Crispy Sweet & Sour Brussels Sprouts

My husband and I disagree about how we like to cook Brussels Sprouts. He likes them soft and cooked in the slow cooker with chicken and broccoli. I like them crispy and cooked in the oven. So I bought some at the grocery store the other day and was only making them for myself to go with some sausage I had taken out. So I wanted to make crispy ones! These were inspired by some recipes I browsed on Pinterest.

These were absolutely amazing. You have to make them!

Ingredients
1) 2 pounds of Brussels Sprouts (I bought the bag at Costco)
2) 2 tablespoons of ghee or coconut oil
3) 1 tablespoon maple syrup
4) 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
5) 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
Extra; Salt, a few drops hot sauce (optional)

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Cut your sprouts in half. Place on a lined baking sheet ( I used aluminum foil)

3) Melt your ghee or coconut oil and drizzle on the sprouts. Mix with your hands to blend, and then sprinkle with salt.
4) Bake for 60 minutes on the top rack of your oven, stirring every 20 minutes. They will be dark and crispy when done.

5) Once the sprouts are baked, mix your maple/fish sauce/lemon juice/(optional hot sauce), and then toss on your Brussels sprouts. Enjoy!

Chili Lime Roasted Acorn Squash

Need a good side dish? There are so many wonderful varieties of squash out there and they all taste a little different. Acorn squash is really versatile and gets soft and sweet when roasted. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1) 1-2 acorn squash (I used 2)
2) 1 tablespoon ghee or coconut oil
3) 1 tablespoon lime juice
4) 1 teaspoon chili powder

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Melt your ghee or coconut oil, and mix with lime juice and chili powder.

3) Cut your squash into wedges.

4) Place your wedges on a lined baking sheet. Drizzle with your oil mixture.

5) Bake for 25-35 minutes, until soft when poked with a fork.

"Cheesy" Bacon Cauliflower Muffins

Cauliflower is such a versatile little vegetable. This recipe uses nutritional yeast to give a cheesy flavor to the muffins, but if you don't have any you can omit it. Or you can use real cheese if you tolerate dairy! This makes a lot of muffins and lasted well in the fridge for 3-4 days after making it. Use it as a delicious, portable side dish.

Ingredients
1) 2 pounds of cauliflower florets ( I used the bag from Costco)
2) 4 eggs
3) 1/4 cup coconut flour
4) 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (optional, but gives the "cheesy" flavor)
5) 1/4 - 1/2 cup bacon bits (depends on how much you want in each muffin, start with 1/4 cup and add more if it looks like too little!)
Extra: 1 teaspoon salt

**Makes 18 muffins**

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
1) Steam your cauliflower. You can do this on the stove, or the lazy way like I did: microwave. I placed the cauliflower in a very large bowl, added 1/4 cup water, and cooked for 8-10 minutes until fork tender.

2) Add half your steamed cauliflower and the 4 eggs to a food processor or blender.

3) Puree until smooth, and then add the remaining cauliflower. Puree until smooth.

4) Pour your cauliflower/egg mixture back into your bowl you used to microwave it. Add your 1/4 of coconut flour and stir to combine.

5) Next add your 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, bacon bits, and salt. Stir to combine.

6) Using a measuring cup or cookie scoop, divide your mixture into cupcake molds. I used silicone to ensure no sticking. It made 18, but yours could make a few more or less depending on ingredient size.

7) Bake at 400 for 30-35 minutes, until firm when touched.

5-Spices Roasted Potato Wedges

These were sort of my take on Red Robin's delicious fries. Man, those are so good. We don't go out to eat very often, but when we do sometimes we go to RR for their bottomless fries. Their spice mixture is just so tasty!

So I just tried to throw some spices together and hope it was equally as good on some roasted potatoes. This takes regular potatoes and really jazzes them up! We served these with dinner, and also with a nice breakfast when we had my brother-in-law over.

We try to add in some extra starches on days we have workouts, but if you are trying to be lower carb you might want to make these on special occasions and not for regular eating.

Ingredients
1) 2 pounds of potatoes of choice (russet, sweet, white, red...)
2) 1 tablespoon cooking oil (ghee, coconut oil, etc)
3) 1 tablespoon of spice mixture

Ingredients for Spice Mixture
1) 1 tablespoon salt
2) 1 tablespoon paprika
3) 1 tablespoon chili powder
4) 1 teaspoon dried basil (or Italian seasoning)
5) 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Get out a cookie sheet and coat it with a silicone mat or with parchment paper.
2) Chop up your potatoes into similar shaped cubes, to ensure even cooking.

3) Drizzle your 1 tablespoon of cooking oil over the cubes and mix with your hands.
4) Mix up your spice mixture. This will make a lot, so use something you can store (we used a small plastic container). You'll be able to make this recipe about 4 times by just making this spice mixture once.

5) Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the spice mixture on your potatoes, and use your hands to mix and ensure even coating.
6) Cook for 35-45 minutes, flipping over at the half way point.

Super Easy 1-Minute Mayo

I've had bad luck with making my own mayonnaise in the past. Sometimes it emulsifies, and sometimes it doesn't. Drizzling in your oil as slow as possible is really tedious and if you do it wrong at all, your mayo is ruined! So I saw on buzzfeed about how you can make mayo using an immersion blender. I tried it out, instead of drizzling the oil in, and it took less than 1 minute and was amazing! I really like a lot of mustard and lemon juice in my mayo, so the recipe below is adjusted for my liking. You can tweek it however you like.

You'll never make slow mayo again!

Ingredients
1) 1 egg yolk, room temperature
2) 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
3) 1 tablespoon water
4) 1 tablespoon lemon juice
5) 1 cup oil of choice (I used avocado oil. Other options: macadamia nut oil, extra light olive oil.)

Instructions
1) Place egg yolk, mustard, water and lemon juice into a tall container.
2) Add your 1 cup of oil.

3) Using an immersion blender, place blade into bottom of your container. Turn on, and pump up and down a few times until everything is blender.

4) Season with salt & pepper, if desired. Store in the fridge.

Preserve your herbs!

Do you buy herbs a lot? I definitely do not, because I also end up using a small portion and the rest goes bad because I'm not making another recipe that needs it. I bought three different herbs at the store for a marinade I was doing, and I had so much left over. I knew I didn't want to let it go bad, so I thought I would try to preserve it and freeze it. I have seen some ideas for doing it with olive oil, but we cook with ghee more than anything, so I decided to use that. Chopped up some herbs, topped with ghee, put it in a silicon muffin cup, and popped in the freezer. Once frozen, I popped it right out and then put in a plastic bag. Now whenever I want to use one of those spices, I can grab one of the frozen ones and add ghee and spices to my dish. Win!

Ingredients
1) Chopped, fresh herbs (whichever you have that might not get used--I had basil, mint and cilantro)
2) Ghee, melted
--You will need silicone cupcake liners for the easiest results

Instructions
1) Roughly chop up your herbs. Place 1 tablespoon in each silicone cup. Make sure you know which ones are which if you are doing multiple spices! I used different color liners to distinguish different herbs.
2) Place 2 tablespoons of melted ghee into each silicone cup that has herbs in it. Press down the herbs to ensure they are covered.

3) Place all the cups on a baking sheet or in a baking dish, something where they can stay flat.
4) Place the sheet into the freezer for 2-4 hours, until completely frozen.

5) Once frozen, simply pop out the frozen ghee and herbs. Place in ziplock bag labeled with the herb used. When you want to use it, you can melt in the microwave or pop in the skillet with your recipe and you'll get delicious ghee plus your herb. How awesome!

Easy Dutch Oven Braised Cabbage

I love cabbage, in all forms. But my favorite is definitely sweet, tender, roasted cabbage. This dish was incredibly easily and it was really good under a nice meat with some sauce! It is equally as delicious and stands up well as a side dish. Go crazy---cabbage is cheap, healthy, and awesome!

Ingredients
1) 1 large head of cabbage
2) 1 medium onion, diced
3) 2 tablespoons cooking oil (ghee, coconut oil, tallow, etc)
4) 1 cup of chicken or beef stock
5) 1/2 tablespoon of salt

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put your dutch oven on the stove and turn on heat to medium-high.
2) Chop your onion, then add your cooking oil to the pan. Throw in your onions, and stir.
3) Add half of your salt to your onions and cook for 8-10 minutes, until starting to be translucent and soft.

4) While your onions are cooking, chop up your cabbage. It's easiest if you chop into quarters, take out the core, and then slice into ribbons, but you could throw in the food processor if you prefer.
5) After the onions have cooked, add in your cabbage. It will be very full at this point! Drizzle your 1 cup of stock on top, and your remaining salt.

6) Put the lid on and pop in the oven for 60 minutes, stirring at the half way point and taking the lid off for the last 30 minutes.

Maple Nut Roasted Butternut Squash

When cooking a nice dinner for my love, I knew we needed a good side dish and I remembered we had bought a pack of butternut squash cubes at Costco. By the way, aren't those just so awesome and handy? Man, I am glad they are back in stock because they are delicious and so much easier than doing it yourself! Anyway, I was going to make roasted butternut squash with honey, like I usually do. But my love didn't want those at all, so I had to think on my feet. I thought adding a nutty topping might make it fun and different, so I gave it a try.

Verdict? Super awesome! Even with the maple syrup, it's not sweet like a thanksgiving dish. It just had a nice semi-sweet taste with a great crunch at the end. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Ingredients
1) 2 pounds of butternut squash, peeled and cubed (or one pre-cut pack from Costco)
2) 2 tablespoons ghee or butter, or coconut oil
3) 2 tablespoons maple syrup
4) 1/2 cup of nuts, your choice (I used hazelnuts, but almonds would be great too!)
5) 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) In a 9x13 pan, or a rimmed baking with silicone mat or parchment paper, add your chopped butternut squash.
3) In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of ghee and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. Stir well.

4) Pour the liquid mixture on top of your squash. Mix with your hands to ensure everything is evenly covered.

5) In a food processor or blender, grind the 1/2 cup of nuts down until small pieces, almost like flour.

6) Spread the ground nuts evenly over your squash. Sprinkle with salt.

7) Bake for 30-35 minutes, until tender to your liking.

Garlic Ghee Roasted Bok Choy

I bought another order of ghee from Pure Indian Foods the other day, and decided to try their garlic-infused ghee as well as the normal ghee we get. Not only do we really love their ghee, but the flavored ghee is so fun and has an incredible taste! I used their garlic ghee for this recipe, but you could simulate by using ghee and minced garlic. But if you are in the market for some more great cooking oils, try the garlic ghee! You won't regret it. It tastes like garlic bread in a bite!

So when we were at my parent's for Christmas, my grandmother had us over for dinner and served us the tastiest elk steak (that they hunted themselves!), and a side of grilled baby bok choy. It was amazing! Couldn't believe I had never tried that vegetable before. So once we got back to our home, I knew I wanted to try and make some type of bok choy dish. This recipe is super easy and quick in the oven.

Ingredients
1) 2 heads of baby bok choy, about 1 pound
2) 1/2 tablespoon garlic ghee, or ghee/butter/coconut oil + minced garlic
3) 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of salt
4) Dash of pepper

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 400. Wash your bok choy. Take each of the leaves off and wash them thoroughly. They'll probably have a lot of dirt on them. No worries!
2) Place your leaves in a 9x13 cooking dish, or on a lined baking sheet.

3) Melt your ghee and drizzle it evenly over your entire dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Start with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. If you think it needs more, add after cooking and you've tasted it.

4) Cook for 8-15 minutes, until done to your desire. If you want some crunch still, aim for 8-10 minutes. I like mine cooked more so we did about 13 minutes.

Roasted Veggie Side Dish

I make 90% one-pot meals in this house, so we don't normally have to worry about a vegetable side dish. But we've started doing a nice, sit-down, Saturday night meal together that's not from the crockpot. We cook it together and it's really nice. We have been alternating between steamed salmon, pork cutlets, and chicken thighs for our protein, but usually always end up with roasted carrots for our side. I picked up some delicious looking broccoli and cauliflower at Costco this week and wanted to try and add a little variety to our Saturday night meal.

These were delicious. Like SERIOUSLY. Roasting vegetables just makes them taste so much better. So much so that my dog actually ate a couple pieces of the leftover cauliflower from this. My dog does not like vegetables very much, but apparently she changed her tune when we roasted them. And now we feed her roasted carrots for a treat instead of other, processed treats. This is a win for everyone!

Ingredients

1) 2 large handfuls of fresh broccoli (about 3 cups)

2) 2 large handfuls of fresh cauliflower (about 3 cups)

(Or you can use 6 cups of just one type)

3) 1 tablespoon cooking oil of your choice (coconut oil, ghee, duck fat, tallow...)

4) 1/4 teaspoon of salt

5) 1/4 teaspoon seasoning of your choice (cumin, curry, chili powder, 5 spice, etc)

I used ghee and chili powder for this version

**Servings: 2-4

Instructions

1) Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

2) Add your vegetables to a large bowl, and add your oil. Mix well, and then sprinkle your seasonings on top.

                                    

3) Place your coated vegetables onto a lined cookie sheet (you a silicon mat, or parchment paper, or tin foil). Spread out evenly.

4) Roast for 15 minutes at 425. Then use a spatula to flip/stir the veggies.

5) Roast for another 10-20 minutes, depending on how cooked/tender you like your veggies. I cooked these about 30 minutes total.

Honey Roasted Butternut Squash

This tastes like Thanksgiving to me. Sweet, delicious Thanksgiving.

It's the weekend, so I am cooking us up a stand-alone protein and some veggie sides for dinner. I usually do carrots, but had just bought a few boxes of diced up butternut squash from Costco the other day. So this was a hail marry---I was hoping it would be delicious and easy and was it ever!

Hope you enjoy. I am definitely going to make this more often, and I will for sure make it come Thanksgiving this year!

Ingredients
1) 2 pounds of cubed butternut squash (or 1 large squash, peeled and cubed)
2) 2 tablespoons of melted ghee or butter (could use coconut oil, but won't taste as buttery obviously)
3) 1 tablespoon of honey
4) 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
5) 1/4 teaspoon of salt

**Servings: 2-4

Instructions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Melt your ghee or butter in a small bowl, then add in your honey and stir to combine.

3) Place your squash on a lined cookie sheet (I used a silicon mat, but parchment or tin foil would work).
4) Drizzle the honey butter mixture on top of the squash, and then use your hands to evenly distribute and coat all of the squash.

5) Sprinkle on your cinnamon, and do the same thing to mix it evenly.
6) Sprinkle with salt.

7) Roast in the oven for 30-35 minutes, flipping/stirring the squash at the half way point. I wanted mine really tender, so I cooked the full 35 minutes, but if you'd prefer a bite to your squash, cook 25-30 minutes only.

Shredded Balsamic Bacon Brussel Sprouts

I don't know that I ever had brussel sprouts growing up, to be honest. But once I got more into cooking and into Paleo, I had dabbled in some vegetable exploration. There are so many different kinds of delicious vegetables out there with insane health benefits! Brussel sprouts have a very similar taste to broccoli, in my opinion, and are absolutely amazing when roasted. But I wanted to try something new with them this time. This recipe was inspired by a cookbook I was browsing and saw the use of broccoli and brussel sprout "slaw" to add some bulk to recipes. Also, I had just gotten some very tasty cherry balsamic vinegar at the farmer's market and this provided a perfect place to test it out!

And the bacon? Why not! I used some uncured, sugar-free delicious bacon from US Wellness Meats, who are the best online meat source that I have found!

Add this delicious side dish to some salmon or steak and have a delicious dinner the whole family will enjoy, and the kids won't even realize it's brussel sprouts!

Ingredients

1. 2 pounds (one package) of brussel sprouts

2. 8 oz/slices of bacon, diced

3. 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar or flavored balsamic vinegar

4. 1/4 cup of olive oil or coconut oil

Instructions

1. Heat up a large skillet over medium-low heat, add your diced bacon, and cook until the bacon bits have shed a lot of their oil and are crispy.

2. While the bacon is cooking, use a food processor with the shredder attachment and shred your brussel sprouts.

3. Strain the bacon from your pan and leave in the bacon grease.

4. Add the shredded brussel sprouts to your pan and raise the heat to medium. Cook for 10-15 minutes until your sprouts are tender and browned.

5. In a bowl, mix your vinegar and oil and add it to the brussel sprouts. Add back in your bacon at this time as well. Cook an additional 2-5 minutes until everything is warmed.

6. Serve these up! Enjoy!