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!!

Shrimp Scampi with Garlic Mashed Cauliflower. And, buying organic - we're making a difference!

I had yesterday off  so I took the opportunity to make something really special for lunch. Oh my gosh this is good!! I love garlic, I love shrimp, I love cauliflower. So, what a combination! This has real butter in it for the healthy fat you should have every day but the entire recipe only has 2 teaspoons. The garlic - GREAT health benefits, including naturally lowering cholesterol and it's delicious. I probably eat garlic every day.

Shrimp Scampi with Garlic Mashed Cauliflower

This makes one serving. To make more just multiply the ingredients to make enough for the number you're going to serve.

First , for the cauliflower - Break it apart and boil the cauliflower until it's well done. Then as follows:

2 cups of organic cooked cauliflower florets
1 tsp organic butter
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/8 tsp salt
2 - 3 tsp unsweetened cashew milk

Put all ingredients except the cashew milk in a food processor and process until it's a smooth as you can get it. Add enough cashew milk to make the cauliflower take on the consistency of mashed potatoes.

For the Scampi -
4 ounces wild caught gulf shrimp
1 tsp organic butter
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1 T white cooking wine
red pepper flakes (I used 3 dashes but next time I'll use more)
fresh snipped chives
lemon slices
salt to taste

Melt the butter in a small skillet or saute pan. Add the garlic and the shrimp and red pepper flakes and cook until the shrimp are a nice pink with no gray. If using precooked shrimp (I did) cook until hot (don't overcook the shrimp, it's gross). Add the parsley and white wine and stir well. Pour over the garlic mashed cauliflower and top with snipped chives. Add some organic greens for garnish (and to eat) and the lemon slices to squeeze over the shrimp. This was so good I wish I had some right now!! It's making me hungry just typing the recipe!

An aside - this recipe contains no grains so it wouldn't contain anything processed anyway. But I don't use processed food or processed food ingredients that may contain GMOs and I try to use organic foods, grains, fresh produce, locally grown produce as much as possible. I refuse to buy meat that I know has been raised in confinements and fed GMO feed and loaded up with antibiotics (let alone the treatment of raising animals in confinements). I saw the first ads yesterday for a law firm representing people in a class-action lawsuit who have gotten cancer after being exposed to glyphosate while working with it.  I'd rather just avoid getting sick than having to sue and die after I've been diagnosed with cancer. And if you get it from working with it, well it just makes sense to me that if you're eating food which contains GMOs (as messed up as that is) and its been sprayed with glyphosate and non organic produce that's been sprayed with pesticides and herbicides that of course you're also eating it. I'd rather not knowingly or willingly eat poison! I know it's not possible to buy organic all of the time but if you do as much as possible, it still makes a difference in what businesses will stock their shelves with. And, I know it's expensive but if we all buy more organic, the prices will go down. I do know I'm seeing my local grocery store carry a LOT more products that are now organic where they didn't used to carry any at all. Congratulations to us! We're making a difference! We really are. Keep up the good work!

Crab and Apple Soup with Curry

I have a confession to make. Last week I was running late and was just totally unprepared. I didn't bring lunch and I went to a franchise restaurant and got a bowl of soup. I haven't had commercially prepared soup in at least a year. I could taste every single chemical in that soup and after being away from it, it was pretty awful. Not only was it made from processed ingredients, I felt like I was eating a chemistry experiment. I didn't follow my own rule of IF THE EARTH DIDN'T MAKE IT, DON'T EAT IT! I know better. So, not again! Plus, I love making my own soup. When I grow up I want to be a soup chef!! I can picture myself making it in a huge cauldron over an open fire dancing around and stirring it with an oar! Soup for all!! Or perhaps maybe I should just stick to a soup pot on the stove in the kitchen. Less scary for any observers. Anyway, yesterday I found a recipe in one of those old fashioned things called a cook book. It had actual pages and was written on paper! The one that I found was quite different and when I saw the ingredient combination (crab AND apple), along with curry, I thought that's got to be pretty strange. Well, I put it together putting my own spin on it and it's DELICIOUS! The apple blends in very nicely and along with the curry adding a little heat, you get the additional health benefits from the curry. Don't be afraid to try it.
 

CRAB AND APPLE SOUP WITH CURRY

1 T coconut oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 T curry powder
1 apple peeled, cored and finely chopped (I used a Granny Smith)
1/4 cup arrowroot
4 cups of chicken broth
6 ounces crab
1 1/2 T pimento
1 cup unsweetened cashew milk
1/2 cup white cooking wine
toasted sunflower seeds and feta cheese for garnish

Cook the onion and garlic in the coconut oil until the onion is translucent. Stir in the curry powder, the apple and the arrowroot and cook until the apple is beginning the get tender (3 to 5 minutes). Add the remaining ingredients (except the cashew milk and the wine) and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the cashew milk and the white wine and bring to a simmer. Top with toasted sunflower seeds and feta cheese. This soup COULD be used as a fancy dinner starter. But you can also bring it to work with you for lunch. Is it noon yet?

Soup is So Simple! Organic Chicken and Portobello with Rice Soup

For whatever reason I find chicken soup to be a serous comfort food. I think because one of my grandmothers always gave it to me when I was sick, so I associate that with a loving and caring grandmother. But she did give me canned soup. Maybe canned soup back then wasn't so bad, maybe it wasn't so good. I just don't know. But one thing for sure, I wouldn't touch that stuff while wearing a hazmat suit now. And, whether or not this can be associated with processed food that my grandmother ate, she did die of Alzheimer disease. Maybe an association, maybe not, but I make my chicken soup from scratch while still retaining the fond memories of time I spent with her, whether she gave me canned soup, or not. Plus, there's not a doubt in my mind if she had thought there was anything wrong with it, she certainly would have never given it to me. But, I'm not getting to the point. Here is the soup I made. It's organic, healthy, very simple and it's good!!

Organic Chicken and Portobello with Rice Soup

1 cup pasture raised cooked chicken breast cubed

1 cup organic Portobello mushrooms chopped
1 organic carrot chopped
1/2 cup organic uncooked rice (I used basmati  rice for this particular soup)
1 tsp organic onion powder
1 tsp organic minced garlic

2 cups organic chicken broth
4 cups organic mushroom broth

1/2 cup white cooking wine

Put it all in a pot except the wine. Bring to a boil and lower to a simmer and cook until the rice is tender and the carrots are done. Add the wine at the end. Season with pepper and salt (if you used low sodium broth) and enjoy! I bring it to work for lunch and it makes the day (especially a Monday) much nicer!

Lunch at the Office - Organic Steak and Mushroom Soup

I take my lunch to work with me virtually every single day for several reasons. It's economical, I know exactly what's in it, I don't do fast food and I don't do GMO. For those reasons it's pretty much required that I do the cooking. So, fine...I will. Today I brought organic steak and mushroom soup. The steak I had left over (sometimes left over steak happens...every once in a while!) I made using this recipe and it makes really good soup! If you don't have steak, cooked organic beef of any kind will work. After it's done I pack the soup in a plastic container to carry it but take glass or stoneware to heat it up in. Microwaving in plastic transfers chemicals from the plastic to your food and I don't want to eat that. Home cooked soup at work makes the day a teeny bit better.

STEAK AND MUSHROOM SOUP

1/2 cup cooked steak cut into cubes

1 medium size fresh organic mushroom cut into slices

1/4 cup chopped organic celery

2 cups organic beef broth

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tablespoon red cooking wine

Put all ingredients in a pan and cook until boiling and the vegetables are tender. Let cool and place in a plastic container to take with you. Heat it up in the microwave in the stoneware or glass and there you have it! And, btw, it makes my office smell like a gourmet restaurant and I've yet to have anybody complain.

Fried Sage Potatoes with Basted Farm Eggs

I love fresh sage. It reminds my of my Aunt Fairy who grew it outside and used it all year. I grow it outside myself now and use it all year. I love going out early in the morning and picking a few leaves and using it in breakfast. She would put it in fresh ground pork (that she and Uncle George raised) and make sausage. I don't do that but I did put it in fried potatoes this morning and served it with a basted farm egg. It was SO good! So, here's the recipe for you. It's simple, it's quick, it's healthy, it's from the earth. Give it a try. I think you'll like it. Aunt Fairy approved!!

FRIED SAGE POTATOES with BASTED FARM EGGS

(SERVES ONE)

1 medium organic potato sliced thinly (using a mandolin slicer makes it much easier to get them really thin)

1/4 small organic onion sliced thinly

3 fresh organic sage leaves, chopped or snipped into small pieces

1 tablespoon organic extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Fry the potato and the onion until lightly brown. Toss in the sage leaves after chopping or snipping into small pieces. Cook until the potatoes and onions are as brown as you like. Sage will cook quickly and will burn if cooked too long. Salt and pepper to taste.

Basted Egg

Using a small skillet with a lid, bring about 1/2 cup of water to a simmer. Place the (hopefully) locally pasture raised organic farm egg (or eggs) in the water and put the lid on and cook at a simmer until it's a done as you like your eggs. Salt and pepper and serve with the potatoes and some sliced tomatoes if you like. I liked, so I did and they were good!! Happy breakfast! Or lunch, or supper for that matter.

Chicken Tenders with Pesto and Mozzarella

This summer I had a nice crop of basil so I turned it into pesto using walnuts instead of pine nuts, froze it in ice cube trays and then bagged it for use later on. Later on came today and I made this quick and easy recipe with it.

CHICKEN TENDERS WITH PESTO AND MOZZARELLA

2 pasture raised organic chicken tenders 

1 large tablespoon of pesto (you can use commercially prepared pesto if you don't have your own)

1 ounce of fresh mozzarella (I used 4 mozzarella pearls - two per chicken tender)

olive oil

Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Lightly pound or roll with a rolling pin the chicken tenders wrapped in plastic wrap until they are flattened. Spread the pesto on the flattened chicken equally between the two pieces and place the mozzarella on one end. Roll up the chicken starting with the end containing the cheese and tuck in the ends.  Place in a small baking dish and brush the tops with olive oil and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes (until the juices run clear). Slice and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste and serve with fresh veggies of your choice. Green peppers and roma tomatoes pair quite nicely as a side with the chicken.