Category: produce

Roast Beef with Debris Gravy and Roast Vegetables

September 19, 2020

The State Fair of Texas is cancelled for the year, and our family always has a great time there. There’s tons of fun food, but I always get a roast beef po’ boy with debris gravy. And weird beer. Texas and Louisiana are neighbors, so there’s a lot of sharing. Whenever I make po’ boys at home, I use this recipe. PARASOL’S STYLE ROAST BEEF PO BOY RECIPE from NolaCuisine.com. Great blog! You may look at it and your eyes may get huge in horror when you read about simmering the roast and using Kitchen Bouquet in the gravy, but you just have to trust her. It’s so flippin’ lickable!

Okay, so hopefully I wont offend the author with my completely inauthentic use of her insanely delicious beef. But I’m a tinkerer. I’ve made her po’boys exactly as she commands in the recipe. So yummy! But, I’ve also turned it into a po’boy salad when I was in a more salad-y, less bread-y mood. It was awesome. Tonight, I’m using it in my 800 gram of produce challenge in my roast dinner. 345 grams per plate, which puts me at 1003 for the day. Woohoo!

Read More

Jen’s Garlicky Eggplant with Beef and Tomatoes

September 16, 2020

I went looking for a link to this blogpost yesterday, only to find I’d never blogged about it. Huh. It’s a family favorite. Super easy, delicious, and filled with all the make your body feel oh so good stuff. It has 447 grams of produce towards the 800 gram a day challenge. Hope you love it!

Jen’s Garlicky Eggplant with Beef and Tomatoes

Serves 4

2 Eggplants – Peel stripes and cube 
2-4 Tablespoons olive oil (go with your preference)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Toss.  Roast at 400 for about 20 minutes. Set aside.

1 lb Ground beef
Brown. Drain excess fat if needed.

1 red onion, diced
4 Cloves garlic, minced
Add and saute a few minutes.

Diced tomatoes, 28 oz can
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
½ tsp Black pepper
½ cup Fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Add. Place eggplant on top.

½ c beef broth
Add and simmer for 20 minutes.

Toss and garnish with little more parsley if you like. I ran out.

Pinterest? Sure!

Here’s a link to all my boards.
Here’s a link to my recipes on Pinterest.
Here’s a link to my cookbook reviews on Pinterest.

Need anything? I’m an Amazon Affiliate. Any time you use one of my links to get to Amazon to make a purchase, Amazon gives me a tiny percentage. I put it back into next year’s blog fees. Thank you!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 81qyrpqlcbl._ac_sl1500_.jpg

Escali Primo P115C Precision Kitchen Food Scale

My favorite knife. It’s a 7″ full tang Santoku. I chose the Ikon handle design, which is wonderfully ergonomic. I have spent hours on a produce sculpture before and my hand was just as comfy at the end. It’s worth the pennies.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 21-fzcm1jvl._ac_.jpg

Wusthof WU4176 Classic Ikon 7-Inch Santoku, Hollow Edge, Black

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 61tnteh-lil._ac_sl1500_.jpg

WÜSTHOF CLASSIC IKON 8 Inch Chef’s Knife

My favorite cast iron skillet is a 12″ Lodge dual handle pan. Why, the long handles are too heavy to hold with a single hand when they’re loaded up. Since you’re using two hands anyway, you might as well get the ones that take up less space and stack so much better!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is lodge-12.jpg

Lodge 12″ dual handle cast-iron pan

Best sheet pan

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 81isj1i5dzs._ac_sl1500_.jpg

Same sheet pan with a cooling rack/roasting rack insert. Ooooo!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 91pwzeqzgil._ac_sl1500_.jpg

I get asked about my spice wall all the time. The magnetic tins on the wall are great for any spices or salt-free blends. Salt corrodes the tins, so anything with salt is in a glass jar on the counter underneath.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 71iqcq6toil._ac_sl1001_.jpg

20 magnetic spice tins

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 21eqcqszfvl._ac_-1-e1592592949291.jpg

Jen’s Broccoli Salad

June 23, 2020

Everyone knows and loves broccoli salad, but there’s traditionally 2 cups of mayo in this much salad along with some sugar. That’s yummy, but we can do so much better than that! This has less than 1/6th of the usual added fat, and some lovely fresh juice. Better for you and more flavor. Boom! Hope you love it!

Read More

Jen’s Kitchen Sink Juice!

June 5, 2020

Fresh juice! I love to make it once a week! Turmeric is supposed to be lovely for joints, pineapple for inflammation, and celery for skin. Are they, though?! Since we’re not eating them in a vacuum, and have lots of other things going on in our lives, who knows?! I’m sure your mileage may vary, but when someone complains about an elbow or knee, they ask me to make turmeric juice and it stops. Either way, getting lots of extra produce in our diets is always a great idea.

I make a lot of juice hoping for three day’s worth. With two teenagers who want lovely skin in the house, it rarely makes it past two days.

Read More

Jen’s Tomato and Peach Salad

June 2, 2020

Ching-He Huang teaches a beautiful salad in Ching’s Everyday Easy Chinese where she combines tomatoes with plums and pears, and grates salted plums over it and dots it with basil. Tomatoes and stone fruit?! Yeah. It’s amazing. I have played with so many variations on that. My salad’s quite different from Ching’s, but hugs to Ching for the inspiration! She has so many cool veg dishes. I can’t wait to make it again when the peaches on our tree are ripe. They’re little but sweet and a gorgeous vibrant orange. This salad is killer as a BBQ or grill side dish! Read More

Jen’s Broccoli Soup in the Instant Pot

May 29, 2020

Broccoli Soup. This is my favorite thing to make in the Instant Pot. The original recipe was from The Healthy Meal Prep Instant Pot cookbook. I loved the concept, but it was unseasoned and light on produce. My version tastes a lot like that mall restaurant we all used to know and love, Olga’s. If you know that name, you were probably a teenager in the 80s, too! LOL!

I’ve made two batches in a row a few times so I can fill a few Mason jars to find in the fridge later. So good! Read More

Jen’s Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips

April 27, 2020

#DavidChang #UglyDelicious #SeanBrock #Heritage

Heritage CoverAbout two years ago, I was watching David Chang’s Ugly Delicious, and he had Sean Brock on, making Nashville Hot Chicken. Brock finished his off with vinegar powder. Mind blown. My husband and I looked at each other, and I ordered a copy of his book, Heritage, on the spot. That book deserves its own post, but if you grab a copy, be sure to make his fried chicken skins. I mean, chicharrones are awesome, but come on! And make the Southern Screwdriver!

That vinegar powder is a fabulous ingredient. I was reviewing a dehydrator book the other day and the author had garlicky kale chips in it. Great, but I wanted salt and vinegar chips. The vinegar powder is perfect for this! Read More