Sweet Potato Brownies and My Sharp, Pointy Stick

I tells ya, with a recipe like this, World Peace is within our grasp.*

Already promising...

Ingredients:

• 1 large sweet potato
• 3 eggs, whisked
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup raw honey
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons coconut flour
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• splashes of coconut milk
• pinch of salt
• unsweetened shredded coconut

Everything mixed and ready to pour

Directions:

1. Peel, slice, and boil the sweet potato until tender enough to mash-- boiling takes FAR less time than trying to bake it, trust me
2. Drain the water and mash up the sweet potato with a splash or two of coconut milk
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, honey, and coconut oil, along with another splash of coconut milk to keep it frothy
4. Add this mix to the potato
5. Add dry ingredients-- coconut flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and chocolate chips, and mix very well
6. Pour into an 8x8 glass baking dish and sprinkle generous amounts of unsweetened shredded coconut-- some people use powdered sugar, I reach for coconut
7. Place in the oven and bake for 25-35 minutes
8. Sharpen your pointy stick-- see attached photo

Back off, you animals! Make your own!
They're mine!

Yep, I finally did it; I went out and made myself a sharp, pointy stick to ward off any scavengers making sudden movements around my food. But in my defense, make these brownies for yourself and see if you're not immediately consumed by a desire to run out into the nearest forest, grab a stick of your own, and start growling while you whittle the point into a decent weapon. After, of course, you have determined that the brownies will be safe in your absence... or in your belly...

The sweet potato will keep everything soft and moist and falling apart in your fingers. The cocoa powder is balanced nicely with the hints of salt. And they'll keep in the fridge quite well, but that's assuming you'll leave any leftovers. 

And that, friends, is a grand assumption.

Every square of this is pure, unadulterated bliss.

*recipe courtesy of PaleOMG

Dark Chocolate Bacon Pecan Frittata

Oh. Holy. Crap.

Have you started drooling yet? Good. You should be drooling. You have every right to drool... as long as you stay far away from my Dark Chocolate Bacon Pecan Frittata. I mean it; I'm close to making the Sharp Pointy Stick for this one!

So, I have this mammoth Paleo eBook (eCookbook doesn't seem right, does it?) on my phone, and it really hasn't steered me wrong. Having said that, I think they display a startling lack of creativity and imagination. For example: a simple recipe titled "Dark Chocolate Frittata". Now... I look at something like that and I think... where's the bacon?! A recipe like that and there's no bacon involved? SACRILEGE! So I had to take things a little further... okay, a lot further...

Now, the original recipe serves 4. That, to me, was dangerous. Why? Because given the chance, I would have eaten that whole damn thing. So I had to engage in a little portion control. Didn't for a moment affect the cooking method or the end result, I was pleased to discover. Did make it possible to eat half the pan and not feel incredibly guilty while my roommate ate the other half.

Ingredients/Tools:

Kids, listen to your Auntie Lindsay;
let's put on the oven mitts
before we burn our little fingers!

• 2-3 eggs
• 1- 1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• dash of vanilla extract
• pinch of salt (Kosher or sea salt)
• 1 tbsp dark chocolate chips (anything that has 'chocolate' listed first on the ingredients, meaning it's made mostly of pure dark chocolate solids)
• 1 tbsp baked pecans
• 1 strip of bacon, diced
• unsweetened shredded coconut
• dash of unsweetened coconut milk (to get the eggs fluffier)
• 1 oven-safe pan or skillet
• most importantly... oven mitts (I cannot stress this enough)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350
2. Cut bacon into pieces and crisp slightly in the pan before anything else-- this makes the bacon taste better in the frittata and also coats the pan in a little cooking fat
3. Remove bacon when slightly browned and pour out excess bacon fat (to be used in future recipes)
4. Whisk eggs, vanilla, cocoa powder, coconut milk, and salt together
5. Since your pan has traces of cooking fat from the bacon, add just a little coconut oil to melt in the pan-- takes away from overwhelming bacon-y goodness
6. Pour in eggs and immediately sprinkle on the bacon
7. Let the bottom of the eggs set (should take 3-5 minutes)-- you'll know it's set when you shimmy the pan and the eggs no longer cling to it, but rather start to slide around
8. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, pecans, and for good measure, as much shredded coconut as you desire
9. Place the whole pan in the oven and cook until the chocolate chips have melted and the coconut has been well toasted, probably about 12-15 minutes
10. Use the oven mitts to hold the extremely hot handle after the pan has been removed from the oven, as you will otherwise burn your fingers while you hold said handle when you're cutting and serving slices of frittata... a lesson learned the hard way

I renew my early "Oh. Holy. Crap."

That easily serves two people that would prefer not to go into an insulin-induced coma. The original recipe called for 8 eggs, 4 tbsp cocoa powder, and 4 tbsp chocolate chips. You can understand why I reduced the recipe, right? I love my dark chocolate, but I know myself, and my mouth full of sweet teeth would have gotten me into trouble. Even Tom, who admittedly does not worship The Chocolate Gods with my level of cult-like devotion, gobbled this one down. Between the eggs, the chocolate, the bacon, the pecans, and the coconut, it was hard not to cry.

Use this recipe with caution, for it yields awesome power...

Zucchini Spaghetti

Yes, you read that right.

The last few months have been... what's the most tasteful way I can put this?... more painful than wiping one's ass with sandpaper that's been marinating in hydrochloric acid. (Yeah, that works.) But with that has come an opportunity for legitimate healing, and for that, I am beyond grateful.

And that's as much of that as we need to get into. Onto the yummies!

I have a new cohort in my Adventures: my roommate, Tom, who is already an "adventurous" cook and foodie. This arrangement has lead to several cooking experiments in the last few weeks, all of which were gobbled up without hesitation. I mean, it's lucky we didn't eat the plates and forks, that's how good everything has been.

The Most Delightful Surprise Category is dominated by our experiment with Zucchini Spaghetti: it's far easier to prepare and cook than spaghetti squash, it's an excellent base for other flavors, and it has very little (if any) starch. What made it so surprising was how "buttery" it tasted with absolutely no butter at all; the noodles absorbed the olive oil and spices very well, giving it a rich taste without needing a drop of dairy.

It's. So. SIMPLE!

Zucchini Spaghetti:

• 1-2 large zucchini-- shouldn't be hard to find large zucchini this time of year
• a julienne peeler-- better than a magic wand for making perfect, evenly-shaped noodles
• olive oil
• Kosher salt
• black pepper
• garlic salt

Directions:

1. Remove the ends of the zucchini and slice off an extremely thin section so that it can lay flat on a cutting board
2. Use the peeler until your heart's content, turning the zucchini as needed to get the best noodles and stopping when you get down to the seeds
3. In a large, nonstick pan, heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil-- a little will get you a long way, as the zucchini will release water while it's cooking
4. Once the oil is hot enough, pour in the noodles and flavor with salt, pepper, and garlic pepper to taste-- again, you won't need much, as the zucchini will absorb flavor incredibly well
5. Cook for about 8-10 minutes, keeping the noodles slightly crunchy

Homemade Meatballs:

For the length of this dinner, there was
nothing wrong in my world.

• 1 pound grassfed ground spicy Italian sausage
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• savory spice
• 1 egg
• coconut flour
• 1/2 sweet onion, finely diced
• 1-2 garlic cloves, finely diced
• cooking sheet and parchment paper

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine ground sausage with mustard, W-sauce, onion, garlic, and savory spice
2. Add egg
3. While mixing, add coconut flour until the meat starts to bind together into the shape you want
4. Once the texture is right, ball together to about "golf ball" size and spread on parchment paper-- should make for about 15-16 decent sized meatballs
5. Bake at 375 for ten minutes on one side, flip, and put back in for another ten minute to brown evenly-- you may want to cut into one to check if they're ready
6. Mix with homemade marinara until coated and top your zucchini spaghetti with the delicious yumminess

For the side, it was baby spinach tossed with homemade mayonnaise mixed with fresh parsley and balsamic vinegar. A glass of Australian Shiraz and MST3K's "Space Mutiny"...

Yeah. Freakin' AMAZING.