Stew

Pulled Pork Chili

Pulled Pork Chili
Serves 10 (1 cup portions)

This morning I woke to 45F temperatures. To me, that means chili season. But some chili can be high fat, and some high sodium. This is neither, just high flavor. This is one of those little life hacks that I talk about on one my Make Your Someday Today Trevitorials. Make good food and eat it. When you make it yourself, you know what is in it!

In a large (3-4 quart kettle) add:
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
Add your preferred chili spices

Sautee that together until the onions begin to get translucent (5 minutes)
Add:
1 tablespoon tomato paste. Stir to mix together, then add:
2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained, and low sodium if available
2 cans beans, drained and rinsed
1 pound pulled pork

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. After 30-40 minutes, taste and add more seasoning as needed. This is better if you can then chill it for a few hours or overnight.

So, why is the beer in the picture? I make my beans with a pressure cooker. I use 1 cup dried beans (here is a mix of white navy beans and black bean), one onion diced, 2-4 cloves garlic minced and 4 cups beer. This is one of my favorites, Green Bay’s own Wisco Disco. Put the lid on, set to high pressure and leave them cook for 45 minutes. When it is time to add the beans to the tomatoes, I dump everything in, beans, beer, onion and garlic.

Nutritional data:
Calories:         210
Fat:                  5.4g
Sat fat:             1.7g
Chol:           38.5mg
Sodium:      32.7mg
Carbs:            18.2g
Fiber:               4.6g
Protein:            19g

Classic Borsh (you might call it Borsht)

Borsh
Serves Many! (Approximately 24 portions, 1 cup each)

Some people and cookbooks call this “borscht”. My Ukrainian-born friend who gave me this recipe says that it is supposed to be “borsh.” She was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Forces, and is a fierce woman. Who am I to question her?

Well, actually, I question her quite a bit, when I interviewed her for my podcast, Make Your Someday Today (abbreviated as MYST). You can hear the complete interview at MakeYourSomedayToday.com/JulieSheranosher

Ingredients:

2 pounds (1kg) top loin steak or round steak. Use a lean cut, and trim excess fat. Cut this into squares 1″ (2.5cm) on a side
2 cans/bottles of beer (Do not use a very hoppy beer. A simple pilsner would be best.)
2-4 cloves garlic, or more to preference
6-8 black peppercorns
1 big or 2 small onions, diced
2 large beets, peeled and grated
2 large carrots, peeled and grated
3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1″ cubes
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 small cabbage, thinly shredded (or use a 12 ounce bag of pre shredded cabbage)
2 red bell peppers, diced
fresh parsely, 2 large handfuls 
1 tablespoon white sugar
sour cream and fresh chives for garnish.
  1. Put the meat in a big pot. Add beer, garlic, black pepper and 2 cups water.
  2. Bring to boil, cover and lower the heat to a medium flame and allow to cook for 1 hour.
  3. Add the beets, carrots, onion, potatoes and salt (optional). Add 1 cup boiling water if needed to cover.
  4. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook for another 30 minutes
  5. Add the tomato paste, cabbage and peppers. Stir to combine.
  6. Bring to a boil and allow to cook for 15 minutes.
  7. Add the sugar and parsley. The parsley is NOT for garnish. It is necessary to complete the flavor profile.
  8. Cook on a medium flame for another 20 minutes.
  9. Cover, cool and place in refrigerator overnight. (Required for full flavor!)
  10. When serving, reheat over medium, and serve with a tablespoon sour cream and freshly chopped chives.
Nutritional data (not including sour cream or bread):
Calories:    161
Fat:            8.1g
Sat fat:       3.1g
Chol:        33mg
Sodium:   48mg
Carbs:      10.6g
Fiber:         2.3g

Protein:    11.3g

Do me a big favor? Please leave a comment here for Julie and her recipe and tell us when you have or will make it!


Make Your Someday Today is a twice-weekly podcast, where we talk to successful people in all walks of life and around the world on Monday, and then on Thursday, I take a specific message from the previous guest and give my “Trevitorial”, where I help you apply that message to your life. The entire purpose of the show is to help all of us overcome our challenges and fears and become the person we want to be, the person we deserve to be.

Coq Au Vin

Coq Au Vin
Serves 8 (average 6 ounce portion by weight)

Meals like this are great for cool days, or when you need to feed many people on a budget. It is fast, simple (with a few easy steps) and is a healthy choice. On my podcast, Make Your Someday Today, a common topic regarding health and weight loss is finding meals that taste incredible and are still easy to fit into a calorie budget. This recipe works!

Special equipment: Pressure Cooker

1 chicken (4-5 pounds), cut into 10 pieces (remove the wings from the breast, Cut the breasts in half, separate the drumsticks from the thighs.)
Flour, for dusting the chicken pieces
1 tablespoons cooking oil (canola or olive)
3 strips of bacon, minced
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, mashed and minced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 large (3″) potato, peeled and diced
6 ounces baby carrots, cut in half lengthwise
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup dry red wine
4 ounces fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper as needed

  1. Dust the chicken parts with flour. 
  2. In the pressure cooker, add canola oil and heat the oil until very hot and brown the chicken pieces. 
  3. Remove the chicken to a warm platter. 
  4. Add to the pressure cooker the bacon, onion, garlic, carrot, celery and potatoe, and saute until the onion is wilted. 
  5. Carefully whisk in the 1 tablespoon of flour, then gradually add the wine and stir until thickened and smooth. 
  6. Add the thyme, parsley, bay leaf, salt and pepper, then return the chicken to the pressure cooker.
  7. Lock the lid in place and bring to pressure, then lower heat and cook for 8 minutes under pressure. 
  8. Allow pressure to drop by the naturally and remove the lid. 
  9. Add the mushrooms and simmer, uncovered, 3 minutes.  Discard the bay leaf.

Nutritional data (for 6 ounces of chicken, average of white and dark):
Calories:     434
Fat:           25.8g
Sat fat:        7.4g
Chol:         137mg
Sodium:     285mg
Carbs:       14.5g
Fiber:          2.1g
Protein:     31.7g

Optional: if you want this creamy, stir in 1/2 cup (5 ounces by weight) plain Greek Yogurt when you add the mushrooms and heat through.

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My podcast, Make Your Someday Today is a twice-weekly show, where we talk to successful people in all walks of life and around the world on Monday, and then on Thursday, I take a specific message from the previous guest and give my “Trevitorial”, where I help you apply that message to your life. The entire purpose of the show is to help all of us overcome our challenges and fears and become the person we want to be, the person we deserve to be. I hope you give it a listen! 

Beef Stew and Cheddar-Chive Biscuits

Beef Stew
Serves 2 (1.5 cup portions)

2 pounds beef, cubed into 1/2 inch cubes
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2-4 cloves garlic, mashed and minced
4 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoon water
16 ounce beer (your preferred type, darker is better in this)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup low sodium beef (or chicken or vegetable) broth (I used home made broth, with no added salt.)
1 bag (16 ounces) frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 cup shredded carrots (optional, but I used them)
Salt and pepper to taste (I used no salt when I made this)

  1. Heat non-stick Dutch oven or other large kettle over medium-high heat. Add oil.
  2. When oil is hot, add beef cubes. Season with salt/pepper.  Brown on all sides.
  3. While the beef is cooking, mix together the flour and water to make a thin paste.
  4. Add flour paste to a mixing bowl, and stir in tomato paste.  Stir until well-mixed.
  5. Stir in broth and beer.  Use a large bowl or the beer will foam over and make a mess.
  6. Remove beef from heat, and keep warm.
  7. In the beef cooking juices, add onion and saute over medium-high heat until beginning to turn translucent.  Add garlic and cook for one minute.
  8. Return beef to pot. Add all vegetables (they can still be frozen) and the beer/broth mix.
  9. Bring to a boil.
  10. Reduce heat to low.  Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how thick you want the gravy

Nutritional Data:
Calories:    312
Fat:          13.3g
Sat fat:       5.2g
Chol:          80mg
Sodium:      89mg
Carbs:      16.7g
Fiber:         2.3g
Protein:    25.4g

Cheddar-Chive Drop Biscuits
Serves 6 (2 biscuits per portion)

1 cup all purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded cheddar cheese

  1. Preheat oven to 450.
  2. Combine all three dry ingredients together in a bowl.
  3. Cut the butter into small cubes.  Add to flour.
  4. Using your fingers, pick up the butter cubes and mash them into the flour, until there are no noticeable butter lumps.  This will only take a few minutes.
  5. Add yogurt and chives. Stir until partially mixed. 
  6. Add cheese. Stir until well mixed and forms a sticky ball.
  7. Turn out on a floured surface. Sprinkle lightly with flout and kneed/fold 10 times.
  8. Grease a baking sheet.
  9. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet.  You will get about 12 biscuits.  When baked, they will be about 2 inches in diameter.
  10. Bake 7-9 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

Nutritional Data: (2 biscuits)
Calories:    143
Fat:            5.6g
Sat fat:       3.5g
Chol:          150mg
Sodium:    239mg
Carbs:      16.9g
Fiber:         0.6g
Protein:      5.9g