Chicken Lemon Rice Soup

The cold, cold weather is back.  With it, comes the need for soup.  Chicken lemon rice soup has long been one of my favorite soups.  When I made it the other day, I actually used some of the leftover Christmas turkey that I never froze instead (I canned it.  It was fine, it just sounds funny to me to mention that I never froze it) of the chicken and turkey broth instead of chicken, but either works fine.  This recipe could also be made vegetarian by omitting the meat and using vegetable stock instead of poultry.

Chicken Lemon Rice Soup

7 cups chicken stock
1-2 cups of cooked chicken pieces
1/2 cup white rice
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tbsp fresh, chopped parsley
salt, to taste
white pepper, to taste
black pepper, to taste

Heat stock to boiling.  Add chicken, rice, and garlic.  Cover and reduce heat to simmering; simmer until rice is tender, about 25 minutes.  Mix together lemon juice and egg and slowly add to soup.  Stir in parsley, salt, and pepper.

X-Treme Food Stamp Challenge--Baking frenzy

Yesterday, I continued my theme of reorganizing, restructuring, and cleaning out the freezers. 

But first: breakfast!  I opened up a jar of potatoes my mom had grown and canned last year, mashed them up, mixed in a chopped up tomato, onion, and green pepper from my garden, seasoned it with some basil (from Freecycle), oregano (from my mom), garlic powder, and a little sea salt.  Then I cooked it all up in a little bit of olive oil, hash brown style, and topped with a little feta cheese when it was nice and light brown on both sides.  Of course, the kids wanted it with ketchup, but I thought it was great as it was, with a Diet Coke to drink.

After breakfast, I started on the day's mission: filling the freezer with ready-to-eat goodies for when my 12 year old of the huge appetite arrives Friday.  I made peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels, and spinach bagels (not that I really think the spinach bagels will really last that long, but it was part of my baking frenzy nonetheless). 

No, I'm not going to put up the bagel recipe I used, because it wasn't that great.  I will be perfecting a spinach bagel recipe and probably other flavors as well (I had a really great idea on how to make the perfect strawberry bagel last night, but will have to try it first), then I will post them.

In my search for the baggie of spinach I knew had to be in there somewhere, I entirely reorganized the freezers so I can find things when I need them, get at things easily when I'm making meals or if someone needs a snack, and have enough room for the venison my husband will be bringing back with him when he comes home from his hunting trip today (no, he hasn't gotten another deer.  This is from the beginning of the firearm season last month.  He's just no getting around to bringing it home)

For dinner, I had some shipwreck that had been frozen as an individual meal and the kids had zesty mac-n-cheese.  We snacked throughout the day on the cookies (and milk) and pretzels I made, as well as homemade pear fruit leathers I pulled out of the freezer.  The kids also ate a small jar of homemade applesauce and enough dried pears that I was a tad worried they'd be having some digestive issues.  I had some tortilla chips and apple-tomato salsa.  I found myself giggling with a little glee when cracking open the applesauce, salsa, fruit leathers, and dried pears, because I thought it was really cool that we were enjoying the fruits (haha) of my labor a month or two ago now that snow is on the ground!

Mouthwatering Burritos--a new take on leftovers

I'm always on the lookout for new recipes.  Two kinds of recipes that especially appeal are super quick, easy recipes that still use real food, not a bunch of prepackaged convenience "food", and recipes that use random bits of leftovers in a new and delicious way.

Burritos fit both of these criteria.  The other night when I didn't feel like cooking, I came up with this to use some leftover rice, some salsa that no one was eating and I was worried it would go bad soon, and a partial can of refried beans.  It is good enough that I might consider making up fresh rice, opening a jar of salsa specifically for it, and opening a can of refried beans as well! 

Burritos

cooked rice

salsa

refried beans

large flour tortillas

Cheddar, Monteray jack, colby or a "Mexican" cheese blend

sour cream (optional)

other fillings such as guacamole, seasoned meat, lettuce, etc (optional)

2 tbsp olive oil

Combine the rice with the salsa in desired proportions and heat through.  Spread a thin layer of refried beans on each tortilla.  Layer seasoned rice, cheese, and any other toppings onto the burrito and fold.  Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Place burrito on skillet and gently brown each side before serving.

Green Beans and Tomatoes on Rice

Yesterday's harvest of 4 quarts of beans, 1 quart of ground cherries, a cabbage, a watermelon, a cucumber, 3 ears of corn, and enough tomatoes for dinner plus a batch of tomato sauce--

After seeing yesterday's beautiful, bountiful harvest, I decided it was much too wonderful to put up all of it for the winter.  We had to eat some of it for dinner.  After much deliberation, I decided to give this Lebanese inspired dish a whirl.  I was a little nervous, since I don't usually think of allspice as going well with veggies, but it was delightfully zingy, but not overpowering. 

I ate mine over rice (as pictured), but my husband, who doesn't care for rice, ate his as a stew, using bread to sop up the juices.  It was good either way.  If using store bought tomatoes that probably aren't nearly as juicy, you'll probably want to add a little water in with the tomatoes, but with my super fresh from the garden 'maters, that wasn't necessary.

Green Beans and Tomatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 cups green beans, cut into 1-1 1/2 in lengths

4 large tomatoes (or 3 freakishly large tomatoes), chopped

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp sugar

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Saute the onions about 5 minutes.  Add the beans and saute an additional 8-10 minutes.  Add tomatoes, garlic powder, salt, pepper, allspice, and sugar.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
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This recipe and many other great whole food recipes can be found on Fresh Bites Friday at Real Food Whole Health.

No-Bake Energy Bars--the perfect disaster food?

Note:  Even though this post is for Sunday, I'm letting it go live quite a bit early because it is such a good survival food.  With hurricane Irene bearing down on some of the most populated areas in the country, I wanted to give people in those areas a chance to print it out before the storm hits in case they lose power and don't have enough shelf stable supplies on hand without making something.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the people in the hurricane zone today and tomorrow.

These energy bars are absolutely amazing in their versatility, as well as in that they require no heating or refrigeration to prepare.  They should store okay at room temperature for at least a few days, but if you want to keep them longer, they should last about a month in the refrigerator, or even longer in the freezer.  They are so yummy that it is unlikely that you will need to worry about storing them for a long time!

At their most basic, these energy/protein/fiber bars are 3 1/2 cups of fibery stuff, primarily oats; 1 cup liquid sweetener, whether you use honey, molasses, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, agave syrup, or, as a last resort since it is by far the most unhealthy option, corn syrup; 1/4 cup crunchy stuff, whether it be seeds, nuts, or a crispy rice cereal; 1 cup nut butter; and sweet tasty stuff, either dried fruit of your choice or candy bits.  Below is the exact combination of things that I used to make them today (in large part that this is what I had on hand that met the requirements I figured I needed) and they were delicious!  My kids kept calling them brownies and my husband likened them to no-bake cookies.

No-bake Energy Bars

3 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix oats, flax seed, and sesame seeds in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, mix honey, molasses, maple syrup, vanilla, and peanut butter until thoroughly blended.  Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture and stir until oats are evenly coated.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Grease a 9"x13"in pan or cover with waxed paper (I went the waxed paper route--much easier to remove, since the bars stay pretty soft, at least that first day).  Press mixture into pan, using another piece of waxed paper to make it firm.  Let set an hour or two to firm up (or eat immediately, but it will be very crumbly!) before cutting.
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This recipe and many other great whole food recipes can also be found on Fresh Bites Friday at Real Food Whole Health.

Zucchini Pasta Bake

This recipe could easily be made into a vegetarian version by omitting the meat (just use a little olive oil for cooking the veggies) or even a vegan version by substituting nutritional yeast flakes for the Parmesan, but my family loved it with the ground venison I used when I made this yummy dinner.  Even though I had to buy some tomatoes at the farmers market, this meal for the whole family was still under $3!

Zucchini Pasta Bake

2 cups uncooked whole wheat pasta
1/2 lb ground meat
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, peeled, quartered and sliced
2-3 tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain.

Brown ground meat with onion.  Add zucchini, tomato, garlic powder, basil, oregano, and salt.  Cook for about 5 minutes. 

Combine pasta and vegetable mixture in a 2-quart casserole dish.  Stir in the tomato sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Ants on a Log

Who needs an overpriced, unhealthy Misery Meal made from questionable (to be polite) ingredients by a fat food, er, I mean fast food place, when you can make this yummy, fun, and healthy treat for the kids (or yourself) for pennies?  As an added bonus, it doesn't come with a crappy, cheap (as in bad quality) toy designed to build brand awareness in kids and make them want to buy, buy, buy more cheap, plastic crap.

I generally make Ants on a Log with peanut butter and raisins, because that's what we have on hand, but any nut butter (or even cream cheese?) and dried fruits could be substituted.  The kids love helping to make these too, especially arranging the "bugs" on it.

Ants on a Log

 1/2-1 cucumber per serving

peanut butter 

raisins

Peel cucumber and cut long-ways down the middle.  Scoop out seeds and pat dry.  Spread peanut butter in the seed cavity and top with raisins as desired.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

I made this as an experiment for the birthday party yesterday and it was a big hit!  One of the moms even stopped by the house a couple hours after the party to see if she could take some of the leftovers home so she could show her husband how yummy it was!

It is really easy to make, and with so many of the ingredients coming into season (or maybe already are, depending one where you are?), it is really cheap to make as well!  I think it is going to be a while before I buy salsa for my snacking pleasure again!

In theory, this should last 2 weeks in the refrigerator, but, based on the reaction it got at the party, I don't think that is really a concern since it will probably disappear on its own long before that.  It has a nice, mild flavor and probably would be great served on chicken, in addition to being wonderful as a snack with tortilla chips

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/2 bell pepper, finely chopped

1 tomato, seeds and pulp removed, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

Mix together all ingredients.  Refrigerate overnight to let flavors meld.