easy pot roast dinner, plus calories

Ingredients:
Hormel beef roast au jus (630)
1 Onion (45)
4 mushrooms (it could use more mushrooms) (30)
Most of a bag of baby spinach (it could use a whole bag of baby spinach) (20)
At least three tablespoons of sour cream (75)

I love Hormel beef entrees. It's really quality beef and it tastes delicious, and you can mix it with literally anything. I use it in my beef stroganov and it makes fucking fantastic stroganov in like 10 minutes. Last night I wanted something a little different, so here we are:

Heat the pot roast in a deep pan according to the package instructions. While that's heating, thinly slice the onion. Add the onion to the pan. Slice the mushrooms, and a couple minutes before the beef should be done, add it and the spinach to the pan and stir. Once the meat finishes its cooking time, turn off the heat and add the sour cream. Stir everything together and let cool for a couple minutes.

I like to eat it over a baked potato. 1/3rd of the meat dish is a serving, and funnily enough it goes perfectly over 1/3rd a baked potato. Bake the potato in the microwave. Once it's done cut it into three pieces, then roughly chop the piece you're going to eat. Top with 1/3 of the roast and veggie dish.

Calories
Meat and Veggies - 800 / 3 =  267
1/3 potato = 57
Per meal = 324

Breakfast in a muffin

Ingredients:

Hash browns- 1/4 cup per muffin (30)
Fresh Spinach- 3-4 leaves per muffin (virtually 0)
Egg - 1 per muffin (80)
Salt and Pepper
Giant muffin tin
Optional: Grated cheese (virtually 0)

The type of hash browns that you want are the plain grated potatoes, found in the frozen section. Make sure to take them out to thaw before you start this recipe!
Grease the muffin tin and fill each with a layer of hash browns (1/4th cup) and add salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes at 375. Pull out of the oven and sprinkle on a little bit of cheese if you want it, just enough to give it some flavor. Then layer with a couple leaves of spinach, break an egg over the spinach, and then sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes.

Calorie per muffin- 120

While I wait for my sleepy meds to kick in...

I'll tell you about how I domestic goddessed ALL over the fuckin' place this weekend. I made:

1. Yogurt, from SCRATCH. Complete with:
2. A banana and mixed berry compote to mix with it.
3. Farmer's cheese seasoned with minced basil
4. 100% whole wheat bread. FROM SCRATCH.
5. Breakfast muffins of egg, hashbrowns, and spinach.

- The yogurt came out fantastic. I didn't have any cheese cloth, so I strained it as much as possible through coffee filters and my mesh strainer. It took all day to strain and tasted kinda like sour cream when I was done, but once I mixed in the berry compote, it tasted fantastic. I'm so excited about it. I think I'll make more this weekend. 

- The compote (it might be more jam, than compote) was a bag of frozen mixed berries, with like a cup? of orange juice, boiled till it couldn't boil no more. I had to stir constantly once it started to thicken to keep it from burning, and eventually i cooked it down to the consistency of runny jam. Then I took one of the overripe bananas we keep in the freezer, thawed it, and then blended it into the compote. This all in itself was delicious. I saved some to put on toast.

- The farmer's cheese was fun. Made from milk and lemon juice (way more lemon juice than the recipe called for. like twice as much). Then strained through an old clean shirt because again with the no cheese cloth. It's fun but messy work, and it's amazing how little cheese you get from a quart of milk. The only thing that makes the tiny yield worth it is how easy it is to make. Also when you're done you have cheese! When it was made I mixed with with salt, pepper, minced basil, and a little more lemon juice.

- The bread process was a mess from beginning to end. More on that tomorrow, as the sleepy pills have kicked in.

Spices to always have on hand

Garlic Salt
Ground Sage
Cumin
Frozen Thyme
Frozen Basil
White Pepper
Curry
Garam Masala
Lemon juice
Smoked Paprika
Dill
Chili Flakes

I like to call this dish "What I had left in my fridge"

1 Hillshire farm sausage, any type
At least 1/2 very large bag of hashbrowns
1 and 1/2 onion, sliced
1 whole bag of baby spinach
Optional: grated cheese

DO NOT ADD SALT OR BUTTER

- Coarsely chop the sausage. Throw half of it in the pan to brown (you'll need the grease).

- Remove, keeping the grease in the pan. Throw in the hashbrowns and press down into the pan. Pepper liberally. After 4-5 minutes (per package instructions) flip them over and cook another 4-5 minutes. Remove from pan.

- Throw the rest of the sausage and the onions in the pan to brown. Just before the onions turn translucent, add the spinach and the previously cooked sausage. Pepper liberally and cook until the spinach is wilted. Serve sausage and veggies over hashbrowns, and sprinkle with a bit of cheese.

Soup idea- to try when I'm back on my feet

Tiny turkey meatballs with a little bit of mint in them. Chicken broth base with parsley, onion, celery. Maybe a beef bone or two for depth. Large pearl couscous. Maybe a squirt of lemon? And of course mushrooms.