Guilt-Free Friday: Italian Brussels Sprouts (And a Happy Birthday Shout-Out to my Hubby!)

First of all, Happy 31^st Birthday to my wonderful hubby!!  The day is off to a great start.  Justin's laid off right now (no sympathy, please, in his line of work this is a GOOD thing - we welcome the breaks!) and I kept my work load light today so after dropping Harlee off at the babysitter I brought him out to his birthday present at our farm (and future homestead).  Here's a picture of the birthday boy and his new toy:

He was pretty excited, and we had fun riding around through the mud the rest of the morning.  We had a good rain last night and the weather has been beautiful today!  Perfect day for a birthday!  I'm glad he's got it now too - I was becoming a nervous wreck trying to get the surprise to work last night and this morning!  I'm done with surprises, I probably have a few gray hairs now because of this!  Haha he deserves it though, he's been such an awesome father and an amazing husband, I couldn't be luckier to have him in my life!  And now he's become Mr. Maid at the house, thinking he has to show his appreciation.  He can keep that up, I don't mind! :)

I'm going to make an attempt at my first Paleo birthday cake today.  If it meets our approval then I will share the recipe next Friday!  The recipe I found got rave reviews, so I've got high hopes!

Today, however, I want to share with you my very OWN recipe – I’m quite proud of it, too!  I came up with it after I added brussels sprouts to the soup we ate after we came off of our detox.  I don’t know what possessed me to try that – I don’t much care for them and Justin likes them even less than I do.  I guess I decided to give them one more chance, that maybe after a detox ANYthing would taste good.  And they're just so cute, or at least I think so - little green cabbages that just look like they should be yummy!  A very disappointing veggie if you asked me!  Unless you're someone who loves them...  Well, these tasted good, detox or not, and even better when I made them the next night to go with those deer brats we FINALLY got to eat (after resisting the temptation on detox day 6 at our friends’ house!).  Justin scarfed them down, so I took that to mean they were definitely a hit.  Then I scarfed mine down.  Yep, a hit!

Here ya go!

~2 cups brussels sprouts

3 tbsp butter or coconut oil

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp salt

1 cup tomato sauce

1 tsp basil

Shredded mozzarella cheese to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan.

Cut the stems from the brussels sprouts, peel off the top few leaves, and cut in half.

Place the sprouts cut-side down in the melted butter and cook on medium-low with the garlic powder and salt until the cut sides are golden and the sprouts are tender.

Add the tomato sauce and basil and simmer until heated through.

Spoon onto plates and top with mozzarella cheese and serve!