Turkey Chili Soup and Corn-Free Cornbread

Last night I made Turkey Chili Soup. It's similar to my Bison Chili. This time I cut back on the beans, and added carrots and chicken stock. It tastes a lot like chili but is a little thinner, and with the carrots it seems more like a soup. It turned out spicier than I intended. If you don't like spicy, I would cut down the cayenne pepper.

I had hoped that Tommy might see the chunks of turkey and carrots and at least eat part of it. Alas, he refused to try the soup. Oh well. At least he had eaten a big lunch and did eat the Corn-Free Cornbread. 

Turkey Chili Soup

1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups chicken stock
15 oz cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced

1. Brown turkey and minced garlic in a large skillet. Then add the cumin through black pepper. 
2. Add the meat mixture and the remaining ingredients into a slow cooker.
3. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours

Carnitas Tacos (And Tips for Making Tortillas)

If you're looking for a quick way to change your mood from happy to super frustrated, make some gluten, corn and rice free tortillas. I made Brittany Angell's Quinoa Flour Tortillas, except I used sorghum flour for the quinoa flour. This is the second time I have made them. The dough comes together well, rolls out pretty easily with some starch on top and bottom, but is almost impossible to transfer to the pan. It's so frustrating to see a nice round tortilla all rolled out and pretty, and then watch it disintegrate as you attempt to get it in the pan.

I was about to throw in the towel, but then I had one last idea. I decided to roll out the tortillas on small pieces of parchment paper. Then put the tortilla in the pan tortilla side down with the parchment paper still attached. As the tortilla begins to cook you can pull off the paper easily and the tortillas stay intact. I still need practice on rolling them thinner, but at least these look like tortillas and they can be folded! 

I'm glad I didn't give up, but I sure won't be making these again soon. I was planning on having burritos for dinner, but I couldn't seem to roll the tortillas thin enough or big enough, so we had tacos instead. 

This dinner has several components, so it's not the fastest dinner around. The good part is many of the steps can be done in advance, like the pork, tomato salsa, and sauteed peppers and onions. 

I served these burritos with Wholly Guacamole. Recently I've had a bad string of luck trying to buy ripe but not spoiled avocados. So this time I saved a step and went with store bought guacamole. Not as good as homemade, but it was tasty on the tacos. I mixed a couple tablespoons of the guacamole with some apple cider vinegar to make a salad dressing. Nice and tangy and creamy. 

I used "garlic pepper" in the peppers and onions. It's a seasoning blend in the bulk aisle of Winco. It looks to just be maybe 3/4 dry minced garlic and 1/4 red pepper flakes. It's really tasty for how simple the combination is. I use it a lot when I make kale chips.

Overall this dinner was delicious, but it sure had some frustration along the way. Hopefully I learned my lesson that this is not a dinner I should attempt after I just got home from the gym. Maybe this would be a better Sunday night dinner instead.

Carnitas

3.5 lb Country Style Ribs (with or without bones)
1/2 Tbsp smoked paprika
1/2 Tbsp ground black pepper
1/2 Tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

1. Optional: Line Crock Pot with liner.
2. Combine all ingredients and cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 8-10 hours.
3. Shred pork, discarding any bones (if applicable) and big chunks of fat.
4. Using a gravy separator, separate out the fat and add the juices back to the pork.

Refried Black Beans

1/2 Tbsp oil
1/4 of a medium onion, finely chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 can black beans, undrained

1. Heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until softened.
2. Turn the heat to medium low. Mash the beans and liquid in the pot.
3. Heat until warmed. They will thicken a lot when cooled.

Tomato Salsa

5 small tomatoes (I used roma since they were on sale)
1/4 small onion
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp lime juice concentrate

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until the consistency you want.

Sauteed Peppers and Onions

1 1/2 medium onion, sliced into thin strips
2 poblano peppers, sliced into thin strips
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp garlic pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Add remaining ingredients and saute until the peppers and onions are tender.

Hamburgers, Onion Sweet Potatoes and Salad

Today I made our big grocery shopping trip for the week. So far I can't think of anything I forgot to get. But it is only Monday...

Tonight I took the easy way out and the burgers are not Tommy safe. But that's ok. We have a lot of leftover pork from the Apple Pie Pork for Tommy. I used to make roasted onion potatoes with Lipton onion soup mix. They are delicious, but the mix has all sorts of added ingredients. It turns out that you can pretty much get the same taste with roasted sweet potatoes if you just use salt, pepper, and dry minced onions.

Tommy has been liking lettuce lately. His Early Intervention Occupational Group has done vegetables with Catalina Dressing a couple times and all the kids like it. I was going to make my own dressing so it wouldn't have any artificial dyes or preservatives, but then I didn't get around to looking for a recipe and decided to just buy the dressing. Tommy loves it, and if it gets him to eat more raw veggies, even better. 

Onion Sweet Potatoes

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp dry minced onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Toss all ingredients together in a 9 x 13 baking dish.
3. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring twice.

Meal Planning - Week of February 24

So here's the first of hopefully many weekly meal planning posts. It took me a little while to decide what to make and write out the shopping list. I *think* I have everything on the list that we need for the week. We'll see how well I did as the week unfolds.

This week we'll be introducing Tommy to shrimp. I've been hesitant to introduce shellfish since he's allergic to so many of the common allergens. Fingers crossed that Tommy will be able to eat them without a reaction. 

Monday - Hamburgers, Onion Sweet Potatoes and Salad
Tuesday - Carnitas Burritos
Wednesday - Turkey Chili and Corn-Free Cornbread
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Pork and Tofu Pillows and Simply Gai Lan (Chinese style broccoli)
Saturday - Cilantro and Lime Sweet Potatoes Hasselback Style, Shrimp with Cilantro Pesto and salad
Sunday - Loaded Sweet Potato Soup (It'll be similar to my Lighter Loaded Baked Potato Soup)

Apple Pie Pork and Millet Polenta

Today I made the Apple Pie Pork again. I served it with polenta made out of ground hulled millet. OMG, this dinner was so good. Ben, Tommy and I all gobbled it up. It's surprisingly filling too.

Boston Butt was on sale, so I used a 3.5 lb bone in boston butt roast for the pork. The pork was nice and juicy, but I forgot that it would be challenging to remove the fat and bones when they're covered in the cooked apples. The Braeburn apples were HUGE, so I only used four. That completely filled our smaller crock pot. Next time I would use the bigger crock pot so we could have more apples. I cooked the roast and apples on low for 9 hours and that worked well.

You could grind the millet in a powerful blender or a coffee grinder. I used the Baby Bullet with the milling blade and worked in batches. The Millet Polenta makes a delicious bed for the pork and apples. The polenta was rich, creamy and best of all Tommy can eat it.

This dinner was really easy and so good. I had forgotten about this pork recipe. Now that I'm going to focus more on menu planning I think this meal will be popping up a lot more.

Millet Polenta

1 1/2 cup hulled millet
4 cups chicken broth
1 can lite coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground sage
2 tablespoon Earth's Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks

1. In a medium pot, toast the millet on medium heat for several minutes, stirring frequently. Run your fingers through the millet to look for little rocks.
2. Coarse grind the millet in a powerful blender. 
3. Add the ground millet and the remaining ingredients except the vegan butter back into the pot. Bring to a boil, whisking frequently. After the mixture has begun to thicken (about 10 minutes), reduce heat, cover and simmer for another 20 minutes, whisking occasionally. The polenta is done with it is a thick creamy consistency and the millet is no longer crunchy. 
4. When the polenta is done, turn off the heat and stir in the vegan butter.

Roasted Chicken and Vegetable Pot Pie

We just got back from a ski vacation with friends in Steamboat Springs. One of the lodges had a tempting looking turkey pot pie as a lunch special. But then we saw that it was more like creamy turkey soup with a crust on top. So instead I said I would make chicken pot pie when we got home. I took my original chicken pot pie recipe and stepped it up a notch.

I've made The Easiest Chicken Ever multiple times, but I was looking for a change. I don't really like the process of peeling all the meat off a whole chicken, so I figured using a whole chicken that the butcher cut into pieces might be easier. I decided to roast all the parts, even the wings since I'm going to make stock out of the bones and skin. Part way through the cooking I remembered why I don't usually roast chicken in the oven. My whole kitchen pretty much filled with smoke! The chicken did turn out really moist and flavorful. So in the end it was worth the extra effort...
.

Today was a home day, so I had a lot of time to roast the chicken and vegetables before adding them to the pot pie. If I were in a hurry I definitely would have skipped the roasted veggie step and just used frozen veggies like I normally do. The roasted veggies would be delicious in a soup. 

I used the crust recipe from my original chicken pot pie, except that I replaced 3 tablespoons of shortening with 3 tablespoons of Earth's Balance buttery sticks. I'm not sure that there was any noticeable difference between the crust this time and last time. It seemed a little easier to sort of roll out, but then it split more during baking. 

This pot pie had a much richer and deeper chicken flavor than usual. I think roasting the chicken in pieces was a big improvement since there were so many more surfaces for the seasoning. This version wasn't complicated, it just took a while from start to finish. Definitely worth the effort. 

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables Pot Pie

Single Pie Crust

2 Tbsp Earth's Balance Buttery Sticks

1 recipe Roasted Mixed Vegetables (see below)

1/2 recipe of Roasted Chicken Pieces (see below)

2 Tbsp potato starch

1 cup chicken stock

3/4 cup lite coconut milk

2 1/2 cup chopped or shredded cooked chicken or turkey

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Spray 9 x 13 glass baking dish with oil.

2. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. 

3. Whisk in potato starch. Cook for 2 minutes stirring frequently. Add stock and coconut milk. Whisk until bubbly and thickened. Add vegetables and chicken. 

4. Pour chicken mixture into baking dish. Top with crust. Seal edge and cut slits in several places on crust. 

5. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until the crust is browned and the filling is bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 

Roasted Chicken Pieces

1 whole chicken, cut into parts
2 Tbsp oil
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. 
2. In a small bowl mix the oil and seasonings. 
3. Pat chicken dry. Place chicken skin side up on a large rimmed baking sheet. Rub the oil mixture over the chicken, coating evenly.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, flip chicken over. Bake for another 10 minutes, and flip again (so skin side is up again). 
5. Cook until chicken is done and juices run clear. For me that was a total baking time of 35 minutes.

Roasted Mixed Vegetables

1/2 of a head of cauliflower, chopped into small florets
6 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small onion, diced
3 celery ribs, sliced
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tbsp dry minced onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. 
2. Mix all ingredients together on a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring once. 

New Year, New Ideas on Budgeting and Planning

I'm not really into New Year's Resolutions. I feel like if I put a formal title on something like a "Resolution," then I end up wanting to rebel against it and eventually quit. Sometimes I think I get too much satisfaction out of quitting things. 

So instead of setting resolutions, I've just been thinking about our life and ways we can simplify and improve. In our family, I pretty much handle all the finances and shopping. We don't live paycheck to paycheck or anything, but money is still something that tends to cause me stress. I think part of that comes from being a stay at home mom and knowing that while I add a lot of value to our family, it's not in the monetary form. 

I recently clicked on a Pinterest link talking about how to reduce your grocery spending bills. It took me to the website Fun Cheap or Free. Her article mentioned that you should only go shopping once a week and if you run out of food or forget something, do without or that 1 gallon of milk will end up costing $50. She also has an article The 7 Bank Accounts Every Family Should Have. This really resonated with us. 

Ben and I have talked about setting up separate accounts to help with budgeting things, like saving to finish our basement, but we haven't done it yet. This article really lays it out clearly. Budgeting is something I've struggled with. When I was still working, we really didn't have to worry about it at all. But now that I'm a stay at home mom, I feel like we should probably keep better track. I tried using www.mint.com, but I would frequently forget to sort through the transactions and then months would go by before I would log on again. I think I need more of an automatic system, like having money directly deposited into different accounts.

The biggest area in our budget that I see room for improvement is in food spending. I usually end up making multiple trips to the grocery store a week and I'm sure that increases our costs. Over the years I have greatly improved my ability to make a full meal out of a seemingly empty fridge and pantry. But there are definitely days when it's 6 o'clock at night, I'm tired, have no plan for dinner and we're hungry now. I'm going to try and be more focused on weekly meal planning. My goal is to make our meal plan on Sunday and do the shopping on Mondays. 

Hopefully this will help simplify our life, reduce my stress and improve our finances at the same time. Plus it sounds pretty easy, so I'm thinking I'll actually be able to stick with it.

Meatloaf, Sweetener Free Ketchup, and Gluten Free Baked Green Bean Fries

My cousin Kelly gave us the recipe for a Sweetener Free Ketchup. We made it the other day. I wasn't sure what "two pinches" meant, so I used 1/2 tsp ground cloves. The ketchup is much more spiced than a traditional ketchup, but it sure was easy and it is thicker than The Infamous Fruit Ketchup. Plus Tommy didn't have a reaction to this ketchup. I think next time I might add a little sugar and a little less of the spices.

The Sweetener Free Ketchup was really really good in meatloaf though! The spices worked really well with the meat and did not overpower the other flavors. We still have a lot of the ketchup left, so I think we'll be making meatloaf again in the near future. 

On the plus side, Tommy seems to be fine after having this meatloaf twice over the course of several days. That's a relief. I'm glad he's ok with grass fed beef. It gives me hope that in the future he'll be ok with traditional beef too. I started with my Bison Meatloaf and modified the recipe a little. This meatloaf was even better than the bison one.

I served the meatloaf with baked green bean fries and mashed potatoes. I saw the original recipe for Spicy Green Bean Fries on Pinterest and then modified it so make it Tommy safe. I thought the breading I made was kind of bland, but Tommy loved them. He doesn't eat a lot of green vegetables, so I'm counting this recipe as a success.

And yes, Ben and I did join Tommy at the kids table that night. Good thing Ben built sturdy chairs!

Sweetener Free Meatloaf

1 lb grass fed ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1/2 cup dry minced onion
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sweetener free ketchup, divided
1 Tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry basil
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dry rosemary

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. 
2. In a small bowl, combine the minced onion and coconut milk. Let sit for 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients except for the ketchup. Add in the onion mixture and 1/3 cup ketchup. Mix thoroughly with your hands. 
4. Line a rimmed baking sheet with tin foil. Form the meat into a loaf. 
5. Spread the remaining ketchup over the top of the meatloaf.
6. Bake for 45-60 minutes, until the internal temperature is at least 160°F.
7. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Gluten Free Baked Green Bean Fries

8 oz green beans, washed and trimmed

3/4 cup potato starch

1/4 cup sorghum flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup coconut milk

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. 

2. Spray a rimmed baking sheet with oil.

3. Place coconut milk in a bowl. Mix remaining ingredients (except for green beans) in a large shallow bowl.

4. Working in small batches, soak the green beans in the coconut milk, shake excess milk off and toss in the flour mixture.

5. Shake off excess flour and place on the baking sheet.

6. Repeat until all the green beans are coated.

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the green beans are crispy, stirring once during baking.