My dear friend, Gina, is soooo sick.
She's been in the hospital twice this past week from dehydration...Turns out she has mono...I didn't know people out of college got mono, but here we are! She actually got it from her son, and is concerned that her second son has it. She's a stay at home mom that takes ALL THE RESPONSIBILITY at home. It's going to be a tough month for them.
Then there's another friend of mine who just had a little baby girl, Leah Grace!
(That's actually my baby Grace)
YESTERDAY!!! She is still in the hospital and had a c-section. She's is going to be doing a lot of recovering this month PLUS taking care of her sweet little baby girl and 3 older kids!
Third there is my cousin Sarah, and her 5 sweet little kids with a 6th on the way! She is 37 weeks, so we're getting some freezer meals together for her this week!
So here's what's on the agenda for 4 families today (I figure if I'm going to be cooking for 3 friends, I might as well cook for my family at the same time!)
We're cookin':
Sloppy Jo's
Sloppy Jo's
Tortellini Primavera
Chicken Pot Pie
I planned on also making soup with my leftover broth...but I didn't have any! Maybe I'll reuse the chicken bones and make up a second batch of broth for soup!
Sloppy Jo's aren't something I eat very regularly...and make even less often. In fact, until today I have NEVER MADE SLOPPY JO'S! But let me tell you...I am a natural. Delish! Here is my recipe (I used a couple different recipes, merged them together and made some additional alterations...for example, I don't buy store made barbecue sauce...I make my own. So I did something similar in the recipe! Since I was cooking a few different dishes today in large quantities, I started with the Sloppy Joe's in the crockpot!
Crock Pot Sloppy Jo's:
1 pound grass-fed beef
1 onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 jalapeno, chopped
1 cans tomato sauce
1/8 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp chili pepper sauce
1 TBS red wine vinegar
2 TBS molasses
1/8 cup mustard (I used a combo of stone ground and yellow mustard)
1 tsp salt
(To make for multiple families, just multiply recipe by number of families!)
In bowl, mix liquid ingredients: tomato sauce, tomato paste, chili pepper sauce, red wine vinegar, molasses, mustard. Then mix in the following dry ingredients: minced garlic, jalapeno, brown sugar, salt. Before crockpot is turned on, mix the ground beef, onions and sauce together in the crockpot. Turn the crockpot to medium or high (depending on how HOT your crockpot gets!) Let cook for 4 hours, then lower to low or warm until ready to serve. Delish!!! Best Sloppy Joe's I've ever had! Any suggestions or twists you like to add to your Sloppy Joe's?
Tortellini Primavera
Honestly, I don't eat much pasta! But the families I am cooking for do! So...I wanted to make something I know they would like, but still include GREAT REAL FOODS and make it extra delicious. For my friend that is sick, this is made from homemade chicken broth, which has a ton of great minerals and will help her get better (WAY better than store bought chicken broth and a great way to get a TON of USE out of whole chickens!) Plus there is pastured butter, also a great add to help heal her body.
I got the main recipe from eatingwell.com I, however, am not afraid of butter, so I used equal amounts butter to flour to make a roux, instead of using olive oil to cook. Butter is not only full of nutrients, since it's a fat, it also helps stabilize your blood sugar. So, fat is necessary and stick with real fats. If the only thing you chance in your diet to make it a real food diet is fats, you are going to be a world ahead. One thing fake fats cause is inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, alzheimers, acne, etc. So stick with real fats - like butter, tallow, ghee and cold-pressed oils like olive oil (for dressings) and coconut oil (for cooking). I also baked my dish, since I didn't feel like the cheese mixed into the sauce very well at the end. Finally, I used homemade chicken broth, which is chock full of nutrients.
Tortellini Primavera
(original recipe: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/tortellini_primavera.html)
(original recipe: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/tortellini_primavera.html)
1 1/4 Cups Homemade Chicken Broth
2 Tbs Whole Wheat Flour
2 Tbs Butter
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Cup Parmigiano Reggiano
1 Tbs Tarragon
1/4 Teaspoon Sea Salt
4 cups chopped veggies - I used broccoli, onions, carrots, and peas
1 package whole wheat tortellini - (definitely NOT one where the first (or any) ingredient is enriched flour)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pre-measure chicken broth. In a pan, melt the butter and ad garlic. Cook for no more than 60 seconds, or until lightly brown. Whisk in the flour. Whisk until there are no lumps. Once there are no lumps, immediately pour in chicken broth and whisk together again until there are no lumps, bring to a boil. Reduce to a low heat and let simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the the sauce coats the back of your spoon.
While the sauce is simmering, chop up vegetables into about 1" pieces. I used onions, broccoli, carrots, and then added peas (which of course don't need to be chopped!). Mix together cheese, salt, and all the veggies.
Once sauce has thickened, remove from heat and pour over veggie mixture. Mix everything together, really good!!! Make sure that all tortellini is under some sauce.
Pour everything into a baking dish, I used a lovely cast iron dish, and bake for 1 hr. Once that's complete, make sure tortellini is cooked through.
If you don't have enough sauce to cover tortellini, halfway through baking, take the dish out and stir to coat the tortellini that wasn't covered before.
Mmm...this one is also super tasty!
Chicken Pot Pies
Last I'll make Chicken Pot Pies. Instead of the usual pie crust, I'm going to use biscuits. I'll put a few biscuits at the bottom of a disposable pie plate (for my sickie and new mom friends) cover with gravy, chicken, veggies, and top with a few slices of the biscuits. Seriously amazing...Homemade chicken broth gravy is seriously amazing...Uh-Maz-Ing...Oh...I'm definitely making some for my family. I can't wait.
Biscuits - I got this recipe from 100 days of real food. I had some sour raw milk in the fridge, so I just substituted the sour milk for the milk listed in the recipe. Mine didn't turn out quite as puffy as hers did, and my dough was sticky. I didn't add any flour, after I kneaded it a few times it was less sticky. But even though they didn't rise as well, and even though my dough was sticky, they were delicious. I will definitely make these again to see if I knead it more if that will help them rise. So good. I didn't even eat dinner tonight because I was so full from biscuits with butter and homemade apple jam. Man oh man. I wish I wasn't so full, I'd go and have some more.
Here is the recipe, so simple.
Biscuits
Biscuits
(original recipe from: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/04/08/super-easy-recipe-whole-wheat-biscuits/)
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour - I also used the King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour (or as my aunt calls it, King Arthur Holy Power)
4 tsp Aluminum Free Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold un-salted butter
1 cup sour milk
Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spoon 2 cups of whole wheat flour into measuring cups and pour into a medium bowl (why spoon into measuring cups? - If you just put the measuring cup into the flour and scoop you will compact the flour and use too much...real bakers measure out their flour by weight. If you don't do that, the best way to get the closest amount is to spoon the flour into the measuring cup!) Add the baking powder and salt and mix together. Cut the cold butter into small pea-size pieces and cut into the flour until the mixture resembles crumbs. Pour in milk and mix together. From here knead the dough about 10 times. I kneaded mine a few more times until it wasn't as sticky.
Pat down dough into a square shape and cut out 8-10 biscuits. (You could do circles, but this gives the biscuits a nice rustic look for the recipe. And it saves time. And you don't have any waste or tougher biscuits from over kneading the waste together into another biscuit. And squares rock. Especially square biscuits. Seriously.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. (I actually baked some of mine for 9 minutes on accident because I was looking at the yield in the recipe...and they turned out just fine. I think 12 minutes would be pushing it...) The original recipes says bake until lightly browned, but if you're using whole wheat flour, they will already be lightly browned, so just keep a close eye on that so you don't over cook them!
My daughter loved the biscuits!
So delish. Now the rest is gravy...
I used chicken that I cooked from a whole bird since and made chicken broth with. So I just had some chicken in the fridge all ready to use. (If you don't use your broth within a week...you can boil it to kill any bad bacteria...)
I'm also going to use the same veggies I used or the primavera...so if I just chopped some extra to set aside for the chicken pot pie.
Gravy
2 Tbs Butter
2 Tbs Flour
2 Cups Chicken Broth
Salt & Pepper
Pre-measure chicken broth. Melt butter on stove and whisk in flour to make roux. Immediately add chicken broth and whisk together. Bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until thickness you prefer your gravy to be! Season with salt & pepper to taste.
Assembly
Unless you plan on baking these little delights, you will need to cook up your chicken and vegetables. I put some butter in my saute pan, add veggies and followed by some chicken to cook up. I also add a little garlic, salt and pepper to this mixture. I don't like my veggies over cooked, so the process may
take about 10 minutes or less, but usually not anymore than that.
Once you have your veggies, chicken, biscuits, and gravy made it's time to assemble!
If you are making this at home, I like to use individual sized ramekins, for individual servings! At the bottom of the ramekin, place half of one biscuits. Add in vegetables, chicken and pour gravy until you lightly cover the vegetables and chicken. Place 2nd half of biscuit on top. Wallah! You have super delicious, beautiful, EASY Chicken Pot Pie! mmm... soo good!
