fridge-emptying Paleo breakfast bake

I am not a morning person. That's not to say that I don't LIKE mornings, because they're actually my favorite time of day - but I do not like being expected to function in any sort of productive manner before about 10am. Trying to feed myself and my husband a decent breakfast tends to be at odds with my desire to maintain a sloth-like morning agenda.

Most mornings lately, I've been having a pumpkin smoothie for breakfast because a) it's fast and b) it fills me up. There's also some nutrition in there somewhere I'm sure - but the simple fact is, dumping things in the food processor doesn't take a whole lot of mental fortitude. That's key in the blurry pre-10am hours around here, trust me.

However, this coming week we're going to be traveling, which means two things (well, more than two, but for the purpose of this blog post, I'm saying two) :

 1. I need to use up some leftover food in the fridge, and

 2. I want to create as few dirty dishes as possible, because the less dishes I have to wash the night before going on holiday, the better.

To be fair, the less dishes I have to wash EVER, the better...but you know what I mean, I'm sure.

This breakfast bake checks both those boxes. Not only did it use up all the leftover bits in my fridge, but since I did the washing up directly after making it, it becomes very un-dish-intensive. Also, it gets bonus points for me not having to do anything TO it in the morning except put it on a plate and warm it up. BREAKFAST LAZINESS GOLD MEDAL! Literally the only thing lazier would be, like, cracking raw eggs into my mouth, which...no.

So, what I had hanging around was:

half a red bell pepper
half an onion
half a box of mushrooms
about 3/4 of a pound of pork sausage
nine eggs
one large Russet potato

Aside from the chopping involved, this could not be easier. I browned the sausage, then scooped it out to drain on paper towels while I sauteed the chopped veg in a little bit of the leftover fat. I washed the potato, poked it with a fork a few times, then stuck it in the microwave for about nine minutes. While the veg was getting soft in the pan, I cracked the eggs into a bowl and whisked them up. When the veg was read, I scooped it and the sausage into my baking dish (which I had swiped with olive oil just to ensure things wouldn't stick). When the potato was almost done, not quite cooked through, I pulled it out of the nuker, chopped it up (HOT POTATO, be careful, learn from my mistakes), tossed it with a little kosher salt and then threw it into the frying pan with the rest of the leftover pork fat. I cranked the heat up and let the potato get kind of brown and crispy in the pan, then scooped that into my veg and sausage mix. The egg got dumped over the top, dish got a little shake, then it went into a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Ta Dahs:

It's like a craggy landscape of nom.

As long as you use a sausage that doesn't have added sugar, gluten or processed weirdness, this is a Paleo- and Whole30-compliant dish. If you don't like sausage, you could use bacon, ham, ground bison, really whatever floats your canoe. There's also no saying that you have to eat it for breakfast - you could stick some in your facehole when ever...I don't judge.

fancy fish bags

Hehehehe. Fish bags. It's fun to say, try it! Fish bags, fish bags, fish bags. I'm not high, I swear to you.

ANYWAY.

Whilst grocery shopping yesterday, I spied with my little green eye some parchment bags made for steaming shit in the oven. Well, not shit, but you know. I was immediately entranced with the pretty picture of perfectly cooked fish and veg on the box, and I had to have them. HAD TO. I am weak. It is known, khaleesi.

I've done "en papillote" fish preparations before and enjoyed them - all except the part where you have to fight with the parchment paper to stay crimped, while evil Alton Brown's voice keeps ringing in the back of your head, maniacally laughing and saying, "IT'S SOOOO SIMMMPLE!"  Maybe he's right - maybe it IS really simple and I just fucking fail at parchment origami, I don't know. What I DO know is that what's even easier than farting around with parchment for 20 fucking minutes while your stomach rumbles and you see stars from hunger? PRE-MADE PARCHMENT BAGS, bitches.

Mystery baaaag...are you ready for your mystery baaaag? It's not full of dog poop. OR IS IT? (it's probably not)

Told you.

You guys. I can't even. These bags? Are my new favorite thing. All I did was lay a couple pieces of cod over some asparagus, green beans and sliced red pepper, add a little poorly-cut basil on top, seal the bag with a couple folds over, and it was ready to roll. I did two bags (because the Ginger Beast needs to eat, too) on a cookie sheet, stashed them in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, and lo, the fish, eet was done!

The asparagus is being a tease in this one.

Now...I will be completely honest with you here. First of all, I really like the taste of cod, so I don't usually fuck around with it much. You could easily gussy this up with all kinds of fancy herbs and citrus and whatever, but...I really like cod. Second of all, the next time I do this, I will NOT lay the fish directly on the veg unless I have significantly thinner pieces of fish. These were some big, manly cod pieces (see what I did there? Manly? Cod pieces? OMG, somebody stop me. No, really...), and the veg underneath didn't cook as much as it could have. We like our veg pretty al dente here at Chez OGC and that asparagus was borderline even for us. So, yes - next time, I'll spread the veg out around the fish for more even cook-en-ings...or maybe even just steam it separately...although honestly, that would take like half the fun out of the whole dinner-from-a-bag thing.

If you care, or even if you don't, this meal is Paleo and Whole-30 compliant, and as gluten-free as the day is long. Tra-la-la, healthy food.

stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers are my husband's absolute favorite dish. These ones are an adaptation of this recipe from the Mark's Daily Apple blog, which replaces the usual rice stuffing with a mixture of meat, onions, seasonings and grated cauliflower. The original recipe calls for cooking the stuffed peppers in a slow cooker all day, but I figured if I pre-cooked the filling once I mixed it up, I could then cook the peppers in the oven with no problem. Turns out I was right. I cooked the filling in a frying pan until it was probably about half cooked, then stuffed the peppers, added a few pieces of super-sharp cheddar cheese to the tops and put them in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes. The filling cooked through, the peppers softened, and best of all, the cheese bubbled and toasted on top.

MMMMM. Cheesy! :D

We really enjoyed these. I used half ground beef and half ground pork instead of the 2lbs of pork the recipe called for. The texture was obviously a bit different than traditional stuffed peppers, but in a nice way. Next time I think I might grate my onion rather than chop it, so that it's finer and gets better incorporated into the mix. I might also add a can of diced tomatoes along with the tomato paste. Other than that, I was really happy with these and will definitely make them again.

tortilla-less fajitas

Everything you love about fajitas, minus that pesky flour tortilla! :D

Very simple to make - I took a mostly-frozen piece of London broil and sliced it against the grain as thinly as possible. The marinade for the meat was simply the juice of one lime, a tablespoon of ground cumin, a teaspoon of ground coriander, three grated cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of ground black pepper and about half a teaspoon of kosher salt. I tossed the meat with the marinade and let it sit while I sliced some mushrooms, a large onion, a smallish red pepper, a smallish green pepper and half of a big yellow pepper. The veggies went into a large non-stick pan on medium and were covered. The meat went into a very hot pan with some olive oil in it and tossed pretty much constantly until it cooked through, which only took about 5 minutes. When the veggies were tender, I scooped them onto the plates and topped with the meat. We topped the the "fajitas" with a little plain full-fat yogurt instead of sour cream. Yum!

chicken cashew stirfry

I had a bunch of chicken thighs I needed to use up tonight, and I needed something quick as it was laundry night. I decided a stir-fry was in order. I was poking around Epicurious and found this recipe, which sounded pretty good, so I gave it a try!

Chicken Cashew Stir-Fry
4 servings

1 bunch scallions
1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup salted roasted cashews

Chop scallions, separating white and green parts. Pat chicken dry, then cut into 3/4-inch pieces and toss with salt and pepper. Heat a wok or 12-inch heavy skillet (not non-stick) over moderately high heat until a drop of water evaporates immediately. Add oil, swirling to coat, then stir-fry chicken until golden in places and just cooked through, 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add bell pepper, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and scallion whites to pan and stir-fry until peppers are just tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Stir together broth, soy sauce, cornstarch, and sugar, then stir into vegetables in pan. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in cashews, scallion greens and chicken along with any accumulated juices.

*****

I omitted the salt to season the chicken with at the beginning, omitted the hot red pepper flakes, and I substituted yellow bell pepper for half of the red bell pepper called for. The finished product tasted awesome, but I have to admit I was skeptical all during cooking because the chicken really stuck to the bottom of the pan and then the garlic and ginger did, too. I think probably I didn't use enough oil (one of these days I'll learn to measure). Happily, nothing that stuck to the pan actually burnt, and when I added the liquid and gave it a good stir it all came up and added a lot of flavor to the sauce.

I'll definitely make this one again. Next time I'll make rice to catch all the lovely sauce as well.