Homemade, Real Food Macaroni and Cheese

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About two weeks ago, my 11-year old son Mikah asked, “Mom, what’s mac and cheese?” 11 years old and he doesn’t know about mac and cheese? That’s part good and part bad. The good — he doesn’t know about the K-word mac and cheese. The bad? He didn’t know about homemade, real food macaroni cheese, which is a thousand times better. I knew what I must do. Macaroni and cheese was going back on the menu — real food style.

Summer Garden Beef Soup

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Our nights are refreshingly cool, yet the garden is still producing. This is perfect weather for warming harvest soups. At least I think so! Make use of your crockpot to cook beef until tender, then combine with flavorful and colorful summer vegetables. I have been serving grain-free almond bread on the side.

Spring Quinoa Salad

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When the warmer weather settles in — which it hasn’t quite here, still raining — I start making lots of cold grain salads. My favorite grain to use is quinoa. The salads are a satisfying, yet light and cool, main dish and can boast of including virtually anything you’ve got on hand.

Arabic Meatloaf with Potatoes (Kiftet Batatta)

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Kifta is a staple meatloaf mixture that forms the basis for many Arabic main dishes, raw and cooked. This meatloaf, kiftet batatta (meatloaf with potatoes), is topped with potatoes for an easy main dish and features spring parsley. I serve it with a seasonal salad. Enjoy!

Free Video: English Muffin Sandwich Ideas

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Want some pretty fun, or even kicked-up, sandwich ideas for using your homemade sourdough english muffins? Here ya go — this quick video gives you plenty. More ideas? Please share in the comments!

Free Video: Tortilla (Spanish Omelet)

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I first learned about tortillas — the Spanish omelete kind — on the BBC TV River Cottage series with Hugh Fernley-Whitingshall. You saute and cook various ingredients and then pour whisked eggs overtop. When cooked, the eggs set the whole mixture into a pie — or a Spanish omelete. This post includes a free video demonstration and print recipe.

4 No-Wait Sourdough Recipes

Impossible Sourdough Cheese Pie

Usual routine when souring flour: mix dough, let sour for 8 hours, finish dough, cook. Now, that’s not hard. But what if I said you could skip the whole sour-for-at-least-8-hours-thing, yet put the same quality of nourishing food on the table? In other words, without the wait? You can and I just did (say it). Yes, it can be done! Easily. Deliciously. Nourishingly.

Red Meat Winter Stew + Giveaway

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I created this stew the very first day we ate goat. It is a keeper in our family. The little bit of mint hearkens to my Middle Eastern upbringing. Oh, and you do not have to use goat! Use whatever red meat you have, wild or otherwise: lamb, beef, buffalo, venison, elk. This post also contains a giveaway for the “Simple Food {for winter}” eBook.

Scalloped Potato Meal

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I created this meal right around Christmas, and included it in our healthy weekly menu plans. My idea then was to use up Christmas leftovers — whether ham, turkey, or roast beef — or even pieces of bacon or sausage. My family loves it so much; I make it all the time. But who wouldn’t love creamy, cheesy potatoes tossed with tender chunks of meat? Comfort food at its best — and most easy.