Savory Chicken Sausage Oatmeal

Okay I'm stuck on this savory oatmeal kick. This one was made extra amazing by adding the egg. This is more breakfast-like than the ham and cheese one, but breakfast for dinner or lunch is never a bad thing!

Ingredients:

1/2 to 1lb Italian chicken sausage

1/3 red onion, chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, minced

2 C chicken broth (substitute bouillon cube and 2 C water if needed)

1 C extra thick oatmeal

Supplies:

Medium pot

Measuring cup

Spatula or spoon

Serves: 2-4

Crumble the sausage in the pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion and minced garlic, heat until slightly tender. Add broth, increase heat and bring to a boil. Once at a rolling boil add oatmeal and lower heat back to medium. Cook 10-15 minutes stirring frequently until you reach your desired thickness. As long as you've used a very flavorful sausage, no additional salt or pepper is needed. 

I topped mine with a fried egg. 

The creaminess of the yolk added the perfect texture. 

You could also soft scramble an egg if you are preparing for tomorrow's breakfast. 

Ham and Cheese Oatmeal

My daughter loves oatmeal. Until she started going to preschool where they eat breakfast together, she had oatmeal for breakfast every morning ever since she started eating solid foods, and her grandpa eats oatmeal for breakfast every morning also. They even have matching oatmeal bowls. I'm not a crazy fanatic like they are but I enjoy a nice bowl of hot oatmeal every so often as well.

So when a co-worker brought a cup of microwavable steel cut oats to work, and let me try it, I was all over it! I tried it plain and to me it tasted like chewy brown rice - in a good way. Which got me thinking...

Why not use oatmeal and make something like fried rice? I've gone through several iterations of the concept, some more like fried rice, others more like the soft, goopy, oatmeal we're used to eating at breakfast.

Really, you don't have to follow a recipe at all. Like oatmeal, use the amount of liquid you think will yield the consistency you want. And just like fried rice, make the base (oatmeal) and then throw in whatever you want that you think will taste good! Of course, if you want it to be healthy, you should aim to add veggies and lean proteins... Here's one version that seemed to be a crowd pleaser.

Ingredients:

1 C roughly chopped ham

1 C veggies of choice, roughly chopped

3/4 C extra thick oatmeal

1 packet Lipton recipe secrets soup mix

1/3 C milk

1 C water

2-3 slices cheese of choice

Supplies:

Medium pot

Measuring cup

Spatula or spoon

Serves: 2-4

Mix soup packet and water in pot, then bring to a boil. Add oatmeal and bring back to medium boil. Add milk. Boil on medium for 15-20 minutes, stirring often. Once oatmeal reaches desired thickness add ham and veggies. Stir to combine then add cheese and remove from heat but continue to stir until cheese is melted and evenly distributed. Serve immediately. 

South of the Border Stew

Ingredients:

4 lbs meat, cubed (beef, lamb, pork or chicken)

1 yellow onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic

2 C strained tomatoes (or 1 can tomato paste + 1/2 can water)

1/2 C broth of choice

2 Tbsp ground chipotle chili pepper

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar (substitute with white vinegar if needed)

Sea salt and ground pepper to taste

Supplies:

Blender/food processor

Slow cooker

Serves: 6

In your blender, blend everything except meat, salt and pepper until smooth. Pour into slow cooker. Season meat with salt and pepper then add to sauce. Cook on low 8 hours, stirring halfway through if possible. 

This is another recipe I got from the book Paleo Slow Cooking. I changed the chili powder the recipe calls for to chipotle chili pepper - you could go with the chili powder the recipe calls for if you don't have chipotle chili pepper. If using chicken I would cook for less time, maybe 5-6 hours. This recipe does have some bite to it so I would pair it with a nice sweet potato mash or roasted cubed butternut squash to balance the spice. 

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups instant oats

3 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 C apple sauce (unsweetened)

1/4 C Almond Milk

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup "treats" of your choice (raisins, carob nibs, etc)

Supplies:

Cookie sheet

Parchment or Silpat

Yield: 20-24 cookies

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all ingredients together well. Spoon onto Silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet. These won't melt down like "regular" cookies so you don't have to worry about them melding together. Shape them how you want them to end up (flatten into regular cookie thickness, since they won't melt down). Bake for 15-20 minutes. 

I got this recipe from my mom - not sure where she got it. If you don't like banana this probably isn't for you. This is another one that could be dessert or breakfast - with a hard boiled egg or some other protein. I might use one less banana and replace with some puréed zucchini or something to increase the nutrition next time. I'll definitely post if I try it and it's successful. 

Indian Stew

Ingredients:

4 lbs boneless beef or leg of lamb*

2 whole cinnamon sticks

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

4 medium carrots, chopped

1 Tbsp cumin

1 Tbsp coriander

1 tsp chili pepper*

2 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced OR 1 tsp dried ground ginger

4-6 cloves garlic, minced

Salt & pepper to taste*

Supplies:

Slow cooker

Serves: 4-6

Throw it all in and cook on low for 8 hours. That's it!

*I got this recipe from a book that Husband gave me: Paleo Slow Cooking by Chrissy Gower. Her recipe calls for leg of lamb but a)I don't care for lamb and b)cheap, tougher, boneless cuts of beef are cheaper than lamb where I shop. Also, her recipe calls for 1 Tbsp of cayenne pepper rather than the chili pepper but I realized too late I didn't have any cayenne (what?!) and I was not about to go back out to get it. Her recipes don't call for salt and pepper usually, maybe because it's assumed you need to season your food, so we don't have to be told? Or maybe because we really aren't supposed to add much salt on a paleo diet. Too bad. I need it. 

Next time I would do two things differently: stir after 3-4 hours because the liquid from the veggies and meat cooking down doesn't cover the meat so the meat can end up not tender like you would expect from a slow cooked stew. Also, add a sweet potato or two and reduce the amount of meat by the same volume - I want more veggies to meat ratio. 

Oat Breakfast Bars

Ingredients:
2 C uncooked instant oatmeal
1 C homemade Almond Meal
1 C dried fruit of choice (ex: raisins, chopped medjool dates, chopped prunes, etc)
1/4 C coconut sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C total seeds and/or chopped/sliced nuts of choice

1/4 C raw honey

1/4 C peanut butter

1/2 C water

1 egg white

Supplies:
Medium bowl
Wooden spoon or sturdy spatula
9x13 baking pan

Yield: 8-12 bars

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease pan or line with parchment paper. Combine all dry ingredients (including fruit) and mix well. Combine honey and peanut butter in one microwave safe measuring cup. Microwave in 10-20 second increments till peanut butter stirs easily. Add water to the same cup, stir, then add to dry mixture, stirring well.  Add egg white and stir until well combined. Mixture should form a sticky ball, well held together but not too wet (think Rice Krispies treats). Spread evenly in pan pressing down. 

Bake about 15 minutes or until center is firm. Remove from oven, cut into bars, but do not remove from pan until fully cooled.

The oatmeal makes this non-Paleo, but certainly cleaner than store bought granola or breakfast bars.

Shoyu Chicken

Ingredients:
4 to 4.5 lbs chicken thighs (skin on or skinless)
1 C shoyu (soy sauce)
1.5 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3-4 cloves garlic minced
1 inch ginger, grated
1/2 C coconut sugar
1/2 C honey
3 Tbsp vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Supplies:
Slow cooker

Serves: 6-8

Put all ingredients in slow cooker, liquid should almost cover chicken. I prepped this the night before and let it sit in the fridge, covered, overnight.

In the morning I stirred it a bit and turned the slow cooker on high for the first hour to minimize temperature lingering in SalmonellaBreedingVille, then turned it to low for 3-4 more hours. Serve with vegetables.

This is definitely not Whole30 friendly, and is not Paleo friendly either, really. But shoyu chicken is a very traditional dish here in Hawaii so having this once in a while is one of the best ways to eat clean-er and still eat "local." That's what we call comfort food here in the islands. And the original recipe called for a cup of white sugar so at least there's that improvement! 

Recipe adapted from Food Network.