SQUASH IT!

LASDI©

Cooking is my love language to others. Food itself is one of my own love languages. I think this is so for most of us. This is the reason I wrote the book A Life of Flavor. It is a book about finding the joy in the dark times life brings us, with matching recipes for comfort. Everything we DO revolves around food, and for my family, we are usually talking about the next meal to come during the one we are sitting together for!

One of the things I really like to do for The Hubster is cook a Saturday morning breakfast. There are very rare times we have a free Saturday morning, so when we do, I like to express my love for him by making something awesome to commemorate the opportunity!

Also, because I want to keep him around for as long as possible, I try to make it as healthy as possible. I’m not ALWAYS able to do so - #RealLife - but do the very best I can. I am the low-carb girl of the family, so I also do my best to keep it that way for him, too. All of those things do not make for an easy-but-awesome breakfast.

Challenge. ACCEPTED.

Here we have a bacon (uncured with no nitrates or preservatives, of course!), egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. The clencher? The “bread” is butternut squash panny-cakes!! And boy-oh-BOY were they delicious and perfectly bread-like!

I know it is really easy to take a couple of slices of bread out of the package or whatever bread of your choice for a morning sandwich; hear my cry!! This is SO EASY, and SO WORTH YOUR HEALTH.

PS It is PERFECT for September as we transition out of Summer and into the Autumn season!

So try it! Let me know how you like it!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH PANNY-CAKES

2 cups butternut squash

extra virgin olive oil

1 cup almond flour

4 eggs

sea salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

1/2 tsp baking soda

coconut oil

For my butternut squash, I bought pre-peeled and cubed at the grocery store. It’s just easier and faster. I tossed them with a little bit of evoo and placed them on a baking sheet. I broiled them for about ten minutes until they were cooked through, and then put them into a standing mixer bowl. If you don’t have a standing mixer, a hand mixer will do just fine! Place all other ingredients up to coconut oil into mixing bowl and mix unil blended into a loose batter consistency.

Heat heavy pan (I use my cast-iron griddle, flat side!) without oil for about two minutes. Add about a tablespoon of coconut oil before each panny-cake prior to cooking, and adjust heat with each one accordingly. Ladle or pour desired amount onto pan and cook over medium heat until browned. Just like a regular panny-cake, when you see the bubbles on the upside, flip it carefully and cook the other side until brown.

NOTES: This was to be bread for the breakfast sandwich; however, if you would like a sweeter panny-cake, add 1 teaspoon of sugar to the batter and add your favorite syrup after cooking and prior to eating! I just squashed the bacon, egg, and cheese right between two huge pieces and watched it disappear with a smile on The Hubster’s face!

BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD

SHE2016©

So I made venison back-strap stew that included that precious, tender, and prized deer meat, turnips, carrots, celery, onion, and slivered red cabbage, all braised and stewed together to make one savory and wonderful bowl of warming yumminess on a cold winter's night.  (LOTS of adjectives there)  To go with it, I made a quick bread - no, let me explain it the way it deserves:  This is a fast and easy bread make with seasonal beer (in this case, winter beer), beautiful fresh-and-pickled jalapenos, and mounds of gorgeous shredded cheddar cheese.  It may very well be the best thing EVER, and this I PROMISE YOU.  The Hubster made a simple turkey sandwich with it the very next day and said it was the best sandwich he has ever had in his entire LIFE ...... because of the BREAD, Y'all.  MAKE THIS.  Then slather it in (real) butter while its still warm, and know that it must be a little taste of what Heaven is like.

QUICK BEER JALAPENO CHEDDAR BREAD

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 - 3 pickled jalapenos, chopped

2 - 3 fresh jalapenos, seeded and chopped

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

12 ounces seasonal beer or beer of your choice

4 tbs butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the chopped jalapenos, cheddar cheese, and butter. Pour beer into the mixing bowl and mix until blended. Pour mixture into a prepared loaf pan. Bake for about an hour or until golden brown. Tent with aluminum foil and cool for 5-10 minutes. Slice and serve or just grab a chunk of it with your bare hands like an animal and place a honkin' piece of butter on it and eat straight out of the pan!

NOTES:  You are so welcome.

She-cago Cubs

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Though I am not a Cubs fan, I am a fan of Cubs fans.  One in particular happens to be my favorite person - The Hubster!  As we watched the possibility of Back to the Future's prediction in progress, we were invited to two of my other Cubs fan-favorites, Cody and her husband Joe.  My job was to take a sweet and a savory.  I did not don the Cubs gear; however, in support, I did fix up some Cubs eats!  I did cupcakes decorated with a Cubs logo, as you can see from the picture above, and also dressed up some antipasto apps to look like baseballs!  That is the recipe I provided you below......throw them together for your next sports party!

BASEBALL ANTIPASTO APPS

1 pkg 'everything' bagel thins, sandwich-size

1/2 pound hard salami, sliced at a 2 or 3

1 pkg sliced smoked provolone cheese

1 jar roasted red peppers, keep the liquid

2 tbs mayonnaise

2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Toast the 'everything' bagel thins until just crisp.  Mix the liquid from the jar of peppers, the mayonnaise, and the Parmesan cheese in the jar, close and shake well.  Spread very thinly and evenly on toasted bagel thins.  Place a slice of salami on top of the dressed bagel thins, and then layer a slice of provolone cheese.  Cut each roasted red pepper into thin slices to make the baseball 'laces', and layer according to the picture above.

NOTES: I use Boar's Head salami because it has no nitrates or MSG, and is minimally processed.  Also, as the low-carb girl, I simply eat this without the bagel thin and it is DELICIOUS!

ALL FUN & GAMES

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Put together a game night for us and two of our favorite humans and just HAD to have some delish snackies.  So with leftover tuna steaks I made tuna-cakes, and with leftover ham, sun-dried tomatoes and 1/2 a bell pepper I made some bruschetta sammies (that's what I call them, anyhow), set out some cheese, crackers, and olives, and we had a full belly and a great time!  I've given you the bruschetta sammies recipe below.  DO IT.

BRUSCHETTA SAMMIES

1 brick cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup cheddar shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 bell pepper, diced finely

6-8 sun-dried tomatoes, diced finely

1 cup sandwich ham, diced finely

sea salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp paprika

1 loaf of your favorite crusty bread, sliced into 1-inch slices and open-faced

Mix all ingredients down to bread.  Generously pile onto bread.  Eat.  Say YUMMM!!

NOTES:  Isn't is crazy that it's THIS EASY?!?

REUBEN-ESQUE

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We LOVE sandwich night in our house.  That's a BIG PART of Life As She Does It!  This particular night, we came home from Legacy Fitness Boot Camp and had to make a quickie dinner.  Well!  A Reuben sandwich with home-made thousand island dressing, and some from-scratch onion rings took exactly thirty minutes to make.  Gourmet gastro-pub dish - and it totally hit the spot!

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REUBEN SANDWICH

1/2 pound sliced corned beef

4 slices Swiss cheese

4 slices of your favorite bread (traditionally: rye, we used Ezekiel)

1/2 cup sauerkraut, drained

Toast bread and split corned beef among two sandwiches.  Split sauerkraut and place on top.  Place two slices of Swiss cheese per sandwich and stick open face under broiler until cheese is melted.  Remove from broiler and place second toasted piece on top for each sandwich.  To make it easier to eat without it falling apart as you do, I made the thousand island for the sandwich to be dipped into per each bite (recipe follows).  I only put about half-a-teaspoon over the cheese before I cover with the last piece of bread.  Serve with home-made onion rings.

NOTES: I use organic ingredients, including the sauerkraut, which I had to order online; if using regular sauerkraut, you can find it on the canned goods aisle.  But if this is the case, use the one in the jar.  The sauerkraut in the can tastes just awful.  Squeeze it tight in order to keep your sandwich from getting too wet!  For a low-carb option, prepare as a wrap using low-carb tortillas.

This image is © 2015 by Life As She Does It. Please link back or credit if any content or images are used.

THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tbs ketchup

1 tbs apple cider vinegar

1 tbs pickle relish

1 tbs pimentos, chopped

1 sprinkle of sugar

sea salt

pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and whisk vigorously.  Place under sandwich, on sandwich, or on side of sandwich for dipping.  Use leftovers for salad!

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ONION RINGS

2 cups flour

1 egg, beaten

1 tbs Italian seasoning

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 cup beer

1 thickly sliced onion

1 cup canola oil

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Mix all ingredients down to beer together in a bowl with a whisk  Dip onion slices in it and fry in a deep, heavy frying pan with heated canola oil.  Flip after about one-and-a-half minutes.  Cook for same time on other side or until golden brown.  Let cool on paper towel and sprinkle with a little sea salt as they cool.  Serve alongside sandwich.