DIY Organic Chicken Tortilla Soup

DIY Chicken Tortilla Soup

Need:

2 Organic Chicken Wings or Drumsticks 

Water

2 cups Organic Brown Rice

1 cup Organic Bell Peppers chopped

1/2 Organic Onion chopped

1 cup Organic Corn

2 Organic Garlic Cloves minced 

1 cup Organic Pinto Beans

1 cup Stale Tortilla Chips 

3 tbsp Chili Powder

2 tbsp Cumin Powder

1 tbsp Tomato Powder or 1 cup stewed tomatoes

3 tsp Salt

Optional:

Cilantro 

First get a big pot and fill it with water. Next add your chicken pieces, your brown rice and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 30 minutes with a lid on. Once done pull the chicken out and let cool on a plate. 

Now add your bell peppers, onion, corn, garlic, beans and stale tortilla chips. Mix well then add chili powder, cumin, tomato powder (or stewed tomatoes) and salt. Put lid back on and keep simmering. 

Last but not least pull all the meat off the chicken and add it back to the soup. Turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy! 

DIY Sesame Noodles

My husband was coming home from lunch and I wanted to make him something simple but different than anything I have made before.  Low cost and healthy? Yes it can be done! 

Here is what you will need but feel free to substitute with what you have or to your own dietary needs.

I used:
1 lb Whole Wheat Organic Pasta
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Organic Red Pepper Flakes
4 Organic Green Onion Chopped
1/4 cup Organic Sesame Tahini 
3 tbsp Rice Vinegar
3 tbsp Liquid Aminos

Optional:
pinch of Sesame Seeds
3 tbsp water if using left over pasta

Boil the pasta as instructions state.  Once boiled strain them and let them cool off in the pot.  In a small pan heat up the oil and toss in those red pepper flakes.  Let simmer on medium for a minute or two then turn off the heat.  Next add in half your green onions, sesame tahini, rice wine vinegar and liquid aminos. This is also where you would add in the water if you were using left over pasta.  Once pasta has cooled completely add in the sauce and you're done!  Be a little extra fancy and add the rest of the chopped green onion on top for garnish. 

Here is my pricing breakdown.

$1.39 organic pasta
25 cents Whole Foods olive oil (totally guessing here because I buy large containers and refill my own bottle)
5 cents red pepper flakes (again guessing)
FREE green onions I picked right from my front yard. Woot!
25 cents sesame tahini (bought from Grocery Outlet $1.99 a jar)
25 cents (guessing again)
25 cents liquid aminos (you guessed it...guessing)

Total-$2.44 give or take since I guessed or should I say was too lazy to remember or calculate how much I paid for those spices etc.  But you can see its very low cost to make this dish. In fact this could easily feed 4 people making it 61 cents a person. Now thats FRUGAL! 

JUST REMEMBER!!!! This can be altered to anyones preference! Add in some fresh veggies.  Serve this cold or hot.  Use any type of noodles you want here.  Left over rice noodles from last night? Sure toss those in.  Want it more spicy? Add more pepper flakes.  Too salty? Add less liquid aminos. Don't have liquid minos? Use soy sauce but only use 3 tsp of it.  No tahini paste? Try some nut butter. Don't use organic ingredients? Thats whats great about this. use what you have!  See the pattern here? Just have fun with it! 

Infused Simple Syrup

In the beginning of the summer I bought a 6 pack of herbs by Drunken Botanist.  My 6 pack included two mint plants, one lavender, one anise, one scented geranium and one Angelia.  They smelled so darn good! At $9.99 a pack it was a high price but as long as the plants last a long time I was okay with it.  Not only are they great smelling but they also can be infused in simple syrups! I had great intentions ha ha. Well I just now got around to doing something with them. 

I ripped off some leaves and the instructions say to add 50/50 water and sugar ratio. Feel free to  use any herb you like.   So I grabbed my organic sugar, water and my herbs and headed into the kitchen.  I did just as it said. 2 cups of water with 2 cup of organic sugar. One herb I did't have many leaves so I made a small batch.  Heat mixture with herbs till water comes to a boil and sugar has dissolved.  I then turned off the heat and covered with a lid.  Let set for one hour.  

Once cooled I poured each simple syrup into their own mason jar. I made sure to strain all the leaves out and put lids on them.  Again I let them completely cool before putting them in the fridge.  Also make sure to write on each one what it is because they all look the same.  Here is the end results. Beautiful golden colored simple syrups. 

Now go buy some carbonated water, add as little or much as your simple syrup as you want and enjoy your all natural soda! 

Want Not Waste Not

You've heard the old expression "Waste not want not" right? Well in my case its want not waste not. I have called the paper service many times to tell them not to deliver this weekly food paper.  Yet each Tuesday this shows up on my driveway. UURRRRR!!!! So instead of just tossing them in the recycling I put them to use. I don't use coupons and this thing is loaded with them.  Coupons are usually for processed unhealthy food and we don't eat that stuff.  Don't get me wrong I still look just in case! And before you go emailing me I already asked around and no one wanted them.

If I get up early I can get the paper dry and not soaked with water. It's much easier to use when not wet! I simply open this paper up and make two piles.  One pile for glossy paper and the plastic bag.  The other pile is for non glossy paper and ad's that cannot be burned.  

I put the few glossy items and plastic bag into the recycling because I have yet to find a use for them. The non glossy items I stack and collect in a area that you cannot see in my living room.  I will use these for starting my fire in the winter months and for making paper pots for my garden.  It's April now so by the time the winter months come I will have a good stack to work with.

Now when you get junk in the mail or an annoying paper that won't go away, think of these things.  Use what you can before you just toss in the recycling.

What things do you use extra papers for? Comment here or on my Facebook and join the conversation!