Liquid Awesome

So, it's a new year and I've decided that I'm changing things up with my diet and my blogging.  I'm going to aim to post some recipes of things I make at home.  Since I have a ton of kale at home, I decided to make some soup.  After thinking a bit, I thought "Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana!"  Only... it's made with cream and tomatoes... both of which I'm not eating right now.  So, I give you my version!

Trisha's Sausage Kale Spinach Soup aka "Liquid Awesome"

I started off making the broth using pork neck bones.  I pan-fried them up in some olive oil, dusted with a couple pinches of salt.

Neck Bones inna Pan!

Neck Bones all browned and yummy.

One all nice and brown I added them to the stock pot and filled it with water.  I let the water come to a boil and scrapped off all the scummy white stuff.  That is pretty much just nasties from the bones floating to the top.  Skim it off, let boil for about 10 minutes until no more nasties surface.

Nasties!

Once it was good and clear I threw in a bunch of veggies.  In my case it was mushrooms, sugar snap peas, carrots, onion and green beans.  Oooh!  And some garlic.

Floating veggies in stock!

I let this boil for 1.5 hours then strained the stock and split it in half. (I was making two soups)

Stock is ready for straining!

Now, time to get the Liquid Awesome making.  To start, I cut up and cooked 4 slices of bacon.

Bacon!

Added about 10 baby carrots cut up.

Bacon and carrots!

Then a pound of Sage Pork Sausage and cooked until no longer pink.

Sausage, bacon and carrots.

I dumped the meat and carrots into the stock and got the veggies.  For this I used a head of purple flowering kale and a bunch of spinach.  I roughly chopped them up and added them to the soup.

Purple food is so pretty..

This is one colorful soup!

Mixed everything all up and let it cook for a few hours in the crockpot.

I love the colors!

 The kale lost it's color, but the flavor of this soup is spot on.  It was so delicious the kids were eating it and loving every bite.

My bowl of "Liquid Awesome"

Baked Chicken Thighs & Patty Pan Squash

This morning started with a trip to a local farmer's market.  Every week when I go, I like to try something new. This week, it was a patty pan squash.

Thanks to a "Chicken Fairy" I also have a ton of chicken parts (legs, thighs, breasts).  So dinner tonight was a combination of Baked (and stuffed) Chicken Thighs and the patty pan squash.

So what did I do with the squash?  I cut it up, put some butter, salt, pepper & fresh basil on it and cooked it in the oven, at 425 for about 40 minutes.  The result?  Tasty.  Not something I could eat a ton of, but it was a good side to the dish.

Onto the chicken.  I chopped up half a red onion, a couple basil leaves, some butter and put it into a bowl with a spoonful of crushed garlic.

Then, I peeled the skin off the chicken legs some, making a pocket and stuffing a spoonful of that mix under the skin.

When that was all done, I brushed the skin with some olive oil and dusted it with salt & pepper.

Into the oven they went!  425 for about 40 minutes...

Golden, brown and boy was it delicious!

My plate.  I also cooked up some green beans I had gotten at the market with a bit of the red onion and added a side salad of cucumbers & tomatoes from my garden, tossed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. This dinner was totally primal/paleo. As you can see, it was a lot of delicious food, most of which I picked or bought from the farmer's market this morning.  It was easy and quick (an hour total) to make.

Overall, this dinner got two thumbs up and a full tummy.  The chicken was so moist and delicious.  I will be doing similar techniques in the future, trying different "stuffings".

What do you guys think?  Do you like seeing various recipes that I make from time to time?