Okay, I’ll admit it, I am a bbq junky! I love bbq anything! I have recently taken to making up my own bbq sauces when I’m cooking because we don’t care for the store bought organic varieties much. Hope you enjoy this one, I know I did.
Beef BBQ
2 lbs stewing beef (I use grass fed pastured beef)
3-4 c chicken broth (I use organic free-range)
seasonings for cooking beef: garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, cumin, turmeric, dry mustard, chili powder
seasonings for bbq sauce: garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, turmeric, chili powder
ketchup
honey
liquid smoke
Slow cook beef in chicken broth and seasonings for cooking beef on low for 4-6 hours or until fully cooked but tender and juicy. Drain meat and pull apart into shreds. For the sauce, I mixed ketchup honey and seasonings for bbq sauce with a few drops of liquid smoke, I am sorry I don’t have more accurate measurements, I have a bad habit of dash it, mix it, taste kind of cooking.
Yes, pasta noodles. With this recipe that I found here, I make my lasagna noodles, multi-purpose broad noodles and really thin noodles I use as spaghetti. It was way easier than I thought making my own pasta would be.
Pasta Noodles
2 1/3 c whole wheat flour (I milled a combo of hard red, hard white and soft white for this)
1/2 sea salt
2 eggs (beaten)
1/3 cup water
1 t olive oil
Mix flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Make a large pit in the mixture. Pour your beaten eggs into the pit then add the water and oil. Stir until the ingredients are all combined. Put on well floured surface and knead. Begin rolling out dough with a floured rolling pin. If the dough begins to stick to your surface, just lift it up and sprinkle more flour under. Once dough is about 1/8″ in thickness or less, cut with knife or pizza cutter into desired shape. Photo below was from my lasagna noodles. 1 recipe of this dough made enough for exactly one 3 layered lasagna in a 9×13 dish.
I am not a huge fish fan, BUT I will eat tuna and sometimes salmon. This salmon patty recipe is one of my favorite ones so far.
Salmon Patties
14 oz salmon (wild caught)
1 egg (free range)
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I save from my fresh milled bread)
1 t worcestershire sauce (use a good quality one with natural ingredients)
olive oil for frying
In a bowl mix together all ingredients. Heat small amount of oil in a skillet on med-low. Grab golf ball sized amount of salmon and pat it into a flat patty and place into skillet cook 5-7 min turning once, you just want a nice brown crusting to form on each side.
I made this recipe with noodles I made following this recipe, making them from my fresh milled wheat.
Lasagna
1 batch lasagna noodles
1 lb ground beef { grass fed of course }
≈ 1 lb Ricotta cheese
≈ 1/2 lb Mozzarella cheese, shredded
≈ 6 oz Cheddar cheese, shredded { I use raw if available or hormone/antibiotic free at least }
1 jar spaghetti sauce
garlic powder, italian seasoning, minced onion to taste
1 1/2 T olive oil
Cook noodles in boiling water or broth for 20-25, I add about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil to it to keep them from sticking. Brown ground beef adding garlic powder, italian seasoning and minced onion for added flavor. Add in spaghetti sauce (if you are not cooking with grass fed/clean meat, you will need to drain first then return to skillet) and simmer for 5-10 min. Layer noodles, then 1/3 sauce mix, then half of the ricotta and half of the mozzarella, repeat, then last layer is noodles, remaining sauce mix, and the cheddar. Top with the olive oil drizzled across the top and sprinkle with italian seasoning. Bake at 350º for approx 35min. Serve with garlic bread.. yum.
Chicken pot pies have always been a favorite in my house, but I used to make them with the pre-made pie crusts, all the canned (non organic) veggies, Campbell’s cream of chicken soup and canned chicken meat even. Since we have went with trying to reduce canned stuffs and eating more natural/clean/organic I have pretty much given up on the Chicken Pot Pie phase of our life until I found this recipe at heavenlyhomemakers.com. I decided to give it a whirl and this was my result:
Before typing up the recipe, I just want to make note that my oldest (boy-17) took a few bites and said ‘I like this, I mean even if we weren’t eating organic, I would ask for this again, I really really like it’
So, this is a huge keeper for me. Here is what I do:
Chicken Pot Pie
6 cups free range organic chicken broth
2 cups cooked free range chicken torn into bite size pieces
5 handfuls (yep that’s an accurate measurement) of organic baby carrots cut up
6 medium organic potatoes peeled and diced
2 cups organic frozen peas
sea salt and pepper to taste
also added dashes(es) of: turmeric, parsley, and italian seasoning
2-3 T arrowroot powder
1 cup milk (I used almond)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup whole wheat flour (I milled soft white for this)
In a large pot, boil the broth, chicken, carrots, potatoes, and peas until veggies are tender. Mix arrowroot powder with water until smooth. Stir mixture into the broth/chicken/veggies, cooking for about a minute longer on the stove to help thicken. Pour contents into a 9×13 (or larger as mine did want to spill a little) baking dish.
In separate bowl mix milk, mayo and flour (may decrease milk a pinch or increase flour a pinch). Spread mixture over top the broth and veggies. (yes, it will be runny)
Bake in 350º oven for 45min.
Delicious!!!
*Edited 4/17/13 To note variations:
I used 8 T arrowroot powder, mixed it with 1/2 cup milk, 1 T mayo and then enough water to make it the right consistency. I only seasoned with italian seasonings and salt and pepper on this one. The broth was much less runny this way. This is what updated Chicken Pot Pie looked like.
Chili is something I make ALL the time, and I can guarantee you, I have not made it the same 2 times in a row. The basics are the same but chili is so easy to add your own personal variations to, that you can have lots of fun with making it your own. Oh yeah, and remember, I use organic ingredients and my beef is grass fed.
Jen’s Chili
32 oz tomato juice
30-60 oz chili beans (2-4 cans)
2 lbs ground beef (I will reduce to 1lb when the budget is a lil tight){grass-fed}
1 onion diced
1 green pepper diced
1/2-1 t dry mustard
1/2-1 t turmeric
1-2 t cumin
2-4 t chili powder
1-2 t garlic powder
1/2-1 t black pepper
Fry up your beef with the peppers, onions and half of the garlic powder. Combine this and remaining ingredients in crockpot and cook for 4 hours on high or in a pot on stove and simmer on low for 2 hours.
This is my basic go to bread recipe. I occasionally will switch things up or make variations, I will post some of those later.
Basic Bread
1 1/2 c hot water
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
1/3 c raw honey
2 t sea salt
1 free range egg
4-4 1/2 c freshly milled flour (I mill 1 1/3 cups hard red wheat and 1 1/3 cups hard white wheat)
1 T dry active yeast
Put ingredients in order I have them listed into your bread machine making sure to mound and crater your flour for your yeast. Set your machine to desired settings and viola! Bread. 🙂
So in my quest for non processed wheat intake, I am stumped at the cracker problem….. I like my chili with a lot of crackers (after my pb sandwich is gone of course) but homemade crackers????? That’s just nuts. Well why not try it after all, I am a bit nutty! So I grabbed the Whole Wheat Crackers recipe from Heavenly Homemakers and thus began my adventure to crackers. Here is what I did, however thinking back now and tasting my end result, I MAY have accidentally used too much flour.
Homemade Wheat Crackers
2 c whole wheat flour (I milled 1 cup hard red and 1/3 cup hard white)
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 c oil (I used evoo but Laura at HH used coconut oil)
1/2 c water
Mix flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in oil and water until a ball of dough has formed. Roll dough very thin, about 1/16″ thick. Cut into 1″ strips and place on cookie sheet. Bake in a 350º oven for 12 min. Turn off the oven, but leave crackers in until cool, allowing them to dry out for added crispiness.
Homemaker Gone Natural 