Roasted Beef and Veggies

I had some steak that had been cut into cubes and didn't know what to do with it. So I made something up. And it was amazing.

Steak cut into bite-sized cubes
2 large carrots, coined
2 potatoes, cut into slices
4 sections of garlic, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
Olive oil
Parsley
Oregano
Put meat, potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic in a pan. Pour in some olive oil. Mix it all up so the oil coats all the meat and veggies. Sprinkle in parsley and oregano (a large pinch of each). Mix again. Cover with tin foil and cook at 350 for 45 minutes, then remove tin foil and cook for another 15 minutes.

Spaghetti Sauce

I've managed to spoil Alex, and he no longer likes anybody's spaghetti sauce but mine. He'll eat others, of course, and they're good, but he loves how I do it (and frankly so do I).

1 lb ground pork
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 green pepper, chopped
3 or 4 portions of a garlic clove, chopped
1 can sliced mushrooms (or several fresh mushrooms, chopped)
1 can of Hunts Thick & Rich Mushroom and Basil spaghetti sauce
Red pepper flakes
Oregano
Parsley

Cook ground pork in skillet until no longer pink. Add onions, green peppers, garlic and mushrooms, cook for another few minutes. Add can of spaghetti sauce, red pepper flakes, oregano and parsley and mix thoroughly. Get it nice and hot and then let it simmer while you cook the pasta. It will be a nice, thick, hearty sauce.

I use our wok as the skillet so this is a one pan thing. As for the spices, I don't measure them, I just do a pinch of each for flavor. We use ground pork instead of ground beef because we find it makes the spaghetti sauce taste lighter and overall better than ground beef.

Mushroom, Cheese and Haddock Bake

This was the first new fish recipe we tried in recent months (found on www.allrecipes.com). You wouldn't think that mushrooms would go with fish very well (or at least I wouldn't think they would) but they really did, and this is a great recipe if you are looking for something new to do with your haddock!

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
• 1 (6 ounce) package button mushrooms, chopped
• 2 pounds haddock fillets
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon dried red chile peppers
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/8 teaspoon dried parsley (oregano also works)
• 3/4 cup shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese (I used old cheddar)
• 1 lemon - cut into wedges, for garnish (optional)
• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. 
• Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, then add green onions and mushrooms; cook and stir until tender, about 5 minutes. Season haddock with salt, pepper, garlic powder and dried chile pepper and place in the baking dish. Top with green onion and mushroom mixture, then dot with butter. Sprinkle parsley on top.
• Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove foil and top haddock with cheese and return baking dish to the oven. Continue baking until the fish flakes easily with a fork and the cheese is melted, 15 to 20 minutes.

Cheesy Bacon Fish

My mother found this recipe online and passed it on to me. Alex wants me to cook all fish this way now, ha ha. And I'm happy to oblige (good thing we don't eat fish that often?)!

Fish filets
6 slices of bacon (or more if you have more fish)
Sliced onion
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp margarine
2 tbsp flour
Shredded cheese

In a baking dish, lay 3 slices of bacon. Cover this with sliced onion. Lay the fish filets on the bacon/onions. In a bowl, mix margarine and flour, then spoon the mixture onto the fish and spread it all over. Sprinkle it all with the bread crumbs. Cover with another 3 strips of bacon. Sprinkle the whole thing with shredded cheese. Bake uncovered at 450F for 30 minutes.

When Mom made this recipe, she used trout filets and didn't put the cheese on it. When I tried the same recipe, I used haddock filets and put the cheese on it, and it was phenomenal. I also used more bacon because I had more fish than my mother did when she made the recipe.

Oven Fried Parmesan Chicken

I actually got this recipe off my favorite recipe website, www.allrecipes.com not long ago. I was looking for a new recipe to use when we had company, and this one totally hit the nail on the head. It was delicious and exactly what I was looking for.


1 clove crushed garlic

• 1/4 pound butter, melted
• 1 cup dried bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 whole cut up chicken
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a shallow glass dish or bowl, combine the crushed garlic with the melted butter or margarine. In another small bowl mix together the bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Dip chicken pieces into garlic butter, then into crumb mixture to coat.
• Place coated chicken pieces into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Drizzle with remaining garlic butter and bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

Baby-Led Weaning

Taking a break in the recipes briefly (I'm still trying to get caught up in posting them here) to talk about feeding my son.

Anybody who knows me, knows I'm exclusively breastfeeding my son. Meaning whatever I eat, he gets through my breast milk later on (anybody know how long it takes for the taste of what I eat to go into my milk?). I'm planning on breastfeeding exclusively (as in it's the only thing he's going to eat) until at least 6 months of age.

I am *not* planning on doing any type of cereals or purees or any of that, because I like the idea of baby-led weaning.

What is baby-led weaning? Well, in short it's where you give baby pieces of whatever you're eating and let them play around with it and try it. Is it messy? Sure. But so is feeding purees and cereals. Heck, so is breastfeeding, from time to time!

http://www.babyledweaning.com has some information if you'd like to know more.

I have a feeling that we're going to start pretty close to the six-month mark though. I'd like to wait longer, but I don't think he'll let me. The other night, I had him sitting on my lap while I was eating orange jello. He watched that spoon of jello go from the bowl to my mouth every single time. He was absolutely interested! For fun, I put the spoon towards his mouth to see what he'd do and he opened his mouth as if he expected me to put the spoon in and give him the jello!

I admit I was pretty tempted to give him a tiny bit, just to see what he thought of it, but I'm adamant that he not get any "real" food until he's officially six months old (and that won't be until September 18). I mean I freaked out on Alex when he put a bit of chocolate ice cream on Charlie's lip a few weeks ago. I don't want to be a hypocrite, ha ha!

Because this blog is about food, I'll probably include posts of our adventures in baby-led weaning when it happens as well.

Pulled Pork

This is one of Alex's and my favorites. I found the idea for it online and we love it. It's really, really easy too, since you use a slow cooker and it's really no work at all. Great if you're like me and dealing with a child (or children) who hates to have you out of his sight...

Pork tenderloin (or boneless pork chops)
Root beer (go with the cheap stuff)
Barbeque sauce (we use Diana sauce)

Put pork into slow cooker. Pour in root beer (cover the pork or not, it's your choice). Cook on high for 3 hours. Drain root beer. Shred pork with a fork and then mix in some barbeque sauce (as much as you want). Cook on low for 2 hours (or more...the longer it's in the barbeque sauce, the better it is). Serve on toasted hamburger buns (or kaiser rolls, whatever you want).