Whole 30 - Chicken-Mushroom-Zucchini Stew

Saute 10oz. sliced mushrooms in ghee until lightly browned.

Add cubed Yukon Gold potatoes and zucchini and a little chicken broth. Stir in 1-1/2c chopped peppers and onion, 1T mild Japanese curry powder, 1c marinara, 1c coconut-almond plant milk (recipe posted below) and 8oz. roasted chicken.

Stir everything together and gently simmer until the vegetables are done the way you like. . .Lin

Pork Tenderloin and Vegetable Stew

8oz. seasoned pork tenderloin medallions

2-3T EVOO 

3 carrots

4 stalks of celery

1 or 2 med. onions

~ I only used one onion

2 mini yellow peppers

1 14.5oz. can stewed tomatoes

garlic salt and pepper

Cut the pork into bite size pieces, slice-chop all the vegetables. Sauté in the olive oil until the pork is done medium-rare and the vegetables are all crisp-tender, then add the can of tomatoes and juice. Chop those up a bit. Add a cup of water and simmer another 20 minutes. Check the flavors, adding seasonings as needed.

Serve as is, if you're keeping your carb intake low. If not, this would be great over thin spaghetti or rice. Makes 3-4 servings. . .Lin

Pork Rib Stew

This started out, in my mind. . .as just meat, potatoes, onions and a little garlic sea salt and pepper, with a thick, simmered-reduced broth for gravy.  I bought the meat a while ago and freezer burn was starting to set in.  However, I peeked into the 'fridge and there were vegetables just CLAMORING to get into the pot!  So. . .Now it's stew! 😃 YEA!!  I love spontaneous cooking surprises!

1¾# seasoned pork ribs

½ an onion - minced

2T sunflower - coconut oil

a little water

⅓c white wine or Vodka

¾ of a poblano pepper

2 stalks of celery - sliced

2 big carrots - cut in chunks

1½ onions - in cut ¼ or ⅙ wedges

3 medium red potatoes cut in ⅛ chunks

1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes and juice

finely ground red and black pepper

2T powdered beef soup base

fresh ground garlic sea salt

1t sugar

Start by searing-browning the meat and onion in the oil.  Keep it moving!  Just before it starts to stick, add the water and wine or Vodka (or you can substitute chicken or beef broth.)

Next add the vegetables, in the order they're given, which takes their cooking time into account.  The pepper actually cooks fast, but if added now, will impart much more flavor.  Simmer, covered after each vegetable addition for 10-15 minutes, as you go down the list.

Simmer, covered an additional 20 minutes after the last group of ingredients.  You can thicken the 'gravy' if you want, with a little corn flour or corn starch.  If you haven't tried cooking with corn flour - (not corn meal) - give it a try!  I love it!  It gives the food an earthier flavor than wheat flour, and it's gluten-free!

Today has turned into A Wonderful House Day for me.  Pre-rainstorm-pensive!  My favorite kind!  My lawn guys were here early this morning, so my yard looks wonderful.  I've cooked, gotten started on some long-neglected paperwork, finished a couple easy projects and later, I'm going to have a little bowl of this interesting stew and curl up with my dogs and cat for a while. 😊

Happy Monday Everyone! 😀 . . . Lin

Arizona Pot Roast and Vegetables

2.75# beef pot roast

salt, pepper other seasonings

2T olive oil

¼ lg. purple onion

3 lg. mushrooms

½c dry white wine or burgundy 

1 can cream of mushroom (variety) soup

2 pkg. dry onion (variety) soup

Cut all the fat off the outer edges of the roast.  Wash and dry well and season.  Heat oil in a big pan.  Add the roast, season then flip over when the oil begins to sizzle.  Season the other side.

Sizzle until well browned, flip it over, continue to sear until brown on both side and edges.  Add the chopped onion, mushrooms and wine.  Add 2-3 cups of water, cover and simmer.  Cover the meat with the canned soup and sprinkle on the dry onion soup.  Cover and simmer on low heat 1½ - 2½ hours.

lots of little potatoes

12 oz. mushrooms

¾ lg. purple onion

3 lg. scrubbed carrots

½ lg. red pepper

Sprinkle on about ¼c of flour, stirring well.  Continue to simmer until the gravy thickens.  Add more water if needed.  Rough chop the vegetables and add to the pot.  Cover and simmer another hour until vegetables are the way you want them.  Leftovers can just be reheated, or this can all be turned into a beautiful pot of soup.  I love soup.  ALL year long, even when it's 100° outside . . . Lin

Lamb Stew

1½# lamb 

5-6 cloves of garlic

1 med. purple onion

2T Italian flavored olive oil

1T Rosemary Seasoning *

6-12oz beer

2 stalks celery

2 big carrots

1c Ajvar

1-2c water

Cut all the fat off the lamb, then cut the meat into bite-size pieces.  Saute' the lamb, meat and bones, with the garlic and onion in the olive oil for about 10 minutes.  Add seasoning, beer, chopped celery and carrot, Ajvar and water.  Simmer 30-60 minutes.  This goes together quickly, but you can reduce the heat and continue to simmer longer if you'd like - to develop the flavors.

Makes 3-4 big servings and is excellent on a cold day.  This morning I awoke to -22°F, so this was a perfect late lunch - early dinner.  It would go well with buttered, crusty artisan bread. . .Lin

Beer and Mushroom Lamb Stew

1# lamb leg steak meat

¼ of a lg. onion - minced

2T butter or bacon grease

1t Rosemary Seasoning * 

1 can ± beer

8oz. mushrooms - quartered or sliced

Trim all the fat off the lamb, cut it into pieces or cubes then combine it with the other 3 ingredients in a 5qt. pot.  Bring to a simmer, increasing the heat as the meat releases the water within it.  Once it begins to brown, use a little of the beer to deglaze the pan.  Let it brown again, then hit it with a little more beer.  Continue this process until the meat is nicely browned, 4-6 times.  Toward the end of this process, stir in the mushrooms and let them go through a couple brownings and deglazing, with a longer simmer after the last addition of beer.

2 big carrots - scrubbed-sliced

4 stalks celery - sliced

¾ of a lg. onion - chopped

1 lg. turnip - sliced-chopped

Add this group of vegetables and 2 cups of water.  If you'd like, you could add a can or two of petite diced tomatoes.  Simmer 45 minutes to an hour.  Check the flavors at this point.  If it's tasting a little bland, you could add some powdered beef soup base or some curry paste, depending on what sounds good to you.  If the gravy's too thin, add a flour and water roux to thicken it.  Continue to simmer longer until the vegetables are the way you like them.

I wanted to keep this a little lower in carbs so I didn't add potatoes or barley, but either of those would be great.  (The beer was Coors Light 😉)  I suppose this seems like a strange thing to be cooking over 4th of July weekend, one of the hottest of the summer, but I saw the lamb in the freezer and it sounded so good.  And. . .as far as I'm concerned, it's ALWAYS Soup and Stew Season. . .Lin

Tuscan Beef With Tomato, Carrots and Potatoes - - - - - - - (Italian Beef Stew)

1⅓# black angus beef

1c Peggy's Salad Dressing *

3T rinsed caper berries

2T minced garlic (fresh or jarred)

2T Montosco Gusto Si

~ "Mix Per Carne —

~ Tuscan Seasoning For Meat"

28oz. diced tomatoes & juice

1 lg. onion - rough chopped

3 med. carrots - rough chopped

2c baby red potatoes - halve the big ones

1 sm. head green cabbage - cut in chunks

Marinate the meat for several hours with the first group of ingredients, stirring occasionally.  This can be left at room temperature during this time and actually will absorb the flavors better that way than if it's chilling.  At the end, strain off the marinade into a little bowl.  Save for later.  Sauté the meat, in the remaining juices, until nicely browned, then simmer it for about a half hour, covered.  Add all the remaining ingredients, including the marinade.  Cover and simmer an hour or longer.

There's just something about really good quality meat!  This beef was 3# of boneless beef ribs.  I divided it into 2 packs of meat that I fat-trimmed and cut into 1" cubes.  Then I packaged and froze it.  After about an hour I though, geez, I'd really love to make some of that into a nice chunky stew!  I can go days and days and weeks even, without eating a lot of meat, and then all of a sudden I'm Super Carnivore!!  Give me MEAT!!  Good Quality - Humanely-Raised, Healthy Meat!!  😃  So this will be my Meat Fix for the next week or more.

Chicken is another.  I had some really great Italian Chicken in a Red Sauce with Brown Rice when I was in the Chicago area last week, visiting my sister-in-law.  My nephew cooked up a favorite recipe of theirs.  It was simple, but full of great flavor.  Now that has me craving a variation of my old Chicken Cacciatore recipe once again!  That'll probably be coming up soon here 😉 Chicken, red olives, onion, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes - maybe over Linguine or Fettuccine.  Oh yeah, if that sounds good, be watching for it! . . . Lin

Italian Chicken Stew

3½# chicken thigh meat

3T butter

1 handful of flour

½t ground black and red pepper

1T+ Italian Seasoning

1 28oz. can Hunt's tomatoes

4 ribs of celery - sliced - with young tops

2 big carrots - given a medium chop

1 lg. onion - slice or chop

½ poblano pepper - sliced

1-2# beautiful baby potatoes*

½ bunch of parsley

5-6 big cloves of garlic - rough chopped

~ ½-1c sour cream at the end ~ optional

My plan here was to make a beautiful, rich, shredded-carrot-enhanced-flavorful, saucy, cacciatore-sort-of-chicken thing, to be served over *pasta, quinoa, rice or mashed potatoes.  For some reason though, it seemed the carrots should be diced.  All went well until it was time to put the garlic and parsley in at the end.  I saw these sweet, amazing multi-colored mini-spuds, sitting in the potato bin, just wanting to jump in the pot. . .and. . .it suddenly became a beautiful, rich, flavorful. . .Chicken Thigh Stew! 😉 Follow this recipe using the potatoes in the stew, or omit that step, and serve over one of the suggestions above.

Trim all the fat off the thighs, cut them into your desired size and put them in a heavy bottomed 5-6qt pot with the butter.  Heat till sizzling, stir around for a couple minutes, then sprinkle with the flour, continuing to stir and coat everything with the now, heavier butter mixture.  Season, then continue to stir the chicken, while it sizzles to brown a bit.  Add the tomatoes and the next 4 ingredients.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes at a low bubble.  (Add potatoes now if you're using them.)  Either way, continue to simmer, on low, until the carrots and celery are almost done.

Add parsley and garlic, stir, cover the pot again.  As soon as you hear it bubble, turn off the heat and just let it stand on the burner for 10-15 minutes, at which time it should be ready to serve.  As stew, or over whichever base you chose.  If you want to use sour cream, stir it in now, put a dollop on top of individual servings, or omit it.

😋 Be Bold, Be Creative - Happy Cooking! . .Lin

Hearty Northland Beef Stew

1-1/2# boneless beef ribs

1T bacon fat

1/2 onion - minced

1-2T granulated roasted garlic

sea salt, ground red and black pepper

2T dark balsamic vinegar

1/3-1/2c flour

Start by browning the meat that's been cut into small pieces, in the hot bacon fat with the minced onion.  Stir and brown this, adding a little water.  When the meat is browned, add the seasoning and vinegar and a little more water if needed.  When this is browned, after another 10 minutes or so, it should look like beef in thin brown gravy.  Sprinkle in the flour, stirring well.  Add another couple cups of water.

16oz. crushed tomatoes

2 lg. sliced carrots

1-1/2c sliced celery 

1 diced onion

6 sm. quartered red potatoes

1 med. zucchini - chunked

4-8oz. sliced fresh mushrooms

Add all the above ingredients and a little more water if needed.  Instead of the crushed tomatoes, I used 2c of the tomato soup I made the other day.  Bring to a simmer, cover, stir every 10 minutes or so.  Check the flavor of the broth, adding whatever is needed to give it the taste you'd like.  You could add more seasonings, some beef soup base, water or a little red wine for flavor.  Be creative and have fun.  Happy Cooking!! . . .Lin

Coconut-Ginger-Curry Chicken and Vegetables

1#± skinless-boneless chicken

1 med. purple onion - 1/4 minced

~ the rest cut in chunks

5 cloves minced garlic

2-3T coconut oil

water

1"x2" piece of peeled ginger

2T red curry paste

1 can coconut milk

1/3-1/2 cauliflower - broken into florets

5 carrots cut into chunks

5 sm. yellow potatoes cut in half

6-8 lg. radishes cut in half

Cut the chicken into chunks and put it in a 3-5 qt. pot with the minced onion, garlic and coconut oil.  Stir and sauté  until it starts to brown.  Add a little water when needed, grate the ginger into the pot, add curry paste, coconut milk and stir again.  Cover and let simmer while prepping the vegetables.  Add all the vegetables and simmer everything together, until the carrots and potatoes are cooked the way you like them.  Ladle into big bowls and serve. . .Lin 

Simple Chicken Stew

1-1/2# boneless-skinless chicken breast

your favorite chicken 'rub'

3T± coconut oil, olive oil or butter

1 lg. onion - rough chopped
2-3T minced garlic

3 carrots - cut in chunks

6-8 fingerling potatoes - cut in chunks

1-2t chicken flavor Better Than Bullion

fresh ground pepper or whole peppercorns

It's almost 90° here today and what am I craving?  Chicken Stew!  Cut the chicken into 1" cubes and roll them in the rub, massaging it into the chicken, so it's well coated on all sides.  Put in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.  Meanwhile, peel the onion, scrub the carrots and potatoes, cut and chop them all into a medium glass bowl.  Add the chicken to the hot butter or oil, brown well on all sides, stirring occasionally.  Add 2-3 cups water - or use half white wine and half water if you'd like.  Put vegetables and remaining ingredients in the pot, (if you're using a spicy rub, you might want to omit the pepper) cover, simmer and stir occasionally.  Check the flavors after 45 minutes and make any needed adjustments.  When everything's done the way you like it, thicken the gravy with a little flour and cold water mixed together, if necessary.  Bring back to a simmer, scoop into bowls and serve. . .Lin

Chicken Fajita Brat Stew

1-1/2# chicken fajita brats - about 6

1 lg. clove elephant garlic

1 lg. chopped onion

12-16 oz. fresh Brussels sprouts - sliced

1 carrots - sliced

6 red fingerling potatoes - sliced-cubed

28 oz. diced tomatoes

1t ground cumin

1c. sour cream

Originally, I wasn't going to post this.  I wasn't impressed.  Then after reheating, I realized how good it tasted.  Sometimes these dishes take a little time of cooling and reheating for the flavors to blend.  These chicken fajita brats were 'soft' brats, so I discarded the casings and just used the sausage inside.  Chop up the sausage, add the garlic and onion.  Saute' until the sausage browns and the onions are translucent. Add all the remaining ingredients except the sour cream.  Simmer 30-60 minutes.  Stir in the sour cream, reheat and serve. . .Lin

Chicken Two Ways. . .Tandoori Chicken Stew and Coconut Chicken Salad

First things first:  2# of chicken breast meat cut in 1/2" cubes.  Combine with 6 large garlic cloves and 1 small onion, all finely chopped.  Season with 1/2 - 1t ground red and black pepper.  Sauté all together in 2-3T solid coconut oil.  Coconut oil imparts a very strong coconut flavor which will blend nicely with the Indian chicken stew as well as the chicken salad.

TANDOORI CHICKEN STEW

1# of the sautéed chicken, garlic and onion

6 small Yukon gold potatoes - scrubbed and quartered

1 large sweet potato - peeled and cubed

1 medium onion - diced

4 big radishes - quartered

1t fresh ground Himalayan pink salt

2T tandoori seasoning

1 28oz. can diced tomatoes

1 14oz. can coconut milk

In a 3-5 quart pot, combine the cooked chicken with all the ingredients except the coconut milk.  Simmer all of this, for about a half hour, stirring occasionally.  Add the coconut milk and simmer another 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are done the way you like them.  This particular tandoori is a blend of coriander, cumin, sweet paprika, garlic, ginger, cardamom and saffron.  I've never used it before, but it sounded yummy!  It wasn't as hot as I thought it would be.  If it's not as spicy as you like you can add more cumin and/or ground red and black pepper. . .Lin

COCONUT CHICKEN SALAD

1# of the sautéed chicken, garlic and onion

1/2c sweet and dill pickles - finely chopped

1 small onion - finely chopped

2 large radishes - finely chopped

3/4c sour cream and mayonnaise

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium size bowl.  Serve over spinach, garnish with avocado and red olives.  Would also be a good filling for stuffed tomatoes. . .Lin

Leg Of Lamb Stew

1# lean lamb cut in cubes
2T butter
4 lg. cloves minced garlic
1 med. onion - chopped
4-6 c water
leftover lamb gravy with fat skimmed off
3 stalks celery - sliced
2-3 carrots - sliced
4 lg. scrubbed red potatoes - quartered

salt and pepper, beef soup base if needed

Brown the lamb, garlic and a little bit of onion in the butter.  Deglaze the pan with a little water or beer.  Repeat this process several times until the meat and the pan are a rich warm brown.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer, on low heat, for at least an hour.  You could serve it now, but this always tastes better after being chilled then reheated the next day.  Serve with some really good crusty bread. . .Lin

Andouille Chicken Stew

¾# andouille sausage

½# boneless chicken breast

½ lg. onion – chopped

2 lg. potatoes – cubed

12oz. frozen peas and carrots

Combine chopped sausage and chicken with 1c water and everything else in a 5qt. pot. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer 45-60 minutes. . .Lin

Chunky Chicken Soup-Stew

2# boneless skinless chicken breasts

2T extra virgin olive oil

2T Balsamic vinegar

1lg. onion

3 big ribs of celery

4 big carrots

8-10 baby Yukon gold potatoes

Cut the chicken in large pieces and brown in the olive oil and vinegar with a little finely chopped onion. Cut the remaining piece of onion and all the other vegetables in big pieces. Once the chicken is browned a little add all the vegetables, 5-6 or more cups of chicken broth. Simmer several hours and serve with warm crusty bread. . .Lin

Soup Bases

Sometimes a healthy pot of soup or chili is lacking a little in flavor.  If you find this to be the case, here are some possible options.  Read labels if MSG or gluten are concerns for you, there are some companies that eliminate those ingredients.

The cabbage soup I just made was needing a little something so I used the cilantro soup base, which brightened up the flavor considerably.  Experiment a little using small amounts each time until you get the flavors just right.  Have fun with it.  Happy cooking!  .  .  .  Lin