Archive for the ‘healthy’ Tag
I finally was able to motivate myself yesterday to begin the process of collecting and drying herbs from the garden. It’s one of the sadder things I have to do every year as Fall approaches. I’m forced to admit to that Winter is closing in on us and that my garden is beginning to fade away.
My better-half has been threatening to restart her daily regime of drinking healthy but unappetizing smoothies and wants some of the ingredients fresh from the garden. Today was kale day.
I started out with a trip to the garden and harvested two large baskets of freshly cut leaves. I then spent almost an hour cleaning and cutting the leaves and making sure no little critters were hanging around. We occasionally have slugs attacking some of the plants but I found only a few and they were disposed of (I hate slugs).
Then it was upstairs to wash the leaves, blanch them in boiling water, and then drop them into an ice bath. This kills any bacteria and gives the leaves a vibrant green color. Using a Salad Spinner I removed the excess water to prepare the leaves for dehydration.
I spread the leaves on a series of shelves and placed them into the dehydrator for four hours at 140 degrees.
‘In’
‘Out’
After the dehydration was complete I removed the leaves from the shelves and ground them into a fine powder with an herb grinder. Here’s the end result of all my efforts. Approximately 3/4 of a cup of clean and healthy smoothie ingredients. Drop a half teaspoon of the kale into any smoothie and you’re good to go.
‘Done’
I do have to admit I’m not a big fan of healthy smoothies. Give me a good old-fashioned, high calorie, sugar loaded, milkshake made with ice cream. You can bet I won’t be sprinkling kale on that.
‘Oh Yeah!’
This stretch of cold and rainy weather has pretty much kept me in the house for the last few days. I was starting to climb the walls a bit when I received a call from my better-half from work to discuss arrangements for dinner. I assumed from the call that she wasn’t interested in cooking and needed me to help out a little. She suggested that maybe just maybe I could make a batch of my chili.
After agreeing I checked my latest recipe for the necessary ingredients and I was out the door and on my way to get them. You need to understand something important, when I make a batch of chili I make a huge batch. My normal recipes result in upwards of ten quarts and sometime even more. It was a quick shopping trip and I returned home and got to work.
This was a new recipe I created after tasting the chili pictured below during one of our luncheon forays to Kennebunkport, Maine. That chili contained a lot of cheese and a healthy number of calories due to the ground beef and oils used in preparation. As you can see it looks incredible and tasted even better.
‘Thanks Federal Jack’
I substituted a mixture of ground chicken and turkey to replace the beef, then eliminated the oil by browning the meat in Smart Balance. It was then a simple matter of adding the remaining ingredients and spices and cooking it for a few minutes.
Most of the state of Texas would string me up by my heels for ever calling my chili, Chili. Fortunately I cook and flavor foods so they taste good to me. I like my chili super hot and use a mixture of Cayenne and Habanero peppers that bring it to life in a big way. I also use a selection of beans with different flavors and textures which apparently is a big NO NO in chili cooking circles. Just to add insult to injury I always, regardless of the ingredients, add diced potatoes. Strikes two and three as far as Texas is concerned.
A short time later I had my finished product, a batch of Black Bean & Corn chili, and to hell with all of you chili purists. It tastes exactly the way I wanted, hot as blazes, with no red meat or oil used. It looks a little like the restaurant version but certainly has more flavor and an increased level of heat. As is usually the case most restaurants serve a medium heat chili unless it happens to be a Mexican restaurant. Here it is.
We had a couple of bowls each for dinner that night and loved it. We then packaged up the rest for freezing which should supply us with five or six hearty meals this winter. Life is good.
everyuselessthing.com 