Fun Foodie Family

Vegan Pasta Sauce

So earlier I told you how cooking is my therapy. So is grocery shopping BY MYSELF!!! One of my co-workers is a vegetarian and a bit of a foodie, so I like to make us some yummy lunches every once in a while. If you don’t know me or just now reading this, I used to be a vegetarian/vegan for 13 years. I eat everything now, but I still enjoy healthy veggie meals occasionally. I recently saw a recipe for an eggplant tomato pasta sauce. I decided to add more veggies other than the eggplant, and this recipe was created. The great thing about veggie meals is you can delete or add whatever veggies you like. For example, I didn’t have any mushrooms, but they would have been a yummy addition. If you have spinach instead of kale, add it! Use your imagination to create your own individualized sauce.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced and chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 eggplant, chopped
2 small zucchini, chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 container of grape tomatoes
1 large can of diced tomatoes
2 glasses of wine
1/2 head of broccoli- florets (you can save the stems for veggie or chicken stock)
water as needed
1/2 bag/container of kale

Directions

Chop all your veggies while you heat your large pan/dutch oven and melt your butter with the oil.
Add all the ingredients in the order listed above to med.heat. Onion and garlic first for 5 minutes, stirring. Pepper, eggplant, and zucchini for 5 more minutes. Add tomato paste and cook for 3 minutes, stirring. Then add the tomatoes- grape and can of diced. Add your wine and then broccoli florets. Add water if you need more liquid. Cook on med-low for 20 minutes. Add your kale at the end and cook until wilted. Serve over your favorite pasta. Enjoy!

Pork in Milk

Pork

Lately Sunday has meant braised meat or slow cooking dinners. But spring is around the corner, and there will be no more long braises and comforting heavy meals to warm our bones. On to fresh, light dishes with fresh ingredients from the farmer’s market. Until then, I will be making dishes like these…

Pork in Milk

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 or 2 pork loins
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoons grated whole nutmeg- use the real stuff!!!
2 1/2 cups of whole milk

Directions

Heat your butter and olive oil in a pan over med. high heat
Brown meat on all sides
Add milk and spices Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover but leave lid ajar.
Cook slowly for about 2 hours turning and basting the meat every 15 minutes or so.

When your meat is cooked, the milk should be coagulated into smallish brown bits; Remove the meat. Rest the meat for at least 10 minutes.

Add 2/3 tablespoon warm water to the pot, turn in the heat to high and boil away the water while scraping and loosing all the leftover yummy porky bits. I served it with roasted potatoes and sauteed shaved brussel sprouts.

Weekly Meal Plan 3/16/14

Weekly Meal Plans

This weekend was wild here at our house! Becca had her birthday slumber party here and it was fun and filled with giggly adorable girls who know how to party like 7 year olds! We made mini-pizzas, had cake, and ate lots of snacks throughout the night. This morning I made them eggs and sausage and filled the oven and toaster with Eggo frozen blueberry waffles and french toast sticks. My kitchen smelled like syrup for a few hours after that =)

I am trying all new recipes this week. Looking forward to lots of cooking and eating! What is on your meal plan this week????

Sunday- Pork in Milk, roasted potatoes, and sauteed brussel sprouts w/bacon

Monday- Beer Braised Sausage with tomatoes and onions on Rigatoni, broccoli

Also, making some veggie pasta sauce for lunch for me and a vegetarian friend at work.

Tuesday- Skirt Steak Tacos with cabbage slaw

Wednesday- Chicken Francaise

Thursday- Grandparent night! Only 1 1/2 months left of my class!!!!

Friday- Clean out fridge/pantry raid night

Spicy Veggie Soup

One pot meal, Pantry Raid, Soups, Vegetarian

Y’all. Seriously. This is so easy to make. Throw in this and that and you have a healthy delicious dinner! It is super windy and cold out, so I wanted to make some hot soup to warm me up. I have a whole pot to myself. Well, I made extra for my friend who is going veggie this month. I added some leftover grilled chicken and a dollop of sour cream in my bowl at the end to add some protein and richness. You could add beans, different veggies, heavy cream, cheese, croutons, tortilla chips, ground beef, tofu, etc. Soup has no limits!

Spicy Veggie Soup

Ingredients

1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped and minced
1 sweet pepper chopped- I had a combo of yellow, orange, red, and green leftover in the fridge
1 jalapeno, chopped I seeded mine and took out the membrane, but if you want it super spicy, leave them. Or if you wanted less spicy, you could add a chopped poblano pepper
1 container of mushrooms
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 can of tomato sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of canned corn, with liquid (or frozen)
1 can of green beans, with liquid (or frozen)
fresh or dried herbs- I used oregano, marjoram, and thyme, plus a bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
red pepper flakes to taste
extra hot sauce if wanted

Directions

In a dutch oven, cook down all your veggies in a few tablespoons of veggie oil and add salt and pepper- about 10 minutes. Add your tomato paste. Stir in and cook about 5 more minutes. Add in your canned ingredients. If your veggies are frozen, add them in, but add a bit of water if needed. Stir and add in red pepper flakes and/or hot sauce. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken, One pot meal

Cacciatore means to chase or hunt in Italian. Chicken hunter; Rabbit chaser; Pig hunter, you get the drift…Cacciatore is a meat caught and cooked in a tomato sauce with onion, garlic, mushrooms, green peppers, and wine. Luckily, we don’t actually have to do the hunting anymore. Just get a nice cut of meat or whatever looks good on sale.

For chicken cacciatore, you can use any type of chicken. Whole Foods had a sale on chicken quarters, so I bought 6. The dark meat is my favorite anyway, so this turned out delicious!

Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients

4-6 piece of chicken
1 onion chopped
3 cloves of crushed, minced garlic
2 peppers- any color- I used a variety of green, red, orange, and yellow about 1/2 each
One container of mushrooms- button or baby portabellas
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup of red wine (or white wine or beer)
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
fistful of your favorite fresh herbs or a tablespoon of dried herbs

Directions

Brown your chicken on both sides. I start with skin side down to get some browning going and get that flavor added to the pan. Cook on the first side about 12 minutes, then flip and cook for 6 minutes. Then take the chicken out of the pan.

Saute your onion, peppers, and garlic in 1 tablespoon of melted butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil for about 8 minute. I like to add the combo, because butter has a tendency to burn at a high temp, so the olive oil helps temper that a bit. Plus, I like the combo of both flavors together. Add your sliced mushrooms.

Tip on washing mushrooms…DO NOT WASH THEM UNDER WATER. Take a wet paper towel and clean the surface. They are like sponges and will absorb all the water. I have caught Becca eating them with dirt right out of the container. Good quality mushrooms are in good quality dirt…

Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Stir around for a few minutes and add in about 1 cup of red wine. You could use white wine or even substitute beer.

Add a large can of crushed tomatoes and a tablespoon of sugar. This helps cut the acidity in the tomatoes. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Add any fresh or dried herbs that you have. I used thyme, oregano, basil, and marjoram. I think marjoram is my new favorite herb.

Add the chicken back in. Cook for another 30-45 minutes turning pieces halfway.
Serve over rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, etc. Serve with a veggie and lots of crusty bread. I have lunch for tomorrow plus extra sauce. I think I might add it to eggs for breakfast one day. It is so yummy, I might even make it a soup and add croutons. SO AMAZING!