Chicken Tikki Masala inspired chicken

Chicken Tikki Masala inspired chicken

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons pepper, cumin, turmeric

1 teaspoon ginger, crushed fennel

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, onion powder, cinnamon 

cayenne pepper to taste

(or you can use masala, I just didn't have any)

1lb boneless thin pieces of chicken (about 8 chicken tenders)

1 can of diced tomatoes

2/3 cup of heavy cream

1. Stir together salt, white pepper, cumin, turmeric, ground ginger, crushed fennel seed, cinnamon, garlic powder, onion powder in a small dish. Sprinkle chicken 1/2 the spice mix in a bag and let marinate for what time you have. 
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil with one tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, cook the chicken until browned, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a plate. Dice chicken and sprinkle with the rest of spice mix.
3. Add diced onion to pan and stir occasionally. once onion is soft add garlic. continue cooking, stirring often, until starting to brown. Add the diced tomatoes and juices. cook until some of the liquid evaporates (5 minutes) then put in the diced chicken and drippings.
4. Bring to a simmer, stirring stirring often, until thickened and the onion is tender, 3 to 5 minutes.
5. Stir in cream.
6. Bring to a simmer and cook over medium-low heat until the chicken is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes.

Juice Soda

So I've all the sudden started craving Soda. Like crazy. Probably, because of my pregnancy and wanting something to settle my stomach.
Anyways, Most soda's just seem gross to me, because it is. Affordable soda's are basically corn syrup in a can, expensive soda is usually cane sugar in a can, and diet soda is a chemistry lab... and gross (really, I think artificial sweeteners in soda are the grossest things ever, plus they have been shown to hurt your body quicker then sugar and make you more hungry.
Anyways, I found a great solution for making my own 'soda'
It is inspired from a childhood of mixing lemonade and sprite.
Take basic club soda and mix it with your favorite juice! yea!
My favorite is Simply Lemonade's raspberry lemonade and soda (yes, I know lemonade has sugar, but still less then fruit sodas)
I go half and half juice club soda, but do what you like.
the Minute Maid 100% juices work well too if you want a little sweeter juice.
note* make sure the 'juice' you buy is actually juice. There are a lot of 'juices' that are actually mostly water and sugar/corn syrup that try to pretend to be healthy.

Lentil Pie (Meatless Shepherd's Pie)

Its been a while.
Well, this meal, although plain sounding, has inspired me to get back to posting.
Growing up I loved it when my mom made Shepherd's pie. It had meat, peas, and mashed potatoes topped with cheese.
Anyways, not only is ground beef fatty, most ground beef that I will consider eating also expensive.
So that brings me to this great discovery. I was thinking how much I wanted Sheppard's pie, how little I wanted to go to the store, and how much I would rather not eat something that I was going to regret later. I've used beans to substitute as meat, but that was not a good solution for me (especially because I wanted dinner soon)
I also have been thinking I need to start using my lentil's more.
So I, nervously, decided to look-up meatless Shepherd's pie online to see if it used lentils. To my satisfaction there were lots of recipes for a lentil based Shepherd's Pie.
So I picked the one, and modified it quite a bit so I thought it would taste good. (note: the sad truth is that a lot of meatless, low fat, or 'healthy' recipe's online go a little to far for me i.e. no fats whatsoever or no salt which for me just makes a meal that would otherwise be delicious taste like dry mush.)

Anyways, I made this meal, honestly, kind of worried it would taste like so many other 'meatless' meat dishes I've had (like chalk) and it ended up Moist and Yummy! In fact I think I like it more then shepherd's pie with meat.

Here's the ingredients and how to make it

1/2 pound brown/green lentils
Spices to taste:
Sage
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Dried oregano
Cumin
turmeric
1 1/2 tsp salt/ celery salt
lots of pepper
1 half med. onion, diced
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
Vegetables of you choice (I like peas and carrots)
4 Russell potatoes
1/2 sour cream
1/4 cup milk (or enough to make the potatoes smooth)
salt to taste
3 tablespoons butter to taste
1/3 cup shredded cheese(optional)

Preparation:
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash, peel (optional) and dice potatoes and boil until soft. once potatoes break apart easily, drain and in a mixing bowl beat the potatoes, cream, butter, salt and milk with a mixer until smooth and airy.
Meanwhile, Cook Lentils according to directions, except add the spices to the water you boil the lentils in. mash and set aside.
Once lentil are done saute onion and garlic in the olive oil over med heat until the onion barley start to soften (about a min). mix in the oil/onion/garlic with the lentils Put the lentil mixture in a lightly oiled casserole dish.

Top with diced or small vegetables of your choice. Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the mashed lentils top with cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
+we eat our with ketchup... It make it extra yummy.

Advice

It’s been a while, but once again a visit to my home has inspired me to update this blog. During this trip, I visited my parents who have decided to have a healthier diet. So instead of just posting a recipe I’ve decided to just share a couple of tips that has really helped me in trying to eat just a little bit healthier than I did. (I also have my basic rules in my first post if you want more)
Advice for changing your eating style
1. Join a community or get to know someone who you can share recipes from. I have always wanted to eat a little healthier then I did, but it wasn’t until I married Jacob and got to know his mom that I really felt I knew how to sustain a healthier diet. When changing your diet; I think the biggest factor of whether or not you are going to continue to eat healthier is if you have your families support and someone to show you how to live healthier in an enjoyable manner.
2. Don’t make food punishment! This advice goes two ways. First and foremost, is if you are changing your diet make sure that you have SEVERAL meals that you like, are simple to make, and that taste good and are satisfying to you that fit your new diet. If you go into eating healthier and don’t know what to eat or worse eat meals you don’t actually think tastes good or satisfies you, you will fail. Second, don’t make your new diet punishment for you. Telling yourself over and over that you can’t eat this or that even though you want it because you are ‘fat’ or ‘unhealthy’ is mean to yourself and your self esteem. It is good and right to make guidelines, but if not eating sugar for example is making you feel like you are in prison, maybe you should ease-up on that rule and instead say, I will have X but I will only have so much, or I can have sweets but only if they don’t contain highly processed sugars like corn syrup.
3. Figure out what you have time and budget for. I would like to eat all organic for personal reasons, but I don’t because I would not be able to afford some of the meals and fruits I love if I were to go all organic. For me budget is more important than time it takes to cook and variety is more important than eating all organic. In other words adjust what you buy to what you need. If you work full time and have a busy schedule, perhaps speeding a little more for healthy quick foods is worth it. In short, know your budget and time limits and adjust figure out how you personally can easily eat healthier. Making your own sprouted wheat bread is wonderful, but if you don’t have the time for it, buy it. Eating all organic and local is great, but if you don’t have a way to make it work financially don’t sweat it. Do the best you can with what you have.
4. Take steps. Along with the above, realize eating habits take time. If you are happy and your body reacts well to a 180 turn around in your diet, fine, but for me and for the people I’ve seen permanently change their diet it has come through steps. Make little changes, and then continue to make small changes for the better over time. Not only will this make changing your diet easier, it will give you a long term path to follow and it will be easier on your body. For example, I ate lots of meat growing-up, so when I tried not to eat any meat for a month, I felt gross. My body wasn’t ready for a sudden drop in animal fats and protein. So I ate more chicken and fish and learned to reduce meat gradually. Also, a key note in this, is I listened to my body. I noticed I was getting dizzy and craving meat more and more, so I bought chicken and ate it.
5. Don’t trust advertising! News flash, packaging and advertisements are there to get you to buy there product, not to help you make the best decision for you and your family. Just because a box or a packages looks or says healthy does NOT mean it actually is. A good example of this is my bread rant. Just because a bread has double fiber, whole grain, and all natural doesn’t mean it doesn’t have fillers that are bad for you or make you hungrier then you actually are. If you are going to buy something look at the ingredient list, does it ONLY have basic kitchen ingredients? If it does then you can look at the amount of sugar and fat.
6. If you can, make it yourself! Honestly, making your meals 100% from scratch will probably help you eat healthier more than anything else. You will know exactly what you are eating and you can adjust recipes. When you making your favorite muffins you can use a ¼ cup less sugar or substitute honey or jam for sugar. You can use olive oil instead of bacon fat. Additionally, by not having pre-made food on hand, you’ll think twice about unneeded snacking, because you have to put forth time and effort to prepare the food.
7. I’ve said this before, Not all sugar and fats are the same. Look at where they come from: Is it olive oil or vegetable oil? Is it honey or corn syrup? Is it animal or vegetable fat (like avocado)? Is it fruit or cane sugar?
Well those are some things I have learned and are helping me. I hope they can help someone else too.

Quick Rant about Olive Oil

Olive Oil is a really good oil to use. It is actually one of the only oils I use, but it does go rancid fairly quickly after opening. To prevent this, after you open olive oil, if you are not going to use it all withing 2 weeks; PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE! Seriously, why pay a bunch for good oil, only to have it go bad and then make your food taste bad? Yes, oil will congeal in the fridge, but the solution is just put it in regular jars so you can scoop it out.
When I first ate at Jacob's family I always wondered how his mom could make such good roasted vegetables and every time I tried to make them at my mom's house they didn't taste as good. I figured it out, it was that at my parents home oil was left out for months and at his house it was refrigerated. (salt and the vegetable themselves also make a difference too)
SO, really, smell your olive oil, if it smells, that means it probably isn't good. Olive oil should not have a strong smell.
Put your olive oil in the fridge.
End of rant.

Basic Brown Bread

It's been a while.
Anyways, I have decided it is high time I posted what I consider an essential bread recipe. This is sentiment is especially fueled by my recent visit home.
I was raised on regular store brought bread like most people, however, when I was engaged my mother-in-law opened my eyes to what real wheat bread actually taste like. Ever since (put in motion mainly by my husband's intolerance for preservatives and his hatred of corn syrup) this recipe has been the bread staple in my home. It didn't take long for me to become so used to good bread that I realized how disgusting most store bought wheat bread tastes. Also, now knowing what belongs in bread, I was shocked to see how much junk and filler is put in the general store bread (I know this is sounding harsh, but its still true). Which brings me to my visit to my family. When we came to stay at my mom's, she knowing my picky-ness with bread took me to Walmart to 'have my pick.' Knowing the chances of me finding a cheap good wheat bread there, to be next to zero, I asked if there was a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods nearby (they both actually have really good 100% wheat bread for about $2). She answered no; it was Walmart or nothing. When I saw the bread isle, a faint flicker of hope entered. The sandwich bread isle was HUGE! So I proceeded to go down checking each loaf with the 'basic ingredient's test' (which is are the ingredients something I would use in my bread). The whole isle was all the same!!! reconsideration raisin juice, corn syrup, cheep flour, sodium something or other (not salt), and phosphorus bla-blah. If it was a really expensive loaf (like five dollars) it would use sugar or 'cane juice' instead of corn syrup, but otherwise the ingredients were the same, except the more expensive brands also put oats on the top of the bread so it looks healthy. Anyways, I was disgusted and my son was anxious to get into mischief, so with a last desperate look at the store bakery bread I ended-up leaving empty handed.
Really, though, you should go down a bread isle look at the ingredients sometime.

Now to the recipe. I highly recommend if you have never made bread before, or its been a really long time, you find someone who makes good bread to teach you. Testing the bread for elasticity and learning how to kneed it, is a lot easier to do with an expert showing you. Also, the bread keeps really well frozen, so I recommend making a lot (I make 4 loafs at a time) and freeze the ones you wont eat that week. Also store the bread you are using in the fridge and it will last longer.

(this makes 2 loafs)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 ½ cups water
4-6 cups hard red wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour (or hi-gluten flour)
1 tablespoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup honey
a touch of molasses

In a large mixing bowl dissolve yeast in one cup of warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. Add honey, oil, 4 cups wheat flour, 1 cup all-purpose flour, the rest of the water and salt; mix well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Grease two 8x4 inch bread pans (if you have lecithin that makes a really good anti-sicking agent). Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into the pans. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Once risen, Bake for 20 minutes.

Lemon Rice

I recently came back from visiting my mother-in-law who is the one of the greatest examples to me of taking care of your body by eating good food. I always learn something from her whenever I visit. This time, it was a really good book. It is called "World Vegetarian" by Madhur Jaffery. There is this amazing recipe with stir-fried mushroom that I will share later, when mushroom's go on sale.
The recipe I want to share is Lemon Rice. I've used it this week as a side to lintels, fish, and potatoes and even after three meals, I wish I had more.
To make it cook 2 cups of basmati (or any long-grain rice, I used brown rice) as directed
then in a LARGE frying-pan heat 2 Tablespoons oil over med-high heat. put in 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds when the seeds 'pop' add 15 fresh curry or basil leaves. stir once then add rice with 2 teaspoons lemon rind and 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice. Enjoy!
Note: I didn't have mustard seeds or fresh curry or basil leaves. Instead I heated the oil and right before I put the rice in I put a 1/2 teaspoon curry powder, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, and lots of dried basil. It turned out just fine.