Osom Chicken Soup

It's been forever since I blogged and I've missed it. I've been cooking, just not writing about it. This week I got a delivery from Texas Daily Harvest that included an organic whole chicken. While at first it may seem a bit pricey ($14.50), I stretched every penny of that by making multiple meals out of one chicken.

Here's what I did. I put the whole frozen chicken in a crockpot. The chicken was bigger than the crockpot, so I had to weigh down the lid to make it stay. Thank you, Joy of Cooking.

I put olive oil on top of the chicken as well as some garlic herb seasoning. I put some water in the bottom, turned it on low, and let it cook while we slept. The next day I pulled the cooked chicken off of the bones and used some of it to make a chicken casserole.

Then, I put what was left in a large pot, along with some carrots, onions, garlic and seasoning and simmered it on low heat for a couple of hours. It made a lot of chicken stock. Like 64 ounces.
My daughter drank some of the fresh stock out of a mug and loved it. The weather is getting cooler and it was perfect for a chilly night.

Once that batch was made, I put the chicken and vegetables back in the crockpot to make another batch of chicken stock.

I used that second batch of stock as the base of a soup. I put in some vegetables from my Urban Acres share: red onion, white potatoes, zucchini, carrots, sweet potato and some white beans. It's cooking now and will make for a great dinner. I'll puree it to make it a thicker, heartier soup.

Organic chicken stock can be expensive. I like making my own and having the fresh chicken for other meals.

We may be able to use the chicken in soup, on salads or on its own with vegetables on the side.

A word from my daughter who wants to type (no editing by me):
I like the supe my mom made it was osom

Dinner for the Fam

This was a super quick dinner. Last night I had cooked the steak, so it just had to be reheated. (I put a ginormous steak in a casserole dish, covered it with some sort of memphis seasonings rub, put the lid on and baked it in a 350 degree oven until it was done.)

Tonight I made a quick salad with our Urban Acres produce and some almond slivers (is that a technical term?) and heated some frozen organic corn from Costco. Add that to the beef and you're done. Eating in about 15 minutes.

Organic Chili A La Crockpot

This was a really fast dinner. When I'm making stew or chili or whatever in the crockpot, there is no recipe.

This meal was made by combining organic ground beef from Texas Daily Harvest, a can of organic white beans, organic black beans (I had made them from dried beans and frozen them, so I pulled them from my freezer), bok choy from my Urban Acres share, a carton of 365 organic chicken broth, a can of tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and paprika. Oh, and an onion.

I served it with the homemade cheese bread sticks. I didn't eat any of it, because it's not on my Mellman plan, but Stephen and the kids did. This is definitely an easy, weeknight, make ahead kind of a meal.

Roasted Organic Potatoes, Broiled Buffalo and Homemade Cheddar Cheese Breadsticks

Buffalo. It's what's for dinner.

Along with some roasted potatoes and homemade cheddar cheese bread sticks. I used the bread machine and Texas Daily Harvest cheddar.

I have it on good authority (the husband and kids) that the bread sticks were delish. (They aren't on my Mellman plan, so I didn't eat them.) But, the buffalo and potatoes I did eat. And they were good.

Pork Lo Mein, Organic Style

The picky eater asked me to pack him ramen noodles for lunch. I decided to make some without so many chemicals and preservatives. I got some japanese somen noodles at Tom Thumb for $2.65. On the back was a recipe for lo mein that I sort of followed.

All of the organic produce I used was from an Urban Acres share. I shredded a carrot, diced a red onion and pulled out some shredded cabbage and bok choy.


I cooked the noodles according to the directions on the package which took three minutes in boiling water. I used three bundles:

I cooked the pork and garlic in olive oil until it was done, then removed the pork to a bowl and sauteed the vegetables for about five minutes, then added the noodles and pork and topped it with some soy sauce and lemon juice.

Stephen liked it. The kids asked for plain noodles. I thought it looked delicious. I was on my Mellman plan, so I didn't eat it. But I really, really wanted to.

An Organic Snowman

This morning when we went into church, it was raining. When we walked out, it was snowing. This is not a common occurrence in Dallas, so the kids wanted to go outside and play in it.

The picky eater all bundled up:


The little girl was outside longer and was very busy:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is our version of Frosty. The radish eyes and carrot nose are all from our Urban Acres share. Priceless.

Making Your Meals Work Double Time

This was a quick weeknight dinner this week. I pulled out the trusty crock pot and put 2 pounds of frozen chicken tenders in it, then covered it with several cups of leftover organic soup I made earlier in the week.

I put it on low before I went to bed and it was ready to pop in the refrigerator in the morning. The chicken was super tender and shredded really easily. Later that night I came home and popped the chicken and sauce in the microwave, cooked some brown rice (the quick cooking variety leftover from my days of eating processed foods) and steamed some broccoli from our share. I squeezed some lemon juice on top of the broccoli while it was still in the steamer.

I put everything in bowls, then grated some fresh Texas Daily Harvest parmesan on top and added some hot chili sauce (I left the spicy off of the kids' plates). I also added some soy sauce and ladled some of the soup from the crockpot on top.

It took about 20 minutes to put together and was really very good.

A Quick Weeknight Dinner

This is the quick dinner I put together in about 15 minutes after I got home from work. The dandelion greens and roasted root vegetables were prepared on Sunday night in advance. I chopped up sweet potatoes, carrots and potatoes from our Urban Acres share, marinated them in olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar, then roasted them in the oven until they were golden brown on the outside. Maybe 20-30 minutes?

The salmon was frozen and I put it in a baggie with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and soy sauce. The salmon marinated while it thawed overnight and during the day while we were at work. When I got home (Stephen was at soccer practice with the kids), I put it in a glass dish and baked it at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.

While the fish was cooking, I heated up the sides, sliced the banana and the homemade challah bread. (This was the second loaf I made and I'm telling you, it doesn't last but two seconds in our house!)

My daughter thought the greens were too spicy, but she otherwise cleaned her plate.

The picky eater looked at them on his plate like they were from another planet. I did get him to try the potatoes, though, after I told them they were the same as what french fries are made out of. He tried them, but didn't eat more than the bite. He did, however, eat all of his salmon. I was so proud.

Mystery Item of the Week

There's usually something in the share I've never seen before or can't easily identify. This week it was dandelion greens.

Who knew?

So, I googled "dandelion greens" and up popped this recipe from Epicurious. Then I made it.

I made this on Sunday in advance of the week. I try to prepare sides on the weekend so putting together dinner on a week night doesn't take as long. With after school activities and two parents who work outside the home, week night efficiency isn't an option. It's a requirement. At least it is in our house if anyone is going to eat something more complicated than cereal.

A Simple Organic Soup

At my daughter's request, I made soup over the weekend. Soup is really easy to heat and serve during the week.

I never follow a recipe when I make soup. I just use what I have on hand. In this pot I combined fresh produce from my Urban Acres share, a can of organic stewed tomatoes (28 ounces, I think), a can of great northern beans, and 32 ounces of organic chicken stock.

The produce I used included onions, celery, carrots, the stem of the broccoli, and spinach. I added some chopped garlic, garlic and herb seasoning, salt and pepper. I didn't measure, I just threw it all in.

I sauteed the veggies first, then added the canned ingredients and brought everything to a boil. Then I reduced the heat and let it simmer for a while. Maybe 30 minutes. I added about 8 ounces of organic cream from Texas Daily Harvest at the very end.

Then. I pulled out one of my new kitchen gadgets. (Admittedly, I had to google it when writing this post to see what it was actually called because I'm too lazy to walk into the kitchen to look.) It's a Cuisinart Smart Stick Immersion Hand Blender. It sounds way fancier than $25, but it's not.

So I grabbed that Immersion Hand Blender (I can't bring myself to refer to it as a Smart Stick) and beat those vegetables into submission. So much faster than a blender and way easier to clean.

I had some leftover homemade parmesan bread that I sliced, sprayed with cooking spray and then toasted in the oven until they became giant croutons. I added some organic parmesan (from Texas Daily Harvest) and voila, soup with cheese and croutons.

A slightly less sophisticated plate, this is what I served to the kids. There's a salad made with goodies from the share (dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar), as well as some more fresh fruit.

Another quick and easy weeknight meal.

Sunday's Light Lunch

A little homemade parmesan bread, with sliced tomatoes from the Urban Acres share, a mix of Texas Daily Harvest cheeses (gouda, parmesan and cheddar) and some fresh fruit.

Quick. Easy. Delicious.

Saturday's Urban Acres Bounty

Lilly, one of our rescue dogs, was very curious about our Urban Acres share this week. She wasn't the only one.


I was thrilled when I dug down into the bin.

My daughter was super excited about the cherry tomatoes and I immediately started fantasizing about all the stuff I was going to make. No, seriously.

'Cause I have lots of fun new kitchen gadgets that I am going to get to experiment with. On a side note (attention span of a gnat), I'd never seen one of these stickers on my produce before:

And with that, I must bid you good night. I'm back to work after a much needed vacation, which means I've got to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Truth be told, I would have liked a few more days off so I could play with my food.

The Perfect Snack

Doesn't this look amazing?

It's purely a product of our Urban Acres shares mixed with some Organic Raw Texas Cheddar from Texas Daily Harvest.

And what could be even better? The little girl digging in while watching some Scooby Doo.

Happy in a Box

Saturday we picked up our Urban Acres share. It was GLORIOUS!

We got so much deliciousness in the box, it was crazy! Cherry tomatoes, pears, apples, grapefruit, carrots, zucchini, and tons of other stuff.

Insert big grin. Right here.

Not Pretty, But Pretty Tasty

I made "stoup" in the crockpot the other night and had some for dinner tonight. All I did was put the following in a crockpot, turned it on low, and cooked it for 8 hours:

• Buffalo stew meat from Whole Foods
• Chopped broccoli stems
• Frozen corn (purchased from the store)
• Frozen greens (collard and kale) from my freezer
• Frozen squash from my freezer
• Pearled barley from the Sprouts bulk bin
• A can of Muir Glen diced chipotle tomatoes
• A can of tomato sauce
• A box of Imagine vegetable stock
• A dash of chipotle seasoning powder

I added some spicy chili sauce and a slice of the Texas Daily Harvest Texas Cheddar Cheese. With the exception of the corn, all of the vegetables in the stew came from previous Urban Acres shares. Everything was organic.

I made too much, so I'll have to freeze some of it for later lunches.

Organic Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes and Baked Buffalo

Tonight's dinner tasted a whole lot better than it looked. Promise.

I peeled the butternut squash and sweet potatoes from my Urban Acres share and boiled them in water. Once they were soft, I went to town with a hand mixer, some butter, milk, cinnamon, vanilla and a little dash of Florida Crystals cane sugar. Let me just say, it was sweet, creamy goodness.

Stephen baked the buffalo london broil steak that I had marinated overnight in some lemon zest, lemon juice, soy sauce and garlic. The flavor was great, but it got cooked too long. It should have been broiled, not baked, but you live and you learn.

I also got our juicer and made apple, pear, tangerine juice. It was fantastic and the kids drank it all up. We used two apples, 3 pears and one large tangerine from our share. I was tempted to make another batch. It's a great way to get fresh fruit in your kids!

Tonight's dinner was super easy to make. I did the butternut squash sweet potato mash last night, so all we had to do was heat it up. Tonight took about 20 minutes and that was mostly baking time.

Organic Banana Bread

We had a bunch of organic bananas in our Urban Acres share. We ate some, but the rest were starting to get overripe, so banana bread was the solution.

I again broke out The Joy of Cooking and found this recipe:

I didn't know what the word "Cockaigne" meant, so I looked it up. 'Cause I'm a dork like that.

From the World English Dictionary: medieval legend an imaginary land of luxury and idleness. Also, from Old French cocaigne, from Middle Low German kōkenje: small cake (of which the houses in the imaginary land are built); related to Spanish cucaña, Italian cuccagna.

Alrighty then.

I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of oat flour for the all-purpose flour. I also used 1 and 3/4 cups of mashed bananas (because that's what we had). Instead of using white sugar, I used Florida Crystals organic cane sugar.

The bread is great for snacking or for breakfast.

Week 4 Budget Review and Month 1 in Review

Sorry for the break in posting. It got crazy at work. Last week we picked up our produce share from Urban Acres ($50) and spent $25 at Whole Foods for milk, apples, lunch meat and bread. I honestly don't know what everyone ate for dinner because I had several late nights at the office.

That brought our week 4 total to $75. We finished out the month with an extra $44. Holy cow! I'm not quite sure how that happened, but I'll take it!

Week 3 Budget Review

I was over last week by quite a bit and started this week off with $73.78 to spend. So, I looked over my local Sprouts flyer, printed off my coupons, piled into the car with my daughter, and headed out to make some deals.


The receipt is outrageously long, so I'll summarize for you:

• Frozen pizza crust dough, Sprouts, 1.79


• 2 dozen eggs and a gallon of organic milk


• Grated romano cheese, 2.79


• grated mozzarella cheese, 2.47


• Sashimi Grade Tuna, 2,70 and 2.92


• Bread crumbs


• Cereal


• Soy Milk


• oat flour


• pirate booty


• snackimals


• Kashi crackers


• 2 small bottled water


• Beef stew


• chicken tenders


• chicken sausage


• pork sirloin roast


• grape tomatoes


• red apples


• red grapes

The total rang up to be $64.82. Not bad at all!

The menu for the week I'm working on is:

1. Cheese Pizza served with fruit.

2. Chipotle Roasted Pork Sirloin with roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes.

3. Beef Stew made in the crockpot.

4. Eggplant Parmesan and baked potatoes.

5. Something with the chicken tenders and the produce we have left at the end of the week.

I was really able to stock up on some meat. I got nearly 2.5 pounds of chicken, which will last for quite a while. I have a feeling there will be some that will be available for next week.

Week 2: Shopping on the Budget

This week I spent more than $110, but it was Urban Acres pick-up week and I took advantage of some great sales at Sprouts. Sprouts was having a sale on certain Thanksgiving items (20% off). I stocked up on olive oil, a big ticket item. It's normally $10 a bottle, but I was able to get it for $5.60.

Two of the items on sale were Organic Pumpkin Puree and organic whole wheat frozen pie crusts (two in the package). The puree had a recipe for pumpkin pie on the label, which I will make this week or next. I'll use the other pie crust to make a quiche with our Urban Acres produce.

Urban Acres, $50

Sprouts, $79.08

The recipe is like a hundred foot long scroll, so I'll just summarize what I got without individual prices. I did save $12.37 by using coupons and taking advantage of 20% off sale.

• Sprouts organic bread
• Sprouts frozen pizza crust dough
• Bulk black beans
• Bulk semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Bulk granola
• Bulk ground cloves
• Bulk brown rice
• Stoneyfield Yogurt
• Organic butter
• Organic eggs (2 cartons)
• Organic sour cream (1 carton)
• Organic Valley mild cheddar
• Goat cheese
• Frozen organic pie shells
• Organic cane sugar (Florida Crystals)
• Pacific organic cream of mushroom soup
• Pacific organic chicken broth
• Pacific organic vegetable broth
• Active dry yeast
• Chipotle seasoning
• 2 bottle Sprouts olive oil
• 1 can organic pumpkin pie puree
• Rye flour
• Beef flank steak
• Chicken breast tenders
• Grape tomatoes
• Organic apples

We made a Walmart run for tortillas to go with the crockpot fajitas I'm going to make this week, raisins to make Cranberry Raisin Bread (my daughter brought the recipe home from school), and the pumpkin pie. When I was standing in the middle of the store I couldn't remember whether the recipe called for evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk, so I got both. I didn't want to have to run out to the store again.

Walmart, $9 (I can't find the receipt, so I'm estimating here)

• Freshly made tortillas, $2.50
• Raisins, $1.38
• Evaporated milk, $.98
• Sweetened condensed milk, $1.98

Whole Foods, $14.33

• Buffalo Steak (1 pound)
• Organic Valley Milk (1 gallon)

Total for Week 2: $79.08 + $9 + $14.33 +$50 = $152.49 - $6.19 overage from last week = $146.22.

This leaves me with an overage of $36.22 for next week, which won't be a problem. Next week isn't a produce week, so $73.78 should be plenty.