Mama Sara's $3 Sandwich

I told you that I used my leftovers to make pesto, right?  Well, it wasn't much pesto, maybe a quarter of a cup so I used it to make "Italian grilled cheese" sandwiches.  Dean declared I could make a fortune selling them, Mac felt that was an exaggeration but that I could "get $3 each for sure."  Here I offer you the opportunity to take advantage of the secret recipe before the copyright becomes official,  she said sarcastically.

Ingredients

• Whole grain bread
• Butter
• Feta Cheese
• Mozzarella
• Tomato
• Pesto (basil, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, garlic-blend or puree together)

Technique

• Butter ONE side (the Mr. butters both, oy!) of bread and lay in skillet, butter side down, to begin browning over medium heat
• Carefully spread mozzarella on bread
• Add tomato slice
• Add a tablespoon or so of pesto, spread
• Sprinkle on feta to cover
• Butter ONE side of second piece of bread and lay it on top, butter side up
• When first slice of bread is browned and mozzarella is melted, carefully flip and brown second side until feta is melted
• Serve with a bit of pesto on the side for dipping if you have enough!

I should've take a picture but I had no idea it would be such a hit!  I was just using up the stuff in the fridge!  If you believe him, Dean claims this grilled cheese has replaced his lifelong favorite of American cheese on Wonder bread (ugh!)  In fact, he has been know to make the processed nightmare for himself when I've made Colby grilled cheese on bakery bread. 

Northern Beans +_____________=Soup

It's no secret, I am a big believer in soup.  As my gramma used to say, "I have a soup tooth."  Sometimes I buy ingredients for a specific soup and sometimes I take what's at hand and make soup out of it.  Clean food=clean soup!  So, using some left over vegetables that I didn't want to go bad and a big jar of Northern beans...here's some soup!

Ingredients

• Large jar Northern beans
• 3 stalks celery cut up
• 3 carrots cut up
• 3 potatoes cut up
• 1 yellow onion cut up
• Parsley (dry or fresh)
• Large can sodium free/preservative free chicken broth
• Seasonings to taste-salt, pepper, garlic for me (the usual.)

Technique

• Place all cut veggies into pot, cover in broth & bring to boil
• Reduce to low/simmer and cook until veggies are soft
• Add Northern beans, parsley & seasoning
• Cover with additional broth or water
• Simmer about 1/2 hour
• Enjoy!

Tips

• Tastes better after a day or two
• I divided it into Rubbermaid bowls for lunch at work
• The veggies choices aren't strict, use whatever you need to get rid of
• If you have celery "tops," use 'em in soup!
• You can serve this for dinner with crusty bread and a salad

Remember the goal for meals?  Complex carb + protein?  This soup does the trick in once bowl...

Carrots, celery, beans = complex carb  & beans=protein.

Repurposing veggies in a broken omelette

I heart brown eggs!

On Saturday morning we usually have a substantial breakfast before starting our day.  This Saturday, I decided to finish off a few lingering vegetables and make broken omelets.  A broken omelet, by the way, is simply pouring eggs over the omelet ingredients instead of that pain in the egg omelet creating procedure. 




Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• Milk
• Fresh spinach, chopped
• 1 1/2 tomatoes chopped (because that's what I had on hand)
• 1 cup or so diced boiled potatoes (also on hand)
• 1/2 yellow onion
• Feta cheese
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Butter

Technique

• Melt butter in pan, add potatoes, onions and green peppers.  Cook until soft & taters are a bit crispy.
• In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with about a cup or so of milk
• Spread potato mixture in bottom of pan, turn heat to medium
• Beat eggs & milk together (like scrambled eggs,) pour over entire veggie & tater mixture, top with spinach & tomatoes
• Allow to cook for a few minutes
• Using a spatula, finish cooking the broken omelet like you would scrambled eggs.
• When cooked through, spread in pan again, cover with feta cheese.
• Turn heat off and allow feta to melt for a few minutes.  Stir into egg mixture.  Salt & pepper to taste.

Tips

• Broken omelette's are a great way to use up any leftovers, the ingredients I used were only what I had on hand. 
• Even leftover taco meat can be repurposed, add cheddar and top with salsa. 
• Although the Mr. doesn't like it, I also think these are a great dinner item. 
• Did you know that kielbasa is great in eggs?  Well, it is.  You're welcome.
• This may seem like a lot of detail for a fairly easy "recipe,"  but there are folks who are trying to eat from scratch for the first time.  Hopefully these kind of ideas will make it less intimidating!

Mushrooms & Onions

Google Image

The classic steakhouse topping is easy peasy!

Ingredients

• Mushrooms (sliced or whole)
• White or yellow onion, sliced medium thickness
• Olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, rough chopped
• Small pat of butter
• Dry parsley
• Worcestershire
• Coarse sea salt 

Technique

• Melt butter over medium heat
• Saute garlic for a minute or two
• Drizzle olive oil into pan
• Add onion and cook over medium heat until caramelized
• Add mushrooms
• Drizzle with olive oil
• Coarse sea salt to taste
• Lightly drizzle wit Worcestershire
• Dry parsley to taste
• Saute over medium to desired doneness

Tips

• Amounts depend upon how many you're serving and how much topping you like
• We like lots of topping so, 2 cartons of mushrooms & large onion
• All amounts, not just veggies & 'shrooms are your call
• Olive oil is just to prevent burning, don't over do it
• Have leftover veggies that are going soft?  Throw 'em in, the more the better!  Tomato (quartered,) bell peppers (thick sliced,) zucchini (thick sliced...
• Good on steak, burgers, meatloaf, chicken...
• Grilling your steaks?  Do the above in a cast iron skillet on the grill!
• If you have the veggies and need to use them, this can be prepared and frozen in a ziploc for future use.
• We had just a few spoonfulls of 'shrooms & onions left, I warmed up brown rice (which I prepare on Sunday for the week,) drizzled in some olive oil and chopped a bell pepper, mixed it all together to go with our pork chops.

Clean (& quick) Spinach Dip



Google Image-I really need to start taking pics of my food!

 Ingredients

• 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed
• 16 ounce container of cottage cheese
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 green onions
• 1 (or 2) 5 ounce cans of water chestnuts
• (Optional) salt to taste

Technique

• Puree cottage cheese in blender until smooth
• Drain and add spinach to cottage cheese,  pulse to desired consistency
• Fine chop garlic, pulse to blend or blend by hand
• Fine chop green onion & mix in by hand
• Fine chop water chestnuts & mix in by hand

Tips

• I pulsed all the ingredients together after blending the cottage cheese and spinach, too smooth in my opinion.  I prefer adding the last three by hand to maintain a little texture & crunch.
• Low fat cottage cheese works fine.
• You can throw in some fine grated Parmesan as well.
• Garlic powder, dehydrated onions or onion powder are acceptable.
• Serve with wheat crackers, corn chips or fresh veggies for dipping.

Brown Rice Puddin'

I always feel the need to include the disclaimer, if you are looking for old fashioned rice pudding, this is not exactly it!  It's a clean option and an easy dessert (and a great way to use left over brown rice.)  With the stomach bug going around this house lately, this was another comfort food that I recreated.  The texture is not as creamy as traditional white rice and there's a nutty  flavor to it.  However, it got applause from the men folk so I'm going to call it a keeper.  Recipe my own after surfing the net and not finding anything that suited my purposes and ingredients on hand.

Ingredients

• 3 cups prepared brown rice
• 3 cups milk
• 1 tea spoon vanilla or almond extract
• 1 tea spoon lemon peel (I used dried, didn't feel like zesting)
• 3Table spoons brown sugar OR for clean-eating pure maple syrup, molasses, honey, Agave or natural sweetener of your choice.
• 1 Table spoon cinnamon

Technique

• Bring 3 cups of milk gently to just boiling
• Add prepared brown rice and stir to combine
• Reduce heat to low and add remaining ingredients
• Cook on low for approximately 45 minutes, keep an eye on it an stir often
• Remove from heat & enjoy!

Tips

• Add whatever sweetening ingredient in small increments until it suits you.
• If you want to avoid added sugars, add apples or applesauce
• Try a dash of pumpkin pie spice
• Serve warm or cold
• Top with (homemade) whipped cream or ice cream

Chicken & Rice

The Mr. had a belly ache for a few days (that he then shared with me) so I was trying to think of comfort food that I could also make clean for him.  What's more comforting than chicken & rice?

Ingredients

• Boneless skinless chicken breast (4-6)
• 3 cups brown rice prepared
• 2 carrots
• Celery ends (see tips below)
• Fresh parsley
• Chicken broth (low sodium, organic preferably)
• Season to taste:  I used garlic salt, pepper, poultry seasoning

Method

• Clean and dry chicken breasts, place into pot (I used a cast iron dutch oven)
• Add chopped carrots, celery, parsley & seasoning
• Cover with broth
• Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until chicken is cooked through
• Remove chicken to a plate, cut or shred as desired and set aside
• Using a slotted spoon, remove vegetables and put into blender, set aside to cool for a few minutes.
• When veggies are cool, puree & return to broth
• Thicken broth with corn starch
• Add prepared rice & heat through
• Add chicken, stir to combine
• Enjoy!

Tips

• Celery tips that is!  So, as I cleaned and prepped veggies for the week, I chopped the tips from the celery and used those in the broth.  They aren't pretty but they are going to end up pureed anyway.  And  yes, they were cleaned first :)  Those leafy ends on the celery are soooo flavorful, don't waste them!
• Same with carrots.  I used two whole but as I cleaned the rest of them, I used the non-stem ends that I cut away in the broth. 
• The longer the chicken simmers, the more flavorful it will be.  This is one of those dishes that can simmer all day and make your house smell wonderful while you're waiting for dinner. 
• I served with green beans and a green salad made with lettuce,fresh parsley,  cucumbers and a light lemon vinaigrette. 
• I had leftover mashed potatoes a few weeks ago, not enough for another meal.  I froze them and used them to thicken the gravy for this dish. 

Salads



Google Image

 Really?  Salads?  Apparently so!  A few people have asked for salad advice.  We had salads every evening and at every holiday as I was growing up so they feel like just part of the routine for us.  My Armenian grandmother raised us on a Mediterranean palate before it was cool!
The beauty of salad is that you don't really need a recipe.  You can't mess it up.  If you like each ingredient individually, you'll like your salad.  My favorite meals are a casserole type entree that covers the complex carb and the protein portion with just a salad as the side dish.  So, if you're really interested (really?)  below is the basic Smith dinner salad recipe

Ingredients

• Lettuce-ice berg only in an emergency.  Go to the farmer's market and find something beautiful, I love Boston Bib and fresh Romain.  Mixed greens are awesome. And check this out, I've even added dandelion greens from my yard!
• Onion-green onion or red onion,  white or yellow in a pinch.
• Tomato-Here's the trick, if you buy cherry or grape tomatoes you still need to at least slice them in half. 
• Cucumber-I like the peel left on but my family doesn't, so I peel them, cut in half and then slice thin.
• Feta cheese

Thems the basics.  But you can always do an add-on to change it up, especially if you eat salad daily like we do.  So in no particular order...

• Beets
• Fresh Parmesan cheese
• Chickpeas aka garbanzo beans
• Croutons (whole grain if you're clean-eating)
• Bacon (real bacon bits, not them plastic things! Cook extra when you're making breakfast and crumble)
• Parsley
• Cilantro
• Basil leaves
• Chives
• Bell peppers
• Dill
• Boiled egg

Dressing-to paraphrase Winston Churchill...Nevah nevah nevah bottled salad dressing!

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Vinegar-balsamic, apple cider, red wine  OR
• Squeeze 2-3 large lemons, juice them babies, zest 1 of them and add a few shakes of dry oregano
• Coarse sea salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• Dry parsley & dill if there's no fresh already in the salad
• Granulated garlic (don't ask me for measurements!)

Method

• Clean them veggies
• Fine chop that lettuce
• Slice them cukes and maters
• Fine chop yer dang onions
• Add whatsoever add-ons you got lyin' 'round
• Dressing:  I frankly just pour & sprinkle right on the salad and mix in.  If you're fancy, you can put the ingredients into a mason jar and shake it up before pouring on.
• No, we don't offer the option of individual dressings.  What do you think this is?  A restaurant?

If you're looking for something a bit different, try my Grandma Trent's Armenian Bean Salad

Ingredients

• White Northern beans (large jar)
• Fresh parsley or dill
• Finely chopped green onion or white onion
• Olive oil
• White vinegar

Method

• Lightly drain beans, add parsley or dill and onions and mix well.  Lightly drizzle olive oil and about a quarter cup of vinegar

*This goes great with ham by the way!  Also fantastic for summer time with anything off the grill. 

I think this is more than enough salad information.  Stay tuned, I might just share my potato salad recipe!

Flatbread pizza on the grill

The finished product hot off the grill

This friends, is one of my favorite things.  We made these for the first time last Autumn when my mom and I spent what seemed like 700 hours canning green beans.  Everybody came over with toppings and we made an assembly line creating individual flatbread pizzas.  Then we lined up & the Mr. grilled them, and man oh man oh man!  The idea lends itself easily to clean eating and whole foods.  We decided it was a great idea for Mother's Day.  Relatively easy and everyone ends up with their personal favorite.  Make a big green salad on the side and you're in for a treat!

Ingredients

• Flatbread pizza crusts (you can make your own or buy them.  It's not too hard to find whole grain if that's important to you.  And if you're clean-eating, it is)
• Pizza sauce (recipe below or you can buy your own.  As always read the ingredients!)
• Olive oil
• Toppings of your choice (veggies, pepperoni, grilled chicken, smoked salmon, pineapple, mushrooms...)
• Fresh or dried herbs of your choice (basil, oregano, granulated garlic, Italian blend, parsley...)
• Cheese

Pizza sauce ingredients

• 28 ounce can tomato puree
• 12 ounce can tomato paste
• Garlic (I use one whole clove)
• Basil (I use 3-4 leaves)
• Oregano (I use 2 stems)
• Coarse salt & pepper to taste

Pizza sauce method

• Put tomato puree and tomato paste into blender, pulse until combined & smooth
• Rough chop garlic, basil and oregano, add to tomato mixture and pulse again
• Add salt and pepper and blend on medium until completely combined

Flatbread pizza method

• Brush flatbreads with olive oil
• Spoon on pizza sauce
• Add toppings of your choice
• Top with cheese
• Sprinkle with herbs if desired
• Place on grill (low fire) and allow to brown and cheese to melt.  If you have a gas grill, you can move them to the upper shelf when they are almost done to cook through to center.  This takes a little practice to get just right so don't get overwhelmed!
• With a large grill spatula, carefully remove to plate
• Enjoy!

Tips

• Set up your flatbreads and toppings in a buffet or around a table allowing people to move through the line and build their pizzas.
• Put plates at the front of the line so people don't have to hold their pizzas on their hands.
• Don't get carried away with all of those delicious toppings!  When it gets top heavy, it's harder to balance and to grill.  Also harder to warm through.
• Consider precookiing items in a cast iron skillet on your grill to add as the pizzas cook if you want your veggies softer.  They will be relatively crunchy if not precooked.
• Pesto is a great topping in place of traditional pizza sauce and soooooo easy to make!  Fresh basil, olive oil, garlic and if you like, pine nuts-that's it.
• Plan for 1 1/2 crusts per person.  These babies are very filling but people tend to go back for seconds.  If you have left over crusts, they freeze great in gallon size zip locks.

My mom!

Infused water

<---See this?  I have this very pitcher!  Jay picked it up for me at Bed, Bath and Beyond with their handy dandy 20% off coupon.  I lurv it.  I started making infused water a few weeks ago among my clean eating experiments.  I love infused water and I wonder how I've lived without it! 
You don't need an infusion pitcher, by the way.  But it sure is fun!  Any pitcher with a strainer top will do or you can just fish the fruit out with a slotted spoon.  It ain't rocket surgery.
I like to keep fresh ginger root on hand and put a few thinly sliced "coins" into my infusion mix.  Ginger is a pretty strong flavor so skip that if you aren't a fan and don't over do it either way or you'll get a very spicy tone to your water.  Ginger is great for digestion so for me, it's been awesome.  I have been off my ulcer meds for two weeks! 
You can infuse your water for as long as you like, I leave it in the water through 2 or 3 refills of the pitcher.  We finish one pitcher every day or so.  I wouldn't reuse the fruit for longer than 5 days or so or it might get a little funky. 
Some combinations we've used?  Cucumber/cantaloupe.  Blueberry/orange/grapefruit. Apple/orange Lemon/lime/grapefruit.  I'll keep this short by saying any and all citrus combinations.  Obviously sweeter fruit-sweeter water.  More lemony and lime-more sour. 
And now, let us have a TMI (too much information) moment.  One of my sons has always poo-pooed (hahahaha) the idea of detox diets.  He reports that when he drinks the infused water, he is definitely..."detoxing" and when he drinks the ginger infused water he "detoxes" 15 times a day. 
I have found that the water needs to infuse for at least four hours and it is best over night.  After that, it just gets more flavorful.  Daboyz and I have replaced fruit juice with it.
I found a web site I really like and it's very pretty as a bonus!
http://infusedwaters.com/
Around here, folks aren't big fans of cucumber water so I make that in a mason jar just for me. 
This is an idea that you really don't have to invest much in to see if it will work for you.  If it does, you might eliminate artificial sweeteners or refined sugar from your beverages. 
Try it and if you do, share your recipes and your opinions!

Unstuffed Peppers

This is the recipe I shared in a previous post with a little more detail~

Ingredients

• 6 bell peppers
• 1 lb ground beef (if you recall, I tried ground turkey-EPIC FAIL)
• 2 cups prepared brown rice
• 1/2 diced onion
• Sliced mushrooms (optional)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can/jar fire roasted peppers
• Parmesan or mozzarella cheese to top (optional)
• Spices (adjust to your own palate) garlic, salt, pepper, dash of cumin

Method

• Cut tops from bell peppers, remove seeds & pulp, rinse & dry
• Boil peppers until soft
• Use "tops" from bell peppers, remove stems and dice remaining pepper
• Brown ground beef with onion, bell pepper and mushrooms, drain
• Puree fire roasted peppers in blender or food processor and add tomato sauce-combine & add spices
• Pour sauce mixture over ground beef and mix
• **This is the unstuffed part**
• Slice peppers in half and line bottom of 9x11 pan
• Add brown rice layer
• Add meat mixture layer
• Bake on 350 for about 20 minutes
• Top with cheese (optional) bake or broil until melted and bubbly. 

Tips

• To make life easier, I prepared the peppers earlier in the week as well as cooked the rice. 
• You can certainly use all of the ingredients to make traditional stuffed peppers, this was just a quick oven to table method for after work. 
• Serve with salad and you have a complete clean meal of complex carb (brown rice)/protein (beef)/veggies.  No need to add a side dish unless you want to.  Think twice about adding another starch!
• This was an hour total from when we got home to sitting down to eat.  I put together the meat mixture, assembled and into the oven. If you made the meat ahead, even less.  The Mr. made the salad while I put the unstuffed peppers together. 

Fried Rice



Photo from Google Images, not my recipe

 People have been asking me for recipes as we've changed our eating style over the last month.  I'm really not much of a recipe kinda girl, I just know what ingredients I can use to build my meals.  I'll try to pay a bit more attention to what I'm making and post recipes here that I think are worth sharing. 

Last week, I made fried rice as a side dish.  I've never made this before as it's one of those items we eat when we're eating take out Chinese.  The Mr. went nuts, much to my surprise!  In fact, he requested a repeat and in a bigger portion so he'd have left overs for lunch. 

Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• Brown rice (I used 3 cups prepared)
• 2 eggs (we now use organic)
• Olive oil
• Add-ins-whatever veggies or meat you'd like to include. I made veggie as a side dish and used fresh cauliflower, sprouts, green onions, garlic chives, green peppers and peas.  This is a great dish to make if you want to use up fresh veggies that are going a little soft. 

Method:

• Drizzle olive oil into pan and heat over medium heat.  Add cooked rice to pan and brown, stirring and using as high heat as possible without burning. 
• Push rice to sides to create a well in center of pan and add veggies.  Stir fry until they are as crisp or soft as you like.
• Mix vegetables and rice together and continue to stir fry to combine.  Push to sides again to create well in center.
• Beat 2 eggs lightly and pour into center of pan.  Scramble and mix into rice and vegetables to combine.
• Season to your taste with soy sauce (low sodium is better,) salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne, chili powder or basically whatever flavors you like.

Tips:

• The brown rice works better if it is cold so I like to make my brown rice in large batches at once, refrigerate and use it as I need it.  Also a great time saver for after work meals. 
• I also used a deep frying pan with a lid, don't have a wok.
• If you're adding meat, stir fry in pan or pre cook. 
• Other than brown rice and eggs, the rest is up to your tastes and what's on hand.  Don't get caught up in making traditional restaurant style Chinese fried rice, unless that's specifically what you're looking for.  This is one of those can't-go-wrong recipes

For those of you trying to clean eat, this is a complete meal.  Complex carb (brown rice)/protein (egg)/veggies.  That's why it's a great option to make in larger batches and use as lunch the next day.