Soup

Look at what I saw under the 6 weirdest, scariest processed foods article...condensed soup. Although eating them in my opinion is just plain bland and gross (as is incorporating them into dishes) they are terrifying little cans of who knows what! The article focuses on the sodium aspect, it says,

"Ah, soup. It’s the food mom used to feed us when we were sick. Every child has fond memories of being nursed back to health by sipping at the warm, nutritious broth of chicken noodle soup. Of course, mom probably didn’t realize at the time that she was setting you up for a future of high blood pressure and kidney failure. Because if she fed you condensed soup from a can, she was loading your young body up with insanely high amounts of sodium.

How insanely high, you ask? Well, consider that a mere half-cup of Campbell’s Vegetable Soup contains a heart-stopping 890 mg of sodium, or roughly 37 percent of your daily recommended sodium intake. But wait, there’s more! The typical Campbell’s soup can contains one-and-a-half cups of soup, meaning that one can of soup contains more than 90 percent of your daily recommended sodium intake."

Here is the link to the original article

Next up on the recipe gifts... another soup one. Broccoli and White Bean (after I get a pic of it!)

Pot Pie

When I became a healthy eater I pretty much said goodbye to pot pies. It was a sad thing for me because I really loved those trans fat loaded frozen ones. Look at this ingredients list!! Homemade ones call for shortening, gravy, cream of such and such and so on so I never really attempted. The latest Vegetarian Times came to my mailbox with 2... yes 2 pot pie recipes. I searched online for a whole wheat pie crust and the adventure began. I made adaptions to the recipe since I didn't have some things on hand. First, here is the whole wheat crust recipe.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

½ cup unbleached flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ tsp salt
1 TBL sugar
5 TBL butter, cold and cut into a few pieces
4-5 TBL cold water
Pretty basic, mix dry cut in butter squash around and then add water, this is a good time to get your hands dirty with dough! Next time I'm putting rosemary and maybe sage in the recipe (that is what the veg. times recipe had)

The Filling
2 med. diced potatoes
2 Large carrots, chopped
1/4 cup raw soy sauce (I was nearly out so I added only 1 tsp!)
several garlic cloves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or chili powder)
1 onion
some red pepper
1 cup each chopped veggies: broccoli, peas, corn, zucchini, green beans... whatever you have
1/4 cup unbleached flour
2 cups veggie broth
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
some beans, literally i just dumped in some black and red I had leftover in the fridge
4 oz cream cheese, I actually used what was left of (2 TBL) of my yogurt cheese
salt/pepper
{The original recipe also had 1 tsp hoisn sauce and 3 TBL red wine}

Cook potatoes and carrots in large bot of boiling water for about 10 minutes.
Saute everything starting with onions and working up to more sensitive veggies (peas and garlic) all in one giant pan. Push veggies to the side and add a little oil or butter and the flour. Stir it up to make a roux, until smooth. Stir into veggies. Add the broth, potatoes, carrots, soy sauce, spices and everything else. Remove from heat.
This crust recipe (plus a tiny extra from another pie) covered the bottom and sides of my round casserole dish and another piece ontop. Construct your pot pie and place the filling inside. Cover with crust and poke or slice for air holes. Bake for 45 minutes at 350. Let it stand for 10 minutes after that. Try not to burn your fingers sneaking bits of crust before it cools.