Weekend things and a little bit of food prep

Hi there!

Happy Monday!

Are you gearing up for Thanksgiving? Are you cooking? Have you started cooking already? Are you traveling to where someone else is doing all the cooking? <—-winning

I’ll be doing only a small amount of cooking this year as we’re headed to my folks’ house.

Mom’s having the bulk of the meal catered (this should be interesting – my first catered meal experience) and the rest of us are  responsible for a few side dishes and desserts.

I’m making this. I made it for just us last year and it is the bomb dot com.

Plus, the pecan tree in my back yard is literally vomiting pecans so…..yeah.

My town had its Thanksgiving market on Saturday and my favorite vendor was going to be there so, you know we had to go. 🙂

There were like 65 vendors or something!

Lots of artsy craftsy stuff.

There were lots of puppy dogs.

Seriously, I can’t post pictures of all the dogs – we’d be here all day.

And there were lots of leafy green veggies!

There was a pony that I wanted to ride but I don’t think he was there for people of my size age.

I loaded up on sweet taters (duh!) and apples and the biggest butternut squashes I have ever seen (needed for above recipe!).

I tried to get my sailor to take a picture of me holding the butternut squashes but he said no. Because I don’t have a porn blog.

Seriously, where was HIS brain? Haha

And besides, has he never ever heard of food porn?

Whatever.

So, he took this picture of this goat instead. Her name is Latte. She was hanging out with the goat cheese lady. Mmmm…..goat cheese……

Here’s my haul on fresh beef. Score!

After the market, we took our goodies home and headed out for some lunch and errands.

We went to our favorite Indian place. MMMM…

I had the medium spicy vindaloo and was sweating bullets at the table. lol

For the record, I only ate one little triangle of the naan because it is made with wheat and I’m doing that whole gluten free thing.

I was okay with it (or I just couldn’t tell I wasn’t because I was still breathing fire) but a few hours later, I had an iced skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks and that made my stomach hurt.

Did some research and turns out the skinny vanilla stuff has gluten in it! Blech!

I didn’t finish it. Which sucks. Starbucks ain’t cheap.

So, I’m thinking about heading to the doc to officially get tested for celiac, just to see. Because it really did make me feel bad.

Sunday was a pretty low key day.

I did a little food prep but not too much since we’re going to be laden with turkey leftovers, too. 🙂

I made some gluten-free banana bread. Because, it’s banana bread. Duh.

I made us some homemade chicken noodle soup (gluten free rotini pasta) with the last of the chicken from last week and some of the broth that I made.

To make it creamy, I added a tablespoon of grass-fed butter (I buy Kerrygold and if you haven’t tried it yet, you are totally missing out!) and about half a cup of heavy cream.

So delicious!

Then, I made some beef stew in the crockpot using some stew meat that I snagged at the farmer’s market.

I used less than 2 pounds of meat so I used upped the veggies a little. I also subbed Yukon Gold taters for the red taters because that’s what I had and I used regular onion because the recipe didn’t state red onion until down in the directions.

Yes, I broke the cardinal rule of following a recipe – I didn’t read the whole thing before I started.

source

It worked out okay though. 🙂

I also didn’t add any frozen corn because I didn’t have any. T’was fine. Delicious, in fact.

Talk to me: What’s your favorite thing on the Starbucks menu?

– jennifer

Quick and Easy Crockpot Roast

Hello, hello!

Happy Thursday! 🙂

So, our town has a really awesome farmer’s market on Saturdays.

In addition to local produce, cheeses, crafts, and other products, local meat farms (or ranches?) come out with various cuts of beef, pork, and chicken.

I’ve purchased eggs that have literally just been laid!

(that’s what she said)

Anyway, we have, in this super short amount of time that we’ve lived there, grown to LOVE our beef vendor – Lane Angus Beef Farm.

They’re so friendly and the beef is so stinkin’ good!

Anyway, we bought a chuck roast and 2 strip steaks on our first visit (on the first day it opened) just to test it out.

We did the steaks first and they were AMAZING!

Then, the chuck roast.

Now, pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before but … I’m kinda funny when it comes to cooking a chuck roast.

I LOVE to cook beef stew and I LOVE to cook pot roast but then, when it comes time for the eating part, I’m usually super unhappy. The meat is always dried out, super chewy, and just downright unpleasant. Well, to me, anyway because my sailor and the Things have never complained about any stew or roast recipe I ever made.

I don’t know what it is about me and my finicky taste buds.

Anyway, I wanted to do something simple with this chuck roast to allow the flavor of the meat to take center stage and not be overwhelmed by too many other things.

I also didn’t want to cook it for too long. That would totally bum me out.

So, I browsed around for ideas and I found a pretty decent looking recipe over at Wellness Mama.

I took some inspiration from that recipe and changed it up a little to fit what I had in my pantry and how I wanted to cook the meat.

Have you ever seen the Weber line of seasonings?

They’re pretty delicious and they’re not full of questionable ingredients.

They’re an excellent substitute for fresh, if you don’t have that.

So, I used the Roasted Garlic and Herb because, well, garlic is one of the greatest things on the planet. Om nom nom!

pretty fancy, huh?

So, anyway, here’s what you need to do.

Quick and Easy Crockpot Roast

serves a few depending on the size of the roast and the size of the appetite 😉

1 tbsp olive oil or fat of choice
1 2-3 pound bone-in chuck roast (the bone adds a whole new level of flavor. if you can’t find bone-in, it’s okay.)
seasoning of choice (amount is up to you)
1-2 onions
1 to 1 1/2 cups broth (I used organic chicken broth) or half broth/half red wine (haven’t done this yet but I know it will be awesome!)
5-6 garlic cloves, peeled

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Season chuck roast liberally, both sides. Add roast to skillet and brown on both sides – about 5 minutes a side, just enough to sear the outside and lock in some of that flavor.

2. Slice your onions and place in the bottom of a 4-6 quart crockpot (depending on the size of your roast). Throw in garlic cloves. Place roast on top of onion and add liquid (more for a bigger roast, less for smaller).

3. Cook roast on HIGH 4 hours. (Okay, now remember, I’m super picky and afraid of it being dried out so I prepped the roast in the morning and had Thing 2 start it up at the 4 hours until dinner mark. If you don’t have that option, you can certainly cook it on low for probably 8-10 hours with the same result.)

4. Take roast out of crockpot and serve with a fork. 🙂

 

O. M. G.

Seriously, the best roast I’ve ever had.

I even brought leftovers for lunch.

That’s big.

Talk to me: Do you have a farmer’s market in your area? What’s your favorite find? Are you a fan of pot roast?

– jennifer

Jen’s Quick & Easy Paleo Beef Chili

Hello!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Wine Wednesday programming for …. a recipe!

I’m in my final week of marathon taper and, out of the blue, I’m pretty sure I’m trying to get sick.

I felt like I got run over by a truck yesterday.

Tired, feverish, sneezy, achy – blech!

Well, with Flying Pig coming up on Sunday (EEEP!), I definitely don’t want to be sick.

So, I actively engaged my sickness in a battle!

I drank some tea

I put on my sweat pants  after work and enjoyed some cat cuddles

Molly is my lap cat. 🙂

and I made some spicy beef chili to help chase the ick out of my system!

I’m feeling a whole lot better today, but I’m still being cautious and loading up on Emergen-C and making sure I’m well hydrated.

You know you’re really well hydrated when you want to move your desk into the restroom. #justsayin

I decided on chili instead of chicken soup because 1. I had farmer’s market ground beef defrosted, 2. I didn’t have any chicken defrosted, and 3. I wanted chili.

I just kinda threw some things into a pot, simmered it for about 15-20 minutes, and dinner was born!

Jen’s Quick and Easy Paleo Beef Chili

2-3 tablespoons fat of your choice (coconut oil, bacon fat, etc – I used bacon fat because, duh, bacon makes everything better)
1/2 cup chopped onion (or more if you really like onion)
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound grass-fed beef or bison
3 chipotles in adobo, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon oregano
1 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

1. Heat bacon fat in large pot or dutch oven. Saute onion and green pepper until vegetables have softened. Add garlic; saute 1 minute or until fragrant, stirring so it doesn’t burn. Add beef to pot and brown, breaking up with wooden spoon. Once meat is almost brown, add chopped chipotles, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and salt and pepper and continue to cook.

2. Once meat is browned and your kitchen smells amazeballs, add tomatoes, tomato paste, and chicken broth; stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low (I set mine at 3) and simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings (add crushed red pepper here, if desired) and simmer for another 10 minutes.

3. Serve it up and NOM it down.

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of my beautifully plated chili last night. I was hungry. Don’t judge me.

But, you’re in luck, I packed leftovers for lunch and had some over a sweet tater!

YUM!!!

Have no fear, Wine Wednesday will return as scheduled next week. 🙂

Talk to me: How do you battle an oncoming cold? What’s your favorite comfort food dish when you’re sick?

– jennifer