Crockpot Apple Pork

I made this for my birthday. I love apple, mainly Granny Smith. This is basically just a recipe that I made up on my own.

1 onion, chopped

1 pork loin about 2.5 lbs

4 apples, cored and sliced into rings

1/2 cup apple juice

ginger, nutmeg salt and pepper

Put onion in crockpot. Rub pork with spices and place in crockpot on top of onions. Put apple slices in crockpot on top of pork and pour over the apple juice. Cook on low for 9-10 hours.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Beef Stroganoff

I got this recipe from Simply Recipes. The hardest part is getting the beef cut into strips. I modified it by cooking the mushrooms separately for my husband since I don't like them. We really liked it but it only made 2 servings.

6 Tbsp butter

1 pound of top sirloin or tenderloin, cut thin into 1-inch wide by 2 1/2-inch long strips

1/3 cup chopped shallots (can substitute onions)

1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon of dry tarragon or 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh tarragon (optional)

1 cup of sour cream at room temperature

Melt 3 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet on medium heat. Increase the heat to high/med-high and add the strips of beef. You want to cook the beef quickly, browning on each side, so the temp needs to be high enough to brown the beef, but not so high as to burn the butter. You may need to work in batches. While cooking the beef, sprinkle with some salt and pepper. When both sides are browned, remove the beef to a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, reduce the heat to medium and add the shallots. Cook the shallots for a minute or two, allowing them to soak up any meat drippings. Remove the shallots to the same bowl as the meat and set aside.

In the same pan, melt another 3 Tbsp of butter. Increase heat to medium high and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 4 minutes.

Remove mushrooms and reduce heat to low. Add the sour cream and stir in the beef and shallots, and mix throughly. Don't let the mixture simmer or boil or the sour cream will curdle

Serve over egg noodles (I used whole wheat).

Make 2 servings.

Pumpkin Pasta with Turkey Meatballs

This is a Rachel Ray recipe except I use meatball instead of sausage.

Here's the meatball recipe.

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

6-8 fresh sage leaves, shredded, or 1/2 tbsp sage

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup canned pumpkin (not pie mix)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

1 lb pasta of your choice

Make meatballs and start baking in oven. Start sauce and pasta water while meatballs are cooking.

Heat a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and then the garlic and onion. Saute 3 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender.

Add bay leaf, sage, and wine to the pan. Reduce wine by half, about 2 minutes. Add stock and pumpkin and stir to combine, stirring sauce until it comes to a bubble. Put meatballs in sauce, reduce heat, and stir in cream. Season the sauce with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer mixture 5 to 10 minutes to thicken sauce.

Return drained pasta to the pot you cooked it in. Remove the bay leaf from sauce and pour the sausage pumpkin sauce over pasta. Combine sauce and pasta and toss over low heat for 1 minute.

Makes about 4-6 servings.

Meatballs

I use this recipe for any meatballs I make. Slightly adapted from Betty Crocker. Just like in my meatloaf, I use oatmeal as the binder instead of bread crumbs.

1 1/2 lb ground beef or turkey

3/4 cup oatmeal

3/8 cup milk

1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce (you can just do this by sight if you like)

1 small onion

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Combine all ingredients and shape into meatballs. Place in 9x13 pan, making sure to leave room between the meatballs. Cook 20-25 minutes or until no longer pink in center.

Makes about 12 meatballs.

Upcoming October Dinners

What I'm Planning to Make for the Rest of the Month:

Turkey Meatballs in Pumpkin Sauce

Crockpot Apple Pork (for my birthday dinner)

Beef Stroganoff

Vegetable Lasagna

White Fish in Peach Sauce

Crockpot Harvest Stew

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Crockpot Ropa Vieja

This was very good. It's a make-again. I love beef in the crockpot since it's always tender and flavorful. I combined a bunch of recipes I found to make one that suited us.

2 lbs beef

1/2 onion, chopped

1 cup tomato sauce

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/4 apple cider vinegar

2-3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

1 bay leaf

Rub beef with spices. Place in crockpot and place onion on top. Pour tomato sauce, broth, and vinegar. Cook on low for at least 10 hours or on high for at least 7 hours.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Way more than anyone ever wanted to know about what I eat

Since my last recipe post, I have changed quite a bit about what I eat. I'm following the guidelines from Marilyn Shannon's Fertility, Cycles and Nutirition. I eat at least: 3 servings of whole grains, 3 servings dairy/eggs, 1 serving complete protein, 1 serving yellow fruits/vegetables, 3 serving leafy greens, 1 serving vitamin C source, and 1 serving unsaturated fat. I have also significantly reduced the amount of sugar/white flour I eat.

I plan out dinners for the week and go grocery shopping on Saturday. I'll be starting to post the meal plan for the week. We have leftovers at least one meal after every time I cook, so I'm planning 3-4 meals a week.

Breakfast: I work early in the morning and my husband is the breakfast cooker so I don't eat a hot breakfast in the morning. I have a smoothie and dry whole grain cereal (I like Food for Life's Ezekiel 4:9 cereal, there's no added sugar and it's available in my local grocery store in my moderately sized city) almost daily. I make a couple batches of the smoothie at a time and freeze them. I use yogurt (I've started making homemade in my crockpot), avocado (as a base since I don't like bananas), berries (I change up the berries), spinach (to get in those leafy greens), flax oil (for the omega-3s) and often a peach/nectarine for a bit of sweetness.

Lunch: Most days, I don't eat leftovers for lunch (since we have them for dinner) so I bring lunch components to work (I work at a house so I have access to a full kitchen). Lunch has probably been the hardest meal for me to plan for. One of the things I often eat is cheese sandwiches. I use the Food for Life bread, what ever cheese I want that week, tomato, and spinach (leafy greens). I recently found Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less by Mark Bittman. It has some very simple ideas for meals that I find perfect for lunch (some I save for weekends). My focus for lunch is eating a leafy green and usually a serving of dairy.

Snack: I keep whole carrots, raw pumpkin seed, almonds, and other healthy snack around for if I get hungry.

Dinner: I'll be posting my weekly dinner plans and recipes coming soon.