Cookies, Soup, and Consumption

Just a few exciting things to share today...  I have developed a horrible, 19th century, overly romantic cough that only reminds me of Camille-style consumption.  You know, that horrible disease that  befell upper class women of the Gilded Age, just as they were about to marry the loves of their lives?  In reality, that was tuberucolosis, but for a time, as a child, I didn't know that...it just all seemed romantic.

You know, like this scene from "Moulin Rouge" where Satine collapses.  

So tragic.

So, yeah...like that.  Except not at all really.  

But I do feel crappy and I definitely felt like the only thing that might make me feel better would be a nice, steamy bowl of chicken noodle soup.  Like my Italian grandmother and mom always made. Only one problem:  the noodles.  The pasta.  Ugh.  So what did I do?  

In the past, there were a number of things I could have done.  Well, I could have chosen the easiest of easy options and tore open a package of ramen and the salt might have killed me, but the broth would have been hot...so worth it, maybe?  Yeah, probably not.  

Or we could have ordered some soup from the local Chinese take out, which would have probably come with a side of crab rangoon, at the very least.  Yeah, MSG.  Nope, not happpening.

I could have made my mom's traditional recipe, replete with lots of noodles.  Or, I could hybridize a few recipes and come up with something new, something nutritious and comforting.  Obviously, I chose option three.  I mean, I don't think I'd do a whole blog post about Chinese take out.

I started with Rachael Ray's quick, chicken noodle soup as a base and eventually arrived at this:

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (2 turns around the pan) extra-virgin olive oil

Two big hand fulls of baby carrots (they were the only kind of carrots I had) 

1 parsnip, peeled and chopped

2 medium onions, chopped

3 ribs celery, chopped -- I made sure to take the inner most ribs of celery, where all the leaves live; 

that's where all that yummy celery flavor is 

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 bay leaves, fresh or dried

Salt and pepper

1 tsp ground cloves (my Italian grandmother put cloves in a lot of things...you'd never guess and I 

only figured it out much, much later...it made a lot of her food taste kind of sweet and was also not 

an entirely uncommon practice among Italians in her region of Italy (Marche) which is on the 

Adriatic coast

1 small can diced organic tomatoes

8 cups good quality chicken stock

1 pound chicken breasts, diced

3 handfuls or so of baby spinach (probably more..as much as you can fit in)

3 medium to large size zucchini cut into "noodles"

Zoodles!  This was my first time using them.

YUM!

A handful fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

I peeled my zucchini and had Mark take over.  He zoodled, while I cut up chicken.  Ick.  

I coated the bottom of my large dutch oven with extra virgin olive oil.

Then I started chopping up my other veggies.  I use a mini chopper for this.  I just find it a lot easier and faster when I have a large quantity of veggies that need to be chopped into small bits.  Its cheating. Whatevs.

As I chopped one group, starting with the top of the list, I dropped it into the hot pan.  This is a Ray-Ray pro-tip:  work next to the stove, so you can, as she says, "Chop and drop."  Easy-peasy.  And who would have thought the same woman who made mac and cheese with hot dogs and ketchup (seriously??!!) would have useful advice and/or recipes?  Well, I did actually.  

I worked through the remainder of the ingredient list, pausing after adding the chicken.  I added the spinach in toward the end and the zoodles waited until the very, very end.

Bottom line:  so delicious, so comforting and warm, plus a ton of leftovers.  Also, Max said it was the "best soup ever!" 

Score.

Snickerdoodles

And yes, I mentioned cookies.  Glorious, grain-free, pretty low carb COOKIES.  I made these beauties last night to bring to my mom's for a family dinner.  

Behold:

The most simple ingredient list imaginable: 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
• 1/2 cup arrowroot powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 5 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, arrowroot powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter, maple syrup, vanilla and cinnamon, until well blended.
3. Add wet ingredients to the dry, using a fork to blend until thoroughly combined.
4. Chill dough in refrigerator for a half-hour (or up to 24-hours).
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Scoop dough, one tablespoon at a time, and roll into a ball using your hands. Place dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and use a fork dipped in cinnamon flatten.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden around edges. Allow to cool on baking sheet for five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.   I would check these after nine minutes or so.  They will be soft and may not seem "done," but I've found that almond flour baked goods often don't seem done, but they firm up a lot once they cool.

Again, I know I'm doing it right when Max loves them and doesn't suspect there's less than a half cup of sweetner in the entire recipe (which supposedly yields two dozen cookies, but I must make mine big, because I made about a dozen and a half.)

Also....if you're stopping by and checking out my page...SAY HELLO!  I mean, its kinda rude not to say hi...would you not say hi if you saw me on the street?  Wouldn't you greet me if you came into my home?  

Happy snow!  

xoxo,

Tina