          
Archive for the ‘Budget Meals’ Category
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
| As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I’m a major gluten free snob. If it’s regularly something that requires regular flour, and that’s been replaced by “alternative” flours.. I usually find it revolting. So… I tend not to buy much prepare food that’s labeled “Gluten Free” in the grocery store.
A couple weeks ago, though, we were rifling through the gluten free freezer area, because I desperately wanted pizza, and was willing to make that compromise to get it. My husband saw a package of Amy’s “Salsa Verde Tamales”, and had to have it – even if it was labeled as a gluten free product. I’d never had a tamal before, so agreed to give it a shot – the photo DID look tasty! |
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Damn. Frozen, prepared food from a grocery store has NO business being THAT good.
Not sure if it was an accurate representation of a tamal or not, I started researching. Convenience food is great every once in awhile, but this was obviously something that I needed to learn to make. Aside from being inherently gluten free (as I soon found out)… my husband is also the biggest corn freak on the face of the planet, and the idea of wrapping his meal IN corn? As I said – quite obviously needed to learn to make it.
So created my own filling recipe. Then, I read a bunch about the dough and rolling, took bits and pieces of info that I liked from a few sources, and came up with my own recipe. Completely bastardized, I know – it’s probably nowhere close to authentic – but it IS super tasty. If you don’t want to include beer, substitute chicken broth.
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Posted in Budget Meals, Ethnic, Gluten Free, Guy Food, Kid Favorites, Main Dishes, Recipes | 2 Comments »
Saturday, November 26th, 2011
| Low carb. Potentially “Paleo-friendly”. Gluten Free. Yep – a recipe that fits all those categories can be THIS tasty!
When I was a kid, my mother used to make meatloaves formed around hardboiled eggs. Loved these “dinosaur eggs” then, and was inspired to come up with my own version a few years ago. The veggies in this version provide a ton of flavor to the meat, and make for a colorful, healthy dish.
To make this recipe “paleo”, just use a paleo-friendly sauce (even just pureed tomatoes!), and omit the cheese.
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Posted in Budget Meals, Gluten Free, Guy Food, Kid Favorites, Low Carb, Main Dishes, Paleo, Recipes | No Comments »
Monday, November 22nd, 2010
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When I was a kid, my mother made the most fabulous burgers. She stuffed 2 thin patties with sauteed mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, and green onions. Best thing ever. We never had a special name for them, it was just “Mom’s stuffed burgers”.
Fast forward a bunch of years. I move to Minnesota, and find out that I can get something very similar to those burgers on many different menus here! Here in Minnesota, they have a proper name – “Juicy Lucy” or (ugh) “Jucy Lucy”. (Seriously, it hurt me to intentionally misspell a word like that!)
With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I want to share my new favorite adaptation of my childhood burger. I call it the “Juicy Goosey” – a turkey based, Thanksgiving version!
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This burger is incredibly tasty, and might just be the ultimate seasonal comfort dinner. Unfortunately, photos just don’t do it justice. It’s not a pretty burger!
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Posted in Budget Meals, Entertaining Ideas, Holidays, Kid Favorites, Main Dishes, Recipes, Sandwiches, Thanksgiving | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
I’ve always loved making chili. I’ve never bothered to put together an actual recipe for it, it’s always been a matter of “put stuff in the pot till it’s awesome”. It’s definitely been an interesting exercise to start paying attention to what I’m doing and keeping track of everything, to be able to produce actual recipes!
This chili isn’t my normal “recipe”. This one was actually designed especially for my husband, who has weird issues with tomatoes. He loves ketchup, but doesn’t like tomatoes. Yeah. I don’t get him sometimes, but whatever – he’s worth tweaking a few recipes for  . This chili recipe gains the vast majority of it’s flavor from the peppers involved – and there are so many peppers involved, this is a GREAT recipe for using up the bounty from your most recent Farmer’s Market raid!
The interesting thing about this recipe is that it does gain SO much flavor from the main ingredients, it really doesn’t need any additional seasoning. Feel free to add a little chili powder or bay leaves if you like, but be sure to try it without, first. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
As with most of my more involved recipes, this makes a LARGE pot, and is great for leftovers! on a per-serving basis, this is a very, very thrifty meal to make, as well.
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Posted in Budget Meals, Gluten Free, Low Carb, Main Dishes, Recipes | No Comments »
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