CHINESE FAKE-OUT

I LOVE CHINESE FOOD! Take me to a Chinese restaurant and I am in heaven; and sadly a msg/gluten headache awaits... It happens almost instantly, a few bites and my hands are hot, swollen and beet red. Soon my neck and face follow suit. By the time I am having my last sip of green tea, probably the healthiest item of the meal, and savoring my last nibble of almond cookie, the headache moves in. Despite all of the very noticeable reactions my body was having to all of that delicious food, I kept going back... A friend and I refered to Crab Rangoon as our Chinese Crack. After a rather stressful week at work, I had to fight hard not to stop and order some take-out this past Friday. I think I passed at least 5 Chinese restaurants on the way home! I made it to the drive-way and let out a sigh of relief! I had made it home! But I still had an insatiable craving for Chinese, like REAL Chinese... Stir-Fry wasn't gonna cut it... If I HAD stopped for take-out I would have attempted to order something I considered a "safer" choice, like Moo-shoo pork or Egg Foo Young... Hmm... Egg Foo Young... That cant be too hard! Chinese omelet covered in delicious gravy goodness! And so I set to work. 

Egg Foo Young

Patties:

• 1/2 green cabbage thinly sliced
• 1/2 small onion sliced
• 1/2 red bell and 1/2 green bell pepper sliced
• 6 stalks of asparagus chopped into bite size pieces
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 3 large eggs
• 8oz of your choice of protein, I used a Ny Strip steak, its what I had on hand
• 1 tbs grated ginger
•  3tbs sesame oil
• 1/4 c coconut oil
• 1/8 c fish sauce
• 2 cloves garlic smashed and chopped
• black pepper
• 2 tbs liquid aminos or soy sauce to taste... liquid aminos is soy free and ultra low carb tastes just like soy sauce!

Gravy:

Pan "drippings"

1 c beef broth

1-2 tsp of xanthan gum, depending in amount of liquid you have, start with one tsp and add to desired consistency

black pepper to taste... I LOVE FRESH GROUND PEPPER!

Directions:

1. Prep all veggies and dice protein
2. Heat the 1/2 of the coconut oil and the sesame oil in a large frying pan or wok
3. Add steak, 1 clove of garlic and black pepper to taste and cook to a med rare, approx 2 mins for very thinly sliced beef. Remove beef and set aside
4. Add cabbage and onions and saute for about 3-5 mins COVERED you want to slightly steam, not only to make the cabbage more tender but to release some juices for the gravy
5. Add remaining veggies, spices and sauces. Cook until veggies are very tender.
6. Remove veggies, straining off any liquid. Do so by actually squeezing out any moisture you can into a small sauce pan. You want as much liquid and drippings as you can get. This is for flavor, but also you don't want too much moisture in your patties. Add reserved beef to the veggies, let cool slightly.
7. Scramble the eggs and mix into cooled veggie/beef mixture.
8. Heat a non-stick frying pan and coat with coconut oil
9. Laddle heaping spoonfuls of the veggie/beef mixture in pan
10. Let cook about 5mins a side or until the egg is cooked through and the patties are brown.
11. For the gravy, heat the pan drippings you collected from the veggies and 1 cup of beef broth in a small sauce pan. Once boiling turn heat to low and wisk in Xanthan gum powder to desired thickness. Easy does it with Xanthan gum, this stuff thickens very quickly! Serve on top of patties! 

This made 6 large patties. I ate 3 for dinner and the next morning I reheated the others in frying pan and topped with 2 over easy eggs... Sooo good!!!!

CHILI ENVY & Game Day, Smokey Bacon and Chipotle Pepper Chili

Well,today many a folk are crowding around their televisions, joining in camaraderie at their local watering whole, or tailgating while the playoffs kick off. I however, am finding solace in the place I love most, my kitchen! Total shocker for everyone! While I may not be the biggest sports fan, I often find myself on game days craving "game day" fare... Such as chips and salsa, pizza, here in Wisconsin we pride ourselves on our brats...Today its Chili... For me there has always been something synonymous with football and chili... I can remember my Ma making a big pot of chili and cornbread on games days for my Step Dad. It was always traditional chili, with beans and ground beef, onions and green peppers... smothered in cheese and sour cream right before eating! YUMMY! However these days I am no longer enjoying the creamy, gooey goodness of cheese and dairy in general, nor I am eating beans... This greatly impacts how I have ALWAYS viewed what a great chili was. I knew that if I was going to make a chili I wanted it to be a Great Cousin of the one I used to eat, anything tooo similar would just give me CHILI ENVY! Sooo... I thought about what I COULD put in a chili... I could still have all the backbones of a normal chili, beef, onions, peppers and tomatoes... but if that was all I was working with I needed those flavors to POP like crazy! The secrete to that unique flavor profile that was going to cure all Chili Envy??? Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Peppers... and well BACON of course! Since when doesn't a little bacon make EVERYTHING better? This recipe calls for the use of SMOKED Paprika and specifically San Marzano tomatoes and Chipotle in Adobo. It wasn't until recently that I became a true believer in the use of San Marzanos... but they really really are THAT good! They're a much less acidic than normal tomatoes and the flesh is somewhat sweeter and meatier. The smoked paprika and the chipotle are essential for the flavor of this chili. They are both made in a similar process by smoking the peppers... the chipotle peppers are smoked and then submerged in a smokey tomato sauce. The paprika is ground smoked peppers, usually red bells. Together they make chili magic! Hope you enjoy!

GAME DAY, SMOKEY BACON AND CHIPOTLE PEPPER CHILI

INGREDIENTS:

2 LBS 80/20 GROUND BEEF

1/2 LB SMOKED BACON DICED

1 SMALL OR 1/2 LARGE WHITE ONION DICED

1 GREEN PEPPER DICED

1 RED PEPPER DICED

1 JALAPENO PEPPER, SEEDED AND DICED

1 CAN FIRE ROASTED TOMATOES

1 28.5 OZ CAN SAN MARZANO WHOLE PEELED TOMATOES

8OZ BEEF BROTH

3 CHIPOTLE PEPPERS IN ADOBO SAUCE

1 1/2 HEAPING TBS OF SMOKED PAPRIKA

8 TBS CHILI POWDER

3 TBS CUMIN

1 TBS GARLIC POWDER

SALT TO TASTE

OPTIONAL: ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large dutch oven, render off diced bacon until bacon is nice and crispy. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon.
2. In a separate pan brown off ground beef and strain off excess fat.
3. Add diced peppers and onions to the bacon drippings, liberally salt and let sweat down for about 5 mins.
4. Add all dried spices to the onions and peppers. Let the spices bloom in the hot oil. This will make them more potent and fragrant.
5. Add ground beef
6. While meat and veggies cook and spices bloom, add the San Marzanos to a blender and lightly pulse to create a semi chunky sauce.
7. Add 1/2 of the San Marzano sauce to the meat veggie mixture along with the fire roasted tomatoes, beef broth and the diced chipotle in adobo peppers.
8. Stir and cover for at least 1 hour... the longer the better!
9. While the chili simmers away, dice the butternut squash and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 375 oven turning once for about 45min-1 hour
10. Serve Chili topped with reserved crispy bacon and roasted squash, feel the pangs of chili envy wisp away! 

Resolutions

Well, here we are again... The beginning of a New Year! With every New Year there is a feeling of HOPE and OPTIMISM! Mistakes from last year are forgiven and null void, the slate is wiped clean! You have a brand new year to fulfill your wishes, desires, goals and aspirations. This year we were fortunate enough to have celebrated New Years on a New Moon... In astrology the New Moon represents a time of recharging and an optimal time to set new goals. So in my opinion, this New Year is filled with a double whammy promise for those looking to make and keep New Years Resolutions. Feeling the good vibes of the New Year, I too have set some goals for myself. One, to get back on track with focusing on my health.To do so I am working toward following a true paleo diet, meaning no grains, dairy, processed foods, bad vegetable oils, legumes, or artificial sweetener! However I am taking baby steps this time, versus eliminating it all one one painful shebang! This month and possibly the next I will be working on grain free and sugar free. Yes, I will be using artificial sweeteners but those will go soon too... This phase will look very much like a traditional low carb diet, heck, it really is... I want to focus on this phase until I have really kicked my gluten addition in the butt! Also while losing some unwanted weight. The second part of my resolution is to start writing this blog again... maybe I will be the only one who reads this, maybe I wont ever join the ranks of my favorite bloggers... BUT I do believe it will help me keep on track and give me a sense of accountability for my food choices. Today's recipe was driven by the desire for a new breakfast option. I am a huge fan of bacon or sausage and eggs for breakfast... I eat this almost every morning. Looking for a new way to keep old faithful exciting I decided to give Scotch Eggs a whirl. I have seen these in many different blogs, tv shows, cook books... some low carb, others not. This is my interpretation and it is mighty good if I do say so myself! 


SCOTCH EGGS

INGREDIANTS

1 lb of bulk breakfast sausage
5 eggs
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbs coconut flour

DIRECTIONS 
preheat over to 350*

1. Bring a large saucepan full of water to a rolling boil.
2. Add 4 eggs and cook for appx 4.5 - 5 mins
3. Submerge eggs into cold water or ice bath and let cool
4. VERY GENTALLY peel the eggs! The whites are just set and the yolks will be runny inside... 
5. In a mixing bowl combine breakfast sausage, cheese, remaining raw egg, and coconut flour. Mix well. 
6. Form a patty with the sausage mixture in the palm of your hand. 
7. Place egg in middle of the patty and form the sausage around the egg, adding a little more of the mixture to the top to enclose the egg completey.
8. Place sausage balls in a non-stick oven proof skillet or baking pan and bake for 17-20 mins or until the sausage is browned and fully cooked.

The recipe is delicious as is! However for variation consider adding some chopped green onion to the sausage mixture, or finly diced and lightly sauteed mushrooms and onions, or for a kick some diced green chilies! I think the green chilis will be on my next go around! Hope you enjoy!