This was inspired by my love of pizza, my lack of ingredients in the fridge and a shortage of time. This look about 10 minutes to put together and another 20 minutes to cook. This is LITERALLY a 30 minute meal. Kids would probably love to customize each mini meatloaf with their own pizza “mix-ins” !

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Italian sausage
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 handfuls almond flour
• Various pizza type mix-ins, finely chopped (we cleaned out the fridge–green onions, banana peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, green olives)
• If you’re going to use onions, garlic and/or mushrooms, you need to pre-cook them as they stay crunchy (garlic, onions) or release too much too much water (shrooms).
• 1/2 can pizza sauce

Method

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

In a medium bowl, mix together the sausage, egg yolks, almond flour and your choice of mix-ins. Fill a muffin tin about 3/4 of the way up with the meat mixture. Top each mini meatloaf with a spoonful of pizza sauce.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Maybe I’m not the first one to think of this. I know a quick Google search would likely show me that I’m not, but I just don’t want to know. Seems like everyone has thought of almost all of my ‘AH-HA’ moments. Regardless, this was inspired by a lack of things fresh in the fridge. This is a pantry meal if I’ve ever seen one. Every ingredient is jarred or canned and bought at the good old grocery store. Perhaps you’d say it’s not very “whole” or “from the ground” but heck, sometimes you need dinner in 10 minutes.

Ingredients

2 cans tuna packed in olive oil, flaked with a fork

1/2 7 oz. can of artichoke hearts, roughly chopped

1/2 c kalamata olives, about 15 or so

1/2 c roasted red peppers, chopped

1/4 c – 1/3 c store bought pesto sauce

Method

Combine all ingredients and serve. Easy, huh?

Beef stew, also known as beef bourguignon, is good, but boring–and we personally think it tastes like straight up sour wine and that is not very tasty, especially by the spoonful. So we’ve added a bit of balsamic vinegar and raisins to counter the sour with a bit of sweet. We’re also swirling in a nice, briny, herbal pesto to brighten up the braise. Another change, we’re not using a crock pot! The dutch oven allows liquid to evaporate from the pot, thus creating a thicker, more intense flavored stew. And heck, I would rather eat in 2 hours than in 6 hours, agreed?

Stew Ingredients

• 2 T fat of your choice
• 2 lb. chuck shoulder, cubed
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 3/4 c raisins
• (1) 28 oz. can fire roasted crushed tomatoes
• 1 c red wine (only if you have some leftover, don’t go out and buy some just for this recipe–stock will work fine)
• 1/2 c balsamic vinegar
• 1 lemon, sliced and seeds removed
• S&P

Pesto Ingredients

• 1 handful of basil leaves
• 1/2 handful of mint leaves
• 1/2 c green olives (about 20)
• 3 T extra virgin olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

In a dutch oven melt your fat. Salt and pepper the cubed chuck pieces, add them to the pot and let them brown on each side. Don’t fidget with them or remove them until you see a visible brown crust on the meat. Remove and reserve on a plate.  To the pot, add the onion, garlic and carrot. Let them sweat and saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the meat back to the pot, along with the tomatoes, raisins, red wine and balsamic vinegar. Stir to combine. Top with sliced lemons.

Lay a piece of parchment paper of the the top of the pot and press it down into the pot. Place in the oven and braise for 2 hours. Taste the meat, it should be super tender, if it’s not give it another half hour or so.

Once you’re about 10 minutes from the stew finishing; combine all the ingredients for the pesto in a mini food processor. Pulse until everything has come together.

When the stew is out of the oven, take the lemon rinds out, but leave in the flesh…it’ll separate very easily. Swirl in the pesto and serve.

This dish is a take on classic shirred eggs. In my eyes, this could be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It’s easy to assemble and easy to clean up. I’m writing this recipe for 5 individual portions, but it’s easy to modify for the number of mouths you’re feeding.

Ingredients

• 2 c roasted marinara or your favorite sauce
• 5 eggs
• 5 slices of melting cheese (I used raw milk Colby)

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place 5 greased ramekins* on a baking sheet. Fill each ramekin with about 1/2 a cup of sauce. Crack 1 egg into each ramekin and top with a slice of cheese. We use raw cheese, you could also leave it out. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes.

Traditional shirred eggs leaves the yolk runny. I like runny yolks a lot–but if you cook the yolk all the way through, it turns crumbly and tastes a lot like ricotta filling in lasagna.

BE CAREFUL when you take the baking sheet out. Don’t grab the ramekins with your bare hand–yes, I have done this before. Use an oven mitt to place ramekins on a dinner plate, that way you don’t have to hold the ramekin or wait for it to cool in order to eat.

*If you don’t have ramekins in your pantry, you could use a muffin tin–just reduce the cooking time. Ramekins can be found on the cheap at places like TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Target.