No Noodle Sausage & Sour Cream Bake

This recipe was inspired by Ree Drummond's Sour Cream Noodle Bake, but I wanted more zip and didn't want the noodles.  When I first tried my version on my family, they loved it and couldn't believe there was cauliflower in it and no rice. 

Note:  A very important step is removing as much moisture as you in the cauliflower.  If you don't do that, your casserole ends up soupy!  


No Noodle Sausage & Sour Cream Bake

• 1 lb. Italian sausage (beef, pork, turkey... any is fine)
• 1 - 15 oz. can stewed organic tomatoes or about 2 C fresh or home-canned tomatoes, cut into small chunks
• 1/4 t pepper
• 1/2 of a medium-sized head of cauliflower, cut up into small flowerettes (about 4-5 C)
• 1/3 C sour cream
• 1-1/4 C cottage cheese
• 1/2 C sliced green onions
• Optional: 1-2 C fresh chopped spinach
• 1 C grated cheddar cheese
• Salt if needed

1. Bring a large kettle of salted water to a boil.
2. Add cauliflower and cook until tender.  Drain and allow to cool.
3. Meanwhile, brown sausage.  Add tomatoes and cook until all the excess moisture has evaporated.  Set aside.
4. Mash cooked cauliflower until about the size of rice.
5. Place mashed cauliflower in a clean tea towel or other non-fuzzy towel.  Squeeze as much of the excess water out as you can.  You'll end up with something that looks like a lump of mashed potatoes. 
6. In a separate bowl, combine sour cream with cottage cheese.  Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper.  Add to cauliflower and stir.  Add green onions and stir.  If adding spinach, stir that in now, too.
7. In a 9x9" pan, layer:  1/2 the cauliflower mixture, 1/2 of the meat mixture, then sprinkle with 1/2 of the cheese.  Repeat.
8. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until casserole is bubbly and cheese is all melted.

DIY Italian Sausage

Fennel Seeds

This recipe transforms boring ole ground meat (any kind) into something so yummy and flavorful.

We love it in spaghetti sauce, scrambled eggs, pizza... any place you want to use ground meat but want a little zing!  Dried fennel seeds are part of that authentic Italian flavor, so don't skip those.

Italian Sausage

• 1 pound ground turkey, pork, or beef
• 1-1/2 t dried Italian seasonings
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t black pepper
• 1 t Oregano
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/8 t red pepper flakes
• 3/4 t dried fennel seeds

1.  Add seasonings to uncooked ground turkey.
2. Brown meat.  Use as desired.

Chicken Pot Pie

It's comfort food season!

When my hubby and I were first married, we would occasionally have commercially prepared pot pies for dinner.  No, not the "10 for $1" variety, or whatever they cost back in the day...  I'm taking about the yummy, wonderful, expensive kind.

This recipe fits the bill.  You can customize it to your liking and use organic vegetables and grains, pasture-raised meats and fats from those wonderful meats, sprouted flour... 

Bring on the cold weather!

Chicken Pot Pie

• 1 pie crust
• 1 lb chicken meat, cooked & cubed
• 1 C sliced carrots
• 1 C frozen peas
• ½ C sliced celery or corn
• 1 potato, cubed ½ “
• 1/3 C butter
• 1/3 C onion, chopped
•  Optional: 1 C chopped mushrooms
• 1/3 C flour (I use sprouted soft white flour, sifted)
• ½ t salt
• ¼ t pepper
• ½ t thyme
• ¼ t garlic powder
• 2 C chicken broth
• ¾ C milk

1. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions, potatoes, and mushrooms in butter until soft and onions are translucent. (You don’t want the potatoes to brown.) 
2. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and other herbs. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Combine the chicken, carrots, peas, and celery in the sauce.  Taste.  Adjust seasonings if necessary.
4. Pour filling into a 9x9" pan.
5. Cover with top crust.  Trim dough edges to about 1" from pan.  Turn edges under and pinch to seal.  
6. Make several small slits or poke crust with a fork to allow steam to escape while baking.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for about 40-45 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Flaky Sprouted Soft White Wheat Pie Crust

Photo credit

When I first started making pie crust with whole wheat flour, I found my results were less than desirable.  It tasted more like sawdust than anything!

What I found is that whole wheat flour does not come in a one-size-fits-all, like all-purpose flour does.  Stepping outside traditional pie crust recipes that call for all-purpose flour and Crisco can be a little intimidating, especially if you are trying to "sell" this more healthful way of eating to the rest of the family.  And worse if you are taking a pie to a family gathering that already thinks you've lost your marbles for sprouting, dehydrating, soaking, and baking/making from scratch!

So if you are still one that eats wheat (properly prepared, of course!) you will not be disappointed with this crust!

There are a couple keys to making a great, flaky pie crust:

1. Use cold ingredients.  Even when working the dough with your hands, run your fingers under cold water first.
2. If using whole wheat flour, soft wheat is the best as there is very little gluten in it.  Save your hard wheat for baking bread.
3. Sift the flour.  This will give you a nicer, smoother, and not so "branny" finished crust.
4. Add cold water one tablespoon at a time and only enough so that dough barely comes together to form a ball when squeezed together in your hands.
5. Do not over-work or over-mix the dough.  As you roll out the dough, you do want to see streaks of butter... that's where the flakiness comes from.
6. Allow the dough to relax in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours prior to rolling out.

Flaky Sprouted Soft White Wheat Pie Crust

Makes a single crust for a 9 inch pie

• 1¼ C sprouted soft white whole wheat flour, sifted
• ¼ t salt
•  ½ C butter, chilled and diced
• 5-6 T ice water

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  You can do this in the food processor by pulsing.  
2. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. 
3. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
4.  Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

Menu Monday, October 21

This week I need to make more beef summer sausage.  It, along with fruit and a slice or two of cheese are a quick and satisfying lunch.  If you haven't tried this recipe yet, ya gotta do it.  Yum.

Breakfast (a combination of these items): Eggs (we've been doing a lot of scrambles that include various veggies like spinach, mushrooms, onion, etc.); bacon or sausage; avocado; fruit/berries; vanilla chia seed pudding
Lunch:  Leftovers or apples, cheese, beef summer sausage
Mid-Afternoon Snack: Apples or bananas with almond butter, or Kefir smoothies
Dinner:

• Monday: Hamburger patties; spicy potato wedges; roasted cauliflower with balsamic vinegar
• Tuesday: Harvest apple pork chops; rice; green beans; roasted cabbage salad
• Wednesday: Shredded beef taco salads
• Thursday: Chicken pot pie; green salad
• Friday: Pureed carrot soup; fresh fish; baked potatoes with sour cream & chives; best-ever broccoli; Chocolate mousse (didn't have last week and my hubby is totally bugging me for this!!!) 
• Saturday: Tortilla soup with sprouted beans; salad  (last week we had Cheeseburger Soup instead because I forgot to sprout the beans...)

Menu Monday, October 14

Happy Columbus Day!

Breakfast (a combination of these items): Eggs (we've been doing a lot of scrambles that include various veggies like fresh-from-the-garden zucchini, kale, onion, etc.); bacon or sausage; avocado; fruit/berries; vanilla chia seed pudding
Lunch:  Leftovers 
Mid-Afternoon Snack: Apples or bananas with almond butter, or Kefir smoothies
Dinner:

• Monday:Mexican roasted potato casserole; green salad
• Tuesday: Spaghetti pie; Caesar salad
• Wednesday: Chicken fried steak; mashed potatoes; oven-roasted broccoli & cauliflower
• Thursday:  Pork chops; acorn squash; rice pilaf; green salad
• Friday: Leek puree; fresh fish; baby red potatoes with sour cream & chives; creamed spinach; chocolate mousse
• Saturday: Tortilla soup with sprouted beans; salad

Soaked/Sprouted Whole Wheat French Bread

I have tried a lot of French bread recipes, but this one is my favorite.  It calls for both hard red whole wheat as well as sprouted soft white wheat flours.  (If you want more info on the different types of wheat, this is a good post to read.) 

If you would like to kick up the nutritional value even more by reducing the phytic acid that keeps your body from absorbing precious minerals in your bread, you can soak your hard red wheat flour the night before.  I've found the texture of the bread turns out so much nicer this way than sprouting that particular wheat. 

To soak the hard red wheat flour, just take 2 tablespoons of an acidic medium, e.g. whey, raw apple cider vinegar, or yogurt, and combine with enough filtered water to equal 1-1/2 cups (leaving 1/2 cup for the next day to proof your yeast in).  Mix with the 3 cups of hard red flour that this recipe calls for as you can and allow to sit on your counter for 12-24 hours.  

Whole Wheat French Bread 
Makes 2 loaves or 4 baguettes

• 2 C warm filtered water
• 1 T yeast
• 1 T honey
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 T salt
•  3 C hard red wheat flour, sifted
• 2 – 2 ½ C sprouted soft wheat flour, sifted

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water (110 degrees) and honey in large bowl; allow yeast to proof or foam (about 10 minutes). 
2.  Add salt, oil, and 3 cups flour; beat for 2 minutes. 
3. Stir in about 2 cups flour to make a stiff dough. 
4.  Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. 
5.  Allow to rest 15 minutes. 
6.  Knead for one more minute.  Place in oiled bowl, turn dough to coat all sides, cover and let rise until doubled. 
7.  Punch down. Gently knead for one minute.  Allow to rest 15 minutes.
8.  Divide in half and shape dough into two long slender loaves.
9. Grease or sprinkle with cornmeal either a French bread pan or large cookie sheet. 
10. Place loaves in pan and cut diagonal gashes on top of each loaf (I use scissors).   Spray with olive oil. 
11.  Let rise until almost doubled. 
12. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes or internal temperature is 200 degrees.