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6 Ingredient, Dairy-Free Pesto

By on May 13, 2019 in Dressings and Sauces

I’m a big fan of gardening. Now before you start to picture me Joanna Gaines style, know this: I’ve killed way more than I’ve grown. I’ve planted a garden faithfully every summer for eight years. It’s only been in the last two that we feel like things are really going well. That said, I still kill things. Though since we had a 5-month-old puppy last summer who thought the garden was his personal sandbox, I’m not taking all the blame. Now that he’s older, I have a lot of hope for this summer.

One thing I’ve always struggled with is basil. I love basil! Everyone says it’s easy to grow, yet basil and I… we have a strained relationship. But there are many aphids who thank me for my willingness to keep trying. Last summer I planted our basil right next to the tomatoes. It worked! We had so much basil! I was overjoyed.

My very favorite thing to do with basil is make pesto. I used to think pesto was fancy and that only Food Network stars should make it and use it as a fancy schmear on plates of perfectly braised meat. The truth is, pesto is extremely easy and fast to make.

That’s good news, because I can’t find a high-quality, diary-free pesto that fits in my budget. I love pesto with dairy but sadly, my gut and skin do not. Because I want to make those two things happy, I steer clear of dairy.

This means I have to make my own pesto and I’m happy to say, the cheese does not make the pesto. It’s still AMAZING without the cheese. My cheese-loving, pesto-fanatic husband doesn’t even notice the difference.

This pesto is a part of my weekly meal prep. I always have some on hand. It comes together with just six ingredients (one of which is salt) and only dirties one dish; the food processor. So you don’t even have to chop anything. I love the 21st century.

So hopefully I’ve sold you on this pesto. Now what do you do with it? Everything! My favorite way is to coat my spaghetti squash in it. YUM! We also use it over chicken and steak, and as a salad dressing.

Adding a few spoonfuls to an Italian soup is also incredible like I do in my Italian Sausage Soup (click here for recipe). You can also toss this with some cucumbers and cherry tomatoes for a yummy side dish.

So if you have a garden, go out and plant some basil and give me all your gardening tips!

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Creamy Pork Hock Soup

By on February 19, 2019 in Main Dishes

This is my 36th winter living in a cold, snowy place. You’d think after 36 winters, I’d be used to it. I’m not. After a childhood in Wyoming, college in Idaho and adult years in Utah and Colorado, I still vow every winter will be my last in a cold place. Last week it was -17 degrees F. That’ not okay. But since my husband has decided he loves Colorado and won’t live anywhere else, I’ll probably spend many more winters here since I do actually like my husband. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Colorado. We have a ton of sunshine, beautiful mountains, hiking trails and lakes. But it’s hard to remember that when I’m in the school parking lot turned ice rink trying to drop the kids off in the morning.

That said, one thing that saves me every winter is soup (and many mugs of hot chocolate). We have soup at least once a week in the winter. Last week we were getting to the end of our meat supply from our local rancher. Toward the end we always have a ton of beef steaks, beef liver and a strange cut I put in the back of my freezer for the year; the pork hock. I actually had to watch a few YouTube videos to see what this sucker was. Basically it’s a pig leg. Yep. And as far as I can tell, It’s different from a ham hock in that the ham hock is smoked while the pork hock is raw.

You guys, I now have a new favorite cut of meat. Pork has always been my favorite but the pork hock… AMAZING! It’s tender, juicy and cooks so easily in soup. I was a little confused about how to cook it but decided to just throw it in the slow cooker and see what happened. Yep. I just stuck that big ole’ leg on top of my other ingredients and pressed start. It worked perfectly. This is the best soup I’ve had in a long time. I made double planning to freeze half but I ended up eating the rest over the next few days. I also hid the jar in the back of the fridge so no one else would find it. I do that sometimes.

So… I initially tried to remove the skin from the hock with it raw but quickly realized that would earn me a trip to the ER to get a finger sewn back on. Thankfully it didn’t work because cooking it with the skin and fat on kept the moisture in the meat. Plus, it was really simple to remove both the skin and the fat once it was cooked. No limbs were in danger.

I was so tempted to just start gnawing the meat right off the bone (I had the visual in my head of Prince Phillip’s Father in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty eating the turkey leg. Anyone else? Apparently even as a small child I was easily tempted by juicy meat).

I pureed this soup because I love creamy soups. It’s also a great way to get my kids to eat veggies. My daughter loves veggies raw or roasted but isn’t a huge fan of veggies in soup. Pureeing them solves this problem.

I guess I can handle Colorado winters if it means I get to keep having soup. And hot chocolate…. and long leggings with pockets and over-sized sweatshirts. Apparently there actually are things about winter I love.

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Creamy Vegetable Curry Soup

By on November 2, 2018 in Main Dishes

Fall means pumpkin spice, sweaters, pretending leggings are actually pants and my favorite: SOUP! I love having soup for dinner. It’s warm and comforting, and so easy to make. It’s also a great way to get in some extra veggies.

This soup is on a whole new level of awesome. Roasting veggies is my favorite way to eat them. So roasting veggies and then turning them into a soup is pretty much the perfect combination. And adding curry is the perfect flavor. Even veggie haters will love this soup.

One thing that makes this recipe so easy is my Instant Pot. The Instant Pot is my favorite for soups. I love my slow cooker but something about pressure cooking soup makes it taste and feel like it’s been cooking for hours. I love it! And it only takes 5 minutes once it goes into the Instant Pot. You could even roast the veggies in advance and then add them to the Instant Pot when you get home in the evening. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can cook the soup in the slow cooker on low for 4-6 hours or boil it on the stove for about 20 minutes. The veggies are already fairly soft, but this makes them soft enough to puree and helps all the flavors blend together.

If you’re like me and eating dairy makes you feel completely awful, you may be missing out on creamy things. The solution: coconut milk. Any soup recipe that calls for heavy cream can be just as (if not more) delicious with coconut milk. It’s extra fitting in this soup as coconut and curry go well together; and not just because they both start with “c.”

You could easily add chicken or a ground meat to this soup to give it extra protein, but I love it plain. Now go put on some leggings and have some soup.

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Homemade Roasted Red Pepper Cauliflower Hummus

By on September 10, 2018 in Dressings and Sauces, Healthy Snacks

I love hummus! I eat it on veggies, on wraps, on hot dogs (way better than ketchup) and on a well-rounded spoon. I decided I wanted to make my own, but I also wanted to up my veggie consumption. Since vegetables are amazing and we all need more, I’m always trying to find a way to get more in my diet. So I decided to replace the beans with roasted cauliflower and see how that worked out for me.

My life will never be the same. It’s DELICIOUS! If you’re not a big fan of cauliflower, give it a try and see what you think. The addition of tahini and the red peppers, plus the smoky flavors from the cumin and paprika cover any cauliflower taste and make this amazing! I mostly use this as a vegetable dip for broccoli and carrots, upping my veggie intake even more. This is also delicious with crackers or plantain chips. If you’re sensitive to tahini, cashew butter works as well, but the tahini gives it a bit more flavor. If I use cashew butter, I sometimes add a bit more cumin and paprika.

I’m also willing to make this homemade “hummus” because it’s super easy to make, freezes well, and lasts longer in the fridge than traditional hummus. Because I line my sheet pan with parchment paper, the only big dish I have to clean is the food processor bowl.

I just throw it all in together to mix, so there is no order to the ingredients. The only part that takes effort (if you can even call it effort) is scraping down the sides of the food processor bowl between blending. If you don’t have a food processor, feel free to use a blender. Just make sure to continue to scrape down the sides.

 

I’m so happy with the results, I plan to change up the flavors and see what else I can come up with. Stay tuned!


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Healthy, No-Sugar Beef and Broccoli

By on January 25, 2017 in

When my husband and I got married, we’d eat out about once a month. Now before you think we were well-off (because we were dead broke), let me explain what I mean by “eat out.” Once a month we’d make the 1/2 mile walk to the local Smith’s grocery store. Inside the Smith’s was a Chinese restaurant that charged $4.95 for a plate of food. So for less than $10, we had our date night. These days, knowing what I know, I doubt we’d hit up that particular restaurant, but I still remember it fondly. I always got the same thing: chicken chow mein, orange chicken and beef and broccoli. Today I was randomly craving that beef and broccoli. Side note: I didn’t have one craving when I was pregnant, but when I’m not pregnant, I crave random things all the time. The point is, I wanted to eat beef and broccoli and not feel horrible after. So I decided to come up with my own recipe. Here’s how it went down.

I started with a flank steak sliced super thin. Then I marinated this in a delicious, no-sugar, no-soy sauce for about 45 minutes (because that’s how long it took me to get my daughter, get home and start cooking).

Then I cooked my broccoli. This was simple as it was just avocado oil, broccoli, and pepper. How long you cook this is going to depend on your taste buds. I happen to like my broccoli very well cooked. I love when it has some black char on it. Cook it how you like it. How long you cook the broccoli won’t make any difference to whether or not the dish turns out.

Move the broccoli to a bowl and add the meat, marinade and all. This is another thing to cook to your liking. I like my meat rare, so I only cooked it for around 3 minutes or so. If you like it more done, cook it for around 5 minutes.

While the meat cooks, make the delicious sauce. The thickener in the sauce is arrowroot powder. It acts a lot like corn starch.

Add the broccoli back in and once it’s warm, toss the sauce. You’ll only have to cook it for a minute or so to finish the dish.

I ate this plain because I was starving and it smelled amazing, but this would also be delicious over rice.

 

 

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15 Minute Smoky BBQ Stir Fry

By on January 11, 2017 in Main Dishes

My favorite lunch is a salad. Not a wussy salad with veggies only and dressing on the side. I’m talking a salad loaded with veggies but also avocado and a nice , filling protein. YUM! But this week in Denver, we got snow. Cold, wet snow. So when it came time for lunch yesterday, I wanted something warm that didn’t take a ton of time or dishes. I decided on a stir fry.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love a to make stir frys. It’s a great way to mix together a ton of leftovers and have a great, filling meal. Yesterday my leftover addition was ribs. The day before I made ribs by covering rib meat in Diane Sanfilippo’s Smoky Spice blend (click here for recipe), topping them with my N0-Sugar BBQ Sauce (click here for recipe) and cooked them in my slow cooker on low for 8 hours. They were AMAZING!

So for my stir fly, I stripped some meat off the bones, mixed it with some veggies, a little more smoky spice blend and some coconut aminos. It was so warm and delicous! Plus with all those veggies it was loaded with great nutrients. I’ve listed the veggies I used but feel free to customize this how you like. You really can’t mess it up!

 

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The Easiest Meatballs You’ll Ever Make

By on November 9, 2016 in Main Dishes

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You know what makes me crazy? (I promise it won’t be a long tirade this time) Meatballs. By the name we should be able to infer it’s just a delicious ball of meat. Sadly this is not the case. Next time you go to the store, check the back on a bag of meatballs. All meatballs are made with bread crumbs but often also have soy, sugar and even corn syrup. Why must we defile a beautiful ball of meat this way?

Because meatballs are an important part of life, I came up with my own recipe with, wait for it… MEAT! Aside with the meat and an egg to bind it together, the only other ingredients in these meatballs are Italian spices and seasonings to make said meat taste amazing. The best part is, these meatballs are SOOO easy to make. Way easier than a meatball full of strange ingredients.

At first I chopped my onion and garlic with a knife. I realized they weren’t chopped finely enough but decided I was way too lazy to try to chop them smaller. I threw them in my mini food processor and they were finely diced in about five seconds. That moment changed my life. I decided to never use a knife to chop onions again. I feel a freedom I haven’t felt since the day I graduated from college.

See that cute, little hand. That’s my 5-year-old daughter. She loves to help me cook.

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The key to a tender, juicy meatball is to mix everything but the meat together first. I learned this tip on the Food Network. Thanks celebrity chefs. After I mixed the onion, garlic and seasonings together with a fork, I added in the meat.

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Another key to a great meatball is to use your hands to mix it together once you add the meat. No it’s not your most glamorous moment, but you can’t mix everything properly with a spoon. You need to use your hands.

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I like to bake my meatballs rather than fry them because it’s a lot less work. Once you bake them you have two options. At this point, you can stick them in a freezer bag and have delicious, Italian meatballs for another day. Or, you can simmer them in my sugar-free marinara sauce (click here for recipe).

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When I make them for my family, they eat them over a whole grain pasta. I eat mine over a bed of spinach. I love the slight wilting the heat gives the spinach, which makes it warm but still slightly crunchy.

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Tender Slow Cooker Salsa Beef

By on July 29, 2016 in Main Dishes

I’m officially insane. Every time I try to simplify my life, I find something fabulous I need to add to it. My son has been taking piano lessons for three years. Plus he goes to karate twice a week and has cub scouts once a week. My daughter is in ballet and tap. Every Sunday I sit on my porch swing and think about how nice it is to relax and how we need to get rid of some activities in our lives. So what did I do last week? I signed my daughter up for piano as well. What’s worse is that it was my idea. She was content with ballet and tap but then I opened my big mouth and asked her if she wanted to take piano. She was thrilled! She’s been “practicing” every day since. The good mom in me is really excited for her. Learning music is important and she’ll love it. But the other side of the good mom is not so happy. I’ve added one more thing to our lives. Sigh. Oh well. It will all work out in the end. Or else I’ll die of exhaustion. Guess I won’t know until I try, right?

So for all you other insane moms out there who are also stretched beyond your limits, I have yet another slow cooker recipe for you. I believe the slow cooker was the best invention since 2-ply toilet paper. Some days, it’s the only way we have a warm meal on the table at dinner time. I can throw everything together in the morning and then come home from ballet or piano or karate or cub scouts or the therapy sessions I should sign myself up for and still be able to give my family a delicious, healthy dinner.

This salsa beef meets all the criteria of comfort food. It’s packed with flavor, tender and super healthy.

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This is another fabulous dump and go recipe. While that doesn’t sound glamorous, it’s way better than a bowl of cereal, which is plan B on busy days. Just pull out the slow cooker and add stew meat, carrots, stewed tomatoes, salsa, molasses and garlic. Then let all the flavors meld together. Mmmmmm. A word about salsa. You have to be careful when picking salsa. A lot has added sugar, but it’s still easy to find one that does not if you’re willing to read labels.

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Stir this together and cook the entire thing on low for 6-8 hours.

My husband eats this over rice, but my daughter and I like it over mashed sweet potatoes. Either way, you can congratulate yourself at the end of the day for preparing a delicious, healthy dinner for your family even though you spend your days as a taxi driver.

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Easy Cinnamon Apple Stir Fry Lunch

By on June 3, 2016 in Main Dishes

As I’ve mentioned several times, I love stir fry. Even though it’s May, today I was in the mood for the flavors of fall. That’s what I love about stir fry. You can eat the flavors you’re craving whenever you want.

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As usual, start out by cooking the vegetables in salt and pepper. Rather than take the time to cook and dice sweet potatoes on my own, I used these:

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These are one of the most convenient things I’ve found. Eating healthy often requires a lot of chopping, so these pre-cooked make it much easier.

Because I used pre-cooked sausages, I just had to cook them long enough to brown the outside and warm the inside. These chicken apple sausages are great to have on hand. We use them in salads, in eggs for breakfast and, of course, in stir frys.

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Who says you can only have cinnamon and sweet potatoes in the fall? Not me!

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Homemade Sugar-Free Marinara Sauce

By on April 1, 2016 in Main Dishes

20150814_192438Prepare yourselves for a rant. As I’ve mentioned one, two or a million times, I get so angry when companies add sugar to things that don’t need sugar. Fruit is my biggest pet peeve (and why do we need to add sugar to nature’s sugar?), but sauces drive me crazy. A few weeks ago, I was making spaghetti for my family. I tried to buy some marinara sauce only to find they all had added sugar. Most have 5-7 grams of sugar per serving. As I was slamming jars back on teh shelves of the grocery store, I said to myself, (or possibly aloud. Going shopping with kids gives you a good excuse to talk to yourself while making it look like you’re talking to your kids) “I’ll make my own marinara sauce!” And I did. But my marinara sauce has less than two grams of sugar per serving. That’s just my way of sticking it to the man; or at least, sticking it to Ragu.

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