Home made chicken soup

I make this quite often. It's quite a process, so I make a huge pot of it. We live on it for a few days and I freeze it.

First I boil 5 lbs of chicken in my biggest pot. When it's done, I cool it for a bit, and then strip the meat off the bones. The bones go back into the pot and stew for a few hours. I then strain out the bones for a clear broth. At this point I would add chicken base to the stock to taste. However, chicken base has wheat starch in it, so I have to use beef base. I chop onions(about 3 large) and carrots(2 lbs?) and celery( 4-5 stocks) very fine, throw it into the pot and bring to a boil, add the meat, and then I add a package of rice noodles, bring to a good rolling boil, cover soup and turn off the heat. Let it sit for 20 minutes, and enjoy. I also use brown or white rice from time to time, but allow for more cooking time at the end.

For me this is an all day affair. It's very healthy, boiling the bones adds calcium to our diets, and that's good because we don't use very much milk anymore.

After doing all the reading recently about how chickens are factory farmed, we have decided to purchase locally grown meat. This was the last of the grocery store chicken in my freezer. I'm thinking in the future, the soup may have more soup base in it and less real meat, cause I know we are going to be paying way more for chicken. We tried going vegetarian for awhile, but all that soy and beans is very gas producing, and it was a relief to eat meat for protein and have our bodies get back to normal. So, we just eat a lot less meat than we used to. I do think of our animal friends, and while I know growing them for food is not ideal, it can be done humanly.

PS, I forgot to add the PARSLEY! And a bit of garlic. But lots of parsley, preferable fresh.

Chicken Stir Fry in Garlic Sauce featuring Peas and Egg plant.

Dinner tonight was really good, so I thought I would share what I did.

I stir fried 2 cups of chicken with 3 cloves minced fresh garlic. (used minced garlic, it has a slight different flavor than crushed). I added a few dashes of soy sauce as it finished cooking and then removed it from the pan and set it aside.

I added 1 onion, chunked

4 stocks of celery chunked

2 cups of pea pods

1 egg plant chunked

to the pan (sprayed with Pam).

I first stir fry the onion and celery for a few minutes then added the peas for a few minutes and then dumped in the eggplant. (different cooking times for different veggies). I also added about 5 cloves of minced garlic. When I was satisfied with how done it was, I added the chicken and made my sauce.

1 c of water with 1 1/2 teaspoons of beef base. I then added 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch and a dash of soy sauce. Poured it into the stir fry. It was a bit thick and kind of salty, so I added my secret ingredient---Apple Juice. I just poured it in....maybe 2/3 cup. Enough to thin out the sauce and cut the saltiness. Served over brown rice.

It was a hit...at least for me. Dave is not so crazy for eggplant. Desi does not eat anything green or resembling a veggie. Her loss, more for me! (joking) .

Salsa

Tomato Mango Salsa

6 diced fresh tomatoes

1/2 large onion, diced

2 minced jalapenos(to taste, we like it hot)

1 diced mango

a lot of minced cilantro

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c vinegar

salt to taste

When in a pinch, I take the jar of Pace and add fresh jalapenos and cilantro. Such a huge difference in the flavor. I also open a can of diced tomatoes and add onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro (lots!) vinegar and salt. Or I chop my own tomatoes (the yummiest) and add the rest of the ingredients.

We love Mexican in every way, shape and form. I have no recipes, I throw stuff together and it works. Mexican is very forgiving. And forget those "packets" of seasonings. I use chili powder, cumin, crushed red pepper, dried cilantro, garlic, and salt. I use tomatoes for moisture. I do use the cans of re fried beans. They are so easy compared to cooking up your own beans (which is not hard at all, and I've done it). Years ago, I lived in the "barrio"(the neighbor hood) and was taught Mexican cooking by some of my neighbors. They used soy sauce in their fajitas! I've never made tamales or tortillas. Tamales look very time consuming, and tortillas are too cheap to justify making them from scratch. Spanish rice....is rice and a jar of salsa. How easy is that??

So, later, for Tami, I'll come up with some recipes. I have a yummy enchilada one I'm thinking of.

Gluten Free Blueberry(Strawberry) Buckle

This is one of the best gluten free reciepes I've used. Normally I use frozen blueberries, but it tastes great with fresh strawberries as well.

Topping:

1/4 c sugar

1 tbsp brown rice flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

Body:

1 c. basic glutenfree mix (2/3 c rice flour, the rest potato starch with a tbsp of tapioca flour. A comination of these 3 flours makes for a good texture)

1/2 c sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

pincc hof salt

2 tbsp butter

1 egg

1/2 c milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 c frozen blueberries

Preheat the over to 350F. Lightly grease an 8 in sqare baking pan.

Topping: mix sugar, brown rice flour and cinnamon. Using a fork, pinch in the butter until you have a course crumbly texture.

Body: Mix the dry ingredients. Pinch in the butter. Beat the wet ingredients together and mix into the dry. fold in the blueberries. Scrape into the pan, spinkle on the topping, and bake for 25 minutes.

Okay....I'm a "throw it together" kind of cook, and that's what I did today. And I used olive oil instead of butter in the cake. And I substitued fresh strawberries. It was YUMMMY! Next time I plan on using splenda to see how it works. I usually take a good reciepe and start tweeking it to fit our lifestyle, so far this is a winner.