Almost Paleo Stuffed Peppers

I know it isn't Friday but I had to share this recipe with you.  We got home late last night and I needed a quick dinner.  So I whipped up a batch of lovely stuffed red peppers paleo style.

4 large red bell peppers 

1 lb pork sausage

1 lb ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup of cauliflower rice

1 can Rotel

cayenne pepper and paprika to taste

Start by cutting a hole around the stem of the bell peppers and seeding them.  Then boil them for about 7 minutes - until they are slightly cooked but still firm.  Set them aside to cool.

While the peppers are cooking you can start the cauliflower rice.  For the amount you need - you will use about 1/2 a large head of cauliflower.  Grate it up and place it on a cookie sheet in a thin layer.  Bake at 350 until most of the moisture is gone.

While the rice is drying out in the oven - cook the meat and the onions.  When they are cooked, add the can of Rotel and the spices.

Once the cauliflower rice is fairly dried out - just add it right into the meat mixture and stir to combine thoroughly.

OK!  Now it is time to stuff those bad boys!

Fill each of the red peppers with the meat mixture until it is just about even with rim of the pepper.  Stand the stuffed peppers up in a baking dish and sprinkle some of your favorite cheese over the top of the meat.  Bake them in your already warmed up oven until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.  

ENJOY!

If you are looking for a true paleo version, just lose the cheese and you are there.

Seed Catalog Pilgrimage

The arrival of the New Year means delivery of the annual seed catalogs.  This event is something I look forward to every year.  I love looking through all the colorful delightful pages of beautiful vegetables, herbs, and flowers.  Learning about all the varieties and possibilities.  I start dreaming and planning for my garden and all the wonderful food I will grow this season.  Gardening is in my blood - we always had a huge garden as a child - probably because we needed to supplement our family.  We were not rich and my parents helped stretch their budget by growing vegetables, picking fruits, and bartering for meat.  As a child, I did not love the garden.  It represented work to me.  I would have sworn that instead of vegetables we grew rocks.  Every spring we spent hours picking rocks from the garden in preparation for planting.  They seemed to multiply over the winter.

As an adult living in various cities my gardening was limited to pots.  I pretty much always had tomatoes, peppers, and herbs growing somewhere in my yard or on my apartment patio.  With the decision to move away from city life seven years ago, my gardening opportunities increased greatly.  I am expanding my crops yearly and learning how to make the most of my garden space.  I am experimenting with companion plants, natural soil supplements, and alternative pest control options.  DH and I took a 6 week sustainable farming class through the local University Extension last winter where we learned how much we don't know about farming!

Last year, with the purchase of our land, my gardening activities were much more interesting than usual.  It is my intention to eventually have a combination of raised beds and traditional rows for my veggies plus a small orchard.  But right now we have bare ground.  That fact is both exhilarating and daunting.  We have a lot of work ahead of us, however, we also have a blank slate to work with.  I am thrilled with the thought of planning out my garden from the very bare earth and designing it how I want it.  It is also our goal with this garden to make it as self-sufficient as possible so that we are not completely tied down during the summer season. Water systems will be efficient and automatic. Weeds will be deterred with mulches and ground covers.  Because as much as we like to eat fresh food - we also like to play!

Last summer we got the garden started by fencing a 60x60 foot patch of hay field to prevent deer and elk from getting in. Our neighbor came over and plowed it up for us.  We didn't have time to get in a drip line system so we hand watered all summer.  Lesson learned!  We will have a drip line system in this year.  We didn't have a lot of time to prepare so the garden was pretty limited but we did end up with some nice vegggies.  And boy did we learn a lot!  

This fall we scored some big tractor tires from a local farmer for free and I started my garlic in one in October.  I will use some of them for planters up by the barn and some in the garden for warm season crops like tomatoes.  Stay tuned - I'll take you along on the journey!

Garden before plowing.

Garden after plowing.

All Natural Angus Cookies

Angus Cookies

My sweet Rottie Angus got caught trying to snag a warm chocolate chip cookie from the kitchen table a few weeks ago.  His heart was broken that those delicious smelling creations were not for him.  He watches intently every week when I make my DH cookies and really wants to try one.  This weekend, after seeing his pitiful face - I promised to make him some cookies of his own.  One small problem - Angus has a lot of food allergies.  Typical dog cookies with any traditional meat (chicken, beef, lamb) are out.  Grains are also a no-no. So today I set out to develop a grain free - meat free recipe for cookies that my sweet boy can eat without suffering from the itchies later.  

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour

1/2 cup flax meal

1 cup natural (no sugar!) peanut butter

1 tablespoon raw wild honey

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Mix all ingredients together until it looks like cookie-ish dough.  It will be a bit oily from the peanut butter and won't quite have the consistency of human peanut butter cookie dough.

Form dough into 1.5 inch balls and press flat into circles that are between 1/3 and 1/4 inch thick.  Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  They do not spread out at all so you can really load the baking sheet up.  The bottom side will brown and the top will not so don't be fooled into thinking they aren't done after 10 minutes.  

This recipe makes five dozen tasty healthy cookies.  They last a week in an airtight container, longer if refrigerated.  Angus definitely approves!

You could also roll the dough out and cut out cute shapes but I can't find my rolling pin at the moment so circles is what Angus got.  I think if you want to roll the dough you may want to add a bit more almond flour and refrigerate the dough before attempting to roll it.

Solstice Musings

I love winter solstice.  Some people might feel depressed or down in the middle of winter but solstice to me is about hope.  I feel energized and powerful on the shortest day of the year.  Why?  Because we have made it to the depths of winter and are about to emerge.  We are marching toward spring and rebirth.  We are strong and resourceful.  We have survived the worst of it and are now moving into the light and the warmth. I love the feeling of rebirth.  The slumbering earth is stirring - just a bit.

So on this solstice - think about your plans for the future.  Feel the energy of the earth as it begins to stir and breathe deep.  Feel the power that lives inside each of us.  Embrace the turn of the seasons and the milestones we meet along the way as we circle the sun one more time.

Blessed be.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup - with a kick

Tonight was one of those 'clean out the fridge' kind of dinners.  Sometimes they turn out awesome, sometimes not so much.  I think this one wasn't too bad.

I was home sick all day, it was cold and snowy pretty much all day long.  Soup was sounding really good but I didn't want to have to go to the grocery store.  I knew I had a head of cauliflower and a chicken breast that both needed to be cooked before they went bad.  And so a soup was born.  I think it tastes great - let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower

1 chicken breast

1 tablespoon chipotle

4 cups of chicken stock (or a carton of low sodium chicken broth)

1 onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

a dab of Mongolian fire oil *if you are heat sensitive you can leave this out*

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

pinch cayenne pepper

salt and fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon of corn starch for thickening

sour cream for garnish

Start by rubbing the chipotle all over the chicken breast and letting it marinate for a few hours.

When you are ready to make soup - preheat oven to 450.

Cut cauliflower into florets, place in large mixing bowl with a little bit of olive oil and some ground garlic (to taste).  Mix well so cauliflower is covered well.  Place into a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.  You will need to stir every 10 minutes or so to keep from burning the bottom of the florets.

Meanwhile, cut up the chicken into 1" cubes.  Chop the onion.  Cook the chicken and the onion in olive oil until onion is tender.

While chicken is cooking, mix chicken stock and spices in a large pot and begin heating.  Place the cooked chicken and onion into the stock.

When the cauliflower has roasted and cooled, grind up about 2/3 of the florets in a food processor or blender.  Cut up remaining florets into bite sized pieces.  Place all the cauliflower into the broth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I used a lot of black pepper.

Heat until broth is hot.  Mix the corn starch in enough warm water to make a thin paste.  Add to the soup and allow it to thicken.

Serve with a dab of sour cream to make it good and creamy.  You can also add homemade croutons on top.

ENJOY!

Fall is in the air!

It's definitely feeling like fall here on the Palouse.  And that has me thinking about two things - fall crops and winter sowing.

When you live in a temperate climate as I do - you really have to make the most of the growing season.  To do that you can employ several different season extending methods.  Probably the easiest one is winter sowing.  Winter sowing is a technique that allows you to have sprouting seeds when the first spring warmth comes around.  One definite advantage of winter sowing is that seedlings produced this way tend to be hardier and more able to withstand transplanting into the garden than those that are germinated inside the house under lights.

It's a very easy process - this is a great link that outlines step by step how to winter sow plants for early germination. 

 http://www.bachmans.com/files/GardenGuide/WinterSowingGuide.pdf

The other thing I think about during this time of year - is fall crops.  With a simple cold frame, it is easy to have fresh greens for several months into the winter.  Garlic is another crop that needs to be planted in fall for bigger, healthier bulbs.  This year we are trying something a little bit new. 

We scored some big tractor tires from a local farmer and we are going to use those for our garlic and fall crops.  We just cut the tops out of the tires, filled them halfway with compost, finished filling with a good garden topsoil, and planted.  For the garlic tire, we will just leave it uncovered over the winter.  The fall crop tire will have a cold frame installed to help keep our lettuce, spinach, and kale happy at least for the next month or so.  

Ok Peeps! It's recipe FRIDAY!

This one is one of my favorites - easy peasy and oh so good!

Southern Fried Cabbage.....

Ingredients
1 head cabbage shredded
1 package Tennessee Pride HOT sausage
1 can Rotel tomatoes

YEP that is IT.

How do you assemble this fabulous dish?  Easy.

Cook the sausage.  Add the Rotel and the shredded cabbage.  If you like it HOT (and we do!) add cayenne and black pepper.  Cook over medium heat until cabbage is tender and ENJOY.

Have a great Friday!