Cooking With Conner - Brussels Sprouts Chips

I can't get the video to imbed here....yet! It's on the Feeding Ger Sasser Facebook page if you want to see it now. It's Conner in the Kithchen, making brussels sprouts chips.

Conner, who is 5 years old and has a 70 lb dead lift, shared the video on Facebook. He does Crossfit Kids with Coach Cassie at Crossfit Countdown and sometimes he does a guest blog post here. You can check out his Paleo Sausage Balls video on here, too.

So, let's review:
 Cut the ends off of fresh brussels sprouts.
Take the outer leaves off and spread them out on a baking sheet. (I found that after taking the outer leaves off that if I cut the end part off again, I could easily get a few more leaves off. I did compost the center part along with the cut-off ends)
Rub them in coconut oil.
Add sea salt and pepper.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Thanks, Conner! Keep them coming!

This will be good with bacon burgers. 

Paleo Sausage Breakfast Sandwich

It's that time of year where people are talking about all the bad things they ate over the holidays and how how it's time to eat clean again for the New Year. I agree. This was breakfast today - who needs bread? (although I am still diligently tweaking a paleo bread machine bread recipe..... it's still heavy....)

I split a red pepper and laid one half on the plate.
I warmed a leftover sausage, split in half, and laid it on the pepper. ( Banger Sausage oven recipe is on this blog - so easy!)

I cooked an organic egg in pasture butter, with smoked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. I placed that on top of the sausage.
I topped it all off with a couple of slices of avocado.

There something to be said about starting your day off with a great breakfast. If your sausage is cooked and your red pepper is washed and sliced, this is only going to take a couple of minutes!

Don't you love Mr. Potato Head? Cassie's dad made this for us for Christmas. This is further proof that potatoes are, in fact, the devil!

Paleo Cherry Cobbler

Ger and Cassie are gearing up for the Great Lakes Invitational with clean eating and serious training. I wanted to have a "dessert" tonight that would be delicious AND nutritious AND incredibly good for you.....so it had to be cherries.

Did you know cherries:
1. Ease pain (like from arthritis, gout, and WEIGHT-LIFTING)
2. Are full of vitamins
3. Lower blood pressure
4. Fight cancer
5. help you SLEEP

Here's what I did:
I measured 6 cups of frozen cherries and put them into a 9 x 12 baking dish. (I'm imagining how good this will be with fresh cherries this summer.....) They thawed a little while I made the cobbler part.

In a bowl, I stirred up the following ingredients with a fork:

1/3 cup local honey (if you use raw honey, you might want to warm it a bit so it will mix better)
2/3 cup unblanched almond flour (but blanched would be fine)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 cup organic coconut milk from a can
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg

I put this mixture on top of the cherries by big spoonfuls.

In a small glass dish I melted 4 TBSP pasture butter (Kerry Gold, from grass fed cows) and then poured it over the top of the cobbler. See?

I put it into a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes. Oh. My. Goodness. Ger says this one is really, really good. (and really good for you!) 

Cassie has started a blog and I hope you check it out. She's a very fine writer. SassPoff - the perfect blend!
Here's the link:

http://sasspoff.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/pr-week/

Slow Cooker Lamb Shoulder

Just because the holidays are over doesn't mean you can't make a very special meal now and then. This one is pretty impressive..... and it's easy!
 I was at Sam's to get pomegranates and saw that they had their boneless lamb roasts marked down since it was right after Christmas. The date was still good, so I brought one home. (I've eaten lamb but I hadn't cooked it.)  I wanted to do a slow cooker recipe because I had a long to-do list for the rest of my day......So, this is what I did:
I put the following items into the slow cooker:

1 cup chicken stock
1 red onion, chopped
2 orange peppers, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 tsp garlic gold nuggets (or minced garlic)
1 TBSP coconut oil

Next, I cut the string off the lamb meat and laid it in the slow cooker, on top of the vegetables and broth with the fattiest side up. ( It weighed almost 4 lbs)  I sprinkled this with:

2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp mint
2 tsp smoked sea salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste

I cooked it for 5 hours on high. It would also work with 10 hours on low - I would have done that if it hadn't already been later in the day.

It was delicious and a nice change.

Smoked Paprika Kale Chips

Smoked Paprika Kale Chips.....could my house smell any better?  Whether you make them in a dehydrator or your oven, you are going to want to try these. Addicting, I tell you.

I make these, as you can see, in the dehydrator, on 145 for 2  1/2 hours. If you use the oven, it's at 325 for 20-25 minutes and I usually stir them once and put them back into the oven somewhere near the end of the cooking time. If I forget, and any kale isn't crisp, I just stir them gently, spread them back out and put them back into the oven for a couple of minutes after I've turned it off.

This recipe is so simple! In a LARGE bowl, I put:

1 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP smoked paprika (nuts.com)
1 tsp garlic nuggets (garlicgold.com)
 1/4 tsp sea salt

I stir this up and then tear one bunch of organic kale off the stems and drop into the bowl. Next, I take my hands and mix the kale into the oil and spices, turning the kale over and working it almost like kneading bread.
I spread the kale onto a dehydrator rack, maybe a rack and a half.

I measure out my oil and spices and continue this process again. My dehydrator has 4 racks and I use 3 bunches of kale, usually two of organic purple kale and one of green kale.  When we eat dinner, we just each take a rack and transfer it to our plate!

You can use the dehydrator with less racks, or you can make a lot and keep the leftovers in in a big Ziploc bag.

Now, I'm all about sharing ideas to save money, and I have another one for you. I spend a lot on spices - it's crazy. So, the last time I sent in a big order to nuts.com for nuts, I thought I would try  a couple of their spices in one-pound bags. So, let's look at the math here:

Smoked Paprika - around $7 for 1.62 oz
Nuts.com Smoked Paprika - $9.99 for one pound! (that's 16 oz for those of you who forgot - you know who you are....)
Organic Cinnamon - around $7 for 1.4 oz
Nuts.com Organic Cinnamon - $8.99 for one pound!

The quality is at least as good, if not better!  I will be filling up my little glass bottles with nuts.com from now on! 

Paleo Tomato Baked Chicken

I am looking forward to feeding Ger Sasser tonight - he's been in Sacramento for the weekend, coaching. He got home today and started coaching at Crossfit Countdown. I miss him when he's traveling. I hope he missed my cooking a little......lol.


I rubbed 1 TBSP coconut oil on a 9 x 12 glass baking dish.
Next, I cut up a red onion and placed it in the bottom of the dish.

I topped this with 6 organic chicken breasts.
Then, I combined:
 1  28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 TBSP Emeril's mustard, or other mustard with no hidden sugars
1 TBSP Garlic Gold nuggets (garlicgold.com)

I poured this mixture over the chicken breasts and sprinkled it with applewood smoked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I put this into a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.  (Then I washed and cut up red. yellow, and orange peppers. I rubbed them in coconut oil and placed them on a baking sheet. They went into the oven, too, for 20-25 minutes of the the chicken's cooking time. See? A whole meal, healthy and EASY, and so, so good!)

Sweet Potato Casserole

This is a paleo-ized version of my mom's sweet potato casserole. Cassie recently made this and took it to her family's Thanksgiving celebration.

She boiled 3 large organic sweet potatoes in water, until fork-tender.  Then she easily peeled them.

She placed them in a bowl and mashed them with a potato masher.
 She added:

1/3 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup organic coconut milk (from a can)
1/3 cup pasture butter, melted
1 egg, stirred first
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

She mixed that up and spread in out in a 9 x 12 glass baking dish that had been rubbed with coconut oil.

Next, she mixed up the topping:

1 cup unsweetened coconut (we like the big chips, or chunks, not the shredded)
1/4 cup brown sugar (optional, but since it was Thanksgiving, and we wanted other people to eat it, we added this small amount of brown sugar - mom's original recipe called for 1 whole cup!)
1/3 cup almond flour
1/3 cup pasture butter, melted
1 cup  pecans

She spread this out on the top of the sweet potato mixture.

It went into a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

Ham Pineapple and Broccoli in Acorn Squash

I had Ger cut two acorn squash into halves. I cut out the seeds and stringy stuff in the centers and laid them in a pan, cut side down, with 1/2 inch water. I put them into a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes.

I cut 2 big ham steaks into bite-sized pieces and cooked them over medium heat in a large skillet with 2 TBSP of coconut oil and 1/2 cup water. I put a lid on it and stirred often. When the ham steak bites were tender, I set the lid aside.
(If you really want to make this recipe fast, use the precooked ham steaks, instead of right out of a local farm-raised pig, like mine, but go for quality meat, always. I also like to put the big round bone in there and then give it to Mikko. He loves that.)

Next, I cut up one head of broccoli and one fresh pineapple, into bite-sized pieces and put them into the skillet.
I added:
 1  1/2 tsp smoked sea salt
1/2 tsp Garlic Gold Nuggets (garlicgold.com)
1/2 tsp red pepper (cayenne)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

I let that cook until the broccoli was cooked, but not mushy.
I took the acorn squash halves out of the oven and placed them on plates. I filled the center with the ham, pineapple, and broccoli mixture.
Ger went back for seconds - that's always a good sign......

Squash Soup

It's snowing outside and there's ice under the snow. It's a Sunday and I am not going ANYWHERE today. It looks like a great day to catch up on some blog recipes and make some soup. This one is satisfying and easy.

I cooked one small organic spaghetti squash and took out the seed and stringy parts in the center. I used a fork to get out the squash and put it in a sauce pan.

I added one small can of diced tomatoes. (Sometimes I use one with chili pepper in it, for a little more heat.)
I poured one container of organic butternut squash soup into the sauce pan, along with:
1/2 tsp smoked salt
1/4 tsp red pepper
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

I let that heat up slowly. When it was warm, I put it into bowls and added 1 TBSP pepitas (pumpkin seeds from nuts.com are a favorite here) and 1 tsp heavy whipping cream to each bowl.

Tell me if you think that's warm and delicious. Crumbled uncured bacon on top is also VERY special.

Eat clean whenever you can, and once in a while, have a beautiful splurge. Ger and Cassie love Grater's when they are in a city that has one.