Sausage with Greens and Noodles

 I stopped at our local farm stand yesterday and came home with two packages of their ground sausage, eggs, peaches, tomatoes, wonderful bread, and heavenly cheeses.  We dropped our daughters at an unschooling camp in Tennessee this afternoon and got home in time to be starving.  I had saved out a pound of the sausage thinking I'd make spaghetti sauce or sausage balls from it but this happened...

I was still thinking spaghetti but remembered it isn't my son's favorite.  I rummaged around for what to put with it and came up with a partially frozen tomato(someone put it way in the back of the fridge, not knowing), part of a bag of frozen collard greens, a box of rotini and some assorted spices.

So, here it is, Sausage with Greens and Noodles:  Feel free to make this your own with fresh herbs/spices/veggies instead of frozen or dried, zucchini "noodles", or whatever you think sounds good.

1 pound ground sausage
1.5-2 cups frozen collard greens(or spinach, or kale, or turnips, etc.)
1 large ripe tomato, diced fine
1 teaspoon each, onion and garlic powder
1 tablespoon or so of worchestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 cup mix of Parmesan and feta cheeses(or other cheese to suit you)

Brown meat.  Add veggies and seasonings and simmer, covered, while the noodles cook.

1 box(12-13 oz) rotini pasta, or shape of choice.  Rotini holds sausage and greens to it really well.

Drain the noodles well and add to meat mixture, add cheeses and let sit for 5 minutes to melt and blend flavors.  Enjoy!

Homemade "reecie" cups...

Around these parts, a certain candy that has a peanut butter filling with chocolate coating is called a reecie cup.  My daughters LOVE this candy but I don't buy it often because they pretty much inhale the stuff.  I was bored, hot, sleepy, and hungry for chocolate when I came up with an alternative I don't mind serving to them more often.

Reecie Cups

Just over a cup, maybe 1.5 cups, of crunchy peanut butter
a tablespoon or so of chia seeds
about 2 tablespoons coconut oil
about 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup or honey, or sugar, or whatever kind of sweetener you like.

Mix well.  This will be kind of thin but not soupy.  It won't drip off your spoon but will fall with a shake or two.


about a cup of chocolate chips(semi-sweet is my favorite), melted for a minute in the microwave
about 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Mix together til smooth.

Set out mini-muffin sized, plain paper cupcake liners on a baking sheet.

Put about 1/2 a teaspoon of chocolate mixture in the bottom of a liner.  Put about a heaping tablespoon of the peanut butter mixture on top of the chocolate.  Then drop more chocolate on top.  Freeze about 30 minutes and store(haha) in freezer.  Eat these with the wrapper held around them for the least mess.  They do melt fast!

(I filled 12 liners and ended up with maybe enough peanut butter to do 6 more but I melted more chips and mixed in with it to make a different goodie)

Zucchini Pie

This is so easy it hurts.  Remember I'm cooking in a toaster oven, we don't have a normal oven or a normal stove.  In fact, not much about our lives is normal! We live in a 23x24ft room above my dad's art gallery/woodturning shop.  We have 5 dogs, 7 cats, and a squirrel.  My kitchen area is very small, we don't have a dishwasher either(we have several part-timers though).

So anyway....

Like I said, this is so easy it hurts.  And it is yummy as $#*%!

2 zucchini(med-large), julienne sliced with a mandolin or a knife
1 small white onion sliced on the mandolin or very, very thin with a knife
1 tablespoon each olive oil and coconut oil

Cook over medium heat, stirring now and then, until softened.  I think I cooked my about 20 minutes in a 10-inch cast iron skillet.  Let cool another 20 minutes.

1/3 cup almond flour
2/3 cup gluten free bisquick
spices of your choosing(I used herbes fines, parsley, and garlic powder)
3 eggs
1/4 cup water

Mix well.  This should be a bit thicker than pancake batter, if not, add more gf bisquick.  I have never cooked with almond flour and wonder if this is what made it so tender.

1 cup mild cheddar cheese, grated
1/3 cup feta cheese
3-4 tablespoons parmesan cheese
dash of pepper

Mix into the veggies well.  Add egg mixture and mix gently.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or so.  I never time and was NOT measuring as usual.  This baked up SUPER SOFT and was extremely flavorful.  I'm showing unbelievable self-control to not go over and eat the entire pan of it.  OMG.  I hope the kids and Mr. Slapdash show up soon or they might have to scrounge around in the pantry for their dinner.

Spinach Breakfast Cake...

This was really, really good!  Remember Slapdash Cooking means you don't measure accurately so use your best judgment with my recipes...  If it seems too thin for what you are after, thicken it up!  If your pan is smaller or larger, adjust accordingly.

1.5 cups frozen chopped spinach, squeezed dry
2 cups grated cheese, we used mild cheddar
1/4 cup feta, crumbled
3-4 tablespoons Parmesan
coconut oil for pan

2/3 cup gluten free bisquick
3-4 tablespoons buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons coconut flour and flaxseed meal
garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper(all to taste)
6 eggs
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk, or whatever milk you want to use

Grease a 10-inch cast iron skillet(or stoneware 9x9 or similar in size) with the coconut oil.  Spread spinach and cheeses around.  Combine flours, eggs, milk, and spices, mixing well.  Batter should be pancake thick.  Pour over spinach and cheeses and stir around a bit to mix.  Bake for 20-30 minutes.  I hate to tell how long because I use a toaster oven on 425 and never look at the timer.  I'm thinking 25 minutes.  Let cool about 10 minutes.  It has a cake-like texture, not quiche-like, which makes it easy to eat out of hand.

Hoppin John

(ignore the cat scratches on my face, we have a mean one)

Here's what's in mine:

1 yellow bell pepper
1 celery stalk with leaves
1 red onion, all veggies chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 smoked kielbasa sausage, sliced 1/4inch thick
3 cans crowder peas, drained
3 cups turkey broth
1 bag of frozen turnip greens
garlic powder, dried savory leaves, red pepper flakes, salt, & black pepper(all to taste)
1 pound brown rice,

Here's what I did with it:

Softened the veggies in about 2tbsp butter.  Cooked rice as per instructions on bag with no salt or butter/oil, set aside.  Cooked turnip greens in turkey broth for about 20 minutes.  Added kielbasa to veggies and cooked about 10 minutes.  Added greens, broth, seasonings, and peas to veggies.  Simmered for about an hour.  Served over rice.  Pigged out.