Warm Green Bean Salad with Mustard Dressing

Ingredients:

• Two solid handfuls of green beans or purple bush beans
• 1/2 cup cremini mushrooms
• 1 cup parsley
• 1 small onion

Dressing:

• 2 T cold-pressed olive oil
• 2 T whole grain mustard
• 1-2 tsp white wine vinegar
• optional: 1 tsp honey

Cooking instructions:

Rinse and trim the tips off of the green beans, and then add to a steamer with an inch of water in the bottom. Turn the stove on high and allow to bring to a boil. Just in case you loose track of time easily, set a timer for ten minutes. While waiting for the water to boil, begin preparing the rest of the salad ingredients.

Slice the onions into 1/4 in slices and add to a sauté pan with 1 T olive oil. Slice the mushrooms into 1/4 in slices and set aside. Sauté the onions for 2-3 minutes, until they begin to turn translucent. Check the steamer. If it is fully bursting forth with steam, lower the heat to a simmer. Add the mushrooms and continue to sauté for another 3-5 minutes, adding another tablespoon of olive oil or water to allow the mushrooms to become soft.

Once all of these ingredients are cooked, add the onions, mushrooms, and green beans to a large mixing bowl or salad bowl, and set aside.

Mix up the dressing by adding about equal parts whole grain mustard and olive oil, 1-2 tsp of vinegar and the optional honey into a small bowl.  Now whisk away until a

ll of the ingredients blend completely together.

Roughly chop the parsley and add it to the salad. Finally, pour the dressing over your salad and stir it all together.  Serve and enjoy!

Gluten-free Meatballs, Kale, and marinara. Easy weeknight dinner. 

Not the best lighting or photo, but you get the idea.

If you make the meatballs ahead of time and freeze a batch, then this can become a very quick meal after a busy day. And yes, when I do not have time, like when I made this recipe, I cut corners by buying marinara (gasp).  I do scour the shelves for a marinara that does not have high fructose corn syrup in it, and only ingredients that I recognize as real food on the label.

Please note: this meatball recipe is tasty and gluten-free, but it does go against all traditional meatball recipes that use egg and breadcrumbs. If you can eat gluten, you may very well prefer a traditional recipe to this one.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground, hormone, antibiotic beef
• 1 pound ground hormone, antibiotic free pork, or ground italian pork sausage. (if you get the un-spiced pork, then you need to add some a dash of ground chili, 1 T dried oregano, and 2 T dried basil, much more if using fresh herbs.
• 1/2 cup of roughly chopped parsley
• 1 small onion
• 4-6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp ground pepper, a dash of salt
• 1 head of kale, or 6-8 leaves from the garden
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of marinara per serving

To make the meatballs: First take off all rings, watches, jewelry, because this is going to get messy. Chop all your meatball additions ahead of time, mince the onion, the garlic cloves, roughly chop the parsley, and measure out your spices (if using straight ground pork) into a small bowl or ramekin ahead of time. Put the ground beef and ground pork or ground italian spiced pork sausage into a large mixing bowl. Add the onions, parsely, garlic, and spices.  Dive your hands into the mix and combine it all together. Really take some time to mix it all in.

Preheat the oven to 375. Roll them into large 2-3 inch sized meatballs and place in a oven-ready skillet, such as a cast iron skillet. Fill the skillet, maybe even do two skillets. Turn heat to medium and brown all sides of the meatballs. Gently roll them with a wooden spoon when the time comes to turn each meatball. When the meatballs are browned on all sides, transfer the skillet(s) to the oven, and continue to bake for 15-25 minutes. Check the meatballs at 15 minutes, by slicing one in half and assessing if they are cooked through. They are done with the meatballs are completely cooked through.

While the meatballs are in the oven, wash and de-stem the kale. Add them to a steamer with an inch of water, place on the stove on high until the water boils, then reduce heat to med-low. From start to finish, this takes about ten minutes. At the same time, you can heat up your marinara in a sauce pan over low heat, stirring occasionally.

When the meatballs and kale are done. Place about a cup of kale in a serving bowl add one or two meatballs, douse with marinara, and serve. Optional: grate some parmesan or asiago cheese over the whole shebang.

You can freeze the remain meatballs for other quick meals during busy weeks.