Frittata with almond milk! And Paleo friendly.

We recently had a birthday celebration for my boss. Normally we all go out for lunch to celebrate someone's birthday (small office!) but he is always on a strict diet, I think he lives on Whole30 full-time. I'm exaggerating, but only slightly.

So he didn't want to go to a restaurant because he wouldn't be able to eat anything. But we felt bad to celebrate everyone else's birthday and not his. We did a little recon to see what exactly he was eating at the time and it was a "flexible" paleo - in other words paleo, unless he was cheating.

Of course, we didn't want to make him cheat so we wanted to keep the food paleo-friendly. I volunteered to make a frittata which is an Italian dish that is basically a quiche with no crust. To make it paleo friendly, you use almond milk instead of milk or cream.

It also makes it generally healthier. If you're into that kind of thing. Sometimes I am and I'm sometimes I'm not.

You also cannot put cheese in it if you want it to be paleo (I'd suggest 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese).

Ingredients:
Coconut oil (for a paleo pan grease)
5-6 eggs
1/2 cup almond milk (suggest unsweetened, plain)
3 links of Italian sausage (sweet or hot based on your preference)
1 cup chopped broccoli florets
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 TB trader joe's 21 seasoning salute (this is my favorite for eggs! but you can also use garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper)

Directions:

Remove Italian Sausage from casings and brown with bell pepper for 5-7 minutes. Add broccoli and cook an additional 2-3 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9in pie plate using coconut oil (or other grease if you aren't making it paleo). Put veggies and sausage in the pie plate, season with 21 seasoning salute or you preferred egg seasoning. Beat eggs and almond milk together in a mixing bowl. Pour egg mixture in pie plate and lightly mix with sausage and veggies. The sausage and veggies will mostly remain on the bottom but you want egg mixed in between the gaps. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until firm. It might take up to 35 minutes.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures! Here is an image to Pin!

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Zuppa Toscana in the instant pot!

As someone who doesn't frequent Olive Garden I had never really heard of their zuppa toscana. When I started looking for Instant Pot recipes, I was seeing rave reviews of it all over the place so I thought I'd try it for myself!

I made a variation of the recipe from this old gal, and it's amazing! Now I want to go to Olive Garden to try theirs and see how mine compares!

I made a few alterations of the recipe I started with of course, I have to make it my own!

First, I love pancetta and I often find it easier to cook with than bacon because it already comes cut up into little cubes. I buy it in 4oz packages at Aldi for a little over $2. Especially since the original recipe only called for 4 strips of bacon, I used pancetta instead, I didn't want most of a package of bacon laying around. Or you know, in my stomach.

I also just cooked the pancetta with the sausage and left it in because, laziness. I really did not see any reason to take it out and then put it back on top, except maybe it makes a nicer photo op!

The meat and potatoes in the pot!

The other big switch was to use spinach instead of kale. This is an easy swap. I don't like kale very much so I usually will sub spinach for kale. I also don't like onions so I used onion powder. These are just personal preferences.

The finished product!

I will definitely be making this soup again, it was so delicious! I had planned to make a big batch to have on hand for the work week but that didn't really work out because we ate so much of it there was barely any left! whoops!

Ingredients:

• a little bit of olive oil
• 2 tsp of minced garlic (I use this kind in the jar)
• 12 oz pork sausage (you could use a pound, I was also making a quiche and borrowed a little from my pound!)
• 4oz pancetta
• 3 Large Potatoes cut into bite sized slices
• 1 1/2 quarts chicken stock (I used low sodium)
• ground pepper to taste
• onion powder to taste
• 3 cups chopped fresh spinach
• 1 cup Heavy Cream

To make it my way you will do as follows:
Turn your instant pot or other electric pressure cooker on saute normal heat (ie not high or low) and pour a small amount of olive oil in the bottom. Allow to heat for 1-2 minutes and add your garlic sauteing for 2-3 minutes. Add the sausage and pancetta to the pot and brown the meat. When the meat is fully cooked (5-7 minutes) turn the pot off and allow to cool before draining the grease (keep the sausage and pancetta in the pot).

Add the potatoes and chicken stock, a little pepper and onion powder (according to your preference) to the pot and set the pressure cooker to manual and set for 5 minutes. After the cook time finishes allow a 10 minute natural pressure release and then you can release the remaining pressure with quick release (I actually let mine NPR 15 minutes because I was busy, and it still turned out fine). Add the spinach and cream. Stir to combine and allow the spinach to wilt before serving.

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