Sooo Very French Chicken Leek Soup

A while back I began reading a book called, "French Women Don't get Fat".  The title intrigued me, however I only browsed through the first three chapters and set it aside.  I'm revisiting this book because 1) I'm French 2) I got chubby,  3) I like reading the same genre for which  my book will be, and finally, because I lost weight after following one simple trick.

In the book, the author struggles with her weight, especially after spending a year in America.  The land of plenty!   Long story short....when she returned to France several pounds heavier she began to evaluate her habits and findings.  For me, it was interesting reading and I identify with many of her ideas and ways of eating and preparing food. 

The one "trick" to jump start her weight loss regime was "Miracle Leek Soup".  The other day I had a slab of chicken, leeks in the crisper drawer, loads of spinach, garlic etc., so I adapted her recipe to create my own soup hoping for a miracle!  This was better than I thought it would be and to create the "mood",  I sat down in my formal dining room and "really" focused on the midday meal, another pointer from the book.   The serendipity was that I lost a full pound the day after.  Hmmm...I guess I'll finish the book now.

French Chicken Leek Soup

2 servings

1 large chicken breast, previously cooked, baked, broiled or boiled and shredded

2 leeks, green ends removed, cleaned.  You'll be left with a 4 inch size piece.  Slice thinly.

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup water

2 handfuls of spinach

1 tsp coriander (optional)

a couple drops of chipotle hot sauce (also optional, but adds a nice heat)

In a heated saucepan put the oil in , then garlic and leeks.  On low heat, soften but do not brown.  Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, lower the heat to simmer, cover and cook for about 20 minutes or longer.  There you have it!  It's even better the next day!

Peach Pie Smoothie

Yes, I admit it.  I am a foodie.  I have files of recipes that I have tried and others "waiting in the wings".   As part of the kitchen remodel, I decided to purge most of the ones I knew I'd never try and really made a dent in them.  But,  my "to do" cooking file is getting bigger by the minute as I wait and wait to be able to bake or cook.  It's kind of a bucket list in the cooking arena, if you will.  I don't have a bunch of cookbooks, surprisingly enough.  I create most of my own recipes.  On the short list is ginger ice cream, cocoa seared scallops,  homemade limoncello, sweet polenta pizza and pumpkin anything!

Until I can have these goodies, I made hubby and I a peach pie smoothie.  With one sip of it, last night,  the cravings were gone.  It's tasted every bit as decadent as a real live peach pie.  Well, maybe that's going a bit far, but it was delicious!

Peach Pie Smoothie

In a blender crush 7-8 ice cubes.  Peel and core 2 ripe peaches (makes 2,  1-cup servings)).  Put them in the blender with the following:

A couple drops of liquid stevia sweetener

a dash of cinnamon

a drizzle of fat free half & half

a drizzle of vanilla

Puree it all for about 10 seconds and voila - peach pie, or something like it.  Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.  Very nice...

Thick & creamy peach pie smoothie

The Colors and Flavors of Fall

This is my favorite time of year.  It's a time to harvest and "close the book" in my garden.  The weather has been holding steady with 70ish temperatures, barely any wind and the trees are making a brilliant spectacle of themselves.  It's their time to shine and they don't disappoint in these parts of the woods.  The sky is a deep blue almost every day with a spattering of clouds and the clean crisp air compliments my walking routine.

My inspirational view while walking

With the Fall comes a variety of flavors, too.  By this time I should have made pumpkin bread, pancakes, soups and maybe some stews.  But, my kitchen has been severely lacking of any signs of creativity and those great Fall flavors.  Yes, still on the "eating plan" and I have lost about 18 lbs.  Hooray!  On the other hand I feel sorry for my hubby having been deprived of some of the nice meals he's grown accustomed to over the years.  Fear not, it won't be forever.  It just seems that way!

Fresh pumpkin gnocchi with sage butter

pumpkin ginger pie bars!

If you're looking for a few pumpkin ideas, look no further.  These are the "best" of last year, same time!  Pumpkin gnocchi and a pumpkin ginger pie bar recipe for you to make and enjoy.  Let me know how they turn out!  I know, I'm itching to try them once more, SOON!

What's on your Bucket List?

Yesterday, I happened to catch part of a show on TV where one of the segments talked about, What would you order for your last supper?  I only saw one of the responses and this gal wove a dream to rival no other.  She'd be sitting in the French countryside with a loaf a crusty, yet soft on the inside, baguette smeared with salted honey while sipping a glass of the best local wine.   And that was just for starters....

I thought for a moment and found I couldn't be as decisive as she was.  Do I need to clarify my dream?  Perhaps..but, is it possible that I have many?  I'd say so..I know my last supper would be in some exotic location, maybe one which I haven't visited, yet!  Do you have a "bucket list"?  

If you're wise, you develop one at a young age..don't wait to do the things or go to locales where you can't fully enjoy what it has to offer.  Take for instance,  the hills of Tuscany!   Would you be able to climb to the top of Cortona's lofty paths.  They seem to stretch to the Heavens!  Or maybe you'd like to zip line over the canopies of jungles in Costa Rica, snorkel in the balmy clear waters of Hawaii or Tahiti or sit at that French bistro nibbling on a fresh from the oven chocolate croissant.  The list goes on and on...

Lunch Italian Style

Climbing the Hills of Cortona

I guess my point is, don't give up on any of your dreams.  Be ready for any opportunity.  As for me, my "bucket list" seems to get longer and longer as I travel and my horizons are broadened by each country and culture that I experience.  Where to next?  Not sure...but, I'll be crossing it off my bucket list.  And once it's deleted, it doesn't mean "never to return".  I have to admit, I'm still haunted by "the boot" shaped country of Italy.  It feeds me in every way, including my stomach and SOUL!

Tips for Fooling Your Tastebuds

As most of you know I've embarked on another "diet plan".  This has been the story of my life, unfortunately, because of the choices I've made and probably because of the "pudgy gene" I've acquired!  I take one look at my lineage (grandmother) and I see the pounds lining the areas where I constantly try to carve them away.

Over the years and with alot of knowledge in this area, I've come to realize that you need to fool your taste buds.  This will make the road to weight loss an easier and more flavorful path. 

Here are my tips:

Instead of peach pie cut up a  peach, sprinkle with cinnamon and truvia. mix it well and enjoy!

Roast, roast, roast your veggies with a sprinkle of olive oil, sea salt and pepper.  The roasting brings out the goodness and sweetness.  My favorites are roasted red peppers, eggplant, bok choy and believe it or not, cabbage!

Roasted cabbage with lemony mahi mahi

When you have a sweet tooth, make a fresh fruit smoothie.  Just ice, about a cup of fresh fruit, a dash of truvia and vanilla and water. blend and you have it!  My lifesaver has been an orange smoothie.

If you like applesauce, make your own.  Don't buy a big jar filled with chemicals!  Peel and chop apples, add a little water and cinnamon and cook on low.  If you don't want chunky applesauce. place in the blender for a swirl.

And finally, start an herb garden with perennials like oregano, thyme, lavender, chives, and some mint.  Come summertime add cilantro, parsley, basil and rosemary.   With these you can embellish your meats, fish, salads, desserts and dressings or marinades.  My latest creations have been numerous variations of marinades like chili lime, ginger lemon thyme, or rosemary lavender dressings.

Dried lavender from the garden.



Dried oregano ready for the sauce!



Dried Lemon verbena - great in anything!

If you're limited to lettuce, dress it up with handfuls of herbs.  It will wake up the taste buds and fool them into thinking you're eating something special.  But, actually you are!  You grew and nutured those herbs for that healthy meal...

Fighting the Diet Demons

So, the good news is I've lost 16 lbs and 10+ inches.  The bad news is,  this week has been a struggle with the same 1 lb!  I found out you can't cheat one iota on this "eating (not much food) plan". I lost, gained, lost, gained the same lb!  The only thing to do is evaluate what went wrong.   Could it have been the glass of wine?  The one measly oyster appetizer?  The ahi selection for my entree was perfect except for the wasabi mashed potatoes hugging the sides of the fish like a Siamese twin.  or the bite as tiny as a fingernail of a limoncello raspberry tart?   Oh, oh...I sniffed the aroma of the carrot bread pudding (pounds by osmosis?) Or, all of the above?

Carrot bread pudding - off limits!

Raspberry Limoncello tart - Couldn't resist and forgot to take a proper picture before...mesmerizing!

Then we went out  to dinner last night for his birthday, again.  This time I would be more prepared to trick the diet demon and that nasty lurking pound.  I had apples all day...I mean nothing but apples...3 to be exact!  So, when I drank that one+ glass of red wine, I'm sure it wasn't going to register.   No fingernail size dessert and no eating of the pasta silently surrounding my steak which I promptly portioned in half.  Wrong!

The scale this morning deceived me again...there's that same pound.  No more cheating until the ultimate surprise.  That comes in November.  Until then, stay tuned for more creative ways to fix chicken and fish.  And if I'm feeling really strong willed,  I may bake a cake or two.   Yahoo!

Italian Stuffed Shells - Pasta of the Month

It's that time again, pasta of the month - October.  I couldn't let the day pass without honoring my hubby with this great meal.  Happy Birthday, my man, and many more.

Creme brulee in Italy 5 years ago!

 
Truth be told this is not his birthday dinner.  It came from the archives of "not posted yet".   This amazing stuffed shells recipe is a special dish you can serve to your guests! 

  When I was a working girl, I confess, I actually had these delivered to my door from a frozen food supplier.  They were good, but not exceptionally good like homemade.  I thought these would be time consuming, but if you use prepared sauce they are relatively easy and quick.

Let's pretend I used ready made sauce from a jar.  (I didn't, but it's not a bad idea to streamline the recipe..)  Therefore, I won't give you the sauce recipe, this time...still working on the perfect marinara/bolognese sauce!  I promise, you will impress your guests as this dish comes out of the oven all cheesy and bubbly!

Ingredients:

about 3 cups of sauce (your choice) HINT: I used to saute Italian sausage and garlic to add to the store bought sauce

about 16 large pasta shells

For the filling:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 handful chopped Italian parsley

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms

1 1/2 cup cubed eggplant

2-3 basil leaves chopped

ricotta cheese (15 oz container)

1 egg

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

For the topping:

1 handful chopped parsley

1 cup grated mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Boil water for the pasta shells, salting it as it starts to boil.  Cook them according to directions, al dente.

In a skillet, heat the oil, add onion,  mushrooms and eggplant and cook until soft.  In a bowl put the ricotta, basil,  parsley and eggplant mixture.  Add the egg and Parmesan and mix well.

Stuffed and ready to bake

Drain and cool the shells and stuff with the mixture.  In a 9x11 baking dish spread about 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom.   Place the shells in a baking dish and  pour the remaining  sauce over the top, then add the mozzarella cheese and additional parsley.  Bake for about 25 minutes, allow to cool slightly and serve.    This dish will freeze well before the cooking process so you can make days ahead and enjoy your guests!

Cheesy and Bubbly!!  Yum!

Cobbler and Comfort Food

This time of year there would be a flurry of activity in my kitchen.  It's the perfect time of year for baking with pumpkins, fruits and zucchini.  Last year I was busy baking pumpkin gnocchi, soups, bread puddings and one of my favorites, a pear cobbler crisp!  Oh, how I miss the baking and inventing new recipes.    When I can't work in the kitchen I'll go out to the garden.

One thing I managed to do before the snow hit the other day was to harvest some of my herbs.  With our short growing season (and this year was especially brief), I keep with mostly perennial herbs, like lavender, thyme, and oregano.   A welcome addition to my garden this summer was lemon balm.  Unfortunately, it does not winter very well, so I pulled it, hung it upside down to dry,  and harvested the leaves for that summer flavor  in the dead of winter.  It goes well in recipes for fish, chicken, pastas and desserts.  I'll be planting it again next season!

To celebrate this year's harvest, I'm re-posting my pear cobbler crisp.  Make some and enjoy!  It can also be made with peaches, just as good!

Ingredients:

2 large ripe pears, peeled and sliced
1 T sugar
2/3 c oats
1 tsp cinnamon
2 T crystallized ginger pieces
3/4 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 c milk
dash of cinnamon on top

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 9 glass baking pan.  In a bowl mix the pears, sugar, oats, cinnamon and ginger.  Pour into the pan.  Then mix the remaining ingredients and place over the pears.  Stir only slightly.  Add a few drops of butter and a dash of cinnamon.  Bake for 40 minutes or so.  This is better as it gets cold in the refrigerator, but hard to resist when it comes out of the oven.  The warmth of the ginger makes it a perfect and simple snack cake.

Chicken Curry Cups

For those of you who struggle with weight loss or maintenance for that matter,  here's a recipe to fool your taste buds.  With every diet program I've been on, and there have been many, I try to circumvent the obvious selections, that is, a slab of chicken or a lonely piece of fish, etc.  A great way to do this is to turn to your spice cabinet or stock up on fresh herbs.  Spices have been my lifeline.

The recipe serves one famished person but you can double or triple it for family members.   The inspiration came from my weight loss plan guidebook, however,  I omitted celery and apple from the mix and used more spices.  I served it in a lettuce cup but you can also put the chicken in a tortilla or bread or mix with pasta for a different twist.

Ingredients:

1 6 oz chicken breast , diced, no skin or bone

1/4 c water

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp minced onion or shallot

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp curry powder

dash of the following spices:
garlic powder
onion powder
cayenne pepper
cinnamon
turmeric
stevia or truvia sweetener

Cook the chicken and lemon juice in a small saucepan until barely browned.  Add the water and all the spices.  Simmer until chicken is done and the sauce is thicker.  You may need to add additional water.  At this point you can serve or chill and serve later.  Garnish with cilantro for more flavor.

It's Winter - Soups on!

Last week Fall began with Mr. Winter right on its heels!  Today, a major Winter storm hit but by the weekend it will be back into the mid 70's.  That's how our Northern Nevada fall is....very fickle! 

 We tested the gas stove and the forced air heater this morning, dug out my long pants, and mittens.  All that's missing is the soup on the stove!

I ate alot of soup when I was growing up.  It was the during the Campbell's soup craze, when just about everyone had a few cans in the cupboard.  My favorite was pepperpot. with the tomato base, veggies and I think some mystery meat that may have been menudo.  My least favorite was cream of mushroom, but I grew out of that phase, especially when I used it on my family to cover up dry pork chops!  Then  cream of asparagus rolled off the assembly line and I tried that to make those same pork chops more upscale.  it worked...yuk! 

I don't use very many canned soups these days because I now know that soups are super easy to make from scratch.  (and you can control the salt)

 Last week. tomato basil soup was on the menu, however, it was a "diet" rendition.  To me it tasted like heaven.  Everything tastes like heaven these days when the alternative is egg whites and more chicken!!    I have soup recipes in the archive that are wonderful and not  hard to make, like my chili verde, black bean and Italian bean zuppa.  Just click the above links for the recipe.

Spicy Black Bean Soup



Chili Verde and I think I need new soup bowls!


  Try your hand at making soup, you won't be sorry, and your family will thank you.  Bundle up and enjoy the chilly day!

Simply Baked Cod

It doesn't get any easier than baked cod fish.  To me, cod is the sea's "chicken".  It's very versatile when it comes to the many things you can do with this firm whitefish.  Fish and chips, fish tacos or simply baked cod are just a few ways to prepare it.  For now, I choose to bake...a no fuss recipe.

The first tip is to purchase your fish from a reputable source.  You never know these days.  As I grew up on the ocean I took for granted, at the time, the ease of fresh fish availability.  Being landlocked I tend to scrutinize my selections.  When stores aggressively advertise fish on sale, I'm a little wary.
I guess I've been spoiled by living on the ocean and, also, by being fortunate enough to travel to different coastal regions where the fish is "same day" fresh.  There is a difference!

I purchased the cod "fresh" and got lucky, but you could certainly try frozen fillets. 

Simply Baked Cod

Ingredients:  Serves 2

2 cod pieces, about 6 oz. each

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

a couple sprigs of fresh dill

1/2 Tbsp grated ginger (optional)

1 garlic clove, grated

salt and pepper to taste

squeeze of 1/2 lemon

Place the cod pieces into a glass baking dish with either pan spray or a little drizzle of olive oil

Sprinkle fish with the salt and pepper, ginger and garlic.  Arrange the dill on top, drizzle with more olive oil and the squeeze of lemon.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, maybe less.