Happy Easter!

Yeah, I'm a day late, but I hope you all had a fantastic Easter.. if you celebrate it. If you don't, you can at least enjoy all of the candy that's now on sale. Except if you're hard-core Paleo that is. In which case, go buy yourself a high-quality dark chocolate, like this bar of 75% Cacao Fearless Chocolate that I found on sale at Whole Foods. The two (yes, only two) ingredients in this bar of chocolate are organic cacao and organic cane sugar. Sure, we try to stay away from added sugar, but if you're going to have a bar of chocolate, aim for the stuff with the least amount of sugar, and go for organic. They also have a 85% cacao bar.

Anyways, in honor of Easter, I decided to cook myself a yummy breakfast. Because what's Sunday morning without brunch?

Veal Chorizo and Artichoke Scrambled Eggs

1/4 lb chorizo-flavored ground veal (Click here to find a chorizo seasoning recipe)

1/4 cup artichoke hearts, chopped (you can use frozen or marinated artichokes)

1/4 cup frozen cut leaf spinach, thawed

2 eggs, whisked

1. Heat a pan over medium heat. Break the ground veal into small bites and add to the pan. Heat until thoroughly cooked.

2. Toss in the artichokes and spinach, then add the eggs. Cook for a few minutes until the eggs are done.

Serve with a side of sweet potato hash browns and a small glass of blueberry kombucha. Happy Easter!

And in exciting news for today, I convinced myself to do the Chest and Back P90X workout today after work. I also have finally managed a headstand. I got myself up and held it for 20 seconds without using the wall for support. Huzzah! I'm super excited about it! I never knew I had a goal to do that, but after practicing inversions with my Krav Maga yoga class, that goal just developed. And today was a good start on my way to doing a handstand. I feel productive. And enthused. But now, I'm going to go to bed and get my eight hours of sleep. Sweet dreams, y'all!

Chorizo Sausage Frittata

The thing about my parents' house is that they have an incredibly well-stocked fridge and pantry. And I mean incredibly... to the point that every time we went grocery shopping, we had to spend a little while rearranging the fridge to fit everything in. And why are they so well-stocked? Sam's Club. My mom likes to buy in bulk. It's both good and bad. On the one hand, you get food for a cheaper price per item/unit of measurement; on the other, you get more than you can eat at any given time. So when we chopped up three bell peppers, we used some for our Christmas Eve salad, and then placed the rest into Tupperware. This turned out to be very handy for us because when breakfast rolled around, all I had to do to make a frittata was to toss all of the pre-chopped veggies into the pan to cook and then transfer to a baking dish and add scrambled eggs. For our morning after Christmas breakfast, we did just that and tossed in some chorizo pork sausage that I bought from Whole Foods. So here's a total list of what went into breakfast:

Chorizo Sausage Frittata

2 links chorizo sausage

8 eggs, whisked

1/3 red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, chopped

1 1/2 cup broccoli florets, chopped

1/2 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped kale

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the kale, toss, and cover with lid. Cook for 5 minutes until kale becomes a darker green. Add carrots and broccoli and cook covered for another 5 minutes. Remove lid and set aside. Add in the mushrooms and peppers and cook for 3 minutes. Transfer veggies to an oiled baking dish.

While the veggies are cooking, cook your chorizo in a separate pan. Start by cooking the full links on each side over medium heat until browned, about a minute per side. Then remove from the pan and slice into pieces. Return to pan and cook for about 2 minutes per side. 

Mix chorizo sausage with the veggies and pour the whisked eggs over the top of the meat and veggies. Transfer to the oven and cook for 25 minutes or until the eggs are firm. Remove from oven and slice into 8 pieces.

Here's the resulting frittata served with leftover potato sausage and a handful of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

After eating breakfast, my parents and I finished up this cute puzzle:

And just to finish off, I want to give everyone a warning about bread in the microwave.

NEVER EVER PUT BREAD IN THE 

MICROWAVE FOR THREE MINUTES!!! 

One of my co-workers did that today with a hot dog bun and OMG does the it smell terrible! The burnt smell has permeated half of the floor so far and someone called our safety manager to report a fire. Yikes.

Breakfast Bites

Breakfast Bites - Veggie Base

1 dozen eggs

1 red pepper, chopped

1 white onion, chopped

5 mushrooms, chopped

2 large garlic cloves, sliced

1 head cauliflower

1 head broccoli

salt and pepper

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Start by roasting your cauliflower and broccoli. Use 1 Tbls olive oil with a little bit of salt and pepper for a flavor base. Wrap with the aluminum foil, and cook in the over on 425°F for 25 minutes. It doesn't matter if you don't roast it enough for your usual liking, because it will cook further later.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil over medium-low heat (4 out of 9). Once you think it's ready, wet your fingertips and splash a little bit of water onto the pan. If it immediately sizzles, you're ready to add your onions. Cook the onions until they start to become translucent. Then add your sliced garlic. After cooking the onion and garlic for another 10 minutes, add your red peppers. Cook for ~5 minutes.

In a separate pan, heat 1/2 Tbls olive oil and 1 1/2 tsp bacon fat over medium-low heat (3 out of 9). Once ready, add your sliced mushrooms. The trick to cooking mushrooms properly is don't overcrowd. Cook until they've started to brown and have reduced in size.

While these veggies are cooking on the stove, whisk your dozen eggs. After all of your veggies are done cooking, stir in the broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, red peppers, and mushrooms. At this point you're ready to make veggie muffins.

Veggie Egg Muffins
Veggie base (see above)
1 muffin tin
Muffin tin liners

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Pour roughly 1/4 cup of the mixture into each muffin liner. Bake for 25 minutes or until the egg is fully cooked and solid.

Chorizo Egg Muffins
Veggie Egg Muffin base (see above)
1-2 chorizo sausage links, casing removed

Take your chorizo sausage links and make a slice length-wise down the link. Pull the link open and turn inside out, removing the meat from the sausage casing. Break the meat into pieces and mix into the egg muffin mix. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour 1/4 cup of the mixture into each muffin liner. Bake for 25 minutes or until the egg is fully cooked and solid. The "muffin" won't rise, so feel free to fill the muffin tin.

Salmon Frittata
Veggie Egg Muffin base (see above)
~ 1.5 cups of Lemon-Rosemary Salmon, shredded

Mix salmon into the veggie and egg mixture. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a round 8" pan with coconut oil. Pour the egg-salmon-veggie mixture into the pan. Cook for 30-35 minutes or until eggs in the center are cooked through and are solid.

And now you know what I've eaten for the week. Yum!

Chorizo Turkey Omelet

I used about 2 Tbls of the chorizo ground turkey from yesterday's recipe along with two heaping handfuls of spinach and two eggs to make a breakfast omelet. Step 1) Brown the turkey. Step 2) Add/wilt the spinach (I set my stove at "3," a.k.a. medium-low). Step 3) Add whisked eggs. Step 4) Fold in half. Step 5) Eat.

My afternoon snack was cucumber and tomato with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, seasoned with some oregano, basil, and thyme. Yummy and healthy.

I am again amazed by the food that I've been eating with the Paleo diet. Prior to starting this diet, my breakfast typically consisted of instant oatmeal at my desk at work. Don't get me wrong, my high fiber maple brown sugar oatmeal was tasty, but not very filling. Now I eat things like omelets or leftover stuffed peppers for breakfast, which contains protein and vegetables to keep me full. Good choice? I think so!

In other exciting news, KM informed me this morning that she tried out my Jamaican Jerk Beef recipe from back in early March. And in her words, "It turned out really well." Woo hoo! Someone is actually using my recipes! You may not find this as exciting as I do (I don't understand why not), but trust me, it is. I get a sense of joy and pride that y'all actually read my blog and look at all of my pretty pictures. Thank you!

Chorizo Turkey Stuffed Peppers

Chorizo Turkey Stuffed Peppers

I found the recipe below for Chorizo Poppers on The Food Lovers Kitchen. Instead of using 1 lb of mini bell peppers, I used 3 large bell peppers. I also added some garlic salt.

Ingredients


The night before:
1 lb Ground Turkey
1 Tbsp Paprika
1 tsp Black Pepper
2 Tbsp Chili Powder
1/2 Tbsp Cumin
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 Tbsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

For when you're actually making the meal:
4 large Bell Pepper, tops removed, and seeded (I went with one red, one yellow, and one orange and had just over 1 cup of meat leftover)
1 cup Tomato, diced
1/2 Onion, chopped
[1 Tbsp Cilantro, minced] - Recommended unless you're like me and don't have any at home

In a bowl, season the ground turkey with garlic salt, chili powder, paprika, oregano, cumin, red pepper flakes, salt, black pepper, and apple cider vinegar.

Use your hands to mix the turkey and spices.

Cover the seasoned turkey with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Rinse the bell peppers using cool water. Cut off the tops of peppers, and remove the seeds and membrane from the insides. Set aside peppers.

Brown the seasoned ground turkey in a skillet over medium heat. While this is browning, chop the tomato and onion. Remove the turkey from heat, and stir in chopped tomato and onion. I didn't have any cilantro at home, but if you do, now would be a good time to add 1 Tbls of minced cilantro.

Stuff bell peppers with chorizo turkey mixture, and place on a baking sheet (I lined mine with tinfoil for easy clean up).

Bake peppers for 20–25 minutes at 400°F, or until peppers are somewhat soft.