Rachael: Meal Ideas: What Do You Do With Scrambled Eggs?

Crazy egg chairs that I had to share. From www.wilwheaton.tumbler.net

Is it the breakfast of Champions? Is it a quick way to get some protein in your gut first thing in the morning? Are you getting sick of eggs for breakfast?

I go through bouts of eggs / no eggs for breakfast. My go to when I do want eggs is scrambed with cut up chicken, chopped bell peppers, broccoli if I have it, and if I'm feeling primal instead of paleo, a pinch of Parmesan cheese.

I put out the question on our companion FB page: What do you put in your eggs?  I didn't get much of a response, but here is what I did get:

• smoked ham, green peppers and sweet spanish onions
• whatever's in my fridge. The best things are usually leftovers. 
•  Almost anything, as long as it's topped with salsa/Shriracha!!
•  I was in the mood for something sweet today so my one son made a very thin egg pancake and topped it with apple slices, a few chopped grapes and a bit of cinnamon. Then he folded it over like an egg crepe and finished cooking it. It was very good actually because without spices the egg was basically tasteless. 
•  I'm pretty boring with my eggs, I think. Love spinach, sausage, onions, peppers, etc. Add a little feta, Romano or Parmesan cheese. 

Here's an article on Making Great Scrambled Eggs, from The Paleo Diet Lifestyle.  It's a basic tutorial on making the eggs themselves, and leaves you to your own imagination as to what to put in there.


So what do you think? Have you got a great way with eggs that you'd like to share?


For those of you that do not want to eat eggs every morning for breakfast (we all get tired of the same thing, trust me) here's 20 egg-less paleo breakfasts, a very thoughtful blog post from www.paleononpaleo.com.

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Wings

DaMan loves hot wings. Unfortunately, he prefers the breaded kind, not the buffalo sauced kind. He loves a spicy breading on deep fried wings.

This is so not compatible with the Paleo/Primal lifestyle that we are trying to emulate, but I thought that I might try to work something out as a "Once in a While" treat, while still keeping it gluten-free, and trying to cut down on the badness that happens when you deep-fry foods.

What I came up with probably isn't for day to day clean eating. Most certainly not when you are doing a cleanse, or a 21/30 day challenge, but it does boast to not having any wheat flour, and it was pretty delicious.

I was having a hard time coming up with an egg wash and "breaded" coating that stayed on the chicken wing through the cooking process. I had a moment of genius inspiration and decided to try tahini as way to  thicken the egg wash in to a more batter-like consistency, and it worked pretty darn well! If you don't have or cannot obtain Tahini, you might try an unsweetened almond or other nut/seed butter, but it might be more difficult to incorporate into the egg wash without using a food processor.

In an attempt to keep calories down, I only pan-fried the wings for a short time, just enough to set the coating, and then finished cooking in the oven. I wanted the breading to be crunchy, yet have the same mouth-feel as a deep fried wing.

*Note, work in batches. Fry a few wings at a time, then put on a cooling rack with paper towels or aluminum foil underneath to catch the excess oil.  Then carefully move the wings to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to finish in the oven. You might want to double line it.

So here you go. I hope you enjoy it as much as DaMan did:




Spicy Breaded Chicken Wings

(this recipe coated about 20 wings)

Wet Ingredients for the egg wash:

•  3 eggs
• Spicy Hot Sauce, a few dashes, to taste
• 2-3 Tablespoons Tahini
• 2-3 Tablespoons Almond or coconut milk (if needed to stretch the egg wash)

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 1/3 cup almond meal (dried leftover almond paste from making your own, if you keep it)

Egg Wash with Tahini (the secret ingredient!)

Spices, these are optional, but highly recommended for flavor and for beefing up the "breaded coating":

• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Mrs Dash
• Seasoned pepper
• Paprika
• Sea Salt
• Chili powder
• Cumin
• Cayenne Pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Put all the dry ingredients and your chosen spices into a gallon-sized ziplock baggie. 
3. In a large bowl, whisk all the wet ingredients well.
4. Heat a large skillet with your preferred oil. I ended up using veggie oil, because the coconut oil smoked too quickly. If you can make it work, great.
5. Drag your chicken wings through the egg wash, then coat with the dry ingredients by shaking them in the baggie with the dry ingredients.
6. Place in skillet and let brown for 2-3 minutes on each side. 
7. Place chicken on cooling rack with paper towels underneath to catch excess oil. Let drain for a few minutes.
8. Place drained chicken on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in the oven until the chicken reaches 165 degrees.



Fry in batches, don't overcrowd the skillet.







9. Let wings cool for a few minutes, then serve.

Enjoy!

Here's a Primal Ranch Dressing Recipe that you might use a dipping sauce,it's from Mark's Daily Apple.

place quick fried wings to a cooling rack before transferring them to the oven for finishing.

 

Sara: Homemade Chicken Stock

I was never one to do things like make my own broth.  Honestly, if it could be purchased from a store, I saw no reason to make something myself.  Who has the time?  Who wants to use all that effort?  I work full time and have three kids – why make chicken stock when I can just buy it off the shelf?

As it turns out, there are more than a few reasons.

1. It’s easier than you think.
2. I can control what goes into it
3. It’s not overly processed and/or full of salt/preservatives.
4. Making your own is a hell of a lot cheaper than buying the good stuff and a lot better for you than buying the cheap stuff.

The first time I made my own broth, I was amazed at how much I wound up with.  Surely it would take me MONTHS to use all this broth, right?  Wrong.  We went through almost all of it in just about 2 weeks.  I’d use it for cooking veggies, making soups, adding flavor to just about anything savory.  You can take leftovers, chop them up and add a few cups of homemade broth and – boom – instant soup. 

I like to use my crockpot for making broth.  I don’t have to watch it as closely, I can leave it on for 24 hours, and I can slow cook some chicken meat in the process.

Here’s how I do it:

You’ll need:

• 6qt (or bigger) crockpot
• 1 chicken (free range, if you can afford it!)
• ½ white or yellow onion, chopped
• Herbs of your choosing (optional)
• Other veggies (optional)
• Lots of water

(Really, even the onion is optional!  I just like the extra flavor it gives.)

I bought a free range bird this time – I figured if I was going to use this broth in everything, I’d go for the gold and get the best I could get.  The smallest bird I could find was over 5lbs!  It wouldn’t even fit in my crockpot.  I removed the breasts (saved for another meal) and cut up what was left until it fit.  I crammed that sucker in!

You can put the onion on the bottom of the crock or down the sides of the bird – wherever there is room.  Season the chicken before putting it in the crockpot.  Fill with water and either turn it on high for 3-4 hours or put it on low for 6-8 hours.



Tight squeeze!

Once the chicken is cooked, pull it out and take all the meat off the bone that you can.  Throw everything else back into the crockpot.  Add more water and turn it on low for another 4-6 hours.  At this point, everything should have fallen off the bones. At this stage, I used a slotted spoon to pull everything out of the liquid.  Any meat I missed before went in one container, cartilage/skin/inedible pieces that weren’t bone went in a bowl (I tossed this stuff) and the bones went back into the pot.  Add more water!



Left to Right: Crock, yucky stuff, meat!



I left the crockpot on low for another 12 hours or so. 



Check out that color! 



The next morning, I turned it off and let it cool for a bit.  Once it was cool enough for me to pick up the crock, I placed a strainer over a large bowl/pitcher and poured the broth in.  I wound up with so much, it didn’t all fit in the bowl I was using!  (Final measurement came to roughly 12 cups of broth.)

 

Put a cover of some kind over your container and stick it in the fridge for a few hours, letting the fat rise to the top.  Once it has, skim the fat off …and do with it what you will!  (I discard it, but I know others save it for cooking.)



I have no idea why this pic won't rotate for meeee!!!



I’ve heard of people using ice cube trays for freezing their broth. I don’t have any ice cube trays. The first time I made this broth, I had no idea what to do.  That’s when I came up with using a muffin tin.  Each cup on the muffin tin holds just under ½ cup of liquid.  I filled 2 tins and stuck them in the freezer. (The rest I put in a plastic cup and stuck in the freezer as well.)

Once the stock is frozen solid, pop them out of the tin (you may need to dip the cups in warm water to loosen) and place them in a Ziploc bag back in the freezer. 



Frozen flavor pods!



  

Tada! 

I spent $16 on this free range bird, but from that I was able to get: 2 large breasts (enough to feed all 5 of us a main course for dinner one night), enough meat for 3-4 servings of chicken salad, plus 12 cups of broth.  Not too bad, if you ask me!