Pumpkin pie smoothie- dessert in a glass

SO YUM. I'd like to shout out to Angela over at Oh She Glows for this recipe and for Marisa- her faithful follower and my friend who introduced me to Angela's blog and to this recipe. AH-MA-ZING.

I wish I had more to show you but I couldn't resist and sucked it back faster than you could say YUMMMYYYYY.

In true Dropsie fashion, though I pledged otherwise, I ended up altering Angela's recipe just slightly as she calls for vanilla protein powder and I usually add seeds of some kind. Here's what I put in:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup canned organic pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp blackstrap molasses (unsulfured organic)
1 cup unsweetened organic vanilla almond milk
1 1/2 TB shredded flax seed
2 large ice cubes

Directions:
Start with the almond milk and the flax in the blender until the flax is really ground up (I ended up chucking mine in last and didn't grind it enough) then add the rest.

Serves 1 very happy recipient.

Nutritional highlights (amounts reflect % of recommended daily intake for quantities used):

• Pumpkin has 300% vitamin A, 9% iron, 14% fiber, also significant amounts of vitamin K, manganese, potassium, magnesium, vitamin E, vitamin C
• flax has about 4% iron, 14% fiber, and is high in omega 3 (ALA) 
• almond milk has 25% vitamin D and 30% riboflavin
• molasses has 2% iron
• cinnamon has 22% of manganese, 2% of iron
• ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg are all strongly anti-inflammatory

Pumpkin pie smoothie- dessert in a glass

Homemade chicken and vegetable soup (gluten free, dairy free, mostly organic and cheap to make!!)

This recipe probably could have fed 6-8 people, and I would say it probably cost me somewhere between 10-15$ to make. Take note- not every organic meal HAS to be costly.


It was looking like this outside:

So I really craved this:

Homemade chicken and vegetable soup (gluten free, dairy free, mostly organic and cheap to make!!)

For the broth- put the following ingredients into a big pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes:

3 organic chicken drumsticks (whether they're fresh or frozen will affect your simmering time)

leafy ends of celery (the stuff you'd usually throw out- don't!!)

1/2 red onion

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 TB basil

1/2 TB oregano

1 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp celery seed

1 tsp sea salt

generous sprinkling of fresh cracked pepper

4 cups water

At this point, it looks like this:

While that's simmering, get chopping. Pull out whatever veggies you have and chop them into tiny pieces.
By the time it's ready, it's looking like this: the chicken is starting to fall off the bone and you can see there is fat on the surface of the broth. This is what gives the soup its flavour and richness. Don't fear the fat. It's in the soup-and the chicken-for a reason...

Once that's simmered, you should either skim out the "stuff" or drain it. DON'T DRAIN OUT THE BROTH. :) You want to keep that. ;)

Everything in the pot except the chicken can be discarded (or eaten, if you can't wait). :) Once the chicken drumsticks are cool, pull off all the meat and chop it into tiny pieces. Set it aside- you only add it at the end.

Now you have your pot back on the stove with only the broth in it. Time to add:

2 1/2 cups of chopped veggies (carrots, celery, green beans and red/green peppers- whatever you have...raid your fridge)

1 small can diced tomatoes

2 cups water 

enough organic chicken stock to go with the 2 cups of water (my cubes dissolve into 2 cups of water)

Bring to boil then simmer on low until the vegetables are crisp-tender. Turn off the burner, add the following then put the lid on:

1 cup tiny pasta (I used these cute little quinoa "o's")

the chopped chicken.

It'll probably take 10-15 minutes before the noodles are soft. While they're softening, the soup is cooling and you're getting ready to eat. Serve this with a salad, maybe some gluten free garlic bread, and you can feed a ton of people for probably less than 20$!!

Hope you like it!!

Kitchen tip: the spices, veggies, pasta choices all came about from searching my fridge, pantry and spice cupboard. Don't be shy to make it even if you don't have all the ingredients- this is so versatile it can have just about anything in it. :)

Homemade chicken and vegetable soup (gluten free, dairy free, mostly organic and cheap to make!!)

Accidental gluten ingestion

Well, it seems as though I've experienced my first accidental "glutening". I went to a restaurant (buffet style) and try as I might, I did not succeed in avoiding gluten. I may have been hooped by the salad dressing, or some eejit who put the pasta salad spoon on the greens, but in the end, it got me. The symptoms were very much like "the great cracker incident" where following my inconclusive intestinal biopsy, I got cocky and decided to try eating a cracker just to see what happened. I fondly remember that time as "crackergate". Perhaps "fondly" is too strong a word. I digress. So approximately 24hrs after my meal I began the eye-splitting phase where I succumbed gradually to the effects of a catastrophic migraine. After another few hours the phase involving new and surprising gastrointestinal delights soon followed (in case you are wondering, I am currently donning my 'sarcasm suit'). With that phase seemingly on its way out (frankly, I cannot understand how it could possibly still be happening other that the fact that I am now tapping into my supply of spinal fluid to enable it) I am now firmly ensconced in "the fog". This is the place where I appear to be awake and functioning, but am actually experiencing significant trouble stringing thoughts together and I mostly just appear to those around me to be an ignoramus who simply cannot be bothered to engage in any semblance of meaningful conversation. Frankly, I'm surprised I've even been able to string these sentences together but I think it can only be explained by the singular nature of my focus: I am sitting in a dark room with no noise or any other distractions. Put me in a room with children screaming and running in circles however and you'll quickly see me change into something with the mental capacity of cream cheese.

I do hope it passes rather quickly. Meanwhile I'll do my best to avoid most people and hope they somehow fail to notice the glazed look in my eye or the faint rumble of musical delights currently coming from my small intestine.

Accidental gluten ingestion

The Bitter Truth About Sugar- watch the video

So, this weekend, I have done the amount of chopping, cooking and prepping that I usually do in a week. I'm kinda fried, to be honest. I have a lot of recipes in my noodle, but unfortunately, I am going to take a few more days to sort out exactly which worked, and which didn't!

Hope everyone is well, and I'll leave you with this. I believe that this is a med school lecture given by Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the division of Endocrinology. It's long...I get that...but if you can square away an hour and a half to watch it (think of it as movie night!!) you'll be very glad you did...

This video debunks the myths that:
1) eating fat causes fat;
2) eating fat causes heart disease;
3) that if you eat it, you better burn it or you're gonna store it (as fat)- MYTH!!
and proves the following:
4) sugar- particularly fructose (think high fructose corn syrup that is in almost EVERY processed food) - causes obesity.
4) drinking gatorade, pop (soda), and other sweetened beverages - INCLUDING FRUIT JUICE- in significant quantities makes you fat and ultimately has led to the obesity epidemic.


I really hope someone has some thoughts on this that they would like to share. The comments spot is open! :)

See you in a few days!
Kirsten

The Bitter Truth About Sugar- watch the video