{EwE} SPRING IS HERE!

It’s SPRING!  I LOVE Spring!  Flowers!  Planting the Garden.  Cool days and nights.  Fresh Spring Veggies.  Spring Fruits. I know there aren’t many but what is Springy is always fresh and delicious.  Each region of the US has a different growing season and different fruits and veggies available.  The South has a nice long growing season so were are more fortunate than some areas.

Since it has been a busy week I went with something quick and simple for Peggy’s pick this week – Spring Harvest.

Cauliflower “Rice” Pilaf

Since I am still doing the Whole30 program for 90% of my meals this fit in perfectly.  And only four main ingredients:  cauliflower, pine nuts/almonds, onions and parsley.  It was perfect with some leftover Black Pepper Chicken.  

I did make one change.  Ellie called for OO for sauteeing the onions and cauliflower but I decided to use some toasted sesame oil instead.  It added a little Asian flair to the rice and a little bite.  Good!

The recipe is from Ellie Krieger’s You Have it Made.  page 306.

For more Spring Harvest visit Eating with Ellie.

And if you want to cook/bake along with us the weekly themes are listed on the right of the Ellie page.  We don’t publish the recipes.  We would rather you purchase Ellie’s books.

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{EwE} Lunch time!!

It’s time for LUNCH.  Do you want a sandwich, some soup, or a salad?  YES!!  But I cannot have all three so I will simply settle for one – SOUP!  BTW – my theme this week.

Most of you know I am not a big fan of soup in warm weather, 83 here today,  but I can’t have bread (not Whole30 compliant) and I’ve had enough salads for a while.  So soup it is.

Ellie’s Creamy Tomato Soup – without cream.  Actually there wasn’t any cream in the recipe to start with so it is totally Whole 30 compliant.  {Today is Day 30  WooHoo!!}

What is in the soup is tomatoes, celery, garlic, onion, thyme, and cashews.  Cashews?  YEP!  They add some great flavor, puree easily,  and add to the creaminess of the soup. 

This was pretty good.  Not being a thyme fan  I’m wondering now how it will taste with Basil instead.  LOVE tomato/basil soup!

The recipe is from Ellie’s you have it made page 127.  I also found it on Food Matters.

More Lunch?  Click on over to Eating with Ellie!

 

{EwE} March to your own Drummer

That’s the theme for this week.  Kayte decided we needed to just let it go and fulfill our own cravings/desires/needs.

At this time I am following the Whole30 program so finding dishes that are compliant are not that easy.  Lucky for me because all of Ellie’s dishes are healthy just tweaking some of the ingredients is the only necessity.

That being the case I went with Ellie’s…

…Fragrant Chicken and Eggplant Stew

This dish was totally compliant.  YAY!!  And it was delicious!!  Chicken, eggplant, tomatoes, green olives, onions, and garlic flavored with tumeric, paprika, and saffron. 

I only made 1/4 of the recipe and it was plenty for two meals.  And it was only for me….

The recipe is from You Have It Made.   page 179.

Want more of our cravings -> Eating with Ellie.

We ‘d love to have you cook with us.  Themes are always listed.  Just cook, blog, and link up.  Easy Peasy.

We don’t publish recipes .  We would rather you acquire Ellie’s books.

 

{EwE} Meatballs for Dinner

This week’s theme for Eating with Ellie was  Italian Night – Gaye’s choice for the first Thursday in March.

For some reason when I hear Italian food I think of meatballs.  I don’t know why because Italian food is so so much more than simple meatballs.  But since I can’t have pasta in any form or rice {on the Whole30 program} I decided meatballs was my safest route.  

Tapas-style Meatballs

Everything in the recipe – lean ground beef, onions, garlic, eggs, parsley and various other spices – are all Whole 30 compliant. Except for the bread crumbs.  THOSE I left out.  That made the meatballs a little harder to work with but it didn’t change the taste.

I also didn’t use Ellie’s sauce for the meatballs. I just wasn’t sure if the tomato sauce would be compliant so I made a Whole30 sauce instead.  Either way the meal was just right.  Meatballs in sauce.  How can you go wrong with that?

The recipe is from Ellie’s You Have it Made (page 144) but you can also find the recipe on line HERE.

For more Italian food visit Italian Night on Eating with Ellie.

Want to join the fun.  Just cook any recipe from Ellie Krieger that fits the themes, blog and leave your link under comments.  We prefer not to include the recipe.  Buy Ellie’s books instead.  You will be glad you did!

 

{EwE} Visit to the Orient

This week we are visiting the Orient.  At least their cuisine.  The Orient includes many different countries with many different cuisines.  We had our choice of The Middle East, India, China,Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam just to name a few.  So our choices were wide open. I went with a Thai dish.

Shrimp with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce

Lots of flavor in this dish. Red/yellow/orange bell peppers,  Onions,  Green Thai Curry paste, coconut milk all coming together for a delicious spicy dish.

I just started cooking with  coconut oil and I love it  It has kind of a nutty fragrance with a clean fresh taste in your dishes.  I may never go back to canola oil again.

Since this is from Ellie’s You Have it Made this is a dish where the sauce can be made ahead of time and either freeze the sauce or chill it for up to two days.  That’s a good thing because I am the only one who will eat it and didn’t want it to go to waste.  I made the whole recipe but only used about a fourth of the sauce for lunch. The rest I will p0rtion out and freeze.  Nice to have a meal almost made in the freezer.

Ellie suggests serving over jasmine rice but since I started Whole 30 I cannot do that.  I just used a little of the sauce with some shrimp. And if you don’t want the rice use a spoon to eat this because you won’t want to waste a drop of the sauce!

What dishes did the other EwE members make -> Travel to the Orient with us.

And if you would like to cook along with us just visit Eating with Ellie and join in the fun.  Themes are on the right. We don’t include the recipes because we want you to enjoy lots of Ellie Krieger by purchasing her cookbooks.

 

{EwE} Stuffed!

Peggy picked our theme for Eating with Ellie this week – STUFFED!!  That meant we could make anything that was filled or stuffed with something else.  Ellie has quite a few recipes that fit this category but I have had one in mind for quite a while.

These are Ellie’s Turkey Sausage-Stuffed Pizza Pockets

and they are tasty.  The filling is turkey Italian sausage browned and mixed with spinach or arugula, marinara sauce, and mozzarella cheese.  The filling was so good I easily could have eaten it with a spoon.

I couldn’t find Italian turkey sausage so I used regular and added some Italian seasoning. That worked well.  I also made my own Whole Wheat Pizza dough because I couldn’t find that either.  Ellie said we could use any marinara sauce so I used some that I had made last summer.  

I liked these and plan to freeze the ones that are left.  They are from Ellie’s latest book – You Have it Made. {page 223}  Most of the recipes in the book are made for freezing and doing ahead.  Good plan for these.  

We all stuffed something this week.  Check out what the others made -> Stuff It!

We’d love to have you join in with Eating with Ellie.  We don’t include the recipes.  We’d rather you bought Ellie’s books.  There are some recipes on line.  This pizza pocket one is there on Ellie’s website.

The theme for this week’s I Heart Cooking Clubs is also STUFFED!!  so I am going to kill two meals with one plate!!

 

{EwE} Mexican Madness!

For this week’s Eating with Ellie Gaye sent us to Mexico. Mexican Food!  Spicy! Flavorful! One of my faves!  And this time – healthy!  It is an Ellie Krieger recipe after all.

I chose Ellie’s Mexican  Chicken and Hominy Stew.  POSOLE!

Posole is a soupy stew usually made with pork and lots of seasoning – cumin, oregano – sometimes with beans.  Sometimes cheese.  Ellie’s is pretty ‘clean’ when it comes to ingredients.  No cheese.  No beans.  No cumin,  Made with chicken.  But, while many posoles take some time, this one is quick and easy because you use a roasted chicken – already cooked.  So you end up having to just throw the ingredients together – sorta – and let the flavors blend together.

This was pretty good, but I missed the cumin.  It would have added a lot without upping the calories, cholesterol, etc.  I was surprised Ellie left it out.  I look forward to making this again, with cumin.

The recipe is from Ellie’s newest book – You Have it Made – page 196.

For more Mexican flavors -> Eating with Ellie

 

{EwE}It’s Cold Outside!

Let’s Warm it Up!!

Whenever I want to warm up in the mornings I eat oatmeal.  It’s filling.  It’s warming.  It’s good for you.  But after a while just plain oat meal gets a little boring.  Lucky for me I have Ellie to change up my usual oatmeal.  With cinnamon.  With apples. With raisins.

Ellie’s Apple-Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

This is the first time I have ever BAKED oatmeal.  I don’t think I will go back to stove top again.  There are nice chunks of apples along with cinnamon and walnuts pecans in the oatmeal. {There are supposed to be raisins but I am NOT a fan!}  Maple syrup is the only sweetener in the oatmeal it self but there is a little brown sugar mixed with walnuts pecans and cinnamon for the topping.  It was just right for sweetness.  I made 1/2 of the recipe and it was just right for the two of us.  

I know I could eat this every morning it is cold {IF it ever gets cold here in the South!}

The recipe is from Ellie’s You Have it Made  (page 27)

 

{EwE} Barnyard Fun!

Peggy came up with a fun theme for this week’s Eating with Ellie – Barnyard Fun!  The theme left it wide open for just about anything one would find in a barn or farm yard – beef, pork, chicken, duck, eggs.  So many different things we could choose from.  The first thing I thought of was eggs.  Because I used to have fun collecting the eggs when we lived on a farm for a couple of years.  I also loved to help bring the cows down to the barn for milking and feeding the chickens.  But since I didn’t feel like making something from beef or chickens {We are basically chickened out!} I went with eggs which turned into a quiche.

A lovely  Broccoli Cheddar “Quiche in a Bag”

In a bag because after cooking some ingredients all of the ingredients are ‘squished’ together in a bag before pouring into an no-roll olive oil pie crust.  Ellie also makes it in a bag so it will be easy to freeze to make it later if you want. 

I made the crust and I made the quiche.  Neither one set my palate on fire!  The crust is a crumble crust much like a graham cracker crust and while I like the idea of that it was tasteless.  Water, flour, salt milk, olive oil.

The quiche contained broccoli and sharp cheddar cheese with some dry mustard, salt, and pepper.  I didn’t think it had much flavor either.  With a little more seasoning and maybe a touch of nutmeg it would have been much better.  It wasn’t bad, but it just lacked something.  Doesn’t mean I won’t make it again, just with something more…

The crust and the quiche are from Ellie’s you have it made.  Pages 33 and 35.

Want more barnyard pickin’s -> Barn Yard Fun

And if you would like to join Eating with Ellie all the themes are listed.  Just cook something for the theme from one of Ellies books or online, post a comment.  We’d love to have you.  PS  We don’t include the recipe.  We would love you to simply buy her books.