If it’s Wednesday then there is a Donna Hay cookbook on my counter. Because on Wednesdays several of us use Donna’s cookbooks for some delicious, healthy food.
This week I chose to make her stir-fried pork and shiitake mushrooms. Glad I did. It was simple and delicious.
I usually have ingredients in my pantry to cook us something with an Asian flair. Mirin, sesame oil, shredded ginger, soy sauce coconut aminos, and dried ‘shrooms are always there.
This dish was simple, even though it has 10 ingredients. Bok choy, pork slices, and garlic were added to the above Asian ingredients. And it was delicious. The shiitake mushrooms added a touch of sweetness as did the mirin.
Since I subbed in coconut aminos for the soy sauce making this dish more KETO friendly but the mirin (14 gm carb and 13 gram sugar/2 tbl) sorta cancelled that out.
Recipe is on page 103 of Donna’s new food fast.
See what the other members made this week.
Kayte
Peggy
Gaye
If you want to join us just cook any recipe from Donna Hay’s books, post it and let us know. We will add you to the list.
Not just any bean. Ellen’s choice. Shell beans: Red beans, lima beans, cranberry beans, pinto, great northern. Just to name a few. These are beans that must be removed from their pod to be eaten. My Dad was a big fan of Ham Hock and beans made with great northern beans. And Hubs is a great fan of Red Beans and Rice. So that is what I made for this GFGF post.
3 tablespoons bacon drippings
1 lb andouille sausage, sliced ¼ inch thick (if not available use a good smoked sausage)
In a large bowl place dried beans and enough water to cover by 2 inches. Let stand at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight.
In a large Dutch oven, heat bacon drippings over medium-high heat. Add onion, and celery. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add drained beans, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and peppers.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer until beans are tender and liquid has thickened, about 1.5 hours. Remove bay leaves from pot; discard.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat saute sausage until browned. About 6 minutes. Add to the bean pot.
Serve over hot cooked rice. Garnish with sliced green onions and/or hot sauce if desired.
Usually served on Monday it is the traditional Laundry Day Meal.
This recipe is adapted from the Delta Queen Cookbook and was in the February 2013 Louisiana Cookin’ magazine
Did anyone use a different bean for this week’s choice? Visit and see.
This week Good Friends Good Food is cooking with tomatoes. I have to let you know I don’t like raw tomatoes but I love them cooked – roasted, boiled, stewed, in stew, in green beans etc etc. But raw – no thanks.
When I ran across this soup from The Frog Commissary it just started calling out to me. After looking at the ingredients it looked delicious. And since it has/had turned cool when I found it I knew it would make a nice warm comforting meal.
I had plenty of canned tomatoes from this summer’s garden and an Eggplant from my Misfit Market.
Tomato, Sausage, and Eggplant Soup
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 1/2 cups cubed unpeeled eggplant (1/2″ cubes)
A splash or two of water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped fennel (or celery if you can’t find)
2 Tbsp. minced garlic (I use less)
2 tsp. ground or crushed fennel seed
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper (I use more)
4 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried basil
1 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 lb. sweet (or hot if you like) Italian sausage with casing removed
1 1/2 cups chicken stock1 28-oz. can tomato puree (I use crushed tomatoes in puree usually)
1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped (save juice!)
Heat the 1/3 cup olive oil in a 4-5 qt. saucepan. Add the eggplant, a splash or two of water to help get it softening, and 1/2 tsp. of the salt. Saute over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for 4-5 minutes or until just tender. Transfer the eggplant to a bowl. In the same pan, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Add the onions, fennel, garlic, fennel seed, pepper, bay leaves, the remaining 1 tsp. salt, basil and thyme. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for 5-6 minutes. Add the sausage and saute 5-6 minutes, breaking up the meat into small pieces with a spoon. Add the chicken stock, tomato puree, chopped tomatoes with their juice, and the eggplant. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes.
If the soup seems too thick, add more chicken stock (Which I did. It was very thick). Remove the bay leaves and serve.
And did I mention it is KETO friendly?
(Taken from The Frog Commissary Cookbook) You can also find the recipe HERE.
What else can you do with tomatoes? Check out posts from
I live in the South. We do fry a lot of stuff. It tastes good but it’s not good for you. Now I try to fry less and bake more. Like these pork chops.
Seasoned, dipped in milk/egg, dredged in seasoned crushed cornflakes, and baked. Tasty! Just the right amount of seasoning and the cornflakes made a very nice crust.
Preheat oven t 375F.
Spray a shallow oven pan with Veggie spray.
IN a shallow bowl mix the egg sub and milk. In a shallow dish combine the cornflake crumbs, cornmeal, and spices.
Dip the chops in the milk mixture. Don’t let too much of the mixture cling to the chops. Then dredge in the cornflake mixture. Place the chops in the pan and bake, uncovered for 15 minutes. Turn the chops over and bake for an additional 10 minutes until the chops are done.
The Man really liked them so I will definitely be making them again.
The recipe is from Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook from the American Heart Association (page 196)
The other white meat. Lean. Tasty. But we were getting tired of BBQ chops or frying the pork chops. Then I came across this recipe from Donna Hay.
These are NOT chops but they are pork. I had several pieces of deboned pork in the freezer so I used those instead. Worked just as well and no bones.
The pork chops are flattened, dredged in flour, “egged” and pressed into bread crumbs mixed with Parmesan and thyme.
These were super crunchy and delicious. Since they were flattened it only took about 10 minutes to bake them. The pork recipe also includes a cabbage slaw recipe but I was out of cabbage. Next time….
This month’s chef of the month is Diana Henry. When we were cooking with her starting October 2014 (for the next 6 months) I didn’t get to do many of her recipes. I saw lots of yummy dishes through the other members of IHCC. One of them was this dish which looks so tasty.
Spaghetti with Bacon, Egg, and Smoked Cheese.
This would be a great brunch dish. A warm gooey egg drizzling down over spaghetti tossed with bacon and cheese. It was comforting. It was full of flavor. It was delicious. I understand how it got rave reviews from the members who made it. I will definitely make it again. The egg mixed with the melty cheese and crunchy bacon.
The only change I would make would be to use less pasta. 2 ounces was really way too much for a single serving. I didn’t realize it until I saw all that goodness piled on the plate and I knew I could not eat all of it.
6 oz spaghetti
3 tbsp olive oil
4 oz bacon
2 large eggs
salt and pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (use about 1/2 cup chopped cilantro)
2 oz smoked cheese, grated {I used Smoked Gruyere.}
Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain and set aside.
Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil {I actually didn’t use this for the bacon}in a large frying pan and cook the bacon until crispu and brown. Set aside.
Fry the eggs sunny side up. {If you used the rest of the olive oil, which I didn’t spoon the warm oil up over the top of the eggs to cook the yolks.} Season with salt and pepper.
Drain the pasta and put into the saucepan. Add the extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add in the bacon and parsley and toss.
Divide between two plates, sprinkle on the cheese, and top each serving with a fried egg. Serve immediately.
The recipe is from Henry’s Cook Simple: Effortless Cooking Every Day. You can find it HERE. You should try this one.
This week Gaye wanted us to Get Some Pork on (Y)our Fork! So we did.
This particular recipe is pork steaks with creamy almond sauce . While this is not a combination I would normally think of, it was pretty tasty.
Ellie calls for Pork Tenderloin but I never buy that. I did have some really lean chops in the freezer so I used those instead. The browned steaks are paired with a creamy sauce made from chicken broth, garlic, onions, almonds, and whole wheat bread. The bread and almonds are toasted and then added to the broth/onion mix, {the onions and garlic cooked until soft}. After mixing they are blended with some sherry vinegar (I used red wine vinegar) to form a smooth sauce.
Ellie has the sauce UNDER the steaks but I chose to put the sauce OVER the steaks instead. {I completely missed the part where she said to slice the pork steaks!!} However you want to do it you will enjoy this dish.
Ready in 30 minutes or less. 270 calories per serving.
The recipe is from Ellie’s weeknight wonders on page 113. or HERE.
I know I’ve said before that Indian Cuisine is my favorite. But I have to admit that anything with an Asian flair is right up there, too. I realize that most of what we get in our local Asian eateries (NOT the buffets) is not as authentic as we would like but I like what is out there – Tiny Spicy Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Chop Suey etc. Usually what I cook at home is much better. Like Donna’s Wonton Soup (page 18 modern classics) which fit Chaya’s theme of Super Soups just right. Light and fresh is perfect for a Spring day (in February).
Ground pork mixed with green onions, ginger, hoisin sauce and sesame oil stuffed in little wonton wrappers. Easier than I thought to make. Cooked in a mix of chicken broth, soy sauce, ginger, and Chinese cooking wine.
I don’t think I’ll be ordering this any more since it is so easy to make at home.
I like to cook. No, I LOVE to cook. Good thing since I need to feed my family. But I only really learned to cook about 10 years ago or so. Beautiful Daughter used to come home and ask me what I was burning for supper that night. I know. But I love her anyway. Cooking was just something I did. NOW it’s something I DO!! And thanks to blogs like Living the Gourmet, which was my Secret Recipe Club ‘assignment” this month, it gets easier all the time. Catherine, Tammy, and Michael Pappas are the people behind the blog. Catherine is the founder who wanted a way to leave recipes for her children. Tammy, her daughter, is the photographer (and her photos are beautiful). Michael, her son, is in charge of interviews and product reviews. The three of them are quite a team.
As usual it was hard to find just one recipe, so as is my habit I narrowed it down to three. (Why three? Once I get my assignment I take a week to read and then try to cook one recipe each week until the reveal. Makes it easier.)
A delicious mix of pasta, Italian sausage, yellow squash {I subbed in a zucchini}
Catherine’s recipe called for Italian sausage, yellow squash, lots of garlic, red onion, Italian parsley, fresh basil, red pepper flakes and dried oregano for flavor. There is no way you would not like this one.
I love making no-churn ice cream. I’ve made ice cream in a table top churn for eons but sometimes you just want something easier. And these no-churn definitely are. If you have made this you know it is super simple. Whip together 2 cups of heavy cream with 1 can sweetened condensed milk and a 1 tsp vanilla. Catherine added in ¼ cup brown sugar and 3-4 tbs. honey. Catherine garnished hers with mini cookies but I didn’t have any so I used turbinado sugar. The honey definitely adds an extra layer of flavor.
I think this one just became my favorite one.
Thanks, Living the Gourmet for some great recipes still to come.
There’s more for Secret Recipe Club. Click on the frog.
The summer is coming on quickly so I am getting into my ‘all about simple’ mode of cooking. Less time n the kitchen, more time outside. And even tho’ I am not a big fan of soup in the summer this one from Ellie Krieger is definitely in the ‘all about simple’ category.
There is a ton of good stuff in this simple clear broth soup: bok choy, mushrooms, green onions, ginger, snow peas, bamboo shoots. And long thin pieces of browned pork. So many veggies in one small bowl. And a tasty soup it was.
Ellie suggested serving it with Sesame Quinoa, so I did!.
The quinoa on the side was a great hep in making sure EVERY drop of soup was GONE!!
The group I was not sure what to do with the pork as Ellie doesn’t mention it again after it is cooked so I polled the group and came up with different answers – in the soup, on the side – I ended up just adding the pork to the soup. For me, that was the right answer.
The recipe is on page 74 of Ellie’s Weeknight Wonders The Sesame Quinoa is on page 260. It is also super simple.
Tea and Scones 