Eating for Pennies: Creamy Cauliflower and Bacon soup with Chili Oil Drizzle

Creamy cauliflower soup with fresh bacon crumbles and chili oil drizzle is delicious! Here's a simple recipe:

Ingredients:

1 large cauliflower, chopped

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

4-6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

Chili oil for drizzling

Fresh parsley for garnish

Instructions:

In a large pot, sauté the diced onion and minced garlic until they become translucent.

Add the chopped cauliflower to the pot and continue to sauté for another 5 minutes.

Pour in the vegetable or chicken broth, bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the cauliflower is tender.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can transfer the soup to a blender in batches and blend until smooth.

Stir in the heavy cream and season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes.

In a separate pan, cook the bacon until crispy. Once cooked, crumble it into small pieces.

Ladle the creamy cauliflower soup into bowls. Top each bowl with fresh bacon crumbles.

Drizzle chili oil over each bowl for a spicy kick.  You can make an easy chili oil by whisking Olive Oil and any Sriracha together.  

Garnish with fresh parsley for added flavor and color.

Serve the soup hot and enjoy your delicious creamy cauliflower soup with bacon and chili oil!

Eating for Pennies. Potato Leek Soup

Potato leek soup is a delicious and comforting dish. Here's a simple recipe to make potato leek soup that everyone will enjoy.  

Ingredients:

3 to 4 medium-sized leeks

4 to 5 medium-sized potatoes

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream or milk (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped fresh herbs (such as parsley or chives) for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

• Prepare the leeks: Trim off the dark green tops and the root ends of the leeks. Slice the leeks lengthwise, then rinse them under cold running water to remove any dirt or sand between the layers. Slice the leeks into thin half-moons.

• Prepare the potatoes: Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes or slices. The size of the pieces will determine the cooking time and texture of the soup. Smaller pieces will cook faster and result in a smoother soup.

• Heat a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the butter and olive oil, and once the butter has melted, add the sliced leeks. Sauté the leeks for about 5 minutes until they become soft and fragrant, stirring occasionally.

• Add the potatoes to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and continue cooking for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

• Pour in the vegetable or chicken broth, making sure it covers the vegetables. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and easily mashed with a fork.

• Using an immersion blender or a regular blender, puree the soup until smooth and creamy. If using a regular blender, blend the soup in batches and be careful not to overfill the blender with hot liquid.

• Return the pureed soup to the pot and stir in the heavy cream or milk if desired. Heat the soup gently over low heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through. Be careful not to boil the soup once the cream/milk has been added to prevent curdling.

• Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.

• Serve the potato leek soup hot, garnished with chopped fresh herbs if desired. You can also add a drizzle of olive oil or a dollop of sour cream on top for extra flavor.

Enjoy your homemade potato leek soup!

Eating for Pennies, Chicken Tortilla Soup

 

Chicken tortilla soup is delicious, healthy and costs just pennies to make.   And, since Chicken Tortilla Soup freezes well or can be preserved in jars it makes a great make ahead meal.   This is our all time favorite bulk soup to make when chicken is on sale.  In our house we serve it with Spanish rice, fresh warm tortillas and limes. 

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (15 oz)
• 1 can corn, drained (15 oz)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups cooked and shredded chicken
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• Juice of 1 lime
• Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and avocado for serving

Instructions:

• Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent.
• Add the garlic and jalapeño pepper and cook for another minute.
• Add the diced tomatoes, black beans, corn, chicken broth, shredded chicken, chili powder, and cumin to the pot. Stir to combine.
• Bring the soup to a simmer and let it cook for 20-30 minutes.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Stir in the chopped cilantro and lime juice.
• Serve the soup hot, topped with tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and avocado.

Enjoy your delicious homemade chicken tortilla soup!

Today's Parents Are Scared Of Everything - Let The Children Be

Parents today have the highest conditioning of fear in the history of humankind. They are scared of everything and it reflects in their children. They jump at the opportunity to drug them, vaccinate them and intoxicate them with all types of pharmaceuticals for diseases they are told are a threat by scientific doctrines based on fear themselves. The loving care, informed by tradition and human experience, has now become a management plan in crises intervention. They fear for the child's friendships, socialization, education, opportunities, nutrition, health, treatment, but most of all their for their life. The life of the child must not follow any unknown path that the parent perceives as a threat. In short, we have a micromanaged a generation of robots whose fear programming then materializes in their reality.

Parents of young children are often overwhelmed by advice. The degree of generational differences in health, medicine, food, safety, and general well-being of children is colossal today in comparison to just 40 years ago. 

As a parent, we are all deeply invested in caring for our children with a loving determination to help them succeed in life. There is no wrong way to love, however we must also recognize that micromanagement "takes away the child's experience and [impedes] his learning how to handle himself in the world. Part of the job of the parent is not to do everything for the child, but to help him do things more and more independently," says clinical psychologist and author Marc Nemiroff, PhD. "Micromanagement goes against natural development."

Child developmental psychologist and writer, Alison Gopnik stresses that parents should stop stultifying their kids with endless schedules and heavy expectations, quit the helicoptering and let them get on with it. Fair enough. The idea that some parents now look over their millennial offspring's university assignments or talk through the minutiae of their kidult's work issues often appears to be centered on our ego.

As long as safety isn't an issue, parents should wait a few minutes before stepping in, says Benjamin Siegel, MD, a professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. "You have to intervene if kids are getting hurt," he stated, "but oftentimes they work it out themselves." If you do have to step in, try to be an arbitrator rather than coming up with a solution for the children.

Parents should be like gardeners, tending young shoots and providing fertile ground. Instead, many resemble carpenters, chiseling away at them to create an image of success that has little to do with their kids' wishes, talents or needs. Their effort to keep kids clean often backfires.

Parenting shouldn't be directed toward the goal of sculpting a child into a particular kind of adult. This model causes Western parents' untold anxiety, while the kids wilt under an "oppressive cloud”. Worse, Gopnik argues, it's a "poor fit to the scientific reality”. We used to learn from tribes, or large extended families and communities. Now we have small, geographically scattered families, often with parents who work long hours. Some transfer skills they learned over years in a goal-oriented job to raising their children in the hope this will give them the resources to withstand unpredictable futures.

"Gardening,” says Gopnik, can create robust and resilient children with the resourcefulness to adapt to an unpredictable world. She draws on current research to build a view that balances the tensions inherent in growing up with inter generational conflicts.

If you think you may be micromanaging your child, you should break the habit "like any bad habit -- start little." Begin backing off in areas of little consequence -- for example, allowing your child to decide whether or not to make the bed each morning. "If you're not micromanaging about little things, your kid will take you more seriously about the things that really matter," she says.

Take play, something that is fundamental to learning. By filling their time with packed schedules of enriching activities, parents may rob their kids of a vital developmental window. And while 5-year-olds play-fighting may not look as valuable as ballet classes or Kumon maths, rough-housing is something many animals do. Rat experiments suggest it is vital for honing social competence .

If you chain children to desks, and demand focused attention in a life so different from our evolutionary past, you can expect trouble. As she writes, there's "a close connection between the rise of schools and the development of attention deficit disorder”. In the US, 1 in 5 boys have an ADD label by 17.

It's all fascinating, but I'm left with many questions. Gardening children sounds intuitively better than chiselling, but are there risks? ADD aside, it isn't clear. Gardens can face north, too. When must you intervene? And can gardening turn into chiselling?

Then there's culture. What works in one place may not elsewhere. Some carpenter-like behaviours - say, the expectation of filial obedience - can work in other cultures if underwritten by love. Gopnik doesn't mention it, but a long-term study in nine countries shows this approach works in Kenya, but not Sweden, and among European Americans in the US.

The free-spirited childhood seems no longer possible if we do not change our parenting methods. Overparenting in the face of rapid societal change has ensured that, in a sense, childhood does not end.

We must realize that with every passing decade comes a cycle of change. We can never go back to who we were and our focus should be on making our future better for ourselves and our children. We can continue on this cycle of fear and raise a generation of timid and paranoid children, or we can empower them to become all that they can be, accepting consequences and responsibility of becoming mature, benevolent, conscious and loving beings. When love is in the equation, fear usually takes a back seat. At that point, anything is possible.

This first appeared in Prevent Disease

Amazing and Raw - Easy Cucumber Mint Soup

Two botanically based fruits make this amazing and simple raw soup recipe. When cucumbers and avocados are combined, they offer a packed nutritional blend of rich vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Here's an easy recipe to make any time of the year and will surely impress anybody who enjoys fresh soup, whether warm or cold.




Avocados contain incredible phytochemicals and carotenoids including lutein (a carotenoid along with Vitamin E), Magnesium, and monounsaturated (healthy) fats. Avocado helps fight cancer of the mouth, breast, and prostate, and improves skin tone. It also improves absorption of nutrients in other foods.

Cucumbers are known to be one of the best foods for your body's overall health, often referred to as a superfood. They are often sprayed with pesticides so it is important to buy organic or even better, grow them yourself. Cucumber is an excellent source of silica, which is known to help promotes joint health by strengthening the connective tissues. They are also rich in vitamin A, B1, B6, C & D, Folate, Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium.

This soup is incredibly easy and fast. It’s ideal for a warm afternoon, with the cooling properties of the mint and cucumber. Delicious!

Ingredients

• 2 medium-sized cucumbers, peeled and rough chopped (approximately 2 cups)
• 1 avocado
• juice of 2 large lime (approximately 1/4 cup)
• 2 packed tablespoons fresh mint
• 1 teaspoon green onion
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch cinnamon
• pinch of chili powder

Instructions

Combine cucumber, avocado, lime juice, mint, green onion, ginger, turmeric and sea salt in your blender, and puree well. Serve in chilled bowls, topped with a pinch of cinnamon and chili powder. Eat immediately, or refrigerate until ready to enjoy.

If you prefer a slightly warmer soup, place the mixture in a pan and gently heat on minimum (not exceeding 100F) until slightly warmer than body temperature (test by dabbing a small amount on your lips until it feels slightly warm (do not over heat).

Adapted from:
eatnakednow.com
Karen Foster is a holistic nutritionist, avid blogger, with five kids and an active lifestyle that keeps her in pursuit of the healthiest path towards a life of balance. 

This first appeared in Prevent Disease

Cucumbers are amazing and can be found at every Farmers Market.  Read  20 Amazing Health Benefits of Cucumbers

Roasted Bell Pepper Soup..is it the yummiest soup?

Bell Peppers Photographed at the
 Tahoe City Farmers Market

Roasted red bell pepper soup has always been a favorite of mine.  Just saying..

Roasted Bell Pepper Soup

1 onion chopped
olive oil
3 roasted bell peppers (see Chef Hallie video how to, below)
4 cups chicken broth
sea salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 t dried thyme
1 T balsamic vinegar
gluten-free croutons (I used Aleia's brand.  You can also make your own.)

Put the olive oil in a soup pot and set the heat to medium.  Add the onion and saute until translucent and softened.  Add the roasted bell peppers, the thyme and the chicken broth and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and balsamic.  Serve with gluten-free croutons.

To make your own gluten-free croutons, saute cut up pieces of gluten-free bread in a little olive oil, sea salt, pepper and Italian herbs.  When croutons are golden and crispy, remove from stove and serve.

You can always stir a little organic cream into this soup if you care to.  I like mine the plain old anti-inflammatory dairy-free way for any regular night at home.  But if I have guests to dinner, I'll splurge on the cream.

Chef Hallie Demonstrates How to Roast Bell Peppers

Asian Chicken Soup with Shiitake and Zucchini "Noodles"

A wonderful warming treat if you're feeling a little under the weather.  Or not!!

Often Asian soups have noodles, but in this soup, the noodles have been replaced with zucchini "noodles".  This keeps the soup gluten-free, of course, great for anyone watching inflammation or healing eczema.  But the zucchini "noodles" are also pretty, colorful and tasty.  To make them, I use a mandolin and a protective chainmail glove, but you can always slice them up with a kitchen knife or try the Veggetti which makes them by twisting the zucchini through a spiral device with blades.

Mandolin, protective chainmail glove and veggetti device.

Asian Chicken Soup with Shiitake and Zucchini "Noodles"

2 32 oz cartons organic chicken stock  (I am preferring Trader Joe's organic free range these days,  it has good flavor and at $1.99 per carton is a bargain, too.  Or even better, make your own, see here).
1/2 c sherry
3 T dark sesame oil 
3 large garlic cloves minced
1 2" piece of fresh ginger minced
4 T butter (grass-fed organic)
2 T olive oil
3 oz shiitake mushrooms sliced, stems removed
10 oz crimini mushrooms sliced
10 oz white mushrooms sliced
Generous freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to taste
4 organic boneless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces
4 zucchini sliced on a mandolin into "noodles"
8 green onions sliced

Add the chicken stock to a large stock pot and bring to a boil.  Add in the sherry, sesame, garlic and ginger and lower the stock to a simmer.  In a frying pan, over medium-high heat, bring the butter and olive oil to hot and add in the mushrooms in batches, frying until tender and adding to the soup.  Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.  Add in the chicken pieces.  When chicken is a few minutes from being done add in the zucchini and green onions.  Serve the soup as soon as the zucchini "noodles" are tender and the chicken is cooked through. 

This soup is great on its own and doesn't need anything more.  However, if you're feeding hungry hoards, consider adding a pot of rice on the side, or perhaps a generous fresh salad.  Perhaps fresh spinach with tangerines, peanuts, bean sprouts and Asian salad dressing would be nice.  (I have always loved the Soy Vay Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing.)

By the way, I'm trying to get in the habit of pulling out the mandolin or Veggetti frequently.  So many vegetables can be cut and served into "noodles" and kids really like these.  If you don't want to take your family cold turkey, consider boiling up some quinoa spaghetti and tossing it half and half with zucchini "noodles" while your family gets used to them. 

A 15 minute easy meal of zucchini noodles prepared on a Veggetti along with bottled organic red sauce and organic Italian sausages.  Just put the freshly cut zucchini noodles into a small pan with a little gently sizzling butter or olive oil and cook stirring occasionally for a minute or two until noodles are tender.  Fresh, quick and healthy!

Follow Sue PIpal, master chef and gardener and www.eatthriveheal.com

I'm in the Mood for Soup!

With the first autumn cold weather, I find that my thoughts turn to soups and stews.  This week I've been cooking cold-weather soups that are so chock full of hearty ingredients that you could almost call them stews, if it weren't for the broth. 

Cod, Kale and Bacon Soup

You can serve a salad with this if you wish, but this healthy soup is really pretty much a one dish meal.  For ease, why not just slice a couple of avocados in half, fill the cavities with fresh squeezed lemon juice, and fresh ground sea salt and black pepper.  That's all you really need.

3 T olive oil
1 onion chopped medium-fine
2 cups celery chopped medium-fine
1 garlic clove minced
32 oz organic chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 t thyme dried
1 15 oz can organic diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can organic garbanzo beans drained and thoroughly rinsed (for easier digestion)
1 lb cod fillets frozen or fresh (I used Costco frozen Wild Alaskan Cod)
8 c organic kale rough chopped
Fresh ground Himalayan pink sea salt and black pepper to taste  (Costco sells these in grinders)
4 strips bacon sliced every 1/2 inch (be sure to get hormone and antibiotic-free bacon that is cured with naturally occurring salts--available at Whole Foods)

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the onions, celery and garlic and saute until vegetables begin to soften.  Pour in the broth and add the bay leaf, thyme, tomatoes and garbanzo beans.  Simmer for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, put the bacon in a frying pan and fry until crisp and golden-brown.  Add the cod, kale, salt and pepper to the soup until cod is cooked.  Serve in bowls and sprinkle bacon pieces over the top.  

Be sure to follow Sue Piple.  Master gardener, chef and writer at Eat Thrive Heal.

What to make with Tomatoes

It is that time of year. Tomatoes everywhere.  We love to pick them right off the vines and make a delicious salad.  Of course you can get heirloom tomatoes at your local farmers market too.

Here is our fav salad at the moment.

• Fresh tomatoes
• Basil or small sliced onions
• Red onion 
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil whisked together with 1/2 tsp lemon drizzle with a pinch of crushed thyme

Or Soup.

• Saute Celery and onion till soft (about 15 min) in 1 cup of chicken stock and 1/4 tsp thyme
• Add 8 cups of water
• Add a dozen  tomatoes 
• Cook for 20 Min.
• Mush slightly and the skins will come off.  Remove skins
• Blend in a food processor
• Add 1/4 cup of cream and serve immediately

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