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.

Brownies!

That's right! BROWNIES!! I was very excited to have these brownies in my life for about a week, and I've missed them ever since. I don't typically bake very often because it takes too much time, but these were totally worth it. :)

Special thanks to my good friend Zak Kane for going on this brownie adventure with me in his very own kitchen!

Recipe:

(Creates about 6 brownies)

Dry Mix:

1/2 Cup Brown Rice Flour

1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cacao Powder

1/4 TSP Baking Powder

1/4 TSP Salt

3/4 Cup Coconut Sugar

1 Cup chopped Walnuts

Wet things:

1/2 Cup Butter

1 Egg

1 TSP Vanilla Extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325ºF. 

Beat the wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Then add in the dry ingredients. Beat and stir until everything seems mixed pretty well. 

Pour the ingredients into a glass baking pan, and place the baking pan in the oven. 

The brownies were supposed to only take about 25 minutes to cook, but they ended up taking about 50 minutes, possibly because they were made at a high elevation (Flagstaff, AZ). Stick a toothpick in the middle of your brownies every 10 minutes or so until they are no longer wet on the inside.

When they are done, take them out of the oven and let them sit for about 15 minutes. Then you can cut them into whatever shape you want, stick one in your mouth, and die of happiness. They are SO GOOD!

Celery & Almond Butter

A healthy, easy, safe snack! Hooray! The first thing you have to do is find a brand of Almond Butter that has nothing but almonds in it. A lot of almond butter brands include sugars or bad oils, so be careful with that. Once you find the perfect plain jar of pure almond butter goodness, the rest is pretty easy. :)




Recipe:

(Creates 1 Serving)

2-4 Celery Stalks chopped into 3" pieces
1 Jar of Almond Butter (you won't use the whole thing)
Xylitol
Salt


Directions:

Get a spoonful of almond butter and plop some onto a piece of celery.

Sprinkle salt and xylitol on top of the almond butter plop.

Repeat with each bite. :)

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