It's a double recipe, all the way!

Confessional time; this weekend, I had two cupcakes at a birthday party, and some bread at Outback.  Aaaand, moving on!  Before the cupcakes, I made my rounds at the ol' food table; there's almost always some good, or at least not so bad stuff there.  I had some baby carrots and cherry tomatoes from the crudité tray, a couple deviled eggs, and made some little rollups from the sandwich tray.  I did take a few digestive enzyme caps; I do find that they really help lessen my symptoms when I have gluten.

We have company at the homestead this week, so I've been cooking up a storm!  Yesterday I made a frittata for breakfast; it's a great way to use up stuff from the fridge, and it's a crowd-pleaser.  Here's what I had on hand:
-8 eggs
-A few TBS heavy cream
-A couple handfuls of baby arugula
-A handful of baby portabellas, sliced
-About 1/4 medium onion
-5 slices of crispy bacon, crumbled (I like to bake it at 350 for about 20 mins)
-A few thin slices of Kerrygold Blarney Castle cheese

Beat together eggs and cream, set aside.  Saute mushrooms and onion in some clarified butter or bacon grease until soft, then add arugala; cook until it wilts.  Then add egg mixture, and stir until eggs are about halfway cooked, then transfer pan to oven, or if like me, you don't have an oven safe pan, scrape it into a pie plate, top with cheese, and bake at 450 for 5 minutes, or until it's set.  It makes 4 heaping helpings.


For dinner, I originally intended to serve short ribs, but I was too late getting them into the crock pot, so this was plan B:

Some italian sausage- I had a pack of chicken pesto sausage from Trader Joe's, and a similar sausage I picked up at Giant- it had no crazy ingredients, and was semi-local to boot (made in Baltimore).
A few small zucchini, sliced pretty thin
1/4 medium sliced onion
A few shakes italian seasoning
Chicken thighs
A handful of garlic cloves

Marinara sauce- I make my own because the ones without sugar and crappy oils are super pricey:
1 big can diced or crushed organic tomatoes
1 small can roasted diced tomatoes
A few TBS extra virgin olive oil
A handful of garlic cloves
1 tsp celtic sea salt
A few shakes of italian seasoning (yes, I'm a lazy measurer; measuring cups are so neolithic anyway)

Start with the sauce; just dump everything into a saucepan and simmer on low heat for at least 45 minutes.  When you're ready to serve, puree CAREFULLY!  I used my Smart Stick.  After starting the sauce, put chicken thighs in a roasting pan, drizzle with a little olive oil and italian seasoning, and haphazardly sprinkle in some whole garlic cloves.  Bake at 425 for about 35-40 minutes (this dinner would be totally fine with just sausage and veggies; I added the baked thighs just to make sure there would be enough to go around).  Brown the sausages over medium heat until cooked through; about 15 minutes.  While the sausages are cooking, saute the zucchni and onion slices in some clarified butter (over medium-high heat) for about 5-7 minutes, depending on your preference of done-ness.  Then just put everything on a plate (don't forget the roasted garlic from the chicken thighs!) and smother in marinara.