Mashed sweet potatoes

Seriously, why eat boring old white potatoes when sweet potatoes are like dessert?

This is a super simple, super delicious recipe that had people raving when I took it for a party recently, so I'm sharing it with the world.

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon coconut butter
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• Dash of cinnamon

If you have a pressure cooker, this will make your life much easier.  Place the sweet potatoes in your cooker and cook at 15 pounds of pressure for about 5 minutes.  Cool immediately by running cold water over the pressure cooker.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can always steam them or roast them in the oven.

Once your potatoes are soft, mash them and add in all of the ingredients and stir until combined.

The coconut adds such a great flavor but doesn't leave anything overly sweet.

Frittata for a crowd

Why doesn't my computer recognize frittata as a word?  Or New Zealand?  Seriously, I get the red squiggly correction lines under those words (oh, but SQUIGGLY is a word?!)

Anyway, check it.  This is a great recipe if you are going to a brunch, or hosting a brunch with girlfriends and watching Love Actually, which is ACTUALLY what happened on Sunday, haha.  And what's nice about this is you can use any veggies you have on hand.

First step, preheat your oven to 350.

Second step, grease a 9x13 baking dish with your fat of choice.  Coconut oil makes a good fat of choice here.

Third, get your stuff together.

• 1 dozen eggs, whisked
• 1 bell pepper, sliced. You pick the color
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 package portabella mushroom caps, sliced (there's another one that spell check doesn't recognize!)
• 1/3 lb Provolone cheese, diced
• Coconut oil (or whatever oil you like to saute with)
• Your choice of spices-I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika, a few dashes/sprinkles of each and tossed them in while I was whisking the eggs

In a large skillet, melt a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil and toss your onions in and cook over medium low heat for about 15-20 minutes or until the onions are soft and starting to caramelize.  Once those are finished take them out and put them in a bowl and set aside.  Add more fat to your pan if necessary and toss in your sliced mushrooms and bell pepper and saute until the mushrooms are tender.  Remove from pan and toss those in your onion bowl.

Add your whisked eggs to the baking dish and toss in your veggies and cheese and stir to combine everything.  Pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until egg is firm.  Slice and serve!

What's also nice about this is if you have leftovers, it makes for a quick and easy emergency protein snack!

Meatballs

So a few days ago I took out one of the grass fed chuck roasts that were a part of my bulk beef order with the intention of making a roast.  Well, I'm going to Chicago for the weekend tomorrow and this thing took about 3 days to thaw, so, no roast for me.

Instead, I made meatballs!  And man, there really IS a difference between grain and grass fed beef.  These meatballs were so full of flavor, and not dry at all.  I had to stop after 3, I could have gorged on those things.

• 2# grass fed chuck roast, cut into chunks (if you don't have grass fed, use what you've got)
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground sage
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1T olive oil
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400.

Take your chunks of roast and toss them a handful at a time into the food processor and pulse until it's ground like hamburger meat.

In a large bowl, combine everything and mix together.  Form the balls (I used a large cookie scoop and ended up with 20 meatballs) and put on a rimmed baking sheet.  Now these will be wet, but don't worry, they won't fall apart.

Bake for 20 minutes.

One of the easiest things you'll ever make

So I'm buying 1/4 of a cow that is due in next week, so I'm trying to make room in my chest freezer in the basement to fit all of the meaty goodness coming my way.  Out came the turkey breast.

This is a little lengthy process (over 2 days), but it's very little hands on work, so it's great!

Ingredients:

• Bone in turkey breast 
• 3-4 tablespoons Penzey's Greek Seasoning (or whatever Greek seasoning you like, or really, whatever seasoning you like)
• 1/2 stick butter
• Olive oil
• Arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)-for the gravy (optional)
• Kosher salt

Okay, day 1, get your turkey out of the package and rinse it.  Grab yourself a large stock pot (large enough to hold the turkey breast while it's submerged in water) and fill it with cold water and kosher salt.  You want to make a brine, and a standard one is 1 cup of salt per 1 gallon of water.  I used about 2.5 cups of salt for my brine and it was just a tad on the salty side, but I like salt, so it didn't bother me.

So, get your briny water ready and dunk the turkey breast in and stick it in the fridge overnight.

Next day, take the turkey breast out of the brine and rinse it with cold water.  Put the turkey in a crock pot (it's great if you've got a large oval one) and cut some slits in the skin and stick the cubed butter under the skin all over.  Next, drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the top and rub the Greek seasoning all over.

Put the cover on the crock pot and cook on high for 1 hour then on low for 5-6 hours or until the juices run clear.

Now this last part is optional, but tasty good.  When the turkey is done in the crock pot, preheat your oven to 450.  Place the breast in a baking dish and drizzle a little more olive oil over the skin and bake for about 5 minutes, just to crisp the skin a little bit.

While the turkey is in the oven, again, optional, but tasty good, take the liquid from the crock pot and put it in a skillet and bring to a low boil.  Mix in some arrowroot powder or cornstarch to thicken and, stirring frequently, keep on a low boil until it starts to thicken, then reduce to a simmer for a few minutes.

Let the turkey stand for a few minutes, slice, serve and enjoy!

Goat cheese "risotto"

• 6 cups of cauliflower, riced
• 1/2 red onion, sliced thin
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil
• 1-2 cups of chicken stock
• 4 ounces goat cheese 

In a large saute pan, add the oil, garlic and onions and saute over medium heat until tender (about 5 minutes).  Add the cauliflower rice and let get a little brown (about 2-3 minutes).  Add the chicken stock (I used 1.5 cups, so start with 1 cup and add as needed) and increase the heat a bit until you get a low boil, then bring down to low.  Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, and add the goat cheese in and stir.  Resume cooking another 10-20 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Salt and pepper to taste.

*Note-the goat cheese is a subtle flavor here, but it was perfect for me.  If you want more of the tangy flavor, add another ounce or two!

Banana chia bread

So several months ago I made this recipe and it came out super amazing, except I added too much coconut oil and didn't let it cool before I tried to take it out of the pan, and it ended up a soggy mess.  Delicious, but messy.

My sweet tooth has been making a comeback and I wanted to give it another go, but I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, so I made do with what I could, and the end result was still delicious, especially slathered with some coconut butter.  It was just a tad dry for my liking, so keep an eye on how long you bake it.

Banana Chia Bread

• 2 cups almond meal
• 3/4 cup arrowroot powder (disclaimer: I totally cheated and used cornstarch, only because 1) I only have a small amount of arrowroot powder and 2) arrowroot powder is expensive!!  If you use cornstarch, it's an even equivalent)
• 1/4 cup golden flax meal
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/4 cup vanilla whey protein powder
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup agave nectar
• 2 eggs + 2 egg whites
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 2-3 bananas, mashed (the riper the better!  I used 2 and it gave me a cup.  The bread came out just a little dry for my liking, so go ahead and add another banana if you want)

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan

In a large bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients together then pour into bowl with dry ingredients and stir until combined.  

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan on a rack for at least an hour before removing.

Coconut blueberry bread (and a bonus recipe!)

So it's blueberry season here in Michigan, and yours truly bought 3 pints last week.  Why?  I don't know.  I'm not going to eat 3 pints of blueberries before they go bad....and so, I baked.

Now this isn't going to be your traditional soft, fluffy, pound-cake like bread you are used to as coconut flour is very dense and can dry things out.  However, don't overbake it and slather it with some yummy stuff like coconut butter or sunflower seed butter and you've got a tasty treat.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan.  Grease it good as this will try to stick!

• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• 3 tablespoons chia seeds (optional)
• 2 tablespoons raw honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 eggs, whisked
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup blueberries

In a large bowl, mix everything but the blueberries together until combined.  Now, the batter is going to be thick, you can always thin it out a little with some almond milk if you want.  Fold in the blueberries and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the edges are brown.  Remove from oven and let cool before removing from the pan.

UPDATE:  So while this was tasty, I felt like it could be better so I turned it into french toast, and it was way tasty!  Cut a couple of slices and soak in almond milk (or your milk of choice) for a while (like an hour or two at least), then dip in egg and cook in a skillet with your fat of choice (I used coconut oil).  Serve with syrup or a berry compote (I did a pint of strawberries and blueberries with a splash of almond milk and then mashed the berries a few times to get a nice sauce out of it).  You won't even miss the sugar!