Tag Archives: sausage

Paleo Cuban Bangers (Or burgers or meatballs)

23 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in bangers, Beef, Ground Meat, international food, Meat, Paleo Recipes, Pork, sausages

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vow renewelLast week, we did something pretty awesome!

And by awesome we mean “hey, let’s do something crazy like renew our vows in front of a few hundred complete strangers because it’s the 10 year anniversary for Marriage Equality in Canada!“

It was a little (though 27 couples means it really wasn’t so little) shin-dig put on by the city of Halifax with our very own Mayor officiating the ceremony.

In case you didn’t know this about us, we love any occasion to get dressed up with our fancy shoes and red lipstick (Mimi) and our spiffy bowties (Tee). The fact that there were cupcakes and champagne made the event all the more awesome cause seriously, who doesn’t love cupcakes?

Seriously….

From there we whisked ourselves off to Prince Edward Island for the weekend which of course means food choices weren’t as “good” as we wanted. The food was delicious. The wine was delicious. The time spent together on the beaches was delicious.

Now we’re home and focusing on our kitchen again.

Whenever we want to make something relatively easy we pull out a few banger/meatball recipes. Not sure what can be more easier than ground meat + a few ingredients + spices. Unless you consider calling up the pizza man down the street for delivery then yes there, are other things that are easier but remember we’re focusing in on OUR kitchen!

One of our most favorite recipes is a Cuban version of the banger (or sausage). The awesome thing about this recipe is you can mix up your ground meats (beef/pork/turkey/chicken/lamb) and it’s gonna come out tasting incredible.

The recipe below is a one pound of ground meat version. We always double it so there will be leftovers for the next day. This is so good we may triple it next time just because the leftovers didn’t last that long.

Enjoy!

Paleo Bangers: Cuban Style!

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb Ground meat (we tend to use beef and/or pork)
  • 2 – 3 Garlic Cloves, peeled and minced
  • 2 Tbsp Toasted almonds (if you have whole almonds: chop and toast on low heat in small saute pan)
  • 2 Tbsp Whole raisins
  • 2 Tbsp Green olives (pimento stuffed is really good!), chopped
  • 1 Tbsp Tomato paste
  • 1/2 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 Tbsp warm water
  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda.

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients EXCEPT water, cream of tartar and baking soda.

In a small dish combine water, creme of tartar and baking soda and mix well (it will fuzz a bit), add to large mixing bowl and mix all of the ingredients together thoroughly.

On a large non-stick cookie sheet or a sheet lined with parchment paper, shape your bangers (sausages). For us we were able to get about 7 good sized portions for each pound.

Pop that cookie sheet into the oven for about 25-30 minutes or until bangers are cooked all the way through!

Cuban Bangers

You’ll make these once, then make them again and we promise you, you’re going to double or triple the recipe. Even cold they are spectacular!

~Now that’s good eatin’ Folks!

 

Getting back into the swing of things…Paleo Enchilada Stuffed Peppers.

02 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in Don't be afraid of your kitchen, Ground Meat, Meat, Paleo Recipes, Pork, recipes

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Sometimes it’s hard getting back into the swing of things.

It can feel both defeating and cumbersome.

You try to remember why you are doing what you’re doing and focus on how old “not so great” habits easily creep back in to your life when given the opportunity. You want it to be easy to pass on the sweet treats and the bag of chips at your best friend’s BBQ but at the end of the day you give in and promise tomorrow is another day…

Only to find that tomorrow turns into a few more tomorrows than you planned for.

That’s sort of where we are right now.

It’s not that our eating habits are so out of control that we’re face first in a trough of Ben and Jerry’s topped with cheesy Doritos. In fact if you looked at our overall eating habits it’s probably still cleaner than your average American/Canadian but it’s off kilter just enough to have it’s effects on our emotional and physical well-being.

So we’re pulling on the reigns a bit and working hard to stick to a plan. Part of that plan at this current juncture is one of us decides on the meals for the week (Mimi) while the other implements said meals (Tee). This has been working out quite well since there is no guessing at what one of us will eat and we know the other one will pretty much eat anything put in front of them.

The recipe below is not only super easy to make, it doesn’t take but a few ingredients and you can be guaranteed a least left overs for the next day (half a serving with fried egg is pretty much going to be a game changer).

The trick to this one is you can change up the “stuffing” portion of your peppers. This time we used spicy ground pork and quinoa. We’ve made it with sweet potatoes and chicken (delicious) and the next time….who knows.

The enchilada sauce stays the same each time so if you make a double batch you can freeze half and save yourself a little bit of time the next time around (see how planning your shit really helps!)

Enjoy!

Paleo Enchilada Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

The sauce

  • 1 – 1 1/2 C Tomato Paste
  • 1 – 1 1/2 C Chicken Broth (Veg Broth will work as well)
  • 2 Tbsp Chili Powder (adjust to your liking)
  • 2 Tsp Cumin (adjust to your liking)
  • 1 Tsp Dried Oregano
  • 1 Tsp Sea Salt (table salt is okay too and adjust to your liking)
  • 1 Tbsp FoC (Fat of Choice)

The Stuffing

  • 1 LB favorite ground meat
  • 1 Medium Onion, peeled and diced
  • Peppers left overs from the peppers you’re using, diced
  • 1 C cooked quinoa

Extras

  • 5 Large Peppers, cut tops off and de-seed (seperate stem from pepper ring and discard the stem and seeds but keep the extra pepper for stuffing)
  • Glass dish
  • Medium – Large saute pan
  • Medium sized mixing bowl

Preheat oven to 350F

First things first, get that quinoa started!

Then over medium heat, use FoC and saute chopped onions for 1 minute, add ground meat and cook thoroughly.

While meat/quinoa are doing their thing get started on that enchilada sauce.

In your mixing bowl add all sauce ingredients together and mix well. You should have a soup like consistency so if it’s too thick add a little more broth. If it’s too thin add a little more tomato paste.

Important info here so pay attention!! – You can never take away a spice but you can always add a spice. Start with half of what you think you want, give it a taste and go from there. Again: YOU CAN NOT TAKE AWAY A SPICE!!! Never assume that the recipe in front of you is going to be the end all be all in preferred taste. When we see the spices listed in a recipe, we always know we’re going to adjust them accordingly. We expect you to do the same in your kitchen…#dontbeafraidofyourkitchen!!!

Ground meat cooked thoroughly (check). Quinoa done (check). Sauce is ready (check check and double check).

Now add the quinoa and 3/4 of the sauce to the ground meat, mix well and simmer for 10-15 minutes on low heat.

Let’s prepare the peppers!

Another important tip coming up!!!!

stuffed peppers 4

When prepping your peppers, cut the tops off and separate the stem from the pepper ring. Take that pepper ring and dice it up and throw it into the ground meat/quinoa/enchilada sauce. Now if your peppers are uneven on the bottom, heed this little trick – Slice a thin portion off the bottom to create a flat surface…we know: MIND BLOWN! Now just like the spices you can always take more off the bottom but you can’t add what you take away so start as thin as possible and go from there. That little bottom piece? Ya, you know what to do with it. De-seed the inside and if you’re so inclined try and cut away the side edges inside to give you more stuffing space.

Stuffed Peppers 1

Get ready to stuff those beautiful peppers. Evenly fill each with the meat/quinoa/enchilada sauce (we hope we don’t have to tell you to use a regular sized eating spoon but if we do then there you go). Use the remaining enchilada sauce to pour over the top and fill the bottom of the glass dish.

Stuffed Peppers 3

Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 350F and serve as you like. We usually serve on a bed of mixed greens (our particular favorite is the kale/cabbage/brussel sprout mix from Costco sans dressing)

stuffed peppers 6

~Now that’s good eatin’ Folks

 

Where the hell is Spring? (Paleo Spicy Pineapple Stuffed Burgers)

23 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Beef, Burgers, Meat, Paleo Recipes, Pork, recipes, Sweet potatoes

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No seriously, where the hell is Spring?

This time last year it was hovering around 20C (for our American friends that’s around 68F). The first day of Spring here in Halifax saw a dumping of about 15cm of snow (just under 6″) and then another few centimeters this morning.

We have our eyes set on the budding trees around our neighborhood and are so looking forward to warmer days (and by warmer we mean above 5C [40F]). We’re on our official two week staycation (this is day 3). We had hoped for some road trips down to the states to see friends but alas(!) we’re still waiting for that ever frustrating permanent residency card and don’t want to take the chance of crossing the border without it!

So instead we’re working out hard, cooking up some freaking fantastic foods and literally checking out every movie we can get our hands on at the library (yes, we’re that geeky)!

Normally it takes us a bit of time to go from testing a recipe to actually posting it but today we couldn’t resist getting this one out as soon as possible. The original recipe was found over at PaleOMG and can we just take a moment to say how much we dig Juli. Her recipes are always TO DIE FOR (okay maaaaaaybe not die for but you get the picture) and the words she throws down on her blog are always good for a laugh and an “oh man do I get it”. If you haven’t checked her out, do so and then get in your kitchen and try out this recipe.

As always we made some changes according to our tastes and what was available in our kitchen. Don’t be afraid to mess around with what you like / don’t like for this one. You really can’t eff up a burger no matter how hard you try (unless you have and then we’d like to hear about it!)

Enjoy!

Paleo Spicy Pineapple Stuffed Burgers

This made 5 good sized burgers and were about 390 calories each (not including avocado)

Start to table time about an hour (because of sweet potato fries)

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb Ground Meat (we used pork for this)
  • 3 Sausages (the large kind like from the butcher – we used a nice spicy sausage from our favorite butcher Jess over at Highland Drive Storehouse), casings off.
  • 1 C Crushed Pineapple (canned is okay but we used fresh and “crushed” ourselves)
  • 1 Tbsp Cumin
  • 1 Tsp Paprika
  • Pinch of Cayenne
  • 2 avocados
  • Juice from 1/2 Lemon
  • 1 Tsp Coconut Oil
  • Fat of Choice

Now if you want to make sweet potato fries to go with you’ll want to take care of those first…who doesn’t want sweet potato fries for Pete’s sake!

SAM_1515

If you don’t know how to make them, go HERE!

If you do make them a good way to know when to begin cooking your burgers is to begin when the fries have been turned and are halfway finished. So time wise you should do this: Start fries. While fries cook first round, make burgers (wash your hands after!). Flip fries. While fries cook second round begin grilling / cooking burgers. While burgers cook, puree avocados…everything should finish up about the same time!

Okay back to the recipe!

The players

In small saute pan add coconut oil, pineapple and 1/3 of your cumin (1 tsp). Saute for about 3 – 4 minutes (the juice from the pineapple should cook off). Set aside and cool.

Pineapple

In mixing bowl add your ground meat, sausage (casings off!) and spices. Mix thoroughly. If you have a kitchen weigh this will come in right handy for making 1/4 lb patties (for a total of 10). It’s probably more space conscious to make 5 and keep the rest of the ground meat off to the side until your ready to put together.

With your “bottom” patty ready, divide pineapple evenly.

burgers getting ready...

(Are we the only ones that thought this looked like a tongue?)

Now form the top halves of your burgers and seal. Pinch edges together and when you think you’ve got it, pinch again just to make sure. The more you do this the better the burgers will stay together! You can salt side up for a more crispy burger but that is a personal preference.

(are you ready to flip fries?)

When all burgers are complete, heat up a little FoC (around 2 – 3 tsps) in large saute / frying pan (or if you have a grill get that bad boy ready. Apparently we’re the only people in Canada that don’t own a grill and we are missing out something serious!) and place burgers, salt down, and cook on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes. Salt top portion of burgers and flip, cooking again for 4-5 minutes until done.

For the Avocado puree:

Cut avocados in half, remove pits and scoop into food processor. Add lemon juice and puree until smooth.

SAM_1521

(Before)
SAM_1523

(After)

When burgers are thoroughly cooked, top with avocado puree and dig in!

Paleo Spicy Pineapple Stuffed Burger

instagram finished

We love Instagraming the hell out of our foods!

Oh and if you’re wondering what to do with any left over burgers you may have, may we suggest the following:

instagram finished 2

Yhea, that happened (and will happen again real soon!)

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Paleo: It’s what’s for breakfast!

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Breakfast, Paleo Recipes, recipes, Sweet potatoes

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The 30 day paleo challenge is over.

But really it’s just beginning. A lot of people were curious if at the end of the 30 days if we were going to continue following a paleo lifestyle or reintroduce particular types of food that do not fall under the “guidelines” of proper paleo eating.

The answer is yes to both.

There is no denying that eating strictly paleo for the last 30 days has brought some pretty significant changes for both of us. Leaner and down in weight. Sleeping better (except when the 17 year old cat decides to get lost in the hallway) and for Tara the reduction in foot pain has been the most eye opening (inflammation and aggravated plantar faciitis caused by grains and sugars).

For us eating paleo makes sense.

But we also crave those nights where we don’t have to give any thought to what we eat. A nice evening out sitting next to each other sharing a dessert that is everything but paleo friendly. A hot bowl of spicy Pho. A burger with a bun AND some fries…

It’s all about compromise. It’s about knowing what to eat that makes your body feel good, your spirit feel good and sometimes more importantly your heart feel good. It’s about leaving the emotional bullshit behind and not getting caught up in the “I can’ts” but rather “I choose”. We eat what we eat because we choose to eat them, not because we’re trying to fill a void or placate an emotion. We break our sweats and eat our sweets because we work hard to love the bodies we’re in and the bodies we’re in love us back.

Now how all this ties into the following breakfast recipes we have no idea but the bottom line is we will continue to eat Paleo and when we choose to eat something else we will without guilt or feeling of failure. We will also continue to find delicious paleo “replacements” like the coconut flour pancakes and sweet potato latkes below.

We are big breakfast people. On most weekdays we eat pretty much the same thing everyday: Meegan likes two hard boiled eggs and a banana with homemade almond butter) while Tara usually eats the leftovers from the night before with an egg thrown on top. The weekends is when we take a little extra time to try out something that tickles our fancy…

The Coconut Flour Pancake recipe was found over at Paleo Pals and the Potato Latke recipe was found over at Everyday Paleo. Very little was changed in the recipes (the vanilla was left out on the coconut pancakes because we didn’t have any and the cinnamon was left out on the latkes because it doesn’t agree with one of us) otherwise we followed each step by step.

Paleo! It really can be for breakfast!

Enjoy.

Coconut Flour Pancakes.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Bananas (ripe)
  • 6 Eggs
  • 1/3 Coconut Flour
  • 1/4 Cup Coconut Milk
  • FoC (Fat of choice) – we used left over fat drippings from bacon/sausage.

In a bowl, smash bananas until smooth. If you have a magic bullet you could just use that too but the smashing is kind of fun!

Once smooth, add coconut flour, coconut milk and eggs. Whisk together until well blended.

Grease skillet / griddle with FoC on medium heat and get to cooking those pancakes. General rule is about 1/4 c of mix per pancake. Cook about 1-2 minutes each side (or if your a pancake pro until all the bubbles pop).

(Flip!)

– Side note: These won’t stick together like wheat flour so the likelihood for them to “fall apart” may happen. Do not be discouraged. After a first few you’ll get the hang of it…

Oh yhea that blueberry goodness on top? A cup of frozen blueberries heated in a little coconut milk makes a tasty reduction!!

Sweet Potato Latkes

The ingredients:

  • 5 Cups Shredded Sweet Potatoes
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1/4 Onion (minced)
  • FoC (Fat of Choice)

We got to pull out “BabyDoll” for this one and shredded up the sweet potatoes in no time!

2 large potatoes = approx 5 cups

In large bowl mix shredded potatoes with eggs and minced onions.

 

Heat FoC in skillet / griddle over medium heat and take a small handful of the mixture, press together and then “drop” onto skillet / griddle. Press down gently and cook for 3-5 minutes on each side until cooked through and crispy to your desire.

(Flip!)

How you decide to serve them is up to you…We cooked up a little sausage and then topped them off with an egg!

Mmmmmm Breakfast!

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Zucchini Boat Goodness

22 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by in Meat, Paleo Recipes, recipes

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So we have to admit, we weren’t really so sure how delicious these were going to be. But they ended up far surpassing our expectations both in ease of the making and with their good GOOD taste.

The original recipe can be found here at Paleo Mama. We didn’t change a lot in our version as we have been known to do.

Paleo Stuffed Zucchini

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 medium zucchini
  • 1 lb sausage (we used a plain pork sausage and removed the casings)
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup almond flour (we made ours from almonds in the Magic Bullet)
  • 4 cloves garlic (smashed)
  • 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper

First things first – preheat your oven to 350 degrees and get out your casserole dish. We used a 9 x 12 dish and it worked perfectly for 3 whole zucchinis. Second, trim the ends off of your zucchini and cut them in half. Use a spoon to scoop out the  zucchinis guts and save them in a bowl.

Your zucchinis should look something like this:

Next remove your sausage from casings and cook over medium heat. Once the sausage is cooked through, add the zucchini guts to the sausage and simmer for 10 (ish) minutes. Then add your Italian Seasoning, Salt, Pepper.

Add your coconut milk, almond flour and lots of garlic!

        

Bring to slight boil, then simmer for a few minutes.

Pour mixture over uncooked zucchini boats.

Bake (uncovered) for 30 minutes or until zucchini is soft.

We loved this paleo recipe. So much so we’re making stuffed zucchini again this week. The ease of making this and the deliciousness makes this one of our favorite eats so far…

~Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Quinoa Sausage Soup…

12 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in recipes, Soups

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Quinoa (“Keen-wa”)

This right now is popular in our kitchen. Super Popular. If you’ve never tried this super seed, you need to stop reading this post, go to your nearest grocery store and pick up your very own delicious bag.

This little super seed is not only delicious tasting in just about anything you make (as well as a stand alone side dish or as a breakfast cereal) it’s also good for you. High in protein and nine essential amino acids, gluten free and low in calories this is a main staple in our household.

We’ve been making a lot of quinoa based foods over the last few weeks. The soup below is one of them. Trust us, there’s more to come…

Quinoa Sausage Soup

Ingredients:

  • Vegetable or Chicken Broth (about 7 cups or two boxes)
  • Assortment of Veggies (use your imagination!!!)
  • 2 cups of water
  • Your favorite sausage (cooked)
  • 1 cup uncooked quinoa (well rinsed)

Tara, being from Washington State, is quickly learning about the metric system. Oh and also learning a little French here and there since everything comes in both English and French. A quick download of a metric conversion app on her iPhone has come in real handy when trying to figure out how many cups are in 900mL (approx 3.8 cups). In a large pot bring your broth and the 2 cups of water to a boil.

When you are at a boil, add your well rinsed (uncooked) quinoa to the broth. If you’re unsure how to rinse quinoa here is a great video showing you how. Ever wonder why you need to rinse it off before using? Quinoa has a bitter tasting coating called saponins. This bitter coating deters birds and other seed eating animals from consuming, leaving plenty for the rest of us…let the broth and quinoa cook on a soft rolling boil for about 10 minutes.

Now comes the fun part!

Your soup = your veggies. Add whatever your heart desires. Think color. Think organic. Think tasty. Don’t be shy about what you add. Trust me it’s probably going to be delicious. Here’s what we came up with:

  

  

  • 1 white onion
  • 1 bunch green onion
  • 3 large carrots
  • 1 head of broccoli
  • 1 leek

Throw all those delicious vegetables into your stock pot and turn your soup down to a simmer. By now the quinoa is just about finished and the only thing left to add is your sausage. We have a local butcher just down the street from us that we tried out for the first time when making this soup. We chose a very spicy meat so that we wouldn’t have to add any other seasoning to our soupy goodness…

Your soup should be looking pretty tasty right about now. The quinoa will be fully cooked, the vegetables should be getting tender and your sausage should be adding some nice spices to the mix…

  

Simmer for another 10 or 15 minutes until your hardest vegetable (ours = carrots) are tender. Salt and pepper to taste (this is optional and we found we really didn’t need to add any additional spices because the sausage did the work for us).

So Easy. So Hearty.

We devoured this soup.

~ Now that’s good eatin folks!