Over the past few days I have browsed my local grocery store and not only found some great deals, but have crafted this tasty (and cheap!) recipe. Feel free to switch out anything at all with personal taste preferences, but I found this to be simply amazing.
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, skin removed
1/3 cup baby carrots, coin sliced
1/3 cup celery, diced
3/4 cup leek, diced ( You could also use onions here but the leek is such an underused veggie and in season currently for me.)
1/2 bell pepper, diced (Roughly 1/2 cup)
3/4 cup frozen green beans (Another good sale)
4 cups beef broth (I personally used bouillon but any of your favorite will work.)
3 red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in chunks
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
First add the oil to your pot and toss in all those rough veggies. The ones that take forever to really cook. So in goes your celery, carrots, and bell pepper. Cook those down just a bit while you chop everything else up. It might seem like a skipable step, and it is, but it really adds a lot more flavor to the final product.
After that cooks for a few moments toss in the rest of your chopped veggies and pour in your broth. Add the seasoning to taste and put a lid on this one. I found leaving it just off center works the best for keeping heat in, but letting steam out.
Let that simmer for at least an hour, you can always go longer but once that smell starts drifting through the house. Good luck on waiting. Those of you with self control, I envy you some days.
Remove the ginger chunk just before serving. It also refrigerates well so feel free to make a big batch for leftovers.
The recipe above was made for 2 people (and we had a big bowl each with enough for another one tonight), so for your family you might have to adjust it. This soup (for the entire batch) cost me only about $3.
Let me know what you think, or even what parts you changed! I'd love to hear.
~Skadia, the soup crafting panther
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Chicken Broth: My New Best Friend
So simple, so cheap, and so versatile! I just get the generic stuff (Watch your sales it has a decent shelf life!) and have been doing so much with it. Everything from cooking in it, replacing fating liquids with it and even using a full can to pound in a door hing pin.
Okay so maybe that last one isn't as helpful but it was at the time.
Yesterday I made the most juicy and tender chicken. It marinated all day in a wonderful mixture of soy sauce (Low sodium!), chicken broth, and lemon juice with some minced garlic and a hunk of ginger. (Sorry I will be sure to measure it out next time and post the recipe) I then sliced it really thin, think sushi thin, and put it in a pan and covered it with chicken broth and let it boil.
In less than five minutes I had juicy, fully cooked, flavorful chicken. Best part of all, only fat is what the chicken naturally has.
Another wonderful thing I have tried. Who doesn't love mashed potatoes? Now, who can eat them with all that fattening butter and milk (or cream)? Well I'm not one for using that watered down skim milk. So I had to find another option. Chicken broth? Why not?!
I made the potatoes like normal just in salted boiled water. Once they were done I added 1 tablespoon of that delicious low fat fake butter. (My honest personal favorite is I can't believe it's not butter) and just enough chicken broth to make it creamy. Generally speaking I couldn't taste that much of a difference. Like no it wasn't the exact same as what my mother made, but they were a lot closer than you would think.
You could also always add some garlic or onion or even some turkey bacon to those potatoes for some extra flavor. You'll never miss those full fat potatoes again!
Until next time
~Skadia, the chicken broth obsessed panther
Okay so maybe that last one isn't as helpful but it was at the time.
Yesterday I made the most juicy and tender chicken. It marinated all day in a wonderful mixture of soy sauce (Low sodium!), chicken broth, and lemon juice with some minced garlic and a hunk of ginger. (Sorry I will be sure to measure it out next time and post the recipe) I then sliced it really thin, think sushi thin, and put it in a pan and covered it with chicken broth and let it boil.
In less than five minutes I had juicy, fully cooked, flavorful chicken. Best part of all, only fat is what the chicken naturally has.
Another wonderful thing I have tried. Who doesn't love mashed potatoes? Now, who can eat them with all that fattening butter and milk (or cream)? Well I'm not one for using that watered down skim milk. So I had to find another option. Chicken broth? Why not?!
I made the potatoes like normal just in salted boiled water. Once they were done I added 1 tablespoon of that delicious low fat fake butter. (My honest personal favorite is I can't believe it's not butter) and just enough chicken broth to make it creamy. Generally speaking I couldn't taste that much of a difference. Like no it wasn't the exact same as what my mother made, but they were a lot closer than you would think.
You could also always add some garlic or onion or even some turkey bacon to those potatoes for some extra flavor. You'll never miss those full fat potatoes again!
Until next time
~Skadia, the chicken broth obsessed panther
Saturday, January 10, 2015
A New Cat in Town
Really, it's not what you think, however it does hold some good news for some of my normal readers. More posts coming soon. Yeah sure I've said it before, this time is different. Why you ask? Let me explain some things.
Towards the end of last year my partner got very very ill and went into the ER. A few hours later she went into surgery for the worst gallbladder surgery this Doctor had ever seen in his 30+ years of practice. It was bad (we have pics for anyone who would want to see! haha strong graphic warning on those however). Anyway a own hour surgery took three and she was in recovery for about twelve days. It was really bad.
The good news in all of this is for the rest of her life she now needs to be on a brand new diet (see there lies the new cat pun). One consisting or no red meat, low gluten, and low lactose, and low fat. She will be at about 40-50 grams per day max. So not only what I cook changes but how I cook it and the ingredients I use. That's where this blog will come in. (Finally! I swore when I made it, it would have a use.)
I will not only be posting recipes and money saving cheats on here but also different ways to change your diet for a lifestyle similar to this. Or you could even if you just want to eat better.
My promise to you will not be regular posts (life it to crazy for that kind of a promise), but for sure more. I will also be so brass to promise that all of my recipes will be flavor packed and delicious. So give them a try, who knows you might not miss that steak after all.
~Skadia the panther living in an upside down world
Towards the end of last year my partner got very very ill and went into the ER. A few hours later she went into surgery for the worst gallbladder surgery this Doctor had ever seen in his 30+ years of practice. It was bad (we have pics for anyone who would want to see! haha strong graphic warning on those however). Anyway a own hour surgery took three and she was in recovery for about twelve days. It was really bad.
The good news in all of this is for the rest of her life she now needs to be on a brand new diet (see there lies the new cat pun). One consisting or no red meat, low gluten, and low lactose, and low fat. She will be at about 40-50 grams per day max. So not only what I cook changes but how I cook it and the ingredients I use. That's where this blog will come in. (Finally! I swore when I made it, it would have a use.)
I will not only be posting recipes and money saving cheats on here but also different ways to change your diet for a lifestyle similar to this. Or you could even if you just want to eat better.
My promise to you will not be regular posts (life it to crazy for that kind of a promise), but for sure more. I will also be so brass to promise that all of my recipes will be flavor packed and delicious. So give them a try, who knows you might not miss that steak after all.
~Skadia the panther living in an upside down world
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