What's for Dinner: Beef and Peas

Often when I'm cooking, I think about how our meals have changed. When I was giving our diet a makeover, I found meal planning to be extremely difficult. I thought I would share some of our recipes so that you might avoid the same struggle. The problem I ran into the most is that many cookbooks called for processed items. I thought that I knew how to cook but I really just knew how to open cans and combine them to make a meal. Some of our recipes we just don't make any more and some we have tweaked to make healthier. I haven't found just one source to get my recipes from, instead, I look through my cookbooks, online, and read some blogs that post healthier recipes. It's been a slow process but I'm happy to share what I have found. I hope you enjoy the ongoing "What's for Dinner" series!

Tonight's recipe comes from Taste of Home's Dinner on a Dime cookbook. The original recipe is called Ground Beef n' Biscuits, but in our house it is simply known as Beef and Peas. The original recipe calls for canned biscuits, but we're going to make our own! It's not hard so give it a try, and since you're doing it, go ahead and and double the recipe and have biscuits for breakfast a few mornings this week with no extra effort (or dishes)!

Homemade Biscuits (not doubled)

2 cups flour (half wheat half unbleached white)
3 tsp baking powder (aluminum free!)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter or coconut oil
3/4 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients. Cut butter into mixture using a pastry blender. Stir in the milk with a fork until ingredients are just mixed. Transfer the dough to a large, flat surface and roll it out to about 1" thick and cut with a biscuit cutter. Avoid using a drinking glass if possible because you want the air to have a way to escape or your biscuits will be flat. Bake at 425 degrees on a greased cookie sheet for 13-15 minutes. You can also just bake the extras with the Beef and Peas at a lower temperature for longer.


Beef and Peas
Servings: 6 / Oven: 350 degrees

1 lb ground beef (local grass fed, please)
1/2 cup chopped onion (we like onion so we add a little more)
2 tbls flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp pepper
1 15 oz can tomato sauce (we cheat and buy canned tomatoes for our budget's sake occasionally until we have a nice garden with more tomatoes than we know what to do with, but for now, we use Muir Glen Organics)
1 1o oz package frozen peas (fresh is fine too)
6 homemade biscuits, uncooked
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Brown beef and onion in a skillet over medium heat, drain.

Stir in flour, salt, oregano, and pepper until blended.

Add tomato sauce and peas; simmer for 5 minutes.


Transfer into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Place 6 biscuits on top of mixture and sprinkle with cheese. In order for the biscuits to cook more thoroughly, do not allow them to touch each other and make sure the casserole mixture you're putting them on is warm.

Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Let me know if you try this and what you think!

Homemade Pizza

Just because we cook from scratch and eat healthy foods doesn't mean we have to give up delicious favorites; we have pizza night once a week! We have been having weekly pizzas for a while now, but the recipes have slowly changed and we have finally settled on a pizza that is healthy and delicious! The recipes for both sauce and crust are found below. Use your favorite toppings or whatever is left over in your fridge. It's great to get everyone together in the kitchen to make their pizzas!

Lets start with the pizza crust. Don't plan this on a night when you have 30 minutes to get dinner on the table. This crust isn't very time intensive but needs to be started early so the dough can rise. I know that you can freeze dough but I have never tried it- let me know if you have!

We used to buy canned pizza sauce until about two weeks ago when I discovered the best pizza sauce ever! I have no idea where I found the recipe (somewhere on the internet) but I will share it with you. My house smelled like Olive Garden for the rest of the night and we went back to the store a few days later and bought all the Roma tomatoes they had to make sauce and freeze it.
Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust at allrecipes.com

• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour*
  

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust.** Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
5. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

My notes:
*We still use white flour but try to find recipes that are at least half and half white and wheat. I love that this is more wheat than white but the crust isn't dense like most wheat crusts are. Don't buy any flour that says enriched. For white flour we like the King Arthur Brand because it is unbleached and unbromated. You don't have to shop a health food store to get it either, they sell it at Walmart.
** We normally split the dough into 6 balls. For our family of two, we each make a personal size pizza because our taste are very different, as well as two calzones each to have for lunch the coming week. To make the calzones, roll dough into more of an oval than a circle and dress it like a pizza on one end. Fold the other end over and seal the seems. I usually leave the calzones in the oven for 5-10 minutes longer.

Pizza Sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
7 Roma Tomatoes, cored and diced
1 tbls Basil
1/2 tsp Oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
6 oz can tomato paste

In saucepan, heat olive oil. Stir in garlic and cook until just lightly browned (This is where it starts to smell really good in your house and you can't keep your family out of the kitchen)! Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes. Simmer until juices have started to evaporate slightly, about 10 minutes.
Blend in tomato paste and cook 3 minutes more. Cool slightly before using on pizzas. I found that this makes enough for two pizza nights so stick 1/2 in the freezer and have it ready for the next pizza night.

Enjoy!!

Recipe Book

On Monday morning my husband's car was vandalized and is not drivable for the time being. This has increased my time at home and given me more time to focus on the house and projects that I want to get accomplished. Yesterday I spent way too much time on a cover for my new recipe folder. I started this folder at the beginning of the year with recipes for our new eating lifestyle. I found it easier to have them all in one place and to not be tempted by some of the unhealthier recipes that we used to enjoy. I had begun to slack off in printing recipes to put in the binder and figured if I made it look nice, I might be more likely to keep it up to date. I used some old scrapbooking paper that matched the binder color. I told my husband last night that the colors made it look like Barbie threw up on my recipe book, but at least it was fun. I got this great organizational idea from my friend Emily Wylie. I'll be sharing some of the recipes from inside the binder soon.