Fresh Veggies

So some friends of ours have a gorgeous backyard complete with an amazing garden filled with a nice array of fresh veggies. They went out of town for a few weeks and I have the pleasure of picking their veggies so they don't go to waste while they're gone : D lucky me! I went over tonight and picked fresh spinach, beets, tomatoes, banana peppers, basil, rosemary, and parsley and then made the most amazing salad for dinner. I washed everything really well, tossed it together with some fresh mozzarella, turkey pepperoni, hard salami, black olives, artichoke hearts, carrots, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, and grated fresh beet over the top, added a little Newman's Own lime dressing and voila! Served with some bread from the grocery store that has whole roasted garlic cloves on it with earth balance butter.
So. Good.
Headed off to bed now with a belly full of deliciousness :)

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup and Sodium Labeling

Tonights dinner in an attempt to knock out a cold was a delicious lemon chicken orzo soup recipe I found online:
http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/1820/Greek-Chicken-And-Lemon-Soup-W102906.shtml

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup orzo pasta
1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick pieces
3 eggs
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (I doubled this I prefer more lemon flavor)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
salt and white pepper to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley


DIRECTIONS:
In a large saucepan, bring stock to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and add orzo. Cook uncovered until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Five minutes before pasta is done, add chicken.

Place eggs in mixing bowl. Whisk eggs while adding lemon juice. Stir in zest. Whisking constantly, slowly pour a ladle of the hot stock into the egg mixture to temper. (This step is very important so you don't wind up with strands of cooked egg in your soup.)

Reduce heat to very low. Then, while whisking the soup in pan, slowly pour in the egg mixture. Soup should thicken slightly. Add salt and pepper and garnish with parsley.


NUTRITION:
4 servings(values per serving)
285 calories
5 grams fat
28 grams carbohydrates
24 grams protein


So when I buy the ingredients for any recipe, I always look at labels. Three things I look for are, high fructose corn syrup, MSG and sodium content. Sodium recommendations are no more than 2300 mg/ day or 1500 mg/day for those who are salt sensitive. Watching your sodium intake is important as increased sodium intake is related to increased risk for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and hypertension. Sodium labeling can be tricky if you're just going by the disclaimer on the front of the packaging and not reading the nutrition fact label. Here are the guidelines for sodium labeling (straight from the lecture notes of my medical nutrition therapy professor, Dr. Heather Brady)
"Sodium free"- less than 5mg/ serving
"very low sodium"- 35 mg or less/serv
"low sodium"- 140 mg or less/serv
"reduced sodium"- 25% less sodium
"light in sodium"- 50% less sodium
"lightly salted"- 50% less added sodium

Keeping these terms and intake guidelines in mind when buying food for your family can help ensure your healthy meals are heart healthy too :)

Veg Sushi and Miso

Today wasn't as productive as I'd hoped, we did get some cleaning done but got side tracked running errands. We stopped at Whole Foods- I could spend all day there, everything smells and looks so good :) While we were there we picked up some tofu avocado "sushi" for dinner and miso soup mix. I'm a little disappointed with the miso we got this one is low sodium, and tastes kind of bland :-/. The sushi was great though as always :)

Pizza and Gelato

Tonight's dinner consisted of mini whole grain pita pizzas. I poured extra virgin olive oil on the pita, added a slice of tomato, some sliced kalamata olives, diced marinated artichoke hearts, chopped chicken breast, sun dried tomato basil feta cheese and some fresh mozzarella. They were baked at 350 just long enough to melt the cheese. For dessert we had banana chocolate swirl gelato. I love the talenti brand gelatos, they're so rich and flavorful, the also make fantastic sorbets, the blood orange one is my fav ;).

Chicken, cucumbers and peppers

Tonight's dinner was pan fried chicken, that I first glazed in honey mustard before coating in breadcrumbs, leftover cucumber salad from last night, and peppers that I found at Walmart- cute, colorful baby bell peppers- that I halved, removed the stem, diced capers and put them in the halves, then used a melon baller to ball out chunks of fresh mozzarella which were pressed into the peppers on top of the capers. I put these guys in a jar covered in olive oil and added basil, oregano and parsley.. Soooo yummy ;)

Cucumber Salad and Potato Leek Soup

Tonight's dinner was out of Jamie's Food Revolution cook book. The cucumber salad was just peeled and diced cucumber, chopped bacon and a homemade dill-yogurt dressing (plain yogurt, dried dill and a little salt). It's really simple but tasty :). The potato leek soup requires the following ingredients:
(serves 6-8, I cut the recipe in half for us)
-2 carrots
-2 celery stalks
-2 medium onions
-1 lb leeks
-2 cloves garlic
-1 3/4 qts chicken or vegetable broth, preferably organic (buying low sodium is always important too)
-1 lb potatoes
-olive oil
-sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Peel and roughly slice the carrots. Slice the celery. Peel and roughly chop onions. Cut the ends off the leeks, quarter them lengthways, wash them under running water and cut into 3/4 inch slices. Peel and slice the garlic. Put the broth in a saucepan and heat until boiling. Place all your chopped ingredients into a saucepan on high heat and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Add all of your chopped and sliced ingredients and mix together with a wooden spoon. Cook around 10-15 minutes with the lid askew until the carrots are softened but still hold their shape, and the onion and leeks are lightly golden. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/4 inch dice. Add the boiling broth to the vegetables. Add your potatoes. Give the soup a good stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes with the lid on.
Serving:
Remove the pan from the heat and season with salt and pepper. Serve as is or pulse with an emersion blender until smooth. Divide between serving bowls. I added fresh grated mozzarella to the top of my soup for a little extra flavor :)

Christmas Pics and Peanut Chicken

Today I took some pictures for our Christmas cards, and I can't help but giggle at her toothless smile :). There's still snow on the ground, but it was a little warmer today (almost 50*) so we had the snow for the pics without bundling up all Christmas Story like ;). After wrapping gifts and mailing gifts we both took an afternoon nap which was awesome. Dinner consisted of peanut chicken over brown rice, (which came out yummy) then we watched Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer :). Now E's in bed and I'm all snuggled up with some lemon ginger tea :).