bison & red wine crock pot stew (a Jess post)

Monday was overcast, wet and cold. One of those days where all you want to do is curl up with a blanket and a good book.  Luckily I had already planned on making bison & red wine stew and it was PERFECT timing. I put everything in the crock pot over lunch so when I came home all I had to do was throw on some cozy pajama pants & enjoy! This is apparently similar to boeuf bourguignon... but I don't speak french. :)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb. bison stew meat
1 T olive oil
salt & pepper
1 large shallot (the size of a small onion), finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 T flour
3 carrots, cut into large chunks
3 small potatoes (I used purple), cut into chunks
2 1/2 c good red wine
1 c beef broth
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium-high. When shimmering, add bison. Begin to toss, sprinkling the meat with salt and pepper to taste. Once browned, add shallot and garlic. Cook until shallot is translucent and sprinkle mixture with flour. Stir until incorporated and remove from heat. Put bison mixture and all remaining ingredients into a crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8.

This was so simple yet so flavorful and was total comfort food. Drew loved it too! (woo!) The only problem is that I think the sugars from the wine made my stomach hurt a bit that night... small price to pay, really.

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting

So...here's the thing.  I love to bake.  Since the time I was old enough to use the oven, I have loved to bake.  My mom got me a cookbook called Who Is That Short Chef?  I think the only recipes I ever used in there were for cookies and cakes. (Confession: I still own that cookbook and it has, to date, the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever found.) Trying to eat well is really depressing when you love to bake.  Because, sadly, most things you bake are delicious...but not exactly good for you.  So, if you haven't been able to tell, I am always on the prowl for healthy ways to indulge in my love of baking. Tonight was no exception!  The biggest problem with trying to bake healthy stuff is that about half the time it is majorly gross.  It doesn't taste AT ALL like its decadent counterpart.  It tastes like dirt...or grass. Or the consistency is so off that it's inedible.  Something.  So I like sharing the ones that are successful!

William has had a stretch of good days at school.  And he wasn't a superfan of the cupcakes I made for his birthday (I had to use vegan butter for the frosting and William didn't like the flavor).  So I was feeling bad - and thinking he needed a sweet surprise after dinner.  I stumbled upon a healthy chocolate cake recipe and decided to give it a go when I saw how easy it was. I whipped it up in about 10 minutes! I think William liked it...

Note the chocolate-induced glazed eyes

The cake turned out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself!  Since William inhaled his, here is what the cake looks like, other than an empty plate:

And here's how I made it:

• 1 and ½ cups white whole-wheat flour 
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sugar 
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup grapeseed oil (canola would work great too, I just didn't have any)
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar 
• ¾ cup cold water

Mix dry ingredients. Then add wet. Mix with a fork (not beaters). Pour into a greased and lined cake pan, and bake in a preheated oven at 355F for about thirty minutes. Cool before frosting.

Then, I decided to make a chocolate peanut butter frosting that uses no powdered sugar at all.  

• 1/2 cup peanut butter 
• 5 TB pure maple syrup 
• 4 TB cocoa powder
• 3 TB milk of choice (I used almond milk)
• 1 1/2  tsp pure vanilla extract

Blend everything in a food processor. 

And, just for funsies, here is the first garden strawberry of the season!!!

Bento Fun

This week is Health Week Challenge at William's school, so we have to chart how many healthy things he eats.  William is cleaning up!  He got all the possible points yesterday - except for trying something he thought he didn't like (I pushed blueberries on the little weirdo, but he refused to eat them...what kind of kid doesn't like blueberries??)

I wanted to put green beans in William's bento this week, but he said he wouldn't eat them.  I can't say that I blame him...green beans make me gag.  William requested corn as his veg again - that is his favorite.  Here's what else he's eatin':

Back left: peanut butter quesadillas on whole wheat tortillas

Back right: corn

Front left: gluten free garbanzo blondie

Center: Super Crackers (a full serving of sweet potatoes!)

Front right: mandarin oranges

Gluten Free Blondies and Meal Plan

Cory

I made gluten free - and pretty healthy! - blondies for William's lunch treat this week.  The main ingredient is garbanzo beans.  Yes....garbanzo beans.  But they don't taste like beans, I promise!  They taste like gooey, delicious blondies!  See?

I followed the recipe exactly from Chocolate Covered Katie. Here's how to make them (SO EASY!)

• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas or white beans (1 can, drained and rinsed) 
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• level 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup ground flax 
• 1/4 cup peanut butter 
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend all ingredients (except chips) until very smooth in a food processor (not a blender). Mix in chips, and scoop into a greased 8×8 pan. Optional: for “prettiness” you can stick some chocolate chips on top of the batter as well. Bake for around 30 minutes. They’ll look a little undercooked when you take them out, but they firm up as they cool, and you don’t want them to get hard.

And here's the meal plan for this week.  Yesterday was SUPPOSED to be veggie burgers on the grill with oven fries and broccoli.  But Steve burned the hell out of the burgers and they were blackened little pucks of coal.  So we improvised.

Sunday: Scrambled egg sandwiches in lieu of veggie burgers

Monday: Attempt 2 on the veggie burgers

Tuesday: The Famous Taco Salad

Wednesday: Salmon of some sort

Thursday: out

Friday: Tortilla pizzas that we didn't have last week due to birthday celebrations for William

Saturday: Chicken Tikka Masala (recipe to follow)

Jessica's Meal Plan, week of 5/6

Last week was oddly hectic. Because of it, there were times we didn't stick to the meal plan- though I did actually do a fairly good job of eating within my new dietary limits. I learned my lesson when we went out for ice cream on Friday night and I had major stomach cramps for 24 hours following that. I dont know if it was the sugar & dairy in the ice cream or the new medication I'm on, but I paid for it for sure. Not something I really want to do again. So back to eating right...

Sunday (tonight)- I made a variation of Cory's quinoa & egg muffins, though mine were more like mini-casseroles. (I am making the muffins for breakfasts this week though!)
Monday- red wine bison stew (I meant to make this last week & it didnt happen) & sliced fruit
Tuesday- tofu parmigiana & salad
Wednesday- garlic lime turkey breast with orange sweet potato chips
Thursday- whole wheat spaghetti tossed with herbs & arugula
Friday- leftover turkey sandwiches on sprouted grain bread
Saturday- out for our Mother's Day celebration!

slow cooker shredded adobo pork (a Jess post)

I've had a pork roast in the freezer for weeks now and I wanted to make it into something yummy and exciting- not just typical roast. While we were at Chipotle last weekend, it hit me- shredded pork for tacos! I can eat those on a corn tortilla and have very few carbs. So I poked around a bit and came up with this recipe. Better yet, it used the slow cooker! I tweaked it to be suitable for a small-ish pork roast, and voila! Mouth watering meat.

Ingredients:
1/4 c pureed chipotle chiles in adobo (I got this in a can, but if you cant find it, simply get the whole chiles in adobo and pulse 2 of them with a spoonful or 2 of adobo in your food processor)
1/2 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
1/2 onion, cut into large chunks
6 garlic cloves, peeled & smashed with the flat side of a knife
2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 T kosher salt
juice from 2 1/2 limes (I actually used 2 regular limes and 3 key limes)
1/4 c cider vinegar
2-3 lb pork roast (I used pork loin roast)
4 cups chicken broth
4 bay leaves

In the bottom of the slow cooker, combine chile puree, cilantro, onion, garlic, cloves, salt, lime juice, and vinegar. Put roast into low cooker and turn it a few times so that it becomes completely coated in the sauce. Pour in the chicken broth and add bay leaves. Cook on high for 6 hours, then allow to sit on warm for another 4 hours or so (this is where it gets super tender & starts to fall apart).

Carefully remove and shred the meat. Ladle some of the sauce back onto it for serving (so that it is moist, but not dripping). Serve on tortillas with your favorite toppings!

This stuff was AMAZING- not spicy, but VERY flavorful. I cant wait for the leftovers tomorrow!! The whole family adored it too. I will make it again and again.

Weekly Bento

This is William's favorite lunch yet!!  He came home with nothing in his lunchbox but scraps.  Which threw me for a loop since he usually has lunch leftovers for his after school snack.  So I had to come up with a good snack in a hurry!

Back left: blue tortilla chips

Back right: corn

Front left: spelt flour chocolate zucchini mini muffin

Middle: sardines

Front right: trail mix of sesame sticks and dried cherries

William goes, "I love sardines!  Fish is brain food!"  His lunchbox did smell a bit...well, fishy, when he got home from school.  But, you can't beat the Omega-3's and calcium in sardines!  And, we have to find creative ways for William to get calcium since he's off all dairy.  And, that kid loves him some sardines.

Interesting dairy sidebar: It seems that once we cut it out and got William's tummy happy, that now even a little bit (what before would have been fine!) now hurts his tummy.  I made spaghetti for him the other night from leftover sauce I had frozen.  There was a tiny bit of parmesan cheese in there, but I thought it would be OK.  Nope.  A half hour later, he was on the couch saying his belly hurt.  I poisoned him again. :(