Monday, June 29, 2009

chicken thighs

I just kinda tried something random...

2.5 lbs chicken thighs
1/2 onion coarsely chopped
1 tomato coarsely chopped
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
water

I placed the chicken in the crockpot and sprinkled cinnamon until all pieces were coated. I then layered in the tomato, onion, and garlic. I drizzled olive oil on top and poured in just enough water to almost reach the top of the chicken. I then sprinkled in the salt, pepper, basil, and oregano. I put the crockpot on high for 5 hours and we will see what it comes to!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

turkey chili attempt #1

Here is yet another chili attempt

1 cup of each
-black beans
-small red beans
-kidney beans
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp each of
-cinnamon
-paprika
-ground mustard
-garlic powder
-salt
2 tbsp each of
-black pepper
-crushed red pepper
-chili powder
1 tsp
-ground cumin
-coriander
hot sauce to taste (I used about 1 tbsp tapatio)
1.25 lbs ground turkey (1 package basically)
1 can tomato sauce
2 sauce cans of water

Start by rinsing the beans and boiling on high for about 15 min. This is especially important for the small red beans. Once boiled, rinse the beans well again. Coarsely chop the onion. Begin layering in your crock pot. I put the chopped onion and then used my garlic press on the garlic cloves. I broke up the ground turkey with my fingers and then layered with all of the seasonings and hot sauce. I put the beans in next and poured the tomato sauce and water on top. I turned the crock pot on high for one hour. I then opened it and mixed all the ingredients together and put the crock pot on low for 8 hours overnight set to turn to "warm" until the morning. I will let you know tomorrow what it turns out like.

(Note-I plan to serve with cheese, pepper, and probably a bit more hot sauce)

Saturday, June 27, 2009

mozzarella Chicken w/ tomato

Yesterday I made a snack of tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil, and basil. I ate a little and my husband was taking a nap. When i got tired of waiting for him to get up to make dinner, I decided to use the snack for dinner. Here's what I did.

about 2 cups cubed chickedn
2 sliced tomatoes
1/2 log of fresh mozarella (basically equal to the # of slices of tomatoes)
olive oil
basil
salt and pepper

I spread the chicken cubes in a single layer in a baking dish
Put it in the oven for 15 min at 400
I then took it out and put a layer of tomatoes and topped with a layer of mozzarella
I sprinkled with pepper and basil and put back in the oven for about 5 min
I then took it out and salted to taste

We ate it with a side of lima beans and it was really good. Super simple and very good.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

new chili review

This chili was much better. i will probably add some hot sauce for a kick next time. but the meat was a lot better.

last night i simply cut up some strip steak and mixed it into stir fry veggies. simple and really good. my in laws liked it too. a few sesame seeds on top...

in laws are heading to LA tonight so i'm not sure what we are going to do for dinner.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

chili and mexican

Last night we ended up making mexican instead. We ate carne asada, with avocado, sour cream, cheese, and salsa. not the best, but good and special for his parents.

the chili went in the fridge for later i guess. here's the basic recipe.

1/2 bag black beans
1/2 bag kidney beans
1/2 bag red beans
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
water
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
chili powder
garlic powder
red pepper flakes
cinnamon
paprika
pepper
2 lbs ground beef

Basically I threw everything but the ground beef in the crock pot on high for about 5 hours. then i browned the ground beef in a skillet and then added and mixed into the chili and left it on for another few hours. then we decided not to eat it so it got put in the fridge. I'll let you know what we think later.

Monday, June 22, 2009

return from vacation

We just got back from a hard 10 days with my family in DC.

The second pot roast was no where near as good as the first. My conclusion, beef bottom roast makes a better pot roast.

My inlaws are coming into town today. We are going to treat them to chili tonight. I'm going to make it the same way as before, but I'm going to brown the ground beef and put it in later. That should help a little with the texture.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Chili and Pot Roast #2

The chicken was ok. I put garlic on top and a layer of mozzarella. I would def make again. Of course I always LOVE mashed sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon.

Saturday night we made our first attempt at chili in the crock pot. I made awesome chili on the stove a week or so ago, but my hubby wanted to try in the crock pot. I can't really say all of what went into it because myhusband kept playing with it too. But It was basically 2 lbs ground beef, 1/2 bag black beans, 1/2 bag kidney beans, onion, garlic, and a load of spices. My husband added in some bacon and a rib bone from us BBQing ribs for lunch. The chili wasn't too bad. The meat was a little spongy, not sure how to fix that. The taste was ok, but was better with lots of tapatio.

Tonight I am making another roast. This one is beef eye of round roast. I trimmed the fat off of the side, laid it on a layer of onions with some water and beef boulon. I covered with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and then BBQ sauce. It's in the crock pot on low set for 12 hours. I have high hopes.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Mozzarella Chicken

So last night was not bad at all.  The beans did not cook completely, but they weren't bad.  I think Chris liked the italian sausage a lot.  

Tonight I'm not going to cook.  I am going to mix the leftover beans and the leftover roast from the other day.  

In case I don't get to this, tomorrow  I plan to make chicken stuffed with spinach and mozzarella.  It should be fairly good.  I will also make mashed sweet potatoes.  This is to share with our neighbors upstairs because they just had a baby.  

My husband and I seem to have "healthy" digestive systems right now.  Things are fixing themselves.  

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Bean Soup

Last night's dinner was ok. It tasted like a roast. I added some salt and pepper when it came out and Wyatt and I had some sweet potatoes to complete the meal for us.

I also made some primal snack bars. Basically they are a mix of coconut, walnuts, peanut butter, almonds, craisins, sunflower seeds, milled flaxseed, olive oil, and 2 eggs. i baked it for about 20 min (plus a little after i turned the oven off). It is good...tastes like a "healthy" food though. Chris seems to like it a lot. We both agree that a layer of peanut butter on top would make it really good. I also realized after making it that I was supposed to put in honey (I stole the idea to throw stuff together from mark's daily apple). Honey might help a lot also, but would raise the GI.

Although not very primal, tonight we are having easy to make 15 bean soup with onion, smoked sausage, and garlic. I'm making it in the slow cooker again and the 15 beans soup came out of a bag with cajun seasoning.

side note-woke up early this morning with a horrible stomach ache after having a splitting headache all day yesterday...not sure what that's all about. Because of this, this morning i just put some of Wyatt's protein powder in my coffee for breakfast.

another side note-I am currently getting myself un-addicted to sugar again after a few weeks of treats. These things will probably taste better to me once my sweet tooth subsides. But withdrawal really sucks!


Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Steak and Potatoes & Pot Roast #1

Dinner from the other night...eh. A lot of salt helped. Probably won't make that exact recipe again.

So yesterday I cut up two sweet potatoes, an onion, and some steak and threw them in the crock pot for about 5 hours. It was very good. Chris thought the steak was a bit dry and added some mustard. I liked it and Wyatt ate it.

Today I have a beef bottom round roast on top of two cut up onions with salt and pepper and bbq sauce. The bbq sauce has a lot more sugar than I would like, but should add a lot of flavor.

Monday, June 1, 2009

The idea...

My husband and I have created www.threequestiondiet.com . It would take a book to fully explain all of these, but basically we eat fruit, veggies, fat, and meat while keeping in mind the sugar content of fruit and veggies. I have not only had a ton of success losing good body weight, but my husband is able to maintain a very muscular body while fighting some genetics. We feed our 1 1/2 year old the same food and I am also nursing a newborn. My main reason for starting this is because with two under two we just got a crock pot and I am going to try to create meals within our budget that will feed us for a couple of days so that I'm not always in the kitchen with a crying baby. A lot of this will be experiment. I plan to post the recipe and then our response. Last night we mixed a pound of ground turkey, lima beans, red beans, an onion, water, and italian seasoning in the crock pot. It smells ok, but I haven't tried yet, so we'll see how it turns out. My husband took some to work, so he'll have the first opinion.