This past week I was faced with a dilemma. What to do with no time, no money, lots of apples and a few random leftover CSA ingredients? Buy a can of chicken and use the crockpot!

I made this soup out of pure necessity. I didn’t want my green beans, apples, or onion to go bad, but I didn’t have any time to cook. I also needed to eat (I hear that’s good for your health). So I experimented with combining them all and adding chicken, quinoa and some spices that I normally wouldn’t combine together. I wasn’t going to post it on the blog because I didn’t think it was note worthy. But as soon as I tasted it, I pulled out the camera to take a picture. It was too good not to share…

Green Apple Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
2 medium green apples
2 cups water
1 can chicken breast w/’juice’
1/2 large onion (approx 1/3 cup)
1 cup chopped green beans
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 cup red quinoa
salt to taste

Instructions:

Peel and core the apples. Chop them into 1/2″ cubes or smaller. Add them to the crockpot with the 2 cups water. Turn it on high.

Chop the onion and green beans, adding them and the can of chicken to the crockpot. Mix in the ginger, cinnamon, and onion powder.

Leave covered on high for 6 hours.

At the end of the 6 hours, soak your red quinoa and rinse well (to remove the bitter outer layer). Add the soaked quinoa to the crockpot and continue it (now uncovered) on low for 2 hours.

It was perfect because the apples baked softly away into the water, forming a soupy texture. The onion and green beans also softened up perfectly. The chicken turned a lovely reddish brown color because the seasonings cooked into it. I gobbled this soup up! I had it for lunch a few days last week, and I even had it one day when there wasn’t a microwave. The verdict: just as tasty cold!

This recipe is linked to Pennywise Platter, Friday Favorites, Fight Back Friday, Foodie Friday, Friday Feasts, the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap, Wholesome Whole Foods, and Food On Fridays.

It seems like forever ago now that I saw a recipe from Laura over at Hey What’s for Dinner Mom? that had portabella mushrooms stuffed in a similar fashion. It looked SO tasty. So I decided to make my own version!

Also, as a side note, I was living in the mushroom capital of the world for a whole year and I’m still pretty close to it. Nothing like local mushrooms all year round! I actually was also able to visit one of the premier mushroom farms in the country while I was there – you can read about it on my Horticulture By Heart Blog. I learned so much about mushrooms! (And some of them are really pretty :))

Anyway, back to the food. These are incredibly simple and really filling. You can see by the photos that I served them with baked potato slices, but I could hardly get to the potatoes. The caps and quinoa nice protein packed addition to any meal! (Or AS the meal in my case :))

Quinoa Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Ingredients:

2 large portabella caps
1/2 cup of quinoa grains w/water for cooking
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 small green pepper
1/2 medium white onion
2 romaine tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tablespoon spice blend (I used Bucks Seasoning, but any sort of seasoning you typically like would work here)

Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Soak the quinoa grains. I always put the grains in a strainer and set the strainer in a bowl of water. This makes it easier to rinse after it has soaked. Set aside.

Cover a small baking sheet (preferably with edges) with aluminum foil. Add a small amount of oil or spray with a non stick spray. (You’ll only need it where you’re going to put the two mushroom caps).

Lightly wash the mushrooms so not to bruise them too much. Remove the stems. Place the top of the cap down so that the fleshy undersides show. Once the oven has preheated, roasted them for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook up the 1/2 cup of quinoa in a small saucepan on the stove. On another burner, add a large skillet and add the oil. While its heating up, coarsely chop up the onion, pepper, and tomatoes then add them to the skillet. Cook them for a total of about ten minutes on medium high, stirring occasionally. Also add the onion powder, salt, and your choice of seasonings as they are cooking. Once the quinoa is cooked, add that to the pan as well.

Once you’ve removed the mushrooms from the oven, let them sit as long as it takes for the veggies and quinoa to cook up. The last part is probably the easier. Scoop the veggie quinoa blend into the mushroom cap. I made mine without cheese, but I sprinkled cheese on for the one I made for a friend.

Put them back into the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Then they’re ready to serve and eat!

This recipe is linked to Just Another Meatless Monday, Meatless Monday, Mouthwatering Mondays, Tasty Tuesdays, Tuesday at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, and Gluten Free Wednesday, Delicious Dishes, Two for Tuesday, Tuesday Twister, Real Food Wednesday, Wholesome Whole Foods, Food on Fridays, Friday Favorites, Friday Food, Vegetarian Foodie Friday, Foodie Friday, and Fight Back Friday.

I’m calling these cupcakes instead of muffins because in truth; they tasted too sweet to be a muffin! But at the same time, the only sweet ingredients in these muffins are dates and stevia. So I suppose it would be the taster’s call. This is my opinion though: in regards to health they’re muffins, in regards to taste they’re cupcakes :) No frosting required! Although I think that some honey whipped cream from Shirley over at GFE would be just divine on these! (I need to try that pronto :))

For some reason the ‘mini muffins’ were lighter in color than the large muffins. They both tasted great though!

Sugar Free Date Muffins

Ingredients:
3/4 cup finely chopped dates
1 1/4 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
1/4 cup corn oil
1/2 cup date sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 drops liquid stevia

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a heat safe container, place your chopped dates. Bring 1 1/4 cup water to a boil. Into that container, also add the baking soda. There will be a small reaction, so make sure you have a large enough container to manage any bubbling. Pour that mix onto the chopped dates. Cover (I used a kitchen towel) and set aside.

In a small bowl, sift all your flours, cornstarch, and baking powder so they are well combined. Set aside.

In yet another bowl (this should be a larger one), lightly beat the egg. Add the corn oil while beating and mix in well. Whisk in the date sugar, vanilla, and liquid stevia. Once that is mixed well, add the flour mix. While mixing these too together it will be rather resistant. Keep mixing!

Finally, add the water, baking soda, and date mix. Combine well.

Spray your muffin pans (or if you use muffin papers like I did). It’ll rise almost double, so fill accordingly. You can use either regular size or a mini muffin tray. I actually did both and they both turned out great! I will note though, I found it slightly strange that the smaller mini muffins were a lot lighter than the larger muffins. They both tasted great though, so I’m not sure what all that was about.

Bake larger muffins for approximately 20 minutes. If you use a mini muffin tray, they should be done just shy of 15 minutes.

These truly are for dessert, but they don’t come along with all the unnatural sweeteners, just dates and stevia!

This recipe is linked to Food on Friday, Foodie Friday, Friday Favorites, Wholesome Whole Foods, Friday Food, Fight Back Friday, I’m Lovin It Friday, Vegetarian Foodie Friday, Family Food Fridays, and the Grocery Cart Recipe Swap.

I have had a few people tell me they have tried my recipes, which I think is one of the most exciting things a foodie blogger can be told! But a lot of times I really have no idea how it turned out for them or sometimes even if they liked it. I’ll be honest, I’m always a little bit nervous when someone says they’re going to try a recipe. All these questions run through my head… When I made it last did I get lucky? What if they use one thing as a substitution and then it all goes horribly wrong? Do they have different tastes than me? Silly things, granted. But I can’t help it.

Just last week one of my closest and dearest friends (who also eats dairy, gluten, and sugar free) decided to try my Chicken Pot Pie. Man, was I nervous! But here are some photos of what she made using the recipe as well as a few changes she made.

Aaaaaand, here are her comments!

“Boy was it delicious :) I made a few changes such as: I used boiled chicken breast and regular corn (couldn’t find creamed corn without sugar). It tasted soooooo good! Thanks for the recipe!”

Woot! :D

Cherry’s are in season here in the central part of the east coast, which makes life pretty darn awesome for us cherry lovers (hence ‘seasoned’ in the title, hehe). I have to be honest though, if I buy a bag of cherries they are unlikely to make it into a recipe. They just don’t last that long! However, I got a box of cherries in my CSA box and so I decided to force myself to save them for something new and interesting.

I used to hate salsa. (I hated a lot of food as a child – thank goodness I’ve come around!) Now I eat salsa whenever I can. Mostly because its an easy way to add flavor AND veggies to a dish that may be wanting in either of the two. But I also get bored with the same old styles. So I decided to make mine a bit ‘fruity’ and see how I liked it.

The verdict: Why can’t cherry’s ALWAYS be in season? (AKA, I LOVE it! :D)

Sweet and Spicy Cherry Salsa

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups stemmed semi-sweet cherries (or bing works excellent!)
1/2 large yellow onion
1 large green pepper
2 large romaine tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sweet basil leaves
pinch cayenne
Optional: 5 drops of almond extract

(Some of the ingredients in the Salsa Express)

Instructions:

Wash the cherries. To pit them, I just ripped them in half. You’re going to chop them up anyway, so don’t worry about keeping them pretty. Add them to a food processor or my ever so popular Salsa Express! I love this thing. (Popular in my mind anyway :)). Turn the crank until the bits of cherries are to the size of your liking.

Next wash and chop up the onion, pepper, and tomatoes. Add them to the salsa express and continue cranking. I then added the salt, cayenne pepper, sweet basil leaves, and almond extract directly in the chopper, cranking it just a few more times. Then I dumped it out into a large mixing bowl and continued to combine it, just to be sure there wasn’t a clunk of salt somewhere or something.

And that’s it! The flavors are fantastic. Even though its obviously best eaten with chips, I’ve been eating it with a fork right out of the bowl :) It will also taste better the longer you leave it in the fridge because the flavors will really have a chance to meld that way.

The best part? The colors I think. This is one sexy salsa :)

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This recipe is linked to Just Another Meatless Monday, Mouthwatering Monday, Meatless Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays,  Tuesdays at the Table, Tasty Tuesday, Delicious Dishes, Tuesday Twister, Local Potluck Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Gluten Free Wednesdays, Foodie Friday, Friday Favorites, Food on Friday, Friday Foodie Fix – Cherries, Wholesome Whole Foods, the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap, Fight Back Friday, Mom Trends Recipe’s, and Foodie Friday Fix.