Ginger lime chicken with mango.

I’ve been a bit inspired by mango lately (remember my mango chicken curry?). Probably because they’ve been on sale so much lately and catch my eye at the grocery store. Not only that, but they taste wonderful and I love getting the “mango pop” after cutting the majority of the flesh off the pit. Jesse then tells me he wants a mango pop and that it’s not fair. Okay, not really, but if you watch the show Louie C.K., you probably know what I’m talking about. Check out the clip below if you don’t. It’s a goodie.

Louis C.K. Mango Pop/Life Lessons

Meanwhile, enjoy the recipe and have a happy Memorial Day weekend!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp coconut oil
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into tenders
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1.5 inch ginger cube, grated
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped (keep some seeds if you want it spicier)
• 1 medium-sized red mango, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped, plus extra for garnish

Directions:

1. Melt coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger, jalapeno and garlic, and saute about 30 seconds. Then, add the chicken tenders and season to taste with sea salt and pepper. Sprinkle the chili powder atop of the chicken and stir.
2. Continue to cook chicken for about 10 minutes, flipping occasionally. Then, add the lime juice and mango. Stir and continue to cook for 5 minutes more or until chicken is cooked through. Once done, remove from heat and stir in the cilantro.
3. Serve with vegetable of choice. We had sauteed kale with halved cherry tomatoes.

Yields: 2 servings

Coconut flour wraps with seasoned egg and veggie filling.

Well, it’s officially three weeks (tomorrow) until our wedding ceremony. Jesse and I went and signed our marriage license yesterday and got all the official paperwork in order. Coming up now, I need to go to the flower shop (I’m going to Geranium Lake Flowers) and pick out my bridal bouquet (I’m just getting a bridesmaid size one). I have a trial run of my hair and makeup a week before the wedding with my friend and makeup artist, Brooke Morse. Brooke and I also used to work together at Lululemon Athletica. As a treat, I also arranged for her to do my mom, sister and soon-to-be mother in-law’s makeup on the day of our ceremony. What else? Oh, Jesse and I need to go up to Council Crest Park, where we’re having our ceremony and figure out where exactly, we want everything to happen. As for Jesse, specifically, he needs to find a pair of shoes and learn how to tie his bow-tie. He has not been practicing! There’s also the vows situation too…still haven’t started and I don’t know that Jesse has either. I’m not sure I will be able to pull it off with everything else I have going on. We’ll see, I suppose. I want to, but right now, it’s a little overwhelming because I have a lot of other things with deadlines to manage.

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As for this recipe, it rocks! The tortillas cook up easily (I only tore my first one…premature flipping) and hold together surprisingly well. I will definitely be making them again, but will probably try a different flavor combination. The egg filling is tasty and slightly spicy, and works well inside the wrap. These wraps would also be great for meat-based fillings — chicken breast with bacon, taco-seasoned ground beef, Greek-seasoned ground lamb, deli meat, sausages or grass-fed beef hot dogs, etc. There’s lots of possibilities.

For the filling:

• 4 slices US Wellness Meats sugar-free grass-fed beef bacon, chopped
• 1/2 cup crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 4 pastured eggs, beaten
• 1 8-oz can diced green chiles
• 1-2 Tbsp organic taco seasoning (make sure there’s no sugar or other junk ingredients)
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• Dab of grass-fed butter or tallow, if needed
• Avocado slices
• Chopped romaine or greens
• Black lava course sea salt for garnishing, optional

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the chopped bacon. Cook for a couple minutes and then add the sliced mushrooms.
2. Meanwhile, add the taco seasoning, sea salt and pepper to the beaten eggs in a medium bowl. Then, once the bacon is crisp and the mushrooms have softened, add the egg mixture to the pan. Add a bit of butter or tallow to re-grease the pan first, if needed.
3. Turn heat down to medium-low and continue to cook. Add the sliced tomatoes and green chiles.
4. Once the eggs are cooked through, adjust seasoning as needed.
5. Spoon mixture into a tortilla and top with lettuce/greens and avocado.

Yields: enough to fill 4-5 tortillas

For the tortillas, adapted slightly from this recipe:

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup egg whites
• 1/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 clove garlic
• Pinch of cayenne
• US Wellness Meats grass-fed beef tallow, for cooking

1. Combine all the ingredients, except the tallow in a blender. Blend for about 30 seconds or until mixed through and smooth. Let sit for 10 minutes to thicken.
2. Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium heat and add a little tallow. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan and shake around a bit to form about an 8-inch circle.
3. Let tortilla cook for a few minutes, until edges start to peel up and it’s no longer shiny on top — that’s when you know it’s ready to flip. Flip carefully using a large spatula. Once flipped, cook for roughly one more minute.
4. Stack tortillas on a plate lined with paper towel to absorb the moisture.

Yields: 6 tortillas

I am excited to announce my very first lamb recipe! The reason I’m so ecstatic is because I haven’t cared for lamb when I’ve tried it in the recent past. Granted, I’ve only tried its flavors in the form of lamb bone broth and slices of roast lamb deli meat. It was enough to turn up my nose though. Lamb isn’t something I ever ate growing up (it was never something my family bought, made or even ordered when we went out) and so, the broth and deli meat were my first experience with it. I really want to like it because it’s so readily available in Portland and usually always grass-fed, at least where I’ve seen it. Plus, it’s fun to have more meat options in my diet and in cooking.

I figured I’d do okay with lamb if I mixed it with some ground beef, and decided that a lamb sausage would probably go over even better, since it’s well spiced. So, I excitedly picked up a couple fresh Italian lamb sausages from one of our local co-ops and felt determined to like it. And guess what? I did like it…a lot! The recipe turned out phenomenal, and I couldn’t stop ooing and ahhing about it after every bite.

Note, I browned the lamb sausages first to make them easier to slice, but you could try skipping this step if you want. I didn’t want the sausage to fall apart and turn into grounds, so I opted for it. If you’re pressed for time, don’t worry about it.

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On a separate note, I need to cut back a little bit on my blogging. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of extra time to dedicate to it right now and sometimes there’s just not enough time in the day. I have to prioritize accordingly and since my blog is strictly for pleasure and not school or work, it’s a little lower on the totem pole. Yes, it’s still important to me and so are all of you, but other things have to take precedence. With that said, I’m aiming to blog 2-4 days during the week versus 4 all the time. I’ll still be active on Facebook, so make sure you’re following me there. Thanks for understanding!

For the stew:

• 1 Tbsp US Wellness Meats grass-fed beef tallow
• 2 Italian grass-fed lamb sausages
• 1/2 lb grass-fed ground beef
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp smoky spice blend from Practical Paleo (recipe below)
• 1 cup Pomi chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2-3 Tbsp homemade bone broth or low sodium chicken broth
• Sea salt to taste

Directions:

1. Melt tallow in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the lamb sausage and brown a few minutes each side. Once browned, remove from pan and set aside to cool (sausage may not be cooked all the way through yet, which is fine).
2. To the same pan, add the onion and garlic, and saute for a minute over medium heat. Then, add the ground beef and break up with a wooden spoon or spatula. While the beef begins to cook, slice the cooled lamb sausage. Add to the pan with the beef and stir.
3. Season to taste with sea salt and add the smoky spice blend. Mix well and then add the tomatoes, broth and apple cider vinegar.
4. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to simmer until meat is cooked through and sauce thickens a bit.
5. Serve over zucchini noodles, steamed kale or cauliflower rice.

Yields: 3 servings

For the smoky spice blend, courtesy of Practical Paleo:

• 1 Tbsp chipotle powder
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Mix together and store in a jar or spice container.

Yields: 5 Tbsp of blend

Mandarin beef stir fry.

Whew, it’s been a busy day so far! I slept in until a little after 7 and then got up, changed, gathered my goods and drove to the food cart to replenish my treats. I was there about 90 minutes, then came home for a cup of green tea and a short bit of downtime before heading to Recreate for a 10 a.m. workout. I foam rolled and chatted with Jesse after the workout, and it was about 11:30 when I got home. Then, I cooked a big breakfast/brunch/lunch, whatever you want to call it (my first meal of the day) and enjoyed it in solitude. Now, it’s blogging and doing some other work at home. Then, after I finish my work, it’s on to studying exercise science and working on my homework. That class is really hard and complex, and I often feel lost when the teacher is lecturing. That equates to a lot of outside studying time to understand and know it!

Regarding the recipe, I’ve been getting a lot of citrus in my CSA boxes lately (grapefruit, oranges, mandarin oranges, etc.) and sometimes it ends up going bad before I use it. Jesse and I aren’t big citrus fruit eaters, so even if we do eat it, it takes effort and time to get through it. We like it, but it’s just not our preferred fruit that we would pick out ourselves. I actually don’t like grapefruit period, so Jesse is always responsible for those.

Anyway, as a means to use up some of the mandarin oranges we recently got in our box, I added some fresh-squeezed mandarin juice to this stir fry. I figured it would work well and boy, did it ever! I know it sounds generic, but the stir fry tasted so good with the mandarin juice. It really helped bring all the flavors together, and added a nice subtle sweetness. We ate our stir fry over scallion cauliflower rice (recipe below), but zucchini noodles or leafy greens would work as well. Heck, you can even eat it by itself.

For the stir fry:

• 1/2 Tbsp US Wellness Meats grass-fed tallow
• 1/2 lb skirt steak, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 3-4 Tbsp coconut aminos
• Splash of low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 mandarin orange, juiced
• Splash of rice vinegar (yes, it’s okay!)
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt the tallow in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and celery and let saute a couple minutes. Then, add the skirt steak and season with a little sea salt and pepper.
2. Continue to cook a couple minutes, then add the mushrooms and carrots. Saute one minute more, then add the coconut aminos, mandarin orange juice, rice vinegar and red pepper flakes. Stir well, then after a minute or so, add the broccoli.
3. Continue to cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Once sauce has thickened up a little bit, after about 3-5 minutes, remove from heat and serve over scallion cauliflower rice (recipe below).

Yields: 2-3 servings

For the scallion cauliflower rice:

• 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 Tbsp grass-fed butter
• 2-3 scallions (green onion), chopped
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

1. Add cauliflower to the food processor and pulse until it’s completely riced. If need be, you can do this in batches, depending on the size of your food processor.
2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Then, add the cauliflower rice and season to taste with sea salt and pepper. Continue to cook a few minutes until cauliflower is heated through. If you like your cauli rice a little browned, you can cook it a bit longer.
3. Stir in the chopped scallions and serve.

Yields: 4-5 servings

Mustard apple pulled pork topped with caraway kraut.

I’ve really had a thing for mustard lately, specifically Dijon. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been using Dijon nearly every chance I get. I think it’s safe to say I’m definitely in a mustard phase. It adds such a nice flavor and when something seems like it’s missing from a recipe, Dijon seems to take care of that. It’s easy to find good quality Dijon mustard that doesn’t have any sugar or junk ingredients in it either. Sorry, Grey Poupon won’t cut it.

On another note, I’m going to a healthy fats demo at Whole Foods this weekend. Remember my friend, Ashley at Craving4more? Well, you may recall that she hosted the sauerkraut tasting I went to last weekend, and invited me to the fats presentation this weekend. I believe the healthy fats she’s including are coconut oil, ghee, avocado and grass-fed tallow (house-made from the Whole Foods meat dept). I imagine it’ll be pretty great.

I’m not really sure what else I’ll be doing this weekend, other than grocery shopping and working Sunday morning, but I like not having much of an agenda. What I really need to be doing is reading/studying for my exercise science class, but I’m still waiting for my book to arrive in the mail. Hopefully, it’ll get here soon because that class moves fast and the material is complex, so I don’t want to get too behind!

What are your plans for the weekend? Anything fun?

Ingredients:

• 2 lb pork shoulder roast
• 1 Tbsp grass-fed ghee
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 pink lady apple, chopped
• 1.5 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• Firefly Kitchens Caraway Kraut for serving, optional

Directions:

1. Melt ghee in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and celery and stir. Allow to cook a few minutes, until slightly softened. Then, add to the slow cooker.
2. Season the roast with sea salt and pepper. Then, in the same pan, add the pork shoulder roast. Add a little more ghee if necessary. Brown the roast about 2-3 minutes each side and then place inside the slow cooker. Add the chopped apple as well.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, mustard, parsley, marjoram and thyme. Add a dash of sea salt and pepper, if desired. Pour on top of the roast and place the lid on the slow cooker.
4. Let cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5. Once done, cut string off of pork roast, if need be, and shred with two forks.
5. Serve with caraway sauerkraut on top, if desired.

Fennel and sausage bowl.

Dishes like this one have been some of my favorite quick meals lately. There’s so much room for experimentation, and it’s easy to put together based on what’s in the refrigerator. It’s versatile and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and also serves well as a side dish.

I actually made this for lunch yesterday, and sat outside on my patio in the warm sunshine, while I savored each bite. It was in the 60s, which was lovely to come back to after the 30 degree temperatures in Michigan (thankfully, there was lots of sun there though). Lucky for us, the warm weather is supposed to continue and supposedly, it’s going to be in the 70s this weekend. Happy Easter to us, right?!

Speaking of Easter, I need to finish planning my Easter meal. It’ll just be Jesse and me for dinner and so far, all I know is that we’re having a US Wellness Meats sugar-free ham. I’m thinking maybe something with fresh pineapple and a seasonal veggie saute. Naturally, there will be some sort of dessert too because it’s a holiday, and I like to have dessert for holiday meals. I guess because it’s always been the tradition and makes the meal that much more special. Oh, and I’ve had deviled eggs on my mind, especially since my mom was talking about them in the car the other day, when driving me down to the Detroit airport. Funny, I’ve never even made deviled eggs before, but I have many good recipes to choose from.

What are all of you doing for Easter? Are you making anything special? Are any of you coloring eggs?

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken and apple Applegate sausage, sliced
• 2 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp grass-fed butter
• 1 small fennel bulb, chopped
• 1 pasture-raised egg, beaten
• 2 Tbsp low-sodium chicken broth
• 4-5 lacinato kale leaves, stemmed and torn into pieces
• Pepper to taste
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp ground fennel
• Dash of paprika

Directions:

1. Heat coconut oil and butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced sausage and turn heat down to medium. Allow sausage to sizzle and brown in the melted fat for a few minutes.
2. Next, add the chopped fennel and chicken broth, and continue to cook for a minute. Then, add the beaten egg and pepper. If need be, add a little more fat (butter or coconut oil) to the pan. Stir and allow to cook for a minute.
3. Add the kale, red pepper flakes, ground fennel and paprika. Stir and allow to cook until kale is softened, about 1-minute or so. Add more pepper if needed.

Yields: 1 serving

Chicken with sugar snap peas and carrots, served over zucchini noodles.

Hello from Minneapolis! I’m in the midst of my trip home to Alpena, Michigan and am SO tired. I never got a chance to nap yesterday, which didn’t surprise me at all, so I’m running on a few janky hours of airplane sleep and it’s still very early in the morning Portland-time. I’m looking forward to taking a nice nap when I get into Alpena, and lucky for me, I’m flying directly into the tiny airport there, which means no 4-hour drive from Detroit. The 4-hour layover in Minneapolis was the tradeoff though.

Here’s yet another recipe that I modified from my vegetarian days. This was actually a vegan recipe and completely vegetable-based, but I used to add garbanzo beans for protein and then serve it over rice pasta. Now, it features grass-fed butter and chicken chunks. No grains either, obviously. It’s way better than it ever tasted before.

You’ll notice that the recipe calls for carrot baby food, but you can definitely use your own homemade carrot puree by cooking some carrots until tender, and then pureeing them in the food processor. Easy peasy. If you use baby food, just make sure to use a quality brand that doesn’t have any additives or junk added to it. It should only consist of carrots!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1.5 Tbsp grass-fed butter
• 1 4 oz jar organic carrot baby food (I used Earth’s Best Organic) OR 4 oz homemade carrot puree
• 2 cups carrots, chopped
• 1 cup sugar snap peas
• 1-2 Tbsp dried parsley
• 1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth, plus more if needed
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute a couple minutes. Then, add the chicken pieces and continue to saute. Season chicken to taste with sea salt and pepper.
2. After about 5-7 minutes, pour in the chicken broth, carrot baby food and parsley.  Stir and continue to cook over medium-low heat for about 7-10 minutes more.
3. Meanwhile, steam the chopped carrots in a steamer basket for 2 minutes. Then, add the sugar snap peas and steam for 3 minutes more. Once done, add to the chicken mixture and stir. Adjust seasonings if needed and let cook for a minute or two more.
4. Serve over zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice. We ate ours over zucchini noodles, and it was wonderful.

Yields: 3-4 servings

Skirt steak stir fry.

It’s been a really long time since I made stir fry, and this recipe really hit the spot. I remember trying a stir fry variation a while back, but it was only okay. I think it’s because it was missing the salty flavor of soy sauce, tamari or coconut aminos. Soy sauce and tamari are both out for me because of the wheat and soy, and I avoided coconut aminos up until recently because they’re considered questionable on the SCD. Since I’m 1-1/2 years in on my healing process, I thought I’d give the coconut aminos a shot. Lucky for me, I had no problems. I used to cook with coconut aminos prior to eating SCD/paleo, because I learned a long time ago that wheat/gluten was not okay for me. Needless to say, I’m happy to have a bottle back in my refrigerator.

This recipe is flexible in the sense that you can use any protein or veggies that you like. I definitely recommend trying it with the skirt steak though. It works great for stir fry and cooks up quickly because of its thin nature. Plus, it’s oh so flavorful. I think I’ve said this before, but it’s one of my favorite cuts of beef.

This is great served with chopped raw cashews and/or green onion, and with an extra drizzle of coconut aminos. I’m not a sesame seed fan, but that would work well as a garnish too.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp coconut oil, plus extra for eggs
• 1 lb grass-fed skirt steak, sliced into strips
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 large carrots, chopped
• 1 medium broccoli crown, chopped
• 1 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts
• 1/4 cup coconut aminos, plus extra if needed
• 1-2 Tbsp rice vinegar (yes, rice vinegar is okay!)
• Splash of low-sodium chicken broth
• Dash of red pepper flakes
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• 3 pastured eggs, beaten

Directions:

1. Melt coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and celery, and saute about 1 minute. Then add the skirt steak strips and season with a little sea salt and pepper. Continue to saute for a couple minutes.
2. Then, add the carrots, broccoli and mushrooms. Add the coconut aminos, rice vinegar, chicken broth and red pepper flakes. Continue to cook over medium-low heat.
3. Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add a little coconut oil to the pan and once melted, add the beaten eggs. Allow to cook for a few minutes. Once it starts to set, lift the edges of the omelet with a spatula to allow some of the egg liquid to get underneath. When the omelet is stable enough, flip and allow to cook an additional minute. Remove from pan and place on cutting board to cool.
4. Add the water chestnuts to the stir fry and stir. Turn heat down to low. Slice the cooled omelet into strips, then chop into small pieces. Add to the stir fry.
5. Once everything is heated through and veggies are softened, but still slightly crisp, remove from heat. Serve over cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles (use a julienne peeler to make noodles). If desired, you can mix the cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles into the stir fry and then serve. Top with garnishes of choice and extra coconut aminos, if desired.

Yields: 4 servings

Chicken chana masala.

I’m so excited! I now only have one more week of regular classes, then finals. Woo hoo! On the downside, three of my four finals are comprehensive exams. Not fun, but I’ll survive and am not focusing on the downside. Another fun thing? I’ve started receiving big packages in the mail. Specifically, wedding shower gifts. It’s super exciting! I’m having a wedding shower back in Michigan at the end of the month, but some people are sending their gifts directly to me, so I don’t have to have things shipped back or checked on the plane. It’s much appreciated, but obviously, I’ll do whatever I need to do.

On that note, I’m going to have to start making room, especially in the kitchen, for our new things. I love getting rid of stuff, especially when it’s being replaced with something nicer. All in all, this whole process is really exciting, and I’m so grateful that we’re doing a small, private ceremony and a celebratory party back home. With my family helping arrange the party in Michigan, and things in line out here, there really isn’t any stress. Jesse and I are very blessed.

Meanwhile, this is a chana masala-inspired dish. As a former vegetarian, I used to love chana masala when I’d go out for Indian. Since I avoid chickpeas (and other legumes), which are used in chana masala, I substituted chicken instead, which seemed to work well. I wanted a touch of creaminess to mellow out the spices in the dish, so I also added some coconut milk, which isn’t typically used in chana masala. I am a sucker for coconut milk in dishes and besides, I thought it made the dish taste better.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp grass-fed ghee
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 14.5 oz can unsalted diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• Dash of cayenne
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• Unsweetened coconut flakes for garnish, optional

Directions:

1. Melt the ghee in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute a couple minutes. Then, add the chicken pieces. Continue to cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the spices and sea salt, and stir. Then, add the tomatoes and coconut milk. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10-12 minutes. Add a bit more coconut milk, if needed.
3. Serve over steamed greens or cauliflower rice and garnish with unsweetened coconut flakes, if desired. Fresh cilantro would also serve as a lovely garnish.

Yields: 3 servings

Figgy bacon burgers.

Sweet, salty, simple. That was my mantra when creating these burgers. Lucky for me, they came out exactly that way. I originally thought about mixing Dijon directly into the burger mixture, but feared it not working out, so used it for garnish instead. I highly recommend serving these with the Dijon, as it complements the entire flavor profile of the burger. Jesse ate macadamia nut mayo on his instead and said it tasted delicious. I didn’t try it, but imagine it’s pretty tasty as well.

In other news, tomorrow is my 28th birthday! Hooray, I love birthdays! I have a lovely day planned for tomorrow, which I’ll recap about on Monday. I’m not sure if I’m going to make myself a cake or not. I’m thinking I might just go for homemade birthday ice cream. It’s less work, and cheaper too. As for the flavor, I’m not exactly sure, but I have a couple new ones in mind.

Another great thing, I only have two weeks of regular classes left (and then finals, of course)! The end is in sight, although there’s still a lot of work to do. I’m not worried about it though because I know I’ll get there. Then, I get to fly home for a wedding shower. Nothing like a little girly time, right? I’m really looking forward to it.

Happy weekend all!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
• 4 pieces US Wellness Meats sugar-free beef bacon, chopped
• 2 large dried Turkish figs, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• Pepper to taste
• Romaine lettuce leaves or spinach, for serving
• Dijon mustard for serving, optional, but recommended

Directions:

1. Heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped bacon and cook about 5-7 minutes, or until done. Set pan aside to cool.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the beef, sea salt, pepper and fig pieces. Add the bacon pieces in, once cool enough (reserve bacon grease in the pan for cooking the burgers). Mix well and form into four equal-sized patties.
3. Reheat pan over medium heat. Once hot enough, add the patties and cook about 4 minutes each side (for medium), or until desired done-ness.
4. Serve with romaine leaves or spinach and Dijon mustard, if using.

Yields: 4 servings