Monday's much needed comfort

Monday's always seem like the hardest day of the workweek to get through. They never fail to drag on and on, despite getting a good nights rest and a large mug of coffee. Due to these facts, I decided that a little comfort food on this particular Monday night is necessary.

I based my dinner choice on the following: I bought some hot italian sausage from my favorite beef vendors at the Public Market (http://www.sevenbridgesfarm.com/), green beans, leftover cauliflower 'rice' (cauliflower that's essentially been shredded, cooked and seasoned), frozen peas and coconut milk. I perused through my recipe stash and decided that the ingredients I had would be perfect for  biscuits and gravy! I adapted this: http://robbwolf.com/2011/01/05/gluten-free-sausage-gravy-paleo-biscuits/, to make this:

Sausage Gravy and Peas over Cauli-Rice!

 (I apologize for the quality of the photo. My iPhone and my not quite so steady hand don't always take the best pics) 

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. hot italian sausage2 tbsp arrowroot powder
• 1 can coconut milk (shake it up before you open it)
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp dried, rubbed sage
• 5/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• ~1/2 bag frozen peas, thawed
• cauli-rice

(I kept the recipe for the gravy portion of the base recipe pretty much all the same, except for adding a slight bit more cayenne to suit my personal tastes)

I started by heating a large non-stick pan over medium-high heat. I then threw in the sausage. Being me and in a hurry to cook this thing, I neglected to take the sausage meat out of the casings. Oops! (It didn't really make too much of a difference, as the links ended up splitting open, whereby I was able to use a spoon to break them up into crumbles.) Once the meat was browned, I spooned it off into a plate and set it aside.

I turned down the heat to medium and added a small amount of olive oil to the pan (due to the lack of fat from my sausage meat), then stirred in the arrowroot powder and kept stirring for another minute. I added the coconut milk, 1/3 of can at a time, stirring constantly. Then added the seasonings, peas, browned sausage, gave it all a quick stir. I then hied myself to the microwave to reheat my cauli-rice. I let the gravy mix heat through, stirring occasionally, until the 'rice' was done and then poured it on top.

I served my gravy rice combo with a side of green beans that I'd roasted in the toaster oven for 20 minutes with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Let it be known that I'm all for using every tool at my disposal to cut down on cleanup and cooking time, ie- using the toaster oven and the little pan that came with it, wrapped in foil, instead of waiting an additional 20 minutes for the regular oven preheat and using a large pan... But I digress... I sat down to take my first bite and all I can say is, "A-MAZING!" This tastes so fantastic that I could roll in it! There's no lingering flavor of coconut milk (which kind of surprised me).

After shoveling a few more bits in my mouth, the idea hits me: BREAKFAST BOWL! (Similar to the Highland Skillet at served at the Highland Park Diner) Start with a base of home fries, top them with 2 poached eggs and top everything off with this gravy. Take that Highland Park Diner! I don't need you anymore! Unless I want to go off Paleo and have one of your tasty eggs benedict combos or corned beef hash...