Recipes by the Soup Goddess: Minestrone

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This is the second soup in this series, Recipes by the Soup Goddess. The Soup Goddess is my mom, and she's not really a goddess, but she is a pretty gifted woman. And one of her gifts is making soup.

When I think about this soup, I remember a time during the first year I was off of meal plan at college and cooking for myself. My mom came for a visit and brought with her a gallon sized freezer bag full of this soup, complete with a little baggie of grated Parmesan. I don't remember much of what I ate that year, but I had virtually no cooking experience and that soup was a bright spot in a dark culinary period.

This is a great soup to make in late summer or early fall, when vegetables like green beans and zucchini can still be found in your garden or at your farmer's market. 

French Onion Quesadillas

If you want to learn more about delicious, nourishing, real food without the guilt trip for everything you're not doing right, hit that "like" button on the right, and subscribe to my posts by e-mail or reader feed so you don't miss anything. Thanks for stopping by!

French Onion Quesadilla on a Sourdough Tortilla

 

I'm sometimes skeptical when I come across a dish that is posing as something else. You know what I'm talking about: "Taco Pizza." "BLT Salad." "Baked Potato Soup." "Pot Pie Chicken Salad." I usually say that I'd rather just eat the food that it's trying to be. But these quesadillas are a blessed exception to that rule. Clearly, they are not authentic in any way. But man are they good. And they make a stinkin' easy lunch.

Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas

If you want to learn more about delicious, nourishing, real food without the guilt trip for everything you're not doing right, hit that "like" button on the right, and subscribe to my posts by e-mail or reader feed so you don't miss anything. Thanks for stopping by!

Mmmm...cheesy goodness...

I love when I can throw a meal into the oven and do the dishes or feed the baby while it bakes. This meal comes together relatively quickly (though it does dirty two pots and a casserole, but it's worth it!) and would be a great thing to prep ahead of time for company.  The spiciness can be adjusted to your liking; we used two jalapenos this time but I think I'd prefer it with just one.

Another reason I like to make this recipe is this: I sometimes buy stewing hens for cheap (this last one cost me $3 from a local farm), which are great for making soup or broth, but the meat tends to be a little dry. Somehow, when you cover it with cheese and sour cream, it doesn't matter so much. :)

Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas

Filling ingredients:
1 T. coconut oil
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
1 (4 oz.) can diced mild green chiles
1 1/2 c. cooked white beans, such as cannellini or great northern (or one can, if you're in a pinch)
1 1/2 c. cooked, shredded chicken (I made broth with a stewing hen and saved the meat)
2/3 c. chicken broth
1-2 t. cumin
unrefined sea salt and pepper to taste

Sauce ingredients:
1 T. butter
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 T. flour (I use all-purpose, I'm sure sprouted would be a good alternative)
1 c. chicken broth
1 (4 oz.) can diced mild green chiles
1-2 chopped jalapenos (I wear a glove when I chop hot peppers. They burn!)
unrefined sea salt to taste

Other ingredients:
1/2 c. sour cream (I like Daisy Brand - no additives!)
1 c. shredded cheese (I used colby jack)
8-10 corn tortillas (We like Milagro brand, which are traditionally prepared in lime. Sprouted corn would also be a good option.) 
Chopped cilantro for garnish
Sour cream for serving

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Make the filling. Saute onion in oil until almost tender. Add garlic and saute one minute more. Add chiles, beans, broth, cumin, and salt and pepper. Stir, cover, and cook on low fifteen minutes while you prepare the sauce. Add chicken and cook long enough to heat through. Taste and adjust seasonings.

3. Make the sauce. Cook onion in butter and until tender. Add flour and cook, stirring, one minute. Whisk in the broth and bring to a boil, stirring and cooking until it thickens. Add chiles, jalapeno, and salt, and cook a 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 c. sour cream.

4. Assemble the enchiladas. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Fill tortillas with about 1/3 c. of the filling. Roll them and place them seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat until you run out of filling. Pour and spread the sauce over the enchiladas, and top with the grated cheese.

5. Bake them for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and slightly browned.

6. Serve, garnished with chopped cilantro and sour cream.

Try this recipe and let me know what you think in the comments!

 This is part of the following carnivals: Foodie Friday, Fight Back Friday, Friday Favorites, Inspire Me Friday, Eat, Make, Grow

The Scoop on Oatmeal

"You make such fancy oatmeal."

That was what my husband said to me the morning I made the oatmeal pictured above. It was loaded with butter, dried cranberries, soaked and dried pecans, shredded coconut, and cinnamon. After the photo shoot I added a moat of raw milk. And some sliced banana. And a dollop of peanut butter. I admit, I went overboard a little bit. But man was it good!

Oats are nutritious, cheap, and can be cooked in minutes, so they make a great breakfast! But they present us with a few problems...

problem #1: They contain phytates, substances that block your body's ability to absorb minerals.

problem #2: By themselves, they don't contain enough protein to make a breakfast that satisfies.

problem #3: The husband doesn't like them.

So what to do, what to do? Here are some solutions. (Unfortunately problem #3 appears to be unsolvable despite my fancy toppings. Oh well.)

solution #1: minimize anti-nutrients

This is a problem with all grains, as well as nuts and legumes. Eating too many unsoaked grains can cause nutrient deficiencies. Traditional cultures used to soak their grains for several hours (or sometimes days!) to get the most out of them. Several people (including Katie from Kitchen Stewardship, where I guest blogged last week) have done a lot of research on the effectiveness of soaking in minimizing anti-nutrients. The results have been less than crystal clear, but I'm choosing to stick with it, mostly because I seem to feel better after eating soaked vs. unsoaked whole grains, and I have read several testimonies from people who cannot easily digest unsoaked grains but do fine with soaked ones.

Here's how you do it.

You will need:

-equal amounts rolled oats (I like thick rolled oats best) and filtered water

-1 T. acidic medium per cup of oats: whey (from draining plain yogurt to make yogurt cheese), plain yogurt, buttermilk, or lemon juice

-1 T. whole wheat flour or buckwheat flour* per cup of oats

Method:

8-24 hours (24 is best) before you are going to eat your oatmeal, place your desired amount of rolled oats in a small saucepan. Add an equal amount of water (I usually do 3/4 c. oats and 3/4 c. water, which is a good amount for my toddler and I). Add your acidic medium and the whole wheat flour. Heat this mixture gently on the stove, because the process works best if everything is warm. Don't overheat, because then you are cooking the oats, instead of soaking them. You might want to set a timer for a minute or so, to make sure you don't forget about them (not that I've ever made that mistake...) Turn off the heat once they are lukewarm, and cover.

The next morning, add more water (the same amount you added the day before, so for me it's another 3/4 cup...or just eyeball it) and a pinch of salt (salt really enhances the flavor!). Bring to a boil in simmer gently for a few minutes until cooked. Soaked oats cook faster than unsoaked, so this is a great way to get breakfast on the table quickly.

Add your desired toppings and serve! Make sure to put some butter in there!

*Why do you have to add whole wheat or buckwheat flour? Oats are very low in phytase, which is necessary for neutralizing the phytates. Wheat & buckwheat are higher phytase, so adding some gives the oats a little boost. Freshly ground flour contains the most phytase. You can grind small amounts in your coffee grinder if you don't grind your own grain.*

(For more information, see Katie's post on this topic.)

solution #2: up the protein

One reason my husband does not like to eat oatmeal (besides an aversion to its consistency) is that it leaves him shaky-hungry in an hour. If I could encourage him to try it again, these tips might help. How can you add more protein to oatmeal?

My favorite way is to throw an egg in there. No, not a scrambled egg fried-rice style. You can't even tell this egg is in there, but it adds about six grams of protein to your breakfast.

Here's how you do it.

After you have cooked your oatmeal to it's desired consistency, turn off the heat. Crack an egg into it and quickly stir stir stir. If you don't get to it fast enough you might end up with chunks of egg. I always stir quickly and vigorously and I've never had that problem. Stir until the egg is no longer visible - it will only make your oatmeal a little creamier, which is not a bad thing! The residual heat should be enough to adequately cook the egg, but if you don't trust that, go ahead and leave the heat on low.

Other ideas for adding protein to oatmeal:

--chopped crispy nuts

--a dollop of nut butter

--raw whole milk

--homemade cream cheese

Or eat it with a side of:

--scrambled or hard-boiled eggs

--bacon or sausage

--cottage cheese

And as for problem #3, you might just have to make your husband some oatmeal cookies instead. Unfortunately, I haven't mastered a soaked/sprouted version of those yet. But they sure are a favorite around here! (I use the recipe from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking - one of my favorite cookbooks.)

So what's your favorite way to eat oatmeal?

This is part of Simple Lives Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Frugal Food Thursday, and Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Tuscan Style Potato Soup

I like soup any time of the year. Especially when I can use locally grown produce from our CSA. This soup is the perfect comfort food, and is full of healthy fats. Our toddler loves it. But he pretty much loves any soup. He must have a thing for bone broth, which is a key ingredient in all the soups I make. (And it's no wonder! Broth is an excellent food for babies and toddlers!)

So on to the recipe. Eat it up and don't feel one bit guilty about the butter and cream and cheese and bacon. Your body needs saturated fat!

Tuscan Style Potato Soup

Ingredients:

4 T. butter

5 mini onions (bulbs and tops) or one large onion

3 cloves garlic

1 t. salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

1 lb. potatoes, cubed (peeled or not, according to preference)

4 c. chicken broth

1/4-1/2 lb. nitrate-free bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/2 c. whole milk

1/2 c. sour cream (additive-free) or plain yogurt

1 c. grated sharp cheddar

a fistful of fresh parsley, chopped

(optional: a few leaves of kale or swiss chard)

Method:

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add chopped onions with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes, until beginning to soften. Add minced garlic and cook a couple minutes longer. Add potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender. Puree all but one cup or so of the mixture in the pot.*

Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine over low heat. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

If desired, you can add a few leaves of kale or swiss chard to this soup. Chop and add after pureeing the potato mixture, along with the other ingredients. Cook about 10 minutes or until tender. If you want to retain the probiotic qualities of the sour cream or yogurt, add that at the very end.

*A note on pureeing the soup:

The easiest way to do this is with an immersion blender, apparently. Simply set aside one cup of the potato mixture, puree the rest, and add the cup back in. If you do not have an immersion blender (I'm with you), puree in batches in a regular blender, putting the blended soup into another bowl as you go. Leave a cup of the potato mixture un-pureed in the pot, and then pour the pureed soup back in. And then wash the mound of dishes you just created, and tell your husband you want an immersion blender for your birthday, which is coming up in three days. ;)

This is part of Fight Back Friday, Friday Potluck, Food Trip Friday, I'm Lovin' It Friday, and Weekend Gourmet.

Easy Change #1: Ditch the Kraft Mac & Cheese

We have all had those days when you realize you or someone in your family is starving and you have no idea what to make for dinner. That's when you might be tempted to pull out the Kraft Mac & Cheese from the pantry. It's so easy...it's right there...you have the directions memorized and it takes no thought whatsoever.

But the problem is...it doesn't exactly fit into our goal of eating "real" food. Check out these ingredients, from kraft's website:

Ingredients: ENRICHED MACARONI PRODUCT (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE [IRON], THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID); CHEESE SAUCE MIX (WHEY, MILKFAT, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SALT, SODIUM TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF CITRIC ACID, LACTIC ACID, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, MILK, YELLOW 5, YELLOW 6, ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE).

My fav's are the yellow 5 and yellow 6. Perhaps you've heard of the probable link that food dyes have to behavioral disorders? The effects tend to be stronger in children, and food marketed toward children is more likely to contain artificial coloring. Eek!

I could go on about other issues I have with that ingredient list, but since I try to keep Plus Other Good Stuff a happy place (that's why it's not called Plus Other Bad and Angry Stuff), instead of dwelling on the bad, let's focus on a delicious, easy, fast, healthy alternative!

Get this: it is JUST AS EASY to make delicious homemade macaroni and cheese as it is to make the boxed stuff.

Just as easy, you say?? Yes. Look at this:

Steps involved in making Kraft Mac & Cheese

1. Make sure to have it in your pantry, as well as butter and milk in the fridge.

2. Bring water to a boil.

3. Cook the macaroni.

4. Drain the macaroni.

5. Add butter.

6. Add milk.

7. Add cheese sauce packet.

8. Eat.

And this:

Steps involved in making healthy homemade Mac & Cheese:

1. Make sure to have pasta in your pantry, and cheese, butter, and milk in the fridge.

2. Bring water to a boil.

3. Cook the macaroni.

4. Drain the macaroni.

5. Add butter.

6. Add milk.

7. Add shredded cheese.

8. Eat.

Ohmagoodness. You're gonna love it. Now here's the recipe, if you can call it that. It's so easy, you don't even need a recipe, but just in case you're feeling like you need someone to hold your hand, I'll give you one.

Easy Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients (alter amounts according to your preference):

1 lb. brown rice pasta (we like rotini, macaroni, or penne)

4 T. butter

1/2-3/4 c. whole milk, cream, or a combination

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

unrefined sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

optional add-ins: kale, swiss chard, or other cooking greens; frozen peas; nutritional yeast; cut up nitrate-free hot dogs/sausages

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt liberally (a couple tablespoons), add pasta and cook according to package directions. If using hot dogs, cut into bite-sized pieces and cook them with the pasta. If using kale or swiss chard, add in the last several minutes of cooking (about 5 minutes for kale, 3 minutes for chard). If using peas, add in the last minute or so.

Drain the pasta and add-ins. Return to the pot and turn the heat on low. Add butter and stir to melt. Add milk and cheese, as much as you think looks good, and stir to melt. Salt and pepper it to taste, sprinkle with nutritional yeast if desired, serve, and eat! Your body will thank you.

Want to know more about choosing the best ingredients for your homemade mac & cheese? Here are some ingredient notes:

Pasta: Use any shape you want! We choose to use brown rice pasta that we get at Trader Joe's for an awesome price. Otherwise, our pasta standard is whole wheat, but since pasta is not soaked or fermented and whole grains are kinda hard to digest, we opt for brown rice, which is a bit easier to digest unfermented than wheat. Even if you don't think you have a sensitivity to wheat products, it's a good thing to switch up your grains sometimes so you don't develop one.

Butter: Raw, grass-fed butter is best, but that's hard to find unless you make it yourself with raw cream that you get from a farm. Pasteurized grass-fed butter is second best, and the best price I've found on this is Kerrygold butter, which you can find at, guess where, Trader Joe's. (We don't have one near us but when we visit our parents' in the chicago suburbs we stock up!). The third best choice is organic butter, which I get for the best price at Meijer. The fourth best choice is just regular real butter with no additives.

Cheese: Any cheese is better than a super processed powdered cheese sauce. I'd go with sharp cheddar, organic and grass-fed if you can find it, raw is best. (More on where we get cheese in an upcoming post!)

Milk/cream: Raw, grass-fed, local milk is best. I'm sure I'll being doing a post in the future about finding good milk, but for now, at least try to buy a kind that says it doesn't use growth hormones. Before we had raw milk we often bought Country Dairy milk from our local Meijer. It is produced in Michigan with minimal pesticides and no hormones or antibiotics. Go for the full fat stuff, and make sure it's not "ultra-pasteurized." Most organic brands are, ironically enough, but that process uses super high heat and makes the milk totally indigestible. (You can't even use it to make yogurt or other types of cultured milk because it's totally dead. Yuck.)

Add-ins: For a real crowd pleaser and extra protein, add some cut up hot dogs or sausages (nitrate free and preferably from a local, reputable source that raises their animals outside). For a super healthy yet super delicious version, add some kale or swiss chard or other type of hearty green. Greens+cheese=yum, even if you think you don't really like them. Start with just a few leaves, if you're scared, and gradually increase the amount. If you're not going to add greens, at least throw a handful of frozen peas in there, that way you're getting something green. [My mother-in-law used to put frozen peas in the mac and cheese when my husband was growing up. He and his brother were so used to it that when they went to a friend's house and there were no peas in the mac & cheese, they thought it was gross. :) ] For even more added nutrition, sprinkle in some nutritional yeast - it has a slightly cheesy, nutty flavor.

This is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Hearth and Soul, Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter Thursday, Simple Meals Friday

Our Adventures with Cod Liver Oil

A year or so ago I ordered some chocolate cream cod liver oil that was on clearance. I took it three times, and it has been staring at me from the door of my refrigerator ever since. Now I know why it was on clearance.

It was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. Except for the time a lady bug landed on my water glass in the middle of the night and I woke up thirsty and took a swig in the dark. Texture: a bit like a half-popped popcorn kernel. Taste: indescribably nasty. Still makes me shudder to think of it.

The cod liver oil was nasty in a different way, not quite so bad as an evil lady bug. Just the most extreme fishy flavor you can imagine mixed with...of all things...chocolate. What was I thinking!?

I was thinking this: the benefits of taking this stuff are unmistakable. The Weston Price Foundation can tell you all about the benefits of cod liver oil in this article, but I'll name just a few. It has been known to help reverse and prevent: heart disease, cancer, depression, bone loss, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, allergies, and learning disabilities (among many other things)! The only downsides are cost and taste. I did not want to let those things stop me. I thought I could get over the cost ($44 a bottle) by buying it on clearance. Bad idea.

But, wait a sec, Joanna, why don't you just buy the cheap stuff that comes in capsule form at the grocery store?

Because not all cod liver oils are the same! Most are heated to super high temps, stripped of their natural vitamins, and have synthetic vitamins added back in. Yuck! But there is one company, Green Pasture Products, that extracts their cod liver oil using time tested fermentation. This results in a much more nutritious supplement!

I don't know about you but I'm willing to pay a little more if it means a better product that my body can actually use. And let's think about this: $44 a month, 118 servings per bottle. That means one bottle lasts almost four months for one person taking it daily. So we're paying only $11 per month! I can never remember to take it every day, so for us it lasts even longer.

OK so even if you don't buy a nasty clearance flavor, I think we can say that $11 is not a rip off. I can handle that. But it doesn't do any good to have a bottle of fermented cod liver oil in your fridge if you never take it! So how DO you get over the nasty taste?

The easy answer is to buy the capsules. The problem: they are a bit more expensive. 60 servings per bottle, and the bottle costs $30. So more like $15 a month. Not that bad, but if you've got the same frugal mindset that I have, you might think it's worth it to take the liquid. In our house, Caedmon and I take the liquid and Steven takes the capsules. It's a good compromise for us.

So, how to take the liquid? Well, here is what I do.

1. Measure the dosage of FCLO into a medicine cup/shot glass.

2. Add about a teaspoon of homemade elderberry syrup.

3. Get a glass of juice or other strongly flavored beverage ready.

4. Take the shot, chase with juice. Keep sipping til you can't taste fish.

5. Wash all utensils immediately to avoid making your whole kitchen smell nasty.

Now you can do this without the elderberry syrup, but we were taking that daily for our immune systems this winter anyway, and it really does help mellow the taste of nasty fishiness.

The FCLO liquid comes with a syringe to measure the dosage, and you can just shoot this into the back of your throat if that works for you. I prefer the shot glass method.

Now, what kind to buy? The chocolate cream I ordered is a gel, which really only lends itself to being taken right from the spoon. Gross. Currently I am taking the unflavored liquid, which enables me to mix it with the elderberry syrup. There are a few flavors, too, but really, if you can't disguise the fish, why bother trying?

They also have combination butter oil/cod liver oil liquid and capsules. Why? Because Dr. Price found that the two have a synergistic relationship and each makes the other more effective! I figure with all the grass-fed butter we eat, we're probably getting enough of this healthy fat in our diet.

So go get yourself some Cod Liver Oil - your body will thank you! One of these days I might have the strength to finish off the chocolate cream.

More info? You can find another helpful post on the subject here.

Also, have you heard that cod liver oil is dangerous because of possible vitamin A overdose? Read this for some clarifications.

Do you take cod liver oil? Why or why not?

Why I Eat Butter

Photo Credit

I often tell people I am not afraid of butter, that it's a "good fat." Sometimes I get laughed at; I guess they think I'm joking. Even my husband, who has been on this real food journey right along side me, will sometimes say, "Are you sure it's ok to eat that much butter?"

Yes, I'm sure.

We in America have some serious misconceptions about fat. I don't want to go into too many details. It will just make me angry, and this blog is about the joy of real food, not the anger and sadness of industrial food.

My Butter Story

So I'll start here. I love butter.  My history with butter goes like this:

When I was little, my favorite snack was bread and butter. Not even toasted. I remember my grandma giving this to me quite often when I was at her house and suddenly needed a snack.

My mother instilled in me a pretty strong anti-margarine sentiment, for which I am grateful. Right on the money, mom! It tastes fake, it looks fake, it is fake, and whether it's made with hydrogenated oils or "heart healthy" vegetable oils, it's been processed into oblivion, is rancid (toxic!) and more closely resembles plastic than food.

Sorry, I got distracted. I am passionately opposed to margarine.

Fast forward to late high-school and much of college. I, like most other people, thought that butter was bad for me. As a dancer who spent much of life in a leotard in front of a mirror, I was very body-conscious and thought (so mistakenly!) that my worth had something to do with my weight and pants size. So I stopped eating butter. I taught myself to eat bread plain. No more bread and butter. Sad day for me!

Imagine my delight a few years ago when I started reading about how our bodies need fat, good, traditional fat, to function, to thrive! Since then I've been eating as much butter on my bread as I want.

And you know what? I haven't gotten fatter. In fact, I weigh less now (16 months after the birth of my son) than I did pre-pregnancy. All I've done is breastfeed him and eat butter, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and bacon grease with my food. (Ok I've exercised a little. But really, only a little.)

Butter: the Real Deal

And this is why I am not afraid of those fats: people have been eating them for a long, long time. Heart disease, cancer and diabetes were virtually unknown...until the last century or so.

When we started eating Crisco and margarine and soybean, canola, and cottonseed oils, we got sick. Of course other things about our diet were going down the tube then, too. But here's the deal - hydrogenated vegetable oil is heated to insanely high temps, deodorized to disguise its rancidity, and then boiled for many hours with hydrogen to turn it into a solid and extend its shelf life. The result is a highly processed food that we were never meant to eat.

Butter comes from cream. Which comes from a cow. All you need is a blender and some cream, and you can make your own butter in your own kitchen. You can leave it out of the fridge for quite a while (provided all the buttermilk has been removed) without it going bad. It remains solid at room temperature naturally. I don't know about you, but I feel a lot better about putting that time tested, delicious food into my body and my children's bodies than the alternative.

But how could this be?! Have we been lied to? Sadly, yes. 

Data has been skewed or ignored to "prove" that traditional saturated fats cause heart disease (the "lipid hypothesis"). I'm not going to list all the reasons butter is good for you here, because someone has already said it better than I could. Go read this article to learn more!

After you read it, go into your kitchen and toast yourself a piece of whole grain bread. Spread it heavily with butter. Then eat it, one drippy melty crunchy bite at a time. And try to tell yourself that it's good for you, because it is.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.