New Recipes

I've tried out a couple of new recipes recently which use more natural ingredients. The first one is found here.

Grilled Lemon Chicken

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• ground black pepper to taste
• seasoning salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat, and lightly oil grate. Marinade the chicken in lemon juice for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with the onion powder, ground black pepper, seasoning salt and parsley. Discard any remaining lemon juice.
2. Cook on the prepared grill 10 to 15 minutes per side, or until no longer pink and juices run clear.

This was so simple, but surprisingly good! I did find it frustrating, though, to read the ingredients on the bottle of lemon juice that I used. It shouldn't have been that surprising, I suppose, but it contains several ingredients other than lemon juice... I guess if I want to go all natural, I'll have to buy fresh lemons. And the seasoning salt (I used Lawry's) contains "tricalcium phosphate" which is supposed to prevent clumping. ::sigh:: Going all natural is not as easy as it should be! At any rate, its a good recipe that can be made all natural without too much effort.

The other recipe I tried is for whole wheat bread. I hadn't made bread using 100% whole wheat flour before, and I was afraid it might be really dry and/or heavy, but this recipe was pretty good.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons margarine
• 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

DIRECTIONS

1. Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer.
2. Select Whole Wheat or Basic Bread setting. Press Start.

I think I'll probably try some other recipes too, as this wasn't "amazing", but it was good. Some of the reviews suggest adding gluten to the dough (apparently you can buy gluten in a jar at the store), which will produce a lighter, fluffier loaf, but I'm not sure if that defeats the purpose of the whole wheat? I'm going to have to research more to find that out.

::Update:: Adding 2 TBLS of wheat gluten to the mixture makes this an excellent whole wheat bread recipe! Also, I don't use dry milk; instead I just use milk in place of the water. So yummy!

That is my first foray into natural cooking. I'll post more recipes I try as I go along. I have a lot to learn!

(By the way, I also have a lot to learn when it comes to blogging - I'm not sure what's going on with my formatting. Apparently copying and pasting text makes things go funky!)

Intentional Eating

In the spirit of choosing to live intentionally, today I am thinking about making healthy food choices. Early Morning Musings has a great post today that put into words a lot of what I've been thinking. I want to get away from eating packaged foods that contain all sorts of mysterious ingredients. I've watched several shows recently that explain the benefits of eating lots of fruits and veggies and avoiding the types of fats, preservatives, etc. that are in so many of the packaged foods we buy. I'm just beginning to think more about what my family is eating, so I feel like I have miles to go before I really understand how to make the best food choices, but I have to start somewhere. I will be getting Michael Pollen's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" from the library soon, and I am really excited to learn more about what he has to say.

Thankfully I don't think it will be hard to get my husband on board with the idea. He already chooses fresh fruits and veggies when he wants to snack. I'm afraid the person who will really need convincing is me... My natural inclination when I want a snack is NOT to reach for an apple. I am hopeful, though, that if I can retrain myself, my daughter will reap the benefits of a healthier lifestyle as well. Since she hasn't started eating solid foods yet, I haven't had a chance to teach her any of my not-so-healthy habits. Here's to being intentional about choosing healthy foods!!