My Autumn Breakfast Hash Recipe

This is my "go to" breakfast for the weekdays.  I make a large batch of it upon the weekend or Monday mornings and have it every morning for breakfast when I have to be out the door for work.  I will talk you through it here with photos if you are interested in making it, too.  It is paleo and gluten free.  I eat it with an egg on top most days.

I use 20 ounces of a ground meat, 

one medium sweet potato 

(you could also use carrots or butternut squash), 

a large gala apple 

but you can use whatever apply you like, 

cinnamon, 

salt, 

pepper,

 and nutmeg.  

I also add a green vegetable most weeks but don't have that available for today.  

I use spinach or chopped Brussel sprouts typically.

The first thing I do is preheat my cast iron pot that I make it in.  

Never add oil to a cold surface when cooking.  

You want cold oil on a heated surface.  

Here is the pot I use and I am using olive oil for this batch 

but I also use coconut oil when I feel like it, too.

Once your pan is heated and oil is in then you can add your lean ground meat of choice... 

ground turkey, chicken, pork, lamb, buffalo, or whatever you prefer.  

I use 20 ounces for my weekly batch.  Brown your meat...

While the meat is browning I chop the sweet potatoes.  

You see that I use my knife to peel my potatoes 

but if you really prefer a peeler then do that.

I do a smaller cube on mine so they cook really quickly.  

You could also grate them if you like.

Here they are cubed and ready to go in

Once the meat is browned I add the sweet potato.  

I add about 1/2 cup water at this point to kind 

of "steam" the potatoes to cook them faster.

Let that cook and simmer and cut your apple while it cooks.  

Again, cut smaller pieces to cook quickly.  

They soften nicely in this recipe.

Finished apple ready to go in...

Add the apple in and continue to stir and let simmer.

I would then proceed to add the green veg if you are doing that.  

I chop everything into smaller bits to be stirred throughout.

Once all the meat, veg and apple are in then you can add the seasonings.  

I add cinnamon to taste, salt, pepper and then grate some nutmeg in.

I use a really cool little nutmeg grater from Microplane.

Stir and simmer until all the veg and apple are soft and well incorporated.

About 1 cup of the hash is a serving.

I usually cook an egg sunny side up and add it on top for extra protein.

I love that I can cook this ahead and then just warm what I need each morning.  

It is great for batch cooking sessions.  

I hope you will try this one.  

Let me know how it goes if you do.  

Do you have a "go to" breakfast dish you eat often?

Pumpkins almost ready...

Some green still on a few of the pumpkins but they are turning orange quickly now since the weather has cooled.  The leaves are dying off and there is no new growth... only seven lovely little pumpkins almost ready to be harvested and used.  We lost two in the rain storms due to mold but it happens and so we moved on to care for the 7 left.  They are beautiful!

Just about another week or so and we will clear the brush to plant for winter.

We are ready for pumpkin bread and pie and soup and any other yummy treats we can concoct from our most sincere little pumpkin patch.

We are also still growing carrots and the last of the summer tomatoes are turning red.  There is a fresh planting of lettuces and onion that we put in and there will be garlic planting soon.  I am looking at some more carrot and beet seeds to plant.  If I can find broccoli and/or brussel sprouts we still have a bit of time to put those in for winter growth.  This will be our first winter attempt and I am so excited for that!

Autumn Has Arrived

Oh my goodness, this is my very favorite time of year. Autumn is my favorite!

Fall Gardening...

I have recently shared my herb garden, pumpkin patch and the end of summer bounty of zucchini that is in my yard but I am working on a fall garden right now, too.  I have carrots that are growing and, to be honest, unless I was growing an acre of carrots it is probably not a very good use of my time and resources but it is the first time we have tried carrots and it is a learning experience.  I tried to plant beets, too, and they are not doing well.  I think I planted the seeds too deep.  I will try again and see how those turn out.  

I put in some other herbs and onions and they did not do well.  I think those did not take because they were older seeds and that truly does make a difference for some things.  Again... it is all a great big experiment for me at this point.  

I am already thinking about spring planting, too, and scouring seed catalogs to price everything so I can save my pennies and order around Christmas.

Now, what does one put into a fall garden in the desert southwest?

I am adding a new attempt at beets

I am hoping to get my hands on some broccoli seeds and definitely Swiss chard, collard greens, radishes, garlic, leeks, spinach and a few other lettuce greens and maybe adding a new batch of carrots and onions.  I will plant more herb seeds in October to prep the bed for the spring.  I have basil and mint going to seed over the next month so they should come back in spring, too.

The pumpkin count this morning was 9 that we could see in the growth of vines.  There could be more but we won't really dig around and see them until everything starts to turn orange.  We got 12 last year and I planted about the same amount this year.  I tried my hand at planting some harvested seeds from last year's crop to see how they would come back but I don't see any pumpkins on that plant right now.  It could change at any time but no luck yet...

Did I tell you we have tomatoes... FINALLY!?!?  My poor little tomato plant struggled all summer and I refused to pull it out but with all the rain and cooler temps it has picked up and we counted about a dozen little green tomatoes on it this morning.  We are very excited, especially my youngest who LOVES tomatoes.

Speaking of rain... thought you might like to see the results of our five full days of rain last week.

So, we end with this... the view around Thursday (day four of rain) from my back window.  The small pond under the Mulberries was fun.  We have the furniture airing on the lawn today in the sunshine.  Everything is drying out nicely.

Growing Pumpkins

This is our second year growing pumpkins in our little backyard.  One thing we learned last year is that pumpkins really need a place to stretch out and grow.  They send off vine shoots and then little tendrils that wrap around things to stabilize it.  

They start out green and they do not turn orange until they are grown and have been out in the sun a good long time.  They do take water to maintain but that was expected.  I watered them daily... and am watering daily again this year.  For good healthy gourds I knock a few of the little pumpkins off so that not more than 2-3 are growing on a shoot at a time. 

The best time to plant pumpkins is sometime around Father's Day in America (June 17th or so)

I have not tried it yet but I hear from culinarians that the pumpkin blossoms are good eats, too.

One would pick them and then use a light batter to bread them and fry them.

The big yellow blossoms are open and ready for pollinating in the early mornings and typically by noon they are closed up and started to wither.  I seem to have a fresh dose of those blossoms every morning and the bees just swarm to them. 

I love having a pumpkin patch. We are trying to have the most sincere pumpkin patch again this year.  I do believe we shall make it... it is my favorite place to be as I stroll through the garden each morning to discover what new thing has happened overnight.  I just wonder, though... why did I wait so long to grow a garden in the first place.  It is a very rewarding hobby for me.