Breakfast Meat Alternative: Beef Sausage Patties

I haven't posted here in a while because I've been preparing for our new arrival, and I usually just make small posts on Facebook for those interested. But since this post was getting lengthy, I thought it would be easier to read here.

I love bacon, like, A LOT!!! I sort of hate it as well, because it is so delicious, with anything, and I could easily sit and eat slice after slice. But I limit myself because I haven't found a healthy bacon within our budget. Working with a grocery budget means we don't eat perfectly...just the best we can afford. I save money by purchasing in bulk, a little shopping online, and shopping sales, BUT, buying local and sustainable is also very important to us. So we spend most of our grocery budget with local farmers through CSA and Meat Shares, and shopping farmers markets. At $10+/lb, local pastured pork bacon is NOT in my budget. My usual bacon (just regular conventionally-raised Costco bacon) has recently increased to $4/lb. I keep hoping to find something in-between, but no luck yet. My local Kroger sells Applegate and Coleman's bacon, which are in-between health-wise (Antibiotic-free, uncured, and Applegate is made from humanely-raised animals) but these are $11-$12/lb, more expensive than pastured bacon! I was quite disgusted on my most recent trip to Costco when my usual 4-lb pack of conventional bacon was $16! I told my husband, for $4 a pound, we can find a better alternative, a real meat to serve up along-side our eggs in the morning.

Say hello to my new breakfast meat...beef sausage! It's not grass-fed/pastured meat, but, it is a healthier alternative to my conventional bacon. Costco Organic Ground Beef is 85% with no antibiotics or added growth hormones. And, it's only 25 cents more per pound than conventional bacon! I took the pure beef and added 3 simple spices to create my own breakfast sausage, and I love it! This recipe is salty, but that's how I like my sausage. It also uses a lot of sage. So I would suggest starting a bit shy on both the salt and sage, mix well, and form a "sample" patty (just one small, thin patty to fry up and taste-test). That way, you can add more spices to suit your taste, before frying the whole batch. This recipe tasted like Jimmy Dean Sage sausage to me, but by taking a few minutes and adding our own ingredients, we can control exactly what goes into the meat...no Corn Syrup or refined sugars, Maple "Flavor" (which is made of 9 ingredients, including corn syrup), Dextrose, BHA, BHT, Natural Flavorings, MSG, or other questionable ingredients! I look forward to experimenting with different flavors...I'm thinking a real maple syrup sausage sounds delicious!

I went ahead and made a large batch of sausage. This should last all week in the fridge, or it can be frozen (cooked or uncooked patties).

Beef Sage Sausage:

• 2.67 lb Organic Ground Beef
• 8 tsp Rubbed Sage*
• 1.25 tsp Ground Thyme*
• 4 tsp Redmond's Real Salt

Combine everything well in a large bowl.
(*As mentioned above, this recipe may be too salty or sage-y for some of you, so I recommend you cut down on both the salt and sage at first, cook yourself a sample patty, adjust seasonings as desired, then proceed with the rest of the batch. I thought the amounts were great and really helped the beef taste more like pork sausage. Let me know if you make any adjustments that you like.)
Form small, thin patties and fry over medium heat. Cook a few minutes on each side til fully cooked.

Costco Price List

When I can't get foods locally, I head to Costco to get the most bang for my buck. I love their selection of fresh produce, meats, and other staple items that fit our Real Foods lifestyle. Organic isn't always available, so we try to stick to Clean 15 produce (noted on the list) and avoid the Dirty Dozen. We also try to choose good quality, minimally processed meats when local/organic aren't available. Occasionally, some items will go on sale (also noted), and when they do, I stock up to help save money. Just last month, I bought $97 worth of our favorite sardines since they were 25% off and the sale only comes around once every 6 months. Prices and availability can vary from store to store, and from visit to visit. You may find in-season produce to be cheaper at grocery stores, so I try to keep my eyes open for those extra savings as well. I will keep this list updated when possible. If y'all find other items, be sure to leave us a comment.

Here are my favorite Costco items:

Recent Lipids Panel

I just wanted to share my most recent lipid numbers. This has been almost a two-year journey for our family. The initial numbers were taken while we ate the Standard American Diet, you know, high-fat and high-carb, lots of processed foods, but even still, we've always tried to eat healthy, working in a good amount of vegetables. To better our numbers, my husband and I were advised to eat more cheerios, increase our whole grains, and reduce overall fat and calories. We did. As you can see from the second column, after only two months on that low-fat, high-carb diet (lots of refined carbs), our numbers got worse! That's really where our journey to better health began. We were confused and wanted some answers! We read, a lot, and started discovering some very interesting information that went against conventional wisdom; against everything we've been taught about healthy eating; maybe fats weren't all evil; maybe grains aren't so heart healthy. We slowly started changing the way we ate...initially doing away with HFCS, reducing our sugar intake, reducing refined carbs, eating more fats, more vegetables. And we started feeling better, we started losing weight. We were amazed! But we were doing everything wrong, right?  We were eating LOTS more fat, more meats...surely this couldn't be happening, but it was. So we kept digging, trying to figure out why this was all happening.

Fast forward to today...we are in better health than either of us has ever been. Check out the column on the far right. It's my best yet. I feel we've mostly got this thing figured out (as far as eating habits) and are in the right direction. We eat real food. Plenty of healthy fats, including animal fats (mainly from grass-fed/pastured/wild animals), coconut oil, real (clarified) butter, olive oil, nuts/butters. We eat as much clean meats as we can afford. We eat lots of fresh produce, organic when possible. We've eliminated dairy after finding it just doesn't work for us. After getting to comfortable weights, we've increased our total carbs (mainly starches), but these starches still come from whole foods (potatoes, beets, carrots, bananas, etc.). We occasionally eat a little parboiled rice (pure starch). We eat very little added sugars, mostly on special occasions like birthdays, and we try to limit it to local raw honey and pure maple syrup. We eat minimally processed foods, and we cook as much as possible from scratch. Do we cheat or treat ourselves? Absolutely! Just this past weekend, after months of trying to re-create a real pizza crust, we realized that once in a while, we are just gonna have to get the real thing. So we did, and we enjoyed it! We knew going into it that we'd have some negative side effects, but that's what we really wanted, so we did it. When we splurge on wheat or sugar, we usually suffer stuffiness, stiffness, bloating, etc. But, we have to live a little, too. Life is way too short to never eat pizza again. We will have the occasional splurges...not a weekly or even a monthly thing. Just when we really want something in particular. Truth is, we love the way we eat, we love the way real foods make us feel. When we cheat, we feel like crap. That's enough motivation for us to keep our indulgences to a minimum.

Another important thing to note here, is that I've not exercised this entire time. I do believe it is beneficial to overall health, and I do plan to get to work on that. I don't know that I'll be doing any Crossfit anytime soon, I figure I'll just start with some basics and see how it goes. Wish me luck!

Easy Broiled Salmon & Mashed Po-turnips

I first made this salmon a couple months ago, using a recipe I found in Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. I picked up my copy at Costco. Her recipe uses rosemary, which was surprisingly good, but after eating it four times in a row, I was ready for something a little different. I didn't do anything fancy, I just skipped the rosemary and added black pepper. It is such an easy recipe, and I love how the salmon cooks under a Low Broil, firm and flaky. I don't think I'll ever go back to Bake for my salmon. For the mashed Po-turnips, I just eye-balled everything. It's the first mashed white anything that I've made without dairy, that I really liked. As soon as my youngest saw it on her plate, she said "I don't wike that!" Obviously, she remembered my last attempt at mashed turnips, which wasn't so great. That's why I decided to use half turnips and half potatoes this time, to tone down the strong turnip taste...that, and I needed to stretch the two turnips from last week's basket that I needed to use before tomorrow. My rule is that you have to try one good bite of everything on your plate. And she did. I got a "Not bad!" So here are the recipes. Hope you enjoy!

Lemon Broiled Salmon
1 lb wild salmon filet (whole or in portions), thawed
2 TB coconut oil (or FOC-fat of choice) 
1 lemon
Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to low broil setting. Spread thin layer of coconut across bottom of baking dish. Place salmon in the dish and sprinkle with s&p. Add more pats of coconut oil on top of the salmon, and top with slices of lemon. Broil 10-12 minutes or til salmon is cooked to your liking.

Mashed Po-turnips
2 large turnips, peeled and chopped
2 large red potatoes (or equal to the amount of turnips), peeled and chopped
1 TB bacon fat (or FOC)
S&P
Garlic Powder
1/3 cup coconut milk (full fat, canned)

Add turnips and potatoes to boiling, salted water. Return to gentle boil and cook til tender (the turnips will probably take a little longer than the potatoes, that's fine). Drain well, and return to hot pot. Make sure the stove is turned off and place pot back on stove eye. This will help remove any excess water. Use a potato masher to smash the veggies. Add the bacon fat while potatoes are still hot and stir well. Season with s&p and garlic powder to your liking. Add about 1/3 cup coconut milk, or just enough to make the "potatoes" smooth and creamy. Stir well and serve hot.

Costco Trip

With all the holiday craziness, we ran out of a few necessities. Here's the quick trip I made to Costco yesterday:

2 doz Organic/Certified Humane Eggs $7.99
4 lb Organic Ground Beef $16.99
3 lb Organic Frozen Blueberries $10.99
(2) 4 lb Bacon @ $12.99 ea
24 oz Fresh Mushrooms $3.79
Total: $ 66.40

It's my first time buying this beef, and I really liked it. This will come in great when we can't get our grass-fed beef.

Dairy-free Pizza!

*Be sure to see my updates below.
FINALLY!!! A successful, dairy-free, no-fork-needed pizza! This thing was so good, I am just tickled to death! I have looked at many "Paleo" pizza recipes, all of which still used cheese in the crust. That's not Paleo. But titles aside, my family just doesn't do well with any dairy, so we avoid it as much as possible. Therefore, we haven't had a good pizza for some time now. I do love the breakfast pizza, but it just ain't the same. We have tried the popular "riced" cauliflower crusts, but the crusts were bland and soft. We haven't been successful, until today. I used a combination of several different recipes that I liked, this one probably being my favorite, and made it my own by using broccoli and changing up the spices a bit. I made riced cauliflower using this method. It totally works, but I over-blended, and mine turned out more like grits than rice. (BTW, we totally made "grits" with some of that!) I only had 1 cup of the leftover riced cauliflower, but, I had lots of fresh broccoli. I thought to myself, broccoli is so similar to cauliflower, it just has to work. And it did! You could probably use either cauliflower or broccoli or a combination of both as i did. I do plan on trying just broccoli in the next few days and will definitely post how that comes out. I used the same ricing method on the broccoli, except I "pulsed" this time, instead of "blending", and it turned out quite nicely. Here's what that looked like:

My only complaint about this crust was that it was too salty, so I've adjusted the recipe down by half. This was attempted as a half recipe, just in case it sucked, and so this yields one 8" pizza. Also, I played it safe by cooking at a lower temp, and it seemed to take forever to get the crust done enough. I think it could probably be cooked at a higher temp and for a shorter time. I will make those adjustments as I cook more of this (which will be soon!). But for now, here's my current version:

8" Dairy-Free Pizza Crust:
1 c riced cauliflower (see notes above)
1 c riced broccoli
1 pastured egg, beaten
1/4 tsp Redmond's Real Salt
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 TB almond meal
2 dashes garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350°. Place riced veggies into a clean kitchen towel, about a cup at a time, and wring out all the excess water. Place into a mixing bowl and add all the remaining ingredients.

Mix well.

 Transfer mixture to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Use the back of a tablespoon to form. Use a second piece of parchment paper to top the mixture and flatten as desired. Mine was maybe 1/4" thick, or less.

(So, here's the part that needs some work, but...it does work as indicated. Just be patient with me, and your crust!) Bake the crust for 30 minutes, WITH THE PARCHMENT PAPER ON BOTTOM AND TOP OF THE CRUST, as a "parchment sandwich". After 30 minutes, remove the top parchment paper and put the crust back in the oven for 10 minutes, uncovered. Then I upped the temp to 400° for another 10 minutes. By this point the crust was finally starting to brown on the edges and was mostly dry, so I turned to Broil on Low for 1-2 minutes, til it was slightly browned. Whatever temp you decide to try, just make sure your crust is fairly dry before topping, so you don't end up with a soggy crust. I went as long as I could without burning the edges. (Please leave comments if y'all have success at different temps and times!)

Then top as desired. I used Victoria (Unsweetened) Marinara Sauce from Costco, organic baby spinach, turkey sausage, and olives. Place back in the oven just long enough to heat the toppings through. (By this point I was starving, so I went 450° for 4-5 minutes.

In the end, I was so happy with this pizza. The center was still a little soft, but it was mostly firm, and the edges crispy. I was able to slice and pick it up just like a "normal" pizza, even with those heavy toppings. The girls agreed that it was very good and are ready to make more! I hope you guys enjoy the recipe as much as we did. Let me know how yours turns out!

UPDATE 12/18/12:

Here's our second dairy-free pizza experiment, a doubled pepperoni lovers made with broccoli and no cauliflower. It was just as good!

Family Size Dairy-Free Pizza Crust:

4 c riced broccoli (see video link above)

2 pastured eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp Redmond's Real Salt

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/4 c almond meal

4 dashes garlic powder

Preheat oven to 400°. Place riced broccoli into a clean kitchen towel, about a cup at a time, and wring out all the excess water. Place into a mixing bowl and add all the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Transfer mixture to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Use a rubber spatula to spread as evenly as possible. Use a second piece of parchment paper to top the mixture and flatten, if needed. Mine was maybe 1/4" thick, or so. 

Bake the crust for 40 minutes, or til crust is mostly browned, WITH THE PARCHMENT PAPER ON BOTTOM AND TOP OF THE CRUST, as a "parchment sandwich". Then, remove the top parchment paper and put the crust back in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, uncovered, until the crust is as done as you like. Make sure the crust is fairly dry before topping, so you don't end up with a soggy pizza. We went as long as we could without burning the edges. Then top as desired. We used Victoria (Unsweetened) Marinara Sauce from Costco, Boar's Head pepperoni, and Italian Seasoning. Place back in the oven just long enough to heat the toppings through, about 5 minutes.

My family has agreed that this pizza definitely works for us! We get our pizza fix with a crust that actually tastes and feels like a pizza crust. Now, it's certainly not your chewy New York pizza dough, but that's sort of the point for us. We feel terrible after eating flour and cheese, so this is the next best thing! Hope you enjoy!

Ovis Hill Trip

I LOVE Ovis Hill Markets! Not only are Mr. Charlie and the gang such nice people, but you can really tell they care about where our food comes from and work really hard to provide us with awesome, nutrient-rich foods. This is good for us, the animals, and the environment. Win-win. I feel very fortunate to be able to buy foods grown in my home state by local farmers. And it all just tastes so darn good! I enjoy shopping at the markets about once a month to get a lot of our staples. This was a great trip today...BACON!!!

Lamb Soup Bones $2/lb - $17.32
Pastured Pork products (Bacon, Sausage links and rolls) $7.99/lb - $68.47
Pastured Whole Chicken $3.89/lb - $17.14
Organic Produce (Romaine, Collards, Bok Choi, Bell Peppers) & Local NC Apples - $13.60
2 lb Grass-Fed Butter - $10
Pastured Eggs $4/dz - $24
Local, Raw Honey, pint - $6.75
Total Cost: $160.43

I also picked up two of my half beef shares that I paid for back in September when I purchased 1/8 of a cow, as explained here. This works out to about $5.67/ lb for all my grass-fed beef. Today, I received 3 sirloin steaks, 1 T-bone, 2 roasts, 4 hamburgers, 2 stew beefs. Buying in bulk is a great way to save on grass-fed beef. We will be going back to our full beef share next time as my freezer is starting to look bare. Actual cost for this beef pickup was $96.67.