Vegetable Barley Soup

Well…my doctor tells me I have a sodium deficiency so I have been trying to find salty food that isn’t too fattening…I just know it’s possible. Soup seems to be a great way to get a lot of sodium in a healthy way. The recipe for this soup calls for low sodium broth but I’ve slightly modified it for more salt but I’ll note my changes for you hypertensive folks J This soup is so easy and quick but is also sooo delicious. The barley fills you up and keeps you full for a while. Mike refuses to try it because it doesn’t have meat in it but that’s okay because I have no problem eating this all week!

1 cup barley (I used instant, so much easier than boiling it for 40 minutes)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 carrots peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 package of button mushrooms, sliced

3 cans low sodium vegetable broth (I used regular)

1 cup water (I added a chicken bullion cube to this)

2 bay leaves

(I added some Lawry’s salt with parsley for good measure)

Dry spices like oregano, basil whatever you had, I just dumped a bunch in.

In a medium pan add 1 cup barley to two cups boiling water. Cook according to package directions, set aside

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook until soft. Add the carrots and celery and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook until they are soft. Add the vegetable broth, water (and boulion cube J), bay leaves, and lawry’s salt and any other herbs and spices you want. Simmer about 10 minutes. Add barley and cook another 15 minutes or so.

Remove the bay leaves and serve. Add salt and pepper to taste. YUM!

Baked Oatmeal

Hello all! We eat A LOT of cereal at our house. We regard it as its own food group most of the time. For Michael, I usually end up buying several boxes a week. I also like oatmeal and this morning, I decided to try some baked oatmeal because this recipe calls for applesauce and I just made a DELICIOUS variety and this was a fantastic opportunity to use some. This was an absolute treat. It was so easy to make and the only problem is that even though I was full…I could have eaten the whole pan. Michael ate about half the pan and he doesn’t even like oatmeal that much. Yes, it’s that good.

Baked Oatmeal

2 cups uncooked old fashioned oats

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (I like a lot!)

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup each of raisins and dried cranberries (I left these out)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ cups milk

½ cup applesauce

1 ½ tablespoons butter, melted

1 large egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl an combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir well.

Pour the whole thing into an 8 inch square baking dish and bake 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

I poured some extra applesauce over the top and it was literally the most wonderful start to the day that I could have ever asked for.

Crockpot Applesauce

Homemade Applesauce

I confess, I don’t absolutely love fruit. For me, it’s a texture thing. I love all-fruit smoothies but eating raw fruit is difficult for me. The one fruit I don’t mind eating raw is an apple but I’m VERY picky about it having ANY bruises and the texture has to be extremely crisp. That said, I am always trying to find ways to incorporate more fruit into my diet. I go and off of applesauce kicks. I don’t usually mind the texture and it’s easy to store and doesn’t go bad quickly but a nagging part of me always felt guilty about it since the kind you buy in the store has preservatives, even if it has no sugar added. Then I found this recipe for homemade applesauce. It sounds daunting, yes, but it was surprisingly easy and DELICIOUS. I can’t get enough of it. I put some on a toasted whole wheat English Muffin yesterday and I was in heaven. Also, I then put it in my baked oatmeal this morning (Recipe to come) and it was a revelation. Here’s how to do it:

Homemade Crockpot Applesauce:

5 medium Gala apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and chopped

2 medium Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, quartered, and chopped (the flavor in these babies is very prominent in the end product. If you aren’t a huge fan of tart apples, I suggest only using one and substituting another type of apple)

2 medium Honey Crisp apples peeled, cored, quartered, and chopped (My grocery store didn’t have honey crisp so I used Fuji)

Fresh Lemon Juice – I juiced two lemons

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup water.

If you are like me and work then you’ll want to do all the prep the night before.

I sat and watched a movie the night before and peeled all the apples, then sliced them using an apple slicer, then chopped the slices into small bits about the size of a dice. It was mindless and relaxing.

When that’s done, place all of the apple pieces in the crock pot, pour the fresh lemon juice over them and toss them until you are reasonably confident that they are coated. Add in the sugar and cinnamon. Pour water in the crock pot, stir the whole mess together. Now, at this point, you can turn the crock pot on and let it cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours but if you are me, you stick the pot in the fridge and go to bed and in the morning put it on heat while you go to work.

When you come home, your house will smell like apple pie and you should probably invite people over and act like that’s how your house always smells. I plan on doing this the second time around.

Makes about 4 cups of applesauce.

Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

I realize that popcorn balls are usualy a halloween or Christmas treat...But if that is the case then why does the song talk about spring? Either way it's Summer, not any of the aforementioned seasons or holidays and I have stumbled upon a recipe for popcorn balls that is so delicious and easy that you will want to make them every day.

Popcorn Balls

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
10 marshmallows
1-2 bags unbuttered popped popcorn

Directions:

Melt the butter and brown sugar over medium low heat. Once they are melted together, add the marshmallows. It's VERY important you keep the heat medium-low because I have learned, once upon a failed rice krispie, that if you heat this stuff too fast, it will turn rock hard when it cools and be completely unedible.
Sad face.

While this is melting, you can pop your popcorn. I have a fabulous popcorn popper so I don't use the bagged kind so I just sort of estimate how much I imagine 1 and half bags of popcorn would be.

Pour the melted mixture over the popcorn and stir it with a spoon - you don't want to touch it yet, it's like sugary LAVA. Once you have coated the popcorn reasonably evenly, form the popcorn into balls as big or small as you like. This makes enough to make about 10 baseball sized balls or 15 ish slightly-bigger-than-golf-ball-size.

Blondies...the new brownie.

Blondies don't get enough attention. :( Everyone knows what a brownie is but if you talk about a blondie no one knows what you are talking about. Here is a delish and easy recipe that, unsupervised, I could easily eat the whole pan. All of it. Without stopping. Seriously, it's like a caramely bite of sunshine.

1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8″ baking dish.

Melt the butter in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat; add both sugars and whisk until combined and sugar is melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
Next, in a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Slowly drizzle in the butter and sugar while whisking constantly. Then add the flour and whisk until just incorporated.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top cracks slightly and is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist pieces clinging to it. Remove to a wire rack and let cool completely. Or until you can’t stand it any more and have to dig in!

*recipe from kevinandamanda.com

Alfredo Enchiladas? Oh yes!!!!

This is a recipe I have on my blog and I made it the other night and decided thought I would transfer it over here. We love these in the Cardwell home. There are times I actually crave these which is unusual for me unless it's a dessert item. It sounds weird with the alfredo sauce, I know. But if you give it a chance you won't be disappointed.

A little more than 2 cups shredded chicken (I bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco)

1 Jar Tomatillo salsa (the green salsa)

1 container of refrigerated-type alfredo sauce (It's important to get the refrigerated kind as it has a different taste and is usually better quality than the kind in the spaghetti aisle. I used Butoni LITE by the refrigerated pasta)

A few handfuls of mexican blend shredded cheese

4-5 tortillas

Sour cream and sliced avocados for seving

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Okay, in a large bowl, mix the chicken, half the cheese, and about a cup of the tomatillo salsa until the chicken is well coated.
Spoon about 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture into the middle of each tortilla, roll each up into a burrito and place snugly in a baking dish.
In the same bowl that you mixed the chicken, mix the whole container of alfredo and the other half of the cheese and pour it over the burritos. If you want, pour a little more of the salsa over the top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is bubbling. Top with sliced avocados and sour cream!