Crockpot Frittata

Got the method from Paleo Slow Cooking by Chrissy Gower

Line a crockpot with parchment paper.  (Cut the corners so you can fold it in, don't cut them so deep that when filled with about an inch of stuff, the stuff would leak over a cut, don't have edges hanging over the top.  It's easy.)

Put in:
A layer of purple sweet potatoes (happened to already be cubed and cooked)
A layer of bok choy greens
10 eggs, whisked.

Cook on low.  The book said about 2 hours, check at 1.5 hour to see how it's cooking.  My crockpot took closer to 2.5 hours.  Really good.  The parchment paper method worked really well, minimal mess to clean up.  (Always a bonus).

Scooter

Backpacking food!

Will update this post when I've test-rehydrated some stuff.

3 trays of salmon, 1 can of the bear-and-wolf brand per tray
1 tray of celery, 3 stalks, diced
3 trays of frittata, + salsa verde sprinkled on top
2 trays of 2 chicken-and-apple sausages.  (I heated up the sausages in the microwave, then tried to get the pork casing off, more-or-less unsuccessfully.  I then whirred these in the food processor, then spread them out on the trays.  The idea, if these re-hydrate in a freezer bag well, is too add dried sweet potatoes, and have a kind of hash in the mornings.)
1 tray of Wholly Guacamole (the pico-de-gallo kind).  The internet says guac can be dehydrated and then rehyrdated on the trail.  I'm not getting my hopes up, but I'm trying it.
2 trays of blended chile verde.


Chile verde recipe:
Saute 2 onions, diced small, in chipotle olive oil
After a few minutes: Add 1-2 cloves garlic
After a few minutes: Add 1-2 bell peppers, diced small
After 5-10 minutes: Add a bunch of either diced or shredded sweet potato, some pepper, and cumin.
After 5-10 minutes: Add a can of diced tomatoes, a can of green chiles, and 2 (16 oz.) jars of salsa verde.

Simmer until sweet potatoes are done.  Add 2 (larger) cans of chicken.  Simmer until desired consistency.

Blend for dehydrating.

Scooter

(P.S. - I used the canned chicken specifically because it supposedly rehydrates better, since it has been pressure cooked.  I read it on the internet, it must be true!)

Update 3/11/13:

Rehydrating test!  (At work, not on the trail).  Put the various recipes into a freezer-quality quart bag from Ziploc.  (It's worth noting that Ziploc officially says that their freezer bags are not meant to withstand boiling.  So, throw your dice where they may fall.  I add hot water, not boiling, and have not had problems.  I'd recommend keeping it in another container (mug, bowl, etc) while it's rehydrating just in case of leaks or whatever.  However, if it doesn't work for you, you've been warned.  See also FreezerBagCooking.com )

Chile Verde: Rehydrates well, delicious.  Win.

Guac: Rehydrates pretty well.  The texture is, of course, somewhat different.  I am more than pleasantly surprised (I didn't think dehydrating something with so much fat in it would work that well).  Should be an interesting addition on the trail.  Be careful not to add too much water.

Sausage and some pieces of dried sweet potato puree as an experimental breakfast:  Added way too much water.  However, the sausage rehydrated well and quicker than expected, so we'll call it win.  I think this will be a good change from the eggs for breakfasts.

Next up:
Need to dry:
More guac
Beef Jerky
Chili
Blueberries
Other fruit?

Sausage, Spinach, Cauliflower (Fewer Eggs) Bake

Got this recipe idea from The Prime Pursuit and made a few additions/omissions.

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 package pre-made sausage, chopped (Or make your own.  1 lb.)
5 cups-ish spinach
4 eggs.

Rice the cauliflower.  And do it with this method, from Big Red Kitchen.  (In a blender with water, then strain.  Super, super easy.  Way better results and much faster than anything else I've tried.)

Melt some coconut oil in a pan, and saute the cauliflower bits until they are browned.  Remove
Cook the sausage in the same pan. Remove
Cook the zucchini and spinach (until the spinach wilts) in the same pan.  Remove, squeeze water out.

Combine all ingredients in a baking dish along with 4 eggs.

Cook at 350 for 45 minutes.

Super good!
Scoot

Eggs in a Nest

This was inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle book.

Saute half an onion in a little bit of olive oil
Add half a red pepper after a few minutes
Add a HUGE bunch of greens - mine was a mixture of spinach, kale, and collard greens.
Add a small head of cauliflower, whirred through the food processor.
Add a little bit of water, if you feel like it is needed.
Cover and let the greens wilt for 5-10 minutes.

Make little depressions in the mixture to crack the eggs into.  I put in 5 eggs, should have put in 1-2 more.
Cover again and let eggs cook for 3-5 minutes, depending on how firm you like your egg yolks.

Serve!
It was really, really good, even though there were no spices at all.

Favorite pan!

Scooter

Easiest Roast Chicken, Spinach-Egg "Bread", Apple-Cinnamon-Walnut "Cookies"

Warning:  all measurements are educated guesses.

Easiest Roast Chicken:
Heat oven to 350, put the whole chicken in the roasting pan with some onions, sprinkle olive oil, garlic, and salt on it.  Cover, cook for 3 hours.  Fall-off-the-skin moist chicken.  No chicken stock out of this one - my freezer is full up.

Pre-bake.  And upside down.  Whatever.

I was trying to plan this such that I could have all three things in the oven at once, and pull them all out at the same time, but I didn't quite get the other two things ready in time.

Spinach-Egg-Basil "Bread*"
based off of this on Mark's Daily Apple.  Planning on using it with leftover chicken in tomorrow's lunch.  Maybe in a sandwich-type way....

16 oz. package of frozen spinach, thawed, and drained as well as you can by squeezing out the liquid with paper towels or a cheesecloth.
Handful of fresh basil leaves.
Whir the green stuff together in a food processor.
Somewhere a little bit south of 1/4 cup of almond meal.

In the pan.

4 whole eggs, 3 egg whites, beaten, with a pinch of salt.
(I was hoping the additional egg whites and almond meal would make the thing a little bit stiffer and a little bit drier after baking.)

Slices

Beat everything together, spread it out in a pyrex 9" round baking dish.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.



As one might guess, this tastes egg-y and spinach-y.  (Which I like).  It ended up being still moist (which it's supposed to be), fairly stiff (which was good), but also fairly thick (~ 1/2").  Next time I make it, I plan on getting even more liquid out of the spinach, and divvying this out between two pans to make the slices thinner, and see how that goes.  Potentially only bake it for 20 minutes.  Maybe drop an egg.  We'll see.

"Cookies"
Based on Paleo Foodie
1 3/4 small gala apples, chopped
~ 1 cup almond meal
pinch of baking soda
lots and lots of saigon cinnamon.  Probably like 1+ Tablespoons (Or regular, of course).
Handful of chopped walnuts
2 eggs.  (I tried with just one egg, but it didn't seem moist enough, so I went with two.)
Mix everything together.
Plop onto a parchment-covered baking sheet.  Since I was trying to get all of this onto a small baking sheet, to only take up 1/2 a rack in the oven, I made 6 giant ones.  It really should have been like 10-12 smaller ones.  So much for space efficiency.

Yes, these are giant.  And more delicious than the picture indicates.

I like these a lot, but I like apples, cinnamon, and walnuts.  Depending on how sweet your tooth is, they are either just right, or not sweet enough.  (Or perhaps too sweet, but I don't know many people in that category.)  They could use some honey, if you like.  Or perhaps butter.  Which isn't sweet, exactly, but it is delicious.

Can't wait to eat one with some tea!
scooter

* I recently became annoyed at a local breakfast place that was advertising "scrambles."  The place is vegan and there are no actual eggs in the house.  The menu also included "chicken tenders" and other "meats."  I fumed (mildly) a little bit, wondering why that can't just call things what they are - tofu, some other form of tofu, and more other form of tofu.  (I don't eat tofu.)  At least use "chicken-like."  And here I am calling something "bread."  Ah, well, I didn't invent it.

Sausage and Vegetable Egg Bake

This will be breakfast for the next bunch of mornings:
Peel and dice a medium sweet potato.
Cut a head of broccoli into florets.
Bring a some water to a boil, drop the sweet potato and broccoli in, keep at a simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop an onion and a medium zucchini or yellow squash.  Saute in olive oil, when the onions are translucent, add some sausage (mine was ~3/4 lb).  I didn't add any spices, since the sausage was pre-spiced Italian-style.
Heat the oven to 350.
Drain the sweet potato and broccoli, add all the ingredients to a greased 8x8 glass pan. Beat together ~8-10 eggs or equivalent in whites.  (I think I used 7 whole eggs and 5 egg whites*.)  Pour over the other ingredients and stir a little bit.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, until it is all set up.

Somehow all the egg white appear to have formed up in the lower right of the pan.  Curious.  They might be plotting a take over of some sort.

Unfortunately, this did dirty a fair number of pans and bowls.  Blast.

Scooter

Recipe based on one that was found years ago in Chris Carmichael's Fitness Cookbook (the cookbook in general is very, very far from paleo) and recently re-inspired by a post at the Functional Foodie blog.  And in general, it's just a not-divvied-out-into-muffin-tins version of Egg bites.

* The reasoning behind using the egg whites only for some of the eggs is to up the protein percentage a little bit, as I plan on eating some of this with avocado, so the fat all balances out in the wash anyway, and some of it post-workout, and I like more protein post-workout.

Scotch Eggs - Baked and Paleo

I like eggs.  I like meat.  I like geodes.  Enter, Scotch Eggs:

Take 1 lb. ground beef
Add spices to taste - like garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, salt, pepper, and dried basil.  Mush it all together.
Take 1/5 of the meat mixture and spread it into a thin patty in your hands, then mold it around a peeled hard boiled egg.  Try to make it even.  I definitely didn't.  Some of them had cracks in the meat shell, but they are fine.
Repeat 4 times.
Bake in 375 oven for 25 minutes.

Revel in deliciousness!

scooter

based on recipe on The Clothes Make the Girl Blog

Eggs Bhona

This is a recipe from Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express:
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
an inch of peeled and chopped ginger
2-3 cloves peeled and chopped garlic
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
a few shakes of turmeric
dashes of salt and red pepper flakes
8 hard boiled eggs, chopped

Saute the onions, bell pepper, garlic, and ginger for a few minutes.  Add the tomato paste, spices, and 1 cup or so boiling water (I kept adding a little more, depending on how thick/thin you want your sauce).  Stir it all up, add the hard boiled eggs, cover and cook for 5 minutes until it's all heated through.

Review: Love it.  It's a little time-consuming for a weekday morning, but works well on a weekend or as dinner.  (Peeling the eggs took me a while, it was a stubborn batch.)  And I've got enough for two more days of breakfast.

scooter

Egg Bites

So, this is something I've been making for a while.  They are like Egg muffins or mini-crustless quiches, or whatever.  I originally got the idea from Kalyns Kitchen Blog, but there are a bunch of similar-ish type recipes out there.

Cooled down, apres smush egg muffins

What I do:
The filling: saute up some vegetables.  I always try to put in onions and peppers, but also will throw in whatever I have: spinach, asparagus, zucchini, broccoli, left over bok choy in this version, green onions, cabbage (warning: red cabbage will turn the things blue-ish), etc.  Bacon or something would also be delicious.

The egg mixture:  It will probably take somewhere between 6-12 eggs.  Depending on what I want as far as the protein content, I might use some whole eggs and some just whites, all whole eggs, or if I'm feeling especially lazy, those egg white beater carton things you can buy (these work just fine, but will be a bit moister at the end.  Moister could also be read as mushier, or more-easily-fall-apart-er).  Crack into a bowl and beat, you can add spices like cumin, salt, and pepper, or curry and cardamom, or cayenne, or nothing.

I have a silicon muffin tin (flexible and easy to pop out) that I use, but it still needs some non-stick spray.  Metal would also work, but definitely be liberal with some non-stick spray.  I don't know how well those muffin paper cups would do, I've never tried it.

Fill up the tins 1/2-3/4 full of the veggie mix.  Fill with egg mixture, to cover the veggies, or also around 3/4 full.  Give them a little stir to make sure everything is mixed together.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for around 35 minutes.  They will puff up while cooking, then smush down after they are cool.  Let them cool all the way before putting them into any tupperware type thing, else you'll get some condensation and more mushiness.

How to eat: warm, cold, for breakfast, on the go, after workouts, quick snack, etc.  You can smother them in salsa and avocado.  Or bruschetta is also good, I learned tonight.  Apparently they are supposed to freeze well.  I can attest that they do, in fact, freeze, but I don't know how well they taste when they un-freeze yet.

Scooter

Update 1/20/11:  I made another batch of these, and with some of them I put a slice of deli ham in the muffin tin first, then put veggies inside the ham slice, filled with egg.  DELICIOUS!

Breakfast - Eggs and Leftovers

Common themes:

What I eat in general: Leftovers, incorporated however I can.

What I eat for breakfast: Eggs + veggies (usually sauteed onion and pepper) scrambled together. 

This can definitely make my meals look random.  Today, I went for something of a combo.  I have leftover chicken that I shredded from the whole chicken yesterday, and leftover broccoli slaw from the fish tacos Saturday.

I poached up two eggs and served them on a bed of chicken, slaw, and some spinach, and cracked some pepper on top.

How my awesome dad taught me to quick-and-easy poach two eggs:

In a small frying pan (with a fitting lid), spray some non-stick, crack two eggs in, then pour enough water in to cover the egg white.  I don't completely submerge the yolks, for no real reason.  I think in my case, this was only about 6 oz of water, an un-measured wild guess.  Cover, and cook on the high range of med-high for a few minutes, until your yolks reach your desired state of done-ness.

Who keeps the metric system down.  We do.  We do.

My review: Surprisingly good.  I liked the crunchy texture-egg combo more than I thought I would.

Lunch yesterday and today was/will be fish tacos.  And, what do you know, we have a request:  "Some sort of recipe with that bok something vegetable."  Bok something, look for it in a few days.

Scooter