Arise & Shine Freezer Meal: Paleo - Gluten Free Bacon Egg Cups

If you are one to browse through pinterest, you may have seen some of these egg cup recipes already. Since our family has been whipping up quite a few quick grabbing, easy gobbling on the run, recipes I thought I would try coming up with my own version.

I sprayed my muffin trays with olive oil, wrapped the perimeter of each cup with bacon strips, trimmed to fit around without overlapping. Then in a large mixing bowl I added the eggs {about one per egg cup}, green onion, spinach, browned ground sausage {yes, more meat because my Man is a MEAT-EATER} chopped red bell pepper, and I tossed in some grated parmesan (for paleo omit the cheese). Seasoned with Himalayan Pink Salt, because I love the color and pepper. 

This was so simple - I filled the cups 2/3 of the way. Baked at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes I think. Just enough for them to not jiggle. Then I simply bagged them up into freezer bags. My hubby and kiddos grab them and toss them in the micro (yeah, we still use it sparingly) for a little over a minute and voila.... breakfast is served. 

These are SO YUMMY!

-Simply Sublime

Bacon & Chicken Coconut Corn Chowder Recipe: Make Ahead Freezer Meal

I have been meaning to post a few of the freezer meals I made up in September to keep us from eating out when time is short. Better late than never right? Here is one of them - a SOUPER (Hee hee, get it?)  good Bacon & Chicken Corn Chowder Recipe that I created. I have to say this may be one of my new favorites!

Ingedients:

• 2 cups cooked and shredded chicken
• 32 oz  Chicken broth (I use homemade usually)
• 6 slices Bacon - chopped 
• 1 onion - diced
• 1 green bell pepper - chopped
• 3 carrots- sliced
• 3 red med. red potatoes - diced
• 3 ears of corn - kernels removed from cob- (set aside cobs) 
• garlic
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 lime
• 2-3 tsp fresh Thyme
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions: 

Take a large dutch oven or stock pot and brown the chopped bacon over med-high heat until it is about half way cooked. Then add the onion, green pepper, carrots and red potatoes. Saute for 5-10 minutes until the onions are starting to turn translucent and veggies are beginning to soften. If at any point your veggies begin to stick go ahead and add a tablespoon or so of olive oil to the mix.

Add corn kernels and pressed garlic and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly until the vegetables are tender. Next add chicken stock.

Remove 2-3 cups of the soup base and blend in a food processor or blender until creamy.

Add back into the remaining soup base when completed.

Add corn cobs to soup and bring to a boil then simmer on medium low for 10-15 minutes.Then remove and discard the cobs.

Add the chicken, coconut milk, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Lime wedges for garnish and an extra squeeze of yum! and...

VOILA! Delicious!

For freezing I would let it cool for an hour or so in the fridge and then transfer to freezer gallon bags that are well labeled with the Name of the Soup and the Date. Unless you enjoy Mystery Meals...haha!

-Simply Sublime

Paleo Bacon Wrapped Rosemary Garlic Chicken Recipe

This recipe puts the YUM in Paleo. I decided to take some of my VERY favorite foods and wrap them into one little bundle of deliciousness: Bacon, Chicken Breasts, Garlic, Rosemary and Olive Oil. DELISH! My family will tell you this may be one of their new favorites. Even those who may slightly grumble about the missing grains on a Paleo Plate were too busy licking their lips and scooping up every last morsel to notice.

*Paleo Disclaimer* There are Paleo friendly bacon's out there. I have heard Trader Joe's has one that is really good. However - our family is hooked on a specialty bacon. My dear Father-in law used to live in Wittenberg, Wisconsin - home of the BEST SMOKED meats ever - Nueske's! He started giving us meat baskets every Christmas and we are hooked. I did email Nueske's to see if their bacon could be considered Paleo and below is their response:

Nueskes.com

"Given the huge trend of paleo dieting these days, we’ve had this question a lot lately.  We don’t have a complete understanding of paleo diet constraints, but here are some bacon facts that might be important for you (we hear that cured meats and sugar are paleo “no-no’s” but please let us know if there are other things we should be answering):

1     If cured meats are not allowed in paleo diets, you should know that our Applewood Smoked Bacon and Pepper Bacon are cured.  They are not cured with nitrates but they are cured with nitrites – and for curing intents and purposes, they are the same.  We do use the least nitrite allowed by the USDA to still be considered cured, but the meat is still a cured product.

2    Our cure contains a small amount of sugar, so for a 2 oz. serving of Canadian Bacon that gets you 1 gram of sugar.  For 2 slices of Applewood Smoked or Pepper Bacon, it’s doesn’t even equal 1 gram – it’s considered 0 grams."  

I cannot tell you how quickly they responded to my request - and I love that they were so honest as well. So completely paleo or not, our family will continue on in our Nueske's addiction. Their canadian bacon is a must try too. So back to the recipe.

        Once the chicken is cooked it is ready to serve alongside your other favorite paleo dishes. I chose to pair ours with steamed broccoli and roasted butternut squash in olive oil and ghee. YUM!!! This paleo recipe is now one of our new family favorites. 

         Hope you enjoy!

-Simply Sublime