Breakfast idea #1-- pinapple smoothie

So, I found out that pineapple contains an enzyme called Bromelain. It has a number of health benefits that could be found here. Trouble is, most of the Bromelain can be found in the core of the pineapple. Let's face it...who wants to eat the core? Well, thanks to the ideas presented on this blog, now we can eat the core without feeling like we're chewing bamboo.

The basics of this smoothie as I tried it:

1 quarter pineapple, with core
1 banana
1 orange, with the peel cut off
1 large handful of fresh spinach (SEE--spinach in your breakfast--who would of thought!)
enough water to make it drinkable

Blend.



Yes it's green--don't let that keep you from drinking up. It'd delicious! No sugar involved. And you even managed to get a vegetable (I promise you can't taste the spinach at all)



Just one thing. Don't drink too much, okay? There is like 300% of your daily fiber in one drink, so Watch out!

Some non-healthy chicken noodle soup

I'm putting this up just for my sister Rosie. I kind of threw this together after going to lunch at the Olive Garden and eating this: Chicken & Gnocchi Soup


Image courtesy of The Olive Garden.


Yummy Chicken Noodle Soup:

2 chicken breasts
1 bay leaf
several stalks of celery, chopped
salt (1/2 tsp.?)
pepper
sage (sprinkle these things in until they look good)
lots of carrots
3 large red potatoes, cubed
celery seed


Boil all ingredients until chicken is cooked. Take chicken out and cut into small pieces. Continue boiling until vegetables are tender.

If you used too much water (as in more than 2 quarts...ish) then, spoon some of the broth into a jar to freeze for later. Or you can put them in ice cube trays (thanks Rosie!) This eliminates the need for canned chicken broth (too expensive) or bouillon, which can contain MSG and lots of other unwanted ingredients.

Add these ingredients and bring to a boil for 5 more minutes:

Worcestershire sauce (about 1 tsp.)
6 strips of bacon, cooked (microwaving is easy)
a large handful of fresh (organic! --Spinach is one of those foods that has high concentrations of pesticides. Don't believe me? Check it out here)
homemade pasta
1 can of evaporated milk. (regular milk works too--not as creamy, but probably less fattening.)

1/2 c. (ish) of Parmesan cheese


you might need to add more salt and pepper to tate.

Now here's some soup that actually fills you up and doesn't make the husband feel like he's at a Relief Society social.


Enjoy!!!!

Just say NO to "Chippy"

So, Jake went to the Filipino store to get soy sauce b/c that's where it's the cheapest. He served his mission in the Philippines, so he likes to make a trip there now and then. But this time, he came home with some illegal contraband: a Filipino version of Fritos:


But a quick look at the back of the bag shows that this particular snack has MSG, and 23% of your saturated fat, among other things.

That is why, when you fold it over, this snack says....



And Crappy it is. The husband had just better satisfy his munchies with a little bit of this:


Healthy granola, full of fiber. (More on this later--I found this great recipe for homemade granola and tweaked it so it has hardly any sugar in it. It's yummy!)

So yeah--who needs crappy chippy anyways??

When in doubt, sprout.

Just about any kind of seed will sprout. Great to know, isn't it?

Sprouted seeds are supposed to be very nutritious for you, more so than the plain old un-sprouted seed. So why would you not want to sprout stuff??

What kinds of things can you sprout?

I have taken the liberty of experimenting with lots of things and here's what I have found so far that sprouts:

Alfalfa
Wheat
soybeans
chickpeas (garbanzo beans)


Want Alfalfa sprouts? Here's how to do it:

find a mason jar and ring, wash it. Buy Alfalfa seeds (maybe at your local health food store--or you can have some of mine. I have an entire gallon ziploc bag of them my mother gave to me. They are from 1982--but hey, they're still sprouting!)

Put a couple of teaspoons of seeds in the jar, and cover with water. Like so:



Soak overnight.

Next day: put a 3x3 in. [clean] nylon over the mouth of the jar. Put on the ring over the nylon. Pour the water out of the jar, refill with water, rinse and pour out. Rinse the seeds every day. (note: not necessary to put it in a cool dark place like some people say--I just leave the jar on the cabinet and it reminds me to rinse them). Within 3-4 days, you should have sprouts that look like this:


Oops, that's kind of a scary looking picture. Anyways, you get the idea. Those little brown seeds are ones that didn't sprout (remember--1982), but when they're done growing, you just pull the whole mess out of the jar into a colander and rinse the dead seeds away.

Alfalfa sprouts are great on:
salads
sandwiches
burritos, etc.


On sprouting wheat I soaked the wheat overnight, then rinsed them, then just left them in a bowl. I did nothing else to them. By the 2nd or 3rd day, the grains were definitely sprouting. However, they stayed soft. I was afraid that trying to grind it up in my grinder, it might gum it up, so when I made bread I just threw the sprouted wheat in whole (in addition to all the wheat flour the recipe calls for). Cooking in the oven did harden up the unground wheat a little bit. I am still experimenting in this dept. (If you have experience /knowledge /crazy idea on said subject, leave me a comment)


What do you do with chickpeas, you might ask?

Well, after you sprout them (same as alfalfa), boil them for 15-20 minutes and then throw them on your salad or make hummus out of it (more on hummus later)

Well, got to go.... Enjoy your sprouts!

Homemade Pasta

My mom gave me a pasta maker for my birthday, so I tried it out (sorry, this pic makes it look like a pile of worms).



You may not have a pasta maker, but you don't need one. You can still make pasta, iron it out with the rolling pin and then cut it with a knife. After it dries for about an hour, fresh pasta only takes about 5 minutes to cook. It stores (in a cool, dry place) up to 2 weeks. Haven't tried this, but it's just a thought: You might be able to freeze it too. So you can make one giant batch and have it last for a while.

Recipe: (courtesy of Deluxe Pasta Maker)
serves 6
about 1 pound of flour (approx. 4 cups), 5 eggs. (if you don't have eggs, according to the recipe, water will work as well. I didn't try this, however.)

Put flour in bowl, crack eggs in middle of the flour, blend eggs into flour. Knead with your hands. If the dough is sticky, add more flour. If it's too dry, add a little water. Roll out on floured board and cut into desired shape. Then lay it out to dry.


Lay yours a little neater than I did mine. Jake was helping me with this while I taught lessons and he got the noodles all stuck to each other, so we had to de-tangle them.

You can make lasagne noodles, fettucini, and spaghetti. You could try those little bow-ties, but I'm not too sure how that would work. (if you know, tell me all about it: basketcasegurl at gmail dot com)

Reasons why making your own pasta is a good idea:
1. It's fresh
2. flour and 5 eggs/water is much cheaper than a package of pasta
3. you can add whole wheat to the flour which makes it healthier
4. chicken noodle soup is just not the same with plain old store noodles
5. If you had to store a year supply of pasta, where would you put it and how much would it
cost? Conversely, if you have bags of flour and wheat--which you probably do--that's all
you need. So it saves space.