The Nourishing Gourmet is having a carnival and I’m playing along. Who couldn’t use more wholesome meal ideas. Today the focus is on main dishes and here’s what I’ve got. Some simple, some not so simple, but all of them will not break your bank, a couple focus on using up leftovers in the fridge, many use the crockpot, and all of them are tasty and repeats in our house. A word on the crockpot. It gets used weekly in our house. There is always a day that seems to be so busy that I know I won’t be able to prepare proper meals and the crockpot seems to be the way I cope with that. I’ll start off with my crock pot recipes as I don’t have to go find the recipe. They are my tried and true, in my head favorites!
Beef Roast in a Crockpot
Place one to two onions, wedged, in the bottom of pot. Add an inch of broth. Lay roast on top of onions and put some pepper and garlic on the meat. Add a sprig or two of herbs if you have them and then a layer of carrotson top. High for 4-6 hours, low for 6-8 and you have a tender, juicy roast. I try to make as large a roast as my pot will offer and use the leftovers in soup, tostadas, rice dishes, sandwiches, or whatever seems to float your boat will work.
Chicken in a Crockpot
Many of you may already do this recipe, but honestly it is my favorite way to cook a chicken, I’m not sure where I figured out how to do it, and it needs to be shared!
Place one or two onions, wedged, into the bottom of a crockpot. Place whole chicken on top and rub bird with garlic (2-3 cloves), pepper (4 cranks on my mill), and a pat of butter. Sprinkle with a dash of cayenne and cover. Cook until well done and tender (low for 6-8 hours depending on your pot.) The smell of this cooking will make you hungry so plan accordingly!
Salsa Chicken-remember that jar of salsa that’s fermented to a tang you just aren’t fond of
in a glass dish combine chicken pieces (2-3 pounds) with a jar of salsa. Let marinate overnight and then put into crockpot in the morning. Cook on low until meat is fork tender (about 6-8 hours.) Eat as is and shred the leftover’s for tacos or rice dishes.
Fried Rice-this is a great way to use up leftover meats and veggies
Chop one onion and place in wok or large skillet with a bit of oil and some garlic, sautee until soft. Scramble four eggs in same skillet/wok with onions pushed off to side. Add in your vegetables and meat (up to 2 cups each), stir until warmed through. Add 4-5 cups cooked rice, stir well. Pour 3 tablespoons of good soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce over the mix and your done.
Crustless Quiche
one onion, chopped
tablespoon of oil
leftover meat if you have it, 1 cup (turkey is a favorite around here as is sausage)
10 ounces or so of spinach, thawed and squeezed
5 eggs, beaten
seasoning (I use salt, pepper, dry mustard, and cayenne)
2 cups of cheese (monterey jack is good, so is co-jack, so is muenster)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch pie plate or quiche dish.
Sautee onion in oil, add in meat and then spinach. Cook until excess moisture evaporates, allow to cool some.
Mix seasonings, cheese, and eggs in a large bowl, stir in spinach mixture. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.
Cabbage Roll Casserole
brown 1 lb of ground beef in a skillet, add a chopped onion at end and let them soften in hot meat while you finely chop one head of cabbage and add into the mix. Stir together 2 cups of beef broth, 2 small cans of tomato sauce, a cup of rice, and seasoningsto taste (we did salt and some herbs such as basil, thyme, and chives.) Mix all of this together, put in a 9×13 pan and bake for 50 min covered and then 20-30 min uncovered at 350. I topped ours off with a sprinkle of raw milk havarti cheese. Even the wee ones ate it!
My Favorite Fish-mild and good
Pieces of a mild fish (we like tilapia)
lemon juice
water
pepper
Heat up a griddle on your stove-top, med-hi. You’ll need a lid that can withstand heat (I use the lid to my big skillet)
Place as many pieces of fish that will fit under the lid, but still have some space between them, onto your griddle. Pepper them, drizzle with lemon juice, and cover with lid (the lemon juice will sizzle and steam) Occasionally lift the lid and put some water on the griddle and re-cover quickly to encourage fish to steam. Flip and repeat with pepper and lemon juice and then water until fish is cooked. If you like things lemony use less water and more lemon. This doesnt’ take long, so have other parts of the meal ready first.
Well, that is seven and my fingers are tired of typing. Follow link to find more recipes by other bloggers!
Wow! I am so impressed! You have some great, simple and yummy sounding recipes. Thanks for sharing them!
Yum!
I like making crustless quiche, too!
I’ve never heard of cabbage roll casserole- that sounds fun.
Blessings,
Michele
I just came over here from your comment at the Nourishing Gourmet- hi! Your recipes sound very tasty; I might have to try your cabbage roll casserole since my husband loves cabbage rolls but the full leaves of cabbage are always hard to cut and quite daunting to the little ones.
With regards to your recipe-finding conundrum posted earlier this month: I keep all my recipes, printed out on regular paper, in a 3-ring binder with the rest of my cookbooks. I actually have 3 of these now but one is my main book. One of the others stores recipes I am not ready to part with but haven’t used in ages (possibly a year or more) and the other is just for desserts (mostly comes out during the holidays) I am not perfect at putting things into the book but I am very good at printing them out
On desk-tidying day (sometimes once a week, sometimes once a month) I gather them all up and put them in their proper spots in the book. I have 5 sections- ground meat, whole meat, other meat/vegetarian, sides, and baked goods.
The other thing I do is write in my cookbooks with reckless abandon. When I make a change (or 6) to Mark Bittman’s pancake recipe, I wrote it right on the page in the book. It’s easier than copying the whole thing onto a recipe card or typing and printing. Usually I can remember which book a recipe came from, but sometimes I have to browse a bit. It helps that I use the same half dozen cookbooks most of the time.
I hope this helps a little. I look forward to seeing how your adventure in healthy eating progresses. It really is a lifestyle change, to try to eat this way.
Yum! I’m going to try the crustless quiche and the cabbage roll casserole.
Thanks!
Linds
[...] crustless quiche or other egg dishes [...]
Ohhhh, thanks for these recipes! I’m so happy that crock pot season is upon us. My favorite quick roast recipe: Place roast in crockpot, place a whole bulb of unpeeled garlic on top, spoon a can of diced tomato’s around the roast and cook on low all day. Delicious!!
Great Info! I am always looking for new ideas when it comes to feeding my big family. We all need resources and your have great information here. Thanks!