Tag Archives: sausage

Girls Night In! – Paleo Pizza

I just recently moved and my new place is finally put together so clearly it’s time to start entertaining.  I decided to have a few girls from my MBA program over for a wine night.  What goes well with girl talk and wine?  Pizza of course!  But pizza is not exactly on the Paleo diet so I made my own, Paleo style!  I found this recipe on everydaypaleo.com and my non Paleo friends loved it!

paleo pizza

Crust:

2 cups almond meal

2 eggs

3 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

Toppings:

1 cup organic marinara sauce

1 nitrate free Italian sausage link

2 small crook neck yellow summer squash, diced

3 green onions, chopped

Handful of torn basil leaves

1 small tomato, diced

1/2 cup roasted red peppers, diced

paleo pizza crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Using a spoon, mix all crust ingredients together until it becomes very thick.  Using your hands, form the dough into a ball.  Lightly grease pizza pan with olive oil.  Place the ball of dough in the center of the pan and push and pat the dough down into the shape of a circle.  Make it as thin as possible.  The pizza will be about 12 inches across.  Bake the crust in the oven for 20 minutes.  When the crust is done, remove from the oven and evenly spread the marinara sauce over it.  Add the sausage and remaining toppings evenly over the sauce and bake for another 25-30 minutes.

Paleo pizza

And there you have it!  You can use just about any toppings you can think of on this.  One of my friends brought over her cast iron pizza pan and it made all the difference.  The crust was light and crispy.  Add a few bottles of wine and a few girlfriends and you have yourself a Paleo friendly ladies night!  Happy cooking!

A Hearty Lunch – Sausage Skillet Stew

I lieu of my potential Paleo transition, today’s recipe was found on fastpaleo.com.  I love this recipe because I love to take soup to work for lunch but it often doesn’t keep me full.  Not so with this soup.  Its very hearty and keeps me full until late afternoon.  I don’t love that it uses canned tomato sauce because commercial canning uses a lot of preservatives and if it doesn’t go bad I’m not so sure it’s good for you (except honey of course), but it’s still a pretty good recipe.  I just need to look up the recipe for tomato sauce in my Vitamix!  Next time I make this I’ll do that but this time I just used organic canned tomato sauce.

16 oz sausage of your choice

1 onion, sliced

16 oz mushrooms, sliced

4 zucchini, sliced

3 cups tomato sauce (2 cans)

4 cups spinach leaves

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 tablespoons Italian seasoning

2 tsp garlic powder

Red pepper flakes to taste

IMG_1724Using a large, deep skillet, brown your sausage over medium heat.  I used pork jalapeno links.  If using sausage meat, break up with the back of a spoon into crumbles, then remove from pan and put aside.  If using links, brown evenly and also set aside until cool enough to slice.

Remove any extra grease from the pan other than what is needed to saute the onions, if necessary.  Add them to the pan over low-medium heat and soften slightly before adding the zucchini slices.  Saute a few minutes before adding the mushrooms.

Add the tomato sauce, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder.  Add the sausage back to the pan; slice links first if using.  Bring almost to a boil, then cover (with a little gap to let steam out).

Turn the heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes or until vegetables have released their juices.  Uncover the pan and add red pepper flakes to taste.  Let simmer about 10 minutes until it is slightly thickened, then add the spinach leaves and allow them to wilt.

IMG_1725

 

This is such a tasty, yummy stew and it’s packed with healthy veggies.  I will definitely be making this again.  Happy cooking!