Southwestern Bean Soup

A great cold day soup with many health benefits! Throw it in the crock pot and have a great meal for dinner or "supper" if you're from the Midwest:) I like to saute my veggies in coconut oil or grape seed oil and add spices to give the soup a little extra flavor but this step is not necessary if you don't have the extra few minutes.

Ingredients:

2cups diced carrots

1cup diced celery

1/2 cups diced leeks or onion

1Tbsp of garlic

1 bunch of kale chopped

***Sautee all above ingredients in a Tbsp of coconut oil for about 10 minutes***

Add spices to veggies: 1Tbsp chili powder, 1tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, and touch of salt if you wish. Sautee spices with veggies for about 10 more minutes.

Turn crockpot on low and add a carton of low sodium vegetable broth and a carton of portabello mushroom soup. Add veggie mixture.

Rinse all beans in a strainer before adding them to the crockpot. 1 can of organic great northern beans, 1 can of organic black beans and one can of organic kidney beans. Also wash a cup of pearl barley and add it to the crockpot. (adding barley will give the soup a different slimy type of texture so omit if you don't like pearl barley)

I took some organic grass fed beef and sliced it into little chunks and sauteed them in coconut oil on high just to brown each side, then added them to the crockpot half cooked.

You can cook soup on low heat for about 4-5 hours. Even with 8 cups of liquid my soup ended up really thick, more stew like. I think the barley soaked up a ton of the liquid. I ended up adding more vegetable broth until I got it the consistency I liked. If you are a texture person, you can leave the barley out. The pearl barley has a slimy texture to it and you could really take it or leave it. I didn't mind it at all and the boys loved it. My husbands only complaint was the texture so there it is!! This will make a ton of soup! A good soup to share or give to someone who may need help with a meal for the week!

Prepping Your Food

One thing that I am committed to doing is eating as healthy as I can.  Something that makes my life so much easier is prepping my food as soon as I get home from the grocery store.  I go to the store knowing what my meals will be for the week and know how I would like my food cut so it is ready to go when it's crunch time to get the meal on the table for dinner.  What works for me is going to the grocery store close to lunch time.  I get home, feed the boys lunch and as they nap and have "rest" time I get busy washing and cutting up my veggies and store them in my favorite containers so it is ready to go when I need it!  It does take time but will save you time in the long run for sure!!  I also cook up my chicken and turkey since it goes in most of my meals and is great to have on hand for a quick protein fix.  I'm weird and actually crave protein and don't mind taking some cold meat out of the fridge and eating it. 

Prepping is also helpful for those who like to snack.  If it's washed and ready to go, you are more likely to grab something healthy.  Hummus is a great thing to have on hand and you can pretty much dip anything in it for a healthy snack!  Give it a try and if you are telling yourself right now that you don't have time to do this...STOP IT!  You do have time.  We all make time for things we think are important and that looks so different for each and every one of us.  You are ultimately in control of what goes into that mouth of yours but the truth is you will get out what you put in, just with anything in life.  If you always do what you have always done, you will get the same result.  Change is hard, I know this.  If you are just beginning the journey of eating healthy, it's ok to take baby steps and make little changes.  Big changes often lead to failure pretty quickly because it feels impossible.  YOU CAN DO THIS! 

Easy Chicken Salad

A new favorite creation!  Super easy to make and a healthy lunch!  Shred 1 chicken breast, cut up 2 organic celery sticks into small pieces, cut up 3/4 of an organic apple (my favorite is honeycrisp) chop some raw organic walnuts (10ish) and add as much vegenaise as you want.  I added about 2TBSP.  I tend to like mine more on the dry side:)  Throw it in a pita pocket or add it to a piece of toast.  You can obviously make as much of this as you want.  One chicken breast will make about 2-3 servings.  You can add as much of the ingredients as you want.  Other options are to add onion and or raisins. 



Stacie's Oatmeal

 Since I have my spinach/blueberry shake every morning for breakfast, I enjoy a bowl of oatmeal for my 3:00 snack.  I look forward to this snack and almost feel guilty eating it, it tastes that good!!

Ingredients:  1/2 cup gluten free oats, 1/2 cup of vanilla coconut milk, 1/2 cup water to make oatmeal.  After cooking the oatmeal I top it off with Raw Coconut, Walnuts, and Coconut Crystal sugar (tastes like brown sugar)  Enjoy!

Pizza

 Once a week I enjoy making homemade pizza and throughout the years I have tried many variations and always find the most basic types I enjoy the most.  Organic Pizza Sauce, Spinach, and Tomato and cheese...you just can't go wrong with this pizza!

 This is my vegetable pizza toppings above.  Broccoli, zuchinni, red pepper, mushrooms, leeks, sweet potato (baked above left) tomato and cheese.  I sauteed these veggies before putting them on the pizza.

 This is my pizza without the cheese:(  but still very yummy!  Note: this just might be the heaviest pizza ever made!  Gluten and Dairy Free

And for the boys.  This is my basic spinach and tomato pizza.  I am really enjoying the Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free pizza crust.  So easy to make and very tasty!