Good Eats: Chicken Noodle Soup

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I am in need of some comfort soup when I'm not feeling well and well, I am not feeling all too well today. Mace was a little sick on Sunday. Matt was sick for the last 2 days with some tummy issue and now I have it along with a killer headache and stuffed nose. Not feeling the love to get these sickness germs! I was hoping I could avoid it but looks like I can't. AND this is NOT the week I want to be sick on. It is concert week for me, late night rehearsals Wednesday-Friday and concert Saturday and Sunday. AND my studio Christmas recital on Saturday afternoon. NOT A GOOD WEEK TO GET SICK!

Well after some digging around on the internet I found a chicken noodle soup that actually looks really good, and it doesn't take 13 hours to make like Ina Garten recipe does. (Who has that much time to make soup when they feel like crap!)

Another food network chef I like is the Pioneer Women. I watch her when she is on at the gym and her recipes seem easy to follow and usually don't require too much to it. Her chicken noodle recipe is not brothy, it is thick and has chunks of chicken, carrots, and celery. And thickened up at the end like a rue. And she does use the bones to simmer in the broth for a little bit so you still get that "homemade broth" taste that Ina likes to do but without the time! So here it is. I am going to try it out, probably not today, since that involves leaving the house and such when I don't feel well, but I'm putting it on here for later!

Homemade Chicken and Noodles- Ree Drummond- The Pioneer Women

Prep Time:

 10 Minutes

 

Cook Time:

 1 Hour

 

Difficulty:

 Easy

 

Servings:

 6

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 whole Cut Up Fryer Chicken
• 2 whole Carrots, Diced
• 2 stalks Celery, Diced
• 1/2 whole Medium Onion, Diced (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon White Pepper (more To Taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Thyme
• 2 teaspoons Parsley Flakes
• 16 ounces, weight Frozen "homemade" Egg Noodles
• 3 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour

Preparation Instructions

Cover chicken in 4 quarts water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove chicken from pot with a slotted spoon. With two forks, remove as much meat from the bones as you can, slightly shredding meat in the process. Return bones to broth and simmer on low, covered, for 45 minutes.

Remove bones from broth with a slotted spoon, making sure to get any small bones that might have detached.

Add the carrots and celery (and onions, if using) to the pot, followed by the herbs and spices. Stir to combine and simmer for ten minutes to meld flavors.

Increase heat and add frozen egg noodles and chicken. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes.

Mix flour and a little water. Stir until smooth. Pour into soup, stir to combine, and simmer for another 5 minutes, or until broth thickens a bit. Test and adjust seasonings as needed.

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

Hope you guys are having a great Turkey Day today. Good luck if you are running in a turkey trot this morning! We have our 8k that we are running in. SUPER COLD Conditions for me to be running in but I think that will be motivation to hurry up and get back to nice toasty warm house smelling like super yummy holiday feast!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday today!

Good Eats- Spinach Salad

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I know, I know what you are thinking. Spinach salad, blah or I already have a ton of those how is yours any different or special. Here is this AMAZING recipe! It is also REALLY GOOD! The kicker for this salad is the HOMEMADE DRESSING that is TO DIE FOR! Seriously! In my house, it is not a holiday without this salad. So I thought I would bring this out to you before the big day so just in case you want to try out this AMAZINGLY Yummy salad you can!

It is easy. Yummy and everyone will like it, unless they really don't like to eat salads in the first place. Like my husband. It's a lost cause.

Spinach Leaf Salad with Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing

Salad:

~2 bunches fresh spinach leaves, stemmed and washed (pat dry with paper towels.) OR 2 bags of baby spinach leaves

~1/4 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced

~1/2 lb bacon (8 slices), cooked and crumbled

~1/4 lb swiss cheese, grated

~1/4 red onion, thin half moons

~6 boiled eggs, sliced

~croutons

Dressing: Combine in a Blender

~1 cup salad oil

~1/3 cup cider vinegar

~3/4 cup brown sugar

~1 tablespoon dry mustard

~1/2 teaspoon salt

~1 tablespoon red onion (from the salad)

~1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Assemble salad in a large bowel. Combine dressing ingredients in the blender and blend together. (If you pre make the dressing store it in the fridge and blend it together just before serving because the oil will separate.) Just before serving, pour dressing over salad and stir well. Top with croutons. 

There you have it. Super simple and super yummy! Here are some changes that I have made over the years. I buy the bags of spinach, the pre-sliced mushrooms, pre-grated cheese, use the egg slicer thing to slice the eggs and I don't use bacon or croutons in it. Super no-fuss. I also tend to use a smidge more apple cider vinegar and a little extra brown sugar. I like it sweet but tangy! Play around with it and make it your own. Enjoy these good eats. This salad is great anytime but it has become a holiday tradition in my family! Maybe it will be for yours too!

QOTD: Do you think you will try this for one of your Thanksgiving sides? LET ME KNOW IF YOU DO AND WHAT YOU THINK!

Good Eats- Vegan Baked Ziti

First off, we are not vegans, or vegetarians. We are carnivores. We like our meat in this house, but every now and then I will throw in a meatless meal. Not always a hit but this one was not a miss.

Don't let the name fool you. Vegan. Yes, Vegan. Vegan does not mean that there is no flavor and that you won't like it. Trust me! YOU WILL LIKE THIS! Because of this recipe I have found a new herb that I like to throw in various dishes now because of the black licorice taste and deep flavor it gives. Who knows what herb I am talking about???

Fennel seed! It is actually a really cool herb to use. So this recipe I found almost 2 years ago. (Still trying to find the website where I originally found it. When I find it, it will go here. Sorry!) Try this recipe out. Super healthy and super filling!

Vegan Baked Ziti w/Roasted Vegetables

• 1 lb. eggplant, peeled or not, cut into 1" cubes
• 1 large red onion, cut into 1" cubes
• 2 yellow peppers, large pieces
• 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 16 oz. ziti pasta, cooked
• 1 bunch fresh spinach, chopped ~( I used a small spinach container)~
• 1 cup non-dairy cheese, Mozzarella, grated (I like Follow Your Heart) (parm cheese works too)

FOR THE SAUCE:

• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup onions, fine chopped
• 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon fennel seed
• 2 pounds tomatoes, crushed
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon organic sugar
• 1 pinch thyme
• 2 Tablespoon fresh parsley

1. Heat oven to 450F. Toss eggplant, red onion, peppers, oil and salt in small baking dish. Roast 30 minutes, stirring once or twice until vegetables begin to brown.

2. TO MAKE SAUCE: Heat oil in saucepan. Add onions and cook covered over med-low heat 10 minutes. Stir in garlic, red pepper and fennel seed; cook 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, sugar and thyme. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in parsley. (Makes 3 cups.)

3. Reduce oven heat to 400F. Toss ziti pasta with vegetables, sauce, spinach and cheese in bowl. Spread in shallow 3-quartbaking dish. Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Serves 6. (we actually got closer to 9 servings because it was so filling)

Per Serving: 427 Calories; 2g Fat (5.1% calories from fat); 23g Protein; 79g Carbohydrate; 7g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 429mg Sodium.

Dinner vs Cookie?!?

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Oh what a dilemma we have in our house tonight! I made 14.5 dozen cookies today for a church activity tomorrow. 14.5 COOKIES! That is a ton. Needless to say we are on a bit of a cookie high right now!

Mason now knows how to move a chair to an area to climb up onto it and grab the something he wants. (Smart little cookie). Well, tonight was no different. He wanted a cookie. He only had 2 earlier today. (They are small cookies, and he doesn't eat a lot of sweets because I don't want him to be addicted to sweets like I am.) Anyhew. Dad ate a cookie while I was heating up left overs and Mason wanted one too. So I gave one to him, but I said he had to eat dinner. When dinner was ready to eat we took away said cookie, tears did ensue, and I told Mason, you may have your cookie back after dinner but you need to eat at least 5 bites. After oh, about 10 minutes of fighting, tears, and crying we walked away. While I started to write this he went back to the table all on his own and took his first bite. Then another, and another. He ended up eating 6 bites. Then he was done. I gave him his cookie and I asked, "What do you say?" He grabbed my head and gave me a long smooch right on the mouth! I would say that that was a thank you if I ever did get one!

So Mommy won the war tonight. Dad was super impressed. We worked on what is important, that dinner comes first over cookies, and worked on our counting! (I even did silly little songs to show what number we were at. He loved it, and it worked)

QOTD: How do you enforce healthy eating habits for your kids when there are little temptations in the house?

Apple Picking

Today we are trying something new in our neck of the woods. We are going to visit our local apple picking orchard, Carter's Mountain. I have been asking Matt for years to go and visit and we just haven't. Yesterday he asked what are we going to do for today. I said I had some errands I had to take care of. He had a brilliant idea of, why not go apple picking?

HE is so smart! That sounds great to me. Funny thing. We are actually going to be there next week for our family pictures. So we are going to check out the place today and have fun and that way we can focus next week on taking pictures and trying to get THE PERFECT PICTURE!

Super excited for today and apple picking. Great non stress, no exercise, rest day activity to help me rest for tomorrows big race! Pictures to come later!

QOTD: Do you visit your local orchards to pick fresh fruit?

Totally Different

2 years ago I had this little guy! (Isn't he cute!!!) He changed my life. Everyday activities are totally different than they used to be. Before Mason I was exercising a ton. Up to 2 hours a day. I would run/walk for an hour and then come back at night and use the elliptical. Before I had him I lost 30+ lbs. Got down to below 200, which was really amazing to me since I hadn't been below that weight since I was first married. Once I got pregnant I didn't want to lose him so I only walked through pregnancy. 2-3 times a week. At least I walked.

Once I had him, it was just me. My husband was deployed and I was in survival mode 24/7 with a brand new baby and just me. So no one to watch him so I could go to the gym. I would occasionally do Zumba but he would wake up to the music (he loves music, since he heard it everyday while I was pregnant since I was teaching and playing in the symphony). So I really didn't exercise.

Fast forward to today. I'm a SAHM who teaches piano a few days a week. I play and chase after him. Try to teach him to be nice and say, "please" and "thank you". After a heartbreaking miscarriage at 11 weeks and adding 15 lbs to my waistline while still trying to lose the last 15 from Mason I decided to get my butt back in shape.

But things are TOTALLY DIFFERENT! Remember how I said I used to go back to the gym at night to do another hour on the elliptical. Well, apparently my body doesn't like that anymore. Went to the gym last night at 9pm. (We ate dinner around 5:30 maybe 6 at the latest.) I thought going later to the gym would be fine. I allowed plenty of time for food to digest. NOT!!! Totally not cool going to the gym and doing 3.5 miles. My tummy jolted all around and man I almost puked. My only goal was to FINISH so I could go home and rest or puke if I really had to. (Never puked but the rest was nice.)

Since having Mason, by body is totally different. It runs differently, (hips are still a little wide from having him) It feels different. It is bigger than before but I AM working on that. It is just like having to learn how to run all over again! But man LESSON LEARNED. Light meals before running then eating after run. And next time I do get pregnant...I AM GOING TO RUN!

QOTD: Do you prefer morning, midday or night running? Me: Morning! Just get it done and then I have the rest of the day to play with my little man!

Only The Best

We all want to give our children only the best in life. I want my son, Mason, who just turned 2 to have everything he wants (within reason). But even at 2 he really does get better things that me. We buy him nice clothing (usually on sale and he is better dress than me), the best in fruits and he gets super healthy (somewhat healthy on a better budget now) snacks. When he was 10 months I was breaking the bank trying to buy all the fresh fruit he could eat because he loved, loved, loved fresh fruit! He still does but we had to reign in his allowance on how much fresh fruit we could give him since he WAS breaking the bank. He could and would eat a whole pint of blueberries or strawberries. Multiple apples a day, and whatever he could get his mouth on. He loves those fruit and veggie puree squeeze things too. Oh and I do make green smoothies most days and he loves those too!

~Mason at 15 months eating his fav, blueberries!~

I try to feed him as healthy as possible. Breakfast he is the best eater! He will eat a whole egg, over medium, 1/4 c oatmeal (gluten free, organic), 1/2 banana and a cup of milk. Lunch is homemade wheat PB&J with grapes or apple on the side. And yogurt and Gold fish for snacks. I think my pushing and prodding has finally won in the veggie dept. The only way I could get him to eat veggies was in the Happy Baby squeeze things and green smoothies but never just straight up leafy greens. Last night was the first night he didn't turn his nose up at salad. He usually spits out the green stuff and eats the other stuff but last night he was eating it all!!! Granted it was the poppyseed strawberry salad from Panera Bread that had TONS of chicken, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries and mandarin oranges. But at least he finally ate the green stuff. Now onto a new chapter of healthy eating with veggies.

Disclaimer: Please know that not everyday is like this, most days he eats this well, but some days I give in and just do what I can to survive. I am not a perfect mother, never will be, but I try and that is all I can do!

QOTD: What is your kids fav healthy snack?