Healthy. Simple. Delicious.
Well, I’m so incredibly excited to have one of my beloved recipes featured on The Pioneer Woman! I’ve posted many, many recipes on this site, 48 to be exact. The recipe featured is my Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce.….I’m glad they found it as good as my friends and family! If you have a second, check out this link with …step by step instruction, very cool!!!!
Thank you missamy from Pioneer Woman!
Have a great day!
Angie
You probably have noticed that Greek yogurt has soared in popularity over the past couple of years. There are many health benefits associated with yogurt. You’ve probably heard the term “probiotic.” These are active cultures found in yogurt that is a friendly bacteria to aid our stomachs in digestion.
Non fat Greek yogurt is rich and creamy because it is triple strained, most commercial yogurts are strained only twice. This means that most of the watery whey is removed, resulting in it’s rich texture. Greek yogurt is also higher in protein and lower in sodium than other commercial yogurts.
There are many brands to choose from. My favorites are Chobani and Fage. Stonyfield Farm Organic and Yoplait make nice Greek yogurts as well.
Have a great day!
Angie
This is sooooo simple! I use a small cheat on this one. I use Better Than Bouillon for the chicken stock. I add it to pasta water to make the simple, flavorful sauce. I always keep this on hand, I just love using it in quick dishes such as this. This pasta is one of my boy’s fav’s. I serve it with roasted pork, chicken, or grilled sausage.
Add shrimp, peas, broccoli, frozen spinach…whatever you like! Top with fresh grated parmesan or romano cheese.
To start, choose a pasta…any kind you like….
½ lb. pasta, any kind, cooked according to package directions less 2 minutes. Reserve 1 ½ cups reserved pasta water before draining pasta.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large cloves fresh garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon
¼ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1) Cook pasta and reserve 1 ½ cups pasta water. Set aside.
2) Add olive oil, crushed garlic, and dried oregano to the hot pasta pot. Cook for one minute.
3) Add pasta water to pan. Add bouillon, continue to simmer. Add pasta to pot and cook for 2 minutes.
4) Remove from heat and add grated cheese and mix well. Makes about four one cup servings.
YUM! Enjoy!
Angie
My Grandma Inez always made white bean soup. It was the best tasting soup I can remember. She used ham bones or ham hocks. She was an amazing, old fashioned cook. I loved her and I miss her so much. This is a lovely way to keep her memory alive, isn’t it? I always think of her when I make it. This is my version of her white bean soup.
Don’t you love a dish you can just throw together in one pot? When using dried beans, they need to be soaked overnight, rinsed, and drained before cooking. I use a ham bone or you can use a ham hock for flavor, just like Grandma. If you don’t don’t care to use a ham bone or a hock, use chicken stock instead of water for the liquid. Make enough to freeze and enjoy later.
Here we go…
First sort the beans to remove any unwanted debris. Soak overnight. Simple put the beans in the pot you’ll be cooking them in and cover with about 3 inches of water. You can see how much they’ve increased in size through re hydrating. This will greatly decrease cooking time. Drain and rinse.
White Bean Soup with Ham Bone and Rosemary
1 pound of great northern beans, sorted, rinsed, and soaked covered with water over night
1 ½ cups celery and leaves, finely chopped
1 ½ cups onions, finely chopped
1 ½ cups carrots, finely chopped
1 ham bone or smoked ham hock
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
8 cups water
½ cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
1) Add all ingredients to the beans in the soup pot. Over medium heat, bring soup to a simmer. Cook for an hour, stirring occasionally, or until the beans are soft (this will require a taste). Remove the ham bone and pick off any meat and put into the soup, discard the bone. Add parsley. Taste before you season with salt and pepper. Makes eight servings.
Enjoy!
Angie
These are red beans. You can see that some of the beans on the right do not look like they’ve been soaked. I soaked them overnight and what should have taken only about 40 minutes of cooking (per the recipe) took 5 hours! It’s not the fault of the recipe. The beans may have been on the shelf for a very long time. The end result was very good, but would be most discouraging to someone trying for the first time.
These are great northern beans. I’ve always had good luck with this variety. I’m thinking too, that it’s a very popular bean, so a much higher turnover than the red beans. Anyway, these took between 45-60 minutes of cooking and they were perfect.
Please remember that when using dried beans cooking times can greatly vary. The next time I use dried red beans, I will soak them for 48 hours.
Look for one of my favorite old fashioned soups this week!
Have a great night!
Angie
That’s it. We’re done.
Using a slotted spoon, remove as much of the bones and vegetables as possible. Place a fine strainer over a bowl and carefully pour or ladel the stock into the bowl through the strainer.
Well, he seems quite comfortable….
I did not use the zoom on my camera, I was about 2 feet away from this chubby bunny…plenty of winter “stores,” he must be a regular customer at my feeder. Can you guess where he is?
Why, under my neighbor Mary’s grill, of course! He clearly doesn’t realize that I’m bit of a cook. (don’t worry, if I had to forage for my meats, I’d be a vegetarian) This bunny was so tame, I was able to give him a celery stick and some sunflower seeds and he didn’t budge!
I am so pleased that I have so much nature around me, even in the city. I love to feed the birds, squirrels, and bunnies.
Have a great weekend!
Angie
Well, adults too! What’s not to love about pasta? It’s quick cooking, lends itself very well to flavorings and ingredients. It’s offered in many varieties other than semolina wheat for those of you who have a dietary wheat restriction. You can do a million things with it. You can put it into soups, main vegetarian dishes, old world Italian pasta with meat dishes, and salads, just to name a few. The beauty of so many different shapes and sizes of pasta would be that for the most part, their interchangeable in recipes. My boys favor curly pastas as well as the mini ravioli or tortellini pasta. It’s simply a FUN thing to eat. I just love that!
In addition to soups and breads for upcoming posts, I want to also share some of my favorite simple and healthy pasta side dishes. Try my Simple Garlic Spaghetti. You will notice that it has very few ingredients. I don’t know about you, but the fewer the ingredients the better for my guys. The flavors here are very basic: tomato, garlic, and parmesan cheese….soooo delicious! Serve with any simple roasted or grilled meat or enjoy as a vegetarian main dish and serve with a yummy salad with my Light and Creamy Yogurt Ranch Dressing. I do not buy bottled dressings anymore, there are way to many ingredients in them I cannot pronounce. There is no need in the human body for that.
Let us all strive to get back to whole, simple foods. I strive each and every week to give you just that.
Healthy eating everyone:-)
Angie
6 large eggs, hard boiled
½ cup finely chopped celery with leaves
1/3 cup finely chopped sweet onion
3 tablespoons plain non fat yogurt
3 tablespoons vanilla non fat yogurt
3 tablespoons yellow mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
½ teaspoon ground celery seed
2 pinches salt
1 pinch pepper
1) While the eggs are cooking (instructions below), add finely chopped onion and celery with leaves to a medium size mixing bowl. In a small mixing bowl, add the plain and vanilla yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard, celery seed, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
2) When the timer goes off, bring the pan to the sink and run cold water over the eggs until cool enough to handle and remove shells. Finely chop the eggs. If you have a Pampered Chef food chopper, use it here! Place chopped eggs into the bowl with the celery and onion. Pour dressing into bowl and gently mix all ingredients until well combined. Immediately refrigerate unused salad. Makes about four ½ cup servings.
*Serve open faced over toast.
Hard boiled eggs. Simple right? Not necessarily. Ever had them come out greenish? Not very appetizing! My mother-in-law Patricia told me how to make them and I’ve done it her way ever since. It’s very simple and easy to remember.
Place your eggs in a medium size pan that has a tight fitting lid. Cover the eggs with cold water. (do not cover the pan with the lid just yet) Bring to a full boil. Remove from heat and immediately cover with the lid. Set the timer for 11 minutes. When timer goes off pour water into sink and run cold water over the eggs. Break shells and remove. Wha-la!
Perfect eggs.
Stay warm!
Angie
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