Spaghetti Sauce

 I will acknowledge upfront that is probably not traditional but it's tasty. And the hubby loves it so that's good enough for me.

I use it for more than just spaghetti. I've used it for my macaroni bake and lasagna as well. 

This makes about 5 quarts of sauce. It freezes well, just to make sure let it cool to room temperature before freezing it in a sealed container. In fact the batch I made today was strictly for this purpose. Now we'll have some for when we want some.

Spaghetti Sauce

2 28 oz cans of tomato sauce 

28 oz can of diced tomatoes 

6 oz of tomato paste 

1 can of medium olives, drained

1 large onion chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, chopped

8 oz of mushrooms, chopped (preferably crimini)

A heaping tablespoon of minced garlic

About a 1.5 teaspoon of Italian seasoning

Large pinch each of basil and oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop your vegetables. We like ours chunky so I cut mine large but you can chop them as small as you prefer. Don't want whole olives? Sliced olives work just as well.

Toss everything into a crock pot and give it a good stir. I generally set mine on high for an hour and then move it to low for another 5 or 6 hours. It is one of those recipes of the longer you can let it simmer the better. I give a stir around half way through and taste it. Adjust the seasonings as you see fit. I normally add more salt and pepper at this time since I go lighter in the beginning. It's always easier to add more salt and pepper than it is to counteract it.

I give another taste near the end to make sure the flavor is good. If it is, I turn it off to cool so I can ladle it into containers or use some for whatever I'm making. The rest I let cool to room temperature in their containers before putting the lids on and stick it in the freezer.

It really is that easy.

Homemade Rice-a-Roni

So in my continuing effort to not prepare as much processed boxed/canned foods, I’ve had to let go of a few favorites like Rice-a-Roni. I love that stuff but ugh so much sodium and preservatives. I mourned the loss and tried to find alternatives. Then I found a few copy cat recipes on Pinterest. It took a few different attempts and quite a bit of tweaking but I do believe I finally found a great base recipe.

Homemade Rice-a-Roni

1 T olive oil

1 cup long grain rice

1 cup of orzo pasta

2 cups stock (vegetable, chicken, beef)

½ tsp garlic

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp cracked black pepper

1 T butter (optional)

Heat the oil in a medium pot on medium high heat, add rice and pasta and toast for a few minutes. (Note: if you do not have orzo pasta, you can chop up spaghetti or vermicelli for similar effect. Just make sure to cut it about ¼” or same length as rice.) Add stock and seasonings. Bring to a boil and reduce to low. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Check for doneness. You may need to add another ¼ cup of stock or water and cook for a few more minutes, depending on how al dente you want it to be. Stir in butter and add additional salt pepper if needed. The butter give the rice-a-roni a bit of richness and creaminess that I’ve always associated with it.

That’s the basic recipe. The variations are endless! I have a few below.

For basic beef or chicken rice-a-roni

Use beef or chicken stock. Add a cube of beef or chicken bullion (or equivalent). Stir it in and make sure it dissolves as you are bringing it to a boil.

For herb and butter rice-a-roni

Use a Tbl of butter instead of olive oil to toast the rice and pasta. Use a strong flavor vegetable stock. Add a 1.5 tsp of Italian seasonings (more if you want it a stronger herb flavor). Add 2 Tbl of butter at the end.

For broccoli au gratin rice-a-roni

I use chicken stock but can use vegetable if desired. Add ⅔ cup of finely chopped broccoli in the last few mins of cooking. Stir in a ½ cup of shredded colby jack cheese at the end.  

I found that I tend to always add bullion to mine but that’s because I like the more pronounced flavor. If you want it more on the milder side, then keep it out.

Note on Stocks: Now homemade is always the best but I don’t know about you...I really don’t have a whole lot of time to make it properly. This is one of the few items I normally buy out of convenience. However, I do buy low sodium organic stock. Take a look at the ingredients list.

The Pickle Experiment...

Well I now have another thing on my list that I won't be buying at the store any longer. And that is pickles. I have long wanted to try my hand at making pickles. I don't know why but then why not? It sounded like fun and well we love pickles.

After many years of heeing and hawing over it I finally decided to do it. It took me a visit to three different stores to find pickling cucumbers (it was December after all) and then another visit to the store the next day as I forgot to get pickling salt. So I set out to make three pints of bread and butter chips for me and three pints of dill spears for the husband. Now his were more along the line of Polish dills...with garlic, peppercorns, dill and such. One of the pints we put red pepper flakes in.

The process was amazingly easy. The Polish spears took no time at all to process. The bread and butter took longer but only because the recipe called for them to sit with salt and ice for a few hours. But while it took longer it was still really easy.

Then came the hard part...the waiting. The Polish pickles needed at least 4 weeks to pickle. The bread and butter I could have opened after a week but I figured to wait until we could open both jars. Every week, I would pick them up to give them a good swirl to distribute the spices and to check to make sure the pickling liquid wasn't getting cloudy. I also check for any signs that the pickling process was not working.

The wait was hard but worth it. I cracked open a jar of the bread and butter pickles Thursday evening. Only one day early! I fished out a pickle chip and crunch. Yay they had that crispness I love in pickles. The flavor was really balanced between the tangy and the sweet...it was just not as strong as I would like. I like the flavors to kinda smack you in the face. But for the first try not too shabby and they got better as they got colder. The Polish pickles were cracked open on Friday night and those were tasty. Again they were crispy and were full of flavor. The only thing for me was that the dill got a little lost so I know next time to add more into each jar.

Again for a first try, I'm pretty impressed with myself. There are a few tweaks I need to make to each recipe and a few things I learned in the process. One is to make sure I make enough brine for the bread and butter pickles. I barely had enough and as time passed, the pickles soak in the liquid so by the time the waiting time passed, the liquid barely covered the pickles. But yay pickles for the win!

This is just now one more processed food we can cut out of our pantry. This list is growing longer and honestly that makes me happy. Now we are not going to cut out all processed foods as I just don't have the time to make everything from scratch. But every little bit helps and it leads us to a more healthy lifestyle.

We already don't do any of the pre packaged rice or pasta dinners any more. I make rice pilaf and pastas now. Very rarely do we use canned or frozen veggies. And the frozen veggies we have been using, I've frozen myself. Same with fruits. I make all our jams, marmalade and apple butter. I make our trail mixes and granola. And I am trying to use the healthiest versions of items that are processed.

It's all about being healthier, wanting support our local farmer's and growers and honestly I really enjoy it.

Macaroni and Cheese

My husband and I love macaroni and cheese. Seriously…what’s not to love about noodles covered in a cheese sauce? As convenient as the box mixes are, it really does not take much more time to make it from scratch. Well semi from scratch as I’m not making my own noodles. We prefer the stop top method as we are not big fans of the crumbly topping that normally comes with the baked version.

Bechamel Sauce
1 cup shredded cheese
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
8 ounces of dried noodles (elbow macaroni is what we normally use)
Salt, pepper to taste

Using the basic Bechamel Sauce recipe (for the purpose of this macaroni and cheese I use 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon of flour to one cup of heavy cream. I know the recipe calls for milk but my husband and I love the added richness the cream gives the sauce.)

While cooking the Bechamel Sauce, bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook the noodles per instructions. Drain well but do not rinse. Rinsing will take the starch off the noodles and they need that starch for the sauce to cling to.

Once the Bechamel is ready, add the Worcestershire and slowly add the shredded cheese. You can use any good melting cheese. I have a soft spot for Gruyer. Chedder and Fontina also work well. Stir until all the cheese is melted. Add salt and pepper if you think it needs it (the Bechamel should have already been seasoned). Slowly add the cheese sauce to the noodles, mixing until every noodle is covered with cheesy goodness.

Serve and enjoy! This makes four servings. Normally I have a little bit of sauce left over, steam some broccoli and/or cauliflower and pour over that! YUM!

Basic Pasta

Pasta…it can be a very daunting concept but it doesn’t need to be. In my opinion, there is nothing better than the taste of fresh pasta. And really it is not that hard.

The recipe is really easy.

1 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1-2 Tablespoon water, as needed.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt. Form a well in the middle and add the beaten egg. Mix with a fork, bringing in sides of the well little by little. The dough may be dry. If it is, you can start to add the water a tablespoon at a time. Knead for 3-4 minutes on a lightly floured surface.

Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. The resting is essential for a tender pasta as this allows the gluten to relax.

Using either a rolling pin or a pasta machine, roll out and cut to your desired thickness. Bring salted water to a boil and add pasta. Don’t walk away as fresh pasta does not take nearly as long as the dry variety to cook. Once al dente, drain and serve. Makes about 3-4 servings

Quick and Easy Whipped Cream

There are just certain things I no longer buy at the grocery store. Yeah, sure sometimes it costs a little bit more to make it and okay it can take a little bit more time…BUT the taste is normally oh so much better. And not to mention, nine out of ten times it was better for you as well. You can control the ingredients, the amount of sugar or salt. You know what preservatives if any that are in it. And honestly with just a few tools it is not really all that difficult.

One things I never buy any more is whipped cream or cool whip. Once I found out how simple it was to make it was no contest. And my husband will actually eat the homemade whipped cream so that’s an extra bonus…well most times.

Basic Whipped Cream
2 cups Heavy whipping cream
3 Tablespoons sugar (can subsitute with Splenda to make it truly sugar free)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients into mixing bowl and mix until stiff peaks are formed and the beaters leave trails in the cream.

That’s it! Seriously that is all that I do. What is even better is that it’s easy to adjust to suit your tastes or to do something different. You can make it sweeter or make it more vanilla. I like to add a tablespoon or two of cinnamon for dipping in strawberries. (OMG That is so yummy…one of our favorite desserts during the summer).

It holds up well to use as a frosting for a cake. Or you can pipe it onto pies or other desserts. Quick tip: if you do not have a piping bag…just snip a corner off a ziplock bag and put your piping tip inside it. Instant piping bag!

Homemade Sloppy Joes

As a kid I loved sloppy joes. It was always a treat when mom made them, which wasn’t very often. I’m not sure why but she didn’t. As I got older, the thoughts of sloppy joes went to the wayside. Occasionally the craving would hit like it did today while texting back and forth with hubby about what to do for dinner.

But I didn’t want to use the can mix. It has so much sugar and salt not to mention preservatives. It’s not really that hard when you think about it. It’s a tomato based sweet savory sauce. So I did a little bit a brain storming and this is what I came up with.

Homemade Sloppy Joes
1 lb ground beef
1 chopped small onion
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp yellow mustard
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp garlic (optional)
12 oz tomato sauce
¼ tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown ground beef with onion  and garlic. Drain the fat and add remaining ingredients, stir and let simmer for 10- 20 minutes until nice and thick. Serve on toasted buns (I used onion rolls – so yum!)
Serves 4 to 6 (depending on the size of buns you are using).

I used tomato sauce instead of ketchup as my husband does not like ketchup. The lemon juice I added for the acid. It helps cut through the sweetness and the Worcestershire adds a nice little oomph of flavor.

This is an easy recipe to adjust to your particular taste. If you want it sweeter you can use ketchup instead of tomato sauce or add a bit of bbq sauce for an extra little zing. This is a great recipe to add in some extra vegetables like diced up tomatoes, green peppers and/or carrots if you have someone who doesn’t like their veggies. You can also top with some cheese and pop under the broiler so it melts. You could even use different types of ground meat like turkey, elk or venison. Really the possibilities with this sauce is quite amazing.