Do you juice?

Juicing is done on a regular basis in my household which has left us with an interesting quandary. What to do with the leftover pulp? I get a lot of recipes and tips for many different things via You Tube. In my previous juicing explorations, I've found that there is a somewhat heated debate: juicing vs. blending. The benefits of both are irrefutable; extracting the whole nutrient benefits from fruits and vegetables. But the question is which method is better. When you juice, you get a smooth easy way to "drink your nutrients", but you also have some pulp leftover from whatever you juice. The amount of pulp, and therefore juice left in the pulp, depends on the quality of machine that you are using. No matter what, there is going to be some leftover.

Those who preach the gospel of blending do so because it could be said that a lot of the nutrients from the fruits and vegetables is lost in the pulp when juicing. So they prefer to throw everything into the blender so that all of the produce is used. If you have a very high quality blender, your end product will be and nice velvety smoothie. However, if your blender isn't so great, you could end up "chewing your juice" and that's unpleasant. I like both but in the case of using simply fruits and veggies, I prefer to juice. I love a great smoothie but for different applications.

But I do agree that the pulp ends up being wasted a lot and I can't help feeling like there has to be something that can be done with it. So here's my latest creation. I was making enchiladas and was hit with a stroke of genius (don't you love when that happens). I had a bowl of pulp leftover from juicing that morning. The pulp was from kale, bok choy, carrots, ginger, lemon, and apples. Most of it was kale though. So all I did was cook the pulp in a pan with some onions then mixed it with my meat mixture for the enchiladas. Viola! It was delicious, the whole family loved it. My boys even ate the leftover meat mixture by itself. How about a round of applause for sneaking in extra vitamins!

Soup's On!

What I really love about leftovers is the great soup I can create the next day. Sometimes, I'll take leftovers and create a nice hearty soup or stew for dinner. Sometimes, I'll just make a nice soup to enjoy for lunch by myself or with friends while the kids are at school. It's a really great way to experiment with different flavors and try out some new things.

For last night's dinner, we enjoyed some grilled chicken, Parmesan cous cous, and lemon butter corn. So today I made myself a small pot of soup for lunch. I started by heating up some chicken broth (I always have a carton open in the fridge). Next I added a bit of salsa (again, something I always have on hand). Then I just chopped up a piece of the chicken and dumped it in the pot along with a couple spoons of the cous cous and corn. I let the whole thing simmer for just a few minutes then gave it a little taste. All it needed then was a smidgen of sea salt. When I served myself a bowl, I topped it off with some shredded cheese. I have this thing where any tomato or beef based soup has to have cheese on it. It Is Mandatory! Don't judge me ^.^

So here's the big secret. As long as you keep some broths (chicken, beef, vegetable), tomato sauce or salsa, or any kind of cream soups (cream of chicken, mushroom, celery, etc.) on hand you have everything you need to create and awesome homemade soup from your leftovers or whatever you may have laying around in your ice box. The possibilities are endless, and it is so simple and quick. Enjoy!

My Fried Chicken

Everyone knows a fried chicken recipe, especially if you live in the south. So I'm definitely not here to revamp any one's recipe or tell anyone how to make fried chicken. But I want to show you how I prepare my friend chicken and the seasoning mix that I use. Admittedly, some-odd years ago, I used to be a little scared of frying chicken. It can be tricky; you don't want to burn it of course or have it be too dry but you also don't want it to be under-cooked. For a long time, I would only fry cut wings or wingettes and drumettes because I was confident with that size. But I've gotten a lot more confident so I would like to show you a few tricks.

 
 First, I like to brine or soak the chicken a couple of hours before cooking it. This time I just gave it a little soak in a mixture of Dijon, hot sauce, seasoning salt, lemon pepper, curry powder, ground turmeric, ground ginger and Italian seasoning plus a splash of milk.

Once I'm ready to fry, I mix flour with ranch dressing mix and flour the chicken a batch at a time. One thing to remember when frying is not to overcrowd the pan. So for the size of the pan I was using, five drumsticks was a good amount for each batch. Therefore, I floured and rested five pieces at a time. Resting the floured chicken on a rack before frying helps the breading to stick when it is frying.

  When I start frying, I like to make sure that the oil is "screaming hot". The oil temperature is going to drop when the raw chicken is added so starting hot is usually a good idea. Of course, you don't want it to be too hot because the breading will burn before the chicken is cooked. So a medium high heat is great to start with. Once the chicken has started, I usually turn the heat down just a small notch. In this case, the chicken cooked for about 11 minutes on each side. When in doubt, find the thickest piece of chicken and cut into it, down to the bone, to check for doneness. If any pieces aren't completely cooked, pop them in the oven to finish.

So there! An awesome fried chicken dinner (if I do say so myself). We enjoyed it and I hope you try out these tips next time you feel like trowing some birds into that inferno hot tub.

Back To School With Bentos!

So the school year has started which means it's time for me to have some fun with lunches! My boys prefer a lunch from home more often than school lunch. But the standard sandwich, chips, fruit, and juice gets old pretty quick. So I love the challenge of coming up with unique ways to pack their lunch everyday. 

A little while back I learned how to make sushi through the wonder of You Tube (more to come about that, stay tuned ^.^). Soon enough I stumbled upon some information about Japanese style bentos and thought it would be pretty awesome to try it out. By the way, a bento is basically just a boxed lunch and there are different types in different Asian countries. A Japanese bento focuses on healthy foods assembled with care in a very attractive way. They can also be found pre-made and sold in stores for travelers. Character bentos feature cute images of popular cartoon characters or pop icons that are all edible. It's really an art form! What I love about this is that the success of your bento is kinda dependent upon the love and care you put into creating it. It takes a tiny bit of attention to detail, an eye for color, and a whole lotta love but it is so worth it.

Honestly, they're actually pretty simple to make and don't really require any special tools. This is the first bento that I made for my boys. It has PB&J roll-ups, ham and cheese cuts with crackers, strawberries and grapes, and boiled eggs. When I made these I used some boiled egg molds I found on Amazon.com. The food is simple but its all in the presentation. My boys love it and they keep asking for more. I don't do this everyday but its a great option to throw in the mix. Naturally, this is the kind of thing that I can get a little obsessed with. Here's some things I've gathered just for the fun of it.