Rustic Ratatouille

Begin by preheating your oven to 350’F.

Make the tomato sauce. In a cast iron skillet saute a large yellow onion and garlic, add that to a bowl with a large can of crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Immersion blend until mostly smooth. Some chunkiness is okay!

Spread the tomato sauce in a 1/2 thick layer on the bottom of a deep pan.

Thinly slice eggplant, tomatoes, yellow squash, and green zucchini. Layer on top of each other in neat rows.

Bake for 30 minutes covered. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Black Bean Veggie Burgers

We go through a lot of veggie burgers in my household, and the cost of all of those burgers is starting to add up. Not only the cost, but also the attempt to find a veggie burger that is soy free, wheat free, and unnecessary filler free is quite a task. So I came up with my own recipe.

Ingredients…

• 2 Cans of Black Beans, drained
• 1 Can of Corn, drained
• 1 C of Oats
• 2 Medium Yellow Onions
• 2 Eggs
• Olive Oil
• Minced Garlic to taste – I used 2 TBS
• 1 TBS Dried Parsley
• Salt
• Pepper
• Adobo Seasoning – I swear by this stuff
• Garlic Powder
• Smoked Paprika
• Liquid Smoke (Optional)

Instructions….

Dice up the onions and garlic, add to a hot pan with some olive oil and all of the seasonings. Cook over medium heat until onions are translucent. Add the corn and beans to this, continue to cook over medium heat until you can easily squish the beans, about 10-15 minutes. Take off heat and add everything to a bowl with the oats and eggs. Mix thoroughly. When everything is combined start smashing it with a potato smasher. I highly recommend whipping out a food processor and pulsing everything until it is easy to form and the majority of the beans are mashed. But, if you’re like me, and between kitchens and your food processor is currently packed into a box somewhere…a potato masher works okay too. 

Form the mixture into a burger shape and place on an oiled foil covered tray or parchment covered tray. This recipe makes 10 decent size burgers. Stick in the freezer until they are easy to peel off the tray and put into freezer bags for later use. I take mine right out of the freezer and cook them in a hot cast iron skillet. They hold together relatively well for a homemade black bean burger. 

• Makes 10 Burgers
• 157 Calories Per Burger

 

 

 

Creamy Taco Pasta

I had leftover taco ingredients and gluten free pasta. What did I do with all this comforty goodness? I turned it into dinner. Super easy.

1lb ground beef or venison
1lb gluten free pasta
1 cup fresh corn
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 package cream cheese
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup sharp cheddar
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup black beans
1 Spanish onion
1 green bell pepper
1 jalepeno
1avocado
Cayenne
Cumin
Paprika
Garlic
Salt
Pepper

Make the pasta according to box, set aside.
Sauté diced onions, corn, and diced peppers, add in meat. Once that’s all incorporated and simmering add in the beans and tomatoes. Add in seasoning to taste. It should smell incredibly amazing at this point. Gently stir in the shredded or cubed cheese. I added mine in big chunks. Throw in the cream cheese and sour cream. Fold in the pasta until everything is incorporated. Top with diced avocados.
Enjoy!

Eggroll in a Bowl

This is a delicious and somewhat healthy dinner.

• • • • • • • 1/2 Green Cabbage sliced thin
            • 1 Yellow Bell Pepper small diced
            • 1 Yellow Onion diced
            • 4 Green Onions sliced
            • 8 Mushrooms sliced
            • 1 lb Ground Chicken
            • Salt to taste
            • Pepper to taste
            • 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
            • 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Video
            • Garlic to taste
            • 2 TBS Soy Sauce (Can use liquid aminos too)
            • 1 TBS Raw Honey
            • Canola Oil to fry (Optional)
            • Puff Pastry (Optional)

Start by cutting up all of your veg. Create a marinade with the soy sauce, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, and garlic, also to the marinade whisk in 1/4 cup of water.

Pour that over all of the cut up veg, toss until everything is combined, and set aside in the fridge for no less than 4 hours, ideally overnight.

After everything has marinated throw it in a wok over medium high heat. A regular pan with high sides works too.

In a saute pan cook up the ground chicken with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. 

Once the chicken is cooked, combine everything together.

Enjoy!

P.S. Feel free to add ginger to this, I personally can’t stand it. xo

P.P.S. I took puff pastry, fried it in canola oil, and added it to the top for an added flaky crispy crunch!

Fish Taco Bowls

Holy delicious batman.

Tonight’s dinner was fish taco bowls. I’ve been so excited for this meal since we wrote the meal plan and grocery list for the week. Nom!

2 Servings

25 Minute Total Time

Fish:

• 2 Pieces of Cod (Rice & Cabbage recipes allow for up to 4 pieces of cod)
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Like Juice
• Soy Sauce

Rub everything onto the fish, cook in the oven for 15 minutes at 350.

Coleslaw:

• 1/2 Green Cabbage
• 1/2 Small Yellow Onion
• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
• 1/4 Cup Mayo
• 2 TBS Apple Cider Vinegar
• 2 TBS Raw Honey
• Lime Juice to taste
• Salt
• Pepper

Whisk together sour cream, mayo, ACV, honey, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Thinly slice the cabbage and onion. Toss into sour cream mixture. Set aside.

Rice:

• 2 Cups of Rice
• Cilantro
• Lime Juice
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic

When rice is almost done add in cilantro and seasoning.

Put everything in a bowl, top with green onions and avocado.

Enjoy!

Basic Chili Recipe

Money right now is tight. Tighter than it’s ever been. Here’s my recipe for cheap chili!

• 1lb Deer Meat (Free for us…you can find ground turkey for $2.99/lb)
• 2 Cans Kidney Beans $0.98
• 2 Cans Diced Tomatoes $0.90
• 1 Can Black Beans $0.49
• 1 Can Chili Beans $0.49
• 1 Yellow Onion $0.49

Total for 6 Servings: $3.35

Total with Meat bought at the store: $6.34

Veggie Taco Bake

Being laid off means going back to my roots of making do with what we have. This means making food stretch! You can make this with whatever veggies you have or whatever you find in the produce department on sale.

• 2 Green Zucchini 1lb @ $2.00
• 1 Yellow Squash 0.5lb @ $1.00
• 2 Medium Yellow Onions @ $0.35 each $0.70
• 1 Red Bell Pepper $1.00
• 1 Orange Bell Pepper $1.00
• 1 Bone-in Chicken Breast $1.72 (I used the bone to make a simple stock)
• 1 Can Black Beans $0.89
• 1 Can Fire Roasted Corn $1.25
• 1 Can Diced Tomatoes $0.59
• 1/4 Cup Shredded Taco Cheese $0.50
• Taco Seasoning Packet $1.00
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic

Total $11.65 for 6 servings

$1.94 per serving

Josh highly recommends topping this with crunched up corn chips and sour cream!

I also recommend waiting until you can find zucchini on sale, that was a big cost of this recipe. This recipe can easily be turned into a vegetarian one…just take out the chicken!

I wasn’t planning on posting this recipe so I didn’t take pictures through the process. But…I cut up all of the veggies, started with the peppers and onions in a large cast iron skillet. Sauteed them, added the cut up zucchinis and chicken. Seasoned everything. Then put the tomatoes, corn, and beans in. Topped it with a thin layer of shredded cheese and popped it in the oven at 350°F for 20 minutes.

It was so good!

Enjoy!

 

Easy Sangria

Typically I would go the more difficult path of making the juices myself, doing lots of muddling, and using a dry wine…but I wanted easy and quick. So here’s that recipe.

Fruit:

1 Navel Orange
20 Green Grapes
1 Lime
1 Lemon
1 Green Apple

Juice:

2/3 Cup Simply Peach
1/3 Cup Tropicana Tangerine Lemonade
1 2/3 Cups Minute Maid Light Fruit Punch

Alcohol:

1 Cup Peach Brandy
2 Cups Banty Red Sweet Red Wine
First thing’s first, cut the fruit, I cut the grapes in half, everything else gets sliced. Place into a glass pitcher, or a plastic pitcher, I don’t judge. Measure out the juices and the al-cha-mahals. Use the handle side of a wooden spoon to smoosh and stir everything together.

Stick that in the fridge for anywhere from 2 hours to overnight, you want everything to marinate together and be totally scrumptiously yummy.
If you are planning on making this for a party, I would at least triple the amounts of everything.
Enjoy!