Spicy green tomatoes

The local produce scene in Jackson, MS right now reminds me a little of the winters in Indiana, except that it is too hot, not too cold, for many summer veggies to bear fruit. My fall favorites, like onions and green tomatoes feel really seasonal right now.  As much as I love fried green tomatoes, there are lots of other ways to eat them.  Here's one that makes a great, spicy, tangy, breakfast veggie. I mixed mine with some browned, seasoned ground turkey and topped it with a couple of over-light eggs.

In a large skillet, saute in coconut oil:

1/4 - 1/2 large red onion, quartered and sliced
until it begins to soften.  Add:
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 hot banana pepper, sliced, without seeds (I used a red one for color, use more or less to taste) saute until onions and garlic are lightly browned. Push this stuff to the edge of your pan and add:
1 very large or 2 smaller green tomatoes, quartered and sliced
Arrange in a single layer, brown and then flip to brown the other side.  Drizzle with:
3 Tablespoons cider or rice vinegar, not balsamic (I used sugar-free rice vinegar).
mix everything together and cook for another few minutes until the vinegar evaporates and everything is softened.  Season with salt to taste.

Egg-cake experiment

I'm not confused. These are NOT pancakes but I think they could be tasty pancake-like breakfast food with a little tweaking, and they don't use, say, 10 pounds of nuts, a bunch of bananas, or anything else that I wouldn't eat in the course of a normal meal.  They hold up really well and could be spread with whatever pancake topping you like.

Heres the basic idea...they're fluffy because I whip the egg whites separately from the yolks and fold them in later like a souffle.  This version is totally neutral, and I imagine you could season or augment them to be sweet or savory. . . say, grated sweet potato and cinnamon - zucchini - coconut flakes - coco powder - spinach. . .

Separate:
3 Eggs, putting the yolks and whites in separate bowls
Beat egg whites until thick and fluffy, they should form soft peaks when the beaters are pulled out.

Combine:
3 yolks from above
1/3 C Water
3 Tablespoons coconut flower
Beat until thoroughly combined and as thick as possible.

Gently fold the yolks into the whites, combining without totally deflating your egg whites.  Spoon onto a greased medium skillet to form small pancakes, cook a few minutes each side until golden and just cooked through.

10 Minute Turkey Tomato Spinach Meal

A better version of this would start with some sauteed onion and garlic, finish with better seasoning and so on and so forth.  This, however is perfect just the way it is when I'm hungry and tired and want to eat, like, right now:

In a skillet on high, heat:
Olive oil
and brown
1 lb Ground Turkey with
1 Tablespoon Sage
1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
until cooked through, and remove from pan.

Without cleaning pan, add
1 14 oz can Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
1 big spoonful (about 1/3 cup) tomato paste
cook, stirring occasionally until thickened just slightly

Meanwhile, fill your dinner bowl with
Fresh Spinach
Pile it as high as you can, since it will cook way down and microwave: 30 seconds for baby spinach, 45 seconds for regular spinach

Once tomato sauce is cooked, stir turkey back in and heat through.  Remove from head and add
1/3 can coconut milk

Pour a portion of the meat sauce over your spinach and chow down.  Try the leftovers over roasted spaghetti squash.

How I make lunch

This is not really a recipe, but I find myself telling a lot of folks about my lunch-building process lately, so I thought it might be useful.  This is how I make my work lunches. They're no masterpiece, and I know some people are not entirely cool with eating 5-day-old chicken, but it works for me.

Every Sunday I get home from grocery shopping, and prepare...


(1) Enough chicken breast of a week of lunch, seasoned with whatever I'm in the mood for. (Italian, greek, tex-mex...)

(2) Week's worth of salad.  I avoid delicate greens and veggies that get mushy, so usually use: parsley, napa cabbage, spinach, parsley, watercress, bell peppers, carrots, celery, seedless cucumber and avoid: tomatoes, regular cukes, run-of the mill lettuce, baby spinach.

(3) A bottle of home made salad dressing, again, the recipe varies at whim.

Then, in 5 1-gallon zip-lock bags, I layer up...

(1) The chicken, cooled and chopped up.  This goes at the bottom so it doesn't mess up your veggies.

(2) The salad stuff.

(3) A handful of nuts - almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, whatever.  Sure, these are a *little* soggy by friday, but I'm lazy enough not to care.  Sometimes I'll do half an avocado sliced in Monday and Tuesday's lunch instead of nuts, but they won't make it till Friday.

I leave my salad dressing and a big bowl at work, and grab a bag every morning on the way out the door.  At lunch time, I dress my salad in the bag, shake it up, dump it in my bowl, and make my co-workers jealous.

Snacks!

No, not rose petals:  beet chips and nori chips

While I try not to give myself too many attractive options for mindless eating, I'm working on a few reasonable "emergency" munchies that keep me out of my roommate's leftover pizza.

There are some good ideas here, but my quest continues to find a few good options that will work on the fly. For now I am figuring out how many different vegetables I can turn into "chips" in the oven. The beets and sweet potatoes would also be good PWO with a protein. Here's what I know so far...

For all veggies:
Set the oven to 250, and turn on the convection or "speed bake" if you have it.  Slice veggies to a very thin 1/8 inch as evenly as possible.  I get better results if I slice most veggies in half lengthwise first so they don't roll around while I'm trying to precision-cut. Grease your baking sheets with coconut oil, and spread one layer think.  Keep and eye on them while cooking, turning once they start curling up, and moving them to towels or plates to cool once they curl up and just start to brown.

Beets:
Peel, sprinkle with a little red wine vinegar.  Up to 2 hours in the oven depending on thickness.  Red beets seem to fare better than golden beets.

Sweet Potatoes:
Leave skins on. Try seasoning with cinnamon and chipotle powder.  Up to 2 hours depending on thickness.

Kale:

(Don't slice!) Tear out thick center stem, toss with good oil to just barely coat (I used almond oil), scatter on a try and sprinkle with a little good salt (I like smoked salt or truffle salt). About 15 minutes or when they turn dark green.  These are really brittle, and while tasty, do not travel well.

Radishes:
People make them, but I tried was not impressed.  Don't bother.

Nori:
You have to like seaweed to enjoy these.  See instructions here.

I tend to micro-manage this process, picking chips off one at a time as they get done, but they should finish up evenly if you slice them very evenly to begin with.  They crisp up a little once they're cool, so its ok if they're a little bendy so long as they've curled up and toasted a little.

Coconut Lime Chipotle Sauce

I made this to go over salmon, but I think it would work for shrimp or cold chicken salad as well:

Soak in hot water for 5 minutes:
3 dried ancho chiles

Remove chile stems and cores, and toss in food processor or blender with:
juice of 1 lime
1 can of coconut milk
5 cloves of garlic (unless its date night)
Chipotle powder to taste (its spicy!)
A little salt if you're so inclined

Blend smooth, enjoy!

Hummus!

While I'm in the thick of the end-of-semester chaos, I'll try to post some good links.  I just found this one for paleo hummus.  Not sure if this violates the Whole30 no paleo-fying rule, but its got to be better than pizza, right?