Slow Cooked Pork and Zucchini (Paleo)…

Tags

good eatins, paleo, recipe, simple foods, slow cooker, vegetables

One of the things we’ve used over and over again this winter is our slow cooker. Not because we have a household full of traffic (kids) we need to tend too or because we don’t really have the time to cut/chop/saute/mix/blend and whatever else you do in the kitchen to whip up some delicious food…

We use it because it’s easy and keeps us from having to spend extra time in the kitchen when there is work to be done (Meegan) and running to be done (Tara).

The recipes we’ve been finding have had pretty limited ingredients but the flavors at the end of the road has been magnificent. We’ve been spending a lot of time looking for Paleo slow cooker ideas and came across this recipe over at Paleo Plan.

We changed very little of the original recipe. We added green onions and of course a main staple in our house: garlic (and lots of it).

Enjoy.

Slow Cooked Pork & Zucchini

The ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb pork loin
• 1 22oz can tomato sauce
• 2 medium zucchini
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 bunch green onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 – 2 tbsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (optional)

This one is easy peasy:

Take all your ingredients…

  

  

1. Add to slow cooker
2. Add tomato sauce, basil, salt & pepper.
3. Give it a good stir
4. Cook on high for 6 hours

- Side Note: Because our slow cooker is of the small sized variety (soon to be exchanged for a larger one), we had to cut the pork loin into smaller pieces. If your slow cooker is larger you may (or maybe not) want to keep your pork loin in larger cuts. Really it’s more of a preference thing.

We really liked this recipe for a couple of reasons. Very few ingredients means it went into the cooker in no time (start to finish maybe took 20 minutes). We are big vegetable eaters and anything that calls for vegetables in the recipe (in addition to whatever side we choose) is a big bonus in our book. There are lots of opportunity for variation here. Try it with a different type of meat (we think thin strips of steak would be really good) and change up the vegetable (add onions, turnips, carrots)…

Give this simple meal a try and trust us you too will say:

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Making do and making desserts…

Tags

bananas, chicken, cravings, cutlets, frozen bananas, frozen treats, good eatins, meat, recipe, simple foods, sweet tooth

This past December, Tara received one of the best gifts she could hope for…

It wasn’t a puppy (though that would be awesome).

It wasn’t a unicorn (again awesome).

No, it was a 2 year subscription to her favorite magazine: Clean Eating

(super duper mega awesome!)

If you are not currently reading this magazine cover to cover every month, do yourself a favor; go buy one issue and take it for a test run. From cover to cover you’ll find clean recipes that are easy to make and taste pretty damn good (not to mention pretty easy on the wallet for the most part).

It was in the pages of this magazine that Tara got the courage to step outside of her food comfort zone and begin to (pun intended) really get to the meat of cooking. Trying recipes she felt were out of her league only to discover that she could actually make food that was good for the palate as well as good for the waistline.

The breaded chicken cutlet recipe below is a variation on a recipe found recently in the March 2012 issue of C.E. The original recipe called for the use of panko and pork cutlets but we used chicken breasts and had some nice seasoned bread crumbs laying around and you know where there’s bread crumbs that need to be made into a coating there’s one of our favorite things to use while cooking…

Awwwww yhea, the Magic that is the Bullet!

We also threw in a dessert with this recipe because we have recently discovered the wonders of frozen bananas (we know, we know – guess who’s late to the party). Seriously how come no one told us sooner how awesome frozen bananas are? Not just to eat plain but to again pull out the magic bullet and make some of the most delicious frozen dessert ever to come across our lips (is there a dirty joke in there somewhere?)

Enjoy!

Breaded Chicken Cutlets

Ingredients:

• 2 – 4 chicken breasts cut in half (depending on how many mouths you’re feeding)
• 2 eggs or egg white equivalent
• 1 c bread crumbs (have a little extra around just in case you need more)
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Oil for frying

The Breading:

Now if you’re using already made bread crumbs you can skip this part or scroll slowly so you can see our pretty magic bullet do wonders…

Before

After!

 In a shallow bowl (or plate if you can keep the counters clean unlike *cough*Tara*cough*) mix the bread crumbs with chili pepper, cumin and pepper (add salt if you’d like but we skipped it).

Crack eggs (or pour egg whites) into a separate bowl. If using shelled eggs make sure to whisk (trust me I know some of you will forget that part!).

The Chicken:

Okay funny story (and why the title of this post is “making do”). The reason we chose this recipe was because it called for the meat to be pounded (oh yes there is the dirty joke we were looking for) and there’s nothing more fun than pounding meat right? The only problem? What we thought was a meat tenderizer was actually a garlic press and even though Tara had been looking at (and using) the garlic press for months she was certain it was masquerading as the meat tenderizer she had *seen* over and over again in the kitchen drawer…

Lay a nice size piece of seran wrap down on the counter. Lay one piece of chicken on top. Add a few drops of water (to help prevent sticking) and then either fold seran wrap in half or lay a new piece over the chicken.

Pound away!

(feel free to play Barry White at this time)

You want the chicken to be about 1/4  inch in thickness so it won’t take much. Repeat this step (remember to add a few drops of water to each portion of chicken) until all pieces have been pounded down made thin.

Putting it all together:

The culinary term for coating cutlets is “dredging”. Next time you want to impress someone with your cooking, just throw that term around a bit…There really is no need to verbally explain how to dunk your chicken in egg and then coat it with the bread crumbs. However the pictures came out pretty good:

  

Once every thing is coated, heat up frying oil in pan and get to cooking. Remember because these are thinner portions of meat the cooking time is dramatically decreased. Each cutlet will only take about 2 – 3 minutes per side.

Banana Goodness

The ingredients:

• Frozen bananas
• Anything else you can think of that will please your palate

Frozen bananas have become quite the staple in our household. No longer are we buying one bunch for quick “go to” breakfasts and snacks. Now we’re buying multiple bunches during the week knowing full well we’re going to be freezing at least half of what we bring home for the sole purpose of having something handy to curb the sweet tooth.

The easiest way to freeze your bananas is to have a handy Silpat that can cover a cookie sheet. This way once the banana slices are thoroughly frozen you can just roll the silpat to loosen the slices and then easily slide into a covered container.

They are delicious sliced and frozen.

Nothing added.

But when you put them in a blender something magical happens. It’s like eating ice cream. We are not kidding! And oh the possibilities. If you think it’s gonna be good, chances are it will be.

One of our favorite concoctions is 1 cup frozen bananas + 1 tbsp peanut butter + a drizzle of maple syrup and a few chopped almonds…

Have a little bit of chocolate around the house? Maybe some semi sweet baking squares or chocolate chips? How about some peanut butter? How about you make these frozen bad boys:

• 4oz semi sweet chocolate
• 4 tbsp peanut butter
• 3 bananas (thick slices)

In a microwave melt the chocolate and peanut butter together (Zap for 1 minute, stir and zap again for 30 seconds or until smooth). Dip bananas slices and then freeze for about an hour. This is where the silpat mat comes in real handy. Seriously go out and buy yourself one just to make life easier!

If you’ve never tried frozen bananas, you’re missing out. Once you try them (of course that’s assuming you like bananas) you’ll definitely be on the look out for your own tasty concoctions. No matter how you eat them you’ll definitely say:

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Paleo Orange Chicken (but then we added rice)

Tags

chicken, good eatins, meat, paleo, recipe, simple foods

It’s been a few days since our last recipe post.

(okay 10 days)

Sometimes life gets in the way and you don’t want to take the time to photograph the meals that you cook.

(or you refer to your old recipes posted and make them over and over and over again)

Or you do take your pictures but never get around to blogging a new recipe.

(because secretly you LOVE to photograph your food)

Whatever the reason, it’s been a few…

Until today.

The Paleo Orange Chicken is indeed paleo and the original recipe can be found over at Health Bent (which is quickly becoming one of our favorite go to paleo blogs). We added the rice because Tara is slow to give up the grainy goodness. We didn’t change up the recipe too much except we substituted garlic cloves for chili garlic sauce and added diced onions.

If you have any good paleo recipes you’d like us to try out send us an email (like right now!) to thehealthydynamicduo (at) gmail (dot) com. One of us doesn’t eat any kind of seafood so nix the swimming little beasts please…

Enjoy!

Paleo Orange Chicken

The ingredients:

• 1lb boneless chicken (cut into bite size pieces)
• 1 Onion diced
• 3 tbsp FoC (Fat of Choice) – We used spicy fat left over from previous recipe
• Orange Zest
• 3 cloves of Garlic
• Juice from 2 oranges (the orange-y the better)
• 1 tsp fresh ginger
• 3 tbsp soy sauce (we used wheat free to keep it paleo)
• Green onions for garnish

  

In pan cook onions and chicken (with your FoC) until onion is tender and chicken is cooked thoroughly. While cooking you can prepare the orange sauce goodness!

  

We have old fashioned glass juicer (oh la la)

In medium sauce pan, add orange juice, orange zest, ginger, soy sauce and garlic. Simmer to reduce while chicken is cooking.

Here comes the hard part! When the chicken is cooked and browned to perfection add to sauce reduction.

Yep, that’s it!

Garnish with green onions and get to eating!

- Side note: If you want to have more of an orange “coating” then reduce your sauce even more. This will also create more of a crispy coating on your chicken. We thought the reduction was perfect and loved the lightness of the orange.

It really was that quick and that easy to make and in our household nothing beats quick and easy (and delicious!)

~Now that’s good eatin’ folks! 

Sweet Potato Shepard’s Pie

Tags

ground beef, meat, recipe, sweet potato, vegetables

You do remember we have a love of sweet potatoes right?

We also have a love for checking out other people’s blogs and websites for recipes that we can easily attempt in our kitchen. Recipes that aren’t complicated, won’t leave us feeling frustrated and give us the flexibility to change it up enough to satisfy our taste buds…

Because if WE can make it = YOU can totally make it.

We’re not chefs. We don’t spend hours at the farmer’s market or grocery store looking longingly at all the possibilities and conjure up the next great meal. We look around online, find something that we both want to try, buy the ingredients and go for it.

As a kid growing up (Tara), I often ate a dish called “Dana’s dish”. Dana is my mother’s name and the dish was basically a replication of the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) Shepard’s pie. The fact that my mother called it “Dana’s Dish” made it that much more special. I didn’t even know there was another version of Dana’s Dish until I was an adult…Yes, I might be that gullible. Point being, whether you call it Dana’s Dish or Shepard’s pie, it is delicious and a great recipe to have on hand.

We came across this Sweet Potato Shepard’s Pie (Dana’s Dish) over at MealsAndMoves blog. Funny story that goes a long with finding this recipe: At the same time Meegan was looking over this recipe, I was reading MaM’s blog post about using someone else’s recipe and photos as your own (with a link back to the exact recipe Meegan was looking at).

It’s a lot to ponder (using another person’s photos). As of yet, we’ve always referred back to where we found a recipe and the photos are uniquely ours. We will always try to give credit where it’s due. We take the time to not take sucky photos so recipes are that much easier to follow. We hope all of our readers (all 12 of you) will do the same. We highly encourage you re-post any recipe here with your own photos and/or ingredient changes so we can see the variations of what we’re all making/creating/eating/devouring…

Here we go!

The ingredients:

• 3 Large Sweet Potatoes (peeled, cubed, cooked and mashed)
• 2 lbs Ground Beef (cooked and drained)
• 2 Carrots (peeled and diced)
• 1 Onion (peeled and diced)
• 2 Small Peppers (diced)
• Asparagus (about 10 stalks – diced)
• Lots of Garlic (we used 8 large cloves)
• 1 lb Fresh Green Beans
• 1 can  Diced Tomatoes (28 oz drained)
• 1 can Tomato Paste (6 oz)
• Parmesan Cheese (for topping)
• Milk (enough to mash sweet potatoes)

Preheat oven to 375F.

SWEET POTATO:

  

Peel and cube sweet potatoes just like you would as if making mash potatoes. Put them in large pot, fill with water and boil until cooked tender. Once tender, drain and mash (using a little bit of milk as you would with regular potatoes).

THE REST:

Cook and drain ground beef (use a little fat from beef to cook veggies). Add diced carrots, onion, asparagus, peppers and garlic to pan and cook until tender. Add diced tomatoes (remember to drain first) and tomato paste, mix well and continue to cook until hot and tasty!

  

MAKING OF THE SHEPARD’S PIE:

In a glass baking dish (9×13) layer in the following manner:

Saucy Meaty Veggie Goodness

(Yes, that is the technical term)

Green Beans!

Sweet Potato and Parmesan Cheese

(we forgot to take a picture in between the sweet potato and parmesan cheese)

Once everything is layered and ready to go, cover with foil and place into oven at 375F for approximately 30 – 40 minutes. For the last few minutes you can remove the foil and turn the oven to broil to get that crispy cheesy goodness if you desire!

This is another recipe that presents a lot of opportunity to change things up to whatever your eating choices may be. Change the vegetable combination. Change the type of meat. Leave out the tomato paste, make homemade tomato sauce and go paleo. No matter how you change it (or don’t change it) we can pretty much guarantee that this is gonna be a delicious.

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

 

 

Happy Birthday Meegan (Mini Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes)

Tags

cream cheese, desserts, good eatins, Mini Cheesecakes, raspberries, recipe, sweets, yummy treats

(Tara)

I love Meegan.

I love Pinterest.

Now before I get on with this post let me make sure we understand something very clear: Meegan > Pinterest. But the point here is when I can bring the two of them together to make something fun then all is right with the world!

I like to spend countless hours  a few minutes each day looking through the different pins hoping to come across something I feel inspired to repin and eventually try to replicate in my own kitchen…

It’s Meegan’s Birthday!

I wanted to make something that while super indulgent wouldn’t leave a lot of opportunity to graze upon once the birthday festivities are over. As a substantial weight loss couple there are things we just don’t want to have lingering around the house. Sugary foods is one of them.

I came across this Mini Raspberry Swirl Cupcake a few weeks ago and knew right away this was going the treat for the goodness that is the Mimi Birthday!

The original recipe can be found over at Annie’s Eats. The only thing I changed about this recipe is the quantity of servings. The original made 32 so I cut everything in half and made 16…

Enjoy!

Mini Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes

The Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar

For the raspberry swirl:

• 3 oz. fresh raspberries
• 1 tbsp. sugar

For the filling:

• 1 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325F

THE CRUST:

For this I pulled out my handy dandy little Magic Bullet because I didn’t think to buy the actual graham cracker crumbs…and not going to lie, I kind of wanted the extra crackers for when I’m craving something a little sweet and crunchy.

  

Mix the 3/4 cup of graham cracker crumbs with 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp of melted butter. Mix well with fork until the all the crumbs are moist. Get out your muffin pan and liners (I picked something fun…okay actually it’s what Meegan had in the pantry and she’s kind of fancy in the baking department; yes I did feel a little under pressure to perform well in this cooking venture).

Next put 1 tbsp of the mixture into each cupcake liner and press to form the crust.

- Side note; as suggested in the original recipe I used a small drinking glass to press down the crust. If you do the same I noticed I needed to wipe off the bottom of the glass a few times so that the mixture wouldn’t stick to the bottom.

Once all the cupcake liners are filled place in oven for about 5 minutes. Remove and then let cook.

RASPBERRY PUREE:

Again I used my magic bullet (there’s a dirty joke in here somewhere) for the puree. 3 oz of raspberries + 1 tbsp of sugar = Yummmmmm

  

CHEESECAKE FILLING:

Use and electric mixer to beat cream cheese in a mixing bowl on medium/high speed until “fluffy”. Add 1 cup sugar and blend until a smooth consistency. Add pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract and blend again. Beat one egg at a time, making sure to mix well in between each egg…

(you just try and resist licking the beaters)

PUTTING EVERYTHING TOGETHER:

Spoon 3 tbsp of cheesecake filling over the crust of each cupcake liner. Using a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon, “dot” the top of each with the raspberry puree then grab a toothpick (or wooden skewer) and get to swirling!

  

Bake for 22 minutes minutes until filling is set. Rotate the cupcake pan(s) halfway through. You’ll notice that the cheesecake will be puffy but that won’t last long once the baking is complete.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Chill in refrigerator for about 4 hours before serving.

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Hearty Winter Beef Stew…

Tags

beef, good eatins, meat, potatoes, recipe, root vegetables, soups, stew, vegetables

Someone in the Martin/Dowe household has a particular obsession with the Clean Eating Magazine.

    

Hint: It’s not Meegan.

When you ask me (Tara) what I miss most of the things I left back in the States to be picked up in the Spring, I’ll first list my car Dusty, then my bike Peppermint Patty and almost inevitably I’ll say my stack of Clean Eating Magazines.

For my birthday this year (thank you Meegan!) I received a renewed subscription and can’t be more excited to check the mail box every day in anticipation for the first magazine to arrive!

In the mean time I’ve been known to peruse the Clean Eating website for recipes to try out. We were craving a nice stew to eat as the first snow began falling here in Halifax and came across this delicious stew that we didn’t waste any time making.

The original recipe can be found HERE and as per usual we changed it up just a bit and made more than what the original recipe called for so there would be plenty of left overs to freeze.

Enjoy!

Hearty Beef Stew

The ingredients:

• 1.5 lbs beef stew meat (1 inch cubes)
• 2 medium onions (diced)
• 4 medium carrots (peeled and diced)
• 1 rutabaga (peeled and diced)
• 2 medium parsnips (peeled and diced)
• 2 medium potatoes (diced)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 2 bay leaves
• Olive oil
• 6 cups of water

In a stock pot, on medium to high heat, heat olive oil and brown stew meat for about 5 – 7. Make sure to stir occasionally to brown all sides. Remove from stock pot and set aside.

In same stock pot (but without the meat) on low to medium heat, add onion and cook for about 10 minutes (stirring occasionally). You want your onions to soften and brown.

  

And thyme and allspice to onions and stir for a few seconds (30 is a good number).

Add vinegar and on medium to high heat bring to rapid boil for about a minute (until most of the liquid has evaporated).

  

Return meat to stock pot, add 6 cups of water and the bay leafs. Bring mixture to a simmer then cover and turn the heat down to low. Let cook for about 90 minutes (meat will become super tender).

After 90 minutes add carrots, parsnip, rutabaga and potatoes and simmer for an additional 30 minutes uncovered or until vegetables are tender).

- Side note: skin on the potato? Definitely a personal preference. We love it so we leave it.

Once your vegetables are tender, remove the bay leaves. Now grab your handy dandy blender and take 2 cups of stew liquid with lots of vegetable and puree until smooth. Return the puree to the mixture and add your peas. Cook for an additional 5 minutes or until peas are done.

We’ve since eaten all the stew that we put in the freezer as it was convenient for us to just pull it out and reheat when another snow storm blew in to town (and if you know anything about Halifax, that happens quite a bit around here). Each time the stew seemed to get a little sweeter and that much more delicious.

Whether you eat this once or multiple times during these cold winter days one thing is for certain:

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Breakfast for dinner! (sweet potato hash)

Tags

breakfast, breakfast for dinner, eggs, good eatins, Italian sausage, meat, recipe, sweet potato

It’s an undeniable fact: breakfast for dinner is awesome!

It’s also an undeniable fact: we are mildly obsessed with love sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are definitely a staple in the Martin/Dowe household. We wanted to veer away from the normal sweet potato fries that we make at least twice a week quite often.

We went on the hunt for a new recipe to try and the sweet potato hash with sausage and eggs below caught our eyes. While it is a little time consuming, it’s worth the wait and if you’re so inclined you can double, triple, quadruple make extra for a tasty (and easy) breakfast, lunch or dinner for your next meal…

Not to mention it’s pretty cool to just crack a few eggs over this mixture and bake it in the oven. It doesn’t take much to amuse us.

The original recipe was found over at thekitchn.com. As per usual we changed it up a little (but not that much)…

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Hash w/ Sausage and Eggs

The ingredients:

• 3 Large Sweet Potatoes (cubed)
• 4 Medium Onions (diced)
• 4 Large Italian Sausage links (cooked, then diced)
• A few slices of Bacon (cooked and diced) – optional
• Olive oil (or an olive oil mister if you have one)

Preheat oven to 450F

Cube your 3 large sweet potatoes and on an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet spread evenly and bake for 20 minutes at 450F.

  

- Side note: We peeled two of the sweet potatoes and kept the skin on one. This of course is a personal preference. If you have an olive oil mister spray the aluminum foil first and then spray the sweet potatoes. If you don’t have a mister (you should run out and get one right now), lightly toss the sweet potatoes in a bit of olive oil before spreading them on cookie sheet. We lined it with aluminum foil because we want to clean up as little as possible once we’re done noshing on food…

While the sweet potatoes are baking, get your onions, sausage and bacon cooked and prepped.

  

- Side note: You can also use ground Italian sausage or take the casings off of the links.

After 20 minutes, remove sweet potatoes and give them a good stir. Then add the sausage, bacon, onion goodness.

(hard to resist not taking a few dozen taste tests)

Now here comes the fun part. Return the hash to the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes. About 10 minutes into the baking remove hash and crack the appropriate amount of eggs over the top. We usually have two eggs per person so for us it will be four.

Back into the oven it goes for the remaining 10 minutes or until eggs are cooked to your desire. We usually turn on the broiler for the last minute or so to make sure the yolks are cooked all the way through. We are not running yolks kind of folks.

We had this a couple of times and love it. In fact, we just made another batch just today because it is just that delicious.

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Zucchini Boat Goodness

Tags

good eatins, meat, paleo, pork, recipe, sausage, simple foods, vegetables, zucchini

So we have to admit, we weren’t really so sure how delicious these were going to be. But they ended up far surpassing our expectations both in ease of the making and with their good GOOD taste.

The original recipe can be found here at Paleo Mama. We didn’t change a lot in our version as we have been known to do.

Paleo Stuffed Zucchini

Ingredients:

• 3-4 medium zucchini
• 1 lb sausage (we used a plain pork sausage and removed the casings)
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup almond flour (we made ours from almonds in the Magic Bullet)
• 4 cloves garlic (smashed)
• 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

First things first – preheat your oven to 350 degrees and get out your casserole dish. We used a 9 x 12 dish and it worked perfectly for 3 whole zucchinis. Second, trim the ends off of your zucchini and cut them in half. Use a spoon to scoop out the  zucchinis guts and save them in a bowl.

Your zucchinis should look something like this:

Next remove your sausage from casings and cook over medium heat. Once the sausage is cooked through, add the zucchini guts to the sausage and simmer for 10 (ish) minutes. Then add your Italian Seasoning, Salt, Pepper.

Add your coconut milk, almond flour and lots of garlic!

        

Bring to slight boil, then simmer for a few minutes.

Pour mixture over uncooked zucchini boats.

Bake (uncovered) for 30 minutes or until zucchini is soft.

We loved this paleo recipe. So much so we’re making stuffed zucchini again this week. The ease of making this and the deliciousness makes this one of our favorite eats so far…

~Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Vegetable Lentil Soup

Tags

carrots, chinese cabbage, garlic, good eatins, lentils, simple foods, soups, turnips, vegetables, vegetarian

Tara’s home town of Tacoma is bombarded with snow right now. It doesn’t happen very often and may in fact be the worst snow storm in over a decade! Here in Halifax the temperatures are dipping into the single digits on a daily basis.

Let’s face it people: it’s cold out there!

Nothing is better than a hot bowl of soup to take the chill off the bones and put a smile on the faces of everyone around. The vegetable lentil soup has been perfect way for us to beat the cold and because we made so much we were able to freeze the left overs for the days we just couldn’t leave the house (Tara is kind of weather whimp).

The original recipe was found over at Foods For Long Life and as always we changed it up a bit and made more than what the recipe called for so that we would have lots to freeze.

The ingredients:

• 3 Cups Brown Lentils (rinsed well)
• 3 Large Leeks (white part only, rinsed well and sliced)
• 8 Carrots (peeled and sliced)
• 1 Large Turnip (peeled and cubed)
• 1 Head of Chinese Cabbage
• Garlic Minced or thinly sliced (we used 20 cloves!)
• 2 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
• 3 Bay Leafs
• 12 Cups Vegetable Broth
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste (but we didn’t use any)

This one is pretty simple!

Cut up those beautiful vegetables:

• Leeks
• Carrots
• Turnip
• Garlic

  

  

- Side Note: If you’ve never used a Leek before, it’s very important to clean properly. Here is a video on how to clean your Leek

In a large soup pot, heat olive oil and saute for about 8 minutes.

Add Vegetable broth, Lentils, Chinese Cabbage, Diced Tomatoes, and Bay Leafs.

 

  

Bring to rolling boil then simmer until Lentils are soft (about 45 minutes)

- Side note: The bay leaf above was just for photographic purposes. Do not eat the bay leaf.

This is another one of those recipes where you get to use your imagination when choosing your vegetables. The base is Lentils. Add whatever your heart desires. Add a nice sausage too if you want. It’s your soup!! We’ve eaten this several times (this made A LOT of soup) and if you ask us, it got better each time.

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms…

Tags

cheese, good eatins, portobello mushrooms, quinoa, recipe, vegetables

A while back TheHDD was on a quinoa kick. Tara hadn’t really had it before and when she tried it for the first time she wondered what rock she had she been living under because it was that good.

Then she got real creative!

By creative she means she set her sights on another food she hadn’t tried and put them together.

Enter the portobello mushroom.

Is Tara the last known human to not have ever tried a portobello mushroom? Maybe. Regardless of her being late to this particular fungus party, she rolled up her sleeves and set out to find a recipe to try…

She happened to find one with…You guessed it: Quinoa! That’s a double plus bonus score in her book. The original recipe was found over at the GlutenFreeGoddess and with a few slight changes a delicious recipe was born!

Ingredients:

• 1 portobello mushroom per person
• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa per mushroom
• A few grape or cherry tomatoes
• Small handful of delicious cheese (we found Borgonzola and loved it)
• Small handful of cranberries
• Small handful of toasted pine nuts
• Chopped garlic (we used 4 cloves)
• Sliced Scallion
• Olive Oil
• Balsamic Vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350F

Okay so you have this mushroom. So big and intimidating! What to do? What to do?

Not to worry. Just slice off the stem and gently scrape the “gills” off with a spoon. It’s a lot easier than we thought it would be. After we were done we were like “huh, that was super easy”

  

In a large bowl mix the cranberries, toasted pine nuts, tomatoes, chopped garlic, scallion and whatever yummy cheese you decided to use with the cooked quinoa.

Add a touch of olive oil and balsalmic to help keep everything together. If you looked over the original recipe you’ll see there is a step to put everything in the skillet first. We didn’t. We just put everything in the bowl and mixed it and then stuffed the mushrooms…

Place stuffed mushrooms in lightly oil baking dish and cook for about 20ish minutes. We “tented” the mushrooms with foil to keep them moist while baking.

Though the stuffed mushrooms are beautiful in color and oozing with cheesy goodness we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add some pan roasted brussels sprouts and peppers.

We aren’t intimidated by this big ole mushroom anymore!

~ Now that’s good eatin’ folks!

(Don’t forget to check out our Wasa review and Giveaway!)