Teriyaki Burgers

Well, things in our world are very crazy right now.  Big changes have happened for our little family at the same time and things have not gone as planned at all.  My husband and I have both found ourselves without our regular jobs during this COVID-19 craziness.  I really don't have another word for the current situation. I am still working but inconsistently.  My husband is not working at all.  Tough times...

However, I am lucky enough to have a decently stocked kitchen since I am normally a bit of a "prepper" when it comes to the freezer and pantry.  With the changes I have had since surgery, I am still working hard to be healthy and continue to lose some weight.  I have now lost 97 pounds, over 50 inches, and 5-6 sizes depending on the fit of the clothes.  I am no longer on the obesity charts, no longer prediabetic, no longer have high blood pressure, and no longer in plus size clothing.  Some think that surgery is the easy way out, but it is not.  I have still had to do a lot of work and after years of medical issues, it was truly a life saver.

I made this burgers with ground turkey.  However, in the future, I believe I will use other meat such as pork or bison.  I just don't care for the texture of ground turkey.  You could also put these on a bun like a burger but we did not.  I am very careful with carbs and usually prefer to get better carbs from other sources. 

Friends often ask if they can leave something out...  Of course you can.  Some things need a substitution but some don't.  If you don't like onions, leave them out and add flavor with something else... more garlic and ginger perhaps.  If you don't like ginger, leave it out. If you don't like ground turkey, use pork, chicken, bison, or whatever is your favorite ground meat.

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground turkey (or any lean meat)
1/4 cup scallions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh grated ginger
1/4 cup coconut aminos (you can use soy sauce but I don't do soy)
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 small chopped onion
1/4 tsp. sesame oil
salt and pepper
olive oil spray

Directions:
Combine turkey, scallions, garlic, ginger, and pepper in a bowl.  Divide mixture into patties.  If you are putting this on a bun, make 4 patties.  If not, you can make the patties smaller if you like.  Spray the bottom of a skillet with the olive oil. Cook the burgers until cooked through on medium/medium-high heat.  Remove burgers from pan.  You can keep the burgers in the oven to stay warm or tent with foil.  Pour chicken stock, coconut aminos, vinegar, and onions to the hot pan.  Simmer until onions are soft.  Stir in sesame oil and serve over the burger patties.

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken

I tried a new recipe this week.  It was a win after a few modifications.  I made slow cooker garlic chicken and paired it with couscous and green beans.  Green beans are our favorite vegetable around here.  This was the first time I tried couscous.  It wasn't too bad but a little goes a long way.  I also cooked it a little differently than the package directed.  I don't like my pasta or rice to bite back.  I found this recipe here, but I modified it quite a bit for our family needs and personal tastes.  I am including two recipes.  One is for the garlic chicken and one is for the couscous.

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken 

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1-2 Tbsp. favorite cooking oil
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
2 tsp. dried thyme
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup flour
salt and pepper

Directions:
-In the bottom of the slow cooker, add oil, thyme, onion and garlic.  Take the chicken breasts and roll in the mixture at the bottom of the cooker.  Add salt and pepper.  Lay chicken in a layer in the bottom of the cooker.
-In a bowl, whisk/blend together chicken stock and flour.  Make sure to mix until smooth with no clumps.  Pour the mixture on top of the chicken in the slow cooker.  Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.  We always shred our chicken up when it is done but you can keep it whole if you would like.


Couscous 

Ingredients:
1 cup dry couscous
2 cups water
salt

Directions:
Bring water and salt to a boil.  Add couscous to boiling water while constantly stirring.  This process will only take a couple of minutes and the couscous is done.  As soon as the water is soaked up, remove from heat.  Stir and fluff with a fork (much like rice) right before serving.


We made this into 4 meals but it was WAY too much and there was a lot of waste.  None of us could eat an entire serving.  Next time, I will be dividing it into 6-8 meals.  It is great leftover!

Banana Pancakes and Blueberry Mash

I made this recipe for breakfast hoping that my daughter would try something different.  She is still very afraid of different foods and has latched onto about 4 foods she will eat.  She is also a child who will starve herself until she is very sick.  We've been there, done that.  She obviously takes after me because she is INCREDIBLY stubborn.  I, being her worrisome mom, am very worried about her health at this point.  She is almost seven and is still very afraid of expanding her food choices.  I still get very angry at her previous doctors when I think about it.  She did not eat this either though, despite my pleading, manipulating, and yummy noises.

My husband, however, did eat some.  He normally hates pancakes but loves waffles.  He says, next time, I should pour it into the waffle iron. I will consider that a win!

I did not pull this recipe from anywhere in particular.  I looked through a lot of recipes, posts, and blogs and this recipe, and small variations thereof, is fairly popular.

Pancakes:

Ingredients:
3 bananas
4 eggs
cinnamon (optional)

Directions:
Mash or blend bananas.  (I used my Ninja blender.  It's awesome!  If you don't have one, you should check them out.)  Then, mix in the eggs.  It should be looking a bit like a batter now.  Sprinkle in cinnamon to taste or personal preference. Spoon into heated pan or griddle and flip as needed.  My griddle was otherwise occupied so I used a pan on my stove.  Cook low and slow...

HINT: Make the pancakes smaller.  I learned very quickly that this type of pancake cooks much easier and more even if you make them smaller.

Blueberry Mash

Ingredients:
Blueberries
Sugar (optional)

Directions:
In blender, blend up the blueberries.  Add sugar to taste, if desired.  Spoon over pancakes.  I prefer something like this instead of syrup.

Italian Chicken and Tomatoes (Reprise)

I have already posted this recipe once.  However, it is very popular and many have asked for the recipe.  I have also changed a few things to make it easier.  You can see the previous post HERE. The old recipe was using fresh diced tomatoes.  This is still great, but let's face it... We just can't always do that.  Tomatoes aren't great fresh all year round. This post will hopefully make this recipe easier but it is still completely healthy and safe for my daughter.  It also looks the same so you can see a picture of the recipe in the above link.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes*** (see note)
1 Tbsp. Italian herbs and seasonings (I use McCormicks Italian Herb Mix.  You can see it HERE.)
Salt to taste


***Note: You can still use fresh diced tomatoes.  You can also use my diced tomato canning recipe to can your own during high season.  You can find that post HERE.  OR, we have found one brand which we can buy at the local natural foods store which doesn't taste horrible or come in a metal can.  You can see it HERE.  I can as many as I can but it never seems to be enough.


Directions:

In a slow cooker, poor in about a quarter of the diced tomatoes.  Next, place the chicken breasts in the slow cooker.  Then, pour the rest of the diced tomatoes and seasonings in the cooker.  Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.

I typically serve this with rice (Rice Recipe Here) and green beans.  It is amazing leftover as well.

Green Bean Fries

During the summer, we spend a lot of time getting produce from the farmer's market.  We would love to grow our own but it just hasn't happened yet.  I have tried herbs and tomatoes but there are too many animals in my neighborhood that like to steal my good garden plants at night.  I am working on a way to put a cover on some garden beds.  One day, we will grow at least some of our own.  For now though, we buy and preserve during the summer.  I have posted before about canning green beans.  They are one of our favorite veggies.  We canned again this summer but my husband wanted to try some fried green beans.  His favorite Chinese restaurant has them.  We did and they turned out really good!  So I'll share.  We tried to convince the 5 year old to eat them by calling them green bean fries.  She didn't go for it.  One of these days...

Green Bean Fries

Ingredients: 
Fresh Green Beans (with the ends snapped off and rinsed)
Eggs
Flour Mix (we used the same one we use for our Fried Chicken)

Directions: 
Heat up oil for frying.  We use grapeseed oil and have a fryer.  Boil some water to blanch the beans.  Boil the beans for 2-3 minutes and immediately rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process.  Coat the beans in egg, then the flour mix.  Then repeat the coating process.  Double coating is key.  We did one coat first and it was okay, but two coats definitely made them crispier.  Then toss the beans in the fryer.  If you are able, you also get a crispier bean if you double fry by pulling the beans out and letting the oil heat back up and dipping them in for a second round of frying.  However, this must be done quick with the beans so you don't overcook them.  They cook much faster than potatoes or chicken.  When they are done, we always spread them out on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil.
We paired these with baked chicken and rice.  It was a really good meal.

Homemade Lemonade and Lemonade Syrup

Two posts in one day! What?!  Well, it's rainy and yucky outside.  I haven't even been able to open my pool yet.  It's criminal!  Already four days into June and I can't open my pool!  So, I'm on my computer pulling new recipes and watching L play with her toys.  The house is a wreck because she is bored.  She has pulled out toys from the deepest corners of her toy boxes.  This is a child who does not enjoy just sitting and playing video games like other kids.  She is always on the go go go...  She did mention wanting to try lemonade though.  L?  Wants to try something new?  No way!  So I went and bought some lemons.  She, of course, cannot just have the lemonade at the store.  I have to make it from scratch.  But I already learned how to do this long ago.  So, this morning we squeezed lemons.  She thought that was really cool.  She only wanted to juice one though.  She didn't want to touch the "dirty seeds."  My sensory child...  They were slimy from the juice and pulp.  But she did sit and watch.  It was a good experience for her.  So now I will share the experience with you.  :)

And guess what... I remembered pictures this time!!!

Lemonade Syrup

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (I squeezed about 6 medium lemons for this this morning)
1/2 cup water
1 cup raw organic sugar

Directions:
In a small/medium saucepan, bring lemon juice and water to a boil.  Whisk in sugar.  Make sure you are using non reactive cookware.  I used a silicon coated whisk. Pour into a jar and let cool.  Refrigerate syrup in jar for up to one month.

To make this into lemonade, stir 1 Tablespoon (per 8 oz.) of syrup into a cold glass of water.  Adjust to taste of course.  I find that two tablespoons of syrup in one of my larger glasses of ice water is perfect.

This is what my jar of syrup looks like:

Canned Green Beans

As my previous post mentioned, I've been canning and freezing several fresh vegetables this summer.  The last post was instructions for canning diced tomatoes.  This one is for canning green beans.  My picky family will almost always eat green beans.  There are so many ways you can season green beans to make them work with your meal flavors.  We like to experiment with them.

Just a note:  You will need a pressure canner for green beans.  I have a pressure canner which doubles and does water bath as well.  If you are truly interested in canning and preserving at home, then it is worth buying one.  They aren't very expensive anymore but they are big so you have to have a decent place to store them.  Now, on to the good stuff.

Ingredients:
Green beans
Water
Salt

Directions:
Break the ends off of the green beans and snap the beans into 1-2 inch pieces.  Rinse the beans.  I have a wonderful large, wire strainer that sits on the sink top.  I set it on the counter and snapped the bean pieces directly into it so it would be easier to rinse them after.
Now it is time to sanitize the jars and lids.  Boil water in a pot to sanitize the bottles and boil water in the canner to sanitize the lids.  Just pour the boiling water into the jars to sanitize and pour it back out when you are ready to put green beans in the jars.  Toss the lids into the canner when the water is boiling to sanitize them.  Remove them after they are in for a few minutes.
In the large pot, boil water to add to the jars after the green beans have been added.
Use the directions for your pressure canner to add the correct amount of water to the canner.  Mine calls for 3 quarts and has a fill line inside the pot.  Bring the water to a boil.
Add green beans to the sanitized jars.  Be sure to leave at least a 1/2 inch of head space.  I usually just fill them up to the threaded part at the top of the jar.  Add 1 tsp. of salt to each jar.  Add boiling water to each jar.  Again, only filling up to the threads.
Use a small rubber spatula to remove the air bubbles from the jars.
Wipe the jar rim of any water and salt.  Any of this left on the rim could prevent a proper seal.  Place a lid on each jar and tighten.  Do not tighten too much at this point but tighten enough so that no water can seep through.
Place the jars into the pressure canner.  Place the lid on the pressure canner and lock down.  Use the 10 pound pressure weight for canning green beans unless you live in a high altitude.  Once the weight starts to jiggle, cook for 25 minutes.
I won't give you complete directions on what to do for pressure canning because it is easier and safer to use the directions from your canner.  The time and pressure weight is the information you need for green beans.  For pressure canning, use the instructions from your canner.

When the timer goes off, your green beans are done.  Let the pressure vent and take your jars out of the canner.  I let them cool for at least 12 hours hours without moving them anywhere and tighten the lids down every few hours until they are cool and won't tighten any further.

My green beans turned out really well.  My mom and I worked together to can diced tomatoes and green beans.  It is much more fun and much easier with a buddy.

Canned Diced Tomatoes

The farmer's markets are swinging around here.  With all of the unseasonable rain we have had this spring and summer, the crops are huge this year.  It is pretty crazy.  We have never had so much rain here all the way into July.  Usually by this time in July, we are seeing 100* weather and our grass is so dry it has turned brown.  We haven't even been under burn bans this year.  Usually, we are under burn bans through most of June and July.  One day, I will be able to have my own, very large vegetable garden.  Until that day, I will be satisfied with locally grown farmer's market and organic produce.  Last weekend we went to the farmer's market and bought fresh tomatoes, green beans, yellow squash and zucchini.  I will write posts about how I processed/preserved each of them.  For this post, I will give directions for canning diced tomatoes.  This was my first time canning tomatoes.  I am slowly learning to can different things.  The tomatoes turned out really yummy.  I plan on canning many more and making some other flavors of diced tomatoes.

Ingredients:

Fresh ripe tomatoes

Fresh lemons

Directions:

Core the tomatoes and gently score a small X, cutting just through the skin, on the bottom of each tomato.  In a large pot, bring some water to boil.  When the water is boiling, put the tomatoes in until the peel starts to peel up at the edges.  Put the tomatoes in an ice bath to stop the cooking.  

In your canner, start water boiling to sanitize the lids and jars.  I sometimes use a tea kettle to boil water to sanitize the jars.  In order to can, you must plan and multi-task or it will take you FOREVER.  

While water is boiling and pieces are sanitizing, you can peel and dice the tomatoes.  Put the cutting board inside a baking sheet with walls so you don't lose any of the juice while dicing tomatoes.  You need the juice for your cans.  This also makes clean up much easier.  Discard the peels.  I used a hand chopper to help with dicing the tomatoes.  But you have to be careful with a hand chopper.  If you chop too many times, you'll end up with mashed tomatoes or tomato sauce instead of diced tomatoes.  Put your diced tomatoes with their juice in a large pot and bring to a low simmer.  The directions I had said to boil for 30 minutes but I didn't cook it for quite so long.  You can tell when to stop the boiling.  The tomatoes start to foam and get very mushy.  They will cook more during canning so you don't want to overcook them now.  

While the tomatoes are simmering, juice the lemons.  All of the instructions I have said to use citric acid or bottled lemon juice.  But, citric acid that you just buy from the store, is usually made with corn ingredients.  And I don't trust bottled lemon juice anymore either unless I know the source for sure.  So I juiced the lemons myself.  Juice several.  It is better to have too much than not enough.  You can always freeze the leftover lemon juice in ice cube trays to use later for marinades and juices.  

Now, ladle the diced tomatoes into the sanitized jars leaving plenty of head space at the top of the jar.  Add 1 Tbsp. of the fresh squeezed lemon juice to every jar of dice tomatoes.  Use a small rubber spatula or chopstick to clear out the air bubbles and mix in the lemon juice.  Tighten the lids and follow the directions for water bath canning in your canner.  They should be in the canner for around 35 minutes.  

After they are out of the canner, I usually tighten the lids every couple of hours for the rest of the day.  

And here is a picture of my lovely canned diced tomatoes:

Chicken and Broccoli Penne

	Ingredients: Grapeseed or Olive Oil 1 bunch fresh broccoli or a few cups frozen broccoli 1 (12-16 oz.) bag penne 1 medium onion, minced 6 garlic cloves, minced 2 tsp. dried thyme 1/2-1 cup all-purpose flour 3-4 cups coconut milk (This made this dairy free until I added the mozzarella.  This recipe is flavorful enough without the cheese added if you need dairy free.  We added the cheese to ours but left one bowl without for our daughter who needs dairy free.  I tried it both ways and loved it both ways.) Salt Pepper 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces Mozzarella cheese, shredded (I used a small block but you can add or omit cheese according to taste and need.) Tomatoes (I used a couple of handfuls of grape tomatoes and chopped them up but you can use any tomato chopped up.)
	Directions: Use some of the oil to grease a 9x13 inch baking dish and set aside.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large pot, bring the water for the pasta and broccoli to a boil.  Stir in some salt and the broccoli.  This part is going to be up to personal taste but we like our broccoli very soft so I cooked until the broccoli was tender.  If you want a little bite in your broccoli, you will want to pull it back out of the water pretty quickly.  Remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon, tossing it into the greased baking dish and add the pasta and a little more salt to the boiling water.  Drain the pasta and toss it with the broccoli in the baking dish. While the pasta is cooking, in a skillet, add some oil and start browning the chicken.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper or any other seasoning you prefer.  We like the herb and garlic Mrs. Dash.  When the chicken is done, toss it in with the penne and broccoli.  During this time is also when you should chop the tomatoes. Rinse and wipe out the large pot to make the sauce.  Add some more oil to the pot and add the onion and garlic until it starts to brown.  Add a few tablespoons of the flour and whisk.  Add the coconut milk (or other milk if you prefer) stirring constantly.  Add in the thyme and salt and pepper.  Add the flour a little at a time until the sauce is thick and creamy.  Taste regularly to add more salt and pepper.
	Toss all ingredients together in the baking dish. Put the dish in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes. If you don't need dairy free, feel free to add the cheese before putting the dish in the oven. I divided the cheese into bowls so I could store it all in separate bowls for leftovers so we had some dairy free and some cheesy. This dish and it's leftovers went fast so I didn't get a picture. But we will definitely be making this again so I will add a picture later.

Roasted Coconut Sweet Potatoes

This is a yummy veggie side dish and it warms up well when left over.  If you like sweet potato, you will love this.  I am always looking for some healthy vegetable side dishes.  My family is very picky when it comes to vegetables, although they are getting better.  I have also improved in my tastes for vegetables in the recent few years.  This is a dish I could eat regularly.  I hope it is one that my daughter will eventually like to eat as well.  L still doesn't eat a variety of foods since she got so sick two years ago but she seems to be interested again.  She actually touches the food and asks what it is rather than screaming and running away.  We are making progress in very small baby steps.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 lbs. (approximately) sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp.  fresh squeezed lime juice or grated lime zest (optional but adds a nice zing)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400*F.  After the sweet potatoes are cut into chunks, put them in a large bowl.  Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Pour the melted coconut oil over the sweet potatoes in the bowl.  Sprinkle the salt and pepper.  Toss the contents of the bowl to evenly coat potatoes in coconut oil.  Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet.  Roast, stirring every 10-15 minutes for a total of 40 minutes or until tender all the way through the sweet potato chunks.  Toss with lime juice or zest, then serve.

I will come back and add pictures later.  I have many pictures but I am gradually catching up for now.

This recipe came from HERE.  I didn't alter it at all but I have cooked it different ways in different pans without any problems.  Sometimes you don't have enough pans to cook everything at the same time.

Ginger Molasses Cookies

I know there have been long stretches between posts lately.  My goal is to post several new things and catch up over summer break.  I have a long to-do list before school starts next year.  But I am pretty determined this summer because things are changing this year.  I am not sure exactly how things will be yet, but changes are happening.  For now, here is a new recipe.  This has been a lifesaver for us.  L has had more troubles again.  She has had more break outs on her skin this year along with chronic sinus and ear infections.  This on top of the tummy issues from before which we still believe is from food.  Those issues always improved with diet changes but never completely went away.  She seems to have become more sensitive and reactive lately.  We have scheduled some allergy tests to start at the end of the month.  Now that she is almost four years old, the doctors can actually see the problems she is having.  Now they believe what I have been telling them since she was six weeks old.  So now, we are finally getting some support by a few doctors.  Hopefully, we will be getting some real answers soon.  For now, we do what we can and these cookies have helped.  If she eats these cookies, they seem to help settle her stomach when she is having trouble eating and digesting.  I don't know the source of the original recipe but the original recipe has been changed a lot to suit our needs.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup grapeseed oil *
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  (The original recipe indicates using a mixer but I do all of this recipe by hand.)  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Beat in the egg until fully incorporated.  Then add the molasses and stir until combined.

In another bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.  Stir dry ingredients into the wet and stir just until incorporated.  At this point, the dough gets very thick.  When everything is mostly together, I use my hands to finish mixing the dough.  Portion the dough into three pieces and roll each into approximately one inch logs.  (Beware:  If you have men or children in the house, you will get poop jokes here.  You will see what I mean in the pictures.  Trust me, it smells much better.  Ha!)  Wrap and chill for at least one hour.  These will be okay in the fridge up to overnight but I wouldn't leave them more than 24 hours without getting them finished.  However, the dough does do well in the freezer.  If you can't finish them or if you want to make an extra large batch and freeze some for next time, go for it!  Just put the dough in the freezer.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  On a floured work surface using a floured rolling pin, roll chilled dough out to desired thickness.  This is where you have options.  If you want a crunch ginger snap, roll the dough thin.  If you want a nice, soft molasses cookie, roll the dough thicker.  Use a small round cookie cutter to cut out cookies.  Don't forget to dip the cutter into a little flour too.  Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet, about an inch apart.  Bake for approximately 5-10 minutes.  Again, the time is changing factor.  In my moms oven, ten minutes is perfect.  In my oven, ten minutes is too much.  In my oven, five minutes is perfect for soft molasses cookies and eight minutes is perfect for crunchier ginger snaps.  If you want the crunchier cookies, go ahead and cook them close to the ten minutes.  If you want softer cookies, take them out early.  They will cook some after you take them out of the oven.


*The original recipe used softened butter.  If you are not dairy free, you could use butter.  You could also use a different kind of oil.  We prefer grapeseed oil because it is nearly tasteless.  Coconut and olive oils are good in many baked goods but are stronger tastes so they don't go with all foods.  Feel free to experiment.

And now for the pics:

 Finished Cookies:

Logs of dough, wrapped and ready to chill:

(now you can see what I mean by poop jokes)

Three of the batches went into the freezer:

I know I have mentioned this before, but I am going to mention it again.  If you haven't purchased one of these food savers and you want to do freezer cooking, once a month cooking, meal planning, etc., you should definitely spend the money.  It is worth it.:

Italian Diced Tomatoes (So much better than the canned from the store)

I have used the canned version of this in past posts.  That is, until I found out citric acid (which is in all canned tomatoes I've found so far) is often derived from corn.  So, I decided that when tomatoes were in season, I would buy up as much as possible and make my own Italian diced tomatoes and can them.  Well, so far I haven't found enough tomatoes to can any but I have made some for meals as I make them.  Eventually, I will add canned notes to this blog.  Until then, I will go ahead and give a recipe.  Now there are not exact amounts on most of this.  I just add ingredients a little at a time until it tastes excellent.  I had taste testers who agreed, this sauce is amazing.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes
salt
pepper
garlic
onion (I prefer sweet onion)
olive or coconut oil (I've used both and both are good)
basil
oregano

(Note:  This can be made with fresh or dried garlic, onion, basil and oregano.)

Directions:
Mince an onion and a clove or two of garlic (depending on your taste for garlic).  Saute the onion and garlic in a little olive or coconut oil.  While this is sauteing, dice up the tomatoes.  I roughly chopped into chunks, then put them in my hand chopper to dice them really small.  I have a Pampered Chef hand chopper.  I use it to mince the garlic and onion too.  It's wonderful for this type of stuff.  When the garlic and onion is soft and transparent, add in the tomatoes.  Now add salt and pepper and stir around on low/medium heat until warmed through.  Add basil and oregano a little at a time until it suits your taste.  You might want to add salt and pepper here too.

Trust me, this is amazing.  Here is a picture of it used to top some chicken.

Another way to use this, get out your slow cooker.

Ingredients:
Italian Diced Tomatoes
4 Chicken Breasts

Directions:
In a slow cooker, add your chicken breasts. Top with plenty of Italian diced tomatoes.  It should pretty much cover all chicken.  Cook on low for 4 hours or high for 8 hours.  Serve over rice.

Honey Garlic Pork Chops

I have been busy with my new temporary job and I have been trying to make meals that can be made quickly and easily.  They also have to be good warmed up for lunches at work.  We prefer to eat homemade foods rather than eating out or buying pre-made boxed foods.  The easiest way for easy, quick, healthy, homemade meals is to use marinades.  I have started making up bags with marinades and putting meat in them and freezing them.  Then I can take it out of the freezer the night before, and it's ready the next night for cooking. This is one of the marinades we have been using for pork chops.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup apple juice
2 Tbsp. oil (I usually use grapeseed or olive)

3 Tbsp. coconut aminos (This is what we use to replace soy sauce.)

6 garlic cloves, minced

4 pork chops (I use boneless.  I hate eating around bones.)

Directions:

In a ziploc bag, add all ingredients and close and mix around.  Let marinade for at least 2 hours.  Once marinated, grill or bake.  We grilled and loved them.  But if you can't grill, bake in a preheated oven for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

I got this recipe from Pinterest and just replaced the soy sauce.  To see the original post, look here. 

Sesame Coconut Chicken

This is a new favorite.  It is easy to make and tastes like Chinese takeout except it's better for you.  I got the original recipe from the Paleoaholic website.  There are some great recipes there and the paleo diet lends itself well to allergen friendly diets like ours.  I modified the recipe a little but you can find the original recipe HERE.  J and I loved it.  This also helped us discover a replacement to soy sauce.  J loves soy sauce and recipes that use it but I've never liked soy sauce much and I stay away from soy due to hormone imbalances.  I also prefer to keep L away from soy since hormone problems run in the family and most soy is now GMO.  She also seems to have more stomach issues when soy oils are used on anything she eats.  Such a sensitive digestive system our toddler has.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 Tbsp. onion, minced
1 tsp. ginger (fresh grated or powdered/dried works)
3 Tbsp. coconut aminos (soy sauce replacement, you should be able to find this at any health food store)
1 Tbsp. sesame oil (I was actually out of sesame oil and used olive here.  It worked just fine so don't worry if you don't have sesame on hand)
1/2 cup apple juice (make sure it is a pure apple juice)

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together garlic, onion, ginger, aminos, oil and apple juice.  Add the chicken in the bowl and toss to coat.  Let marinate.  Mine marinated for a couple of hours but it should marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425*F.  Cover a baking sheet with foil and place chicken on the pan.  Spoon a little bit of the marinade over the chicken and set aside.  Bake the chicken for about 20 minutes.  Turn chicken and spoon a little more marinade over the other side.  Bake for another 20-25 minutes.

I served this over rice and cooked the rice with a little bit of the apple juice, ginger and coconut aminos mixed in as well.  It was VERY good.  It will be added to our regular list of meals because it was easy and tasted so good.

Quinoa Crusted Chicken

I completely stole this recipe.  You can find the original recipe HERE on a blog called The Simple Dish.  I must give credit here.  It's a very good recipe.  I was impressed.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 egg
salt
pepper
olive oil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. parsley

Directions:
Boil quinoa in 2 cups of water.  While the quinoa is cooking, I took the chicken breasts and used a mallet to make them thinner.  When the quinoa was finished, I put it in a separate bowl and mixed in the salt, pepper, garlic, onion and parsley.  In a separate bowl, scramble the egg for dipping the chicken.  Prepare a baking sheet with olive oil.  I have a Misto sprayer to spray the olive oil and keep the chicken from sticking.  Preheat the oven to 375*F.  Dip each chicken breast in the egg, then coat in the quinoa mixture.  Lay out on the baking sheet and bake for approximately 45 minutes.

Watermelon Juice

This is how I used watermelon that needed to be eaten.  It is hard to get rid of watermelon when you are the only one in the house who will eat it.

Ingredients:
Watermelon chunks
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
Water

Directions:
Blend watermelon chunks and strain to remove seeds.  Add lime juice and sugar.  Stir in water to fill the pitcher.  Stir or shake up before pouring anytime because the watermelon will settle to the bottom.  It's pretty good.  Try it.

Strawberry Bread

I know it has been so long since I have posted regularly on my blog.  Life has been crazy.  And not very nice.  Plus, I got a new computer.  Normally this would make me very happy but I absolutely despise Windows 8!  But it's summer break again so I am back to experimenting with food.  Although I don't really feel like it is an actual 'break' this year.

Since L had so much trouble this year, I now can or freeze almost everything we eat at home because everything has preservatives and dishonest labeling. This way, I know exactly what she is eating.  The health benefits, of course, are for all of us but this all started because she is so important.  So, this summer, since I don't have a full garden at home yet, we have been raiding the farmer's markets and fruit and vegetable stands for fresh and organic products.  We also found a local source for grass fed beef.

Anyway, with the last batch of strawberries I had, I made this wonderful bread.  The original recipe came from another blog which you can find HERE.

But I changed it up a little.  This bread is VERY moist.  And don't be fooled by the toothpick coming out clean when you check the bread.  My toothpick came out clean but it was still more like a crumble instead of bread in parts.  It was still really good though.  Nobody complained about how gooey it was.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups strawberries, chopped
2 Tbsp. sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour (I'm positive this could be changed for a gluten free.  We went with a corn-free.)
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cup grapeseed oil (original recipe said vegetable oil but in this house, we only use grapeseed, olive or coconut.)
Olive oil to grease loaf pans
1 tsp. vanilla (working on this to be corn-free)

Directions:
Mix chopped strawberries with the 2 Tbsp. sugar in a small bowl.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease loaf pans.  Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Then combine remaining ingredients but don't over stir.  Fold in the strawberries.

Divide evenly between the two greased loaf pans.  Bake for 50-55 minutes.

Note:  Pictures to come.  I'm still working on moving my pictures over after changing computers.

Canned Applesauce

With all of the digestive issues in this family, we have pretty much stopped processed food all together.  This includes jars and cans from the store which most people still use for convenience.  It is difficult to cook completely from scratch this way in this society based so much on convenience and constant go go go.  We, like many families, are often on the go but we have decided to make health a priority so that we can keep going going going.  This means I even can my own food.  I've done a few posts on freezing and I still do that quite often.  But now, I can too.  This is very new to me.  I know my great grandparents canned their own food from their own garden.  We don't have the space or time for a garden yet though that is the ultimate goal.  For now, I will stock up when the farmer's market has a good selection and when I find organic produce on sale at the grocery stores.  So far, I have only canned applesauce.  But it is so good!  I bought this great little pressure cooker which also doubles as a water bath cooker.  The applesauce was done in a water bath and here are the instructions:

Ingredients and Materials:
Large pot for cooking apples
Peeler/Corer or good knife
Water bath canner
A big bunch of apples
Water

Directions:
Peel and core apples.  Place the apple slices in a large pot with about an inch of water in the bottom.  (More or less water depending on the size of the pot and amount of apples.)  Cook apples on the stove and stir until all apple slices are tender.  Mash with a potato masher.  I'm sure you could also process in a food processor or something similar if you want a finer texture applesauce.  Spoon the applesauce into pint canning jars.  You should taste it now.  I used really great granny smith apples and they were great just like this.  But, depending on the type of apple, you may want to add a little sugar.  You want to add the sugar and cinnamon or other optional ingredients before you spoon into jars.  After the jars are full and closed, submerge them in the water bath with about an inch of water above the jars.  Boil in the water bath for about twenty minutes.  NOTE:  If you live in a higher altitude, you will need to boil longer.
After twenty minutes, pull the cans out carefully and let them cool completely before storing.  I set out a couple of kitchen towels and set the jars on them to cool.  They need about 12 hours to cool before storage.

(Pictures to come later.  I have a new computer and I'm still getting things switched around.)

Rice

It seems silly to put a recipe for regular ol' rice on here but my group is very picky and I've finally perfected my method so that we can all eat rice.  So here is my method and recipe for the rest of you.  Maybe it will help some who also have to please picky eaters.

Ingredients:
1 cup rice (I prefer Basmati but this will work for any rice.  I've used several.)
1 Tbsp. onion powder
3 cups water
salt and pepper

Directions:
In an appropriate sized pot, stir together all ingredients and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a low boil/high simmer until most liquid is gone.  Serve.

Beefy Potato Soup

This is my favorite soup and comfort food.  I can even eat it cold.  It is easy and great leftover.  Now I know the original recipe came from a newspaper or magazine from a long time ago.  I don't know exactly because it was just a clipping in my grandmother's recipe stash.  It seems like a strange recipe when you read it but give it a try.  Really!

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef
4 cups cubed, peeled potatoes (I always use a little more potato)
1 small onion, minced (I've also used dried minced onion)
3 cups tomato sauce (no cans for corn-free)
4 cups water
2 tsp. salt
1½ tsp. pepper

(Note:  The original recipe also included ½-1 tsp. hot pepper sauce.  We don't like hot stuff so we leave it out.)

Directions:
In a large soup/stew pot or dutch oven brown the ground beef with the minced onion.  Drain if needed.  Add the tomato sauce and water to the beef and onion and mix together.  Add salt and pepper.  Bring to boil then turn down to a simmer.  Simmer for 1 hour, stirring regularly, or until potatoes are tender.  Add salt and pepper to taste if needed.

And again, I forgot to take a picture.  I made this while I was sick so I didn't have the blog on my mind at the time.  I will be making it again at some point during the winter.