A Look at the Classics

I sure was on a roll this past week for good recipe choices!  Until Thursday night.  It wasn't the recipes fault.  I tried to sub a couple ingredients.  What a colossal failure.  Looked nasty and tasted almost as bad.  Oh well, that's how the ball bounces, as we used to say!  I did however make an awesome blueberry omelet this morning.  Yes!  Blueberries in an omelet.  Very good.  This was an omelet made the way I learned in Home Ec class.  (In case you aren't familiar with that, it is a class that all girls took in high school so we could learn the basics of cooking and sewing.  At that time boys took Shop class so they could learn to be handy around the house.  While I think it was sexist to put you in either class based on gender, I must admit to having learned some handy skills to have.  Not just as a wife and mom, but as a "human bean" (as my brother says) living day to day.)

So anyway!!!  The way I learned to make an omelet, but not the way I do it most days in the interest of time, is to beat the whites separate until they are firm and hold soft peaks.  Then you fold them into the yolks.  If you have never done it this way, you will be amazed at how incredibly fluffy your omelet turns out.  It is worth the time if you have just a few minutes extra.  In the case of the blueberry omelet I made this morning, I just let the Kitchen-Aid run and fluff those whites up while I mixed together the other ingredients with the yolks, and got the pan ready.  I think it was well worth the little extra time.  And then it is finished in the oven which gives it a beautiful brown top without deflating the whites.

Fortunately the majority of recipes I try from other cooks turn out well. As do some of my own creations.  This week I am pretty much sticking with the classics.  At least they are classic in my house.  While I love a great meal, I don't want to spend all weekend or every evening cooking forever.

As I write this, there is granola baking in the oven.  MR likes to mix this with some plain Greek yogurt for a snack during the day.  I bake up a batch just about every week and store it in an airtight container.  No added stuff, just good clean granola!

This afternoon I will put a rosemary pot roast in the slow cooker.  This is probably one of my all time favorite entree recipes.  It is very simple but so incredibly full of flavor that I just can't begin to describe it.  Good stuff!  Try it!

One night I will make those coconut chicken fingers again. These are good as an entree or on a salad.  I have some fresh pineapple so I will grill that and serve it alongside the chicken.

MR loves chili.  Not as much as he loves pizza, but he does love chili.  This is another easy go to.  Just a pound of ground beef, sautee some green peppers and onions, and throw in a can of tomato bits, a can of green chili and tomatoes, a can of black beans (drained and rinsed), and a can of pinto beans (not drained or rinsed).  Can you eat clean from a can?  Sure!  Just make sure the ingredients are simple.  In the case of these ingredients, most are just one ingredient:  tomatoes, black beans, etc.

Did I mention MR loves his pizza? He admits that he would eat it every day.  We makes his with fresh whole wheat crust from Trader Joe's and MR's own pizza sauce (just tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, and olive oil!), but you can use one of the many alternative crust recipes available online like this one.

Did you see the recipe I posted for meatballs alla parmigiana?  Boy oh boy were they good!  I wanted to eat them all week.  And I did!  At least until they ran out.  Okay, so this week I am going to experiment and see if I can just use the same recipe for meatloaf.  You think that will work?  I sure hope so!!!



One night we will throw steak on the grill.  This is easy because I just rub it with a little olive oil, sprinkle it with rosemary, and a bit of sea salt.  The weather continues to be great for grilling so I want to take advantage of it while I can.

So what's going on in your kitchen this week?  Whatever it is, Keep it Clean!!

Clean Eating Menu with Recipes!

Our cow is ready!  Yay!  We are down to two packs of chipped steak in our freezer, so definitely time to fill 'er up!  My in-law's neighbor raises beef, and every year we buy a side from them.  We don't eat that much meat in a year, though, so we share it with the in-laws and a friend.  I just love knowing exactly where my beef is coming from and how it was raised and fed.  The taste is incredible!  I know it seems expensive when you buy a half a cow at a time (somewhere in the ballpark of $1000), but when you do the math, it actually works out pretty cheap when you compare it to grocery store prices. I haven't gotten the invoice yet for this year, but last year's was around $6 or $6.50 a pound, as I recall.  When you look at the price of beef, that is an excellent price.  To buy really good hamburger, you are going to pay that... and this is for beef cut the way you want it!  We get lots of roasts, steaks, hamburger, hamburger patties, chipped steak...  So, yes, a lot of money up front, but it saves me a bunch of money in the long run.  Plus, it just tastes better!

In honor of this event, the first recipe up this week is my favorite Rosemary Pot Roast.  I love it because it is super simple but so full of flavor.  If you use the leftovers for soup, you will be totally blown away!  And I'm pretty sure I will make roasted potatoes with truffle salt to go with it.

Instead of soup, though, we will use leftovers to make pot roast sandwiches.  Trader Joe's carries clean whole wheat hamburger buns.  And pickles on the side...  Yeah!  Something else I am totally hooked on (thanks to my SIL) is Claussen kosher dill pickles.  You can find them in the refrigerator section. I really prefer to make my own, but when that isn't happening, these at least don't have any added sugars.  And they have that wonderful Crunch (yes, with a capital C!) that makes biting into them even more delightful!

MR keeps asking for pizza.  He admits that he would pizza every day, if he could.  So we will get a Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza crust (in the refrigerator section), TJ's quattro formaggio cheese blend (this is what totally makes the pizza!), and MR will make his super-easy-makes-a-bunch-so-you-have-some-to-freeze pizza sauce.  I like to make a grain free crust for my pizza, mostly because  I love the taste, plus I make them in personal size so I can take them for lunch! Pizza sauce and grain free crust recipes here.

We really like to keep things pretty simple, mostly because we both work outside the home full time, and we have pretty long commutes.  So we will find a nice evening and throw some chicken on the grill.  I just rub it with olive oil and sprinkle it with Italian seasoning.  I like to make a little extra so that another evening we can throw together a salad and top it with grilled chicken.  No recipe for that, just make it the way you like it!  Grill some vegetables, too, when you make that chicken!  Dee-licious!

Since I still have those two packs of chipped steak, and I know I have some whole wheat tortillas in the fridge, we will have cheesesteak wraps one night.  I prefer to use fresh peppers and onions to saute for these, but I won't kid you, sometimes I just don't have that stuff and I am not going to let that stop me.  I keep frozen mixed peppers in the freezer for just such an occasion.  It is so handy to grab a handful of these and throw them in the pan.  I also like to have them handy for soups and marinara.  Is fresh best?  Probably.  But I hate to have produce get wasted, so sometimes I go with frozen.  As long as there's no added junk, it's fine.

I also have some homemade, no sugar added applesauce to use up, so I hope to get some figs this week and make Apple Pie Balls.  I just love these little babies!  Easy to make, and a nice snack!  If there are leftover figs, I will dip them halfway into some melted chocolate and roll them in chopped almonds!

I made this two weeks in a row, and might have to do it a third....  Almond Joy cake.  I cut back on the almond flavor (to 1 tsp).  To me, it tastes more like German chocolate cake than Almond Joy, but either way, it definitely tastes amazing!  I highly recommend you make this cake today!

The other thing you might want to make is this so simple mousse!  I substitute honey for the agave.  Delicious!  You can whip this up in a minute and have a really healthy dessert for your family.  Not that I suggest you hide it from them, but if you don't tell them there is avocado in it, they probably will never guess!

It's What's for Supper!

Have you made Almond Joy Bars yet?  Well, I am here to tell you... you should!  These turn out like cake and are so very very good that I made them twice last week!  The blogs say not to use almond meal, but I did and they still turned out fab-u-lous!  The only reason I didn't make it again is because I ran out of unsweetened coconut!  I will take care of that today when I go to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

Almond Joy Bars

I have a busy week ahead so it's very important that I have a plan for meals, especially after working all day.  Some of this will be prepped beforehand.  For example, when I make marinara sauce, it makes a lot so I just freeze the extra.  Lucky for me I had some in the freezer that we can use!  The quinoa salad will be made this weekend so it's all ready to go on Monday.  I love those kind of days!  What are you clean eating this week?

This week's menu includes:

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad - I really love this stuff and it makes a bunch so I have it all week for lunch too!

Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken - If it has feta, I am there!!

Sundried Tomato Meatloaf - The sundried tomatoes really make this meatloaf awesome!

Marinara Sauce with whole wheat pasta (or pasta of choice) - Make a bunch and freeze it!

Pizza! - I have made this recipe so many times lately.  Because I make them personal size, I always have some to freeze and take for lunches.

BLTs - MR just loves his BLTs, and since it's tomato season, who am I to say no?!

I think we need a few treats too.... 

Thin-ner Mint Cookies - Taste so much like Girl Scout cookies, you won't believe it!

Apple Pie Balls - A family favorite!

Pecan Pie Balls - Super easy to make!