Healthy Eating

Last week I went back to being a vegetarian. Except for Thursday, on Thursday I was a pescetarian....but when your eating with a big group of family members that you love, and fra diavalo is the request...well who am I to stand in its way? In any event, the holidays kicked my butt and I gained some weight, so I have been using my time away from here to get caught up on sleep, drink more water than ever before, and realign my eating habits...all very exciting stuff. Moving forward I'll be posting what we're eating, just as before.

But while the zeitgeist is all in favor of meat meat meat (google charcutepalooza...you'll see what im talking about) Im moving toward a veggie existence... Since the man loves veggies, and even eats tofu, the switch has been fairly easy, most of what you'll be seeing here will be...ahem, flexitarian...and will stay true to my desire to reduce the amount of processed food that we consume. I'm looking forward to our kitchen's fresh start! More...

Hiatus

I realized this weekend that I need to focus more on some other things Like my health, and the fact that my bathing suit is the worlds smallest scrap of fabric. Putting so much focus on food, making cooking and baking a hobby has left me a little uncomfortable in my dress pants, if you will...Im going on hiatus, while I figure out where Im headed. I switched over to eating lacto ovo vegetarian again, and Im giving up alcohol during the week. I'm hoping to revamp my diet and my favorite recipes to remain as natural as possible but I need to step away for a little while.

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Soup's On

Its been snowy. Snowy and cold. Part of the 'charm' of living in a cottage built in the 1800s, is the drafts that seep in through every window frame and door jamb. They seem to even seep through the walls. When your warm nest feels not so very warm you drink alot of tea, (alot) and then there's the soup. There has been a new soup each week since Christmas.

Each week we make a big bubbling pot that feeds us through the week, for lunches and for simple suppers. Each one packed into the freezer when there's just a little more than two bowlfuls left. Money in the bank, as they say.

Hot and Sour, Pho, Chicken Tortilla, and Vegetable Noodle; There is something about soup. Its restorative in a way that nothing else really is. Maybe its how a pot of soup can bubble on the stovetop and make everything feel like home. Soups make you warm inside, and out. Since we're in need of keeping warm in our little cottage and we've made and eaten quite a bit of soup in the last month, its felt a little bit like a joke to write about it here.

There's no real science to soup. Vegetables swim in broth and maybe they get accompanied by chicken, or noodles. Maybe you thicken it with bread....if you are feeling especially brave, you may even season it with coconut milk and fish sauce. In the end though, even though its just soup, I figure its worth sharing. 



Chicken Tortilla Soup

This soup differs from most others in that we used finely crushed tortilla chips (the leftover ends of the bag are perfect for this) to thicken the soup. I like to garnish it with some sliced avocado.


2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 medium green pepper
4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cups roasted corn
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
approx 32 ounces chicken
2 -14 ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 -16 ounce can of kitchen ready tomatoes
1 cup tortilla chips finely crushed
Sauté onion, garlic, jalapeño and green pepper with olive oil in a large dutch oven until soft.
Add all the rest of the ingredients to the large pot and bring to a boil. Poaching the chicken in the liquid for roughly 20 minutes, then remove the chicken breasts and shred. Return shredded chicken to the pot and simmer an additional 30 minutes, add the crushed tortillas to the soup and stir until the soup has thickened. More...

Resolutions

Maybe it was the winter blahs, the lack of an inspiring farmers market, the hectic holidays, or the new job that kept me away from here. Truth be told those same factors have seen me eating way out of my usual mostly-vegetables diet for the entire month…and I cant wait to get back to it

More than ever, this is a time of year to start lists, to visit gyms, to make fresh starts…well lets just say its been a long time since I felt the need to visit a gym just because of the new year but that doesn’t mean I don’t use the calendar as a benchmark. This year I’m recommitting to eating as healthfully, and locally as possible. I’m going to embrace the seasons, and spend time doing what I think is important for me. One of those things is being here…putting my thoughts on…er, virtual paper, and recording the history of our kitchen.

Over my month long hiatus I didn’t do a lot of cooking…I did a lot of heating and assembling…and ate take out far too often. I have started a new job, in a totally different industry, and just the amount of learning left me exhausted by the end of the day. I was eating the handiest thing, which was often crackers and cheese, or leftover lo mein then crawling toward the bed at night. I’m still learning so much, and I’m very happy in my new work, but I miss my kitchen and the creative outlet it provides me. I’m making a concerned effort to get back there, (and if you read this perhaps you will be inspired too?) So far, its been working.

We had a bit of a blizzard last Sunday here in Boston, and the man and I returned home from our holiday visits about 20 minutes after the snow began to fall. No groceries had been purchased for well over a week, and we were stuck in the house with whatever was in the pantry and the freezer. Thankfully we had more than enough to scratch out dinner. Out came the dutch oven (a Christmas gift from my parents) and into it went onions, peppers, cannellini beans and tomatoes. A single boneless breast of chicken-still frozen when I put it in- was poached in the liquid, then shredded. After some liberal seasoning we had a huge pot of chili to eat and after a little internet searching for a biscuit recipe made without milk, we had cheddar biscuits studded with some chopped cilantro I had frozen. They weren’t award winning, but they tender and crumbled almost perfectly. More importantly they were comforting, and it made for a very cozy blizzard to be cuddled on our little couch under a big quilt with a bowl of chili and a biscuit…

The next day as the roads were being cleared and the news people were urging us to stay in doors we put on the dutch oven again and made a tomato and roasted soup thickened with some crushed tortilla chips leftover from a party that were neglected at the back of the pantry. I was stuck inside with nowhere to go and nothing to do, so I went back to the kitchen, which is exactly where I wanted to be. I’m looking forward to many more nights in my favorite room More...