Random Food Ramblings

One of the many things I've been working on is cutting down processed and pre-made foods in our house.  You may notice that I said cutting down versus eliminating.  Although I love to cook, I need a break every now and again and love me a frozen pizza, and I'll be honest, I am a sucker for Rice-a-roni.   Eating healthier is something that I have been thinking about lately, especially because of where I work and having two small children.  Growing up, my mom didn't do a lot of cooking from scratch.  Sometimes I wonder if it's because as a child of immigrants, she helped make the sausage, unknowingly raised her pet rabbit to be dinner, and just got burnt out on it and felt Hamburger Helper was the way to go.

When I'm at work I've noticed so many people (especially families) buying prepared foods as their primary meals. As I said, I do love me a pizza or even orange chicken from time to time, but I can't imagine not cooking meals from scratch or even semi-homemade. I realize that people lead busy lives and may not enjoy cooking but it seems like even those people could prepare meals in a crock pot with little or no effort. I love to cook but I also know how much money I save when I cook from scratch versus popping a Hungry Man in the microwave. Many foods that claim to have no preservatives are loaded with sodium, and that's not exactly healthy either. I also like knowing where my food is coming from and how it was prepared.

So along with this garden thing,  I've gotten addicted to finding new recipes and ideas for food on Pinterest.  I have found that for every awesome idea, there is at least two totally craptastic failures (at least on my end.)  Who knows, the fails could have been on my end and every other pinner may have had great success with their attempts.

While I am not a great food photographer, here are a couple things I've made recently:

Ground Beef Wellington- it was pretty delicious!

Jamie Oliver's Ground Beef Wellington.  Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution helped me get out of a rut when I wasn't feeling like cooking.  His curries, fish, and this recipe helped me realize how much good spices matter in the kitchen.

Oven Roasted Chicken with Vegetables.

One of my favorite things to make is oven roasted chicken.  Not only do you get delicious meal, but if you do it right, you can cook your veggies with the chicken after the chicken as been in the oven for 40 minutes or so and stay roast with the chicken for the remaining 40 minutes.  Any leftovers can be made into soup, chicken salad, or just packed up with veggies for lunch the next day

Pot Roast Meatloaf - It has bacon, need I say more?

Here's another Jamie Oliver recipe.  This one is his Pot Roast Meatloaf.  As you can see from the picture, it's wrapped in bacon.  What you can't see from my "lovely" picture is that the sauce around the meatloaf has chickpeas, onions, and garlic in it.  It's delicious on the first day, but I think it's even better the next after the flavors have a chance to meld together.

Michael Symon's Sausage Cauliflower Casserole

I catch The Chew every now and again and every once in awhile I find something delicious to try.  The family really enjoyed Michael Symon's Sausage/Cauliflower Casserole.  Easy to make plus it transports easily if you need to take it to a potluck.