Pickles and liver...but not together

On the weekend I try to cook an abundance of things to help last through the week= less work when I'm tired later on. I posted this weeks menu the other day and this morning I started one thing on my menu and then began Operation Pickles.

Superfood Sausage Meatballs...eerrr.... meat chunks? Yeah so I was feeling lazy this morning after my 8 am run to Whole Foods. You'll see what I mean.

Here is what I mixed up

Superfood Chunks

Yeah I know that title's gross but it's what I made

1 lb grass-fed ground beef
1 lb pastured ground pork
1 lb of chicken livers ((hence the superfood and I expect the grossoutness (yeah that's a new word) of other people)) <-- Double parenthesis? I think so.
Favorite sausage seasoning (mine is a blend of white pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, fennel seeds and salt). You can use any type of blend or just throw in like 1 tsp of all your favorite spices. You could easily make these Asian with garlic and ginger with some fish sauce or Mexican with cumin and chili powder. So many options!

All you do is puree the livers in a food processor with all the seasoning and then mix into the other 2 lbs of ground meat. Now, if you want to be all fancy you can make these into meatballs. I was feeling lazy, so I spread the mixture in a 9x11 pan. I put them in the oven at 400 degrees and cooked for about 40 minutes. After they cooled I cut them into squares and now I have lunch this week. Easy peasy.

Pickles

Now for my fun experiment! Fermenting my own pickles. There is an easier (faster) way to make pickles with vinegar but I'm going old school and used a salt/water solution and good old waiting to make mine. There are many many different ways to make pickles. But I used this plan from Mark's Daily Apple website

Mark's Daily Apple Pickles

This is also one of my favorite blogs to follow.
I tripled the recipe to make three jars of dill pickles and added thyme from my herb garden into one jar to see how that goes. Basically in 3-10 days I should have three jars of dill pickles. Exciting? I think so! Just don't tell Husband I'm fermenting things in the kitchen.

Welcome Back...me!

So I started this blog in January and then only made it like a week and a half before failing. Yea, New Years Resolution!!! But now I can put to use one of those life lessons: If at first you don't succeed... eat bacon. It makes everything better. That's a personal motto. Feel free to use it.

Over the past few months I've started a new job, moved apartments, traveled to Ireland and fallen off the Paleo wagon and gotten back on again and again. I honestly feel SOOO much better when I eat better. So I've been super focused on eating REAL food for a few weeks and decided to retry this whole blog thing since I'm starting a new project this weekend. I've also incidentally lost around 10 lbs since focusing on eating only real food over the past few weeks. So on the exciting agenda this weekend is making my own pickles the good old fashioned way (read: no vinegar). Old-school fermentation happening in my kitchen this weekend and I couldn't be more excited. Hey, I know a lot of people who go on and on about brewing home beer, so I think pickles deserve a shout out for being amazing. Also I needed something to use some of the herbs in my new garden before they die. And they will die. I'm not too good at plants. Unless it's Plants vs. Zombies and then I rock at plants.

So coming up this week I'll be cooking the following menu for dinner incase anyone cares :)

Friday: Bangers and Cauli-mash (thanks to Ireland for this being my new favorite dish)
Saturday: Sausage and Squash Hash with eggs
Sunday: Sesame Beef Stir Fry
Monday: Italian stuffed zucchini boats
Tuesday: Roast Chicken
Wednesday: Sliders with avocado & BACON!
Thursday: BACON! wrapped chicken thighs

Lunches: Superfood Sausage Meatballs (warning: might contain a squeamish ingredient)

I'll be posting some of these recipes on the blog with photos through the weekend and week!

Goal: don't fail at blog