Food Wednesdays

 Welcome to the launch of Food Wednesdays.

    As mentioned in a past post this will be all about the Food-no limits on subject as long as it is Food related.

  So you can post about low carb, low sugar, vegetarian, gluten free, keto, paleo, history of foods, a favorite cookbook, a new cookbook, photos of foods-yours or at a restaurant you want to share. It can be all in full fats, carbs, sugars, it's up to you what you would to share. 

   Do you like to make homemade soup? Probably after I left home and college in the early '70s I started really reading labels on the food packages and cans. I watched for low salt or no salt, and low sugars. Years later I  needed to watch for gluten free for me and healthier for my husband's heart health and diabetes health. So I am a food label reader for sure, and I want to know what country my food is from as well.

   I bring this up because most canned soups and dried mixes are soooo high in salt. In many cases over the daily limit of salt. Bouillon cubes and similiar items are very high also in salt and additives too.

  So for years I have made my own stocks from whole chicken and turkey bones and left overs. Beef stock can be made from scratch as well from soup bones, beef shanks etc. For beef soups I do usually purchase beef bone broth-no salt or beef soup stock with no salt. If you need to be concerned with salt content regular stocks are just loaded with salt. One can also purchase or make veggie stocks too.

  Last week I made a beef soup I started with a no salt beef stock One of these is enough for two people but I usually add two of these, especially during a cold week

    I didn't think about taking photos at the time, but I had fresh green beans that I cleaned and snapped in small pieces, added to the simmering stock, I also added handfuls of dried onions and dried soup veggies that I pick up at the Amish store. Add dried chives, black pepper, a couple hot pepper flakes, and I have soup blend herbs that I buy from the Spice House and throw in a small handful of that. Grabbed a pint of home canned peeled tomatoes and smashed them up with my hands and added to the soup. I also peeled and cut into small pieces a zucchini.  I rarely add potatoes any more do to the carbs but this time I added a few and cut them in very small pieces. Let this all simmer for an hour. I keep turnips around now (no carbs) so sometimes I add small chunks of turnips instead of the potatoes

   I found this brand of canned beef and they also have canned turkey. This is an all usa product. When you open up the can it looks like a home canned product. I add this in last and heat til warmed up. At this point I also added a can of low salt black beans that I had rinsed well first.

To thicken I now like to use these all natural potato flakes, I know it adds carbs to the dish, but to a big pot I add a couple small handfuls and it really thickens the soup nicely I ended up adding this to the soup the next day, so the photo below of the bowl of soup does not reflect the addition of these flakes.

    It was soooo cold here at the lake last week, it did warm up over the weekend and today (Monday) as well, but Tuesday the cold returns.

   Time to make up my hot cocoa dry mix. I used to make a big jar full that would last all winter. I haven't made it since moving to the lake. I looked around online for different recipes-keto and others and ended up adapting ideas to make up the mixes. I made two mixes one using a dried coconut milk and the other a dried skim milk. The newest addition to the mix for me was a chopped up chocolate bar, and one of the keto recipes added collagen.

The ingredients

All blended up-going into the jar

The recipe I came up with

   2 cups sugar free sweetener-I used Splenda, can also use a keto white sweetener

   3/4 cup cocoa-I used Hershey's special dark cocoa-richer flavor

   1 cup dry milk or dry coconut milk powder

  unsweetened chocolate bar-I had on hand 95% cocoa bar I used half of this 2.8 ounce bar for each jar (This really added a richness to the hot cocoa)

 1/3 cup collagen-this was added to a keto recipe so I added this one to the coconut milk cocoa mix

Add all ingredients to your food processer and whirl til blended well-add to jar and label.  Use 2-3 tablespoons of mix per 12 ounces of water or milk for richer flavors I like unsweetened nut milks. bring to a simmer til all mixed pour in mugs and enjoy I splurge on a bit of sugar by adding marshmallows-smiles

Now it's your turn if you would like to add your Food Wednesdays post here-please link up with your actual post and not your blog.