Dairy-free by Design

Steakin' Care of Business

2012-06-02T12:30:00.003-04:00

In the last four weeks, my hubs and I have been in the same house for approximately 48 hours.

Boo!

And we have a similar June schedule. We've got this week together, but then, I'm gone next week. The following week he's gone.

Then, then is glorious vacation!

Can. Not. Wait.

But it means that I haven't done a lot of cooking. When it's just me, I tend to eat a lot of stuff that he doesn't like. Pretty much any egg-based meal, or salmon, or anything with the word "balsalmic" in it.

I was actually due to do my monthly cooking last Monday, but it occurred to me that since neither of us will be home, there is no point in making an entire months worth of meals, so I just made a choice few.

1. Our favorite Melba toast chicken

(after cooking, throw it in the toaster for a few minutes to crisp up)

2. Dairy-free beef stroganoff

(made even better by using ground beef and serving over mashed potatoes)

3. Steak with mushroom balsamic sauce

(forever re-dubbed as "Steakin' Care of Business")

I know I said that the hubs doesn't usually like stuff with balsalmic vinegar, but he surprised me by loving this. I knew I would like it, but then again I'm not picky.

Seriously, I know I make a lot of steak with mushroom sauce-type meals, but this was fantastic. I could have just had the sauce over mashed potatoes.

Recipe (adapted from Eat Well, Lose Weight)

four 6-ounce sirloin steaks

1 teaspoon herbes de Provence

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

6 ounces mushrooms (about 2.5 cups)

1/3 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic

3/4 cup beef broth

1.5 teaspoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions

Preheat boiler.
Trim fat from steaks and season each side with 1/2 teaspoon herbes de Provence, pepper, and salt.
Place steaks on broiler rack and put in oven approximately 3 to 4 inches from heat. Cook to desired doneness (11-13 minutes for medium-rare or 14-16 minutes for medium). Turn once.
While steaks cook, in large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add mushrooms, onions, and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes or until tender.
Remove from heat and add 1/4 cup beef broth and 1/2 teaspoon herbes de Provence.
Return to heat and cook uncovered for about 2 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
In a small bowl, stir together the remaining beef broth and cornstarch. Add to skillet and cook until thick and bubbly. Cook for an additional 2 minutes then add balsamic vinegar.
Serve sauce over steaks.

Enjoy!

Candied Pecans

2012-05-18T13:00:00.000-04:00

aka The Snack I've Been Known to Make Myself Sick from Eating so Many.

aka why do my photos look so unappetizing?

I had these at my Aunt's a few weeks ago and, even though I don't like nuts, I almost devoured the entire bowl.

I hid them from other people at the house.

I begged for the recipe.

I promptly forgot where she said she got the recipe.

So for the last few weeks, I've been trying to try my hand at these. There were plenty of recipes out there, so it was just a matter of remembering to buy supplies and actually putting pecan to pan and getting my act in gear. That second one took a few days on its own.

I finally settled on a top-rated recipe from AllRecipes.com, and, following the guidance of people who had reviewed the recipe, set out to make a batch of candied pecans that will convert nut-haters like myself.

This was ridiculously simple. Who knew? Just um, let's see...one, two...five ingredients! Sorry, had to count.

About 30 minutes in the oven and you're left with the sweetest bestest nut around, unless you have peanut butter in the pantry, then peanut butter is the best nut around. These would be second. Let's just assume that you're in that grocery limbo place where you're out of peanut better, but haven't gone to the store yet, then these would be the ultimate nut in your house.

P.s. nut

Recipe (adapted from All Recipes)

2 egg whites

1 cup brown sugar packed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

5 cups whole, raw pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Best egg whites until stiff

Stir in sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla

Pour over pecans n large bowl and stir to coat

Spread on cookie sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick mat (my Silpat worked great)

Bake for 30 minutes, stirring @ 20 minutes

Allow to cool and store in a ziplock bag

Show restraint and don't eat too many in a single sitting like me.

Excuse me while I go lie down.

Eating Crow

2012-05-16T10:43:00.000-04:00

So you probably remember my last post...

You know, the one where I berated my husband for refusing to eat some tomato soup I had in the freezer?

Well, today I finally defrosted and made it for lunch today.

Then, I had the following email conversation with said husband:

Me: "This tomato soup is terrible."

Husband:

Husband: "I want public recognition for this."

Needless to say, I will not be posting the recipe for this dairy-free tomato soup.

Trust me.

Honey-Soy Crunch Pork Chops

2012-05-07T11:00:00.000-04:00

I've been slacking on the blog a bit. With the Art Star Craft Bazaar next weekend, I've spent most of the week in basement slaving away over tiny scraps of paper. But I'm here now, and the boy is gone for the week, so in theory, I should have plenty of time to catch up.

Then again, without the husband around, I may not be cooking the gourmet meals that we're used to. Actually, I'm probably going to use this week to finish up the freezer meals that's he's not interested in.

I came to that conclusion after the following scene:

Boy: "What'd you take out of the freezer for tomorrow?"

Me: "Fresh tomato soup, it's like cream of tomato without the cream."

Boy: "No. There is no way in hell."

Me: "What?"

Boy: "No. I'm NOT having tomato soup for dinner."

Me: "OK, then you pick something out."

So I will be making that tomorrow(ish)

And instead, he took out something called Double-Crunch Honey Garlic Pork Chops.

This is another one of those little Pinterest gems that I've been dying to try. It looked so good. I've never made pork chops and actually can't even tell you when I would have had them. Again, it's just not something either of us grew up eating.

So why not start out with a chop that's covered in a sticky, sweet, slightly spicy sauce?

So, I loved these. I loved the combination of honey, garlic, and soy, but the boy wasn't so much a fan.

Told you we should have had tomato soup.

Either way, this may be for a more "refined pallet" or at least someone who likes the combination of soy and honey.

I'll try again though, maybe revise the sauce a bit, but pork chops aren't completely off the list for us yet.

I didn't make any adjustments to this recipes so I figured so I would just send you to the original by Rock Recipes.

For the freezer version, I seasoned and dredged the chops and froze. Then I combined the ingredients for the sauce and froze that separately. When ready to cook, I defrosted completely, and...actually, I did make one change. Instead of frying in 1/2-inch of oil, I sauteed in a couple tablespoons.

Enjoy with someone with a more adventurous pallet, but keep some soup on the back burner. :)

Grilled Potato Medallions

2012-05-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if you noticed, but lurking in the background of Monday's post was a fantastic side dish that didn't get its appropriate time in the spotlight.

The boy and I have been searching for the best way to make a healthy-ish baked potato that has a nice crunchy outside. Somehow, roast potatoes or oven fries never seem to get crispy for me. I've tried boiling first, more oil, less oil, nonstick spray, small pieces, large pieces. The potatoes always end up either burnt or just kind of baked, not really crispy.

There is one way to make crispy potatoes in the oven - buy a bag of frozen tater tots and put in the oven. Set on high. Crispy that shit right up.

But then those are fried. And I'm trying to lose weight. And even though I workout for an hour, 4 days per week. And work with a personal trainer strength training twice a week. And have cut out a lot of carbs, most dairy, 99% of my diet soda (I still get one Diet Pepsi on Saturdays), and chocolate...I've still only lost 0.8 lbs in the last month. So bagged tater tots are off the menu.

But I think I've finally found something that works. It takes a little time, but it's easy and totally worth it. Just look at that crispy little 'tato below! All it took was my Foreman Grill!

I think it's the perfect combination of pre-cooking, a little oil, and a hot surface.

Ingredients

4 large red potatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Directions

Preheat Forman Grill (or panini press) on high
Wash and dry potatoes
Slice into thick slices (about 1/2-inch thick)
Boil potato slices in salted water until soft, about 10 minutes
Remove from water and allow to cool long enough so you can handle them
Toss with salt, pepper, garlic, and oil in ziploc bag
Place slices on grill and press down.
Grill for about 30 minutes, flipping potato slices occasionally.

Rejoice in the crispiness!

Easy Roast Beef

2012-04-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

One thing I've learned since I've started this cooking adventure is that just because something is time consuming doesn't mean its difficult.

Take this awesome roast beef and potatoes recipe. Actually, there really isn't much of a recipe for this, just some instructions. It's that easy. But it does take time. I mean not, like, all day, but don't do what I did and start this when you're ready for dinner because you're going to be waiting at least 1.5 hrs.

It's worth it though.

This was so good. The meat was tender and so flavorful.

I rubbed the roast with rosemary, salt, pepper, and a little garlic. Put it in the oven, and went back to slaving away in the UglyKitty Studio. That's it - Rub. Roast. Rest. The recipe for the awesomely-grilled potato side dish will be posted shortly.

Ingredients

3-pound roast beef

3 tablespoons rosemary

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine rosemary, minced, garlic, salt, and pepper.
Rub the roast with the spice mixture.
Put in roasting pan and roast for about an hour (or until meat thermometer reaches 160 degrees for well done).
Remove from oven, cover with foil, and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

For gravy - add a little water to the pan, stir it up, pour into a small sauce pan, throw in a handful of flour, and simmer until thickened. Serve over sliced roast.

Cilantro Lime Crock Pot Chicken

2012-04-28T14:00:00.000-04:00

And now for a meal my husband actually liked! God help me if my kids are as picky as him. OK, in all fairness, he's not that bad. He tries everything I've made and does it without complaining. But I can tell when he doesn't like something. The putting down of the the fork and picking up some crackers from the pantry is usually a good sign that this isn't one of my best efforts.

But not this time! He went in for seconds - and that's always a good sign.

This was seriously deliciously awesomely satisfying.

The lime made it seem kinda...is "exotic" the right word? And the salsa give it a great spicy kick.

Combine the fact that this meal is delicious with the fact that it's just 5 ingredients in a crock pot, and I'm completely smitten.

Mmmm...over brown rice. Maybe more corn next time.

Ingredients (adapted from Pip and Ebby)

4-6 chicken breasts

one 24-ounce jar of medium salsa (I just used the Safeway brand)

juice from one lime

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1 package taco seasoning

Directions

Put chicken in crock pot
Put rest of ingredients in crock pot
Set on low, go to work, come home (or more officially, cook for 6-8 hrs)
Enjoy!

Chicken with Mushroom Wine Sauce

2012-04-27T22:14:00.000-04:00

So I'm back from my mini-vacation/business trip. Did you miss me?

Well, I missed you. It was really awesome. I got to spend a few days with my family in California.

We crafted. We shopped. We blogged. We fed squirrels.

We got swarmed by seagulls.

We laughed.

Well, I laughed.

At my aunt.

Instead of helping her fend of birds.

This is why I've been written out of most wills.

It was awesome!

In hindsight, I really should have taken the vacation after the business trip. I was so bitter that I had to leave the fun for a week of driving around looking at radio towers. OK, it wasn't that bad. I actually really enjoy traveling for work, but knowing that my parents were at my aunt's house spending the next two weeks crafting, wine tasting, shopping, laughing, made me really unpleasant for most of the week. Every time I had to wake up at 6 am and get in the truck for four hours of off-road driving, I just kept thinking that I could be waking up at 10 to pick out fabric and make something adorable. Oh well, I'll just have to take more vacations next year. :)

Now that I'm home and had some time to settle back in, it's dinner time! Ok, who am I kidding. Dinner was expected as soon as I got home. Luckily, it was already in the freezer.

I think I said it previously, but my new philosophy is to basically substitute wine anytime a recipe calls for a sauce that I would normally use cheese for. Macaroni and wine anyone?

This was like a garlicy version of chicken marsala. Quite delish.

I might have overdid it on the garlic and wine, but that's because a) I think I'm too good to measure ingredients and b) I forgot that I already added the garlic and added a second dose. Still pretty good - and great in a wrap for lunch the next day!

Ingredients (adapted from Skinny Taste)

eight chicken tenderloins

4 teaspoons olive oil

1/4 cup flour, plus a small handful for the sauce.

4 cloves garlic (or if you screw up like me, about 7 cloves)

one 12-ounce package sliced mushrooms

1/4 cup white wine

1/3 cup chicken broth

salt and pepper

1/4 cup fresh parsley

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Dredge chicken in flour, salt, and pepper.
Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in pan. Once hot, add chicken, and cook until no longer pink inside (about 6 minutes). Turning as necessary.
When the chicken is done, transfer to an oven-safe dish, and put in oven to keep warm.
Add remaining olive oil in the same pan and cook mushrooms until tender. Add wine, chicken broth, and parsley and cook until reduced by half. I also threw in a small handful of flour to thicken up the sauce.
Remove chicken from oven and serve over brown rice and topped with the sauce.

Enjoy!

Mini-Vaca!

2012-04-12T19:54:00.000-04:00

Like I said in my last post, my work has sent me to California for a week. I've been waiting for 6 years for them to send me to central CA so I can squeeze in a visit with my family on their dime - OK, not really on their dime, but it's nice to have my airfare paid for. So I was able to fly out Wednesday and stay with my aunt until Sunday before having to pick up with work again.

So I won't be able to post much for the next 10 days. Mostly because I'm going to be working my ass off driving this rediculous machine from Sacramento to Fresno to Bakersfield to Fresno and back to Sacramento.

I don't know if any of you have seen the 3D movie yet, but spoiler alert, this is what sank the Titanic. It barely fits in her driveway. But it does have a USB plug and syncs with iTunes which is pretty awesome.

Anyway, other than trying to parallel park the Hindenburg, we've been working on getting my aunt's blog, Still Crafty After 50, back up and running. It needed a make over, but she's back in business and I thought I'd give her a bit of a shoutout since she does make the most absurdly adorable crafty things I've ever seen.

Exhibit A

(she hasn't posted this one yet, but seriously...)

You might as well go over there and see what the fuss is about. Plus, the more you bug her, the more likely it is that she'll keep blogging. :)

Seriously Filling Granola

2012-04-09T12:30:00.000-04:00

Let's start by say I do not have a green thumb. I've killed every plant I've ever owned. I grew one green bean last year. One. I was so excited that I kept it on the counter admiring it long past the point where it was edible.

I grew one home-grown bean.

I ate no home-grown bean.

I even tried planting bulbs - daffodils, poppies, tulips, but I waited so long to plant the bulbs that we were lucky to get the three poppies and few sprigs of green that did come up. I was thrilled with even that.

Then, whoever's been cutting out lawn took them all out.

Pro: someone's mowing our lawn. I'm assuming it's the HOA lawn service, but I thought they only covered the grass around the parking lot, not front yards

Con: They don't seem to understand the boundaries of the garden. First they pruned 90% of the bushes in front of our house away. Now, they've cut up the few flowers I did have.

Pro: someone's mowing our lawn so I don't have to.

Con: Yeah, I'm out.

However, they haven't touched the three gorgeous forsythia bushes in the front yard. These are only thriving because I haven't touched them since we moved in. At all. I won't even look at them directly in case they're get scared and run away. I did sneak a few branches into a vase without the bush noticing.

I just felt I needed to enjoy the flowers a little while before I leave for two weeks.

Let travel season (for work) begin!

First stop, California!

We're going to cover something like 1,000 miles going from hill top to hill top inspecting radio towers. It's long days, few lunch breaks, and gorgeous views.

Did you see the part about there being few lunch breaks? So I'm going to need something to hold me over between gas stations where I can reload on Chex Mix and beef jerky. Breakfast of champions right there.

I found this granola recipe on Oh She Glows! One of my favorite cooking blogs. While we're not vegan, I know that any recipe I get there is going to be dairy-free by default. I got last week's pasta sauce from there and my favorite non-dairy macaroni and cheese recipe - I'll get around to posting that someday.

This granola is fantastic. It's full of nuts and seeds, fiber, and fruit. It's really filling and kinda tastes like a crispy oatmeal cookie.

I can't wait to enjoy this as we make our way up the "roads" to the sites.

From our last trip:

(do you see a "road" there? yeah, neither do I)

Then this happened:

Which lead to this:

Since I was just about sure that I wasn't coming off that last mountain, I decided that from now on, I will have a food source with me in that truck. I'm pretty sure I could live for a month on this stuff.

Ingredients (adapted from Oh She Glows)

Wet ingredients

5 tablespoon brown rice syrup

1 tablespoon agave nectar

4 tablespoons applesauce, unsweetened

2 heaping tablespoons peanut butter

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

Dry Ingredients

2.5 cups rolled oats (regular not instant)

1 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped

1/2 cup pistachios, roughly chopped

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raw sesame seeds

2 tablespoon ground flax

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cloves

3/4 teaspoon salt

Mix-ins (I didn't measure these, but I probably used about a cup each)

dried cranberries

pepita seeds

dried cherries

banana chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment, non-stick baking mat, or non-stick cooking spray.
Add all wet ingredients into a medium sauce pan and heat over medium heat. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Meanwhile, mix dry ingredients in large bowl.
Let the wet ingredients cool for a few minutes (so you don't splash and burn yourself). Then add them to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Pour mixture onto cooking sheet and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Stir every 15 to make sure the edges don't over-cook.
Remove from oven and allow to cool. The granola will clump and crisp as it cools.
Once cool, mix granola and mix ins. I find it easiest to do this in a large ziplock bag.
Bring said ziplock bag with you and pray that you don't get stuck on a mountain somewhere in the California desert.

Wish me luck!

Beef and Bean Ragout

2012-04-06T22:58:00.000-04:00

I don't know what's been up with me this week. I'm just zoned out. I've wanted nothing more than to sit on the couch, play on pinterest, and refresh the browser until I have seen every kitty on the internet.

I think it's because I have a few days of vacation coming up... and my current project at work feels like herding cats... and no matter how many times I reload Google maps, they haven't built any hotels in northeastern central Montana and unless they do by September, I'll be working 22-hour days that week.

Two more day.

Just two more days.

At least I didn't have to cook much this week. Between the pasta and the beef and bean ragout in this post, the two of us ate great all week.

All I had to do for this was combine ingredients in the crock pot and go to another long day of kitty wrangling.

And even the ingredients were virtually no prep. Can of this...bag of that...dash of spices, and ta-da! Dinner!

Ingredients (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Ultimate Slow Cooker magazine)

1 pound stew mean, cut into 1-inch cubes

one 16-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

one 15-ounce can tomato sauce with onions and garlic

one 14.5 ounce can italian-style stewed tomatoes

1/2 of a 28-ounce package frozen diced hash brown potatoes with onions and peppers (about 4 cups)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Add all ingredients to a crock pot.
Cover and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours (or one extended work day) or high-heat setting for 4-5 hours.

You could also combine the ingredients in a 1-gallon freezer bag, and freeze until ready to prepare. You don't even need to defrost - just put frozen mixture right in the crock pot. Man, I love my crock pot.

We served this over brown rice and I added corn to my portion. I really liked the corn, but I wouldn't add it to the crock pot. I cooked it as a side dish then decided I was too lazy to get another dish, so I just put it on top.

Enjoy!

Creamy Tomato Spinach Pasta

2012-04-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

Saturday was date night.

We saw a movie where I only snapped at one person who insisted on texting during all the most harrowing scenes.

I'll call that a victory!

Then we spent way too much on a wonderful dinner:

~ a gimlet ~

~ caesar salad (tried anchovies for the first time) ~

~ sourdough bread ~

~ onion ring tower appetizer (with three dipping sauces) ~

~ Layer Cake merlot ~

~ lobster macaroni and cheese ~

~ grilled asparagus ~

~ a full pound of medium-rare kansas city strip ~

and

~ chocolate velvet cake ~

and that was just what I ordered.

No, I'm not kidding.

Luckily I had the sense to bring a lot of that home for breakfast and lunch on Sunday.

No, I'm not kidding - I definitely had cake for breakfast.

Everything was wonderful; however, by Sunday night, we felt it was best to eat something a little less "meaty."

I had a batch of Easy Tomato Basil Cream sauce in the freezer and figured this would be the perfect time to use it. It's a vegan recipe that uses cashews to make the sauce creamy. I don't know why that works, but it does, and I don't question it.

I also had some mushroom and spinach pasta "sauce" in the freezer too, but I had my doubts about it. It really wasn't a sauce. It was more of spinach and mushrooms in olive oil.

So I did the only logical thing - combine the two. We now had a delicious vegan, creamy pasta sauce that was also full of vegetables. Totally hidden too - I'm thinking that may help people trying to get their kids to eat more veggies.

I've started making smoothies in the morning and I always add a huge handful of spinach. It gets completely blended it and you can't taste it at all. So I have a new theory that you can pretty much blend spinach into anything and you won't even notice.

I also veggie pasta. Have you used this stuff? There is a carrot variety too. It's really delicious.

(not entirely - I also used wheat penne and wheat macaroni).

Ingredients (adapted from Oh She Glows)

1 large tomato, chopped

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

4 tablespoons white wine

1 cup fresh basil, chopped

2 cups fresh spinach

8 ounces mushrooms

1 large onion, chopped

3 cups dry pasta

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.
Add tomatoes, cashews, water, and tomato paste to blender and blend until smooth.
Heat olive oil in medium skillet over low heat. Add garlic, onions, and mushrooms. Saute for a few minutes. Add spinach and saute until wilted.
Add spinach, garlic, onion, mushroom mix to blender and blend again. This step is optional if you want the veggies to stay chunky. I wanted a smooth sauce with the veggies "hidden."
Pour sauce to skillet and heat over medium heat, stir, and allow to simmer. Add salt and pepper and let cook for 4-5 minutes. Add wine to thing out, stirring occasionally.
Serve over pasta and enjoy a creamy sauce without dairy!

How I Plan Dinners a Month Ahead of Time

2012-04-02T11:30:00.000-04:00

The first thing I'll tell you is that it took a quite a bit a leg work in the beginning to set everything up, but once you have all your recipes in place, you can plan an entire months worth of meals in a matter of seconds. Hell, if I really wanted to, I could plan dinner for the next 5 years without blinking an eye.

When I tell people about my new adventures in cooking, the thing they're most interested in (and the thing they feel they could most use themselves) is my meal planning and freezer-meal cooking strategy. I talk to a lot of people who either because of work, or kids, or travel, or a reality TV addiction, feel they do the same stand-in-front-of-the-fridge-eating-peanut-butter-with-a-spoon routine for dinner every night.

So I decided to share the wealth and a) tell you how I do it and b) let you all in on a little downloadable meal planner that I developed.

I'm not going to lie, you'll need time to set this up, but once that's done, you'll be able to come home every night knowing what's for dinner and having it at least 90% prepared.

Do I have you interested yet?

The first thing you'll need to do is go through all your recipes and pick out what you're interested in. For us, I spent about 3 days sorting through the dozen or so cookbooks that have been gathering dust on our shelf, marking every recipe that was interesting and dairy-free.

Each tab or folded page has at least one marked recipe.

And then the nerdy fun began!

I developed an excel spreadsheet with every recipe I wanted to try. At the beginning of each month, I run the generator and create a menu for the month. It populates 31 cells with recipe names (with no repeats). From there, I sort through the recipes to make a shopping list, buy all the ingredients, and prepare the meals for the freezer.

There are definitely a few things I love about this system:

No guessing. The menu is planned. I mean we certainly stray sometimes, but generally, if it's on the menu, that's what we're eating that night. I never have to think about what I'm going to make for dinner.
It gets me to try new things. Since it's on the menu and the ingredients are already in the freezer, I'm going to eat it. That shit's not going to waste.
Dinner is already done (or nearly done) by the time I get home. I don't even need to prepare it most nights - just heat it up.
There are no repeat meals (aside from leftovers) in a single month. It took a while to figure out that excel formula to do that, but it's in there now so you don't have to worry about it.
It's quick. All you have to do is double-click and a full menu is generated. You could plan meals for a year in just a few seconds. Actually making a year's worth of food is a different story.
It's cheaper. You're not stopping on the way home to pick up dinner or making "quick" trips to the grocery store. Also, it makes a lot of food (for two people at least). We finished January's meals half-way through February and now it's April and we're still eating meals prepared in mid-February. That HAS to be saving us money.

So if I've finally convinced you that having Microsoft Excel decide what you're going to eat for the next month is awesome, a full tutorial on how to download and use the meal planner is provided below!

Enjoy!

Generator Tutorial

Step 1

Download the spreadsheet

p.s. This file is hosted at my other website. Just click the link and the file will download. No registration, no names, no viruses. I don't even know how to tell who's downloaded the file - if you're concerned about that stuff.

p.p.s The template does not have recipes in it. All the tables are developed, all the links are in place, but you're going to have to fill in your recipes. This is because a) I don't want to violate any copyrights; and b) how should I know what you like to eat :).

Step 2

(I'm assuming you figured out how to save it and open it)

This is the first page you'll see:

There really isn't anything to do on this page. Everything will fill in automatically from the recipe pages - where you fill in the information.

There are a series of tab across the bottom: Menu, Cookbook 1, Cookbook 2, Cookbook 3, Online 1, Online 2, and Magazine 1. These are just filler names. I recommend changing them to the books or websites from which the recipe comes.

I've left spaces for 20 recipes from each source. If you have more or less just insert or delete, but watch that the formulas adjust appropriately.

Column A is for the recipe source (this does not fill in automatically - you'll need to edit these).

Column B is the name of each recipe (don't type anything in these cells - they'll fill in automatically when you enter the recipes on the cookbook tabs). Each recipe name is linked so if you click on a name, it will take you to that recipe on the appropriate tab.

Column D is a number for each day, 1-31.

and, Column E is where the random recipes are listed.

Step 3

This is where you come in.

Click on the tabs across the bottom and you'll find sheets like this one. This is where you're going to enter your recipes. The is a space for recipe name, location (i.e., page number or website address), prep time, whether it can be made as a freezer meal, ingredients, and notes. Notes can be recipe adjustments, reviews, or directions.

Here's an example of how I filled in a recipe.

Then, if you go back to the Menu tab, you'll see that the name has automatically fill into the first spot. And, if it's one of pre-filled random selections, you'll see it in Column F too (see Day 12 in the photo below). Again, each name under "Main Course" is linked to the recipe. So when day 12 comes around, find Beef Stroganoff on the list, click it, and it will take you to the recipe tab.

Step 4

Once you enter all your recipe information, you're menu tab will be fully functional.

In order to get the random meals list to regenerate: double-click on the meal next to Day 1 and hit enter. The whole column will pick random means from your list in the Main Course column (which fills in from all your recipes) See how that works!

The random meals list is really sensitive will regenerate anytime you format a cell so I usually copy the list and paste it as values in the column labeled "Menu"

If you're not familiar with "paste special," highlight the cells in the Random Meals column, copy, and right-click on the cell you want to paste the information. Select "Paste Special" and choose "values." This will give you the names of the recipes, but they won't change.

When you're ready to cook, find your day, see what's for dinner, find that meal on the Main Course list, click and it will take you right to the recipe.

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So that's it for the meal planning portion. Like I said, it's going to take time filling in all your recipes, but once it's done, your whole menu for the next 31 days is planned with a double-click.

I also added a shopping list page that you can print out when you're ready to start cooking.

When I finally run out of last month's meals, I'll make a big shopping list based on all the meals picked out for that month.

It really takes a full day of cooking, chopping, bagging, etc. but then I'm done! No more cooking dinner for a month! Totally worth it! Highly recommended!

I can't really give specifics on freezing meals as each one is dependant on what you make, but as I post recipes here I'll try to give my tips. Basically, I'll chop veggies, marinate meat, combine ingredients, and put them all in freezer bags; label each one with the contents, source, and page number; and put them all in the freezer.

When it's time to cook, I'll take the meal out the night before and let it defrost. The next evening I just have to reheat, or grill, or saute the veggies, or whatever.

Hope you're able to get some use out of this and let me know if you have any questions!

If anyone actually tries this, I would love to know your thoughts, if it worked for you, and what can be done to improve it!

Chicken Puttanesca 2.0

2012-04-01T13:26:00.000-04:00

Maybe I'm cheating a little by putting up a re-do so quickly, but I really don't have anything else to post. I've been so unmotivated to cook this week, that I got caught up on my posts and now have nothing to show for it.

This week we basically ate the last few recipes I've posted and leftovers (and more leftovers). There are only two of us and most of these recipes make a lot! I mean we got 6 servings out of the shepherd's pie (which we ate so quickly, I ended up with really crappy photos), two full meals (and a lunch) out of the quick skillet steak and onions, and the original chicken puttanesca made at least 10 servings.

If you read the original chicken puttanesca recipe, you'll remember that it was good, but not fantastic. I thought it was a little dry. But, like I said, this made a lot so we ate a few servings then put the rest in the freezer for next time, but not before I added mushrooms and more sauce.

Now we have a winner!

The first time I made this it was more like flavored chicken over orzo, but we much preferred a meal that was more like spaghetti with chicken, more saucy. So good!

I really recommend this version of the recipe. It's really easy, really cheap, it's not quick, but takes little effort, and you'll have enough to feed a family for a week.

New and Improved Ingredients

(adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Ultimate Slow Cooker magazine)

2.5 pounds chicken breasts

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper (upped from 1/8 teaspoons, but we like pepper)

two 26-ounce jar of pasta sauce with olives (I couldn't find sauce that specifically had olives so I just used regular spaghetti sauce)

1 tablespoons drained capers

1 teaspoon lemon zest

8 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced

3 cups orzo, cooked according to package directions

Directions (ready-to-eat version)

Place chicken in crock pot. Sprinkled with salt and pepper.
Mix sauce, capers, and lemon peel in a large bowl and pour over chicken in slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low-heat for 6-7 hours or high-heat for 3-3.5 hours.
Serve chicken and sauce over hot-cooked orzo.

Directions (freezer version)

Combine all ingredients (except pasta) in a 1-gallon freezer bag. Freeze until ready to eat.
When ready to cook, allow to defrost completely.
Empty bag into crock pot and cover and cook on low-heat for 6-7 hours or high-heat for 3-3.5 hours.
Serve chicken and sauce over hot-cooked orzo.

Quick Skillet Steak and Onions

2012-03-30T13:30:00.000-04:00

So on Thursday my trainer asked me if I was doing anything fun this weekend.

I hung my head in shame and said,

"Beer, bourbon, BBQ festival."

Then I forgot all about my trainer (aside from the fact that I couldn't climb stairs or do anything that involved my legs - you know like getting out of cars or sitting down to pee), sampled bourbon, drank beer, and downed pulled pork like a boss.

It was awesome.

And then I came home and had to face reality.

Beer-less, bourbon-less, BBQ-less reality.

Reality where I have to make Sunday dinner.

At least this was delicious and super quick and pretty healthy too. About a 100 calories a serving - well the meat and onions, not including the rice and carrots, but really how much can that add?

This was so good. How could you go wrong with mushrooms and sauteed onions? I think every recipe I try on here starts with sauteing mushrooms and onions.

The next day I served this as fajita filling and it was outstanding. :)

Ingredients (adapted from Skinnytaste.com)

1/2 pound beef round, cut into thin strips

1 large onion, sliced into rings

1/2 tsp olive oil

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

cooking spray

garlic powder to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Slice steak into thin strips, season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Heat large skillet and spray with cooking spray. Just remember to take the pan away from the stove when you spray it - that spray is flammable.
Cook meat for 2 minutes or so, turning/stirring to cook on all dies.
Remove meat from pan and add onions. Cook on high heat for 3-4 minutes, until browned.
Add mushrooms and saute for another few minutes.
Add meat back to pan, just to heat up a little.
Serve over brown rice or however you'd like.

To prepare ahead of time as a freezer meal, cut meat and season. Put in 1-gallon ziplock bag. Chop onions and mushrooms and freeze in separate bags. When ready to cook, defrost completely and cook as directed above.

Shepherd's Pie

2012-03-28T15:08:00.000-04:00

This was so good.

So good, that hubs and I finished two dish-fuls before I even took a photo.

Leaving me with this gem of a photo:

Doesn't that look fabulous!

I realize that I probably could have styled this a little better, but let's face it, this really illustrates how we couldn't even put the forks down long enough to take a photo.

Two days later this is all that's left.

It tasted like super tasty meatloaf with potatoes and vegetables. Plus we had a little ketchup on the side for dippin' and this really felt like it could have come out of a good 'ole home cookin' cookbook. The smoked paprika on top was just for extra credit.

Ingredients (adapted from Favorite Brand Name Classic Recipe Collection)

1 pound of lean ground beef

1 large onion (chopped)

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

one 10-ounce package frozen mixed vegetables (cooked and drained)

1 package brown gravy mix

1 cup water

1 egg, beaten

3 cups mashed potatoes

smoked paprika

Directions

In a large skillet, cook ground beef and onion over medium-high heat until beef is browned. Drain fat.
Add seasoned salt and mixed vegetables, mix well.
Prepare brown gravy mix with one cup water, according to directions. Add some gravy to beaten egg; gradually add egg-gravy mixture to gravy, stirring constantly.
Combine gravy with meat.
Place meat in 2-quart casserole dish, arrange potatoes in mounds over the meat. Sprinkle top with paprika.
Bake, uncovered on 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated.

Miscarriage, Weight Loss, & Angel Food Cake

2012-03-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

When I started this post, I really debated on how personal I should get. I certainly didn't want to cross the TMI line (and don't worry I don't think I do), but when I started writing, it all just flowed and made sense so I went with it. I've learned to trust things like that.

Basically I'm telling you this as a warning that I take a real round-about way to getting to my point here and I have no problem if you'd like to skip to the recipe portion of the post - it is totally awesome :).

Last year, I

~~had some medical issues that caused me to gain about 10 pounds~~

got pregnant.

The boy and I were thrilled. We started preparing our lives for the addition of another. We re-did the bathroom, stockpiled books, started clearing out our collection of live electrical wires and candy-shaped rat poison, ya know, the usual nesting behaviors.

I felt good for the most part, except that I couldn't eat vegetables or fruit (and especially not sugar, but that doesn't really add anything to my point). The only things I could eat fell into the "bread and cheese" category - macaroni and cheese, bagels and cream cheese, cheese sandwiches, you get the idea. This a) did not do any favors for my lactose-intolerant husband; and b) caused me to gain 10 pounds within the first 3 months. Oops.

Actually, make that, 10 additional pounds, 10 pounds on top of the 30 I was already trying to lose when I got pregnant. I tried to not let it bother me. Most of the people I talked to said they had similar weight-gain experiences.

Then, at 14 weeks, we learned that we lost the baby. It never developed past 11 weeks.

Needless to say we were devastated. To make matters worse we had just announced to friends and family that we were expecting, and now had to tell everyone that it wasn't going to happen.

That was probably the worst part - I just felt so stupid for jumping the shark and announcing before knowing that everything was ok. Then again, I guess you never really know if everything is ok, and things can happen at any point in pregnancy. But they specifically tell you to wait until after the first trimester to "be in the clear" and here we were, into the second trimester, thinking everything was fine. It never occurred to us hold off announcing until after our 12-week doctor appointment. We just thought that 12 weeks was magic number, after which everything was good to go.

I'm self-conscious that I say the worst part was telling people. I feel most people would probably say that losing the baby was the worst part. And well, obviously, it was, but I just feel I had no control over that. It's hard for me to be regretful over something I couldn't change. I mean I was the dumbass who went and told everyone without waiting for more information. Blame it on excitement.

Once we processed the initial grief, I started to feel like we were getting a second chance. I mean we got pregnant right away. I was thinking it could take a year or so, but that wasn't the case, and I'll admit, I was caught a bit off guard. Delightfully off guard, but still.

Now we had a few more (well, hopefully only a few more) months to save money, work on the house, take vacations, drink wine, be alone as husband and wife, and get in shape and lose weight before getting pregnant again.

It didn't help that this all coincided with the onset of the holiday season - emotional eating and pumpkin pie are a dangerous combination.

(+5 pounds).

End 2011.

So there we were, wanting to try again soon, my body refusing to give up the weight it had gained, and not really knowing were to start. I mean, I've always known what I was supposed to do - more veggies, no diet soda, many small meals throughout the day, only one box of Girl Scout cookies in a sitting, but when you get home at 8:00 s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g, it's just easier to stand in the pantry and alternating between handfuls of salty (i.e., baked cheetos) and sweet (i.e. chocolate chips) until your husband comes home and the two of you stand in front of the freezer until you settle on peanut butter sandwiches. Again.

First thing on my list: take control of my eating. While the main point of all the meal planning and revamping our recipe collection was to figure out how to cook dairy-free, there was also the goal of cooking healthier. I have 40 pounds that I'd like to lose before baby. Not sure if that's going to happen (i.e., I'm not going to stop it from happening until I lose 40 pounds), but I'm willing to give it a valiant effort.

I've since signed up with a personal trainer (who kicked my ass so hard on Thursday, that I still couldn't climb stairs on Sunday). And, once my body released its death-grip on the extra pounds it refused to let go of for the first two months, I'm down a few pounds. It's not much, but it's a start and the only thing I can do is keep working at it and keep making healthy recipes.

(if you skipped ahead, start reading here)

I've realized that "all-or-nothing" diets (and I mean diet as in, the food that someone eats - not as in a fad diet, as in, "a panda lives on a diet of bamboo") don't work for me. As soon as you tell me I can't have something, nothing else will do. So I wanted to work in options for not-so-bad-for-you, dairy-free desserts as well.

Enter (again) Pinterest! I saw this recipe for angle food cake made only with cake mix and pie filling and it looked really interesting. However, while this doesn't have all the oil, etc. that normally gets added to cake mix, it still called for a can of pie filling, and I didn't even want to know how much sugar and artificial who-knows-what was in that can.

So I tried a more natural version. Using a pint of fresh blueberries and some frozen raspberries, I made up a quick cake with fist-sized pieces that have only about 150 calories a piece. I didn't even need to add sugar, the cake mix had plenty to counteract any tartness the berries may have had.

This was so delicious. It tasted so...is "fresh" the right word. I mean, it just didn't have that processed taste. It was really good - sweet, full of blueberry flavor, guilt-free. I will definitely be adding this to the weight-loss-while-eating-desserts menu. And who knows, maybe this will be a favorite of my someday-kids. :)

Ingredients

one box of angle food cake mix

one pint blueberries

one handful (about 1 cup) frozen raspberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350
Add blueberries and raspberries to a medium sauce pan and cook over med-low heat. If need be, add a little water so the berries don't burn, but I just let them cook down for 15-20 minutes.
Let the mixture cool (to avoid burns specifically) and mix with cake mix in large bowl.
Pour batter into 9x13 pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center).
Let cool, sprinkle with powder sugar if you'd like, slice, and serve.

Enjoy responsibly!

Chicken Marsala

2012-03-25T17:12:00.001-04:00

"I love cooking with wine and sometimes I even put it in the food."

I'm sort of embarrassed to say that the concept of cooking with wine (and by "cooking" I mean adding it to the food) was completely foreign to me.

What? You just put wine into the pan? And you, like, cook the meat in it? But then what goes in the red solo cup that I just happen to carry around in my purse.

Then it occurred to me that all the recipes were telling to add wine because it might actually improve my flavorless cooking. But then you have an open bottle of wine laying around...

"And you finished off the whole bottle?"

"I had to, it's ~~vodka~~ wine. It goes bad once it's opened."

(bonus points if you know the reference)

Turns out that wine makes everything more delicious. Who knew? Oh, that's right, everyone who's ever written a cookbook. I do really like the idea though that if you can't use milk, just use Pinot Grigio.

You're supposed to dredge the chicken in flour before cooking it up, but I made this as a freezer meal, so some of the flour soaked into the chicken so I dredged them a second time. This added a really nice coating and flavor.

I also added a little flour to the sauce to thicken it up.

Overall this was fabulous (and as with all my chicken recipes, go great on salad the next day).

Ingredients (adapted from Savory Sweet Life)

2 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

8 ounces container of mushroom, sliced and cleaned

2 tablespoons margarine

1/2 cup sweet Marsala wine

1/4 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons flour

Directions

Cut each chicken breast horizontally so you have two thin pieces. Wrap each one in plastic and pound with a meat tenderizer until they are about 1/4-inch thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste on both sides. Place some flour on a plate and and dredge each piece of chicken in it.
If you're making this as a freezer meal, I wrapped the dredged chicken in Press n' Seal and placed them in freezer bags at this point. I also chopped mushrooms and measured out liquid ingredients (aside from olive oil) and froze them separate bags.
To cook, remove from freezer and defrost completely before cooking. Again, I dredged the chicken again at this point.
Heat the oil over medium-high heat saute each piece of chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side until they are golden brown. Remove chicken and place them on your serving platter covering them with foil.
Reduce the heat to medium and add mushrooms. You may need to add a little more oil. Saute mushrooms for 4-5 minutes making sure to season them with salt and pepper lightly. Add marsala wine, white wine, and chicken stock allowing the liquid to reduce slightly. I also added a handful of flour to thicken the sauce.
Serve chicken with spoonfuls of mushrooms and sauce.

One more photo for good luck

Rosemary Garlic Roast Beef

2012-03-23T13:00:00.000-04:00

When I started being "in charge" of dinner, things like "roast beef" sounded so 1950s. Like something Lucile Ball would forget about in the oven, causing the house to fill with smoke, and comedy to ensue as she tries to fan the flames and save dinner just in time for Ricky's new boss to arrive.

Wahhh!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I had this impression that roast beef was some sort of process that took all day. That somehow I wouldn't be able to make it unless I also possessed a pink polka dot dress, a lace apron, and a henna-dyed hairdo.

But I thought I'd give it a try when I saw a one-page recipe in Everyday Cooking.

Usually Martha Stewart has a way of making me feel grossly inadequate. I mean I can't even fold a goddam fitted sheet, no matter how many times she tells me to match up the corners. But in this case, I decided to throw caution to the wind and make this when the pressure was really on.

No my husband's boss wasn't coming over to discuss the big merger - there was far more pressure on me.

My parents were coming over for dinner.

Everything went perfectly (not that I was actually worried). My parents are so sweet, I'm not sure they would even tell me if it came out terribly. But that's where my husband never fails. If he doesn't like it. he'll let me know - which is a good thing.

He loved it, had a second helping, and ate it again the next night.

I'll have no trouble adding this to my regular rotation. All you do is sear it, rub it, roast it, rest it. (I wish I could think of a word that means sear, but starts with "r"). Oh well, still simple enough.

Ingredients (adapted from Everyday Cooking Magazine)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1 top round beef roast trimmed and tied (about 3 pounds)

2 pounds small potatoes

1 bag baby carrots

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon olive oil, rosemary, garlic, and lemon zest; season with salt and pepper.
In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat. Pat beef dry and add to skillet. Increase heat to high and cook, turning several times until the beef is seared on all sides. About 10 minutes.
Transfer roast to roasting pan. Brush or spoon rosemary mixture over roast and place in oven. Roast 20 minutes. Remove from oven and place potatoes and carrots around pan and toss in juices.
Roast until potatoes and carrots are tender and beef is medium rare (120 to 125 degrees on a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the roast). About 30-35 minutes.
Transfer roast to a cutting board, and tent loosely with foil. Let rest 10 minutes. (We like our carrots and potatoes cooked more so while the meat rested, I added a little water to the pan to stir up the meat juices and put the vegetables back in the oven while the roast rested.
Slice thinly and serve with potatoes and carrots.

Lime-Marinated Flank Steak

2012-03-21T11:13:00.000-04:00

I don't have much of an intro to this one. I'm a little behind on my posts and Kill Bill is on TV and keeps pulling my focus away from what I came here to do.

Which was what again?

Oh yeah, recipes, no dairy, lime-marinated flank steak, and so on.

I'd have to give this on an "OK". Maybe it's because I just had this as meat and veggies, but I bet it would be really good as fajita filling or on a roll like a steak sandwich. For me it was just missing something...probably a tortilla or a hoagie roll.

My husband had it on a roll and really like it that way, so I'm just going to go ahead and suggest you prepare this as fajita filling.

But I did really enjoy the lime kick. It's not really a flavor combination that I've tried before and it really worked well. And really you can never go wrong with sauteed red peppers and onions.

Ingredients (from Eat Well, Lose Weight)

1 pound beef flank steak

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 limes)

6 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons fresh oregano

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Trim steak and score both sides in a diamond pattern. Place steak in 1-gallon ziplock bag.
For marinade, in a small bowl, combine water, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, oregano, and chili powder. Pour marinade into bag with steak and allow to marinate for 1 to 2 hours. Or, if you're making a freezer version of this. Just put that bag in the freezer for when you're ready to cook.
Drain steak, reserving marinade.
Grill 17-20 minutes until desired doneness. Coating with marinade while grilling and turning once.
To serve, thinly slice beef across grain.

I also served this with sauteed onions and red peppers. To make, heat olive oil over medium-high heat add one sliced onion and one sliced red pepper. Cook about 6 minutes until tender. Stirring often.

Puttanesca Chicken

2012-03-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

Another day, another hard-to-pronounce, impossible to spell (yet delicious) meal. Maybe the harder to say, the better the meal? Hmm...Unless they figure out a new way to pronounce "Reeses Peanut Butter Egg," I'm going to say it's just a theory.

This might be one of my husbands new favorites. He loves tomato saucey meals and this was was just about guaranteed to please. It has just a little bit of capers for a kick and turns out I love orzo.

This is another great freezer/crock pot meal. Just put all the ingredients in a bag; put the bag in the freezer; and when you're ready to cook, defrost, and put it in the crock pot.

I will say it could have used a little more sauce. The chicken had great flavor, but I wanted it to be a little more of a sauce and pasta meal than flavored chicken and pasta meal. Does that make sense?

This made so much too, probably about ten 1-cup servings. We ended up eating it for a few days before putting the rest in the freezer for next time. When I put it back in the freezer, I added mushrooms and another jar of sauce to next time.

Ingredients (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Ultimate Slow Cooker magazine)

2.5 pounds chicken breasts

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

one 26-ounce jar of pasta sauce with olives (I couldn't find sauce that specifically had olives so I just used regular spaghetti sauce)

1 tablespoons drained capers

1 teaspoon lemon zest

3 cups orzo, cooked according to package directions

Directions (ready-to-eat version)

Place chicken in crock pot. Sprinkled with salt and pepper.
Mix sauce, capers, and lemon peel in a large bowl and pour over chicken in slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low-heat for 6-7 hours or high-heat for 3-3.5 hours.
Serve chicken and sauce over hot-cooked orzo.

Directions (freezer version)

Combine all ingredients (except pasta) in a 1-gallon freezer bag. Freeze until ready to eat.
When ready to cook, allow to defrost completely.
Empty bag into crock pot and cover and cook on low-heat for 6-7 hours or high-heat for 3-3.5 hours.
Serve chicken and sauce over hot-cooked orzo.

Beef Bourguignon

2012-03-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

I spent most of the weekend watching movies on the couch. Take that to-do list!

I did get up off the couch just long enough to put together this awesome meal. But don't worry, that was it. I was back on the couch in time for The Simpsons.

I have to say, I was a little skeptical about this recipe. I've never really been a big fan of beef bourguignon to begin with, then I had to make it dairy-free and without egg noodles (which we don't like), but this was great!

This produced a delicious meal with thick sauce, tender meat, and just enough spices. The recipe calls for mushrooms, but I ran out. I will definitely add then next time. It wasn't bad without them, but I love mushrooms.

Ingredients (adapted from Favorite Brand Name Classic Recipe Collection)

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 pound boneless sirloin or top round steak, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cups sliced crimini mushroom

1/3 cup chopped shallots

14.5-ounce can beef broth

1/4 cup dry red wine

3/4 cup sliced carrots

Fettucini noodles
2 tablespoons flour (if freezing)

Directions (ready-to-eat)

Combine flour, thyme, and pepper in 1-gallon ziplock bag. Add steak and shake to coat with flour mixture.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add steak and cook for 3 minutes or until seared on all sides. Remove from skillet and set aside.
Meanwhile, boil water and cook pasta according to directions, then set aside.
In steak skillet, add mushrooms and shallots; cook about 3 minutes, or until tender.
Add 1/4 cup water, beef broth, and wine. Bring to a boil. Add noodles, steak, carrots. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 5 minutes or until pasta is tender. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Directions (freezer version)

Combine flour, thyme, and pepper in 1-gallon ziplock bag. Add steak and shake to coat with flour mixture. Set aside for freezing.
Chop mushrooms, carrots, and shallots. Add to small freezer bag and set aside for freezing.
Combine water, beef broth, and wine in small (leakproof) ziplock bag and set aside for freezing.
Add all bags to larger bag and freeze until ready to eat. Then, defrost completely before preparing.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add steak and cook for 3 minutes or until seared on all sides. Remove from skillet and set aside.
Meanwhile, boil water and cook pasta until al dente (you're going to finish cooking the noodles in the sauce). I added a few tablespoons of flour to thicken the sauce. I'm not sure if the ready-to-eat version would need this, but I liked it.
In steak skillet, add mushrooms and shallots; cook about 3 minutes, or until tender.
Bring to a boil. Add noodles, steak, carrots. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 5 minutes or until pasta is tender. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Vegan-ish Stuffed Shells

2012-03-14T19:38:00.000-04:00

One of my biggest issues with the term "dairy-free" is that when you search "dairy-free" you get 3,000 vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, feather-free...recipes.

Now, I have nothing against veganism or allergen-free recipes, but

We eat meat;
We don't have any issues with gluten;
While I am allergic to feathers, most recipes suggest that you pluck the chicken before baking; and
Probably the biggest reason that I try to find recipes that don't call for dairy products to begin with, my husband won't eat tofu, soy cheese, soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, rice cheese, anything that pretends to be cheese, anything that looks like it might be a replacement for cheese...

So I can't even try to sneak anything into a meal to see if he'll eat it. I mean if we normally ate macaroni and cheese, I could make a batch with soy and see how it goes, but if I put a plate of mac and cheese in front of him, he's on to me.

When I saw this recipe for vegan stuffed shells, I knew it wasn't something I would normally try, especially with someone who was acutely aware that any stuffed shells I serve must have some sort of dairy-free contraband.

But I have to admit, these were great! I (no, really) could not tell the difference between what would normally be ricotta and what was now extra firm tofu and I loved the addition of spinach. And the sautéed onions and garlic I added really boosted the flavor.

I also added a little ground beef (that's why they're vegan-ish) - call it a bribe to get the boy to try it.

The verdict - he ate them!

And more importantly, he liked them!

We're one step closer to vegan macaroni and cheese!

I made this as another one of my freezer meals so I've included those instructions below as well, but really this didn't take long to make at all.

Sauté onions and garlic, boil noodles, mix ingredients, stuff shells, add sauce, bake.

Enjoy!

Ingredients (adapted from PBS Food)

1 lb ground beef

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried oregano

16 ounces extra firm tofu

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (available at Whole Foods in the vitamin section)

10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed

1 box jumbo shells

1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce

I also added some pizza sauce because I like the sweeter sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Start to cook shells according to package directions until al dente.
Brown ground beef in skillet until throughly cooked. Remove from pan and set aside in large bowl.
Add olive oil to hot pan and sauté onions over medium-high heat until tender, add garlic and sauté for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add to reserved meat.
Drain tofu and pat dry with paper towels. Add tofu, salt, oregano, and nutritional yeast to a food processor and process at high speed until the texture is similar to ricotta cheese.
Mix tofu mixture, meat and onion mixture, and spinach.
Pour 1/2 cup marinara sauce into bottom of 9x13 inch pan.
Assuming noodles are done by now, drain and spoon about 2-3 tablespoons of the tofu mixture into each noodle and place the shells seam side down into the pan. Repeat until all shells are stuffed.
Pour remaining sauce over shells and bake for 30 minutes.

If you're making this as a freezer meals, prepare shells as directed above, but put them in a freezer-compatible dish and freeze. When ready to cook, defrost completely and pop into the oven.

Oven Fried Chicken

2012-03-12T13:00:00.000-04:00

Oven friend chicken has been around as long as the internet. Actually, it's probably been around longer than the internet. Wow...I've been around longer than the internet. I'm old. And, since I'm old and don't have the energy to do things like make dinner when I come home from work.

Enter, another delicious freezer meal.

Oven fried chicken is easy to make, flavorful, and is great on salads the next day.

This version was adapted from Milk-free Kitchen by Beth Kidder and it creates a golden, crispy, spice-ful chicken dish. And, if you make this ahead of time, all you have to do is pop it in the oven for about an hour.

Ingredients (adapted from Milk-free Kitchen by Beth Kidder)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine

1 pound chicken tenders

1/3 cup crushed saltine crackers

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Crush crackers and mix in thyme, salt, and pepper.
Melt margarine in microwave-safe dish.
Dip chicken in margarine then cracker mixture.
If freezing, place chicken pieces on a baking sheet and place sheet in the freezer. Once frozen, place chicken in ziplock bag and freeze until needed. When ready to cook, defrost completely and continue with directions.
Place chicken on baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
Bake for 45 minutes, turning chicken every 15 minutes until cooked throughly and the outside is crispy.

Biscoff Blondies

2012-03-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

My day job has me traveling quite a bit. I'm pretty much gone one week per month from April to November. Which is a lot, but they've sent me to some awesome places. I've been 2 hrs from the nearest paved road in Wyoming; I've been 4 hours from the nearest radio station in Nebraska; and I've spent a night in Chicken, Alaska.

Yes, there really is a place called Chicken.

And I've spent the night there.

Beautiful downtown Chicken.

Actually, that's the entire town.

With all this traveling, I've become a bit of an expert flier. And I can tell you that hands down, Delta has the best in-flight snack.

That's why I always try to fly Delta. Not because I have so many frequent flier miles that I get free upgrades and free baggage. Not because they're often the best price from BWI. Not because they offer the most flight options to places west of the Mississippi. I pay $400 a ticket so that I can get a free $0.03 cookie.

Ever have one of these?

They are delicious! A wonderful cinnamon-y inflight treat that makes me overlook that they're showing Zookeeper and my iPhone is about to die.

Then, through the wonders of pinterest, I learned that they make Biscoff spread! And THEN I learned that they sell it in my regular grocery store! I did a little happy dance that day. It's like a cookie in a jar! I bought two jars and ate one for dinner.

I was able to not eat the second jar long enough to make something with it: Biscoff Blondies.

Talk about fantastic! I brought these to poker night last night and they were gone in a flash. Everyone loved them!

They retain a gooey, undercooked center even though they're fully cooked. The white chocolate balances perfectly with the cinnamon flavor and, all in all, they're not terribly unhealthy. Don't get me wrong, these aren't diet food, but with only 1/2 stick of butter, they have 150 calories and 8 grams of fat. Not too bad for such a decadent dessert.

Ingredients (adapted from Picky Palate)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine
1 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (divided into two 3/4 cup portions)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup Biscoff spread

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover an 8x8 baking pan with foil and spray with non-stick spray.
Melt margarine in microwave-safe bowl for 30-40 seconds. When done, add 3/4 cup white chocolate chips and let sit for a minute to melt chips. Stir chips and margarine until smooth.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.
Add eggs, biscoff spread, and butter and white chocolate chip mixture. Mix throughly. Add 3/4 cup of white chocolate chips and mix to combine.
Transfer to a baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely and and cut into squares. Mine were about 1.5 inches square and it made 25 servings.