2015 Cow

We've clearly gotten a bit spoiled with our purchase of half a cow every year. It's delicious, affordable, and obviously of high-quality. We buy from a random family we found off Craigslist. They have been great to work with it, and haven't even raised their prices in the past three years. Unfortunately, they are reducing their herd and it's unlikely they will have any extra to sell next year. Cue the panic! 

This year's cow was slightly smaller than the last. All in all, our half ended up at 268 pounds, hanging weight. We spent a total of $898, which got us:

Ground beef - 40, 1 lb packages

Stew meat - 8 
Soup bone - 5 
Heart - 1 
Liver - 3 (we had 7 last year. Wyatt is sad)
Brisket - 1
Rump roast - 3
Chuck roast - 9
Cross rib roast - 2
Flank steak - 1
Round steak - 8
Sirloin tip - 8
T-bone - 6
Ribeye - 5
Short rib - 6
Round Bone roast - 4

2014 Egg Tally

This year we added four new chickens, bringing us up to a total of 8. We felt that was a few too many for our city lot to handle, so we ultimately rehomed two. Whitney, one of our original Barnevelders, was a frequently talkative lady, and ultimately had to get the boot. She also had some strange summer egg-laying strike, so that was a somewhat easy decision. Annie, one of our new chicks was flat out not suitable for city life. She SCREAMED. You'd let her out and she still screamed. While I had an emotional attachment to Whitney, Annie was lucky she didn't become dinner. Don't worry, our wonderful chicken store was happy to take them off my homes. I believe Whitney was rehomed, but Annie is still there (and still screaming). 2014 Egg Chart by Chicken Butters: 124 eggs Sara: 146 eggs Tina: 119 eggs Whitney: 54 eggs Ali: 103 eggs Ethel: 106 eggs Josie: 81 eggs 2014 Egg Chart by Month January: 21 eggs February: 16 eggs March: 65 eggs April: 78 eggs May: 79 eggs June: 56 eggs July: 40 eggs August: 59 eggs September: 107 eggs October: 90 eggs November: 79 eggs December: 6 eggs The Americauna's egg laying is noticeably down, although I believe they laid more months out of the year compared to 2013. They got hit with a molt and the darkness of winter means they stopped laying in October this year. Sara redeemed herself for last year's broody shenanigans and hasn't had another spout. Lucky for her, she was on my rehoming short list! The new gals have certainly earned their keep! Once they started laying they came on strong, and minus some weird winter molt for Josie, they've laid all winter. Ironically, she started laying in the proper spot post-molt...

2014 Garden Tally

Apples -2

Basil – 3 lb

Beets – 22.29 pounds

Birds eye pepper – 75

Broccoli – 5 lb 1 oz

Bulgarian Carrot – 10

Cabbage – 11.16 pounds

Carrots – 10.78 pounds

Cauliflower – 4 lb 3 oz

Corn – 16.91 pounds

Cubanelle pepper - 1.65 pounds

Cucumber – 9.71 pounds

Garlic  14.9 oz

Green Beans – 17.78 pounds

Lettuce – 4 lbs

Onion - 36 lbs 7.5 oz

Plums – 11

Potatoes – 32.85 pounds

Raspberries – 1 qt

Spaghetti Squash – 29.2 pounds

Serrano pepper– 39

Tomato – 26 pounds

Tomatillos - 7.03 pounds

Zucchini – 39.20 pounds

This comes to roughly 270 pounds of food.

Beef Stroganoff

Technically, this is actually Best $#%& Beef Stroganoff, at least according to it's original author. This is the only Stroganoff dish I can remember eating, so while I can't vouch for it being the Best $#%& Beef Stroganoff, I can tell you it's damn good. 

We've mad a few modifications, most notably exchanging the ground beef for stew meat. I won't lie, venison knocks this out of the park, but regular beef isn't bad either. We typically opt for a chuck roast in this application. 

I won't lie; it's not the most appetizing looking dish. You won't care after your first bite though! You can serve this with egg noodles like the traditional recipe, or over green beans for a low-carb version. Personally I prefer it with nothing!

Beef Stroganoff
Adapted from Food.com

Ingredients
1/2 cup minced onions
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 package cream cheese
4 garlic cloves
1/4 cup butter
1 pound stew meat
1 T Worcestershire
1 t salt
1/4 t pepper
10 fresh mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 ounces)

Directions
Saute onion and garlic in butter over medium heat.
Stir in meat and brown
Stir in salt, mushrooms, pepper and cook 5 minutes, then stir in soup. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
Stir in sour cream until heated.

Buying grass-fed beef

Not really our cow. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Having quality food is important to us; it's a major factor in why we have chickens. We know how they are raised, and we can control other factors such as the quality of their food. Unfortunately on our 1/3 acre city lot, that's about all we can do in the livestock realm. We'd eventually like to have our own farm, but we're still searching for other ways to get the quality we are looking for through more traditional outlets.

Thankfully we live in a location where many others have similar values, which makes this kind of food readily available. Many grocery stores, farmers markets and even butcher shops sell local, grass-fed beef. We, however, chose to go with the higher quantity route and purchased half of a cow.

We were able to find one on our local Craigslist last year for $2.75 per pound hanging weight, plus another .60 cents per pound to the butcher and half the kill fee (around $50). It was so good that we contacted the seller again this year to get on the list. There's no off taste in the fat (unlike the first cow we purchased) and is very tender.

For a total of $900, here's what we ended up with in our freezer:
Ground beef - 41 packages, approximately 1 pound each
Stew meat - 7 packages
Soup Bones -5 packages
Heart - 1 package
Liver - 7 packages
Brisket -1 package
Rump roast - 3 packages
Chuck roast - 9 packages
Cross-rib roast - 2 packages
Flank steak - 1 package
Round steak - 8 packages
Sirloin tip steak - 7 packages
T-bone steaks - 7 packages
Ribeyes - 5.5 packages (one only has a single steak)
Short ribs - 7 packages
Round Bone roast - 3 packages
Oxtail - 1
Dog bones - 10 to 15 pounds
Suet - 10 pounds

Potato Soup

Recently our neighborhood grocery store had a Buy One, Get One Free deal on 5-pound bags of potatoes. The Husband, always eager to strike on a good deal, led us to coming home with 10 pounds of potatoes. So what's a two-member household to do with 10 pounds of potatoes? Make Potato Soup of course!

Over the years we've experimented with potato soup recipes, including those with a 50/50 split between cauliflower and potatoes. It's hard to beat the real thing though, 10-pounds in the pantry notwithstanding.

Potato Soup
A Northwest Homestead original

Ingredients
4 large or 6-8 medium-sized potatoes
1/2 pound bacon, diced
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1 stick butter
1/2 c rice flour (or regular flour)
6 C milk
1 C sour cream
1.5 C shredded cheddar
Green onions (optional)

Directions
Cut potatoes into bite-sized cubes and boil until done in a large soup pot. Set aside.
Cook bacon and set aside.
In soup pot, melt butter and saute garlic and onion until cooked.
Add flour/potato starch and cook for a minute or two. And milk, salt and pepper and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Add the potatoes into the soup and smash half. Cook a minute or two longer, then stir in sour cream.
Add cheese and stir until melted.
Serve with bacon, green onions and a pinch of extra cheese if desired.

Caesar Dressing

Caesar salad seems to be a popular choice among, well, everybody. Then there was me, eating my standard garden salad with ranch. Not that I minded. I find it quite tasty, actually. But in my nearly 30 years of life, I'd found exactly one Caesar salad in my life I could tolerate...and it's located in a hotel several hundred miles away. However, I've now found a Caesar dressing I can eat at home. I dare say I might even like it!

Caesar Dressing
A Northwest Homestead original

Ingredients
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 anchovy fillets
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 dashes hot sauce (like Tabasco)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and ½ cup light olive oil

Directions 
1. In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, mash chopped garlic cloves and anchovies to a fine paste with the salt
2. Stir in all other ingredients except the oils
3. Slowly whisk in oils
4. Top salad with some shredded or peeled parmesan

2013 Final Egg Tally

Now that 2013 is officially behind us it's time to count up the number of eggs our flock produced. First, the good news: There were months where we struggled to keep up with our egg consumption. Now the bad news: It's been a long time since we had that problem. In fact, our ladies haven't laid since October. Even then it only covered one breakfast! Given the age of our chickens they hadn't hit their peak performance last winter. The short number of daylight hours means we didn't start getting eggs until February and nothing of any significance until March. Things were cruising along nicely for a while. Then we got a puppy. His presence seemed to stress them out, and Sara went broody around the middle of June. We tried to break her, but she was extremely stubborn. In fact, the only reason why she came off the darn nest box is to molt. Whitney went on her own strike in August for no apparent reason, but Butters and Tina pulled through until the fall when they hit their own molt. 2013 Egg Chart by Chicken Butters: 158 eggs, average 21.5 in full production months Sara: 83 eggs, average 20.3 in full production months (all of 3) Tina: 164 eggs, average 22.57 in full production months Whitney: 103 eggs, 20.2 average in full production months 2013 Egg Chart by Month January: 0 eggs February: 21 eggs March: 86 eggs April: 94 eggs May: 91 eggs June: 73 eggs July: 60 eggs August: 40 eggs September: 40 eggs October: 4 eggs November/December - 0 eggs The Americauna's are clearly leading the charge both in number of laying months and average number of eggs per month. The best part is we love the breed, so we plan on getting two more Americauna's this spring. The Barnevelder's don't have a great disposition for a backyard flock, and their egg production doesn't make up for it. While they are a fine enough chicken, we won't be getting more. Thankfully though, Sara has redeemed herself somewhat. After six months of being a free-loader, she is finally laying again. We aren't quite sure when it happened since we weren't consistently checking the box for eggs, but there it was last week when I checked. This makes it a full month earlier than her first egg last year. Now if we can just keep her from going Broody....

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

I wish I had some great excuse for my lack of recent blogging, or a profound recipe to share with you as an apology. Unfortunately I have neither. What I do have to share though is another low-carb cliche recipe: Cauliflower Crust Pizza.

Quite possibly the best pizza topping combination: pepperoni, shredded linguica, onions, pepperoncini's and pineapple. Plus olives for the husband's portion.

If you've been eating this lifestyle for a while you've either tried it (and probably loved it) or avoided it out of fear. Honestly, I avoided it out of fear for over a year. I tried various options, including low-carb but overly processed flatbreads and crust made from alternative flours. I thought surely those would all be a better solution to my pizza cravings than a cauliflower crust. I was wrong. I'm not sure what clicked in my head to finally venture into the cauliflower world, but I'm so glad I did. 

You may or may not taste something "different" in this crust, but there's no definitive cauliflower taste. Hands down it's the best substitute I've found to cure those pizza cravings. The potential off taste is easily masked by the tomato sauce, cheese and your toppings of choice. The only real downsides are that it's hard to photograph and that it's difficult to eat without a fork. Who cares, right? Not me, that's for sure. I can almost guarantee you won't care either.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Adapted from Recipe Girl

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 cups shredded cauliflower

1 large egg

1 cup cheese (preferably a combination of mozzarella, parmesan and cheddar)

1/2 t basil

1/2 t oregano

1/4 t garlic powder

1/4 t onion powder

Pizza toppings of your choice

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Take a head of cauliflower and shred until you have 2 cups worth. It won't take a full head, so plan on using the extra for another meal or make extra crust. We use a cheese grater for this step.

Spread out cauliflower on to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the cauliflower is just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let it sit for a few minutes to cool.

Place the cauliflower into a mixing bowl and combine with egg, cheese and seasonings. 

Place cauliflower mixture on to a fresh piece of parchment paper, spreading it as thin as you can without creating holes in the crust. Bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until it starts to develop a golden brown color throughout.

Remove crust from the oven and set the oven to broil. Apply pizza toppings and place back in oven for approximately five minutes, or until cheese topping is fully melted. Careful, the edges of the crust can easily burn at this stage.

Enjoy!

Nutrition facts per serving (crust only):
266 Calories; 17g Fat; 8g Carbohydrates; 3g Fiber; 21g Protein

Spatchcock Pastured Chicken

One of the drawbacks of getting our own chickens, if you could call it that, is being able to see how happy chickens are when they get to be real chickens. Grazing in the yard, eating bugs, flying around and chasing each other. We've spent countless hours just sitting out back watching the chickens do their thing. Needless to say, it didn't take long before we decided there was no way we could ever eat another factory farmed chicken. We needed to find chickens that lived a natural chicken life, not stuck in a square foot cage never seeing the light of day. Enter Noah Patridge and Emily French of New Roots Farms. We found them through craigslist and were so impressed we purchased 10 of their pastured chickens. It was almost overwhelming trying to decide how we should prepare the first one. Typically our whole chickens get roasted in the oven, but this was a particularly warm day so grilling was the method of choice. To shorten the cooking time we "Spatchcocked" the chicken before grilling.

Spatchcocking:

Step 1

1. Use kitchen shears to cut on both sides of the backbone and remove the spine
2. Leaving the chicken on its belly, turn it so that the drumsticks point away from you.
3. Cut through the piece of white cartilage just below the skin at the base of the breastbone, on the end of the chicken nearest you.
4. Grab the outside edges of the chicken and bend down while pushing up in the middle like you're trying to break the chicken in half. Bend until you hear it crack.

Step 5

5. Run your finger down both sides of the breastbone to loosen it from the skin and pull it out. Mine came out in two pieces.

You have now spatchcocked a chicken and are ready to cook it. First turn it over then rub it down with olive oil or melted butter. Then choose your seasonings. Through much trial and error we've found that something simple like lemon pepper and salt, or garlic salt and cajun seasoning is best.

On the grill

Prepare the grill for indirect cooking by lighting the outside burners but not the middle, or just the burner on one side if your grill has only two. If you have a charcoal grill I'm going to assume you know how to apply this method to your BBQ. Throw the chicken over the unlit burner and cook until done (use a meat thermometer in the thigh or breast. I pull the chicken off when the thigh reads 165F but am not responsible if you get sick! Check the internet if you need more info). Pull it off the grill and let it rest for at least 5 minutes, preferably 10, then cut apart.  The wings make a good snack while carving the rest of the chicken.The legs (thigh and drumstick combo) come off easily as one piece and make a good size dinner portion for one person. In our situation the breasts are usually reserved for leftovers to go on a salad or in another recipe like Alfredo or Peanut Sauce Stir Fry.


Almost done, I promise...side dish time. We call this Salty Garlicky Vegetables. In this case it was Salty Garlicky Bok Choy but just as often happens with regular cabbage or green beans (a favorite). It's easy and delicious.


Chop 1 head of Bok Choy into bite sized pieces
Heat 1-2T cooking fat of your choice in a skillet (I prefer bacon fat for this dish but ghee works just as well) on medium heat
Add the cabbage
Cook until 75% done
Add 1T minced garlic (more or less depending on your taste but the point of this is to be borderline too garlicky)
Add about 2T of Tamari (or soy sauce or coconut aminos depending on your diet choices, but again the point is to be borderline too salty)
Cook for a few minutes until some of the liquid has evaporated/thickened
Serve immediately

Chicken update

Much like all living things, our cute, fuzzy baby chicks are almost all grown up. When I first mentioned our chickens, they were only a few weeks old and just experiencing what it was like to go outside for the first time. They’ve experienced even more big changes since then.

Around five weeks they got to spend their first night outside in the coop. It was difficult for everybody. They acted like they wanted to go back to the safety of the brooder and our living room, but we tried that the night before and it just wasn’t going to happen a second night. I’m also a sap so tough love isn’t really my thing. Thankfully we all got through the experience unharmed.

The flock at five weeks.
From left to right: Tina, Butters, Sara, Whitney.

Tina being held at 5 weeks.

A few weeks later they were moved to a new, more secure coop and run. They learn quickly, and it only took one night of us walking them up the ramp before they got the hang of it themselves. Of course, they were still sleeping in the nest box (a habit they kept from their old coop) which is a no-no. Teaching them to roost was a far lengthier process, but after a few evenings of me physically putting them repeatedly on the roost they eventually got the hang of it too.

So far one of the most surprising parts of owning chickens is learning how each of them have their own personalities. Some of this is breed specific (for example the Ameraucana’s are far friendlier than the Barnevelders), but not all of it. Tina just wants attention, and even hung out on my husband’s lap for a few minutes last weekend. Butters seems generally confused a lot of the time, and loves to take dust baths more than anybody. Whitney is extremely food driven (then again, so is Tina). Sara is very independent, and far more likely to wander around the yard on her own than in the herd. All of them, however, love to be let out of their run. Exploring is their favorite activity, but we have to keep a watchful eye on them. It’s all downhill once they discover the garden has delicious veggies.

Speaking of food, it’s entertaining to see how receptive they are to new treats. So far dried mealworms are the biggest hit, but they also love corn, cauliflower, yogurt, and heads of cabbage. They also enjoy loose leaves of cabbage and spinach as well as fruit, but they aren’t favorites. The only food they haven’t really liked yet is lettuce.

We’re still a month away from getting any eggs, but I’ll be sure to update when we get our first one!

The flock at 12 weeks. Left to right: Sara, Butters, Tina, Whitney.

Tina being held at 12 weeks.

Sloppy Bobs

Now that we've been eating on our half a cow for six months, some of the usual meals are becoming a bit tiresome, particularly in the ground beef department. While perusing the internet for recipe ideas I was reminded of the classic Sloppy Joe. Except there's no can of Manwich involved, and most importantly it's not over a bun. To avoid confusion, we've affectionately renamed this dish Sloppy Bob.

It's common for us to adapt recipes, but rarely do they come out perfect on the first try. Usually it takes a few tweaks to get it just right. This time we got it dead on. It has the perfect amount of spice, sweetness and tanginess. 

If you want you can serve it over a bed of spinach or other greens, or perhaps a paleo coconut bun. But frankly, there's no need. It's just that good.

Sloppy Bobs

Adapted from Paleo Perfect

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef (or other ground meat of your choice)

1 T bacon grease (ghee or coconut oil would also work)

1 medium shredded carrot

1/2 large onion, minced

1 jalepeno, diced

8 oz can tomato sauce

3 T tomato paste

2 T cider vinegar

1/2 T garlic, minced

1/2 t onion powder

Pinch of ground cloves

1/8 t ground all spice

1 T honey

1/2 t salt

1/2 t paprika

1/4 t black pepper

1/4 t dry mustard

1/4 t chili powder

1 t balsamic vinegar

1 t tamari

2 T ketchup

Directions

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat bacon grease until melted. Add in ground beef, and cook until halfway done. Add the vegetables and cook until they are about 80% done. Next, add in the dry spices and wet ingredients. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Nutritional Information

400 Calories; 26g Fat; 19g Carbohydrates; 3g Fiber; 22g Protein.

Sl

Peanut Sauce Stir Fry

Back when we ate fairly unhealthy, stir fry was a great way to ensure we got our vegetables in for the day. Of course it was the standard soy-based sauce, but it still made for a tasty, veggie-filled meal.

Thanks to our current eating habits, we don't exactly need to force the veggies down. However, stir fry has remained a popular item on the weekly menu rotation. One day to change things up, we experimented with a peanut sauce. Both of us had eaten it at least once before, but it wasn't anything special. But oh man. We both love it now. In fact, I couldn't even tell you the last time we had a soy-based stir fry.

If you avoid peanuts for dietary or allergy reasons, you can still make this with alternative nut butters. We've only replaced it with almond butter, though I'm sure others are equally fine.

Peanut Sauce Stir Fy
An All Meat and No Potatoes Original
Serves 5

Ingredients
One pound chicken breast
One pound of veggies. The frozen bags of stir fry veggies are great, or you can create your own with any combination. We like bean sprouts, water chestnuts, broccoli, zucchini, bell peppers, etc.
1/2 cup peanut butter or alternative nut butter
3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce

Directions
In a large skillet, saute chicken until mostly cooked through and add vegetables of your choosing.
Meanwhile, mix the peanut butter, tamari, rice vinegar, ketchup and chili-garlic into a small bowl. Once the chicken and vegetables are cooked thoroughly, add the sauce mixture and stir until the chicken and veggies are fully coated.

Nutrition Information
359 Calories; 49g Fat; 12.2g Carbs; 3.28g Fiber; 26g Protein

Mexican Casserole

Thanks to the 100-plus pounds of ground beef from "Bessie" we're always looking for new recipes. While this Mexican Casserole isn't drastically different than just eating a taco, it's just different enough that it has earned a spot in our meal plan on a couple of occasions now. It may not look particularly appetizing, but it's definitely tasty.

Mexican Casserole
An All Meat and No Potatoes Original
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 large jalapeno, diced
2 gloves garlic, minced
Taco seasoning of your choice
1 pint crushed tomatoes
1 (7.75 ounce) can of El Pato Jalapeno Salsa
3/4 cup sour cream
3 taco sized sprouted corn tortillas (or whichever corn-based tortilla you prefer)
8 oz mexican-blend cheese
Queso Fresco (optional)
Cilantro (optional)

Directions:
In a large skillet, cook ground beef. When it's approximately halfway done, add the onion, jalapeno, garlic and taco seasoning. When the veggies and beef are fully cooked, pour into a large mixing bowl. Add in tomatoes, jalapeno salsa and sour cream. Mix thoroughly.
In a deep casserole dish, place 1/3 of ground beef mixture as the bottom layer. Next add 1/3 of the cheese followed by 1/2 of the tortillas. We find it works best if these are ripped into smaller pieces. Repeat the layers once more. For the third and final layer, place the remaining ground beef and cheese. If you prefer, you can replace the mexican-blend cheese with queso fresco for the top layer.
Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 5 minutes. If desired, you can broil for an additional 3 minutes to get the cheese nice and golden.
Serve with freshly chopped cilantro if desired.

Nutritional information, per serving:
459 Calories; 33g Fat; 16g Carbohydrates; 2g Fiber; 24g Protein

Noodleless Fettuccine Alfredo Sauce

Back in the days when I gorged myself on carbs, Fettuccine Alfredo was one of my favorite dishes. Thankfully we've managed to come up with a great recipe that cures my pasta cravings without having to actually eat wheat-filled noodles.

This recipe is actually a combination of two recipes we've enjoyed. One uses cream rather than skim milk, while the other adds cream cheese which helps keep it together for leftovers. The biggest problem with standard Fettuccine Alfredo is that it all the oil separates when it's reheated the next day, making for a subpar lunch. This recipe doesn't have that problem.

While the sauce could be used over anything, they key to making it as a pasta substitute is the veggies. We use lots of onions and broccoli, but you could just as easily include zucchini noodles or your faux-noodle of choice.

Noodleless Fettuccine Alfredo Sauce
Adapted from MattWP10's alfredo sauce on Linda's Low Carb and Dinner and Dessert
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 large chicken breast, diced
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
4 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup half and half
2 tablespoons cream cheese
3 ounces parmesan cheese shredded
2 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:
In a large skillet, add butter and chicken and cook over medium-high heat. When it's close to done, add the onion, garlic and broccoli and saute for 5 minutes.
Next, add in the pepper, heavy cream, half and half, and cream cheese. Stir for 5 minutes, or until sauce thickens. Add in the parmesan cheese, stirring with a whisk until fully melted. Finally, add in the mozzarella and also stir until melted. This can get very thick, so you may want to add a splash of water if it's too thick for your liking.

Nutritional information, per serving:
510 Calories; 35g Fat; 21g Carbohydrates; 5g Fiber; 30g Protein

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

As I mentioned last week, there's really only two meals I'm semi-responsible for putting on the table. The first being Spaghetti Sauce, and the other are these Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas.

We served these with fresh tomatoes and cilantro. And a Corona Light
because it was Cinco de Mayo and we're cliche like that.

I've been eating them for years, as this is another recipe that's been passed down to me from my mom. I again have no idea where they came from, although for some reason I feel like I've seen it in one of my cookbooks. Taste of Oregon rings a bell.

Regardless of where it originated, these enchiladas are delicious. In fact, because of these bad boys I no longer have a desire to ever eat the standard red-sauce variety ever again. It's not that the standard version is bad per say...these are just that good.

These do take a bit of time to make, so I recommend assembling them the night before if it's a week night.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
An All Meat and No Potatoes original

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 cup sour cream
1 can of cream of chicken and mushroom soup
1 can of diced green chilies
1 1/5 cups of Mexican blend cheese
9 soft taco size tortillas
2 jalapenos (optional)
1/2 medium onion (optional)
5 mushrooms (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium sized pot, boil the chicken until cooked thoroughly. Shred into small pieces and set aside.
While the chicken is cooking, saute jalapenos, onion, mushrooms or whatever veggies you like. Once cooked, set aside to let cool.
Meanwhile, combine sour cream, soup and green chilis. Add the vegetable mixture once cooled. Set aside approximately 1 cup of the sauce mixture. In the larger portion of sauce, add the chicken. Often times I don't quite use the full amount of chicken so use your judgement here.
In a tortilla shell take one or two spoonfuls of the chicken mixture and sprinkle with a pinch of cheese before rolling it up. Place in a 9 x 13 pan and repeat until you run out of the chicken mixture. This seems to be about 8 or 9 tortillas.
Once all the tortillas are in the pan, cover with the remaining cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Buffalo Wings

Sometimes the simplest things to make are also the tastiest. Such is the case with Buffalo Chicken Wings. Pretty much all you have to do is bake some chicken wings, pour sauce over them, and devour them until your lips are on fire from the spicy sauce. You don't even need cooking skills to enjoy this meal.

We prefer the Original Frank's over the Buffalo Wing Sauce based only on the ingredient list. If you don't mind the few extra ingredients in the Buffalo Wing Sauce, this recipe is even easier. Simply open the bottle and pour over the cooked wings.

Buffalo Chicken Wings
Slightly adapted from Frank's Red Hot

Ingredients:
Chicken Wings (You can buy these frozen or fresh, just be sure to remove the tips if they come included.) We plan on an average of 7 wings per person.
2/3 cup Frank's Red Hot Original
1/3 cup butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place wings on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and bake for 45 minutes.
With ten minutes remaining in the baking time, combine Frank's and butter in a small pan over medium heat.
Place the finished wings in a bowl and pour the sauce over them and stir.
Serve and enjoy!

Spaghetti Sauce

I should probably come clean about something. Despite the fact that I have this food blog, I don't actually do much cooking. I help out, and take care of the dishes, but the real chef in the family is my husband. He's really the one making all of these delicious meals I keep talking about. There are about two exceptions to this: Spaghetti Sauce and Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas (which I'll post about next week). These were really the only two good recipes I brought into this marriage, so I'm more likely to be in charge of these over anything else we eat.

The spaghetti sauce recipe comes from my mom. She's been making it for as long as I can remember. We've slowly adapted it to our own recipe, since the original involves a couple packets of Lawry's spaghetti sauce packets (full of crap like modified food starch and hydrolyzed soy protein). It's easily just as good, and far better for you. It's also extremely cheap to make and makes about 12 servings of sauce. Be sure to clean out some freezer space before making this dish. We find it freezes best in the glass quart canning jars.

We've been serving this over zucchini noodles, making it full of nothing but healthy vegetables and some protein from the meat.

Spaghetti Sauce
An All Meat and No Potatoes Original

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 pound italian sausage
1 large onion
1/2 head garlic
10 mushrooms, sliced (or more based on personal preference)
80-90 ounces of crushed tomatoes (Check Costco for a big ol' jar for under $3!)
1 teaspoons kosher salt
Cracked pepper - a few twists
1.5 teaspoons thyme
3 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoons oregano
4 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic power

Directions
In a large dutch oven or deep pot, fry the ground beef and italian sausage. When it's almost down, add onion and garlic. Saute until onion is soft.
Add tomato sauce and spices. Mix everything together, then add the mushrooms.
Simmer for one hour, stirring regularly.

Chicks, man

Just before Easter we decided to take the plunge and become parents...to chickens that is.

We've talked about it for some time, but we finally have the space and our backyard is starting to come together enough that the timing was right. After doing some research we felt prepared enough to go to our local urban farm store and pick out some girls.

The first trip outside, around three weeks old. From left to right: Tina, Butters, Whitney (in back), and Sara.

Legally we can have up to six chickens, assuming none are a rooster. We figured three is a good starting number, but purchased four in case one turned out to be a rooster or something more unfortunate. Three weeks later I'm happy to report all are alive and well, but I've got my eye on the big one for fear it turns out to be a rooster.

While these chickens are primarily for a food source of delicious fresh eggs, we also want them to be friendly towards humans. With that in mind we picked out two highly-regarded breeds.

Two of the girls were sold as Ameraucana's, although apparently there's controversy over the likelyhood they are "pure-bred" or the mutt variety among the chicken snobs. Regardless, these girls will lay what are called Easter Eggs. The shells are typically varying shades of blue and green, but inside everything is normal. Ameraucana's lay an average of 5 eggs per week, but drop down to about 1-2 eggs per week in winter. Full grown they average 5.5 pounds. However, we have one girl that is particularly small. It's possible she's just a runt, but she could also be a bantam, which would put her at only 1.5 pounds full grown. Of the two breeds, these girls seem to be more interested in human interaction.

The second breed we purchased is a Barnevelder. They are famous for laying large, dark brown eggs but most picture's I've seen don't necessarily reflect that. Barnevelders will grow to a slightly larger size, averaging 6-7 pounds as an adult. They will also produce more eggs than the Ameraucana's. They too will lay around 5 eggs per week, but in the winter that number doesn't trail off as drastically.

In the coming weeks I'll post more about raising them, building a coop, etc.

Bunless Burgers

There's a lot of burger lovers out there, and a large number feel that the bun should be carefully considered. Plain white? Wheat? Potato? Well, I feel pretty strongly about my bun choice as well...except by preference is non at all.

While I resisted the idea of a bunless burger at first, it didn't take me long to realize that was the way to go. Turns out the bun is just a limitation! It keeps you from being able to put on large quantities of toppings, or a variety of sauces that just get soaked up into the bread. 

Without the bun, you are only limited by your imagination. This particular burger had lettuce, spinach, onion, pickles, avocado, ketchup, mustard, worcestershire sauce, and two kinds of cheese (and an egg, but it didn't look as pretty).