Archive | November, 2007

Lylah over at Money Making Mamas shares this highly recommended soup recipe from Nourishing Traditions. I like hearing her review and will definitely be trying it now. The recipe and her notes are included below.

Squash and Sun Dried Tomato Soup serves 6
1 butternut squash
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
3 TB butter
1 cup sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil. I only had sun dried tomatoes in a bag, so, I added a bit of olive oil to the cup and let it sit for a tad.
1 quart chicken stock (I used Trader Joes Chicken Broth and actually I used more than what it called for – it seemed to need to be more brothy.)
1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
2 Tb finely chopped basil (I used fresh from my garden.)Cut squash in half lengthwise and place, cut sides down, in a glass baking pan with about 1/2 inch of water. I chose to liberally douse my squash with olive oil instead. Bake at 350 degrees until tender, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, sauté onions gently in butter until tender. Add tomatoes, broth and chili flakes. Bring to a boil and skim. Scoop squash out of skin and add to the soup. Simmer for about 1/2 hour. Puree soup with a handheld blender. I didn’t do this – I chose to leave it as it was. Thin with water (I added more chicken broth.) Add basil and season to taste. Simmer gently about 5 minutes, ladle into heated bowls.

Garlic! Upon our recent discovery that my husband may have high cholesterol levels, I have been doing research on how to solve the problem. I came across the valuable addition of garlic into our diet for lowering cholesterol. A month previous to this I had purchased a garlic press, and now I am going to use it significantly more.

A diet rich in garlic can have significant health benefits, according to the New York Times. It seems that garlic increases the production of hydrogen sulfide in your blood, which—in the short term—relaxes your blood vessels and increases blood flow. In the long term:

The power to boost hydrogen sulfide production may help explain why a garlic-rich diet appears to protect against various cancers, including breast, prostate, and colon cancer, say the study authors. Higher hydrogen sulfide might also protect the heart, according to other experts.

The downside (if you can call it that)? Benefits from garlic consumption in studies required an equivalent of two medium-sized cloves of garlic per day, and while some countries—namley Italy, Korea, and China—average as high as eight to twelve cloves a day—it may be a lot of garlic by your standards.

Another tip:

To maximize the health benefits, you should crush the garlic at room temperature and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. That triggers an enzyme reaction that boosts the healthy compounds in garlic.

One person commented the following:

Garlic is extremely easy to grow. It does reasonably well even in Oregon’s mixed weather. Just stick some individual cloves in the ground anywhere on your property this fall and dig them up next summer when their foliage has turned mostly brown.

Read the whole article here.

Have you ever made a dinner that you couldn’t even eat? Now, I have made some very healthy meals that I would not necessarily enjoy but because I knew their health benefits, I would force myself to enjoy it and encourage my husband likewise. Well my dinner last night was far worse. I am actually surprised this hasn’t happened before, as I don’t believe myself to be all that of an experienced cook. It was quite the experience though. Let’s just say we decided we do not like collard greens.

My awful dinner took 1.5 hours to make (that’s probably the worst part!), and included BBQ chicken marinated in my own homemade teriyaki sauce, collard greens with bacon and spices (a recipe that received great reviews from allrecipes.com) , and couscous. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well, it wouldn’t have been that bad, except for the fact that my teriyaki sauce didn’t work out like it had before…too salty and disgusting, marinated far too long, and the collard greens smelled so bad after they were done simmering (which took over 45 minutes), that I could only take two bites and then I had to get that dish off my table asap! I couldn’t eat anything else and felt sick to my stomach.

We quickly disposed of all remaining food items down the disposal and fled out of the house without another word. We drove immediately to our local Baja Fresh for a dinner replacement. Wow! That sure was good compared to that one awful dinner! (I just wish I had a picture to share…it did look awful as well ;( )

Maybe the collard greens were too old and overly bitter, or maybe I simmered it for too long, but alas my desire to eat this nutritious vegetable failed miserably. I don’t think it will be entering my house for awhile.

Got an awful meal story to share? Share a laugh with me!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!

I have found the Bosch Mixer to be my all time favorite kitchen appliance! Not only is it great for making my own bread with its dough hook (you can make up to 6 loaves of bread at one time!), but it has a whisk attachment too for speedy whipping up of ingredients for homemade goodies. Excellent large capacity bowl. It also comes with an awesome blender, the most frequently used item on this machine in my house (plastic blender so no worries of breaking). I have found the blender to be the best around for making smoothies with all those frozen fruits and stuff (you can’t beat 700 watts). Works like a charm with 3 different speeds. They have a really good warranty as well (lifetime on the motor, three years on the parts).

Now this is a spendy item. I believe it is a high quality mixer, bread machine, and blender all in one! If you think about it, the cost is actually significantly less than if you purchased those items separately.

I recommend the purchase of a Bosch mixer through Paula’s Bread, a Christian family run small business. They have excellent resources and customer service. Although the Bosch mixer is spendy, it has been worth every penny! Maybe something you can ask for Christmas? Now your husband may not be up for it at first as mine was but I have definitely won him over with the usefulness of this machine. He has been very impressed!

By the way, my mom bought this machine at least 15 years ago and it is still working awesome for her. We made homemade bread with it regularly growing up.

This is a wonderful recipe to make ahead and freeze. But it can be used at any time! Whenever I am planning my weekly menu and ask my husband for some requests, without fail I can rely on him to request pizza. We make it every two or so weeks at our place.

Homemade Pizza Crust

2 Tbls Yeast
3 1/2 cups water 110F, divided
3 Tablespoons acid medium, for soaking (whey, kefir, yogurt, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp honey
¼ cup honey
1 Tbls salt
8-10 cups whole wheat flour (or combination with kamut flour)

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Soaking Step (optional, if you want to skip soaking, proceed with the instructions below the line)

To receive the full nutrients and break down the phytates, try soaking the whole wheat flour in advance, otherwise, skip this step.

Combine 10 cups of flour, 3 cups of water requested in the recipe, substituting some of the water with about 3 Tablespoons of whey, kefir, yogurt, apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice (no need to be exact), and 1/4 cup honey. Allow to soak for 12-24 hours. After soaking, activate the yeast in a small container with the remaining 1/2 cup of warm water and 1 tsp of honey. Allow to foam up for about 5 minutes. Add the proofed yeast mixture to the soaked flour, along with the salt. Knead for 5-10 minutes. If recipe is still sticky, add a little more flour as needed until it is able to be kneaded. Continue with recipe below.

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Preheat over to 500 degrees (if you are baking right away). Combine yeast, 2 cups of warm water, and a teaspoon of sugar or honey in a bowl, cover and let sit for 7-10 minutes. Add water, honey, and salt. Mix thoroughly. After dissolved, add flour bit by bit, beating thoroughly. After all flour is beated in; knead 5-10 minutes. Let rise for thicker pizza dough. Divide into four sections for four crusts. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

This works wonderful with all whole wheat flour (hard white or red wheat) or with a combination with kamut flour (provides a lighter texture). Whole wheat pastry flour makes it very crumbly. Great easy recipe and tastes fabulous!

Here are some topping recommendations (these are my hubby’s favorites!): Pepperoni, cheese, Italian sausage, green peppers, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese

Enjoy!

For the Freezer

Mix dough completely as instructed and then divide into 4 portions. Freeze the dough in individual Ziploc bags. You do not have to pre-bake the dough – simply put the dough immediately into the freezer. When you are ready to use, thaw in the refrigerator for several hours, bring to a room temperature and then roll out and assemble as desired.