December Reader Recipe: Shannon’s Chicken Soup

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Achieve with Athena

Hi everyone! Today’s post is the fourth in my latest series called “Reader Recipes.” In Reader Recipes, I am highlighting one F&F reader a month so they can share their fave recipes with all of you. This month’s recipe comes from my high school and college friend, Shannon. Thank you, Shannon, for sharing your reader recipe!

December Reader Recipe of the Month

Hello, I am Shannon and I blog at Dresses and Desserts on all things sewing and baking. I absolutely adore the holiday season and am thrilled to be doing this month’s Reader Recipe for Athena. My recipe is for chicken soup (You can substitute the chicken with leftover turkey as well). It is very easy to make and delicious.

Shannon’s Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Chicken (I used about 1 ½ cups left over from a roasted chicken)
1 cup of brown rice
½ white onion
1 cup of carrots
10 cups of water
5 cubes of chicken bullion

Directions

1. In a large stock pot, boil water and add chicken bullion.

2. Cut chicken into small pieces and place in pot.

3. Cut up onion and carrots into bit size pieces and stir into pot.

4. Add rice and turn stove to low.

5. Let soup simmer for about one hour, stirring occasionally. (You may need to add a bit more water).

I ate this soup for a few nights, but the great thing about it is that you can freeze it. I found Gladware especially designed for the freezer, with snowflakes on them. I put individual servings in each one and placed in the freezer for the future.

I hope that you enjoy the soup as much as I did. The beauty of it is that it is impossible to screw up and you can add more or less of the ingredients depending on your tastes or even incorporate your own.

If anyone is interested in being featured on Reader Recipes, please email me at akaralekas@gmail.com. I’m open to any recipes (healthy or not), you just need to be willing to write up a little post about it and photograph your food. Would love to feature you, and you do not need to be a blogger to participate!

November Reader Recipe: Shannon’s Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Achieve with Athena

Hi everyone! Happy first of the month! Today’s post is the third in my latest series called “Reader Recipes.” In Reader Recipes, I am highlighting one F&F reader a month so they can share their fave recipes with all of you. This month’s recipe comes from reader Shannon, a former co-worker of mine. Thank you, Shannon, for sharing your reader recipe!

November Reader Recipe of the Month

First a quick thank you to Athena for letting me be a part of her fantastic blog!

In the spirit of fall and the upcoming food oriented holidays, I’m excited to share my spin on Giada’s awesome Sweet Potato Gnocchi with a maple and sage, brown butter sauce.

I came across this recipe three years ago when we hosted my husband Kevin’s entire family for Thanksgiving. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I offered since Clare was only a month old. Against all odds and with over twenty people packed in like sardines, we survived and the gnocchi was a hit. Why wouldn’t it be, who wouldn’t want yummy pasta smothered in a sweet butter sauce!?!?

Since then and the addition of quite a few pant sizes, I’ve learned the error of my buttery ways…sort of. I don’t have the will power to cut this deliciousness from my life so I found a way to make it healthier-ish.

Shannon’s Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients

⅔ cup(s) fat-free ricotta cheese
2½ tsp table salt: 1 tsp for sauce and 1.5 tsp for gnocchi
2 tsp ground cinnamon: 1 tsp for gnocchi and 1 for sauce
½ tsp black pepper: 1/4 for sauce and 1/4 for gnocchi
1¼ cup(s) whole wheat flour
2 lbs sweet potato
1 oz fresh sage, 20 leaves – whole fresh leaves really makes this dish!
2 tbsp maple syrup
¼ cup(s) regular butter

Directions

Cook the sweet potato until soft in oven or microwave. Scoop the sweet potato out of the skin and mash to make 2 cups. The less chunks the better.
In a bowl, combine sweet potato, ricotta, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4tsp pepper and 1 tsp cinnamon.
Add flour 1/2 cup at a times until soft dough forms. It might not seem like there is enough flour, but trust me, don’t add more. If you do, the pasta will be dense and won’t be the light fluffy cloud like morsels they are meant to be.
Divide dough into 6 parts. Roll out each dough part into 1″ rope and cut into 1″ pieces.
Boil gnocchi in batches for ◴ 5-6 minutes or until they float.
For the sauce, melt butter then add sage.
When butter starts to brown and there is no more foam remove from heat and add syrup, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp salt
Toss gnocchi in sauce and serve.

Here’s the original recipe. I swapped in whole wheat flour and fat-free ricotta. I also found that if you want to double the batch, it’s best to just make two separate ones. We made three batches for Clare’s 3rd birthday party in October!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Reader Recipe! Erica’s Carrot Pulp Muffins

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Achieve with Athena

Hi everyone! Can you believe yesterday started a new month already? Today’s post is the second post in my latest series called “Reader Recipes.” In Reader Recipes, I am highlighting one F&F reader a month so they can share their fave recipes with all of you. This month’s recipe comes from Erica, a former class member of mine (we miss you at the Y, Erica!). You can follow Erica through her tumblr account at erocksrunning.

Reader Recipe of the Month: Erica’s Carrot Pulp Muffins

A few months ago, I juiced way more carrots than necessary and ended up with a bag of carrot pulp. I didn’t want to just throw it away… so I asked for suggestions. A friend sent a link my way for some awesome looking muffins. It was also a grocery day, so I figured I’d pick up the random ingredients that I don’t stock normally (agave nectar? who has that on the regs??) and whip these bad boys up before my pulp wilted (??) or whatever it does.

After I picked Thing 1 up from school, we started. The best part of letting kids help you cook, other than the not-big-at-all mess afterwards, is the optimism. It looked like gross mush to me but she was all “Mom, these are going to be awesome!” and “Mom, these will be delish because we’re working so hard!”. Thing 2 was just drinking the agave nectar right out of the bottle and licking whole wheat flour off the counter. Super helpful.

Carrot Pulp Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 medium to large pastured eggs, beaten
2 cups carrot pulp
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease about 12 muffin tins thoroughly. Mix dry ingredients first. In separate bowl, mix sugar with olive oil, water and vanilla. Add beaten eggs and blend thoroughly. Lightly incorporate the carrot pulp and nuts. Finally add dry ingredients. Put into muffin pan and cook for about 20 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes and serve.

Anywho, we made half with walnuts and half with coconut. The recipe called for applesauce which, I feel, always makes my baked goods feel like bouncy balls but whatevs. Both varieties of the muffin were super healthy and pretty tasty at the same time. If I had to vote for one, I’d say add coconut.

If you happen to have any extra carrot pulp lying around, USE THIS RECIPE! Def worth making for a healthy snack or breakfast!

Thanks for the recipe, Erica!

If you are interested in being featured as part of Reader Recipes, please email me at akaralekas@gmail.com. I’m open to any recipes (healthy or not!), you just need to be willing to write up a little post about it and photograph your food. Would love to feature you, and you do not need to be a blogger to participate!