Italian Turkey Stir-Fry

Again, I was inspired by one of Sarah Fragoso's Everyday Paleo recipe, Puerto Rican Beef. It's a wonderful combination of flavors served on mashed sweet potatoes. I have high iron levels, therefore use red meat sparingly, but this is delicious with ground turkey or chicken. The Italian flavor profile of my version reminds me a bit of a Cacciatore. Feel free to play with the flavors and vegetables. It would be delish over spaghetti squash for a heartier meal. Serves 4 in about 25 minutes. Enjoy!

1 pound of ground turkey (Organic Prarie or Harvestland is what I usually have on hand)
1 white onion, medium chop
2 Tbls Italian Seasoning
Dash of crushed red pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 each of red and green bell pepper
1 bunch of chard and stems, rough chop
14 ounce can diced tomatoes with juice (Costco has cases of S&W organic)
1 cup green olives, rough chop

• In a wok or large skillet, brown turkey, adding onion when turkey is almost done
• Stir in seasoning
• Add peppers and chard. Cook, stiring frequently until mostly wilted, 5 minutes-ish
• Add tomatoes, heat through
• Stir in green olives and serve

Blueberry Coconut Pancakes

Although I love eggs for breakfast, sometimes blueberry pancakes are exactly what I crave with my morning coffee. In order to keep it low on the glycemic index I use fruit only jam or just some butter and a little agave. My kids love it with warmed maple syrup, though. Feel free to eat yours however your craving demands.

3 eggs
1 Tbsp coconut oil or butter, melted
1 Tbsp Agave
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp coconut flour
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

• Mix all ingredients except blueberries in a blender until smooth
• Place 1/4 cup batter on hot oiled grill (I use butter or coconut oil), sprinkle blueberries onto batter on grill
• Flip when browned on underside of pancake. These don't bubble like traditional pancakes, so I just look and flip when ready. 

Enjoy!

Heavenly Hash

I expanded on Sarah Fragoso's sausage hash from her book, Everyday Paleo. It is so delicious! I absolutely love, love, love her cookbook and blog!

This morning, I was in the mood for some spice, so I thought I'd try for a bit of Cuban flare. I always make double batches of this hash to heat up quickly later in the week. I am not a morning person-to say the least, so having breakfast already cooked is a huge boost to my morning energy.

• 1 pound of breakfast sausage bulk or link (Mulay's or Boulder is my preference. Chorizo would be excellent-but I can't have the garlic)
• 2-3 Tbsp coconut oil (I buy whatever organic, expeller pressed coconut oil is cheapest)
• 3 smaller or 2 larger orange-fleshed sweet potatoes/yams (however your supermarket labels them) there is a difference between the two, but there seems to be a large-scale confusion as to which is which. I just buy whatever is available at Natural Grocers.
• 1/2 small white onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• dash of cayenne
• pepper to taste
• 4 eggs, however you like them. I poach mine to over-medium

In a large skillet begin browining sausage

Grate sweet potatoes with a cheese grater or in food processor

Once sausage is browned (cut links into bite-sized pieces), add coconut oil and grated sweet potatoes and onion. Saute for about 5 minutes

Add in cumin, paprika, cayenne, pepper and saute 5 more minutes until potatoes are soft and lightly browned
While potatoes are finishing, poach eggs

Enjoy!

*I also like this with Tomotillo Salsa, which I will post the recipe for soon.

Kale Salad with Proscuitto and Apple

This made for a very tasty lunch today. I was lucky enough to stop by our local farmer's market Wednesday, where I found some organic baby kale from Venetucci Farms. So today, my tummy began to grumble for some sustinence and I remembered the fresh greens in the fridge. I also happened to have some Applegate proscuito waiting to be used up (that stuff lasts forever!). Remembering a bacon, apple and spinach salad I'd made a few months back, I thought, "why not kale and proscuitto instead?" It was simple and delish! Tummy is now content...

Salad:

• 4 oz. proscuitto, sliced
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 bunch baby kale, washed and rough chopped
• 1 apple, washed, cored and chopped into bite-sized pieces. I used a Fuji but will try a Granny Smith next time
• 2-3 Tbsp chives, sliced (scallions would be good as well-just had chives in the garden right now)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (Elana's candied pecans would have been great!)

Toss all ingredients together with the dressing, and enjoy!


Dressing:

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (Bragg's preferably)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp dijon mustard (Annie's)
• 1/2 tbls agave nectar

Mix all with a whisk

Sausage Lentil Soup

It snowed tonight for the first time this year! Yay! Snow is my favorite thing! I love sweaters, boots, fires in the fireplace, the quietness after a big snow, and I especially love soup. It makes me happy.

Tonight I had my weekly Mary Kay meeting. That's right. I am a Mary Kay girl. I subbed in a classroom for one day and decided I didn't want to go back to teaching right now. It is just too stressful and too much work for me to be a successful teacher and mother. And since being a successful mother is really my life's ambition, I needed to choose a different career. But guess what? I couldn't be happier! I love my job. I am stoked every time I facial a new client. I love talking about it, wearing it, sharing it and playing with it. I feel like I did when I was a little girl and would go to work with my mom. She worked at Gates Rubber Co. in a small town in Missouri. At the end of each year, she would get so bogged down with inventory work that we would have to go to her office at night while she worked. I loved it! I would sit at the desk next to her and type (before computers were commonplace) and use all the fun stamps, staples, tape and other office stuff I could get my little hands on. It was the best! That is how I feel with my job every day! It has been very uplifting.

Anyhow, I digress. After preschool drop off and pick-up, jr. high PTO, a volleyball game, picking up a highschooler who spent the last 2 days in Blue Hole, NM getting scuba certified, and watching both older girls get another stripe on their green belts in karate, we had to eat! I threw together a yummy sausage lentil soup that pleased all and was quick in the crock pot. Then off I was to my Mary Kay unit meeting. What a day! I think I will head to bed now, after I peel my preschooler out of my spot and snuggle her back into her own bed.

1, 12 ounce package of Mulay's bulk Italian Sausage (I prefer spicy)
1/2 med white onion, rough chop
12ish fat baby carrots, rough chop
3 celery stalks, rough chop
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 1/2 cups dried yellow lentils, rinsed and drained
1 Tbs fresh rosemary, chopped

• I pulsed the onion, carrots and celery in the food processor until smaller in size 
• Sauté sausage and chopped veggies until sausage is cooked through, breaking up the sausage into smaller chunks
• Once sausage is cooked through, add broth and rinsed lentils and rosemary and transfer to the crock pot
• It's ready once the lentils are tender, about 4 hours in my crock pot

Burrito Bowls

My poor hubby came home from work feeling sick tonight, which is very rare! He soaked is achy self in a hot tub, sipped 2 cups of green tea and filled his tummy with a bowl of spicy burrito fillings. He's feeling better today :)

2 chicken breasts, sliced into smaller bite-sized pieces

oil for sautéing

1/4 medium white onion, chopped

1, 25 ounce can of Westbrae Pinto beans, drained and rinsed

2 roasted green chiles, stemmed, seeded and diced (about a 4 ounce can)

1/2 cup sliced black olives

1 tsp chile powder (I like straight red chile powder rather than the mixed kind)

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne if you like it spicy

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 lime

1/2 avocado chunks

sliced scallions or chopped cilantro (optional)

• Saute chicken and onion over medium heat
• When onion is soft and chicken is no longer pink, about 7 minutes, add beans, green chiles, seasonings, olives and heat through2-3 more minutes
• Remove from heat and stir in lime
• Serve in bowls and top with avocado and cilantro or scallions



Time to Change

What a crazy diet it is in the life where food sensitivities never cease to change!

Once again, my diet has taken a crazy turn. I have been diagnosed with increased intestinal permeability, or leaky gut syndrome…Nice, huh? So my mission now is to heal my intestines with healthy doses of probiotics and an anti-inflammatory diet. Fun for me! Just when I thought I figured out my diet, it drastically changed. Again.

Right now I’m on day three of my Clearvite cleanse. So far so good! I’m trying to simplify my tastes in food a bit. This is the first time I’ve really kicked the cheese out. It was by far my favorite food. I love cheese. And chocolate. And coffee. And wine. I guess I definitely know I am at a place where I just want to feel better because I am really okay with forgoing the cheese this time around, along with my other food loves. Maybe someday we will be together again.

But for now, I am finding new food joys and feeling sooo much better! As it turns out, I was also extremely low in B12, D and protein as well. So now I’m on a customized vitamin regimen and high protein diet.

One more thing discovered is my blood sugar seems to be on a crazy roller coaster all day when I don’t avoid sugar and cheap carbs, so I am now using stevia almost exclusively. Good news is I might actually drop a pant size. Go Me!

Like I said, it’s been interesting here in the food department.

Here are some new ingredients that have made dining life better these days:

Almond and Cashew Milk

I use this in smoothies, banana bread, tea, chocolate bark, and more! So good!

The Chai Green Tea is especially good with the above two ingredients! Yum! I barely miss coffee now.

So goodnight for now, but new "crazy diet" recipes are to follow. We had burrito bowls tonight that me and my hubby really enjoyed!