Spinach, Leeks and Bacon

Here's another one inspired by what was left in my refrigerator the day before the veggie box arrived.  It turned out very yummy, and when the garden is producing this summer I'll most definitely make it again! The kids got creative with the lemon before I used it. This one had a ridge on the top and looked like a chick. They called the Chickie Lemon. :)

Spinach, Leeks and Bacon
1 bunch of Spinach, trimmed or about 2 C baby spinach
2 leeks, sliced and rinsed well
2 T coconut oil or butter
juice from 1/2 lemon or about 1/4 C lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
2 Strips of crumbled bacon or about 1/4 C bacon bits (optional)

Melt oil in a skillet and sauté sliced leeks until just starting to brown and get soft. Add spinach and lemon juice to pan, cover and cook for about 2-3 minutes until spinach is just starting to turn a darker green. Remove from heat and mix in bacon, salt and pepper if you're using it. Serve warm.

Pizza Egg Cups

I've been on a mission to get more protein in my kids in the morning before school. They don't eat paleo exclusively and breakfast is where they really want to have their grains and carbs. For the most part I don't push, but offer food I think is better for them. Sometimes they go for it and sometimes they don't. Last week I had a little extra weekend time and decided to make egg cups to keep in the fridge for the week's breakfasts. The boy wanted bacon and cheese in his and the girl wanted pizza flavored. I wasn't sure exactly how to go about that, but I gave it a shot and she seemed to like them. Each morning, she would get out one of her egg cups, put it in the microwave for a few seconds to knock off the chill and gobbled it down. Give them a try!

Pizza Egg Cups
6 eggs
6 slices of bacon cut in half
6 Tbs pizza or pasta sauce (I like classic or newman's own)
6 pepperonis
optional : olives, peppers, mushrooms, or other pizza toppings.

Beat 6 eggs in a bowl with a fork. In a muffin tin, lay half of a slice of bacon across the bottom then lay the other half on top of it making an X in the bottom of your pan. Spoon in egg until it reaches almost to the top of the muffin cup. Place 1 Tbs of sauce in the middle of the egg then top with pepperoni slice. Add any optional ingredients you would like. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until eggs are set. Cool then eat!

A Few Lunches and Dinners

I'm not nearly as good as Cavegirl Kate about photographing my meals, but here are a few I managed to remember to document.  I hope they give you some ideas!

 

Salmon Fillet with roasted beets and carrots and salad

 

Spinach salad with steak and caramelized onions

 

Brunch out at a restaurant: California omelet (eggs, bacon, tomatoes, peppers) topped with avacado, salsa, sour cream (I do some dairy.) and green onions.

 

Three Fried sunny side up eggs (I have a great recipe for making the best fried eggs. I'll post that another day.), olives and guacamole



 

Pizza egg cups (eggs bacon, pizza sauce and pepperoni) Recipe to follow!

 

Leftover lunch: hamburger patty, roasted asparagus and olives

 

Sunday dinner on the grill: Pork chops and fruit skewers (apple and pineapple chunks)

The Garden

The sunny days this spring have been fabulous! I've gotten my garden weeded and several of my starts planted already! Usually I try to get start getting my plants in the ground by Mother's Day, but this year, I already have several things in the ground.

I start my plants from seeds in my greenhouse. This year I started lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, pumpkin, beans, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, onions, crook necked squash, zucchini, golden beets, turnips, rutabaga, radishes, peas, melons, cucumbers and....drum roll please...tomatoes. Yes, I got tomatoes to sprout this year! That's a red letter day, folks, put that on your calendars!

So far I've put the kale, spinach, radishes, peas, turnips, rutabaga, and broccoli in the garden. I've had trouble getting my cabbage to sprout this year, so it's still in the greenhouse even though the other cold loving veggies are already outside. The other heat loving veggies will probably stay in the greenhouse a little longer unless I get impatient and put them outside. :) My cukes and zukes have also had trouble sprouting this year. So I've brought the seeds in the house and am trying to sprout them in wet paper towels before I put them in the starter trays in the green house. So far that seems to be working with the cukes. Zukes still haven't sprouted. I'll give them a little while longer, then may go buy some starts from the garden store. Zucchini may be my favorite summer vegetable, so I'll have to have some in the garden one way or another!

 

I've also got several perennial veggies and fruits in my garden: rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, chives, sage, oregano, chocolate mint, apples, pears, and cherries. I'd love to have more fruit trees, maybe a plum or an Asian pear. But we make do with what we have for now. My little 1800 sq ft garden manages to feed the family from July - October most years, which is pretty good!

Paleo Chocolate Birthday Cake

Last year for my birthday hubby made me a very yummy birthday cake that was somewhat labor intensive to make. So this year on his birthday I decided to make one for him, but since it was sunny and warm outside, I didn't want to spend the whole day inside making cake. I decided to go for a quick and easy, but very yummy chocolate chocolate chip cake with a drizzled chocolate frosting. Everyone loved it and some even asked for seconds!

Chocolate Cake
1 C almond flour
2 Tbs. Coconut flour
3 T cocoa powder
4 Eggs
2 Tbs vanilla
1 tps cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C Honey
½ C applesauce
1 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients except chocolate chips. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into parchment lined cake pan.  I cut a circle of parchment for the bottom them made some wings to hang out over the sides to make it easier to remove from the pan. Bake about 20-25 minutes.  This recipe makes one 8" round cake. For layer cake double recipe.


Chocolate Drizzle Frosting
1 C Chocolate chips (use 72% or higher cocoa)
1/2 C coconut oil

Melt Chocolate and chips in a microwave safe bowl stirring frequently in 30 second intervals. Drizzle over cake when melted.

 

Paleo Sandwich Bread

I've been looking for a good paleo sandwich bread, and even did a Round up not long ago on several recipes out there, but I had to try to make a recipe on my own, just to see what I could do. I was on a baking kick the other day anyway and thought I'd give sandwich bread a try. I started from Cavegirl Kate's Herb Bun recipe then changed a few things and put it in a loaf pan. The top crust ended up very crunchy, which I like in a sandwich bread and the inside was soft and moist. I'm very pleased with the result, but when I make this again, I'll use a different pan. The one I used was a little too big for this recipe and the bread ended up a little shorter than you need to make a sandwich with it. I suppose you could double this recipe and use a large loaf pan to have a large slice of bread. Or, add some meat and veggies to what I made and you'd have some very yummy tiny sandwiches!

Sandwich Bread
1 1/2 C almond flour
2 Tbs coconut flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
5 eggs
1/4 C coconut oil, melted
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1/2 Tbs honey

Bring all ingredients to room temperature! Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a small bowl whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, salt, and baking soda.  Set aside. In another bowl,  add eggs, honey, and apple cider vinegar.  Mix until eggs are blended.  Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until well incorporated. add coconut oil and mix until well blended. Spoon into parchment lined loaf pan. (I made some parchment handles that went down one side of the loaf pan across the bottom and back up the other side so I could pull the loaf out easily.)  Bake for 45 minutes until golden. Cool in pan.

Taming the Crazy Morning Routine

I don't know about other parents out there, but I feel like I'm herding a bunch of cats every morning trying to get them to eat, get dressed, brush their teeth and get out the door in time to catch the bus. Yesterday was one of those not-so-good days where I felt like I was yelling at the kids from the time they got up till I put them on the bus. I don't like to do that; I don't like to feel like the "mean mommy"...and it stresses me out.

So after the kids were on the bus, I sat down and searched for ideas on making the morning routine less stressful and annoying. I found this article http://breezymama.com/2011/02/22/morning-dawdler/ called 3 Tips to get your Morning Dawdler Moving.  Basically the 3 tips are 1. Put kids in charge of their morning. 2. Tame the morning nag-fest by implementing “when-then” routines. and 3. Get yourself up and ready first. I found other articles with 10 tips and such, but these 3 seemed like the right ones for our family.

I then sat down and made a schedule for the kids' morning routine. This is the "when-then" routine where the kids know step by step what they should do from the time they get up till they walk out the door. My kids mostly know this already, but the times next to the items was new for them. If they know exactly what time they are to do a particular task, they can make that happen without thinking they have infinite time to eat their breakfast.

To implement #1, I then went out and bought alarm clocks for both of them.  I taught them how to use them and let them choose what time they wanted to wake up in the morning. The Girl chose to get up earlier than the schedule so she would have extra time to do her tasks. The Boy wanted to sleep as long as possible. But they made that choice on their own. They then carried the alarm clocks around with them all morning and referred to them and their chart to see what they were supposed to be doing.

End result was both got finished with everything 10 minutes early and got some extra playtime before school, and I didn't have to yell or remind even once! That is a total success in my book!

I also made a bed time routine chart...we'll see if that makes bed time easier as well. I'll keep you posted!