Shaun-ta's White Chicken Chili

Shaun-ta's White Chicken Chili

Okay, we all know by now that I am not a photographer and to make matters worse, I have a really dumpy camera! So trust me when I say it is soooo much better than it looks. This is my own version of chicken chili, I am quite proud of it. So if you are looking for something yummy for dinner, look no further.


Shaun-ta's White Chicken Chili

6 Chicken Thighs
1 Large Green or Red Pepper
1 Medium Sweet Onion
2 tsp. Cumin
1 Tb. Oregano
2 Cups Home Canned Chicken Stock
2 Cups Water
1 Cup Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
4 Cloves Garlic
1 lb. Cooked White Beans
Salt and Pepper to taste

This is how I did it. Place chicken thighs in the bottom of a 6 quart crock pot. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Add remaining ingredients and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours. At the end of the cook time remove the thighs from the pot and take the meat from the bone and add it back in. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Top with sour cream, jalapeno slices, and shredded pepper jack cheese. Serve with tortilla chips.

Cook's Notes:
1. I chose to use chicken thighs, bone-in, because they are very flavorful and delicious, and they are very inexpensive. I rarely use boneless skinless chicken anymore. http://ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2012/03/meat-me-in-middle.html

2. I used green pepper, so this is a very mild chili. I was thinking of my children. But if you want some heat, use whatever kind of pepper you want, jalapeno, green chili, etc. I loved the bit of heat that the canned jalapeno slices brought.

3. Because I used bone in chicken I used part water, part stock for my liquid, because I knew the chicken bones would bring lots of yummy flavor to my soup. If you opt to use boneless chicken you will want to use all stock.

4. I added 1 Cup of my homemade Roasted Tomatillo Salsa, this made it sooo yummy. Any green salsa would work, but you can find my recipe here:
http://ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2012/10/roasted-tomatillo-salsa.html
or the canned version here:
http://ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2013/08/green-tomatillo-salsa-canned.html

5. Because I came up with this recipe on the fly, I didn't have time to let my beans slow cook, so I cooked them separate in my pressure cooker and then added them into my chili when they were done about midway through the cooking time. You could choose to soak your beans overnight and them let them cook right in the chili, but you will need to increase the amount of liquid you use. I will probably try this the next time I make this. Yes I will be making it again and soon. Yummy! For more info on cooking beans check out this post:
http://www.ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2012/02/bean-cookin-101.html

6. As always, after I removed the chicken from my bones, I put my bones in a separate pot, covered them with water and let them simmer away for several hours. It only made about a cup of stock, but well worth it. I used the cup of stock later in the week for something else. You can of course always stick it in the freezer. I use up every bit of chicken every time. I never buy stock.

We all loved this chili! and it is on our to make again and again list. I hope you enjoy it too!

Homemade Baby Foods

After many months of no posts, finally a few minutes to get back to recording a few of the things we have been doing over the past few months. It has been a busy few months with moving, having a baby, and the holidays, I was most often in a Daze. But life is starting to fall into a more consistent routine, if such a thing exists, and we feel a bit more settled in our new home. Today I am going to share something I have been working on over the past few weeks as our new little one is starting to love solid foods. At first she protested, but now she loves everything we are feeding her. There is no doubt that jarred baby food is expensive, crazy expensive, right up there with formula. I have always breast fed my babies, but I have always bought the jarred baby foods to introduce them to solids. This time I decided to try my hand at making my own. It is so easy, so inexpensive, and really quite yummy! I have enjoyed sampling them all. Check out how simple it is:

Choose your fruit or veggie.

We have done bananas, strawberry- banana, mixed veggies, sweet potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. Cook your veggies until soft. I steamed most of mine.

Place your fruit and veggies in your super awesome blender.

 We are so happy with our Blendtec that we purchased about a year ago. It is amazing, but you could go with any type of blender or food processor.

Add liquid to get things rolling and to obtain desired thickness. My liquid of choice was breast milk.

Pour or Spoon (depends on the thickness) into ice cube trays.

Freeze!

 Once they are completely frozen they pop right out if you stick a knife down the edge. Don't let them sit out long or they thaw and precious bits stick to the bottom. Pop them right out and put them into zipper bags or your freezer container of choice.

Homemade Baby Food

To serve I just pull out a couple of cubes and heat them for about 30 seconds in the microwave. A few of the thicker ones, like my sweet potatoes, I add a bit more liquid to thin them out. Baby girl, loves, loves, loves them. We now have a stock pile in the freezer and we continue to add more variety day by day. I plan to do some fruit and veggie combos, like spinach with bananas, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Cool huh! Now let's look at a cost comparison:

Homemade VS. Store Bought Baby Food

Homemade Carrots - 4 oz. = $.09

Store Bought - 4 oz. = $0.63

Homemade Sweet Potato - 4 oz. = $0.31

Store Bought - 4 oz.= $0.63

Homemade Bananas - 4 oz. = $0.10

Store Bought - 4 oz. = $0.63

I think you get the idea. Super cheap, super yummy. I think even if you bought organic fruits and veggies you would save some money. Plus you know what your baby is eating and it can be super fresh, think of putting all those garden veggies you are going to grow this spring to work helping your baby to grow healthy and strong.

In the near future I will be posting about how to can homemade applesauce. We did a bunch this fall and I even canned some for baby girl with no sugar added. It turned out super yummy. Not only does she love it so does the rest of the family. 

A Gallon of Water a Day: My New Challenge

Drink a Gallon of Water a Day for Better Health

On Friday, I was reading a magazine at the doctor's office. It was some random beauty magazine that I was just thumbing through. There was this picture of an actress or model, some name I didn't recognize, and it said she was 40 years old. The photo of her looked like she was in her late 20's. She really did look great. Now, I know that the photo was probably airbrushed and all her cellulite was magically removed with the click of a mouse. It wasn't so much her photo that caught my attention. It was the little caption by the picture asking her what her anti-aging secret was. She said that in her 30's she had starting drinking a gallon of water a day and that had changed everything for her. She noticed immediate changes in her hair, skin, nails, weight, etc. and that she had been drinking a gallon of water every day since then. This is nothing really new of course, we all have heard about the health benefits of drinking more water, and the majority of us don't drink near as much as we should. I know I fall into this category myself. But the thought struck me at that moment at really how simple it could be, drink a gallon of water a day, to change your health for the positive in a significant way. So I decided I would give it a try and see how it would benefit me. Now obviously this commitment has to be long term and I plan for it to be just that. So far I haven't noticed any change except the obvious, but at eight months pregnant what is a few more trips to the bathroom. I have been at it for 3 days. The first day I failed, I could only get down a half of a gallon. I didn't start early enough, that is the key. The second day I almost made it, only fell a few cups short. Today is my third day. It is almost 4 pm and I am almost done with my gallon. My method for doing this was to rinse out an empty milk jug and fill it up each night, so it has all night in the fridge to get nice and cold. I highly recommend using some kind of container so you can really see your progress. You have to drink a lot of water in the morning I think to be successful, especially if you don't want to be up all night, which is already a problem for me anyways. If you think about it, drinking that much water really makes it so you eat less and you are not drinking other things that are high in calories, like soda or juice. That will definitely help you to shed unwanted pounds and be healthier overall.  At eight months pregnant I know I won't see any obvious change in my weight at least right now, but I am hoping that once this little sweetheart arrives, my new habit of drinking a gallon of water a day will help those pounds melt off. In addition even if you are already at a healthy weight drinking more water has so many other health benefits, so everyone should do it.  I will keep you updated on my progress and if you decide to give this a try, let me know how it works for you. One thing I do know is it can't hurt.

One Pot Wonder Pasta

So I know I promised more posts and my intentions were sincere and honest, but life has a way of changing things unexpectedly for most of us and that is what it did to our family. We got news a few weeks ago that we are moving to Arkansas. In fact, Jacob has already started a new job there, leaving Shaun-ta' behind to wrap up things in Texas and sell our home. (This is nothing new for me.) One thing I am truly grateful for this time is that I have a new home and so there will be no long nights of peeling wallpaper, endless painting, texturing walls and ceilings, etc. Yes, I am definitely grateful for that. But I have been super busy and I am 7 months pregnant, so by the end of the day I am beat, and I honestly have no desire to cook dinner by this point. But I still want to eat something delicious. It is such a dilemma. I ran across this recipe today, just by chance, or maybe by fate, because I really wasn't looking for a recipe. It was already 5:30 and I hadn't gotten anything out for dinner yet and I was thinking, "Oh, no cold cereal again." But then I came across this recipe for One Pot Pasta over at Apron Strings and dinner was saved. Dinner was done 20 minutes later and I mean done and it was delicious and healthy. I made a few changes from the recipe on Apron Strings but only to accommodate what I had in the pantry and garden.

Here is the original recipe:

ONE POT WONDER TOMATO BASIL PASTA
Serves 4 to 6 as an entree

12 ounces linguine pasta
1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes with liquid ( I used zesty red pepper flavor)
1 large sweet onion, cut in julienne strips
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
2 large sprigs basil, chopped
4 1/2 cups vegetable broth (regular broth and NOT low sodium)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Place pasta, tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, in a large stock pot. Pour in vegetable broth. Sprinkle on top the pepper flakes and oregano. Drizzle top with oil.
Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and keep covered and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so. Cook until almost all liquid has evaporated – I left about an inch of liquid in the bottom of the pot – but you can reduce as desired .
Season to taste with salt and pepper , stirring pasta several times to distribute the liquid in the bottom of the pot. Serve garnished with Parmesan cheese.

One Pot Wonder Pasta

My changes:

I used 13 oz. of Whole Wheat Angel Hair Pasta
I used about 15 oz. of fresh tomatoes from the garden. Yum!
I chopped up my onion and garlic. - The kids don't do big chunks.
I skipped the red pepper flakes, cause the kids don't do heat.
I only used 4 cups of Home Canned Chicken broth, because I used angel hair pasta I knew it would require a bit less liquid and cooking time.
I also added some fresh portabella mushrooms that I had on hand - a very yummy addition!

It turned out delicious and it was so fast and easy!

20 Minute Meal - One Pot Pasta

Goin' Green

Kale - Nutritional Powerhouse

Unfortunately for us, our green season has pretty much come to a close. By "Green" I mean our garden greens. We have been loving them. For many of you though you still have some green days ahead. If you haven't been planting greens in your garden you should give them a try. We have found them amazing easy to grow and extremely delicious. Most importantly they are packed with nutrition. Let me tell you about a few that we grow.

Kale in a planter.

Giant Winter Spinach

Kale is a nutritional powerhouse. It is said to be one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. In addition it grows easily and it is very pretty. I even planted kale in my decorative flower pots.  Kale is of course extremely low in calories but is loaded with fiber, and is highly concentrated with the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K. We love kale both raw and cooked and we have been eating a lot of it.




Spinach had long been know for being an iron rich vegetable. It also is a good source of fiber, folate, and vitamins A, C, and K. I have actually been craving spinach for most of the spring.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Leaf Lettuce

We have struggled to grow Swiss Chard in the past. But it grew beautifully this year. I am so glad, because it is delicious! I love it! We have really been enjoying it. It is also full of vitamins A, C, and K and is rich in dietary fiber and protein.The stems on this Bright Lights Swiss Chard remind me a lot of rhubarb, not only appearance but taste as well.



Although, not as high in nutrients as many of the other greens, lettuce is still a tasty choice. The greener and more colorful the lettuce the more nutrient rich it is. Iceberg lettuce has the lowest nutritional value of all lettuces. We grow a bit of leaf lettuce in our garden but to be honest most things we would use lettuce for (hamburgers, sandwiches, and salads) we choose to use spinach or one of the other greens instead. Most often we will mix it with other greens for a tasty salad.

Giant harvest of beet greens.

Another really great green that we often have an abundance of is beet greens. I have to admit these are not my personal favorite, but they have grown on me. I didn't care for them at all in the past, but now I will occasionally eat them sauteed and we like to throw them into our "Green" Smoothies. This is the beet green from last years harvest of beets. We planted a lot and canned and pickled beets. This year we only planted a few for greens.
The wonderful thing about greens is you can continually harvest them. I usually cut the outer leaves first and leave the younger inside leaves to grow and mature. The more you harvest them the more they will grow.

Swiss Chard being Sauteed with garlic and onion.

We use greens in a variety of ways, but our favorite way is to throw them in a smoothie. At least this is the way the kids enjoy them most because, they can't really taste them. :)  Jacob and I love them sauteed with garlic and onion. We like to add sauteed greens to things like scrambled eggs and pasta dishes. I will also add pureed greens to my pasta sauces. Of course, we also enjoy them raw in salads. It is most beneficial to grow greens yourself and harvest them as you use them, because once you have harvested them the nutrients begin to deteriorate. It has been show that frozen spinach (I am sure this is true for other greens too) actually contain more nutrients than the store bought fresh spinach, because by freezing the spinach you lock in the nutrients. Check back in a few days for a post on how to freeze your own spinach or other greens.

Variety of greens from the garden harvested for a smoothie (kale, chard, spinach, and flat leaf parsley).

Granola: Raw and Sprouted

In my efforts to learn to grow and use sprouts I wanted to make some granola with them.  I found a great video and website where they made raw granola, it looked pretty good but I wanted to adapt it some to my own tastes.  Around this time I also found a blog that talked about soaking oats (I have been unable to find oat groats nearby).  Soaking, just like sprouting, breaks down the Phytic acid in grains, making them easier to digest and increases the available nutrition of the grain.  Phytic acid is often called an anti-nutrient, it binds up vitamins and minerals as it passes through the body. 

Sprouted buckwheat, Soaked Oats, Swelled Almonds/sunflower

So I took the raw recipe, the soaked oats and a granola recipe from Alton Brown and combined them together into my version.  It is only slightly sweet, if you want it sweeter you could add some maple syrup or brown sugar or even a slight drizzle of honey in your cereal bowl with warm milk.

 Sprouted Granola

3 cups soaked rolled oats (soaked in yogurt overnight, drained see below)

Toasting Coconut in a hot Cast Iron Pan

1 cup sprouted (swelled) almonds
1 cup sprouted buckwheat
1/2 cup  swelled sunflower seeds (soak only for 30 min)
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut (roasted)
1/4 - 1/3 cup of local honey
1/4 cup olive oil or coconut oil (warmed)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
1 tsp Cinnamon (optional)

Mix all together and  layout on wax paper on your dehydrator trays.  Dry on 120 degrees or less till dry, crumbly and completely.  Remove from trays and enjoy.

Soaking oats in Yogurt and Lemon Juice

Soaked Oats
4 Cups of whole oats
4 Cups of water
8 Tbls. Yogurt or Whey or Lemon Juice
Soak for 12-24 hours, place in cheese cloth and drain.

30 Day Challenge: Results

Not to long ago as part of my 13 Skills for 2013, I set out with a 30 Day Challenge, no sugar(cane or hf corn syrup), soda pop(full sugar type) or fast food.  I really wanted to explore what effects these foods were having on my body.  After 30 days I have had some interesting results and some unexpected ones.

Soda

Cutting out the soda pop I really had to make a conscious effort to drink more water.  Initially I had issues with being a bit dehydrated.  A large issue I have with soda is the high fructose corn syrup that is used in most of them.

Fast Food

Cutting out the fast food was a little difficult, because most days I am not in the office or close to home.  My work takes me all over the area, so fast food is convenient.  I addressed this by choosing to eat a places like Subway or Schlotzky's, where I was able to make good sandwich choices.  Eating at these places can be no better than fast food, but there are good options to be had.

Sugar

It is surprising how much sugar we eat, even when as a whole we are eating pretty healthy.  So many of the everyday foods we eat has sugar in them.  I did allow myself to eat honey and homemade jam on homemade bread.  I did eat more of this the first week or so, but towards the end of the 30 days I didn't have much all all.  My body did not crave the sweetness as much. 

Surprising Results

I was not sure what improvements I would see but I expected to find more energy and be able to sleep better. I was surprised at the results that I received. 

Weight

I ended up with 14lbs of weight loss, I did not exercise beyond yard work.  I expected loosing some weight but not 14 pounds!  It feels good, I am down a notch on my belt and 14 lbs is enough my wife can see the difference.  I didn't exercise because myself and the whole family were sick, and some other things came up that made it hard to do.  If I had been exercising I would have seen more results.      

Acid Reflux/Heartburn

This is one of the biggest surprises, I had no heartburn during this experiment.  I tend to have acid reflux or heartburn most of the time.  On the 2 days where I did eat sugar I had heartburn.  There is no doubt a connection, I know drinking soda can increase the heartburn but I never expected sugar to be the main cause.  I eat a lot of hot food, I love my hot sauce, so some heart burn is expected, however during this experiment I did not have any from the spice or hot sauce.   

Energy / Stamina

I found myself able to go for most of the day without the need for food.  I would find myself late in the afternoon not really hungry but having skipped lunch.  If I had a good breakfast, I could go till dinner no problem.  Yes, I would be hungry but not with painful hunger pains.  In the past, I would find myself shaky and unable to focus.  When I would get to this point I would often reach for the sugar or soda to satisfy the "hunger".  Looks like that hunger I would experience, was merely my body starving for nutrition, by eating all of those empty calories, my body was missing out on the good nutrients it needed.  Cutting out the sugar, soda and fast food forced me to eat better foods with far better nutrition.

30 Days Down, Now What?

So it has been about 2 weeks since I completed the 30 Day Challenge. Yes I have returned to some of my previous trends.  Though now that I have returned to the sugar, soda and fast food, I find myself feeling not as good as before.  The heartburn is back here and there and a few days I have felt that shaky feeling.

So I need to return to the 30 day challenge, I expect I'll go back to about 95% of my previous commitment.  Make far better food choices, eliminate 99% of soda and keep my sugar intake to minimal levels.  By this time next year my honeybees will be well underway, and I plan to replace most of our home sugar use with honey.

For me at least, sugar needs to be consumed at a minimum.  Soda pop needs to be gone forever, on the rare occasion I do drink it I'll try to stick to the cane sugar stuff.  Obviously fast food needs to be a rare occasion and when I do eat it, I will stick to the better options.

Give it a try on your own, 30 days is not long, but long enough for the body to show the effects.

Guacamole

Use a spoon to easily remove an avocado from its skin.

I got a great deal on some avocados and I was really excited because that meant I could make guacamole. I really love guacamole, especially when it is made fresh. 

 First let me share with you the easiest way to peel and core an avocado. Take a sharp knife and run it all the way along the outside of the avocado lengthwise to the core. Twist both halves in opposite directions and gently pull them apart. You can pull the core out of the side it sticks to easily with your fingers. Now that you have two halves you can simply take a spoon and scoop out the whole half of the avocado. 

Slice the avocado while in the skin.

You can also slice or cube the avocado while it is still in the skin and then scoop it out the same way.

Remove the slices with a spoon.

See how easily the slices come out and you can make them whatever size you want. Before making guacamole I enjoyed some avocado slices on a turkey sandwich, so yummy!

So here is my recipe for Guacamole:

8 Large Avocados
4 Small Roma Tomatoes
1 Med. Sweet Onion
1-2 Jalapenos
2 Cloves Garlic
1 to 2 Tb. Fresh Cilantro
Garlic Salt and Salt to taste
Juice from 1 Lime

Fresh Homemade Guacamole

Chop the onion and garlic finely. I like to put mine in my mini food chopper so they are really fine, but if you like them bigger you can just hand chop them. Chop the jalapenos; then mash the onions, garlic, and peppers together with the avocados. Chop the tomatoes and cilantro and stir them in. Then stir in garlic salt and lime to taste.



This recipe makes quite a big batch (about 4 cups of guacamole), but if you ask me it is never enough. Jacob and I enjoyed it along side some chips, on top of some quesadillas, spread on a deli sandwich, and on top of a baked potato. They were all delicious. Super delicious and healthy. Plus, you get the benefits of eating raw onion and garlic.

This recipe comes from one of my friends that I worked with at the VA hospital in Salt Lake City. She also made some killer fresh Salsa, check out the recipe for it here. 

30 Day Challenge: Week 2 Update

Week 2 Down, and an Oops.

Okay halfway through my experiment of cutting out the sugar, soda pop, fast food etc.  All has gone well except when I attended my local ETBA Bee Keepers meeting last night.  As always our members bring snacks and treats, many made with honey of course.  So I kinda slipped up and ate more sugar than I had intended.  The best thing I ate was these mini sourdough honey wheat cinnamon rolls.  Oh man were they great, good flavor, sweet enough and you would never guess they were wheat.  I will share the recipe here in a few months. 

So I fell short one night out of 14, I started out justifying that much of what I had put on my small plate was made with honey, (one sweetener I did no swear off).  But I kinda stretched a bit, I had good intentions though not good execution.  Could it be that it was diner time and I had not had dinner yet?  Better yet I just gave into the temptation and was sucked back for more of those sourdough cinnamon rolls... man they were good.

Heart Burn

So I noticed tonight that I had a bit of heart burn, enough to go eat a couple of Tums.  I realized that I have not had to take anything for heartburn this whole time, which is unusual for me.  Typically there is a couple of times a week or even the whole week were I fight heartburn.  Not these last two weeks, there were a couple of times when I could feel it coming on and it would settle down. 

I think this can largely be explained by not drinking any soda rather than the sugar issue.  Soda is very acidic and likely a cause of many of my flareups.  Though considering what I ate last night, maybe the sugar caught up with me, I've felt it all day in the back of my throat. 

Weight Loss

I have officially lost 5-6 lbs, and to top it off we have not been getting up to exercise, we've all been sick and working out is the last thing you want to do when your sick...  I feel confident in explaining the weight loss to cutting out the sugar.

I'll check back in next week to update you on how it is going.  In the meantime I will post my sprouted granola recipe, very good and very healthy.

Slow Cooker Vegetable Minestrone

I haven't posted in so long but I have been sick with an icky sinus infection and so even though the weather here is nice and warm (we have even started planting our garden) I have still been in the mood for hot soup. Soup is always when of my favorites when I am not feeling my best. I also know that a lot of our readers still have snow on the ground where they live, so today I am sharing with you a recipe for one of my favorite slow cooker soups. This soup is delicious and makes for a great vegetarian meal.

Slow Cooker Vegetable Minestrone

4 Cups Vegetable or Chicken Broth
4 Cups Tomato Juice
1 Tb. Dried Basil
1/2 tsp. Dried Oregano
1/4 tsp. Pepper
2 Cloves Garlic, finely minced
1 Cup Sliced Carrotts
1 Cup Chopped Celery
1/2 Cup Chopped Onion
1 Cup Sliced Fresh Mushrooms
1 Quart Diced Tomatoes undrained
1 & 1/2 Cups uncooked Rotini Pasta
Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Mix all ingredients except pasta and cheese in a 4 to5 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours. At the end stir in the pasta and cook on high for 15 to 20 minutes until pasta is tender. Serve hot sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. If you prefer and sometimes I do, cook the pasta separately and stir it in to each individual serving. This way if you have leftovers you can store your pasta separate from your soup which will prevent it from getting soggy.

Yum! I love this soup, it is wonderful and extremely healthy. My favorite part is the mushrooms, they are simply delightful!  Enjoy!

My 30 Day Challenge: Cutting Out the Sugar, Soda...

Refined White Sugar

I have issued myself a challenge, for the next 30 days I will be skipping the following

1. Sugar, HF corn syrup, etc
2. Soda pop
3. Fast food
4. Store bought prepared foods

I am posting this here publicly, because I will have added incentive to complete it because I committed here.
 
 The last 3 weeks Shaun-ta' and I have been starting a new exercise and fitness routine, we are 3 weeks into a 9 week cycle of the Insanity workout program.  This is a part of my 13 Skills in 2013 plan.  Increasing my fitness is important to me for several reasons, firstly I am sadly out of shape, I do not feel healthy, I also do not want to develop any health issues like diabetes.  I expect to lose weight in the process but that is not the focus for me, it will come off in the process.  I just desire to be healthier and increase my fitness level. 

Soda made with Corn Syrup

This change in my diet will be helpful in supporting my new fitness efforts, by feeding my body with good wholesome food and not empty calories.  I have to admit, I do drink a lot of soda, more than a year ago I gave up drinking diet soda's due to my discomfort with aspartame.  I still drink a lot of soda, but the full sugar stuff (rather full hf corn syrup), this is a lot of calories that do nothing for me but add to my waist and spike my blood sugar levels.    

I will still eat honey and some of our own homemade jam, though I will keep the jam to a minimum.  We typically will use honey in our bread recipes in place of sugar anyway.

I am hoping for a couple of outcomes.  I hope to gain a better idea of what these foods are doing to my body and how I might feel by removing them from my diet.  It will expand our number of healthy recipes.  I will also be able to use more of our stored, canned and homemade foods.  I anticipate sleeping better, and having more energy through out the day.  I also expect to feel pretty crappy for a week or two.

I also expect to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the Word of Wisdom as I better align my diet with what it teaches. 

I will check in and post each week to report how it is working for me.  So check back and see how I am doing.

Mom's Homemade Noodles

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, in my opinion, is not as good without homemade noodles in it. The noodles are in fact my favorite part of the soup and therefore they must be homemade. So I am going to share with you my Mom's recipe for homemade noodles. They are delicious!

1 Beaten Egg
2 Tb. Milk
1/2 tsp. Salt
All-purpose flour (or a combination or white and wheat flour)




Combine egg, milk, and salt in a medium bowl. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough (about 1 cup). Roll very thin on a well floured surface.

FYI: I usually make a double batch of noodles because well, we love them. So the amount pictured is doubled this recipe.

Use a pizza cutter to easily cut your noodles.

 Now you can do one of two things, you can either roll up your dough loosely and slice it into noodles or you can use a pizza cutter. The later is the method I use and it works really well. Depending on how long you want your noodles, cut your dough in half and then into strips.

It should look something like this.

Homemade Egg Noodles

Toss your noodles with a bit more flour and let them dry on your floured surface for at least 20 minutes before dropping into boiling soup.

I love homemade noodles. They are just so delicious! I also like the fact that I can use whole wheat flour in them and make them healthier for my family. 

Mom's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

I am a bit slow at posting this, but as promised I wanted to show you what I did with what was leftover from the Whole Chicken that I roasted last week. I was pretty tired on Sunday night and I didn't want to deal with the rest of the chicken that night so I stuck the leftover meat in a bowl in the fridge and then I just took my chicken carcass and drippings and covered it with saran wrap and tossed it in the fridge for the night. This actually works well because in the morning it is very easy to skim off any unwanted fat. Mine didn't have a lot because I had removed most of the skin from the chicken before roasting it.

I dumped the whole carcass and drippings into a big stock pot along with everything else I had roasted my chicken with and then added enough water to cover my chicken well. You can add more carrots, celery, and onion if you like at this point and you may want to if you are going to freeze or can the stock, but I didn't because I planned to use it right away for soup.

Bring your stock to a boil and allow it to simmer for several hours. When it is done simmer strain out the chicken and other bits, leaving only the stock. I love using my stock pot that has the colander that fits inside of it for this because when it is done simmering I can simply lift it out of the stock.

When you are done simmering you should have something that looks like this. You know you have good stock when it has a rich yellow color to it. It should also smell and taste very chickeny.
Save your chicken carcass to the side and let it cool while you work on cutting up veggies for your soup.

My Mom's chicken soup always had carrots, celery, and potatoes in it. I loved it! It was my favorite meal that she made. One thing that I add to my soup is sweet potatoes. They really make it yummy! I don't really know amounts to tell you. I just chop and dump stuff in. But I had a large stock pot and pictured to the right is what I put into my soup.

About 5 large carrots, 4 stalks of celery, 5 medium sized red potatoes, and 2 medium sized sweet potatoes. Peel them, chop them, and drop them into your broth. Bring it all to a boil and then let it simmer until your veggies are tender.

While your veggies are cooking tackle your chicken. Take your cooled chicken carcass and remove any remaining chicken.

Mine didn't have much left, because I had removed most of it the night before. On the plate is what I removed from the carcass and in the bowl is what I had removed the night before.

Overall I ended up with quite a bit of chicken left over though. I dropped all of it into my yummy soup. But you could also make a smaller pot of soup and only use half of the chicken and use the other half in a casserole or enchiladas and then you get three meals out of one chicken. At this point it is really easy to stick the chicken in a freezer container to be used for later if you want.

Take your homemade noodles that you made earlier - find out how here- and drop them into your boiling soup. 

Let your noodles cook for about 20 to 25 minutes. You can see how they all float up to the top as they get cooked. At this point your soup is done and ready to enjoy!

Mom's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Here it is hot and delicious! It really is my favorite winter time meal.

 Now just a few things I wanted to mention in case you want to make this delicious soup without using a whole chicken. Any type of chicken on the bone will work. But remember that it is the bone that makes the broth rich and delicious and imparts that wonderful chicken flavor. So boneless skinless breasts will not cut it. But you can use thighs, wings, drummies, breasts, or a combination. A whole cut up chicken works great. You don't need to roast the chicken ahead of time either you can just dump it into your stock pot and allow the chicken to cook in your stock water, and remove the meat from the bones later. I will often do it this way and then divide the cooked meat up into several freezer containers for future meals.

Even if you are not going to make soup this is a great way to cook your chicken for other meals, because you can make a stock by adding carrots, celery, and onion to the water you cook your chicken in and then you can can or freeze the stock to be used later. I use tons of chicken stock and it is very expensive to buy in the can and is loaded with salt and preservatives. Much healthy and yummier to make your own!

I promise to do future post on canning and freezing stock. I use several methods depending on what I want to use it for.

That is all for now, I hope you enjoy making and eating my favorite meal of all time! Thanks mom, for teaching me how and always making this for my birthday when I was a kid!