Brussels Sprouts Hash with Poached Eggs

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Katherine

I love poached eggs. I am constantly on the look out for a new bed for these lovelies to be served with. The latest one is brussels sprouts. I used to hate this veggie. Mostly, because it was served frozen, then boiled… and yuck! Fresh ones have much potential. They are like baby cabbages!

This recipe is fast for a weeknight dinner. It is also good for a Whole 30 or 21 Day Sugar Detox, if you use compliant bacon without added sugar.

Brussels Sprouts Hash with Poached Eggs – Makes two very large servings

1 lb of brussels sprouts
8 slices of bacon, sliced horizontally into thin strips
salt and pepper to taste
1T of apple cider vinegar
4 poached eggs

Gather your brussels sprouts

Put them through a food processor to slice thinly.

Chop your bacon and put into a pan. I used molasses and black pepper bacon. You could use whatever type you want. Add pepper if you are using plain bacon.

Cook the bacon until it is nearly cooked through and you have a nice bit of bacon fat to cook the greens in.

Add the brussels sprouts to the bacon and cook for 5-10 minutes until they are wilted. I err on the shorter side for cooking times because I like my veggies crunchy. Add in a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and salt and pepper.

Top with a poached egg. Are there many savoury dishes that don’t taste better with the addition of a poached egg? Didn’t think so.

Weekend adventures: Seed to Sausage

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Katherine

Last weekend, this Foodie Family packed up our vehicle and took a little road trip to visit Mr. Foodie’s parents at a campground. I’ll be honest, my real motivation for going was not the camping itself but its close proximity to an amazing little shop that I’ve heard great things about and was looking forward to checking out myself. Seed to Sausage, in Sharbot Lake, Ontario.

I love their logo. Just love it!

I forgot my camera on this trip (argh! but it was the least of our worries because we also forgot the potty and the kiddo’s hat… and more. Just wait for it!) but if you’d like a taste (ha!) of what Seed to Sausage is all about, check out this youtube video. Do check out their website for photos of the store itself. It’s so cutel!

What a hidden gem. A few local shops in the city sell a limited selection of their products, but it was a super experience going out to the store, tasting the products, talking to the owner and hearing about the store itself, how the products were made, and meeting the people who have helped get local food onto your plate. Their slogan “local. ethical. humble.” really speaks to the type of food that I want to put on plates on my family dinner table. They also had some not-so-common grocery items at the shop that I added to my pile on the counter. (fermented probiotic pickles! YES!!!!!!!) The little shop in the middle of nowhere was empty when we arrived but had a steady stream of traffic in and out shortly after.

Now, most importantly, the taste. Wow. Amazing. THIS is what meat should taste like! I sampled the chorizo, saucisson sec (dried sausage, literally! for the non French speaking readers), and the lomo (I think!). The flavours in the chorizo were especially out of this world. Just a thin slice on the tongue is all it takes to experience the robust taste of the smoked paprika. Phenomenal. I bought several of them and asked how long they would keep for, snickering a bit as I figured it didn’t matter because it would likely all be eaten before that became a concern.

Check out their website to find out more about their products! Not mentioned on their website, but fantastically delicious is their selection of fresh sausage. I think I bought about 30 of them! There were flavours such as apple and sage, pepper and caramelized onion, maple walnut, just to name a few. These blow any other sausages out of the water. And I consider myself quite fortunate to have a grocery store nearby that makes some pretty decent sausage without fillers. They were as delicious cooked fresh on the camping BBQ as they were frozen, thawed and popped on the grill at home. I used a thermometer to temp the insides to 160 degrees when I cooked them. It’s quite easy to overcook sausage if you aren’t careful.

As I went outside to grab my cooler to load up my pile, I had the quite unfortunate discovery that our car wouldn’t start. Say WHAT? It just wouldn’t start. And we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, with a two year old who thought it would also be a good time to pee his pants. It turned out to be a weird battery issue (it’s a 2009 Honda CRV, so not exactly a clunker!!). Thankfully the lovely family at the shop were incredibly kind and had booster cables on hand. And hey, if we were stranded for too long at least there was lots of yummy sausage to eat so we surely wouldn’t starve.

On a more exciting note, did I mention they have the most delicious BACON!? Flavors like garlic juniper and molasses/cracked pepper make for some mighty fine bacon. Even though I overcooked it (thanks for interrupting, two year old temper tantrum…), it was still so tasty!

Just beautiful…

And yes, there is more of this hiding in my freezer waiting to be devoured!

I will definitely be a return customer to Seed to Sausage. You can also check them out on Facebook. The keen eyed readers will note that my new header image is of delicious cured sausage from this shop as well.

Bacon Mushroom Burgers

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Katherine

So I’ve never really been a burger fan. Until recently! Now I’m excited by all the burger possibilities. I like lots of toppings on my burgers, too! But all those pesky toppings sometimes fall off, especially when you are eating it sans-pain (that’s bread-free, fools!), like I do. To continue my love affair with the NomNomPaleo.com ipad app, this was inspired by a recipe there for “Big-O Bacon Burgers”

Chop up the ingredients and put them IN the burger!

Bacon mushroom burgers – makes 6

1 lb grass fed ground beef
6 slices of bacon
1/2 lb of mushrooms (maybe more, maybe less?)

This is simple. Chop all the ingredients and mix them with the beef. Don’t do as I do in the pictures. I want you to chop the ingredients fairly small. The recipe on the iPad app pulses the bacon in the food processor. I think I will do that next time. Mix it all together and form into patties. BBQ them!

I sauteed the mushrooms and bacon before I added them to the beef. I want my bacon nice and crispy.

Toss them on the grill. Look at those flames. That’s called a fire from dripping bacon grease, yes it is!

Serve on a bed of lettuce. I added tomato, onion and dijon to mine. The rest of the family had theirs on buns. Yummo.

Egg, bacon and avocado salad

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Katherine

I probably saw this on Pinterest or something. But the idea popped into my head to make this. I love egg salad. But I am extremely picky about it and have to make it myself. Nothing is more repulsive than pre-made slimy egg salad sandwiches.

Even more importantly, nothing is more disappointing than when you send your husband to the fridge in the birthing unit’s patient kitchen to find you something to eat in the middle of the night because you are starving, exhausted, in pain, fiddling around in the dark attempting to breastfeed your one day old baby… and he comes back to report there is nothing there except a few lonely egg salad sandwiches. No thanks. I’ll starve. Thank goodness there was a grocery store nearby and for kind friends who delivered all my favourite foods to me from the other end of the city. Hospital food sucks. Especially sketchy egg salad on wonder bread. Anyhow…

The pic is kinda crappy, and no progress photos because posting this was an after thought, but make it anyway. Ok?

Avocado, egg and bacon salad – this made three servings, served on lettuce as pictured

5 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 small avocados, chopped
a few slices of bacon, chopped and cooked
1/4c of homemade mayo
Salt and pepper
a squirt of lime juice and chopped cilantro (optional)

Mix it all up and enjoy! If you want to save it or pack it in your lunch, put it in a sealed container and press plastic wrap right up against it. This will help reduce the browning from the avocado. Yummy.