…my belly.
(Well, maybe the fish swims there and doesn’t walk, per se…)
Remember the time I said I was going to try to eat vegetarian one day a week? I followed that up about a month later with The Pendulum Swings, i.e. Meat-fest 2019, and made it clear that vegetarian meal planning wasn’t going so well…
But, it’s a New Year, so I figured I’d check in with another update on how things are going with regards to my (15%) vegetarian efforts.
Well?
Not so well.
Still.
I shouldn’t say things aren’t going well. My focus as of late has been more keto-, rather than vegetarian-focused. And on keto, for myself anyway, I find it hard to have a good balance of healthy fats without some good carnivorous eats in the mix. <– Ooh, actually, you know what? I think I just challenged myself to do some veg-keto! (Or keto-veg?) Stay tuned!
Anyway, given my recent keto focus, check out today’s eats:
A Pig
My breakfast today highlighted my most favorite meat of all (<– does that sound weird?): pork. If I could only choose one meat to eat for the rest of my life, it would have to be pork. I think I could go without chicken and steak, but bacon and sausage? Absolutely not. Non-negotiable. If they only made a bacon cologne. Swoon. Wait, what?
Anywho. Today’s breakfast: Sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast casserole, with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts. For me, a savory breakfast is the only way to go, unless of course, I want to purposefully set myself up for a day of snacking. I batch cook a lot of my meals, and I had this, or some version of this, for about 5-6 meals this week.
The Recipes:
Brussels Sprouts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cut Brussels sprouts in half, and generously toss with olive oil. Season as you like. For me, I love Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. Kind of like that Frank’s Red Hot commercial – I put that $hit on everything.
Spread coated sprouts onto baking sheet(s), being careful not to overcrowd. Roast for approximately 18 minutes, then turn/mix Brussels sprouts, and heat for another 12-15 minutes.
Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Casserole
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Saute 5 bulk sausage links (I used hot, but sweet is good too) in olive oil and 5-6 cloves of chopped garlic, breaking up the sausage into small pieces, until no longer pink.
Pour into a 13″ x 9″ casserole dish, evenly coating the bottom.
Whisk 6 eggs and 1 1/2 cups of milk together, and pour over sausage mixture.
Sprinkle two cups of shredded cheddar cheese (or any cheese you like) on top.
Cook for 45-60 minutes, checking regularly towards the end to ensure that the eggs have set and the cheese has browned.
A Fish
Is fish even a meat? For the sake of this blog, and the fact that there is a special term for fish-eating veggies (pescatarian), we’ll say yes…(please don’t crucify).
Costco has been my new best friend as of late. Believe it or not, I feel healthier shopping there. As long as you steer clear from the Kirkland chocolate-covered almonds (or so I’ve heard, she says…), you can really meal plan well in Costco. I recently bought a bag of frozen Alaskan salmon filets, perfectly portioned out. Since I work from home, I can just defrost a filet the night before, and throw it on the grill and voila, my lunch is done in less than 15 minutes.
I also had some microwaveable frozen veggies, and a blue cheese salad. Blue cheese salad!?! I know, I know, where have I been all your life? I get that a lot. I’m sure something like this recipe already exists out there, but this was kind of an epiphany for me. I regularly make a spring salad when I’m hosting, with crumbled blue cheese, roasted pecan pieces, and a dried berry mix, drizzled with balsamic and olive oil. It feeds a crowd and is a great side to pretty much any sort of meal I am serving. Being that my favorite part of this salad is everything-but-the-salad, I just decided to take out the spring mix and eat the best parts as a stand-alone ‘salad‘ themselves. You don’t need much because it’s strong and flavorful, but man is it good!
Blue Cheese Salad
Serves: 1
Put 2 tablespoons of blue cheese, 2 tablespoons of pecan pieces, 1 tablespoon of dried fruit mix (I use Trader Joe’s Golden Berry Blend), and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar into a bowl and mix well. So painfully easy I don’t know why I don’t have this more often?
The Cow
Last but not least, the cow.
Who doesn’t love a good steak? And I mean a melt-in-your-mouth good steak. Just looking at that picture makes my mouth water. And the seasoning? For the sake of sounding like a food neophyte, I don’t think you can get much better than Montreal Steak Seasoning. Please, it’s not like I’m saying put ketchup on your steak (or is it catsup?). I’m just saying McCormick is where it’s at. I can be confident in that, can’t I?
Needless to say, the Cow was devoured in T-minus 3-minutes. You know what is so weird about me and steak? I cannot, for the life of me, eat it slowly. It is bizarre – it’s like shovel and chew, shovel and chew (don’t forget to breath), shovel and chew. My mouth starts watering with that first bite and then that’s it until I come up for air a few minutes later. I’ll have to really try and figure this out, because I can’t be let out in public with this sort of bizarre steak-eating habit…I wonder if it’s a condition I can go on disability for…hmm…?
Roasted Carrots
Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Reference the Brussels Sprouts recipe above. Wherever you see ‘Brussels sprouts,’ or ‘sprouts,’ or any sort of derivative of that green veggie, replace that word with ‘carrots.’ Maybe don’t roast for as long – it’s not rocket science here. You get the idea.
Anyway, so, here I am, headed to bed, with a whole barnyard in my belly. If that thought alone won’t bring me sweet dreams, I don’t know what will.