Cavolfiore alla Vodka

The newest thing to hit our fridge is some cauliflower with vodka sauce. We used a version of Epicurious's vodka sauce and Heidi's five minute tomato sauce. Heidi's tomato sauce is how I start any kind of red sauce.

2 15oz cans tomato sauce
1 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes
1 head of minced garlic
1 tsp crushed red pepper
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup avocado oil
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup yogurt
3 Tbs chopped parsley

Put the garlic, oil, pepper, and salt in a pan over medium-high heat. Let it cook for a minute "until fragrant" as Heidi says then dump the tomatoes in the pan. Leave it at a "lively simmer" for 30-45 minutes. I stir this every 10 minutes but it could probably sit there bu itself. Stir in the vodka and let it simmer for another 10 minutes. Turn the heat off. Stir in the yogurt and parsley. Boom. Done. Well add some butter to it right before you eat it. Butter gives this sauce it's decadent richness. Makes 5 cups.

I would have used heavy cream instead of yogurt. I wasn't sure I'd have enough for the week if I did. Sour cream would also work instead of the yogurt or heavy cream. This sauce is the kind of thing I start before I putter in the kitchen making pancakes or grating cheese or cutting up vegetables for other things. I stick on the back burner and most forget about it in the "lively simmer" stages.


1 floreted? and cooked cauliflower
3 cups vodka sauce
2 Tbs heavy cream
2 Tbs melted butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Palmful of chopped basil leaves
6 slices Provolone

Lay half the cauliflower into your baking dish. Stir together the vodka sauce, cream, butter, parmesan, salt, pepper, and basil. pour half the sauce over the cauliflower in the baking dish. Add the second half of cauliflower to the baking dish and pour the remaining sauce over the cauliflower. Top the cauliflower mixture with the provolone slices. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

The provolone slices don't add anything to this dish. If you want more cheese then cut the provolone into chunks and stir it in the mixture before baking. This was not a quick dish like I was hoping but it's one of the best ways I've had cauliflower. Except maybe roasted. Ooooo, I bet roasted cauliflower would be good dipped in the vodka sauce. Mmmmm. The twins love this one, especially Jeremy.

Frittatas

Finally, the last recipe on this week's menu is frittata. I had a pound and a half of ground turkey leftover from making the Sundried Tomato Meatballs so I made the breakfast sausage for the recipe with that instead of buying it. I realize now that I should have made a double batch of the super delicious meatballs. Now I know, double IBIH's meatball recipes. The breakfast sausage was delicious too. Maybe I'll just buy more meat next time. A somewhat hysterically hilarious idea since we bought 15lbs of meat this week. Ah, well.

1 lb chopped and lightly cooked broccoli
8 oz crumbled feta
20-24 oz breakfast sausage
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
Salt & pepper
24 eggs


Mix together the broccoli and feta cheese then break apart the sausage and mix that into the broccoli and feta mixture. Separately - I just mixed the egg stuff up in the bottom of my casserole dish - beat together the yogurt and milk. Add the eggs and seasonings. Stir in the meat mixture (I used this opportunity to break up some of the bigger clumps of meat) and bake it all up at 375 for 50 minutes. It turned out great but I'd definitely add some garlic next time. I love garlic.

I upped the spices in this breakfast sausage so it was strong enough to stand up in a mixed recipe like this. The frittata has a bunch of other bland flavors - eggs, milk, yogurt - that need the loud spices. I'd tone down the spices if it was going to be on it's own in a patty or meatball.

1.5lb ground turkey
1 Tbsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp rubbed sage
2 tsp ground fennel
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme

Mix this up like you would meatballs. Use "The Claw" hand position to mix it so it stays soft. Add 2-4 Tbsp of water if you make it into big clumps - meatballs or patties - to keep it soft. Ditch the water if you want a tougher texture. The tougher texture is good for crumbles. Gives it that nice bouncy texture that's terrible in a large clump.

Happy breakfasting!

Sundried-Feta Meatballs

Next up on the keto week meal plan was this Sundried-feta meatball recipe. Daniel was helping me so this one got made pretty closely to the original recipe.

1.5 lbs ground turkey
2-3 oz crumbled feta
0.75 oz chopped sun-dried tomatoes and soaked in 3 Tbs of water
1 tsp dried thyme
1 egg
1 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup almond flour

Mix all the ingredients; roll into balls; and bake at 350 in an oiled pan for 30 minutes.

I thought about drizzling some kind of shredded cheese on top. I couldn't decide what to go with so no cheese on top. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Jeremy, Paul, and I loved this recipe.

Mexican-y Roast Soup

I made a version of this for leftovers this week. I always end up making minor changes based on laziness and preference.

4lb round steak, cubed
1 cup+ salsa verde
1/4 cup green chile condiment (This came in a bottle like Sriracha does. I think I picked it up at Whole Foods or Rousse's.)
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cloves pressed garlic
10 mini peppers, cut into strips
2-4 Tbsp ground cumin
2-4 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp oregano
2 Tbsp Chili powder
2-4 Tbsp Cider Vinegar

I browned the round steak in batches on the stove then dumped everything in my Instapot on the slow cooker function for 4 hours.

It came out roast meat in a Mexican restaurant soup. Not exactly what I was expecting but delicious.

Friends-giving Vegetable

I confess I've been neglecting my Facebook account. So Friends-giving kinda snuck up on me this year. During an evening visit with Pippie, I mentally listed the few ingredients we had left at the house and tried to come up with something respectable to bring as my dish. Hopefully for the friends sake, the cauliflower will turn out well.

Olive and Garlic Cauliflower

• 2 cauliflowers
• 6-12 chopped cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup olive oil (or butter) & more for roasting
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped kalamata olives
• Salt & Pepper

1. Turn your oven on to 450 degrees. Don't wait for it to finish preheating.
2. Break the cauliflower heads into bite-sized florets. 
3. Toss the cauliflower with salt, pepper, and some oil (or bacon fat).
4. Spread 1/3 of the cauliflower onto a baking sheet and pop that baking sheet in the oven.
5. While the first batch of cauliflower cooks, mix the olive, 1/2 cup oil (or butter), and chopped garlic in a microwaveable dish (like a coffee mug). Microwave the oil mixture for 15-60 seconds depending on the power of your microwave. You want the garlic lightly cooked not golden or crunchy.
6. Check on the cauliflower after 10 minutes. You want the spots touching the pan to be medium to dark brown. If it's not done yet, check every 5 minutes.
7. Spread 1/2 of the remaining cauliflower onto a baking sheet and pop that baking sheet in the oven. Check on the cauliflower after 10 minutes. If it's not done yet, check every 5 minutes.
8. Spread the remaining cauliflower onto a baking sheet and pop that baking sheet in the oven. Check on the cauliflower after 10 minutes. If it's not done yet, check every 5 minutes.
9. Once all the cauliflower is cooked, stir the garlic oil into the cauliflower and serve.