Tag: nesco roaster

Cooking/Recipes, Paleo

It’s 6:10 AM, and I’ve destroyed the kitchen already

heather

Teeeemsy Tee and I had a bit of excitement yesterday.  We has a super gorgeous snowstorm hit yesterday, complete with huge flakes of sopping wet snow.  Well, all the trees here in Iowa still have their leaves, and the trees are already stressed from a very dry summer. The branches of our neighbor’s soft maple could no longer sustain the weight of the snow, and down they came on top of our breakfast nook, ripping out our power on their way down.  Fortunately, the branches didn’t break any windows, and we don’t think they damaged the roof (still need to check that out today).  And our neighbor, who felt SUPER bad about the whole thing, stayed outside all night in the cold, wet snow and chopped down the branches that had fallen against our house.  We think we’ll just need to pay to get a gutter fixed.  It could have been much, much worse.

However, this all went down yesterday around lunch time, and I was planning on putting this in the Nesco roaster for supper:  Primal Beef Enchiladas.  I had all the ingredients chopped, the meat was already seasoned, my tastebuds were already watering.  But – no dice!  No power, no Nesco.  This particular roast was a 4 pounder I picked up at the Farmers Market for $25.  All afternoon at work I was worried about the state of the food in our fridge and freezer – we are primarily invested in the stock market and meat.  If it looked as if the power was going to be off for an extended period, I was prepared to co-opt the fridge at work to save my food.

Fortunately, when I got home at 5 the utility company was already working on our line. We went out for supper, and by the time we got home at 7, the power was back on.  The fridge seemed…coldish, so we deemed its contents safe.  The only disturbing thing we noticed was that the whole fridge smelled like the baggie of garlic & onions that I had chopped up the night before. Nothing some baking soda can’t rectify.

Well, work is insane this week, so I figured I better seize opportunity where I can, so I cooked up the enchilada sauce and seared the meat this morning and then tossed the works in the Nesco (which you can set at exactly 325).  Tim is going to check it around 10AM today.  Hopefully it turns out tasty.  Hopefully it won’t kill us with some weird warm-fridge food-born bacteria.  Wish us luck!

And if you feel like being annoyed at humanity, read the comments posted on the recipe I linked to above.  Mark provided this super tasty-sounding recipe, but many of the commentors choose to ignore that piece of kindness and focus on the fact that these are not true “enchiladas.”  Who cares???  Jesus, people!  Show some appreciation.  I, for one, don’t care what the recipe is called.  I just care that it’s delicious.  🙂

BTW, can you tell Tim and I have been re-watching Firefly?

UPDATE:

So.  I burned the roast.  By the time Tim got home, the roast was already burnt all along the edges.  🙁  Super big bummer.  Fortunately he was able to salvage quite a bit of the meat.  But the sauce was a goner.  We had some of the meat for supper, and the flavor was great.  I think that this recipe is worth making again, but I will have to cook it in the oven next time.  Lesson learned. 🙂

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

Lots of New Recipes!

heather

School was officially over on May 10th, so I’ve finally had time to start trying some new recipes.

Primal Beef Enchiladas:  I killed a pot in the process of making this (I was boiling the ancho chiles in 2 cups of bone broth and kind of forget about them :/), but the recipe was still worth it.  My meat didn’t get defrosted in time to make this during the weekend in the oven (for 4 hours), so I made in the Nesco roaster.  I made the sauce and seared the meat the night before.  The next morning, I tossed the works into the roaster on the lowest setting and let it cook from about 7:30 to 5:30.  When the meat first came out, it seemed a little dry (as grass-fed beef is wont to be), but once I shredded it and doused it with the sauce, it was delicious.  We ate it with avocado slices the first night.  The second night Tim made some white rice and added some broccoli to the meat & sauce as it simmered.  Again – delicious.  This recipe is a definite keeper.

Crockpot Pork Stuffed Peppers:  I used the Nesco roaster for these bad boys too.  However, I think I overcooked them. It’s hard not to do when you leave at 7:30 and don’t get home until 5:30.  By the time we removed the peppers from the roaster, the peppers were total mush.  The insides though – very tasty, especially with lots of delicious salt.  🙂  I would definitely make this again.  It’s a super easy way to cook your meat and veggies all together.  I love our food processor so much.  Mom gave us an old Vitamix, and that is rocking our world too.  Tim’s been making some mean veggie smoothies with it, and I’ve been using it to make the most delicious coffee drink ever – bulletproof coffee.  The stuff tastes amazing, but I’m not totally sold on all of its supposed health benefits.  The first morning it only kept me full for about 2.5 hours.  I also seem to feel the effects of caffeine more with this coffee; I feel more anxious.  But one thing is for sure.  It’s some tasty sh!t.

Beef Liver & Onions:  I picked up a couple of pounds of grass-fed beef liver from the farmer’s market a couple of weeks ago.  I really enjoyed the Fried Beef Liver and Onions I made with the first batch, but it was kind of a lot of work.  And it was messy.  So I tried this new recipe.  I was being kind of lazy, so I tossed some liver in the food processor along with some shallots (the recipe called for onion, but mine was bad), some garlic, and some dill and oregano from our herb garden. Once all that was thoroughly mixed, I kneaded it together with some locally raised ground beef.  I used an ice cream scoop to form it into meatballs, put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cooked them up.  They turned out really tasty!  They do have that kind of… thick… taste of liver, but it’s a little lighter since it’s mixed with the ground beef.  It’s a great, easy way to get an inexpensive, nutrient-rich dose of grass-fed meat into your diet.

And….then I made this:  Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever.  This was COMPLETELY not paleo, but it was oh so deeeelicious.  I used whole milk, dark chocolate cocoa powder, and omitted the pecans (due to some nut allergies at work), and it turned out fantastic.  It was probably one of the most popular cakes I’ve ever made.  And it should be.  It’s rather a lot of work!

I JUST finished making these:  Greek-Style Lamb Meatballs.  I originally bought the lamb to make a recipe that I subsequently lost.  So I had to find a new recipe, and find one I did!  Tim and I are eating these right now.  My house smells like Hungry Boy Deli, and I really, really want some tzatziki sauce.    This would taste amazing with an onion, cucumber, tomato, vinegar, and olive oil salad.  Next time!!

Besides cooking and eating, Tim and I have been busy training for the triathlon that is LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AWAY.  This weekend we were going to do a brick – a swim/bike brick or a bike/run brick.  However, Tim tweaked his back yesterday morning and is still recovering, so he was out of commission.  Tim bought me some new pedals for my bike – clip-ins!  He installed them today, and I gave them a go.  Getting the shoes to clip-in took some work, but once they were in – wow – I just flew!  At least until I came to a stop.  I was smart enough to get my right foot out but didn’t anticipate myself leaning to the left, the side on which my foot was still adhesed to my bike.  Down I went!  Right on my butt, knee, and elbow.  I banged my knee up pretty good, twisted my bike seat and shifter, and tore my brand new handle-bar tape.  I will survive, but this knee is going to need some rest before I can run on it again.  Oh well!  It was a good learning experience – take out BOTH feet when  you come to a complete stop on the bike.

And…that’s been the past couple of weeks.  This week will be the last full week of training. Next week my big bro and his girlfriend are coming for a visit and to support us during the Tri, so next week is going to be most excellent.

Hope you have a great week!