BBQ Sauce

Ingredients
Two cans organic tomato sauce (or homemade)
1/2 cup brewed strong organic coffee
1/2 cup organic apple cider
1/2 cup organic apple cider vinegar
2 tsps chopped organic garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp organic cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp organic onion powder
1/2 tbsp organic yellow mustard
1 tbsp organic xylitol
1/4 tsp organic stevia extract

Directions
Blend all ingredients into a saucepan to simmer. Once the mixture has thickened, check the taste and add more stevia if you would like it to taste sweeter or more cayenne for extra spice. Add more salt to taste if needed.  If you are familiar with liquid smoke, you can add that smoky flavor as well. You could really make 3 flavors with this recipe: sweet, spicy and smoky. Let it cool and store it in a mason jar in your fridge.

Butternut Squash Homefries

Why not actual potato homefries? Come on now... if you don't know the answer, then I can't help you. Sweet potato homefries would be okay but you can't beat the nutrients in this disguised winter squash. It also has a little sweetness to it.  It's the sweet/savory balance that makes it a perfect breakfast side.

Ingredients
1 large organic butternut squash
2 tbsp pastured lard, bacon grease or butter (Kerrygold)
1/2 organic white onion chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp organic parsley
1/2 tsp organic garlic powder
1 tsp organic mixed seasoning
1/4 cup homemade bone broth (chicken, beef, pork or whatever you have)
2 pieces of bacon (optional)

Directions
Skin, de-seed and cube your butternut squash to about the size of potato homefries. If you are using the bacon, you will want to chop it up into small pieces and start it cooking in a large skillet with the lard, grease or butter. I didn't have bacon to spare, so I left it out of this batch. 
Once the skillet is hot, add the cubed butternut squash and cook it until you get a nice browning on as much of it as possible. Add the chopped onion about halfway through.

After the squash has a good amount of color on it, add the dry seasonings and mix everything together. By this time the squash should almost be cooked through. Pour the broth in the skillet, mix it around and put a lid on it to steam. In about 5 minutes take the lid off and let the excess liquid cook off. 
Serve hot and enjoy!
If you want to spice it up a little, you can add some chopped pickled jalapenos or a pinch or two of cayenne.

Squash cake

This is a variation of zucchini bread that I decided to make because we bought some organic yellow squash at a farm stand. I had a hard time choosing between this recipe and a more traditional spiced zucchini bread. It was the fennel that caught my interest. The original recipe came from the Martha Stewart site where they have around 75 different ways to use zucchini.

Ingredients
1/2 cup lard, butter or coconut oil (or combination)
2 cups almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (grain-free)
2 medium organic yellow squashes
2 medium organic green zucchini
1 cup shelled, unsalted pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cups xylitol

1/4 tsp stevia extract
3 large organic pastured eggs
1 tsp organic pure vanilla extract
3/4 tsp organic ground fennel

Directions

Melt your oil, lard or butter in the baking dish with the oven preheating at 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients except for the xylitol in a mixing bowl. Then take the xylitol, eggs, vanilla, and your melted oil and blend those in a blender or bullet. Mix the liquids with the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl to which you will add the squash once you have grated it with a box grater or shredded it in a food processor. Lastly, you will add the pistachios and pour into your dish to bake for about 45 minutes to an hour until the top is golden brown. If you have two loaf pans, it might be better to make 2 shallow loaves instead of one big casserole loaf, as I have done.

By the way, it is amazing! Considering that it is 75% veggie and egg, how can you go wrong eating a ton of this? The fennel flavor reminds me of the traditional italian pitzelles which use anise. I think next time I bake this I will add a hint of lemon in there too.

Breakfast Sausage

This is something we would eat everyday if it was in the fridge. It is the easiest thing to make and a good substitute for bacon (but why would you not want bacon...?). Because this is just as amazing. I don't know if my husband is aware, but I mentally keep tabs on how much sausage he has eaten, just so I can make sure I'm getting my fair share.

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground pork (preferably pasture-raised)

1 tsp organic onion powder

1/2 tsp organic garlic powder

1 tsp organic thyme (if ground use 1/4)

1/4 tsp organic ground sage

3/4 tsp sea salt 

pinch of organic pepper

pinch of organic cayenne (or more if you like spicy)

3/4 cup almond flour

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl with your hands. I add almond flour to bulk up the volume that this recipe produces. It soaks up the flavor and juices from the meat and when you eat it, you would never know it's in there. It also gives a good crispy texture when you cook it. If I didn't add this (and it's totally optional), I fear the sausage rations would last half the time. If you decide not to use almond flour, you may want to cut the amount of salt down by 1/4 tsp.

Once everything is mixed thoroughly you will want to form the sausage into a big log and wrap it in cling wrap. This way, you can just cut a slice off the end in the morning to have a ready-to-cook sausage patty.

Brown on both sides, cook a couple of eggs in the grease and you have a complete primal breakfast in minutes.

Coconut Macaroons

This is one of my first recipes as a primal baker (so please excuse it's informality). Now I know and must point out the differences between using sweetened or unsweetened coconut. Besides the obvious variation in amounts of sugar, the unsweetened really seems to be extra dry. I would suggest perhaps leaving some of the yolks in with the mix to make up for that lack of moisture.

I wasn't terribly exact when whipping these up, so you'll have to excuse my use of guessed measurements.
I have made a recipe from the back of a coconut bag before, and this was a different brand. So, the recipes were a little different. One had flour, one didn't, etc....
This is roughly what I did:

Ingredients
2 bags (approx. 32 oz) of coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup of almond flour
6 egg whites
1 cup almond or coconut milk
sea salt and sweetener to taste 
dark chocolate to drizzle on top (I used baking chips, which melt faster)
slivered almonds
coconut oil for the pan

Directions
Basically, I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl. I greased the pan and set the oven for 325-350.
Since I didn't have an ice-cream scoop to make perfect little blobs, I greased up a small measuring cup (probably 1/4 cup), and used it to make 16 coconutty mounds. I baked them while continually checking and changing temps, making sure they weren't getting burnt here or there. When there was brown crispy coconut all over the tops and especially bottoms, I took them out and let them cool before adding the toppings.

Coconut Coffee Hobnobs

This is a great primal and gluten/grain free dessert. I don't feel at all guilty about eating these...


Coconut Coffee Hobnobs

Dusting powder:
4 tbs unsweetened coconut finely processed
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp coconut flour
1 handful organic chocolate chips

Hobnobs:
12 large organic pitted dates
2 tbs brewed coffee
1/4 cup almond milk + 1 tbs
1 1/2 tbs coconut oil

3/4 cup whole almonds
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 tsp ground sea-salt
2 tsp coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup coconut flour set aside

For the dusting powder, chop all of the ingredients in a food processor until desired consistency and mix together. Set this aside.
For the hobnobs you need to mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients, then combine the two.
Blend the dates, coffee, almond milk and coconut oil in a food processor until it is smooth and buttery. Separately put the almonds (you can use another kind of nut, or several kinds), salt, coconut flour and cocoa powder in the processor to create the nut meal. After these two blends are mixed together, slowly add up to 1/4 cup of coconut flour until the mixture has the consistency of sticky pizza dough. Once it can be rolled into a ball a little bigger than an inch in size, drop it into your dusting mix and cover it completely.
Place all of the finished treats on a sheet and chill in the fridge until you just can't resist the temptation to eat one!
The recipe makes 12-15 hobnobs.