Better Than Chicken Soup

This soup is a sure-fire pick me up when you are feeling down. It's quick and easy to make with simple ingredients. With a base of packaged vegetable stock and hearty root vegetables, you can keep the ingredients on hand so that even if you don't feel well enough to go to the store, you'll have everything you need to treat yourself to a healing and nourishing soup.

Ingredients to have on hand:

1 box of vegetable stock - I prefer organic and low sodium

1 small onion

4 carrots

3 stalks of celery

2 large potatoes or about 6 medium new potatoes

Seasoning

• Put your soup pot on the stove and drizzle in a thin coating of olive oil 
• Finely dice 1 small onion, place the onion in the pot and turn the heat up to medium to soften the onion
• As the onion softens in the pot, peel and cut 4 carrots into coin-shaped slices and add to the pot
• Add 1 cup vegetable stock (water will work if you don't have stock) this will keep the veggies from sticking but will also allow them to get some direct heat to bring out their flavor
• Slice the celery stalks into half moon slices and add to the pot
• Chop potatoes into a dice that is similar in size to your carrot and celery slices
• Add to the pot and add the remaining stock
• Add seasoning* 
• For this soup, I used 1 tsp. celtic sea salt, 1/2 tsp. turmeric, and 1/2 tsp. cumin

*Different spices and herbs can have a different effect on each individual and in different situations. I'm guided by Ayurveda in many of my seasoning choices. Check out this link for an intro article on Ayurveda http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1722 and then maybe join them for their 7 day Ayurveda cleanse starting September 12 http://falldetox.yogajournal.com/. My daughter has a fever so I'm going a calm, cooling soup. Tumeric is a little heating but it's anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and antiseptic are so powerful that I use it a bit. Read more about turmeric here http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78

Catching Up

Here it is, taking a holiday for me to catch up. Life has been very full since my last post. I enjoyed an end of summer vacation with my family, got the kids back to school, had to revamp my computer system, and ramped up my work schedule. There have been lots of yummy meals over the last month. There just hasn't been much time to edit and post the recipes. A few of the highlights were:

Have a Tea Party for Dinner
No-Cook Buffalo Artichoke Dip - definitely my new favorite healthy snack
Cabbage Wraps with Black Bean Sauce
Simple Tomato Gazpacho and Easy Cheesy Quesadillas

Buffalo-style Artichoke Dip (No Cook)

Oh My Gosh! This is a new favorite food. To keep up my cooking inspiration, I'm signed up to get a few food email newsletters. Martha Stewart has a few that drop daily recipes into your mailbox. This recipe was inspired by one of those and as usual, I worked to make the recipe more convenient for me. What I came up with was genius (if I do say so myself:-)

Combine the following ingredients and whirl up in a food processor:

• 4 oz. jarred artichoke hearts
• 1/4 cup of feta cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (feel free to use a garlic clove instead - I'm just a little bit garlic shy)
• 1/4 cup sun dried tomato pesto (My local grocery store sells the  Bella Sun Luci brand in the produce section. It's located near the jarred minced garlic. It is my favorite ready made condiment.)
• 1 - 2 teaspoons Buffalo-style Tobasco Sauce

This dip is excellent with everything! I had actually planned to serve it on toast for our Tea Party Dinner but my husband was the one who left the table to go get the celery dippers. The flavors are reminiscent of buffalo wings (without the meat of course). As I'm typing this, I'm thinking next time I'll try blue cheese instead of the feta. Hope you have a delicious day!

Have a Tea Party for Dinner

It's quick, easy, and super fun to have a tea party for dinner! I have a 7-year old daughter and this is probably her favorite meal. You can make a tea party out of anything. Just prepare some small bread slices and lay it out on a tray with your favorite sandwich ingredients. The kids love to make their own sandwiches which means less time in the kitchen for mom or dad.



This is our basic tea party...
Toasted Baguette
Slice the baguette, brush on olive oil, sprinkle on a tiny bit of sea salt, and grill until nice and toasty. You can get most of it done in one batch on the outdoor grill.

Cucumber and Goat Cheese Sandwiches
Cucumbers are my four year olds favorite veggie so it's easy to get him to eat them. Highlight your child's favorite veggie. Make it a big deal that the veggie is the star of the show. Party picks make the sandwiches more fun too. 

• Spread a thin layer of goat cheese on the toasted baguette, top with a cucumber slice, basil leaf, and spear an olive on top with a fun party pick. 

Celery Sticks with Dip
(click here for my favorite Buffalo-style Artichoke dip)

Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches 
- pretty self explanatory there

Honey Tea
I am a tea fanatic(!) and have lots of flavors but I keep it really simple for the kids. Sometimes I'll share some white tea with the kids but I prefer not to give them caffeine. Most tea is mildly (or powerfully) medicinal so usually I'll just make them what I call Honey Tea. 

• Warm some water up in the kettle so it looks professional and then add a teaspoon of honey which melts right into the warm water. If the "tea" is too hot just cool it off with some room temp water or an ice cube if your kids are old enough for ice.

Last Day of Summer Break Simple Supper - Simple Tomato Gazpacho and Easy Cheesy Quesadillas

I spent most of this day soaking up quality time with my soon-to-be second grader. Like most parents, I'm ready for my kids to get back to school but the change is so drastic it makes me a little sad. We'll go from spending almost every waking moment together to just having a couple of hours between school, work, activities and bedtime. As the kids get ready for school and my hay-fever allergy starts to settle in, I also am acutely aware that summer is waning. It's time to really savor the signature flavors of summer. Looking for a quick, easy and summery menu I thought of tomato gazpacho and an easy side.

I had always resisted gazpacho, thinking, "soup should be warm and comforting. Well one year a friend made the most delicious gazpacho while we were vacationing at the beach and my mind was changed forever. It's a simple recipe filled with loving care and crisp, bright flavor. His recipe and many other gazpacho recipes call for worcestershire sauce but this isn't an ingredient I usually use so I've modified the recipe with ingredients from my pantry and backyard garden. I've got more common ingredients in parenthesis next to my sauce ingredients which are more normal to me but probably more exotic to most.

I knew quesadillas would be a hit at the table but I had no idea everyone would love the soup. There were arguments at the dinner table. Not about disliking the food but about who was more right about the soup being "delicious" or "good."

Simple Tomato Gazpacho
Prepare the Veggies
The loving care in this recipe comes from dicing these veggies super small. It takes some time but it's worth it! The soup flavors meld and deepen with time so feel free to make it a day ahead.

Dice these veggies super small and add to a bowl:

• peel, seed and chop 2 tomatoes 
• peel, seed and dice 1 cucumber
• seed and chop 1 bell pepper (I use yellow just to round out the colors but feel free to use your favorite)
• 1 shallot (or small onion)
• (opt. hot chili pepper)
• 2 Tb. basil chopped

Dress the veggies:
In a small bowl whisk up this simple dressing and then pour over the veggies you've prepared above.

• 2 Tb. olive oil
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp. salt

While the veggies soak up their marinade,
Prepare the soup base:
In a large bowl, combine:

• 1 cup tomato juice (I love that I have a juicer now and can make my own! V-8 works too.)
• 1 Tb. balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tb. Organic Shoyu (soy sauce)
• 1 Tb. Umeboshi Plum Wine Vinegar (red wine vinegar/worcestershire sauce)
• 1 tsp. jalepeno pepper sauce
• 1 tsp. chili powder

Add the veggies to the soup base and let it rest until ready to serve. Most recipes will suggest you let the soup sit for at least 4 hours (or overnight) before serving but I don't have time for that. I let it sit while I made the quesadillas. No one noticed that I didn't "follow the rules."

Easiest Cheesey Quesadillas
So simple!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
On a baking sheet, sandwich grated cheese between two 8" tortillas. Cook for about 8 minutes until cheese is melted and tortillas are slightly golden.
That's it... enjoy.

Cabbage Wraps with Black Bean Sauce

Prepare the Sauce

Place a saucepan over med-high heat and add:

• 1 can of organic* black beans
• 1 Tb. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. orange zest
• few dashes of hot pepper sauce

When the sauce bubbles, turn down heat and simmer to thicken for about 20 minutes. As the sauce thickens prepare the rest of the ingredients which you can then serve family style at the table so everyone can feel the privilege of making their own food. 

Prepare Cabbage Leaf Wraps

1. You will begin by removing the outer leaves one small cabbage to use as the wraps. 
2. Wash and dry your cabbage so that it is not slippery when you work with it. 
3. Take a small paring knife and carefully cut through the base of the stem to begin to separate the leaf from the head. The cabbage leaves tear pretty easily so you'll want to move patiently as you then peel the leaf away from the head. 
4. I usually pull back the edges all around the perimeter of each leaf working my way into the center. Continue trimming the base of each leaf and pulling them back. 
5. Stack the cabbage leaves into a pile. In our family the kids eat one wrap and the adults usually go for two. 
6. After you've pulled back enough leaves, cut the cabbage in half. You'll use one half of the interior of the cabbage for the filling for the wraps and you can reserve the other half for another day.

Prepare the Filling
This recipe has two fillings. One with mushrooms and one without. Mushrooms are the one thing that my son detests and I let him get away without even tasting. We should all have at least a little control over what we eat, right?

The Family Friendly Filling 
... only different in that there are no mushrooms or herbs. Although I often do include herbs in many of our family meals, fresh herbs are potent, powerful and medicinal so I take it easy if I'm making something specific for the kiddos.


In a large bowl combine:

• 1/2 of the interior of a small cabbage cut into thin ribbons
• 2 grated carrots
• 6 oz. snow peas cut into thin ribbons

Adult Filling

Divide the family friendly mixture in half so you can add adult ingredients:

• 3 shitake mushrooms cut into thin ribbons
• about 20 thai basil leaves cut into ribbons (chopped cilantro would be excellent as well)

Assemble wraps

1. Choose your wrap - (flour tortillas may be more kid-friendly.) 
2. Into your cabbage leaf cup or tortilla, scoop your veggie filling and top with black bean sauce.
3. Wrap up and enjoy! So yummy  - I scraped the black bean sauce bowl clean!

Here is what else was on the menu today and where I got the inspiration for the wraps. 

Breakfast - green go juice

Lunch - backyard garden salad

Dinner Inspiration = vegetarian times article and wanting alternative protein source = black bean sauce?

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/asian-black-bean-sauce-10000000665258/