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Top Ten {Tuesday}: Whole Food Recipes

When we first moved into our house, you may remember that I did not have a stove. So, I had to get creative with crock pot and oven only recipes. I would crack open my Everyday Food magazines (the only cooking magazine I get and have actually ever been able to understand) and just stop at the first recipe that didn’t require a stove.

Now that I have a stove, I still  love my Everyday Food magazines. They are different than the Kraft Food magazines I used to get…mainly because Everyday Food’s recipes are not brand specific AND therefore most of it made from REAL FOOD. Not processed or boxed.

So, here are some of my favorite recipes I’ve tried this year. Most of them are from Everyday Food and all of them are sans processed foods.

1. Carrots & Peas. I’m always on the lookout for easy side dishes. Use a vegetable peeler to cut 4-6 carrots into ribbons. Saute in 1 tablespoon of butter for about 6 minutes. Pour in 10 oz of frozen peas. Cook for 2 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve. It’s beautiful and just delicious! (Everyday Food. September 2007. #45)

2. Meatballs from Kitchen Stewardship. This is an easy double/triple batch recipe. And easy to freeze. Lydia and I made them yesterday (with broccoli) as a secret ingredient. It was so secret she didn’t even want to tell her Daddy! She had a lot of fun making the meatballs and said, “It’s kinda funny that I’ve got cow in my hand.”

3. Roasted Chicken & Potatoes I usually buy boneless skinless chicken breasts because I detest raw meat. This recipe calls for half of a whole chicken. So, I caved and bought one. I didn’t actually TOUCH it, of course. But this was THE BEST MEAL EVER. The chicken was divine. I ate it off the bone and licked my fingers it was so good.

4. Shepherd’s Pie Most of the time Shepherd’s Pie is a creamy comfort food. This recipe is light but filling at the same time. There are no creamy canned soups and I even made it without the suggested ketchup. However, the best part of this sheperd’s pie is the carrots—you boil them with the potatoes and mash them. Then layer mashed carrots on top of the ground beef, then the mashed potatoes on top of that. SO. GOOD.

5. Yogurt, Apple Butter & Bananas. Our new favorite breakfast! Just grab a few tablespoons of plain yogurt (none of that colored stuff in tubes), then one or two tablespoons of Apple Butter (not made with HFCS), then top with a sliced banana. It’s pretty and yummy. Lydia loves it! {PS. I know there is more to yogurt and apple butter as far as whole foods go. But this is the best I can do. I’m not an expert. Yet.} (Everyday Food. January/February 2005. #19)

6. Taco Filling & More Yeah, you could just use the taco seasoning mix from the grocery store. But THIS is made from REAL ingredients and honestly, not much more difficult than dumping a packet in a pan. This recipe is made to be divided into three portions. Then frozen. Then thawed for a variety of different meals–tacos, taco salad, taco soup with squash and taco/sweet potatoes. I’ve got 2 bags in the freezer now. We might eat it tonight. YUM.

7.  Carrot Apple Hummus Wrap. I get SO bored of lunch. We eat pasta, sandwiches and hummus on  a rotating basis. So, when I found this wrap, I knew I’d love it! Just smear some hummus on a tortilla/wrap. Then layer with baby spinach, grated carrot and thinly sliced apple. Roll and eat. (Everyday Food. June 2005. #23)

8. Bar-B-Q Pizza. This one is fun for the kids because it’s fun to make your own dough. If you don’t want to make your own crust (there are some yummy whole wheat mixes out there), you can always get a good whole wheat dough from Trader Joe’s. This recipe uses jarred Bar-B-Q sauce and a rotisserie chicken. If you’re going to go more “whole” and organic–you’ll just have to figure that out on  your own.

9. Mexican Chicken & Black Bean Filling from Stolen Moments. I cannot tell you how many times I have made this recipe. It’s an easy no cook freezer meal. (Kate suggests cooking the chicken first. But I just dump it all in a ziploc bag and freeze it. Then cook it in the crockpot.) We’ve used this as tacos, quesadillas and nachos. You could also turn it into a soup, breakfast burritos or even eat it plain. It’s SO good.

10. Deconstructed Chicken and Brocoli Casserole. This is actually from Once a Month Mom…who, oh look! Got it from Stolen Moments! I made this and froze it so Les and the kids could eat it while I was at Blissdom. It looked so yummy I was kinda sad I wasn’t going to be there to eat it.

(As a postscript to this whole post, I’m using organic chicken, grass-fed beef, whole grain everything, whole/raw/minimally pasteurized/processed milk and dairy products. Don’t take this list as a perfect example of what you SHOULD be eating. This is as good as I can do and understand on this leg of my journey.)

{{And because I love her and have learned a lot about whole foods from her, I’m linking up to Jo-Lynne’s What I Learned This Week. I think ten new recipes counts as learning something, don’t you?)

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Comments

  2. Mmm, mashed carrots in the shepherd’s pie sounds really yummy!

    I made BBQ Chicken Pizza on Thursday night. Used Pioneer Woman’s pizza crust recipe with whole wheat flour, and made my own BBQ sauce. But I used regular ketchup I needed to use up so it really wasn’t a “whole food.” Still, the BBQ sauce was just ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and salt, I think
    .-= Vanderbilt Wife´s last blog ..Top Ten Tuesday: Posts I Ought to Write =-.

    • Good to know. I hadn’t really looked into making BBQ sauce—I found one that didn’t have HFCS in it and that was the best I could do. I think it was Bulls-Eye brand.

  5. Amanda, what kind of trays/pans, etc are you using for your frozen meals? In the past I’ve used some sort of name brand containers that are sorta re-usable (I remember they were black, plastic but oven safe) , but for some reason they totally failed in the cooking dept. As in, they took forever to re-heat/cook the frozen meal. Even when appropriately thawed.
    Anyhoo…maybe I need to just buy a ton of Pyrex? But wouldnt that weigh down the freezer?
    .-= clistyb´s last blog ..Just the beginning =-.

    • I’ve done both. I like the disposable aluminum pans b/c they…disposable! But lately when it comes to casserole-y stuff (like the shepherd’s pie, etc.) I just lined one of my glass pans with tinfoil, filled it and froze it. Then once it was frozen I dumped it out of the pan, put it in a gallon size ziploc pan. Once it was time to cook it, I just stuck it back in the glass pan and cooked it, tin foil and all! Makes for easy (easier) cleaning too!

      Of course, I’m a fan of anything that can be stored in a ziploc bag (like that chicken/black bean filling, or a soup) b/c they can freeze flat.

  6. I’m on the same journey! I’ll have to check those out. Especially the homemade taco seasoning. It’s hard to find one without MSG! I was doing whole milk for the longest but since we’re huge milk drinkers we went back to 2% b/c it’s so fattening. And the organic is soo expensive! As soon as we get our finances in order (we’re doing Financial Peace U at church) we’re going to set aside a higher budget for organic dairy and meat products. Organic is so expensive! It’s just not feasible right now. I already feel I spend too much on groceries. Baby steps!
    .-= Melissa@SimplyMel´s last blog ..My Top Ten Addictions =-.

    • You know the milk thing is what has really got me into whole foods. Milk is one of those things that companies manipulate for better transport times, longer shelf-life, etc. Apparently, ultra-pasteurized milk doesn’t even need to be refrigerated. That just grosses me out. So. I have to do more research, but right now I’m like terrified of milk!! LOL.

  7. I want to try those meatballs … yum! The only Shep Pie I’ve ever made (or even had) is with real food. Carrots, Celery, and Peppers too. So maybe it’s b/c I don’t know a creamier version, but I’ve always liked it … and it freezes well too)

    • Really? I’ve never made Shepherd’s Pie until this year. When I looked thru Allrecipes EVERY SINGLE one had a creamed soup in it. This is the ONLY one that didn’t.

  13. This is a great list! I’m going to print off some recipes now, starting with that meatball one. Hub asked for spaghetti and meatballs for his birthday dinner tonight, and I don’t have a meatball recipe.

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