Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast
32 oz box of organic chicken broth
about 2 Tablespoons of onion powder or chopped onions

I start the chicken cooking in broth in a crock pot on low when I go to work, then finish the soup when I get home.  If you want, you can start at night and just start on the stove - bring the broth to a boil and then lower the heat until it is simmering.  Over the stove, it usually takes at least 20 minutes for the chicken to cook all the way through.

Chop one large onion, about four or five stalks of celery and peel and chop four medium size carrots. Sautee  together in a non-stick sauce pan with a little olive oil until the onions start to brown. 

Shred or dice the chicken and either return to the soup pot, or, if you started it off in a crock pot, pour the broth from the crock pot into a soup pot and add the chicken.  

Add the onions, celery and carrots, plus:

broccoli slaw or other veggies
about 1/4 cup onion powder
dash of salt and pepper
6 chicken bullion cubes (depends on how strong you like your soup - my family likes it strong - if you prefer more mild, reduce or leave out)

Add more chicken broth or a bit of water until everything is covered and simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

After my mother had a heart attack, she went on a Mediterranean diet, which meant no pasta.  I went to visit her once and made my no-pasta chicken soup (using broccoli slaw instead of noodles).  Instead of being happy to find out she could eat something she liked that was healthy for her, all she could do was ask where the noodles were!

This chicken soup does not have noodles, but my daughter sometimes makes noodles and adds them to her bowl. So, yes, this is picky eater approved!  The rest of us eat the veggie style!  This is one of my grandbaby's favorites - especially the carrots and smooshed broccoli with a little bit of rice cereal mixed into the broth.

No-Bake Cookies

No-Bake, Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free Cookies

1/2 cup xylitol

1/2 cup stevia

3/4 cup erythritol natural sweetner 

(all sugar substitutes should be powder and not liquids for this to set properly)

1/2 cup of almond milk

1/2 cup coconut oil

4 Tablespoons of cocoa 

Combine in a non-stick pot and bring to a boil.  Once it is boiling, cook for one and a half minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in:

1/2 cup natural, no-sugar added peanut butter

Stir until mixed in.

Add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla and stir.  Then stir in:

3 cups dry oats

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper and cool.  (I make regular size cookies for the adults and baby-size for my grandbaby.  He likes to stuff the whole cookie in his mouth at once and the larger ones are too big for him - not that it stops him.  Just makes a big mess when he realizes he can't swallow and he spits it out.)

This is a good substitute for regular no-bake cookies.  If you have an allergy to peanut butter, you can substitute almond butter, but I like the taste of peanut butter.  If you want to use dairy, you can use regular milk and butter instead of the almond milk and coconut oil.  And if you are gluten-sensitive, make sure you get gluten-free oats, although some people who are sensitive to gluten can have a reaction to oats as well. 

Healthy Living Tips: Yoga

 Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame. 

B.K.S. Iyengar

As a psychology major, the number of elective credits I have is insane. Going to a community college limits my choices for those electives.... like a lot. So this summer I took Yoga. I took it for an easy elective and hoped it could help control my stress. Within a week, I was absolutely HOOKED. Plus the benefits showed up immediately.

 When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world. 

B.K.S. Iyengar

1. My headaches... Those horrible migraines I have gotten at least three times a week for years were gone. I didn't have a single headache while taking yoga, and they came right back when the class ended. 

2. Stress... My stress level is insane (Thanks Mom!). The main reason I took yoga was to help this. Being able to achieve a meditative state is such an amzing feeling. As someone who is always thinking about everything, thinking about nothing is a crazy feeling. 

3. Sleep... Hit the pillow at ten, wake up at seven, perfectly restful sleep.

4. Mood... With my constant headache, high stress level, and lack of sleep, I felt like I was always cranky and frustrated. After yoga, I felt so good. It was pretty difficult to break my good mood. I was generally happy. It's almost like a sort of high.

 Yoga has a sly, clever way of short circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety. 

Baxter Bell

These are mainly what happened with me. Benefits of yoga are endless. Don't get me wrong. For the first we, when I woke up in the morning, I felt like I was hit by a semi the second I moved. Once you get those muscles moving, everything starts to feel much, much better. 

My tips: 

-Do what your instructor says, or you will be in like a thousand times more pain. 

-Take a class with a real yoga instructor. Any yoga is good, but you will get the best experience if you take a class and have someone who can fix your pose if you are doing it wrong. The risk of injury goes way down. I recommend Kathryn at Mesa Community College. Her awesome attitude is contagious. 

-Lots of water!

-Don't let a lack of flexibility stop you. You do yoga to gain flexibility.

 Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. 

Unknown

As someone who sucks at the whole healthy living thing, yoga was a perfect way for me to get a foot in the door. It  encouraged me to drink more water, and even start thinking about trying one of my mother's crazy baked goods. I thought about it.... still haven't done it. Maybe one day - I'll let you know!

Why I Blog

Why a blog?  I have to admit, I don’t usually have time to read them, let alone write one of my own.  But I’ve decided I’m going to live forever, and my previous lifestyle didn’t improve my chances – it got to the point I couldn’t even climb up the stairs to get to bed without having heart palpitations – and I had to clean up my act so my kids could have their mother for a while.

I started exercising, researching what to eat (I swear, I thought bread was its own food group and that I really should be eating a loaf of it every day), and even started to look at vitamins, supplements, and alternative medicine.

I’ve been on numerous diets, including the Low Fat Diet, the Low Calorie Diet, the Divorce Diet (lost 225 pounds on that one but didn’t look any different), the Low Carb Diet (both South Beach and Atkins), the HCG Diet, and even, for a while, the Pancake Diet (one I made up myself – didn’t lose any weight but I felt much better the week of finals!).

Through trial and error, I have figured out the key is to just make better choices.  I’ve lost weight and can climb stairs with ease and can chase my grandson around without throwing out my back.  (Check out my before and after pics and you’ll see what I mean! Coming soon!)

So many people have asked me for my secret, or this recipe or that, that I decided I was time to just start my own blog.  I know nothing about computers (when I was growing up, Pong was HOT!) so my daughter promised to help me out with the details.

My weight still goes up and down and I will always have to watch what I eat.  My husband is a diabetic – another slap in the face – and my kids are at risk for diabetes as well, but they are all picky eaters, so the main challenge is to make it fun and up to their exacting culinary standards (try competing with Taco Bell, and you see what I mean!)

My husband is very supportive, and eats all my mistakes (I can tell if he really doesn’t like it when he calls it “interesting.”)  My kids are much more critical and let me know if something tastes like crap.  My daughter has graciously volunteered to add her opinion to anything I post here (she’s also my editor, both online and in life).

As Orson Welles said, "My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people."

And so here we go….

Tomato Basil Salsa

After I took over a couple of my husband's flower beds to put in a garden, I realized there are a couple of things that grow exceptionally well in Arizona.  One, of course, is zucchini.  Two others are tomatoes and basil.  They don't do well in the summer heat, but in the spring and the fall, they explode into production.

My husband and I went out to eat one night and got a baked goat cheese with a tomato basil salsa that was more like a bruschetta topping than anything else.  I was just coming off the HCG diet and put together my own Italian style salsa.  
 

Tomato Basil Salsa

2 cups diced tomatoes

½ cup diced onion

½ cup chopped (fresh) basil (if using dried, about 3 Tablespoons)

3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (no sugar added)

Salt and pepper to taste

Just mix everything together.  It's good in omelets, on meats, (if you're not on a diet, it is great as a bruschetta topping on bread) and on salads.  And, you can also take a slice of soft goat cheese, roll it in almonds, and bake it, then serve the salsa with that (my favorite).   
The longer it sits, the more flavor it obtains. Also, the longer it sits, the more juice accumulates – I use this as a salad dressing or a marinade for chicken.

This salsa is also great on my zucchini frittata (recipe to follow).

Grilled Artichoke

Grilled Artichokes

Another veggie I hated when my mother microwaved it - and to add insult to injury, she dipped them in mayo to eat them.  I went to a restaurant that grilled them, and have loved them ever since!

Wash and cut artichokes in half.  Clean out the thistly part in the middle. 

Steam until soft (in my steamer, this depends on the size and how many I'm making -  generally, two medium sized artichokes, cut in half, take about 20 to 25 minutes to steam).

Drizzle olive oil over the open, cut side and sprinkle with the seasoning of your choice.  I like Mrs. Dash' tomato basil seasoning or Italian seasonings.  Grill just enough to get the darkened grill lines and the grill flavor on them. Start with the uncut side, then flip.

Serve with melted butter or low-fat cheese dip.



Cheese Dip


1 package of reduced fat or no-fat cream cheese
1/3 cup of parmesan
1/3 cup of no-fat, unflavored Greek yogurt
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together until smooth.  Should be creamy and soft.  Add more Greek yogurt if it is too stiff.