quiche ramekins

It's no secret I love my ramekin sets. I mean, sometimes, presentation is everything. And also, these 8-oz. (to the brim) containers are the perfect serving size for me--and James simply has to double or triple them for his normal serving. And I also managed to purchase both sets of four at Homegoods for roughly $6 each. How can anyone say no to that?!

So Monday night, after PRing in CrossFit Total (small pat on back), I came home to limited ingredients, but staples in our household. I really believe that regardless of what you have in your pantry or fridge, you can always come up with something tasty if you throw in some eggs.

Quiche Ramekins

Ingredients

• 1 lb hot breakfast sausage
• 1 onion
• 2 handfuls spinach
• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 10 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

1. Brown sausage.

2. Dice onion and add to sausage. Saute until onions become transparent.

3. Add in one handful of spinach, and saute for roughly a minute before adding in second hanful.

4. Add in halved grape tomatoes and sauté for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

6. In medium mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk, pepper, salt and garlic powder.

7. Whisk in shredded cheese.

8. Then add in sauté mixture and quickly stir.

9. Place mixture in greased ramekins. Mine fit perfectly in 8 one-cup ramekins.

10. Sprinkle cheese on top, and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

Super tasty! And the hot sausage really gives it a kick.

This recipe is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Real Food Wednesday.

my risk muscle

“Everyone has a 'risk muscle.' You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies.” -- Roger Von Oech

This past weekend, James and I went out on a limb and tried ñame and starfruit. So to continue on this journey of the unknown, I started off the week by giving Wii Just Dance 2 a whirl with my friend Lindsey. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a dancer. Give me a ball or a bat, and I'm definitely coordinated. But ask me to move freely on my own to the beat of music...and yikes! My body longs for some regimented movement that is practical and works to acheive a goal, especially it if involves competition.

But Lindsey has always had a way with getting me out of my comfort zone to try new things, whether it's dancing, food or fashion. So, after a much-needed preparatory concoction of black raspberry chambord and soda, I got the Wii wand ready for my dancing debut. Besides the fact that I can't dance, I went into the dance off with other reservations: 1.) Lindsey is such a fluid dancer and picks up any moves that she could practically dance for MTV, and 2.) the living room of her condo has two massive windows sans blinds so that any passersby would see us me flailing around.

So I timidly began the dance off to a Rhinana song, and found that even though I lost, my score wasn't as bad as I was expecting. With every song we tried, there was always one move I continued to get a 'perfect' on. And unfortunately, there was only one move every song that I got a 'perfect' on. Song after song I lost, but with the final song by Outkast, I managed to barely eek out a win. Don't ask me how. Most of the song required flailing your arms about, so I pretty much had that move down.

After our 30-minute dancing routine, we made salads with blackened shrimp, mango and avocado, which reminded me that I need to cook shrimp more often.

Last night, James returned from a trip to Harry's with purple sweet potatoes, which have many of the same nutritional benefits as regular sweet potatoes with an added punch:

Antioxidants help to prevent diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. They boost immunity, are anti-inflammatory and keep bones and skin healthy. The most powerful antioxidants are phytochemicals. Anthocyanins are the phytochemical that give purple sweet potatoes their distinctive rich color. Anthocyanins from sources such as blueberries and purple sweet potatoes have been shown to be powerful antioxidants, exhibiting greater antioxidant activity than either Vitamin C or Vitamin E. Studies show that purple sweet potatoes have 150% more anthocyanins than blueberries, that’s 2.5 times the punch per serving. Studies also demonstrate that neither the anthocyanin content nor the antioxidant activity of the purple flesh was affected by common cooking methods.

James simply cut them into fries, basted with olive oil, sprinkled with cinnamon and baked them at 350 degrees. I personally prefer them with olive oil, salt and parmesan, but these were still good. They didn't tasted exactly like normal sweet potatoes, but close enough.

We enjoyed them with ribeye topped sauteed onions and collard chips, which James just coated with olive oil and sea salt, and baked.

James also recently made kale chips. Since I don't normally eat kale or collards, I'm loving this new way of preparing them.

twice-baked acorn squash and male metabolism

Wow, just realized I'm a little behind in posting my recipes. I have a few in the vault that just need a little coaxing before making their debut. Here's one I made more than a week ago. I think I managed to down half of a half (if you can follow) before it was all gone when I got home the next day.

Whomever said that the male metabolism slows down at 25 years old got it all wrong. At 30, my husband probably eats more than he did at 25 years old. He can go to bed and wake up 7 pounds lighter the next morning. It's crazy, and if you can't tell, I'm jealous.

It's only said your metabolism slows as you age because it's assumed you lose muscle mass as you get older. Wrong, at least for James. Now that he owns a gym, he gets a workout on days that he doesn't even choose to work out. He's always illustrating correct form on Olympic lifts, racking up bumper plates and taking members through the dynamic warm-up and stretching cool down. This is exactly why you'll never see him without his man purse, as I like to call it. It's his shoulder cooler that is always packed with tupperware full of food and nuts. For him, eating enough is almost a workout, too.

What do I think about all of this? Must be nice eating all the time and still maintaining less than 8% body fat...

Twice-Baked Acorn Squash

Ingredients

• 2 acorn squash
• 1 large carrot
• 3 celery hearts
• 1 onion
• 2 tsp pesto
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 to 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 lb hot sausage
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• dash of salt
• dash of cayenne pepper
• dash of nutmeg
• Optional: toasted pine nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut acorn squash lengthwise and place face down on greased baking sheet.

3. Place in oven and set timer for 45 minutes.

4. Dice onion, celery, carrot and add to pan, along with coconut oil, pesto and garlic.

5. Once onions become transparent, add in meat and mushrooms, and cook until meat is browned.

6. Once squashed cooked, scoop out seeds and pulp in the very center, and discard.

7. Then, scoop out flesh of squash roughly 1/4 inch from skin, and transfer flesh to mixing bowl.

8. Add meat mixture, salt, cayenne and nutmeg to squash in bowl, and stir.

9. Stuff squash with mixture, and top with pine nuts.

10. Bake for 20 to 25 more minutes.

what's in a ñame?

Saturday morning, we traveled to CrossFit South Cobb in Smyrna to work out with 40 other CrossFitters. Despite the cold temperature, we managed to stay warm and get in a good team workout. We left the gym at noon, and stopped by Publix on our way home to pick up some groceries. In the produce department, we stumbled upon a root-looking vegetable that the sign identified as Name. Thinking that someone had just forgotten to type in the name when creating the sign, we asked an employee about it and she said it's actually called ñame. Turns out, ñame is an excellent source of potassium and zinc.

So we thought, why not give it a try? James is addicted to homemade hasbrowns, so he chose that as the dish of choice. The skin of ñame looked much like tree bark, and peeling it with a peeler proved to be quite the task--or maybe that's because I had just worked out and was starving.

Once we peeled it, we discovered it became quite slimy. But we diced it up anyways and James prepped it in our food proccessor.

It made quite a dense hashbrown (moreso than a potato hashbrown), and James gobbled it up, alongside an omelette. (That's organic ketchup, in case you're wondering about high fructose corn syrup.)

Since we were on a roll with trying new produce, we also picked up a starfruit (or Carambola) at the store. The skin is slightly waxy and feels similar to a bell pepper, though not quite as firm.

I just trimmed off the brown edges and sliced every 1/2 an inch.

It's really hard to describe the flavor of this fruit. It's very subtle and light. I found that others have described the taste as a mixture of apple, pear and citrus. And I agree, though ours was a subtle version of this combination. Starfruit seems to have many benefits. Besides an abundance of antioxidants, Vitamins A and C, and iron, the fruit has also been used to cure hangovers and nausea. I'm thinking that if this curing knowledge spreads, it may be tough for grocery stores to keep this fruit in stock.

paleo crockpot jambalaya atop fiestaflower rice

If I had to choose, I'd definitely say I'm a morning person. I've never hit the snooze button and I'm up and alert once my alarm goes off at the crack of dawn during the week. Of course, come 9 p.m., my body has pretty much shut down. After I put in a day at work, an hour at the gym and then make dinner, my body says enough.

Though it's go, go, go during weekday mornings, on the weekends, I really savor the mornings. Most Saturdays, I'm up at 7:30 a.m., and I love having a long morning to take my time. Before 9 a.m., we've unloaded the dishwasher, washed the pots and pans, cleaned the kitchen, made a hearty breakfast (I heart paleo pancakes), had a cup of coffee, watched an episode of Modern Family and checked g-mail, Facebook, the CFA website and, for me, any new posts from bloggers I follow.

It's been said morning people rule the world, and though I'd never dream to take on such an ambitious goal, knowing that I rule my own life is satisfaction enough for me.

If every day was all morning, I'd have posted this recipe a week ago, right after I actually made it. But alas. This crockpot jambalaya is a great meal for the winter, and, thanks to the crock, it only requires prep work.

Crockpot Jambalaya

Ingredients

• 1 can beef broth
• 3 chicken breasts
• 2 sausage links
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes
• 1 can no salt added diced tomatoes
• red bell pepper
• green bell pepper
• white onion
• yellow onion
• celery (roughly 3/4 cup chopped)
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, garlic)
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 head of cauliflower

1. Pour beef broth in crockpot and turn on low.

2. Trim chicken, halve and place in crockpot.

3. Cut sausage in bite-size pieces, and add to crockpot, along with Rotel and diced tomatoes.

4. Dice bell peppers, onions and celery, and add to crockpot.

5. Add in garlic and seasonings, and stir.

6. Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours. Around hour 6 or 7, I used a fork to shred the chicken breasts.

I served this jambalaya atop fiestaflower rice. Ever heard of fiestaflower? Me either. When I was at the grocery store last week, all the normal-looking cauliflower was gone. But there was plenty of orange cauliflower. It turns out, this orange cauliflower has 25 times more Vitamin A than white cauliflower and contains so much beta-carotene that it causes the cauliflower to take on the orange color. Cool, huh?

Basically, I trimmed up the cauliflower the same way I'd do if I chose to steam it.

Then, I gave it a whirl in the food processor to achieve a somewhat grainy texture.

I placed it in a microwave-safe bowl, covered it and microwaved for 4 minutes.

Super easy!