Friday, May 25, 2012

Meat Sticks

When I make up a recipe, sometimes I get upset. It doesn't always turn out. But I've learned...when I try something new, ALWAYS have a backup meal!!!

This time though, I found something worth posting!!!! I found a recipe like it in a magazine. It called for veal, corn flakes, eggs, breadcrumbs oh my! I had no veal and the rest was out. I changed the recipe so much, I can't even say I "tweaked" the original.

This is what I did. This will make about 6 meat sticks.

3/4 pound ground pork
1/2 cup Erewhon crispy brown rice
2 TBS ketchup
2 TBS onion flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Crumble cereal and combine ingredients. Form onto popsicle sticks. Meat should be about 3 inches long.

For the crust, dip meat on stick in milk substitute. I used hemp milk. Then dip into crumbled rice cereal.

Heat pan with oil. Fry meat on sticks on all sides till lightly brown. Wrap meat in foil (including stick) and bake on 375 till inside is 170 degrees. This can take 10-20 minutes.

These are great by themselves or dipped in ketchup.

As an camping alternative:

Form meat on long sticks and cook over camp fire wrapped in foil!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Chocolate Pudding


                


 Our daughter just had her tonsils removed and I needed some good allergy friendly recipes for soft food.  I searched the internet and my cookbook stash for some chocolate pudding recipes.  The closest I could find was in “Vegan Diner” by Julie Hasson.  It is called “Lotsa Chocolate Pudding.”  The only issue is…I don’t like “lotsa” chocolate!  And the recipe calls for cornstarch.  I tweaked it a bit and this is what I came up with.


Chocolate Pudding
¾ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup tapioca starch
3 cups hemp milk (I used my homemade hemp milk)

In saucepan, whisk together first 3 ingredients.  Add 3 cups of hemp milk or whatever substitute you’d like.  Bring to a slow boil on medium and reduce heat to maintain simmer.  Simmer till thickened.  With the amount of fat and protein in hemp milk, this literally took 1 minute.
Put into serving dishes and top with whatever you’d like.  I used Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips!

Beef BBQ



                Here’s a quick and easy weekday meal.  Growing up in Lancaster County, PA, we called this beef bbq.  I later found out the rest of the country calls it sloppy joes.  I, of course, had to work with the recipe to make it allergy friendly.  

BBQ Beef
1 pound ground beef (or turkey if you’d like)
1 cup ketchup (we use O Organics)
1-2 TBS brown sugar
1 TBS apple cider vinegar

I precook my beef.  I buy a big package of it at Costco.  When I get home, I set aside about 1/3 of it and package it.  The rest I cook.  Then let it cool and separate and freeze.  When you need beef for this recipe, taco bake, tacos, chili, etc, just take out the bag and throw all ingredients in.  It thaws quickly right there on the stovetop.
Whisk together last 3 ingredients and adjust to taste if you need to.  Put ground beef in pan and either cook it or thaw out the frozen precooked package.  Pour ketchup mixture over it and warm through.

 
Here I made beef bbq sandwiches on my gluten free flat bread.




Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Teriyaki Pork (or Chicken)


 

Teriyaki Pork

I discovered a teriyaki sauce recipe in Cooks Country Magazine. I modified it to better suit our taste and needs (calls for soy sauce and I have to make our own). We can't have chicken, but this is equally good on chicken! It is also very good on fish, just brush the sauce on the fish instead of using the method I will use for pork/chicken.

For the soy sauce:

4 cups (one box) of Kitchen basics beef broth (or vegetable broth-I prefer taste of the beef)

1-2 TBS sea salt (depending on taste. I like my soy sauce low sodium. And I like to use less because I can always add more salt later if needed)

1 TBS molasses

2.5 TBS balsamic vinegar

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp garlic powder

Simmer for about 40 minutes until reduced to 3 cups. I put mine in a mason jar, label and stick in fridge for a while. Not sure how long because we use it up pretty quickly!


 

For Teriyaki sauce

You can make this ahead too…

1 cup soy sauce

¾ cup sugar

1 TBS rice vinegar

1 tsp each ginger and garlic

2 tsp potato starch

Whisk ingredients together in bowl.


 

There are a few ways to make this. I will start with the "quickest."

  1. If you buy your meat in bulk (like I do) and you take it out of the original packaging to divide it up for your family's use, put what you need in a freezer bag. In that freezer bag, add one recipe of teriyaki sauce and freeze together. In the morning, simply put frozen meat/sauce in crockpot. You can do this on low all day, or if you forget (like I do), put it on high at lunch time for a tasty dinner!
  2. Use the freezer method. Take meat/sauce out in morning and thaw. Put into baking dish and bake at 375 degrees for an hour.
  3. Brown both sides of meat in a pan. Then pour sauce over meat and simmer till done.


 

Week 2 Menu


MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday Saturday
Breakfast

 
Burritos
(brown rice tortillas with diced potatoes and sausage with salsa)
Chocolate cake
(oh yeah, we can have cake for breakfast!)
WafflesHashbrowns with baconBiscuits or toast with homemade strawberry jamPancakes
Lunch

 
Mini pizzasTeriyaki Pork and fried riceSpaghettiBBQ beef (aka sloppy joes)Hot dogsleftovers
Dinner

 
Balsamic porkTaco bakePizzaFishChinese pork lettuce wrapsTaco salad