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Enjoy the tummy pleasing goodness of French Onion Soup!

Hi all! This week’s theme for me was instantaneous real food, as we are scrambling with getting the first Blog Hop off the ground, getting ready to visit the Amish farm that supplies our raw milk this weekend, planning a Father’s Day meal and completing school finals. It is during these times that real food and healthy choices tend to go out the window! With a little preparation on your part, you can have all the ingredients available to make nourishing real food meals, but that doesn’t matter at all if the recipes you are using take forever to prepare. It’s important to have a list of go to recipes when you are time crunched and make a commitment to do just that. If you do, you will always be able to create healthy, satisfying meals for your family in no time!

The recipes below are two of my favorites. They build on ingredients you have previously prepared like Beef Bone Broth (recipe coming soon!), Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread and bacon fat, and other common kitchen staples. They can both be made in less than 15 minutes and that is going slowly!

Beef stock, which is a slow simmer of beef marrow bones that creates an elixir filled with healthy vitamins, gelatin, protein and bone enriching minerals like calcium and magnesium, is the basis for this decadent soup.  Onions are rich in sulfur and allicin which help maintain a healthy immune system. It’s origins are in the french countryside, where peasants had little and did their best to draw the nutrients out of everything they cooked. This simple combination of stale bread, onions,bones and a little cheese seems sinful, but it is actually a very well crafted peasant meal containing vital nutrients for the bones, muscles, immune system and digestive tract.

Lickity Split French Onion Soup

Serves Four

Cooking time-15 minutes

Preheat oven to 400

1 Quart Beef Bone stock or other Non-MSG organic stock

2 Large sweet organic onions cleaned and sliced in long fat strips

2 Tbs. grass fed butter

2 Tbs. bacon fat or coconut oil (the bacon adds flavor, but if you don’t have it use the coconut oil)

4-1-2inch thick slices of Whole Wheat Sourdough bread slightly stale. You can use any hearty bread you have on hand

2 Cups shredded Guryere, Sharp Cheddar and Provolone cheese (you can use sliced provolone if you dont have the other cheeses or any cheese that melts well and has a good tang to it.)

Sea Salt, Garlic Powder or smashed garlic clove and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large sauce pan, melt butter and bacon fat together over medium heat. Add in onions and saute on medium until translucent or about five minutes. Pour beef stock into the onions and stir well. Turn heat up to high and boil for 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper and garlic to taste.

Cover a cookie sheet with foil and place 4 soup crocks or large ramkins on the foil. Cut bread slices to fit into the crocks with about an 1/4 inch space all around the rim. You can butter the bread on both sides if you like it to stay firmer in your soup, or leave plain if you want it to get nice and soggy.

When the oven is ready and the onion soup base is to your liking, divide the soup among the four crocks to about 3/4 full. Place the bread lid on top of the soup but do not press down. The bread should sit at or just below the rim of the crock. Liberally sprinkle 1/2 cup of cheese or cover each crock with a slice of provolone.

Place in oven for 4 minutes and then turn on broil for remaining minute or two until cheese is bubbling and golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a minute or two. Serve with a hearty salad for a quick weekday meal.

People are always trying to get more vegetables into their diets, but one meal they generally ignore is breakfast! Greens, especially bitter ones like kale, chard or collards go very well with the mellow flavors of eggs and bacon, and the add considerably to the nutritive value of the meal. The saturated fat in the bacon and eggs will effectively release more vitamins and minerals from the greens for assimilation into the body.  These great greens take a long time to cook until tender, but another two bitter greens are tender and easy to cook quickly. They are arugula (rocket) and escarole, both rustic Italian favorites.  This recipe is basically an afterthought, but creates a delightful healthy symmetry to any egg based breakfast (or breakfast for dinner, which happens in my house often!) meal.

Last Minute Breakfast Greens

Serves Four

Cooking time-5 minutes

1 Lb. Arugula or Escarole, cleaned and pressed dry. Remove any woody ends and chop into large pieces.

4 Tbs. bacon fat

4 Cloves garlic cleaned and smashed, then chopped into tiny pieces. You can use organic garlic powder as well.

Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Cook your bacon and eggs according to your preference in a large cast iron skillet (I like to bake my bacon! See here for details!)

Immediately after removing eggs from a cast iron skillet to a warmed serving platter, place bacon fat into skillet and turn up to medium high.  When the oil is melted completely throw the garlic into the pan and toss for a minute (if using garlic powder, omit this step and add the powder along with the salt and pepper at the end).  Do not over brown. Throw the greens on top of the garlic and press down firmly with a spatula. Flip the greens over and continue to press down and flip until the greens are completely wilted.

Turn the temperature down to medium low and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to combine and cook, stirring occasionally for a minute. Divide onto plates with eggs and bacon. Serve with buttered Whole Wheat Sourdough.

These recipes were a part of the Two for Tuesday Recipe Blog Hop Volume 1!  Please visit my Featured Blog Hop Recipe Page for other great Blog Hop recipes!