Shelley's Chicken Salad

This salad comes from one of my good friends, when I visit her house it is mandatory that she make it for me :)

2 cans or C shredded chicken
2 stalks celery, diced
2 stalks green onions, diced
1/4 C mayonnaise (I use Veginaise)
2 red apples, diced
1 t curry powder
1 t dill
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and cover tightly. Rest in refrigerator 2 hours to blend flavors.
Serve over lettuce leaves, on bread or in celery stalks. Very yummy!

3 Meals from 1 Chicken

This week is "Tech-Week" for my sons theater group, which means - no time for cooking each night, I HAVE to plan ahead and be very strategic or be ready to increase expenses and eat out. Since non of us are big fast food fans, I set to planning. I was essentially planning for meals ready to eat fast meals and was not planning on going to the store, so I turned to what was already in my freezer and my pantry and hoped for the best. A beautiful whole chicken was frozen, so I sat it to defrost and wondered..."just how many meals could I make out of this one chicken?" I scoured my home recipe book and found some help and imagination or "divine intervention!" filled in the rest.

I oven roasted my chicken (skin on) with thyme, salt, pepper and white wine. The spice combination was designed to give it flavor but not so much distinct flavor that I couldn't add other flavors to it. After cooling, I picked it apart, every evidence of meat was claimed and portioned. Then one, two, three I cooked three easy meals for my family of 4 that were easy to reheat and portion friendly, needed for the demands of the week!

Meal 1: Chicken & Cheese Burritos Enchilada Style
11/2 C Shredded Chicken
1/2 Onion sautéed              (Tip-cook other half of onion and add to salad below)
2 C Shredded Cheese         (Tip-shred extra cup of cheese for salad below)
2 C Enchilada Sauce - homemade or canned
4 Large Flour Tortillas
Briefly put each tortilla in skillet of warmed sauce to coat. Remove to greased 13X9 pan and fill (I stuffed!!) with chicken, onion, salt & pepper & cheese. Roll into Burrito, seam side down. Continue with remaining 3 tortillas. Add remaining sauce to burritos, topping with cheese. Bake 25 minutes at 375.
Made 4 servings

Meal 2: Chicken & Dumplings
3 C Shredded Chicken
1 10 oz can Cream of Chicken
1 C Chicken Broth
1 C Milk
1/2 t each Thyme and Pepper
1 C Bisquick
1/4 more Pepper
1/3C more Milk
Combine chicken through Pepper in large saucepan over med-high heat. Stir constantly. In bowl stir together Bisquick through milk just until moistened. Drop Bisquick dough by spoonfuls into boiling chicken mixture. Turn heat to low and simmer 10 minutes, uncovered. Simmer 10 more minutes, covered or longer until dumplings are done.
4 Servings

Meal 3: Mexican Chicken Salad
1 C Shredded Chicken
1/2 Sauteed Onion
1 Can Black Beans
2 Carrots
1 C Shredded Cheese
Optional-1/4 t Cumin
Romaine Lettuce
Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil, Honey & Red Wine Vinegar to taste
Top cut lettuce with carrots, beans, cheese, onions and chicken. Salt & pepper as desired. Mix vinegar, oil & honey for dressing.  Also fabulous with a squeeze of lime, salsa &/or sour cream.
Made 4 servings

Enjoy!

Encouraging Article on Partial Fasting, just in time for Lent.

Retune The Body With A Partial Fast

by PATTI NEIGHMOND

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All Things Considered

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Consuming only water for a 24-hour period — no more than once a week — can suppress insulin secretion and reduce the desire for sugar.

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November 21, 2007

For thousands of years, beginning with philosophers like Hippocrates, Socrates and Plato, fasting was recommended for health reasons. The Bible writes that Moses and Jesus fasted for 40 days for spiritual renewal.

To understand how the body reacts to a lack of food, you could start by looking at what happens to newborns. Newborns can't sleep through the night because they need to eat every few hours. They don't produce enough glycogen, the body's form of stored sugar, to make energy.

"Glycogen is necessary for thinking; it's necessary for muscle action; it's necessary just for the cells to live in general," says Dr. Naomi Neufeld, an endocrinologist at UCLA.

Neufeld says most adults need about 2,000 calories a day. Those calories make energy, or glycogen. Neufeld says it doesn't hurt — it might even help the body — to fast or stop eating for short periods of time, say 24 hours once a week, as long as you drink water.

"You re-tune the body, suppress insulin secretion, reduce the taste for sugar, so sugar becomes something you're less fond of taking," Neufeld says.

Eventually the body burns up stored sugars, or glycogen, so less insulin is needed to help the body digest food. That gives the pancreas a rest. On juice diets recommended by some spas, you may lose weight, but your digestive system doesn't get that rest.

Mark Mattson, a scientist with the National Institute on Aging, says that when we convert food into energy, our bodies create a lot of byproducts we could do without, including free radicals.

"These free radicals will attack proteins, DNA, the nucleus of cells, the membranes of cells," Mattson says. "They can damage all those different molecules in cells."

And even if you don't fast, Mattson says that simply limiting the calories you consume may be beneficial. He points to studies where rats and mice were fed every other day. Compared with those fed normal daily diets, there was a reduction in disease among the rats that were severely restricted in their food intake. Mattson says those findings hold promise that humans could also benefit from partial fasting.

Mattson thinks partial fasting has numerous benefits, from improving glucose regulation, which can protect against diabetes, to also lowering blood pressure. Some animal studies have also shown that partial fasting has very beneficial effects on the brain, protecting against Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and stroke.

Partial fasting may even extend lifespan because eating less sends a message to the cells of the body that they should conserve and use energy more efficiently.

"When they're exposed to a mild stress, [the body's cells] sort of expect that maybe this is going to happen again," Mattson says. "So maybe next time I may have to go longer without food, so I'd better be able to deal with that when it comes on."

Mattson says that process is similar to the way muscles get built up when they're stressed by exercise. Mattson adds that because complete fasting is difficult to study and there is little actual research comparing people who fast with those who don't, it's not clear whether complete fasting (water only) is also beneficial.

Proponents say small, short-term studies find that complete fasting lowers blood pressure and reduces cancer risk. But Dr. Naomi Neufeld worries that complete fasting could be harmful. After the first few days of liquid only, the body uses up all its stored glucose to make energy. And then it turns to other sources, including fat and muscle.

"The main tissue that's the target in long-term fasting is muscle, because muscle has readily available amino acids which can be converted to glucose right away," Neufeld says. "In that way, your brain is never deprived of needed glucose."

The problem, Neufeld says, is that when muscle breaks down, potentially toxic proteins are released. These proteins are partly composed of nitrogen, and too much nitrogen in the body can be toxic to the kidneys and liver. That's when starvation is officially under way.

Crunchy Pork Chops

Getting all of my family to agree on a "good" recipe is a challenge, I tend to test out a lot of new things on my family in the spirit of creating something new and finding ways to save money.... sometimes it's a thumbs up and other times I get asked where the Cheerios are!

This recipe was a surprising hit. The pork was juicy on the inside and the coating remained super crunchy. I started out with a basic recipe and of course added and changed, etc., sometimes it takes a few tries to tweak things, but this one seemed to be perfect after the first go around, so I submit it for your dinnertime pleasure :) My apologies, I forgot to snap a picture; unexpectedly, my parents came over for a spur of the moment dinner so they got to share in the yum as well.

1/2 C Bisquick
1/2 C Panko
1/2 C Flax-Seed Meal
1/4 Wheat Flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 boneless, center cut pork chops
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425. Place wire rack on a baking sheet and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In shallow dish dish, combine Bisquick, Panko and Flax-Seed Meal. In 2 separate shallow dishes, place flour and eggs. Pat pork chops dry with paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dredge pork in flour; coat in eggs, and dredge in baking mix mixture.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until done. Rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Misty's Spicy Bacon Chili

1/2 pkg Bacon, diced
21/2 lbs beef or sausage combination
1 small sweet onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 T Fennel Seed
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 can tomato paste
3 cans chili beans, drained
1 can green chilies
1 dark beer
3 T Beef Bouillon
1 t Chipotle Chili Powder
1 T Worcestershire
1 T Oregano
1 T Basil
1 t Cumin
1 t Hot pepper Sauce
1 t Sea Salt
1 t Black Pepper
1 t Paprika
1 T Sugar

1. In large stock pot over medium-high heat, brown bacon. Set aside.
2. Brown beef, adding ingredients through Fennel Seed. Drain excess grease from pot and return bacon.
3. Add tomatoes through Bouillon and blend.
4. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat for at least 2 hours.
5. Serve with shredded cheese, diced avocado, sour cream and/or saltine crackers.

Goes wonderful with my easy Beer Bread!

2 2/3 C Self-Rising Flour

12 oz Dark Beer

1. Heat oven to 375. Grease loaf pan.
2. Mix flour and beer just till moistened.
3. Scrape into loaf pan and Bake 50-55 min until lightly browned and pick comes out clean.
4. Cool on wire rack 5 min in pan.
5. Remove from pan, set on wire rack until cool enough to slice.
6. Slice thickly.

Enjoy!

Lunch Box Ideas

I would LOVE some new lunch box ideas for school. It is already the first week of school and we are Hum-drum about the old ones, sad, I know! Who has some clever and yummy tummy fillers?

~Misty

The Practical Life

What exactly does that mean... "Practical"? Webster was a huge help in picking apart the word with me and my mind went racing away, as usual, with new interpretations. Here is some food for thought on The Practical Life.

practical, adjective, noun. adj.

1. having to do with action or practice rather than thought or theory. I find it interesting that theory and practical are in opposition to one another, interesting just because I never thought of it before. We all have our beloved theories on life, parenting or how to boil water, but do we practice them? Do we hold onto these theories more as impressive thoughts to be heard by others but not seen? Some of us have become "arm chair Christians", have we not? Quite possibly the difference that lies between a Practical Life and a Theoretical Life is one that has a track record, a life where one's theories are being tried out, tested and lived. When I do not act on my beliefs, how do I know how real they are or if they will 'hold water'? God speaks about such a life in James 2: 14-17. A theory that is put into action, over and over again is practiced and made stronger... it seems like a beautifully designed cycle. The theory gets stronger as it is practiced, the action is refined as it is practiced... The Practical Life!

2. fit for actual practice.. I love this definition! I will exchange the word "fit" for "equipped" and trust you won't mind. I am a Certified Kolbe Advisor (check out www.kolbe.com, contact me for more, I seriously passionate!) I am 100% convinced everyone is uniquely designed to fulfill the desires God has placed in our hearts, this is His will for our lives and is one of the most exciting things to grasp in our entire lives. As we allow ourselves to dream and have the courage to step out towards those dreams, we practice living how we are meant to live. If you are a housewife, you are equipped. If you are a COO, you are equipped. If you are retired, divorced, a grandparent, single, unemployed... YOU are equipped! Whatever you are doing or are going to do, God has given you the necessary items in your "tool kit" to be successful, satisfied and overwhelmingly happy as we practice them. How do I know this? Eph 2:10 - "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good things, which God created beforehand that we should walk in them." Oh, how I love the promises that reassure us for our Practical Life!

3. useful. Life! Your life, my life, is useful. What we do, every day IS useful. When we are practicing our purpose, when we are using what God has given us (tools, skills, theories, etc) to do his will. Col 3:23-24 reminds us that as we do these things for the Lord, and forget that it's for people, our blessing comes from the Lord. Geez, it is hard to see sometimes, isn't it? Among the laundry, the messes, the problems and the noise there often isn't a break, much less a warm fuzzy from Heaven saying "Hey, Great Job on that chicken! It rocked and it was worth hand picking the basil and lemons in 112 degree heat, I could really taste it and ..... THANK YOU!!!!!" .... not going to happen. But, I'm not waiting for it either because my satisfaction is not in the thank you, it's in the lemon. What? Yup, it's in knowing that I am useful. Because of the way God made me, personally, I know that I feel satisfied when I create. One way I get a lot of joy is from creating meals for my family - I just do, I can't explain it, it's instinctual. As I follow my God given desire, I find myself practicing my skill I am having a great time doing it because I am also being useful with my creations... now, tell me how cool God is!

The same is true for you. The Practical Life you lead is the actions you take, not only those brilliant thoughts you have. You have been created with YOU in mind, perfectly fitted and equipped with a tool box for your real construction site of life. You are useful in your Practical Life as you use your natural instincts for your work, you will experience true freedom and satisfaction in doing things as you were meant to, for God's glory. So have at it, Ladies and remember the Lemons!

Love you~ Misty