If I said I made a spicy sausage casserole with a dairy based sauce, most of you would assume that would work as a regular appearance in a healthy eating lifestyle.
Let’s review what that would typically look like: white rice, margarine, questionable machine separated fatty meats with lab created fillers, cheese and heavy cream from grain lot cows with additives and thickeners added. Let’s throw in some bacon loaded with preservatives, nitrates, and sugar as well.
That would be a nutritional disaster. It’s a meal full of simple carbs to spike blood sugar, saturated fats that hurt your heart, and artificial ingredients that are doing who-knows-what to your internal plumbing, but it’s a safe bet that none of it is good. It does not have to be that way.
Let’s imagine that casserole is the lead female character in a 1980’s John Hughes film. This is the scene where she appears on the stairs, shakes out her ponytail, whips off her glasses, and all of a sudden she is the most beautiful girl going to the prom.
Her looks really didn’t change all that much, in reality. Everyone could now just see what she was on the inside, smart, funny, and kind. A casserole can be the same. It’s what you put on the insides that count.
Using cauliflower rice, pasture fed meat without crazy fillers not found in nature, grass fed dairy, and bacon that is nitrate and sugar free will turn it into a knockout as well.
It can be hard to find true grass-fed and free forage meats at the mega-marts. Oh, the labels will try to trick you into thinking it is, but most of the products there are gaslighting you. They will use fancy fonts and misleading statements that say one thing, but all it really means is “you are paying a lot more for a fancy looking label that says nothing.”
I use Cooks Venture for all of my protein now, instead of spinning the “Wheel ‘O Mystery and Chance” that is the stocking practices of the megamarts. It’s a local company based in Northwest Arkansas, they ship right to your door, and the beef actually is grass fed and the chickens roam free to forage.
A box is $160, which lasts me about a month. A huge plus with their service is there is no subscription required. You order what you need when you need it, and you are never surprised by a box showing up just on its own accord.
If you are tired of the so-called “free range” chicken at the megamart that looks like it came off a mutant from a nuclear accident site and is full of the white striped fatty deposit lines – and you should be – then look this company up on the interwebs.
To be clear, I am not associated with them in any way and they only know me by my credit card number and shipping address. Buying this way also means you won’t be one of those people walking around with a leaking package of raw chicken juice running all over your kid’s junk food. Salmonella cakes – yum!
I didn’t take many pictures this time because I was in a rush preparing it. No matter, the point gets across. The reason I lost 80 pounds almost ten years ago and have kept it off is because I don’t subject myself to the same old plain dried chicken breast with steamed broccoli over and over, day after day.
It’s because I make ingredient swaps that take the shy wallflower and turn her into the prom queen. She had it in her all along. She just needed someone to believe in her. Cauliflower rice is the same. If you believe in it, it will taste amazing.
Chicken Sausage Casserole:
Ingredients:
1 bag organic frozen cauliflower rice – 24 oz
1 package free range skinless chicken thighs
2 packages chicken sausage
1 package organic baby bella mushrooms – sliced
1 yellow onion – diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup grass fed half and half
1 tbsp grass fed butter
4 oz Parmesan cheese, grated
4 oz grass fed Pepper Jack cheese, grated
1/2 tsp sea salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, plus extra pinches
1 tbsp avocado oil
3 slices all natural bacon, cooked and crispy
Instructions:
In the morning, place the chicken thighs in the slow cooker. Sprinkle all the spices and set it to cook for 6 – 8 hours. Once it is done, shred with a fork and leave on the warm setting. Set a large skillet over medium heat with the avocado oil, and once it starts to shimmer, add the cauliflower rice. Hit with a tiny pinch of salt and a hefty grind of pepper. Continue cooking until all the moisture is gone and it just starts to brown.
While the rice is cooking, start up another pan for your mushrooms, onions, and red bell pepper. Saute until tender. Hit with another pinch of salt and pepper. Drain any moisture left in the pan.
Slice the chicken sausage into pieces and air fry until golden brown, just crispy, and delicious.
Once the cauliflower rice is dry and starting to brown, add the butter, stir until melted, then add the half and half. Continue cooking until the half and half reduces and the rice thickens up. Add the Parmesan cheese and stir to melt.
Hit a 8 x 11 glass dish with some non-stick. Combine the drained veggies and the drained and shredded chicken thighs into the cauliflower rice, and then transfer to the glass dish. Layer the air fried chicken sausage on top, and then cover with the pepper jack cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes. Top with crumbled cooked bacon and serve to a grateful world. Leftovers are fantastic with some diced avocado, black bean chips, and plain grass fed yogurt. Served here with roasted baby potatoes and organic frozen peas.
See the list of all Jason Murphy’s recipes at www.mysaline.com/jason-murphy.