5 Minute Chicken Taco Soup

I woke up from a nap today in the mood for homemade soup....chicken fajita soup...but too hungry to take the time to thaw and cook chicken. ENTER canned chicken!

Soup is a wonderful way to use it because you can't tell it came from a can. This is a soup you can make entirely with things in your pantry.

5 Minute Chicken Taco Soup

8 cups water
8 cubes chicken boullion
1 can diced green chiles
1 13 oz can chunk chicken breast
1 can black beans [with jalapenos]
1 can corn
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp onion powder
3 Tbsp lime juice

Bring to a boil and simmer a few minutes, breaking apart the chicken chunks.

Garnish with cilantro, crumbled tortilla chips, shredded cheese.

We inhaled it.

Greek Yogurt: 1% + vanilla bean

Good news: This homemade Greek Yogurt recipe works JUST AS WELL with 1% milk! Yippee!


This time I also added a vanilla bean to the milk while it heated. That is why you see black specs in this pictures. It has a very vanilla flavor.

This is after 16 hours of incubation in the oven.

You can see the whey pooling, as it hasn't yet been strained.

This scoop shows how thick the yogurt is before straining - holds its shape in a spoon.
Second scoop

This is 1 gallon of yogurt, just placed in the strainer.

This time I strained it for 6 hours and it seemed to be the same thickness as the 2% after 8 hours.

The yield from 1 gallon of 1% milk was 11 cups of yogurt and 5 cups of whey.

11 cups is 14 - 15 servings.

1 gallon of 1% milk was $2.69.

French Silk Chocolate Pie

Have you read 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett? If not, you must!

This is my attempt at Minny's chocolate custard pie. I think I'll be making this for book club this month.

My Mom says she's never had a french silk chocolate pie that she liked, but she LIKED this one. So there. It is very rich and sweet, so I added Cool Whip to balance the flavor.

I used a regular pastry crust, but think this would also be yummy in an oreo cookie crust or in individual ramekins without crust at all.

A standing mixer (KitchenAid) comes in handy with this recipe, since there is 10 minutes of mixing the eggs.



2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate (melted, then cooled)
1/2 cup butter, softened (it must be real butter)
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs (or egg substitute)*
1 tsp vanilla
1 prepared pie crust
Cool Whip (optional)
Chocolate shavings (optional)


Melt the chocolate in a pan over hot water, then let it cool.


Cream the softened butter and gradually add in the sugar.


Stir in cooled chocolate and the vanilla.


Add 1 egg. Mix for 5 minutes on medium speed.


Add the second egg. Mix for 5 minutes on medium speed.


Pour custard into prepared pie crust and chill for at least 2 hours.


Serve with Cool Whip and chocolate shavings.


*Obviously, if you are pregnant or have a problem with raw eggs, you should use a pasteurized egg substitute.

Pumpkin Conundrum

Well, it's officially October, and with October comes PUMPKIN!

Have you ever opened a can of pumpkin puree, used 1/4 or 1/2 cup in a recipe, then wondered what to do with the rest?

I did last week. I knew I wouldn't be using it again during the week, so I loaded up two silicone ice cube trays and made pumpkin cubes. The silicone trays are great, because you can pop out the cubes by pushing the mold inside out. Just toss them in a ziploc bag and you have small amounts of pumpkin puree any time you need it.

I just had a vanilla-pumpkin protein shake after my run. YUM!

What do YOU do with your leftover pumpkin puree?

Grecian Goddess

Yes, I think I may officially be a Grecian Goddess, now that I am proficient in the making of Greek Yogurt. Really.

The other day I was taking a poll on Facebook to see which brands of Greek yogurt my friends prefer. Enter Sheena, who suggested I MAKE. MY. OWN. Wha??

Making yogurt sounds crazy, right? Turns out it's the best kept secret among yogurt eaters. For starters, it TASTES so much better than store-bought. To top it off, it is so much CHEAPER! $1.39 is what I spent. That is the price of ONE Chobani yogurt at Target. FAGE is $1.59. Even at Costco or Sam's Club, you'll still pay over .90 cents per serving. My $1.39 made about 10 - 12 servings, which is perfect, because yogurt will keep for 2-3 weeks.

Behold, Greek yogurt that is so thick and yummy, it tastes like cheesecake! I added a sliced plum and a little to Splenda to this:

I'm going to re-type the recipe and directions here, but full credit goes to Sheena's recipe, which you can see HERE. And her photos are WAY better than mine!

What you'll need:

1/2 gallon milk (I used 2%, but next time I'm going 1%)
4 Tbsp of any plain yogurt containing live active cultures (I used Yoplait Greek Plain)
A heavy-bottomed stock pot w/ lid
A thermometer
A colander
Cheese cloth or flour cloth
A bath towel

This is so simple....and my second batch (20 min) was TWICE as fast as my first batch (40 min), because I knew what I was doing without reading the instructions 5 times.

Start by mixing 4 Tbsp plain yogurt and 4 Tbsp milk in a small bowl. Set aside and let the mixture come to room temperature. (On your next batch you'll be able to use 4 Tbsp of your homemade yogurt as your starter.)

Heat your 1/2 gallon milk on Med/High heat until it reaches a boil. I take mine off the heat just before the boil, at 200 degrees. I stir often after 180, to avoid scorching/burning.


Once you reach 200 degrees, remove from heat and place in a sink with cool water. This will cool the milk in a few minutes. I found that stirring while heating, then stirring while cooling prevents any skin from forming on the top. If a skin does form, just remove and dispose of it.

Once the temperature has cooled to between 105 - 100 degrees, add your yogurt starter mixture that you set aside earlier. Stir to combine with the heated milk. (The reason you cool the milk before adding the yogurt starter is that the hot milk will kill the culture.)

Immediately place a lid on the pot and wrap the pot in a big bath towel. Place the wrapped pot inside your oven and turn on the oven light. Now let it sit in the oven for 16 hours. The towel and the light will maintain ~100 degree temp. It will still feel warm when you remove it from the oven the next day - this is when the MAGIC happens!

When you pull it out of the oven it will be totally congealed and look like the top of a yoplait yogurt. If you like regular yogurt, you can just put it in an airtight container and the fridge and eat it this way.

If you like the thick consistency of Greek yogurt, this is when you strain the whey from the yogurt. I line a colander with a flour cloth and place it over a tall pot. Dump the yogurt into the lined colander, cover and place in the fridge for 6-8 hours. Make sure the pot is tall enough that the colander won't sit in the liquid at the bottom of the pot.

This is what it looks like 8 hours later.



Ready to bottle. Ready to eat. Ready to share.

Worried about eating something that fermented overnight - out of the fridge? Guess what? ALL yogurt is made using a controlled fermentation process! Check this out:

The most important step in the yogurt making process, and what creates the characteristics consumers think of when they imagine yogurt, is the introduction of the bacteria. The bacteria consume natural milk sugars and excrete lactic acid, which causes the milk proteins to begin to curdle and create a more solid mass. At the same time, the increased acidity of the dairy is too high for most harmful bacteria, so the yogurt keeps itself clean.

Enjoy!

QUINOA: You've All Been Holding Out On Me

Who knew how yummy QUINOA was and didn't tell me?

I heard rave reviews about Karen's quinoa salad on Labor Day, so I ran right out [sent my hubby] to the local health food store to find some quinoa. Of course, he first had to Google it, because he was SURE I was pronouncing it incorrectly [I wasn't]!

Quinoa Salad with Mango and Black Beans

2 cups quinoa [cook according to package directions]
1 mango, diced
1 cup green onions, diced
1 red pepper, diced finely
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

Dressing
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil (or grapeseed oil)
2 tsp salt

I used a 50/50 blend of white and red quinoa.
Soak the quinoa for 15 minutes in cold water. Rub it well between your hands.
Rinse and drain about 3 times until the water runs clear -- this removes the saponin, which has a bitter taste (and can cause stomach problems...the saponin protects the seed while it grows, but comes off with a good rinse and scrub).

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. I added 2 chicken bouillion cubes.
Add quinoa, cover tightly with a lid and simmer for ~12 minutes.
Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes.
Fluff with fork and let cool.
I learned the hard way that it's better to err on the side of under-cooking it, rather than over-cooking it. It can get mushy.


While the quinoa cooks and cools, dice the other ingredients and make the dressing.

Mix together the veggies and dressing. Add to fluffed quinoa. Fold in black beans.

Yum!

You'd better believe I'll be experimenting with more quinoa recipes.

I'm going to order some pre-rinsed quinoa on Amazon NOW.

Blueberry Blast

I've been experimenting with ways to make my protein shakes more power-packed and filling. I found a few ideas in Runner's World this month, but changed them slightly. Here's what I had post-run tonight:

BLUEBERRY BLAST

3-4 oz fat free plain greek yogurt
4 oz fat free milk
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 Tbsp flax seeds
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
4-5 ice cubes

Would you believe there's 30 grams of protein in that? (more than a chicken breast)
Also, the flax is full of omega 3's and the oats add fiber. Good for your heart.
Lots of antioxidants in the blueberries.

The oats and flax give it a bit of an earthy taste, but it's still pretty good and the vanilla protein powder sweetened it up a bit.

I'm going to try some variations with frozen apricots and blackberries, too. Yum.