Whole Wheat French Bread

Okay so this might not really be "French Bread". I was already making bread, like I do every week, and my kids asked for Spaghetti for dinner. I thought it would be fun to have some nice garlic type bread to go with it. Since I already was kneading the dough I thought I would experiment with it to see how it turned out. I thought it looked beautiful when it came out, and my kids and husband loved it! Maybe someday I'll learn how to make real french bread, but for now this is a lot easier for me. Hope you like it as much as my family did. :]

Whole Wheat French Bread

Ingredients

2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons yeast

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons salt

6 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon gluten

2 teaspoon dough enhancer

Directions

In a small bowl add yeast and pour half of the warm water over top. Pour the remaining water into your mixer and add honey. Stir honey until it dissolves. Then add salt, oil, and one cup of flour and mix. When yeast has doubled in size add it to your mixer and begin mixing. Add another cup of flour and the gluten and dough enhancer. When that is mixed in completely continue added the remaining cups of flour until the dough pulls off the edges of the bowl and is still slightly sticky (you may need to add more flour). Then knead for 10 minutes. Grease a cookie sheet. When dough is finished kneading, take 1/3 to 1/2 of the dough and form a long snake shape loaf. Let it raise until it doubles in size.

Preheat oven to 400*F. Before putting loaf into oven take a sharp knife and cut a few diagonal lines in the top. Bake for 20 minutes. When the bread is finished baking let cool for 5 minutes.

Turn your oven onto broil. Then cut loaf into 1/2 inch slices and place back on cookie sheet. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter and add 1 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder to the butter. Mix well and then spread a little on each piece of bread. Sprinkle with dried, crushed up, parsley leaves. Put back into oven under the broiler until slightly toasted, about 2-5 minutes watch carefully so they won't burn. Then enjoy!!

Fun Food Find Friday!!

Our Fun Food Find for today are from the company Yummy Earth, their Organic Candy Drops. I really liked these. I loved eating the old root beer barrels growing up. These remind me of those but a more healthy option. My kids love these. When they come home with treats that they got from school I have these on hand to trade them for the refined sugar treats.

I found these at the health food stores.

Quick Chicken Stir Fry

I love anything chicken stir fry. When I saw this recipe (which I can't find now so you can look at the original) it looked good and like the name of the recipe, who doesn't like quick meals? It turned out very nice. Your typical, but oh so yummy stir fry. I think the best thing about stir fry is, is that you can use all different kids of vegetables and it will taste good. For the picture I used broccoli and red and yellow small sweet peppers. So just use what ever you have in your fridge.

Quick Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/4 cups warm to hot water

1/4 cup cold water

1 1/2 teaspoons better than bouillon

2 tablespoons braggs liquid aminos

2 1/2 cups cut up vegetables

2 cloves garlic minced

2 boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed small

1 can sliced water chestnuts (I cut mine up even smaller because my kids don't like them as much, that way they can't even tell they're in it)

2 cups hot cooked rice

Directions

Combine the 1 1/4 cup hot water with the better than bouillon and braggs; set aside. Then combine the 1/4 cup cold water and the cornstarch in a separate cup until smooth; set aside.

In a skillet, cook chicken and garlic until chicken turns white. Add the vegetables and cook until they're tender-crisp, cover and stir occasionally. Add the bouillon mixture to the skillet. When it comes to a boil add the cornstarch mixture. Cook and stir until the mixture thickens. Serve the chicken mixture over the cooked rice and enjoy!!

Widsom Wednesday!!

Natural Remedies

Happy Wednesday! It's nice to be back posting on Wednesday. I don't know what happened last week, but I'm here now. I'm excited to share with you some natural remedies today. You might be saying to your self, "why would I talk about natural remedies on my healthy food should taste good blog?" Well, I'll tell you. I've said before that knowledge is power, so on Wednesday I talk about stuff that can help you to be healthier. These natural remedies all have to do with things you have in your kitchen or spices and flowers that are grown on the earth. So it really does have to do with food.
In the home I grew up in there were lots of natural home remedies. For example, if we had a stomach ache my mom would take 8oz of warm water, add a cap full of apple cider vinegar, and a spoonful of honey. You might think that sounds gross, but actually it's not gross at all when you're not feeling good. And it really does work. I also give it to my kids when they have upset stomachs. My husband, who didn't know about vinegar and honey until after we were married, is a bigger believer than I am. He'll make some up and drink it when one of our kids are sick so he won't get sick, and most of the time he doesn't get sick. Now that I'm older I know more about why that works. When your Ph is out of balance it can cause stomach pain. Apple Cider Vinegar can balance the acid in your stomach, your Ph, making it easier to digest your food.
Another thing we always had was Thick'n Milk. It's basically a roue with a little milk, so it's really thick. Then you pour it on a plate and top with cinnamon and sugar. I always loved eating that when I was sick and I couldn't keep anything down. Cinnamon is very soothing on the stomach.
Now that I am older and have kids of my own, I've done even more research on natural cures. I love essential oils and what they can do for the common cold, flu, and other little things like ear aches (I'll talk more about essential oils another Wednesday). The reason I've decided on this topic today is an article I came across entitled, "Natural remedies for the 15 most common aches, pains, and health complains". I love that this article talks a little bit about vinegar for your stomach so you don't think I made it up on my own. :] Also it talks a little bit about things that essential oils can do. For example, using peppermint or lavender oil for headaches. It really does work! I do it all the time. Or using peppermint for when you are nauseous. I used that a lot when I was pregnant. Something I wanted to add to their list of things to do if you have heart burn or acid reflux is to eat raisins and bananas to help calm down the burning. There were some things in the article that I had never heard of before. Did you know that Cayenne pepper can stop bleeding and sooth the pain? I didn't know that. The next time I cut myself cooking, I'm going to try it. I would suggest reading the article. I recommend clicking here and reading the entire article for yourself, you might find it interesting. Here's to a Happy Healthier you!

Vegetable Quesidillas

I hope everyone (that lives in the states) had a great President's Day yesterday. I know we did! It's always nice to get together with family for any holiday.

I've been wanting to find easy and quick dishes that have lots of vegetables in them. I found this recipe and couldn't wait to try it. It was very easy, quick, and the flavor was wonderful! I've made these several times for lunch when I didn't have left overs to eat. :] I added some cooked chicken once too and they were great as a dinner. So there are a few different things you can do with this recipe, and it's gluten free!

Veggie Stuffed Quesadillas

Ingredients

2 small green and/or red sweet peppers, cut into thin strips

1 small onion, diced

2 teaspoons garlic, minced

1 teaspoon butter or olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1 tablespoon parsley

3 tablespoons reduced-fat cream cheese

5 6 to 7 inch whole wheat or brown rice tortillas

salsa

low fat sour cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 425* F. in a large non stick skillet cook sweet peppers, onion, and garlic in butter for 3 to 5 minutes or until they are crisp-tender. Stir in cumin and chili powder, cook and stir for one minute more. Stir in parsley. Set aside. Spread a thin layer of cream cheese over half of 1 side of each tortilla. Top with pepper onion mixture. Fold tortilla in half over peppers, pressing slightly. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Place tortillas on a large baking sheet. Brush tortillas with a little butter. Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes. Then turn off oven and turn on broil on high for 2 minutes, this makes them nice and crispy. Cut each quesadilla into 4 wedges. Serve warm. Dip in salsa and sour cream, and enjoy!!

Fun Food Find Friday!!

The Fun Food Find for today is from Yummy Earth, their Organic Gummy Bears. These have great flavor. I love that they come in little packages. So they are easy to take around with you. They can easily take the place of fruit snacks or other treats that your kids might be given in class.

I found these at the health food store.

Chicken Noodle Soup

A couple of weeks ago all of my children were sick. When I decided to make my mother's chicken noodle soup I couldn't believe that I hadn't shared the recipe with you! It truly is the most wonderful chicken noodle soup I've ever had. The flavors are amazing, and if you don't have a whole chicken on hand it is really easy to substitute with chicken breast. I am, however, a little embarrassed to share this picture with you. I had to use white flour noodle, the last in my house I promise, because I was out of whole wheat egg noodles. When you make it with the wheat noodles the flavor is more Hardy, not mention it is much more healthy for you. :] So on a cold day, like the one we're having today, make some of this chicken noodle soup to warm up your insides and make your home smell wonderful too!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, or 4 large boneless skinless chicken breast

4 1/2 tablespoons better than bullion

3 1/2 quarts water

1 small onion, diced

1 package whole wheat egg noodles

4 small potatoes, cubed (peeled is optional)

7 carrots, peeled and cubed

1 can green beans

1-2 tablespoons parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large pot, boil chicken in water with onion and better than bullion; covered, until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear. Remove chicken from broth. Add potatoes and carrots and boil for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, remove chicken from bones and cube. Add noodles, meat, green beans, and parsley to boiling water. Boil, covered, until the noodles are al dente and vegetables are cooked through. Add salt and pepper to your taste, serve and enjoy!