Veggie Soup from scratch!

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The cupboards are bare again, but I realized I had a some stock of canned veggies, fresh potatoes, sweet onion, and carrots ready to go, so of course I made a pot of veggie soup!  This is an extremely easy recipe and it yields servings for days.  The fresh veggies are boiled, but if you drink the broth, they health benefits are retained :).  Serve with flax crackers, and butter, and you have a low-carb meal full of nutrients.

Ingredients:

Canned items:

1 can whole corn
1 can green beans
1 can diced tomatoes (I used Dole's chili sytle for this)
1 can small peas
1 can tomato paste
3 cups of water
2 cups of vegetable stock or chicken broth (I used chicken broth for this recipe)
2 fresh carrots (diced or julienne)
1/2 sweet onion (diced)
2 medium potatoes (peeled and diced)
4 tablespoons olive oil

Spices:

Modify to your taste.  I play with seasoning until I get the taste I want, so these measurements are subjective.

1 tablespoon paprika
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Maggi's seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
black pepper
parsley
oregano
garlic powder
chili powder

Directions:

1. Dice the fresh veggies.
2. Add water and broth to pot and begin to heat on medium.
3. Add all the canned items (only drain peas, the rest use the juice in the cans).
4. Add fresh veggies.
5. Begin to heat till boiling.
6. Add seasonings.
7. Taste periodically and add seasoning according to personal tastes.
8. Boil on medium heat uncovered for 30 minutes (until carrots and potatoes are edible).

Flax Meal Crackers

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This is a very simple recipe, very high in fiber, and low in carbs.

Ingredients:

2 cups flax meal
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/3 cup Parmesan

Heat oven to 350.

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients in a bowl.
2. Spread out onto a cookie sheet covered with a silicone mat.
3. Roll out to a out 1/8 inch thick (it is easier to cover with wax paper while rolling it out).
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Watch the edges the center usually takes longer to crisp up so I break off the crisp sections and keep heating until the center crisps up too.

Modifications:
I play with this recipe depending on my mood. I added feta once in place of the Parmesan. Also added paprika, garlic salt, and a little brown sugar. Whole flax seeds or sesame seeds for added crunch.

These work great for dips like hummus, spinach dip, peanut butter, and salads.

Pizza! from Scratch!

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I have never embarked on making my own pizza crust until tonight!  We were running low in the bread department and out of tortillas, so I decided to try my hand at yeast free pizza dough.  I usually shy away from processed flour, but given the situation of our pantry...I folded.  I was impressed how easy this is, and I know in the future I will try to create a full fresh flax crust.  The entire process took about 30 minutes per pizza (from mixing the dough to finished cooking).

No-yeast pizza dough:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl.  Make a cave in the center, add water and olive oil.  Mix ingredients with a spoon until it is kneading consistency.  Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead until mixed.  Set aside.  It is ready to use.  I made two different batches.  One for each pizza.  The dough recipe makes a pizza about 12-14" round.  Pressed thin to about 1/4 inch.

Heat oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes.  These are thin crust pizzas.  They rise to about a 1/2 inch crust.  I imagine playing with different herbs and nuts to add to the dough and making it a low carb meal eventually.  For now.  Enjoy!  (I served it with side of marinara for dipping) yum.

Toppings:

First pizza Spinach:

Spinach leaves (from my garden)
Herb Goat Cheese
Bacon Bits
Mexican blend cheese
Mozzarella
Four cheese marinara








The second pizza - BBQ chicken style:


I added the BBQ Grill mates seasoning to the crust of this one as well, so the color of the crust is slightly orange.  You can work on this while the first pizza is cooking.

I sauteed three chicken tenderloins in a little olive oil and bbq dry seasoning by Grillmates.
Four cheese marinara
Mozzarella
Bacon bits

Avocado Wraps with Shredded Carrots, and Blue Cheese Crumbles

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This is a simple wrap, and very filling!

Ingredients:

2 small flour tortillas
1/4 fresh avocado (sliced)
1/2 cup iceberg lettuce
2 tablespoons ranch dressing (home made)
1 tablespoon blue cheese crumbles
Shredded carrots

Directions:

1. Peel and slice avocado.
2. Shred Lettuce.
3. Toss shredded lettuce with ranch dressing.

Place ingredients on tortilla, first with the lettuce, sprinkle blue cheese crumbles, top with avocado slices and shredded lettuce, wrap it up and enjoy!  It is amazing and simple.

Ranch from Scratch!

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In researching how to live a healthier lifestyle but still enjoy the favorite foods I love, I discovered a recipe for ranch dressing from scratch and I feel a lot better eating this version than any store bought version.  It tastes amazing.  You need to label it with a date, because your are using fresh milk (soy, almond, or cow), either way, the milk will expire.  I recommend using it within a weeks time, at the most a week and half.

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons dried minced onions
7 teaspoons parsley (dried or fresh and dried)
4 teaspoons sea salt
3 teaspoons garlic powder

Mix these ingredients together and store in a jar.  When you are ready to make dressing, mix:

1 cup of mayonnaise (here you can use a healthy version of your choice)
1 cup of milk (I used 2% milk, but I will soon experiment with almond milk and soy milk)
Add dry mix to this to taste.  The original recipe I saw for this seemed a little sparing and asked to add only 2 tablespoons.  I ended up adding around 4 tablespoons.  I also modified it by adding the following...

Xanthan gum (you can omit this if you do not mind it being slightly runny)

Add just tiny pinches of xanthan gum as a little goes a long way.  I suggest adding pinches, then shaking the jar, and repeat that process.  It will also thicken after refrigeration.

I am not one to follow recipes explicitly, I usually end up modifying, so this is the modified version of a recipe I found on Self-Reliance by Jamie, I recommend the site!

Grilled Ham, Cheddar & Egg Breakfast Sandwich with Fresh Strawberries

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This is a protein packed simple breakfast sandwich that my daughter really enjoys.

Ingredients:

1 wheat sandwich round
2 medium or small eggs
1 slice medium cheddar cheese
5 very thin slices of honey ham (deli thin)
4 fresh strawberries
A little unsalted butter
Salt & Pepper (for eggs)

Directions:

1. Use a griddle or large non-stick frying pan.
2. Heat the griddle
3. Rub a little bit of butter over entire surface just to coat.
4. Add the bread and thin slices of ham to the griddle to start heating.
5. Place cheese slice on one of the sandwich rounds.
6. Begin to cook eggs, do not break the yolks, add salt and pepper to eggs and cook until middle is almost hard, flipping once or twice.
7. Add ham slices to the other half of the bread (by this time both sandwich rounds should be a little crispy.
8. When eggs are finished cooking, add the eggs to the sandwich.
9. Dice the strawberries in quarters and serve!

Nutrition Information for entire meal:

• Calories:  383
• Sodium:   1,075
• Carbs:     32 net grams
• Fiber:      3
• Fat:          13
• Protein:    20

Sodium is a little high, you can substitute ham for turkey if you are concerned about salt intake.

Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry with Lean Pork

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I normally do not cook with pork this often, but we were low on items in the fridge.  I had just enough to make an awesome stir-fry, which is actually very healthy on a per serving basis.  The entire meal takes approximately 30 minutes to prepare.  I suggest first chopping the vegetables (my mother taught me a way to cut bok choy so it looks neat - slice at a downward diagonal direction, it make a V shape on the white area, when you get to the green tips, chop downward in thin slices), start the rice, while the vegetables are cooking, cut and prepare the pork.  By the time you are finished adding everything and letting it simmer to thicken, the rice will be finishing.  It takes some practice to get a good flow, but once you know all your cook times, you will be a stir fry master!

Rice: (for low-carb diets, substitute rice for cauliflower rice)
3 Cups water
1 1/2 cup rice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Ingredients:

2-6 oz. thin sliced lean pork

3 cups baby bok choy

1 cup carrots (sliced)

1 can water chestnuts

1 can straw mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

Saute pork in:

1 teaspoon ginger spice (pictured below)

1 tablespoon Hoisin

1 teaspoon dried minced garlic/salt mix (grated)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:

2 cups chicken broth (save 1/2 cup for thickener)

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon hoisin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon Sriracha

Variations:  omit the pork, or use chicken, tofu, beef, or shrimp.

Directions:

Saute'd bok choy, garlic, carrots, and water chestnuts

1. Prepare rice while you are preparing the other ingredients.  Add rice to water, add butter, bring to a boil on medium heat.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer until rice is tender.  Remove from heat, leave covered and set aside (usually about 15-20 minutes)
2. Saute water chestnuts, garlic, carrots, and a little garlic/sea salt mix in olive oil for approximately four minutes. *tip, dense vegetables (carrots, water chestnuts) take longer to cook, so these are cooked first.
3. Add bok Choy and stir fry another 2 minutes.  Turn off heat and set aside.
4. Sautee thin sliced pork in olive oil, hoisin, ginger, a little garlic/sea salt mix until thoroughly cooked (I am always apprehensive cooking meat so I tend to cook it longer than recommended) about 5 minutes.
5. Add the pork to the vegetables.
6. Add the mushrooms.
7. Add the 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth.
8. On a medium heat bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Stirring often.   Reduce heat.
9. Mix the corn starch with 1/2 cup of chicken broth.
10. Add the remaining hoisin, soy sauce, sirachi sauce, and sea salt to the corn starch mixture and stir until the corn starch is dissolved.  Add this  mix to the stir fry and simmer stirring constantly until sauce thickens.   Simmer for another 2 minutes on very low heat - ready to serve!

Use very lean cuts, and remove extra fat, cut in half lengthwise, then into thin 2-inch strips.

Olive oil, Ginger Mix, Minced Garlic & Sea Salt Grated, & Hoisin 

Add Pork and Saute'

Add Pork to Vegetables - Do not drain

Finished.  This is after adding the chicken broth, corn starch mixture and simmering until thickened.

Here is a picture of the spicy Sriracha sauce and Hoisin if you are unfamiliar with these ingredients.  They can be purchased at your local grocery store in most cities.

Sriracha

Hoisin

Gourmet Garden Ginger Mix

White Northern Bean & Bacon Soup

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I usually walk into the kitchen with a blank slate or a recipe I know I will modify, but this one is inspired by seeing a jar of soup at our local veggie shop Easy Way. As we were shopping, a jar of soup caught my eye, and the label read, Bean & Bacon. So instead of spending $5.99 on the jar of soup, I decided to buy a bag of northern beans, two cans of chicken stock, and a package of bacon and throw it together on my own. I love making soup from scratch, and bottling it, so this was perfect.

I must say this is the best soup from scratch I have ever thrown together. It has a very strong spice aspect though, and although it tastes amazing, if you have gas problems, this is not the recipe for you! I have a hard time translating the "throwing together" aspect into a detailed recipe...so I will provide an approximation of ingredients and their quantities. If a measurement is listed, it means the quantity or amount is accurate to the amount I used in my batch.  The ingredients without measurements or quantities are ones I kind of threw in, let simmer, taste tested and modified to my liking.  It is fun to experiment.  Adding the dashes of hot sauce and fresh ground black pepper seemed to really add a kick to it that is subtle and creeps up on your taste buds.

Ingredients:

1 package Northern Beans
4 slices of Bacon (cook in a skillet and cut with kitchen shears)
2 Cans chicken stock
3 cups water
2 tablespoons flour (added to 2 tablespoons of water as a thickener)
3 dashes Louisiana hot sauce (or any other type of hot sauce you like)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Ingredients that are flexible to taste, I used the measurements in parentheses, but I tend to add ingredients that I feel will balance the taste after it simmers a few minutes. Sugar counteracts high acidity, and butter adds a fullness, if it tastes to sugary, I will add a dash of hot and spicy seasoning along with a dash of vinegar to reduce the sweetness.  Also, I ran into a race of sweet and sour balance for this one, adding too much honey, so I added vinegar to counteract it, but added too much.  Then I added a little bit of white sugar, black pepper, and dashes of hot sauce, and it made it perfect.  Trial and error!

Butter (unsalted, sweet cream - 3 tablespoons)
Olive oil (1 tablespoon)
Marsala cooking wine (1 tablespoon)
Parsley (2 teaspoons)
Basil (2 teaspoons)
Cumin (1 teaspoon)
Black pepper (1 teaspoon)
Apple cider vinegar (listed above)
Honey (listed above)
Sea Salt (2 teaspoons)
Won ton soup mix (1 tablespoon - this can be omitted, it has MSG, which I happen to love, but others do not)
Dried onion (1 tablespoon)
Chicken poultry seasoning (1 teaspoon) this can be omitted as well because I did not use enough to make a significant difference in the taste.

Directions:

1. Modified quick rinse for beans.  Fill pot with water to sit about an inch above beans.  Heat until boiling, then boil for approximately 20 minutes.  Strain, rinse with cold water and return to pot.  (I manually removed the skin of some of the beans that did not naturally shed).
2. Cook Bacon while beans are boiling.
3. Add water to pot with beans
4. Add chicken stock
5. Add bacon pieces
6. On medium to high heat begin heating the soup.
7. Add butter, and seasonings.

Here is where you can use my recommended amounts, or modify the soup to your liking.  Have fun!

1. Boil uncovered on a medium heat for 30 minutes.
2. Check the bean hardness, water levels, and strength of the seasoning.
3. If the beans are still fairly hard, add another cup of water, and adjust seasoning to taste.
4. Continue step 10 until you feel it's ready.
5. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to a small bowl, mix with two tablespoons of water until smooth.
6. Add to soup, stir, and let simmer another 10 minutes.
7. Finished!

Unfortunately, this is not a pretty soup, so a final picture is not available.  Remember the bean-o, breath mints, and nose plugs (just kidding), except about the bean-o...  I may not be able to duplicate this one again, but it was awesome while it lasted, and hopefully this will recipe page will help me and lil T remember  ;).

Simple Taco Salad

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My mother is an inspiration to me.  She raised me to eat healthy foods, and as she and I grow older, her habits carry over.  She managed to reverse her diabetes through a low carb diet.  I lost weight on low carb too, but I think there can be modifications made to the diet to create a low carb, low fat and low calorie, but still very flavorful and filling.

This simple taco salad is just that.  It is simple, tasty, low carb, low fat, and low calories.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey (this is for the whole recipe, each serving is about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of the cooked mixture)
1 1/2 packages of low sodium taco seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup shredded iceberg
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream (low fat, reduced fat, whichever you choose)
3 tablespoons salsa (of your choice)
1 tablespoon taco sauce

Variations:  add black beans, fresh diced tomatoes, or jalapenos.

Directions:

1. Add olive oil to non stick skillet.
2. Add ground turkey and brown.
3. Follow directions on taco seasoning package (usually adds 3/4 cups water and seasoning, then heat until thick).
4. Prepare lettuce with mandolin slicer, or chop on cutting board.

I usually buy shredded cheddar, but if you prefer to shred your own, have at it!  

Plate 1 cup of shredded lettuce, top with ground turkey mixture, top with taco sauce, salsa, sour cream, then shredded cheese.  If you choose to add variations like black beans, or other variations, add those before topping with sour cream and cheddar.

You are finished!  Enjoy this easy healthy meal.

Low Carb Bread

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I tried baking bread from scratch tonight for the first time, and I must say I am pleased with the results.  Although I was hoping for a lighter bread, one to make grilled cheese sandwiches with, this bread will be good for cold sandwiches, topped with butter, preserves, or even for garlic bread.

Once again, I modified the recipe because although I try to eat low carb, low fat, this bread is very low in carbs regardless of the slight modification of using real sugar instead of sugar substitute.

This recipe is great because it does not require the lengthy process of kneading and letting the bread rise.

Ingredients:

Original Recipe:

2 cups Atkins Cuisine All Purpose Baking Mix
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 packet sugar substitute ~ I used 2 tablespoons of sugar instead
1 1/8 cups water (1/8 cup water = 2 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons canola oil ~ substitute with olive oil, or other flavored oil.

My additions:

1/4 cup flax seed meal
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (for after it bakes, melted on top and sides)

Directions:

Heat over to 350, and prepare a bread pan with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.  Spray a plastic cutting board with cooking spray and set aside.

1. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl with a spatula.
2. Add oil and water, and mix slowly
3. Coat hands with cooking spray (lightly), and transfer to plastic cutting board.
4. Form dough into a loaf.
5. Add to bread pan.
6. Bake for 60 minutes.
7. Allow to cool before slicing.

If you have an hour, you will enjoy this easy to make bread!  I will try this bread with other variations and let you know how it turns out.  Perhaps adding more seasoning and nuts.  

Enjoy!