Spicy Cabbage + Spinach Meatball Soup (paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free)

Soup was made and it was delicious.

It started out with me wanting to tackle a common food in paleo that was somehow intimidating to me: bone broth. All you have to do is simmer leftover chicken bones (or any animal bone) with garlic and a splash of raw apple cider vinegar in water for 8-24 hours in a crockpot and you are left with a yummy and extremely good for you broth. Now that I made some it's not intimidating and I feel awesome for making something that was essentially free since I was going to just throw away the leftover bones from dinner!

After the broth had simmered for 24 hours, I made some soup with it. The broth had simmered down to half the amount of liquid I started with, so I added more water to make the crockpot almost full again, with enough room to fit veggies and meat still.

Spicy Cabbage + Spinach Meatball Soup (Crockpot or Stovetop)
Paleo, Grain-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free
Prep Time: 20 minutes      Cook Time: 2-4 hours      Servings: 6-8

6-8 cups broth depending on size of crockpot/pan
1 head of cabbage
1 white onion
3 potatoes
1/2-1 container mushrooms of any kind (I used baby bellas)
4-8 cloves garlic
3-4 cups spinach
1/2 pound ground pork (or turkey, chicken, or beef)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons coconut oil (or olive oil)

Optional Seasonings (I used all three)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (it was spicy, so if you don't like spice, omit or add less)
sprinkle of white pepper
sprinkle of lemon pepper

Meatball Directions: Put the meat in a bowl and add any seasonings you want (ie, white pepper, lemon pepper, salt, etc) and mince half of the garlic cloves. Mix together, then roll into 1 inch balls. In a large sauté pan (I used my cast iron) add the coconut oil or olive oil and panfry the meatballs on med-high until lightly cooked on all sides. Don't worry about the inside being fully cooked. This is just to keep the meatballs together as they cook in the crockpot without having to use something like egg or breadcrumbs. Once browned, add to crockpot.

Soup Directions: Dice cabbage, onion, potatoes and mushrooms up and add to crockpot. Mince the oter half of the garlic cloves and add that and spinach to crockpot. Finally, cover everything with broth until the pot it full. Let simmer on high for 1-2 hours or on low for 3-4 hours. If cooking on a stovetop, put everything in a large pot and simmer for 45-60 minutes.

Mini Crustless Quiche (Paleo, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)

I love being able to wake up, pop something in the toaster oven while I get ready for school/work, and eat it right before I leave or as I walk out the door. This is one of those meals.

As with almost all the recipes I post, you can pretty much eliminate or add anything as you please. Don't like mushrooms? Nix them. Really love tomatoes? Add more. Simple as that.

Here's some pictures to get you craving them. You may notice there aren't any pictures of it actually done. That's because I forgot to take any before we ate them all over the past few days. Fail. Time to use your imagination.

 

Mini Crustless Quiche
Servings: 12 muffins       Prep Time: 20 minutes       Bake Time: 20-25 minutes
1/2 package bacon
2 stalks green onion
1 cup spinach
3 mushrooms
9 cherry tomatoes
10 eggs
4 tablespoon coconut milkfat* from the top of a can of coconut milk or whole milk (read about coconut milkfat benefits here)
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook bacon until crispy, however you usually cook bacon. I love cooking it in my cast iron pan and popping it in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes, but this time I cooked it on the stove because it's faster. 

While the bacon is cooking (or after, if you're doing it on the stovetop and can't multitask without burning the bacon!), cut up the green onion, spinach, and mushrooms into tiny pieces. Quarter the cherry tomatoes by cutting it in half, then in half again. 

Crack all the eggs into a large bowl. Add the coconut milkfat or milk, salt and pepper and whisk. The coconut milkfat will not completely break up, but will be little chunks. It will melt in the oven. Don't worry about the quiche tasting coconutty - you won't notice it but you'll be getting healthy fats!

When the bacon is done, cut it into small pieces. You are now ready to assemble!

Line a cupcake pan with foil liners (or grease the pan really well with your bacon grease). Add about a tablespoon of egg to the bottom of each liner, then add in a little bit of green onion, spinach, mushrooms, and 3 pieces of cherry tomatoes. I separated all my ingredients in half and then split each half throughout 6 liners so that I knew I'd have enough to fill all 12. Once all the green onion, spinach, mushroom and tomatoes have been divvied up, add enough egg to fill the liners about 3/4 of the way. They will expand a little. When they are full, add the cut up pieces of bacon to the top.

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until the tops are very firm and slightly browning. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then cool on wire rack or eat! To freeze, just put them in a freezer bag. When ready to eat, put them in a toaster over for 5-10. I don't have a microwave so I don't know how long to nuke it in there!

*Note: Thai Kitchen coconut milk is not paleo because it has added xanthan gum, which is usually derived from corn. I already had some in the house, but from here on out I plan on making it myself because I have yet to find any that does not contain guar gum or xanthan gum.

Let me know if you try this recipe and what you thought!

To Do List Complete

Today was supposed to be a school day so I had the day off work, but since it's Labor Day, I didn't actually have anything! So here was my to-do list for the day:

Have brunch with my family at 11. 
Hang the fern and research how to care for them.
Clean the toothbrush holder/get out new toothbrush heads.
Do A&P homework.
Research animals for Bio II.
Create a new budget.
Download some 50 Cent music.
Finish pre-cal homework.
Go to the library and pick up Saving Ceecee Honeycutt for The Traveling PhoBookClubber book club.
Finish the rest of my gluten free black bean brownie-cake.
Pick up a firewire to transfer my laptop info to my desktop.

So here's how the day went down:
Have brunch with my family: Complete
I had brunch at my dad and step moms with one of my younger brothers and his friend, my sister, my niece, and The Chickens.

Vince and my brother both had to work, but it was mainly for mine and Suzanne's birthday anyway. I saw a bee's nest, which was actually a hornet's nest according to my Facebook peeps.

I didn't know that and I blame the 7 year old who told me it was a bee's nest. I should know what a hornet's nest is because when I was younger I was at a family reunion and I stuck my hand behind an old chair that was in a barn and stuck my hand right into a hornet's nest. My hand swelled up and turned purple and I screamed and screamed. It totally sucked, especially when my dad forced me to run my hand under cold water. Moving on.

Hang the fern and research how to care for them: Complete, sort of

My god. This fern I have has been living great and growing fully until it just decided to kill itself. It's been slowing shriveling away, despite me not doing anything different! So now I've moved it and trimmed it up. After hanging it I did the research and learned it shouldn't actually be in direct sunlight (which it hasn't been this whole time) so I need to move it again. Awesome. I also learned I should be spraying it frequently with a spray bottle and I need to give it 'food'. I have some stuff that's similar to Miracle Grow but it organic and non-death inducing so I'll be giving it more of that and getting it some new soil and possibly a larger pot. All of this except the 'food' costs money, though, which I don't have.

Clean the toothbrush holder/get out new toothbrush heads: Complete
First I had to step over a scared dog that was hiding from the thunder and lightening in the bathroom.

We use an electric toothbrush that's amazing, but it was getting dirty. So now it's clean and we have new toothbrush heads.

My life is so exciting, guys!

Do A&P homework: Complete
I took 3 quizzes and passed. That's all.

Research animals for Bio II: Complete

I'm ready to present on Tuesday night! Since I only have Word on my MacBook until i can transfer it to the iMac, I was working on two computers.

Create a new budget: In Progress
I'm saving up for something fun and need to incorporate it into the budget. More to come later.

Download some 50 Cent music: Complete
I love 50 Cent an insane amount. I've lost most of my rap CDs (ahem, my sister stole them) over the years so I need to rebuild my collection. I've also listened to the 50 Cent Pandora station for the past 5 hours and am in heaven. Welcome back to my life, 50, welcome back.

Finish pre-cal homework: Complete
Homework is done, which is always so satisfying. This first week was a strange transition into doing homework/studying and I couldn't seem to figure out how to do it. Now that I've completed some assignments I'm back in the groove and loving it. It's such a thrill to finish something!

Go to the library and pick up Saving Ceecee Honeycutt for The Traveling PhoBookClubber book club: In Progress
Turns out that I forgot the library is closed on Labor Day. Tomorrow will be the day!

Finish the rest of my gluten free black bean brownie-cake: Complete

I made it the other night and it was amazing. I've kept it in the fridge to make it more dense and it's so fantastic! I used pumpkin puree instead of apple sauce, by the way.

Pick up a firewire to transfer my laptop info to my desktop: In Progress
I'm headed to the store right now. Be prepared for some more trip posts soon!

So I pretty much completed all on my to-do list today. I'm amazing.

CSA Week 2

(What does CSA mean? Community Supported Agriculture. Taken from flagcsa.com: 'Community Supported Agriculture is a direct connection between a local farmer and the people who eat the food they produce.' Basically, I pay money to a farmer who lives two hours away so that they can plant and maintain a family-run organic farm and I get food directly from it once a week. To get more information, visit Local Harvest. Read about Week 1 here.)

I definitely feel like we got more greens this week, and it shows in our fridge!

We don't typically have a huge box of wine taking up our fridge, it was leftover from camping!

We were able to eat all of the veggies from last week, even the wilted lettuce, and hopefully we can finish them again this week! The lettuce went pretty droopy after two or three days, which is pretty fast compared to supermarket lettuce, so today I'm going to rinse it all and break it up into a big bowl and make a salad. I know that when there is a salad already prepared it will be eaten immediately by Vince and I, so there will be no chance of it going bad!

Here's our 'harvest':

1 bag of kale, 3 oranges, 1 bunch baby beets, 2 heads of lettuce, 1 bunch collard greens, 1 bunch carrots, 1 container peas, and 1 bunch chard

Last week Vince kept telling me to make 'collie greens' (it's so freaking cute when he says it, my heart melts) and I kept saying, 'We don't have collard greens, it's chard!' But this week? We got ourselves some collard greens and I can now make it! I was thinking this recipe or this one. Let me know if you have any good recipes!

Vince loves what I do with the chard, so I thought I'd share the recipe. I adapted it from a recipe I found online a couple of years ago and don't know where I found the original, but it's pretty basic.

Garlic Chard with a Balsamic Vinaigrette Reduction

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2-4 tablespoon olive oil

10-12 pieces chard, cut up into small strips (you can use just the leaves and get rid of the stalk or use the whole thing like I do)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Let the garlic sauté for only a minute or two until it smells garlicy. You don't want the garlic to be cooked to its 'full potential' because it will still be cooking with the chard. IMMEDIATELY add the chard and put a lid on it. Let the chard cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until it is soft and wilted. If it looks like the chard or the pan is too dry, add more olive oil. Remove the pan from heat and add the balsamic vinegar. Serve right away! 

We got some more chard and I plan on making this again...it's so delicious! I think it will be great over some quinoa as a snack.

As for the carrots and beets, I plan on juicing them! My juicer should be here today (even though UPS said it should have been here yesterday) and I can't wait to try it out. I still have that huge bag of carrots in my fridge!

Lastly, the peas are great to snack on. While they would be delicious in a stir fry, I love snapping off the ends and picking the peas out before eating the shell!

Food Love: Garlic and Spinach Quinoa

My first official Food Love post! To read more about what it is, click here.

This week the recipe is Garlic and Spinach Quinoa. As I said before, it is one of mine and Vince's favorite new meals and we plan on making it many times this summer!

I love how simple it is. You use a 2 pans, a knife, and a cutting board...that's it! It's also really quick to make and I always make enough for leftovers the next day!

I must admit that I am SO so incredibly lucky to be with a man who absolutely loves vegetables. I have many friends who have boyfriends or husbands who refuse to eat veggies, and I give them major credit for dealing with that. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to have to 'hide' veggies or have to hear a man complain about what is for dinner! I think it's amazing the lengths that some of these women go to to get their man to eat healthy foods, so kudos! While I love that my man likes veggies, I would also like one who will do dishes, but I guess that might be asking for too much...I can't have it all, right? Hehe.

So without further ado:

Garlic and Spinach Quinoa

Servings: 4           Prep Time: 15 minutes           Total Cook Time: 30 minutes 

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked quinoa

4 cups vegetable, chicken or beef broth

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

10 baby carrots or 2 large ones, chopped

1 head of broccoli, chopped

1 piece of meat, chopped

salt and pepper

3 cups spinach

2 tablespoons minced garlic {5-10 cloves minces}

1 can black beans, drained

Step 1: Cook quinoa according to instructions on packaging, substituting the broth for water. I cook mine in my rice cooker and it comes out perfectly. 

*Did you know that it's actually really important to rinse quinoa before cooking? I didn't, until I read this article!*

Step 2: In a large pan {I use my cast iron} saute onion, broccoli, carrots and meat in olive oil over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes, or until carrots are softened. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper, to your preference.

Step 3: One cup at a time, add spinach and cook until wilted. If your pan is large enough, you can add all three cups of spinach at on time. Add minced garlic and black beans and allow food to cook for 5-7 more minutes, until the black beans are heated thoroughly.

Step 4: Mix the cilantro into the cooked quinoa and then serve the veggie mixture over it!

Saturday Food Love - New Feature!

So, it's almost the end of the week, and I've been eating some yummy food! 

Here are some of the foods Vince and I ate for our healthy eating challenge:

{Brown Cow Cream Top Vanilla Yogurt and Bakery on Main Triple Berry Granola}

Delicious, right? Maybe you want the recipes?

Well, what I've decided to do is, instead of Saturday Love with different pictures and links, I'll do a Saturday Food Love, and give you recipes! I make 98% of the food I eat for lunch and dinner, which means I make a LOT of food. I never have a great way to share it, so I'm going to do it here! 

I have severely limited my internet use because I'm missing out too much on my real life, which means I'm not finding as many fun links and pictures as I used to. I also feel like it's a more useful thing to share wonderful and healthy gluten free, mostly dairy free, and frequently vegetarian recipes instead of 'time wasters'! Most of the recipes will be for 4 servings, so they will be perfect for small families or for people/couples who want leftovers, like me. 

If you want a bunch of great links to 'waste time' with, check out the blog Yum & Yuk, which is one of my new favorite blogs. I love the way she has her blog set up and I wouldn't consider her links a waste of time because they are full of great and thought-provoking info. 

You can also check out this link on Fridays, and this link on Sundays!

So, my recipe for this week is :

I am a HUGE lover of brats with sauerkraut. Growing up my dad and stepmom had tons of BBQs which meant tons of brats cooked in beer and grilled. While I can't boil my bratwurst in beer anymore, I sure can eat it. I have yet to find a gluten free bun, so now I just incorporate brats into various meals. This is a new one that Vince and I made and will be added to our monthly rotation! 

Spinach And Bratwurst with Rice & Beans

4 Servings          Prep Time: 5 minutes      

Cook Time: 30 minutes {slow cook rice}, 15 minutes {instant rice}

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked brown or wild rice

4 cups water

1 Tbls olive oil

4 bratwurst, cut up in quarter sized rounds {I use Johnsonville Brats}

1 whole onion, cut into 1/4 inch slices

3 cups spinach

1 cup sauerkraut

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can black beans

sprinkles of mozzarella cheese

salt & pepper as desired

{1} Cook rice according to directions on the packaging.

{2} In a large pan, heat olive oil and cut up bratwurst over medium-high heat. Cook until the bratwurst is slightly browned. 

{3} Add the slices of onion and cook until softened. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

{4} Add 1 cup of spinach and put a lid on the pan. Allow the spinach to wilt, while occasionally stirring. Should take 1-2 minutes. Continue adding spinach until it is all added. If the pan is large enough, you can add the spinach all at once.

{5} Add sauerkraut and garlic and cook until sauerkraut is hot, about 4 minutes.

{6} Seve over brown or wild rice alongside the heated black beans.

I look forward to giving you guys a new recipe next week! It will be the garlic and spinach quinoa.
I hope you enjoy this new 'feature'. Let me know if you make anything or if you want me to make something specific to blog about!