Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Bratwurst Stew in the Crockpot
Topic: Recipe
It's supposed to get chilly tonight--something like a 50 degree change from Monday's 97 degrees to tonight's low of 48--but that's OK by me.
It gives me a chance to make one more stew in the crockpot. And this stew has all the right stuff--lower carb, high nutrition, probiotics, high fiber...exactly what I need to re-start a good diet after my over-indulgences at the day-long buffet we had at work on Memorial Day.
Bratwurst Stew
4 servings
1&1/2 lb. bratwurst, cut into 1" pieces
1 qt. (28 oz) sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
1-14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with the juice
1-14.5 oz can of navy beans or blackeyed peas, rinsed and drained
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 bay leaves (remember to remove before serving)
Combine above in a spray-oil prepped crockpot.
Season additionally to taste with a few shakes of onion powder, ground Allspice, ground black pepper.
Cover and cook on "low" for 8 hours.
Here's a picture before cooking--the liquid in the recipe comes from the canned tomatoes in juice, you don't need to add more.
And after cooking...
It will look something like this and taste great!
Posted by Karen
at 12:14 CDT
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Almond Cheesecake (it's low carb!)
Topic: Recipe
If you're elected to bring dessert to your family get-together this Memorial Day, here's a recipe you might like to try. It's pretty and low carb, too!
Almond (or Plain) Low Carb Cheesecake
16 servings
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray-oil prep a large springform pan.
Crust:
1 cup almonds (or other nut), crushed
2 Tbsp. Butter, softened
2 pkts. Stevia
(if making a plain cheesecake, then add 1 tsp.cinnamon)
Combine above, then press into the bottom of the springform pan. Toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Return to counter and fill with cheesecake filling below.
Filling:
5 bars of Cream Cheese
3 fresh eggs
1 cup sour cream
8 pkts. Stevia
2 tsp almond extract (if making plain, then substitute vanilla)
Mix with an electric mixer until thoroughly blended.
Pour filling over crust and bake for 1 hour to 1hr and 15 minutes until thoroughly set.
Remove from oven and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight, until chilled.
Cheesecakes always have cracks so plan on spreading some whipped cream or Cool Whip over the top after it's chilled, before you remove the pan's sides and put it on your serving plate. Garnish with slivered, blanched almonds.
Posted by Karen
at 09:19 CDT
Friday, 25 May 2012
Salad Sides
Topic: Recipe
Busy days for Everyone lately...
I hope you'll be able to enjoy a pleasant day in the yard over this Memorial Day weekend. And, if you do, then I'm sure you'll try to do a little cooking on the grill. The meat isn't a problem, but finding healthy side dishes, especially if you're trying to go low carb, can be.
Here's two quick side salads that will happily accompany your grilled beef, chicken, or lamb (or zucchini steaks!)
Cottage Cheese with Tomatoes and Cucumber
1.5 lb. Container of Cottage Cheese
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
Simply mix the above ingredients together, season with freshly ground pepper.
Romaine Lettuce with Hearts of Palm and Tomato
2 large heads of Romaine lettuce, chopped
1 14.5 oz. Can of Hearts of Palm, chopped, drained
Tomatoes- either 2, seeded and chopped, or ½ pint sliced grape or cherry tomatoes
Dressing: 1 part lemon juice to 1 part olive oil, whisked together
Toss ingredients with dressing together—remember the French and toss 40 times!
Posted by Karen
at 09:37 CDT
Updated: Friday, 25 May 2012 09:38 CDT
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Happy Mothers' Day
Topic: Values
To All Mothers:
Wishing you all a wonderful Mothers' Day. Hope you will have a peaceful day with family...and maybe sneak outside for a little gardening or walk later?
To All their Children (young or adult):
May you always remember that it was your mother who introduced you to unconditional love and caring. And she gave you the knowledge that real love isn't always easy.
Remember, no mother ever raised any child without directly sacrificing something of themselves.
And, may you always honor your mother for that.
Mothers' Day 2012--Harvest Hills Farm--Outside the porch--the garden's planted and the vines beyond are starting to burst.
Mothers' Day 2012--The little black dots are cattle and calves!
Posted by Karen
at 08:58 CDT
Friday, 11 May 2012
Meat Loaf Stew
Topic: Recipe
It's really hard to cook balanced meals everyday. I mean, you want the home-cooked dinner, but it's hard to get motivated some days when life is pulling you in a million different directions. But, it's also way too easy to pick up fast food with their excess calories and unneeded carbs to fill the stomach. And for older persons living alone, the frozen food options they often eat do not provide enough nutrition.
I think that's why the crock pot has become a mainstay at my house and why I like to share crock pot recipes. If you can prep things in advance (even the night before and refrigerate until the morning)--you can set it on "low" and walk into a house filled with home-cooked fragrances...the best potpourri.
Would you like to walk into your house and have all the fragrances of an old-fashioned meat loaf dinner (without excess carbs!) with little effort on your part?
Then try this recipe for "MEAT LOAF STEW"--I think I might even be able to get my mother to make it and freeze leftovers in containers she can pull out and microwave for future dinners.
Ingredient List:
2 lb ground beef, 1 packet dried onion soup mix, 2 large carrots, 1 potato, 1 cup of chopped spinach or kale, 1/2 cup of frozen peas, 8 oz can of tomato sauce, 1-2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
Meat Loaf Stew
Prep a crock pot with spray oil.
Brown 2 lbs of ground beef until thoroughly cooked through.
Stir 1 packet of dried onion soup mix into the ground beef and then pour the mixture into the crock pot.
Chop 2 carrots.
Dice one potato.
Chop (or defrost) 1 cup of spinach or kale.
Stir the vegetables into the meat mixture.
Stir in 1 (8oz) can of tomato sauce and 1-2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours.
At the end of cooking, stir in ½ cup of frozen peas.
Posted by Karen
at 08:20 CDT
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Pizza with a Meat Crust!
Topic: Recipe
Here's a GREAT Low carb recipe to try for a super-casual dinner-for-two, everything in one pan...depending upon your topping choices, this can be an extremely low carb option with no sacrifice in flavor..."PIZZA with a Meat Crust"
Pizza with Meat Crust
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prep a Pyrex 9 inch pie pan with a light spray-oil.
Ingredients:
1 lb. Italian seasoned pork sausage
4 oz. Shredded Mozzarella cheese + sprinkle extra Parmesan
1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
8 oz. sliced mushrooms, cooked*
½ cup frozen chopped spinach, defrosted, drained*
Preparation:
Form the sausage into a ball, then flatten it into a circle on the bottom of the pie pan. Using your fingers, pat down and extend the meat to cover the entire bottom and up the sides of the pan.
Bake the crust at 400 degrees 12-15 minutes until cooked and browned.
Remove from oven. Using paper towels, pat excess fat from surface of crust.
Sprinkle ½ of the cheese on the bottom, add mushroom and spinach layers (or your selected toppings).
Finally add the drained tomatoes, extra Italian seasonings if desired and the remaining cheese.
Return to the oven for another 15 minutes until heated through and browned.
Allow to set 5 minutes, cut and enjoy.
Posted by Karen
at 09:35 CDT
Friday, 4 May 2012
More on the Hen house
Topic: Harvest Hills Farm activity
Hen House Project—Part Two
To bring you up to date...
The Hen house which we made from a Rubbermaid 7 ft x 7 ft. garden shed, was outfitted with a roost, nesting boxes, a feeder and “waterer.” Wood shavings were used on the floor and straw in the nesting boxes. Mike put up a chicken run for their use and protection for the first 5 weeks or so, later they can run more “free-range”. We thought we were ready.
All we needed were some laying hens and my friend, Grace, supplied us with quite a few.
So, we moved them in only to find out within the first day...
the nesting boxes were too small (despite measurements obtained from a good internet source)
the triangle set-up on top of the nesting boxes which was supposed to prevent roosting, proved to be an enticement instead, causing...
the hens to peck at each other in competition for the preferred roost
So, Mike reconstructed the whole nesting box set up from some wire drawers. The new set-up has straw filled nests and a new top- a piece of board that is on an slant from the wall, covering the top so there's no chance to roost on top, preventing the competition (and hen-pecking).
Also, since they seemed to like a higher roost height, the dowel rod was raised on the back wall. Thinking about it some more, we decided to remove one of the drawers, having read that you need 1 nesting box for every 3 hens. After the roost fights on the accidental perch, we were afraid to make any more problems.
When I opened up the hen house to let them out this morning, I'm happy to say we had NO fights. They appear to have all slept together on the long dowel roost raised to the higher height, as evidenced by the distributions of droppings below.
And, we got our first egg!
Posted by Karen
at 13:58 CDT
Updated: Friday, 4 May 2012 14:34 CDT
Friday, 27 April 2012
Tuscan-Inspired Tomato-Mozzarella-Bean Salad
Topic: Recipe
I am seriously working on the low carb diet these next few weeks. If you have noticed--my pre-Easter exploits with Easter bread and loads of carb-y foods quickly impacted my waistline.
I'm back on the low carb plan with all sincerity and humility...Carbs are stored as fat. And stored fat will not go away by eating more of them.
Here's my classic Low carb dinner--in the crockpot tonight:
Smoked Sausage in Sauerkraut
It's obviously super-easy to make, loaded with fiber and healthy fermented sauerkraut--but needs a clever salad to make it a really good meal.
So, try this salad. Note you do have to portion-control and not eat the whole thing yourself. But it's loaded with interest and any leftovers will easily store a few days in the refrigerator.
Tuscan-Inspired Tomato-Mozzarella-Bean Salad
6 servings
Salad:
1 pint of Grape Tomatoes
1- 14.5 oz. can of Cannellini Beans, rinsed and drained
1- 8oz. Container of fresh mozzarella cheese, cieligine (cherry-sized), drained, cut in halves
1 medium onion, chopped
Combine above in a salad bowl.
Dressing:
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped fresh or freeze-dried Italian herbs blend
Whisk dressing ingredients together until well blended. Pour over salad ingredients and toss. Add additional freshly ground pepper and salt to taste.
Posted by Karen
at 17:33 CDT
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Crock Pot Curry
Topic: Recipe
Indian Curry in the Crock pot
I may not be able to take you to an Indian restaurant for dinner tonight, but I can tell you how to make an amazing Indian Chicken and Vegetable Curry in your crock pot with hardly any prep time. And, I guarantee it will be fail-proof.
You'll need:
1 lb of boneless Chicken thighs or boneless split Chicken breasts (or you can use cut-up chicken but you'll have to watch for bones later)
About 3 cups of assorted fresh or frozen vegetables—Indian cooking usually includes green beans, carrot, potato or cauliflower, chopped spinach
Optional ¼ cup of dry lentils
AND—this magical curry paste whisked into 1 cup of water. There are many brands available in the Indian foods' section of any large grocery. I've purchased various name brands of these curry pastes, but they all market for under $2.00 and will make enough cooking sauce to create the crock pot curry.
Directions:
Spray oil the crock pot.
Layer chopped vegetables +/- the lentils on the bottom.
Pour ½ of the curry paste mixed with water over the vegetables and toss it.
Layer the chicken on top.
Pour remaining ½ of curry paste and water mixture over the chicken
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
Remove the chicken to serving plates. Use a slotted spoon to remove the vegetables.
Maybe-- a little shredded cucumber and yogurt salad to accompany?
My sneaky secret ingredient packet for the Slow Food Indian Curry--and the crock pot--means the stove is resting today and I can catch up on some other projects without sacrificing a great dinner (it's low carb, too!).
Posted by Karen
at 11:36 CDT
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Happy Earth Day
Topic: Harvest Hills Farm activity
Happy Earth Day!
It's truly the perfect day to reflect on Mother Earth, just take a look outside your window--or better yet, plan a hike in the park or woods today--see if you can find some hidden eggs--here are some Kildeer eggs on our driveway.
The Hen house is up, next will come outfitting it with nesting boxes and roost and laying hens. I am reminding you about this project today because it's the last day of the Menards sale on the 7 ft by 7 ft storage shed which happens to be a perfect structure for a backyard hen house. (See last week's post.)
The horses are enjoying a chow-down in the backyard pasture.
Posted by Karen
at 07:47 CDT
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