Dairy-free Crustless Quiche

Breakfasts are one of the hardest meals for me. First off, I'm usually not very hungry in the morning. And second, when I am hungry, I don't have a lot of time to cook something (typically because I'm too lazy to get out of bed in time to do so). In an effort to simplify my mornings, I made a quiche during my Sunday cooking whirlwind and divided it into six aluminum foil-wrapped portions for an quick grab-and-go breakfast. All I have to do in the morning is pop it in the microwave when I get to work, at which time I typically am hungry, especially if I worked at the gym that morning.

What's also great about this recipe is that you can play around with the fillers and have pretty much any kind of quiche you want. The first one I made had spinach, sausage and mushrooms in it. This time, since I was out of spinach, I just increased the amount of my other fillers.

Ingredients:

9 oz turkey sausage

8 oz mushrooms

10 eggs

1 can coconut milk

Directions:

Brown sausage and saute mushrooms. (This time around I sauteed my mushrooms in bacon fat and it added a great flavor! Be sure to drain any excess fat still remaining in the pan after cooking though. Otherwise, your quiche is going to leak excess liquid and let me tell you, it's messy!) Mix sausage and mushrooms and set aside. Whisk eggs and coconut milk, and then pour into baking dish. Add meat/veggie mixture and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and cooked all the way through.

Don't be alarmed: The quiche will rise a little in the middle during cooking, but will shrink back down as it cools.

Zone breakdown:

16P - 1/3C - 21F ... This is for the whole recipe. To get the breakdown for individual servings, obviously, divide it by the number of servings.

Also, the fat content will vary based on the type of coconut milk you're using. To determine how many blocks are in your can of coconut milk, divide the total fat grams by 7 (the number of grams in a block). Mine contains 147 grams of fat, which divided by 7 gives me 21 blocks.

Ratatouille

This weekend I tried a recipe I found on Off-Camera Chronicles for ratatouille with bonus protein via cheese (which you dairy-haters can leave off) and eggs. I used my brand new, super cool food processor to chop up all the veggies and it was a Godsend! I can't imagine having to cut up all this stuff by hand!

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes

2 eggplants

2 capsicums (I had to

look this one up. It's just a fancy term for pepper, go figure.)

2 zucchinis

1 large red onion

3 cl

oves of garlic

5 Tbsp. evoo

2 tsp. ground cumin

grated cheese (I used

mozzarella)1 tsp. paprika

sea salt & pepper, to taste

5 eggs

Directions:

Dice all your veggies and cook them in a large pan with evoo, cumin, paprika, and however much salt and pepper you want to use for flavor. Cook the mixture over high heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.

Then transfer everything into a casserole dish and bake for one hour at 390F. The original recipe said to cover your dish with aluminum foil for baking, but I forgot this step and it didn't seem to have any negative effects. Next time I'll try it with the foil to see if it makes any sort of difference though.

Once done, remove from oven and sprinkle with grated cheese (or not - boo!) and break eggs on top. Bake for another 10 to 20 minutes at 350F until the eggs are at desired consistency.

Since I'm just cooking for me, I had tons of leftovers! I divided it up into tupperware and it was enough for

approximately four

full meals and a smaller portion that can serve as a side dish. This is clutch for me during the week when I'm tired after being at the office/gym and just want to veg out. Instead of being tempted by the convenience of fast food, I can just pop one of these suckers in the microwave et viola, still on track with healthy eating!

Crockpot pork chop and applesauce

I am still looking for ways to use all of my apples from last weekend's apple picking.
I browned both sides of a butterflied porkchop. I added it to the crockpot with the following :
Diced onion
Garlic
2 apples sliced
3 slices of bacon
Nutmeg
Ginger
Pepper
I cooked it on low for about six hours. My appartment smelled amazing. Bacon and Ginger are two of my favorite scents...glade should make that into an air freshener.

-- Katy

Buffalo Chicken Salad

I cut up a chicken breast and doused it in Frank's Buffalo sauce. I baked it in foil for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. When it was done it placed it atop of my salad.

Salad:
Romaine lettuce
Baby Carrots
Celery
Cherry Tomatoes
Granny Smith Apple (I still have a ton of apples from the apple pickin')
High Quality Bleu Cheese
Splash of olive oil and vinegar
Cracked black pepper

This may be the best salad ever.

-- Katy

Apple spice muffins

I went apple picking this weekend. I couldn't think a better use for fresh picked apples than spiced apple muffins. I adapted this recipe from the recipe that Bridget posted to the CFPT blog yesterday.

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/09/spiced-apple-muffins-gluten-grain-and-dairy-free.html

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup of coconut flour (I used dried coconut that I ground in the food processor)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon medium grind sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/8 cup ground flax

In a medium size bowl combine the dry ingredient and briskly whisk until all lumps are removed.

Add:
1/3 cup of coconut oil
1/4 cup of honey
Splash of lime juice

Melt together on the stove top, just until melted (don’t get it hot, otherwise it could cook your eggs prematurely).
And:
3 eggs, lightly whisked.

Whisk until everything is well combined, and then add:
3/4 cup of shredded apples (wash, and core the apples, and then shred, peel and all)

I used 1.5 granny smith apples.

Divide between 24 mini-muffin tins, and bake for about 17 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the middle of the muffin.

Eggplant Parm with Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 Eggplant (sliced)

2 small tomatoes (sliced)

3/4 c Ground flax seeds

1/4 c Parmesan Cheese

Egg

Fresh Mozzarella

Tomato Sauce

For Meatballs:

Ground turkey

Garlic

Fennel (finely chopped)

Basil (finely chopped)

Preheat oven to 350

Whisk the egg in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the flax and Parmesan cheese with some salt and pepper. Dip the eggplant and the tomatoes in the egg then coat with the flax mixture. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes on each side.

Combine ground turkey, garlic, fennel and basil. Roll into balls. Cook in a covered saute pan with a little olive oil until cooked.

In a baking dish add a layer of tomato sauce, then eggplant/tomato, then meatball, then cheese. Repeat until you run out of ingredients. Bake for 25 minutes. Eat.

-- Katy

Chayote Squash

It is a funky looking veggie, so I thought I would try it.


I chopped the chayote and sauteed it with garlic, onion, salt and pepper in a little olive oil.
Then, I added some cherry tomatoes and peppers.
Finally, I added some ground pork and black beans leftover from the night before. So good.


I liked the chayote. It held up better than yellow squash.
-- Post From My iPhone

Eggplant Caponata

This is my take on eggplant caponata. I love any recipe where I can just throw a bunch of stuff into a pot. I have made this a couple times and it gets better as it sits, so the leftovers are amazing.

1 lb ground pork
1 clove of garlic
1/2 onion diced
2 cans diced tomato (no salt added)
chopped mushrooms
1 cup spinach
green olives
capers
1/4 cup red wine
Eggplant, diced

Salt eggplant and place it in a colander with a plate on top and weigh the plate down. Let sit for around 45 minutes. This allows some of the bitter juices to drain out. Rinse the eggplant.

Saute garlic and onion in a pot
Add the ground pork and let it brown
Add the tomatoes and red wine
Add eggplant, spinach and mushrooms
Add green olives and capers and let simmer

Carrot Chips

Night before last I made carrot chips ...

I wasn't too sure about this one since (1) the pictures from the recipe didn't look very appetizing and (2) I'm not much of a carrot fan in the first place. But somehow I ended up with two bags of carrots that need to be used up, so I gave it a shot. I have to say, they turned out surprisingly tasty!

And they're super easy to make!

Just thinly slice some carrots and cook them in coconut oil on the stovetop until they're crispy. Make sure to flip them to keep them from getting too crispy (but, to be honest, mine were a little charred and still tasted yummy). Move from pan to paper towel to drain/cool. Then eat.

I ate them plain, but you could add sea salt or cinnamon for different tastes. The originally recipe also suggested cutting them into longer slices and making fries.

Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash spaghetti is delish.

Sauce recipe:
I lb ground beef
Canned tomatos
Artichoke hearts
Basil
Garlic
Chopped onion
Splash of red wine

Brown the beef. Add remaining ingrediants and simmer.




Preheat oven to 350
Poke holes in spaghetti squash
Bake for 45 mins



Slice sqush and remove seeds



Remove squash with a fork and add to sauce



-- Post From My iPhone

Post Workout Breakie

1/2 of a sweet potato
1 egg
2 pieces of turkey sausage
Red sea salt


-- Post From My iPhone

Coconut bacon brownies

I saw a recipe for bacon cupcakes a couple weeks ago that looked amazing. I don't have any of the ingredients for cupcakes, do I decided to make semi-paleo bacon brownies.

Recipe:
1 c coconut oil
6 T ground coconut
1 T ground flax
1/4 t vanilla
1 packet stevia
1 T cocoa powder
1 T almond butter
2 eggs
Pinch of baking powder
Bacon






Mix oil, coconut, cocoa powder, vanilla, stevia, almond butter and baking powder. Beat in eggs.





Layer half the batter in a greased pan.

Cook bacon






Add a layer of bacon on top of brownie batter.






Top with remaining brownie batter.







Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.











I was content with the finished product. Next time I plan to use more almond butter and some dark chocolate chips. It was a little heavy on the bacon, so a thinner cut of bacon may work better.
-- Post From My iPhone

Mango salad and eggs

For breakfast I sauteed leftover mango salad and scrambled in two eggs. It was sweet and savory.

Mango salad recipe:
1 mango
1 avocado
2 c baby spinach
2 T olive oil
1 T lime juice
1 t balsamic vinegar
Sea salt and black pepper


-- Post From My iPhone