Category: Sunday Sup

Sunday Sup: Go to Brekkie

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

I got an Instant Pot last November on Cyber Monday. But I didn’t get around to reading the instruction and breaking it out until after the Holidays. Way too busy, way too tired. But I managed not to blow up the house when I finally used it. Yay, me!
So what did I make? A pulled pork to use in this awesome enchilada recipe from Jessica over at How Sweet Eats.
Except her recipe calls for 2 cups of pulled pork and I had half a small roast left over.

Hrm….

RePurposed Pulled Pork Brekkie

Take left over pork roast and shred that too. Add one 4 oz can green chiles, diced. Add all the jalapeño jack cheese you like. Store in Tupperware in the fridge until morning. img_20170121_125746

Put a portion of pork mix in a bowl, microwave 45 seconds. In the mean time fry two eggs over easy or medium but you want some runny yolk to mix in with the cheese and pork. Add the eggs to the top and mange!img_20170121_125906

 

 

Warm and gooey. Perfect for those days when I may not get to eat again until dinner, which sadly seems like every day lately. LOL

Sunday Sup: Bratwurst and Braised Cabbage

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

You’re going to laugh, but I’m pretty sure this recipe came from a vegetarian cooking website once upon a time, years ago. I’ve tried to find it several times so I can give credit but alas…so if you recognize your original veg version of this recipe in my bastardization below, email me so I can credit you.

Thinly slice an onion or two. This is really up to you. How much of the onion flavor you like should guide how much you use.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet or wok, just make sure you have a lid for the pan, medium-high heat.

Add the thinly sliced onion give it a stir and then add 20 ounces or so of shredded cabbage. I am lazy and buy the pre-shredded from TJs, 2 bags worth to my 2 onions. Stir it all together and allow the veggies to pick up some color. You want to stir frequently for 5-7 minutes.

Lower the temp to Medium-Low, add 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, cover and let steam for 15 minutes.

In the mean time, preheat your broiler on high. Lay out some fat bratwursts on a broiler pan (save yourself some heartache and line the bottom of the pan with metal foil). Broil the brats until cooked. I turn every 7 minutes or so for an even brown color. 15-20 minutes cook time total.

Check your veggies, they might be dry, they might be cooked. If they are not the softness you like, add more water and apple cider vinegar, I suggest 1/2 c and 1 tbsp this time, and cook 10 more minutes. I am usually happy at the 15 minute mark. When you are happy follow on below.

Add 1/2 c white wine to the pan, stir.

IMG_20170104_175319 (1).jpg
My kiddo’s plate all nicely cut up. 

Add 2-3 tablespoons of dijon mustard, your taste, and 4 tablespoons butter. Stir until it all melts into a saucy goodness. Serve with the bratwurst.

Sunday Sup: GF Chicken Strips

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

This is another obscenely easy recipe but people go crazy over it. So I’ll post it up here.

The original idea came from Danielle over at Against All Grain but of course, I’ve played with it rather a lot.

GF Chicken Strips with Dijon

Preheat your oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Set out a couple of bowls and a small plate. In the first bowl mix gf flour blend with ground mustard powder and garlic powder. I couldn’t really say how much of each but I’ll estimate for you. 1/4 c flour to 1 tsp each mustard and garlic.

In the second bowl, 2 eggs, whisked together.

On the plate, put a thin layer of shredded coconut, unsweetened. Have your bag of coconut nearby and open.

Cut up your chicken breast into tenders or buy precut tenders, whatever. I don’t dry my chicken. I know a lot of people do, I don’t. Maybe that’s the difference.

Dip chicken in flour mix, then in egg, then lay on the coconut plate and pour coconut over it until coated. Place on cookie sheet. Repeat until done. Three large breasts can be done with this amount of prep for the coating.

Slide it in the oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Flip, bake for 10-12 minutes depending on how fat your strips are.  Broil on high for 2-3 minutes for a nice golden brown color.

While the chicken cooks, make honey mustard dressing.

1/3 c mayo, 3 tbsp dijon mustard, juice of one lemon (~3 tbsp), 1-2 tbsp honey, depending on how sweet you like it. Stir until combined.

Eat up honey bunch.

img_20170101_121541

Sunday Sup: Bacon Mac and Cheese

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

I’ve made this recipe just enough times to have messed about with it into almost perfection. Therefore I can share it with you.

The original came from Jessica over at How Sweet Eats.

Gluten Free Bacon Caramelized Onion Mac and Cheese

Cut up a half pound of bacon and cook it in a nice large skillet, I used a wok.

While the bacon browns and renders all it’s yummy fat, thinly slice 2 medium onions. I cut the half moons in half again. This really about how much caramelized onion flavor you want. Use less, use more, your call.

Remove the bacon from the pan. Lower the heat to halfway between medium and low. Add the onions. Stir frequently for what will be quite a while. 20 plus minutes. When the onions are caramelly brown, they are ready for the next step.

In the mean time, start a pot of water to boil. Preheat oven to 375. Butter a casserole dish. I use a nice large one with a wide bottom, which makes for a thinner layer of mac and cheese but more crumbly topping per serving. I like the balance that way.

Add 1/4 c gluten free flour blend to the onions and stir until it thickens into a roux. 2 minutes maybe.

Add one cup whole milk. Stir constantly until the milk and onions are thick like pudding. Add 1 1/2 cups milk and combine.

Add paprika(1 tsp), nutmeg (1/2 tsp), 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, a 12 oz bag of mixed gruyere and swiss shredded cheese. Stir until gooey. Turn off the heat.

Add the bacon back in.

Toss your favorite gluten free pasta in the boiling water. Cook about half the time specified. I like Trader Joes spiral Quinoa and Rice pasta. Drain the pasta and add to the cheese goo in your pan. Mix gently.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle gluten free bread crumbs and shredded Parmesan cheese all over the top for a crunch. Bake 25 minutes, until the goo bubbles and the parm and img_20161231_160957bread crumbs are golden brown.

 

PS. I’ve just been told this is amazing the next morning with eggs on top. LOL.

Fiendish Friday: Personal Battles

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I have this friend. Good friend. If I were being cheesy I might even say she is one of my people. Not my person, because hello, that’s my hubs. But one of my people, part of the tribe. We often end up in conversations where she says “I just don’t know what to do with him anymore.” Meaning her child. And I am always hesitant to say anything. Not because I don’t think I have suggestions but because I am aware of the one thing every human on the planet should consider before giving advice = I don’t know where she has been with him.

Let me dive into this a bit. As a mother (generally – I know dad’s stay at home too) you are with your child, day in, day out. You know them better than anyone on the planet. And if you live where I do and have a tech hubs, you’re doing it alone, 90% of the time, maybe even 95 or 100% when the hubs is trying to ship. So while I might think, she should try x. Maybe she’s already tried that. Maybe it made things worse. I don’t know. I wasn’t there for all that with her. She was alone, struggling through it on her own. Fighting with doctors and therapists to get them to give her a diagnosis so she could get help for her kid.

Yes, her child is not neuro-typical. Mine is not neuro-typical. Guess what, they are not neuro-typical in different ways. It would be like me giving all the knowledge I learned about surviving in the jungle to someone living on a tundra and expecting them to follow it. Two totally different worlds and little applies to both, except the most bland. Find a shelter. Oh really, you think I don’t know that? Seriously? A shelter? Bleep you and the horse you rode in on. Who probably broke a leg  because of the ice, since this is a tundra.

Raising a child is your own individual experience. People with multiple children will tell hittingyou each is different. Different things work on different kids. Raising a non neuro-typical child is your own private battle. The parent of a non neuro- typical child is constantly trying to improve the situation. Weighing whether coming down hard about how loud your child is singing in Costco is the right move or likely to set off a battle of epic proportions leading you to have to abandon your cart of desperately needed groceries as your child hits you, kicks you, and the people around you make comments that you really should be a better parent and teach your child some discipline. Really? Would you tell the parent of a child in a wheel chair, that they should be a better parent and teach their child to walk?
So again I say, you don’t know where that parent has been with their child. Hell, let’s just broaden that. You don’t know where that person you are judging has been. And giving advice is essentially judgment, the belief that you know better how to handle someone else’s life, than they do. We are all the sum of our experiences, positive and negative. You are judging through the filter of your experiences.

Which may be as far fromjungle-free-wallpapers-720x450 the tundra as the jungle is.

tundra_screen

 

Sunday Sup: Teriyaki Noodle Goodness

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

I made this one up. Seriously. There was a process to it which I hope amuses you. I was in Costco and saw this package of Adele’s Pineapple and Teriyaki meatballs. I have this whole thing about pineapple in prepared meats. I love it. Obsessed. So I buy them. But then what do I do with the darn things once I get them home. hrm….

Kiddo sees them and says, I want those for breakfast, so I microwave him some. Adele’s all precooked. Thank you! They are super tasty. I suggest this should be dinner. Kiddo agrees. And so the hunt through the kitchen for what I can add to meatballs for dinner.

Start some olive oil and toasted sesame oil heating in a wok over medium high heat.

Coarsely chop the white part of your bok choy after removing the nasty end. Toss in the wok.

Julienne some carrots, add those too, stirring as you go.

Give them a few minutes to soften, now add soy sauce (or gf tamari), fish sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Put the lid on your wok.

Start your water for edamame pasta.

Stir the wok contents, if veggies are soften but still crisps, add those meatballs, stir. Add the ribboned tops of your bok chop to wilt.

Add pasta to water, boil only 3 minutes, drain. img_20161219_191441

Toss noddles into wok, add Teriyaki sauce (I like the Soyaki Pineapple one, shocker eh?). Toss it all together.

Eat. Even the kiddo liked this one.

And, yes, I am aware my food photography skills are from hell. But my food is heavenly.

Sunday Sup: Christmas Morning

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I think I’ve talked before about how we do Christmas at my house. We don’t just tear through all the gifts and then sit around stunned. No, we play with each one as it is opened. This means Christmas morning, lasts days in our house, or it can anyway, especially the year the kiddo got 27 new Lego sets. Oy. So to counter the desire to eat everything in sight I make this casserole every year and some sort of yummy to go with it. This year it was paleo apple cider donuts.

Egg and Green Chile Casserole

The original recipe came from my friend Christine but of course I had to mess with it.

Pre heat to 375, butter a 9×13 glass dish.

In a big bowl mix 10 eggs, 1 pint cottage cheese, two 7 oz cans fire roasted chopped green chiles (feel free to sub some canned jalapenos if you like to live on the edge), 1/2 c butter melted, 1/4 c flour (gf in this house, I like to use Tapioca flour), 1 tsp baking powder, then fold in a lot of cheese. Like 16-20 oz worth. I mix it up using mainly jalapeno jack with a touch of mexican shredded cheese combo. Ok, I pour in a 12 oz bag of pre-grated jalapeno jack and then a couple of  handfuls of the mixed mexican cheese.

Pour it in the dish and bake. Check after 35 minutes but you will probably need more like 40-50. It should be brown and puffed up and when you stick a knife in the eggs should be firm.

As for the paleo donuts, I wasn’t too sure about them. I’ll tinker with recipe some more and post those when they are ready.

Sunday Sup: Dates

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I realize this is a super easy recipe and if a dozen people hadn’t asked me what I did at the Sinterklaas party we had, I totally wouldn’t have bothered making this a Sunday Sup. But as it was, I was practically as grilled as this dish. LOL

Stuffed Dates

Buy some dates. Make a slice in the top the long way so you can pop out the pit.

Stuff the now empty space with goat cheese.

Wrap the dates in bacon.

Chill them until you are ready too cook them. Over night is fine if you are party prepping. Straight into the oven works too.

Cover a cookie sheet in parchment paper. Bake for img_20161205_12414520-25 minutes at 450. You want the bacon crisp.

Let them cool just a smidge so you don’t burn your mouth on ooey gooey amazing goat cheese.

That’s it. Eat em up.

Merry Christmas if you celebrate.

Sunday Sup: Lazy Curry

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

This recipe has been modified so many times I am not sure of it’s original parentage, but I  suspect it was a Rachel Ray recipe many, many moons ago. I used to do all my cooking from Rachel Ray recipes. And to be honest she only ever let me down once. That’s a pretty spectacular track record.

So Lazy Curry:

Thinly slice a sweet onion or two if you really like onions. Toss them into a pan with fat of your choice over medium heat.

While the onions caramelize, quarter, then chop a couple of zucchini. Toss them into the pan with the onions, stir everything.

Sometimes I add eggplant. If you want to go that route, dice an eggplant and add that to the pan. It just depends on how lazy I am feeling. I never peel the eggplant first.

When everything is soft and slightly browned, add 2-3 cups of chicken stock. You don’t want soup here, just enough to cook down into a saucy mess. Now stir in 2-3 large tablespoons of Patak’s curry paste. You’ll know how much when you smell it. Now add 2-3 large tablespoons of Patek’s mango chutney. Match the amount of paste you put in. Now a huge handful (or three) of golden raisins. Stir.img_20161129_090134

Add some chopped up chicken. Again I used precooked when I am being super lazy or grill my own when I have a bit more effort to expend.

Stir it occasionally for 5-10 minutes until the chicken is warm and the sauce is thick and rich.

Serve over rice or with naan. Your call.

Sunday Sup: Quinoa Salad

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

I’m going to set the scene for you. The hubs is in another state working. I am in a small apartment with the kiddo, a very much younger kiddo, trying to wrap up our three lives so we can all move to the other state the hubs is working in. I finally get the kiddo to bed and because I don’t eat dinosaur chicken nuggets even if they are organic, I am searching the fridge to finally make myself some dinner. I’m not shopping because hello moving to another state. Gotta use up what’s there before it ends up in land fill. I see some left over roast asparagus and some goat cheese. I google. I find a recipe somewhere, I don’t remember where now, and I discover with some hearty substitutions I can kind of sort of make this recipe. I do, it’s delicious, so I keep making it with my substitutions. LOL

Quinoa Salad

Right off the bat you have to decide how much you want to make and how much quinoa you want versus the other ingredients. I usually put 4 cups of water on to boil and then add 2 c quinoa when it’s ready. 12-15 minutes simmering covered should do it. Turn off the heat, leave the lid on for five more minutes.
In the mean time, put some asparagus on a parchment lined cookie sheet, spray with olive oil, broil on high for 5-7 minutes. Just smell for it.
While that’s cooking, chop up some kalamata olives.
Whisk up the sauce. This is again a bit about you. I like red wine vinegar in this recipe, a good 1/2 c worth, 2 tbsp Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp honey, 1/4 olive oil. Whisk until emulsified. You can also use balsamic if that tickles your fancy. You can mix white balsamic and standard in equal measure.
Dump the fluffed quinoa into a large bowl. Pour the sauce on, stir well. The asparagus should be cool enough to cut now. Grab by the woody ends and snip off one inch pieces until the kitchen shears no longer go through the asparagus easily. Toss the woody part.
Now while everything is warm, add the goat cheese. A good 4-6 ounces. Mix it round until the goat cheese melts into the quinoa.
Serve warm.

img_20161115_174240
FYI this pic is of a half batch because the hubs said he was cutting back on the carbs but when I got home and was ready to eat dinner, there was no salad to be found. Apparently he meant he was cutting back on my carbs. LOL