Artichoke Fennel Tortellini

1 pkg Cheese Tortellini
2 Tomatoes, skinned and diced
1/2 Sweet Onion, diced
1 cup Crimini Mushrooms, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup White Wine
1 cup Chicken Broth
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp butter

Heat a pan and add the olive oil once it is hot and add the garlic to sautée for 30 seconds then add the diced onion.  Sautée on medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent then add the diced tomatoes, mushrooms, fennel seeds and liquids. Start boiling salted water for the pasta. Simmer the sauce until it reduces by half, add the pepper, chili flakes, and salt and turn down to a low simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1 tbsp butter.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and toss in rest of the butter. Serve with fresh parsley and shredded Parmesan.

Gnocchi with Leeks & Sausage in a Creamy Mushroom sauce

This recipe is totally sublime. If you're looking for a flavorful, hearty, and rich-like-a-millionaire recipe to knock your socks off, this is a sure bet!  It's a smokey, warm dish with plenty of protein and finished with a smooth mushroom sauce while the leeks play a subtle role and the tomatoes add freshness. The gnocchi help hold the deep flavors together, but it could be done with fettucine.

The Farmer Beczki sausage should be found at any Polish or Euro deli. It's a delightfully smokey sausage, and pairs well the gnocchi and mushrooms and adds flavor to the chicken.

Main Ingredients

250g gnocchi
300g or 2 chicken breasts, diced small
100g Farmer Beczki sausage, sliced
1 Leek, sliced into medallions
1 cup Crimini mushrooms sliced or quartered
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 tsp oil

Sauce 

1 tbsp +1 tsp butter
4 Crimini mushrooms washed and sliced thinly
1/2 cup dry White Wine
1 clove garlic crushed
1/4 tsp Savory or Thyme
1/2 cup milk
Salt &, fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tsp flour
**Option to also add cream cheese and/or sour cream to make a richer, tangy sauce.

Assembly

Set water to boil with salt for the gnocchi.

In a saucepan, begin making the sauce by melting the tbsp of butter over low-medium heat, and add the mushrooms salt and pepper once melted. Continue to cook until the mushrooms wilt and begin to become darker. Add the white wine, thyme, and garlic and bring to a simmer while stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, set aside on a bowl.  In the saucepan begin melting the 1tsp butter and then slowly add the flour stirring constantly. Continue cooking the roux until it's a nice brown color then begin adding the milk slowly.**  Add the mushrooms and wine slowly back into the saucepan and continue simmering at a low heat.

**Add the cream cheese and sour cream and stir until melted and smooth. Reduce the heat and continue to simmer.

In a large nonstick frying pan, heat oil and add the chicken, and season with salt and pepper. Sauté until no pink is showing, about 6-7 minutes. Next add the sliced beczki sausage, leeks, mushrooms, and garlic and continue to cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Toss in the cherry tomatoes and continue to sauté for 5 minutes then turn off heat.

Cook the gnocchi per package directions, drain and add to the chicken and sausage and cover with sauce. Serve with Parmesan flakes and parsley if available.

Keto Beef Stroganoff

This is a great Beef Stroganoff recipe - a rich, creamy, beefy gravy with tons of mushrooms!

So I found this recipe on another blog and it had so much story to it I had to write my own. I prefer recipe blogs with the ingredients at the top, to make it easier to view on mobile for shopping and reading while cooking. So bear with me, I'll write after.. maybe! As you can see I'm not much of a writer ;) Short on words, big on flavor!

INGREDIENTS

• 800g ground beef (lean or regular)
• 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large clove garlic, finely sliced
• ½ tsp Himalayan or fine sea salt
• ½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
• 2 cups Water
• 3 cups beef broth
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped 
• 1 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped
• 450g crimini mushrooms, sliced (approximately 8 medium mushrooms)
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp amaranth flour in 1 cup of water
• 8 yellow and green zucchinis in ribbons or spirals* 

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat a large pan coated with sunflower oil over high heat and brown and sear the beef so it's well cooked and if you enjoy crunch, to form a nice golden crust on all sides.
2. Add onions, garlic, salt, pepper, lower heat to medium and continue cooking until the onions are softened.
3. Add 2 cups of beef broth, Dijon mustard and fresh rosemary and sage and stir until the mustard is mixed in.
4. Lower heat and simmer until the liquid is almost completely evaporated then add 2 cups of water and repeat the process.
5. At this point, you want to add your mushrooms, beef broth and Amaranth flour in water. Bring back to a simmer and continue cooking until you're left with a nice, thick sauce; Turn off the heat.
6. In a mixing bowl, add sour cream, and about a cup of your cooking liquid. Mix with a whisk until fully combined and add that to the pan.
7. Add fresh parsley and stir delicately until all is well combined.
8. Serve over zucchini noodles, or on it's own! 

This is such a delicious recipe, makes for 6 with the nutritional facts (without zoodles) as:
484 calories
37 g fat (0 trans)
8.3 g net carbs
27.7 g protein

You can reduce the calories by using a leaner ground beef and greek yogurt or halving the sour cream. If you want you can use inside round steak cut into cubes or strips and pop it in the crock pot so it's melt in your mouth beefy deliciousness, but I'm a ground beef kinda gal.

Enjoy!

Dukan Pizza

I made a pizza! 

Now bear with me while I make a Pizza dough. To MY standards it was good. It was my first ever crust by hand so yeaaaaaah...

1/4 ground oatbran
some Surghum flour
1/4 cup WARM water
1/2tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
Package of Instant/quick rise yeast

Mix the yeast with the WARM water I guess, I stirred it, make sure you don't do this in the measuring cup - use a larger holding device hahaha.
I guess let it activate a bit (10mins?) then add it to the flour, oil and salt.  Mix over simmering water (double boiler, or something. I put my mixing bowl on top of a small pot of simmering water... hahah ghettooooo) until it forms a ball. Cover with a towel somewhere warm and let rise (?).  Then put some flour down on a smooth cutting board and flatten it out with a rolling pin I guess. I put the flour flour not the oat bran, both sides, and on the pin and then rolled

Side note - OMG MARBLE PINS ARE THE BEST! HAH.

Then put on a baking sheet and bake it at 400 for 10 mins or 375 for longer.  What i did was instead of time it (typical me...) checked it until it didn't push in/depress and was browning the edges.

Sauce:
0% MF greek yogurt
oregano & garlic powder to taste. Spread on the crust.

Pizza:
Grate fresh parmesan cheese on top of the sauce. 
Fresh chopped basil and oregano
Chopped yellow peppers
Cooked mini shrimp
Sliced cherry tomatoes
Mozza & Parm on top
Bake til goldening.

REALLY good amazingly enough!

Baked Cod Fillet - Dukan ok? Tasty? Experiment!

A cod fillet (I have fairly thin ones from Superstore), washed
1/4" slice (round) of lemon, cut in halves
spray pan with PAM
Sprinkle some Dill, lemon juice
Sprinkle Tumeric, Coriander, Dill, Parsley on the Cod
Place Cod on the lemon slices on the pan
Wet Cod with Lemon juice (bottled or fresh)
Sprinkle Tumeric, Coriander, Dill, Parsley, French onion soup mix (sm amt), S+P or S+P+Spmix (ex: Montreal Steak Spice mix and Lemon Pepper spice mix, like I did)
Add two pickled hot peppers underneath and add one split across the top. 
Cover in tinfoil

Cook in oven/toaster oven on 400 for 12-15mins until flakes apart easily but doesn't seem too firm/tough.

Not sure how this will turn out... lol



EDIT:  VERY tasty!  Almost quite Malaysian!  Would be great with some malaysian curry dish. Spicy too which is nice.

Wine Beef Marinade

Soooo, since I have a new spice rack I want to try making a better marinade!

Sauteed in olive oil:
Marjoram
Sliced Onion
Coriander
Rosemary Powder
Bay Leaves (rubbed)
Garlic (fresh)
Thyme
Lemon juice
Sugar

Then after it was all smelling delicious and the onions and garlic were cooked... added some red wine. Let simmer for a bit...


I put it with my Blade roast, gonna marinade it all night. MMM.

Standing Rib Roast

Ok so this blog TOTALLY isn't about me trying to subconsciously kill myself. I admit it, it's turned out to be fairly successful list of recipe attempts!

Today's special! Standing Rib Roast, 2.6lbs (or 1.18kg), also called Prime Rib Roast
This is my FAVORITE cut of meat by far. LOVE Prime Rib. MMMM

Recipe:
Pre-heat oven to 200F
In roasting pan place:
Chopped and peeled carrots
Chopped Celery
Chopped onion
The Roast, rib down.

Roast rub: I used the Keg's Steak spice and garlic rubbed into it and seasoning salt.
Olive oil poured all over veggies and Roast.
Some beef broth poured into roasting pan.

Cook at 200F (yes it seems very low for a reason, did you know that water's boiling point is 212F? Why boil away the juices right? So cook long and low, and the meat will be more evenly cooked!! Rare/Medium Rare all the way to the edges!)

Use a meat thermometre, make sure you have it properly calibrated before you use it each time.
Cooking times: 130°F for a medium-rare roast (125°F for rare; 145°F for medium)

I am also making garlic mashed potatoes, and roasted zucchini and eggplant as sides.

It already smells SO GOOD. I have NO CLUE when it will be done.