Skillet Sausage and Squash

I was going to call this one Spanish Sausage and Squash, but honestly, there's very little that is authentically Spanish in this recipe.  It IS, however, pure comfort food.  Stick-to-the-ribs food.  And sausage was on sale at the grocery store, not chorizo, but hot italian.  Now, if I put one more meal on the table with cauliflower this week, the kids were going to kill me, so I thought shredded squash was a better idea if I wanted to live through this week.  Besides, little secret, squash cooks down and its flavour completely disappears in tomato sauce.  If you have a sometimes orange-vegetable-adverse family like I do, this is one of those places to get it into them with minimal struggle.  Ok, this, and in chili.  Squash is awesome in chili.  And OMG, squash fries...  My parents are killing themselves laughing at me right now.  I HATED squash growing up.  I hated ALL orange vegetables except raw carrots and peppers.  I'm over that now.  Mostly.  Just don't feed me mashed squash or carrots.  Mashing them is a sin, and besides, it's just gross unless it's dessert food.

I googled "spanish spices" and apparently they include paprika, cayenne, oregano, and thyme, but then also cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and saffron.  Hmmm.  Where to begin, and what to include?  The answer?  Include whatever tastes good.  Throw the rules away.  When all else fails, return to rule #1 of paleo cooking; you take some meat, a veggie or two, throw it in a pan with some spices, and you eat it.  This recipe looks like a lot, but its not.  Its ready in a half hour.  There's just a lot of spices, and you can add or delete any that you don't like or don't have.  Maybe you have saffron.  I didn't.  That stuff is expensive.

Feeds 5-6
Ready in 1/2 hour

Ingredients:

2 lbs sausage, whatever kind you like
2 cloves garlic
1/3 spanish onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
4 c butternut squash, peeled, cored and shredded
2 (5 0z) cans tomato paste
1 1/2 c chicken broth
fat of choice for cooking
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chipotle
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Prep everything.  The food processor is your best friend.  Have all your veggies chopped and/or shredded.  Chop your sausage into bite-sized chunks.  Have your tomato paste open and waiting.  Measure out the chicken broth.  Pull out your spices.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat.  When hot, add cooking fat and saute onions and garlic until fragrant and onion is translucent, add green pepper and saute for another minute or two.  Add all other ingredients, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes until sausage is cooked through.  Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

Gourmet Thin-Crust Pizza

Yes, I said thin crust, and you can eat it with your hands.

This is the best pizza crust I've made so far.  I've been searching for a pizza crust that feels like real crust, and most recipes for almond-flour crust DO feel right, but they all have a cup of cheese in the crust, then even more on top of the pizza, and while I do eat cheese, my lactose-intolerance means I can only eat small amounts of it.  So it there's going to be cheese on a pizza, I want it ONTOP of it.

The inspiration for this one came from "Everyday Grain-Free Gourmet" by Jodi Bager and Jenny Lass.  I can't take all the credit on this one.  It took only some minor changes.  Here's what I did:

Feeds about 3-4

Crust:

2 c almond meal
2 eggs
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheet or pizza tray with parchment paper.  Mix all ingredients for pizza crust--it will have the consistency of cookie dough.  Gently press flat onto parchment.  This should make about a 14 inch round.  You could easily increase the almond meal, egg and oil to make this a monster pizza crust.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until set firm and edges have begun to brown.  Remove, and proceed as below.

Sausage-Topped Pizza:

Sauce:

1 5-oz can tomato paste
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
pinch salt
pinch hot pepper flakes

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

Topping:

1 lb italian sausage
1/2 onion
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 c cheddar
2 tbs parmesan cheese

Brown meat, onions and spices in skillet until meat is cooked through.  Move oven rack to highest setting and turn on broiler.  Top pizza crust with sauce, parmesan, meat mixture, then cheddar, then place whole under broiler just until it begins to bubble and brown slightly.  Remove from oven.  It should slide right off the parchment for easier slicing.  Cut into 1/8ths and serve. 


The pizza dough is firm enough that you could actually top the whole thing before cooking the crust and the toppings will slightly cook into the base, making it a bit softer.  If you choose to do this, the oven needs to be set to 500 degrees, with the rack at it's lowest position, for about 10 minutes.  If you were using a cake pan for this and wanted a more deep-dish effect, this is the route to go, but you'll have to experiment alittle as I haven't tried it this way yet.

Baked Breakfast Eggs with Ham

Oooh, yea.  It was delicious.

Alright, truth is I've tried a half dozen "baked egg muffin" types of recipes from many paleo blogs--basically portable baked eggs of all shapes for take-along breakfasts.  But I haven't been liking the recipes out there very much.  So then I took matters into my own hands and I made my own quiche recipe--delicious, BTW, but a lot of effort because first you have to make the nut-pastry and bake the pie shell.  I'm a lazy cook.  Sometimes I feel like cooking fancy, fabulous things, sometimes I just want food.  This past week, I just wanted food.  Portable food, because I pack both my breakfast and lunch and take it into work with me.  I tend to eat a lot of hard-boiled eggs because they're so easy.  But this week, I got banned from eating at my desk because my food was "so stinky" all the time.  Lesson learned.  Do not pack hard-boiled eggs with homemade cabbage in sesame oil and vinegar.  Way too potent smelling for most people at that time of day.  I saw several co-workers gag before I was banned.   Sure, it entertained me, but then I had to think up something less stinky to tote to work.

So the Baked Breakfast Eggs recipe was born.  And I could cook it on Sunday and eat all week!  Ok, part of the week.  Because I have to feed Steve, too, and six slices only gets us Mon-Wed.  Ah, well, close enough.  Maybe next time I'll throw in 8 eggs and get us fed to Thursday.  Maybe there'll have to be an IF day, because I can't wrap my head around having to cook more breakfasts mid-week. 

Anyhow, this went over much better at the office.  And I liked it both cold and slightly re-heated.  Win-win!  And it was pretty simple.  Sure, I roasted my own peppers, but you could buy them already roasted, if you're not trying to be cheap like me.

Baked Breakfast Eggs with Ham

First, roast your red pepper.  You can roast several and save the others for later.
Raise the rack in your oven, heat your broiler to high.  Place whole (clean and dry) peppers on a cookie sheet and set under the broiler.  Keep an eye on them and turn frequently to blacken on all sides.  once blackened on all sides, remove from oven and place in a ziplock bag to cool (this will allow moisture to form which helps the skins slide off easier).  Once cold enough to handle, slide skins off and discard.  You can store the roasted peppers in a tupperware container in the fridge for about a week.

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1 small to medium zucchini
• 1 small onion or 1/3 spanish onion
• 1 lb cooked ham
• 6 eggs
• 2 tbs heavy cream or coconut milk
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• coconut oil to grease pan

Method:

Heat oven to 350 degrees (make sure you've moved your rack back down to a normal position).

Grease an 8x8 casserole dish with the coconut oil.  Chop your ham, zucchini and onions, cut the roasted red pepper into thin strips. 

Layer into the casserole dish; first roasted red pepper strips, then onion, then zucchini, then ham.  Wisk eggs with spices and cream/coconut milk.  Pour evenly over other ingredients.  The eggs will cover most, but not all, of the layers.  Don't worry, the egg will expand and glue it all together.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until egg is set all the way through.

Variations:

Try this with breakfast sausage in place of the ham, and mushrooms in place of the zucchini.  I really liked this combo, too.