Good morning, hello, how are you?

I made you some pie.

But first, let’s talk about blogging for a minute.

Food blogging is a funny little part of my life. Most people I come in contact with in “real life” don’t even know I do it; whereas you guys only know about what gets posted here, only this little shared piece of me. Sometimes I feel like my head is bursting with ideas and all I want to do is camp out in the kitchen, test things out and share them with you. Other times, blogging is just off my radar completely. We just go about our business as a family for a while and suddenly (usually during a bang-up meal) I realize that I haven’t been blogging.

Blogging has changed a lot in the past five years. Heck, my life has changed a lot in the past five years. When I first started blogging, I did it because I really enjoyed baking and cooking and documenting what was going on in my kitchen. I had no kids, I had plenty of time. Then the blog grew a little bit and I started to put more importance on posting however-many-times a week, making sure I was hitting up social media and doing all the “right stuff” as a blogger. And I went through a period where I felt really guilty if I wasn’t keeping all of those things going. Spoiler Alert: I can not keep all that stuff going. haha

Now, I’m a mom of two, working on putting together a new house and making it a home. You better believe I have been churning out some great meals for my family that I’d love to share, but I just got out of the groove of setting up photos. Lots of good meals have gone undocumented. Sometimes I still feel guilty for not sharing all of that good stuff with you guys, but realistically, I know that you understand that I have a real life to live outside this slice of the web. So, just thanks for being awesome and going with the flow.

I’ll start talking about the pie now.

This Shepherd’s Pie wasn’t some long-thought-out plan to reduce potato consumption or GAPS-ify a classic recipe. I just had a head of cauliflower and some ground beef that needed using and this is what happened. I saw it coming out of the oven all bubbly and brown and my brain said, “Take a picture, fast, and then let’s eat this thing!”

Cauliflower is like the classic nerd-that-turns-popular story, am I right? People never really gave it much thought before, but now it is everywhere! Cauliflower pizza crusts and faux-tatoes and cauli-rice galore. Good for you, cauliflower. Enjoy your 15 minutes of vegetable fame. You and your versatility deserve it.

This is similar to a classic Shepherd’s Pie, just with the potatoes swapped for cauliflower. I did add cheese on the top, but you can leave it off if you must. If you’re on the fence, though, definitely leave it on- it’s awesome. I used extra sharp cheddar. Treat Yo’ Self.

Perfect meal for fall, you guys! Dinner on the table in about an hour. What’s not to love?

4.9 from 18 reviews

Shepherd’s Pie with Cauliflower Topping (GAPS, Paleo, Grain-Free)

 

Print

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Main Dish

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
• 2 tablespoons fat (lard, tallow, ghee, coconut oil, etc)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 celery ribs, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound ground beef or lamb
• ¼-1/2 cup homemade beef broth
• 1 tablespoon homemade ketchup or tomato paste (omit if you don’t have a GAPS-legal or Paleo option)
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons fat (lard, tallow, ghee, etc)
• ½ cup shredded GAPS-legal cheese (omit for Paleo)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 2-3 quart casserole dish and set aside.
2. In a large pot, steam or boil cauliflower until tender.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of fat in a large skillet or saucepan over medium high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic and cook until beginning to soften, around 5 minutes.
4. Add the ground meat to the pan and cook until browned. Add beef broth as necessary to keep the mixture wet. Add the ketchup or tomato paste (if using), parsley and season with salt and pepper. Let simmer while you prepare the cauliflower topping.
5. To make the topping, drain the cooked cauliflower. Mash or puree with a stick blender until smooth. Add 2 tablespoons of fat and season with salt and pepper.
6. To assemble, spread the meat mixture on the bottom of the dish. Top with the cauliflower mixture and smooth with a spoon. Cover with shredded cheese, if using.
7. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbly. Serve warm.

3.1.09

I made a real dinner, you guys.

I actually semi-meal-planned it and put thought into it and everything (say what??). Mom/wife of the year!

It’s tough for me to get my head on straight and focus on my every day responsibilities at the moment. The new house is just crazy and it’s consuming my thoughts. I sat down to write my market/grocery list and I reeeeally had to focus, but I got it done. And I actually bought the things on my list at the market without buying any extra stuff (except a strawberry popsicle for my little helper, couldn’t resist). Although.. we did go to Trader Joe’s afterwards and we have about 0.0% self control in that place.. so mission only semi-accomplished. Oops.

We will have to do a whole run down of our Trader Joe’s favorites soon.. I could talk about it all day. Love/hate relationship.

Okay, so these are mini taco-stuffed zucchini boats. Cute, right? I made them smaller so they’d work nicely for kid portions. I actually thought about making them even smaller, but I thought the filling might fall out. After cooking them, I can say that they’d be perfect bite-sized appetizers if you cut them into 1-inch portions. I’d love to serve teeny tiny ones with some margs- GIANT margs.

If you are paleo or dairy-free, I still think these would be tasty without the cheese. We had some extra filling and we fried it up like a little taco burger, and it tasted great. Cheese not necessary.

These little boats are a nice way to switch things up if you like tacos, but you’re getting tired of your typical tortilla or lettuce wrap. The zucchini is basically just another vehicle for getting that taco goodness in your mouth. It’s really all about the filling, isn’t it? It takes a little extra time, but it’s not as messy as a taco if you’re feeding them to your child. This is important at my house, since my daughter has crazy-dinner-mess-face every time she eats. Girl is serious about her food.

Hopefully, I can keep up this meal-planning streak for another few days. I think you probably know how that’s going to end..

Mini Mexican Zucchini Boats

 

Print

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

*To make things even quicker, you can substitute about 3-4T taco seasoning for the spices.

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Main Course

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 4 medium zucchinis, ends trimmed
• 1 pound ground beef (I prefer grass-fed)
• ½ onion, minced
• ½ green bell pepper, minced
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced/pressed/grated
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste (optional, not Paleo-approved)
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (optional)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• cracked pepper to taste (probably around 1 teaspoon)
• 1 cup shredded cheese (optional, I used a mixture of monterey jack and sharp cheddar)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Grease the bottom of a large baking dish.
2. To prepare the zucchinis, cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh to make a channel. Set aside.
3. To prepare the filling, mix the ground beef, onion, bell pepper, garlic, jalapeno, tomato paste (if using) and spices in a medium bowl.
4. To assemble, fill the zucchinis with the ground beef mixture. Then cut each zucchini in half (or smaller sections if you life). Place the mini zucchini boats in the greased dish.
5. Bake for 20 minutes. Pull out of the oven, top with the shredded cheese and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until the zucchini is soft and the cheese is melted. If you’re not using cheese, bake about 30 minutes until the zucchini is soft and the filling is set.
6. Serve warm and enjoy.

3.1.09

As you probably know, I’ve been working on healing some stomach problems (are you tired of hearing about it yet? haha). The first time I read about the healing power of bone broth was through the Weston A. Price Foundation. It made a lot of sense to me- finally I understood why homemade chicken soup was said to be such a good remedy! Then I did more research and found the GAPS diet, which is big on bone broth and affirmed everything else I had read. I won’t go into detail about all of the benefits here (check out the links at the end of the post), but I did want to explain my broth routine and what I’ve learned along the way.

When I drink broth:

• With most meals, to help with digestion.
• In the morning before breakfast (if I’m not ready to eat yet).
• When I go out and I’m not sure if there will be any food that I can eat, but don’t have time to pack food.
• When I have stomach pain.

Really, I could drink it anytime. I usually sip it from a mug like I would drink tea. I drink it plain, with sea salt, or sometimes I stir in a spoonful of coconut oil or grass-fed butter (sounds weird, but it tastes really good and helps keep me feeling full. Just stir it around with a spoon as you’re drinking it so your lips don’t get oily!)

How I make broth:

• For chicken: I typically cook a whole chicken (roast or boil), pick off most of the meat and then put the bones and skin in the crockpot. I cover the bones with filtered water and cook on low for a day or two. Sometimes I add salt, sometimes I forget. Sometimes I add peppercorns or a few bay leaves or vegetable peelings, but usually I keep it simple. Sometimes I add a tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar, as well (to help get even more nutrients out of the bones). Don’t be alarmed if the vinegar makes the broth a bit cloudy.
• For beef: I usually get beef bones that are meant specifically for broth/soup, so I’ll just throw them in the slow cooker or a pot, remove any meat and add it to a soup (since it’s not a a lot of meat) and then return the bones and continue cooking the broth.
• For fish: I can’t get sustainable whole fish around here, so I haven’t done this myself, but if I did, I would stick the bones and the head in a pot/crock pot with the same method. (I don’t think I would really drink this one on it’s own- probably just use it for soups).

My Broth Tips:

• I never throw away bones- I store them in the freezer along with vegetable clippings (onions, carrot and celery) if I’m not making broth right away or if I only have a few bones.
• Try to include some skin (for the fat) and the joints of the animal if you can- the joints help to create gelatin (especially wing tips/knuckle bones, etc).
• Don’t be afraid if your broth looks like jelly after it cools down. That’s a good thing! Gelatin is very nourishing and it will return to liquid state when you heat it.
• You can roast the bones before you use them for stock if you want deeper flavor or a darker broth.
• Store broth in the refrigerator (it will keep for a few weeks) or freezer. I like to use glass jars.
• Reheat broth on the stove so you don’t kill the nutrients (as opposed to the microwave). It’s a pain when you’re in a hurry, but I do it in a small saucepan or in a tea kettle.
• There will be a layer of fat at the top of your broth (see above)- this is a good thing! It is full of good nutrition, don’t throw it away! It will melt down into the broth when you heat it up.
• Be careful not to burn your mouth on hot broth. Broth smells so good cooking in my house and I like to scoop cups of it right out of the slow cooker, but it is REALLY HOT. Wait for fresh broth to cool down a bit.

Anyone else out there drinking broth? I can’t be the only one! Are you intimidated by the process! Please feel free to comment with your questions and I’ll gladly answer. If you’re interested in learning more about bone broth, here are some links I’ve found helpful:

Bone Broth: 12 Days of Gelatin

Perpetual Soup: The Easiest Bone Broth You’ll Make

Traditional Foods 101: Bone broth, Broth and Stocks

How to Make Health Boosting Bone Broth

Top 5 Reasons Bone Broth is The Bomb

The Wonders of Gelatin and How to Get More in Your Stock