***Updated***

Cheese. Considered a cheat by Paleo Purists. We hate the word cheat, by the way. So much so that we’ve written an entire post about it. Dairy is a gray area in Paleo Land and therefore considered a “Scarlett Letter” ingredient. We know that. But we have functioning brains, and decide for ourselves when and how we consume dairy. You can do whatever you want, it really doesn’t affect us. Love you, but can the dogma please. That being said, if your functioning brain tells you not to eat dairy, then we’ve added an avocado cream recipe that makes a mighty fine cheese alternative.

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
• handful chopped cilantro
• 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), then cut them in half, lengthwise. Remove the white membrane and the seeds. Coat in a little bit of fat and place in the oven to soften. We’re trying to roast and soften ‘em up before we stuff ‘em.

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 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheeses and cilantro.

Take the peppers out of the oven.

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

If you don’t eat dairy, this is a great cheese substitute:

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.

The cheap, leafy green veggie that is often overcooked into slimy, tasteless mush. Did you guess collard greens or did the title give it away? Hmmm. We only eat them once a year (shame on us), New Year’s Day (some silly ‘good luck’ tradition), well…maybe with BBQ every once in a while too. So I imagine the aforementioned description is most people’s idea of collard greens and is likely the reason why it’s a low-level, bottom of the totem pole kind of vegetable. It bothers me that kale is the new “vogue” vegetable–while collards are closely related and much, much cheaper. They are the underdog. So, collard greens, this is our ode to you and a peek into their un-slimy, un-mushy, un-tasteless (tasteful?) side.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of collard greens, roughly 8-10 cups of leaves
• 1 lb fresh chorizo, casing removed by slitting with a knife and un-peeling from the meat
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1/2 c apple cider vinegar, we use Bragg
• 1 T coconut aminos or gluten-free soy sauce
• 1 T hot sauce
• s & p

Method

In a medium-sized soup pot (you’ll need a lid, so choose accordingly), brown the chorizo (you may need a bit of fat to help get things going).

While the chorizo is browning, prepare the collard greens by removing the leaves from the thick, fibrous stems. You can do that by cutting away the leaf with a knife or just tear the leaf with your hands. Make sure the collards are in bite size pieces though, no one wants to have what looks like seaweed dribbling down their face while they eat.

Add the stock, vinegar, soy sauce and hot sauce. Place the lid, slightly ajar, over the soup pot and let everything cook together, about 20 minutes, until the collards have wilted down and softened. Taste and adjust seasonings, you may want more vinegar or hot sauce.

Shake up the traditional meatloaf ingredients a little bit, and you’ve got a weeknight meal that packs great flavor and is ready to hit the table in less than an hour.

I wrote this recipe for Food Renegade, so you’ve gotta head over there to check it out.

View the recipe here.

Link: http://www.foodrenegade.com/chorizo-mini-meatloves/

Breakfast for dinner. Or breakfast…for breakfast. Tastes the same going down, anytime of day…

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh chorizo or breakfast sausage
• 8 eggs
• 3 small yukon gold potatoes or 1 medium sweet potato, cubed
• 1 small can diced green chilies
• 4 oz shredded raw cheese, optional

Method

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Using a sharp knife, slit the backs of your sausages and remove the casing from the meat.  Put the meat in a skillet, over medium-high heat and break the sausage into crumble size. Cook until browned. Remove the sausage from the pan and reserve. Add the potatoes to the sausage grease (which you have meticulously left in the skillet and not with the reserved sausage). Let them cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, sausage, potatoes, green chilies and cheese. Pour into an oven-safe glass or ceramic dish. I used a 9×9 Pyrex. Bake until the eggs are set, about 20 minutes.

I had a hard time deciding what to call this recipe. It’s not really a frittata, often associated with Italy, but also means the eggs are beaten to a fluffy consistency. These weren’t. Then there’s the Spanish tortilla, which is an onion, potato, egg mixture. This really isn’t that either. So I figured I’d close my eyes, so to speak, and pick a name right down the center. Omelette, it is– even though it’s not an omelette in the traditional preparation, it’s just baked, no fancy flipping or multiple pan action needed.

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh chorizo, casing removed
• 1 red onion, diced
• 2 poblano peppers, chopped
• 1 sweet potato, chopped (I was lazy and left the skin on, couldn’t tell the difference)
• 6 oz. mushrooms, chopped
• 8 eggs
• avocado slices

Method

In an oven safe saute pan, heat it up to medium high. Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Add the sausage to the pan and let it brown–making sure you crumble it into nice size pieces as it cooks. Toss in the rest of the ingredients (minus the eggs) and let them cook through and soften, about 10 minutes. Stir everything around every once in a while as to not let anybody burn.

In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk the eggs together with about a ½ t of salt. Salt helps the egg proteins not bind too tightly together, so they won’t get too rubbery. Pour the eggs over the chorizo/veggie mixture and stir everything around to incorporate. The egg will start to cook a bit and that’s what you want to see.

Toss the pan into the oven and let it go until the eggs have set to your desired likeness. I like mine a tad underdone. Mine went for about 6 minutes, so start it checking then by pressing your hand onto the top of the omelette. It should feel firm.

Remove the pan from oven, slice and serve with some avocado slices.

Visiting family and eating Health-Bent is always a tough situation. That’s why, most times, we just offer to cook. It a.) allows us to stay the course and b.) exposes our lovies to the way we eat. We made this for my grandmother and uncle during a visit a few months back. This meal helped convince my grandmother to start eating this way  and…I’m not making this up, she’s lost 10 pounds.

[print_this]

Fried Egg Chorizo Burgers with Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb fresh chorizo, casing removed
• 2 red onions, thinly sliced
• 6-8 eggs
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 2 avocados, sliced
• 1 lime, sliced into wedges
• 6-8 slices melty cheese (muenster, gouda, fontina, jack, provolone), optional
• S&P

Method

Set your oven to 400ºF.

In a large bowl combine the beef and chorizo. Mix well with your hands. Patty the meat into as many burgers as you’d like. We made monster burgers, so we got about 6 out of the mixture.

Place the burgers on a pan (or grill them) and s&p them. Bake for about 10 minutes then add the cheese slices if you’re using them. Continue to bake until the burgers are medium to well, whatever you like best. Cooking times are going to depend on the thickness of your burger, so check them, don’t rely on our times.

While the burgers are cooking…

Using a ton of your F.O.C. (bacon grease!), over medium-low heat, with a regular pan or a non-stick saute pan (our preference here, because we used the same pan to fry the eggs (see below)), saute the onions until they’ve developed a nice carmel color–this may take a while, so if you’re in a hurry, crank up the heat and get the onions charred and crispy.

Once the burgers are done and resting…

Fry the egg to your liking in the same pan you used to caramelize the onions. Sunny side up, over easy, over hard, doesn’t matter to us–though we enjoyed a runny egg yolk, as it made a nice ‘sauce’.

To serve, top with sliced tomatoes, avocado, a squeeze of lime juice and a fried egg.

[/print_this]