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Ingredients Archives: Onion

Homemade Sugar-Free Marinara Sauce

20150814_192438Prepare yourselves for a rant. As I’ve mentioned one, two or a million times, I get so angry when companies add sugar to things that don’t need sugar. Fruit is my biggest pet peeve (and why do we need to add sugar to nature’s sugar?), but sauces drive me crazy. A few weeks ago, I was making spaghetti for my family. I tried to buy some marinara sauce only to find they all had added sugar. Most have 5-7 grams of sugar per serving. As I was slamming jars back on teh shelves of the grocery store, I said to myself, (or possibly aloud. Going shopping with kids gives you a good excuse to talk to yourself while making it look like you’re talking to your kids) “I’ll make my own marinara sauce!” And I did. But my marinara sauce has less than two grams of sugar per serving. That’s just my way of sticking it to the man; or at least, sticking it to Ragu.

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Healthy One-Pot Italian Sausage Soup

2016-01-14 17.59.03It’s spring and I live in the Rockies. That means one day it will be 70 degrees and the next day, 30. And when it’s cold, I want soup. And this soup totally delivers on flavor. It has two, yes TWO different sausages. This is an important component in our house as my 5-year-old daughter’s favorite food is either sausage or bacon, depending on the day of the week. This also comes together in one pot which makes clean-up much easier.

Start by cooking the pepper and onion in avocado oil in a large pot. Then add in some ground Italian chicken sausage and cook it through. Add in some diced tomatoes and chicken broth and now sliced smoked turkey sausage.

Now the part that really makes it fabulous: pesto. Stir in 1/2 C of basil pesto. I use a pre-made pesto but feel free to make your own.

Let this all simmer together and then throw in some zucchini at the end and let if cook a bit longer. This keeps the zucchini from going mushy.

 

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One-Pan Apple Chicken Breasts

20150115_181247Chicken is cheap and has great protein, so we buy a lot of it. But chicken can easily become very boring. This is a fun change from a basic grilled chicken. I read a recipe similar to this in a “healthy” cookbook. I was shocked it was considered healthy with all the sugars and hydrogenated oils. I changed up some of the ingredients and left out the processed sugars and was very pleased with the results. My daughter loved it and since kids are always a good indication of whether a recipe is actually good, I’d say this one is a keeper.

Saute a sliced apple in the coconut oil until it’s tender. I used a Granny Smith apple because they were on sale but any apple will work fine. Set the apple slices aside in a bowl.

Season the chicken with the cinnamon, salt and pepper and add that to the pan with the rest of the coconut oil. Just brown both sides here. You’ll completely cook the chicken a little later. Browning it a bit before cooking it keeps it juicy and locks in the great flavors.

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Now set the chicken aside. Don’t worry about keeping it warm as it’s going to go back in the pan later. Add the onion, cover the pan and cook the onion until it’s soft. If you don’t cover the pan, the onion with get brown and  crunchy. You don’t want that. You want the onion as soft as the apple.

Now add in the liquids and let that simmer a bit before adding the chicken back in. Once the chicken is completely cooked, add the apples and make sure everything is warm.

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The best part about this dish (besides the flavor) is the fact that it comes together in one dish. I hate washing dishes so I cut out as many as possible when cooking. We ate this over rice, but you can use quinoa or mashed sweet potatoes.

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Quick Asian Chicken Stir Fry – Without the Sugar

I love stir frys. It’s just a fancy way of throwing everything you want in a pan and cooking it together in delicious seasoning. It comes together in one pot, is full of veggies and protein, and can be customized to for every person. Last week, I had some leftover, cubed chicken breast I needed to cook before they went bad. I decided to make a stir fry for lunch.

This was so good! It had that deliciously addictive flavor you get at a Chinese restaurant, but I didn’t have to add a ton of sugar. I love those small victories. I’ve included what I added (completely based on what I had in my fridge), but add what you want/have.

2016-02-13 12.51.46Start by cooking the chicken breasts and then adding the rest of the veggies. Add the sauce at the end and then serve the whole thing over a large bed of spinach. I love putting hot stir fry over a bed of spinach because the spinach welts down a bit but still has a great crunchy texture. This adds some great variety with the cooked veggies.

 

 

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The Easiest Way to Cook Delicious Chicken

Everyone has that one thing they can’t cook. That thing that no matter how simple it is, no matter how closely you follow directions, you always fail. Right? Or is it just me? So I admit, there are actually two seemilgly simple things I just can’t make. One is rice. I truly feel like the laws of physics defy themselves when I try to make rice. Luckily, I solved that problem with a rice cooker. Done.

Cooking fail number two: a whole chicken. I can make turkey with no problem, but no matter how long I keep a whole chicken in the oven, it comes out raw in the middle. I don’t get it. Luckily, I found a solution to this problem too: the slow cooker. Not only does cooking it in the slow cooker ensure I can actually cook said chicken, but it always comes out moist and is so easy to put together. And I can come home to the smell of dinner and a warm, hearty meal. I will never try to cook a chicken in the oven again.

 

2016-01-10 10.58.03They are all generally around the same size, but I always try to buy the biggest chicken I can. This way I know I’ll have healthy leftovers during the week for salads. I would tell you how best to slice this chicken, but slicing is not an option. It basically just falls off the bone when you try to pull it out.

 

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Egg and Veggie Breakfast Hash

It’s kind of ridiculous how much I love breakfast. It’s really my favorite part of the day. So I’m not going to have a tiny breakfast that leaves me hungry an hour later. I’m going to eat a hearty meal that takes at least 15 minutes to eat.

This is my go-to breakfast. I eat it at least three times a week. I feel guilty calling this a recipe. It’s more of a delicious hodge-podge of things thrown together. I’ve listed approximate measurements for the ingredients, but I don’t measure. I just add the amount I feel like at the moment. I also change up the ingredients based on what I have on hand. I generally add zucchini, but I was out this day. So the point is, add what you have and what you like. This recipe looks very different for me than it does for my husband.

I sautee 2-3 cups veggies in avocado oil. This may sound like a lot, but because veggies have so much water, this shrinks down as it cooks, especially if you add leafy greens.

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I also try to pick an array of colors. Vegetables get their colors from the vitamins and minerals they contain so if you eat more colors, you get a bigger variety of health benefits.

I always add one half an onion and one clove of garlic, but then it’s open to whatever sounds good. I often add zucchini, peppers, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes spinach and kale.

I heat a pan with 2T avocado oil and add all the veggies except the garlic, cherry tomatoes and kale, seasoned with a good amount of salt and pepper. I let this cook until I see charring on the onion and peppers. This takes about five minutes. Then I add the garlic and tomatoes and let this cook for another minute. Then I add the leafy greens and let them wilt down for another minute or two.

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Scoop this all into a bowl and then add more avocado oil to the pan and fry two eggs.

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Once the eggs are done, put them on top of the veggie mixture. The veggies taste fabulous on their own but when you break the egg yolks over them, it’s heavenly.

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If you make this, breakfast is likely to become your favorite part of the day too.

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Healthy Slow Cooker Chuck Roast

Few things are as comforting on a busy day as coming home to the smell of a roast in the crock pot. Throw some whole wheat bread in the bread maker as well and the comforting smells are right up there with world peace. Plus, using a slow cooker always makes me feel like someone else made me dinner. Life doesn’t get much better.

In my opinion, the best roast for a slow cooker is a chuck roast. They’re not as thick as other roasts so they cook more evenly.

The secret to cooking tender beef is to brown the meat before putting it in a slow cooker and to cook it low and slow.

2015-10-08 09.37.41Before you brown your meat, rub it down with a spice mixture.

Then place the browned meat on a bed of root vegetables. I use carrots and sweet potatoes. If you don’t like sweet potatoes, russet potatoes are fine. I just like the flavor and health benefits that come from sweet potatoes.

Then top the meat with sliced onions and a can of diced tomatoes and cook the whole thing in a flavorful broth for eight hours.

Cooking it this way makes the meat just fall apart. This is perfect on a cold night. Or a warm night. Or a Tuesday. Whatever. There’s no reason not to make this for dinner.2015-10-08 18.01.39

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Creamy Cauliflower Soup

I love to trick my family by adding healthy things to their food. I add beans to their brownies, avocado to their frosting and now cauliflower to their cheese soup. I gave them the soup, listened to them “ooh” and “aah” and never said a word about what was in it. Mwa ha ha! I love the small victories.

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Start by steaming the cauliflower. I got this lovely steaming basket at Ikea years ago. It’s one of my favorite kitchen tools because it fits in any pan and is dishwasher safe.

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While the cauliflower steams, cook the onion and garlic in the butter and avocado oil. Do this right in your soup pot. Add the salt, pepper, almond milk and chicken broth and heat this all together.

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Add the steamed cauliflower and puree with an immersion blender. I love my immersion blender for the same reason I love my veggie steamer. It’s extremely versatile and dishwasher safe.

Add the cheese and continue to cook the soup until the cheese melts.

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Top each serving with green onion, turkey bacon and more cheese.

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No-Bean Chili

I don’t like beans. It’s not the taste or the texture; it’s the after effect. The night I eat beans, I’m groaning on the couch, my stomach churning. The problem is, I love chili. I love it on chips, I love it on fries, and I love it in a bowl with avocado and sour cream. But every no-bean chili I’ve tried is usually just glorified Sloppy Joe meat. So I decided we needed to come up with a healthy no-bean chili that still has that great chunky chili texture. Here is what we came up with.

Start by cooking the meat and onion, just as you do in every chili.

The great texture comes from a bunch of vegetables. Add a chopped carrot, red, green and yellow peppers and a can of diced tomatoes.

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Then add the great flavor with your seasonings. Stir in your seasonings and flavored liquids and let this simmer in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours.

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Eat this in a bowl with your favorite toppings or spoon it over hot dogs, sweet potato fries or veggie chips. Better yet, freeze half and reheat it to use in a fun, new way.

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Healthy Mulligatawny

Whenever my daughter and I are having one of those rough days where we butt heads and can’t agree on anything, we need something to help us unwind and have fun together. For us, that’s an episode of Pioneer Woman on the Food Network. It doesn’t always stop the fighting, but for half an hour, we agree on something. Sometimes, that’s priceless.

A few weeks ago, we watched her make Mulligatawny soup. It looked amazing, but had a few ingredients I’m not okay with including in a week night dinner. I came up with a healthy variation which our whole family loves.

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The entire dish comes together in one pan which is my kind of meal. It cooks really fast but is packed full of flavor.

Start by cooking the chicken. Then add the onion and garlic and cook it all together.

Add the curry, broth and coconut milk and cook just to heat it up. Then add the chopped apple and cook for another five minutes. This will cook the apple but keep it from getting mushy.

Top each serving with some chopped peanuts. This adds more great flavor and crunch.

I love this dish because it’s a great,warm soup for winter but the freshness from the apple makes it great for any time of year.

 

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