Salsa Chicken Soup

This is a super quick chicken soup recipe and pretty healthy too. The big (UGH) diet is in full swing and so far I haven't eaten any small children or the dog, so I'd say it's going pretty good. I'm not in this to get sexy and find my lost youth I'm in it to get healthy and fit so I can play with my kids as much as they want me too. Ok perhaps that IS trying to find lost youth?

Anyway this soup whipped up pretty fast and it could be served over some polenta or alongside some crusty bread. My real husband and I ate big bowls of it and the kids had grilled cheese and then when they saw our soup they immediately wanted bowls of it too. They both like it as well, WINNER.


Salsa Chicken Soup

1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into thin slices
1 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin, more if you like it that way
1 teaspoon chili powered
1/2 teaspoon smoke paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder-or granules
1 14 1/2 ounce can of fire roasted tomatoes
1 cup of good salsa
1-2 small zucchinis, sliced in rounds or chopped smaller if you like
1/2 teaspoon of salt


in a small dutch oven cook the chicken and onion over medium high heat stirring constantly
when browned a bit add the spices and cook for about 3-4 minutes more
add the tomatoes and a can of water
stir in the salsa and the zucchinis
simmer for 5-10 minutes
taste and add salt, if you need more salt definitely add more, I think I added more cumin and paprika too because I liked the flavor together

Peace and Love--


 

Let's go to Seward Alaska!

Last week had us heading off on a road trip to Seward. While not technically that far from our house, it does involve a prolonged trip through the mountains and takes us right to the ocean. We live very close to the ocean actually but our valley is situated at the confluence of two glacier rivers and the water is so silty and the mud so sticky(dangerous!) we don't go there. Luckily fresh water abounds and we have several lakes we love to go to.


Why did we have to go to Seward? It involved this young man

and his graduation from AVTEC. He now holds a plumbing and heating certificate in the State of Alaska! Woohoo, I am a proud mama. And he cut all his hair off.

Seward is a beautiful little town, I love the mermaid on this house.

We hit the marina for a walk about of the boats

and saw a nice big eagle, he was chased off by some seagulls.

 We went to the Sealife Center where I stood them up against the wall for execution, ha! We loved the Sealife Center and I highly recommend it if you go to Seward, it is worth every penny. If you're from Alaska you get a discount too.

We saw this little seal, she is so cute. They have tanks above ground and then you can go below and see how it looks too.

here she is swimming below

and playing with kids

They have gorgeous touch tanks where the sea anemones don't close up when you touch them

but stay wonderfully open and relaxed.

 And sear stars bigger than your head.

A friend of ours was commissioned to make this statue and my boys saw it being made every week for about a year. They were super excited to see it.

good bye ocean!

On the way home we stopped at the water pipe for fresh mountain water, my kids were thrilled to spy it and stop for a refill.

This is Turnagain arm on the way home, so beautiful.

Peace and Love--



 

Just Another Meatless Monday-Grilled Green Garlic

My produce box from Full Circle this week had green garlic in it and I was wondering what to do with it. The recipe included was for a pesto and scallop dish that sounded wonderful but we were OUT of any halibut or cod to use in place of the scallops. Besides I'm still figuring out if raw garlic makes me sick like raw onions do and I didn't want to waste such great looking garlic.

Right about the time I was pondering the dilemma I fired up the grill. Inspiration hit and I decided to try grilling a few heads alongside the ribs for dinner. When they were done I mashed them into mashed potatoes for a mild yet delicious garlic mashed potatoes. I think you could pretty much use the grilled green garlic anywhere you need a dash of garlic goodness.

 Now I lived through the roasted garlic phase where everyone and their dog smelled like garlic from the copious amounts of garlic consumed. The green garlic was much more mild mannered than traditional garlic and I have nary a whiff of garlic emanating from my skin today. WHEW! 

Grilled Green Garlic

2-4 head of fresh green garlic

gas grill

trim root ends off and top greens off the green garlic

peel the outer skins off the garlic going down about one layer 

heat the gas grill for 5 minutes and scrape clean

cook the green garlic alongside whatever you happen to be grilling

when the bulbs are soft and toasty brown remove from the heat

set to cool until you can handle it safely

snip the top off and squeeze out the grilled garlic paste

use in mashed potatoes, as a spread for sandwiches, in baked potatoes or anywhere you see fit

Peace and Love--

 

The Penny Worthy Project

It's planting season! The gardens are currently being whipped to death by the nasty summer wind off the Knik Glacier, it never fails. Although it will blow itself out soon, I guess. A few windy days meant I was able to thrift shop a teeny tiny bit, yeah.

I found some cool stuff out thrift shopping this week. I was perusing through the shirt racks at my favorite little thrift store and found this workout shirt

Perfect because "the diet to end all diets" is starting Tuesday! So I grabbed it. Low and behold a few shirts down I see this

another workout shirt. Mine too, because apparently I will be working out a lot. Then three shirts later I come across one more. 

I bought all three thinking that if I end up not using them I can still sell them, the brands are all good sellers. Hopefully the cute colors and style will inspire me to work out and not give up.

I also found more food storage that is not plastic, furthering the removal of plastic disposable things from our lives. I love these Pyrex dishes for storage and now I have 3 to choose from. And the pattern Autumn Wheat, while some people don't care for it, I kind like it, how about you?

We went on a road trip this week, did you miss us? I'll be sharing our pictures from the road soon, we had a blast, just me and the boys. 

  Peace and Love--





 

Summer Projects

I decided a few weeks ago I really need to refinish the window sill in the dining room before summer. It was faded and dried from 30 years of southern exposure. Lots of wear and tear from kids and dogs and plant tables dripping on it, I'm an abusive house owner apparently.

ugly windowsill!! but look outside, guess what my summer entails??

finished, looks better than it did!

I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to fix it until it was time to be working outside but that's how it happened. When home improvement fever hits me I just roll with it, because honestly it never sticks around long enough.

Out came sand paper, rags, stain, polyurethane sealer and patience. It turned out quite nice. As soon as I finished my husband said look, I found the sander. Grrrrrr so I snatched it up and sanded the back window sill that had never gotten finished from the last remodel we did and the banister too. Might as well right? All the stuff was out and it would be quick. It was super quick with the sander.

banister

Then I turned my eye to the bathroom counter which is all maple and well sealed. It had a few dings and needed to be redone so in one brave move I attacked it.

bathroom counter, pre refinishing it looks about the same only less dents

It was not so quick in fact it took almost a week of sanding and sealing to get it done and it still doesn't look that great but now that it's summer and I NEED to get to work on outside projects.

Like this bookcase I'm priming....

HA!! I am actually working in the garden too, how can I not?


Peace and Love--



 

Just Another Meatless Monday Rhubarb Juice

Rhubarb is one of those things you just should not hate(STEPHANIE!). It's so prolific and so abundant AND SO FREE. How can you not like it? My grandmother called it pie plant but there is so much more you can make besides pie like crunch, cake, jam, jelly, sauce, fruit leather and on and on. I like to use it to make other non abundant fruits stretch out. And now I've made rhubarb juice, I think I've found a way to use up every bit of rhubarb I can grow because this is juice I will can and put it in the pantry for winter use. BOOYAH.

And because you cook down the rhubarb to make the juice, you can make a little snack cake out of the leftover rhubarb mush. Ahhh excellent a two for one recipe, I love these. The taste of rhubarb juice is so fresh and tangy with just a hint of sweet your kids will love it too.

Rhubarb Juice

3 stalks of rhubarb

3 cups of water

1/2 cup-3/4 sugar or honey---add less at first you can always add more after you taste it

1/4 of an orange

bring the water to and rhubarb to a boil

add the sugar, stir until dissolved

taste add more sugar as needed

add the orange, reduce heat cover and simmer for 15 minutes

strain through a metal sieve, save rhubarb mash

let cool 

to serve cut about half and half with cold water or cold soda water for rhubarb soda

Rhubarb Juice and Quick Rhubarb Snack Cake served to the work crew putting up my greenhouse! I love that big stump.

Quick Rhubarb Snack Cake

rhubarb mash from making juice minus the orange piece

1/4 cup of butter, melted

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 TBSP vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup flour

1 TBSP baking soda

3/4 cup sugar + 1 TBSP divided

1 pinch of nutmeg

grease an 8 inch square pan

mix the wet ingredients together, set aside

mix the dry ingredients 

add to the wet and stir until combined

scrape into the greased pan

bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes 

serve hot or warm

  Peace and Love-






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The Penny Worthy Project

A few weeks ago I challenged my husband to build us a green house out of the materials we had on hand. Basically low cost veggie growing was the desired outcome. My husband, awesome why-be-normal man that he is went to town on his planning and executing. He loves timber frame so he went that direction, mixed in a bunch of old windows we've been collecting for a few years and plans to use pallets for the lower walls. Total out of pocket so far? 40 dollars. Total hours spent about 30. We will be raising it tomorrow and hopefully I'll have tomatoes in by mid week.

I sure hope I have tomatoes in by mid week, they are getting bigger, blooming a whole lot and I even have green ones. The fun part of NOT having them in the greenhouse yet is when I carry them over to the bee hives and park them in front for some heavy pollinating! The bees go nuts and I know the plants will not be suffering from under pollination this year. In fact NOTHING will be suffering from under pollination this year.

School is now out for the boys so my thrifting time was very limited this week getting all the last week of school stuff done. I went twice but my head was not in the game. I will be garage sale-ing this weekend if I can get out alone for a while. My one find this week was this old jar,

it needs a new rubber seal but otherwise it's in perfect shape. Do you know where to get the rubber rings for old canning jars? I need a few.


And finally yesterday I asked if you spot how many Icelandic chicks were camouflaged in the woods. Here is the original 

and here is one my husband made so you can see the babies. Our total was 9!! No one guessed 9 so I'm eating the chocolate all by myself.

Peace and Love--