The Not So Cheesy Kitchen – Featured Friday

Hey everyone!!! Today is a special Friday!! I’m featuring a great new blog today and I’m being featured!! Yay!!! Head on over to Family Foodie, Isabel was kind of enough to feature me today. All you faithful readers out their must know that Isabel is the creator and founder of #SundaySupper, she’s a fantastic gal so go check it out!

Over here on this Momma’s world I’ve got Bea from The Not So Cheesy Kitchen!! Welcome! Bea is another faithful #SundaySupper contributor, love getting to know these gals better. So Bea’s blog is about Food, but it’s also about her days as a Mom of two beautiful little girls. She writes about their yummy meals and some challenges of dealing with a rare disorder called Classic Galactosemia. If you don’t have any food allergies like me you may never have heard this term before, all this time taking part in #SundaySuppers with Bea I assumed it was a dairy and flour allergy. Now that I have the chance to get to know her and her blog better I’m realizing there is a lot more to it than just that. I honestly think we all take advantage of the foods we put into our bodies. I know I’m trying my hardest to get my picky toddler to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables but I can’t get this kid off of processed foods, it’s so bad it’s to the point where she will eat the boxed mac and cheese but she won’t eat mine 🙁 but it’s a battle I won’t give up on. My husband and I prefer clean eating, we don’t always stick to it but I try to for the most part. Back in my early 20’s I had a lot of stomach issues and after medication after medication I finally decided to try making my stomach issues better by controlling what actually went into it! Fast forward 15 years and I know exactly what my stomach can handle and what it can not. Both of Bea’s girls has this condition and after reading up on it I’m shocked at how serious it can be. You can read about it more here, but to give you a short version it’s a rare genetic metabolic disorder, that wasn’t enough for me, I had to read more about it!

Bea and her family live in Portland, Oregon but Bea is originally from Germany so they get to travel to Europe a lot! (fun!) She is an advocate for Newborn Screening. I’m fascinated that without this test it would have forever changed Bea’s life because it saved the lives of both of girls. You can read more about it Save Babies, it sounds like an amazing group of parents who advocate for this testing and learn how to educate others on it.

Let’s check out a few of Bea’s posts and recipes!! I came across a post that made me see some of the things that she has to do to make sure her daughters can fit in at school and participate in anything the other children do. This in my eyes is a super Mom. Gosh we would really do anything for our children wouldn’t we! So sweet Bea. Another great post is You just have to ask…. I do think that the public and grocery stores in general are really starting to come around to most allergens It’s so nice to see that they try their hardest to please everyone! Another one that caught my eye was when Bea’s daughter had an event at school where they were ordering out from Olive Garden, what’s a Mom to do with a kiddo that has a food allergy? Tell the kiddo they can’t eat with their class?? Absolutely not, read here to see what this awesome Momma did. Ohhhh and I want to try Bea’s Baked Egg Noddles, this looks fabulous! Another one I’d like to try is her Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, I like how it’s a lemon sauce, I need all the pasta recipes I can get because it seems to be the only thing my kiddo will eat these days!

OK OK OK………now onto what I made from Bea’s list O Recipes! I decided to make her Pepper Beef Stew, I have to admit it was her pictures that made me want to try it, it just looked warm, yummy and comforting. I love thick Stew’s that was the last thing that pulled me in! I started by coating the beef the way my mom always taught me to. In a plastic bag! I threw the seasonings that Bea had on her list and I just added it right to the flour in the bag, I confess………I didn’t measure, I just went with it! I added the beef and shook shook shook to coat! It’s a great way to get the beef generously coated!

I browned it, sautaad the peppers and onions, proceeded with the rest of her directions and got it ready to be put in my oven for 30 min. I have to admit, when I first read the recipe it looked a little intimidating, like there were a lot of steps and on certain days of the week I have to move fast because my daughter gets home at 5 and my son always has his cranky period between 4 and 5:30 (Of course!)

However I have to admit, it was so easy! I prep everything I can ahead of time so when following a recipe I can just go because I have everything sliced, diced and measured, it’s just how I work in the kitchen! I almost went without the spinach because I didn’t have any, but when my husband was running out for something earlier that day I asked him to pick me up some spinach, boy am I glad I did! Great way to sneak in something healthy!

Can I just tell you how amazing this dish was?? I loved the way that it smelled up, not only my whole kitchen, buy my whole house, my mother is in an in-law apartment above our garage and she came down to see what smelt so good! So yes of course I sent her up a bowl!! She loved it too. I will surly be making this again.

I was actually a little sad that my husband brought the last of it to work for lunch, I was kind of looking forward to having some more, it served my mother twice, myself, and my husband twice. That is 5 really good portions, of course my picky daughter wouldn’t touch it……..(insert eye roll here).

So again Bea, thank you so much for allowing me to Feature you and The Not So Cheesy Kitchen, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you! Now go check out this fabulous recipe! Or connect with Bea via: Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram.