Good For You Breakfast Bake

Today is my husband's birthday, so I wanted to make him a feel-good healthy breakfast to send him on his way to the farm full and satisfied.  Well, then he left the house!  So I made it anyways and texted him and said I had made a breakfast bake and he should come home and have some, so he stopped by on his way back to the shop to eat.  His review wasn't what I expected and he smothered it in ketchup, but most of the time I don't count his opinion anyways cuz he can be kinda picky.  (Sorry honey)  I thought this was GREAT!!  I didn't even need my usual Frank's Buffalo Sauce on top of it.  It had a nice flavor from the sausage and it was chock full of protein and healthy carbs from the sweet potato.  I got my Italian turkey sausage from our FANTASTIC local butcher (Ed Lehrke - You can't beat Ed's meat) at our grocery store (The Farmer's Store - Hallock, MN).  He makes some really wonderful homemade sausages and ground meats and I had this in my freezer and finally pulled it out to use it in this recipe!!!  I also made this recipe half with sweet potatoes and half with red potatoes because my hubby isn't much into eating sweet potatoes.  You can do the same or use all of one kind of potato.  Enough chatting - get cooking people!!

This a lacto-paleo and clean eating option.

Good For You Breakfast Bake
Ingredients:
1 4-inch sweet potato, peeled & shredded (or if you have a large sweet potato, use half and save the rest for later)
2 medium red potatoes, peeled and shredded
1 pound Italian turkey sausage (Ed's is the best!!)
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1 4-oz can mushroom pieces, drained
5 eggs
5 egg whites
1/3 cup your choice of milk (I used skim, but would try almond next time)
1 heaping teaspoon dry ground mustard
sea salt and cracked pepper to taste
1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice

Instructions:
Spray a 11.5x7.5 glass baking dish with olive oil.  Use a mandolin slicer to shredded your sweet potatoes and red potatoes into half of each side of the dish. 

Here's the attachment I used on my mandolin slicer.

Half sweet potatoes, half red potatoes

 

Brown the Italian turkey sausage in a small skillet along with the dried minced onion.  Top the potatoes with the mushrooms and the turkey sausage.  In a medium bowl combine the eggs, egg whites, milk and dry ground mustard.  You can add a bit of sea salt and pepper if you like.  Pour the egg mixture over top of the meat and potatoes.

 

Looks kinda gross here, but just you wait!!!

 

I baked this on convection bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  If you're going to conventional bake it, probably add another 5-10 minutes for the potatoes to cook through.  Remove from oven, add your cheese and then put back in oven another 5 minutes to melt the cheese.  Let sit about 5-10 minutes before eating and then DIG IN!!!

 

The finished dish - looks good enough to eat, right?!?

 

Nutrition based on 8 servings.  Without having the nutrition associated with Ed's homemade turkey sausage, this is based on a generic Italian turkey sausage on www.fatsecret.com.  There was a lot of sodium in that sausage, so hopefully there isn't as much in Ed's.  If I can get nutrition from the sausage I used, I will adjust the information accordingly. 

One serving equals about - Calories - 202, Fat - 8,23g, Cholesterol - 162mg, Sodium - 620mg, Potassium - 487mg, Carbs - 14.72g, Fiber - 1.9g, Sugars 3.9g, Protein 16.52g







Creamy Italian Chicken Tomato Stew

The other day I was craving something tomatoey and something chickeney.  I know - those aren't words - but you know what I mean!  So I was surfing Pinterest on my paleo food board and found this recipe for a creamy chicken tomato soup.  However, it was the afternoon and I didn't have time for a crockpot meal, so I re-vamped it a bit and made my own one pot stew that everyone enjoyed!  It has a wonderfully creamy herbed flavor and if you have kids that don't like tomatoes, try this, they just might enjoy it.  I know mine did!  If you want a slow cooker meal, put it in your crock pot on low for probably 7-8 hours, shredding an hour before you serve, or whenever the breasts are tender enough to shred.  You can brown your chicken breasts ahead of time, but I usually just throw mine in frozen.
This is a paleo & clean eating option
Creamy Italian Chicken Tomato Stew

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons basil
1 14-ounce can full fat coconut milk
2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock (read your labels - make sure there are no additives!!)
sprinkling of cracked pepper if you like

Instructions:
Sear the chicken breasts on each side in olive oil.  You can use the same pot as the one you will use for the stew.  After each piece is seared remove from pan and dispose of the drippings.  Put all ingredients in the pot and bring to a boil.  Simmer about an hour then remove chicken and shred with a fork.  Add chicken back to stew and simmer another 20 minutes or so.  ENJOY!!

Nutrition facts based on 5 servings.
Each servings contains:  Calories - 548, Fat - 18.81g, Sat Fat - 13.8g, Cholesterol - 78mg, Sodium - 734g, Carbs - 11.05g, Fiber 2.8g, Sugar 5.2g, Protein - 32.43g