Coach Kirstin

So I am cheating.  I actually make this dish this spring.  Who makes a heavy potato dish in the spring?  This girl.  Because she wanted to clean out the random meats she was acquiring in her freezer.  In this case it was 2 ham steaks i had ordered from the farmer.  I am not really sure what I intended to do with them but they had been in the freezer for several months so it was time for them to go.  I started to google and didn't really find a single recipe I loved so this was a bit of an experiment.  But I failed on taking pictures.  I took a picture of the butter as it started to melt.  And then the finished product.  I was actually cooking several things this day and got pictures of everything else. Just not this.  You can sort of see it from the last picture but I had arranged my potatoes so beautifully.  When they were cold, they were perfectly formed solid layers that I was able to toss in the freezer.  But I d...

Meatballs are easily one of my favorite foods.  I just like them better when others cook them.  They aren't a ton of work but its just a process.  And they are best when they can sit in the sauce and soak it up all day.  On my kick of prep ahead foods, I decided meatballs were on the menu.  I made about 2.5 batches.  One for dinner and one for the freezer.  There would probably be 3 meals but I think the husband likes meatballs more than I do.   The ingredients used were: 2 lbs of ground beef 2 lbs of ground veal 2 lbs of ground sausage 1 lbs of ground chuck (ideally you would use all good quality ground beef but I went with what I had on hand) 5 eggs 2 teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons pepper 2 teaspoons garlic powder 2-3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped 2-3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped 1.5 cups breadcrumbs (I had panko on hand but any are good) 1 handful of parmesan  First steps, getting all 7 lbs of meat out of the packag...

Maybe I'm lazy or just always short on time.  Either way I decided that it's easier to make a big batch of my breakfast for the week on Sunday's and the warm it up throughout the week.  It started when I started fighting.  I used to be really neurotic and I would measure out each portion in a pan cook it individually to ensure I got the same amount in each serving....time and life has gotten my neurosis to calm down a bit.  I now just cook in a bit batch.  I also have learned some ways to make save time and money.  I like to keep my veggies extra fresh, well dead of winter that is always possible so I use frozen, also saves me from having to chop all that up.  I just dump the bag in and voila!  I also use Trader Joe's Bacon Ends & Pieces.  Its about $2.99 here which is about $5 less than a package of bacon of the same size (1 lbs) since I just chop it anyhow, I don't need pretty strips of bacon for frying up with my eggs and laying on pla...

This weeks Green Grocer  delivery had a few things I wasn't sure what to do with.  Namely eggplant and butter lettuce.  Off to the interwebs I went and found a recipe for Eggplant Bolognese .  I added a few extras like the bell peppers and onions to my delivery so I didnt have to pick them up and then got the meats from the grocery store.  My boyfriend also had the great idea to add bacon, which gave us some bacon grease and extra goodness in the Bolognese.  Below is my ingredients and steps modified from the above recipe. Left over bacon fat 2 tablespoons butter 1 large eggplant peeled and cubed (approximately 2-3 cups) 1 red bell pepper cut into bite size pieces 1 small red onion, sliced (should have cut smaller) 1 pound ground beef 1 pound ground pork 1 pacakge bacon 1 teaspoon sea salt + more to taste 2 tablespoons  balsamic vinegar  5 garlic cloves minced 1 ½ cups tomato sauce  1 tablespoon dried oregano ...

So Im stubborn to the point of stupidity.  And then I usually even pass that.  I was deciding what to get in the veggie box this week and I decided why not go with tons of zucchini.  I fell back to the house favorite of using the zucchini as spaghetti .  But I have this problem when I cook, it tastes great but looks awful.  Especially with this stupid recipe.  So I changed the setting on my handy mandoline to the french fry size.  I also have this conundrum of how to mix it in my frying pan because its usually over flowing until it cooks down.  So this time as I sliced up the zucchini I put them in a pot and then added the sausage mixture over that.  I cooked the sausage with the right leeks, onions and coconut oil, remove the onions and leeks then added the tomatoes, garlic and salt to simmer while I sliced up zucchini. Once the zucchini was mixed and cooked down a bit, it went back in the frying pan.  Yes I create way too many dirty di...

So lasagna is like that rare homemade treat that I just love but no one ever makes me, I now know why...they are a pain in the ass.  Fantastic none the less.  Since I began researching Paleo recipes I had noticed the use of zucchini in place of pasta, notably in lasagna.  I actually love zucchini, probably my fav veggie other tomatoes.  So I had been dying to make one.  Low and behold, guess what arrives in our veggie box.  4 zucchini.  Opportunity.  Minor problem.  Ive never made a lasagna in my life.  Thank goodness for Google.  I knew the things I liked in my lasagna, some things I wanted to try.  So I searched away and the best recipe I found was this one by The Pioneer Woman .  I had found much fancier ones but thats not really what I was looking for.  And all the paleo ones take out cheese.  Lets be honest, your waisting your time with a lasagna that doesn't have cheese.  Life just isn't worth living w...