If you’re fed up with crunchy, underdone brown rice, try this on for size. It comes out PERFECTLY every time! I serve this every time I need rice to go with a meal. It’s worth the time it takes to cook!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups brown rice
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Place the rice into an 8-inch glass baking dish.
3. Put the butter on top of the rice.
4. Bring the water just to a boil in a kettle or covered saucepan (or nuke it using the beverage button).
5. Pour the water over the rice.
6. Stir to combine.
7. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
8. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.
9. Fluff and serve.

Original recipe found via Alton Brown. (Good Eats episode: Do the Rice Thing)

Tags: brown rice

This recipe is so easy, I may never order greasy Chinese takeout again! (This recipe is not greasy, btw)

Ingredients

• 1 lb sirloin steak, thinly sliced
• 3-4 cups broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tbs peanut oil
• 1 Tbs minced garlic

For the Marinade

• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp peanut oil (optional, I often forget this)
• Freshly ground black pepper

Stir Fry Sauce

• 3 Tbs oyster sauce
• 2 tsp dry sherry
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Instructions

1. In a bowl, combine the ingredients for the Marinade.
2. Add the beef and let marinate for 10 minutes.
3. In another bowl, mix together the ingredients for the Stir-fry Sauce.
4. In a wok or large sauté pan, add 1/4 cup of water and bring to a boil.
5. Add the broccoli, cover and steam for 3 minutes.
6. Drain the broccoli and set aside.
7. Turn the heat up to high, and when hot, add the peanut oil.
8. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant (only takes a few seconds, don’t let it burn!).
9. Add the steak strips and cook until browned.
10. Pour in the Stir-fry Sauce and stir to coat the meat.
11. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly.
12. Add the broccoli back into the pan and toss to coat.

This goes great with some baked brown rice!

Original Recipe discovered in The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

Tags: balsamic vinegar, black pepper, broccoli, cornstarch, garlic, oyster sauce, peanut oil, sherry, sirloin steak, soy sauce, water

This was my first time using coconut milk for anything. I plan on buying a case of the stuff in the very near future.

Tom ate this and declared it amazing. He didn’t just eat it, he DEVOURED it. Always makes me happy when he devours things.

This soup was a great way to use up some of the ham leftovers from xmas, and it was so easy to prepare! I used to hate soups, but I think I’m finding out that I hate CANNED soups, because all of the from scratch soups I’ve made have been wonderful!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2-3 cups cooked ham, cut into bite sized pieces
• 4-5 cups cubed sweet potato (about 2 medium)
• 2 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 tsp salt (if you salt your chicken stock, don’t add this!)
• 20 grinds black pepper
• 1 can coconut milk (I use Thai Kitchen, as it has the least preservatives/ingredients)

Instructions

1. Combine onion, ham, sweet potatoes, chicken stock, water, salt & pepper in a large pot.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Turn down heat to medium/low (3 on my stove).
4. Simmer until the sweet potatoes are tender.
5. Add the coconut milk to the soup and stir until well incorporated.
6. Simmer more until the soup is heated through.

The coconut flavor is very mild, and the whole thing comes together quite pleasantly. I hope you will try this! Also, don’t use lite or low-fat coconut milk. It’s mostly water. Just use the stuff that comes in this can and you’ll be all good.

Tags: chicken stock, coconut milk, ham, onion, pepper, salt, sweet potato, water

Tired of dumping your ground meat into a strainer only to lose a bunch of the meat down the drain? Tired of having to wipe the side of the pan of grease so you don’t start a fire on your stove? Do you even have a strainer? It’s being occupied by pasta, isn’t it? (I know mine usually is)

I learned this little trick from watching Cooking with Dog. (It’s on youtube and totally awesome, you should check it out.)

Just move the meat to one side of the pan, and then go get a paper towel. You can either fold it and hold it with tongs (which is what I usually do), or fold it a couple of times and lay it in the greasy side of the pan. You will likely need to tip the pan so that the grease leaves the meat side of the pan. This will get out most of the grease from the pan. If you need more grease gone, just repeat the process! I usually leave just a little bit left to help cook the rest of what is going into the meat (like other veggies) instead of adding oil. I never add oil or butter to ground meat. Why would I? It generates enough of it’s own!

Seriously, though, it’s a cool trick! Try it out! Plus, grease is not really all that good to put down your sink.

I should know better than to buy new ingredients without a slew of recipes which utilize them. Especially a big bag of something. Thankfully, a quick internet search brought me several recipes to use with this new to us green called kale. This one just happened to be one of my favorites.

I don’t have nearly enough breakfast recipes in my arsenal, so I decided to attack this recipe first. Let me just say, YUM! Who knew getting your greens would be so easy and tasty!?

Yes,  you do need a blender for this. A food processor might work, but I’m not sure. If anyone tries it with one, let me know.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs (2 eggs per person)
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 2 handfuls kale or baby spinach (1 handful per person)
• salt & pepper to taste

Since we bought our kale in a bag, it was already washed and cut up into manageable chunks for us. If you buy the head, you may need to wash and cut before throwing into the blender.

I obviously included the how much per person so you could scale the recipe accordingly. The other items you can probably figure out how to scale on your own.

Instructions

1. combine eggs, milk, onion powder, kale, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until the greens are pureed into tiny bits.
2. cook as you would scrambled eggs.

I like to serve these with bacon and toast (when I’m eating wheat).

Inspired by the recipe found here.

Tags: egg, kale, milk, onion powder, pepper, salt

I’ve decided to spend the whole of the month of January not eating wheat.

Why?

It’s certainly not because I hate pasta or my homemade bread or the delicious montana mills-like cookies that I make.

Part of the reason I want to do this is my weight has plateued for the past couple of months and I haven’t been seeing much change. I’ve been hearing a lot about the “wheat belly” diet, and how cutting out wheat (and probably certain other things) can help you shed your middle (which is where I want to do most of my shedding). I’m not entirely following the “wheat belly” diet, because I haven’t done proper research into it and I don’t want to give everyone the impression that I am. I’m just endeavoring, for the whole 31 days of January, to not eat anything that contains wheat.

We will be continuing to eat our non-processed diet as we have been since October, with this little extra added challenge. Woo! Of course this means I will have to omit a few certain things that I enjoy:

• no toast with my eggs.
• no delicious cookie.
• no pasta.
• no grilled cheese.
• no pizza (unless it has a cauliflower crust…. ooh! I gotta make that again!)
• no bun with my burger. Extra veggies, please!

It will be hard, but it’s only for a month. An experiment! SCIENCE!

(updated picture coming)

I’ve been trying to work on these cookies since I last posted the original cookie recipe and I think I have got them as close as they will get. The amount of butter, and sugar may seem like a lot, but I tend to make big batches of cookies so that I don’t have to make them often. This will make a lot of cookies (20 using the large oxo ice cream scoop, more if you use a smaller spoon). It’s all wholesome real food ingredients!

I don’t even mix things in separate bowls (why wash more dishes later?). I just add everything in the order you see here to Sir Mix-a-Lot (my stand mixer) and keep him on the stir setting while I do so. If you have a stand mixer, go ahead and do that.

• 1  cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (all of my whole wheat flour is King Arthur brand)
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar (or sucanat)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix together the flour, baking soda, oats and salt.
3. In a large, separate bowl use an electric mixer (or your stand mixer) to cream the butter.
4. Add the egg, sugar, milk, and vanilla and mix well. Scrape sides of bowl as necessary.
5. Add the flour mixture in batches.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Using a cookie scoop (because it makes for evenly sized cookies), place batter on ungreased cookie sheet. I lined mine with a silicone liner for more even baking.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
9. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the pan before removing to a cooling rack.
10. Store in an airtight container.

Try not to eat them all at once!! One a night is plenty!

For those that don’t know, sucanat is evaporated cane juice. It’s available at wegmans and you can use it 1:1 for regular granulated sugar. It’s less processed, which is good. You can even put it through the food processor to get powdered sugar! Because it’s less processed, it retains the vitamins and minerals from the sugar cane. Yes, sugar cane has vitamins and minerals.

Yes, that is a nerdy goofy cup. I got it at Disney when I was on my honey moon. It came in a set of 4 (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald). I <3 the Disney nerds. Goofy has braces on his two little buck teeth. XD So cute!

Right, cookies. My husband called these AMAZING. I got the basic recipe from the 100 days of real food blog, though I changed it a bit and doubled it. Using my medium cookie scoop, this made 16 cookies, which will last us a whole week (we have one a night for dessert) with an extra day! The original recipe only lasted us 6 days, and the cookies got really small halfway through.  If you use a smaller scoop, you could probably get far more cookies out of it.

• 1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (all of my whole wheat flour is King Arthur brand)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large, separate bowl use an electric mixer (or your stand mixer) to cream the butter. 
4. Add the egg, sugar, and vanilla and mix well. Scrape sides of bowl as necessary.
5. Add the flour mixture in batches.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Using a cookie scoop (or spoon), place batter on ungreased cookie sheet. I lined mine with a silicone liner for more even baking.
8. Bake for 10 minutes.
9. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the pan before removing to a cooling rack.

Try not to eat them all at once!! One a night is plenty!

Tags: baking soda, brown sugar, butter, chocolate chips, egg, salt, vanilla extract, white whole wheat flour, whole wheat flour

This bread is surprisingly flavorful with a thin, crispy crust that has a quite pleasing crunch!

I liked the way it came out all spiky along the top edges.

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon yeast

Knead by hand or let the bread machine do all the work.

Tags: bread flour, salt, sugar, water, yeast

What do you do when you have a ton of carrots on your hands and no idea what to do with them? Make waffles, of course!

This will require either a box grater or a food processor with a grater disc (I used the latter, since it takes two seconds to shred an entire carrot this way).

I got about 6 waffles out of this recipe, using my round waffle iron and one ladle per waffle. Your results may vary!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup packed shredded carrot
• 1 3/4 c. milk
• 1 stick butter, melted

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. 
2. Set your waffle iron to MAX and wait for it to heat up fully (mine has a seperate orange light that comes on when the iron is ready to go).
3. Ladle batter into the waffle iron and bake for 5 minutes. (You might need more or less time depending on your waffle iron. I have a round one and it takes 5 minutes exactly to produce a perfect waffle.)

These freeze beautifully! Just lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, and stick in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Then, remove them to a zip lock bag.

This recipe yields 6-7 round waffles.

They’re really good with some good maple syrup and sliced bananas on top! :9 My husband even likes them with peanut butter spread on them.

Tags: All-Purpose Flour, baking powder, butter, carrot, cinnamon, eggs, milk, nutmeg, salt, whole wheat flour