Brent Schrader

Breakfast Taco Bowl

October 4, 2017October 3, 2017by Brent Schrader1 Comment

In college, pizza was a perfect breakfast food. I never tried breakfast tacos, but breakfast burritos were amazing when we had them at home. This week is my first attempt at taking care of Otto without the help of Heather (she’s away at a work conference), so we planned a recipe that would take some of the meal planning off my plate for the week.

This is kind of a deconstructed breakfast burrito, and the plantain chips gives it the crunch of a taco. If you include dairy in your diet, feel free to also serve this with high-quality cheese and/or sour cream. Sliced jalapeños are great, too!

Continue reading “Breakfast Taco Bowl”

Chicken Parmesan

September 27, 2017September 26, 2017by Brent SchraderLeave a comment

Many moons ago, we made an “angry chicken parm” bite for the blog, and its one of our unsung favorite recipes. Since then, we’ve experimented with different types of dairy-free cheese with varying degrees of quality. This week’s chicken parmesan recipe doesn’t have to have cheese, dairy-free or otherwise, as it tastes delicious either way.

While it has been at least 6 years since I last had a standard chicken parmesan at an Italian restaurant or home made, this tastes even better than I had remembered it. We hope you’ll feel the same way.

Continue reading “Chicken Parmesan”

Egg Foo Yung

August 9, 2017August 8, 2017by Brent SchraderLeave a comment

Egg Foo Yung (spelled in myriad ways) is a standard American Chinese take-out item served in a lot of variations. Chicken, shrimp, scallop, beef, pork, or combination are regular menu items. Up until about a month ago, I had never tried this dish. While it is one of my mother’s favorite take-out items, I always assumed I wouldn’t like it. I’m not sure if it was the name, the appearance, stubbornness, or a combination of these factors. As fortune would have it one day, leftovers were in my refrigerator and I was short on other options, so I decided to give it a try. Guess what—it’s delicious.

Having tasted this masterpiece, I wanted to see if it could be made at home with fresh ingredients. This iteration of egg foo yung doesn’t include any additional protein, although one could add a chopped, cooked protein to the egg mixture to add substance. I’ve used potato starch as a way to thicken the egg foo yung sauce, but is not mandatory. The sauce will be very watery, but the flavor is there. Even Heather liked this recipe, which was a great surprise. We’ve added it to the list of things she didn’t like until I made it (#humblebrag): Brussels sprouts, French onion soup, and asparagus.

We know you’ll like this paleo-spin on a take-out favorite. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Continue reading “Egg Foo Yung”

Creamy Coconut-Dill Dip

July 12, 2017July 11, 2017by Brent SchraderLeave a comment

Back in May, 2012 (over FIVE years ago!), Heather and I posted a recipe for a coconut-dill veggie dip. The dip was a huge hit with friends and family alike, and it was one of our first encounters where we didn’t carefully read the label and ended up with a brand of coconut cream that was also loaded with sugar. It was a good lesson learned, and we remade the recipe with better ingredients to make sure the recipe held up.

Since 2012, a lot has happened for us: we changed jobs, got married, bought a house, had our son, and we also improved our cooking and photography. With a dinner guest planning to come over Monday evening, it seemed an appropriate time to revisit this recipe and try to make it better. In this we’ve succeeded. This dip is creamy (and protein packed, thanks to Great Lakes Unflavored Gelatin) and runny straight out of the food processor and has the same texture as store-bought French Onion Dip when allowed to rest in the refrigerator. We devoured it with veggies and our favorite olive oil potato chips while our beef and eggplant curry simmered on the stove. Our guest particularly liked it with the chips.

Thanks for joining us over the past five years, and we hope you’ll continue to stick around. Let us know in the comments what has been your favorite recipe!

Continue reading “Creamy Coconut-Dill Dip”

Bacon & Broccoli Salad

July 5, 2017July 4, 2017by Brent Schrader3 Comments

The day after the Fourth of July, we’re excited to share with you our newest picnic-approved salad. We gave it a dry run this week at a gathering with Real Everything and The Paleo Mom, and received positive feedback from kids and adults alike.

We hope you’ll continue our good luck with this salad at your summer, spring, fall, and winter meals. The key to this recipe is the homemade mayonnaise—adding bacon fat to the mix is perfect. Enjoy this recipe, and let us know how what you think in the comments below!

Continue reading “Bacon & Broccoli Salad”