It's what's for dinner

I get in grooves where I cook a lot, nearly ever meal and then I get busy and the grocery store with two little ones seems overwhelming and we end up eating out or ordering in. Yesterday I created a menu for the week and went grocery shopping to pick up all of my ingredients. My only rules are it needs to be as "whole" as possible, lots of veggies, as little cans as possible (yuck BPA!) and easy to prepare or toss in the crock pot.

As a former vegetarian and vegan family (for years and years) we started realizing that when we weren't on our game we ended up consuming a lot of processed soy and simple carbs neither of which is remotely healthy. I went on an allergy diet when Rasa was about 4 months old because she tested positive for a milk allergy and was breastfeeding. I had to eliminate all dairy and soy from my diet because the cows milk protein is passed on in breast milk and soy protein simulates milk protein and lots of babies/kids are allergic to both. I did the no allergen diet by Dr. Sears and started off by eating literally only chicken breast seasoned with salt and pepper only, potatos with olive oil, sweet potatoes and then was later able to introduce squash, other root vegetables and fruits. I had never felt better in my life! My stomach felt great, I lost 10lbs in two weeks and had unlimited energy. With that in mind Royce and I moved to a similar diet but we do eat cheese and pasta in limited amounts (Rasa has since outgrown her milk allergy).

Last nights dinner was excellent. Super easy to make and Royce took the left overs for lunch today and said it was just as good day 2!

Don't worry, this will never be a recipe blog! But for my own purposes I'm going to post up the hits!

Chuck Wagon Pot Roast
2 - 2.5lbs of beef chuck roast (we used 2lbs of grass fed beef steak)
Salt and Pepper
1 24 oz jar of pasta sauce
1 cup of water
2 cups mini wagon wheel pasta
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup fresh or frozen green beans (we used frozen long green beans)

I cut up the steak into 1 inch cubes and boiled them in the spaghetti sauce for about 15 minutes to speed up the process (the beef seems really tough at first but after the time in the crock pot it was very tender). Then I transferred the beef and sauce into a crock pot on the high setting, added the carrots and frozen green beans. I let this cook for about two hours. 45 minutes before I wanted dinner to be ready I added the 2 cups of uncooked pasta noodles. The noodles cook in the sauce making them delicious!

Everyone loved it! It was tasty! The girls and I ate it with a dusting of parmesan cheese on top. I should add this cost about $12 to make if you don't have anything on hand. The bulk of it is the grass fed beef but you could do it for much less if you aren't as picky about your meat choices. I shop at Aldi for some food items which makes a difference. Their spaghetti sauce is $1.69 and has less than five ingredients in it. Carrots grown in the us were $.69 for a bag and their frozen vegetables are very good and inexpensive.

The slower method is to spray your crock pot with non-stick spray, add the raw beef cubes salted and peppered, add sauce and water, cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Increase to low setting and add veggies and uncooked pasta for 45 minutes.

*tonights dinner is cheddar chicken casserole...sounds super yummy and if it's a hit I'll post the recipe!