Northern Beans +_____________=Soup

It's no secret, I am a big believer in soup.  As my gramma used to say, "I have a soup tooth."  Sometimes I buy ingredients for a specific soup and sometimes I take what's at hand and make soup out of it.  Clean food=clean soup!  So, using some left over vegetables that I didn't want to go bad and a big jar of Northern beans...here's some soup!

Ingredients

• Large jar Northern beans
• 3 stalks celery cut up
• 3 carrots cut up
• 3 potatoes cut up
• 1 yellow onion cut up
• Parsley (dry or fresh)
• Large can sodium free/preservative free chicken broth
• Seasonings to taste-salt, pepper, garlic for me (the usual.)

Technique

• Place all cut veggies into pot, cover in broth & bring to boil
• Reduce to low/simmer and cook until veggies are soft
• Add Northern beans, parsley & seasoning
• Cover with additional broth or water
• Simmer about 1/2 hour
• Enjoy!

Tips

• Tastes better after a day or two
• I divided it into Rubbermaid bowls for lunch at work
• The veggies choices aren't strict, use whatever you need to get rid of
• If you have celery "tops," use 'em in soup!
• You can serve this for dinner with crusty bread and a salad

Remember the goal for meals?  Complex carb + protein?  This soup does the trick in once bowl...

Carrots, celery, beans = complex carb  & beans=protein.

Staying the course~

Can you believe it's been about two months since we started this journey?  Two easy months at that.  The only thing that interferes with good choices for us is convenience, you know those days everyone works late and nobody wants to cook.  In fact, we had a little mini meeting about it last week.  Every Wednesday we go out to eat and last week the Mr. brought home Mexican from a local family restaurant.  It's all very fresh and I wasn't too concerned that we were too far off track.  But on Thursday we had planned to grill chicken, I got stuck at work and he was feeling worn out from ten hours in a hot factory.  He picked up take out ribs.  Could be worse, certainly, but still not a good trend for the week. 
We talked about remembering when we are grilling chicken, to grill  ALOT for the freezer for those worn out nights.  The salad supplies are all cleaned and prepped, ready for assembly.  Had we prepared our chicken ahead, we could've had grilled chicken salads with about ten minutes of work.  The ribs may not have been the worst thing ever, but grilled chicken salad would've been miles better. 
I'm happy to report that when I got home last Friday evening, Dean had dinner waiting (he's off on Fridays.)  Grilled chicken, fresh corn on the cob and salad.  And it was wonderful. 
My parents blessed us with a freezer for the basement as they were getting a new one and just in time for our clean-eating!  That will make the plan and prep ahead so much easier for us.  I am thinking we'll store the bulk of our supplies in the basement and lots of "ready to use" stuff in the kitchen freezer; like pre-grilled chicken, frozen fresh sauces and vegetables, frozen fruit, etc.  It's actually a lot of fun (really it is!) to discover another method to utilize our resources even better.  It has me thinking of future plans, like taking a week off in the Autumn to can.  I won't be able to do it this year, I took a medical leave in January that chewed up a lot of vacation time.  But I can still look forward and just think how much more we'll know in a year's time. 
I'm also so so so happy and thankful because I feel that more than anything, the Lord is giving us wise hearts.  And by us, I mean all of use, daboyz included.  I am getting absolutely no arguments or push-back.  At the start, I asked that we honor clean-eating principles in our home and any "cheats" should happen outside the house, every man for himself.  I expected lots of drive-through moments for the Mr.  But that doesn't seem to be happening!  We took the no fast food step a month ago and since then, he hasn't indulged in what was his favorite guilty pleasure.  AND, he is regularly talking about taking things we formerly ate and making them clean and whole.  He looks up recipes and reads labels and is starting to approach this as a way of life.  This week he was figuring out how to make tater salad without Miracle Whip!  Glory be!  Yes, I know that it isn't really the most difficult thing to accomplish but it means he is taking this seriously. 
We go on vacation in a month and after we return, I believe we'll take the next important step of really cutting back for the sake of healthy weight loss.  And I believe that when it's time to take that step, we'll be ready.

Repurposing veggies in a broken omelette

I heart brown eggs!

On Saturday morning we usually have a substantial breakfast before starting our day.  This Saturday, I decided to finish off a few lingering vegetables and make broken omelets.  A broken omelet, by the way, is simply pouring eggs over the omelet ingredients instead of that pain in the egg omelet creating procedure. 




Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• Milk
• Fresh spinach, chopped
• 1 1/2 tomatoes chopped (because that's what I had on hand)
• 1 cup or so diced boiled potatoes (also on hand)
• 1/2 yellow onion
• Feta cheese
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Butter

Technique

• Melt butter in pan, add potatoes, onions and green peppers.  Cook until soft & taters are a bit crispy.
• In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with about a cup or so of milk
• Spread potato mixture in bottom of pan, turn heat to medium
• Beat eggs & milk together (like scrambled eggs,) pour over entire veggie & tater mixture, top with spinach & tomatoes
• Allow to cook for a few minutes
• Using a spatula, finish cooking the broken omelet like you would scrambled eggs.
• When cooked through, spread in pan again, cover with feta cheese.
• Turn heat off and allow feta to melt for a few minutes.  Stir into egg mixture.  Salt & pepper to taste.

Tips

• Broken omelette's are a great way to use up any leftovers, the ingredients I used were only what I had on hand. 
• Even leftover taco meat can be repurposed, add cheddar and top with salsa. 
• Although the Mr. doesn't like it, I also think these are a great dinner item. 
• Did you know that kielbasa is great in eggs?  Well, it is.  You're welcome.
• This may seem like a lot of detail for a fairly easy "recipe,"  but there are folks who are trying to eat from scratch for the first time.  Hopefully these kind of ideas will make it less intimidating!

Cookware



Does anyone have the Paula Deen cookware?  I have two pieces, the larger sauce pan and the large covered skillet.  I didn't buy the whole set, in fact, I didn't buy any of it.  The Mr., however, did.  I'm not a Paula Deen fan so that's how I roll.  Anyway, I have to say that I really love the skillet!  It's large and very deep so things I might make in a sauce pan can be made in the skillet and I find I can heat things (and therefore cook them) more quickly.  I've even made soup in it!  The other day, I made pintos and put them in a ziploc.  To rewarm them, I put them in the skillet and put the heat on low for about fifteen minutes.  Perfect!  Cleans up quick and easy and doesn't take as much room in the dishwasher as a stock pot or large sauce pan takes.  I have the red, as pictured.  I will say, I think the color is fading pretty fast and they aren't cheap. 
I like the sauce pan too except that it sort of curves around the rim so you can't stack other pots inside of it.  Being that it's my biggest sauce pan, it takes up a lot of valuable real estate in my cabinet. 
The lids are heavy glass and fit nice and snug on the pots.
This isn't necessarily a recommendation to go buy the entire set which starts at $89.99 at Target.
I made an entire meal of chicken florentine in the pan last week.  That's one box of pasta, 3 chicken breasts and veggies.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Pineapple Orange "Julius"

If you've never had an Orange Julius, this may not be all that exciting.  If you have, it still may not be all that exciting.  As for me, I am excited!  100% clean & fresh & delicious. 
P.S., if the Orange Julius people are upset that I used their name in vain, I apologize.



Ingredients

• Fruit from 1 whole pineapple
• 1 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed is best)
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (the real stuff!)
• 4 cups (give or take) ice

Technique

• Throw it all in the blender
• Turn the blender on
• Turn the blender off
• Pour it in your cup
• Drink it
• Yields a whole pitcher

Giving thanks

Father of us all,
This meal is a sign of Your love for us:
Bless us and bless our food,
And help us to give you glory each day
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

The week~

I'm not sure what order the meals will fall in, but here is what we'll be enjoying this week!

Menus

• Spaghetti & green salad
• Grilled burgers, potato salad, pintos
• Pork chops, mushroom & brown rice casserole, broccoli
• Chicken fajitas, black beans, brown rice
• Flat iron steaks, rosemary red potatoes, green salad
• Grilled flat bread pizzas (sauce premade & frozen), green salad

Weekend prep ahead

• Brown rice
• Spaghetti sauce
• Pintos
• Potato salad
• Salsa for fajitas
• The usual cleaning and prepping of fresh produce

Shopping list (Fresh produce from Farmer's Market)

• Whole wheat spaghetti
• Whole wheat tortillas
• Ground beef (for spaghetti and grilled burgers)
• Flat iron steaks
• Crushed tomatoes, tomato paste for spaghetti sauce
• Whole tomatoes, Rotel for salsa
• Dried seasoning: oregano, basil, bay leaves
• Fresh Parmesan (for spaghetti)
• Cheddar cheese (for fajitas)
• Sour cream
• Whole wheat tortillas
• Black beans (dry)
• Pinto beans (dry)
• Bell peppers (for pizza, spaghetti and fajitas)
• Garlic
• Parsley (fresh)
• Dill (fresh)
• Basil (fresh if available)
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes (Yukon Gold for potato salad)
• Red skin potatoes
• Mushrooms (for casserole & pizza)
• Lettuce-romaine
• Fresh fruit

The Mr. does the grocery shopping after we've worked on menus and made a master list. The way I've written it here is basically the way he gets it from me except I may specify amounts instead of "for..."   I make the list with the menu on one side and the items I need on the other and (OCD alert,)  I also make it in the order in which the store is laid out.  The reason I include the menu is so that Dean knows why I need what I do and if he sees something I didn't think of or can't find something I listed, he can improvise.
I spared you the specific amounts but if you'd like any of those details leave a comment and I'll post the recipes and shopping lists for them.