Main Dishes

Chicken Nuggets

May 15, 2011 By jenniepaige 6 Comments
Chicken NuggetsThanks for checking back at Pure Homemaking, I hope you make yourself at home!

Many of you might remember my article that I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the dangers of eating conventional chicken nuggets. I specifically broke down all of the ingredients in McDonald’s nuggets, but sadly they are not alone. The junk that I mentioned that was in them is not just in nuggets, but can be found in many pre-packaged food-like substances.

So in order to avoid all of the junk while still allowing my children to eat the foods that they like, I came up with a healthy version of chicken nuggets. And guess what? It’s easy too! Who knew? What I suggest doing is to make a large batch of this and freeze them so you can have a healthy meal on hand when you feel yourself giving into the drive-though temptation that we have all felt. Serve them with some raw carrots or celery sticks for some added crunch. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Chicken, Lunch Tagged With: , ,

Spiced Apple Pop-Over

May 5, 2011 By jenniepaige 13 Comments
Spiced Apple Pop-Over

 

I have been making different variations of this dish for several years. During Christmas I do individual pop-overs baked in muffin tins filled with goat cheese and herbs. My family can’t get enough of them and they are so simple yet FUN to eat. They fluff up pretty high sometimes, hence the name pop-overs. Served plain and made with beef drippings this recipe is also know as yorkshire pudding in England, which is a much loved culinary tradition.

I usually make my pop-overs with butter, but this time I wanted to try some of my freshly rendered lard that I got from an Amish farm that’s fairly local to me. This dish is a great way to to incorporate more eggs in your diet without serving eggs for breakfast all the time. This is the best and easiest recipe I have found and have used it several times, and it always works. Traditionally this is made using a pre-heated cast iron skillet but the recipe that this one came from said to just put it in a cold oven. Works for me! I just used a rounded deep-dish pie plate so it’s very versatile. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Breakfast, Main Dishes Tagged With: , , ,

Lamb and Soaked Lentils

May 2, 2011 By jenniepaige 2 Comments

This dish was so appreciated after a long day; I just wanted to curl up with my kiddos and relax without spending over an hour in the kitchen trying to make them something healthful. I wanted something easy but also very comfort food-ish without spending all day preparing it. With a little forethought this is a very effortless meal to prepare that even your little ones will enjoy.

I will admit that I have never honestly cooked with coriander and fenugreek before and I’m really not sure why. I have only ever seen them in a couple of recipes and it’s a shame. They bring a certain mellowness to the dish that is really hard to describe unless you try it yourself. I wasn’t sure how much to use them so I didn’t measure the amounts and rather just sprinkled it in. If I had to guess I would say around 1/4-1/2 of  a tsp. Feel free to experiment starting with less and them build from there. Your mouth will thank you! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Beans, Lamb, Main Dishes, Soup, Stews & Chili Tagged With: , , , ,

Slow Cooked Grass-Fed Beef Roast with Green Beans

April 21, 2011 By jenniepaige 1 Comment
Chuck Roast with Green Beans


This is another one of those super easy, super simple, super delicious meals.  It’s so simple that it hardly requires a recipe so I will just list simply how it’s made.

What’s so great about this is that I made the chuck roast in the crock pot the day before and pulled the meal together the next day shortly before we eat it. You can also cook a large batch and freeze some of the meat to make quickie meals later on, like a stir fry or beef tacos. This is a good meal to serve in any season, and it’s great for warmer weather because you cook most of it your crock pot which helps to keep your house cool. You will also yield about a quart or so of nice beef broth from this as well. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crock Pot Meals, Grass-Fed beef/Steak, Main Dishes Tagged With: , , , ,

Perfect Rainy Day Stoup

April 19, 2011 By jenniepaige Leave a Comment
food 003

This Pure Homemaking Blog entry is participating in Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesday. Check out some of the other recipes over there!

I was in no mood today. No good mood anyways. I am SICK of the rain here in Frederick. So, I didn’t have anything prepared for dinner because I was too busy brooding about the lack of spring. Is it just me, or is thing spring not very “springy” so far. I digress. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grass-Fed beef/Steak, Main Dishes, Soup, Stews & Chili Tagged With: , , ,

Make in Your Sleep Shredded Beef

April 14, 2011 By jenniepaige 4 Comments

I’m going to see how short I can make this post. It will probably take me longer to type it then it did to make it. This is one of those amazingly good crowd pleasing, kid loving, husband approved cheap meals that should be in your dinner que. I got this idea from Kelly the Kitchen Kop (I think) and it’s so simple it’s not something I would normally think of doing as I can sometimes over complicate things. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crock Pot Meals, Grass-Fed beef/Steak, Main Dishes Tagged With: , , ,

Chicken and Veggies Julia Child Style

January 17, 2010 By jenniepaige 2 Comments
chicken 040

This is a variation of Julia Child’s Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme. Or for those of you that don’t speak French it’s Casserole-roasted Chicken with Bacon, Onions and Potatoes.  I also added leaks, ginger, mushrooms and white wine.  I took a risk with the ginger. I wasn’t sure how it would go with with the bacon. But the way I did it the ginger flavor was just enough to add depth to the dish without overwhelming it. This was very good. In a very gourmet sort of way.  This will please a crowd for sure. My family full with 3 picky eaters tore it up. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Chicken, Main Dishes Tagged With: , , ,

Lentili

January 13, 2010 By jenniepaige Leave a Comment

This is another name chosen by my faithful hubby. Because it’s like chili meets lentils. Lentili. I thought it was clever.

So, this was a recipe that I adapted from something that I found on the Passionate Homemaking Blog. I wanted to do it in the crockpot because I was going to be running errands during prime time dinner cooking time and really wanted to avoid the temptation of drive through. So, I pulled out the crockpot and thought for a while about what I wanted to make. I remembered I had made this before in the crockpot so decided to whip it up because I remembered it being really good! And it is really good. Like comfort food to the max. Especially in the winter. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crock Pot Meals, Grass-Fed beef/Steak, Main Dishes, Soup, Stews & Chili Tagged With: , , , , ,

Super fast Gingered Chicken and Rice

January 12, 2010 By jenniepaige Leave a Comment

This was really good! I had decided to make chicken and rice at the last-minute because I remembered that I had some left over chicken from making broth the other day that I needed to use up. I always use the breast and the dark meat separate and I had dark meat left over. I really prefer having the dark part of the chicken for things like chicken and rice because I think it has more flavor.

So this was super simple, fast and good! Great combination right! Great for a I have no time but must make dinner weekday meal. The only thing that you might not have on hand in the ginger. But you must have it for gingered chicken and rice. Other wise it would just be plain old chicken and rice. Which is good, don’t get me wrong. But this was special because of the ginger. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Chicken, Main Dishes, Rice Dishes Tagged With: , ,

No Mistakin’ Bacon Chedder Burger’s

January 10, 2010 By jenniepaige 2 Comments

(My husband named this one)
So my 6 year old is a pretty picky eater. She doesn’t even generally like burgers so I was surprised when she couldn’t stop talking about these. Between the sweet and almost spicy and the bacon-these are a crowd pleaser for sure. My hubby even had them as left overs (yes he had two) and they were just as good, even though there wasn’t any more bacon. You should make these. Your family will love you for it and you might make a new best friend if you make it for them. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grass-Fed beef/Steak, Lunch, Main Dishes
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