Simple Feasts

theurbaneater:

This magic sauce makes everything it touches shimmer with deliciousness. It’s a distant second cousin of the chimichurri sauce. You can use it on almost anything.

Ingredients

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 medium cloves of garlic, smashed into a paste
1 well-crumbled bay leaf
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon + fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparations

Gently warm the olive oil over medium-low heat in a skillet or pan, until it is just hot. When hot remove from heat.

While the oil is heating, lightly pound the rosemary, thyme, and oregano in a mortar and pestle.

Stir the paprika, garlic, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, and salt into the oil. Then add the bruised herbs and lemon juice.

You can use this now, but know - the oil just gets better as it ages over a few days. Keep it in a refrigerator for up to a week/ten days-ish. It thickens up when cold, so if you need it in a liquid state, place it in the sun or in a warm place for a few minutes.

Makes ~2/3 cup.

bohemianqueen:

Last night my friend Angeline and I made freezer meals. Basically you dump the contents of a recipe into a 2 gallon freezer bag and then make it in the slow cooker on the day you want to eat it. Its going to be awesome. All of these dishes smelled so good when we were putting them together. Here are the recipes:

Healthy Mama Barbecue Chicken
3 medium unpeeled  sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 large green pepper, cut into strips
1 large red pepper, cut into strips
1 zucchini, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks
1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard (I wasn’t sure if this meant actual mustard or the spice so I did a little of both)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt

Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.

Stephanie’s Goulash
3 cups chopped onions
2.5 cups coarsely chopped green sweet peppers
4 large beets, peeled and diced
2 cups of carrots
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into one inch cubes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
4 teaspoons Hungarian paprika or regular paprika (I used regular)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups hot cooked noodles
1/2 dairy sour cream

Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. EXCEPT the sour cream, that is for garnish after the meal is cooked.

Chicken Curry
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons curry powder
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1.5 pounds chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cups chopped peeled sweet potatoes
2.5 cups baby carrots
2 cup coarsely chopped mango
1 cup chopped onion
1 zucchini chopped 
2 cloves garlic, minced
chicken bouillon
.5 cup raisins (for garnish)
.5 cup peanuts or cashews (for garnish)

Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.

To cook, take out of freezer and set on counter for about 30 minutes, then dump contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.

(via bohemianqueen-deactivated201207)

topshelfnetwork:

Panzanella is a traditional Italian bread and tomato salad. There are many versions of this salad, but the 2 key ingredients are stale bread and tomatoes. And when I say stale, I mean hard NOT moldy.

There are so many good things about this recipe:

1. Super simple to make
2. No stove required
3. Using up ingredients you might have just thrown out

healthfoodstalker:

I had two new friends over for dinner last night and they warned me that they were “meat and potato” people, not veggie lovers.

So I grilled a couple of steaks (a real splurge if you buy organic meat), threw a pan of quartered, small yukon gold potatoes in the oven with a dash of olive oil,…

brookeftwjourney:

Before being baked:

• 1 Chicken breast per person (I cut mine into smaller bits).
• Grain mustard.
• Lemon.
• Honey.
• Mix the mustard, lemon sauce and honey together, paste it onto the chicken breast
• And salt and pepper for taste (I didn’t use either, it was already so full of flavour!)
• Bake it…

(Source: bingeeatingtohealthyjourney)