Tag Archives: spicy

Spicy Taco Brunch Skillet

Ole!

I woke up last Saturday morning wanting to have a fun brunch with Garrett and specifically thinking about Juli’s recipe for a Mexican Hash Egg Bake.

I wanted to make something that would look pretty (I love the way baked eggs look!) but also be seriously delicious since we were skipping the bacon with all of this Whole 30 business going on. I was too lazy to actually look up Juli’s recipe and follow it, but since I make up a huge batch of sweet potato hash just about every week, I used that as inspiration and got to work.

The result was completely satisfying nutritionally, but it also seemed decadent which made it feel a little special.

 

Spicy Taco Brunch Skillet
Ingredients
  • 1 TBS Coconut Oil
  • 1 Yellow Onion, diced
  • 1 Bell Pepper (any color), diced
  • 2 Medium Sweet Potatoes, diced
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (more if you’re SPICY!)
  • 1/2 lb. ground beef
  • 1-2 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning (to taste)
  • 8 eggs
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. In a large heavy bottomed oven proof skillet, melt coconut oil over medium/medium high heat.
  3. Add diced yellow onions and bell pepper. Saute for 5-10 minutes until softened.
  4. Add diced sweet potatoes and all seasonings through cayenne pepper and saute until those are softened as well, about another 15 minutes. Be careful to stir often so nothing burns, but the potatoes get some color.
  5. In the meantime, in a separate pan, crumble up and brown at least 1/2 lb ground beef (I usually cook up a big batch and use the leftovers for Taco Salad!
  6. Add 1-2 Tablespoons of Taco Seasoning per 1/2 lb, or to taste.
  7. When Sweet Potatoes are mostly cooked, add your taco meat into the oven-proof skilled.
  8. Crack 8 eggs over the top of the potato/onion/meat mixture
  9. Bake for 6-9 minutes, depending on desired egg done-ness. Keep in mind there will be some carryover cooking once you pull it out of the oven.
  10. Salt and Pepper your eggs to taste once the baking is finished, garnish with an avocado and enjoy!

 


Easy Paleo Turkey Satay Burgers

I’m just going to throw this out there:  Satay sauce is next to Godliness in my humble opinion.  

It’s creamy, nutty and sometimes spicy — and really what more can you want from a sauce? Just typing that made my mouth water.  The only two problems I have with it?  The peanuts make it very un-Paleo (Peanuts are a legume and not actually a nut…who knew?) and there is generally some type of soy sauce in it which I avoid like the plague (mostly due to gluten).  So while I occasionally throw caution to the wind and order if I am out, I wanted to make a version that I could eat anytime and know I wasn’t  deviating from the style of eating that has kept me happy and healthy over the last year. 

I set out to make a sauce that would hit all the same notes as a good peanut satay (and would be a nice dipper for chicken) but also because I am lazy on most weeknights (shocker!) I wanted to find a way to turn it into a burger.  Burgers = King of Easy Weeknight Recipes! Everybody knows (said in my best Phaedra impersonation) that if you are looking for a good burger recipe, Rachael Ray is a great resource.  She’s written something like 1000 burger recipes so whenever I’m in a pickle I seek out one of her recipes.  This time I used this recipe as inspiration (and did some tweaking to satisfy my own dietary needs.) 

The results were PHENOMENAL.  I have to admit this surprised me a little.  I thought for sure it would be edible, but I wasn’t certain I would love it.  I only had turkey on hand and I thought it might be a weird combination, but it actually works out awesome because the creaminess of the sauce lends well to turkey because and its low fat content.  The toppings give a great texture combo and overall I LOVED IT!  I hope you will too.

Paleo Turkey Satay Burgers (adapted from Rachael Ray Magazine)

Ingredients

for burgers
Fat of Choice (I used coconut oil on this one)
1.25 lbs of Ground Turkey

2 Large Garlic Cloves, grated
1 Inch Ginger Root, grated
3 Green Onions, finely diced
Salt + Pepper to taste  (I went lighter on the salt than usual due to the salty sauce.)

for sauce
1/2 Cup Almond Butter
3 TBS Coconut Aminos/Tamari
1/2 Cup Chicken Broth to thin out sauce

1 tsp red pepper flakes (less if you don’t want your sauce to have some kick) 


for garnish
1 Bag of Broccoli Slaw (My favorite thing to have in the fridge! So useful!)

Instructions


1.  Heat fat of choice over medium in a 12 in skillet (or you could grill these — I just chose a pan because I’m lazy, remember?)
2.  In a medium sized bowl, mix all ingredients through salt and pepper.  Form into 4 patties. 
3.  Cook patties for 6 minutes one side, flip, cook 3 minutes on the other side so that the surface gets brown, then cover and continue cooking until inside is desired temperature.  I like my turkey fairly well done so I cooked it another 5 minutes covered.
4.  When turkey is almost done cooking, in another small pot, combine almond butter and coconut aminos over medium low heat.  Stir until combined and then add chicken broth little by little until sauce has desired creamy consistency
5. In a separate bowl toss broccoli slaw with a few TBS of satay sauce
6.  Serve cooked burgers on butter lettuce garnished with a dollop of the satay sauce as well as the sauced broccoli slaw
7.  Enjoy your super rich, spicy Paleo-friendly satay dish!

The flavor is so complex considering the ingredients are so simple and it has become a great way to fancy up your everyday turkey burger.  If you end up trying this let me know how you like it! 
____________________

Holly Would If She Could


Paleo* Eggs Benedict Over Spicy Sweet Potato Hash

My Grandma Marian taught me a number of very important life lessons:    

*A good hostess always has cookies in her freezer.
*If you keep the empty expensive bottles of booze you can always refill them with the cheap stuff in a pinch. (Which I only did in college, I promise!) And of course,
*A lady never refuses a second serving by saying she is “stuffed,” but rather she delicately reclines and says she’s “had plenty.”  

More importantly though, she taught me about the magic of poached eggs in hollandaise.


My family usually chooses to brunch on Easter, forgoing the ham dinner with all the trimmings for a stiff Bloody Mary (or two) and a Hallelujah.  As an a non-religious adult, I always kind of forget about Easter (what with the changing dates and all of that) but when I realize it’s coming around I never forget my grandma’s tradition:  Eggs Benedict!

Since going Paleo I have definitely come to embrace the egg, but I never take the time to poach them — and for no good reason since it is so much easier than it looks.  A pan of simmering water with a splash of vinegar, dropping the egg right in, and then giving it exactly 2 minutes before you rescue and plop it atop various accouterments.  This year I skipped the English Muffin and set it on canadian bacon over the world’s most amazing Spicy Sweet Potato Hash. 

It was so good, I’m making it again for Garrett this week for dinner since he was in Reno all weekend and missed out.

For the eggs:

This video breaks down poaching eggs quite simply.  Plus at the end she puts in on a “nice, tasty crumpet.”  And how can you not love that?  I like a 2 min egg though, just FYI.   I always fear I will ruin the egg, and it always ends up working out just fine.  Vinegar is kind of a miracle worker.


For the Hollandaise:

In a blender mix 3 egg yolks, 1 TBS lemon juice, 1/2 tsp of salt, and a few shakes of cayenne pepper.  Melt 1/2 cup of grassfed butter (That’s why it is Paleo* — but this is a special occasion thing, don’t get freaked out!) and slowly pour in the melted butter as you blend up the other ingredients.  This will make enough sauce to coat at least 6 eggs and may change your life.

For the hash:  

Cook up 6-8 diced up slices of bacon in a pan.  (Dude, just cook 8.)  Remove the bacon bits and add one diced red onion and diced red pepper.  Saute until softened.  Add 3 diced sweet potatos.  Mine were small-medium sized.  Generously season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and add a dash of chili powder for flavor and cayenne pepper for heat.  Cook over high heat until potatoes are at your desired texture (everyone likes their taters a bit different). I did mine for about 20 minutes, tossing them around occasionally so they browned but didn’t burn.  


For the entire experience:

Throw the hash on a plate, top with canadian bacon you have warmed in the oven, add your perfectly poached eggs, cover with hollandaise, add some cracked black pepper to the top, and die of happiness.  


You will not regret it.  But I assure you, after two of those eggs, you will delicately recline and say you’ve had plenty.  

It’s a breakfast (or dinner in our case this week) of champions!


Damn Good Chili

Who needs cheese? #whole30

I don’t know what you do for fun, but I like to cook things and sometimes inspiration strikes at weird times. Maybe I need some other morning friendly hobbies, I don’t know. Sometimes Matt Lauer just doesn’t do it for my like my Le Creuset does.   
Can we all just pause for a minute and think about where I can find a job where all I do is cook, read, drink coffee, and sometimes watch bad reality television in the morning? I would be an EXCEEDS Employee.   Excuse me while I go update my LinkedIn Profile.   
Anyway, this morning I was up early and since I had some extra time I made some chili.  It occurred to me that I should share this chili recipe here for three reasons:
  1. It is Easy — so easy you can sleepwalk through it at 5am and have lunch ready by 6am! 
  2. It is Very Customizable and Packs some Major Vegetable Punch in One Pot— flexible with the ingredients you have on hand, and efficient. 
  3. It is Damn Good.
That is quite the trifecta, I think — so here we go.   
Damn Good Chili
Ingredients
  • 2 TBS Fat of Choice
  • 1 Large Onion
  • 3-4 Medium Carrots, small dice
  • 1-2 Small Zucchini, small dice
  • 2 Small Yellow Squash, small dice
  • 1.5 lbs Ground Beef
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, chopped
  • 2 Tablespoon Chili Powder
  • 1 Tablespoon Paprika
  • 2 teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes
  • 2 teaspoons Cumin
  • 1 Tablespoon Salt
  • 2 teaspoons Pepper
  • 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with their liquid
  • 1 14 oz can tomato sauce
  • 1 Cup Beef Broth
  • 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 2 Bell Peppers (any color), small dice
Instructions
  1. Heat Fat of Choice in large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat
  2. Add Onion, Carrots, Zucchini and Yellow Squash and cook up until they get soften, about 5-7 minutes
  3. Add ground beef in to brown and break up into crumbles with spoon. Continue until beef is mostly cooked
  4. Add garlic and all seasonings through salt and pepper and toss with the meat and the vegetables
  5. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth and apple cider vinegar
  6. Bring pot up to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer
  7. Simmer, mostly covered but with lid a little cocked for 45 minutes
  8. Add bell peppers
  9. Simmer with the lid completely off for 15 more minutes
  10. Serve with toppings of your choice — My recommendations are: avocado, black olives and diced scallions. YUM!

 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
5 Comments
POSTED IN: