Saturday, January 23, 2010

Back in action...[Breakfast is served!]

... well, at least out of traction.

My dear bloggy friends with multiple food allergies, I feel I have left you far too long. Forgive me. I have many recipes that I have tried out over the holidays and some of my computer issues have been resolved. Therefore, I'm back. [Sort of like a bad rash] Here it a treat for all your great patience as I concentrated on other things in life for a few weeks.

Breakfast is a trying experience for people with multiple food allergies. If you were an average kid growing up in the States like I did, you ate one of those pre-fab "tarts" that was popped into the toaster and eaten on the way out to the bus stop. [Back then, it was supposed to be “healthy”.] I'm all grown up now and have learned what it means to have protein for breakfast. And I have also learned that it is possible to not be starving an hour after breakfast when one eats a little protein in the a.m. Therefore, when I started the laborious label task reading for my family, I was just confounded to find out all that goes into foods like sausage and bacon. My kids and hubby needed those precious B vitamins from a meat source because they were so limited in grain selections.

I searched far and wide for gluten-free/night-shade free breakfast meats. I even emailed my little heart out to every company that would answer me back. (Most of them were very obliging, by the way.) Alas.... it came down to making our own "sausage" if we wanted to be sure that it was “safe” for us to eat… and if we didn’t want to be hungry and hour later.

Making sausage has not been the great chore that I thought it would be. It is really quite simple... like making hamburger patties. We buy fresh ground turkey (you can buy the meat you prefer) in a large package. We dump it in the bowl with the seasonings we like. Mush it for a while, and then make little patties to brown in a skillet. We usually make a big batch on the weekends and freeze back for the weekdays. Not hard... really!


TURKEY SAUSAGE
3 lb. ground turkey
1tblsp. sage
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
(Traditional sausage seasonings include pepper or paprika, which taste great; we just can't eat the nightshades. If you can eat nightshades go on and try it!)

Mush together in a big bowl. Make lots of small patties (about 30). Brown in skillet with just enough oil to keep the turkey from sticking to the pan.

Tip: Do a Google search for sausage recipes. Make a lot of the seasoning you like and keep it in a sealed bag or container. Then add about a tablespoon +/- per pound of meat when you are ready to cook sausage. It saved time in the long run!

Tip 2: You will become somewhat of a “sausage connoisseur” over time making your own sausage. Try not to be too snobby the next time you are at a restaurant and they serve you a grease laden, tasteless piece of meat on your plate.  Your kids will giggle when you look up and whisper “this could really use more sage and less lard”.