Simple Supper Friday: Mandarin Beef Stir Fry
Mandarin beef stir fry.
Whew, it’s been a busy day so far! I slept in until a little after 7 and then got up, changed, gathered my goods and drove to the food cart to replenish my treats. I was there about 90 minutes, then came home for a cup of green tea and a short bit of downtime before heading to Recreate for a 10 a.m. workout. I foam rolled and chatted with Jesse after the workout, and it was about 11:30 when I got home. Then, I cooked a big breakfast/brunch/lunch, whatever you want to call it (my first meal of the day) and enjoyed it in solitude. Now, it’s blogging and doing some other work at home. Then, after I finish my work, it’s on to studying exercise science and working on my homework. That class is really hard and complex, and I often feel lost when the teacher is lecturing. That equates to a lot of outside studying time to understand and know it!
Regarding the recipe, I’ve been getting a lot of citrus in my CSA boxes lately (grapefruit, oranges, mandarin oranges, etc.) and sometimes it ends up going bad before I use it. Jesse and I aren’t big citrus fruit eaters, so even if we do eat it, it takes effort and time to get through it. We like it, but it’s just not our preferred fruit that we would pick out ourselves. I actually don’t like grapefruit period, so Jesse is always responsible for those.
Anyway, as a means to use up some of the mandarin oranges we recently got in our box, I added some fresh-squeezed mandarin juice to this stir fry. I figured it would work well and boy, did it ever! I know it sounds generic, but the stir fry tasted so good with the mandarin juice. It really helped bring all the flavors together, and added a nice subtle sweetness. We ate our stir fry over scallion cauliflower rice (recipe below), but zucchini noodles or leafy greens would work as well. Heck, you can even eat it by itself.
For the stir fry:
- 1/2 Tbsp US Wellness Meats grass-fed tallow
- 1/2 lb skirt steak, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 1 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- 3-4 Tbsp coconut aminos
- Splash of low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 mandarin orange, juiced
- Splash of rice vinegar (yes, it’s okay!)
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- Melt the tallow in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and celery and let saute a couple minutes. Then, add the skirt steak and season with a little sea salt and pepper.
- Continue to cook a couple minutes, then add the mushrooms and carrots. Saute one minute more, then add the coconut aminos, mandarin orange juice, rice vinegar and red pepper flakes. Stir well, then after a minute or so, add the broccoli.
- Continue to cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Once sauce has thickened up a little bit, after about 3-5 minutes, remove from heat and serve over scallion cauliflower rice (recipe below).
Yields: 2-3 servings
For the scallion cauliflower rice:
- 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 Tbsp grass-fed butter
- 2-3 scallions (green onion), chopped
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- Add cauliflower to the food processor and pulse until it’s completely riced. If need be, you can do this in batches, depending on the size of your food processor.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Then, add the cauliflower rice and season to taste with sea salt and pepper. Continue to cook a few minutes until cauliflower is heated through. If you like your cauli rice a little browned, you can cook it a bit longer.
- Stir in the chopped scallions and serve.
Yields: 4-5 servings
Red Coconut Cauliflower Rice
Red coconut cauliflower rice.
This post was actually meant for yesterday, but life got busy and I didn’t get it done. Yes, I could have found the time, but I felt like there was no harm in waiting. Plus, I just wasn’t feeling it yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I love my little blog, but some days blogging just feels hard! Any of my fellow bloggers out there feel the same way?
Lately, I’ve been making cauliflower rice a lot more. I think it’s because I got a new bigger food processor that makes prep a breeze. You see, before, I was using a tiny 4-cup prep food processor and had to rice cauliflower in multiple batches, which took a fair amount of time. It didn’t come as a big surprise when the motor in that little guy crapped out. I always pushed its limits and take full credit for it’s death (on the bright side, I got my money back, even after having it for over a year). Now, my 11-cup Cuisinart rices the sh*t out of cauliflower! Thanks to my sis, Ashley for giving me this as a wedding shower gift. I definitely needed it!
Anyway, I love the versatility of cauliflower rice and appreciate how easy it is to prepare. Sometimes though, it gets boring, so it’s nice to create different variations. This specific recipe is great with stir fry, curry, stew or something as simple as baked chicken thighs. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what you want to serve it with.
Ingredients:
- 1 small head cauliflower, chopped
- 2 Tbsp Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- Pinch of cayenne
- 1 tsp paprika
- 3-4 Tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
Directions:
- Toss chopped cauliflower pieces into the food processor. Pulse several times until cauliflower is riced.
- Melt coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the riced cauliflower and season to taste with sea salt and pepper. Cook for a couple minutes. Then, add the cayenne and paprika, and stir.
- Continue to cook for a few more minutes over medium-low heat. Adjust seasonings if need be.
- Remove from heat and stir in the shredded coconut.
Simple Supper Friday: Mustard Apple Pulled Pork
Mustard apple pulled pork topped with caraway kraut.
I’ve really had a thing for mustard lately, specifically Dijon. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been using Dijon nearly every chance I get. I think it’s safe to say I’m definitely in a mustard phase. It adds such a nice flavor and when something seems like it’s missing from a recipe, Dijon seems to take care of that. It’s easy to find good quality Dijon mustard that doesn’t have any sugar or junk ingredients in it either. Sorry, Grey Poupon won’t cut it.
On another note, I’m going to a healthy fats demo at Whole Foods this weekend. Remember my friend, Ashley at Craving4more? Well, you may recall that she hosted the sauerkraut tasting I went to last weekend, and invited me to the fats presentation this weekend. I believe the healthy fats she’s including are coconut oil, ghee, avocado and grass-fed tallow (house-made from the Whole Foods meat dept). I imagine it’ll be pretty great.
I’m not really sure what else I’ll be doing this weekend, other than grocery shopping and working Sunday morning, but I like not having much of an agenda. What I really need to be doing is reading/studying for my exercise science class, but I’m still waiting for my book to arrive in the mail. Hopefully, it’ll get here soon because that class moves fast and the material is complex, so I don’t want to get too behind!
What are your plans for the weekend? Anything fun?
Ingredients:
- 2 lb pork shoulder roast
- 1 Tbsp grass-fed ghee
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 pink lady apple, chopped
- 1.5 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried marjoram
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- Firefly Kitchens Caraway Kraut for serving, optional
Directions:
- Melt ghee in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and celery and stir. Allow to cook a few minutes, until slightly softened. Then, add to the slow cooker.
- Season the roast with sea salt and pepper. Then, in the same pan, add the pork shoulder roast. Add a little more ghee if necessary. Brown the roast about 2-3 minutes each side and then place inside the slow cooker. Add the chopped apple as well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, mustard, parsley, marjoram and thyme. Add a dash of sea salt and pepper, if desired. Pour on top of the roast and place the lid on the slow cooker.
- Let cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5. Once done, cut string off of pork roast, if need be, and shred with two forks.
- Serve with caraway sauerkraut on top, if desired.
Easter Dessert: Double-Layer Chocolate Coconut Cake
Double-layer chocolate cake with coconut vanilla frosting. A special treat, indeed.
Remember how I said I’d post my Easter dessert later on? Well, here it is, a chocolate layer cake with coconut vanilla frosting. It was my first time making a grain-free chocolate cake and I’m happy to say that it turned out quite well. Jesse really liked it too, and he topped it with the dark chocolate body paint he got from my mom and sister. Remember how I opened it on his behalf at my wedding shower? See mom, it’s not tucked away in the bathroom cupboard, like you urged not to do! The paint brush isn’t getting any use though, as Jesse uses a spoon for drizzling! I admit, it does look (and smell) like really delicious chocolate and it is quite dark. Jesse says it’s very good.
The cake was adapted from The Healthy Chef’s naked chocolate cake recipe and the frosting was adapted from The Detoxinista’s lemon coconut frosting.
Clearly, Jesse was excited about his chocolate body paint. Big drizzle much?
For the coconut vanilla frosting (double batch):
- 3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 2/3 cup full-fat coconut milk, at room temp
- 1/4 cup raw honey
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- Measure out all the ingredients and toss into the blender. Make sure to measure out the coconut flour exactly. Also, this can not be done with a hand mixer or whisk. You need to use a blender and be very patient!
- Blend for 30-45 seconds or until everything is mixed together well. Pour into a bowl once done. The mixture will not be thick yet. Place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours to set. I recommend letting it sit overnight.
- Before using, remove from refrigerator and mix well. Then, let the frosting soften to room temperature for a bit. This will make it much easier to spread.
For the cake:
- 8 pastured eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup raw honey
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil, ghee or butter (I used a combo of coconut oil & grass-fed butter)
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup cacao or cocoa powder
- 1.5 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut shreds
- Preheat the oven to 320 degrees.
- In a small bowl, combine coconut flour, cacao or cocoa powder, baking soda and sea salt. Set aside.
- In a kitchen mixer or large bowl, beat together eggs, melted oil, vanilla, honey and apple cider vinegar. If you don’t have a stand mixer, a hand mixer works just fine.
- Add dry ingredients to wet and blend. Once batter is blended and smooth, stir in shredded coconut by hand.
- Line two 9-inch cakes pans with parchment paper and grease the sides with coconut oil. Pour batter evenly into both pans.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. My cakes were done at about 24 minutes.
- Once done, remove from the oven to cool. Once cool, frost one of the cake tops with the frosting and stack the other cake on top. Then, frost the entire top and sides of the cake.
- Store any uneaten cake in the refrigerator.
Garnish with a fresh strawberry, if desired.
Easter Eats 2013
It’s hard to believe I go back to school already today, but then again, I did only have one week off. Anyway, I feel settled in again after my trip home to Michigan, and had a lovely weekend. It felt so good to not have any schoolwork and besides that, the weather was in the 70s! It felt incredible and I did my best to soak up the vitamin-D!
Look at all those daffodils in our back yard! Sun and green grass too! Hooray for spring!
Because this is already going to be a lengthier post, I’m going to recap about our Easter dinner and then talk about my Saturday in Tuesday’s post. Here’s a little precursor about Saturday though: sauerkraut tasting!
I mentioned on Friday that I was thinking of making deviled eggs, and so I did. I didn’t want to make a big batch, so I made just enough for Jesse and me to eat. I had never made deviled eggs before, but have looked at many recipes and eaten them before, so I knew the basic idea. These turned out great, and Jesse and I sat out on the patio in shorts and t-shirts while eating them. We also enjoyed some chardonnay in our new wine glasses that my aunt and cousin sent as a shower gift, and had some pleasant conversation.
For dinner, we had a petite ham from US Wellness Meats with a homemade glaze, pineapple chutney, a spinach salad and cooked asparagus. We had a cake for dessert, which you’ll see my note about at the bottom of the post. Recipes are listed below.
For the small-batch deviled eggs:
- 4 hard-cooked pastured eggs, peeled
- 1.5 Tbsp macadamia nut oil mayo
- 1/2 tsp yellow mustard
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 tsp dried dill
- Paprika for garnish, optional
- Slice eggs in half, lengthwise and carefully scoop the yolks out into a bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork and then add the remaining ingredients, except the paprika. Mix well and spoon into a small zip-lock baggie.
- Snip one of the corners from the baggie and pipe yolk mixture back into the egg cavity.
- Before serving, garnish with paprika, if using.
Small-batch deviled eggs.
For the ham and glaze:
- 1 2.5 lb US Wellness Meats sugar-free ham
- 1 Tbsp raw honey
- 1 Tbsp orange juice
- Pinch of cloves
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place ham in a foil-lined roasting pan and bake for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the glaze ingredients. After 30 minutes, brush half the glaze on the ham. Roast for 10 minutes, then remove from oven and brush on the remaining glaze. Bake for another 10 minutes.
The chutney was inspired by a Whole Foods recipe, but modified to my liking. It was a wonderful accompaniment to the ham and together, it was out of this world (and the glaze was not overpowering or super sweet). I hadn’t tasted ham probably since early high school and boy, was it good! I’d buy this US Wellness Meats ham again in a heartbeat! Compassionate-raised pasture ham is hard to come by, especially one that is both sugar-free and nitrate-free. This is a major win.
For the chutney:
- 1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into 1/2″ pieces
- 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- Place all the ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Continue to simmer for 10-20 minutes, until mixture has thickened.
- Remove cinnamon stick and serve warm atop of ham.
Glazed ham with chutney, spinach salad and browned asparagus.
The salad idea came together while grocery shopping for Easter dinner…on Easter Sunday. Ha, we never made it to the store on Saturday, like we usually do, so we had to go on actual Easter day. I expanded upon my salad idea as I assembled it at home, and the result was refreshing and summer-like.
For the spinach salad:
- 2 cups raw spinach
- 1/2 cup curley parsley, chopped
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 1/2 cup sliced strawberries
- 2 Tbsp chopped raw cashews
- 1/2 avocado, sliced
- 2 Tbsp Tessemae’s lemon garlic dressing (Whole Foods carries this line now! So excited!)
In a large bowl, mix together everything, but the dressing. Just before serving, mix in the dressing.
Easter dinner.
If you really want to know what I did for the asparagus, I melted 2 Tbsp of grass-fed butter over medium heat. Then, I added a bundle of asparagus (woody ends removed) and seasoned with sea salt and pepper. I tossed the asparagus occasionally and allowed it to brown and caramelize a bit. Once tender, after 5-7 minutes, I removed from heat.
We had a delicious chocolate cake for dessert that I will post about later in the week. I think there’s enough recipes here for one day!
I’d love to hear about your Easter, and what you cooked and ate! Feel free to share!
Simple Supper Friday: Fennel and Sausage Bowl
Fennel and sausage bowl.
Dishes like this one have been some of my favorite quick meals lately. There’s so much room for experimentation, and it’s easy to put together based on what’s in the refrigerator. It’s versatile and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and also serves well as a side dish.
I actually made this for lunch yesterday, and sat outside on my patio in the warm sunshine, while I savored each bite. It was in the 60s, which was lovely to come back to after the 30 degree temperatures in Michigan (thankfully, there was lots of sun there though). Lucky for us, the warm weather is supposed to continue and supposedly, it’s going to be in the 70s this weekend. Happy Easter to us, right?!
Speaking of Easter, I need to finish planning my Easter meal. It’ll just be Jesse and me for dinner and so far, all I know is that we’re having a US Wellness Meats sugar-free ham. I’m thinking maybe something with fresh pineapple and a seasonal veggie saute. Naturally, there will be some sort of dessert too because it’s a holiday, and I like to have dessert for holiday meals. I guess because it’s always been the tradition and makes the meal that much more special. Oh, and I’ve had deviled eggs on my mind, especially since my mom was talking about them in the car the other day, when driving me down to the Detroit airport. Funny, I’ve never even made deviled eggs before, but I have many good recipes to choose from.
What are all of you doing for Easter? Are you making anything special? Are any of you coloring eggs?
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken and apple Applegate sausage, sliced
- 2 tsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp grass-fed butter
- 1 small fennel bulb, chopped
- 1 pasture-raised egg, beaten
- 2 Tbsp low-sodium chicken broth
- 4-5 lacinato kale leaves, stemmed and torn into pieces
- Pepper to taste
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp ground fennel
- Dash of paprika
Directions:
- Heat coconut oil and butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced sausage and turn heat down to medium. Allow sausage to sizzle and brown in the melted fat for a few minutes.
- Next, add the chopped fennel and chicken broth, and continue to cook for a minute. Then, add the beaten egg and pepper. If need be, add a little more fat (butter or coconut oil) to the pan. Stir and allow to cook for a minute.
- Add the kale, red pepper flakes, ground fennel and paprika. Stir and allow to cook until kale is softened, about 1-minute or so. Add more pepper if needed.
Yields: 1 serving
Simple Supper Friday: Chicken with Snap Peas and Carrots
Chicken with sugar snap peas and carrots, served over zucchini noodles.
Hello from Minneapolis! I’m in the midst of my trip home to Alpena, Michigan and am SO tired. I never got a chance to nap yesterday, which didn’t surprise me at all, so I’m running on a few janky hours of airplane sleep and it’s still very early in the morning Portland-time. I’m looking forward to taking a nice nap when I get into Alpena, and lucky for me, I’m flying directly into the tiny airport there, which means no 4-hour drive from Detroit. The 4-hour layover in Minneapolis was the tradeoff though.
Here’s yet another recipe that I modified from my vegetarian days. This was actually a vegan recipe and completely vegetable-based, but I used to add garbanzo beans for protein and then serve it over rice pasta. Now, it features grass-fed butter and chicken chunks. No grains either, obviously. It’s way better than it ever tasted before.
You’ll notice that the recipe calls for carrot baby food, but you can definitely use your own homemade carrot puree by cooking some carrots until tender, and then pureeing them in the food processor. Easy peasy. If you use baby food, just make sure to use a quality brand that doesn’t have any additives or junk added to it. It should only consist of carrots!
Ingredients:
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1.5 Tbsp grass-fed butter
- 1 4 oz jar organic carrot baby food (I used Earth’s Best Organic) OR 4 oz homemade carrot puree
- 2 cups carrots, chopped
- 1 cup sugar snap peas
- 1-2 Tbsp dried parsley
- 1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth, plus more if needed
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute a couple minutes. Then, add the chicken pieces and continue to saute. Season chicken to taste with sea salt and pepper.
- After about 5-7 minutes, pour in the chicken broth, carrot baby food and parsley. Stir and continue to cook over medium-low heat for about 7-10 minutes more.
- Meanwhile, steam the chopped carrots in a steamer basket for 2 minutes. Then, add the sugar snap peas and steam for 3 minutes more. Once done, add to the chicken mixture and stir. Adjust seasonings if needed and let cook for a minute or two more.
- Serve over zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice. We ate ours over zucchini noodles, and it was wonderful.
Yields: 3-4 servings
Baked Bananas and Squash
Baked bananas and butternut squash.
Wow, what a morning it’s been. I’m already whooped and the day continues! I woke up tired from a poor night’s sleep, ate breakfast, studied a little and then dropped our cat, Mila, off at the vet just after 7 this morning for a procedure. After seeing her off and getting the lowdown from the vet tech, I drove straight to school for two (challenging) back-to-back finals. I felt really bad leaving Mila, especially because she was crying, scared and hungry (we couldn’t feed her after 8 p.m. last night), but it’s for her best interest. Jesse will pick her up later this evening. Poor little dear.
Now, I need to pack for my trip home to Michigan, nap (hopefully) and go to work. My flight is at 12:55 a.m. tonight, well technically tomorrow morning, so I’m going to try and sleep briefly again tonight, before going to the airport. Then, I’ll get a few hours of crummy sleep on the flight, have a 4-hour layover in Minneapolis (yuck) and then a 2-hour flight directly into my hometown of Alpena. It exhausts me just thinking about everything, but it’s only one day and I’ll make it through. Plus, I get to see my family, attend my wedding shower and not think about school since I’m officially on spring break. It’s all good stuff and the pros outweigh the cons.
Meanwhile, here’s a good, carb-y side dish for you all. Jesse and I ate it with chicken breasts and sauteed kale for dinner, which was a great combo. It’d be awesome with some eggs and bacon or sausage too. For an extra dash of yum, drizzle with coconut butter…mmm!
Ingredients:
- 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded & cubed
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 2 medium bananas, thinly sliced (use just-ripened bananas that are yellow, but no or few brown spots)
- Cinnamon to taste
- Dash of cayenne
- Dash of sea salt
- 3 Tbsp unsweetened pineapple or orange juice
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Place squash cubes on a baking sheet and toss with the coconut oil, cinnamon, cayenne and sea salt. Add the bananas and pour pineapple or orange juice over everything. Toss again, gently, so as to not mash up the bananas. Sprinkle with more cinnamon, if desired.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until squash is tender.
Pineapple Turkey Burger Bowl
Baked pineapple burgers with brussel sprouts.
First off, pardon my no-post yesterday. Usually I always post on Tuesdays and take a break on Wednesdays, but I was anxiously studying for a final yesterday and took advantage of every precious minute. The funny thing is, I got to school yesterday all raring and ready to go, only to hear the teacher announce that the test was now optional. She said she was really proud of the hard work we did this term and even though she wrote what she called, “a really great exam,” decided to leave things in our hands. You see, she experimented with a new class structure this term after some changes were made, so we were essentially her guinea pigs. We had some challenging, yet beneficial assignments and discussions, as well as a couple tough quizzes. I guess she felt like it was enough. Anyway, we could take our current grade as is or take the test to try and boost it, if needed. Since I already had an A and didn’t want to risk losing that A (the test could still hurt you if you did poorly) I opted out, but still had my jaw dropped when I left the classroom. All I could think was,”Holy crap, is this real life? This never happens!” I was elated and grateful, but at the same time, could have really used the time I spent preparing to study for my other exams. Whatever though, it’s still better than having to take the test and studying helped me retain the information that much more. Afterward, I used my freed up time to finish a final project and spent three consecutive hours at the library to do so. Two finals down, two to go!
Anyway, onto the food! When I brainstormed this recipe, I never expected it to turn out the way it did. Don’t get me wrong, I figured it’d taste good, but didn’t think it’d taste as wonderful as it did. Jesse and I both raved about it! My intention was to make patties with the burger mixture, but after a few tries, I could see it was not happening. Instead, I added an egg, patted it down into a pan and tossed it in the oven. Problem solved. This way, it gave me a chance to cook the veggies and time things out appropriately. The pan really was the easy way out, but it was for the better.
For the baked pineapple burgers:
- 1 lb ground turkey thighs
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 green onions, finely chopped
- 3/4 cup chopped canned pineapple pieces in its own juice (reserve juice)
- 1 pastured egg
- 1 Tbsp reserved pineapple juice
- 3 Tbsp coconut aminos
- Pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl with your hands. Pour mixture into a 9×9 pan and pat down evenly. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until burger mixture is cooked through.
For the veggie mixture:
- 2 slices US Wellness Meats grass-fed beef bacon, chopped
- 2 cups brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved
- 1 tsp additional bacon fat, if needed
- 1 green onion, finely chopped
- Splash of reserved pineapple juice
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- Dash of cayenne pepper
- Heat large skillet over medium heat. Add chopped bacon and cook a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Next, add the brussel sprouts and the additional bacon fat, if needed. Season to taste with sea salt and pepper. Continue to cook a few minutes, until brussel sprouts are browned.
- Add the green onion, pineapple juice and cayenne, and stir. Continue to cook a few more minutes.
- Serve on top of a slice of baked pineapple burger, and top with macadamia nut mayo. Garnish with some leftover pineapple pieces, if desired.
St. Patrick’s Day Recap
My St. Patty’s Day meal.
Monday, already? It always comes so quickly, doesn’t it? Well, anyway, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and St. Patrick’s Day. Did you do or make anything special to celebrate? I made corned beef with carrots, onion and cabbage, which tasted delicious. I probably hadn’t eaten corned beef since I was between the ages of 12-15. I cheated a little and bought 2 lbs worth of fresh, local corned beef at Whole Foods. It was pre-brined and had spices rubbed all over it, and just needed to be cooked. I threw it in the Crock Pot with carrots, yellow onion, green cabbage and bone broth, and let it cook for about 4.5 hours. It was perfect and much better than the corned beef I recall eating as a kid. The beef was more brown than pink after cooking, because it didn’t contain any nitrates, but it did have beet powder in the brine, which allowed for a tiny bit of pink. I served it up for us in bowls, to allow for ladel-fuls of savory broth. Specifically, here’s what I did for the recipe:
Corned beef and cabbage
- 2 lb pre-brined fresh corned beef
- 1 yellow onion, sliced
- 6-8 medium carrots, chopped into 1-inch pieces (I used orange and multicolored carrots)
- 1 head of cabbage, quartered
- 4 cups bone broth
- Place corned beef in the bottom of the slow cooker. Top with carrots, onion and finally cabbage. Pour broth over everything, making sure the meat is covered by about 1-inch.
- Put lid on slow cooker and cook on high for about 4.5 hours.
- Slice meat against the grain to serve. Top with veggies and lots of broth. Watch out for loose peppercorns from the rub!
For a St. Patty’s Day treat, I whipped up the egg version of Against All Grain’s, cinnamon ‘oat’meal raisin cookies. Holy moly, these really do turn green too, especially as they sit and cool. The reaction of sunflower seed butter and baking soda causes the green to occur, in case you’re wondering. Mine turned just as green as Danielle’s (blogger of Against All Grain) did in her pictures! They almost look mossy and even look slightly blue, which may be in part from the raisins. Because of their mossy appearance, they’re definitely a Portland-appropriate cookie! We have a lot of moss here, because of rain and being in a valley.
Speaking of this recipe, I had to chuckle when I read some of the comments. One of the readers, who clearly doesn’t pay attention or read Against All Grain’s posts very often, asked how much oats are needed for the recipe because it wasn’t mentioned in the ingredients. I loved Danielle’s response, telling her that it is a grain-free site and there are no oats in the recipe! The unsweetened coconut is meant to emulate the oats. Some people are so oblivious, yet I find it entertaining…sometimes.
Danielle’s pictures were so pretty that I decided to borrow one. Mine wouldn’t do the cookies as much justice! (Photo credit: Againstallgrain.com)
So, that was my St. Patrick’s Day. The rest of my weekend included (kind of) studying for finals, working on a final project, working at the gym, laundry and errands.
Also, I’ll be recapping soon about the final verdict on my food log assignment. I was hoping to get the assignment back, so that I could have all the specific details my partner laid out for me, but we never got it back. My teacher may hand them back on Thursday, when I go to take the final exam, but I’m not sure. I may have to go off of memory! Lucky for me, I have a pretty good memory. Just ask my family.
