Beef Bone Broth

Want to do something really easy? How about really healthy?  Or just want to drive your dog crazy all day???  Try this recipe for making healthy, easy, yummy, dog driving crazy beef bone broth.  It makes a wonderful base for soups, stews, casseroles and can even be used a cup at a time.  

5-6 lbs of beef soup bones

10 peppercorns

2 chopped carrots

2 chopped celery stalks

1 whole garlic, peeled

2 chopped onions

Water

1 Tbsp sea salt

First, roast the bones at 400 degrees for 1 hour.  Next, add the veggies and continue roasting another hour.  Transfer everything in roaster to a large soup pot.  Use batches of warm water to roaster to deglaze pan and add to soup pot.  You'll be surprised at how much caamelization occurs!  Sprinkle sea salt over top.  Fill your soup pot 3/4 full with water and simmer on stove top for 4 hours.  Turn off heat and let cool.  Strain the liquid from the solids.  (I use the meat chunks in my homemade dog food, but be sure to separate out the garlic and onions.) That's it, you're done!  Super healthy, simple and will keep your dog under your feet all day hoping for a taste, which he got..... :)-

Oh, and I store mine in large mason jars and freezer safe ziplock bags.  Just pull one out and you're ready to make a rich soup in just a few minutes!

He has camped out here all day!

Basic Vanilla Microwave Mug Cake

So here is the second post for the basic mug cake recipe.  This one is non-chocolate.  You can change up this recipe into so many different types of cake, it's crazy.   I will give you a few of my favorite add in's at the end.  Enjoy creating your perfect cake!

(Carrot Mug Cake with. Team cheese icing, pictured)

Basic Vanilla mug cake recipe:

1 Tbsp melted coconut oil

1/2 Tbsp sweetener of choice (I use Truvia)

1.5 Tbsp almond or oat flour

1.5 Tbsp of flax meal or coconut flour

1/2 tsp aluminum free baking soda

1 egg

Few drops of vanilla extract

Dash organic cinnamon and sea salt

1-2 tsp water or "milk" of your choice

Mix all ingredients together well in microwave safe mug or small dish.  Microwave on high for 1-1.5 minutes or until center is firm.  Top with your favorite toppings, fruit, yogurt or powdered stevia or enjoy plain!

Add these ingredients to make other versions: 

Cherry vanilla- chopped cherries and almond extract

Pecan coffee cake- chopped pecans, almond extract, 1/2 tsp blackstrap molasses or maple syrup

Orange dreamcicle- orange extract, orange zest (omit cinnamon)

Lemon poppyseed- 1/4 tsp poppy seeds, lemon extract, lemon zest

Carrot Mug Cake-(use oat flour) add coconut, raisins, shredded carrots, and carrot juice for the liquid.

Banana bread in a mug- 1/2 mashed banana, almond or caramel extract, chopped pecans

Strawberry coffee cake- chopped strawberries, walnuts, almond extract, melt 1 tsp butter on top after cooked.

Cherry cheesecake Cake- mix in 1 Tbsp softened cream cheese and 1 Tbsp ricotta cheese into batter and top with

Fresh cherries.

Caramel cake- add caramel extract, 1 tsp butter, 1 tsp blackstrap molasses

Blueberry muffin- blueberries, 1 tsp butter, almond extract 

......the possibilities are truly endless!!!!! 

Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

I just received the new 21 Day Sugar Detox book in the mail.  It is going to be released to the public in a couple of weeks, but I was asked to preview it, test the recipes and blog about it to my hearts content.  I will tell you that it looks amazing and after just one afternoon speed reading and flipping through the new meal ideas I was totally inspired.  I think this book is going to be a big hit.  I have made my grocery list for tomorrow, but in the meantime I came up with this idea for dinner.  It was super easy and yummy!

 Ingredients:

2 Acorn squash or one medium Spaghetti squash 

1 lb. Italian sausage

5 garlic cloves, chopped

2 green apples, chopped

Shredded cheese to top with

Sauté the sausage, turn off the heat and drain most of the fat. (*At this point I split the meat in half to make a breakfast omelette, too).  Add the apples and garlic to the pan with half of the sausage.  Cook for 2-3 minutes on low.  Remove from heat and store in fridge until dinner or you are ready to eat.

Slice Acorn squash in half.  If you have trouble cutting it, try microwaving it for a couple of minutes first. ( Be careful it gets really hot. )  Cook the squash face down until skin is tender.  I use a vegetable steamer, but you can also cook it face down in a pan of water in the oven.  Remove squash and scoop out the seeds, discard.  Fill with sausage mixture, top with cheese and brown in the oven at 400 degrees, takes about 10-12 minutes.  Serve immediately and enjoy.  The flavors together were amazing!

*now for the bonus breakfast omelette 

Remember when I took half the cooked sausage out and set it aside.  Put it back in your now empty skillet.  Crack and beat 6 eggs, slice your favorite veggies and cook it all together on low heat until done.  There you go 2 healthy meals in the same prep time as 1.

Quick oven baked blueberry pancakes

I had a humongous surgery this summer.  It's been two and a half months and I am slowly getting back to my normal routines.  Yesterday I took the kids to pick blueberries at a local farm.  One of my children has not stopped asking me to make him blueberry pancakes ever since.  He even leaned over during church today and asked if I would make them for lunch as soon as we got home. I was dreading the 45 minutes it usually takes to mix the batter and stand at the stove flipping pancake after pancake.  I decided to try something new, bake them in the oven.  It worked brilliantly!  

I know the box mix isn't usually my style, but for now it was a nice convenience.  I had them in the oven with less than a minute of prep and was able to sit and relax while my oven did all the work.  I'm sure it would work great with any pancake batter recipe.  I made the whole box and split it in between two large pizza pans.  We topped it with our freshly picked berries.  You could top it with nuts, bananas, strawberries, the possibilities are endless!  I baked it at 375 for 10-12 minutes.  I feel like I didn't even cook and my guy is very happy.  I guess sometimes you just need to think outside the box ;)

Sausage Breakfast Casserole

My son asked me today (he's 9) if I would teach him to make this recipe, because it is the best in the whole world! I love him!!!!! I have been making this recipe since before he was ever born (10 years before to be exact ) but who's counting? It is excellent on Christmas morning :)

10 slices bread (cubed)
10 eggs
1 cup milk of your choice
1 lb breakfast sausage
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Brown the sausage in skillet, I don't drain the grease off, but you can if you want to. Cube the bread and place loosely in a greased casserole dish. Crack the eggs, scramble with the milk, vanilla and spices. Spoon sausage onto the bread, pour over the egg mixture, sprinkle the sugar and cheese. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes or until top is toasted. It is also great topped with maple syrup or ice cream!

Split Pea Soup

We had a ham recently and I kept the bone in the freezer for split pea soup. Today was rainy and cold so it seemed like the perfect day to make it. I doubled my recipe and froze half for another rainy day. Here's how I made it:

Boil hambone in a medium sized soup pot covered with water (about 8 cups) for 2-3 hours. Sauté in a larger soup pot 1 large chopped onion and 2 cups chopped carrots in olive oil until tender.

Remove soup bone from the smaller pot and put a strainer over the large pot with the onion and carrots. Pour the liquid through the strainer and into the pot. I went through the bone and pieces in strainer adding the good meat to the pot. I also added 4 pints of homemade beef stock to the soup since I doubled my recipe and needed more liquid for the dried peas.

Bring to a boil and add 3 packages of dried split peas (or 1-2 packages if you aren't doubling). Cook on low for 2 hours or until the peas are mushy and falling apart. Remove from heat and add 1 bag frozen peas (or 2 if doubling).

Blend in small batches in food processor or blender. (Would love it if all my readers would get together and buy me a Vita-mix someday ;). Here is where I poured half of mine into freezer containers and put them straight into the freezer. Reheat your soup in pot, serve warm with a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream.

It was great! This is the first time I ever used the hambone for this soup. I must say I like it just as well without the bone broth. It seemed a bit salty to me, but my husband is going to love it!

Sopapillas

This recipe was kind of an accident, one the kids hope we have again! I doubled the homemade tortilla recipe I was taking for a spin and since my husband and I are gluten free at the moment, I decided to make the second half as a dessert for the kids. They of course were thrilled. I know you can add honey, fruit, chocolate syrup or powdered sugar, but I chose to make ours fried in butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and organic sugar. The result was simple and satisfying. I did sauté a pear in butter and cinnamon for the youngest 3 kiddos and they loved it rolled up in theirs'.

Tortilla dough:

2 cups flour
3/4 cup warm water
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Butter
Sugar
Cinnamon
Honey

Mix the flour, water, oil and salt in a bowl. Dump out onto a floured surface and knead dough a few times. Divide into 8 equal pieces and let rest 10 minutes. Roll as thin as possible and fry one at a time in oil of your choice or butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar or drizzle with honey on each side. Serve warm.


*Traditionally a sopapilla is fried in an inch of oil and puffs up really big, this is a healthier version using a small dab of oil or butter.

Stuffed Green Peppers

My husband helped me make 2 full weeks if meal ideas and this was one of his requests. I haven't made them but a few times in our 19 years together, and never without rice. They turned out really good! We didn't miss the rice and they stayed firm, not mushy.

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef
4 large green peppers
1 can diced tomatoes with chilies
1 small onion
5-6 baby sweet peppers
1/2 cup shredded cheese

(Taco seasoning for ground beef)
1/4 tsp each: garlic salt, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, paprika
1/4 cup water

Brown ground beef, drain and add taco seasoning and water. Add onions, can of tomatoes (drained) and sweet peppers. Simmer for 10 minutes. Slice off tops of green peppers, set aside. Scoop out seeds and fill with ground beef mixture. Place in baking dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and top with cheese. Bake an additional 5-20 minutes. Serve with tops on.

Chocolate peppermint thin mints

Ummmm....yum! Once I realized you could make homemade chocolates in about 5 minutes I've been dreaming up combinations. I've tried almond butter and chocolate, chocolate and pecan, peanut butter and jelly chocolates for the kids and today chocolate peppermints. They are all yummy, very low carb and yes, healthy!!!!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup pure cocoa powder
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp half n half
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
Dash salt

Melt the butter and oil. Whisk in cocoa powder, cream, honey, vanilla, peppermint, and salt. Pour into silicone molds or cups. Let set in the fridge. Remove from molds and store in air tight container in the fridge. (Hide from the kids in the back behind some broccoli, Enjoy :)

Bacon wrapped green beans....yes, please!!!

While on the 21 day sugar and wheat detox we were allowed bacon, so to keep my husband interested I tried to use bacon in everything! One night I wrapped green bean bundles in bacon and baked them in the oven. Duh, it was wonderful, why didn't I ever think of it before? My husband even took some leftovers in his lunch the next day. When was the last time he took green beans in his lunch.....uh never!!!!!

Ingredients:

Bacon
Green beans

Take a handful if green beans and wrap with a slice of bacon. It works best if you wrap in a spiral from top to bottom of the bunch. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, turning once. Serve warm.

I served them with grilled pork tenderloin, but think they would be an excellent side dish to fish, chicken, or beef.

Breakfast: egg cups

We are trying to end our dependency on cereal for breakfast. The problem with eliminating cereal (even the low sugar variety) is that it is quick, cheap, and the kids can make it themselves. We eat a lot of yogurt with fruit around here, even make it homemade, but I found us lacking in variety. We started making these egg cups and I think they are a winner, after 3 weeks we are still going strong. I make 2 pans at a time, store them in twos into sandwich bags and taught the kids to warm them up quicker than they can add honey to plain Cheerios. My husband even gets them in his lunchbox giving him a serving of protein as he begins his day at the office. The combinations are endless, just think of your favorite omelette. We prefer egg and cheese, sausage n egg, broccoli- egg-cheese and ham-Swiss-egg. I recommend using silicone cupcake liners or a really good nonstick pan so you don't have a big scrubby clean up afterwards.

Ingredients (for 12 egg cups):
8-10 eggs
1/4 cup half n half or milk of your choice
Bacon, sausage, cut veggies
Cheese to top

If using bacon, place one half slice into the bottom and sides of each tin. Place in a 375 degree oven while you prepare the eggs.

Crack and scramble eggs in mixing bowl. Add milk, stir. Using a soup ladle, fill muffin tins 3/4 full.

(If you are making them with bacon, remove the partially cooked bacon slices from the oven and pour the egg mixture right on top of the bacon.)

Sprinkle in any cut veggies you like and bake for 15-20 minutes. The tops should be shiny, but firm.

Remove from oven and top with cheese. Serve warm, store leftovers in sandwich bags in the fridge.