Chicken, Kale, and Black Bean Soup {Stewsday}

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Around midday Tuesday, snow flurries landed on my face.

Shortly after that, my Facebook news feed exploded with posts declaring that it was, in fact, snowing in Richmond in November. We Richmonders poke fun at ourselves for our level of freaking out at the first sight–or suggestion–of snow. For a single inch of snow, school is often cancelled, the grocery store shelves go bare, people forget how to drive faster than 10 mph… It’s hilarious. 😀 Nothing stuck to the ground this time, but it was still fun. 🙂

With strong gusts of wind and near freezing temperatures (okay, they weren’t that close to freezing… but low 40’s feels cold!), it was a gross day to be outside, but a perfect day for stew. Conveniently, it also happened to be Stewsday. 😀

Here’s what I threw together last night:

Chicken, Kale, and Black Bean Soup

1 lb chicken (cooked & shredded)
Diced tomatoes
Kale (a few large leaves torn into small pieces)
1 can black beans
2 c cooked brown rice
1 qt chicken broth
1 1/2 c water
1 1/2 tsp each: cumin, garlic powder, chili powder
salt, pepper, red pepper to taste

I first made a version of this soup after Thanksgiving last year with leftover turkey–if you have leftover poulty you’d like to use, this is a great way to use it. I did not last night, so I cooked the chicken in a skillet with some olive oil first, then started the rice (1 c dry) in the rice cooker. We have lots of bags of veggies in our freezer from our garden this summer, so I used a quart-sized bag of sliced tomatoes. I’m not sure what the canned equivalent would be–one 15 oz can, perhaps? Either way, they break down and blend in with the broth, so you aren’t eating huge chunks of tomatoes.

Put everything except the black beans and rice in a large pot (I used the same one in which I cooked the chicken), bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer. Add the black beans and rice (when it’s cooked), and let simmer as long as desired–the longer it all sits together, the better it will taste!

So hearty. So nutrition-packed. So delicious. Perfect for a blustery ~~winter~~ fall day.

-Did you celebrate Stewsday this week?
-Kale: do you eat it, and if so, what is your preferred method of consumption? (I don’t love the stuff raw, so putting it in soup works well for me!)

Spousal Miscommunication and The Resilient Fish Tacos

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Have you ever had a meal in which the individual components tasted just okay, but the combined result tasted rather fantastic? Food synergy. We had such a meal last night–one that was almost disastrous thanks to a spousal miscommunication (spoiler alert: it was Andrew’s fault).

Fish tacos. Simple. Small pieces of fish, seasoned and baked + coleslaw + mango salsa. I put Andrew in charge of the fish because he’s good at seasoning food, and I hate working with raw meat; I started the mango salsa, which we typically make with mango, red bell pepper, cilantro, lime juice, and a little salt–just something to sweeten the tacos. We have a lot of tomatillos from our garden in bags in the freezer, which I thought would make a great addition to this salsa.

I mixed all the ingredients, ate a spoonful, and…

“This just does not taste great.”

“Really?

(Andrew takes a bite of the salsa and makes a funny face.)

“Yeah, that’s not good.”

“Right? I thought the tomatillos would taste so good in this.”

“That’s just not how tomatillos usually taste… Oh. Uh oh.”

“Uh oh, what?”

“Umm, I think you may have used unripe tomatoes.”

“Why are there unripe tomatoes in our freezer?”

“I didn’t want to waste them!”

That’s right–when we said goodbye to our tomato plants in September, Andrew couldn’t bear the thought of wasting the green tomatoes still on the branches, so he picked and froze them. Why? How would we use them? Friends, I have no idea. Unripe tomatoes and perfectly ripe tomatillos look dangerously similar, but taste very, very different.

Because I couldn’t bear the thought of wasting the mangos and red peppers we’d already put in the salsa (and because I have just a touch of OCD…) I picked out all of the little green tomato pieces, rinsed what was left in a colander, and added actual tomatillos.

<Sigh.>

The fish was a little bit dry, the salsa tasted okay, but I couldn’t get the memory of the original batch out of my head, and the coleslaw tasted like mayonnaise. But together? Together they tasted awesome. Beautiful food synergy, in which the end result was greater than the sum of the individual components. They even managed to survive a serious spousal miscommunication.

You go, fish tacos.

-Please tell me any hilarious miscommunications you’ve had with your significant other.
-Now that I know we have unripe tomatoes in my freezer, does anyone know how we can use them (if at all)?

Holiday Season Wellness Goals

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Confession: I’ve been hitting the leftover Halloween candy pretty hard this week.

As we move into the holiday season, where the sweets become even more abundant and most of the vegetables are cooked in cream-of-something soup, I’ve decided to set a few goals to stay focused, healthy, and feeling well. Now, I’m a firm believer that wellness is the sum of the good stuff we do for ourselves rather than the absence of the bad stuff. Along the same lines, I also believe in not depriving yourself if you really want something! The following popped up on my Facebook news feed a couple nights ago, and I laughed and felt disgusted at the same time:

Really, Health.com? That’s the saddest little dessert I’ve ever seen. That’s a garnish for a dessert, in fact. There’s no way, if someone were craving pineapple upside-down cake, that that would satisfy the craving. I commented, “#notdessert”. 😀

But I digress.

Therefore, my wellness goals for the holiday season are cumulative and non deprivation-based. If you count yesterday (when I intended to write this post) and Christmas day, there are 50 days until Christmas!

That means that I am aiming for an average of 6 servings of produce, 30 minutes of exercise, and just one dessert daily (my dessert goal is to not exceed 5o servings.) The beauty of the cumulative goals is that they allow flexibility: Run for an hour one day? Take a rest day. Enjoy a few desserts on Thanksgiving? Forego a sweet somewhere else in the week. A few days of poor eating here and there won’t wreck a person; these goals will help me make sure a few days don’t turn into the whole holiday season. 🙂

After day one, these are my stats:
-Fruits & Veggies: 6
-Exercise: 1 hour
-Desserts: 1

Be good to yourselves, friends! And for the love of all things delicious, please don’t ever eat a pineapple garnish for dessert.

Do you have any wellness goals for the holiday season?
What would you add to my three categories?

The Halloween Post

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

The doorbell rang. Then the doorbell rang four more times in a row. As we hurried down the front hall with a bowl of candy, we saw the door slowly open and a young boy with Down Syndrome peek around the corner, grinning as he took in the sights. From outside his dad laughed and said, “No, you have to wait for them to open it!” It was adorable. 🙂

The other trick-or-treating highlight from last night was when Andrew opened the door, and a boy looked up at him and said, “Whoa, you’re tall. Like really tall.”

Halloween in the suburbs is great. 😀

While we didn’t dress up in costumes, we did celebrate the holiday in other festive ways:

Just in case there’s any confusion, Andrew carved the scary face, and I carved the owl. Ambitious? Maybe. Awesome? I think so.

I also perused Pinterest for some Halloween dinner ideas, knowing that while Andrew wouldn’t necessarily appreciate a themed dinner, he would humor me. Now, I thought I did well with what I made, until I looked back at the original ideas. Let’s just say, the website Pinterest Fail exists for a reason.

The inspiration:

The reality:

Not the most handsome mummy meatloaf I’ve ever seen, but he actually turned out closer to the original than these mashed potato ghosts:

The inspiration:

The reality:

Bahahaha… I can’t stop laughing at this. Oh man. Hey there, lumpy ghosts!

Andrew got pretty into the themed dinner by the time we were ready to eat; he was actually disappointed that I didn’t have anything cool planned for the broccoli, so he gave his ghosts hats:

He also doused them with ketchup/blood, but we didn’t get a decent photo of that.

For the meatloaf we found a basic recipe and used gluten-free bread and almond milk in place of the gluten/dairy ingredients. We made the mashed potatoes with Earth Balance buttery spread, almond milk, and Silk coffee creamer instead of butter and cream. Both dishes tasted great–the ingredient swaps were undetectable as far as I could tell!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Did you make any Halloween-themed food? Did it turn out as wonderfully as ours? 😉
Did you wear a costume??

Thai-Style Chicken Pumpkin Soup

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

True story: This morning I told Andrew I thought our refrigerator was broken because when I opened the door, I didn’t feel the usual rush of cool air. I quickly realized that the fridge is working fine, but the temperature in our house had dipped into the 50’s, so the difference in temperatures wasn’t that great. In related news, we turned on our heat this morning. I’m hoping to be able to remove either the blanket or fleece jacket I am wearing by the time I finish breakfast and this post. 😉

What goes hand-in-hand with the coolness of fall? Pumpkin everything, apparently. I like pumpkin-flavored things just fine, but I don’t get crazy about the stuff like many of you do. Pumpkin seems to be working its way into a lot of food items this season (Exhibit A), but I’d pick banana bread over pumpkin bread any day, and I’ve never had a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

However, as one who loves most things containing the word “soup”, I was intrigued when Andrew found a recipe for a Crock-Pot Thai-Style Chicken Pumpkin Soup.

The recipe came from the Slow Cooker Bible, and because I’m feeling a tad lazy, I’m including a picture of the recipe page rather than typing it out myself. 😉

In place of the heavy cream we used Silk coffee creamer (original, not flavored), and we left out the onion completely (Andrew put the green onions on his at the end). We also added sliced mushrooms because we had some on hand that needed to be used.

The soup was incredibly flavorful, and as is the case with most things pumpkin, I liked it, but I was not crazy about it. I think anyone who really enjoys pumpkin would love it though! It made for a warm, hearty meal over the last two cool nights (and there are still leftovers). If you are a pumpkin-lover, give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Well, you may be pleased to know that the thermostat in our house now reads 61 degrees; I have removed the blanket and am beginning to thaw. 😉

Stay warm, everyone!

Pumpkin-flavored items: Love them or hate them?
What’s the weirdest pumpkin-flavored food you’ve seen in stores or tried?

Autumn River Run + Crock-Pot Pho

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Yesterday was one of those ridiculously beautiful autumn days, and I decided to skipped my morning run in favor of an afternoon run by the river near my office.

As you can see from the photos, it ended up being a fantastic decision. 😀 I love the soft trails with the crunch of the fallen leaves underfoot, the sights, the tranquility, and (near) solitude. I paid no attention to speed or distance, but rather just ran because it felt good. It was an awesome way to break up the work day.

<Sigh>

On a completely different subject, we made Vietnamese Pho in our Crock-Pot Sunday, and I am really excited about having the leftovers tonight for Stewsday! The food I desire most when it’s cold and I am lazy/tired/sick/(or not) is noodles and broth. Not chicken noodle soup, not vegetable noodle soup–noodles + broth. I love it. When Andrew suggested making a large batch of noodles and broth, I simply couldn’t say no. (Yeah, there’s some chicken and vegetables in there too, and I muscled them down for good measure. ;-))

The recipe was easy and probably didn’t actually require the Crock-Pot. We put 2 quarts of chicken broth + a pound(ish) of cooked, shredded chicken in the pot on high. After a few hours, when we were close to being ready to eat, we added a box of brown rice noodles, bean sprouts, a sliced jalepeno, sliced mushrooms, chopped basil, cilantro, and lime juice. As soon as the noodles are soft, the pho is ready. It was, pho real, a delicious batch of soup. 😉

Enjoy the lovely fall weather and all the delicious foods that go with it today!

Do you prefer running on trails or on the road?
Have you ever tried and/or made pho?

Rainy Day Beef Stew

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

Rainy days call for hearty dinners. Last night that hearty dinner was a simple beef stew. While we typically don’t eat a lot of red meat (and lately I’ve had one foot even more firmly in the vegetarian camp, as Andrew puts it…but more on that another day) we had a package of Simple Truth organic stew meat in the freezer just waiting for such a day as yesterday.

Simple Beef Stew

1 lb stew meat
5 carrots, peeled & sliced
4 celery stalks, sliced
3 Russet potatoes, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 c chicken broth
2-3 c beef broth
1 tsp dried rosemary
Worcestershire* sauce (a splash)
Pepper
1-2 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in equal amount cold water
Red wine vinegar (a splash)

(*I spelled that correctly on the first try! My trick is to say in my head: “Wor-chester-shire” and take out the “h”. 😀 It’s the little things.)

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add beef and brown all sides. 2. Reduce to medium heat, add garlic, and cook until fragrant (about a minute). 3. Add all remaining ingredients except vinegar and stir well, making sure broth is covering all veggies. 4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for about an hour. 5. Add splash of red wine vinegar. 6. When vegetables are tender, the stew is ready for you to enjoy!

It was quite good :). And for someone who regularly brings home the baby carrots she packed in her lunch that morning with great intentions, it’s a great way to eat the vitamin-A-packed roots.

Andrew’s review: “This is really good, baby; two thumbs up… even though it isn’t Stewsday!”

What else tastes great on a rainy night? Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, of course.

Speaking of eating, I’m now off to eat my words from yesterday–specifically the words, “I don’t mind running in the rain.” 😉

Have a great Friday!

-Rainy day meals: what’s your go-to?
-Raw carrots: love them, or love them in theory, hate them in taste unless dipped in Ranch dressing?

Rainy Day Weight Circuits

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

I don’t know how things look out your window, but here on the East Coast there was a quick switch from hot to cold-and-rainy in the last week. While I am not afraid of the rain and certainly don’t mind running in it, if I can complete my workout without actually leaving the house in this weather, that is fine by me!

I created and have been doing this weight and cardio workout from the warmth (well, dryness, anyway) of my living room this week:

By moving straight from one exercise to the next without a break, you can make it a cardio workout as well as strength. I typically use two 10-lb dumbbells for the moves that require weights (and sometimes for the walking lunges, if I’m feeling ambitious :)).

Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

What have we been eating this week to power such a grueling workout? Well, I’m glad you asked! The last two nights we’ve had one of the most neutral-colored meals possible: tilapia + brown rice pasta + spaghetti squash.

We baked the tilapia with a mixture of butter*, garlic, lemon juice, and basil, and made extra to season the brown rice pasta. We roasted the squash with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Everything was delicious, despite falling in the oh-so-visually-appealing beige-yellow-tan category.

(*Nature’s Promise organic non-dairy buttery spread)

Tonight may be a stew night, despite the fact that it’s not Stewsday. 😉

Have a great Thursday, and if you’re experiencing the weather we are, stay dry!

What are you eating this week?
How does the rain affect your workouts?

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole (Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free)

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

The cooler weather this week gives me a feeling of pure delight. I love fall and all that’s associated with it, and the meals are no exception. At the end of the workday yesterday, as I sat in my office, cozy in my cardigan sweater (which may have been overkill; I think the temperature reached 80 yesterday, but that’s no matter ;-)), I brainstormed dinner and decided what sounded best was a soul-warming chicken casserole.

I’ve heard rave reviews about casseroles using just chicken, rice, vegetables, and a can of cream of mushroom soup. Unfortunately, we can’t do dairy, so I had to get creative. I came up with a pretty excellent dairy-free, gluten-free (and probably healthier) alternative to the classic casserole. If you don’t want to make it DF and GF, but don’t want to use condensed soup, you could easily make this using milk and regular flour!

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

1 1/4 lb chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
12 oz mushrooms, sliced
4 c broccoli (fresh or frozen)
1 1/2 c brown rice
2 c soy milk
1/4 c DF butter substitute
1/4 c GF flour
salt
pepper
garlic powder
paprika
2 c water

1. Preheat oven to 375. 2. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat; add mushrooms, and cook until browned. 3. Add remaining butter to skillet, then milk, spices, and flour, and whisk to combine. 4. Stir regularly until the mixture thickens. 5. In a large glass baking dish, combine chicken, rice, broccoli, skillet mixture, and water. 6. Stir well, cover with aluminum foil, and place in oven for 45 min-1 hour.

I took it out of the oven and stirred a few times during the cooking process ~~because I love to stir things and couldn’t help myself~~ to prevent it from burning on the walls of the dish. For some reason the rice took a lot longer to cook than I anticipated, despite using the quick-cook variety. Also, as usual, I eyeballed the spices. You can always add more at the end if it needs more flavor!

The end result was de-licious, and I doubt anyone would know it’s dairy-free! We made it even better by eating it with baked apples straight out of the oven. 😀

The apples were a late addition to the meal–they came to mind while the rice was taking forever to cook, so I knew I had time to get them in the oven. All I did was: slice two apples, put them in a small glass baking dish with a little butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon; cover with foil, put in oven for 5 minutes, remove foil, stir, and put back in oven for another 10 minutes or so (stirring periodically, again, because I can’t help myself. :-D)

It was an awesome, feel-good, fall meal.

And I even let Andrew eat some after he said, “What, are you my grandma?” when I told him I was making casserole. Punk. 😉

What are you favorite cooler weather meals?

Any tips for taking good food photos, especially as it’s getting darker earlier? I know my pictures are not good, but I have no skills!

In Defense of (Posting Pictures of) Food

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Catherine @ A Two Storey Home

My name is Catherine, and I am a foodie.

I’ve seen a disturbing trend on social media lately: food photo hating. That’s right–there are people out there right now who are bored to tears by the photos we post of our delicious meals and culinary masterpieces. If you are one of those people, this post is for you. I’d like the chance to explain to you why I post photos of the food that I grow, eat, and love.

When I initially wrote this post, I included a witty, but snarky apology for forcing others to look at our food photos. Before posting I decided it was probably a little too heavy with the sarcasm, so instead, I will say this: if you don’t like what anyone posts online, hide them from your news feed, don’t follow them on Instagram, and don’t click on the link to their blog. That’s what I do when you post photos of… er… never mind. The choice is yours. I won’t be offended.

I post photos of food because I get excited about food. You post photos of what excites you, right? Scrolling through my Facebook news feed right now I see photos of: new boots, a sailboat, a double-layered marble cake with chocolate frosting, a baby deer, a wedding, a new haircut, the sorority squat, a football helmet, a new purse, a baby with a dog–We post little glimpses of our lives, and a good meal is one of those glimpses for me. Here’s why:

1. Food powers everything we do. All the activities we love are possible because we have good food in our bellies. Running marathons, hiking, playing with your kids, focusing in school or at work (okay, maybe you don’t love that, but it has to be done), simply hanging out with friends–your performance and ability to be in the moment will suffer if you are not well nourished. What you put in your body matters; while we may not be what we eat, we certainly feel the effects of what we eat (or don’t eat).

“We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us be much more than what we are.” -Adelle Davis

2. Food tastes amazing. As vital as food is to our lives, it could have been as boring as breathing–something that just happens naturally and keeps us alive. Instead, God gave food taste, and why in the world would He have done that if we weren’t meant to enjoy it? Eating, like other activities that ensure the survival of the human race, is meant to be pleasurable. Food is a gift, not only in the fact that we have it and aren’t starving, but that it tastes so good! Why would you not celebrate that?

“Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.” -Voltaire

3. Food builds relationships. Because we need food to power everything we do, and it’s not a boring pill that we have to take each morning, the act of eating gives us reason to pause a few times during the day, often with other people. How many relationships in your life have developed over the course of many meals? The vast majority. From childhood dinners with your family to school lunches in the cafeteria with friends to dates with your husband, sharing a meal bonds us with others.

“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… people who give you their food give you their heart.” -Cesar Chavez

4. Food is art. Some of the most beautiful colors I’ve ever seen are in my garden. I take no credit for this, but I certainly enjoy it! Fresh produce is inherently visually pleasing.

“Did you ever stop to taste a carrot? Not just eat it, but taste it? You can’t taste the beauty and energy of the Earth in a Twinkie.” -Astrid Alauda

That’s why I post pictures of what I ate for dinner–because that meal was a crucial piece of my day that gave me energy to do what I love, provided quality time with people I care about, and pleased my senses in a way that compelled me to turn and thank my Creator and Provider.

If you aren’t at least a little bit excited about food, it might be time to reconsider what you’re eating or the pace of your day–I wouldn’t get excited about eating a fast food hamburger in my car or macaroni and cheese from a box before running out the door either. Good food doesn’t have to take hours to make, it just has to be real food.

So, happy eating to all. And don’t forget to post photos. 🙂

A Two Storey Home

Where Marriage and Healthy Living Meet

Category Archives: Food