Spring Fresh Chicken Soup

Spring Fresh Chicken Soup

From The Eating Clean Cookbook, by Tosca Reno

{This is our favorite, healthy version of Chicken Noodle Soup.  You get your whole grains, protein, and vegetables with this dish.  It is simple, delicious, and filling!}

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 8 cups low sodium chicken stock or vegetable stock or water
• 2 low sodium bouillon cubes
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 2 leeks, white and light green parts only, washed well and chopped coarsely
• 3 inner stalks celery leaves included, chopped coarsely
• 1 1/2-2 cups bean sprouts (sometimes I cannot find these so its great without them too)
• 1 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1.  Place stock or water in soup pot. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, add chicken (See *Note) and bouillon cubes and bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat and let simmer while you prepare vegetables.

2.  Add chopped leeks and celery and cook 10 minutes.  

3.  Remove cooked chicken from pot and let cool while soup simmers. Cut chicken into thin strips and return to pot with bean spouts and rice. Cook 3 minutes more.

4.  Add sea salt and stir. Serve immediately.

*Note: I usually have chicken ready and cooked before hand so then I do not have to cook it in the broth, I just throw it in with the rice towards the end of the directions*

By Natalie Phillipps

I have tons of healthy recipes on my health blog at www.yourbodynbalance.blogspot.com, I do have it as a private blog so either contact me through facebook or even a comment here with your email address and I can add you to my reader's list.

Italian Chicken

4-8 Chicken Breasts
8 oz Cream cheese
1 can Cream of mushroom soup
1 packet italian dressing mix

Place chicken in crock pot. Mix other ingredients together (can still be lumpy) and pour over the chicken. Cook on low 6 to 8 hours, or on high 4 hours (or until chicken is done).  Chicken can be frozen or thawed, times are for frozen chicken.

Serve over potatoes or rice.

Sara Anderson

Dinner in a Pumpkin

I love to make this in the Fall. It's easy, inexpensive, filling, and very, very good!

1 med pumpkin (or 2 small)

1 small onion, chopped

1 tsp. minced garlic

2 Tbsp oil

1-2 lbs hamburger (depending on how much meat you like)

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 1/2 c. cooked rice ( To make: 3/4 uncooked rice-not instant-, with 1 1/2 c. water)

Optional:

1 small can mushrooms

8 oz. water chestnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Sauté onion & garlic in oil. Add hamburger and brown, draining the fat. Meanwhile, cook the rice and goop out the pumpkin, saving the top to use as a lid while baking. Try to get out all the strings! (I like to save the seeds to bake later.) Combine hamburger mixture, cooked rice, and all other ingredients. Add to the pumpkin, replace the top. Bake on foil-lined baking sheet for 1 hour or until pumpkin is tender. Serve right out of the pumpkin. Can serve with rolls/cornbread and green salad.

To make it fun, you can paint or use sharpies to draw a face on the pumpkin before baking!

~ Aubree Clark

Crockpot Brown Sugar Chicken

This is one of our family's favorites--gotta love crockpots!

Crockpot Brown Sugar Chicken

Ingredients:

6-8 boneless chicken breast halves

1 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup vinegar

1/4 cup lemon-lime soda

2 tablespoons minced garlic cloves

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Throw everything in the crockpot on low 4-6 hours. You can thicken the sauce with a bit of cornstarch if you’d like. Serve over steamed rice with steamed veggies.

Amy Ellis

Italian Parmesan Chicken and Potato Bake

I'm into easy and inexpensive meals. This one is a favorite! Serve with your favorite steamed veggies or a salad. :-)

2-4 chicken breasts (if using more chicken, then just add a little more dressing and seasonings)

1-1/2 lb. potatoes (about 3), cut into thin wedges

1/4 cup Italian dressing

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

paprika

black pepper

PRE-HEAT oven to 400°F. Boil potato wedges until easily stabbed with a fork. In a skillet, brown chicken and sprinkle with paprika and black pepper to taste.

PLACE chicken and potatoes in 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with dressing; sprinkle with cheese and Italian seasoning. Cover with foil.

BAKE 30 min or until chicken is done (165ºF), removing foil after 15 min.

--Aubree Clark

Beef 'n' Biscuit Bake

This is a great quick recipe we found and tried it out for a couple friends, we had none left over. It is a really good meal all in one. I found it in the Taste of Home's Casserole Cookbook.

1 pound ground beef
1 can kidney beans rinsed and drained
1 can whole kernel corn drained
1 can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1/4 cup milk
2 TBS dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cubed process cheese (Velveeta cheese)
1 tube refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
2-3 TBS butter or margarine melted
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal

~In a large saucepan, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add the beans, corn. soup, milk, onion, chili powder, and salt; bring to a boil. Remove from heat; stir in cheese until melted.

~Transfer to a greased 2 1/2 qt baking dish. Bake, uncovered at 375 for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, brush all sides of the biscuits with butter; roll in cornmeal. Place over hot meat mixture. Bake 10-12 minutes longer or until biscuits are lightly browned. Yield: 6-8 servings.


Heather Sorenson

Fiesta Casserole

3 cups shell macaroni
1 lb. hamburger
1 onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (can also use garlic pwd. but I don't know what the measure is)

2 Tbsp. chile powder
1 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt

1 can mushroom soup
1 can tomato soup
3 cups sharp cheese (shredded)
1 cup water
1 can corn (drain off the water)

Cook and drain macaroni, set aside. In large skillet over medium heat cook hamburger, chopped onion, and garlic. Spoon off fat. (I usually cook the macaroni while I'm cooking the meat.)

Stir chile powder, worcestershire sauce, and salt into meat mixture. Cook 3 minutes.

Add mushroom soup, tomato soup, cheese, and water. Cook until bubbly.

Mix in noodles and corn. Pour into 2 casserole dishes (or whatever you can fit it in; this makes a lot of food). Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.


Hints, etc.

• This is fun to play around with on spices. My husband and I usually replace the salt with seasoning salt and add taco seasoning. If we want it more spicy we also add cayenne pepper or a minced serrano pepper.
• Doesn't have to be shell noodles. We use whatever we have on hand, i.e. elbow noodles instead of shell.
• We usually skip baking. Rather than waiting to add the noodles and corn; add them with the mushroom and tomato soup, water, and cheese. It's a little soupy and not as casseroley, but it is faster and as long as the cheese is melted, it still tastes good.
• I said this before, but this makes a ton of food. We usually cook the meat and spices in a skillet and then mix everything in our 5 qt pot.
• Finally, this does make a lot of food, but the leftovers are better than the firsts.

Enjoy! Sarah Wilcox

Meat loaf

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs beaten

1 cup of crumbs or 18 crackers(I have used both saltines and club)
1 lb burger
1/4 cup onion
salt and pepper
season salt
ketchup

~Mix milk, eggs, and crackers. Add in raw burger and onion. Salt, pepper and season salt to your own liking. We like to put in a little ketchup just a few squirts. Put into bread pans, either one big (regular size loaf pan) or two little. Put a little ketchup over the top and cook on 350 for 1- 1 1/2 hours.

This is one of our quick meals, it doesn't take long to mix it up, and then you have time to get other things done while it cooks. We love it with some fried potatoes.

Heather Sorenson

Cafe Rio Pork and Ranch Dressing

This weekend Dallin and I decided to be ambitious and try a new recipe that we got from someone he works with. I was pleasantly surprised. I like the pork at cafe rio. I know there are about a million knock off recipes out there and none of them taste Iexactly the same, but this one turned out pretty good. We also made the cafe rio rice that Tiffany Morris posted on her recipe blog, and some black beans to make burritos. I must say they turned out pretty good. The pork makes great leftovers for burritos or quesadillas or salads. Let me know what you think. Sorry about the lack of a picture on this one.

Café Rio Sweet Pork (Crock-Pot)
2 ½ pounds pork loin
minced garlic clove
garlic salt
salt
pepper
2 cups Coke
1 heaping tsp each of Dry Ground Mustard and Cumin
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 cup brown sugar

Put pork in crock pot and fill with water half way- cook on low over night (about 12 hours).

Drain liquid and add coke, garlic, dry ground mustard, cumin, salt, and pepper in the crock pot.
Put lid back on and cook on low for 4 hours. Shred pork and drain liquid. Then add enchilada sauce and brown sugar and let cook until warm.

Café Rio Dressing

1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (I made it the way the asterisk says, so I used sour cream and milk)
2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)—cut your tomatillos in half and bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees to make them a little softer
½ bunch cilantro
1 tsp onion powder
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno

Blend all the ingredients well. Refrigerate.

Amber Koecher

Fast, Easy & Healthy Homemade Spaghetti

Spaghetti

1 lb. lean ground beef or ground turkey

2 garlic cloves, minced or 1 tsp. garlic powder

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large 28oz can tomatoes

1 6oz can tomato paste fill can once with water and put in. :)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 1/2 oregano

1 tsp. basil

1 bay leaf

about 12 oz whole wheat angel hair noodles. (or whatever you like)

In a large pan brown and season meat to your liking and drain fat.(I like to cook the onions with my meat to give them more flavor and help them to soften.) Add remaining ingredients except noodles and simmer 30 minutes (or as long as you have, if you only have 5 minutes, like we usually do, that works too.). :) Cook noodles according to package directions. Put together and enjoy!! :) 

This is a very yummy, inexpensive, healthy and easy recipe. It's Makylas favorite meal! 

Feel free to call me if you have any questions.

Helga

Chicken Puffs

This is a recipe my grandma and mom make that has become one of our favorites. It's not very hard and tastes great. Sorry that the picture isn't very good. The chicken puffs taste a lot better than the picture looks. :-)

2 cans of canned chicken

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese

2 pkgs of cresent rolls

1/4 c. butter (melted)

Seasoned bread crumbs
2 packages of chicken gravy mix

Combine chicken and cream cheese in a bowl. Season the mixture (I like to use Montreal Chicken, salt, pepper, and garlic salt). Unroll the cresent rolls and place a scoop of the chicken mixture on each roll. Roll up the cresent rolls. Roll each puff in melted butter then seasoned bread crumbs. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for approximately 25 minutes. Serve with chicken gravy.

Amber Koecher

Beef Enchiladas

1 16 oz can refried beans
1 10 oz can enchilada sauce(which ever hotness you prefer)
1/2 1b hamburger
soft flour tortillas (about 6-8 depending on how full you fill them)
shredded cheese (to you likeness, we like lots)
small container of sour cream
If you want them to be a little fuller, we like to add corn and rice in the tortillas.

~Brown hamburger and drain off grease, add beans. Fill as many soft four tortillas as you prefer. Roll them up and place in a baking dish.
~In a bowl combine sour cream and enchilada sauce. Pour over the top and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 until cheese is melted, aprox. 15-20 mins.

Heather Sorenson