Yummy meals and my pot garden

  My pot garden is well on its way to producing yummies for me.  

Lots of pots going on out there!

reminds me of my granny :)

Already producing cherry maters!

We aren't sure if this tomato plant will make it.

We have rosemary, basil, chives, oregano, thyme, sage, lavender, 3 ancho chili peppers, 1 great marconi pepper, 1 "mexican big jim pepper", 1 banana pepper, 1 cherry tomato plant, 1 black cherry tomato plant, and one purple plum tomato plant.  Hopefully the bunnies stay far away from our tomatoes!


I've been making a couple delicious meals and felt like sharing.  Sometimes I get into a series of recipes that I just love and make over and over and over!  Some recipes, I've followed from an online source and others I have just kinda thrown together on the fly and they turned out good.

I finally gave in and tried my hand in making mayo, because the store bought kind always has soy oil in it and I'm not really down with that.  Here is the link to the recipe I followed, and you HAVE to follow this one exact or you just end up with a nasty jar of something.  I messed up my first batch.  Out of this mayo, there's practically endless options for fun toppings and dips!

http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2010/06/03/the-secret-to-homemade-mayo-patience/

oh.my.yum.

Something else I wanted to make was pesto.  Originally I had wanted to use all the basil we had, but I had some cilantro that needed to be used up STAT.  This was really simple and easy to make and I take no credit for it, but I will put it in my belly any chance I can!

  

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cilantro-jalapeno-pesto-with-lime/

Man, I just realized I've been using a LOT of ground beef recipes! Oh well!  If  you're buying a good local grass-fed beef, you're good.  Luckily, my health food store sells local grass-fed beef.  I even found that Schnucks sells the same brand of ground beef as our new favorite BBQ joint PLUS it's closer and  the same price so I have two great places to shop at, so I've been stocking  up.  I wanted to make sure that Goose's collarbone healed well, so I made sure we had red meat around a lot.  Here's a couple of easy recipes you can throw together in a pinch!

Verde Burgers:

you know  you want dis!

I enjoy Mexican food SO SO much, but it really made me sad to see how I had such a negative unhealthy reaction to cheeses.  So I had to come up with some way to make my own cheese-less mexi foods!  I also love burgers, so I combined the two.

1 lb ground beef (or other ground meat of your choice)
1/2 bunch cilantro, finely chopped: reserve 1/4 c
2 tbsp cumin (less or more to your taste)
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 jalapenos, seeded and diced

Mix all ingredients together very well to evenly distribute the spices.  Shape into 1/4lb patties to yield 4 burgers and grill until the burger reaches an internal temp of 160 degrees

For the topping:

2 dollops of mayo 

1/4 c of jalapeno pesto

2 tsp lime juice

Mix well and top your burger!  Since we go bunless often I topped a bed of spinach with my burger and some sliced onion and the remainder of the cilantro if you so choose.  This night I got a craving for some onion rings, as you can see.  The only thing I did different with that recipe was throw the dipped onion rings in the freezer for a little bit so that the breading wouldn't fall off.

Chili:

Looking at it makes you feel good!

Who doesn't love some yummy chili?  Since we mostly follow the paleo lifestyle, we sometimes like to add beans to ours chili but most often not.

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
3 carrots, chopped
1 c mushrooms, chopped
2 pint jars of canned tomatoes (respectively, 2 14 oz cans stewed tomatoes)
2 tbsp tomato paste to thicken
1 whole onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp cumin
3 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp ground red pepper (optional)
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup molasses
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the ground meat on medium heat until browned, drain and put into slow cooker.  Add all the remaining ingredients and slow cook for a minimum of 3 hours.  If you'd still like beans in your chili add one can of ranch style beans, juice and all!  Taste often, and add seasonings if needed to your preference.