Sick Day

I have been working and/or going to school all day, every day, since Monday.  Operating between the hours of 7a.m. and 11p.m, 12a.m., 1a.m, 2a.m.... you get the idea.  Well, I finally did it:  dragged myself into a flu. Running around trying to do everything, getting up early and going to bed late, not to mention sneaking candy out of the Halloween buckets did not result in healthy energetic me.  My head got groggy, my sinus filled up, my nose started to drip, headache followed and pretty soon I was almost in tears just from showering because my joints hurt so badly.  I'm sure you understand if you have chronic pain or disease how debilitating a simple cold can be, and when you live with joint pain and you get the flu, sometimes, there's just no possible way to accomplish movement.

With that in mind, and hopefully a nice bright healthy sunrise on the horizon, I threw together a simple, fast "pick me up soup."  Consider this the soup to throw in what you have, and don't worry about what you don't.  Try to go heavy on the garlic and ginger, if it's spicy warm, it will help soothe your throat and kick up  your immunities.

Meanwhile, get some rest, do NOT surf Pinterest all day and dream of how lovely your house will look when you win the million dollar lottery and how many nice things off Etsy you'll own - I assure you, this will not make you feel better - yes, experience talking here!  Pick up a book (I finally settled on my new crochet book,) indulge in your favorite tv series (lots of good ones nowadays,) and lay in bed or sleep.   When you need some food, toss together this healthy and warm soup, give yourself a break and know... someday, when the kids move out, the house will be spotless.

Before we get started:  drink lots of water.  And, as I list the ingredients DO NOT cringe and shun them!  If you are sick you need quick foods!  Healthy CAN be quick but shortcuts aren't always the best route (remember the microwave?!)

Pick Me Up Soup

1-2 cans of large chunk organic chicken (OKOK DON'T PANIC!)  if you don't have cooked chicken in the house, maybe this can be a fallback.  It's not terrible!  Just quick.  However, I buy "packets" of organic chicken at costco, they cook up pretty fast and I can refreeze them in bags already cooked.  That is another option.  About 4-8 ounces of cooked, cut up chicken.  That's the important part.  If you're allergic, use turkey, or no meat.  We're flexible, we're sick.  It's ok.

4-6 cups of water (heated to a low boil)
2-4 ounces of shredded ginger
2-4 cloves of garlic -  crushed or chopped (garlic powder works also! GO FOR SIMPLE! whatever works, if using powder - about 2 taBlespoons
1 bag of frozen mixed veggies (organic is great, fresh is better, BUT we don't have a lot of time to chop, saute and wait around and we are sick, go for simple!)
1 taBlespoon of coconut oil (good oils for the brain function
2 taBlespoons of Organic Better Than Bouillon  - this is my favorite kitchen shortcut in the world... it tastes SO incredible, comes in vegetarian, but I use chicken flavor, has no gluten and tastes wonderful, add a little more if you want stronger flavor.
1 can of white beans, any kind you like or have laying around
2 teaspoons of fresh cracked pepper
You can throw in a few dashes of basil (or torn up leaves) if you like,
and some dried celery flakes if you like that sort of thing
throw in onion... dried flakes, or powder whatever you have about a taBlespoon.
OPTIONAL! very optional - one egg (with a separate bowl of cold water mixed with 1 TSP cornstarch.)  I'll tell you what that's all about

Here we go!

Get all of your spices together, oil and the bouillion, put them in the water and continue to low boil,  IF you want the egg... you're going to scramble it in a small bowl...Pour the cornstarch first and stir 3 minutes, then add the beaten egg slowly "dropping" drips of it into the boiling water and swirling gently with a spoon.  Next pour the veggies, chicken and beans into the soup.  Boil for 5 minutes or until piping hot and serve.  Whatever flavor you like the most... add as much as you like.  My measurements are for reference, if you love ginger (and I know someone who LOVES ginger) then put more.  If you hate onion, don't add onion.  This soup will work for you!

Easy, fast, simple, PICK ME UP soup!  Perfect for sore throats, sluggish colds and generally not having the energy to stand in the kitchen for an hour and cook.

And it's healthy.

Mostly.

Because really?

We didn't use the microwave.  =)

Free Friday - Soup!

I'm going to be sliding into home with this one today!  Welcome to June today!  Just barely made it to the computer to type all this up.  I've been obsessed with beds and bread today.  Baked two batches of bread... I'm sure you'll get to see that one soon enough!  Also, went and got the kids a new set of bunks.  We were one bed short for everyone to have their own, so I fixed that today.   Now, I just need the kids bedroom flooring to be installed, and I'll be cooking with gas!  Actually, that won't change at all how I cook, sadly, because if new floors equaled gas stove, I'd have done that long ago.   As it is, I'm impaired with an electric.  There was some discussion to switch the kitchen to gas, but the long and the short was it's expensive to convert like that plus it's not exactly going to add value to the house, especially in this economy.  Most people like the convenience of electric, unless they are serious chefs and understand the importance of gas, and that's still a fairly small market.

Onto Friday!  Busy day!  The kitchen is finally quiet after a day of bustle, the bed is stacked in boxes in the living room and my vacuum never showed.   My seller was very quick to get it out to the shipping company, but those people really took their time.  I realize the holiday weekend was last week and that probably slowed down, and subsequently, backed up shipping, but seriously, it shouldn't take 2 weeks coming from Arizona.   Look out if the box is damaged, oy vey.  However, today's idea was the fact that I've been filling my freezer with soups.  I love soups, easy to eat and fairly easy to make, today's soup is Bok Choy Shiitake mushroom.  I DID get this recipe from another website!  It's certainly no brainchild of mine, though I was considering taking on a challenge with leeks...

So, I can't say that there are a whole lot of recipes out there that I haven't seriously modifed - rejoice! today's our day, I changed almost nothing in this recipe!  Shocked?  Me too.  It's ridiculously rare for me to find a recipe and not turn it into a three ring circus, or at least some semblance of a messy kitchen.  I did change up some things though.  First, I made it gluten free (DO NOT follow her recipe exactly if you are wheat/gluten free!!!!  Please be aware!  Soy sauce has wheat in it.)  Secondly I had to substitute an ingredient I didn't have and add one I loved, and thirdly, I changed one of the steps.  There is a really neat secret to getting some good flavor into your soup.  I used an idea from a friend and soaked the mushrooms in some of the broth before cooking them - it greatly reduces the oil they absorb while cooking.  They pick up the flavor and then it basically cooks down when they are sautéeing in the pan.

Here we go!

This is the original recipe:  http://feralkitchen.com/2012/05/19/bok-choy-shiitake-mushroom-soup/


Bok Choy Shiitake Soup


About 1 medium/large head of bok choy - chopped
2 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion
(3 ounces of grated ginger if you like)
2 tsp coconut oil
2 tBsp tamari sauce (you can find this in low sodium versions - I have some in my fridge right now!)
1 tsp dried red pepper flakes (OR szechuan pepper - which I did not have)
1 Quart low sodium chicken stock
salt/ pepper to taste
chopped chives to garnish


Start with a large sauce pan (6-8 quarts) with about 1/3 of the broth in it and the mushrooms.  Gradually raise the temperature to 'HOT'.  HAHA!  What a description!  Basically, you're not cooking the mushrooms, you want them to soak up the broth and they're ready to be taken out when they are too hot to touch, but NOT cooked!  Use a slotted spoon to get the mushrooms out, leave the broth in the pan, keep it at a simmer but be careful to not boil it all off.

While the sauce pan heats, place the oil and onion in the frying pan and cook till they are translucent.  Add the bok choy, mushrooms, ginger, tamari sauce and pepper flakes and cook about 10 minutes, or until the mushrooms are cooked.

Take all the ingredients from the frying pan and using a spatula, scrape every tiny bit of it into the saucepan.  Pour the rest of the broth in as well.  Heat to simmer and it's piping hot, ready to serve!

No, my pictures are nowhere near as amazing as hers.  I don't have my camera yet.  I am using a Samsung Galaxy S 5.0 mp3 player for a camera.  Takes pretty good pics for an mp3 player.  =)

Welcome to a great weekend!  Hope yours is filled with delicious eats and lots of relaxation!

Enjoy!

Free Fridays! GINGER!

I'm so excited about today's free Friday. So, the secret ingredient is ginger! Super exciting! Wait... how are you not excited about ginger? It's only one of the most ugly plants out there - the edible part anyway. Like a potato, you wonder who was the person who thought it was a great idea to eat this in the first place. Well, I'm sure you've seen ginger used in Asian dishes, teas, cookies and holiday breads. I used ginger in the first recipe ever posted to this blog.

A few years ago, before I found I had celiac, I was pregnant at Christmas and craving orange ginger. I set out to find the perfect thing for that craving and came up with an amazing orange ginger cookie, that I actually packaged and sent as Christmas presents that year. They were crispy, hot with sweet orange frosting and everyone loved them. I missed that flavor, it was one of my favorites. Something about the hot sweet spicy, really made them unique and fun. So, of course, I wanted to try to replicate it. Today, I'm going to show you this recipe, which was originally my best attempt at a ginger cookie - and completely failed. When dealing with high protein flours, most of the time, crispy isn't the description of the end product. Unless you've burned it to said crisp. I've made cookies that are the consistency of cakes, coconut flours are like corn breads, and it's a work in progress for me, even though after a few days of internet searches, I find that there are lots of well versed people out there writing GF blogs that are very knowledgeable. I have not used anything today from their sites and certainly reference them when or if I do.

I took the failed cookie recipe and realized this would make such an amazing breakfast bread. I've not baked it as a loaf yet, but just in cupcakes. You can do 2 things with these: 1: bake them and eat them as they are or frosted, or 2: bake them, hollow them out and fill them then frost them and eat them. Either way they can be refrigerated in an airtight container until you're ready to use them. I found the flavor was amazing 2-4 days out from originally baking them. Filling them is a bit time consuming, so for all practical purposes, the recipe will just frost them. They are healthy, full of protein, and calcium and can be a great sugar free way to start a fast paced morning. Or to pair with a slow paced afternoon tea!

Note: today, since some of the measurements are so tiny, the scale does not register them - I do not find this to be an issue, because I'm the type to know if I need a few dashes of something it's not the end of a recipe if it's 3 dashes or 5. This applies mostly to using spices. It's a flavor issue. However, for reproduction sake, I did use tiny measure spoons (1/4 teaspoon) which, I listed first in the recipe, then switch to the scale. Remember to zero out before adding anything else!

Ginger Breakfast Muffins

1/8 tsp salt (basically 2 pinches)

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp white pepper

8 oz almond flour

1/8 - 1/4 oz of cinnamon

1/8 oz cloves

1/4 oz of flax seed

1/3 oz NuNaturals stevia

3 oz sugar free maple syrup

2 oz unsalted butter

5 oz shredded fresh ginger

1/4 oz vanilla

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350f. Line regular muffin tin with muffin cups. Mix almond flour and all dry ingredients, including spices, together in a bowl. Blend in wet ingredients. Fill muffin cups almost to full and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Watch them. Depending on your oven it may require a little more or less time. They should be a warm brown on top.

Allow to cool. Frost and eat or refrigerate for later.

Frosting can be found: Here!

Sushi

There are a few odd bird people out there who just do not like sushi. At all. Some people like different forms of sushi and that's fine, and some people have never even tried it but turn up their noses at it. I don't understand this much. There are a lot of foods I don't like but I'm willing to give it a shot first. I hate hot spicy foods but I love chili (mild) hot tuna rolls and hot wings. There may be more hot foods out there I will like one day but at least I can say I will give it a whirl.

Back to sushi. This is a grey category for someone who is gluten free. It's even more grey for someone who needs to watch their blood sugar (white rice has a VERY high glycemic index.) I have decided to compile a "Survivor's guide to sushi" for all those out there who are GFSF. This list is in no particular order other than I just thought about it or have already been thinking about it.

1. Never order anything 'tempura.' Just don't. Tempura is supposed to be rice flakes (similar to bread crumbs) but most tempura is made from wheat. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but unless you're going to do tempura at home and sub this out, don't go there.

2. Bring 'tamari' sauce. Real soy sauce is actually made with wheat. Yeah. Bummer. So avoid ordering anything that has eel sauce on it (made with soy sauce) or anything that doesn't have soy sauce on the side. Bring your own wheat free sauce or tamari sauce. It tastes better and has no wheat.

3. Americanized sushi is your friend. Yes, the Japanese chefs are not only cool to watch, many of them personable and eager to put on a show and definitely authentic - they will not know how to roll a sushi roll without rice. It's just against every moral fiber and code ingrained in them. Sushi chains and specialized restaurants may have a better ability to roll sushi without the rice. Basically you pick your sushi - salmon, cream cheese, avacado, and cucumber - these are rolled together in a seaweed wrapper and then plated. There is no rice. I cannot rave enough about this roll. Not only is it filling and delicious, but it has zero worry. Some places will note their rolls as available "riceless." Do not confuse this with "sashimi." That's a whole other bird, ahem, fish, altogether.

4. Go for the sashimi. If you are a true die hard sushi lover and enjoy a nice block of fresh fish right out of the water, go for it! Sashimi is delicious and "pure." No additives, no sauces (unless specified) and it comes in an array of fishes. Yellowtail is one of my favorites along with escolar (which has the texture of room temperature butter). If it is served on rice, simply eat the fish without the rice. Dip in your tamari sauce. Enjoy.

5. In the event that you are on a sushi craving and you cannot find any Americanized versions of your favorite rolls, and seems you left your spare bottle of tamari in your other Lamborghini, well you're still in luck. Some restaurants and sushi places will have the tamari, if not, expect to skip this step. You'll have to live without it a bit. As for the sushi, try to get a high protein version of whatever roll you like. Skip the veggie roll this time. In order to slow down the sugar bomb of the rice, choose a fish filled roll maybe with some cream cheese. Fat and protein are your friend for blocking the body's ability to binge on rice sugars.

And I too love a good saki. Who doesn't? I could drink saki all afternoon in a great sushi bar while eating before a Goos concert for which I had front row tickets. Oh ya. I did. That's not to say it was good for me. It's really best to skip the saki. Like beer and wine, it messes with blood sugar very very badly. If you want to spend the next week with sugar cravings - drink alcohol. Otherwise, yep you knew this - skip it.

So, this cooking blog with no recipes, how's that working out for us? Well. Since I just forbade all alcoholic drinks, I'm going to share one of my hugely popular drinks that might satisfy the soda freak in all of us. Sure you can order diet soda and I'm sure that's fine. You can pass on a glass of champagne and sip a glass of boring water (which is good for you!! don't give it up!) but if you're out and want something fun, see if the bartender will put this together for you, or easily make it at home.

I put no measurements - why? Try it yourself, see how you like the flavors, add more or less of each thing till you know how you like the taste. Some people need more sweet, some more hot. Play with it and pick your comfort level.

Ginger lime soda:

Carbonated lime flavored water

lime juice

grated ginger

liquid stevia

ice

put ice, stevia, ginger and lime in a glass and mix. Pour in the carbonated water and stir. Enjoy!

It's so easy, even I can't mess up that one (like I messed up the brownie recipe I was going to post today - /cry!) This is also considered a whole food and raw recipe for any of the foodies... I think I'm the only one reading this so far, save a few good hearted personal supporters.

I have a lot more ideas up my sleeve, so here's to more behind the times blogging! /cheers

UPDATE! I found an additional tip! Avoid imitation crab meat! Unless you are sure it's made with tapioca starch ONLY (as listed on an ingredient list) then don't eat it!

(the picture below is sushi called "lollipop" the wrap is cucumber! It's amazingly delicious)