This Week's Controlled Crashes

Monday: Chicken Soup

Tuesday: Egg and Spinach Salad

Wednesday: Sausage and Feta Quinoa

Thursday: Chicken and Black Beans (via Conversion Diary)

Friday: Dinner out

Saturday: Healthy Spaghetti

Chili

Everyone knows how to make chili, right? Except me. I really didn't.

My dad likes to cook and participates in these chili cook-offs at work, but it seemed like such a process. And why learn the process when chili comes in a can?

And then I became a SAHM, and in searching for frugal, filling, easy, and healthy dinner options, I came across Katie's Chili at Kitchen Stewardship. She mentions that she's adapted her recipe to make it a bit healthier than regular chili, but since I never knew how to make that, I have no clue what's missing.

I made it the exact way she describes a few times, and then, as she mentions at the end, I started adding healthier "upgrades."

My most recent iteration is as follows:

You will need:
1lb stew beef
1 1/2 cups dried pinto beans
3/4 cup dried kidney beans
1/2 cup dried black beans if the mood strikes
6-8 cups homemade stock (optional--I suppose you could also use store bought stock, but I just use water if I'm out of stock)
1 can tomato paste
15-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbs chili powder

This recipe doesn't require a lot of work, but if you're using dry beans you do have to plan ahead. The night before I measure the beans into a large bowl and then fill the bowl with water about an inch over the "bean line" and stick it in the fridge to soak overnight.

The next morning I drain the water from the beans, rinse them, and put them in the crock pot with the stock (or equivalent amount of water). I turn it on low and let it go until lunchtime. At lunchtime (or 4 to 5 hours later) I come back and add in everything else, stir it all together, and then that's it...I let it cook until dinner.

I usually serve it with cheese, and if we're having company I try to have tortilla chips on hand. It's a big hearty meal and leftovers can be frozen, which is nice.

Generally it's a nice fall or winter dish, but it's currently a spring time dish for our family since beans have iron (as does the stew beef) and they apparently don't wreak havoc on blood sugar levels.

Sausage and Feta Rice Stir Fry

As usual, it almost seems silly to post this as a recipe, but it's a dish we enjoy, and friends have claimed to enjoy it too. I made it with rice most recently, but I've also made it with quinoa, and it's equally as good.

2 cups cooked rice*
Olive oil
Feta cheese
Chicken sausage cut into pieces (Trader Joe's has a gluten/pork/casing free sundried tomato sausage that I use)
1 cup frozen spinach
1 cup grated zucchini*
4 cloves crushed garlic
Sea salt to taste
Spices to taste (I've been using Costco's organic no salt spice blend)

I get the pan hot first and pour in olive oil and dump in the sausage and rice and let it sit for a minute because I like some browned crunchy bits. I then add the vegetables, garlic, spices and salt, stir it all together, turn down the heat and then cover and allow to cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Before serving I often add a little more olive oil because I heart fat, and I've heard that unheated olive oil is healthier (I should use expeller pressed coconut oil for the cooking part, but I don't have any at the moment), and I also add the feta. Because feta can make anything yummy.

*Lately I've been making big batches of brown rice and then freezing it in two-cup portions. I've also been grating several zucchini in my food processor in the beginning of the week and using it for various meals. If I have those on hand, that makes this meal ridiculously easy.

Healthy Spaghetti

So my last bloodwork showed that I'm low on iron. This isn't unusual for pregnant women, but it was really suprising to me because last pregnancy they were impressed at my iron levels. "Like that of a non-pregnant woman," they said.

I patted my carnivorous self on the back and grew rather smug.

I was pretty sure I was the poster girl for iron this pregnancy. I eat spinach and meat every day. I cook the majority of our meals in a cast iron pan. At least once a week we have red meat in a red sauce for that extra iron absorption that vitamin C gives you. I take my prenatals. Why would there be a problem?

Honestly, I still can't fathom why I'm so low; it's hard to imagine adding much more iron to my diet. Maybe it's because I went straight into pregnancy number two while still breastfeeding?

Anyway, we'll be having spaghetti with ground beef twice a week now because it's one of our favorite high-iron meals and it's easy for the lazy preggo woman.

During spaghetti squash season I use, wait for it, spaghetti squash instead of pasta, but we're not grain free at the moment, so I'm using rice pasta which is gluten free.

One jar of homemade tomato sauce from last year's garden (HA HA, kidding, a jar of the organic stuff from Trader Joe's...maybe next year...)
One pound ground beef
1.5 cups grated zucchini
1.5 cups frozen spinach
One onion
Four cloves of minced garlic
Sea salt to taste
Rice pasta

Start the water boiling for the pasta and dump the tomato sauce into a cast iron skillet along with the ground beef and chopped onion. When meat is about halfway cooked, toss in zucchini. In last five minutes, toss in spinach and garlic. Remember to cook your pasta. Top pasta with meat sauce.

Umm, yeah. Another entirely original culinary masterpiece. Shut up. But I do take pride in the fact that my kid has no idea that normal people don't have zucchini and spinach in their pasta...

Spinach and Egg Salad

My friend Ana often makes this delicious salad when I'm over at her place for lunch. It's such a simple salad with spinach, hardboiled egg, and this yummy dressing (which I've adapted slightly over the years I've been making it):

1 minced garlic clove
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (I use the unfiltered kind)
6 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp each of salt and dry mustard
pepper to taste

Honestly I don't really follow the proportions, I just make sure I have all of those ingredients in there and sometimes I'll add more vinegar or garlic or mustard as the spirit leads. The more mustard powder you add, the more of a kick it has. I also squeeze some fresh lemon in it when I have some around.

Tonight I made the salad for dinner, so I thought I'd kick it up a bit: I added chicken, onions, and feta. It was awesome. Thumbs up from Adam.

Chicken and Spinach with Thai Peanut Sauce

Back in my halcyon days as a single girl living and working in the city, I had a regular "date night" with my BFF Jen. There was a Thai restaurant we frequented on Piedmont Ave in Oakland and we always ordered the same dish: Spinach and tofu in peanut sauce.

I don't eat tofu these days, but I got a craving for the peanut sauce and dug around online to see what I could make with ingredients I had on hand. I settled on this recipe, substituting just a little honey for the sugar and using rice vinegar. Normally I would have skipped the sugar thing entirely, but I was feeling crazy.

The dish I was trying to emulate uses a generous amount of wilted spinach and, of course, tofu, which I replaced with chicken. Nice and simple and delicious over rice.

If I were making this for company, I'd make everything separately. Or maybe throw the spinach and peanut sauce in together.

But on a regular week night, I'm all about one-pot meals. And in this case, I used my slow cooker and made it using my weekly chicken for stock. I put the chicken in in the morning, came back at lunch time and pulled everything out, put the broth back in the slow cooker with some brown rice, and then later in the afternoon I came back and added everything else in (chicken meat, peanut sauce ingredients, and spinach). Yup, I just mixed it all in right there. If you're picky about your rice, this did make it sticky, but I don't mind that.

I loved it. Thought it was yummy and peanutty with just a little kick from the curry paste.

Adam took one bite, got a shocked look on his face and said, "Peanut. Unexpected." (Surprised he didn't smell it...) Then he took another bite, declared it, "too sweet," and proceeded to empty a bottle of hot sauce into it to "balance things out."

I'll totally make this again; I'll just have to make sure there's plenty of hot sauce available for hubby.

Desserts I Would Have Made

I had big plans for this holiday season. Plans to make healthful alternatives to bring with me to gatherings so that I could "indulge" but stay on track. Then I got smacked upside the head by first trimester fatigue and nausea. And let's be honest, I sorta deserved it for trying to be the annoying healthy girl during Christmas anyway.

But I might want to try it again next year, so for posterity:

The Easiest, Healthiest, Most Scrumptious Fudge Ever (Haven't made this, but it looks awesome.)

Cocoa Jingle Balls (I've made these and really enjoyed them.)

Homemade, Healthier "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" (Haven't made these, but how could you go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate? HOW?)