftover zucchini guts.

Preheat a large heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat. Heat the olive oil and then saute the diced onion until translucent.

Add the chicken and the spices.

Drain the tomatoes well and add with the diced zucchini guts, cook until no excess moisture remains.

Fill the boats until the filling is mounded at the top.

Bake in a 425 degree oven until heated through and the zucchini boats are roasted, about a half hour.

Serve a la carte or with a fresh salad!
*For a vegan variation, omit the chicken. For a primal version, add some Parmesan cheese on top.

Until next time!...

Carnitas!

Hey guys,

This dish is inspired by all of the Mexican food I grew up with. Now that I'm married and had to move away from my hometown, there has been a gross shortage of really good Mexican food restaurants. So, like I do with most things, I wrote my own recipe for carnitas!

If you are unfamiliar with what carnitas are, they are cubes of some type of pork roast simmered in orange juice until shreddable and the liquid is gone; the meat starts to fry in it's own fat and gets all brown, caramelized, and crispy, yum!

You can use the meat as you like, but some of my favorite uses are burritos, tacos, or just over a fresh green salad!

Here it is:

Ingredients:

• 2-3 lbs pork tip roast
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 tbsp bacon fat
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• about 4 cups of orange juice

Method:

1. Dice the pork roast into 1-2 inch cubes.
2. Saute the onion in the bacon fat in a large heavy bottomed pan until translucent.
3. Add the pork and the spices.
4. Add enough of the orange juice to come up 3/4 of the way on the pork and bring to a boil.
5. Continue to simmer on medium heat, shredding the pork with two forks as it cooks.
6. Cook until the liquid evaporates, turn the heat up to medium high and fry the pork in the fat until brown and caramelized.
7. Serve as a burrito filling, taco filling, or however you like!

Until next time!...

Hawaiian Pizza Chili (whatever's left in the fridge chili)

Alright Everyone!

This is the second part of my deconstructed Hawaiian pizza bread sticks and chili! This chili was so good I was eating it all weekend! What a great way to save the leftovers in the refrigerator from going bad and having to be thrown out. I must say, chilies and soups are wonderful edible garbage disposals, so to speak.

Anyways, one of the other reasons I love this recipe is that it's one of those "dump everything into one pot and cook" kind of dishes...meaning not a complicated cooking process and not a lot of clean-up afterwards!

It's also a good recipe in which to "hide" veggies or other nutritious foods for the sake of the picky eaters in your household, a.k.a. my hubby! Even though he could see some of the ingredients and asked me about them, he kept right on eating the chili because it's so good!

Here it is!:

Ingredients

•  1 lb organic ground beef
• 1 1/2 onions, diced finely
• 2 tbsp bacon fat
• 1 zucchini, grated
• 3 carrots, grated
• 1/4 of a fresh pineapple, diced finely
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 1 can organic diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 chipotle pepper, deveined and deseeded, diced
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 can organic tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• enough water to cover the mixture

Method:

1. Saute the onions in the bacon fat in a heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat until translucent.
2. Crumble the ground beef into the onions and break it up further with a spoon. Cook until the fat starts to render and the moisture is gone.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and enough water to cover the mixture.
4. Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for at least 1 hour.
5. Serve with the pizza crust bread sticks! Enjoy!

Until next time!...