Celebrating Celery! Cashews and Chicken with Celery!

I used to have a favorite Chinese restaurant that served a dish called Cashew Chicken Ding. I've never been able to find the exact recipe and only remember that it was HEAVY with celery. So, I thought I'd give it a go my way. Celery, the main ingredient,  is a crisp, crunchy, low calorie, high in vitamin k and potassium veggie that's a great green nutritional high fiber filler that will help you lose weight painlessly while you don't even realize it  But, going organic with celery is essential. It's one of the dirty dozen and non-organic celery is sprayed heavily with pesticides. And none of us wants to willingly eat pesticides, so DO go organic on this one. The crunchy green stuff, along with protein from chicken and cashews and a few peas makes this a delicious dish that is a really good alternative for lunch or supper. You can serve it over a bed of organic rice if you choose. Today I chose not to and just had it minus the bed.

CASHEW CELERY AND CHICKEN

Makes one serving

4 ounces pasture raised chicken breast - cooked

2 cups diced organic celery

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup raw cashews

1 T olive oil

2/3 cup chicken stock

2 tsp arrowroot

1 tsp liquid aminos (non soy alternative that tastes like soy sauce with a far lower salt content)

1/8 tsp powdered ginger

black pepper

Saute the celery and onion until tender crisp. Add the chicken and the peas. Combine the chicken stock, arrowroot, liquid aminos and ginger and stir until the arrowroot is dissolved. Pour it over the chicken and celery mixture. Toast the cashews until crunchy and toss them with the rest of the dish just before serving. Add black pepper to taste. It's from the earth and delicious!!

Creamy Mushroom, Spinach and Leek Soup

Soup is warm and comforting and for me must have healing properties because there's something about it that just makes me feel better. I think it reminds me of both of my grandmothers, although they each had their specialties. One made the most incredible vegetable soup and the other one always made chicken noodle soup when I wasn't feeling well. And, when the weather begins to turn cooler, it's just time to make soup! Which means I'll be making it in a lot of different varieties for the next several months. This one - crazy with mushrooms, non dairy, vegan, low carb, low calorie, gluten free (if you don't add croutons) - all of the good stuff and non of the bad. I took it to work with me and heated it up and had a healthy lunch that was so much better than the food from the fast food places. And, economically speaking, fixing you own lunch saves a lot of money!

CREAMY MUSHROOM, SPINACH AND LEEK SOUP

4 ounces chopped mushrooms 

1/2 cup chopped leeks

1 chopped celery stalk

1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 T chopped red bell pepper

2 tsp mushroom bouillon

2 cups unsweetened cashew milk

2 T arrowroot powder
1/4 cup water
black pepper

Saute the leeks and celery and bell pepper in coconut oil (about 1 tsp if you choose) or just cook them in a small amount of water until they're tender adding more water to keep them from drying out and burning. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender. Add the spinach, the bouillon and the cashew milk and cook over medium heat stirring frequently until hot and bubbly. Dissolve the arrowroot in the 1/4 cup of water, add to the soup and stir until thickened. Season with black pepper and add some croutons if you choose. If you eat the entire recipe of soup and don't add coconut oil or croutons, it's about 160 calories. If you add the teaspoon of coconut oil, it's about 200 calories (again, minus the croutons). Soup made from the ingredients made by the earth and a soup my grandmothers both would have been proud of!

PACK YOUR LUNCH! - Chicken Cobb Salad

Make it easy on yourself. Pack a lunch to take to work that is nutritious, dense with protein, vitamins and minerals, not enormous (don't stuff yourself!) and will keep your cravings at bay. Stay away from the processed bread, the fast food restaurant down the street, the pizza joint, the vending machines, the soda machine (WATER, WATER, WATER - the earth makes water) and be good to your body.

Here's one idea - 

Chicken Cobb Salad with balsamic vinaigrette (or in my case just vinegar). Easy to make and just takes a few preparations the night (or weekend before).

Early preparations -

Grill enough chicken for several days and freeze it. I grilled the chicken in this salad with olive oil, basil and garlic on Sunday and did enough for several future lunches and froze it. Then I just took some out of the freezer this morning, microwaved it for 20 seconds, sliced it up and put it in the salad.

Boil an egg (or six) the night before. Use one in your salad.

Chop your lettuce and other veggies the night before.

For this one I assembled it all in a bowl with 1/2 of a sliced avocado, chopped tomato and green pepper and onion. Plenty of protein and veggies. 

You can make any kind of dressing you like. PLEASE don't use commercially prepared bottled dressing unless you read, read, read the label. Most are LOADED with chemicals and sugar and all kinds of things that will cause cravings and other issues. I used about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (no oil - your choice if you do, but if you do, use olive), a dash of dried dill or basil or Italian seasoning and another dash of stevia. Add a little salt and pepper that I keep at my desk and I'm good until dinner time. Do I get hungry? Sure. I'm supposed to get hungry. Is it out of control? No. Because I'm not craving. Craving and hunger are two entirely different situations. If you get out of the junk, processed foods, refined sugar and STAY out of them, the cravings for garbage food will stop. I can manage my hunger as long as the cravings aren't there.

If it isn't from the earth, don't eat it!