Warm Winter Salad

Although this has a long ingredient list and three steps to it, it is actually fairly simple to make.  It is a variation on Chicken and Wild Rice Salad from The Earth-Bound Cook by Myra Goodman (a great book on sustainable real food cooking).  I looked at the ingredient list and decided that this would be great as a warm salad particularly since clementines are now in season.  I've also included variations on the theme which I haven't tried out myself yet but I know would be quite tasty.  To make this dish pop there are a few ingredients you can't skimp on.  Buy the best olive oil and balsamic vinegar you can afford.  Use fresh parsley.

Ingredients
serves 3-4

rice:
1 1/2c Lundburg Wild Blend rice mix
3c filtered water


dressing:
1T olive oil
1T balsamic vinegar
1/2t dried thyme
pinch sea salt
pinch pepper
small clove garlic


poached chicken:
2/3-1lb pastured organic chicken breast
2-3 sage leaves
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
1t peppercorns
1t sea salt
1T dried onion
1t dried celery flake or a stalk of celery cut to fit in pan

add ins and toppers:
4 clementines
1c pecans
2 stalks celery with leaves
handful of fresh parsley
1 or 2 shallots

1. First thing to do is get the rice cooking as this step will take the longest.  Add rice and water to rice cooker and let rip.
2. Next make the dressing so that the flavors can have time to blend.  It is easiest to mix this up in a small jar that has a lid.  Just add the olive oil, vinegar, dried thyme, pinch salt, pinch pepper to the jar.  Peel and press the garlic right into the jar.  If you don't own a garlic press then smear the garlic over a cutting board with a knife until it is a paste and then add.  Put the lid on the jar and shake.
3. Set the chicken to poach.  Put chicken in pan and cover with filtered water.  Add sage, bay, sprig thyme, salt, peppercorns and celery to water.  Bring to boil then reduce to simmer.  Cover and cook for ten minutes.
4. While everything is cooking peel and segment the clementines.  Break up the pecans into smaller pieces.  The easiest method is to place them in a ziplock baggie and mash them with a meat tenderizing hammer.  Mince fresh celery stalks and shallot and set aside.  Mince celery leaves and parsley leaves.
5. When chicken is cooked remove from poaching water and shred chicken into bite sized pieces.  Discard poaching water.   Cover and keep warm until rice is cooked.
6. Once the rice is done, mix with chicken in a big bowl.  Stir in celery and shallot.  Gently fold in clementine segments.
7. Plate up the warm salad and top with dressing, celery leaves and parsley.

Nut substitutions: almond, cashew, walnut, pistachio

Clementine substitutions: pineapple, apricot, Crasins, Mandarin oranges, figs

Rice substitutions: regular wild rice mix

Shallot substitution: scallions, red onion, vidalia onion

Creamy DF Butternut Squash Soup

I got sick again so suddenly I can't eat dairy.  It seems that I can only eat fruits,  Chicken Stock and Chicken Vegetable soup but I can only tolerate this for a few days straight.  I've now been sick for over a week.  Since I love squash and it is GAPS approved, I knew that it wouldn't bother my delicate tummy.

One of the things that comes up over and over again on WAP blogs is to eat lots of good fats.  I get most of my fats from dairy which is why I tend to add cheese or cream or sour cream to my soups.  Since this is suddenly no longer an option, I started wondering how I could add good fats back into my diet without using butter or milk products.  Hence, I tinkered with my favorite squash soup recipe (which I just discovered I never put up here on my site).  The result is a  dairy free high fat squash soup that is really tasty.

Ingredients
makes one large bowl or two small

1c Basic Chicken Stock
1-2c diced squash
1 leek leaf coarsely chopped
1T coconut oil
1T or more almond butter

1. Using a small 1 quart saucepan add enough squash to stock so that it is barely covered with liquid.  Depending how small you diced the squash this will vary.  I tend to cut mine up on the small 1/2" cube size.
2. Add the leek and bring the soup to a simmer.
3. Cover and cook about ten minutes until the squash is fork tender.
4. Use an immersion blender to puree vegetables.
5. Stir in coconut oil and almond butter until well blended.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add more almond butter if you like.

Variations:

• use other types of winter squash
• use cashew butter or sesame butter instead of almond

Cauliflower and Swiss Soup

This is amazingly good.  This is based on my new method of making soup.  Take some beef or chicken stock, boil vegetables in the stock, then puree with an immersion blender.  Since I froze my Basic Chicken Stock in one cup portions, this makes soup creation really easy and super fast.   It has been so much fun making different combinations of vegetables and flavors.  This one is a big winner.

Ingredients
serves 1-2 (depending upon how hungry you are)

1c Basic Chicken Stock
2-3c cauliflower (fresh or frozen)
~1T of diced onion (I threw in a couple of frozen pearl onions)
pinch Celtic sea salt
grind of fresh pepper
1/2c raw milk Swiss cheese

1. If using fresh cauliflower discard leaves, remove core and cut up florets.
2. Using a 1qt pan put in the chicken stock and fill with as much cauliflower as will fit.
3. Add onion, salt and pepper.
4. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until cauliflower is soft when pricked with a knife.
5. Remove from heat.
6. While soup is simmering, coarsely grate cheese so that you have about a half cup of loosely packed shavings.  Adjust amount to your own taste.
7. Using an immersion blender blend until smooth being very careful not to splash hot liquid on yourself.
8. Stir in cheese and let melt.
9. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Pork Medallions with Sherry Pan Sauce

This one I stole from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and made it WAPS legal.  I just got sprouted kamut and sprouted spelt flours in the mail today so I decided to try the kamut in this recipe.  It worked wonderfully!!

Beware though, kamut is a type of wheat so if you need truly GF recipe use nonGMO cornstarch or arrowroot powder.  However I can't vouch for the texture/flavor of the substitute since I haven't tried it myself.  Nut flours are another option but I've found they make things extra crunchy and they won't thicken the sauce as well as cornstarch or arrowroot.

The pan sauce makes this dish so don't skip it.  It is wicked good!

Ingredients
serves 2-3

~1lb pork tenderloin
3T sprouted kamut flour (or wheat or spelt or for GF use non-GMO cornstarch)
~1t fresh or dried thyme
large pinch salt & pepper
olive oil
2T butter divided
2 lemon wedges
1/4c cooking sherry

1. Rinse and dry off the pork.
2. Trim any fat or sliver bits off the tenderloin and slice into 1/8" thick rounds.
3. In a plastic baggie (my fav) or bowl combine flour, salt, pepper and thyme.  Mix well.
4. Add pork and coat evenly.  If using a baggie just seal and shake.
5. Heat oil and 1T butter in large saute pan.  When a pinch of flour sizzles in the oil start adding the pork one slice at a time and don't let the slices touch.  You might have to do a couple of batches like I did.  In that case keep the finished batch on a plate covered with pan lid to keep them warm.
6. Cook until brown and then flip and brown the second side.  Remove to plate and cover to keep warm while making the pan sauce.
7. Drain fat out of pan and add sherry.  Let boil while scrapping the pan to loosen up the yummy bits stuck to the bottom.  Keep it simmering until almost gone (this evaporates the alcohol off while leaving behind yummy flavor) then add the juice from the lemon wedges. When simmering again add the remaining 1T of butter and stir in until melted.  This should result in a several tablespoons of thickish pan sauce.
8. Pour over waiting pork medallions and serve immediately.

Butternut Squash Soup

This is a wicked easy meal.  Other vegetables can easily substituted.  In fact, I'm going to do this one with sweet potato next.  And BTW, this is an excellent way to get the broth into your system that WAP recommends.

Ingredients
serves one

1/2c Basic Chicken Stock
1-2c diced squash
1T butter
salt and pepper

1. Peel and dice squash
2. Simmer in chicken broth until fork tender
3. Puree until smooth
4. Add salt and pepper and stir in butter

This has a nice mild flavor.  You can really taste the squash and I like the simplicity of it.  If you want to add a bit more depth of flavor you can add onion, garlic or ginger in to cook with the squash.  All of which would complement this nicely.  You could also go traditional and add some nutmeg or cinnamon.  If you like spicy a little chili powder would be good also.  Another option is to roast the squash first and then proceed with the recipe.  Have fun!

Breakfast Stir Fry

In my quest for better health through food I've been reading Minding My Mitochondria by Dr. Wahls.  She is a physician who went from living in a wheelchair due to MS to riding a bike in six months through radical diet changes.  In her book, her diet roughly follows Paleo but with the emphasis on vegetable consumption rather than meat consumption.  She recommends nine, that's right NINE, servings of fruits and vegetables a day; three cups of leafy green veg, three cups of colored veg and three cups of mixed fruits and veg.

In order to come even close to this, juicing needs to be done daily and I've been eating spinach with my eggs in the morning.  Today I decided to add a bit of variety and came up with this delightful and easy breakfast.

BTW, I use pastured butter because of the nutrients it has.  According to Weston Price the fats are required by our bodies to aid in proper digestion.  http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/why-butter-is-better

Ingredients
serves one

1 leak leaf
1 large collard green leaf
1-3 leaves of kale
a fistful of portabello mushroom (i used the stalk from a giant one I grilled for dinner last night)
2-4 stalks of asparagus
pastured butter
2 free range eggs
2-3 leaves of fresh sage
drop of pastured milk
salt and pepper

1. Wash and dry the kale, collard greens and leaks.  A salad spinner works great for this.  Take extra care with the leak since they are dirt magnets.
2. Roll up the leaves and slice into thin strips discarding the tough middle vein/stem.
3. Dice the mushroom and asparagus into bite size pieces.
4. Beat the eggs in a bowl, add a drop of milk, rip the sage and add that, add some fresh ground pepper
5. Saute the mushroom, leak and asparagus in butter until mushrooms start to soften.
6. Add the kale and collard greens and saute until wilted.  The greens should cook down to about half the original volume.
7. Load the vegetables onto the serving dish.
8. Add more butter to the pan and make scrambled eggs.
9. Serve with the vegetable.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

My hubby came down with a nasty cold so I decided that with all the lovely vegetables that I got from the farmer's market I should make a nice from scratch chicken soup.  I made the stock first, see my prior post, and then just cut up vegetables until I couldn't fit anything else in the pan.  Since the goal was to have lots of veg the quantities are loose and fast.  I was aiming for lots of different colors and lots of different varieties, making sure I had some root veg, leafy green veg and fungi in a balanced mix.  Just keep adding veg until the pot is full and then cover with broth.  You can make lots of substitutions but I can guarantee that this combination is absolutely fab!!  Best soup I've ever made!

Ingredients
serves 2-3

~1c cooked brown rice ( I used Lundberg's Jubilee mix)
~1c cooked chicken meat (this was left over from the broth production)
1/4c coarsely chopped red onion
1-2 cloves crushed garlic (or 1t minced from a jar)
1 stalk diced celery
1 carrot diced
1-2 fistfuls of butternut squash cut into 1/2" cubes
1-2 fistfuls of baby bok choy sliced into 1/4" strips
1 small red potato cut into 1/2" cubes
1-2 fistfuls of crimini mushrooms peeled and quartered
several cups of chicken broth
Celtic sea salt
pepper
thyme
marjoram
several sprigs fresh parley coarsely chopped

1. Cook rice while chopping the vegetables.  Let the rice fully cook before proceeding.
2. Put rice and chicken into 2 quart pot.
3. Cut up vegetables and keep adding until the pot is almost full (about 1" from rim)
4. Cover with chicken broth.  Add herbs and spices.  Stir.
5. Simmer until vegetables are are tender about 10-15 minutes.

Okay now for the substitution lists:

Root veg:  white potatoes, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, carrots, parsnips, celery root (celeriac), turnips, jicama, beets (but they will color the stock and everything else: if you use red beets you will end up with pink soup)

Leafy green veg: cabbage, napa cabbage, bok choy, baby bok choy, kale, fennel (if you like the taste), spinach

Other veg: any type of squash, pumpkin, peas, corn, green beans, wax beans, okra, snow peas, cauliflower, eggplant

Fungi: white button mushrooms, crimini (baby bellas), portabellos, shitaki, porchini (buy dried and soak before adding to pot: you can add the soaking liquid but try to keep the grit out of the soup)

Onion: green onion, yellow onion, red onion, shallots, leeks

I try to stay away from cruciferous veg in soups because they can overpower the taste but feel free to add if you like: broccoli, brussel sprouts

Because I didn't soak the rice first this isn't totally WAP legal but if you leave the rice out game on.  Check the veg list in the GAPS book to see if this is GAPS legal and just make the appropriate substitutions.  Personally I'm not yet at that level of picky in my diet.  I might be in the future but I'm still struggling to get in enough broth and fermented foods.  Baby steps.  But in the meantime yummy soup!