Portobello Mushroom Pizza

I hesitate to even call this a recipe.  It is that easy.  And in my house, even easier since the man mans the grill!

Ingredients

4 large portobello mushroom caps
1 tomato, thinly sliced
grated Parmesan cheese or any cheese you like

Remove stems from mushroom caps, clean and then brush with olive oil
Grill until soft, turning a few times
Have the mushrooms on the grill stem side up, add the tomato slices, 1 or 2 each and then put the cheese on top of that.  Close the grill lid so the cheese melts
Serve and enjoy!

I made this Keto Bread to go with it, it's made with almond flour.  I follow the recipe as is, except I use about 2 tablespoons coconut oil instead of butter.  Also, oven temperature in Fahrenheit is 400.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

I cooked the most amazing chicken today.  The recipe comes from The Kitchn (no, that's not misspelled).  I don't have a slow cooker/crock pot so I cooked it in my dutch oven on the stove.  It is so good!  Try it.

Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin pancakes, perfect fall food to match our fall weather.  Okay, there is no matching our fall weather because we don't have fall weather.  That's  not entirely accurate, we have fall weather, for Florida.  Which means you can walk around in jeans and be comfortable.  And, there is far less humidity, which means your hair looks good even if you don't pull it back.
Oh, wait, you clicked on this to find a recipe right.  Okay.

Pancake Ingredients
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon coconut flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
dash allspice

Blend together, grease a pan, drop batter, a heaping tablespoon at a time; flip when dry on the edges; cook until browned.  Serve warm

Now you can put whatever you like as syrup or topping, but I made my own.

1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin, cinnamon, dash vanilla

melt, butter, add glycerin, remove for heat and add cinnamon and vanilla, pour over pancakes

Weekly Paleo Meals

Breakfasts:

Melon, banana bread and almond butter

eggs and paleo bread

hard boiled eggs and fruit

Lunch:  we eat almost the same thing every day:  green salad with lean meat either turkey breast, leftover chicken, tune, whatever we have.  For veggies, sometimes add celery, tomatoes, avocado 

Dinners:

Baked Boneless pork chops and roasted butternut squash

Chicken Stew

Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce

Shrimp, Fish, Broccoli and Cauliflower in Coconut Milk

I also made Tomato soup, Paleo bread and Paleo Banana bread.

So the Paleo bread was good, but mine does not look like the picture and it did fall apart a bit.  I wanted to eat bread with my sunny side up eggs because you need bread to soak up the yolk.  It did the job!

The banana bread is very moist and keeps well in the refrigerator.  I used only three bananas and think it was better than when I used four.  My friend asked what I used for sweetener and was  surprised when I said "Nothing."

Chicken Stew

5 or 6 boneless skinless thighs

2 or 3 zucchini

2 or 3 yellow squash 

1 onion

2 or 3 garlic cloves, to taste

2 tomatoes

Cut zucchini and squash into same size pieces, dice onion and mince garlic

heat pot and add small amount of olive oil, when heated add onions and garlic.  Cook until soft, add chicken to brown in each side, toss in zucchini and squash, add salt and pepper, cover and simmer, stir every 5 minutes or so, until chicken is cooked through.  Chop tomatoes and add, cook uncovered 5 more minutes.  

Use the type of pot you'd use to make a pot roast in.

Pork and Cabbage

Easy prep and tasty dinner idea.

1 head of cabbage, thinly sliced

4 boneless pork chops (the ones I used were think cut, maybe an inch thick)

4 cloves garlic

olive oil

sesame oil (optional)

Braggs amino acids

salt, pepper, ginger

Oven 350; 13 x 9 baking pan (approx)

Put olive oil in bottom of baking pan, add cabbage and peeled garlic

place pork chops on cabbage

drizzle some sesame oil and Braggs, then salt, pepper and ginger (fresh grated ginger would be great, but I only had dried)

Cover with foil and bake for about an hour.

According to the house rating system, I can make it again.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
3 small yellow squash or 1 zucchini or cup of broccoli florets (optional, use what you have on hand)
2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, mozzarella)  I used monterey jack
salt, pepper, cumin
4 peppers, sliced in half and seeded
grated Parmesan cheese

Cook quinoa:  rinse first, add to a pot with water; bring to a boil, cover and simmer until all the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes

While that is cooking, dice onion, mince garlic and cook in a pan with some olive oil; add optional veggies and cook until soft but not mushy.

Mix veggies with quinoa; add cheese and spices (you can add different spices according to your taste)

Place cut peppers in lightly greased baking dish; fill with quinoa mixture and top with grated parmesan cheese

Bake in 350 oven until peppers are tender.  About 20 minutes unless you like the peppers softer, then bake them longer.

FYI:  I actually made 2 peppers worth, used half the mixture with 1 cup of cheese and had quinoa as a salad for lunch.

Tired of Turkey?

Shrimp, Broccoli and Garlic Bake

The idea for this dish came from Normal Cooking, I added the broccoli

1 lb raw shrimp, peeled
1 head broccoli florets
6 cloves garlic (more or less to taste) (minced or through a garlic press)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup panko breadcrumbs (or a bit more, so that there is no butter left in the bowl)
4  tablespoons white wine
salt/pepper

1.  cook broccoli
2. Preheat oven to 425
3.  mix together shrimp, broccoli, wine, salt, pepper, garlic
4.  put into baking dish (I used a glass pyrex, 9x11 size)
5.  mix together melted butter and panko bread crumbs ( iused the same bowl so as not to waste any garlic)
6.  cover shrimp and broccoli with bread crumbs
7.  bake for about 15-20 minutes, until shrimp are pink and cooked through

Note:  I should have used less butter or combo of olive oil and butter. I re-heated this for lunch in the microwave at work and the breadcrumbs were not crisp:(  but it still tasted great!

The Best Pumpkin Muffins

1 can pumpkin (usually 15 ounces, but 1 lb is okay too)
2/3 cup water 
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce 
1/4 cup oil (or 1 cup oil and no applesauce or 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 oil) 
4 eggs 
2 cups sugar 
Mix together the above, be sure to use a very large bowl, since you will add the dry to the wet. But not until you combine the dry. Okay. 
3 1/2 cups flour 
2 teaspoons baking soda 
2 teaspoons salt 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1 teaspoon nutmeg 
1 teaspoon all spice 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon cloves 
Mix together above 
Then combine with wet ingredients until well blended 
I also add 1 cup mini chocolate chips to half the batter. 
Spoon into lined muffin tins or mini muffin tins, or greased loaf pans of any size and bake at 375 for 12 to 15 minutes for muffins, 10 to 12 minutes for mini muffins, maybe an hour or so for loaf pans if they are regular size and 25 to 30 minutes for small loaf pans. Basically watch them so they don't burn but a toothpick is clean when you test them! 

Eggplant Tomato Bake

I failed to take a picture, but stay with me for this taste sensation.

1 eggplant, peeled, sliced and lightly pan fried
2 or 3 tomatoes, depending on the size, sliced
4 thin slices red onion, separated into rings
pesto
Parmesan cheese, grated

8" square baking dish

Layer as follows:  eggplant, red onion, tomatoes, pesto, cheese; repeat.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Let cool slightly and serve. serves 2 with enough left for lunch for 1.

Zucchini Pancakes

If you have an overabundance of zucchini from your garden or a neighbor's, make these.  If you have to buy the zucchini from the store, make these.

4 zucchini, shredded (I use a food processor)

a small onion, shredded

2 - 3 cloves garlic, into the food processor

grated Parmesan cheese, about 1/2 cup

4 eggs, beaten

1/4 or more flour

pepper

Mix together all ingredients except flour in a large bowl

Add flour, which helps soak up some of the liquid made by the zucchini.  (you may need to add more as the batter sits, but it should be fairly loose, not the sort of batter you need to scrape off the spoon, but it just drops off.

Heat a large nonstick pan, use Pam or a tiny bit of olive oil in the pan to coat.

When hot, drop batter by large spoonfuls into the pan.  Cook until brown and then flip, cook again.  Try not to eat them as you remove them from the pan.  Serve hot or at room temperature. Makes about 2 dozen.  If you want less, use less zucchini and eggs.  I find 1 egg per1 zucchini usually works.

Cooking

I have some new recipes in my repertoire.

Shrimp and Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash,
2 dozen medium shrimp, cleaned, peeled, etc..
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 tomato, coarsely chopped

Cook the squash.  I usually cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, place it, skin side up, in a lidded saucepan with an inch of water, and boil it for about 20 minutes.  Remove from pan and let cool.  Meanwhile, saute onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil until soft and lightly browned.  While it is cooking, use a fork to remove the spaghetti squash from the shell.  Cook shrimp and then add the tomato.  Add squash and mix until combined.  Add salt, pepper, parsley.
Note:   I also added about 1/4 cup white wine with the shrimp, but it's optional.

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

1/2 lb ground meat (use beef, lamb, veal, turkey.  I used veal as it was on sale)
4 mushrooms, stems removed
1 small onion diced
2 cloves garlic,  minced
3 cups fresh spinach
1/2 cup tomato sauce
fresh grated parmesan cheese

Cook spinach,squeeze dry  ( wait until it cools though) and then chop it.
Brown meat and add onions and garlic and chopped stems.  Meanwhile, (have your husband) grill the mushrooms.  When the meat mixture is cooked through, add the spinach and tomato sauce.  Place mushroom caps in a pan, cover with meat mixture and cheese.  Broil until heated through and cheese is melted.  I added more cheese before serving.

Sausage, soup and eggplant recipes

This past weekend I was barely productive.  I did however, manage to cook a few things, which I will share with you, in case you are hungry.
1.  Sausage and Sweet Potatoes:  cube the sweet potatoes, cut sausage into 2 in pieces, put in a roasting pan and cook at 350 for about 50 minutes.
2.  Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup, which is here.  We added cheese tortellini to it for a change.
3.  Stuffed Eggplant:  A bit involved, but worth it.(serves two)
1 large eggplant
1 lb ground beef
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
tomato sauce
Parmesan cheese
Slice eggplant in 1/2 lengthwise, salt it and bake in the oven about 30 minutes or so (do this while the sausage and potatoes are cooking) until soft.  Let cool.  Dice onions and garlic, brown and then add ground beef.
When the eggplant is cool, take out the flesh, leaving some around the skin.  Scrape off the seeds and then cut up the eggplant,  Drain beef when cooked, return to pan, add eggplant and then tomato sauce, enough to make it moist and sort of hold together, but not soupy.  Put this back into the eggplant skins, sprinkle with cheese and bake until heated through.
You will probably have more filling than can fit in the eggplant skins.  I plan on serving it with brown rice at another meal.

It was good, I cooked for about an hour and a half and got 4 meals.

Dessert

Banana "ice cream"

Dessert is usually something yummy but often full of stuff I should not eat, like sugar, fat, and flour.  So when I saw this on Pinterest I was intrigued!
Last night, I made some and it was delicious.  Try it, go ahead, you will thank me later.

Peeling Peaches

Peaches, ripe and juicy, are a joy of summer.  The last few summers have been disappointing, peach wise.  But yesterday I found myself staring at  peaches begging to be made into cobbler.  So, I choose five and began to peel them by first putting them in boiling water, then waiting for them to cool before I separated the skin from the flesh of each peach.  My knife pierced the skin and I cleanly lifted it off each peach, except one.  Why?  Because it was still a bit unripe and so it was more difficult to peel. 
I started to think that was similar to people and peeling back our protective skin on our soul.  If we try to make changes in our life before we are ready, it is difficult and you may take away flesh along with skin.  This can cause pain, bleeding, and leave a scar. 
That is why when we need to make changes in our lives, we need to be ripe for the change.  And how does that happen?  I think God prepares us through prayer, confession, Eucharist, service and other people.  Once we are prepared, and God has led us to the next place, the peeling off of the skin is easy.  We separate from whatever we were holding onto and move closer to God's will and His plan for our lives. What we become is always better than before, just like the peaches taste even better as cobbler.
I'll leave you with the peach cobbler recipe.
Peaches, peeled and sliced, enough to fit in a 2 qt baking dish (I use a round pyrex bowl)
1 stick butter,
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
ginger and cinnamon

Put peaches in baking dish, toss with ginger and cinnamon
Melt butter, add sugar, oatmeal, flour and spices
cover peaches with topping
bake at 350 for 35 minutes

Whipped cream or ice cream are optional, personally, the cobbler was perfect warm out of the oven with nothing else added.

Now, I have no recipe for improving your soul, but I will say to be persistent, gentle and wait on God - he'll give you your perfect recipe!