I must say that I love that the honey I got is from just an hour away in Lincoln, NE! The 'local' part of this diet does my heart good. I grew up around farmers in Iowa and have watched the small family farms struggle as bigger and bigger became the norm. I like the idea of my dollars 'voting' for small & close by.
I got them done fast and threw them in the oven for the 70 minutes while I went on to my next recipe.
This one is actually mine. I know I got it off a postcard in the mail years ago but I don't know what it was for / where it came from as I threw that out long ago. I've made it over the years a few times but today I changed it a bit to use my leftover chicken stock, vegetables and chicken from last week:
RECIPE: CHICKEN, BEANS & GREENS SOUP
Credit: I have no idea! This has been in my book for years - as you can see the book and card look brand new from lack of use!
INGREDIENTS:
- 6 cups chicken stock (I used my homemade from last week using the recipe from 100 Days of Real Food. Click Here if you'd like to see it. It turned out GREAT!)
- 2 large chicken breasts boned & skinless (I used my shredded leftover chicken from Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot)
- 1 Pk Baby Carrots
- 1 Pk Collard Greens
- 2 Cans of Navy or Great Northern Beans
- Anise seed
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Boil chicken breasts. Cool & cut into bite size pieces. (Or just use the yummy shredded leftovers like I did!)
- Boil carrots in chicken stock until tender. (I added some chopped celery too!)
- Chop and add collard greens (I try to get it into about inch pieces)
- Rinse beans & add to soup.
- Add chicken.
- Add anise seeds, salt & pepper to taste (I love anise so always put in a lot. I saved the salt & pepper this time b/c it had seasoning left in the chicken and broth. If it needs it I'll add to an individual serving.)
The end result seems more like a stew than a soup to me because there are so many ingredients in the broth! I just threw it in several smaller Rubbermaid storage containers that can easily be microwaved for lunches this week. I haven't tried to freeze it but I'm sure you could.
According to the books I've been reading you should eat plenty of plants and "more leaves than seeds" so I've been trying to pay attention to how I can include the leaves - other than in salads. That's what got me thinking about this soup. It is truly the only way I know how to use collard greens at this point. And I'll never forget the first time I bought them. I was in the grocery near our home when we lived in University City, Missouri (St. Louis area). "U City" is a melting pot in terms of race, ethnicity, religion - it's honestly one of my favorite places because of all the diversity. Anyway I'd grabbed the bunch of collard greens and this little grandmother (African American woman) looked at me and cocked her head and furrowed her brow at me. I just smiled thinking 'what was that?' until I heard her say to her husband and said "That WHITE girl just bought COLLARD greens! I din' know they eat those now!" I almost turned to her to admit that it is the only recipe I can cook and that I had to Google a picture of Collard Greens to even be able to find them in the grocery. But I didn't ... happy to break any racial stereotype out there!
So ... soup done and I realize that instead of my kitchen smelling wonderfully of cinnamon and nutmeg from the Granola that it was getting smoky. Uh oh! The timer still said I had more than 10 minutes left so ??? Opened the oven to look and a cloud of smoke came out! Lesson learned ... double check that you got the oven temperature setting right. I had it on 350, not 250. Two batches of Granola ruined! A flurry of 4 letter words escaped my mouth as I realized what I'd done and that I was out of ingredients to make more. That flurry continued as I threw out and cleaned up the mess and got the fan going and window open so that the fire detector wouldn't go off. I knew I was going to hear it from my hubby for a week for this and it would only get worse if the fire department showed up!
I continued to grumble and growl as I made my batch of Whole Wheat Tortillas for the week. Losing all enjoyment and all of a sudden paranoid what else I would screw up! By the time I was done though I was pissed in a different way ... bound and determined that I was NOT going to let this blunder destroy my fun today! So after my tortillas were done and bagged in the fridge I got busy getting to the store to get more ingredients. Yes - I can no longer say that my grocery bill this week was reasonable since I spent another $100 at HyVee. (I did get more than just the ingredients ... I stocked up on a big bottle of olive oil, a jumbo container of ground cinnamon 2 big containers of honey - this time from Iowa, not too far away! Oh and rawhide for the dogs - that adds up fast at $2.99 for a pack of 2. Not to mention I now have enough granola makings for next week too!)
The successful second batches cooling:
The great thing is they happen to almost exactly fill the containers we have ... so I've got a "His" and a "Hers":
I decided to try another desert recipe this week too. Right now my adventure is more about learning to cook and transitioning to real foods than it is to drop weight. For the record I'm 5'4" and 190 pounds so I do need to lose weight but time and time again I've focused on that damn number on the scale. I'm not doing that this time. I'm going to learn to eat healthy and adopt good habits and THEN I'll look at the scale and see what has happened.
RECIPE TEST: POWERBALLS
Credit: 100 Days of Real Food Blog
Click here for the original recipe
INGREDIENTS:
- tree nuts (I used pecans)
- dried pitted dates
- all natural peanut butter
- 100% cacao (unsweetened chocolate bar - I found the Ghiradelli one at Whole Foods)
No baking or heating of any kind with these. The recipe says to eat immediately or refrigerate - I put them in one of my glass Pyrex dishes with a lid in the fridge. It made 14 balls. I tested the recipe immediately and it was okay ... I popped one in my mouth after it had been in the fridge a couple hours and liked it MUCH better! They aren't pretty but definitely will help in a pinch for something sweet / chocolate.
So all in all a successful day! The kitchen is cleaned up and the dishwasher is humming. I've got all my ingredients out and ready to make dinner tonight too. (Just need the mini Cuisinart that is in the dishwasher). I'm trying:
RECIPE TEST: CAPRESE SALAD WITH BASIL PESTO
Credit: 100 Days of Real Food Blog (What?! So far all her stuff has been wonderful! I'm going back until the tap runs dry. Also excited to hear she's got a cook book in the works!)
Click here to see the full recipe
INGREDIENTS:
Salad:
- Tomato
- Fresh mozzarella cheese (I got the oh so good kind - balls floating in water! $$ but so worth it!)
- Basil
- Balsamic vinegar
- Salt & pepper
Basil Pesto:
- Basil
- Pine nuts
- Parmesan cheese
- Fresh Garlic
- Olive Oil
I have forever loved this kind of salad but I've never made it for myself at home. That sounds silly since clearly it is going to be easy. Great use of my leftover tomatoes from last week.
UPDATE:
The pesto was easy and YUMMY!
Okay it's not exactly pretty like THAT! I just chopped everything up and tossed it together. The pesto doesn't exactly 'toss' - probably does if it was put in warm pasta - so I just put a little on my fork with each bite. It was a great addition!
It had me dreaming of summer in early January. I can't wait to try it with tomatoes and basil from my own garden when that time of year returns.
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I'd love to know you visited and what you think! I'm also thankful for any ideas, tips or suggestions as I'm still learning to cook and to live a real / whole foods lifestyle.