Butternut Squash Soup

This is one of my family's favorites!

Ingredients:
1 medium sized squash (butternut or acorn are our favs, but I'm sure other kinds would work, too)
1 can chicken broth (try to use one without MSG!)
1tbs butter (I know this *technically* disqualifies the recipe as dairy free, but you can omit it if you're really being strict)
1 pkg frozen meat ravioli or tortellini (cheese ravioli is yummy, too, but not dairy free.)
dried parsley flakes
1 tbs minced onion flakes
pinches of nutmeg, thyme, oregano, basil... whatever you like!
salt and pepper to taste

Step 1 is to roast the squash. Cut it lengthwise (start with the bulb, which is easier to cut because it's hollow) and scoop all the seeds out of that bulb end. Lay the cut side down in a baking dish or jellyroll pan (a cookie sheet with a lip around the edge). Pour about a half inch of water into the bottom of your dish, and bake at 375 for 45-1 hour, until the flesh is golden brown and soft. Let it cool off before scooping out the insides.


Once your squash is cooled and scooped, plop all that orange goodness in a large stock pot. Add your chicken broth, and enough water to reach your desired consistency. Some people like their soup thin, but my family like it fairly thick, so we don't add as much. Stir. Add your butter and spices. Stir. Let this simmer for a while (20 minutes, maybe?) Then my favorite part - blending! I use my trusty stick blender, but a food processor or blender would work just as well. Blend your soup until smooth.Return it to your stockpot and add your pasta, cooking it according to the package directions. I notice that the pasta tends to suck up a good amount of water, so I usually add more to return the soup to a perfect consistency. If you accidentally added too much liquid earlier on, you're in luck! The soup will thicken. :-)



I've seen other recipes that call for apple, leeks, and other goodies. Have you tried any of these? I'd love to hear how it turned out.

Baked Chicken, Wild Rice, and Yummy Honey Carrots

I had planned to make Sloppy Joes tonight, but opened the freezer to find it was empty of ground turkey. Doh! Thankfully, I had a few other meals I could whip together. This is one of our faithful standbys...

Baked Chicken
Ingredients:
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg
Your favorite seasonings (I use McCormick's Salt-Free All Purpose)

In a shallow dish, whisk one egg. In a second shallow dish, dump breadcrumbs and add seasonings. Rinse and pat dry chicken breasts. Dip breasts first in egg, then in breadcrumbs and place on a baking sheet. Top with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of seasoning.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, flip, and bake an additional 15 minutes. Make sure your chicken has time to rest after removing it from the oven.


Yummy Honey Carrots
Ingredients:
Frozen, crinkle cut carrots (or, if you're a super-woman, you can cut fresh carrots)
Honey
Dried cherries or cranberries

Cook frozen carrots according to package directions. Remove from heat and drain off liquid. Drizzle with a tablespoon or so of honey, and let this warm through. The honey should get nice and melty. Give everything a good stir so your carrots are glazed. Add in a handful of dried fruit (I used dried cranberries from Aldi).


Wild Rice:
I used a box of Rice-a-Roni, but I'd LOVE to be able to make my own healthier version. Do any of you have a wild rice recipe? Send it my way!!

All in all, this meal was a hit. Aaron cleaned his plate and asked for seconds. Actually, on the carrots, he ate his entire portion, some of Daddy's, a second full portion off the stove, then more of Mama's. These were carrots, people. Do you know how crazy that is?!?

look at his plate... do you see that the carrots were the FIRST thing to be eaten? Unbelievable! :-)

Cubed Steaks

Tonight's dinner was pretty simple, but a special request from my husband.

Ingredients:
1 pound cubed steaks
1 large white onion

that's pretty much it. I swirled a little olive oil in the bottom of our stainless steel skillet, then added the steaks over medium high heat. A pinch of black pepper over each; about 5 minutes per side or until cooked to your liking.

In a second skillet, I added the onion strips (cut your onion in half, then place cut-side down; cut slices and separate the pieces - did that make any sense?) and another swirl of olive oil over medium heat. Toss the onion in the oil and keep stirring lots to be sure the onion doesn't burn. If you start seeing burned edges on the onion strips, just add a little more oil. Cook the onions as much as you like. The more brown they get, the sweeter they'll taste.

Top the steaks with the carmelized onions. Add a squirt of ketchup or BBQ sauce for dipping. YUM! We also served sweet potato and a side salad to round out the menu.

Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken

This recipe comes from the cookbook Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking

Ingredients
3 large or 4 small chicken breasts (I actually used 4 thighs and 1 frozen breast - on a quest to use what we have on hand!)
About 2/3 cup apricot preserves (or pineapple or peach or whatever you might have in your pantry... it's all good!)
1 tsp dried minced onion flakes
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp ginger

Directions
1. Place chicken in the base of the slow cooker.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the apricot preserves, onion flakes, dijon mustard, soy sauce, and ginger. Pour over the chicken. Set the slow cooker to low and cook for 8 hours.
3. Walk away from you slow cooker until dinner time, and fight the urge to open the lid and peek every hour. Serve over rice or pasta.

This was the first meal in several days that we didn't have to argue with our two-year-old about eating. He gobbled it down!

Don't get on my case for using white rice. I know it's not the healthiest option, but we're out of brown rice at the moment. :-(

"You should have thrown a green bell pepper in for color," my husband suggested, and I agree. Maybe next time...

Top 5 Ways to Have a Balanced Diet Without Dairy

See the original article here

Especially in lacto-vegetarian families, milk often fills an important nutritional niche. It's rich in protein, vitamins and minerals, and many toddlers will drink milk even when they're not enthusiastic about solid foods. Many families worry about staying healthy and maintaining adequate nutrition when they remove dairy products from the diet. Happily, though, all the beneficial components of milk are found in a variety of common foods. Read on to learn how to balance your milk-free diet.

As always, if you are worried about your diet, it's prudent to consult with a professional nutrutionist.

1. Protein

Adults and teens require fifty to sixty grams of protein daily. Children's needs range from nine to 34 grams, depending on age.

People who eat meat even infrequently are likely to far exceed their minimum protein needs. Six ounces of lean ground beef has over 45 grams of protein. It's not difficult for vegetarians to get enough, either. Great vegetarian sources of protein include:

• Tofu (ten grams per serving);
• Legumes like kidney beans, chickpeas, or nuts (seven to nine grams per serving);
• Eggs (six grams per egg);
• Whole grains (quinoa has thirteen grams per serving; wheat and oats have six each)

2. Calcium

Calcium is a vital mineral for building bone mass, and milk is a rich source. Adult women have the highest calcium needs, at 1,000 to 1,500 mg per day, while children require between 500 and 1,300 mg.

There are two ways to replace dairy calcium in the diet. The first is to eat foods that have been supplemented with calcium or to take supplements. Common calcium-fortified foods include orange juice, cranberry juice, breakfast cereals, and soy milk.

The second is to eat nondairy foods that are especially high in calcium. Some good sources are kale, collard greens, tofu, shellfish, salmon, legumes, and amaranth.

3. Vitamin D

Vitamin D is used in the body to help absorb dietary calcium. Vitamin D deficiency can cause serious disorders of the bones like rickets and osteomalacia. These are very rare disorders, however, since vitamin D can be produced naturally by the body upon exposure to the sun. Ten to 15 minutes per day of direct sunlight is sufficient to prevent vitamin D deficiency.

Good nondairy dietary sources of vitamin D include eggs, fish, oysters, fortified cereals, and cod liver oil.

4. Riboflavin

Riboflavin, or vitamin B2, is one of the B-complex of vitamins vital for processing carbohydrates in the body. It has recently become popular as a treatment for migraine headaches, as it has been clinically shown to reduce their frequency.

While riboflavin is available in supplement form, it is not particularly difficult to get vitamin B2 from an otherwise well-balanced diet. The RDA (recommended daily allowance) for riboflavin is 0.5 mg per thousand calories eaten on a daily basis. Leafy greens, sweet potatoes, whole grains, and meat are good sources. Some cereals and breads are enriched with riboflavin as well.

5. Phosphorus

Milk is among the richest dietary sources of phosphorus, a mineral that helps regulate cell function in the body. It is a major component of bones and teeth.

Meat eaters should easily get adequate phosphorus in the diet without dairy; fatty fish, in particular, are an efficient way to meet your phosphorus needs. Vegetarians' best options for phosphorus are legumes, which are high in phosphorus but not absorbed as easily in the body as the phosphorus found in animal products. Another good source is bread, especially if the bread has been leavened with yeast.

Honey Chicken Kabobs turned Stir-fry

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, but did some tweaking...

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes (I used thighs, because it's what we had on hand, and just spent some extra time trimming the excess fat).
2 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, cut into 2 inch pieces
bell pepers, cut into 2 inch pieces (mine were yellow, orange, red, and green)

To make the marinade, I made two separate batches because I didn't want my veggies and meat to sit together for that long. I used two gallon sized zipper bags, putting the veggies in one and the meat in the other. Dump in all the liquid ingredients and give it a good shake, then add veggies and meat to their respective bags and plop in the fridge for a few hours.

The original recipe called for skewering the meat and veggies into kabobs and grilling. But with a foot of snow and sub-freezing temps outside, I wasn't that adventurous. Thus, a stir-fry was born. Remove the meat from it's honey - soy sauce bath and add it to your stirfry pan. Do the same for your veggies, but save that liquid. It makes a yummy sauce! :-)

I stirred and cooked the meat and veggies for about 15 minutes. Just check that your meat isn't pink in the middle, and you're all good.

If you want your stirfry a little more saucey, take the liquid from the veggie marinade and heat in a small sauce pan. Let it boil for a few minutes, until it reduces down a bit. You can either add this to your stirfry, or serve it on the side. Or do one of those fancy gourmet drizzle thingys you see at expensive restaurants, just for fun.

Serve over rice or noodles.

Join me in going dairy free!

I'm just beginning my dairy-free journey. Will you join me?

Send me your best recipes, tips, and news articles.

This is more than a diet, it's a lifestyle! Let's do it together.

contact me at mydairyfreediet@gmail.com