Food Friday #4

This week was a pretty lame attempt at cooking and eating paleo.  I went out too much and ate not paleo and just didn't get the prep done that I wanted to.  I was also trying to use up more of what I have in my pantry/freezer, including chicken and salmon.

Here's what I did make:

1. Mustard Balsamic Baked Chicken


The chicken is this recipe here.  I really liked it, and the other bonus is that everything I needed to make it I already had.  This one will definitely happen again.  I ate the chicken with some frozen green beans and the sweet potato hash browns I had made a while ago and frozen.

2. Tourtiere

Yup.  I know. Not paleo at all.  But it was in my freezer, and 100% home made (by me!) and it needed to be eaten.

This recipe my dad had put together in 1999 trying to replicate the meat pie his mom used to make and so it's a combination of other recipes and trial and error.  And as you can see, it's very precise! HA!

1 lb     ground beef
1 lb     ground pork
1 med chopped onion
dash   sage
dash   savory
dash   ground cloves
dash  garlic salt
fresh ground pepper
salt
1 med  potato mashed (1/2c)

*pie crust

Makes two 8" pies.

Brown the meats, and add onion and spices. *don't worry about draining the meat* Simmer mixture for about 30 minutes.

Add your mashed potato to the meat mixture, and adjust salt and pepper to taste before cooling the mixture.

Let mixture cool.

*Using pre-made pie crusts OR (what I did) make your own (I used the classic crisco pie crust found here) assemble your pies, making sure to vent the top crust.

Bake pies in 425*F oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350*F and bake for another 30 minutes.  There are varying opinions on what you should serve with your tourtiere.  Some people like ketchup, some people like chutney, and some people like it as is.  Your choice!

Unbaked pies do keep well in the freezer for at least a month!

3. Sad disaster or as it might also be known as, Ropa Vieja....

This is the only photo I have of this one...sorry it's not prettier!

So I went to make this recipe for Ropa Vieja from Paleomg.com.  I'm sure it would have turned out wonderfully.  Except for one thing I messed up.

Well, I had the best intentions of making this.  So I took my frozen meat out of my freezer to defrost in the fridge. Unfortunately I didn't get to it as soon as I would have liked.  I was dumb and even though I was worried the meat might be iffy, I figured it was my imagination and that I'm sure it would be fine (it looked okay and smelled okay, but the grocery store I bought it from is not my preference for meat and dairy...I've purchased far too much spoiled dairy from there in the past to really trust their meat).  Once it was done I couldn't bring myself to eat it.  I couldn't help but think it might make me sick.  And I don't know about anyone else, but if I get that in my head, it's too late and the meal will forever taste off.  So....I threw it all out.  Without eating a bite.  Sad, I know.  *sigh* Lesson learned I guess.