Are you still longing for another ladle-full of steaming soup? Some piping hot melty pizza fresh from the oven? Anything with pasta and savory tomato sauce?
Yet, we are being reminded that spring is just around the corner!
In Eastern North Carolina, there are daffodil, tulip tree, red bud, and Bradford Pear in bloom, but we are stuck in near freezing temps at night.
If a sunbeam shines, we throw a party!
Hard to crawl out of winter’s hibernation mode; and even harder to shake off those holiday pounds for swimming suit weather.
What to do?
I have a couple new ideas – along with a blast from the past – that could help our dilemma.
Comfort food without a big carb hit. Let’s see what this looks like.
The first recipe – Yogurt Barley and Herb Soup – comes from my dear friends in California, Betty and Jane. Way back when, we attended Sacramento State College, (now California State University at Sacramento).
If ‘barley’ makes you wonder where my gluten-free mind went, fear not. I will give you a gluten-free option – although it’s not quite as chewy.
Short of Egg Drop Soup, I never had a soup that featured a serious egg component. That’s one thing that caught my interest – this soup has staying power. You’ll not be roaming around the kitchen for a snack two hours later!
Yogurt, Barley or Quinoa, and Herb Soup
Ingredients
4 cups water if using barley – OR – 1 cup of water if using quinoa
3 cups water – OR – the equivalent – in salt free chicken broth
¼ cup barley – OR – ½ cup quinoa
4 eggs
2 Tbs. flour – OR – gluten free all-purpose flour
2 cups plain yogurt – NOT Greek yogurt
1 Tbs. onion flakes
1 tsp. garlic salt
½ tsp. thyme
2 cubes bullion – (*) if using water instead of broth
1 ½ tsp. seasoned salt
½ tsp. mint flakes
2 Tbs. butter
2 tsp. parsley
Method
For barley: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add barley. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain and set aside.
For quinoa: Add the quinoa to one cup boiling water. Simmer covered, until all moisture is absorbed – about 20 minutes. Set aside.
In saucepan using a wire whip, blend the eggs with your choice of flour, beating well.
Add yogurt and blend.
Add remaining 3 cups of either water or broth. I recommend the salt-free broth so the salty bouillon cubes can be avoided.
Add remaining ingredients (except barley or quinoa) and whisk together until blended.
Heat almost to a boil, stirring constantly. Do not boil. Reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened – about 2 minutes.
Stir in barley or quinoa and heat another minute.
Serve. The original recipe card says to invite a hungry Russian peasant! This is a hearty soup and is best served fresh and will serve 3-4 with no leftovers.
There’s just something about pizza… yet it often is a source of some really bad ingredients for healthy eating and always presents with a serious carb hit. Even if you switch to gluten-free flour versions, there is a large carbohydrate factor.
I had heard about cauliflower crust recipes, but I just wasn’t motivated to tackle that from scratch. Fortunately, I stumbled upon this Caulipower frozen crust the other day. One third of a crust has just 26 grams of carbohydrate, so if you eat a half like I do, it’s still in an acceptable range.
These crusts are individually wrapped so it’s easy to use just one while keeping the other one protected and frozen. I definitely plan on referring to these again in the future. Let me know what you think.
Pizza sauce is actually good for us! The concentrated tomato concoction imparts lots of antioxidant lycopene – great for heart health and reduced cancer risk – as well as a great source of vitamin C, potassium, folate, and vitamin K.
Look for a brand of pizza sauce low in sugar, no high fructose corn syrup or alphabet soup preservatives. I prefer Classico brand. I’ll use almost ½ of their small jar on one of these pizzas.
Caulipower Pizza
Ingredients
1 Caulipower frozen crust
Lots of pizza sauce
Better meat choices: Cooked ground turkey or grass fed ground beef – maybe a bit of ground Italian sausage
Add some heat and/or flavor to the meat while sautéing the crushed red pepper flakes, anise, and Italian herbs
Sliced olives – a source of good fats and flavor
Knock yourself out for colorful veggies: Red/orange bell peppers, purple onion, and spinach
Grated cheese
Method
You know the drill.
Preheat oven per package instructions.
Unwrap the Caulipower crust and place it along with the cardboard underneath onto a cookie sheet.
Decorate! Sauce. Meat. Goodies. Cheese.
Bake according to package directions.
Enjoy!
Okay. That leaves us with a blast from the past. After sharing this with my California friend, Betty, she has received nothing but raves about this appetizer. It’s so easy to serve at home and to take to a party. With March Madness ramping up, this will become your go-to recipe for – dare I say – healthy snacking!
Zucchini Dipping “Bread/Crust” gets dipped in …you guessed it – Pizza Sauce! We already know how good that is for us. You’ll like this easy recipe I originally saw on Delish but has many iterations on the internet.
I treat this as a concept recipe. Rarely have I used three zucchini. Also zucchini vary in size. Usually it’s one good sized zucchini, one egg, a dash of this and that. Here’s the original recipe.
Zucchini Dipping Bread from Delish
INGREDIENTS
3 medium zucchini, or about 4 cups grated zucchini
2 large eggs
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
3 c. shredded mozzarella, divided
1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 c. cornstarch – I use arrowroot or tapioca flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp. freshly chopped parsley
Marinara, for dipping
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 425º and line a baking sheet with parchment. On a box grater or in a food processor, grate zucchini. Using cheesecloth or a dish towel, wring excess moisture out of zucchini.
- Transfer zucchini to a large bowl with eggs, garlic, oregano, 1 cup mozzarella, Parmesan, and cornstarch and season with salt and pepper. Stir until completely combined.
- Transfer dough to prepared baking sheet and pat into a crust. Bake until golden and dried out – 25 minutes.
- Sprinkle with remaining 2 cups mozzarella, crushed red pepper flakes, and parsley and bake until cheese is melted – 8 to 10 minutes more.
- Slice and serve with marinara.
Whew! Three recipes in one post! I’m trying to make up for lost time.
Don’t forget to use our Blabbermouth Chocolates discount code just for our readers! Some Costa Rican Coffee/Chocolate is melting in my mouth right now! Mmmmmm! The Blabbermouth folks are giving our readers 10% off their first order. See the previous post for details in case you missed it!
In health, soup, pizza sauce, and chocolate-
Deidre
tempting. A great gift idea, too. Haven’t taken that swab plunge yet, but sometimes a very Nordic, “Yah,” periodically comes out of my mouth that I wonder, “where did that come from?”
what I mean: some ‘random’ thing that leads to something else that leads to something else? The dominoes keep tipping over in a beautiful opening of blessings?
One evening, we dined with an Amish family who served traditional Amish fare supplied by a local restaurant and who opened up for an honest and frank question and answer period. As a personal thank you gift, I gave her a signed copy of my book, Toolkit for Wellness, as a gesture of sharing, in kind, a bit of myself.
when her husband had died in 2010, but that she waited two years to read it. She said that reading the book, When God Winks at You, changed her life.
accident that you just picked up When God Winks. In fact, you may have suspected all along that there is more to coincidence than meets the eye. These seemingly random events are actually sign posts that can help you successfully navigate your career, relationships, and interests. By recognizing the God winks our Creator sometimes places in our paths, we can understand—and embrace—the journey God has laid out for us.
Speaking of book-giving at Christmas – where did that tradition come from? I have always loved giving and getting books for Christmas. Yah?
items readily available to give as gifts at Christmas. Hence, a strong tradition of book ownership, reading, and Christmas gift preferences.
While change is one of the few constants in this world, it’s the one we tend to like the least. The older we get, the tighter we cling to the old ways and resist anything new.
I have to say that the simple wisdom found in this quick read of Out of the Maze has helped me in my own transitions of late. It’s a great book to pull off the shelf at the start of each New Year as we all move forward with our lives and pause to reflect on our progress or to consider if we are ‘stuck’ in a maze.
targeted to be ‘food’ for your mind, body, and spirit.
Thanksgiving? Leftovers may be my favorite part of the holiday, so it seems appropriate to have savored my Cranberry Secret Sauce over some peanut butter on gluten free toast for breakfast today.
Check last week’s post to keep that tasty and versatile jewel of redness around for the whole holiday season.
bacterial hand soap.
Finally, Bath and Body Works and other purveyors of “soap-ness,” have returned to offering most of their wares in the non-antibacterial form. Excellent!
squirt-top container, I discovered regular liquid is too thick to go through the apparatus. What to do? I tried diluting the liquid – one-part soap to 2-3 parts water – guess what? Foaming soap! Think of all the water I had been buying all those years.
No matter what soap we use, the trick is in proper handwashing technique. Rub, rub, rub those dirty paws thoroughly. Get to all surfaces of the hands, between fingers, and scrape your nails along the palm of the opposite hand to drive the soap bubbles underneath them. The rubbing process with soapy hands should last for 15-20 seconds or two hums of the Happy Birthday song.
truly proper handwashing, coupled with not touching your face, will break that hand-to-mouth/eye/nose circle of germ circulation.
Today’s next tidbit is something I’ve successfully employed in my recovery from being in a hypervigilant state for the past two years – even longer, as I endeavored to be “on-the-ready” for my husband’s changing needs.
mean our nervous systems magically switch to a normal maintenance mode. Some of my symptoms were manifesting as an irregular heartbeat at bedtime.
Maybe you, too, are trying to come off of a hypervigilant state. Whether it’s a different living circumstance, a change in jobs, or a change in relationships, converting to a calmer state of mind is not easy. Others may wonder why you may be having a rough time since the “problem” has been eliminated.
While I am still very much a work in progress, I would like to share a bit of success that may help you, too. Curing hypervigilance and anxiety requires a multi-faceted approach, often with professional counselors, but this may be a starting point for you.
This is how that went for me – here comes that nightly tension; I’m feeling those strong erratic beats of my heart which causes more anxiety – and instead of the usual tailspin, I applied alternate thinking.
quiet breathing.
Remember to be “off screen” before bed each night; the blue light of electronic screens is detrimental to the production of sleep-inducing hormones. Read something relaxing and helpful from a good old-fashioned printed book. It can be part of your winding-down routine for a good night’s sleep.
working is a big job. While post-hurricane mold spores swirl in the air along with the usual mix of wintertime viruses, many of us are walking a thin line between health and vocal collapse.
I’ve cheated the all-night simmering of chicken bones with large boxes of organic, free range, chicken bone broth.
2 chicken thighs
It’s that good.
“bad ones”
1 cinnamon stick
sweetness later on during cooking)
Place a sieve over a bowl. Pour raspberries and their juices into sieve. Using a spoon or rubber spatula, press the berries through the sieve until only seeds remain.
Dice up the peeled pear. I usually make a small dice by slicing through the thick part of each pear quarter, make lengthwise slices of both layers, then cut horizontally to make small pieces. Add pear to the cooking berries.
When you deem the sauce is finished cooking by noting the consistency and the popped state of the berries, turn off the heat and allow to cool a bit. Remove the cinnamon stick.
some of the happiest times of the year: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, and New Year’s Day – to name a few. Maybe a birthday or an anniversary will be added to the mix. Some of us, however, may be caught up in the poignancy of All Saints’ Day Memorials – remembering those who have passed away in the last 
year – or in Veterans’ Day tributes to those who have given their all for us in battles of war.
may have resulted in the physical and emotional rugs being jerked out from under us, many of us are just trying to suck in all of our emotions.
But is that the right approach?
produce about 10 ounces of tears a day and 30 gallons a year. Toddlers probably exceed that.
such as dust, wind, or onions.
Tears release toxins from the body – The tears we release when crying actually wash away the chemicals that raise the stress hormone (cortisol) inside of us. Other chemicals found in our emotional tears include the “feel good” hormones, called endorphins, that help to decrease pain.
have been shown to help kill anthrax.
Tears relieve stress – Stress activates our Sympathetic Nervous System or our fight-or-flight response. Tears counter that by activating our calming system called the Parasympathetic System. Again, our tears cause the stress hormones and toxins to wash away, thereby reducing tension. As one article pointed out, tears are certainly a healthier option to punching a brick wall and cause no physical injury, no headaches, and do not contribute to higher blood pressures.
moments and can put an emphasis on the emotional component of a verbal exchange.
If you aren’t going to be home for Christmas; if your family does not look like a Norman Rockwell painting; if you are going to spend the first holidays without a special someone; chances are, a good cry may come your way.
others in similar circumstances (or worse) and be a light in the darkness for them. Call others on a whim. Surprise an acquaintance with a small gift or flower, or physically be there for someone in need.
box of Kleenex. You may need to see the doctor. Be alert for signs of depression in yourself or others which will also include some, or all, of the following indicators:
Depression will not be fixed by a good cry. Depression is not fixed by “pulling up your own boot straps.” If you see yourself in the list above, please make contacting a physician a priority. You do not have to feel like that. There is help!
The whole back-to-school atmosphere of late August makes me think of fresh yellow No. 2 pencils and a brand-new box of Crayola’s.
After taking 28 days of vacation out of town to reconnect and refresh – my physical and emotional fatigue, grief, and jet lag have taken a toll. Spending 15 minutes with my new watercolor brush pens takes me away from those blue electronic screens, and completely relaxes my mind and body in preparation for a restful night.
those crayons, pens, pencils, or brushes to help disconnect and calm yourself for sleep.
As regular readers already know, it’s been two or three years since I’ve had any kind of time off. It was pure bliss to reconnect with friends I hadn’t seen for forty years in Sacramento, California. Then I flew to the Big Island of Hawaii where I basked in paradise at my daughter’s home. I hope you have had some type of time away from your normal schedule. It’s so healing to just walk away from it all – even for just a few days.
stopped there for me except for playing Uno with the grandkids.
to reset myself. Other than the obvious changes that come with grief and widowhood, my body is clamoring for some attention. Too many good habits have gone by the wayside as caregiver stress mounted for over two years.
Like the classroom instruction starting up all around us, we would do well to remember how learning happens. Teachers guide young minds to learn one concept at a time. When that concept is mastered through practice and application, the next concept is introduced. Children put all of those concepts together to create a bigger whole. Learn the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. Put those letters together to form words and then sentences. Eventually, books are read.
my public 
Everything that has been shared about journaling for goals is true. The effect is immediate. The desire to improve is fleshed out in action through this simple accountability tool. Grab a piece of paper and write down your daily progress for a personal goal.
periodically with an update as to your progress or share some difficulties. We’re in this together to help and cheer each other on to success!
drop of water floating along…sometimes at a lazy trickle over pebbles … sometimes on top of a leaf scurrying along a fast stream …sometimes rushing along in the swift currents of a raging river. We ride alongside other drops in an ever-
changing scene. Some drops are carried away from us at a faster pace, but with the ebb and flow of currents we may once again float along with them as neighbors.
Bone health is a topic foremost on my mind as I will share my efforts to move that bone density scan from osteopenia/osteoarthritis to normal bone density. Hint: There’s a lot more exercise happening and collagen consumption going on.
This fall, I will also be writing the last chapters of my next book, Toolkit for Caregivers. It is a project I hope to share with others on a grand scale. There will be presentations nationwide for caregivers who need tips, hints, and practical how-to ideas for taking
care of someone who is confined to a hospital bed at home. The need for this supportive and encouraging information is great, and I feel “called” to help others walking that path.
you at the end of summer and early fall. Until then, I am listening to my body, mind, and soul and am entering into a period not of inactivity but of calm. My transition into flying solo has actually been full of activity but has lacked nature’s touch.
Ocean waves beckon. Stargazing beckons. Quiet forests beckon. I need to heed the call of nature and the deep desire to spend time with family.