Strawberry Banana Muffins!

I have just recently invested in silicone baking cups.

Umm.. Best invention ever!

Not even kidding. Stuff falls right out of them and you don't lose half the batter to the paper wrapping, PLUS you buy them once and then get to reuse them a bajillion times. Gotta love not going to make muffins and going... DANGIT no muffin cups.

I know.. you have that problem all the time just like me right? .... right.

So anyway, I had a lot of bananas on hand that were gross and brown spotty. I can't eat them like that, but they are perfect for baking! I also had some strawberries that were going bad so I said, I really need a strawberry banana something recipe annnnnnd thanks to Juli @ PaleOMG, I manipulated her Chocolate Chip Strawberry Banana Muffins into.. well, not chocolate chip.

I don't like chocolate chips in muffins.

Please don't kill me.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

Yields: 12 muffins             Prep: 10 min                Cook: 30-35 min

Ingredients:

> 3 bananas

> 3 eggs

> 4 dates - dried, pitted

> 3 TBSP almond butter (or other nut butter)

> 2.5 tsp vanilla extract

> 6 TBSP coconut flour

> 3 TBSP almond meal (or flaxseed meal if you have it)

> 1/4 tsp (heaping) baking soda

> 1/4 tsp (heaping) baking powder

> pinch of salt

> 3/4 cup strawberries (more if you prefer)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Throw bananas, eggs, dates, almond butter, and vanilla in a blender (or food processor.. I used my blender because I have a bitty food processor), and pulse until smooth.

2. Throw in the flours, baking soda and powder and salt. Pulse until smooth again.

3. Move batter to a mixing bowl. Fold in strawberries. 

4. Spoon into (silicone) muffin cups. Don't be afraid to fill them up. It doesn't expand a TON, so they won't get crazy in the oven.

5. Cook for 30-35 min. It's a long time but you want to make sure they get cooked through. I patted mine and waited until they stopped making squishy noises because a toothpick went in clean and then I ate one and it was still a bit mushy inside. They'll brown up a bit too which is a good thing.

Enjoy! =]

"Noatmeal"

oh muh gah oh muh gah oh muh gah! ITS PALEO OATMEAL!!

Topped with some berries and agave.. And eaten in bed. So it's even better!

So I have a weird relationship with oatmeal. I hated it growing up (all the way to about... 21 years old). The consistency was what turned me off to it until I found a Kashi brand I liked with whole oats that stayed pretty well intact and wasn't watery slop in a bowl.

Fast forward a few years and I found CrossFit and the Zone diet and Paleo. On Zone, you are allowed to have oatmeal because, as far as a grain goes, it is very low glycemic. That means it does less to spike your blood sugar than other grains and foods. However that doesn't negate it from some of the other bad things grains do to your gut.

So I cut out oatmeal, then put it back in with organic natural options, then argued that I shouldn't eat it, but I wanted it for its warm comfort, stick to your insides feeling.. and the fact that sometimes Paleo brings me to a super low carb state in which I am tired all the time. So I argued that occasionally, I can have it.

The problem with that is I have no filter when it comes to occasions and it kind of turns into  "I'll eat it whenever I want". That is when this lovely recipe showed up while perusing PaleoPlan.com and I found a fantastic alternative that keeps the "warm and sticky" without all the negatives of grains going around. 

Plus, this recipe has a high amount of protein coming from the eggs (although to be honest it says it feeds two and I definitely ate it all myself.. a lot of people might not be able to do that so save some and eat it later), along with all the other obviously nommy ingredients.

Anyway - here is the recipe =] Go make ya some!

"Noatmeal"

Prep Time: 10min           Cook Time: 10-15min

Ingredients:

> 1/4 cup walnuts (feel free to sub any nut for any of these you don't like)

> 1/4 cup pecans

> 2 TBSP flax Seeds

> 1/4 cup coconut milk (you can also use almond milk)

> 3 eggs

> 1 banana

> 1 TBSP almond butter

> 1 tsp cinnamon

> 1/4 tsp ground ginger

> couple shakes of nutmeg

> splash of vanilla

> berries, pumpkin seeds, coconut, agave, honey, etc (things to put on top of it if you want)

Instructions:

> In a food processor, add nuts and spices and grind until a coarse meal. Place in a bowl to the side.

> In the same food processor, toss in the banana, vanilla and almond butter and blend until smooth

> Whisk together eggs and milk in a bowl until smooth and creamy. 

> Add banana combo, mix well. Stir in nut mixture.

> Toss everything in to small saucepan and cook until it is at a consistency you like, making sure that the eggs are cooked through. Mine looked similar to a ball of dough and took about 10-12 min. the website says this should take 5... I don't know what kind of stovetop they were using but it must have been magic.

> Put in a bowl and add whatever toppings you'd like. 

I ate mine as one serving and felt fine after. It's filling but not energy draining or as heavy as oatmeal usually is (especially this amount). With all the delicious fats going on from the nuts and coconut milk, I should be satiated for a while, something I am always struggling with! Enjoy! 

Prociutto-Wrapped Egg Frittata Muffins

That's a mouthful. They're basically fancied-up versions of egg muffins...

So we're doing this contest at my gym that I don't completely understand but am following along with anyway because it involves taking pictures of my food and, well.. anyone that knows me knows that that is going to be happening anyway. Only this way, I have a chance to win a pair of new Nanos and that custom pair that has been sitting on Reebok.com for a long time is calling my name! Want want waaaant!

Anyway.. Since I am going to be randomly posting pictures about what I'm eating, people are probably going to ask for recipes, and hopefully that means I'll be posting more. I've been on a bit of a hiatus because I've been traveling and not eating what I should be, but I'm back!

I'll try to keep my tangents to a minimum.. you're here for the muffins! These came out of a Nom Nom Paleo and then I changed a bunch of stuff. They are mine now! Here you go:

Prociutto-Wrapped Egg Frittata Muffins

Makes: 12 

Ingredients:

- 10 eggs

- 2 TBSP coconut flour

- 1/4 cup full fat coconut milk (the stuff at the top of a refrigerated can of C. milk)
- 2 TBSP coconut oil

- 1/2 yellow onion, fine diced

- 3 cloves garlic, minced

- 3-5 Crimini mushrooms, fine diced

- 1 small sweet potato - shredded (mine was only about 4-5" long and ~2" wide)

- couple handfuls of spinach, chopped
- 3-5oz of prosciutto
- salt/pepper to taste
- 12 muffin tin

Instructions:

- So the awesome part about this recipe is that you can put WHATEVER you want into these. Hate mushrooms? Don't put them in there. Obsessed with tomatoes? Chop em and put them in there! I added the sweet potato because I am consistently low on carbs when I eat strict paleo, so I'm hiding those good carbs wherever I can.

Preheat: 375 degrees

1) Melt coconut oil and saute onions and garlic until translucent. Then toss in mushrooms and saute until they look darker and wet. Season with some salt and pepper.

2) Once the onions/garlic/mushroom combo is done, slide it onto a plate to let it cool while you work with the rest of the stuff.

3) To save time, while that's cooking, chop the rest of your veggies and set them aside.

4) In a large bowl, whip the eggs, milk and flour together until well mixed. 

5) Toss in veggies, season with salt and pepper.

6) Once the onion/garlic/mushroom combo is about room temp, toss that in the bowl too and mix up.

7) Going to your muffin tin, oil the crap out of everything. I mean it. I used melted coconut oil and it still could've been oilier. 

8) Once it's all lubed up (yep, went there), line the prosciutto in each cup, making sure to cover all surfaces. This make take more than one piece. I only used one on each and they were a little sticky to get out.

9) Spoon the 'batter' into each cup, filling almost all the way. They puff up a little bit but not too much.

10) Stick in the oven for 20minutes, turning the tin at the halfway point.

These are awesome for on-the-go breakfast. I take them to work and heat them up in the microwave there. If you are going to reheat them, I suggest wrapping them in a wet paper towel to keep them moist. I also topped mine with slices of avocado for some good fats!

Enjoy =]

Southwest Turkey Sliders with Spicy Avocado Slaw

Okay guys, I have mixed feelings about this recipe. So I will amend everything I'm about to type by saying, I made this recipe as it was called for from PaleOMG, then decided to make changes. Big bonus for this recipe? SO FAST to make. People think that if it isn't eggs or in a crockpot that it'll take too long to make. This is MAYBE 20 minutes from prep to eat.

However, as I have seen before with her recipes, the flavor profiles are a little off for my taste. [Please don't hate me Juli.. I love all of your ideas and you make me laugh all the time with your posts.. It's just the seasoning is a bit much for me!]


.. I just used her name like she's my friend. Or that she would ever even see this blog. I think we could be awesome friends, that's just likely never going to happen. Oh well. Dream big! Hi Juli!!


Anyway, back to it. Both parts of this recipe have the elements of delicious, but they are off the mark just a bit.

I am going to start with each element and then explain why I changed it. As always, you can find the original recipe at the link above if you'd rather test the waters yourself.

Original Ingredients

• --1# Ground Turkey
• --1/4 red onion minced
• --1/4 red onion thinly sliced
•  I didn't really understand this and now I know why. This would be better diced. Bigger pieces to stand out within the meat and the minced bits to mix and hold the meat together. The thinly sliced pieces just made the burger fall apart. My turkey was very lean, so "sticking together" was not it's strong suit.
• --1/2 Poblano pepper, diced
• --1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• I used 1 whole Poblano because that is what I had. That being said, you run into a very similar problem as above with the peppers being diced. The burger has a tendency to fall apart. I would puree this all in a food processor beforehand and then mix with the meat.
• --1 tsp ground cumin
• --1/2 tsp ground red pepper
• --Salt and pepper to taste
• Coat generously with both. Okay, if you're watching your salt then go easy until it's cooked and you can decide what you want but I'm warning you that it needs it.
• --1 TBSP fat [your choice]
• I did not know what this was.. She mentions putting it in the pan to cook but I actually think if you are using ground turkey breast, mix this TBSP in with the meat as opposed to putting it in the pan and you've got yourself some serious delicious going on. I put olive oil over mine, but would use bacon fat next time.

       I also added 1 clove of garlic to the turkey because.. well garlic makes just about everything better!

Slaw:

• --1 small cabbage, or a bag of coleslaw
• Okay big pet peeve of mine with recipes. How big is a small cabbage? Or one butternut squash? Or 1 sweet potato? Seriously, give me a weight or some kind of dimension to go by. I chose a regular cabbage because, honestly, they were all the same size, and I ended up with a lot more than prescribed. Of course, a bag would have been easier but a head of cabbage is much cheaper and any excuse I have to use my mandolin slicer [it's got a julienne attachment!] is good for me. Turns out, a head of cabbage is too much, just use the bag.
• --2 avocados
• --1TBSP olive oil
• --1 tsp lime juice
• --1/2 tsp lemon juice
• --1 tsp ground cumin
• I would take this down to 1/2 tsp. There is already cumin in the burgers.. I still would add it but a whole tsp is a bit overkill on the cumin.
• --1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• --salt and pepper to taste
• Again with the 'to taste' stuff. It needs both of these things. Unless you do the following:
• After I got to work and was making this for lunch.. I decided the avocado slaw really needed something to put a bit of tang into it. I added a little bit of Balsamic Vinegar to it and it was fantastic. 1-2TBSP should be good for the whole thing, and I think Apple Cider vinegar would be just as good. Go slow on adding it. Add some, taste, add some more. You might want more than I did. It just needs something to brighten up the avocado as well as mask a bit of the cabbage bitterness.

*phew*

I think this is the most critical I have been of a recipe, but like I said, the idea and everything behind it is good. Coming from a non-Paleo cooking background, though, leads me to a "less is more" in the seasonings department. Complement items where you can, and don't hide the natural taste of things behind overwhelming other flavors.

So here it is. The finished product, as written by me! 

Southwest Turkey Sliders with Spicy Avocado Slaw

Prep Time: 10min                                Cook Time: 10min (ish)

Ingredients:

Sliders:

• 1# ground turkey
• 1/2 red onion, chopped into smaller pieces
• 1 poblano pepper (or green bell if you prefer), chopped into smaller pieces
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 TBSP fat (your choice, I would use olive oil or bacon fat)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (may sub chipotle or cajun seasoning if you want)
• salt and pepper to taste

Slaw:

• 1 bag of coleslaw
• 2 avocados
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 1 TBSP vinegar of your choice (I used Balsamic, Apple Cider would also be good)
• Start here. May want to add more AFTER you've mixed it all up
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

Instructions:

Sliders:

• Take all ingredients except the turkey and throw them into your food processor.
• Leave out some onion and dice it if you want piece of onion in your burger. Otherwise throw it all in.
• Pulse until everything it broken down. Don't liquefy it. Basically make it minced like your garlic.
• Toss with meat. 
• Cover with salt and pepper if you haven't already
• Make into patties[small or big, your choice. I made one patty per meal as opposed to actual "sliders"], and cook in a frying pan with some fat until white around edges. Flip and finish cooking.

Slaw:

• Everything except coleslaw into the food processor! Don't you love when it's really no effort to do these things?
• Mix with slaw. Taste it. Add more vinegar/salt/pepper if it needs it. Up to you.

Top some slaw with a patty and enjoy! I will warn you that this makes 4 servings, so unless you are feeding a family, you will end up with leftovers. This means your avocado WILL turn brownish. that's okay. You can still eat it like that it's just not as appealing to look at haha

Enjoy! Let me know how it goes!

--L

Coconut Shrimp w/ Piña-peño Dip!

So I totally made ^that^ word up. This recipe hails from Civilized Caveman, who dubbed the dip as CCCC (Civilized Caveman Cooking Creation) sweet and spicy sauce and that is a really long title.. I like Piña-Peño! Also.. really sorry for lack of pictures in this.. to help I took the one that Mr. Caveman took of his! Mine looked just like that =] .. no seriously, they did!

Mmm Shrimpies!

So the Nasty Nati (that's Cincinnati for those who don't know) is currently in an Ice Storm.. like right now as I type this. I got out of my car after the gym and the sleet coming down was physically painful to walk through. February is that really crappy month (for me at least) where I am so so so done with the cold and wet, and I am dreaming of sunshine. I tend to get a little seasonal depression, especially around now. Like a funk I can't shake.

Another reason for a shrimp recipe (and the reason this recipe surprised me by being so good), was because I have had a bag of frozen shrimp in my freezer for... a despicably long time. I'm not even sure when I got them. I just know they have been there for a while and I was dying to get rid of them. 

They aren't the greatest quality (another way I know it's been a long time) and I usually buy 95% of my meat fresh to make within a few days now. I don't stock shop anymore.. I just really hate defrosting things frankly. I always forget and then have to do some kind of hot water/microwave business.. gross.

ANYWAY - To this recipe.

Coconut Shrimp with Piña-peño Dip

Prep Time: 15min                                                      Cook Time: 10min

Ingredients:

--12 Large shrimp - peeled, de-veined, butterflied (Jumbo would totally be better but I followed all the exact same instruction for my gross but medium sized ones and it still worked)

--1 egg (recipe calls for 1 egg white. I use da whole one because I didn't want to waste a yolk and had no use for one in the near future)

--1/2 cup almond flour

--1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

--1 tsp cumin (recipe calls for 1/2 tsp, but I doubled.. and loved it)

--1 clove minced garlic

--salt and pepper to taste

--1 cup pineapple - fresh diced [lets be real, I used a can of chunks..]

--1 jalapeno - core and seeds removed

--1/4 red onion [recipe calls for white but I only had a red and it said that was fine too]

--juice of 1 lime

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 500 degrees (yeah.. 500!)

2) Cover a baking sheet with tin foil, shiny side down

3) Toss almond flour, coconut, cumin and garlic in a gallon sized zip lock, shake it up to mix it.

4) Whisk up egg and fully coat all shrimpys in it. Toss in bag.

5) Shake em up! Coat em!

6) Spread them out on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

7) Cook 5 min. Flip. Cook another 5 min.

7.5) While your shrimps are cooking, toss all the ingredients for the dip in a food processor and blend down to dip-consistency.

8) Put everything into bowls and enjoy!

I will warn you that the jalapenos will knock you on your face if you put it too close to the food processor (experience), and that the dip is DIFFERENT, but seriously loving it. It's strong and fresh tasting. It's kind of perfect for reminiscing about the beach. 

As always, let me know what you think! And if you have a recipe you'd like me to try out for you, leave it in the comments below! 

Citrus Herb Roasted Chicken

Alright y'all. I'm going to make this short and sweet for you since torturing you with a lot of reading on my Paleo Copycat Zuppa Toscana recipe. This one hails from a Pinterest picture I saw, originates from Comfort of Cooking, and was modified a bit by me to make it Paleo.

This dish was super fast and easy to make, especially if you have a Mandolin slicer. Don't know what that is? Look it up, then order one immediately because all of your slicing needs can be done in a SNAP with it. Oh, and don't turn your oven on if you plan on marinading the meat! I just put it first step so you didn't have to look for it.

Citrus Herb Roasted Chicken

Prep Time: depends on marinade, 10min without                                                       Cook time: about 1 hour

So many colors!

Ingredients:

-- 10-12 bone-in chicken thighs and legs, skin on [about 4-4.5#, I got whole legs from Whole Foods, which ended up being 7 thighs and legs all attached]

-- 1/4 cup Olive Oil

-- 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

-- 1 tsp onion powder

-- 1 tsp cayenne pepper [ if you are averse to spice, you can use Paprika which is subtler, I just didn't have any]

-- 2 oranges, one sliced (about 1/4"), one to juice

-- 2 lemons, one sliced (about 1/4"), one to juice

-- 1 TBSP Italian seasoning

-- 1 med onion, thinly sliced

-- 3 TBSP fresh chopped rosemary [or 1 TBSP dried]

-- 1-2 TBSP fresh chopped Sage [you can omit if necessary]

-- Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions:

-- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

-- Whisk together olive oil, garlic, onion powder, cayenne, juice of one orange, juice of one lemon, and Italian Seasoning.

-- Place chicken in a 13x9 baking dish (or bigger if you need it), cover with oil mixture, coating both sides. Leave skin side up, cover, and stick in the fridge for as long as you want. I didn't have time to go overnight so was about 2 hours. If you don't have time, you can go ahead without it as well.

-- After marinading, take chicken out, re-flip all the pieces around to moisten. Skin is still up.

-- Sprinkle generously with cracked black pepper, salt, chopped rosemary, and sage (in that order if you want the best coverage). 

-- Arrange onions, oranges and lemons around and under the chicken. Get it all up in there. Everywhere.

-- Put in the oven and leave it for 1 hour. Check that chicken is done (juice run clear.. I cut into them even though that's not the professional way to do it but hey.. better than raw chicken)

-- Once it's done, remove from pan if you'd like, and top off with some of the juices at the bottom of the pan. I ate mine with broccoli and cauliflower, but would be good with just about any veggie!

Got a lot of responses when I posted the picture on Facebook so hope you enjoy this! Let me know how it turns out!

--LC

Paleo Copycat Zuppa Toscana a la Olive Garden

You know what I hate?



Peeling shit. Potatoes, cucumbers, carrots.. you name it. If you have to run that finger slicing death trap over it in order to get stuff done, I hate it.



I had a horrendous experience around the age of 10 that I think scarred me for life. At the time, my family was living in my grandparents house while we were building a new house. They had a walk-out basement facing a few acres of woods, with a full setup down there for us to never have to see the g-rents if we didn't want to. Looking back on it, it was much better experience than it was while I was actually living it. At the time, all I could think about was how long 8 months was having to share a room with my then 13-yr old brother.. who still to this day gets generally horrified if I am in anything less than a hoodie and sweat pants. Our relationship can still be described by the torture that was waking up to HIS alarm clock every weekday for 8 months.


Because he was the proud owner of this gem:

For those deprived children out there who don't know what this is, it is a Nickelodeon alarm clock. It features a sweet chemical process looking beam on the top that lit up the entire room all night, and at the bright and early hour of  6:00a, would proudly shout

NICK NICK NICK, NICKNICKNICKNICK, NICKELODEON!

NICK NICK NICK, NICKNICKNICKNICK, NICKELODEON!

Over.. and over.. and over.. until you smacked that red button to snooze it, which my brother usually did enough times until I had to get up as well. Unfortunately.. unless you can sleep through the equivalent of the Reveille being played in your bedroom, I was awake from the moment it went off. There was a certain panic at falling back asleep in the 5 minute span between snoozes since it was likely the next time it went off I was going to flip myself out of bed in terror.

Why was I telling this story..?

Oh that's right, the Peeling Incident. [... That sounds a lot more disgusting than I intended.. oh well].

So I have always loved helping in the kitchen, and 10 yr old me was helping the family prepare for some kind of meal that involved mashed potatoes. My job was to peel the suckers before throwing them in the pot. Here I was.. merrily peeling a bajillion potatoes when I come across this small, round baseball of a potato. About halfway through, I lose my grip on the bad boy and WOOPS... slice off my pinkie nail diagonally top to bottom.

...

PANIIIC!

Clean off. Bye bye. No more nail. No more lots of skin under nail. Barf.

I wish I would've had the wherewithal to run around screaming like that. In real life I stumbled over to my parents, showed them, and was promptly rushed to the bathroom with my dad squeezing the life out of my finger. I told him I thought I was going to pass out and he told me to stop being so dramatic. 

Oh.. I'm sorry.. I just ALMOST LOST A DIGIT HERE annnnnnd you've stopped all blood flow to my hand. I blacked out for a few seconds.. it got all bandaged up.. and I was forbidden to peel anything for a while.

Meanwhile I developed a healthy [maybe not so much..] mistrust of potato peelers along with an overcautious approach to anything needing to be peeled.

"But Lyndsey.." you ask "What on earth are you going on about this for?"

The answer is..

RUTABAGAS

This guy!

Which apparently you can carve into ruta-lanterns!

These funny little root vegetables were used in my Paleo Copycat Zuppa Toscana!


I avoid white potatoes... especially in foods I know I am going to eat in the middle of the day because my body reacts funny to them. They are not in the technical strict list of Paleo foods, but if you read this article from Stupid Easy Paleo, you can read about how you can fit them into the Paleo diet and why. 

So why don't I? After cutting this particular starch out of my diet, I found out that when I eat white potatoes in any kind of quantity, I get sleepy. And not just, "oh man I feel heavy and tired after eating all this stuff," I mean close to narcoleptic, cannot physically keep my eyes open, will have to supplement with caffeine or a nap of some kind immediately, kind of tired. So it's just better for me not to have them. Obviously something goes haywire in my body, typically a sign you should stop putting that thing in your body.

Anyway, so I asked the awesome friend who is Murfie from PGPaleo what kind of substitute I could do for white potatoes, and her genius told me to try RUTABAGAS. I have never in my life seen or dealt with a Rutabaga.. ever. They are dense, oddly colored root veggies with a slightly spicy smell and if you decide to chomp into one without cooking it, will be bitter, but not when cooked through. 

These worked AMAZING in this soup in place of white potatoes, just peeled and diced the same as a potato, plus they are packed with Potassium, Vitamin C & B-6, Phosphorus, Calcium and Magnesium, which are all good things that are sometimes hard to come by in day-to-day foods. I think I am going to be getting very familiar with this funny little root veggie...


And I'm going to have to start liking peeling them! [Phew.. that took a lot of work to circle back to the point.. sorry about that =P ]

So without further ado, below is the recipe for the soup, which stemmed from a recipe on  Prairie Homestead, but the flavors were cultivated to make the soup I have been dying to PC [Paleo Copycat].

Paleo Copycat Zuppa Toscana

                                  Prep Time: ~20min                                                                                 Cook Time: ~ 1hr

Ingredients:

> 1.5# sausage [I used Hot Italian Sausage from Whole Foods, casing removed, because I wanted it spicy]

> 1# bacon [My go to for this sort of thing is Hormel's Nitrate-free because it's sold everywhere, but use your fav]

> 1 onion, diced

> 5-6 cloves garlic, minced

> 4-5 rutabagas!! peeled and cubed [can sub 6-7 potatoes, but I dare you to try Rutabaga!]

> 6-8 cups chicken stock 

> 1/2 head of kale, (about 3-4 large leaves, de-stemmed and chopped)

> 1 cup coconut milk

> 1-2 tsp of cayenne pepper [depending on heat preference]

>  Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions:

-- Fry up bacon in stockpot until crispy, remove bacon and set aside

-- Leaving oil in the pot, cook sausage, onions and garlic until browned and onions are soft. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper.

-- Throw in 'bagas and stock. I used enough stock to cover everything, so it depends on size of rutabagas. 

-- Stir up, and bring heat up on ingredients without boiling (not the end of the world if it does), then drop to medium-low heat and simmer for ~20min, or until rutabaga can be pierced through with a fork. I covered mine at this time.

--Add kale, milk, a round of salt and pepper [coat top with a layer], and cayenne pepper, cook 5-10 min longer.

-- Serve with crumbled bacon or just by itself! [I wanted to eat my bacon, and it was fantastic without it]

I was really happy with this one.. Please please PLEASE let me know if you try it out,  especially if it's your first time with rutabaga like me! I cannot wait to get home after workout tonight and smash a huge bowl. 

Enjoy!

~Lyndsey