Italian Meatballs

Who doesn't love meatballs and spaghetti? We haven't had it in a couple years so I thought it was time. I came up with this recipe on the fly. I am sure they would be delicious with Parmesan cheese in the meat mixture, however I obviously can't add cheese now that I am dairy free.

Meatballs

• 1lb Ground Chuck
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons Soy (SILK) milk. (Use your regular milk if you're not dairy free)
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 Tablespoon dried italian herbs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons dehydrated minced onion
• Olive Oil
• 32 oz your favorite marinara

Place ground chuck in large bowl. Beat eggs and milk together in a little bowl before adding to the meat. Then add the bread crumbs, spices, garlic, and minced onion to the beef. Mix well with your hands. Use a medium sized cookie scoop to get uniform sized meatballs. Roll them with your hands and place on a cookie sheet.  Freeze for 5 - 10 minutes to harden.

Heat up a little olive oil in the bottom of a pan. Once the skillet is hot add half the meatballs and brown on all sides. Drain them on a paper towel while the next batch cooks. They don't need to cook on the inside at this point, but you want a nice crust to form on the meatballs. Once the meatballs are all browned, pour your favorite marinara sauce in the pan. Add the meatballs back to the pan, covering it. Stir occasionally, and let simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with pasta of choice.

The Best Pulled Pork EVER!

So I had a friend suggest this recipe when I was looking for a good pulled pork recipe. My husband had actually requested pulled pork, and its rare that he ever requests anything, so I knew I needed a killer recipe. The recipe my friend suggested was so amazing I need to share. I imagine it helped that I got the meat from our local butcher, as the quality is far superior around us then any local grocery store.

After I put the meat in the crockpot I forgot to move it to our utility room before we went out. Moose, our over grown red Irish Setter, broke the last crock pot pulling it off the counter. The crock broke clear in half. My husband remembered when we were at Starbucks, so the whole drive home I was scared dinner would not only be ruined, but so would my brand new crock pot! Luckily for Moose, and the crock pot it remained on the counter untouched. Moose is notorious for taking things off the counter, and as a result NOTHING can be left on there.

This is the original recipe: Crockpot Pulled Pork. I made very few changes to the original recipe.

Crockpot Pulled Pork

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork (spice rub from Cooks Illustrated)

Spice Rub:
2 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 (2 pound) boneless pork shoulder
2 cups barbecue sauce (I used Famous Daves Rich & Sassy.)

Combine all the spices and rub over the meat. The amount of spices is enough for two pork shoulders, if you use only a 2lb piece of meat. You should let the meat marinate for 3-24 hours, but I made it immediately. Place the pork shoulder in the crock pot. If the crockpot is much bigger than the meat, place it in a casserole dish, and then place that in the crock pot. Add 1/2 cup water to the bottom of the casserole dish, or crock pot, depending on where you are cooking the meat. Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours. Once the meat is fork tender take it out and shred it, while discarding any fat that the meat has. Add the meat back to the cock pot and mix in almost a cup of bbq sauce. Cook on low for half an hour. Serve it up, and drizzle more bbq sauce to taste.r 

Sunshine Chicken

When I was younger my older sister made "sunshine chicken." I was an extremely picky kid but loved this recipe. I never had it again, but I never forgot about it. I did some googling and found this recipe for Sunshine Chicken.

I remembered my sister's recipe used honey, or at least I think it did. I decided to make some changes and try it out. It was so delicious that I need to share it. I served it with roasted broccoli and rice. Keep in mind my husband and I love garlic. Tone the garlic, or any spices down to adjust for your taste.

Sunshine chicken

6 Chicken breasts
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon ginger

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix ketchup, honey, soy sauce, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper, ginger, & minced garlic. Brush the mixture on the chicken and bake for an hour. Re-baste the chicken every 15 minutes. Enjoy!

It's Been a Long Time...

Well, as soon as I found out I was pregnant not only did my blog come to a screeching halt, but my cooking did too. We ate takeout almost nightly, which would have been pretty boring to blog about. But in the end we were blessed with the most amazing baby, so all the eating out was worth it!

At around 3 weeks of our daughter's life we found out she has a severe dairy allergy. Since she is breastfed, it meant I needed to learn to not only eat but cook 100% dairy free. It's been an adventure, and learning how many foods that you don't think have dairy in them actually do. Eating out at restaurants is a huge challenge as even cross contamination can give our daughter a severe allergic reaction.

I will not only blog about dairy free recipes, or recipes I make dairy free, but also the various dairy-free alternative products. Some of them have been okay, and some of them have flat out been bad.

But I am back! So follow along on this new adventure as I learn to cook and eat dairy free!