Tag: onion

Greek Restaurant Inspired Beef Stew

Greek Restaurant Inspired Beef Stew
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
I fell in love with the beef stew at a local place called King Kong. After many attempts, I've come up with this recipe, and I think it's as good or better!
Author:
Serves: 8 servings
Ingredients
  • 2½ pounds cut up gold potatoes
  • 1 kg (about 2 pounds) beef chuck, cut into ½ inch pieces trimmed of the fat
  • 1 15 ounce can north beans, rinsed and drained well
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
  • approx 3 liters (quarts) water, or more, see recipe
  • 1 tablespoon Ghee (see note)
  • ½ teaspoon salt, as needed, optional
  • 4.00 cup drained, Green Beans, Fresh Cut Rinsed and Drained
  • 2 tablespoons onion powder
  • 2 tablespoons garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
Instructions
  1. Prepare all your ingredients ahead of time. Finally dice your onions, cut your potatoes into ½ inch cubes and soak in water til using (this helps prevent oxidization), cut your beef into ½ inch pieces, rinse your beans well, drain your green beans, and mix your tomato paste with all your seasonings. This helps prevent clumps of seasoning in your stew.
  2. With your pot over medium-high, saute your onions til it softens and just starts to brown, this should take about 3-5 minutes. Then add your beef and stir it around. If you want you can brown your beef, but it isn't required. Add enough water to cover your beef by a few centimeters, or about an inch. Add salt now if desired.
  3. Cover, reduce the heat, and boil until the meat is tender. Anywhere between 30-60 minutes. Check on it every so often and add a bit more water if needed so it doesn't boil dry. After meat is tender add your potatoes and enough water to color by a few centimeters or an inch. Boil the potatoes until fork tender, about 15-20 minutes.
  4. At this point add the rest of your ingredients, making sure to dissolve all the tomato paste and seasoning. If you want to, boil your soup down more until it thickens like mine. Adjust the salt and pepper and you're done! This soup only gets better in the fridge the next day and is excellent over toast, cornbread, or plain ole rice. Delicious and a sure fire recipe!
Notes
Any type of onion or any type of potato can be used, I just prefer sweet onions and yukon gold potatoes.
If you don't have ghee you can use olive oil or use ½ tablespoon oil and ½ tablespoon butter for the same rich taste
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2 cups Calories: 397 Fat: 7 Saturated fat: 3 Unsaturated fat: 2 Trans fat: 0 Carbohydrates: 45 Sugar: 5 Sodium: 646 Fiber: 8 Protein: 36 Cholesterol: 55
 

Main Grocery Haul July 2015 | Asian Market, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, & Costco!

Here are the totals for each place I shopped at. I spent more than what I wanted, but I now don’t need to do much shopping the rest of the month.

Asian Market:

15lb bag of Nishiki Rice – $17.50
Bell Peppers – $6.02
Green Onions – $1.00
jalapeno – $0.13
ginger – $0.32
cabbage – $1.86
pork bellies – $7.86
mochi red bean cake – $1.79
Total: $36.48

Costco:
My mother-in-law accidentally kept my receipt, but I spent $161.22 , but I also returned $106 of items, so really wasn’t much.

Whole Foods:

Kahlona Organic milk – $5.39
2.41lb organic gold potatoes – $2.36
Pork sausage – $3.77
total: $11.52

Trader Joe’s:

Joe’s O’s – $1.99
TJ’s Mini wheats – $2.99
linguine – $0.99
penne – $0.99
frozen pineapple – $1.99
Madras lentils – $1.99
organic ketchup – $1.99
3 bananas – $0.57
REFUNDS -$15.15
total: -$2.13 (they paid me)

Paleo Sweet Potato Chili

 

Paleo Sweet Potato Chili
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
This paleo/primal approved chili is naturally sweet and delicious. It has a good amount of carbs and is super filling! It even tastes great the next day.
Author:
Serves: 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 2 tablespoon lard
  • 1 large onion diced or 10 ounces green onions (reserve some tops)
  • 2 pounds sweet potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 1 lb carrots cut into ½ inch slices
  • 1 lb finally slices celery
  • 2 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes in juice (you can use tomato puree also)
  • 2 cans of water (use the tomato cans)
  • 2 cups chicken stock or beef stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon fennel powder
  • 1½ tablespoon chili powder (you can use up to 4 tablespoons if you wanted it hotter)
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce (optional but suggested!)
  • salt if needed
Instructions
  1. In a large pot heat your lard (or other cooking fat) over medium high heat. When it's fully heated add in your onions. If you're using green onion (spring onion) reserve the green tops for later. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add in your ground beef. Break it up a little and add a lid to the pan for easier cooking. If you need to you can add a few splashes of water. Let this cook for 3 or so minutes.
  2. After 3 minutes break up your meat into smaller pieces, a nice trick is to use a potato masher for this. When you're happy with the thickness, add in your potatoes, carrots, celery, canned tomatoes + the water, chicken or beef stock, and your 1 bay leaf. Stir well.
  3. Put your lid on and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and boil for 40-60 minutes or until a fork goes into the carrots and potatoes with very little resistance.
  4. After the chili is done, add in the rest of your spices, fish sauce, and salt is needed. I suggest taking a little of your liquid and mixing these in a bowl and adding into the chili mix to prevent lumps in the garlic powder, but it's not that big of a deal. Adjust the chili powder to your taste.
  5. You're done! I got 6 servings out of this, about 16 ounces per bowl. The fish sauce isn't required but it's a natural source of umami and really kicks the chili up a notch.
Notes
Fattier beef is preferred in this recipe. All I had was 96% lean so the fat calories are way down for nutrition, if you use 80% it would be better!

You CAN use a slower cooker (I haven't done it yet though), my guess is 6-8 hours on low or 4-6 hours on high.

Please note that you want the bare minimum of liquid here, this is going to be a very hearty chili!
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 16 ounces Calories: 333 Fat: 8 Saturated fat: 3 Unsaturated fat: 3 Trans fat: 0 Carbohydrates: 47 Sugar: 15 Sodium: 890 Fiber: 9 Protein: 20 Cholesterol: 44
 

Non-Traditional Bruschetta – Vegan (with directions for Gluten-Free)

Ingredients:

2lb ripe tomatoes (I used two HUGE beefsteak tomatoes)
1 regular size French style baguette
2 tablespoons minced garlic, divided
1/4 cup grape seed or olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 medium onion,sweet yellow or red
half bunch Italian parsley, minced VERY fine
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
pinch salt or to taste
few cracks black pepper or to taste

Directions:

Start by turning your broiler on. If using an electric stove like myself, move your racks to the middle, doing this step ensures your bread will toast evenly.

With a sharp, serrated knife slice on the diagonal down your baguette about 1/4 inch slices. You will get about 20-24 slices depending on size. Place these on a tray in a flat even layer and set aside. Take a small pan and add 1/4 cup grape-seed oil (you may use extra virgin olive oil also), along with 1 tablespoon of your finely minced garlic, and 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of dried basil. Put the heat on low and just let slowly heat up, DO NOT rush this. The object of this is to perfume and flavor the oil, not to cook the dried herbs. If you rush this, you will burn the basil and your bread will taste terrible.

Cut your tomatoes into cubes less than 1/4 inch in size. The easiest way to do this is to put the tomato in half, then make 1/4 slices around the tomato. Take those slices onto your board then make long slices, turn those slices then cut long slices again, this will produce cubes. You NEED a sharp knife, if you do not have a sharp knife, you will mush the tomatoes (you could also harm yourself).

Cut your onion into small pieces. The easiest way to do this is to cut the onion in half the long way then cut off the top bit. Now hold the onion vertical and slice 3 cuts into the onion SLOWLY, so you don’t cut yourself, almost all the way to the root but leave a little uncut. This makes layers, now set your onion flat on your board and cut vertical strips along the onion. Follow the natural lines, as this will help. Finally, turn the onion and cut it up and down. Your end result are small pieces of onion. If you cannot do this properly, or don’t like this method. Simply slice the onion thinly and rock your blade around your board until the pieces are small OR use a food processor to pulse the pieces small, NOT puree.

Prepare your fresh Italian parsley (not regular parsley) by washing and drying the herbs. Cut thin slices all along the leaves until you get to the roots (we will not be using the roots however save them in a freezer bag for the next time you make broth/stock, adds amazing flavor). Rock and chop in all directions until your parsley is small pieces, you don’t want large pieces stuck in your teeth. You may have to pile the herb back up to help cut it.

By this time your oil and basil mixture should be starting to sizzle or bubble. Turn off the heat and let it naturally cool down just until it stops bubbling. In the mean time, add all your tomatoes, onions, and parsley into a bowl. Add a pinch of salt, a few grinds of fresh pepper, remaining 1 tablespoon of minced garlic (see video if using pre-minced garlic from a jar) and approximately 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Stir well, making sure not to squish the tomatoes though. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking, adding more salt or vinegar if needed. However keep in mind it’s not suppose to be super salty or sour, just a subtle hint of each.

Once your oil cools down, take a spoon (obviously metal so it doesn’t melt) and spoon a SMALL amount of oil on each piece and spread it around. Repeat for all the bread slices. Once all the slices are done, scrap off any LARGE clumps of garlic and basil. If you fail to do this step they will burn in the oven, which is not tasty. You also only need to oil one side of the bread. Once all the pieces have been oiled and scraped, stick them in your oven on high broil in the middle racks for about 60 seconds. You will need to watch these very closely. The point is not to brown the bread, but to lightly toast them so they do not go soggy with the addition of the topping. Once the tops are lightly toasted or JUST starting to brown around the edges, flip them all over with a heat proof tongs and replace in oven. At this point I like to turn off the broiler as the remaining heat is enough to finish the job. Leave them in there another 30-90 seconds or until they just start to get crispy. The way you tell is to lightly scrape your tongs or a fork against the top, if you hear a dry sound, they are done. Remove from oven.

RIGHT before serving (do not do this ahead of time) spoon on a couple tablespoons of your tomato mixture (be sure to stir first). Try not to get a lot of juice on the bread. Enjoy! A red wine goes great with this dish or these are great served before pasta dishes. To be honest with you, I just ate a ton of these by themselves for dinner and I was happy! ^.^

For a gluten free version, make sure to use a gluten free baguette or bread. For bread slices, cut them into triangles for a neat design. Toast as mentioned above and be careful you use gluten free vinegar. This recipe is naturally vegan friendly (always check bread ingredients though as some companies use milk).

For nutritional information, its for non-gluten free with 20 servings.

Dinner-Time with FaylinaMeir! 07/14/2012

So this video is FAR too long to recap everything said, however if you know your basic way around a kitchen you will not need the step by step instructions. If you do I would suggest watching the video. If you have any questions you can always ask me in a comment or on facebook.

Ingredients: (3 servings)

6 cups cooked quinoa
3 medium-large baked potatoes
15 ounces snap peas or stringless peas
1 pound brocooli
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 inch piece of minced ginger (about 1 tablespoon)
1/2 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 bunches or about 5 ounces green spring (welsh) onions
ultra low sodium soy sauce about 1-2 tablespoons
about 3 tablespoons water
chili sauce or ketchup (or anything else) as seasoning

you will also need a heat resistent spatula and a wok
knife
cutting board

Directions:

Prep your brocolli by cutting the tips of the flourets off. Thinly slice the remaining stocks, they’re good food too! If your peas have strings you will need to string them. I buy the stringless versions but I still take the papery white bits off the ends. You will want to thinly slice your green onions. Slice your prebaked potatoes in smaller sized (bite-sized) pieces. Mince your garlic and ginger finely. If using preminced, make sure to wash well under warm/hot water to remove chemicals.

In a wok add your half tablespoon grapeseed oil, spread it around the pan. Turn the heat on high and add a small piece of brocolli into the pan. When it starts to sizzle you know its hot. Also now is a great time to add 1 1/2 tablespoons of sesame seeds, if using. When the seeds start to pop or the brocolli starts to sizzle, add the rest of your brocolli. Stir well to coat with oil. Then add your peas in. Stir fry this for 3 minutes. Then add your water, one tablespoon at a time while stiring. This helps to steam and cook through the vegetables, giving them better texture. At this point you’ll notice just how green they get, very pretty right?

After all the water is in , add your garlic and ginger as-well-as your green onions. Stir well and continue to stir fry for 5 or so minutes. At this point taste your brocolli for texture. If it is soft enough, add your soy sauce and sesame oil. Stir fry 1-2 more minutes and turn off the heat. Stir in gently your potato slices.

To serve this, place your quinoa on a plate and top with the vegetable potato mixture. Put on chili sauce or ketchup or any other desired sauce and enjoy! This ended up making 3 servings. Here is the nutritional information: