Greek Chicken Soup

My favorite soup is the Greek chicken soup from The New England Soup Factory. I've had the cookbook for at least 2 years and have made only one soup out of it. It's so delicious and has such a small number of ingredients.

The full recipe is online here. I've substituted cooked rice for the orzo and just cooked it a little less. I've also used thin spaghetti broken up into approximately two inch chunks, in a pinch.

For zesting the lemon, I've had the best luck with a Microplane zester. I used to use a small citrus zester, but that took forever.

I highly recommend this soup. SO delicious, especially if you love lemon.

Roasted Veggies

This paste week I did a lot of cooking while my parents were here visiting for the holiday. One night we had a turkey breast (cooked in the slow cooker), corn, and roasted vegetables.

The vegetables were so easy and super yummy! Here's what I did.

Ingredients
bag of small yellow potatoes
baby carrots
butternut squash
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons dried parsley

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the potatoes in quarters and put them in a medium to large bowl. Add carrots, butternut squash (I used pre-cut since I was trying to cut down on the work), olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and parsley. Roast in the oven for 1 hour or until browned. Flip them a couple of times to ensure they brown evenly.

Remove from the oven, season to taste (if you need more seasoning - I've found you don't) and serve hot.

They are delicious! The carrots and squash get a little sweet which balances nicely with the garlic and salt. Yum!

Beef Stew with Beer Biscuits

A couple of months ago, I made beef stew and beer biscuits for dinner.... they were both delicious. I did  have a little trouble with the shape of the biscuits. They came out a little flat, but still tasted good. Not sure what happened. I wonder if it was the type of beer I used... Coors Light (didn't want to use the good stuff while cooking. Thought I'd keep that for drinking. ;))?

I plan to make this again at some point so I will check back in when I do if I have better success. If anyone has any thoughts around the type of beer feel free to comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Beef Stew: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/beef-stew-with-root-vegetables-recipe/index.html

*I didn't use the parsnips and turnip. I used good old fashioned russet potatoes instead. One of these days I'll be more adventurous around trying the other veggies.


Beer Biscuits: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/beer-biscuits-recipe/index.html

* I used a pre-made baking mix.... I wonder if this or the beer made them flat?

No-Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Balls

Last week I attended a nutrition seminar at the gym and the nutritionist brought a quick and easy pre or post or workout snack.  The recipe she provided was a little sweet so I looked one for another one. This is the one I made.  The only thing I would change is using less honey. They were quite sweet at room temperature. The sweetness seemed less prominent after they had been refrigerated. Because the peanut butter is melted, I think they would hold together with less honey.

I followed the recipe as written though I didn't have mini chocolate chips so I chopped up regular size ones.

To form the balls, I used a small scooper, and rolled them in chopped almonds.

Due to the peanut butter, I wouldn't eat this before I work out, but it's good quick snack afterwards.

Overnight Oatmeal

My new obsession is overnight oatmeal. I've tried it with regular milk and yogurt, just milk, and just almond milk. All are good, it just depends on what you're in the mood for. The version with yogurt is richer and also higher in calories, but also with the added protein from the yogurt. The unsweetened almond milk version is definitely lower in calories. I go for the unsweetened, plain almond milk to avoid added sugars and additives. It actually tastes good and I don't really like very sweet oatmeal anyway.

The yogurt recipes on this site -The Yummy Life -were recommended to me and they're great. Also, at the top of the  article, click the link to more versions. I've made the version with apricots (with almond milk) and the apple cinnamon one with milk and yogurt. I've added frozen berries and fresh apples other times, and I've used both chia seeds and ground flax seeds.

Chia seeds

The first time I tried chia seeds I followed a recipe without reading about them. 2 tbsp of chia seeds caused some serious stomach bloating and gas (sorry) that lasted about two days. I've since cut back to about 1 tsp per serving and make sure to drink a lot of water. There's a lot of info online about chia. The health benefits are great. From WebMD, "Enjoy chia seeds for their flavor and to boost the fiber, protein, calcium, antioxidants, and omega-3s in your diet."

The nice thing about soaking them overnight is they absorb all that liquid and then they don't expand as much in your stomach. I recommends starting off with a small amount. The recipes at The yummy life above  are pretty reasonable.

Apricots and add-ins

Chopped dried apricots soaked overnight turn a nice soft consistency and are very flavorful. They're pretty sweet so there's not much need for additional sweetener. I tend to skip the sweetener and get that from ten added fruit. The one time this failed was with a pumpkin oatmeal recipe. That one really needed some sugar.

Does anyone have  any other suggestions for oatmeal mix-ins?

Turkey Chili

Today I made turkey chili in the slow cooker. I started with this recipe from Skinnytaste Kid-friendly Turkey Chili but made some changes based on the comments and the ingredients on hand. I used:

• 1.5 lbs ground turkey
• 2 12 oz cans of crushed tomatoes instead of Rotel and sauce. I blended one can to smooth it out. I also wanted to use organic and avoid added salt.
• Doubled the spices except the salt 
• A cup of frozen tri-color peppers instead of one fresh. The fresh organic ones at the store looked a bit wrinkly and now I have more left for the next batch. 
• Added a can of black beans, rinsed
• Served with pepper jack cheese I shredded myself and low fat sour cream. No avocado because I had some in my smoothie for breakfast. 

This was good - nice and spicy.

Shipping Baked Goods

Tis the season to bake! If you're anything like me, you like to bake and share. I know I don't want all those baked goods in my house. :)  Plus they make a great gift.... something from the heart!

Up until now I haven't really shipped any of the baked goods I've made. So I needed to do some research. I found a helpful article and thought I would share it. Check it out! Hopefully it will help someone else as well.