Paleo Eggplant Pizza

One of ideas food gurus suggest to instill healthy eating habits in your kids is to let them pick our a few 'exotic' new foods to try each week while you're at the store.  Today's trip to Woodman's resulted in imitation cherry chocolate chips from my teenager and eggplant and Chinese cabbage from my 5 yr old.  I did a quick search on recipes for the eggplant and decided on mini eggplant pizzas. the 5 year old  helped me slice them, bake them, top them and then she tried it!   

Bottom line?  She was interested, involved and adventurous???? And I have an entire plate of eggplant Parmesan pizzas to eat tonight, but it's progress right????  Look at the Mother's Day Card in her hand.  It says in her handwriting, "thank you mommy for taking good care of me!"  I'll keep trying. ;)

Here's what we did:

Slice eggplant into 1/4 inch slices.  Lightly coat with olive oil.  Bake at 350 for 5 minutes.  Remove from oven, top each slice with sauce (I used marinara) and mozzarella.  Sprinkle on Parmesan cheese and bake or broil until cheese is toasted and bubbly.  Serve warm.

2 course Fondue: low carb dinner/dessert

It was my husband's birthday last week and I surprised him with an overnight at our favorite B & B, the 'Lazy Cloud'. (If you go please use our name for the referral so we can earn a free nights stay ;). Anyway, I was a little nervous about what we were going to eat to stay on our low carb, no sugar, gluten diet. Not to mention there is only a mini fridge and microwave in the suite. As I was thinking about it it came to me that I could make fondue, which is also terribly romantic, and stay on the all natural and non processed food path! Here's what I did:

First, I oven baked a large sirloin steak wrapped in foil and seasoned with our usual garlic salt and Cajun spices until cooked to med-rare. I removed it and sliced into chunks when cooled. I stored it in a microwave safe container with lid.

Next I made a large bar of my all natural and sugar free chocolate by melting 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1 Tbsp butter. Then whisking in 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 2 Tbsp honey, 1 tbsp half n half, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, vanilla and orange extract.
I poured it into a waxed paper lined dish and put it into the fridge to harden. I removed it when hardened and broke it into fourths, stored in a gallon Ziplock bag.

Finally I steamed broccoli for 5 minutes in my steamer, it was a little on the raw side but I knew we would be heating it up in the microwave and didn't want to over cook it. I also cut up all my red peppers.

I packed the rest of the ingredients into a cooler bag along with my sterno and fondue pot and off we went. When we were ready to eat I lit the sterno and started melting 2 cups of shredded Colby jack cheese, 1/4 cup half n half, 1 Tbsp butter, 2 slices Swiss cheese and 1/4 really good winter ale beer :). While the cheese was melting we warmed up the meat and broccoli. It took about 10 minutes altogether and we were ready to eat. It was so good! We filled up pretty fast, so we decided to save the chocolate fondue and fruit for breakfast. Have I ever mentioned how much I love chocolate for breakfast before????

In the morning while my coffee was brewing in the coffee pot we melted 1/2 of the homemade chocolate bar in the fondue pot over a candle. The sterno seemed to hot and I didn't want to scorch it. When the chocolate was ready we pushed the cinnamon rolls and muffins the B & B provide out of our way and started dipping! It was way better (I had one bite of a cinnamon roll ;).

I wasn't sure if this experience was blog material or not, but I hope I've encouraged you to think outside the box! We thought the meal was perfect and saved the normal $100 we would spent eating out. More importantly we saved precious alone time by not eating out in public. Alone time is what the whole B &B was about, after all!

Oh yeah, and as a thank you to the kids for letting us get away we gave them the rest of the chocolate and fruit when we got home.

Easy Beef stew

We love beef stew in our family. This recipe is so simple and without potatoes, it fits the 21 day sugar detox guidelines.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. stew meat
1 large onion
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
8 cups beef stock
1/2 tsp. garlic salt and onion powder
2 cups stewed tomatoes (or 1 can)
1 bag frozen peas
1/2 bag frozen green beans

Sauté the stew meat in olive oil. Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook until tender. Add tomatoes and broth and simmer for 1 hour or more. Add frozen vegetables 30 minutes before serving.

Balsamic Barbecue Chicken -sugar free

One of the things I notice about doing the sugar/gluten detox over the 21 days is you miss yummy sauces like barbecue on your chicken. I started looking for an alternative and came up with a very tasty and healthy version. My crock pot is broken at the moment so I slow cooked this in the oven in a covered roasting pan. I used fresh pineapple in the sauce and had everyone licking their lips asking for more. We will be making this again soon I'm sure!

Ingredients:

1 cup stewed tomatoes
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 fresh pineapple

Chicken breasts
Provolone cheese

Mix all the sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth. Cook in a sauce pan for 10 minutes. Pour over chicken breasts and bake at 300 degrees for 4 hrs or in a crock pot. Baste with the sauce over the chicken several times while baking. Top with Provolone cheese and broil for 5 minutes and just before serving.

Chocolate peppermint thin mints

Ummmm....yum! Once I realized you could make homemade chocolates in about 5 minutes I've been dreaming up combinations. I've tried almond butter and chocolate, chocolate and pecan, peanut butter and jelly chocolates for the kids and today chocolate peppermints. They are all yummy, very low carb and yes, healthy!!!!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup pure cocoa powder
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp half n half
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
Dash salt

Melt the butter and oil. Whisk in cocoa powder, cream, honey, vanilla, peppermint, and salt. Pour into silicone molds or cups. Let set in the fridge. Remove from molds and store in air tight container in the fridge. (Hide from the kids in the back behind some broccoli, Enjoy :)

Breakfast: egg cups

We are trying to end our dependency on cereal for breakfast. The problem with eliminating cereal (even the low sugar variety) is that it is quick, cheap, and the kids can make it themselves. We eat a lot of yogurt with fruit around here, even make it homemade, but I found us lacking in variety. We started making these egg cups and I think they are a winner, after 3 weeks we are still going strong. I make 2 pans at a time, store them in twos into sandwich bags and taught the kids to warm them up quicker than they can add honey to plain Cheerios. My husband even gets them in his lunchbox giving him a serving of protein as he begins his day at the office. The combinations are endless, just think of your favorite omelette. We prefer egg and cheese, sausage n egg, broccoli- egg-cheese and ham-Swiss-egg. I recommend using silicone cupcake liners or a really good nonstick pan so you don't have a big scrubby clean up afterwards.

Ingredients (for 12 egg cups):
8-10 eggs
1/4 cup half n half or milk of your choice
Bacon, sausage, cut veggies
Cheese to top

If using bacon, place one half slice into the bottom and sides of each tin. Place in a 375 degree oven while you prepare the eggs.

Crack and scramble eggs in mixing bowl. Add milk, stir. Using a soup ladle, fill muffin tins 3/4 full.

(If you are making them with bacon, remove the partially cooked bacon slices from the oven and pour the egg mixture right on top of the bacon.)

Sprinkle in any cut veggies you like and bake for 15-20 minutes. The tops should be shiny, but firm.

Remove from oven and top with cheese. Serve warm, store leftovers in sandwich bags in the fridge.