Pot Roast

 

I have always make my pot roast in the slow cooker and have been toying with the idea of making it on stove top or oven. The hubby and I decided to take yesterday off from running and this give me a perfect opportunity to try a recipe. 

I did a quick search on the internet and decided to try this recipe from Simply Recipe. It look simple enough with just some easy ingredients which we have at home. The only changed I made from the recipe was to substitute red wine with beef broth. I am sure this will taste much better with red wine.

The hubby gave a triple thumb up for this recipe and went for 2 big servings. Well, both of us polish off the whole pot roast.  The hubby last word was " you have to make this again".. so I guess this is really good. 

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 lb of beef shoulder or boneless chuck roast (look for a piece that is well marbled with fat for best results)
• 2 Tbsp olive or grapeseed oil
• Salt, pepper, italian seasoning to taste ( I use a blend of seasoning which the hubby make)
• 2 large yellow onions, thickly sliced, lengthwise (root to tip), about 4 cups sliced onion
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1/2 cup of red wine ( Iuse beef broth)
• 1 bay leaf
• Several carrots, peeled and cut lengthwise

 Directions
1 Use a thick-bottomed covered pot (oven-proof if you intend to cook in oven), such as a dutch oven, just large enough to hold roast and vegetables. Heat 2 Tbsp of oil on medium high heat (hot enough to sear the meat). Pat the roast dry with paper towels. Sprinkle and rub salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning all over the meat. Brown roast in pot, all over, several minutes on each side. Don't move the roast while a side is browning, or it won't brown well.


2 When roast is browned, remove from pan and set on a plate. Add the onions to the pan and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes, until they begin to brown. Add the garlic and carrots to sit on top of the onions. Set the roast on top of the onions, garlic and carrots. Add 1/2 cup of red wine. Add the bay leaf.

3. Cover. Bring to simmer and then adjust the heat down to the lowest heat possible to maintain a low simmer when covered . If cooking in the oven, bring to a simmer first on the stovetop, then put in the oven, start the temp at 300°F for 15 minutes, then drop it to 225°F

3 Cook for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, or longer, until meat is tender.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

 

We have some weird weather the past week. It was hot and it was cold and wet. It was hot on Wednesday at 80 degree and it changed over night to thunderstorm on Thursday at high of 55 degree. Well.. it is probably not so cold if you come from east or north east. But this is Texas.. anything lower than 70 degree is Brrrrr for us :)

And yes.. it was brrr for us on Thursday. So I decided to make a beef stew to warm our soul. I found this recipe (<= click)  from Simply Recipe and adapted it to the ingredients I have at home. I love this recipe for the simple reason that it is not tomato based. I am not a fan of tomato based stew. The use of beer and beef broth with just 2 tablespoon of tomato base is perfect. The hubby agreed that this is a keeper. We have some leftover on Friday and it seems to taste even better. 

Ingredents ( My adapted version)

• 2 Tbspcoconut oil
• 2 pounds well marbled chuck beef roast, cut into 2-inch piece
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 pint (16 ounces) stout or any dark beer ( I use shiner bock)
• 3 cups beef broth
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2-3 potato and sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
• 3-4 teaspoons dried thyme
• Salt and pepper

Direction
1, Heat the coconut oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Brown the beef in the oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the beef as it browns. Once browned on all sides, transfer the beef pieces into the slow cook

2 Add the onions and celery to the pan in which you just browned the beef. Sauté the onions and celery until they begin to brown at the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and mix well. Cook for a minute or two, then add a little of the Guinness, enough to make it easier for you to scrape up any browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Transfer the celery and onions into the slow cooker.


3 Add the rest of the Guinness, the beef broth, carrots, potato and sweet potato, and thyme to the slow cooker. Add two teaspoons of salt. Cover and cook on "high" for 4 hours, or "low" for 8 hours. When done, add more salt to taste.

~bel~

Oven baked Chicken Fajita

 

The hubby sent me a link of this recipe from a facebook page "$5-$10 dollars meals".  It looked so easy good and yummy that I could not resist the temptation to try the recipe. Yes... this is an awesome recipe. Took only 10 minutes preparation time. I did all the prep work in the afternoon and popped it in the oven when we got back from our run yesterday.  Easy and convenient

Ingredients
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel)
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 green bell pepper, cut into strips

Direction
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place chicken strips in a greased 13×9 baking dish.
2. In a small bowl combine the oil, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, dried oregano, and salt.
3. Drizzle the spice mixture over the chicken and stir to coat.
4. Next add the tomatoes, peppers, and onions to the dish and stir to combine. 

5. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender

~bel~

Crockpot Pork Roast

 

Our crockpot is very much under utilized in the last few weeks as we relied on the the hubby to cook on stove pot. Now that we are back to serious training, we are out running most evening till late. So the crockpot gets to come out of hibernation.

I made these pot roast on Monday with the crockpot. Just some simple ingredients and we have a wholesome dinner.Just love the crockpot for making life so much easier. A hot meal after a hard run is god sent :)

Ingredients: 

1. Roast - we see top roast about 2 pounds

2. 1 onion chopped

3. 6 celery sticks- chopped into 2 inches length

4. 1 potato - cut into quarters

5. 1 sweet potato- cut into quarter

6. 1 cup of chicken broth

7. 1 table spoon of paparika

8. 1 table spoon of cumin

9. 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

10. Salt and pepper to taste

11. 1 table spoon of Lawry's seasoning

Direction: 

1. Season the roast with the last five ingredients for at least 30 mins

2. Lay the vegetables on the crockpot

3. Put the roast in top of the vegetables

4. Add in the chicken broth

5. Slow cooked low for 7-8 hours or high for 5 hours

~bel~

Paleo Coconut frosted banana muffin

Coconut frosted banana muffin

These are by far our favorite paleo muffins. I had some leftover coconut flakes from my boy's birthday and decided to add them to the banana muffins. Whaooo..The addition of coconut flakes to the plain old banana muffins a real winner.

I took the basic coconut bread recipe (<= Click)  from Paleo Plan and adapt it to make these muffins

My adapted version as follow :

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1 cup + 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
3-4 mashed banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
3/4 cup of coconut flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 cup of honey or any sweetener of choice. I used 1/2 cup swerve and 3 tablespoon of honey

Frosting:
Unsweetened coconut flakes

Directions:
1. Pre heat oven to 350F.
2. Combine together the coconut flour, salt and baking soda
3. Beat the eggs till frothy and slightly pale, add coconut oil, mashed banana and honey ( or any sweetener)
4. Fold in the coconut flour mix and coconut flakes
5. Scoop the batter to lined muffin pan.Sprinkle the batter with  unsweetened coconut flakes prior to putting in oven
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool and serve

~bel~

Chicken Salad

The hubby makes the best chicken salad. This pic definitely does not do justice to his chicken salad. I took a quick pic of it after it was almost half done.

We had bought the chicken salad to many parties and had always receiving raving approval of it.  And YES.. the boy is very proud of his recipe.

There was no exact recipe per se. It was always made per the boy's estimation and feel.

But here's a peek of the ingredients :

Ingredient:
1. 1 rotisserie chicken, tear apart and chopped into cube
2. Celery, sliced
3. Onion, finely chopped
4. Grapes, halfed
5. Mayonaise
6. Dijon mustard
7. Salt
8. Pepper
9. Cayenne pepper
10. Lawry's seasoning salt
11. Paparrika



Direction:
1. Mixed everything together per taste.


~bel~

Oven Roasted garlic pork tenderloin

 

Yeah ! We are back on Paleo. Gosh ! I miss my meat ! We were in Singapore for Chinese New Year and ditched the Paleo while we were there. It was really hard to eat good during festive season.. lotsa of temptations... sweet dessert, cookies, tarts, noodles and rice :)

The first thing which we did yesterday was to go grocery shopping and restocked our fridge with healthy goodies.. yeah.. lotsa of meat. 

The hubby picked some pork tenderloin at Costco for dinner. I found an easy recipe on 101 Cooking For Two site and send it to him. And bingo.... I think I picked a winner. It is soooo easy to make (5 ingredients!) and taste so good.

Ingredients
1 pork tenderloin
1-2 T olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
kosher salt course ground pepper

Direction
1.  Trim the pork tenderloin well. Remove the "silver skin" and any trimable fat.
2. Preheat over to 375 convection or 400 in a regular oven.
3. Salt and pepper all sides
4.  1-2 t oil in oven safe pan (cast iron is good here) over medium high heat until hot.
5. Sear all sides (3) of the tenderloin for approximately 2 1/2 -3 minutes per side
6. Crush 2 cloves garlic and add to 1 T olive oil.
7. When searing is done, remove from heat and coat with the olive oil/garlic mixture.
8 Transfer the meat to oven ( we added broccoli as well ) Using a thermometer, cook until internal temp of 150. About 18 minutes ( It took us about 50 min)
9.  Rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving.

~bel~