Fried chicken meatballs, Okra, summer Squash Casserole, and Breakfast!

I am terrible about remembering to take pictures of the food I cook but managed to remember to snap some of our Sunday dinner.  I made fried chicken meatballs, oven roasted okra, and summer squash casserole. 

This was the first time for me to make Well Fed's fried chicken meatballs by Melissa Joulwan and they were like little bite size fried chickens!  I made a double batch but next time I will triple to have leftovers for lunches.

Fried Chicken Meatballs

Meatballs:

1 1/2 pounds ground chicken

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

Coating:

3 tablespoons tapioca starch

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon sage

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Pinch of dried marjoram

Pinch of ground cayenne 

Pinch ground cloves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Place all meatball ingredients in a bowl and mix.  Then place all of the coating mixture in a shallow pan or bowl.

Roll the meat into balls and then roll into coating mixture.  Set the meat balls aside until all are rolled and coated.  

Next, fry the meatballs in a tablespoon ( I used a little more than that) of olive oil on high heat.  They will cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side.  Don't overcrowd the pan, you will need to cook them in batches.  Place on baking sheet then bake for about 10 minutes.

 

I love breaded okra and have a paleo recipe for it but it takes up so much time rolling all of those pieces in batter.  This recipe is a quicker way to use okra.  The kids like it as long as we have ketchup to dip it in.😋 

Oven Roasted Okra

Okra

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Dice okra and throw away ends.

Toss okra with olive oil to coat and season with salt and pepper.

Cook for about 35-40 minutes.

 

This next recipe is a favorite of my son, Wyatt.  It is also great to have with eggs for breakfast.  I got this recipe from

Jennifer Robins book called Down South Paleo. I doubled this recipe.

Summer Squash Casserole

1-2 tablespoons of avocado oil or your preferred cooking oil

3 tablespoons coconut sugar

3 medium yellow squash coarsely chopped

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup pecan pieces

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a casserole dish.  Boil the squash in some water for about 10-15 minutes.

Drain the squash and mash with a potato masher. Add the eggs, sugar, salt and pepper and mix.  Pour in to a casserole dish and top with pecans.  Place and oven and bake for 30 minutes.  If you double the recipe you will need to allot it to cook for about 40 minutes.  

Enjoy!

  

Juicing For Your Health

Juicing has become more and more popular of the past recent years.  You may see new Juiceries in your neighborhood pop up.  Our city finally opened I Love Juice Bar and we have become habitual frequenters.  In order for you to get the most out of the vegetables and fruits, they must be pressed in a cold presser, no heat.  Drinking cold press juices is an easy way to get your daily intake of vegetables and fruits.  When looking for a juice, I usually try to find one that contains green vegetables with one fruit to add a little sweetness.  The kids love to get a juice or smoothie and sometimes I will tell them they need to pick a drink that has something green in it.  It has become a great after school treat!

I am always up for a "food challenge" so when my husband said he wanted to do a juice cleanse, I was all for it.  We watched a documentary called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead and it was a definite motivator.  If you ever need inspiration to eat healthier, get on Netflix and search for food/health documentaries.  They are so inspiring!   It helps to have a partner to do the cleanse with.  We started small with our cleanse doing only 3 days.  Our juice bar set us up with 6 juices a day.  We have been allowed to have a handful of nuts at night.  We also added a protein shake since we are still working out pretty hard.  We are on the 3rd and final day!  We are almost to the end!  I can honestly say I haven't been that hungry I just miss chewing food and I definitely miss cooking!  

What I have learned from this a experience.  I have learned that anyone can do this.  Don't get me wrong, its not easy!  If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.  Be the person who said you did it and finished!  Jesus fasted for 40 days, what a great example for us!  People in all cultures have been fasting for centuries.  This is not a new thing!  A juice fast may help you lose a few pounds quickly but to me the reason to do this is  is to repair your cells and to rethink your way of looking at your health.  After doing this, I do not have a desire to eat bad.  You would think I would want to gorge tomorrow but actually I just want a plate of veggies.  Yea, that surprised me too!  I was worried I would do this cleanse and then gorge for the next 3 days but I don't have that need.  (Hopefully I can say this in a few days!). We eat a lot of vegetables as a family but after going through this, I plan to stick with juicing and increase the amount of fruits and veggies in our diet.  I am hoping to add a green juice in our morning routine.  Would I do this again? You bet!