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A Recipe: Chicken and Gluten-free Dumplings with Fresh Herbs

Jenny — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 03:41:50 +0000

Gluten-free chicken and dumplings swimming in a salty, creamy broth of herbs and aromatic vegetables found its way to our kitchen a few weeks ago. A cold-weather food, good for the changing of the seasons, gluten-free chicken and dumplings can satisfy hungry bellies on chilly autumn evenings – fulfilling the roles of both company food and comfort food in one ladle full of thick stew dripping with wholesome fats and dotted by peas, carrots and celery.

A combination of rice, sorghum and tapioca, these gluten-free dumplings are dense, but savory – made even more special by the inclusion of minced fresh herbs: parsley, chives, thyme and celery leaves which are all too often wasted for want of knowledge as to their use. Even for those who don’t need or care to adhere to a gluten-free diet, the inclusion of gluten-free grains and pseudocereals can bring beautiful variation to the supper table, and with that variation in flavor, texture and appearance also comes variation in nutritive value – ensuring that variety in your diet can help to fuel your body better. Quinoa is a good source of folate, magnesium and phosphorus, while rice offers some thiamin and a good deal of manganese. Millet provides some vitamin B6 and manganese, too. Buckwheat, a pseudocereal, is rich in magnesium and the flavonoid rutin; moreover, it’s a very good source of the enzyme phytase making it an excellent addition to gluten-free flour and grain mixes which can otherwise by high in the antinutrients, but relatively low in phytase – the enzyme that, once activated, helps to degrade food phytate rendering grain’s full complement of minerals a little more available to the body. For this reason, I call for soaking the dumpling dough in buttermilk for several hours prior to cooking the stew – preserving old world techniques and maximizing nutritive value where we can.

Of course, about twenty to thirty percent of Nourished Kitchen readers avoid gluten-containing grains or grains altogether. Indeed, my family is largely gluten-free and I credit a gluten-free diet with helping my body to not only recover from hyperthyroidism, but also to conceive my son. It was at the direction of my endocrinologist who suggested a gluten-free diet might aid in the recovery from the distress that years of thyroid disease had wrought on my body. Of course, after years of healing my gut through fermented foods, bone broth and other nutrient-dense whole foods, I’m able to tolerate a a small amount of properly prepared cereal grains – a true sourdough, soaked or sprouted breads and flours, just as my naturopath suggested I might. We talked a bit about my history with gluten-free foods on a recent interview for Transform Your Health with Dr. Josh Axe, where I was reminded that while about 1 in 133 people suffer from true celiac disease, about 1 in 7 suffers from gluten intolerance on some level and that gluten intolerance can manifest itself in many ways. So, gluten-free readers, you’re not alone – not by a long shot. And after much begging and pleading in our recent reader survey (you can still weigh in, by the way), I’ve listened and will share more of my tried-and-true nourishing, gluten- and grain-free recipes.

Enjoy. This pot of steaming, creamy stew flecked with fresh herbs, pastured chicken and gluten-free dumplings is for you.

Gluten-free Chicken and Dumplings

Gluten-free chicken and dumplings is rich with broth, fresh herbs and aromatic vegetables, for a bit of variation, consider omitting bacon and adding two cups chopped wild mushrooms – any will do, but I’m particularly fond of chanterelles in this dish.

Ingredients for Gluten-free Chicken and Dumplings

For the gluten-free dumplings:

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
1/3 cup buttermilk* (see sources for a starter)
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter** (see sources)
1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
1/4 cup finely minced fresh herbs (chives, thyme, parsley, celery leaves etc.)

For the soup:

2 tablespoons butter** (see sources)
4 ounces pastured bacon, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 1/2 to 2 quarts fresh chicken broth
1 cup fresh or frozen English peas
1/2 cup finely minced herbs (chives, thyme, parsley, sage, celery leaves etc.)

Method for Gluten-free Chicken and Dumplings

Preparing the dumplings:

Stir brown rice flour, sorghum flour, almond meal, buckwheat and tapioca flour together, then pour buttermilk into the flour and stir the mixture together until it resembles cornmeal. Set it aside, covered, for about eight hours or overnight.
After the dumpling dough has soaked overnight or about eight hours in buttermilk, mix remaining ingredients into the dough and form the dough by hand into balls about one-half to thee-quarters inch in diameter. Set them aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

Finishing the soup:

Melt two tablespoons butter in a heavy-bottomed soup pot, then add four ounces chopped bacon to the pot and cook it through. Remove the bacon from the pot and set it aside.
Toss chopped onion, celery and carrots into the pot and cook them until they become tender and fragrant, then add chopped chicken to the pot and cook for three to five minutes.
Pour in 1 1/2 to 2 quarts fresh chicken broth into the pot and simmer the soup for ten minutes, covered.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, uncover the soup pot, add 1 cup fresh or frozen English peas into the soup and drop formed dumplings, no more than three-quarters inch in diameter, into the pot. Cover the pot again and allow the dumplings to cook undisturbed for eight to ten minutes.
After eight to ten minutes, uncover the pot and stir in fresh minced herbs and reserved bacon.
Ladle into bowls and serve hot.

YIELD: about six servings.

TIME: 8 hours (soaking the dumpling dough), 30 to 40 minutes (active time)

*Substitute an equal amount of water plus two tablespoons raw cider vinegar or lemon juice. **Substitute tallow, bacon fat, pastured lard or palm kernel oil.

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A Recipe: Potato Leek Soup with Dill

Jenny — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 03:27:12 +0000

Potato Leek Soup, dotted with dill and pasture-raised bacon, may seem like an odd addition to a June post. I mean, really now, summer’s less than a week away – and I imagine all of you sipping away at icy tomato gazpachos and spooning sweet cherry sorbet into your mouths. It’s hot. It’s humid and the night air is sultry and warm where you are, isn’t it? Don’t lie to me now – I know it’s true. While you’re lounging by the grill, sending your kids to run naked through the sprinklers and collect raspberries on tall, leafy canes, I’m shivering and considering turning out the heat though it’s the middle of June dammitall. And the opening day of the little farmers market my husband and I manage was greeted by schizophrenic weather that oscillated violently between icy rain, warm sunshine and brief bouts of snow that turned into longer bouts of hail. It takes a certain ruggedness to live where I do and for the rest of you, I sure hope you’re enjoying that hot weather of yours – really.

So this post, you see, isn’t for you. Go enjoy your summery foods – your blackberry sorbets, your cucumber salads and your icy cold teas. This post is for those of you with cold toes, with snowy, sleety landscapes – those of you who live in the high country like me and those of you who dwell in that other place where seasons are upside down – the Southern Hemisphere.

You’ll find while potatoes and leeks comprise the base for this classic soup, it truly is the pasture-raised bacon that outshines them all with its smoky, saltiness. Bacon and bacon fat, a feature in many of the recipes at Nourished Kitchen, is unfairly treated. It’s unhealthy, right? It’ll clog your arteries, right? It’ll give you heart disease, right? Not so fast. It’s easy to demonize a food, and bacon and pork fat have shouldered an unfair burden. The problems stemming from the use of bacon don’t center on the food itself, but, as is often the case, how it’s produced. The practices of raising hogs on industrial farms is brutal, inhumane and gives rise to sick animals. Sick animals produce sick meat. Likewise, healthy animals produce healthy meats and pork, with it’s vitamin-rich fat, has played an important role in traditional, preindustrial cuisines around the world from Europe to Asia, Asia to South America. When hogs are raised properly, with access to sunshine and plenty of room to root around, their meat and fat becomes dense in wholesome nutrients – particularly vitamin D and monounsaturated fat (the same healthy fat found in avocado and olive oil). You can find good quality pasture-raised bacon from local ranches and farmers markets. So relish the bacon in this dish and its beautiful, characteristic seasoning it provides to the soup – it’s good for you.

Potato Leek Soup with Bacon and Fresh Dill

Potato leek soup truly satisfies and nourishes on those rainy, cold and wet days of autumn and winter (and spring and summer if you live where I live). I love the way the smoky, salty bacon pairs with the gentle and subtle flavors of potato and milk while the fragrant aroma of fresh dill brings it all together with a touch of greenery. So for those of you too busy enjoying your lemonades to appreciate a good potato leek soup recipe in the middle of June – just you wait. When the sunshine wanes and the weather goes awry in your neck of the woods, you’ll be back. I promise.(...)
Click here to read the rest of A Recipe: Potato Leek Soup with Dill (307 words)

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A Recipe: Kale & Potato Soup with Chorizo

Jenny — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:43:15 +0000

Caldo verde - a Portuguese soup classically featuring kale, potatoes and chorizo swimming in a nourishing, mineral-rich stock – is a remarkable dish. Richly flavored and deeply satisfying in a way only traditional peasant foods can manage, caldo verde is simple to prepare and a truly delightful addition to the supper table. Like all dishes – particularly soups and stews – that have found their way into the repertoire of much-loved family cooks, caldo verde is versatile: some versions include white beans, others omit carrots, some include linguiça sausage while others yet omit meat entirely.

My version of caldo verde is generously seasoned, first by dried chili peppers and then by smoked Spanish paprika – a spice with a deep, beautiful smoky and spicy scent. The addition of these spices turns the broth a brilliant, dark red which contrasts dramatically with the deep green kale and the pale, creamy flesh of fingerling potatoes. Find the smallest fingerling potatoes you can for this dish. When prepared whole instead of chopped they add visual interest to the soup bowl making for a lovely, albeit rustic, presentation at the supper table.(...)
Click here to read the rest of A Recipe: Kale & Potato Soup with Chorizo (583 words)

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10 Healthy, Nourishing School Lunches

Jenny — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:34:32 +0000

Looking for healthy school lunch ideas? School lunch has quickly become one of the most deplorable American meals – comprised of low-cost, commodity items like CAFO-raised beef, canned fruit and vegetables. Standard lunches of chocolate milk, overcooked peas and mealy french fries lack versatility in nutrients, flavor and, most importantly, they lack inspiration. So, per reader request, I’ve put together a list of ten satisfying, flavorful and nourishing meals that can be easily packed in a lunchbox, thermos or bag along with a bottle of chilled milk, fresh cider, water kefir or even milk kefir. So print this post and pin it to your fridge in preparation for next week’s lunch plans, then share your favorite and healthiest school lunches.

Day #1: Salmon Cakes

Salmon Cakes with Wasabi Mayonnaise over fresh greens
Fresh cucumbers seasoned by sesame seeds and fish sauce or tamari
Pineapple

Day #2: A Roast Beef Sandwich

Cheese, Vegetable and Grass-fed Roast Beef Sandwich on Sourdough Bread or Sprouted Wheat Bread with Homemade Mayonnaise
Sour Pickles
Sliced Apples(...)
Click here to read the rest of 10 Healthy, Nourishing School Lunches (198 words)
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Chilled Melon Soup

Jenny — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:00:24 +0000

While fresh fruit makes it to our table for dessert often, sometimes we appreciate a hint of variety, and that’s precisely what this chilled melon soup provides. Melon – we use an heirloom orange fleshed honeydew melon, though any melon will do – is simply pureed and served with fresh berries. The soup is remarkably easy to prepare and makes an elegant, wholesome finish to supper.

Melon is packed with nutrients like beta carotene while fresh berries are rich in vitamin C and dietary fiber. Both melon and berries are packed with antioxidants as well. Indeed, melon boasts an ORAC value of 315 while the rankings for blackberries and raspberries are 5,347 and 4,882, respectively. The nutrients of berries in combination with melon make for a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory food.

Unlike many of the recipes listed at Nourished Kitchen, Chilled Melon Soup is fat-free so take care to serve the soup after a rich meal with plenty of wholesome, healthy fats to maximize your body’s ability to fully absorb the soup’s nutrients. You could also spoon a bit of creme fraiche into the soup as well. Take care to choose a fully ripe melon – almost too ripe. Not only will the melon be strikingly sweet without added honey or other sugars, but it will also contain the more antioxidants than a less ripe melon.

Chilled Melon Soup Recipe

3 Overripe Orange-fleshed Honeydew Melon or Cantaloupes
¼ Cup Fresh Lemon or Lime Juice
½ Cup Fresh Blackberries
½ Cup Fresh Raspberries

Preparing Chilled Melon Soup

Remove the peel and slice the melon into large chunks.
Puree melon in a blender or food processor until it has liquified.
Gently mix in lemon or lime juice and chill the mixture in the freezer for 20 – 30 minutes.
Serve in individual bowls, garnished with fresh berries.

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Lentil Stew

Jenny — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:20:38 +0000

Lentil stew – wholesome, nourishing and filling – makes for an inexpensive and satisfying meal. Pastured bacon in all its sweet and salty smokiness provides the perfect counterpoint for the humble brown lentil in this simple soup. Carrots, onions, celery and fresh parsley complete this version of a classic lentil soup. Indeed, this recipe for lentil soup is a standby in our kitchen – especially when funds are running low and we must keep a mindful eye on our grocery bill. Served with a fresh salad of arugula or even mache and a slice of whole-grain sourdough bread, you have a simple, wholesome and flavorful meal to serve your family.

In preparing this lentil soup, we first begin by soaking the lentils. You see, lentils, like all grains and legumes, are best prepared by soaking them in a slightly acidic solution prior to cooking them . Legumes like lentils can be difficult to digest and contain antinutrients which bind up their minerals and prevent their full absorption. Soaking the lentils first ensures that your body is not only better able to digest the food, but also to better utilize their micronutrients. Lentils are particularly rich in dietary fiber and folate, but are also an excellent source of trace minerals like molybenum which may help to prevent dental caries and anemia.

This lentil stew recipe also makes use of the smoky flavor of bacon to season the humble lentils. I know you’ve been told time and time again to avoid bacon – told that it’s bad for your heart. Yet, pasture-fed pork and pastured bacon offer a beautiful alternative to forgoing bacon completely. Indeed, the fat present in bacon is largely monounsaturated – the very same type of fat found in olive oil and avocados. It is a wholesome fat. Moreover, pasture-fed bacon is a good source of fat soluble vitamins – particularly vitamin D which is essential for proper immune function.

Lastly, the lentil stew is flavored with fresh carrots, onions, celery and parsley before being served with a healthy dose of unrefined extra virgin olive oil which provides even more of that beautiful monounsaturated fat as well as natural vitamin E.

To prepare lentil stew, you’ll need the followng ingredients:

3 Cups Brown Lentils
1 Tablespoon Raw Cider Vinegar
½ lb Pastured Bacon
2 Quarts Roast Chicken Broth or Beef Stock
1 Yellow Onion, Peeled and Chopped Fine
5 Stalks Celery, Chopped Fine
5 Carrots, Peeled and Chopped Fine
1 Bunch Parsley, Stemmed and Chopped Fine
Salt, Pepper and Unrefined Extra Virgin Olive Oil to Taste

Instructions for preparing Lentil Stew:

Soak the lentils in warm water combined with cider vinegar for at least 4 hours or as long as 12.
When the lentils are finished soaking, drain them.
Chop the bacon and fry it in a seasoned cast iron skillet.
Add the onions and cook them in the bacon grease along with the carrots and celery.
Add the vegetables, bacon and lentils to a slow cooker and cover them with broth.
Cook in a slow cooker for 8 to 12 hours, adding more broth or water as necessary.
Season with fresh chopped parsley, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil to taste.
Don’t forget to compost your vegetable scraps or save them for more bone broth!

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Beef Stock: A Simple Recipe

Jenny — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:40:28 +0000

Beef stock – especially homemade beef stock is remarkably easy to prepare especially using this tried-and-true classic beef stock recipe. You don’t need purchased beef base to prepare a decent beef stock any more than you need those hateful little granules of chicken bouillon to prepare a chicken stock. Just a lazy Saturday around the house, some soup bones and vegetable scraps are all that this beef stock recipe requires.

While we mostly use roast chicken stock in our home, from time to time we mix it up by also preparing a good beef stock. The beef soup bones usually arrive in little paper packages from our meat CSA or for free at the farmers market. In this beef stock recipe, we couple those beef soup bones with leftover vegetable scraps – you know, the odds and ends of onions, the peelings from carrots and celery leaves. The inexpensive bones coupled with the vegetable scraps makes this beef stock recipe remarkably inexpensive to prepare.

A long cooking time provides ample opportunity for the wholesome nutrients present in the beef soup bones to leach out and into the water. The resulting beef stock is rich in nutrients – particularly minerals like calcium. It is also a rich source of gelatin and glucosamine chondroitin. You can read more about the benefits of bone broth.

To Prepare this Homemade Beef Stock Recipe, you’ll Need:

Several Pounds of Grass-finished Beef Soup Bones (I routinely use 5-8 lbs)

A freezer bag full of vegetable scraps (carrot peelings, onion tops, celery leaves etc. Don’t use brassicas or beets as they contribute an off-taste to the beef stock.)
Fresh, filtered water.
2 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar
2-3 Bay Leafs

Instructions for Preparing Homemade Beef Stock:

Rinse an clean the bones under clean water. Pat them dry.
Roast the bones at 400 ° F for about an hour until the bones are well-browned and fragrant. Roasting the bones ensures a good flavor in the resulting beef stock. Failure to do so may lend a sour or off-taste to the end product.
Once the bones are browned, drain off any fat.
Add the bones to a big pot along with any vegetable scraps you might have. Avoid using brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, turnips, brussels sprouts etc.) as these vegetables will lend a bitter flavor to your stock. Instead, garlic, leeks, mushrooms, onions, carrots and celery add great flavor.
Add filtered water to cover and bring to a boil. Once you’ve brought the water to a boil, add the vinegar and bay leafs.
Turn down the heat and continue to simmer for several hours. I usually simmer mine about 24 hours.
Throughout the cooking process, skim off any foam and add water as needed.
When the stock is finished simmering, filter through a fine mesh seive and bottle in mason jars. The stock should set just like gelatin, and the fat should rise to the top.
Pick off the fat and reserve it for cooking, then scoop out the gelled stock and reheat to serve as soup. Note that it’s wise to serve this stock very hot as it may gel again once it cools.

See how solid the beef stock is in the above photograph? That’s exactly how you want your stock – well-gelled and very, very nutrient dense.

This recipe is cross-posted at Real Food Wednesdays.

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Ham and Bean Soup for Your Crockpot

Jenny — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:47:50 +0000

Ham and bean soup: it’s just about as simple as it can get and it takes such little time as this particularly version of ham and bean soup is cooked in a crockpot. I love how the mildness of tender white beans complements the striking, sweet smokiness of a pastured ham hock in a beautiful and classic combination that has nourished the commonfolk across the United States for a good, long time. I prefer to serve this classic ham and bean soup accompanied by collard greens gently sautÃ©ed in bacon fat with a cranberry masa muffin slathered in fresh butter on the side.

Simple food for simple folk, ham and bean soup is easy and inexpensive to prepare. Indeed, it should be considered one of my 10 healthy meals under $10 as this recipe easily serves 6 for about $7.50 using heritage breed, meadow-raised ham and organic ingredients. Not bad. As with most recipes I do insist on organic ingredients and properly raised meats for this ham and bean soup recipe. You see, sourcing your ingredients properly and cleanly is better for the environment, your farmer, your health and the overall flavor of your dish. Much like a real artisan cheese or homebaked bread, meadow-raised ham just tastes better. Charming and subtle nuances of flavor are missing in its factory farmed cousins.

Choosing a crockpot or slowcooker to prepare this ham and bean soup makes feeding your family nourishing foods much more simple. As a working mother, I understand the challenges mothers face in preparing nourishing meals for their families so we rely on our crockpot fairly heavily. To me, the crockpot is the modern version of the old-fashioned cauldron that would sit on the hearth bubbling away as mothers, fathers and children worked the fields and cared for the animals in times gone by.

To make ham and bean soup, you’ll need the following:

1 Meadow-raised Ham Hock
2 Cups Dry White Beans (I prefer cannellini)
1 Tablespoon Raw Cider Vinegar
1 Strip of Kombu
2 Bay Leaves
5 Carrots, Peeled and Diced
5 Celery Stalks, Peeled and Diced

Instructions for preparing Ham and Bean Soup:

Soak the beans overnight with the raw cider vinegar. Remember, the addition of the vinegar creates an acidic environment that makes the beans more digestible. Moreover, it deactivates antinutrients naturally found in legumes and pulses and thusly renders the nutrients found in white beans more bioavailable.
After the beans have soaked overnight or even as long as 24 hours, drain them and rinse them thoroughly.
Add the beans, kombu, ham hock, celery, carrot and bay leaf to a crockpot and cover with fresh, filtered water.
Cook on low for 24 hours or on high for 12 or so until the beans are fall-apart tender and the meat from the ham hock has fallen off the bone.
Serve ham and bean soup with Cranberry Masa Muffins instead of cornbread and a big pile of sauteed greens with garlic.

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10 Healthy Meals Under $10

Jenny — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:47:35 +0000

Eating well on a budget and keeping food frugal is on my mind … a lot … actually. Looking at our bank account and realizing that payday just doesn’t come fast enough, often enough or large enough has me understandably worried. Never mind the looming bills and the fact that every paycheck for the next several months is earmarked for one purpose or another. So, understandably, frugal foods are at the forefront of my thoughts, but here’s the catch: I’m not about to sacrifice quality or health in order to pinch a few pennies. So here’s ten meals that should serve at least four for less than a Hamilton. They’ll be the cornerstone of our dining table this June, I can promise you that. And a word of warning: before you comment about how pastured eggs aren’t cheap where you live or how raisins are too expensive, keep in mind that costs vary by region and the real mark of a good, frugal cook is creativity. In essence: do the best with what you have.

1. Stick-to-your Ribs Breakfast

The Meal: Baked oatmeal is dish that can be remarkably nourishing, provided you soak your oats and can tolerate grain. It is also deeply satisfying in that it’s slightly sweet, and quite filling. Top a bowl of baked oats with kefir and you’ll add the probiotic goodness of those beneficial bacteria to this meals benefits.
Shopping List: Pastured Eggs, Steel Cut Oats, Walnuts, Raisins, Maple Syrup, Sea Salt, Cinnamon, Coconut Oil and Kefir.
The Recipes: Baked Oatmeal (1/2 Batch)
The Cost: $9, serving 6.

2. Soup, Salad and Bread. What could be simpler?

The Meal: Nothing is quite so warming as a bowl of good soup and a slice of whole grain sourdough bread to sop up the broth. (New to baking sourdough? Check out these sourdough tips and tricks.) The beauty of a good soup is in its broth. The benefits of bone broth are numerous: it’s rich in micronutrients – particularly minerals like calcium. Include sweet carrots, garlic and barely cooked kale and you have a delicious, savory supper for very little money.
Shopping List: White Beans, Kale, Parmesan Cheese Rind, Bone Broth, Carrots, Celery, Onion, Bay Leaf, Unrefined Sea Salt, Ghee, Homemade Sourdough Bread, Mixed Greens, Olive Oil, Cider Vinegar, Black Pepper
The Recipes: Roast Chicken Stock, Kale and White Bean Soup, Simple Salad
The Cost: $8.50, Serving 4-6

3. Salmon Cakes on Greens

The Meal: When money gets really tight, the expensive foods are among the first to go – and that usually means wild caught fish. But, fish and salmon in particular our powerful foods – rich in health fats and fat soluble vitamins. It’s important to continue eating these nourishing foods despite budget woes. Serve the cakes over greens and with grapefruit for an extra punch of vitamin C.
The Shopping List: Canned Salmon, Coconut Oil, Garlic, Carrot, Cayenne Pepper, Pastured Eggs, Mixed Greens, Grapefruit
The Recipes: Salmon Cakes (served without Wasabi Mayonnaise)
The Cost: $8.50, Serving 4

4. German-style Sausages with Cabbage & Apples

The Meal: Easy, inexpensive and perfect for a cold, rainy afternoon – Sausages with cabbage and apples is both filling and flavorful. Take care to use pastured or grassfed meat and fresh, organic vegetables.
The Shopping List: Pastured or grassfed sausage meat, apples, ghee, carraway seeds, cabbage
The Recipes: Sausages with Apples, Red Cabbage and Carraway
The Cost: $9.75, Serving 4

5. Simple Lunch

The Meal: Enjoy a nice spinach-packed quiche and a simple salad on the side for a leisurely and inexpensive weekend lunch. Omitting the chÃ¨vre, or goat cheese, drops the price point of the quiche significantly while still retaining its tasty simplicity.
The Shopping List: Pastured Eggs, Spinach, Potatoes, Onion, Mixed Greens, Olive Oil, Cider Vinegar, Unrefined Salt, Pepper, Cream
The Recipes: Spinach & Caramelized Onion Quiche (exclude chÃ¨vre), Simple Salad
The Cost: $10, Serving 6

6. Get Those Omega-3s

The Meal: You might scoff at the idea of anchovies playing centerpiece at a meal, but they’re remarkably good for you: packed with omega-3 fatty acids and calcium. They’re inexpensive, powerfully flavorful (okay … okay … that might be a detriment for those of you who are faint of palate) and deeply nourishing. This meal is strikingly simple and easy prepare: perfect for a light lunch. Just make anchovy toasts on sourdough bread and serve them with a nice green salad.
The Shopping List: Whole Grain Flour, Anchovies, Garlic, Parsley, Oregano, Ghee, Parmesan Cheese, Mixed Greens, Olive oil, Cider Vinegar
The Recipes: Anchovy Toasts, Simple Salad
The Cost: $10, Serving 4

7. Eggs and Greens

The Meal: We eat greens at nearly every meal and like them particularly well when served for breakfast. They’re a remarkable source of vitamin K, carotenoids, dietary fiber and other good-for-you essentials. Couple them with farm fresh, pastured eggs which are replete with vitamin A, lecithin and other goodies and you have a nutritionally sound breakfast. By using tender greens reserved from a bunch or two of beets, you can reduce the cost of this meal’s preparation significantly as beet (and turnip and radish) greens are often unfortunately discarded rather than being wisely used.
The Shopping List: Pastured Eggs, Beet Greens, Mixed Dried Herbs, Ghee or Coconut Oil, Red Pepper
The Recipes: Herb Baked Eggs, SautÃ©ed Greens with Garlic
The Cost: $7.50, Serving 4

8. Humble Broth & Bread

The Meal: Broth is strikingly inexpensive and deeply nutrient-dense which is why the soup and bread combination makes it on this list threet times. It’s remarkably rich in glucosamin chondroitin which is good for your joints, collagen and a slew of minerals. Add a nice sourdough bread and some real sauerkraut and you have a classic, humble meal that nourished the peasant class for ages in Europe. Take care to top your bread with a hefty slice of fresh butter as this meal is otherwise low in fat, and you need fat to better absorb the nutrients it contains. You can even splurge a little and buy some pears or apples as a special dessert.
The Shopping List: Homemade Beef Stock, Real Sauerkraut, Turnips, Patty Pan Squash, Unrefined Sea Salt, Whole Grain Flour and Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Bread, Fresh Butter
The Cost: $6.75, Serving 4

9. Make Use of that Leftover Chicken

The Meal: We roast a chicken just about every week. While pastured chicken is decidedly expensive by comparison to conventional chicken. A pastured chicken, for example, may set you back as much as $20 while a conventional chicken will usually ring in under $5, but the price tag is worth it as it yields meals over and over and over again. This dish makes use of leftover roast chicken and seasons it nicely with ginger, garlic scapes and coconut oil. Don’t have garlic scapes? Just use plain garlic or scallions.
The Shopping List: Leftover Roast Chicken, Garlic Scapes, Coconut Oil, Ginger, Carrots, Cilantro, Leaf Lettuce, Sesame Seeds, Basil, Tamari and Fish Sauce
The Recipes: Asian Lettuce Wraps with Garlic Scapes
The Cost: $10, Serving 4-6

10.Entertain a Crowd

The Meal: Throw a soup party. Woeful economics is no excuse to stop entertaining friends and celebrating the community around you. A soup party is a simple idea. The host provides a pot of boiling stock and a loaf or two of fresh baked breads while the guests bring something simple to add to the pot. There’s only one rule: nothing can be purchased specifically for the party; rather, each guest must offer the pot something she or he already has: leftover roast chicken, a wrinkly potato, a vegetable lurking in the crisper drawer. The party is simple, humble and frugal for everyone involved. Check out my latest soup party: the Recession-proof Supper Party.
The Shopping List: Whole Grain Flour for Bread Baking, Unrefined Salt
The Recipes: Roast Chicken Stock
The Cost: $1, Serving 6-8

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Foodbuzz 24 24 24: Recession-proof Supper Party

Jenny — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:59:56 +0000

Money woes are everywhere. Healthcare costs are rising. Food costs are increasing. Electricity is higher now than it used to be. Between lost jobs, shortened working hours, missed bonuses and the ever-increasing costs of living, it seems everyone is looking for ways cut back. Of course, we’re no exception. Money’s tight for a one income family like ours. Couple a single income with a driving need to eliminate a considerable amount of medical debt, and we’re pinching pennies and trying to stretch nickels into dimes and dimes into quarters. Still, rather than bemoan these woeful economic times, we celebrate them in our home. Frugality and resourcefulness are lost arts, but are the self-same virtues that helped our forebears survive tough times with finesse and grace. These timeworn virtues are happily being rekindled. Woeful balances in checking accounts and dwindling savings don’t mean surrendering ourselves to 33-cent boxes of mac-and-cheese or giving up friendly get-togethers. On the contrary, these are times to celebrate our innate wealth – simple as it is.

Our Saturday Night Soup Party

On Saturday, our family and close friends celebrated frugality and penny pinching with style: we hosted a good, old-fashioned, frugal soup party. It’s a simple and frugal idea: the host provides a good homemade bread and a flavorful soup stock while each of the guests brings something for the pot. A stray carrot, leftover diced chicken, a bag of wilted spinach–whatever odds and ends they have lurking in crisper drawers, the freezer or on the leftover shelf each make perfect additions for the communal soup pot. There’s only one rule: no one – not the host and certainly not the guests – can spend a dime on the party. So Saturday afternoon, after a few days at the hot springs, we returned home and I heated some chicken stock and waited for the guests to arrive – wondering just how this pot of soup would turn out. One evening, we enjoyed a soup of sweet potato, peanuts and red pepper while at another party we slurped bowls full of miso-flavored broth dotted with broccoli, rice and bits of tempeh and chicken fried in coconut oil.

Saturday’s guests brought an odd assortment:

½ a Yellow Onion
1 Single Shallot from October’s final Farmers Market
½ a Bulb of Garlic on its Way to Sprouting
4 Bright Orange Carrots
A Few Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary
½ of a Celery Root (That had been sitting in someone’s crisper for several weeks)
A Celery Heart – Flaccid and Limp
4 Strips Wakame
Frozen Kale (That had been frozen sometime in the summer of 2007)
5 Small, Sprouting Potatoes
The Rind of a Wedge of Parmesan Cheese

While the kale (garden-fresh in August 0f 2007 and frozen) undoubtedly wins the prize for the oldest addition to the soup pot, the limp celery heart wins the prize for the ugliest addition to the soup pot. It was a close call between that and the gnarled half of a celery root, but the celery heart’s sheer rubbery-ness won out. While a loaf of sprouted spelt bread finished baking in the oven, I heated a tablespoon or two of butter and got to work making the soup. Our guests enjoyed glasses from half-filled bottles of wine and the kids played Candyland while the soup simmered away. Fresh bread soaked up the rich broth faintly scented with those sprigs of rosemary while we enjoyed bites of sweet carrot, potato and celery root peppered by the odd edition of those strips of the Asian seaweed wakame. You just never know how it’ll turn out, but hear me out: among all the soup parties I’ve hosted, there’s just never been a bad pot. After soup, I dug out a few jars of the nectarines we preserved in a light honey syrup this last summer and warmed them in a skillet, serving them with homemade yogurt for dessert. The meal was natural, nourishing and cheap. Plus, it was a celebration of friendship – no need for expensive foods or elaborate menus to host a successful supper party.

Host Your Own Soup Party

Want to get on board? Host your own soup party. It’s simple, fun and easy.

Invite a group of friends, reminding them that the only things they can bring are those they already have: opened bottles of wine, leftovers, lonesome carrots, limp greens and other odds and ends.
Get your soup stock ready! Make your soup stock from leftovers – a chicken carcass and vegetable stocks can make incredible, nutrient-dense soup stocks. Try my recipe for roasted chicken soup stock. Not convinced? Check out the benefits of bone broth.
Get your bread ready: soda bread, sprouted grain, sourdough, gluten-free or anything homemade.
Season your broth with the herbs brought by your guests.
Play cards, talk and celebrate as the soup simmers.
Serve and enjoy.
Celebrate your budget and don’t spend a single dime.

Check out the Pictures

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Check out the videos:

This post is part of Foodbuzz’a 24 24 24. Foodbuzz 24 24 24 showcases 24 meals prepared by 24 food bloggers all across the globe within 24 hours. You might remember my participation last September’s Criminal Supper or last month’s Farmers Market Harvest Benefit. Don’t forget to add me as a friend on Foodbuzz.

Did you like this post? Please let me know by leaving a comment. Don't forget to find Nourished Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. © Jenny for Nourished Kitchen, 2009. | Permalink |

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Harvest Supper & Benefit

Jenny — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:57:44 +0000

In the heart of ski country, spring replaces late winter slowly–so slowly that when most gardeners around the country are celebrating the season with the first shoots of asparagus or tender salad turnips or sweet peas, we’re still struggling under several feet of hard-pack, glacial mounds of snow. It is a barren and desolate landscape–lonely and cold.

Yet just over the mountains to Crested Butte’s west, there’s a vibrant organic farming community that, thanks in part to an elevation lower than our own coupled with warm summers, produces beautiful crops nearly year-round. It’s easy to forget that eating locally grown foods throughout the year is indeed possible even when your homebound due to a heavy, snowy Rocky Mountain winter.

To celebrate our local foodshed and raise funds for our farmers market, we hosted a dinner of local, seasonal foods at one of Crested Butte’s top restaurants: Timberline which some of you may recognize from MTV’s series the Hills.

Many farmers markets are run by local towns and cities or even chambers of commerce; however, several small markets are self-run not-for-profit entities. Like all not-for-profit groups, their continued existence depends on support from local residents, businesses and volunteers. Benefits, like this harvest supper, support their continued growth and are critical to expanding direct marketing efforts for small farmers.

This harvest supper benefited the Crested Butte Farmers Market – a small market with a big focus on sustainable agriculture and farm-to-consumer education. The evening’s festivities celebrated the late winter and early spring harvest of eleven local farms and ranches–most within a 50 mile radius of Crested Butte.

Local food activists, chefs, families and visitors to the community celebrated local foods and sustainable agriculture in a vibrant atmosphere seasoned with the sounds of the Two Tone String Band and peppered with children’s excited laughter. There was a single mandate for the night: enjoy.

The meal began with seasoned meatballs using grass-finished meat from just 40 miles down the road and a warmed spinach salad using the earliest greens available from a greenhouse just across the mountain pass. A smooth, vibrantly orange butternut squash soup arrived next using winter squash harvested in the late autumn and traditionally stored over winter. Indeed, it’s April and I still have a few squash from this farm resting in an unused fireplace.

After the soup and salad, we were served a choice of braised lamb with creamed sunchokes, roast chicken with blue potatoes or an assortment of vegetables including beets, greens and parsnips. All grown from biodynamic farms just across the mountain pass that rises from the town’s west end. Apple strudel served with apricot sauce–preserved from the summer’s harvest finished the meal.

Following a heady meal of so many delicious, local foods we sauntered out of the restaurant and once again into that dark, bitter cold night. The towering banks of snow glistened under the streetlights of historic Crested Butte with all its mining-era charm. In these snowy ski town evenings, it’s easy to forget that a vibrant foodshed thrives even in the bleakest, coldest mountains of winter and early spring.

There’s a lot to be said for seasonal foods. What joy is there in a mealy January tomato when you can celebrate winter with parsnips, beets and the sweet orange flesh of a winter squash? Why bother with flavorless strawberries in October when you can bite into the yielding, sweet flesh of a pear?

The meal went well. The farmers did well. The musicians did well. The chef did well. Most importantly, the market did well–earning enough funds to ensure a lively and expanded market for the summer of 2009.

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Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

Jenny — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:53:01 +0000

Using a leftover roast chicken for its meat and for the rich, mineral-dense broth made from the carcass means this soup is not only frugal, but practically free. Celery, carrots, onion and wild rice make nice additions. This dish is rich in fiber, protein and minerals.

You’ll need:

2 Quarts Homemade Roast Chicken Bone Broth
1-2 Cups Leftover Roast Chicken Meat
5 Stalks Celery, Chopped
3 Carrots, Peeled and Chopped
1 Yellow Onion, Chopped
2 Tablespoons Ghee
3 Tablespoons Dried Parsley
1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
1 Cup Wild Rice
1 Tablespoon Raw Apple Cider Vinegar or Yogurt or Whey
Salt & Pepper to Taste

Instructions:

Soak the wild rice for at least 8 hours in warm water mixed with apple cider vinegar, yogurt or whey.
Chop or shred the chicken meat.
Heat the ghee in pan, when it is hot add the vegetables.
Continue to cook the vegetables in ghee until the onions become translucent.
Add the chicken and herbs.
Continue cooking the mixture for a minute or two.
Add the bone broth.
Drain and rinse the wild rice.
Add the rice to the soup.
Continue cooking until the rice is tender (I’m at very high altitude, so this takes a long time for me. Use your judgment in cooking times).
Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Did you like this post? Please let me know by leaving a comment. Don't forget to find Nourished Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. © Jenny for Nourished Kitchen, 2009. | Permalink |