Beef stroganoff, a Russian dish that originally consisted of just beef in a boullion and sour cream sauce, has its roots in the 19th century. Although beef stroganoff was present in the United States in the early 1940's, it didn't become widespread until after World War II, when the rationing of meat was lifted. At that time, it became the go-to recipe for gourmet chefs across the 'States (according to beefstroganoff.net--someone really loves this stuff). More recent permutations of the recipe include onions, mushrooms, and sometimes even tomato paste, but in my opinion the sauce is the only thing that really matters!

Around this time last year, Jay and I went to check out The Stone Balloon (which is now The 16 Mile Taphouse) in Newark, DE, where we were living at the time. Stone balloon really hit it out of the park with their beef stroganoff, not only because the sauce was fantastic, but also because it just happened to be a gluten-free option for Jay: they sliced potatoes thinly enough and cooked them just enough that they could serve as "noodles" for the dish. The portobello mushrooms in the dish also offered a meaty richness that paired well with the heavy whipping cream in the sauce. I'd been meaning to try to recreate this recipe for some time, and it just happened to work out that I got it right the very first time!

I'm really excited to share this recipe with you guys-- it's a little more labor intensive than I usually like to go, but this would be an excellent dish for a special occasion (you could even use steak instead of ground beef to kick it up a notch). 

**Bonus: This dish is naturally gluten-free (check your ingredients, of course), and can also be made dairy free!**
Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (I used 85/15)
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2-3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 medium russet potatoes (or your choice of potato)
12 oz large portobello mushrooms, sliced into strips
1 16oz can coconut milk, chilled for at least 8 hours in the fridge (you could also use 1¼ cups heavy whipping cream or crème fraîche, although the consistency of the sauce may change slightly)
1/4 cup white cooking wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp ground nutmeg

Step 1.1. Start by preparing your veggies: Scrub and peel the potatoes, chop the onions and garlic. 

Step 1.2. Cut your potato strips lengthwise into half-inch strips. You can then slice them finely yourself, or use a slicing blade attachment in your food processor to create the "noodles".

If you go the food-processor route, though, be sure to place them horizontally into the processor feed, so they are sliced into long noodles (instead of short choppy ones). I used the 2mm slicing attachment on my Cuisinart.

I was SO pleased with how well this worked!! Just look at those beautiful noodles:

Step 1.3. Once your veggies are prepped, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, and add your ground beef to the pan. Let it cook until browned, and crumble it with your spatula as you go.

Step 1.4. While the meat is cooking, put a large pot of water on to boil, and salt it fairly generously. This is your chance to spice the potatoes as they cook.

Step 2. Once your meat has finished cooking, remove it (but not the fat it's left behind) from the pan and place in a bowl for later use. Pull out your mushrooms, too.

Step 3.1. Toss your onions and garlic into the pan with the beef fat, and saute over medium heat until fragrant and translucent. You can slice your mushrooms while you wait the 3-5 minutes it'll take for this to happen.

Step 3.2. Once the water has started to boil, add in the potatoes and cook for a maximum of 5 minutes. We want them to be cooked, but a bit al dente, so they hold up under that delicious sauce. 

Step 4. Add in the sliced mushrooms, white wine, and chicken stock. Stir well to combine, and use a spatula to scrape any crusted onion/garlic from the bottom of the pan. Allow to simmer for 14-16 minutes, until the mushrooms have cooked through and absorbed most of the liquid from the pan.

Step 5. Drain your potatoes and rinse them under cold water to stop them from cooking further in their own heat. Set aside.

Step 6. Take your chilled coconut milk out of the fridge and open it up. Hopefully, you'll see a thick layer of coconut "cream" on top from the chilling.
Did you know? Coconut milk is FULL of healthy fat, but if you're looking to keep your calorie intake low, this may not be for you.

Once you've scooped out the cream, whisk in the dijon mustard:

Step 7. Add the coconut milk mixture to the pan of veggies, along with the ground beef and nutmeg.

Step 8. Continue to cook for a few minutes to allow the sauce to thicken and heat through. Once it's steaming, you're done! Top some potato "noodles" with your fresh beef stroganoff, and enjoy!

**Bonus: This dish is naturally gluten-free (check your ingredients, of course), and can also be made dairy free!**
Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (I used 85/15)
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2-3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 medium russet potatoes (or your choice of potato)
12 oz large portobello mushrooms, sliced into strips
1 16oz can coconut milk, chilled for at least 8 hours in the fridge (you could also use 1¼ cups heavy whipping cream or crème fraîche, although the consistency of the sauce may change slightly)
1/4 cup white cooking wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Prep and chop your onions and garlic, scrub and peel the potatoes.
2. Slice the potatoes lengthwise into half-inch wide strips. Slice thinly to create noodles, or use the (2mm) blade attachment in your food processor to do it. Remember to place them horizontally into the food processor for best results!
3. Put a pot of well-salted water on to boil, and brown the meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Remove the meat from the pan (leave the fat) and cook the onions and garlic until fragrant and translucent.
5. Add the potato "noodles" to the boiling water, and cook for 5 minutes, maximum. Drain and run under cold water to keep them from cooking further.
6. Add the mushrooms to the pan with the onions and garlic, along with the chicken stock and white wine. Allow to simmer for 14-16 minutes, until the mushrooms are cooked through and have absorbed most of the moisture.
7. Remove the canned coconut milk from the fridge, and scoop out the solidified coconut "cream" from the top of the can. Whisk the dijon mustard into the coconut cream.
8. Add the coconut cream mixture to the pan, along with the ground beef. Allow to heat through for 2-3 minutes.
9. Serve atop potato noodles, and enjoy!!

As always, thanks for reading! 
- Kaitlin

Growing up, I want to say that 99% of the sloppy joes I ate were straight from Manwich... which is fine! It was quick, easy, and 20 years ago, probably had a lot fewer unpronounceable ingredients. And since I haven't made sloppy joes many times during my adult life, it didn't occur to me until recently that they don't have to originate from a can. During my first Whole30, however, I was craving some sloppy joes fiercely. In addition to a lot of other amazing things, one of the greatest benefits to my Whole30 experience was that it encouraged/forced me to cook almost everything I ate from scratch. The "Paleo" sloppy joe recipes I found didn't do much for me, but I really wanted something without a ton of brown sugar (and that wouldn't be thickened with wheat flour). 

Thus, this recipe was born. I should probably tell you two things (disclaimers), though:
1. It's called "Not Your Momma's" for a reason! It won't taste exactly/much like something from a Manwich can. This bad boy is sweetened with the addition of carrots and honey, but it still delivers that meaty, umami goodness that's thick enough to serve on a bun.
2. It is just as good aaaall on it's own, as a kind of chili. I bet it would be ridiculously good under a fried egg or two for breakfast. Just saying. 

What you'll need:
1lb ground beef (I've used both 85/15 and 90/10)
1 yellow onion, minced
3/4 cup carrots, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
Jalapenos to taste, minced (I use 1 small, usually)
1 can (16oz) Hunt's tomato sauce (you'll see this featured a lot in my recipes-- I love this stuff!)
2 tsp honey (can be omitted if you're Whole30)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1.5 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp chili powder
1.5 tbsp coconut flour


Step 1: Gather your ingredients (not shown: jalapenos), and preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. I always use my 12-inch cast iron skillet.

Step 2: Crumble your ground beef into the pan, and brown. While you're cooking the beef, you can start prepping the root vegetables: peel and mince. 

I let my food processor do all of the hard work, but if you're chopping by hand you may want to prepare your vegetables before starting to cook the meat!

Step 3: Once your meat has cooked through, add in the chopped vegetables, minced garlic, and minced jalapenos. I'm not afraid of animal fat, so instead of greasing the pan, I let the vegetables cook in what comes out of the meat! You're going to saute this mixture until the vegetables have softened up, which shouldn't be too long (3-5 minutes) since they're so finely chopped.

Step 4: As the vegetables begin to soften, add in your spices and mix well. Allow the flavors to meld for a minute or two.

Step 5: Add in your honey, and stir well to combine. If you like your sloppy joes sweeter, feel free to add some more!

Step 6: Add in the can of Hunt's tomato sauce, and reduce heat to medium-low. Stir to combine, and simmer for 2-3 minutes to reduce the liquid from the tomato sauce, and also allow the flavors to blend a bit.

Step 7: Add in the coconut flour, and mix well. This will absorb the additional moisture from the tomato sauce, and thicken the 'joes up so they'll stay together on a bun. You don't have to include this step, though, as it doesn't affect the flavor.

Ta da!!

Feel free to devour immediately, but this will also freeze very well. Enjoy!
- Kaitlin

If you ask me, and you kind of are, because you're reading this post, there are two egregious things that a cook can do when it comes to making marinara, or spaghetti sauce.  And they are on opposite ends of a tomato spectrum.

The first thing is, buying jarred sauce. :( This deserves a frowning face, because jarred sauce is so bad, by and large.  We are often fooled in the Italian aisle of our grocery stores, by the new nomenclature that these sneaky brands come up with--things like "4 cheese" and "Tuscan home style" and "basil and cheese"--how they get away with this, I don't know, but it fools us into thinking that there just might be something special in that jar.  We forget the fact that any cheese or basil or "home style" ingredients they use have to be processed in such a way that makes them shelf stable, which puts them on the opposite end of fresh, and certainly on the opposite end of home style!  If I have to make a final point against jarred sauces, just look at the price tags of some of the more gourmet brands...yeah, it really costs that much for fake marinara.

The other problem with marinara, the one that is sort of the opposite of store-bought sauce, is this idea that spending a Sunday afternoon in your Italian grandmother's kitchen, simmering tomato sauce for hours and hours, will produce the best sauce that any money can buy.  Now, I mean no offense at all to the Italian grandmothers, but this is simply not the case either.  See, the great advantage that homemade tomato sauce has over jarred sauce is freshness! But unfortunately, when you cook a sauce for hours to get that slow simmered taste, you are cooking out all the fresh tomato taste, all the fresh herb taste, all the fresh olive oil taste...you will be left with something bland, and possibly just as unappealing as the stuff on the grocery shelves.

That being said, HOW then, do you make the ideal sauce?! The one that tastes fresh, but not so fresh that it just tastes like a pile of tomatoes with some raw garlic on top.  And how do you get that deeper flavor without cooking the sauce to death?  Believe it or not, I think I have solved the problem.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped medium
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1/4 cup medium-bodied red wine
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
pinch of sugar

The science:
There are two things that make a homemade tomato sauce less than stellar. One is if it is bland and watery, and
doesn't have a hearty flavor, and the other is if the sauce is overcooked...but wait, how do we get that hearty flavor without the 8 hour simmer? You will find the answers to this conundrum below.

Step 1:
Place the extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet and heat it over medium for a couple minutes.  Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sweat for 3-5 minutes, until it starts to soften. Did you note that I'm using a 12-inch skillet and not a saucepan? Gasp! This is actually a great idea though, because the wide profile of a skillet encourages evaporation more readily, which means the liquid will reduce quickly, so you don't have to simmer for hours to get rid of that watery, bland taste. Once the tomatoes are in the mix, this will only take TEN minutes!

Step 2:
Add the aromatics--red pepper flakes, garlic, dried oregano, and tomato paste--to the middle of the pan.  Mash it up to break up the tomato paste, and then cook for just 30 seconds to a minute, until the tomato paste starts to turn dark red/brown.  If the pan is looking really ugly, you will know you are there! P.S. Amore tomato paste is seriously the best.  I know that the squeeze tube costs a little more than the little cans, but the squeeze tube will last months; try storing that opened can of tomato paste in your fridge. Regardless of how you attempt to cover up the top, it will be growing all sorts of things on it before long.

See? Looks bad, doesn't it? But tomato paste is an extra concentrated form of tomato.  Browning it, just for a minute, deepens the flavor, and almost caramelizes it, so you are getting rich tomato flavor in addition to a fresh tomato flavor at the end. It's a beautiful thing.

Step 3:
Pour the 1/4 cup of wine into the pan and scrape up the browned bits at the bottom, and simmer this mixture until it is reduced to a sort of syrup, just a couple of minutes.  This might seem weird, but that little bit of wine will give a robust depth to a quick-cooking sauce.  I know it's just 1/4 of a cup, but it is a great excuse to get a bottle of wine going!  P.S. Use a Beaujolais, a Merlot, or a Pinot Noir, but steer clear of a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. I used a Cabernet Franc in this.

Step 4:
You are seriously almost done at this point, can you believe it? Simply pour in the can of crushed tomatoes, and gently simmer for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened a bit. Season to taste with salt and pepper, throw in that pinch of sugar, and you are done!

Extras:
Now I know what some of you are probably thinking: She got up on her soap box about jarred sauce and now she is using canned tomatoes?  But, for most of us, we can only get good tasting, fresh tomatoes, a month or two out of the year, if that. And, believe it or not, most 'fresh' tomatoes, don't taste very good the rest of the year.  That being said, I used canned crushed tomatoes because that's something that tastes good year round. However, if you want to use fresh in this recipe, go right ahead! Or, if you don't want to use fresh but would prefer canned diced tomatoes, that is fine too. However, you will want to drain them but reserve the liquid, because it's got a lot of that good tomato flavor in it. And when you pour in and reduce the wine, pour in the tomato juice too, and simmer it a couple extra minutes.

Add-ins:
This is a fantastic, basic marinara sauce, perfect for not only pasta but for chicken parm, pizza, meatball sandwiches, you name it.  I really did make the sauce this morning, and even at 10am my mouth was watering from the smells, and it was completely delicious. However, don't think of this recipe, or any recipe, as set in stone. Here is a great little list of things you can add to this pasta to make it extra special, and to suite any unique tastes:

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
a couple tablespoons of capers
more (or less) red pepper flakes
fresh chopped basil (stirred in at the very end)
??? Whatever you want!

I hope I have successfully proven to you that a fantastic sauce doesn't necessarily come from a jar, but it also doesn't have to take hours to prepare. In about 20 minutes, including prep work, you can have a fantastic marinara sauce that, I promise, would make any Italian grandmother proud.

Stay hungry!
~Lauren

First, I apologize that this recipe doesn't contain any associated pictures. Since my husband is gluten-intolerant (it gives him migraines), this original version isn't something we've been able to eat. I'm planning to come up with a modified (grain-free) version in the near future, so I promise that that post will be photograph-heavy.

My husband often jokes that he married me for this recipe alone. (Similarly, our friend Chip swears he married his wife for her chocolate cake.) Although it seems complicated, this is a reasonable dish to put together on a weeknight. I often save it for special occasions, though, because it’s really that good. I credit my mom for the original recipe, although I always find myself changing it when the mood strikes.

Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast
(makes 6-8 servings)
Ingredients:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half lengthwise and pounded flat (~1/2 inch thick)
1-2 lbs mushrooms, chopped (you can use white mushrooms, but portabellas taste better)
1/2 stick butter
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 – 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:
0. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
1. Prepare the chicken and lay flat in a large Pyrex baking pan, pop in the fridge until you need it. (The mushrooms take a little while.)
2. Melt the butter in a large, non-stick skillet and add the mushrooms, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
3. Saute mushrooms until they have released some of their liquid, and absorbed the majority of the butter. This can take a little while…if you get impatient, you can skip to step 4 without losing too much flavor. Remove from heat when you decide you’re done.
4. Add breadcrumbs to the mushroom mixture a little at at time, mixing as you go. Only add enough breadcrumbs to make the mixture cohesive (it should all stick together). If you add too much, the stuffing will be too dry.
5. Allow the mushroom “stuffing” to cool slightly (if still super hot), and then use it to make chicken “wraps”, as follows:
- Use a medium-sized spoon to place rounded mounds of stuffing on your flattened chicken
- Fold the chicken around the stuffing, and roll carefully so that the “seam” is on the bottom– if a little bit of stuffing falls out the sides of the wrap, that’s okay. You can always push it back in with your fingers.
- arrange neatly in your Pyrex pan
6. Pour chicken stock and heavy whipping cream over the whole pan of chicken, and top with a sprinkle of breadcrumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. (The time will depend on how thin your chicken is when you wrap it around the stuffing.)

We like to have this with lighter sides (steamed veggies, salad, etc.) which is a nice counterpart to the heavy dish.
Enjoy!

- Kaitlin