Sausage with Spaghetti Squash

I have to admit, I’ve developed an aversion to chicken.  I NEEDED something different tonight.  A few weeks ago I purchased some Open Nature Nitrate-free Chicken Sausage and tucked them away in the freezer.  I threw this recipe together tonight:

2 pkgs of Open Nature Chicken Sausage

3 Tablespoons of Coconut oil

1 sliced onion

1/4 cup dehydrated peppers (soaked in warm water for about an hour or so.)

2 Tablespoons sliced dehydrated radishes (soaked in warm water for about an hour or so.)

1 head of broccoli chopped

1/4 head of cabbage chopped

1 spaghetti squash – cooked

Melt the coconut oil in a large frying pan, lay sausage in pan and cook until hot.  Add sliced onions, peppers and radishes.  Cook until onions are translucent.  Add 1-2 cups of water with broccoli and cabbage.  Cover.  Cook until the broccoli is tender.  Remove cover and cut up sausages.  Stir in spaghetti squash and toss.  Cook a few more moments to blend everything.  Remove from heat and serve.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I also added a little bit of fresh butter once it was on the plate for a little creaminess.

I served this with pickled garlic and home canned pickled asparagus.

 

 

 

 

 

Bean and Bacon Soup – GAPS LEGAL!

I’ve got tonights dinner in the process as we speak.  We had a rare treat of Bacon this morning.  I’m having a hard finding nitrate free bacon without sugar at a good price.  Feeding 10 people can create some economical and logistical issues.  So I cooked up all the bacon this morning and will use it through out the week in meals as well.   Here is a super easy recipe:

Bean and Bacon Soup

3 cups homemade chicken, beef, or lamb broth

2 cups water

8 strips of leftover bacon, crumbled into small pieces

6 cups of cooked navy beans 

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 Tablespoons minced dehydrated onions

1/2 cup of chopped dehydrated carrots 

Sea salt and pepper 

Mix everything together and let it simmer for a few hours or you could cook on low for 4 hours in your crockpot.

I’ll post pictures later!

Crockpot Beef Stew – GAPS Legal

Here is one of my favorite recipes that I have converted to a GAPS legal recipe.  It takes very little prep and uses a lot of dehydrated goodies!

Stew (old pic with potato..GAPS people..ignore those!)

 

• 1 full cup of dehydrated cabbage
• 1 cup dehydrated carrots
• 1/2 cup dehydrated celery
• 1 -2 lb stewing beef
• 1 cup almond flour (aprox)
• 2 -3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/8 cup dehydrated minced onions
• 3 cup water
• 1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes or homemade V8 vegetable juice (i’ve also just used pureed canned tomatoes)
• 1 bay leaf (dehydrated)
• 1/2 Tablespoon Oregano
• Salt and Pepper to taste (once it is cooked)

• Place oil in pan to heat, while dredging beef in flour.
• Lightly brown the beef on all sides.
• Place all ingredients in crock pot.
• Cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or on low if you will be gone 8-9 hours.

Don’t be afraid to experiment!  Any veggie could be throw in…broccoli, spinach, greens, cauliflower…just to name a few.

Amazon sale on Excalibur Dehydrators

Right now Amazon offering some great prices on the Excalibur Dehydrators.  Some are more than 60% off with free shipping!

If I could right now, I would purchase a second one.  These units are top notch quality.

Here is the link to check them out:

Amazon: Excalibur Dehydrator

More on Dehydrating

It’s Tuesday, one of the favorite days in my week.  Yes, it’s true.  The highlight of my week is my CSA box! 

My son picked it up for me tonight and, as always, it was filled with goodies.  I’ll dehydrate a good portion of it this week. 

The bunch of radishes are already dehydrating.  I put the kale, carrots and peppers in last night.  The Kale was done this morning so I pulled that and replaced it with the radishes.

Radishes Drying

 

Since I put my baby carrots in whole last night, I think it’s probably going to take a bit of time to complete the drying process.  The peppers should be done tonight.  I’ve already used up some of the kale I dried two days ago in the turkey soup we had tonight.  YUM!

 

 

Dehydrating

I’m a huge fan of my dehydrator.  I have an Excalibur Dehydrator – 9 shelf unit.  Before purchasing my Excalibur, I wasn’t so much of a fan.  My food came out “ok” at best.  This one is a dream.  So far everything has turned out perfectly.   In fact, I’m thinking about getting a second unit.  Dehydrated foods take up so much less space!  I do have a food saver but I have to say, I prefer to store in canning jars.  They look so pretty and at times the items can be a little sharp and puncture the bags. 

Tonight I am dehydrating Kale.  Tomorrow I will switch it out with Swiss Chard and beet greens. I will grind these in to green powder and add them to foods for more nutrition.   Then I have some peppers and onions that need attention.  After that I am hoping more strawberries and some blueberries.

I found a wonderful YouTube video that was very helpful to me when I began dehydrating:

How to Dehydrate

There are several parts and they are all so helpful.  If I have time this week I will upload a few videos of my own.

Peppery Dijon Parsley Rubbed Tri-Tip/Ginger Bok Choy & Broccoli

I totally spaced dinner for tonight.  I think both of these recipes are GAPS legal.  I am blessed to have a General Store that carries Natural Beef.  I found a nice Tri-tip roast.

I used this rub:

1/4 cup chopped parsley

2 Tbsp Dijon Style Mustard

1 Tablespoon pepper

2 tsp of minced garlic

1 tsp salt

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl.   Place the roast on a baking pan ..rub it on!  I baked mine at 350 for about an hour and a half.  I think it would just depend on the size of the roast.  This made the meat so tender and formed a nice crunchy crust on the top.

To serve with the Tri-tip I was inspired by a recipe that was in my CSA box this week.

Ginger Bok Choy & Broccoli

1 lb bok choy

1 lb broccoli

2 T Olive Oil

1 T minced garlic

1 T grated peeled fresh ginger

2 T Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

2 tsp sea salt

Slice the bok choy white stocks into stems into 1″ pieces.  Coarsely chop the green leaves.  Chop the broccoli in to bite sized pieces.

In a large skillet, boil 1/2 cup water.  Add the bok choy and broccoli; cover.  Simmer over med-low heat until broccoli is bright green about 7 minutes.  Uncover, add the grated ginger and garlic, stirring well. Cook on high heat until the water evaporates about 3 or 4 minutes.  Add oil.  Cook another 2 minutes.  Stir in Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.

Along with these two recipes we also had a nice green salad out of our CSA weekly box from Acadian Farms.

Here is a nice Balsamic Vinaigrette Recipe:

1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar (okay..not gaps legal..unless you can find sugar free.  Mine did not have sugar added but did have 6 Grams of carbs)

2 tsp mustard

1 T minced garlic

1 tsp dehydrated onions

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 to 1 T raw honey (to taste)

3/4 cup olive oil

I pour all of this in a nice quart canning jar, put a lid on it and shake.  Done.  I usually make enough to last us the week.

Veggie Frittata

This is a super easy meal to make that the kid just love.  It’s a little like breakfast for dinner.

Melt some coconut oil in a pan, add 1 chopped onion, 5 small chopped sweet peppers and a tsp of garlic.  Cook this up until the onions are translucent.  Add some purple cabbages, shredded and some spinach – cook it down a bit.  While that is cooking mix up 12 eggs, 1/8 cup milk, 1/4 cup fresh parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.  Now pour the egg mixture over the veggies, let it cook for a minute or two.  Now take your pan and put it under the broiler until it’s brown and puffy.    That’s all there is to this recipe. 

GAPS Legal Chicken Cacciatore

Well I didn’t find an amazing deal yesterday on anything we cvoulf throw on the BBQ today.  Idid find 3 whole free range chickens at 50% off though.  So for dinner we are having Chicken Cacciatore.

I boiled two of the chickens this morning until they fell apart.

Then I picked ther meat off the bones and removed the skin.  I put those all back in the stock pot with the juice.  I will continue to cook this down and make some nice broth.

Here is the Chicken Cacciatore recipe:

1 small walla walla onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups of water

4 small sweet peppers, chopped

1 small can of tomato paste or 1 cup of puree

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

4 cups shredded chicken

salt and pepper to taste

I put a small scoop of coconut oil in a frying pan and added the onions and peppers up until they were slightly tender.  I then added in the tomato paste, oregano and garlic…stir well.  Then I added the water and mixed it up well.  Now add the shredded chicken and mix up until blended.  Add Salt and pepper.  Continue to heat until the sauce thickens.

I am serving this over smashed Cauliflower.  This is very easy.  I just steam two heads of Cauliflower until nice and tender.  Remove from heat and smash with a potato smasher.  I then add some butter (or ghee) and salt and pepper until nice and creamy.  That’s it.

I think we’ll also break open another jar of my pickled asparagus I canned a few weeks ago. 

And for dessert…..Watermelon of course!

Gaps Legal Meatloaf

Safeway had some of their Open Nature Hamburger at 50% off today.  YUM!  So meatloaf it is!

1 lb. hamburger (grain fed – no antibiotics, etc..)

1 chopped onion (walla walla are in!)

1/4 cup chopped mushrooms

2 small peppers chopped (I can’t remember what you call these but I picked them up for around $4 for a bag of them – all different pretty colors)

2 eggs

1/4 cup of tomato puree or tomato paste

2 tsp salt

3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

About 1/2 cup Almond Flour – I just add this to a nice consistency.

Mix everything together and put it in a loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes – mind you my oven is very, very old..and I don’t think it cooks quite right. 

With this I am serving some steamed cabbage with ghee and some dill pickles.  I’ll post pics later.