I found a website today called supercook.com where you can enter the ingredients you have on hand and it will give you a large list of recipes that you have the ingredients to make! I got this recipe for southwestern chicken from it today. Normally I'm very skeptical about southwestern style things because they end up being too spicy for me and too spicy for the kids. This one though had a nice blend of flavors! I did notice that a lot of juice came off while cooking, so when it was all done I took the chicken out of the pan, added some flour tot eh extra liquid, and whipped that up for a few minutes to make a bit of a sauce. Then I heated the chicken in the microwave for a few seconds so they wouldn't be cold, and poured the sauce over it. To go with it I cooked some brown rice in the slow cooker with a teaspoon or two of low sodium taco seasoning a few shakes of cumin, and a healthy sprinkle of dried minced onions. When it was all cooked I added some corn and about half a can of black beans (I drained and rinsed them first). The rice had a really mild flavor, which was good because it didn't overpower the chicken, and also didn't drown it in blandness. I've noticed more and more that I don't measure very often. I just add until it looks about right and smell it after a few minutes of cooking. Some things flop but this went rather well. My usually VERY picky three year old asked for seconds and told me several times that he likes chicken!
This was also a good opportunity to use what we have on hand. The rice was part of our food storage (obviously not from the cannery since they don't have brown rice) The corn and chicken were part of our frozen food, the beans had been canned but I used half of the can in another recipe a while back so I froze the rest to use another day so that worked out great, and I always have those spices on hand! Not to mention that it was pretty healthy. I used a little less salt than the recipe calls for in the chicken, though it doesn't call for much. With the holidays going on we've recently been eating food that had been way too unhealthy for us! My husband even got sick this weekend from eating (someone else's) turkey deep fried in lard (though he was raised with old fashioned fatty food, he's gotten used to the reduced sodium, whole grain goodness that I usually make!) So we were all glad to be eating high fiber, low sodium and low fat stuff again! Who knew such healthy food would be so welcome!
Just thinking of all the lard that must have been involved in deep frying that turkey, I can feel my arteries clogging!
They guy who made the turkey insisted that it wasn't bad because it was a natural fat and not hydrogenated oil. To me.....fat is still fat, you don't need that much! I prefer to bake my turkey!
Showing posts with label Food Storage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food Storage. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Stove Top Beef and Penne Casserole
I am all about saving time and doing few dishes, so one pan meals really appeal to me! I have this recipe that is good, but the kids will only eat maybe one serving and the recipe makes a LOT. Good to freeze some and enjoy later. And it's not one pan, but we'll get into that in a minute.
2 cups dry penne pasta (or small pasta of your choice)
2 Lbs. lean ground beef
1 med onion, chopped
2 cans (12 fl. oz. each) evaporated milk
1 can (15 oz.) 100% pure pumpkin
1 can tomato sauce
1 Tbs. packed brown sugar
1 Tbs paprika
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
Cook pasta in large saucepan for 1 to 2 minutes less than package directions (pasta should be slightly firm in texture); drain.
Cook beef and onion in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until beef is no longer pink, drain. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in evaporated milk, pumpkin, tomato sauce, sugar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Cook, stirring occationally until mixture begins to simmer. Add pasta and peas; stir until heated.
I decided the other day to make this recipe, but ran into quite a few snafus. We were out of milk and out of evaporated milk, out of tomato sauce, I usually used cooked and pureed squash, but we didn't have any. To top it off, I started cooking only one pound of ground beef and realized that the recipe called for two pounds right around the time the first pound was done cooking and the rest of the beef was frozen and raw. I got to thinking about the website Everyday Food Storage where Crystal talks about replacing one or two things with food storage things to help incorporate it into your diet. She also has conversion charts for using non-instant powdered milk, which I happened to have on hand, in making things like evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk or buttermilk. We also had two fresh tomatoes, and died onions (another food storage item), so my recipe looked more like this:
1 heaping cup dry whole wheat penne pasta (macaroni works really well too)
1 pound ground beef
2 Tbs (about, I didn't really measure) dried chopped onions
1/2 cup + 1 Tbs dry powdered non-instant milk
1 1/2 cup water
2 finely diced tomatos
1 6 oz. jar of baby food-squash
1 scant T packed brown sugar
1 scant T paprika
1 scant Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 cup frozen peas
Cook beef with onion, drain, add powdered milk and water, stir VERY well, add dry pasta. Turn to medium heat, while heating, add other ingredients, cover, and simmer, stirring occationally. Cook for about 15 minutes or so until pasta is tender.
I really reduced the salt, it's one small change we've been working on to be a little healthier.
One pan, using what I had on hand, and it was really good! Since my tomatoes were so juicy it ended up being a little watery, but you could add a little flour or corn starch to thicken it up (interesting fact: flour will give sauces a more opaque appearance, while corn starch will give a more glossy, clear look). It would also be good with a side of some hot homemade biscuits!
2 cups dry penne pasta (or small pasta of your choice)
2 Lbs. lean ground beef
1 med onion, chopped
2 cans (12 fl. oz. each) evaporated milk
1 can (15 oz.) 100% pure pumpkin
1 can tomato sauce
1 Tbs. packed brown sugar
1 Tbs paprika
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
Cook pasta in large saucepan for 1 to 2 minutes less than package directions (pasta should be slightly firm in texture); drain.
Cook beef and onion in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until beef is no longer pink, drain. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in evaporated milk, pumpkin, tomato sauce, sugar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Cook, stirring occationally until mixture begins to simmer. Add pasta and peas; stir until heated.
I decided the other day to make this recipe, but ran into quite a few snafus. We were out of milk and out of evaporated milk, out of tomato sauce, I usually used cooked and pureed squash, but we didn't have any. To top it off, I started cooking only one pound of ground beef and realized that the recipe called for two pounds right around the time the first pound was done cooking and the rest of the beef was frozen and raw. I got to thinking about the website Everyday Food Storage where Crystal talks about replacing one or two things with food storage things to help incorporate it into your diet. She also has conversion charts for using non-instant powdered milk, which I happened to have on hand, in making things like evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk or buttermilk. We also had two fresh tomatoes, and died onions (another food storage item), so my recipe looked more like this:
1 heaping cup dry whole wheat penne pasta (macaroni works really well too)
1 pound ground beef
2 Tbs (about, I didn't really measure) dried chopped onions
1/2 cup + 1 Tbs dry powdered non-instant milk
1 1/2 cup water
2 finely diced tomatos
1 6 oz. jar of baby food-squash
1 scant T packed brown sugar
1 scant T paprika
1 scant Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 cup frozen peas
Cook beef with onion, drain, add powdered milk and water, stir VERY well, add dry pasta. Turn to medium heat, while heating, add other ingredients, cover, and simmer, stirring occationally. Cook for about 15 minutes or so until pasta is tender.
I really reduced the salt, it's one small change we've been working on to be a little healthier.
One pan, using what I had on hand, and it was really good! Since my tomatoes were so juicy it ended up being a little watery, but you could add a little flour or corn starch to thicken it up (interesting fact: flour will give sauces a more opaque appearance, while corn starch will give a more glossy, clear look). It would also be good with a side of some hot homemade biscuits!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Everyday Food Storage
I found a website recently that I absolutely adore! It's called everydayfoodstorage.net. Crystal is the lady that does this and she it AMAZING! He does how-to videos, has handouts, she even teaches classes to people in the Utah area (that's not us, but there may be some of you out there!). Prior to visiting her site, the only foods I could think to make from long term food storage were bread, pancakes, and wheat sprouts (she goes into those things too, but has SO much more!). I am amazed by this site. Crystal is incredible. I aspire to be like her. It's also helped motivate me to build up our long term food storage. We might not be able to fit a full year in this little place, but at least we can get a few months worth! Plus, I will definantly be trying her recipes and letting you all know what I think!
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