Crab Stuffed Mushrooms: New Recipe of the Week #8

Well it stands to reason if you are trying 52 new recipes in one year some of them are bound to turn out "not so good." The Crab Stuffed Mushrooms I made for tonight's Super Bowl gathering definitely fall into this category.

I got the recipe from Against All Grains. This is the first recipe from that site that I haven't really cared for. I made this recipe especially for my darling hubby because he likes mushrooms. I thought it would be a nice surprise for him. He was surprised all right, surprised by an overly fishy tasting mushroom that he didn't care for either. No one that tried these liked them. They were too "fishy." I don't know if all crab meat has a very strong flavor, but even as these were baking the fish smell was overpowering. I have had crab legs before and I like them so I thought I would at least find these tolerable. However, the fishy smell was so overpowering I didn't even try them.

  The crab stuffed mushrooms were easy to make and one I would be willing to make again, with some adjustments. The next time I try these I will be using chopped shrimp instead of crab meat. I think I'll change up the main part of the filling too. I'll be looking online for the filling used in crab rangoons. I'll add some shrimp to it, fill the mushrooms with it and see what happens.

Damn Fine Chicken: New Recipe 2014 #7

I eat a lot of chicken and I eat it prepared a lot of different ways. I have discovered chicken leg quarters are the cheapest cuts of chicken to buy and that works out great for me since my favorite piece of chicken is the thigh. The legs are probably my second favorite, but since my darling hubby likes the legs the best, getting the leg quarters are a good deal for us. With a package of chicken leg quarters I can make fried chicken, boil it to use the meat in chicken and noodles, marinate it and bake it like this recipe called for or grill it. I used to always buy the boneless skinless chicken breasts, but I think I'll be buying more chicken leg quarters in my future.

I'm not sure where I saw this recipe for Nom Nom Paleo's Damn Fine Chicken posted, but it looked really good and it only required that I buy one ingredient I didn't have so I was off to the store to buy some sherry vinegar. I didn't actually find sherry vinegar, but I did buy the sherry cooking wine and I used it. Apparently, I didn't substitute the right thing for the sherry vinegar, because after some searching I found this blog about The Best Substitute for Sherry Vinegar. Oh well, no harm done. I made the chicken using the sherry cooking wine and it turned out pretty good.

After going to the store my refrigerator was full of produce so when I was marinating the chicken I didn't have anywhere to put it in the refrigerator. It was a pretty cold day so I just put it out on our front porch. The aroma from the marinade permeated the house. It smelled like onion/garlic all over the house.

I didn't really eat supper the night I made this. I was busy working away on my school stuff and when that happens I just don't take a break to eat. This chicken turned out to be a nice snack at 8:00pm when I finally broke away from my lesson planning. I do believe I enjoyed it even better for breakfast this morning. My darling hubby looked at me kind of strange when he saw me eating chicken for breakfast, but honestly I can eat chicken at any meal and if it is good chicken I could eat it three meals a day.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa: New Recipe 2014 #6

I whipped up some of the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa from the Against All Grains cookbook. Click on the link to get a sneak peak of  what is in the cookbook.

I haven't tried the salsa yet as a salsa. I use it in another recipe I make from the cookbook. When I this batch I decided to try it with a couple of chips. Oh My! I think I added too many Serrano peppers because it was rather hot and spicy! I need to let my dad try it, he's the one who always orders the hot spicy dip at the Mexican restaurants.

The green color is a bit odd. I'm not used to eating dip that is green, but other than it being too hot for my tastes, it seemed to be good as a dip.

Granny Sarella's Spaghetti Sauce: New Recipe 2014 #5

As ordinary as my life is, sometimes it gets really busy. As such, I've gotten behind in my blogging. So get ready for a whirlwind of blogs to be posted today! I have several new recipes to share and a thought about being human and what that means.

My original goal with the New Recipe idea was to make one new recipe each week. I'm adapting that goal now to try a total of (at least) 52 new recipes during the year 2014. I will aim to try one new recipe each week, but sometimes I'll try out more than one, while other times I'll be too busy or not in a position to try anything new. I'll start labeling my recipes by number so I can keep track  and stay on somewhat of a schedule.

About a week and a half ago I tried a new recipe for spaghetti sauce. I don't think I have ever made homemade spaghetti sauce. In the 26 years I've been married our spaghetti sauce has always come out of a jar. I always keep about 3 jars of spaghetti sauce on hand. It is an easy meal when I'm tired. On those occasions we'll have a meatless meal. I'll boil some spaghetti, open the jar of sauce, dump it on the hot spaghetti, stir and tada, an easy hot meal. I am happy to report that I really liked this spaghetti sauce and I anticipate we will be using this sauce from now on. Well we will be using it after we use up the three jars that are in the pantry. In order to have enough of this on hand I'll have to prepare a large batch and freeze several jars of it. With several jars in the freezer, I'll still have that fall back, easy meal to prepare and this sauce has meat in it!!!

Granny Sarella's Spaghetti Sauce over spaghetti squash and sauteed' spinach

The recipe for Granny Sarella's Spaghetti Sauce came from Danielle Walker's cookbook Against All Grains. This is my new favorite cookbook and I just got it around Christmas time. The spaghetti sauce is made with ordinary ingredients most people already have in their kitchen. It does have an interesting twist. Along with the pound of ground beef that is in it, it also calls for 1 pound of bone in pork. After searing the pork in a skillet you add it to the sauce and let it cook in the simmering sauce. This was awesome because I cooked the spaghetti sauce on a Saturday. Most of it was gone by Monday, but I had the pork to take in my lunch. I just cooked up some green beans and I had three lunches for the upcoming week.

Back to the cookbook Against All Grains, it is a grain free cookbook. Danielle Walker has an autoimmune disease and at one time was very ill. She is now managing her disease through a grain free, dairy free diet. A couple of things I like about the cookbook are that she has three sections dealing with "navigating a new lifestyle," "my ingredients," and "my equipment." She has an amazing website which is also called Against All Grains. Although the spaghetti sauce recipe I made for my "new recipe" is in her cookbook and I can't share the recipe in this blog, you can check out the recipe she has on her blog for Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. There are also tons of other good recipes on the blog. Against All Grains also has a facebook page. If you'd like to venture into the world of grain free cooking check out Danielle's blog and facebook page.

One day soon, in another post, I'll share how I ventured into the primal/paleo diet that I follow and the results I'm experiencing.

A New Twist On General Tso's Chicken: New Recipe Of The Week

One of my favorite Chinese dishes is General Tso's Chicken. That little bit of spicy taste without making steam come out of my ears is awesome. I found a paleo recipe called General Tso's Meatballs so it was a no-brainer that I would try it for my New Recipe Of The Week. The recipe was easy to prep, easy to cook and probably took about 30 minutes from start to finish. It was delicious and it is a five star recipe in my eyes mouth. I made a few minor changes in the recipe. In the meatballs I used ground deer meat instead of ground chicken/turkey and I omitted the almond flour and egg. I doubled the recipe for the sauce and used the ingredients suggested for making it a paleo dish. I also used red pepper flakes instead of the dried chilis. I can't wait until tomorrow to eat the leftovers for lunch. The next time I make this I'm going to double the recipe and see if if freezes well. If the sauce doesn't freeze well, I can make the meatballs up ahead of time and then just whip up the sauce when needed. I definitely see this as being a "go to" recipe if I have some of the meatballs frozen.

General Tso's Meatballs and Crunchy Roasted Broccoli

Tonight I got really energetic and tried a second new recipe. To be honest, someone posted a recipe for Crunchy Roasted Broccoli on facebook and it looked so delicious I decided I had to try it. On my way home from work I stopped at the store to buy some fresh broccoli. This vegetable dish was super easy and super delicious, another five star recipe in my mouth!

I don't know what I'm going to do when summer gets here and I can't coat veggies with olive oil and put them in my oven. I'm guessing I'll be using the grill a lot!


Crunchy Roasted Broccoli
Preheat oven to 375°
Chop a head of broccoli (do not rinse, immediately prior to preparing!)
Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic (I used garlic powder)
Put broccoli, garlic, 2 tbsp. olive oil, and a few shakes of salt and pepper in a ziploc bag.
Shake it up!! (I laid out the broccoli on a cookie sheet and drizzled olive oil over it)
Spread out on baking sheet, place on top rack, and bake for about 30 minutes.
Broccoli will be crunchy and delicious!
Yes it was!!! 

I haven't found too many issues with eating healthy except finding enough storage space for all the fresh produce I buy. I like to keep it in one of the drawers in my refrigerator, but invariably I have to use a second drawer and the bottom shelf for all the colorful fresh foods I bring home on shopping day. Just out of curiosity I googled "refrigerator vegetable crisper" and found an article on The Proper Way To Use Your Refrigerator Humidity Drawers. Hmmm, who knew! Did you know? I sure didn't, but now I do. I need to go do some investigating of my refrigerator drawers and begin making proper use of them. My husband has his own mini fridge that he uses to keep his Diet Dr. Pepper cold. He goes through a ton of Diet Dr. Pepper (that's another story for another time) so we load up the mini fridge each week and he always has cold pop. In a perfect world we'd be keeping fresh produce in the mini-fridge instead of pop.