Sunday: Green and Red Bell Peppers with Sausage and Celery

This week's grocery haul, for $99.33:
-3 green bell peppers
-3 red bell peppers
-1 bag celery
-1 bag organic carrots
-1 bunch parsley
-1 head broccoli
-5 tomatoes on the vine
-1 box prewashed baby spinach
-1 bunch bananas
-1 carton blueberries
-1 jar pitted Kalamata olives
-Small bottle of low-sodium soy sauce
-1/2 lb roast chicken and 1/3 lb pepperjack cheese from the deli
-3 Fage yogurts
-4 cans Sixpoint Sweet Action Ale
-2 bags tortilla chips
-1 whole organic chicken
-1 package (5 links) pork sausage
-1 box instant oatmeal, variety pack
-1 can unsalted roasted peanuts
-6 organic eggs

I carried it all home on my back, like a sherpa. I'll probably need to get more salad greens later in the week, along with ginger, lemons, and anything else I forgot.

Yesterday's dinner was pretty slapdash, as in, I made it up on the fly, but I'm happy enough with how it turned out.

Green and Red Bell Peppers with Sausage and Celery

Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients:

1 pack sausage
2 red bell peppers
2 green bell peppers
2 stalks celery
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes, unsalted
Rice (5-6 cups cooked)
Not pictured: canola oil, pinch cumin, pinch oregano, pinch cayenne, salt and pepper, hot sauce, chicken stock

Instructions:

1. Cut sausage links into small pieces. I like slicing quarters. Brown in large saucepan in a neutral-tasting oil, like canola.
2. Chop celery into small pieces. Add to sausage, stir, and let soften.
3. Chop green and red bell peppers into small pieces. Add to the pot, stir. Wait 2 minutes.
4. Add can of diced tomatoes and 1/4 cup water. Add spices as you like.
5. Make large amount of rice using leftover chicken stock.
6. Serve with hot sauce.

I served this after a hefty Super Salad (spinach, celery, olives, tomatoes, carrots, parsley, olive oil and vinegar) and it made for a quite satisfying, almost-too-heavy meal.

FACTS AND FIGURES 

Prep time: 20-30 min. Chopping, chopping, watching football, chopping.

Servings: 4
Agony rating: 3/10. 
Taste and stuff: 7/10. 

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

I, um, threw away the receipt by accident, but the sausage was $5.99, the can o'tomatoes $2.99, so it's safe to estimate the total cost was no higher than $14 including the vegetables (and that's aggressive) or $3.50/serving.

This afternoon I'm making bone broth in the slow cooker, with a freezer's worth of leftover chicken and turkey bones. At the recommendation of a Ukrainian friend, I removed the bones after 24 hours and pounded them with a meat hammer (er, really an ice cream scoop) to let some of the marrow out. Then I put them back in. Eventually I'm going to add some bay leaves, peppercorns, etc but I don't want things to get bitter.

At some point I'm going to slow roast a whole chicken in there, to give us meat for the week... and more bones!

Meal plan for the week:

Breakfast: Bananas and oatmeal (him) broth, berries, and yogurt (her)
Lunch: Sandwiches (him) ??? (her)
Dinners: Peppers and Sausage with rice; Superveggie salad with roast chicken and hardboiled eggs; Use leftover rice and chicken to make chicken and rice soup (with lemon and ginger?) or egg drop soup

Friday: Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder with Homemade Low-FODMAP Taco Seasoning

No onions, no garlic, no problem. In accordance with my husband's new low-FODMAP mandate from his doctor, I tried my hand at a low-FODMAP variation of my usual pork shoulder taco recipe. Basically this means ditching the beans and storebought salsa and taco seasoning. This one turned out pretty tasty, though next time I might have a heavier hand with the spices.

Ingredients:

Frozen pork shoulder from Whole Foods (they cut off the skin! woohoo!)
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes, no sodium
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 grated fresh carrot, for sweetness
Lime juice to taste

Homemade low-FODMAP taco seasoning:

2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper

Pour diced tomatoes into crockpot and lay pork shoulder on top. Surround with frozen corn and add spices and carrot. Since my pork shoulder was frozen and I want to eat it tonight, I put it straight into the crockpot and set it on high, then switched to low after 6 hours for 10 hours total.

Serve with corn tortillas, shredded pepperjack or cheddar cheese, lime, and fresh chopped cilantro. Add avocado or sour cream if your gut can tolerate FODMAPs. 

Monday: Low FODMAP Crockpot Turkey Chili

There's nothing better than curling up with a bowl of hot chili on a brisk November day. But what to do if you're trying to avoid beans, onions, and garlic--ie the basic building blocks of chili? Turns out, it *is* possible, with a little creativity and elbow grease, to make low-FODMAP chili. (The secret's in the cumin and oregano...) I cobbled this recipe together from a mishmash of recipes I found online. You can easily substitute ground pork or beef for the turkey, or add other low-FODMAP veggies like squash. I'm definitely planning on making this again soon!

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground turkey (leg meat)
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 zucchini, finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 16 oz. can low-sodium diced tomatoes
1 tsp salt
4 teaspoons paprika
7 teaspoons oregano
8 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you like it spicy)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa

1. Brown turkey in a saucepan with a tablespoon of a neutral-tasting oil, like canola.
2. Chop and grate vegetables and add to crockpot. Measure out spices and add. Open cans of tomato stuff and add. Stir.
3. Scoop browned turkey onto the vegetable mix. Cook in the slow cooker on low for 8 hours.
4. Serve in a bowl with shredded cheese, cilantro, sour cream and avocado if you tolerate them.

This came out really lovely, maybe a little intense on the spices, but the cumin and oregano completely compensate for the lack of FODMAP foods like onion and garlic.

I used 1.2 lbs of ground turkey and was disappointed when this only made about half a crockpot's worth of chili. Kind of a waste. Next time I'm adding more turkey and veggies, with the same amount of spices. 

Thursday: Fall Vegetable Stew with Beef

This morning I took the butternut squash out of the crockpot and let it cool off. 

I had a bunch of vegetables left over from previous recipes and some carrots and kale from the farmers market. So last night I prepped all the vegetables and stuck them in the fridge. This morning I mixed all the ingredients and set the crockpot for 6 hours on low.

Ingredients:

Cooked beef from making beef stock
2 zucchini, sliced in rounds
1 bunch of carrots from the farmer's market, sliced in rounds
1/2 head broccoli, chopped
2 red potatoes, quartered
1 bunch elephant kale from farmer's market, chopped
1 bunch fresh sage, parsley, and thyme
1 16 oz can unsalted diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen corn
4 cups beef broth 

Remove the herbs, and serve with parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

Voila! Beef stew.

For dessert we had the butternut squash with butter, sugar, cinnamon, and sea salt. Yum!

Low FODMAP Chicken Tortilla Soup with Cilantro and Lime

This week worked out well in terms of all the food prep I did Sunday. On Monday we had chicken broccoli bake leftovers. Tuesday was beef stew leftovers. Wednesday was spinach salad with cooked chicken (from the stock-making Sunday,) olives, and pumpkin seeds. Thursday was the least successful - I made quinoa pasta and covered it with the faux celery pesto, olives, more cooked chicken, olive oil and parmesan. That was kind of meh. Celery leaves and parsley are VERY overwhelming-tasting, it turns out. 

So tonight I wanted to use some of that rich chicken stock as well as the rest of the cooked chicken.

I got my inspiration from this post on The Kitchn which features six easy ways to turn chicken stock into dinner. They all sound great, especially the rice and egg soup. But since I had all this cooked chicken already I decided to give this one a try. It's low-FODMAP and low sodium if you decide to keep it that way (if you have a light hand with the tortilla chips, that is.) This turned out great and I can't wait to try all the other chicken stock recipes.

Ingredients:

Chicken stock
Shredded chicken
16 oz can unsalted diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen sweet corn
Shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese
Chopped cilantro
Crumbled tortilla chips
Fresh lime juice
Salt, pepper, cayenne to taste

Heat chicken broth until simmering. Add shredded cooked chicken, corn, and can of diced tomatoes. Heat until hot. Pour into bowls and top with crumbled tortilla chips, shredded cheese, lime juice, and cilantro.

FACTS AND FIGURES 
  
Prep time: 10 min. Open can of tomatoes, chop cilantro, and slice and squeeze limes. 
Servings: 4.
Agony rating: 1/10. Super easy if you have the cooked chicken already.
Taste and stuff: 8/10. Delish.

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

Organic diced tomatoes, salt-free: $1.99
Garden of Eatin' Yellow Tortilla Chips: $2.99
Kraft shredded Mexican cheese: $2.50; about half a bag so $1.25
Frozen organic sweet corn: $2.99/10oz, so about $0.50 worth
Cilantro: $0.99 bunch, used about a handful so $0.25
Limes: 5 for $1, so $0.20
Cooked chicken: left over from last weekend, but probably around $14
Chicken stock: left over from last weekend

Total cost of stuff I had to buy special: $7.18 without the chicken; $21.18 with
Cost per serving: $1.80/$5.30

VERDICT: SUCCESS. 

Dinner Under $2: Red Beans and Rice

The onion and red beans (and who knows what else they put in that Carolina mix) make this one bad for no-FODMAP folks, but it's otherwise a good bet.
The inspiration was a Hunts can of tomato sauce with onion, celery, and green pepper. These three ingredients, often known as the "holy trinity" of Louisiana cuisine, are the foundation of any good jambalaya, gumbo, etc.

Ingredients:

12 oz sweet Italian sausage
16 oz Hunts Diced Tomatoes with Onion, Pepper and Celery
8 oz Carolina Red Beans and Rice mix
1 tbsp butter





First, slice and brown sausage. I used butter.

While your sausage is cooking, make your rice & beans. Add tomatoes and sausage at some point near the end. It might be a little liquid-y.









Serve with hot sauce and smiles. It tastes just fine. I wish it stretched a little further, and also didn't contain enough salt - between the tomatoes and the red beans mix - to dissolve a football field full of slugs. But for a meal that took under 30 minutes to prepare, I'm not complaining.






FACTS AND FIGURES
 
Prep time: 40 min. Heat the pan, cook the sausage, cook the rice, etc ec.
Servings: 4.
Agony rating: 2/10. Really, just monitoring the sausage.
Taste and stuff: 6/10. Not bad.

*COSTS OF STUFF I HAD TO BUY SPECIAL*

12 oz sweet Italian sausage: $3.99
16 oz Hunts Diced Tomatoes with Onion, Pepper and Celery: $1.34
8 oz Carolina Red Beans and Rice mix: $1.19
1 tbsp butter: marginal cost is essentially free
Servings: 4
Total cost of stuff I had to buy special: $6.52
Cost per serving: $1.63

VERDICT: SUCCESS. Add hot sauce.