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Easy One Pot Dinner/Use What You Have
I was clearing out my refrigerator before grocery shopping for the week and pulled out everything that either needed to be used before going bad or was a remaining ingredient that just didn’t make it into other preparations. I don’t like to throw away food and try my best to use EVERYTHING. The recipe for this pork stew can be found below. During these winter months in upstate New York, I prefer to prepare meals that feed my family multiple times a week from one day of cooking. I rely heavily on one pot meals like stews and soups. It’s also convenient for my family to have meals like this…
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Home Cooked Orange Scented Cranberry Sauce
I love to make my own cranberry sauce for our holiday meals. Its easy to customize by changing the sweeteners and spices. This recipe requires no more then one half hour from start to finish and very little cooking experience is required. One other benefit is it makes my home smell amazing! Here’s how you go from this⇑ to this⇓ I start with a medium size sauce pan. I then combine all the ingredients in the sauce pan before turning on the heat. This recipe is a combination of fresh cranberries, coconut sugar, orange juice, cinnamon sticks, water, a pinch of salt and the zest of one orange. ( The…
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The Best Sweet And Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
I love to cook with pumpkin during the Fall season. The big “Jacks” we carve definitely aren’t as good to cook with as the smaller sugar or pie pumpkins but the seeds are great when well seasoned and roasted. After going through the trouble of cleaning these big guys out, make sure you treat yourself with theses tasty, sweet and spicy, crunchy treats. It’s a nice alternative to candy once you’ve had your fill after Halloween. To clean the seeds put them a bowl of warm water and swish them around. ( I use my hands) After a few minutes the pulp will start to separate from the seeds and…
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Wintery Day Lamb And Beer Stew Using Veggies Of Your Choice.
I live in the Northeast and our winters can be pretty tough and long. I love to warm my home with my wood burning stove accompanied by a warm oven that has been on for a couple hours with a hearty meal cooking away. I work outside of my home sporadically during the week, so when I am home on the weekdays I try to multitask as much as possible. A large one pot meal that will offer more then one dinner during the week is my go to. Lamb is something I don’t cook with very often so I’ve been challenging myself to branch out. In my past experience,…
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Basic Chili Recipe Using Meatloaf Mix
My go to chili is very basic and based off a Betty Crocker recipe. This version has very little spice and kid friendly. The full recipe will be printable at the bottom of the blog. The biggest change I made to the Betty Crocker version was using ground meatloaf mix instead of just ground beef. This combination is beef, pork and veal. I also prepare this recipe using ground turkey. It begins with browning the meat with onions, garlic and a seeded jalepeno pepper. *I make sure to pour off any extra fat which was created by the meat. I like to prepare this recipe with the addition of:…
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Roasted Eggplant And Easy Tomato Sauce With Rigatoni
This tasty meal came together quickly and I think would also work great using zucchini in place of the eggplant:) The recipe will follow at the bottom of the page. I started out with this large eggplant which I peeled and cut up into 1″ cubes. Once that was done I coated the cubes with olive oil, Italian seasonings, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I spread the pieces on a cookie sheet and roasted the eggplant until browned at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. TIP: If some of the cubes stick just scrap them off the sheet with a spatula and throw them into the sauce. They ad great texture…
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Creamy Cauliflower and Carrot Soup Recipe/Without Using Cream or Milk
To put this creamy and comforting soup together on a cool day requires little time and effort. There are three people in my home and this size pot of soup will ensure each of us gets at least two large bowls which is great for stretching it over a few days during a busy week. A head of cauliflower, carrots, a leek and some chicken broth are the main ingredients but you could swap out an onion for the leek or vegetable broth for the chicken broth. I deal with my leeks first to get rid of any grit in the layers. First cut the ends off and slice the…
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Black Bean and Brown Rice Stuffed Peppers
Assorted peppers are abundant at this time of year and I love to put them to good use. As a kid I wasn’t a huge fan of stuffed peppers but as an adult I realized I liked this dish better if the peppers weren’t cooked too long. I prefer to serve a vegetable, rice and bean stuffed pepper with a grilled meat on the side instead of cooking ground meat in the pepper. The list of ingredients and amounts for this batch are at the bottom of the page. This dish is so versatile. Each batch is different because I use whatever veggies, beans and spices I have on hand.…
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Leftover Vegetables Made Into A Healthy Stew
Don’t throw away those veggies that are looking a bit neglected in the back of your refrigerator. If you’re like me and hate to waste food give a vegetable stew a try. When I find I’m short on time and any meat I have is still in the freezer, I’ve turned to preparing vegetable stew using any canned beans I have in my cupboard as the protein. I also utilize any kind of boxed broth I have on hand. I love using homemade but low sodium premade is fine. While cleaning out my refrigerator today I came out with these. Two zucchini, some carrots, three potatoes and about one cup…
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Tasty Pork Roast With Root Vegetables
Welcome! While making this dinner for a Wednesday evening, I decided I wanted to share such an easy and tasty meal that may normally be only for Sunday dinners. At least in my home it would be. The key is to not plan on having too many leftovers especially if your feeding more than three people. This was for three so we did have some extra. This was prepared with a boneless pork loin that was under 2 1/2 pounds. This also comes in at a very low price point! The first thing to do is to get that roast out of the refrigerator and let come to room temperature.…