Get-Better Soup

I was home sick today.

This is a rare occurrence for me. Like, I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened more than a couple times in the last 10 years type of "rare occurrence". I'm not good at sitting still at home, but today I slept & slept & slept. Between naps, I threw a bunch of stuff in the crockpot that I hoped would make me better, and then went back to sleep. Come dinnertime, the chicken noodle soup concoction was actually delicious. Here's the list of things thrown into the crockpot, and why:

• Chicken broth: Homemade from local, free-range chicken. Homemade broth has less salt than the boxed or canned store-bought varieties, so I threw some in- but I was able to control how much salt was in the soup, making it healthier. From Wise Traditions: "Science validates what our grandmothers knew. Rich homemade chicken broths help cure colds. Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily-not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain"
• Carrots: Again, these are local, organic carrots, so no nasty pesticides in my soup. I grated the carrots to add to the soup. From World's Healthiest Foods, "Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A. In addition, they are a very good source of vitamin C, vitamin K, dietary fiber and potassium." I need al the vitamins I can get, especially Vitamin C, to get better!
• Celery: This was homegrown celery, which ended up being smaller than the typicalstalks, so when I harvested it, I cut it up & froze it for soups such as this one. Again, from WHFoods: "Celery is an excellent source of vitamin C, a vitamin that helps to support the immune system. Vitamin C-rich foods like celery may help reduce cold symptoms or severity of cold symptoms; over 20 scientific studies have concluded that vitamin C is a cold-fighter."
• Kale: I through this in primarily because I had it on hand, and it is considered a "superfood" so I knew it couldn't hurt. Again, this is local, organic kale. From The Food Paper: "Just one cup of raw kale contains 15% of the recommended daily value of calcium and Vitamin B6, 40% of the magnesium, 180% of the Vitamin A, 200% of the Vitamin C and a whopping 1020% of the Vitamin K. The boost in immune support and antioxidant protection provided by these vitamins could help ward off the colds and flus of the season, not to mention more serious diseases."
• Garlic: I added about 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic to the soup, knowing that it is specifically recommended for colds & flus. WHFoods explains why: "allicin, one of the sulfur-compounds responsible for garlic's characteristic odor, is a powerful antibacterial and antiviral agent that joins forces with vitamin C to help kill harmful microbes. In research studies, allicin has been shown to be effective not only against common infections like colds, flu, stomach viruses, and Candida yeast, but also against powerful pathogenic microbes including tuberculosis and botulism." I hate to admit it, but this was jarred garlic. I use what I have on hand.
  
• Ginger: I know that ginger is another food suggested to help fight the flu, but I only had the powdered form. I sprinkled just a little, figuring it couldn't hurt, but I didn't want the taste to be overpowering.
• Chicken and egg noodles: Obviously, "chicken noodle soup" needs these. Chicken provides protein and Vitamin B for energy. Egg noodles give the soup some heft, to fill me up.
  
• Of course the soup is served hot: Sipping the hot soup and breathing in the steam helps clear up congestion.

What do you eat when you're sick?

Meeting our food

Lately, a lot of lip service has been paid to "knowing where our food comes from". Some of this trend stems from the food recalls on green beans, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, peanut butter, and seemingly everything in between. In theory, if we know where our food comes from- whether it's down the street or across the country- we're safer.

While that point is arguable, I think it is important to know where our food comes from for a different reason. The closer I am acquainted with my food, the more I will appreciate it. The closer I am acquainted with my food, the higher the chance I'm eating food from whole ingredients rather than processed ones. I'm more acquainted, for example, with the Alfredo sauce I'm going to make tonight for dinner from scratch than the powdered mix that comes in the Hamburger Helper box. Although many health-conscious people would be appalled at the butter and cream on my pasta, I'm more comfortable it because I know what's in it: butter, cream, and Parmesan. That's it. What's in Hamburger Helper? No idea. Are there chemicals, preservatives, and unpronounceable additives for color and flavor that I'd rather not ingest? Without a doubt. The further I am removed from my food, the less I know about it, and the higher the probability that it contains something undesirable.

The most closely I can become acquainted with my food is by growing it myself. In this way, I can not only know where it comes from, I can control what goes into it- and can make sure it is pesticide- and herbicide-free. In my mind, gardening organically in my backyard is WAY more enjoyable and less expensive than looking for those same products marked Organic in the grocery store.

The next best thing to getting growing my own is actually knowing who did grow my food. By shopping at a farmers markets or sharing produce with friends, I can meet the grower and be assured the food is safe. This weekend, I had a whole new experience with "getting acquainted" with my food- I looked my food in the eye!

Meet the Chickens:


These are meat chickens owned by my friends, just a month and a half old- still "peep"ing instead of clucking. They've had a very happy month-and-a-half though- starting in a warm safe house, then getting the chance to scratch at the ground and eat grass and bugs and just be chicken-y in general. They look pretty happy, no?

The egg chickens just a little ways away are the same age:

Note the serious size difference. There you have it- selective breeding at work! The full-grown egg-laying ladies are a year old and gorgeous, wandering around on their own because they know how to find their way back to the coop at night.


Back to those meat chickens.

I was there on Saturday, "Harvesting Day." I started out on babysitting duty, and ended up on "tear the guts out of the chickens" duty. Awesome, huh? The other assembly (disassembly?) line stations included "kill the chicken" and "pluck the chicken". By the time the bird got to me, it looked much more like what I'd buy in the grocery store, and for that I was grateful.

I'll spare the gory details, but do want to highlight this cool invention, the Homemade Chicken Plucker:

Our friend's dad built the contraption off of plans he found on a blog (can't find the link right now. The drum with the rubber fingers spins around and beats the dead chicken until most all the feathers come off. By all of the guys' accounts who did the chicken processing last year, plucking by hand was the absolute worst part. This device made the whole process go MUCH quicker. Unfortunately, my part of the assembly line was still a very manual, very slimy process.

So, I came face-to-face with my food. Will I think differently about it now? I think I'm just glad to know that the chickens sacrificed for our meals were very happy, very healthy chickens that, as Joe Salatin would say, "only had one bad day" in their short life. I think more when I eat meat, knowing it had to come from somewhere. As my friend said, "Every carnivore should experience this once." McNuggets are too far removed from Real Food for me to remember where they start.

Becoming acquainted with our food matters.

Easy Chicken Parmesan

Half the number of chicken breasts as number of servings desired
1 egg
Italian Breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp oil
Spaghetti sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a large skillet. Slice chicken breasts horizontally (be careful!) so each is half the thickness it was. Break egg into a bowl & scramble. Spread breadcrumbs on a plate. Coat chicken with egg, then press both sides of each piece into breadcrumbs to coat.

Fry chicken on each side until nicely browned & cooked through (just a couple minutes per side). put pieces in a warm oven while the rest are cooking. When ready to serve, top each piece with the tomato sauce, mozzarella, and Parmesan and melt the cheese in the oven. Serve over spaghetti & sauce.

Crockpot Whole Chicken

Yipes, I'm neglecting my food blog like crazy. I apologize. I haven't been cooking anything new lately- and the new stuff (a couple of desserts) have disappointedly failed. One batch of cookies was salvaged by crushing into crumbs and using the crumbs to make a pie crust, but even that was embarrassing, because I ended up with a multi-colored pie crust (they were easter-egg cookies...). Last night, I finally had a dessert success with a batch of chocolate cookies. More on that later.

Today: Crockpot solutions!

I've mentioned before, I have a huge crockpot, so cooking for two in my crockpot is not an option. I've tried, and I end up with a dried-up mess. What it IS useful for, however, is cooking for parties, or cooking for leftovers. Cooking for leftovers? Let me explain.

If I drag out my crockpot to cook a meal for my husband and I, I plan a recipe that can be preserved (like freezing soups or chili) or used up in a reasonable amount of time. This week, my solution was "roast chicken".

I started with a whole chicken, 69-cent-a-pound at Aldi. I leave it in the fridge a couple days to thaw, then, the night before I plan to cook it, put it in a bowl and rub it with salt and italian dressing. The next morning, I get out the crockpot, put 5 foil balls on the bottom of the pot (to keep the chicken from sitting in all the juices), and put my chicken inside. It cooks on low 8-10 hours. This is the perfect timing for when I get home from work! A side-note: For us working folks, I need recipes that go 8-10 hours. The 4-6 or 6-8 hour recipes just aren't feasible, since I'm gone from home at least 9 hours a day.

So, I get home and have a fully-cooked chicken. I strip the bones of the meat and save the bones to make broth. What now?

Lots of chicken meals! With so little effort! So that we don't get sick of it, I freeze the meat so these meals don't have to be consecutive. These are the ideas I've had

• Roast chicken, veggies & rice on the side. (I do this the first night, with teh largest pieces I get off the bird. Carving a bird is not one of my gifts.)
  
• Chicken, broccoli & cheese casserole
• Chicken Quesadillas (mix meat with some salsa or taco seasoning) with refried beans or rice
  
• Chicken & rice casserole
• Chicken noodle soup
• Chicken fried rice

I expect one bird feeding 2 people to last through at least 4 of these meal options- we've eaten on it for 2 meals so far, with plenty left in the freezer.

What other chicken meals do you make when you have a whole chicken on hand?

Cornish Hens for a Crowd

6 Cornish hens
salt and black pepper
1 lemon
6 garlic cloves
1/8 C tarragon
1/4 C oil
2 Tbsp rosemary
1 1/2 C baby carrots
3 potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces

Dry the birds and season inside & out with salt & pepper.

Cut the lemon in half. Cut one half into 6 slices and put one slice into each bird, along with 1/2 Tbsp tarragon and one garlic clove.

Mix the oil with the juice from the other half of the lemon and the rosemary. Pour over birds and turn to coat. Set aside to marinate for 1/2 hour at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread the potatoes & carrots in the bottom of a turkey-roasting pan. Set the birds on top of the vegetables, breast-side up, along with the marinade. Roast 45 minutes, or until golden and the thigh pieces run clear when pierced & register 165 degrees.

When out of the oven, cut birds in half with kitchen shears. Serve alongside potatoes and carrots, and with wild rice, if desired.

Serves 12. ~$1.50 per serving

(This was inspired by Herb-Glazed Cornish Hens, except I didn't have time to make the sauce, or do all the basting. The result was still good.)

Chicken Nuggets

When I don't know what's for dinner, and have a little over a half-hour to have it on the table, one of my go-to meals is my mom's chicken nugget recipe. It's not fancy but it's easy, and my husband really likes it, so it works out all around. Because the meal is usually an afterthought, my recipe is very approximate. You can do what works well for your family.

Chicken Nuggets

You will need:
- Chicken breasts: 1 to 1 1/2 per person, depending on how hungry everyone is. I don't worry about leftovers, because these nuggets heat up pretty well the next day.
- Bread crumbs- I use the Italian-seasoned ones
- 1+ T Parmesan (optional) - to mix with the bread-crumb coating
- Butter or margarine, melted

Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Preheat the oven to 400. Have a bowl with melted butter and a bowl with the bread crumbs (with Parmesan mixed in if you want) ready, as well as a cookie sheet. I set up a little assembly line in my kitchen with the chicken cubes on one side, then the butter, then the breadcrumbs, then the cookie sheet. This a great part for the kids to help with! Dip the chicken in the butter, then the breadcrumbs, then place on the cookie sheet. Bake for 20-30 minutes till the chicken is cooked through and the outside coating is dried (I don't like it when it is soggy.) While the nuggets are baking, I usually fix a side like green beans or mashed potatoes.

George Foreman Works for Me!

Chicken & rice... Chicken tetrazzini... Quesadillas & tacos... Chicken alfredo... chicken pot pie...

What do these dishes all have in common? Obviously, they all have 'chicken' in the name. They are also all go-to dishes that are staples at our house, and they all call for precooked, cut up chicken breasts.

These are all pretty easy meals, but cooking the chicken is just one more step in the process (and one more pan to clean!). My solution: I use the lowest-maintenance way of cooking the meat, that requires the least attention, so that I can get the other ingredients for the recipe ready without worrying about the chicken. For me, that means flipping on the George Foreman grill (that we got for $5 at Goodwill last year!), plopping the not-quite-defrosted chicken breast(s) in it, and letting them sizzle while I prepare the rest of the meal. So easy. And my favorite part: the grill gives the chicken a flavor that goes particularly well in Chicken Alfredo or Chicken & Rice, as well as other meals. Grilling is healthier than sauteing in oil, or other options for cooking the chicken, so that makes me happy too!

Something I do less often, but am glad when I do: precook, cut up, and freeze the chicken, to make any of these meals really quick and easy. I do this more often with ground beef or ground turkey, to freeze taco meat for tacos, quesadillas, dips, and refried-bean casserole. I also will brown & freeze crumbled sausage for dishes like pizza, omelettes, or Italian Sausage soup.

Check out more tips at Works-for-me Wednesday!

One Local Summer, week 5: Roast Chicken & Steamed Green Beans with Tomatoes

I had my first harvest of roma tomatoes this week, and none of the tomatoes I have picked have lasted long on the counter. This week's local meal was chicken from the farmers market, green beans from the farmers market, and my first tomatoes I've ever harvested. All was delicious.

Super-easy Chicken Tetrazzini

Tetrazzini is a nice, creamy comfort food around here and, last night, when dinner got started later than usual, it was also a super-quick dinner, and great leftovers to take to lunch today!

I realized after cooking last night that my recipe for this dish is very approximate. It's very forgiving, and I've looked online and found that there's a large variety of recipes. This is definitely one of the simpler ones. What I did:

Ingredients:
- a handful of spaghetti, broken in half then cooked (told you it was approximate!)
- 2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup
- 1 scant can-full milk
- shredded cheddar cheese

Heat the oven to 375. Mix spaghetti, chicken, soup and milk. Mix a handful of cheese in as well, and spread in a baking dish. top with a layer of cheese. Bake until cheese is melted but not too brown, and casserole is bubbling, about 25 minutes.

Someday I will be a better chef (or a better food blogger...) and actually write down what I do. And take pictures. As it is, you'll just have to trust me that two of us enjoyed this so much that it got snarfed down over last night's dinner and today's lunch. It really is a nice last-minute, hot dinner.

Chicken Pot Pie

Originally posted at keeping feet on 9/22/2006


Dinner tonight was an experiment for me- a chicken pot pie. This is one of my favorite meals my mom would cook, so I decided to try my hand at it. My mom had given me a recipe, but not specified how to make the crust (my favorite part!), so I went hunting for another recipe that included a crust. I coulda sworn I had one, but couldn't find it, so settled on one using refrigerator biscuits as a topping. That was disappointing, but I gave it a shot anyway. After finding the recipe, I made the white sauce as it directed but kinda threw in whatever vegetables we had on hand. I steamed carrots in my new rice cooker, cooked potatoes, and threw in frozen corn, peas, and green beans, because it sounded like a good idea. It ended up being a much quicker meal than I anticipated, and healthy, too, with all the vegetables.

The results: Overall, a pretty good meal. Next time, I'm going to leave out the green beans, and steam the carrots a little longer. I'm also going to research a good crust recipe, since the biscuits on top were OK but I prefer a flaky crust all around.

Not to be outdone, Josh cooked up his favorite treat- pudding cake- and we ate it with Cool Whip and it was a yummy for dessert. The 'pudding cake' tastes very much like cake covered in hot fudge. I liked it.

I'm going to experiment tomorrow with a pizza crust recipe I found online- I've been using a Jiffy pizza crust mix and it's turned out bready, and I prefer a chewy crust. Hopefully my experiment will turn out well. The recipe makes like 6 crusts, I think I will cut it in half then freeze a couple balls of dough. We'll see. It's an adventure :)

All my other adventures are getting rained out this weekend, so I'm not sure how much I'll have to report come Monday.

Italian-dressing-marinated chicken

It's been a great weekend.

Friday was fun. When we got home from work, Josh did the cooking, and was determined to try a recipe described by one of his coworkers as Amazing. Her last day at the bank was Saturday, so we HAD to try it Friday night so he could report back to her the results. Well, turns out she was right and the chicken was delicious (The recipe was, marinate the chicken in Ken's Steak House Zesty Italian dressing, grill the chicken, then sprinkle red pepper and feta cheese on it. Josh requested we take a picture this time.

There's more to this post, but this is the cooking portion. To read the rest, see the original post at keeping feet from 9/3/2006