Chicken Noodle Veggie Soup

I made chicken noodle soup, which could only mean one thing... Yep, I was sick. As per usual, I put a ton of ingredients into this recipe, and I think it turned out quite good. It helped my throat a lot too, which is what really matters. In the recipe below, I suggest using a broth to add more flavor to the soup. However, I did not have broth available and felt too sick to go to the store, so I just used a combination of some almond milk and overly spiced water. Wasn't too bad, but could have been better.


Recipe:

(Creates 3 Servings)

1 Large Chicken Breast
1 1/2 Lemons
3 Stalks Celery
1 Head of Broccoli (and stem)
1 Large Tomato
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Medium Onion
1 Cup Brown Rice Noodles
About 5 Cups Chicken/Vegetable Broth
1 Handful (per bowl) Roasted & Salted Sunflower Seeds
Fresh Parsley
Oregano
Basil
Turmeric
Salt
Ginger


Directions:

((If you chop up everything in advance before you begin cooking, I'd recommend cooking it all for about 15-20 minutes total. Or you can chop and add as you go for however long it takes, which is what I usually do.))

Chop the chicken and broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Put them into a large pot with about 5 cups of your choice of broth (add more broth in later if the ingredients are so numerous that they are no longer submerged in the broth) and bring it to a boil.

In the meantime, chop up the rest of the ingredients into bite sized pieces (except for the lemon and noodles) and add them in as you finish chopping them.

Add in spices (I recommend some turmeric, basil, oregano, salt, and ginger) as you go.

Once the broth is boiling, turn it down to medium high so that it doesn't boil too violently. Add in the brown rice noodles and continue stirring in ingredients as they are chopped. I'd recommend adding in the tomatoes, parsley and celery last, since they don't really need to be cooked much.

Once the last of your ingredients are in, let it all continue to cook for about five minutes. Serve with a handful of sunflower seeds and about half a lemon's worth of freshly squeezed lemon juice on top of each serving.

Cheater Additions: The whole time I was eating this I kept imagining how wonderful it would taste with some cheese on top. I recently discovered that Almond Cheese exists, and the brand I found only has one iffy ingredient. I'd recommend using some of that in moderation if you'd like to try it.

Beef, Zucchini & Rutabaga Stir Fry

I had left over rutabaga, I just bought ground beef, and I've never made a stir fry before, so I thought those were convenient circumstances for creating this stir fry recipe! I cheated and put some water in it because I wasn't sure if the rutabaga would get cooked all the way through with just some oil. I'll try to have some more faith in it next time and see what happens, ha. But I liked how it came out! It was quite delicious. :)


Recipe:

(Creates 2 Servings)

1 Zucchini, diced
1 LB Ground Beef, chopped into bite sized chunks
1 Medium Sized Rutabaga, diced
3 Coves Garlic, minced
1/4 of a Medium Yellow Onion, diced
1 Large Tomato, diced
1 TBS Coconut Oil
Ginger
Turmeric
Cayenne Pepper
Cinnamon
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Salt

Directions:

Put the ingredients into a large stir fry pan with about a tablespoon or more of coconut oil and a little bit of water. ((Here's what it looks like before you add the meat. You can make it vegetarian and just cook it without the meat if you'd like.))

Bring it all to a medium-high heat and stir consistently for about 12 minutes.

Spice it as much as you like, I personally love to put tons of ginger, cayenne pepper, rosemary and thyme on this, and a bit of the other spices listed above.




If you don't have a second person to feed, you'll have left overs!! Hooray! :D

Chicken, Brown Rice, & Brussels Sprouts

I make some sort of variation of this recipe 2 - 3 times a week. I usually vary my dinners between pasta and meat every few days so that I don't get tired of either one. This will be the first of a few chicken recipes I will post. Note that they are all essentially chicken with onions, a vegetable, and a gluten free starch.  (Side note: I took this photo back in January, so that's why it doesn't look as cool as the other photos I have posted on here so far. Just sayin'.) 

Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

1 Chicken breast, chopped up

1/4 of a medium Yellow Onion, diced

1 Green Onion, diced

1 Clove of Garlic, minced

1/3 of a Bell Pepper, diced

2 Handfuls of Brussels Sprouts, each chopped into halves or thirds

1/2 Cup Brown Rice

1-2 Cups Water

Cayenne Pepper

Rosemary

Thyme

Butter

Salt

Directions:

Bring one cup of water to a boil in a pot. Stir in brown rice. Turn the heat down to medium or medium high (whichever keeps some small bubbles going) and cover the pot. Let the rice cook for about 40 minutes (or whatever the package suggests). 

In the meantime, chop up everything else!

Cut each brussels sprout in half (to help them cook faster). Place the brussels sprouts into a small pot. Fill that pot with water until all the brussels sprouts are submerged. Bring the pot to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium high and let them boil for about 10 minutes. 

Place the chopped pieces of chicken, green onions, yellow onions, and bell pepper in a pan with a little bit of water (enough to submerge about half of each of the chicken pieces). Cook over a medium heat, turning over the pieces of chicken every now and then so they get thoroughly cooked. After about 7 minutes or so, cut a larger piece of chicken open to see if it has been cooked all the way through. (If it hasn't, let it cook a bit longer.) 

Once the rice is finally ready, serve everything on one plate. I would suggest putting butter on the brussels sprouts and the brown rice and then salting them both. I typically put thyme, rosemary, salt, and a little bit of cayenne pepper on my chicken. 

Enjoy!

Noodles in Creamy Avocado Sauce

This is one I like to make a lot whenever I have avocados handy. It's one of my top favorite pasta recipes for this diet.











Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

3/4 Cup Brown Rice Noodles
1/2 Cup Plain Cow or Goat Yogurt
1 Avocado, squished
1/3 of a Yellow Onion, chopped
1 Clove of Garlic, minced
1 Green Onion, chopped
1 Tomato, chopped
Fresh Basil Leaves
Cayenne Pepper
Rosemary
Turmeric
Oregano
Salt


Directions:

Boil the noodles for as long as the package recommends. Chop the yellow onion and green onion and add them to the boiling noodles.

While those boil, squish the interior of an avocado with a fork, wash the basil, and chop the tomato and garlic.

When the noodles are finished, strain them and put them back into their pot. Add the things you've chopped and washed into the pot. (If you want your final presentation to look like mine above, keep the tomatoes separate and place them along the sides of your pasta later.)

Pour in the yogurt and mix it with everything in the pot over a low heat. When the yogurt is warm, (this should only take about a minute), pour the contents of the pot into a bowl or plate. Spice it with rosemary, turmeric, oregano, cayenne pepper, and salt. Now it should look like this:

Now you can eat it! Huzzah!














Cheater additions: I suppose you could add some goat cheese if you want to. But it's already creamy because of the yogurt, so, come on... you don't really want to cheat, do you? ;)

Speaking of cheating, you may have noticed there's no turmeric in the main photo. I did that on purpose so you could see how the yogurt sauce looked green because of the avocado.

Noodles with Extra Veggies and Eggs!

So this creation was yet another result of finding random leftovers in the fridge. This time, I found shredded carrots, shredded beets, boiled beets, and hard boiled eggs. Anytime I find random vegetables in my possession, I put them in my eggs in the morning and/or in my pasta in the evening, and it has always turned out great! So I obviously found these leftovers in the evening, since I put them into my pasta. (Warning: Beets and carrots are not recommended to have on this diet until the later stages. But you could easily make this without the beets and carrots.)


Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

3/4 Cup Brown Rice Noodles
1/2 Cup Plain Goat or Cow Yogurt
1/4 Cup Diced Broccoli pieces
1/3 of a Yellow Onion, diced
1/2 of a Beet, already chopped and boiled (optional)
1 Hard Boiled Egg, chopped
1/2 a Tomato, chopped
1/4 Cup Shredded Carrots and Beets (optional)
1 Garlic Clove, minced
Fresh Basil Leaves
Rosemary
Cinnamon
Turmeric
Oregano
Salt


Directions:

(optional) Boil the beets and the egg, if you did not happen to find them already prepared in your fridge like I did. (how to make hard boiled eggs and how long to boil beets) This step may take a while. The site for the beets recommends about 45 minutes. This is why I don't eat beets very often. (And, you know, also because they're not really allowed on the diet.)

Boil the noodles, onions, and broccoli in water for as long as the package of noodles recommends. (Mine usually take 8 minutes or so.)

While those boil, wash the basil leaves, chop the tomato, mince the garlic, and (optional) shred a carrot and a piece of a beet. Then you should have all of the ingredients in the photo below ready:


When the noodles and eggs are both ready, strain the noodles, and put them back in their pot. Chop the hard boiled egg. Add all of the ingredients you cooked and/or chopped into the pot you made the noodles in.

Stir in the yogurt until it is mixed with everything. Once the yogurt feels warm, pour the pasta mixture onto a plate. The beets (if you used beets) will make the yogurt turn pink, which looks pretty entertaining.

Now you should have this on your plate. It's time to overload it with spices.

I added rosemary, cinnamon, turmeric, oregano, and salt. I may have also added a tiny bit of cayenne pepper, just for fun. 

Now you're ready to eat!

Side note: I thought my plate looked pretty artistic when I finished eating... :)













Cheater Additions: You could add a bit of goat cheese if you want. I did... :)

Noodle Vegetable Fish Guacamole Stew-ish Thing

So, obviously, I wasn't entirely sure what to call this one. I found left over noodles, fish, guacamole, and lemons in the fridge, so I invented this stew thing. It was quite good! The guacamole on top was really nice.







Recipe: 

(Creates 1 Serving)

Stew thing:
1/4 Cup left over cooked pieces of salmon or chicken or beef (or just cook the pieces of meat/fish in a separate pan or boil it with the noodles)
1/2 Cup brown rice noodles
1 Cup water
1 Green Onion, chopped
1/4 Cup Yellow Onion, chopped
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1 Stick of Celery, chopped
1 Handfull of Salted Almonds
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1/2 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
Fresh Parsley and/or Fresh Basil
Turmeric
Cinnamon
Rosemary
Oregano
Ginger
Salt

Guacamole Topping: 
Half an Avocado, squished
Half a tomato, chopped
1/8 Cup Yellow Onion, diced
1/8 Cup Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice

A little bit of Cayenne Pepper or Paprika
Xylitol

Salt

Directions:

Boil the brown rice noodles (and small pieces of chopped fish/meat, if you don't have leftovers to use) in 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of coconut oil for as long as the package of noodles recommends. Chop the yellow and green onions, and the garlic, and add them to the boiling noodles.

While those boil, chop up a stick of celery, and basil/parsley leaves. Then prepare the guacamole by mixing the ingredients listed above in a small bowl.

When the noodles are done, strain the pasta mixture and put the pasta back into the pot. (Note: In the photo, I used a pan rather than a pot because the noodles and fish I used were already cooked, so I just started at this step.)









Add in almonds, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice, and the celery, basil and/or parsley you chopped. (Add in the left over fish/meat at this point.) Sprinkle in turmeric, cinnamon, rosemary, ginger, oregano, and salt. Stir everything in the pot over a low heat for a minute or two.







Pour the contents of the pot into a bowl. (Optional: Taste the mixture and add more turmeric and cinnamon if you're crazy like me and want it to taste overly-spicy. You could even add some cayenne pepper in there if you want.)








Pour the guacamole on top, and you're ready to eat!













Cheater additions: I actually did not use salmon; I used some sort of white fish. So technically that wasn't the perfect thing for my diet. But whatever. Close enough. :P