Cheesy Vegetable Soup with Balsamic Sauteed Crimini’s

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is the last soup that I will be posting until after summer.    After all, hot simmering soup just screams hot sunny days doesn’t it.  Whatever, more soup this fall!!  It’s a little weird in its preparation.

Ingredients

  1.   32 ounces (divided into 4 8 ounce cups) vegetable broth
  2.   1 tablespoon of minced garlic
  3.   1/2 cup minced onion
  4.   2 cups chopped celery
  5.   1 entire riced cauliflower
  6.   4 ounces of shredded white cheddar cheese
  7.   4 ounces of shredded swiss cheese
  8.   1/2 cup chopped broccoli stem
  9.   8 ounces (divided into 4 2 ounce cups) of water, yes, the amount is important.
    10. 16 ounces of crimini mushrooms, cut into small slices.
    11. 1 tablespoon of olive oil
    12.  1 teaspoon of dried chives (that’s the green stuff in the picture)
    13. 6 tablespoons of Basamic Vinegar

    Recipe  (This is the weirdest recipe I’ve ever done, trust me)

    1.  Into a small pan, put 1 of the veggie broth cups and 1 of the water cups into the pan use this liquid to steam the hell out of the broccoli stem.
    2.  Remove from the steam, leave the liquid.
    3.  Add 1 more part of the veggie broth and water into the liquid and bring to a new boil, steam the hell out of the celery, and then remove and leave the liquid.
    4.  Add the remaining liquid and the remaining veggie broth and water to a bigger pan, bring to a boil, add all the remaining ingredients, except for the cheese.  Lid and reduce heat to medium, simmer/boil for 10 minutes.
    5.  Take your mushrooms and olive oil and balsamic vinegar and saute until the mushrooms are browned and soft (like sautéed mushrooms look)
    6.  Remove the lid of the pan and look at your veggies.  Take a wand mixer and puree it all into a giant pool of veggie yummy.  It should be pretty smooth and there should be no chunks.  It will be a slightly unappealing green yellow color (unless you like veggies, then you love that color)
    7.  Reduce to a light simmer, you want there to still be heat and liquid loss but not a lava-like splatter of veggie goodness all over your kitchen.
    8.  Pour in all the cheese in and start stirring it up.  When the cheese is completely mixed in, the soup is done.  I would suggest letting it cool to near edible levels then give it a good stir before serving, but it’s your tongue.

    This should make between 6-8 servings of soup, depending up on how you like your soup.  There is protein in the form of cheese and purines in the mushroom.  If you want a cheesier flavor, you can add a cheesier or stronger cheese  Gouda would work well, so would Gruyère.

Egg Muffins

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Egg Muffins are great.  More importantly outside of being awesome and tasty, they make people want to measure everything happy in their warm place.  Basically, egg muffins, like soup, is an equation.

Take the ones pictured for instance, to make twelve of them.

Ingredients

  1.  12 eggs, beaten till liquid and slightly frothy, the main thing is you don’t want anything to make them harder to pour
  2. 4 ounces of diced orange pepper, measured with a scale
  3. 2 cups cooked spinach (yields far less)
  4. 4 ounces of Feta cheese, measured with a scale
  5. KEEP EVERYTHING SEPARATE

Look at them, do you see anything in common.  Yup they are divisible easily into 12.  For example, each muffin will consist of 1 egg, 1/3 ounce diced orange pepper, 4 ounces of uncooked spinach, and 1/3 feta cheese.  But it would be a superb pain in the but to make that one muffin, so you batch cook.

Recipe (there will be some things in this that look weird)

  1.  Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray.  Don’t worry it won’t touch your food, it’s for heat conductivity.
  2.  Put a muffin cup in each space.  I prefer to get the pretty awesome aluminum foil ones like these so that the heat conducts well and you get some crunchy edges.  Sounds weird, but hey it’s my recipe.
  3. Pour roughly 1/12 of your egg mix into the cups.  You may have to practice to get it right.  I say add a little bit at the beginning, you can always go back.
  4. Add 1/3 ounce diced turkey, 1/3 feta cheese and about , 1/12 of the spinach.  The spinach is the weird one, I actually spread it out on a cutting board after its cooked and divide it into 12 piles.  You may not be this anal or weird about it, but I am.   I suggest adding the cheese last (I should have said that earlier).
  5. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or so.
  6. Take out and let rest until you can easily get the cups out without burning yourself, about 20 minutes
  7. Before packaging them, two things:  remove the cups (don’t reuse them) and let them come to room temperature before attempting to store them.  They become a condensation making mess in the container they are in if you put them in there too hot.

These are good and pretty easy to make.  1 of them goes well with a bunch of veggies, 2 of them is a meal (with a bunch of veggies on the side).  They travel well, reheat well and are quite tasty.

Now, you can substitute anything in these.  I like 2 veggies with feta, or 1 veggie and turkey with cheddar, the point is you can do whatever you want with them.  They are quite versatile.

Southwest Chicken Chili

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is a milder and tangier chili recipe meant to be better for summer.  I find that a robust chili is better in the winter, this one feels more summery to me.

Ingredients:

  1.  16 ounce of chicken breasts cooked off and set aside to rest completely (reserve any liquid that came off)
  2. 3 cans of diced tomatoes washed and drained
  3. 2 cans of light red kidney beans, washed and drained.
  4. 3 medium onions chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
  5. 6 cloves of garlic, minced
  6. 10-12 mini peppers sliced into 1/4 slices
  7. 1 teaspoon of the following:  celery seed, coriander, cumin, white pepper, lemon peel
  8. 1 tablespoon of the following:  paprika, dried chives, black pepper
  9. 2 tablespoons of the following:  tomato paste, salt, lime juice
  10. 3 cups of veggie broth
  11. 1 cup of water

Recipe:

  1.  Put all the veggies in the pot:  onions, tomatoes, peppers, garlic.  Sweat for about 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring often.  If you hear sizzling, turn your heat down a little.
  2. Add the liquid:  veggie broth, water, bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Cover to speed up the process.
  3. When boiling, add the beans and the chicken liquid (yummy, chicken liquid, let’s call it stock instead).
  4. Uncover and keep uncovered until boiling again.  Add the chicken and spices into the liquid and stir vigorously to get the paste all mixed in.
  5. Reduce heat to low, cover and let cook like this for about 30 minutes or so, stirring every so often to keep it from sticking, but not too often as you don’t want to lose your heat.
  6. Turn off the heat and let come to above room temperature.  We use a dutch oven for most soups so it keeps heat for a long time.  I let it sit for about 4 hours, then it’s cool enough to eat.  You know your cookware, so you should do it how you see fit.
  7. I am notorious for undersalting my food, this one is good for me, but you may want more salt in yours.  Do as you wish.

Mango Chicken with Grilled Carrots

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients:

1.  Between 8-12 chicken drumsticks or breasts

2.  4 Mangoes

3.  1lb carrots, halved, cut into 4 inch pieces

4.  1/2 teaspoon of the following dried seasonings:  pepper, thyme, dill, basil, sage, mustard seed, clove, allspice, star anise, chives and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, veggie broth

5.  1 tablespoon salt

6.  1 cup hot water

7.  2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, lime juice

8.  10 mini sweet peppers

Recipe:

1.  Combine water, all dried spices and all wet ingredients into a blender/ninja cup and blend until all the spices are shredded

2.  Split this mixture into 1/2 cup batches

3.  Combine 1/2 cup spice mixture and drumsticks into a Ziploc bag to marinade for a few minutes

4.  Take the other half of the spice mix and combine in a new blender cup/ninja cup/whatever will blend with the mangoes, blend until smooth.

5.  Liberally salt your carrots and peppers then  place on indirect heat on the grill, come back inside

6.  Move your Chicken to a bowl, throw away this marinade, you don’t want salmonella

7.  Put chicken on the grill and grill until done (mine took about 18 minutes on medium fire)

8.  Pull your peppers off when you put the chicken on, they will burn otherwise

9.  Cut your peppers into 1/4 inch slices

10.  The carrots should be done about the same time as your chicken.

11.  I pulled the chicken off and put in a bowl with the mango sauce while I got my plates ready

12.  I plated in this order (bottom to top):  carrots, sauce, chicken, sauce, peppers, chives over the top to make it purty.

13.  This made enough to take 2 extras to work.  Enjoy.

 

Clean Hawaiian Chicken

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is a very quick and easy recipe.

Ingredients

1.  16 ounces of chicken breast – cubed, or cut into chunks, or hearts, whatever, just bite size.

2.  2 medium red peppers, cut into strips

3.  1 medium onion, cut into wedges

4.  8 small radishes, star cut (meaning cut into 6 wedge-like pieces)

5.  12 ounces of pineapple, roughly 2 cups

6.  1 tablespoon coconut oil

7.  2 tablespoons soy sauce (real soy sauce please)

Recipe – the order is fairly important here

1. Put radishes and coconut oil in a skillet, on medium heat, cook for about 3 minutes

2.  Add the onion and chicken, cook for 3 more minutes

3.  Add the red peppers  and cook for 2 minutes

4.  Add the pineapple, cover and cook for 5 minutes

5.  Uncover and give a good toss to coat everything in the juices.  Recover and cook for 3 minutes.

6.  Uncover and plate up two servings, separate the other two for leftovers.  At the end of it, you have about 4 oz of chicken, 2 cups of veggies, 3/4 cup of fruit, and 1/2 tablespoon of healthy oil in each serving.  I have no idea about calories, I don’t do that.  This is Phase II for LTL.

Clean Veggie Lasagna

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This one is ridiculous and amazing!!

Ingredients:

1.  5 baby zucchini cu into 1/2″ slices

2.  2 spaghetti squash cooked and scraped (yields about 4 cups, which is what you need for this) and split into 2-2 cup servings.

3.  3 cups THU veggie ragout divided into 3-1 cup servings.

4.  1 teaspoon olive oil or olive oil spray (to coat the pan)

5.  12 ounces mozzarella cheese (either grated in a processor or shredded) split into 4-3 ounce servings.

6.  3 ounces grated parmesan cheese

Recipe:

1.  Evenly spread two cups of spaghetti squash noodles over the base of a well oiled or well sprayed pan.

2.  Evenly spread 3 ounces of mozzarella cheese over that.

3.  Evenly Spoon 1 cup Veggie Ragout over the top.

4.  Evenly spread 3 ounces of mozzarella cheese over that.

5.  This is tedious but worth it, spread all the zucchini flat over the cheese one layer thick, if there are some left over, eat them now.

6.  1 cup of ragout over that.

7.  3 ounces of cheese over that

8.  Spread the remaining 2 cups of spaghetti squash over the top of that.

9.  Spread the remaining 1 cup of ragout over that.

10.  Evenly smooth the remaining cheese over the top.

11.  Now liberally sprinkle all of the parmesan over the top.

12.  Bake in a 400 degree oven until the edges are bubbly and the top has a kind of golden brownish sheen to it.  This is very hard to overcook since there is a lot of water involved in all these vegetables.  The worst thing that can happen is that it is a bit wet when you cut into it.  Trust me, it is not that big of a deal.

IMPORTANT LTL NOTE!!

Look at that ingredients list, there is cheese and no meat.  That puts this into phase II.  Yay, however, you must get at least 6 servings out of this or you will be taking in too much protein.  The way I have structured this is that there should be at least 6 servings of 2.5 ounces of cheese in each serving.  If you have this in 6 servings, each one will be close to 3 cups of vegetables in each serving.  It is hardy and would work well in 9 servings as a lighter snack as well.

Let me know what you think of this recipe or any other recipe either in the comments here or on the FB  page.

Black Bean Miso Stew

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  4 tblspoons of Yellow Miso Paste

2.  4 carrots, cut into 2in segments

3.  3 stalks of celery, cut into 1in segments

4.  1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

5.  2 tblspoons minced garlic

6.  1 tblspoon dried basil

7.  1 medium onion coarsely chopped

8.  1 cup of spinach

9. 1 teaspoon sesame oil

10.  3 cups of water (clean water is best)

11.  1/2 lemon juiced

12.  1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper

Recipe

1.  Combine carrots, onions, celery, garlic and spinach in to a pan with the sesame oil, salt, pepper and basil.

2.  Sweat the ingredient for about 4 minutes or so, you want the onions to start sweating more than anything.  This is done over medium heat.

3.  Add the miso paste and lemon juice and stir briskly, the paste should loosen up a little.

4. Add the water and black beans and scrape the pan for anything that has stuck (you are deglazing without using alcohol or acid here)

5.  Stir briskly to get the miso combined with the water.

6.  Cover and cook on medium heat for 30 minutes.  Then remove from heat and leave covered for another 10 minutes.

The stew will be good at this point, but will really come together the next day.  The above recipe makes 4 servings.

Smoothies

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Sorry for being away.  I have been busy.

There are no pictures to go with these recipes, simply because I usually am too busy stuffing these down my gullet to stop and take a picture.  Plus, we have ugly glasses.

 

Chocolate Covered Almond Smoothie

1.  3oz coconut milk

2.  3oz skim milk

3.  3oz of frozen water (also known as “ice”)

4.  1tblspoon unsweetened baking cocoa

5.  1 scoop of vanilla flavored protein shake/nutrition shake (I use the TLS Vanilla for this, but any brand vanilla will work fine)

6.  1.5tblspoons of almond butter

Blend the hell out of this.  We do it in a single serving cup with our Ninja and blend on “single serving” for about 40 seconds.  The wait is worth it.  Great for breakfast and if you need a desserty type thing and its snack time.  If you look at the ingredients, there is no added sugar, the coconut milk and almond butter will trick you into thinking there is a lot more sweetness going on than there is.  (Phase III)

 

Hawaiian Smoothie

1.  1oz coconut milk

2.  3oz frozen pineapple

3.  1 banana

4.  1/4 cup milk powder

5.  tablespoon coconut flour

6.  1 peeled orange

7.  1 teaspoon ground ginger

8.  3oz plain water (you may not want to do this, but trust me you should.  The coconut flour will turn this into paste if you do not make it thin enough in the beginning.

Blend the hell out of this as well.  The coconut flour will turn this thick as much as you want, plus will reduce the smoothie will separate out later.  I highly recommend frozen pineapple as the temperature of this is best served cold.  Ice is difficult to use because of the coconut flour.  The reasoning behind the coconut flour has to do with the fact that there is about 3gm of protein and 4gm of fiber in a single tablespoon.  Use this with caution and be prepared to do it a couple of times before you get the hang of it.  When it goes bad, it’s quite awful, but fun to give unsuspecting spouses with a sheepish grin.  (Phase II-III)

The Green Smoothie

1.  3 stalks of celery

2.  3oz of cucumber

3.  3oz of spinach leaves

4.  tablespoon ground ginger (minced fresh ginger is better, but I am not a chef, I work with what I got, and I gots ground ginger)

5.  1 banana

6.  1/4 cup milk powder

7.  2 pitted dates

8.  1 teaspoon of chia seeds

This one is an acquired taste.  If you do not like vegetables, then you will hate this.  But also, why are you looking at a blog about eating healthy?  There is enough sweetness to make this work well but it will be loose and will be “fibrous” in feel.  If you grew up hating tons of pulp in your juice, then this will probably not sit well with you. (Phase II)

 

These are just 3 of the ones in rotation in my life right now.  Any suggestions for others, let me know.  Did you try one and it was awful and I am lying about them, let me know that too.

Herb’d Turkey with Sweet Potatoes

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  1lb of ground turkey (the leaner the better, you are trying to be healthy!)

2.  1 tablespoon each of dried basil, parsley, thyme, marjoram and chives.

3.  2 – 1/2 teaspoons each of salt and pepper (4 1/2 teaspoons total smartypants)

4.  4 sorta medium sweet potatoes, washed, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks.

5.  1 teaspoon olive oil

6.  1 cup vegetable broth

7.  1/8 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Recipe

1.  Take the ground turkey, all the spices and 1 each teaspoon of salt and pepper and put into a bowl and knead like you were making bread.

2.  When it is really well mixed, put it into a pan and cook it, stirring often.  You are looking for an appearance similar to breakfast sausage when you don’t make it into patty’s.  Just a bunch of loose meat really.

3.  When it is fully cook, reduce the heat to medium-low, add vegetable broth, stir well and cover.

4.  Bowl the sweet potatoes until they are boiled.

5.  Your choice here, the picture is of a sweet potato mash.  You can make it as lumpy or smooth as you want.  It’s your world.  It’s really about how much of the water you boiled it in do you add to it to get the consistency correct.

6.  Put roughly 1/4 of it onto a plate.  Should be about 4 ounces or so.

7.  Measure out 4 ounces of the turkey mixture, put on sweet potatoes.  Then spoon out 2 tablespoons of the brothy goodness and put it on top of that.

8.  Put the shredded cheese on top of that.

Its pretty yummy and a great dish for phase II people.  It is also infinitely changeable.  Substitute cilantro, coriander, cumin and dried chiles for the spices in the same ratio and you got something a little different.  Experiment and let me know what you think.

 

Herb Chicken with Lemon Veggie Puree

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  16oz of chicken

2.  2 cups each of chopped carrots, celery, onion

3.  4 cloves of garlic

4.  1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice and vegetable broth

5.  1 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, dried lemon peel.

6.  1 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried basil, dried lemon peel

7.  1 teaspoon olive oil

8.  1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

9.  1 teaspoon dried chives (for garnish and flavor)

Recipe

1.  Rinse and wash your chicken then pat very dry

2.  Rub the chicken with the olive oil (yes there is enough)

3.  Cover in spice mix from #6

4.  Bake in 375 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes (till its done, all ovens are different, relax, chicken is very forgiving when its rubbed with oil and spices)

5.  Combine all veggies, vinegar, lemon juice, vegetable broth and remining spices in a pan and sweat.  Over the next 20 minutes or so, there should end up being some decent amount of liquid.

6.  Take a hand-mixer to it till its what professionals call a “puree”.  Your are looking for a texture sort of like loose mashed potatoes or even grits.  Chunks will not alter the flavor, but you want it well combined.

This recipe will divide up into approximately 4 servings (we ate 2 for dinner, then took the other 2 for work lunches, yes they microwave well).  At the end, you have 4 ounces of chicken, and about 1-1/2 cups of veggies.  Its pretty yummy.