Dad's Quick Chicken Vegetable Soup

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted a recipe for you! Well I've got a good one today, actually it's from one of my favorite chef's in the world, my dad! He's what I like to call a base cooker. All his best recipes are a base that can be made into many different things. I posted his biscuit recipe a few weeks back and that is a base that can be made into pancakes, waffles, quick bread, and all kinds of other stuff. This particular recipe I just tasted to day and he whipped it up in ten minutes. I'm not joking! We all love quick and easy, and did I mention healthy? Yes, keep reading.

Do you have a hard time getting your kids to eat vegetables like I do? It is practically a fight to get them to eat any vegetables at all, it's really frustrating sometimes. Of course, they get it from me because my parents would tell you the same thing about me, "Never liked vegetables, a fight to get her to eat them every night." Well this soup is the solution! It's so yummy and flavorful and packed with the vegetable goodness of yellow squash and zucchini! So here it easy, quick, easy, and healthy.

You will need:

2 qts Chicken broth

3 chicken bullion cubes or tsp of chicken base

2 cans of canned chicken (13 oz liquid and all)

2 medium yellow squash or zucchini (very finely chopped)

1 tsp celery seed

1 tsp granulated garlic

1 1/2 tsp onion powder

3 dashes oregano

pasta noodles of your choice

Place the squash in the food processor/food chopper/blender and chop it very finely. In a large sauce pan combine all ingredients and bring it to a boil for 3-4 minutes. Reduce heat and let it simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

While the soup is starting to heat, cook your favorite noodles, drain, and set aside. These will be added to the soup as you like. If you cook the noodles in the soup or add them all to the soup, they will turn soggy over time. It is best to just add them to your bowl as would like and in the amount that you would like.

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As I was saying above, this is a base that you can use for other things as well. Here are a few of the other options.

1.) Mix together 6 eggs and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese; mix them very well to insure there are no lumps. While the above mixture is boiling on high, slowly add the egg mixture to the soup. With the above mixture, substitute chopped green onion for the onion powder, add the previous mixture of egg and cheese, and at the very end, add chopped spinach for an italian spinach soup.

2.) This mixture can be thickened with about 4-5 tbsp of cornstarch and poured over rice.

3.) You can also add 3 cups of your favorite cooked rice, pearl barley, or cooked lentils to the soup instead of pasta. The possibilities are endless!

Gluten, Dairy, Sugar... Who needs 'em?

We have been on a quest for the perfect cookie for a while, as you know from previous posts if you follow me. Well, we've almost found one! I haven't tried it with the egg substitute yet, so I can't tell if it's able to be vegan friendly yet, but this particular recipe is Gluten free, Dairy free, AND Sugar free! You can't get much better than that! So read up, and let your mouth water at these yummy healthy cookies. And please, don't knock it till you try it. Did I mention it's low carb? If you make regular size cookies, there's only about 5g carbs per cookie. Pretty awesome right?

So you're going to need:

-2 cups of cashew flour (you do have to grind the cashews, buy regular (doesn't matter if they're salted or roasted or not) container of cashews and grate them in your blender till they're as fine as you can get them. A little chunkiness is to be expected, gives the cookies a little something extra)

-1/3 cup coconut oil, found at your local health food store

-1 cup Stevia in the Raw (big green bag, cheapest at Walmart)

-1/2 tsp baking soda

-1/2 tsp baking powder

-1/4 tsp salt

-3 tsp cinnamon

-3 eggs

-1 cup Ghirardelli Semi-sweet chocolate chips, or a brand without dairy

(this particular recipe I did use about half a cup of regular Ghirardelli white chocolate chips and a full sup of semi sweet, they do have a little bit of dairy in them, but you can make them without.)

First, grind your cashew flour in a blender, or a really awesome and strong food processor, don't be alarmed when the bottom portion of the cashews stick together, it's just the oil in the nuts, and it's just fine. You just have to stir it around.

Next, add all your ingredients together in a bowl, no specific order, and mix together well.

Cook at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, time depending on your oven. They should be fully cooked and not looked gooey when they come out of them oven.

Next, they need to cool and set for at least 10 minutes before they can be eaten.

I really hope you enjoy these cookies! They are such a yummy alternative to regular cookies that you can eat a few of and not feel bad about it!

*Net carbs per cookie, about 5g each.

Easy Pasta Casserole

This casserole is something that my family loves, can easily be made non dairy, and only takes less than an hour to prepare, bake, and serve. I call it pasta casserole, essentially it's really liked baked spaghetti using garden rotini, but you get the picture.

All you need is a full box of Garden Rotini style pasta, 3/4 container of your favorite pasta sauce, plenty of mozzarella cheese (or mozzarella flavored veggie shreds for those with a dairy allergy) and cooked/canned shredded chicken or cooked ground turkey burger. (You can also use ground beef, but my gall bladder can't handle it so I prefer ground turkey. Also, turkey is less greasy)

Preheat your over to 350. In a large casserole dish or two medium casserole dishes, mix your pasta, turkey burger, sauce, and about 2 full cups of cheese together. Once mixed, spread a layer of mozzarella cheese on top, how thick you want it depends on how much you like cheese. I like LOTS so i tend to put a lot on top. Cover your dish w/ foil or a lid and put that in the oven for 30 minutes. Use a spatula to serve with so you can have plenty of that top cheesy layer on every plate. Easy and your family will love it, dairy allergies or not ;-)

A Happy Saturday with Brownie Pops

I recently tried to make Non-Dairy Cake Pops and it didn't go so well... but as I was searching through the updates of all the blogs I follow, I came upon this super awesome idea over at Little Birdie Secrets. Brownie Pops! So click here to go over and check out this cute little treat. Don't forget to follow her blog, awesome ideas and recipes are plentiful there! If I can find a way to make these with no dairy, I'll post it later on. Happy Saturday :)

Whole Wheat Vegan Friendly Cookies

So I've modified my good friend's chocolate chip cookie recipe and come up with this awesome Vegan Chocolate chip Cookie recipe that all can enjoy no matter the diet or allergy. Unless you're allergic to Gluten... still working on that one. In my extended family there are a lot of different diets and a lot of different allergies so we're always striving to make new and awesome recipes that everyone can have. The only diet this doesn't follow is Low Carb (which I'm on) bc each cookie has about 20g. It sucks, but they are so good and everyone needs to splurge here and there :) I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine (the Nucoa Brand has no dairy)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup Xylitol (about $7 a bag at your local health food store)

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp corn starch

4 tbsp water (corn starch and water make up your egg substitute i.e. 1 part starch + 2 parts water = 1 egg)

2 tsp Real Vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 bag Semi-sweet chocolate chips (be sure to check the ingredients to make sure there is no dairy. There are two brands I've found so far that have no dairy: the first is the Kroger brand semi sweet and the second is the awesome but more expensive Ghirredeli semi sweet)

Preheat your oven to 375.

In a medium mixing bowl mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and set aside.

In a larger mixing bowl mix all your other ingredients together. Add your flour mixture to the wet mixture one cup at a time, and mix well after every cup. Once your flour mixture is all added and blended, slowly add your chocolate chips and mix them in well.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet by the tablespoon full and cook for 9-11 minutes depending on how soft you like your cookies.

A warning- this cookie dough may look pretty normal, but the whole wheat flour makes for a much softer and moister cookie, so they look, cook, and taste much different than what you are normally used to. Don't worry! They are still pretty tasty. Watch them carefully in the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack before storing them together because they tend to stick together.)

Healthy Kid's Snack

I was getting updated on my Facebook stuff this evening, (laugh if you must, but I am addicted to my Facebook page) and I came across a post by my friend Laura, mother of 3 soon to be four awesome kiddos, about a blog entry she'd found that day for an awesome healthy snack for kid's. I read it and was immediately impressed by how simple it was to make and how actually healthy it is. I just had to come on here and post the website for all of you to enjoy as well. Happy summer snacking!

The "Powerball" kid's snack

Tasty Homemade Pico de Gallo

I made chicken tacos for dinner the other night and since I'm used to making regular tacos I was kind of stumped as to what to chop up to put on them. I thought Pico would be a pretty good way to spice up these tacos so here's how I made my pico. I bought some from the store a while back and was looking at the ingredients thinking 'I could totally make this on my own.' This is something I just threw together, so feel free to make adjustments as needed for your taste or family size. This fed my family of 4 for taco toppings and there's leftovers in the fridge.

This is my Pico de Gallo.

(sorry for the terrible picture, it's from my phone)

*A tip before we begin: I've made this twice. The first time I used my food processor for the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno. For some reason they produced a kind of juicy foam that didn't look very good. (I don't know if that's normal or not) The second time I chopped all my veggies by hand (as shown in the picture) and it turned out very tasty and pretty. So my tip is, altho it takes longer, chopping your veggies by hand makes better pico.

You will need:

1/2 of a medium purple onion, cored and finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, cored and finely chopped

1 large slicing tomato, chopped

1 Jalapeno, cored and finely chopped

Cilantro, finely chopped

2 pinches ground black pepper

2 pinches Garlic powder

1/2 of a lime, cut into wedges

After you've chopped all your veggies drop them into a medium glass bowl and mix them together with a spoon. Make sure that your Cilantro is very finely chopped and add that and stir again.

Squeeze the juice of half your lime wedges into the bowl and mix it together again. This helps the spices stick to your veggies so they can soak in better.

Add your pepper and garlic and stir, then juice your remaining lime wedges directly into the bowl and stir one more time. Take a look at your fresh Pico de Gallo! Looks great doesn't it? And not very hard either!

I served this on Mission brand White Corn Tortillas covered in shredded chicken breast. This would also be good as a salsa type topping for nachos or just to eat plain with chips. Enjoy :)