This is another dish that I do very many variations on. I like the cabbage and onion, but then I do all sorts of variations on the cheese. I use cottage cheese or plain yogurt for example along with a mix of real cheeses sometimes. This was today’s version.

Ingredients

• 1 small cabbage sliced in relatively small pieces

• 2 onions diced

• 8 oz Quinoa pasta shells (that link is just to show you the brand. It’s available in most health food stores. I’ve gotten questions addressed to me off the blog about gluten-free pasta) you can of course use any pasta you want to use for this recipe.

• 6 oz soft goats cheese

• 3/4 cup sheep milk grated pecorino

• 3 large eggs (I actually used 6 eggs yolks plus one egg) I came up with this recipe because I had the yolks to use left over after using the whites for my  mousse/ice cream, the one I made here on this blog a while back

• salt and pepper to taste

Saute cabbage and onion until very soft. Let cool for a while. Add goats cheese, pecorino, salt and pepper and three eggs.

Boil the pasta (this can be done while you are sauteing the veggies. Cook the pasta VERY al dente as it will be baking with other ingredients and can finish cooking in the oven. This helps avoid it getting too mushy.

Once the pasta is drained, mix it in with the veggies, cheese and eggs.

Turn it all into a casserole pan and cook at 350 until browned.

To clarify: I used a green cabbage and you really can’t tell by looking at the pic how much there is. There is quite a lot. The onions I used were red. You can use any onion and cabbage as you prefer.

I make many variations of this soup. The last time I made it I used spinach instead of beans. The carrots and celery are standard as I sorta feel like it’s not really chicken soup without lots of celery and carrot. I often add canned diced tomatoes as well, or a can of tomato sauce. That’s real nice actually. Since I freeze the leftovers, I sometimes leave out the tomato in the parent soup and then add a small can of tomato to one of the frozen batches.

The large pot below is after my mom,my husband and I have had a couple of bowls each. So this is a BIG recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• enough chicken or vegetable stock to just cover chicken
• 2 large onions diced
• 1 bunch of celery sliced
• 5 carrots sliced
• 4 cups green beans
• 2 tbls celery seed
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 3 cups steamed brown rice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Skin then boil chicken in stock for approximately 2 hours or until it’s falling apart a bit. Take out chicken to cool in a bowl.
While chicken is boiling chop the veggies and saute in your favorite oil/fat while covered. (Leave the beans out until the end) Add the herbs and spices to the veggies while they are cooking.

Once the chicken has cooled take the meat off the bones and cut the meat up in small shredded pieces. Mix the veggies, the broth and the chicken all together. Add the beans and bring to a boil. (I don’t like my beans cooked to death, like the carrots and the celery) Also add the steamed brown rice at this point. Once the beans are tender it’s ready.

I’ve been doing lots of things with chicken leg quarters lately, because, like with the grass fed ground beef, I get this stuff cheap and when one buys only natural meats one needs to go with what they can afford. Luckily, I love these succulent legs and would buy them over very expensive chicken breasts most of the time anyway. What happens though is I have less variety in the cuts of meat I eat, so here again is a chicken dish that I basically stew and throw the sauce over pasta. Or in this instance. as you can see, I tossed the pasta in the sauce with the chicken.

3 large chicken quarters cut in pieces and skinned

2 very large purple onions cut in thin half circles

4 large cloves of garlic diced

3 tbls butter

flour to dredge the chicken in

1/2 cup white wine

2 tbls lemon juice

2 tbls dried tarragon

4 oz fresh goat cheese

generous amounts of fresh ground black pepper

Salt to taste

Saute onions and garlic to the point of caramelization. I used very large onions. Starting with what looks like too much is just fine when you caramelize as it cooks down to practically nothing. I sauteed them in 2 tbls of the butter.

In a separate pan I browned the chicken also in butter which I had first dredged in flour. Once the chicken was browned I dumped the onion on top of it, put in the wine, lemon, tarragon, salt and pepper while it was on a high flame. I then lowered the flame to quite low and covered it and let it cook for about 35 minutes until the meat was tender and falling away from the drumsticks.

At this point I added the goat cheese with the flame off. I cooked 8 oz of brown rice pasta and tossed it in. It was very good.

Back to my 101 ways to cook my grass fed ground beef that I get for a steal and of which I have many approximate 1 lb packages in my fridge.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 package of corn tortillas

14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted organic tomatoes)

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

3 jalepeno peppers (out of the garden — reaching the end of our harvest for this year)

2 tsp cumin

10 oz grated cheese (I used half garlic/herb jack and half pepper jack)

Salt to taste

Beef in the enchilada sauce

So I sauteed the onion, garlic and jalepeno until very soft. Browned the meat once they were cooked. Then I added the tomato and the cumin. Very simple and straight forward. I salted this mixture as well.

Bottom layer of corn tortillas (2 layers thick)

I put 2 layers of corn tortillas on the bottom of the pan.

First complete layer of casserole

Then I put a layer of the meat sauce and then a layer of cheese as pictured. I topped that with another double layer of tortillas and another layer of meat and cheese. I topped that all with one layer of tortillas. I covered the dish at this point and baked it for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Once hot and cooked through I uncovered it and topped in with a final layer of cheese which I put under the broiler for a few minutes.

Fresh out of the oven

Here I am about to eat it. I took this picture in my lap!! I hadn’t intended on photographing it, but my husband served it and I thought it looked nice. Unfortunately it’s blurry!

ready to eat

Another easy creamed soup. My favorite thing to eat these days.

This one had: (all thrown into the pot at the same time and boiled)

2 lbs frozen spinach

64 oz vegetable broth

3 onions cut in quarters

1 head of garlic

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

I cooked all that until it was soft then took it off the burner to cool a bit. I added these ingredients while it sat there:

2 cups milk

1/2 lb goats cheese (fresh rounds)

1 cup grated pecorino/romano sheeps cheese

Then I blended the whole lot of it. Simple, fast and nutritious. I freeze leftovers.