One of John's favorite meals is Fettuccine Alfredo.  I never really made it in the past, because that much dairy rarely agreed with my stomach.  Once we switched over to raw, grassfed dairy, my belly stopped having temper tantrums, but I forgot all about poor John's favorite.  Until... I ordered cream and decided to take the plunge.  I used this recipe for the sauce, mostly. 

First, I melted down tons of butter.

Then, I smushed up lots of garlic and added it to the butter.

When it smelled delicious, I added in the raw milk cream and warmed it up.

While this was going in, I cut up some chicken thighs.  Usually, I buy whole chickens because they are more cost effective, but sometimes the thighs are a good price so I grab them for a special dinner.  The can be used the same way breasts are used, but are much, much juicier.

Back to the meal.  I melted down some chicken fat that I skimmed off of the top of stock in a separate pan from the sauce.

When it was nice and hot, I added the chicken to the pan.

 After the chicken was cooked, I added in some frozen broccoli.

At this point, the macaroni was cooked, the sauce was cooked, and the chicken/broccoli mixture was cooked.  The only thing left to do was mix it together!

I left the heat on low for a few minutes to help the sauce marry the other ingredients. 

I served it up with tons of parmesean cheese and a kale/tomato salad.  Mmmmm!

Hey, that title kind of rhymes!  A nice change from my love of alliteration.  Anyway, the stir-fry is pretty boring, the real star is the side dish.  

The stir fry is just:

Chicken

Red Pepper

Mushrooms

Bok Choy

... All cooked up together in nama shoyu, rice wine vinegar, and ginger.

The REAL star of this meal was the side dish.  Roasted sweet potatoes and pineapple!!

The were cut into bite-sized pieces, tossed with salt and olive oil, and roasted at 425* until they were lightly browned.

They were a delicious complement to the main dish. 

Once a week John is in charge of making dinner.  Usually we make it on the day that I work the latest, so he has time after he gets home to cook and relax.  The other day, he had to butcher up a huuuuge chunk of beef after work for us to freeze (more on that another time) and didn't have time to make dinner.  When I got home, I threw something together, and it was more delicious than anything I could have planned.  It was so EASY too, which was the best.  

First, I sliced up a bunch of onions and started them cooking down in butter while I got out of my work clothes and into relaxing home-mode.

A little while later, I was ready to cook and they were deliciously brown.

I added on a layer of leftover roasted chicken and a layer of raw milk cheddar.

I popped it into the oven to melt down for a few minutes.

When it was done, we ate it with some pickles and marveled at how easy and yummy it was.  I'm so glad we keep roasted chicken pieces in the fridge!

This post was shared at Pennywise Platter Thursday!

Monday Macaroni this week featured some leftover chicken... How delish!

The first thing I did was saute some onions and leek in olive oil.  I bet you thought I was going to say onion and garlic in butter.  Hah!  I tricked you!  Really, I used olive oil because we were out of butter.  

When it was smelling good, I added in 1/2 cup of chicken broth. 

I let it come to a boil and then added in 3/4 cup of the cream from the top of the milk, some thyme, salt, and a few splashes of lemon juice. 

When it was all nice and warm, I added in leftover roasted chicken. 

I turned the heat up a bit, and let the chicken warm up.

It was perfect served over macaroni!

Although it had some onions in it, this dish really needed a salad with it.  What kind... hmm....  Dandelion Greens!

I whipped up a quick dressing by chopping up some garlic and leeks...

... and mixed it with a 1:1 ratio of olive oil and rice wine vinegar and a bit of salt.

Topped with dried cranberries, it was a good mix of bitter and sweet.

This post was shared with the Hearth and Soul Bloghop and Fat Tuesday!

I've been fighting a cold (apparently I can't grow a baby AND fight germs at the same time) so I decided to make soup.  I wanted to fill up on some yummy and healing chicken broth and John loves soup... WIN-WIN!

I had a weird feeling that John wanted eggs for dinner (turns out I was right, he did) so I decided to try a variation on egg-drop soup.  Before I could do anything, though, I had to defrost some chicken broth.  6 cups worth, to be exact.

While they got to work, I sauteed carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and green onions in butter.  

When they were soft-ish and delish, I added in leftover turkey that I had frozen from Thanksgiving.

By the time that was done, the broth was nice and hot.  I added the pan of veggies-n-poultry to the broth.

I added in some soy sauce, ginger, and sesame oil and brought it to a boil.

As I waited for it to boil, I scrambled up 5 eggs.

Now here was the tough part... I had to sloooooooowly pour the eggs into the boiling soup.

It boiled for a little longer...

... and then was ready to enjoy!

This post was shared with Fight Back Friday on the Food Renegade!

Hello, Pizza Friday!

This week?  BBQ Chicken Pizza.  The first step (besides setting the dough out to rise) was making the barbeque sauce.  I sauteed some chopped up onions in olive oil to get a good base. 

Then, in a separate bowl, I mixed together equal parts tomato paste and red wine vinegar.  Then, I sprinkled in some red pepper flakes and stirred. 

I threw the sauce into the onions to let the flavors meld together. 

By this time, the dough had risen!

I rolled the dough out, added the chicken and BBQ sauce, topped it with raw milk cheddar, and baked it.  Wait until you see how great it was!!!