Ingredients:
2 packages little smokies (12-14 ounces each)
1 1/2 cups sweet baby rays bbq sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Instructions:
Add everything to a slow cooker. Stir it all together. Heat it for 2-3 hours on low.
Ingredients:
Box of pasta (I used gluten free spaghetti)
One can pasta sauce (I used prego roasted garlic)
Shredded Parmesan
Pork loin
Italian seasoning
Garlic powder
Salt & pepper
Celery
Onion
Instructions:
Get out a slow cooker. Line the bottom of the slow cooker with celery. Season pork loin with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, & pepper. Set pork loin on top of celery. Rough chop half an onion and toss on top of slow cooker. If available use probe to cook pork to 160F
Once the pork is cooked set a pan to boil your pasta (according to package instructions). Heat pasta sauce ( yeah if would probably be better if you made sauce from scratch but this is an easy meal). Once pasta is done and drained combine with sauce. Slice 1/4” pieces of pork. Plate spaghetti and pork. Sprinkle Parmesan over food. (If you are doing dairy free skip the cheese).
Gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, vegan
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp oil (I used vegetable oil)
2 cups walnuts chopped
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 salt
1/2 cinnamon
1/4 cayenne
Instructions:
Put oil in pan.
add walnuts and toss/stir them to coat.
Add sugar, salt, cinnamon, & cayenne.
Heat until sugar caramelizes (melts).
Nutrition:
serving size 1 Tbsp
57 calories
5.2g fat
2.2g carbs
1.1g protein
Gluten free, alter for vegetarian, dairy free
Ingredients:
1lb green dried split peas
1 meaty ham bone roughly 2lbs (leave out for vegetarian)
3 cups peeled diced potatoes
3 cups diced celery (if you are out of celery but have celery seed that’s fine but 1 cup = 1tsp seed)
2 cups diced carrot
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
8 cups water or ham stock
Instructions:
You may want to clean the peas. If you want to speed up the cook time soak the peas overnight in water.
Chop veggies. Add ham bone with water into slow cooker and set for 4 hrs on high or 8 hrs on low. Add veggies to slow cooker. Add seasoning to slow cooker and stir. Occasionally stir soup. Ready when the peas no longer hold their structure. Pull bone from soup and make sure meat from bone is in bite sized pieces.
Nutrition estimated
1 bowl has roughly 234 calories, 50g carbs, 1g fat, 18.4 protein
This estimate does not include ham content as I was having a hard time finding ham bone w meat info.
Gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian (vegan if you are ok with honey)
Ingredients:
1.5 tsp white vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
1/4 Cup water
1/4 Cup Tamari sauce (gf soy sauce)
3 Tbsp honey (if you are vegan sub white sugar)
1/2 tsp Sesame seed oil
1” knob of fresh ginger or 1/2 tsp dried ginger
2.5 tsp corn starch
3 cloves minced garlic
Instructions:
Over medium low heat add all ingredients except garlic to a sauce pan. Heat to desired temp. Remember to be careful adding cornstarch so it doesn’t clump. When it clumps use a mesh strainer to remove clumps. If you don’t stir often honey may burn to bottom of saucepan.
Put over whatever tasty food you like. Chicken, fish, veggies all are good options.
Nutrition:
3 servings- 102 calories, 1g fat, 21 carbs, 2.8g protein
Gluten free, dairy free
Ingredients:
1/2 tsp powdered ginger or 1” peeled fresh ginger
1 clove garlic or 1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4th cup gf tamari
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1/4 red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Mix together. Add or remove rep pepper flakes to taste
Gluten-free, low carb w modifications, dairy free w modifications
Ingredients:
1lbs left over pulled pork
1 1/2 cups of chopped onion
2tsp salt
2 tsp ground coriander
4 tsp ground cumin
6 Tbsp chili powder
4 cloves minced garlic
1 1/2 ounce chocolate (leave out for dairy free)
2 cans (28 ounces each) Tomato Sauce
1 can (15.5 ounces) kidney beans rinsed
4 cups beef broth
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp red pepper
4 bay leaves
Instructions:
Thaw leftover pulled pork. I know many of you are screaming left over pulled pork? Just cook so much you can’t finish it and freeze some.
Chop onion, mince garlic, & chop up chocolate.
Rinse kidney beans.
Put everything in a largish slow cooker
Cook on low for 4 hrs.
Take out bat leaves before serving.
For low carb leave out kidney beans and use a very dark chocolate. Tomato is a bit high in carbs so it may still be to high carb for some diets. Decide for yourself.
Nutrition: (I put all the ingredients to a nutrition app so your mileage may very)
Makes 10 bowls
Calories- 338, fat- 12.8g, carbs- 35.4g, protein- 20.6g
Low carb version
Calories- 244, fat- 12.3g, carbs- 18.4g, protein- 14.6g
possibly Gluten-free, possibly dairy free, possibly vegan, Possibly vegetarian, possibly low carb, possibly low fat
Taco bars can fit so many diets by how you dress them. Skip the shell and make it a salad, skip the cheese and sour cream and it’s dairy free, go corn shell instead of flour and it’s gluten-free. This makes a great party food.
Note: these are American tacos not Mexican tacos. They both have their own merits and share some ingredients. I recognize that these bare little to no resemblance to the street tacos many of us love.
Possible Ingredients:
Ground beef &/or chicken &/or flank steak &/or fake meat product
Taco seasoning packet (I like McCormick)
Flour tortillas, &/or soft corn tortillas, &/or crunchy corn shells, &/or tortilla chips
Shredded &/or leaf lettuce generally iceberg
Mixed shredded taco cheese
Chopped onion (you can sauté if wanted)
Chopped bell peppers (sauté if wanted)
Avocado &/or guacamole
Sour cream
Picklesd &/or fresh jalapeños
Hot sauces (whatever kind you like but if you are having a party a selection at various heats is nice)
Refried beans &/or black beans
Chopped tomato (I use roma)
Kernel corn
Rice
Instructions:
Cook your meat of choice (or skip if you don’t want meat)
Chop all the toppings to the appropriate sizes and styles you want
Put everything on a surface and assemble whatever Americanized food item you want.
Optional combinations:
Low carb taco salad- shredded lettuce, meat, cheese, onion, peppers, hot sauce, jalapeños
Vegan taco salad- lettuce, black beans, corn, chopped onion, chopped peppers, chopped tomato, avocado, if available vegan cheese &/or fake meat.
Gluten-free tacos- crunchy corn taco shells, meat product (double check spice mix has no flour), lettuce, tomato, pepper, onion, sour cream, cheese, hot sauce, jalapeños
Dairy free Burrito- flour tortillas, black beans, corn, meat, onion, hot sauce, rice
Have fun and mix up your own combos at home.
Nutritional content:
To many options to calculate. I recommend putting your options into my fitness pal or some other nutrition calculator.
Gluten free, dairy free, modify to low carb
Ingredients:
1 lb stew beef
2 containers/8 cups beef stock/broth
6 golden potatoes roughly 3” sized (leave out for low carb)
12 ish baby carrots
1/2 small white onion
Spices: 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp salt
Instructions:
Cut up stew beef into bite sized pieces. (Ours store cuts them into biggish pieces to large for stew/soup)
Brown beef in a skillet. It’ll add a smidge of flavor to the beef and keep it from looking grey when boiled in the broth. (You can skip browning it and it won’t change things a lot).
Dice potatoes into bite sized pieces of roughly equal size. Don’t measure them or anything. If you want this to be lo wish carb leave out the potato.
Dice baby carrots into bite size Pieces of roughly equal size. You could use regular sized carrots but will have to peel them.
Dice onion into bite size pieces of roughly equal size.
Adjust spices based on what you like. Keep in mind some broth/stock has salt and adjust accordingly.
Put everything into a slow cooker and set on high for 4 hrs or low for 6-8 hrs. If you’re home stir it sometimes but you don’t need to. (The benefit of a slow cooker is you set it and walk away).
Rough Nutritional info: (6 servings)
Calories 296, fat 9.6g, carbs 30.9g, protein 22g, iron 10.1%
Modified for low carb: calories 186, fat 9.4g, carbs 4.9g, protein 19g, iron 10.1%
Quick guide: shuck, clean, boil, vacuum seal, & freeze.
More details below.
Step 1 – get corn in season for cheap in bulk. I go to a local farm that has a small store but you might go to a market or grow your own.
Step 2 – shuck corn (remove the green outside and as many of those little hairs you can) we like to do this outside when the weather is nice cause those hairs get everywhere.
Step 3 – get your biggest stock pot and start heating the water.
Step 4 – while you wait for that to heat rinse corn.
Step 5 – cut cobs to manageable pieces and cut off icky bits.
Step 6 – boil corn for 4 min.
Step 7 – put boiled corn into an ice bath to cool.
Step 8 – sort corn for vacuum sealing . I put them on this cookie sheet w a grid thing so that it dries. I sort by size so we can vacuum seal better.
Step 9 – vacuum seal
Step 10 – freeze
