This was inspired by a dish we had during a recent trip to Charlotte, NC. When we look for new places to eat we typically use Urban Spoon and read reviews–that’s how we found this place. I have to say, we were pretty disappointed. It was one of those places where the menu read better than the food actually was. One example: mussels steamed in beer with herbs and what-not. Thought it sounded interesting, it wasn’t, pretty gross, actually. We did have one thing, though not very good, we thought we could improve upon–bacon wrapped tater tots. So here you have it, our version:

*You want a thick cut (not thin!) and keep the skin on. Here’s a rough how-to:

This is a serious multi-tasking kind of recipe. I don’t typically make/write recipes that require dirtying lots of dishes or require multiple steps or too many ingredients, because I know most people (including myself, most days) just want to eat something a.) that tastes good b.) is good for us and c.) doesn’t require washing more than 3 dishes. I absolutely, positively abhor washing dishes. Let me get back on task here, what I’m trying to say is…I’m not trying to scare anyone off, but this should be made on a “I can’t wait to cook an awesome meal” kind of day. We didn’t need a roux for this recipe. I thought I would have to experiment with some arrowroot powder but the okra does a nice job of thickening the gumbo. Oh and let me mention, this makes a TON…get ready for leftovers!

Have you ever tasted this super special, amazingly yummy sandwich called The Cuban? It’s a toasted sandwich with honey mustard, pickles, ham, pork loin and swiss. We have been to Miami and tried to source the best Cuban sandwich we could find…and we have also frequented Publix supermarket for its Cuban sub as a meal in a hurry–when we thought whole wheat bread and juice were healthy. Well….here is our version, sans bread and tons of sugar. We wanted to call this “Pork Three Way” since we’ve got a pork tenderloin stuffed with ham and seared in bacon fat…but we’ll just stick with Cuban to be P.C. We served this with sweet potatoes we had previously roasted, scooped out the insides and put in the freezer. Just add some cinnamon and orange zest and nuke in the microwave to re-heat.

So it’s 9:00 p.m., I have nothing planned for dinner, as we just got back into town that afternoon and, we’re both pretty darn hungry. I try to keep my pantry and freezer well stocked (post about this to follow), so that I can always have something to throw together in a pinch. Turns out, most of my “pinch” proteins are sausage. Brandon says to me, ” You can’t post that! These people have got to be tired of sausage!” I’m like, “Impossible!”  Are you guys tired of sausage? I love sausage. Let me count the ways:

1. You choose the size: crumble it, patty it up or links
2. Economical
3. Lots of flavor without having to add spices or herbs
4. Tons of different types of flavors:  Sweet, Smokey, Mediterranean, etc.
5. Any ground meat can make a sausage: duck, chicken, turkey, beef, piggy
6. You can’t overcook it

This was inspired by my love of pizza, my lack of ingredients in the fridge and a shortage of time. This look about 10 minutes to put together and another 20 minutes to cook. This is LITERALLY a 30 minute meal. Kids would probably love to customize each mini meatloaf with their own pizza “mix-ins” !

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Italian sausage
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 handfuls almond flour
• Various pizza type mix-ins, finely chopped (we cleaned out the fridge–green onions, banana peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, green olives)
• If you’re going to use onions, garlic and/or mushrooms, you need to pre-cook them as they stay crunchy (garlic, onions) or release too much too much water (shrooms).
• 1/2 can pizza sauce

Method

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

In a medium bowl, mix together the sausage, egg yolks, almond flour and your choice of mix-ins. Fill a muffin tin about 3/4 of the way up with the meat mixture. Top each mini meatloaf with a spoonful of pizza sauce.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Most people eating Paleo or low-carb are already aware of the glorious spaghetti squash. But I do believe, and please correct me if I’m wrong, most people only use this squash for traditional spaghetti with marinara sauce. So I thought, let’s see how it takes to other dishes that are pasta based…hmm, carbonara. Traditionally it’s sauce is egg yolk based, but since spaghetti squash is rather wet, I figured we could nix the yolks and still end up with a relatively creamy sauce. Success!

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 lb. bacon
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 4 gloves garlic, minced
• 2 handfuls of walnuts, roughly chopped
• Parmesan cheese to taste
• Red Pepper flakes or black pepper, to taste

Method

Heat the oven to 400ºF. Cut the squash in half and pick out all the seeds. Don’t be anal about getting out the stringy stuff, you can’t even tell it’s there once the squash has roasted. Lightly coat the inside of the squash with some oil and place cut side down, on a baking sheet, in the oven for 20 minutes. Flip each half over, and roast for another 20 minutes–0r until the squash is easily shredded with a fork and add it to your serving bowl.

While the squash is roasting, start the sauce. With the bacon placed horizontally on your cutting board, cut the strips into 1/2″ pieces. Don’t worry about separating the strips, just cut away. Add the bacon pieces to a saute pan that’s on medium heat. Cook the bacon until it’s browned and add to your serving bowl. Remove 3/4 of the bacon grease and reserve for another use. Place the onion and garlic in the pan and cook until translucent. Add them to your serving bowl. Toss the walnuts into the pan and toast until slightly brown. Add them to the serving bowl. Add pepper and grated Parmesan cheese to taste.

Serve immediately.

We didn’t get home until 10 p.m. the other night so this recipe was inspired, once again, by my lack of time mixed with feelings of hunger. I have to say, we do make a menu every week and do go shopping for the necessary ingredients. This recipe, however was not on the menu, but because I had some Canadian bacon in the freezer and I ALWAYS keep eggs, I was able to whip up a good, solid meal in less than 15 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 package Canadian bacon
• Equal amount of eggs

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

In a muffin pan, place a piece of Canadian bacon into each hole. Press it down and crack an egg into each piece of bacon. Cook in oven for approximately:

• Runny Yolk – 8 minutes
• Semi-Soft Yolk- 10 minutes
• Hard, Crumbly Egg -14 minutes

Pop the egg “cups” out of the pan once they’re cool enough to handle. Whatever you don’t eat goes straight into the fridge for a snack or another meal!

Brandon and I just got home from a wedding in Asheville, NC. We did not eat well. We can markedly feel a difference in our moods, quality of sleep and energy levels, when we eat carbs/sugar again. Should I expound, so you know we’re not perfect?  Okay. Here it is. I’m ashamed. Dunkin Donuts bagel sticks (some new fangled breadstick-like confection) with cream cheese, pesto tortellini, penne with vodka sauce, biscuits with gravy, grits, fried potatoes (that tasted like Arby’s curly fries), sweet potato pancakes and wedding cake (carrot! hmmm, moist!). Time frame: 24 hours. Hahaha! So needless to say, we were anxious to get back to our high-fat, high-protein diet…and I wanted to start it off with flavorful Mexican comfort food. I roasted the peppers instead of frying them in batter and added meat and veggies, instead of just straight up oozy cheese.

Ingredients

• 5 poblano* peppers
• 1 lb. fresh chorizo**, casings removed (slit the back of the sausage with a knife and unwrap the meat from the case) and crumbled
• 4 oz. mushrooms, diced
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 oz. raw sharp cheddar
• 2 oz. goat cheese
• 2 avocados
• 1 lime, juiced

Method

Preheat your oven to 450ºF.

Slice the tops off your poblano peppers (reserve them, minus the stem) and take out the seeds. Coat in a little bit of fat and place in the oven to soften. We’re trying to roast them and get the skin off, so this should take about 20 minutes.

While the peppers are working in the oven, saute the chorizo, onions, garlic, mushrooms and the chopped pieces of the poblano pepper tops, until everything is soft, about 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheeses.

Remove the peppers from the pan and wrap them in one big piece of plastic wrap, leave it on for about 5 minutes. This will steam the peppers, thus making the skin easy to peel off.  Remove the plastic wrap and peel the skin off of the peppers with your fingers, if it’s not REALLY easy, wrap them back up and let them steam for a bit longer.

Using a spoon, stuff the chorizo filling into each pepper and place back into the oven to melt the cheeses and warm everything up.

To make the avocado cream, use a fork to mash up the avocados with the lime juice. Serve with the rellenos.

*Poblano chile peppers are mild mexican chiles. Think of it as the less bitter, mexican version of green bell peppers. They’re found at most grocery stores, around the other chile peppers.

**If you can’t find fresh chorizo (dried chorizo is hard and usually labeled Spanish, fresh is soft and usually labeled Mexican), you could substitute fresh andouille or make the chili recipe from the chili cheese dog recipe.

A buddy of ours at our CrossFit box asked us if we had a Paleo style Fried Rice recipe. We had never tried, so we immediately set to work. The rice is replaced with cauliflower we pulverized in the food processor. This recipe messes up a few more dishes than I like to clean, but it was completely worth it…and it made 4 giant servings, hello leftovers! Feel free to add peas, carrots, zukes, whatever you’ve got–clean out that fridge!