February 27, 2014
Feb 27, 2014

Roasted Cauliflower – this recipe is so good!!

Feb
27
2014
Thursday

How To Make Roasted Cauliflower

A couple of years ago some friends introduced us to a Mediterranean restaurant in Dallas called Fadi’s (and oh my! I just looked up the website address so that I could link over there and saw that they have several locations here in Houston too!!) and our whole family fell in love with it!

One of the reasons that we fell in love with Fadi’s was because of their roasted cauliflower. And to think that the first time we went I considered passing on the cauliflower! It’s absolutely incredible!

I’m not a fan of raw cauliflower at all, and I can tolerate steamed cauliflower but it’s definitely not my first choice. But ROASTED cauliflower… it might just be one of the best-tasting foods I’ve ever had. Right up there with Talenti Vanilla Bean Gelato. ;)

Roasted Cauliflower Recipe

Ingredients:

  • Cauliflower florets (you can buy them already cut or buy a whole one and cut it yourself)
  • Olive oil (enough to lightly coat the cauliflower)
  • Salt, to taste
  • Pepper, to taste
  • *optional* Other seasonings

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the cauliflower florets, olive oil, salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you want to add.

Place the florets on a cookie sheet so that none of the pieces of cauliflower are touching each other.

Bake for around 25 – 35 minutes until part of the cauliflower florets are a nice golden brown. You can make them as dark or as light as you want them.

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More recipes you might like:

Amazing Roasted Brussels Sprouts

How to make your own Baking Powder

Easy Crockpot Chili Recipe

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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February 17, 2014
Feb 17, 2014

Roasted Brussels Sprouts – this recipe actually makes Brussels Sprouts taste amazing!

Feb
17
2014
Monday

Roasted Brussels Sprouts




I have never been a fan of brussels sprouts. My mom made them every so often growing up and I would obligingly eat them, but I always tried to follow them quickly with something that tasted good.

I actually don’t think I have *ever* (until recently) made brussels sprouts in my almost 14 years of marriage. Not that I wouldn’t eat them at someone else’s house if they made them, but I would never choose brussels sprouts on my own.

Until now.

My mom made us some roasted brussels sprouts when we were at her house recently and they didn’t taste anything like the brussels sprouts that I had growing up!

These were actually good. Really good. And addictive too. In fact, now that I’m writing about it I might just head over to Trader Joe’s later this evening to grab another bag of brussels sprouts so that I can make this again!

You can either make these roasted brussels sprouts whole, or you can cut them them in half before you roast them. Keeping them whole allows the outside to get crispy while the inside stays soft. If you cut them in half (like I did for the picture above) then you get more of that crispiness.

You can also try them with different spices and oils if you would like. I’ve also thought about adding bacon to them in the future.

Oh, and I love the roasted brussels sprouts with the ends on, but you can also chop off the ends if you feel like they taste bitter.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:

  • Fresh whole brussels sprouts (or cut in half)
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Paprika (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Put the fresh brussels sprouts in a bowl and drizzle the olive oil on the brussels sprouts (enough to make the salt and pepper stick). Distribute the olive oil over all of the brussels sprouts. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika.

3. Place the brussels sprouts on a baking sheet/cookie sheet and make sure that none of them are touching each other. You also might want to line your pan with aluminum foil.

4. You can also put the leaves that have fallen off on the pan, but they will be crispy well before the rest of the brussels sprouts are ready.

5. Bake for 25-40 minutes until the outside is crispy and the inside is cooked through.

I’d love to hear how you make Brussels Sprouts! If you have a recipe that you love, please feel free to share it in the comments below. I think I might be brave enough now to try some Brussels Sprouts variations. :)

More healthy recipes to try:

How to make homemade ketchup!

Easy Crockpot Chili Recipe!

Easy & Healthy Homemade Cranberry Granola!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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February 12, 2014
Feb 12, 2014

Homemade Baking Powder (without any cornstarch!!)

Feb
12
2014
Wednesday

How To Make Baking Powder




Ryan and I have been grain-free for over a year now and can’t even imagine going back to eating grains. We both feel better than we ever have and really don’t feel like we’re missing out on much at all.

I’ve been concerned about the aluminum in baking powder for years (one of the reasons I like making my own deodorant), so I always would buy the baking powder that said “aluminum-free”.

Now that we are grain-free though, we can’t even buy the aluminum-free baking powder because it has cornstarch (and yes, corn is a grain, not a vegetable).

Baking powder is something that we use often in our grain-free baked dishes so I wanted to share with you how to easily make it yourself!

It’s actually really (REALLY) easy to make and only takes two ingredients. You can add a little cornstarch to it if you would like to, but it works great without the cornstarch as well.

Homemade Baking Powder Recipe

Ingredients:

1 part Baking Soda
2 parts Cream Of Tartar

Directions:

1. Mix together! :)

Baking soda – Sodium bicarbonate, referred to as “baking soda” is primarily used in cooking (baking), as a leavening agent. It reacts with acidic components in batters, releasing carbon dioxide, which causes expansion of the batter and forms the characteristic texture and grain in pancakes, cakes, quick breads, soda bread, and other baked and fried foods. Acidic compounds that induce this reaction include phosphates, cream of tartar, lemon juice, yogurt, buttermilk, cocoa, vinegar, etc. Sodium bicarbonate can be substituted for baking powder provided sufficient acid reagent is also added to the recipe. (Source)

Cream Of Tartar – Potassium bitartrate, also known as potassium hydrogen tartrate, is a byproduct of winemaking. In cooking it is known as cream of tartar.

More foods you can make yourself:

Make your own peanut butter!

Make your own mayonnaise!

Make your own beef jerky!

Make your own vanilla extract!

Make your own butter & buttermilk!

Also, if you’re interest in grain-free, gluten-free, or paleo recipes, here’s a Pinterest board to follow that should be helpful!! :)

Follow Rachel Holland SurvivingTheStores.com’s board Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, OR Paleo Recipes! on Pinterest.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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January 29, 2014
Jan 29, 2014

3 Ways To Make Homemade Ketchup!

Jan
29
2014
Wednesday

Three different ways to make homemade ketchup! You can cook it all day in the crock-pot OR you can make it quickly in your blender. Why buy ketchup at the store when it is so easy to make yourself?



Have you ever wanted to try making your own homemade ketchup?   

It’s not hard to make and you likely have all of the ingredients sitting in your pantry!

The great thing about making ketchup is that you can add extra spices, use less sugar, add more tomatoes… whatever you think sounds good… and it will probably still turn out great.

Also, if you’re planning on planting tomatoes in the coming months (I’m going to attempt growing tomatoes again this year, so far I’ve been pretty unsuccessful) then this is a wonderful way to use them! You can cook your ketchup on the stove OR in the crock-pot.  

Here are three different Homemade Ketchup Recipes to try!

Homemade Ketchup Recipe #1:  

Ingredients:

  • 2 large cans (28 oz) of peeled whole tomatoes OR 20-24 PEELED fresh tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup water OR 1 1/2 cups of water if using fresh tomatoes
  • 1/3 – 2/3 cup of sugar (in whatever form you would prefer… white sugar, sucanat, honey,  etc.)
    • *NOTE: If you decide to use powdered stevia as a sweetener, just use a very small amount (like 1/4 tsp) at first and increase after you taste it.  This is the powdered stevia we use.
  • 3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 3/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon celery salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 whole clove

Directions:

  • Pour the cans of tomatoes in the crock-pot, or add the peeled fresh tomatoes.
  • Add the right amount of water for whatever type of tomatoes you used. If you used canned tomatoes then you’ll want to put half of the water in each can before pouring into the crock-pot so that you can get the extra tomato out of the can.
  • Add the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot.
  • Cook uncovered and on HIGH for at least 10-12 hours until the mixture has thickened. If you used fresh tomatoes then you might need to let it cook a little longer.
  • Stir once an hour while it is cooking.
  • Using an immersion blender (I LOVE my immersion blender!!) smooth out the mixture. You can just stick the immersion blender right in the crock-pot.
  • Using a fine strainer placed over a bowl, slowly pour the ketchup (or use a soup ladle) into the strainer and push through the strainer with a spoon.
  • Store in the refrigerator!

Adapted from All Recipes

Homemade Ketchup Recipe #2:

If you want to whip up some ketchup in a hurry, then this recipe is a lot quicker than the first one.

It uses tomato paste instead of fresh or canned whole tomatoes, and you can blend it up in your blender or vitamix pretty quickly.

You can play around with the spices in your ketchup to see what you like… all-spice, hot sauce/cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ground mustard seed, etc. are all great spices to try in your homemade ketchup! Just use the basic recipe below and then add any of the above spices to your liking. Taste the ketchup base after it blends and then slowly add any (or all!) of the above spices until it tastes good to you.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cans of tomato paste (if you’re concerned about the BPA in cans then you can get tomato paste in glass jars instead)
  • 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. onion powder or 1 medium chopped onion
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder or 2-3 cloves of garlic
  • 1/8 cup sugar (in whatever form you would like… honey, white sugar, brown sugar, molasses, etc.)
  • *NOTE: If you decide to use powdered stevia as a sweetener, just use a very small amount (like 1/4 tsp) at first and increase after you taste it.  This is the powdered stevia we use.
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. ground mustard powder
  • 1 cup of water
  • A mix of whatever seasonings you want to add (see the notes before the ingredients)
  • *Optional: a teaspoon or two of chia seeds or flax seeds for thickness.

Directions:

  • Put all of the ingredients into a blender (or Vitamix or Blendtec) and blend until smooth.
  • Put in a mason jar and let it sit in the refrigerator for several hours before serving.

Homemade Ketchup Recipe #3:

You can also FERMENT your ketchup! There’s all kinds of great healthy bacteria in fermented food.

This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite healthy-living cookbooks called Nourishing Traditions.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of canned tomato paste (or in glass jars)
  • 1/4 cup whey (you can make whey by straining yogurt through a cheesecloth – the liquid that strains out is the whey)
  • 1 Tbsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup Maple Syrup
  • 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1/2 cup fish sauce (you can buy fish sauce at any asian market)

Directions:

  • Mix all of the ingredients in a blender.
  • Put the mixture in a wide-mouth quart-sized mason jar. Be sure that the ketchup is at least 1 inch BELOW the top of the jar.
  • Leave the ketchup out on the counter for 2 days and then transfer to the refrigerator.
  • Serve like normal!

Have you tried making homemade ketchup before? Feel free to share your recipe in the comments below!

Join us on Pinterest & Facebook for more Natural Remedies & Healthy Living Tips!


Follow Rachel Holland SurvivingTheStores.com’s board Natural Remedies & Healthy Living! on Pinterest.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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January 8, 2014
Jan 8, 2014

Easy Grain-Free Crockpot Chili Recipe!

Jan
8
2014
Wednesday

Super Easy Grain Free Crockpot Chili Recipe


One of my favorite things to eat during these cold winter months is chili.  It’s down in the 50s right now here in Houston and we need something to help warm up us cold-weather-wimps down here in the South.  ;)

This is by far my favorite chili recipe and it’s completely grain-free!

Back before Ryan and I were grain-free I would just buy the McCormick chili seasoning packets in the store but it has both Wheat Flour and Corn Maltodextrin so it’s now a no-no for us.

But this recipe below is easy, SO good, and very versatile.  You can add pretty much anything else that you like in your chili to it.

Ryan and I eat it without any rice, but I always make a side of rice for the kids since they aren’t grain-free.  Sometimes we’ll eat our chili with Quinoa but it’s great on its own too.

 

Easy Grain-Free Crockpot Chili Recipe

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground meat (I like using 1 lb ground beef and 1 lb ground chicken sausage)
2 medium onions, chopped
3 colored bell peppers, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tbsp Ground Cumin
1/2 Tbsp Paprika
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 large cans (25 oz each) of your favorite chili beans, or use 4 regular-size cans (I usually use pinto and kidney)
1 large can (28 oz) of crushed tomatoes, or two regular size cans (I like the crushed fire-roasted tomatoes)
1 32 oz box of organic Beef Broth

Instructions:

Sauté the onions and bell peppers in a little bit of olive oil in a skillet over med-high heat.
Add the ground meat and cook thoroughly.
Add the minced garlic, chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper to the meat mixture and cook a minute or two more.
Transfer the meat mixture to the crockpot and add the beans, crushed tomatoes, and beef broth.
Allow to cook in the crockpot on low until the flavors are nice and mixed through (at least an hour)

If you’d prefer not to eat food from cans (I’m pretty picky about only buying canned goods that don’t have a BPA-lining) then you can use 5 tomatoes roasted at 425 in the oven until they are a little black on the edges AND you can use beans that you’ve pre-cooked instead of beans from the can.

I love topping off my chili with cheese, sour cream, and diced avocados.  SO GOOD!!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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December 3, 2013
Dec 3, 2013

EASY Harissa Chicken Recipe

Dec
3
2013
Tuesday

Easy Harissa Chicken Recipe

Have you heard of Saffron Road?  They have been putting out lots of great coupons recently and I fell in love with their simmer sauces after I made Moroccan Beef Tagine with Sweet Potatoes earlier this year with their Tagine sauce.

Back when I posted about their Tagine simmer sauce they only had 4 sauce options available, but now they have 8 different ones!  I tried out the Harissa simmer sauce this time and it was amazing.

All of the Saffron Road simmer sauces are very easy to use to dress up just about any meat dish or even any vegetarian dish.

Here are a few more things that I love about Saffron Road:

  • All of their livestock are humanely raised and are never given any antibiotics or hormones.
  • Their founders are organic food pioneers who support the natural food movement.
  • They support family owned farms and local growers.
  • Saffron Road has 12 certified Gluten Free Products.
  • Saffron Road is enrolled in the Non-GMO Project.
  • I can pronounce all of the ingredients in the sauces.  That’s kind of my general rule of thumb when I’m considering adding a new food to what we regularly eat.  I look at the ingredient list and make sure that there’s nothing there that I can’t pronounce.  That rule doesn’t catch EVERYTHING that’s “bad”, but it sure catches most of it!
  • I love that it’s in a pouch and not in a can (since I don’t like to use cans lined with BPA and heated to high temperatures to seal)

The simmer sauces are regularly priced right around $2.99 each AND there’s a $1 off Saffron Road coupon available to print too!

This time I wanted to try something super simple and let the flavors of the simmer sauce stand out on their own.

I had some chicken legs so I sprinkled a little salt and pepper on them and lightly browned them on all sides.

How to make Harissa Chicken

Then I added the packed of Harissa simmer sauce and two cups of water.

Harissa Simmer Sauce

The best Chicken Harissa recipe!

I let it all simmer for a good 45 minutes to an hour until the chicken was thoroughly cooked.

You can leave it just like it is when it comes out of the skillet (like the picture at the very top of the post), or you can add yogurt or sour cream to the sauce to tone down the spiciness a little (it’s actually not very spicy, I’m just a wimp when it comes to spicy food).

Harissa Chicken Recipe With Yogurt

It was amazing!!

You can follow Saffron Road Foods on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!

Disclosure: Saffron Road is sponsoring this post – yay!  I only accept sponsored posts from companies that I love or that I think you guys will love, so it’s always exciting to me when there’s a company that’s a perfect fit.  

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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