Farro & Brussels Sprouts Soup

Posted on January 20, 2018 by erin

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Date: January 20th

Recipe: https://www.acouplecooks.com/cozy-farro-brussels-sprouts-soup/

Time to table: Well not gonna lie, it took me like an hour to chop everything, but I’m not very quick. Shredding brussels sprouts takes forever! I could have streamlined but I had nothing else to do tonight so it was fine. Once everything is chopped, the soup comes together pretty fast.

Servings: One dinner for the 5 of us, and then 4 lunch-sized servings – a lot!

Modifications: (obviously) we are not vegan, so I used regular Worchestershire sauce, and chicken broth. I also used 1 cup of farro because I like it, and probably more of almost every vegetable than was called for. I chopped the mushrooms as small as I could get them because no one in this family is a mushroom-texture fan but I like the flavor.

Erin: Like+

Ben: Like+

Kids: Everyone enjoyed well enough, Charlie especially – I was pretty shocked!

Notes: We are a pretty anti-mushroom family around here, and in fact I was nearly gagging when chopping them because they gross me out so much, but I DO really love the flavor of mushrooms IN things, so I forged ahead and I’m glad I did! This was a really interesting mix of ingredients, and it worked well. We already had a bag of brussels sprouts and shallots left from making a salad for Christmas (!!) so needed to use them up pronto and this soup fit the bill. I really was shocked that Annie and Luke liked this soup as much as they did, and I think they were also surprised 😛

Posted in brussel sprouts, carrot, farro, garlic, ginger, greens, shallot, spinach, vegetarian, white beans | Comments Off on Farro & Brussels Sprouts Soup

Beef Stroganoff

Posted on December 18, 2017 by erin

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Date: A few times throughout 2017

Recipe: http://thecrockstar.blogspot.com/2009/01/absolute-best-crockpot-beef-stroganoff.html

Time to table: All day in the crockpot, very minimal morning prep time. 20 minutes for veg + noodles.

Servings: Fed all 5 with one lunch.

Modifications: None

Erin: Love

Ben: Like+

Kids: Everyone enjoyed well enough.

Notes: Anne sent this for the first time with a STP meal swap and I was skeptical because I never liked beef stroganoff as a kid (MUSHROOMS UGH – it is telling that I don’t even have a mushrooms tag, and I’m not making one just for this meal) but we all LOVED this. It’s obviously not healthy in any stretch of the imagination, or preservative free but hey, it was delicious so whatever.

Posted in beef, cream cheese, onion | Comments Off on Beef Stroganoff

Chicken & Dumplings

Posted on October 22, 2017 by erin

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Date: October 22nd, 2017

Recipe: https://www.foodtasticmom.com/simply-delicious-chicken-and-dumplings/

Time to table: About an hour with chopping time

Servings: A full dinner with some leftovers for lunches

Modifications: None

Erin: Love

Ben: Like+

Kids: Charlie seemed to love it – Annie and Luke ate it pretty well too.

Notes: I made chicken and dumplings last January, and noted that I’d up the spices, and I think this recipe does a much better job of that. Also, love them or hate them, but this recipe included cream of onion soup and that also probably helped to make it a bit more flavorful and creamier. Coworker Erica brought this to a potluck at work and it immediately won me over – so delicious.

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Chicken Enchiladas

Posted on October 17, 2017 by ben

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Date: October 17th, 2017

Sauce Recipe: https://cookieandkate.com/2016/enchilada-sauce-recipe/

Enchilada Recipe:

  • Cook and shred 1 lb of chicken breasts/thighs. I did breasts in the InstantPot with 2 cups of broth and some seasonings.
  • Saute an onion and several cloves of garlic in butter until the onions are softened
  • Add 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tbsp cumin, and 1/2 tbsp of salt and saute for another minute.
  • Add the shredded chicken and cook until warmed through. Take off heat
  • Shred a bunch of cheese
  • Start your tortilla assembly line:
    • A scoop of the chicken mixture
    • A spoonful of the enchilada sauce
    • A pinch of cheese
  • Wrap the tortilla up and place it in the pan
  • Top the tortillas with the enchilada sauce and then more cheese
  • Add some cilantro on top if you like cilantro
  • Bake at 350 for ~30 minutes, uncovered

Time to table: 90 minutes

Servings: A 13×9 pan of enchiladas, plus two extra

Modifications: None

Erin: Love

Ben: Love

Kids: Love

Notes: These enchiladas are the best we’ve ever made, thanks to the sauce recipe that our friends Maggie and Pat used last time they made enchiladas. I doubled the sauce recipe to make 4 cups and I’m glad I did, as two cups would not have been enough.

I worked from home today, so made the sauce and the chicken earlier in the day, which made dinner time a lot easier. Still creates a lot of dishes to clean up though.

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Posted in cheese, chicken, cilantro, garlic, instantpot, Mexican, one dish meal, onion, triple love | Comments Off on Chicken Enchiladas

Corn Chowder

Posted on October 15, 2017 by erin

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Date: July 28th, 2017

Recipe: https://pinchofyum.com/summery-chipotle-corn-chowder

Time to table: 45 minutes

Servings: A full dinner with some leftovers for lunches

Modifications: I’m not really sure buT I know we used cream, not almond milk.

Erin: Like

Ben: Like

Kids: Who even can remember

Notes: Yes we’re clearly on an extreme Pinch of Yum kick here. I had gum recession surgery over the summer so was limited in what I could eat, this was something that I could eat that wasn’t jello. We have a few corn chowder recipes on here, this one was quite good.

Posted in corn, garlic, greens, one dish meal, onion, potato, soup, zucchini | Comments Off on Corn Chowder

Pasta with fresh tomato sauce

Posted on October 15, 2017 by erin

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Date: September 19th, 2017

Recipe: https://pinchofyum.com/tomato-sauce

Time to table: 30 minutes

Servings: Depends how much tomatoes you use, we made enough for a dinner’s worth

Modifications: None but I FORGOT THE BUTTER which is a travesty

Erin: Like

Ben: Like

Notes: This was our first year planting tomatoes (because I’m the only one that really likes tomatoes in this family) and we had SO! MANY! just from 2 plants. We had one cherry tomato plant that went absolutely insane, so needed to find some new ways of using them. This was a really good sauce for pasta, I think it’d be even better with some crusty bread. Also extremely easy and a great way to use up excessive cherry tomatoes.

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Korean BBQ Yum Yum Bowls

Posted on October 15, 2017 by erin

(I’m going to go back and post a lot of meals I had taken pictures of over the past few months – most Ben made so he can come and modify these posts if he made any changes that I didn’t remember)

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Date: September 10th, 2017

Recipe: https://pinchofyum.com/yum-yum-rice-bowls

Time to table: 1 hour

Servings: 5 adults

Modifications: None, we used kale for the greens. Our rice is darker because we used beef broth in the rice.

Erin: Love

Ben: Love

No kids consumed this meal

Notes: This was my first time trying kimchi and it was amazing. I’m trying to build my tolerance for spicy food. Ben also found some way to poach several eggs at once, which was perfect when we had Kateri and Chris over to eat this one night.

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The first night we had them – but when I did leftovers my poached egg was perfect so that’s why it got top billing above

Posted in beef, date night, eggs, garlic, ginger, greens, kale, rice | Comments Off on Korean BBQ Yum Yum Bowls

Instant Pot/Slow Cooker Black Beans

Posted on October 15, 2017 by erin

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Date: October 15th, 2017

Recipe: http://www.thenaturalnurturer.com/blog/the-best-slow-cooker-black-beans

Time to table: Instant Pot was about an hour total, Crockpot would be 8 hours

Servings: A lot

Modifications: We made this twice – one to bring to school for the teacher’s conference dinner (we used the crockpot for that one), and then tonight in the Instant Pot. I did soak the beans (although I know in the IP you don’t necessarily have to) and I did 35 minutes on high pressure, quick release and the beans were definitely done. The second time I used olive oil instead of coconut oil. I don’t think it really matters what type of oil/fat you use.

Erin: Love

Ben: Love

Kids: Like to Love in taco form

Notes: I was surprised by how much I liked these – very flavorful and the addition of the onions/peppers and salsa really added a lot to the final dish. We had these as black bean tacos tonight, and then for the rest of the week I plan to bring them to work with taco salad fixings for lunches.

(PS yeah we haven’t been keeping up this blog. Blame Ben.)

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There was a lot of extra liquid in the Instant Pot, this is after using a slotted spoon

Posted in black beans, garlic, instantpot, onion, red pepper, vegetarian | Comments Off on Instant Pot/Slow Cooker Black Beans

Creamy Thai Sweet Potato Curry

Posted on May 20, 2017 by ben

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Date: May 1st, 2017

Recipe: http://pinchofyum.com/creamy-thai-sweet-potato-curry

Time to table: 30 minutes

Servings: A full dinner with some leftovers for lunches

Modifications: None

Erin: Like

Ben: Like

Kids: Annie and Luke not so much (scary new food!), Charlie enjoyed it.

Notes: I made the curry paste as described in the recipe, which was kind of fun and it was nice to be able to freeze it in 2 tablespoon servings so we have more on hand that won’t go bad. I think the frozen curry paste was the biggest win from this recipe.

Posted in cilantro, coconut milk, garlic, ginger, greens, rice, shallot | Comments Off on Creamy Thai Sweet Potato Curry

slow cooker beef ragu with pappardelle

Posted on April 30, 2017 by ben

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Date: April 30th, 2017

Recipe: http://pinchofyum.com/slow-cooker-beef-ragu-with-pappardelle

Time to table: 15 minutes prep, 70 minutes cooking

Servings: This will feed our family of 5 for 2 dinners

Modifications: I added an onion and some chopped spinach because we had some and its an easy way to get some greens into a dish. I also used the InstantPot instead of a slow cooker. I sautéed the garlic and onions and then added the rest of the ingredients and did it on manual high pressure for 70 minutes.

Erin: Like

Ben: Like

Kids: All seemed to like it, Annie and Luke after they finally gave it a chance. Scary food! Looks different!

Notes: This meal almost seemed kind of fancy, which is funny because if you take out the onion and spinach, its barely any work at all. I think I’d try it next time with short ribs.

Posted in beef, carrot, cheese, greens, instantpot, one dish meal, onion, parmesan, parsley, pasta, ricotta cheese, spinach, tomatoes | Comments Off on slow cooker beef ragu with pappardelle