Food Friday!

Since living by myself, I find the easiest way to eat healthy (and paleo) is by having one big cooking day and eating that all week.  I've decided that I'm going to post the summary of that here once a week on Fridays (even though I usually do my cooking on Sundays).



1. Breakfast Sausage Patties
One of my favourite new things is having home made breakfast sausage all week long.  Yup.  Weekday big breakfasts.  I make up a batch of sausage patties and freeze them.  For the longest time I used to use this recipe from Paleomg.com.  Don't get me wrong, it's good, but the new one I tried this week blew that one out of the water! It came from Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry - Elana Amsterdam, the new paleo cookbook my sister got me for Christmas!

I modified it a bit because I like the texture best when using ground pork and ground turkey (pork alone is a bit greasy, and turkey is too lean and the texture weirds me out!) Below is my modification on the recipe.

1 lb          ground turkey
1 lb          ground pork
1 Tbsp     dried sage
1 Tbsp     dried rosemary (crushed up a bit more)
1 Tbsp     honey
1 tsp        sea salt
1 tsp        fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbsp    fat of choice for cooking (I used coconut oil)

Mix all ingredients (except oil) in large bowl - I use my hands...it just works better.  Shape into patties, about 1/4 cup or so each

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat.  Cook patties in skillet, turning once & gently pressing down to flatten.  They're done when meat is cooked thoroughly (use a meat thermometer if that's your style!) and when the patties are golden brown.  Place on paper towel after transferring from the skillet to absorb extra grease.  Serve immediately OR let cool & freeze in airtight container.


2.  Chia Meatballs & Sauce

I found this meatball recipe by fluke and really wanted to try it because it used chia seeds.  The chia seeds get gel-ish when wet, which is what is used to help hold the meatballs together, thus replacing egg as the binder in the this recipe.

Both the meatball and sauce recipe are from Bare Root.  I made the recipe as-is, and divided it into 4 containers with about 3-4 meatballs in each and popped them into the freezer (when cool).


3. Paleo "Potato" Leek Soup

This is another one from  Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry - Elana Amsterdam.  It's super-veggie loaded and surprisingly tasty.  I'm not 100% on the "replace everything with cauliflower" bandwagon, but this one gets my vote!  Next time I would use a larger head of cauliflower for a thicker soup, but it's still good and I would make it again!

2 Tbsp           coconut oil
1 medium      leek (green & white parts) about 3 cups
1 large           head of cauliflower
6 c                 stock (chicken or veggie would probably work best)
1/2 tsp           sea salt
1/2 tsp           ground black pepper

Melt coconut oil in large sauce pan over medium heat.  Sauté the leek about 10-15 minutes until soft and lightly browned.  Add the cauliflower and continue to sauté your veggies another 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender.  Add the stock and bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Using a hand blender, puree soup until smooth.  (If using a conventional blender, let soup cool for a bit and blend in small batches.  If you don't, you will explode hot soup all over your kitchen and your self. Please don't do this. It hurts and is messy!)

Stir in salt and pepper and make sure soup is heated through.  Serve and enjoy!



4. Sweet Potato Hash browns

These ended up being too much work, and I wouldn't do it again.  I looked up how to make shredded potato hash browns and then combined a bunch of recipes and tips together.

I shredded the raw (peeled) sweet potatoes.  Then par-boiled them for a couple minutes.  After that they needed to dry.  While I figured I'd have soggy potatoes sitting around all day I threw them on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven on broil.  After they were mostly dry, I put them in freezer bags.  When re-cooking I put them in a skillet to brown.  I'm going to have to experiment with more/different fat next time I cook up a bag because they were meh.  Too mushy, and the whole process was just too much work!


5. Homemade Grapefruit Jello

This is definitely not the most appetizing looking photo, but I have really been into making my own "jello".  It's a good alternative to the store bought stuff and gelatin is actually really good for you.

1 Tbsp     unflavoured gelatin (grass-fed, ideally)
1/4 cup    cold water
2 cups     grapefruit juice (or other fruit juice of choice - just watch sugar content!)

Sprinkle gelatin over the surface of your cold water and without stirring let soak for about 3 minutes until it has absorbed most of the moisture.  Have your juice ready at almost boiling.  Combine your hot juice with the soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved.  Place mixture in the fridge to set.

There are a million variations to this, and this is just what I did this one time.  It was tasty, and I really enjoyed it as a snack.  You could always dilute your juice with water, or add a sweetener if you find the grapefruit juice too tart.


6. Brazilian Curry Chicken in the Crockpot

I got a crockpot/slow cooker/"wife" whatever you like to call it for Christmas from my mom.  Yay!  You'll be seeing crockpot creations likely on a weekly basis around here!

This recipe is straight-up Paleomg.com.  I accidentally added too much broth and the whole can of coconut milk, so it was a bit soupy (which was okay too).   She used one red and one yellow pepper, I used one red and one green...because I'm a rebel like that!

Well there you have it!  That is what I'll be eating this week!  How do you like to do your cooking? Do you prepare it all at once, or do you cook every night?  Are you planning to give any of these recipes a try? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!