Cheap, easy and a quick go-to meal, if you ask me. Who needs bread, when you can knife-n-fork it? You’re not losing any flavor, just a bit of texture–but really, who likes soppy, gloppy bread? No one. Skirt steak is substituted for the normal cheesesteak meat: ribeye. Skirt steak is cheap and equally as tasty. If you can’t find skirt steak, use ribeye, if you can afford it, or use flank, sirloin or london broil–just make sure to slice it as thinly as you can. And oh, did I mention, leftovers galore?

I wish I had a good story for this recipe, but I just wanted some Spinach Artichoke dip. I know a lot of people could probably eat any kind of dip with celery as a substitute for a cracker or a chip, but alas, I cannot. I am not a fan. So I just placed a mushroom underneath. It obviously doesn’t have a crispy, crunchy texture, but it is still a satisfying and filling meal.

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

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!

This sounds hard and daunting and complicated and messy. Looks are deceiving. I really, truly strive to cook dinner as quickly as possible while messing up as few dishes as possible. I really, really hate cleaning dishes. If you can’t find/afford/like duck, a Frenched chicken breast–a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast with the wing attached, would be an equally flavorful and very affordable substitution. We’re submitting this recipe to MarksDailyApple.com for his recipe contest. Wish us luck!

Ingredients for Roasted Veg

• a few glugs of olive oil
• 1 bunch asparagus, cut the stalks into 1/4′s
• 1 lb. various mushrooms, sliced (we used shiitake and plain ole button)
• S&P

Ingredients for Duck

• 1 T fat of your choice
• 1 lb. duck breast
• liberal amount of salt and pepper

Ingredients for Vinaigrette

• 4 tangerines, juiced
• zest of 1 tangerine
• 2 T wheat free soy sauce
• 1 T vinegar
• S&P

Method

Get your oven to 450°F.

Add a few glugs of olive oil on a baking sheet. Add the asparagus, mushrooms and S&P. Drizzle the veg with a bit more oil, toss it around with your hands and put in the oven. Roast until browned and crispy, about 3o minutes.

While the veg is roasting, add 1 T of fat to a saute pan and place on medium heat.

Take a sharp knife and score the skin of the duck at an angle, all the way from the top to the bottom. Turn the duck and score at the opposite angle. You’re just making little diamonds or squares. Why? Because it’s pretty and more importantly, it helps the skin cook faster and the end result is much crispier.

Liberally pat salt and pepper on the duck. Place the duck, skin side down into the saute pan. The goal here is to get the skin to render (get crispy) without overcooking the duck or burning the skin. Make sure your heat is around medium-low to medium. Saute, with the skin side down, for about 20 minutes. Flip the duck onto the other side and saute for approx. 10 minutes. The internal temperature should reach around 150°F for medium rare. Let the breast rest for about 7 minutes and slice as thinly as possible.

Duck releases a ton of fat. SAVE IT! If you think bacon fat is tasty, wait until you use duck fat!

To make the vinaigrette, combine all ingredients into a jar with a screw top lid and shake, shake, shake. Toss the dressing with the roasted veg, reserving some to spoon over the top of the duck.

These take literally less than 30 minutes to make. The leftovers are awesome cold and would be great for lunch. Only drawback, they’re a little messy. Well, Brandon is usually the messy eater and didn’t have a problem, but myself, the neat one, had the sauce dripping down my hands. Nothing I couldn’t lick up though…hehe.

Ingredients

• 3 T oil of your choice
• 1 lb. chicken breasts or ground chicken
• 4 oz. shiitake mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• handful of cilantro, chopped
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 c wheat free soy sauce
• 1 t chili garlic sauce
• 1 t sesame oil
• iceberg or bibb lettuce
• 1 avocado, sliced

Method

Heat a saute pan with 2 T oil. Cut the chicken into the smallest pieces possible and add the pan. Don’t worry about overcrowding the pan, the chicken doesn’t need to brown, just cook it until it’s done all the way through.

While the chicken is cooking, add the lemon juice, chili sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, green onions and cilantro into a serving bowl.

Once the chicken is done, add it the bowl.

Add a few more glugs of oil to the saute pan and toss in the mushrooms, onion and garlic. Saute until golden, about 10 minutes. Add to the bowl. Toss everything around to coat.

Remove the stem of your lettuce head with a knife (if you’re using iceberg, slice the head in 1/2, lengthwise). Peel the lettuce into individual “cups” and wash.

Pile the chicken into your lettuce cups and top with avocado.

In the South, this dish is very popular. Except, it never tastes like anything. So, we’ve added some carmelized leeks to kick up the flavor. We’ve also removed the red potatoes and replaced them with sweet potatoes, and removed the sausage and replaced them with mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. shrimp, peeled & deveined
• 2 sweet potatoes, chopped and skins on
• 8 oz. mushrooms
• 2 leeks, sliced & washed really well
• 2 T olive oil or butter or coconut oil
• 2 t + 2 T Old Bay

Method

Fill a large pot with water. Add the sweet potatoes and boil until they’re tender all the way through. While the sweet potatoes are cooking, add the leeks, 2t Old Bay and 2 glugs of oil into a saute pan. Cook on medium heat until the leeks have browned, about 12 minutes.

Once the sweet potatoes are almost done cooking, add the mushrooms to the water and let them cook for about 5 minutes. Next, add the shrimp. Don’t overcook the shrimp! Once they’ve turned pink, they’re done.

Place a strainer in your sink and pour out the water and the sweet potatoes, shrooms and shrimp. Shake the strainer really well to remove as much water as you can. Then return the goodies to the pot.

Add the browned leeks and 1T Old Bay to the pot and toss around to coat.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. sirloin steak
• 3 T fresh ground pepper
• 3 T olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced as thinly as possible
• 1/2 t sugar
• 2 c shitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
• 1 T butter
• 2 heads romaine lettuce, chopped
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 3 oz. raw blue cheese (I used Point Reyes)

Method

For the Steak:

Place the ground pepper on a plate and lay each side of the steak in the pepper. The harder you press the steak into the pepper, the more pepper will stick; therefore, the spicier the steak. Grill or saute the steak to your likeness. Once the steak has rested for at LEAST 5 minutes, slice it thinly against the grain for maximum tenderness.

For the Onions & Mushrooms:

Place 3T oil in a saute pan and turn the heat on medium-low. The secret to caramelized onions is patience–which I have very little of. Once the oil is warm, throw in the onions and sugar and toss around to get everyone coated. You don’t need to constantly stir the onions, but keep an eye on them and toss them around the pan every once in a while. You will eventually see the color start to change from white to yellow to gold. If the onions start to brown, you either have too little oil in the pan or the heat is too high–fix accordingly. The total process will take about 20 minutes. Be patient; or don’t be, and take the onions off the heat early–the result will still be sweet & tasty.

Once the onions are out, melt 2T butter in the pan and crank the heat to medium high. Toss in the mushrooms and let them saute for about 10 minutes. Make sure to scrape up all the onion bits that were left on the bottom of the pan.

Assembling the Salad:

While the onions are sauteing, chop, wash and dry the romaine lettuce. Place in a bowl, along with the green onions and some blue cheese crumbles, if you’re using it. Add the onions and mushrooms and top with the sliced steak.

For the Dressing:

2T      whole grain dijon mustard

4T      red wine vinegar

6T      olive oil

S & P

Place all the ingredients in a container with a screw top lid or into a bowl and shake/whisk the heck out of it until it comes together. Pour on top of the salad.

{Don’t pour the dressing directly into the serving bowl. If you end up having leftovers, the dressing will make the salad  disappointingly soggy and slimy.}