More recipes coming soon

My freezer meals seem to have attracted a lot of attention to this blog so starting in April I'm going to do my best to post 1 quick and easy healthy meal every Wednesday in much the same fashion...Think healthy Rachel Ray 30-minute meals only in blog form, and 99% clean & healthy.

A few notes before I post...
My definition of a healthy meal:
Proper serving size of Lean Protein
1-2 servings of Veggies
1 serving whole grain/minimally processed carbohydrates (optional)
Minimal sweeteners
Minimal additives and chemicals

I try to choose meats that are raised without hormones/unnecessary antibiotics and avoid chemicals that I cannot pronounce/don't know the origin of.  

Not everything I cook fits into these stipulations 100% (case in point the steak I ate yesterday)

I will post pictures when I can but as we've already established, I am not a food stylist by any stretch of the imagination and I forget to take pictures of food when I finish cooking before I start eating :)

I hope you all enjoy the recipes!

Draggy Draggy Day(s)

My iron must be super low...the last two days I have been nothing but super draggy...today on my way home I stopped at the grocery store and bought the smallest steak they had to cook for dinner...I just scarfed 1/2 a pound of beef...Which is probably more red meat than I have had all year combined...I hope it doesn't make me sick!!!

Does anyone else have random binge sessions on food they don't normally eat?  Does it correspond with a nutrient deficiency? I honestly don't know what spurred my steak craving but it was delicious and totally what I needed!

March Madness

March Madness is well underway which means the only thing allowed on our TV is College Basketball.  

So far hubby is winning our group bracket challenge but has the least possible points remaining, I'm doing ok but I picked IU to win it all so who knows how it will turn out.  

How about you? Who do you have picked to win? 

Fried Rice

The only type of food we like as much as Mexican is Asian.   This fried rice recipe is way healthier than what we buy at the take out place down the street, way healthier, and just as yummy :)   

Ingredients

• 3.5 Cups uncooked rice
• Sesame Oil
• 8-10 Eggs
• 1 cup Leftover Roast Chicken (or ham or any other kind of meat really) chopped
• Package of frozen mixed vegetables (or use your food processor and finely chop any kinds of veggies you have lyin around...example broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, onion, etc.)
• ⅓ cup Chicken Soup Base (or 1-2 packages Fried Rice seasoning mix)
  Instructions

1. Cook your Rice according to package instructions. If you are making dinner ahead of time you can chill the rice, or if making it last minute like I do, just let the rice steam an additional 15 minutes after it is done after the heat is off.
2. Next, Mix your eggs, add a dash of salt n pepper. Then go ahead and scramble-cook them. I normally just add a little butter to the pan. Then continually scrape pan and cook till done. Set eggs aside in a bowl.
3. Using the same pan, add ¼ cup sesame oil. Toss in chopped roasted chicken or other meat. Cook for a few minutes.
4. Then add your vegetables and chicken soup base/seasoning packets to the chicken and cook until vegetables are done.
5. Then just add your mix to the cooked rice.
6. Mix it all up and serve. Yum!
   For Freezer Meal cooking you can add your cooked Fried Rice to gallon freezer safe bags or in a pan covered with foil. I found some great cheap-O aluminum carry-out pans (you know the ones with the silver cardboard lid) at dollar tree 3/$1 that were perfect.  Each pan held about 1/2 the recipe so I was able to pull it straight from the freezer, cover in foil (since cardboard isn't exactly oven safe) and put it in the oven for about 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees to heat through.

Chicken Pot pie

This is another not exactly 100% clean but really delicious and mostly healthy comfort meal.   I made smaller pot pies with the crust wrapped around them verses traditional style ones covered with a second crust so that we could get 1 or 2 meals out of each pie instead of 3-4 that we would if I had made these the traditional way.   I used the cheap-O metal carry out containers I found at dollar tree for these instead of a pie tin also since the carry out containers had lids and were so cheap.   

Next time I will probably use 1/2 as much of the has browns and add an extra 8 oz of frozen vegetables...It was kind of heavy with all of the potatoes with the crust given how few carbs we eat in this house.   

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken 
• Homemade Gravy made from homemade chicken stock preferred or use (2) Campbells chicken/turkey gravy in jar
• (2) Top & Bottom piece Pie Crust
• Frozen Hashbrowns (diced) 16 oz. bag
• Frozen Peas & Carrots combination 12 oz. bag (or any frozen vegetables you like)
• Onion, ¼ cup diced small (optional )
• salt & pepper to taste
  Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Take pie crusts out of package. If you have purchased the ones in the tins take one tin out and thaw on counter. Turn the second tin upside down as it thaws.
3. While that it thawing mix together in a large bowl the shredded chicken, hashbrowns, peas & carrots, onion (opt) and gravy.
4. Add salt & pepper to taste.
5. When pie crust has thawed (15 minutes usually) add pot pie ingredients into pie tin with crust.
6. Then take the upside down crust and gently place it on top of the pie carefully. Spread it out and pinch the two pie crusts together on the seams.
7. Poke a few holes with a knife or fork on top of pie.
8. Cover and FREEZE if you want this as a freezer meal, or place in oven at 350 degrees and cook for 35-45 minutes until top is golden brown and you can hear the inside is bubbling.

Freezer Meal Carnitas!!!!

Have I mentioned how much I love Mexican food?   I also really love Pulled Pork so when I saw this recipe I had to try it.   We had the pork on a salad earlier this week and it was absolutely amazing! One stupid thing I did was not fully read the instructions before cooking so I put the rub on the entire pork roast verses dicing the roast first...Next time I'll know though and now you know...Dice the pork, then coat in the rub for the most flavor!

To make traditional carnitas, Michoacán style, skip the spice mix and just boil the pork in water with an onion, a bay leaf, cumin, salt and hot pepper.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 pounds pork roast, leg or shoulder
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 head butter lettuce, washed and dried
• 2 carrots, spiralized (or grated)
• 2 limes, cut into wedges
• water almost to cover
  Spice Mix:

• 1 tablespoons un-sweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ⅛ teaspoon coriander
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
  INSTRUCTIONS

1. The day before cooking the meat, make the spice mix by combining all of the ingredients listed, cut the roast into manageable pieces and rub them with the onion and spices. Then wrap the meat back into the butcher's paper and refrigerate overnight.
2. Brown the roast on all sides, in pre-heated pressure cooker, the add enough water to almost cover (2-3 cups).
3. Close and lock the lid of the pressure cooker.
4. For electric pressure cookers: Cook for 50-60 minutes at high pressure.
   For stove top pressure cookers: Turn the heat up to high and when the cooker indicates it has reached high pressure, lower to the heat to maintain it and begin counting 45 minutes pressure cooking time.
5. Open with the Natural release method - move the pressure cooker to a cool burner and wait for the pressure to come down on it's own (about 10 minutes). For electric pressure cooker, disengage the “keep warm” mode or unplug the cooker and open when the pressure indicator has gone down (20-30 minutes).
6. Pull out the meat and place on a platter, and then begin pulling the flesh into strips using two forks. In the meantime, reduce the cooking liquid in the cooker to half strain and de-fat using your favorite method (I leave it in the fridge overnight).
7. At this point, you can also refrigerate the cooked, now shredded, pork for several days or continue with the recipe.
8. In a pre-heated large wide saute' pan add vegetable oil, or lard, and fry the shredded pork until it becomes lightly brown. For extra spice, drizzle the cooking liquid on the pulled pork before serving.
9. To make lettuce wraps, simply prepare the lettuce cups with carrots on a serving platter. Fill with just-fried pork. Finish with a squirt of fresh lime.