Chocolate Chile Chicken Mole (Ole!)

Yesterday my husband and I attended a paleo/primal Mexican themed potluck that was to die for! As it was a small gathering we ate each offering as a single course dish, introduced with ingredients & other details by their respective "chefs." The presentation was sooo appealing and the food delicious beyond expectation.

Thanks to Pinterest, I came across an interesting recipe modified on the Food Blog: Our Life in Food

 Slow Cooker Chocolate Chicken Mole

get recipe from: Our Life in Food

This recipe was a bit difficult to shop for here in Muskoka (especially, uh... last minute) so it is modified even further. :)

Unfortunately, I only had a sweet onion on hand. If I were to repeat I would use a stronger onion. I added the choc chips after it was mostly cooked, as I felt it need to be sweeter. My husband said he preferred it less sweet and felt then that it only needed salt. So, do try it before adding the 72% chocolate to decide if you want to go sweet or salty.

This dish was easy to prepare (apparently not something usually experienced with a Mole) and cooked in a crock pot. 

It presented prettily with diced advocado mixed with shredded cilantro and a swirl of sour cream piped on top.

Veggie Turkey Casseroli, with cheese!

Get your Food Processor Freak On!

It's a veggie massacre. Seriously, my kitchen looked like a cauliflower bomb went off
and some innocent onions got hit.

None of my family could tell I used cauliflower...never mind a whole one!
Good for breakfast too. Though I seem to prefer all the dishes I've made with cauliflower warmed over straight out of the fridge. (Extra step...booo-hisss!)


Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups diced cooked turkey leftovers
1 cauliflower
1/2 bunch celery
3 pieces sun-dried tomatoes in oil
2 sweet onions
tblsp basil
butter
1/2 cup shredded cheddar and 3/4 cup mozzarella
5 eggs
1/2 cup sourcream

Make it work:

FPFO 1> Scour the last bit of your holiday turkey for usable meat. 

I got about 2 1/2 cups of diced off of mine. Toss into FP and pulse until more shredded than diced.
Set aside in bowl.

FPFO 2> Rice up a head of cauliflower and stick it in the microwave, covered, 

for about 5min on veggie setting.

FPFO 3> Chop the dickens out of two sweet onions, until you think to yourself 

"shoot, that almost looks puree."

Scoop onion into hot frying pan with melted butter.Keep an eye on that! 

Use your third hand to stir.

FPFO 4> Add 3 sun-dried tomato (in oil) sections and 1/2 a bunch of 

a whole celery stalk (no leafy bits) and chop the dickens out of those too...just like the onions. 

Add tblsp or other significant amount of Basil

And the celery/sd tomatoes to the onions and keep cooking...it all turns somewhat golden yellow.

Take cauliflower out of microwave, add in a tblsp or better of butter,

Mix into the cauliflower the onion/celery/sd tomatoes,

Mix in the slightly shredded turkey.

Spread into casserole dish.

In a med bowl crack 5 eggs, 

Add 1/2 cup sour cream,

Add half a quarter teaspoon of vanilla (yes I did)

whisk together,

Add 1/2 cup shredded old cheddar cheese

Mix together and then pour evenly over rice/turkey/onion etc

gently mix this in

Top with a blend of mozerella and cheddar cheese

Bake (in your toaster oven if you can) at 375 for 45 minutes 

or until top is golden/starting to brown at edges.

Sunbutter Banana on Chia Chia (Bread)

NO BRAINER Day

2 slices Chia Chia Bread 

Sunbutter

small Banana

Chia Chia Bread: LOVE this bread from Silver Hills: made from high fibre chia seeds, gluten free, biodegradeable bag, 97% organic, vegan, kosher, no dairy,  no oil, no additives, no artificial preservatives, no eggs, or "genetically modified anything."

Sunbutter: Sunflower seed spread, gluten free, nut free

Pan Fried Eggplant Pizza

I have no idea if anyone in their right mind would try this,

 but this is what happened in my kitchen a couple nights ago:

I took a skillet and added margarine (any fat will do ) to a hot pan. 

Added some 1/4 inch thick sliced eggplant disks.

Added some slices of pepperoni around the disks to cook

Darkly browned one side of eggplant and flipped.

Spooned pizza sauce onto each disk and spread with back of spoon.

Sprinkled generously grated cheese on each. (Never mind the spill over into hot pan)

Moved the pepperoni onto each.

Added a few green olives.

Added more grated cheese.

Sprinkled basil

FLIPPED!

Yes, I did. I flipped those pizzas cheese side down.

Maybe  I didn't have to. But I did.

It took some muscle and a metal spatula to get those bad boys out of the pan, but 

the crusty cheese crunch was yummy!

(uh...yes it's quite normal in this case to re-spread the toppings after traumatic pan removal, but hey...it's a one pan meal -- that counts for something!)

Ingredients:

I large eggplant. (I had almost half left over and I made 9 pizzas from it)

shredded cheese (your preference)

Toppings (Your preference)

Basil

Nerve

The Brunch Muffin

I had two recipes in front of me, both from Mark'sDailyApple.com:

Breakfast Spinach Frittata and  Omelette Muffins

I had the ingredients for both, but decided, heck, I'm just going to make my own variation as suggested in the Omelette Muffin recipe. 

to make 12 muffins:

Preheat oven 350 (I used my toaster oven on convection bake)

Ingredients:

• 8 eggs
• 1/4 shredded cheddar
• 6 balls of chopped frozen spinach (defrosted in microwave)
• tsp basil
• pinch salt & pepper
• 1/3 of a red pepper diced, and 2 slices red onion finely chopped and cooked in coconut ghee, placed on paper towel to cool
• 6 slices bacon, reduced salt, cooked, cooled
• feta cheese

Make it work:

1. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
2. Pre cook peppers and onions, after done and in same pan, cook bacon.
3. Mix the egg, spinach, spices, and cheddar cheese in bowl. 
4. Add in cooled red pepper and red onion.
5. Spoon two tbls of this mixture into each cup, then divide the rest between (fills your paper cup about 1/2 way)
6. Top with crumbled feta cheese
7. Tear 1/2 slice bacon per muffin and top

Bake for 18-20 minutes, let cool

Super tasty! Of course, you do have to be a fan of the flavours listed in the ingredients.  

Create your own flavour mix!

Turkey & Gravy On Riced Cauliflower

What I cooked up with some left over Christmas turkey and some pan juices I hadn't done anything with yet.
For the holidays I had riced 2 cauliflower heads and kept in a baggie in fridge for quick access. So this meal cam together in a snap. Serves only 1 or two though.

Time in kitchen: 12 minutes

Ingredients:

• cooked Turkey, white or dark meat, it's your call, diced, 1- 1 1/2cups
• Pan juices, 3/4 cup approx
• Riced cauliflower, 3/4 cup cooked
• pinch salt
• butter or margarine as you prefer (to flavour cauliflower)
• basil, thyme, onion powder (OR just poulty seasoning) to taste
• Tapioca starch

1. Microwave cauliflower in a covered dish, remove and add butter/salt
2. In a small sauce pan heat pan juices to a boil, add spices
3. slowly add/sprinkle 1 tbls tapioca starch into boiling juices, cook until thickened 
4. add turkey to juices, stir to heat through and coat

Spoon turkey mixture onto cauliflower. So good!

Turkey & Riced Cauliflower Casserole

With mushrooms, onions and cheese!
Though if I'd had some I would have added Italian sausage and celery.

The plan was to check out "leftover turkey" recipes. I found this Easy Crockpot Breakfast Pie from PaleoOMG.com and I thought....7hrs wait time? LOL Can't I just make it right now? Eat it in 30?
And I don't have yams on hand. I do have riced cauliflower. But can I make something similar with riced cauliflower? (my primal newbie-ness is showing) So I Google cauliflower-rice-casserole and came up with a page full at Yummly.com 

Yes I can make something similar with riced cauliflower. I decide to wing it based loosely on my brief research scan of two recipes. HA
The ingredients amounts are eyeballed to my casserole dish (what can I fit in?)

Time in Kitchen: 15min

Ingredients:

• leftover Turkey, cubed/diced etc, 3 cups
• approx 4 cups riced cauliflower, cooked
• a package of mushrooms, cooked (optional, or use as much as you want)
• 1 onion (I used a large sweet onion because I prefer them)
• butter or fat for cooking mushrooms & onions and other veggies like celery if you have it
• shredded cheese (couple of handfuls for topping, cheddar or moz mix)

Liquids & spice: (about 2 cups all in)

• 4-6 eggs (you make the call)
• milk or a mix of cream and milk
• 2 tsp basil
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1-2 tsp thyme as you prefer
• 1/4 -1/2 tsp salt

preheat oven 350
(I cooked this in my toaster oven on convection bake setting, at 350, for 35 minutes, until cheese was golden!)

1. Cook riced cauliflower in a covered bowl in microwave (4minutes veg setting)
2. Toss fat & onions, mushrooms etc into skillet to cook as you prefer soft or crisp
3. While everything is cooking crack your eggs into med bowl, add spices and milk/cream to make about 2 cups liquid.
4. Spoon cauliflower into casserole dish, mix in turkey, and veggies, pour eggs/milk over all and mix gently. Pat flat with back of spoon. Spread Cheese over top. - optionally, could probably mix the cheese all in instead of layered on top)

So, everything is practically precooked and I just need to cook the eggs and melt the cheese.
Best served warm.