I didn’t expect much from this recipe, other than a quick meal that didn’t require too much input from me. Apparently, no one else in my family had much faith in it either. Because as we all sat down together and tucked into our dinners, everyone made sounds of surprised delight.

“Wow, this is actually really good,” says the Sweetie Pie.

Everyone nods in agreement.

And it is. Don’t be fooled by my poorly lit, quickly snapped photo. This dish is really good.

If you’re in a big hurry you can skip browning the chicken. After baking it covered, you can hardly tell that the chicken was browned to begin with. If you want the skins crispy, you can uncover it after an hour and then bake it about 5-10 minutes longer.

The rice is the real winner here. This rice is surprisingly delicious. The Peanut, who only eats bananas and cheese, ate three servings of it. And then the Sweetie Pie and I were fighting over who got to have the leftovers the next day (I won, but only because there wasn’t anything else in the fridge I could eat).

I used last year’s garden tomatoes from my freezer for the “cooked tomatoes”. You could easily used canned tomatoes instead.

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Baked Chicken with Tomato Rice Stuffing

Source: More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre

Ingredients

• 3-4 lbs organic chicken parts
• ²⁄₃ cup organic chopped celery
• ¹⁄₂ cup organic chopped bell pepper
• ²⁄₃ cup chopped onion
• 1 ¹⁄₃ cup uncooked rice
• 2 cups cooked tomatoes
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• ¹⁄₂ tsp powdered sage

Method

For instructions, see page 181 in More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre **

** While it’s technically legal to repost recipes, we don’t feel it’s ethical to post copyrighted recipes from the same source for weeks at a time. I’m providing the ingredient list to use in creating a shopping list. We here at the Plan to Eat blog apologize for any inconvenience. If you don’t already own the cookbook, and don’t wish to buy it, most libraries have a copy on their shelves. Thanks for your understanding.

We eat out very rarely. But if it’s a special occasion, or if someone’s parents are in town and treating us all to dinner, the Sweetie Pie really likes to go to a local Chinese place. He always spends lots of time reading the menu, wavering between this dish or that one, and then–every single time–he ends up ordering the orange beef. He saw this recipe when the magazine came in the mail and he said, “Ooh, yum!” What else could I do? The dish had to be made.

I made quite a few ingredient changes. First, I used tangelos instead of tangerines. Whenever I’m using citrus zest in a dish, I prefer that it be organic. I couldn’t find organic tangerines, so I chose tangelos instead. I think this may have worked out better anyway, because the quantity of juice in a tangelo is much more than in a tangerine. Less reaming=happy mama.

Some of my substitutions were a matter of preference (using honey instead of sugar; reducing the quantity of scallions and red-pepper, to make it more child-friendly).

Other substitutions were allergen related. I can’t have corn, so I always use potato starch in place of corn starch. You could also use tapioca starch, or arrowroot powder, or any other thickener that suits your diet.

I substituted coconut aminos for the soy sauce. I’ve written before about the various things I use in place of soy sauce. Either of them would be appropriate here, but I chose the coconut aminos because I thought the sweetness would go well with the tangerine flavor.

Finally, a reminder to check your vinegar for this recipe. If you’re gluten-intolerant, vinegar is a sneaky source of potential gluten. Only buy vinegar that is certified gluten-free.

I recommend serving this up with a substantial green veggie. I used steamed broccoli, which was great. You could also use steamed snow peas or snap peas.

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Tangerine Beef Stir Fry

Source: Everyday Foods

Ingredients

• 3 pound organic beef sirloin, sliced very thinly against the grain
• 1 bunch scallions
• 6 Tbs fresh ginger, minced
• ¹⁄₂ tsp red pepper flakes
• 4 wide strips tangerine zest
• 6 Tbs fresh tangerine juice
• 2 Tbs potato or tapioca starch
• ¹⁄₂ tsp coarse salt
• 2 Tbs soy-less sauce
• 2 Tbs rice vinegargluten free
• 4 tsp honey or agave
• 4 Tbs cooking oil
• rice, for serving

Method

1. Thinly slice two of the scallions. Cut the remaining scallions into thirds, discarding the white part.
2. In a bowl, combine the beef, thinly sliced scallion, ginger, zest, potato starch, and salt; toss to coat. In a separate bowl, combine juice, soy-less sauce, vinegar, honey, and 2 Tbs water.
3. Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat until hot. Add oil and swirl to coat. Add beef mixture and remaining scallions and cook, stirring constantly, until beef is browned, about 5 minutes. Add tangerine-juice mixture; cook, stirring, until sauce is bubbling and slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Serve over rice.

First, combine:

• A generous 1/2 cup honey (or 1/4 honey and 1/4 maple syrup, which is a little tastier, but a bit more expensive too)
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Beat in your mixer:

• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• juice from one lemon
• zest from one lemon

Now mix in the honey and butter combo and add:

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal/flour

Spread your batter into an 8×8 pan and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  The edges will be a bit brown, the center should be spongy.

Now, to be extra fancy, you’re going to make a yogurt topping and zest more lemon on top!

Mix together:

• About one cup Greek yogurt
• Maple syrup to taste (I like it still a bit tart, so I use a couple tablespoons)
• Zest of one lemon

Once your bars have cooled, serve them with a generous dollop of yogurt topping and a sprinkling of lemon zest.  Enjoy!!

This is going to be our last week with veggie recipes. Up next Friday: I want to see your recipes that are free from refined sugar. Sweeten them with honey. Sweeten them with agave, or maple syrup, or apple juice, and then please share them with the rest of us. In our house, we’re starting to cast our eyes towards sweet treats again. But the holiday binge is still within recent memory and so we’re wanting something that will satisfy a sweet tooth, but not send our kiddos into fits of spasmodic craziness. So get baking, and then come back to share with everyone next week.

As usual, you can link up to your favorite veggie recipe below, either on your blog or in your Plan to Eat account. If linking up to your Plan to Eat account, just cut and paste the url from the recipe in your recipe book.

I’m putting this on the table this week:

Are you not a broccoli person? Seriously, give this one a try. It’s delicious and sweet and doesn’t have any of that sulfuric taste that broccoli sometimes has.

Roasting the broccoli (or any veg for that matter) brings out the sugars and makes it nice and sweet. And the little bit of browness adds a nice depth of flavor.

Then, by tossing it with this delightfully clever (and sweet) vinaigrette, my kiddos always asked for seconds–no joke.

I do recommend only using the best parts of the broccoli–the florets and the tender stems just below them. The thick stems are good for cream of broccoli soup or broccoli and cheese casserole, but not for hard-core roasted broccoli. If you just can’t stand to throw them away, put them back in the fridge and make one of the above dishes later in the week.

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Roasted Broccoli with Raisin Vinaigrette

Source: Bon Apetit magazine

Ingredients

• 1 ¹⁄₂ pounds broccoli stems removed, tops cut into large florets
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons Sherry wine vinegar
• ¹⁄₂ cup raisins
• 1 tablespoon water
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground cumin

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place broccoli on large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Roast broccoli until tender and brown in spots, about 25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine 3 tablespoons oil, vinegar, raisins, 1 tablespoon water, and cumin in blender. Blend until raisins are finely chopped, about 30 seconds. Season vinaigrette to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Transfer broccoli to large bowl. Add vinaigrette and toss to coat. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Share Your Yummy Veggie Recipe

One of the first dinners I ever made for the Sweetie Pie, before we were even married, was a vegetarian lasagna. It was stuffed with zucchini and spinach and lots and lots of cheese. I no longer get to partake in the gluten-y, cheese-y yummy-ness (thanks, chronic illness!), but the rest of my family still loves a good veggie lasagna. So when I saw this twist on the traditional lasagna, I knew we had to try it.

Sure enough, it was quite a crowd pleaser. The only thing I had to buy was the lasagna noodles and some cheese, which made it budget friendly to boot. I typically use frozen spinach in my lasagna, but here I used fresh collard greens (Don’t look at me like that. I’m a southern girl! They were on sale!) The Sweetie Pie commented that he really liked the use of fresh greens and asked if we could have it that way again.

My only issues with this recipe were with the quantities of ingredients. I felt they were way off. I was trying to double the recipe and ended up roughly doubling the amount of noodles, tripling the cheese (but not the greens), and doubling the tomato sauce (but not the onions or cheese). The recipe below reflects my best guess as to what quantities I ended up using. My best advice: buy more than needed, hold the quantities loosely, and use your intuition.

Plan to Eat users, click on the recipe title below to import the recipe into your account.

Lasagna Roll-Ups

Source: More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre (adapted)

Ingredients

• 1 16 oz. box lasagna noodles
• 2 bunches organic spinach, chard or other greens, finely chopped
• 6 Tbs grated Parmesan
• 3 cups cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
• ³⁄₄ tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup onion, sliced
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• 8 cups tomato sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp marjoram

Method

For instructions, see page 119 in More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre **

** While it’s technically legal to repost recipes, we don’t feel it’s ethical to post copyrighted recipes from the same source for weeks at a time. I’m providing the ingredient list to use in creating a shopping list. We here at the Plan to Eat blog apologize for any inconvenience. If you don’t already own the cookbook, and don’t wish to buy it, most libraries have a copy on their shelves. Thanks for your understanding.