Potato Soup

Posted on: January 22, 2015 by: Tara Canlett Comments: 1 Comment

I made baked potato soup before but it calls for a lot of milk so I wanted a potato soup that wasn’t so heavy. This one is really good and only uses 2 cups of milk and some chicken broth instead. Of course, homemade chicken broth is best but I buy the Pacific brand sometimes. You can make this soup without the milk if you want (just add more chicken broth). The milk just gives it that creamy potato soup look and taste. For a vegetarian option just leave out the bacon and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

Potato Soup

Author: Tara Canlett

Serves: 4

Ingredients

4-6 slices of bacon
½ cup chopped onion (or 1 leek, chopped)
2 large carrots, peeled & chopped (optional)
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 medium potatoes, peeled & chopped into small squares or triangles
Salt & pepper, sprinkle desired amount
½ - 1 tsp garlic powder
32 oz chicken broth (4 cups)
1 TB dried parsley
2 cups milk
Shredded cheese (optional)
Other options: corn, kale/spinach, zucchini, butternut squash

Directions

Cook the bacon in a large pot (I cook right in the pot I'm cooking the soup in to save on dishes), remove and set aside in a papertowel.
Drain the grease and add onion, celery & carrots to the pot. Sauté for a couple minutes. Add diced potatoes, salt & pepper, garlic powder. Stir and sauté for a few more minutes.
Pour in the broth, add the parsley, and bring to a gentle boil. Crumble the bacon and add (if you want to add corn and/or kale you can put that in now too).
Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes on medium, or until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the milk and bring to a gentle boil while stirring consistently. Reduce heat and cook about 10 minutes. Continue stirring frequently. You basically just want to cook until it's the right consistency. Add shredded cheese if desired. It does help thicken it.

Notes

If you don't cook the bacon in the same pot then you will need to add a little oil before putting the onion, carrots & celery into the pot.

Another picture of this delicious soup!

It would be really good with some homemade bread! I make bread every week using my bread machine. I mostly make it for my kids but who can resist a slice of bread fresh out of the oven with some real butter on it?! That’s usually the only time I have a piece. Otherwise I try to avoid bread/crackers. You can find the recipe here, by Real Fit, Real Food Mom. After seeing this recipe, I started using my bread machine again after sitting in the cupboard for 10 years! Crazy, huh? And it still works great. I also make our pizza dough in it. One of these days I will have to post that recipe. 🙂

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Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Posted on: January 17, 2015 by: Tara Canlett

We love a good stew on a Fall/Winter day. Put it in the crock pot (slow cooker) early in the day and you get to smell all those good smells ALL-DAY-LONG. I have perfected this recipe now, to the point that everyone loves it and has seconds! And my husband and daughter both wanted to take it for lunch the next day. 🙂 My son ate it but he is weird about dinner. He loves breakfast and he loves lunch. Dinner is hit and miss with him, so I don’t take it personal. 😉

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Author: Tara Canlett

Serves: 4

Ingredients

½ - 1 cup chopped onion
1 lb beef stew meat, cut into 1" cubes (grass-fed organic preferred)
¼ cup flour (optional)
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp dried rosemary
½ - 1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper (sprinkle desired amount, we use sea salt)
32 oz (4 cups) organic beef broth (I use the Pacific brand)
3 large carrots (peeled and cut into 1" pieces)
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into small or large chunks, depending on how you like it (I have used Russet, yellow, or red potatoes - peeling optional)
Other options: add corn, peas, red onion, tomatoes, other herbs (whatever you like, or have on hand), mushrooms, kale, bell peppers, zucchini

Directions

There are 2 options. You can chop the onion and make a layer at the bottom of the crock pot, cover the meat with flour and add to the crock pot, on high (you don't have to cover with flour but this adds extra flavor and helps thicken the broth some). Or, you can brown the flour-covered meat in a pan with oil first before adding to the crock pot (I use coconut oil). And add a little beef broth towards the end to deglaze the pan. We like this method best but it does use an extra pan.
Start adding the seasonings and beef broth to the crock pot. Add the chopped carrots and celery (and onion if you haven't already).
For the potatoes, you can add them now or later. If you add them now they will be mushier. So it just depends on how you like it. If you want to add them later, add them about 2 hours before you want to eat (depending on how small you cut the potatoes). I usually just put them in at the beginning, but add them in last.
Set the crock pot for either 8-10 hours (low) or 4-6 hours (high), depending on how much time you have. I usually have everything ready before noon and set for 6 hours.

Notes

Fresh bread & butter or a homemade biscuit would be really good with this stew!

Here’s the crock pot I use and I love it! There are other options through Amazon, with different prices too.
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Doesn’t that look so good? This batch had zucchini & bell pepper in it too. Yum!
(And that’s minced onion because I ran out of regular onion.)

Organic School Lunch Ideas – Part II

Posted on: January 13, 2015 by: Tara Canlett Comments: 1 Comment

This is Part II of my organic lunch series. (I’m not sure how many parts there will be.) To see Part I go here, which includes sandwiches without mayo, soup, and leftover rice/noodles. Part II is mostly leftovers and pizza, but a few other things we came up with too. I usually give her ice water with her lunch, with a small slice of lemon sometimes.

Pizza

Of course you can still have pizza in a homemade lunch. There are a few options. 1) Make-ahead pizzas that you have ready in the freezer, 2) leftover pizza from dinner, or 3) a make-your-own pizza (not pictured) that they put together themselves at lunch time. I think the make-ahead pizzas work great. We followed the recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food cookbook and it’s so nice to just pull out a pizza, put it in her lunch, and it’s thawed by lunchtime. And leftover pizza is definitely an easy option. I make pizza at home sometimes and use my bread machine to knead the dough. We did try the make-your-own pizza before. We just put in mini pita pockets, some pizza sauce in a little bowl with a lid (like her pink one shown below), some shredded cheese, and toppings she likes (pepperoni, pieces of ham, pineapple, olives, bell pepper, etc.). It seems like my daughter likes to have her pizza already made for her. 😉

Cheese Pizza (made ahead and pulled from the freezer) – served with veggies, frozen applesauce, walnuts & pumpkin seeds;

Cheese & Pepperoni Pizza (made ahead and pulled from the freezer) – with salad, Drew’s ranch dressing, and frozen applesauce; or

Leftover Pizza (from dinner) – with apples, veggies, and some pirate booties (a special treat).

(Details: I usually buy Muir Glen organic pizza sauce, Applegate uncured pepperoni, and I usually make pizza for us to have at home for dinner using my bread machine to knead the dough. We usually have leftovers too. For the little pizzas, I used Trader Joe’s pita pockets for the crust.)

Apples or Crackers with Peanut Butter

We tried the apple & peanut butter sandwiches and they were kind-of a pain to make so we just did apple slices with pb to dip in after that. She also likes cracker sandwiches with pb & honey, or you could do pb & jelly or just pb.

Apple Peanut Butter Sandwiches – served with pretzels, carrots, tomatoes, & cheese;

Apples & PB Dip – with Annie’s bunny graham cookies, cucumber, tomatoes, & a Stonyfield frozen yogurt; or

PB & Honey Cracker Sandwiches – with strawberries, pineapple, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, & a Stonyfield frozen yogurt.

(Details: I buy the Trader Joe’s organic peanut butter with just one ingredient – organic peanuts. For the pretzels, I sometimes go with Trader Joe’s brand or the Newman’s Own brand. It just depends on where I’m shopping. I buy the Late July brand crackers. And just a note on the Stonyfield yogurt tube, we freeze them and she only has these once in a while. They do have carrageenan in them. Hoping that changes one day!)

Miscellaneous Ideas (quesadilla, trail mix, hummus, and a hotdog – on occasion)

My daughter likes to have a quesadilla once in a while, or hummus to dip pretzels/carrots and one time she brought in a hotdog because they have access to a microwave on Fridays. This is a rare occasion but nice to have a hotdog once in a while. 🙂 She does bring trail mix quite often. I make it myself by just putting together different kinds of nuts, seeds, raisins, popcorn or Annie’s bunny crackers, and sometimes I throw in a few chocolate chips.

Cheese Quesadilla – served with salsa, homemade trail mix, carrots, tomatoes, and strawberries;

Trail Mix & Popcorn – with a pumpkin muffin w/butter, cantaloupe, cucumber, and tomatoes;

Hummus Dip – with pretzels, a few chocolate chips, carrots, tomatoes, cheese, and frozen applesauce; or

A Hotdog – with ketchup and relish, a cheese stick, carrots & celery, and an apple.

(Details: I get my tortillas from our local food co-op, the pumpkin muffin recipe is found here (you could make a big batch and freeze some), I buy organic popcorn sometimes or make my own, I use Lilly’s red pepper hummus, the frozen applesauce is in a smoothie-pop-mold, the hotdog is the Applegate brand, and I buy Trader Joe’s hotdog buns sometimes, we also found a natural Franz brand, or I have also made my own but haven’t done that in a while. I can’t seem to get the shape right but will try again one of these days.)

Leftovers (spaghetti, mac ‘n cheese with ham or steak, and tortellini)

We do leftovers whenever we can. She especially likes leftover spaghetti which she will eat cold but now that we have a soup thermos she can bring it warm and it stays warm. The tortellini is in the soup thermos. And FYI, that tortellini lunch was a special lunch I put together for Halloween. Blood-themed, with carrot & olive fingers and pumpkin seeds, lol. We also have Annie’s mac ‘n cheese on occasion, so she will take leftovers of that mixed with some ham or steak and she would eat that cold too but now she can bring it warm in the soup thermos. 🙂

Leftover Spaghetti with Corn – served with a zucchini cookie, cucumber, tomatoes, grapes, and those are actually homemade canned peaches;

Leftover Mac ‘N Cheese w/ham or steak – with cucumber, green beans, tomatoes, an orange (with a Halloween face), and a granola bar or with cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, and frozen applesauce; or

Leftover Tortellini – with strawberries, carrot & olive fingers, and pumpkin seeds.

(Details: The zucchini cookie recipe can be found here. We actually canned peaches during the summer and this was the first time we ever canned anything. They turned out kind-of mushy but really good. We used a honey/lemon/water mixture. I buy Annie’s mac ‘n cheese on occasion. Most of these veggies were from out of our first organic garden. The harvest berry granola bar is the Cascadian Farm brand. The pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe can be found here. I made the tortellini with olives, smoked pork sausage, tomato sauce and different herbs & seasonings. And I let her take a little cherry juice in her lunch that day because we were going with a Halloween-themed bloody lunch just for fun. 😉 )

Here are some of the lunch box items from above:

And here are some other lunch box items that would be neat to have!

Guacamole Dip

Posted on: December 29, 2014 by: Tara Canlett Comments: 2 Comments

I used to be one of those people that didn’t like guacamole, or avocados at all. If it had the green stuff, I wasn’t touching it. I never really gave it a chance. It just looked gross. After we started eating organic/healthier foods, my taste buds changed for sure. I started trying things that I hadn’t tried in so long and it all tasted so good! Two things I still do not like for sure are mushrooms and fish. I do like clams, baby shrimp, lobster, crab, and smoked salmon is pretty good. And my husband likes tuna fish. Other than that we are not really seafood people. I know that’s weird living in WA. And it took me a long time to start liking crab and smoked salmon. As for the mushrooms, we don’t mind cream of mushroom soup as long as the mushrooms are chopped small. Okay, I have really gotten off topic here. 😉 So it is just estimated amounts in this recipe. Just taste and add more if you need to. I never really measure. Guacamole is good on a burger or in a burrito too. When I use it as a dip, I buy organic tortilla chips and I usually try to get gluten-free. This would be a great New Year’s Eve appetizer! I would double the recipe though. 🙂

Guacamole Dip

Author: Tara Canlett

Ingredients

2 large avocados
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder (or 1 TB chopped white/yellow onion or red onion)
½ tsp cumin
1 TB chopped cilantro
2 small tomatoes-chopped
a few squirts of lime juice
salt & pepper (sprinkle desired amount)

Directions

Mash up the avocados first. Cut around the avocado lengthwise and they usually peel apart easily. Then you can scoop out the seed and scoop everything out. And I found it easier to scoop if they are at room temperature (they should be kept at room temperature anyway unless they are ripe and you don’t want them to ripen more). I use a potato masher to mash up the avocados.
Then add all the other ingredients and stir it up.

A Healthier Frozen-Themed Birthday Party

Posted on: December 21, 2014 by: Tara Canlett

We usually have to worry about snow on my daughter’s birthday because there have been several years where it snowed and people couldn’t make it to the party. This year, we had to worry about a power outage! It was only out for about 24 hours or so but it felt like forever. Much better than our week-long-adventure without power though! So a December birthday… perfect for a Frozen-themed birthday party! In case you don’t know what Frozen is, it’s a very cute Disney movie that just about every girl is obsessed with (my daughter included). Fair warning, once they watch the movie the songs will be sung numerous times and stuck in your head for days, months, years! 😉 Anyway, I started researching Frozen-themed party foods. Of course most of it was dye-filled to match the blue colors from the movie. I continued to research and started looking up winter-themed parties too to get as many healthy ideas as I could.

Here’s what I came up with (below). For full disclosure, I ended up ordering a regular cake because our power was out. Wow, I realized I used to have it pretty easy when I just ordered a cake or cupcakes and went to pick it up! Oh well, definitely wouldn’t want to go back to eating the way we used to even though it’s more work now. I decided to make the cupcakes later on that week since I already bought all the stuff anyway. So, why not experiment with making blue frosting since I had the time and wasn’t preparing them for a party?? Too bad it didn’t turn out. 🙁 I wasn’t going to experiment before a birthday party. There’s enough stress and pressure to get everything just right. I get a lot of anxiety before my kids’ parties. I want them to have great parties but with Fibro it is very difficult. I try my best and that’s all I can do! This year I decided to let Kailey pick one friend outside of our usual group of family/friends that go to all the parties. She picked a friend from school. So then I had a little more stress of making it a good party for her friend and parents. I have met her friend many times but not the parents. We are skeptical about letting Kailey stay the night with friends because she has had several seizures during her sleep. She could have a play date but it just hasn’t come up.

Snacks
We made the cards to label the food using old cards that I had (they just had birds on the other side), paper that was cut using special crinkle-cut scissors, a blue marker, and Frozen Stickers. And we made them by candle light during our power outage, haha.

Olaf Noses (carrots with ranch dip)

Olaf Cheese Sticks (cheese sticks with Olaf faces drawn using black pen, black marker, and orange marker)

Frozen Hearts (yogurt covered pretzels)

Sven & his friends (crackers covered with peanut butter, a pretzel for the antlers, raisins for eyes & a chocolate chip for the nose)

Snowballs (popcorn)

Reindeer Snacks (yogurt covered raisins) – I wanted to label this ‘snow-covered reindeer poo’ but my daughter wasn’t going for it, lol.

Melted Snow to drink (water bottles)

Other ideas: Snowman Parts (marshmallows for the body, pretzel sticks for the arms, raisins for the eyes, tiny pieces of carrot for the nose, etc. Marshmallows aren’t really healthy but you could get these that are better: Dandies Marshmallows) – they could be put together in baggies labeled ‘snowman parts’ or laid out on the table for everyone to build, Homemade Sugar Cookies Shaped like Snowflakes (with or without homemade frosting), Yogurt Covered Strawberries (frozen hearts), Snowflake or Snowman Shaped Sandwiches, Broccoli with Ranch Dip for Snow-Covered Trees (or use cauliflower), Pretzels (Sven antlers), Banana Snowmen (banana slices on a stick with pretzel sticks for the arms, raisins for the eyes, tiny pieces of carrot for the nose, Crackers with Snowflake Shaped Cheese (just use a Snowflake Cookie Cutter for the cheese), Lemonade (Olaf in Summer), Snowman Shaped Melon (just use a Snowman Cookie Cutter), and there’s many more ideas out there.

Cupcakes

Funny story about the cupcakes. So I planned on making yellow cupcakes with pink frosting (because I didn’t want to experiment with blue before the party), and then our power went out. I just went in to a nearby grocery store and ordered a cake. Not what I would normally do these days. Well since I already bought all the stuff to make the cupcakes, I decided to make them a few days after our power came back on. But I wanted to experiment with making blue naturally colored frosting. The blue didn’t turn out. It turned out an ugly purple tint! I think it really could have worked, I just need to do some more experimenting. The cupcakes turned out though and were really good! My family says they are similar to cornbread but I don’t think so. They are more like a cupcake to me. Definitely sweeter than the cornbread I make! And everybody still loved it and gobbled them down. To make the cupcakes, I used this recipe but skipped the step on separating the eggs and just put them in whole, beating in one at a time. I also sifted the flour. I was really hoping to have successfully made this and have a picture to show but unfortunately I was following a different recipe that was missing one of the steps in the blue coloring. So mine didn’t turn out. If I am successful one of these days then I will post a picture here and share the info. So for now, it’s just a picture of the cupcakes. 🙁 And I usually tape stickers to toothpicks for the cupcake toppers but you could also do Rings. Or a cake topper if you are making a cake. You can also do just white frosting! That would totally work for this kind of party.

And here’s the inside of the cupcake:

Decorations

There are Frozen-themed party supplies at different stores like Toys ‘R Us, Target, etc. You can make paper snowflakes to hang. My daughter wore her Anna dress from Halloween and brought some of her frozen toys to setup. You can make labels for all the food. Blue and white balloons would work great. Or here’s some items to purchase:

Games

There are many games you could play but we were at a bowling alley, so bowling was part of the party and I decided not to do games. Ideas: ‘Let it Go’ snowball toss (toss cotton balls into a bucket or bowl on the table), ‘Do you want to build a snowman?’ (pin the snowman parts on the snowman, or pin the nose on Olaf, like pin the tail on the donkey), and many more. Here’s some ideas:

Easy Dairy-Free Fudge

Posted on: December 16, 2014 by: Tara Canlett

I made this fudge last year and it turned out so good! You would never know it was coconut milk and not regular milk. And the only reason I used coconut milk is because I had a can of it and needed to use it for something. The recipe is derived from The Detoxinista. I used regular dark chocolate chips though that are not dairy-free but I’m including the dairy-free chocolate chips in the recipe. So you could use either kind. (See a link below for dairy-free chocolate chips.) And you can make it refined-sugar-free fudge by using unsweetened chocolate, and increasing the amount of honey when making the sweetened condensed coconut milk.

Easy Dairy-Free Fudge

Author: Tara Canlett

Ingredients

½ cup sweetened condensed coconut milk (1 14 oz can full-fat coconut milk, ¼ cup raw honey)
2 TB coconut oil
12 oz chocolate chips (regular or dairy-free, see link below)
Optional: 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

To make the sweetened condensed coconut milk, pour the can of coconut milk into a small pan and heat over medium-high heat until boiling, about 5 min. Watch closely so it doesn't bubble over, and whisk regularly. Reduce heat, bring to a simmer, add the honey, whisking until it's dissolved. Allow to simmer for 30-45 min, or until liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely if storing in the fridge. (This should last a week when stored in a sealed container in the fridge.)
In the same saucepan, melt together ½ cup of the condensed coconut milk, chocolate chips, and coconut oil until smooth.
Pour into an 8 x 8 baking dish, lined with parchment paper for easy removal. (Sprinkle in the nuts at this time, if desired.)
Place the dish in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours.
Slice and serve chilled for best texture.

Tip: If you want to make coconut milk using coconut cream, heat 2 TB of coconut cream per 3/4 cup of water in a pan and stir until dissolved. Increase the amount until you get to at least 14 oz for the recipe above. I made a lot and put some in a mason jar in the fridge to use for smoothies. It should last up to 4 days in the fridge.

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Gingerbread Pancakes

Posted on: December 3, 2014 by: Tara Canlett

Last year I experimented with different kinds of pancakes using organic ingredients. I made pumpkin, zucchini, apple cinnamon, regular, and gingerbread, to name a few. I think we started a new family tradition too, Gingerbread Pancakes on Christmas morning! 😀 You could even make Gingerbread Man shapes using a Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter (make sure it’s not a plastic one). Scroll down to see ours, although we didn’t use a cookie cutter and just made the shape on our own. I think a cookie cutter would be much better, haha.

Gingerbread Pancakes

Author: Tara Canlett

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

1½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup molasses
1 cup milk

Directions

In a large bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon.
Make a well in the middle of the bowl (or use a separate bowl) and add the egg, vanilla, molasses, and milk.
Whisk up the wet ingredients in the middle, then start mixing up the wet and dry ingredients together just until combined (lumps are okay). If the batter is too thick, add a little water to thin it out.
Grease your skillet and set to medium (I use coconut oil to grease it). Once it is heated, add a big spoonful of batter to each area on the skillet, depending on how big your skillet is and how big you want your pancakes.
When bubbles form in the batter, you can flip them. Cook a couple more minutes, remove from the pan and repeat until all the batter is used up. Best served with real butter and 100% pure maple syrup, or raw honey.

You could make the pancakes into Gingerbread Man shapes.
We didn’t use a cookie cutter for this one but would be much prettier if we did. 😉

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A Healthier Thanksgiving – Tips & Recipes

Posted on: November 25, 2014 by: Tara Canlett

Last year we had our first organic Thanksgiving dinner. It was just our little family and my dad but I wanted to go all out and try to make all our favorite dishes using organic real food ingredients. Everything turned out great! I know organic foods are expensive and when you are trying to buy a complete Thanksgiving meal, it really adds up. While I do think organic is best, I want to share my 5 Simple Tips for a Healthier Thanksgiving (without having to go completely organic):

Here are some recipes for healthier Thanksgiving appetizers, ideas for drinks, what we put on our turkey, recipes for side dishes, biscuits/rolls, and desserts. (Sorry if some of the pictures aren’t the best quality. Those were taken last year before I got better with my photography.) 😉

Appetizers

Make it simple with chips & dip, fruit/veggie tray, meat/cheese/cracker tray, and/or pickles & olives.
(I use organic tortilla chips, a refried bean & cheese dip, salsa (with or without sour cream), Late July crackers, uncured pepperoni. A guacamole and ranch dip recipe is listed below.)

Party Appetizers: http://organicfibromommies.com/2013/12/party-appetizers/.

Guacamole: The recipe is included in the Party Appetizers link above, and I’m totally estimating on the amounts because I don’t really measure. But it was so good! 1 tsp garlic powder, salt & pepper (sprinkle desired amount), 1/2 tsp onion powder (or 1 TB chopped white/yellow onion or red onion), 1 TB chopped cilantro, 1/2 tsp cumin, a couple small tomatoes-chopped, 2 large avocados, a few squirts of lime juice. Mash up the avocados, then add all the other ingredients and stir it up.

Ranch Dip Recipe (by 100 Days of Real Food): http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/12/01/recipe-ranch-flavored-dip/.

Pumpkin Fluff Dessert Dip (by 100 Days of Real Food): http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/11/14/recipe-pumpkin-fluff-dessert-dip/.

Pomegranate – great as an appetizer or it would be beautiful on a salad to serve with your Thanksgiving meal!
(Mama Natural’s video on how to open a pomegranate easily)

Drink Ideas

Eggnog – Organic Valley has a tasty Eggnog (pictured on the right), if you can find it. We got it earlier in the month and since then it has been selling out so fast so we had to go with the Horizon brand which is good too but not AS good.

Sparkling Cider – R.W. Knudsen has a good brand with all different flavors.

Kombucha – There is a little organic store by us that sells this but I’m sure you can find it other places like Whole Foods. Or, there are a lot of recipes out there to make it.

Wine – There are organic wines. I found a whole section at Fred Meyer.

The Turkey

We use butter, rosemary, thyme, parsley, basil, garlic powder, salt an pepper as a turkey rub. We do not measure and it would depend on the size of your turkey anyway. (You can use the herbs that you like but we thought these were really good together.) Cook @ 325 degrees, 3 – 3 1/2 hours for a 12-14 lb turkey. (Increase or decrease the time by an hour for a bigger or smaller turkey.) Of course you will want to temp it to determine if it’s done, and baste the turkey along the way (it’s all about that baste, ’bout that baste…. sorry, got a little crazy there). 😉 After the turkey is done it will need to rest for about 20 minutes before slicing. While it’s resting start cooking other foods that need to cook in the oven. Usually green bean casserole, then the stuffing, then the rolls. Any pies should be baked ahead of time, unless you’re lucky enough to have more than one oven of course.

Mashed Potatoes & Turkey Gravy

Here’s my cheesy garlic mashed potato recipe that you can do with or without the cheese and sour cream (I would double the recipe for a larger crowd): http://organicfibromommies.com/2014/01/cheesy-garlic-mashed-potatoes/.

For the gravy:
Use the turkey juice after the turkey is done, pour into a large saucepan and add 2 cups of chicken broth. Turn up the heat to medium-high and after it starts to bubble, whisk in 1/2 cup of flour. Just keep whisking until you get the right consistency. (Some people like to separate the fat out of the pan drippings and cook the fat in the pan with the flour, then add the broth. This is just extra work to me so I skip that step. It is kind-of hard to get the flour clumps to mix up but it works.)

Greenbean Casserole

12 oz. organic cream of mushroom soup, ¾ cup milk, 1/8 tsp black pepper, 1 clove minced garlic (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder), 2 – 9 oz. packages frozen green beans thawed, and 1 1/3 cups fried onions (plus extra for topping – I found some at Trader Joe’s or there’s a recipe to make them by 100 Days of Real Food). In a 2 1/2 QT casserole dish, mix soup and milk. Then add pepper and garlic. Mix thoroughly. Add green beans and fried onions. You can have this ready in the fridge until after you pull the turkey out to rest, and that will give the green beans time to thaw. Bake at 350 for 30 min. Stir, top with remaining fried onions and bake another 5 min.

Stuffing

10 oz bag of organic herbed bread cubes, 1 ½ cups of chicken broth, 1/3 cup of butter, 1 cup of chopped onion, 1 cup of chopped celery, ½ to 1 lb of ground sausage. Brown sausage in small chunks (drain if needed). Then add celery and onion to sauté. Bring broth and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Turn off heat and add bread cubes, mix thoroughly. Cover, let stand for 5 min. In a 9 x 13 baking dish, add bread cubes and sausage/celery/onion mixture. Mix thoroughly and bake at 350 for 10 min to develop a golden crust. (You can pop this in the oven after you pull out the green bean casserole.)

Biscuits/Rolls

You could make biscuits/rolls ahead of time and then just warm them up after the turkey is done and resting. Real Fit Real Food Mom’s sandwich buns would work great as rolls. Or my Easy Drop Biscuit recipe. I haven’t posted it to the blog yet but the recipe is:

Easy Drop Biscuits:
*Makes about 18 biscuits (depending on the size)

2 cups flour, 1 TB baking powder, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp thyme (or parsley), 1/2 tsp garlic powder, rosemary (optional), 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 cup milk (I use organic whole)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, salt, garlic powder, and thyme/rosemary. (I put the rosemary as optional because my kids don’t like the stick-like texture of the rosemary in their biscuits, but I like the flavor. So it’s up to you. Still good without it.) Stir in the melted butter and milk just until moistened. Lightly grease a cookie sheet (I use coconut oil) and we also add a little flour to cover the pan. Just kind-of bat the pan to get the flour completely covered. This seems to be the best way for the biscuits not to stick. Drop batter on the cookie sheet by the tablespoon. Bake in the preheated oven for 8-12 minutes, or until golden on the edges.

Desserts

Fruit Salad: Add the different kinds of fruit you want (canned or fresh), chopped. We usually use satsuma oranges, grapes, pears, pineapple, cherries – basically the fruit cocktail fruits. And maybe some apples would be good in it. Add whip cream (see homemade recipe below). You can also add shredded coconut if you want. We don’t measure, we just basically take half of the whip cream that we make and add to a large bowl with different kinds of fruit. Then use the other half of the whip cream for the pie. For a healthier fruit salad, I like this recipe from My Whole Food Life.

Blackberry Cobbler Recipe (you can do other kinds of fruit too): http://organicfibromommies.com/2014/08/blackberry-cobbler/.

Pumpkin Pie (my Easy Homemade Pumpkin Pie): http://organicfibromommies.com/2014/11/easy-homemade-pumpkin-pie/.

For Whip Cream we use this recipe: http://www.organicvalley.coop/recipes/show/whipped-cream/ (of course, you can reduce the amount of sugar).

What To Do with Leftover Turkey & Making Turkey Broth/Turkey Noodle Soup:

When Thanksgiving is over, why not make your own broth using the turkey bones?? You can follow my recipe for making homemade chicken broth. I recommend doing two separate batches because the turkey carcass is so large. You could separate all the bones and split them up between two batches, or freeze half the bones to make more broth at a later time.

Uses for Leftover Turkey: Just use the same ideas in the following post on uses for leftover chicken –http://organicfibromommies.com/2014/09/whole-chicken-crockpot-homemade-broth/.

Turkey Noodle Soup: Use my chicken noodle soup recipe and just substitute the chicken for turkey.

If you have any leftover pumpkin puree left when everything is all over, here are my pumpkin recipes: http://organicfibromommies.com/2014/10/pumpkin-recipes/.

Easy Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Posted on: November 22, 2014 by: Tara Canlett Comments: 4 Comments

I have made pumpkin pie before but I would usually just buy a pie crust already made, and use that can of Libby’s pumpkin and Carnation evaporated milk. Last year I made a pie crust from scratch but had to roll out the dough. Which is fine but I personally would rather not roll out the dough if I don’t have to. Guess what? You don’t have to. This way is so easy! You just mix up the ingredients in the pie dish, form the dough, and press the dough all around the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Then you just have to mix up your filling ingredients in a bowl, pour into the crust, and bake in the oven. So easy and so good. This year I am using my homemade pumpkin puree for the pie. Some of it is a little stringy but it works just fine.

The Crust:

1 1/3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
8 TB unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
1 TB coconut oil

Mix ingredients into a 9″ pie plate and stir until a dough forms. Then press the dough evenly throughout the bottom of the pie plate, and up the sides. Chill in the fridge until the filling is ready and oven is preheated. (Note: You can make it without the coconut oil if needed.) See step-by-step instructions below with pictures.

The Filling:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream – see a picture of what I use below (you can use a 12 oz can of evaporated milk instead, and I heard you can use half & half or whole milk but I haven’t tried those yet)
1 ½ cups pumpkin puree
¼ cup sugar (or raw honey can be used but it will come out very moist)
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Whisk all the ingredients in a bowl, then pour into the crust. You can put foil over the edges of the crust or brush with water so it doesn’t burn. I haven’t tried the foil trick but brushing the edges of the crust with water did work. Bake at 425 for 15 min, then change to 350 for 45 min. A knife inserted should come out clean. Cool for 2 hours. See step-by-step instructions below with pictures.

Tip: You can use 1 TB pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.

For Whip Cream we use this recipe and Organic Valley Whipping Cream shown below:
http://www.organicvalley.coop/recipes/show/whipped-cream/ (of course, you can reduce the amount of sugar).

Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream (just 1 ingredient – cream)

Making the Crust

Mix up the ingredients in your pie dish:

Form the dough:

Push the dough throughout the pie dish and up the sides.
I use my measuring spoon to help flatten it.

You can form your dough a few different ways. Regular (on the right), use a knife to make slits (on the left),
or you can even pinch the edges of the dough together to make a decorative pie crust.
Then chill in the fridge until the filling is ready and the oven is preheated.

Making the Filling

Add all the ingredients to a large bowl:

Whisk up the ingredients:

Pour the filling into the pie crust, brush edges of the crust with water (to prevent burning),
bake @ 425 for 15 min, then 350 for 45 min.

Done! Let the pie cool for 2 hours.

You can put either whip cream or vanilla ice cream on top! I have even eaten a piece plain for breakfast
(that was a pie I made with honey instead of sugar though). 😉

Pot Roast with Homemade Gravy

Posted on: November 18, 2014 by: Tara Canlett Comments: 1 Comment

This recipe turns out delicious every time. You can make it in the crock pot but I like to do it in the oven. Sometimes I make gravy with it but personally I prefer the broth. My husband likes gravy so to compromise we have it with gravy sometimes and sometimes just the broth. It is so good with fresh homemade bread or biscuits! I love putting this in the oven early in the day and then having dinner ready when it’s dinner time. I can get other things done while it’s cooking. And it’s so easy to put together. You could cook it with a good rub on it and not fry in the pan with flour first but this adds so much flavor. It’s worth it! 🙂

Ingredients:

1 – 3 lb. roast
2 TB coconut oil
about 1/2 cup flour (more or less depending on the size of roast)
3 cups of beef broth
1/2 – 1 cup chopped onion
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks (yellow or red potatoes will work too but you will probably need 4 or 5 depending on the size – peeling optional)
salt & pepper (sprinkle desired amount)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic, minced)

Directions:
Heat a frying pan with the oil. Cover the roast with the flour and place in the frying pan after the oil is hot. Brown both sides of the roast. Add 1 cup of the beef broth to the pan to deglaze the pan. You can let the roast sit on low heat while you peel and chop the potatoes and veggies. (If using a slow cooker just transfer the roast and all the juices to the crock pot and turn on low.) Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Put the roast into a roasting pan with all the juices. Add the remaining 2 cups of beef broth. Then add all the seasonings (on top of the roast and sprinkling around the entire pan). Surround the roast with the potatoes, veggies, & onion. Cover & cook for 3 hours (if using a slow cooker you can cook on low all day). It will be done when the meat pulls apart easily. This is great with homemade fresh bread or biscuits! And you can either leave the broth as is or use to make gravy. See below.

Making the Gravy: If you want to make gravy when the roast is done, I just take 1 cup of the broth (pan drippings) and pour into a small sauce pan. Turn up the heat to medium-high and after it starts to bubble, whisk in 2 TB of flour. Just keep whisking until you get the right consistency. It’s so easy and good! I personally like the broth with the roast but my husband likes gravy, so we do gravy sometimes. 😉 Some people like to separate the fat out of the pan drippings and cook the fat in the pan with the flour, then add the broth. This is just extra work to me so I skip that step. It is kind-of hard to get the flour clumps to mix up but it works.

Ready to go in the oven!

All done!