Day Five: Egg Muffins and Chicken Drumsticks

So the party yesterday was quite the success, all went well and I managed to find amongst the other contributions things I could eat as there were a wide variety of salads and suchlike. The only thing I technically should have avoided that I ate was a small amount of quinoa in some tabouleh and chickpeas/beans in the various hummus contributions that were trotted out. Another possible cheat (though this didnt technically isn't considered "unpaleo") was some mexican mole, a cocoa based chicken sauce that I ate, which is still dairy, starch, processed sugar and gluten free. The thing I really wish I could've tried was my friend Rachelle's "Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes". Now for those of you who don't work in bars/spend all your time in one, an Irish Car Bomb is when you take a half pint of Guinness beer, and drop in a shot of Baileys mixed with Jameson Irish Whisky, and then proceed to chug the whole concoction before it curdles. Not really the most appealing thing for me, as it has both dairy and gluten in it, and it just sounds un-fun. However, these cupcakes had Guinness in the batter, and Baileys in the icing, which made for what seemed to be a freaking delicious combination!

Today I thought I'd try my hand at something that might qualify as real people's breakfast food! I'm making Egg Muffins with Zucchini, Mushrooms, and Shallots. The recipe I adapted this from was using spinach rather than shallots, but I do love some onion in there! I obviously omitted the cheese as well, as it doesn't follow my guidelines.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes

After deseeding and dicing up the zucchini, chopping the mushrooms and shallots and shredding some fresh basil, I placed an equal amount into my greased muffin tin. Then I added some black pepper, sea salt and paprika to 6 eggs, and about 2 tbsp of water and whisked it all up! Then I poured it almost to the very top into the tins and to my dismay, had undercalculated somewhere, leaving me with about 5 empty cups! I redistributed the veggies as best I could and whipped up another 2 eggs which ended up doing for 3 of them, and resolved that I would only have 10 muffins.

Just out of the oven!

After the timer went off, (the muffins rose really far out of the tray!) I sought out my one remaining chorizo sausage, and cutting it into coins, I fryed it up with some onion as my accompaniement while the pan cooled. These weren't my absolute favorite Paleo dish, but they did turn out pretty well considering!

Now, according to the initial recipe, these keep very well and can even be frozen! So I popped 7 into a bag and into my freezer, keeping out two as a quick snack option. I'm crossing my fingers that they are indeed good cold as the site says!

Egg Muffin surrounded by Chorizo rounds, fried onions and some leafy greens! Yum!

For dinner I went a more traditional route, with a central meat component and sides all 'round! Having defrosted some drumsticks, I removed the skin and whipped up a spice rub that was sure to be a winner. Armed with red pepper flakes, mustard, olive oil, sea salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, ginger and vanilla (yes, vanilla, just the smallest amount makes all the difference), I rubbed down my drumsticks and placed them in about half an inch of water in a 9"x11" dish.

Then I popped them in the oven at about 375 for 15 minutes a side, flipping them over once. Now these would be absolutely killer, and probably crispy if you did them on the BBQ, but unfortunately I don't have that luxury, and the water is needed to keep them tender and keep your dish from blackening.

While they cooked, I threw together a side salad with a dressing of olive oil and fresh garlic combined with cucumbers, avocado and cherry tomatoes. A dollop of the now ubiquitous babaganouj sealed the plate and when the chicken was ready I dug right in! I have to say, they turned out beautifully, just the right amount of spice to keep things interesting, and really juicy. Plus, who doesn't like to eat things with their hands right?
All in all a delicous Paleo day!