Healthy Chocolate Shake

Oxy moron? I think not. I made this for my kids (and a friend of my daughter who was over) while they were busy playing so they couldn't see what I put in it. They all loved it! MWaah hahahhahaha!! (evil chuckle)

Here is the recipe--and don't get freaked out by the beans. You can't tell they're in there.

BETTER BANANA CHOCOLATE SHAKE (makes 5 cups)
By Janet Hailstone, revised from Diet For A New World by John Robbins

¼ cup raw cashews or sunflower seeds
¼ cup cooked, drained black beans
4 pitted dates
1 cup water
1 cup non-dairy milk
2 Tablespoons cocoa, cacao or carob
1 teaspoon pure vanilla (glycerin based or vanilla powder from Dixie Nutrition bulk)
2 frozen bananas (broken into thirds and stored in a Ziploc bag)
1 cup ice

Blend to smooth for about one minute the nuts or seeds, beans, dates and water. With the machine running, slowly add the non-dairy milk, carob powder, and vanilla. Add frozen bananas and blend. Then, add ice and blend briefly. (Long blending melts the shake)

Tofu Tacos and Vegan Sour Cream

This recipe (another from my cooking class) got high marks from my husband and I, but the kids rejected it on the grounds that it was too spicy. It is better with corn tortillas, but I just used what I had on hand. I combined the leftover tofu mixture and sour cream, rolled a bit inside a flour tortilla, placed in a casserole dish and covered in enchilada sauce for enchiladas. I think I baked them for 20-30 min. at 350. The kids rejected the enchiladas as well--again, too spicy. My kids do better with curry spice than chili powder spice. Anyway, here is the recipe:

Tofu Tacos (from drmcdougall.com)
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 6-8
Spicy Tofu:
24 ounces firm tofu (not silken)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons garlic powder
½ teaspoon cayenne

Drain tofu in a colander and press out excess water with paper towels. Cut into ½ inch
cubes. Combine soy sauce, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne
in a large bowl. Add tofu and mix gently. Let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Place a large non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Add tofu and cook turning
occasionally for about 10 minutes. Set aside.

Cabbage:
4 cups finely shredded cabbage
3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
½ tablespoon lime juice
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Corn Tortillas
Soften individually on a dry non-stick griddle, or wrap in a towel and heat in the
microwave.

To assemble:
Take a soft corn tortilla, spoon tofu and cabbage down the center, add a bit of aioli and
some hot sauce, if desired, roll up and eat with your fingers.

TASTY TOFU SOUR CREAM or MAYONNAISE
Revised by Janet Hailstone from
OF THESE YE MAY FREELY EAT by Joanne Rachor (cookbook given out at my Healing Diet class)
1 12.3 box soft Mori Nu Tofu
1/3 cup raw cashews (for added creaminess)
1/3 cup water, optional (if needed to blend)
1 lime juiced
1 tsp each of salt onion powder and dill weed
½ tsp garlic powder
Blend all for 2 minutes until very smooth

Lentil Burgers and Potato Salad

This is one of the recipes from the cooking class I took. I made the burgers and salad for a BBQ at the Ranch, and it got high marks from most (some of the little kids ignored the burgers after one bite, knowing it was different than what they were used to). My kids ate more of this burger than they usually do regular burgers (that's not saying much, though, since it's not a favorite food around here). The burgers were a bit mushy in the middle, but if I hadn't been so hungry I would have cooked them for longer, which would have dried them out more.

The potato salad got rave reviews from one and all. No one knew anything was amiss with the ingredients. I normally do not like potato salad, but I love this version.

Here are the recipes:

LENTIL BURGERS
By Janet Hailstone

1 cup lentils
1 cup short grain brown rice
6 cups water

Boil lentils and rice together till tender about 20-30 minutes. To increase nutritional content soak 12 hours, drain and sprout 12 hours in a covered container and then only boil at 15-25 minutes. Drain and put in large mixing bowl.

1 onion, quartered
1-3 garlic, minced or just drop them in the blender
½ c water

Blend to liquefy onion, garlic and water. Then add to bowl.

2 cups oats, rolled or quick
1 Tbsp of your choice of seasoning blend (Mexican, enchilada, taco, Italian, etc.)
1 Tbsp sea salt

Add and mix well. A Bosch or bread mixer is very handy for this, or use beaters possibly or a potato masher.
Using a large or small canning ring, depending on your choice of size of burgers, pour enough of the mix into each canning ring on a greased cookie sheet. For easier square burgers, try spreading the whole mix on the cookie sheet. Then, using a table knife cut equal-sized squares that will shrink a bit away from each other during cooking. Place wet round burgers close together as they don’t expand, but tend to shrink as they dry out during baking. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Turn burgers and bake another 15 minutes.

VARIATIONS
Use 3 cups cooked black beans instead of lentils for a more authentic color.
Or, use 2 cans drained pinto beans or other choice of beans.
Then, boil rice separately in 3 cups water.
For a garden burger, add 1/3 cup each of chopped mushrooms, green pepper, minced celery, water chestnuts etc., but not watery tomatoes or you’ll need to add a 1/3 cup more of oats.
For chicken burgers, use white colored beans like Navy or Northern. Then, for the seasoning blend, use poultry seasoning.
Add 1 cup raw sunflower seeds for a fun crunch.



“BEST EVER” POTATO SALAD
By Janet Hailstone

8 medium or 4 large potatoes, boiled, skinned, chopped 1” cubes
1 bunch of celery, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 block Mori Nu Tofu – Firm or Extra Firm
1 yellow bell pepper, grated or chopped
1 lemon juiced
½ cup Vegenaise, the grape seed-oil type (This really makes the salad taste good)
1 Tbsp Dill weed
2 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric

Boil potatoes whole until tender (about 30 minutes). Drain, rinse in cool water as you easily peel the skins off. Let cool submerged in cold water while you prepare the other ingredients or just refrigerate until cool so you don’t have a warm salad. Cut into 1” cubes. Add to a large mixing/serving bowl after cooled. Wash celery as a whole bunch as well as the insides to remove dirt. Keeping the whole bunch together, chop the dry ends off and discard, then chop ½” pieces. Use 2/3 to all of the celery including the leaves from the tips of the celery to the base. Crumble tofu in ½” (more or less) pieces by just squishing with hands or mixing spoon in the bowl. Add spices. Mix all ingredients well, chill and serve.

Optional:
½ cup each of chopped pickles/sunflower/pumpkin seeds

10-K

As the title of this blog suggests, one of my reasons for trying to eat better was to reap the blessings promised to those who follow the counsel given from God to Joseph Smith in what we now call "the Word of Wisdom." (See here for more information)

One of the promises is to "run and not be weary." I have noticed a huge improvement in my ability to run and not be weary since I started eating more healthy foods. I have a greater desire to exercise, more energy when I do exercise, and overall greater endurance. I just ran my first 10 K in years (I think I was 10 when I ran a 10 K before). It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I was able to do it. I'm training for a sprint distance triathlon in September...we'll see how it goes.

Also, I just finished a class on vegan, whole-foods cooking called the Healing Diet. The instructor gave me permission to post the recipes here, so look for look for those soon.

The China Study

The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell

My review

This was an interesting book. I enjoyed reading about the author's personal research, but the sections where he started citing other people's studies as further evidence of his conclusions felt like propaganda. He later details how and why this information hasn't gotten more public attention. That's where I stopped reading.



On the one hand, I understand his position: he feels like there are a whole slew of corporations and advertisers presenting food propaganda that supports the typical American diet and probably is contributing to the American health crisis. However, I'm not sure that the best way to react is with counter-propaganda.



Anyway, the basic conclusions of Dr. Campbell's research is that a whole-foods, plant-based diet is the healthiest way to eat. He asserts (and uses his own research to back the assertion) that nutrition affects cancer; specifically higher amounts of animal protein correlate to higher rates of cancer.



It definitely got me thinking...


View all my reviews.

Sinus update

Since I last wrote about my sinus woes, I had two more infections. I took a course of antibiotics (15 day), then three days after I finished, I got another infections. I had an appointment already scheduled with a naturepath, and I was very interested in what he thought. He said he thought my infections were fungal, not bacterial, since the antibiotics would have still been in my system. He gave me an antifungal nasal spray, and I haven't had any troubles since then, knock on wood!

Angie's Granola

My friend Angie made this granola (and homemade yogurt) for a play-date snack. I hope it's okay that I post it here. I think she said she originally got it from a running magazine? Correct me if I'm wrong, Angie.

5 C oats

1 C wheat germ

1 C bran flakes

~1 C nuts

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 C honey

1/2 C oil

here's how I make it. I mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl. I put wet ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and zap for 1 min. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. I start pre-heating my oven at this point, because it heats very quickly and I usually get distracted by some kid-related emergency before I'm through. I line some jelly-roll pans with foil and spread the granola out evenly. Bake at 300 for 20-30 min.

An aside--I have made this recipe without wheat germ and bran flakes (because none was on-hand), and it turned out just fine. There's more protein and fiber with them in, though. This time I used pecans for the nuts, and added unsweetened shredded coconut. Last time I used pumpkin and sunflower seeds for the nuts. I like that you can add whatever you want to the basic recipe.

Chocolate De-light

I was craving frozen yogurt tonight, but some friends dropped by and stayed until the health food store was closed (they make their own frozen yogurt....mmmmmm.....), so this was my alternative.

1/2 C plain low-fat yogurt

1/2 - 1 T agave syrup

1 T chocolate sauce

mix together and sprinkle granola on top. quite satisfactory, if I do say so myself.

Baked Sweet Potatoes with West African-Style Peanut Sauce

I made this recipe for dinner on Sunday. We had some friends over for dinner. The only alteration I made in the original recipe was to omit the red pepper (so it would be more kid-friendly). Here is a link to the recipe.

Thanks everyone

I greatly appreciate all the advice on the sinus front. I'm not sure I'm ready to cut out dairy again, but I bet that would help a lot.

Also, I love all the great recipes you are posting. My family thanks you as well. The cauliflower curry soup and asparagus soup were big hits at my house.

Thanks again,

shauna

Immunity-boosting help, please

Okay, so one of my main motivations for starting this blog in the first place was that I get sick a lot. Nothing too terrible, just obnoxious sinus infections and their side effects (it moves to my lungs and gives me a bad sore throat on the way).

Since September (I'm going back to there, since the move created a marker by which to gage time better) I've had to take antibiotics twice (once for sinus infection, once for ear infection), and I've been sick more days than not. Each month has brought its own onset of sinus fun, and each bout takes me about 10-15 days to get over. October and December delivered twice the fun.

So, HELP! What can I do to stay healthy?!?!? I've been taking pro-biotics (though not religiously), and used cranberry pills once I get an infection (plus neti pot, musinex, decongestant, etc.), but does anyone know how I can avoid the problem in the first place? A few years back (pre-kids) I had some extensive allergy testing, plus a visit to the ENT (complete with CAT scan), and all they told me was that I have "non-allergic rhinitis." Yea, thanks for that. In plain English--an infection in the nose that is not produced by a histamine response to a known allergen. I've pretty much given up on traditional medicine helping me prevent the problem (that's not really their specialty), though I'm not opposed to trying meds.

Any suggestions?

Sincerely,

Desperately Congested

Vegetable-Cheese Soup

This is another one of those inventions of necessity. I wanted to make broccoli-cheese or potato-cheese soup, but didn't have all the right ingredients. So I made up my own soup with what I had on hand. Everyone liked it. My 10-month-old loved it so much I froze most of the leftovers in ice cube trays for him.

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 potatoes, chopped(what I had on hand--small red variety)

1 head of broccoli, chopped

about 5 C water

4 bullion cubes

1 stick of butter

1/2 C flour

1 1/2 C milk

1-2 C cheese

Directions:

Place chopped veggies in a large pot and cover with water, and add bullion. Boil for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

In a small/medium saucepan, melt butter. Add flour and milk and let thicken. Add cheese.

Add cheesey mixture to the veggies in the large pot, and stir.

For baby: puree soup in a small food processor or blender before serving.

Easy Mac-n-Cheese

One thing that is pretty guaranteed that my little boy Sol will eat is mac-n-cheese. I don't do the box stuff, so here's something I do for an easy and fast lunch. It's somewhat adapted from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook.

Boil some whole wheat pasta (rotini, elbow, or farfalle work well) in water following directions on box. Then I make a sauce by stirring in some cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, milk, and vegetable puree* (usually of winter squash, cauliflower, or pumpkin). Stir into pasta until well mixed and the cheese sauce is the consistency you like. Sorry I can't be more specific, I just do what looks good.

*I just steam/bake the squash/cauliflower/pumpkin and then puree it in my food processor and then freeze the puree in ice cube trays. Then I can put extra veggies in sauces and foods. Right now Sol is a big fan of veggies, but it never hurts to have extra helpings for him or us!

Wheat Meat

I finally got up my courage to attempt to make wheat meat (can be used as meat substitute or meat extender). I went to a friend's house so we could at least have fun if the product failed miserably. Turns out it was a lot easier than I thought--especially because I used gluten flour, thus skipping many daunting steps.

Here's the recipe:

2 C gluten flour
1/3 C flour (whole wheat, soy, rice, it doesn't matter)
seasoning (you can add whatever you want here, or wait until later)

mix together well, then add:
1 1/4 C water

Stir about 10 times, or until everything magically comes together.

Form into four balls and place in steamer. Steam for 20-30 minutes. Place in blender or food processor (if you want ground beef-like substitute). You can then bake it, fry it, add it to recipes, etc.

I haven't tasted it yet, because I had leftovers to dispose of last night. Thanks, Angie, for being brave and trying this stuff out with me.

Becca's Bean Gunk

Hi Shauna! Thanks for including me in your healthy-bloggy-foody project. Here's a little vegetarian contribution.
Matt and I fell in love in our dingy student apartments over steaming bowls of this stuff. It's fast, easy, made of cheap ingredients, and tasty too!
Bean Gunk

olive oil
sea salt
one onion, chopped
garlic
2 or 3 cups of vegetables: celery, carrots, peppers--even fennel or hard squash would be good, too.
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 can of black beans, with their juices
fresh herbs-- cilantro is my favorite
other possible additions: chipotle tabasco, cumin, smoked paprika, turmeric

Saute the onion, garlic in the olive oil until they're a little bit carmelized. Add whatever spices and the veg and cook for a few more minutes until everything is really combined and smelling amazing. Then add the tomatoes and the beans and let the stuff simmer for 10 minutes or so, until it thickens a little bit and everything is thoroughly combined. Add the chopped fresh herbs and voila!
I like to serve it on rice, with maybe some cheese or sour cream on top.

Note: You could expand this into a soup easily-- just add broth and/or white wine when you add the tomatoes.
I hope you enjoy it!

Crispy Chickpea Pitas

Here's one we had this past week. I got it from a magazine I love-Real Simple. Here's the recipe:

Crispy Chickpea Pita

hands-on time: 20 minutes, serves 4

Ingredients:

3 TB olive oil
1 15.5 oz can chickpeas
3 TB fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped, plus 1/2 cup whole parsley leaves (if you have on hand, mine had gone bad, so we didn't use it this time)
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 plum tomatoes (I use whatever I have in my fridge)
4 pitas or pieces of flat bread, warmed
1 8-oz container hummus (or you can make your own, look below)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced (again we didn't have this at the time, so we just omitted it, but it's really good)
1 tsp hot sauce (such as Tabasco)
1/2 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream)
1 lemon cut into wedges

Directions:

Heat 2 TB of oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chickpeas and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add the lemon juice, chopped parsley leaves, tomatoes, and the remaining oil, salt, and pepper, Divide the warm pitas or flat bread among individual plates and spread with the hummus. Top with the chick peas, onion, and hot sauce. Serve with the parsley salad, yogurt, and lemon wedges.

***note*** some yummy things to add may be kalamata olives, or just plain black olives sliced up, or (if you're not worried about keeping it vegetarian) cooked chicken pieces.

Hummus: Using a blender, food processor, or magic bullet (great thing!!) blend 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with 4-5 TB chicken broth, 2 cloves garlic, 1 TB lemon juice, and 2 TB tahini (or we added 1 TB sesame seeds). We added some olive oil as well to make it a little smoother. Salt and pepper to taste and serve chilled with sprinkle of paprika on top. It's really that easy!! And it can be a yummy appetizer with pita chips or pieces of pita bread while you get the rest of dinner going.

Introduction

My name is Lara and I'm Shauna's cousin (sorry I forgot to do this earlier)! I have five kids, and love to cook (some might say I'm obsessed.) In regards to the goals I posted earlier, I realize now they sound lofty, and want to emphasize that they're goals. I'm a long way from those goals, but I'm trying to move in that direction, like Shelby said in her post about the chicken she uses.

Also, on vegetarianism, I do love meat, but I try to prepare it no more than twice a week. We love vegetarian meals, and my sixteen year old is a vegetarian, and my husband and I have been vegetarians for different periods of time. Has anyone read Mark Bittman's book Food Matters? He has a rule that he's vegan until dinner. He advocates cutting way down on meat for health and environmental reasons.

Creamy Curried Cauliflower Soup

Here is a recipe I've been experimenting with. My ten year old loves cream of broccoli and my husband loves cauliflower, so I decided to combine. It's not incredibly fast because of the vegetable chopping, but it took me only about 20 minutes to get it simmering on a day when the kids weren't too crazy and interrupting.

I love soups, too, Shelby, and love to experiment with them. This soup works well without as many spices, too, though it's a still a very subtle curry flavor. My whole family loves this soup, even the three year old.

Creamy Curried Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

One large onion
Two stalks celery
Two medium carrots
One large potato peeled and diced
Handful of Italian Parsley
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. smoked paprika
1 T. chilli powder
1 t. garam masala or your favorite curry
1 fresh or dried bay leaf
1 t. salt

1/2 c white wine (optional--I only use it if I have some on hand, which is rare--Trader Joe's has good cheap bottles)
2 c water
One large head cauliflower
2 c bechamel sauce (aka white sauce)*
1 c. cream, half and half or milk

Directions:

In heavy bottomed pot, sautee diced vegetables, garlic and chopped parsley in the olive oil gently over medium heat until soft and onion is transparent. Turn heat up to medium high and throw in ground spices--give the vegetables a few turns until the spices look like they've cooked a little, but before the vegatables brown too much. Add water and cauliflower. simmer until cauliflower is just tender. Add wine and simmer for several more minutes, then incorporate a cup of liquid from the soup into the bechamel. Transfer bechamel to big soup pot. Remove bay leaf. Finish with cream, and adjust seasoning. Don't let soup boil after the addition of the cream. This soup may be pureed or served as is.

*Bechamel (I use this as a base for everything, especially things you would use a can of creamed soup in.)

1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
1 t. salt
2 c. milk
a light grating of nutmeg, if you like that flavor.

Melt butter over medium to medium high heat. Whisk in flour, and keep whisking until the color turns golden brown. Whisk in milk. Leave over heat until the sauce bubbles, then turn down to low and cover for ten minutes.

Veggie Stroganoff

Here is another example of creativity bread of necessity. This meal was thrown together from the few ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredients

4 veggie burgers, thawed
1/4 onion, chopped
some olive oil
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 can water
oregano
bay leaf
1/4 C red wine
salt and pepper
cooked rice

Directions

heat oil on medium-high heat, add veggie burgers, break up with wooden spoon. Add chopped onion, and brown. Add soup and water, mix together. Sprinkle with oregano and add a bay leaf and wine (if desired). Reduce heat and let simmer for a while. Add salt and pepper to taste, remove bay leaf, and serve over rice (or noodles).

This dish received high marks from all of us. My three-year-old gobbled it up readily.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

I of course realized after I finished the last post that one of the main tenants of the blog was going mostly meat free, so I figured I'd better pull out another yummy soup recipe that's actually vegetarian...and really good!!

Also, this is a GREAT baby food. My son Sol loves this (minus the nut part). I got this here at Self.com.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

Serve with a whole-grain roll and a piece of fresh fruit to turn this light starter into a filling meal.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons butter
• 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 leek, trimmed of all but 1 inch of dark-green top, sliced
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• White pepper
• Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts

Preparation

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil; add asparagus (make sure water covers asparagus). Cook 5 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup asparagus water. Remove 16 asparagus tips; cut in half lengthwise; set aside. Heat butter in a medium saucepan over low heat until melted. Cook onion, leek and celery, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft but not brown, 10 to 16 minutes. Add salt. Add broth; bring to a simmer. Cook, partially covered, 8 minutes. Puree broth mixture, asparagus (not tips) and reserved asparagus water in a blender, in 2 batches. (Remove center part of blender lid to prevent hot liquid from bubbling over. Instead, hold a folded dish towel over hole in cap.)

1. Return pureed soup to pot; heat until it just reaches a simmer. Season with pepper and, if desired, nutmeg. Cover; remove from heat. In a small pan, toast pine nuts over medium-low heat, shaking pan occasionally, until nuts are fragrant and browned in some spots, about 6 minutes. Season nuts with salt. Divide soup among 4 bowls; top each with 8 asparagus-tip halves and toasted pine nuts.

The Skinny

93 calories per serving, 4.2 g fat (1.4 g saturated), 10.3 g carbs, 3 g fiber, 6.5 g protein

Chicken Broth and Yummy Soup

Shauna thanks for the invite! My name is Shelby and my husband was friends with Shauna and Darryl back in the day during high school. Good thing, because I've gotten to know Shauna! I'm a working mom right now, so while cooking and eating is important to me, so is the time it takes to prepare. So while I'm trying to make good wholesome meals, I'm also trying to figure out ways to do it that fit our schedule.

So in following with previous post, I have become somewhat of a connoisseur of making my own soup. I come from a family of soup lovers, and how easy is it to pop a can of soup into a bowl and into the microwave?? Well, that was fine and dandy until I found out really how easy it is to make that soup...from scratch. I feel like it's so much better too because, like the Fam (sorry, I don't know your name!) pointed out, it's nice to actually be able to pronounce the ingredients in your food. Here's one of our bi-weekly/monthly favorites at our house. This is a good one because it makes several meals for your family.

First, we buy a whole chicken. If you're going organic, I'm sure you can find something at a Trader Joe's or local farm. We haven't gone that far yet, but we're headed in that direction. I just pick one up from the local supermarket...okay let me correct that-Johnny picks one up, because he's the grocery shopper in our family. Anyway, you prepare it by cutting off the plastic wrap, taking out the yummy insides (don't worry they mostly come in a bag these days-you probably won't even see anything), and rinsing out the whole chicken in the sink until the water runs out clear. Then I put the chicken on a cutting board and season it. Usually it's nothing more than just salt, paprika, or poultry seasoning. It's good to coat the outside skin as well as between the skin and the meat.

Then I pop it into a crockpot in the morning and set it on low. That's it! By the time I get home at night, it's ready to serve. Try having it with some stuffing or mashed potatoes with green beans or steamed carrots and broccoli. Now here's the trick. Once you've had your yummy dinner, cut away all the chicken from the bones. We like to separate the dark and white meat, but you can do it how you like. Then you can use it in other recipes, casseroles, or freeze it.

Now take the rest of the carcass-skin, bones, and all and put it back in the crockpot. Fill the crockpot with water to as full as you would like. The water doesn't really burn off, so make sure you've got enough water. Then we may add some extra seasoning, but mostly we just let the crockpot simmer for overnight or longer on low. (When we're extra busy I think we've let the broth go for a day or 2...not that I'm recommending that!) When you're ready, strain off the chicken remnants. I start with a regular strainer and use a very fine strainer at the end. Put the broth into a pot and bring to a boil. I usually make my soup with white rice and wild rice, so I'll bring the broth to a boil, add the rice and let it simmer for 30 minutes or until the rice is cooked (read the directions on your rice). In the mean time, go ahead and cut some celery and carrots. Add in the cut up chicken last and you've got yourself some yummy soup. One caveat is that you really have to add salt to this baby. But I don't feel too bad about it since you really can see how much you are adding, and I can almost certainly guarantee it's less than what you get in a canned soup.

Shelby's Easy Chicken Soup

Broth from whole chicken
a few carrots peeled and chopped
2-3 stalks celery
white and wild rice
some fresh parsley chopped
salt to taste

1. Boil broth.
2. Add rice, cover and simmer ~30 minutes or until rice is cooked.
3. Add celery and carrots~10-15 minutes before soup is done.
4. Add chicken, cook until chicken is heated.
5. Add parsley and salt to taste.

Sorry about the measurements, but I really eyeball this and it just depends on how much chicken broth you make. Oh, and if you don't want to make so much soup, you can always freeze the broth for other recipes. Then it's nice to know what's actually in that chicken broth!

yay!

Thanks for the invitation, Shauna!!!

My food goal for this year, besides eating way less, is to prepare food that is free from industrially produced ingredients, to source my ingredients from farmers and local sources first, supermarket second.

Most importantly, no foods with ingredients I can't pronounce: no canned soups, processed cheeses, cookies, crackers, cereals, breads, etc. This means whole foods and scratch, baby.

Greek Garden Pizza

I started making pizza-dough, then realized I was out of shredded cheese. Here is what I came up with:

for the dough:

1 t yeast

1 pinch sugar

2/3 C warm water

2 C flour

1/2 t salt

1/4 C olive oil

put in bread mixer, select dough setting, press start. Or just make like regular dough.

Roll onto pizza stone (or a cookie sheet or upside-down jelly-roll pan), spread prepared sauce of choice on top, then cover with:

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1/4-1/2 onion (depending on how much you like)

1 stalk of broccoli florets, chopped

1/2 red pepper, sliced

some pine nuts

top with feta cheese, then bake at 450 F for 12-15 min.

This dish earned high marks from my husband and I, but my daughter sneered at it. She ate a slice after she shoved all the topping off. She did eat the broccoli after removing it from the pizza, though.

Leftover Mexi-Salad

I failed to take a picture of this creation, but it was fast, easy and pretty healthy, so I'll post the recipe. Last night I was trying to clean out my fridge/use up leftovers, and here's what I came up with:

1 small tortilla (a staple at our house)
a few spoon-fulls of black beans (leftover from previous meal)
a few spoon-fulls of brown rice (also leftover)
generous amount of salad mix (yup, another leftover)
salsa
cheese
dollop of sour cream

Directions:
sprinkle some cheese on the tortilla and microwave for 30 seconds. Layer the beans and rice on the tortilla. Cover with salad mix. Pour on some salsa for dressing and plop a little sour cream (or vegan substitute) on top. Sprinkle more cheese on top, if you're feeling daring.