My Mothers Secret Chicken Soup With Rice

Chicken Soup With Rice (or Pasta)

So this recipe is from making soup with my mom when I was a kid. It's still my favorite soup. The only change I made to this recipe is I don't use bullion anymore because it has partially hydrogenated oil in it and I use orzo instead of rice. I found out recently that I have an intolerance, but I used to eat this with rice all the time and orzo is a pretty good substitute. Because this recipe does not use chicken broth or chicken bullion, you will need to have the skin on and add more salt than normal. At the bottom of this recipe is a list of soup fixes cause with soup, sometimes the broth can be a little fickle, and with those fixes you can make the broth taste exactly how you want it to.

INGREDIENTS

Chicken                       1 Whole or 2 quarters

Carrots                        4-6 large

Celery                         1 stock

Onion                          2 Big

Garlic                          6-10 cloves to taste

Sea Salt                       2-3 tbs or to taste

Ground Pepper            1 tsp

Turmeric                      1 dash

Basil                            3 dashes

Bay Leaf                     2

Mustard Powder         3 dashes

DIRECTIONS

1. Have rice or pasta cooked separately.In my opinion, you shouldn't keep your starch with the soup as it is cooked because it then makes the soup starchy.
2. In one giant pot, put all spices, chopped veggies, and chicken in.
3. Add water till all ingredients are just covered.
4. Let boil for 30-40 min.
5. Take out chicken and de-skin it and pull meat off the bone in strips or bits. (the meat should be falling off the bone and done)
6. Put strips of chicken back in the soup. Add 4-6 cups more water. Keep at a boil till veggies are soft.
7. Serve over a half cup of rice or pasta in a bowl and enjoy.
8. You can refrigerate it for a few days and if preferred you can skim the fat off the top after it's been cooled down to make it less fatty. (although they say chicken fat is quite healthy for you) 

Soup fixes:

If the broth is too sweet, add more garlic and salt.

If the broth has too much garlic, add more water and salt.

If the broth is too salty, add more water and possibly garlic.

If the broth doesn't have as much flavor as expected, add more salt.

Hope you like this soup as much as I do. Many friends have tried it and I have always gotten rave reviews.

Major Fast Food Chains Getting Rid of Pink Slime

McDonalds, Burger King, and Taco Bell are removing 'Pink Slime' from their menu!

What is Pink Slime you might ask? Well It's meat parts that are the "left overs" of the animal that no one uses and puts it through a process of pulverizing, grinding, and drenching the tissue with ammonia. Oh and it's in about 70% of all American ground beef. Yuck!

This is kind of a big deal! These fast food companies have decided to eliminate it after many years of  it being used. We are moving in the right direction! Even though we still must battle the many other things wrong with these giant food companies like soy stuffing and using mass produced meat, we are still moving in a better direction.
This is showing me that people are becoming more aware and companies are needing to move with the awareness!
Another fun thing I've been seeing in the press lately is mechanically separated poultry pictures.
Same concept as pink slime but with poultry and pork. Yeah, that pic isn't froyo, check it out!

Man that's gross! Makes anyone want to think twice before eating something without knowing what is actually in it, right?

5 Quick Tips for Eating Healthy to Help Lose Weight

5 Quick Tips For Eating Right

These tips are not only for losing weight but for a lifetime of food health. I'm giving you 5 tips on how to eat, but to lose weight, you also have to increase your exercise a bit more. Maybe that's walking a bit more than normal or going to the gym more frequently, but in some way you have to use the calories you are consuming for something! 

So here are my 5 quick tips on eating:

• 1. Fat and Carbs should stay away from each other as much as possible!  If you're planning to eat a lot of carbs in a meal, limit the fatty foods and stick to lean protein. If you're having fatty protein, limit the carbs. Carbs are any root vegetable like carrots and potatoes, fruits or breads of all sorts. Fats could be anything from butter to oil to animal skin. For example, I love  making small deli trays for a meal and I will have salami, avocado, and cheese with an apple or a small amount of whole wheat baquette. Lots of fat and protein, not many carbs. Or You could have toast with jam and some non fat greek yogurt with fruit. Lots of carbs and lean protein, but not fat.

• 2. Eat more protein! If your like me you probably need to double the amount of protein in your diet. That means lots of good animal protein like grass fed beef, Greek yogurt, lamb, organic chicken, buffalo, and plant protein like nuts, beans, peas, spinach, and broccoli.

• 3. Start making more meals at home! When you make your own food you know exactly what you're eating. Restaurants are nice but often don't have an ingredients list of what is actually in what you are eating. 

• 4. Eat cleanly! Try to stick to local and organic foods. Stay away from unfermented soy, partially hydrogenated oils, genetically modified corn, cured meat, added preservatives like nitrites, massed produced milk and mass produced animal protein. If it comes in a box or a bag be wary and look at the ingredients. If the item in the store you want to buy has an ingredients list that makes you tired to read it, put it down and walk away! It probably has been so over processed that a lab rat wouldn't eat it. 

• 5. Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full! Simple, but at times of social gatherings like thanksgiving, holiday meals, or restaurant dates,  it's hard to realize when to stop. Sometimes I walk away being so full, I feel like a whale. Try to avoid this. 

So there it is! This is what any good trainer would tell you and it's all free from me. Enjoy and good luck with all those new years resolutions for 2012!