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3/31/16

Homemade Tuna Pot Pie with Homemade Biscuit Topping





Tuna Pot Pie

1 8 or 10 oz. package peas
1/4 c butter
5 T flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t Old Bay Seasoning
1/8 t pepper
2 c water and 1/2 can cream of celery soup OR  2 c vegetable broth made w/ celery
1 c milk
2 cans tuna - drained
Optional:  4 green onions, chopped and cooked tender in a bit of water
Optional:  1 c cooked and diced potatoes (or use canned or dice and cook them with the onions)

Melt butter in saucepan. Blend in flour, salt, seasonings. Gradually add stock and milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and smooth. Add vegetables, tuna and cooked onions and potatoes. Pour into a greased shallow baking dish. Make a biscuit topping and top the vegetable mixture. Bake at 425 degree's for 25 minutes until the top is golden brown. About 6 servings.

Biscuit Topping;

Mix
1 1/3 c flour (I used hand-milled, whole grain so my photos may look darker than your biscuits)
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Cut in
2 T butter
3 T shortening

Add 1/2 c milk (scant) and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. If it's too wet and sticky add one or two more tablespoons of flour. Pat down on a lightly floured surface and roll out to the shape of your baking dish. If you prefer you can cut into wedges or squares and simply top the vegetable mixture that way too. (Up to you!).










Tuna Pot Pie with whole grain biscuit topping


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3/27/16

Homemade - The Best Blue Cheese Dressing (Bleu Cheese Dressing)





Bleu Cheese Dressing

1/2 c mayonnaise
1 c sour cream
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
1 T rice wine vinegar
2 t lemon juice
1/4 t onion powder
1/2 t worchestershire sauce
salt and pepper
1/2 - 3/4 c good quality crumbled blue cheese

Blend and chill at least 2 hours before using.  Best the next day.
















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3/26/16

Don't throw out those celery trimmings! Save them for soup, gravy and broth!


I was just in the kitchen cutting up celery for a relish tray and doing what I always do... and always have done.. and my mother always did before me...  cutting up the celery 'trimmings' to freeze.  It occurred to me I should take a quick picture to post on An American Housewife just in case some of my readers didn't know this little trick (or, 'hack' if you will). 

It's simple. 
  • After washing and drying your celery, trim the feathery tops off but keep them in a 'save' pile.
  • Trim just the very ends off for the trash.
  • Now, the new 'end' that is still pretty wide, or white or strong tasting for simply munching on as a snack, cut those ends off (about 3/4 of an inch or so) and put that in your 'save' pile.
  • Cut up your celery for snacking or cooking as you were going to anyway.
  • Now chop up the 'save' pile and place into a freezer baggy and tuck away in your deep freeze

The next time you are making broth, gravy or soup... grab the baggie from the freezer and toss it in!  When I make my Thanksgiving gravy, it requires a vegetable broth base first, so I use a different baggy from the freezer in which I've simply placed the celery trimmings in whole without chopping.  That makes it easy to strain my broth for gravy.  I usually have 2 bags in the freezer; one chopped up and ready for soups and a second with the trimmings left whole for easy straining of broths/gravies.





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3/24/16

Authentic Style Red Velvet Cake Made Lower Carb - (With Almond Flour) and Sugar Free




My all time childhood and adult favorite Red Velvet Cake was calling my name... but of course not the bleached white flour and full of sugar version of my childhood!  Our family has been making this cake for almost 40 years now and I've been trying to find the perfect 'healthier' version that is sugar free and uses almond flour - but still has the texture, taste and moisture content of the original.

Today's testing was... awesome!  I can't describe nor do the photos show just how moist this version is!  The taste is so close to the original wheaty/sugary version but without any of those products and no guilt.  Today's tweak went directly onto a note card and into my recipe files.

Some important notes to myself (and to my readers).  When baking and cooking low carb, the exact brand and product used is so very, very important.  A different brand of sweetener, a different whey protein powder?  Can make a completely different finished product.  I will list exactly what I used, but everyone needs to use what they can find in their part of the world, or what they can order online.  I order many products online because I can't find them locally.  I will list them at the very end of the post.

This version does use a little bit of wheat flour in it - albeit organic, non-gmo wheat that I ground myself.  But I have posted a no wheat version previously that is really good if you cannot have any wheat products.  Just do a search in the sidebar on the right for sugar free red velvet and you'll see it.


Red Velvet Cake - Sugar Free

1 c butter
1 1/2 sweetener to equal sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 c unblanched almond flour
1/3 c unflavored whey protein powder
1/2 c soft white wheat flour
1 t xanthan gum
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 t cocoa
1 t salt
1 bottle (1 oz) red food color
1 T vinegar
1 t vanilla
1 c almond milk or coconut milk with part heavy cream and 1 1/2 t lemon juice to sour it (let set 5 minutes)

In a small bowl place the almond/coconut milk and/or cream with the lemon juice and let set while you mix the rest.  In place of this you can use buttermilk - but I never keep buttermilk on hand so I usually end up making my own this way.

Cream the butter and sweeteners in a mixing bowl.  Add the eggs. Beat well.  In a large bowl, place the dry ingredients:  almond flour, whey protein powder, white wheat flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa and salt.

To the buttermilk or soured milk mixture, add the bottle of red food color, vinegar and vanilla.

Alternate adding the dry mix and the milk mixture to the butter, mixing well after each addition.  Pour into 2 greased and lined round cake pans.  Bake at 350 approximately 25 minutes or until done in the center.  Let cool in pans about 10 minutes and turn out to cool completely.

Make your filling.  Place about a cup or so between the layers and use the rest to ice the cake.  Chill until serving.


Icing/Filling - this is the traditional frosting using flour (I grind my own soft white non-gmo wheat berries).  You can use your favorite sugar free and low carb icing if you wish (and I have a few great ones if you use the search feature to the right, in the sidebar).

3 T soft white wheat flour
1 c almond or coconut milk
1 c sugar substitute
1 c butter
1 t vanilla

Mix the milk and flour smooth and heat on the stove top over medium until it forms a thick paste. Remove from heat, let cool.  Cream the butter, sweeteners and vanilla in a mixing bowl and add the cooled flour/milk mixture to this.  Whip until smooth. 










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Making my favorite whole wheat bread recipe into hamburger buns


Two posts down (I think) is my current 'go to' recipe for wheat bread that I make by grinding the flour myself using non-gmo (not genetically modified) wheat berries I order online.  Yesterday I put a pork loin roast into the slow cooker to make into my Southern BBQ and then whipped a batch of my wheat bread dough.  This makes 2 loaves, so I made one into a bread to freeze and the other into buns for the pork BBQ.


Wheat Bread 
double loaf

3 c warm water
1 T instant/quick yeast
1/3 c oil
1/3 c honey or sweetener
1 T salt
6 c hard white whole wheat flour
1/2 c rolled oats or quick oats
1/4 c vital wheat gluten with vitamin C

Mix 5 cups flour with the quick oats and vital wheat gluten.  Combine water, yeast, oil, honey and salt.  Add about 5 cups of the flour mix and start to mix slow in a heavy duty mixer with a bread hook.  Add 1-2 cups more flour as needed so it forms a nice ball of dough.  Let it knead about 8 minutes.  Coat your hands with a bit of oil and turn dough out onto an oiled or parchment lined surface.  Divide and form 2 loaves.  Place in greased bread pans.  Cover with plastic wrap and let raise in a warm area for about 45 minutes until doubled in size.  Bake breads at 350 for 25-30 minutes in a regular open bread loaf pan or about 45 minutes for a heavy duty, restaurant style pan with lid.  Remove and cool. You can rub butter on the top surface of the bread in the 'open' traditional style baking pans for a softer crust with a nice flavor.


To make the buns, divide your dough into half, then each of those into half, and each of those into half...  until you get down to the size bun or roll or want.  Place into a greased pan with the sides touching.  Let rise to double (I found my buns took longer to raise than my bread did.)  When they are doubled in size, bake at 350 until golden brown and done.  I found 20-25 minutes sufficient for mine.


YUM!  The whole wheat dough with bits of oatmeal



Simply form into balls the size you wish


I flattened mine just a bit to make them more hamburger bun shaped - Let them rise to double before baking










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3/8/16

Homemade Wheat Bread - (grinding my own wheat berries means healthy bread and no digestive problems!)


One of my own personal Holy Grails...  the elusive homemade wheat bread.  One that isn't heavy, condensed, rock hard, flat, underdone in the center or any other undesirable finished product.

It only took me, oh... about 15 years!

Apparently all I really needed to do was grind my own wheat berries.  Bingo.  I did it.  I got a homemade wheat bread with no chemicals or preservatives of store bought bread.

NOTE:  I grind my own wheat now using organically grown, heirloom non-genetically modified wheatberries.  I have soft white, hard white and hard red berries on hand; I use hard white for this one or 3/4 hard white with 1/4 soft or red mixed in. 



Wheat Bread 
double loaf

3 c warm water
1 T instant/quick yeast
1/3 c oil
1/3 c honey or sweetener
1 T salt
6 c hard white whole wheat flour mixed with;
1/2 c rolled oats or quick oats
1/4 c vital wheat gluten with vitamin C

Combine water, yeast, oil, honey and salt.  Add about 5 cups of the flour and star to mix slow in a heavy duty mixer with a bread hook.  Add 1-2 cups more flour as needed so it forms a nice ball of dough.  Let it knead about 8 minutes.  Coat your hands with a bit of oil and turn dough out onto an oiled or parchment lined surface.  Divide and form 2 loaves.  Place in greased bread pans.  Cover with plastic wrap and let raise in a warm area for about 45 minutes until doubled in size.  Bake breads at 350 for 25-30 minutes in a regular open bread loaf pan or about 45 minutes for a heavy duty, restaurant style pan with lid.  Remove and cool. You can rub butter on the top surface of the bread in the 'open' traditional style baking pans for a softer crust with a nice flavor.





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3/4/16

Low Carb and Sugar Free Margaritas






Low Carb and Sugar Free Margaritas

1 c water
1/2 - 3/4 c natural sweetener(s) of your choice to equal 1/2 - 3/4 c
zest of 1 orange or 2 teaspoons dried
1/2 t xanthan gum
1 c fresh lime juice
1 1/2 c tequila
lime slices
ice
salt

In a saucepan, place the water and sweetener with the orange zest.  Sprinkle xanthan gum over lightly while whisking briskly.  I tried a stick blender once and it got really thick - if  you want your 'syrup' really thick, use a stick blender and/or a little more xanthan gum.  If you know you really like your margaritas a little sweeter, add a little more natural sweetener and taste test.  I use about a cup total of a mixture of 2-3 natural sweeteners to get the best flavor.  Heat over medium low to medium (gently) until it thickens.  Remove it from heat, strain through a wire colander if you wish to remove the bits of orange; and let it cool while you juice enough limes to equal 1 cup.  You can cheat and use store bought lime juice - it won't taste quite as fresh, but no one will probably notice or care.  I've done both.  Mix the sweetened mixture with lime juice & tequila.  Chill.  Salt the rims of your margarita glasses and use as is, or pour over crushed ice.  For a frozen, place a cup of mixture in the blender with some ice and pour into your glass.  Garnish with a lime slice.  *Everything can be adjusted to your taste. Add more sweetener, more lime, more water or tequila to get the taste you like.



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3/2/16

Creamy Cabbage Afredo Style

Snapped this on my iphone literally as soon as I mixed in the sauce. After about 5 minutes it 'sets up' & gets thicker/creamier



I buy our cabbage in very large bags from a membership warehouse as we tend to eat cabbage in many different dishes and it's really affordable!  However I sometimes 'need' to hurry and use up the last portion of the bag before it starts to go bad.  Typically a great go-to for this is to whip up some cole slaw (yum!) but sometimes I do different things like my favorite cabbage and bacon dish, or even just steamed with butter, salt and pepper.  Other times it's this alfredo version - a simple white sauce with the addition of cheese over tender cabbage and celery.  I can eat the whole thing myself!  And if you already have a jar of alfredo sauce on hand, you can just use that in place of the butter, cream, garlic and Parmesan - that makes this SUPER FAST if you need it ASAP for a dinner side dish. 


Creamy Cabbage (Alfredo Style)

6 c shredded or grated cabbage
1 stalk celery, diced fine
2 T butter
2/3 c heavy cream
1 very small clove garlic, crushed
2 T Parmesan, grated
4 oz. cream cheese
salt and pepper

In a microwave safe bowl, place the cabbage and finely diced celery.  Add about 2-3 T water and cook about 6 minutes just to soften.  Drain.  In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium low (do not let it brown) add the garlic, cream, Parmesan and cream cheese.  Stir just until cream cheese is melted.  Pour over the cabbage mixture and season to taste.  You can serve as is or if you have another item baking, pop it into the oven to warm through until the meal is ready. *If you have a jar of store bought Alfredo sauce on hand you can forgo the butter, cream, Parmsean and garlic and just use 2/3 cup of alfredo sauce mixed with cream cheese as a quick version.







Similar serving dishes available through Amazon;
CorningWare Etch 4 Piece set
Corningware French White 10 Piece Bakeware Set
Corningware 1105935 French White III Oval Casserole with Glass Cover, 2.5-Quart

     






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