Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 07:09 AM
My friend and co-worker, Tina, who also has a NuVal blog, focuses on how to eat healthy on a budget. Today, I’m taking a page from her book. When I am feeling the need to keep a close eye on our family budget, I look for meals that stretch, without compromising on nutrition. One of the best ways I know how to do that is to make a roast chicken, and follow it up with my famous chicken soup.
For this project, I bought a 7.5 pound roast chicken and planned to make it on a Sunday. You don’t really need such a big chicken, but my grocery store had their store brand whole chickens on sale for 99 cents a pound. No need to splurge for the $12 Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster. The store brand will definitely do.
I like to make roast chicken using a Reynold’s Oven Bag. My mom introduced me to these many years ago. They are great for whole chicken, turkey, or roasts. If you are afraid of roasting something for fear that it will dry out, try out these oven bags. They are fool-proof. While I needed a 2 hour window for roasting, once it is in the bag and in the oven, I’m free to do other things. There are so many things you can do with roast chicken. One of my favorite Martha Stewart recipes calls for placing a lemon and sprigs of thyme right inside the cavity. On this particular Sunday, however, we were cleaning out the kids rooms and the downstairs hall closet, so I kept things really simple. I removed the giblets from the chicken, rinsed it, and patted it dry. I brushed it with a very light layer of canola oil and sprinkled it with black pepper, thyme and paprika. I prepared the oven bag with 1 Tablespoon of flour and put the chicken in. I closed it with the little tie that comes with the oven bags and put it in the oven. Done!
Growing up, my mom always put vegetables right in the oven bag with the chicken. And I’ve done that too: potatoes, parsnips and carrots. The downside to that, however, is that the vegetables absorb a lot of the chicken fat. So this time, I made my vegetables separately. My kids don’t like potatoes (weird, I know), so I reheated some while parboiled rice (NuVal score of 82) for them and made a Dream Dinner side of roasted baby potatoes for us (they go right out of the bag on to a cookie sheet and are done in 25 minutes). I also made a nice pot of steamed carrots (NuVal score of 99). Dinner #1, Done!
Now, here comes the more labor-intense part. The real reason I like to make a roast chicken is so that I can use it to make my Famous Chicken Soup. Well, it’s not really famous, but my mother did tell me once that she thinks that I make better chicken soup than she does – so that’s famous to me! My chicken soup is part Italian (with escarole) and part Jewish (with Matzoh balls).
First, I take whatever is left of the chicken, and put it in my big soup pot, cover it with water, add 2 chopped onions, black pepper and a lot of dried parsley.
I bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer – for about an hour (usually while we clean up the kitchen from dinner and get the kids ready for bed). Then, I turn the heat off and let it cool. While it is cooling, I take out all the chicken parts, meat and bones with a slotted spoon. I let the chicken cool on a plate.
Next comes the Not Fun part. You need to pick the chicken off the bones. However, because you’ve simmered it, it comes off easily and you can discard all the pieces that just don’t look appetizing to you. Then, I put the chicken that I want to keep back in the pot. I let the pot cool while we watch whatever has arrived from Netflix. Before we head to bed, my husband’s job is to take the pot down and put it in our extra fridge that we have in the basement.
The next day, I pull out the cold pot. The cool thing is that all the fat is now on top and I can easily skim it off.
Sorry for the unappetizing photo, but I needed to show you what I mean! Once I’m skimmed off the fat, I put the pot back on the stove and bring it to a simmer. Now, here’s where the healthy part comes in. I add a lot of Incredible Vegetables:
- Escarole (NuVal score of 96)
- Celery (NuVal score of 96)
- Carrots (NuVal score of 99)
The only downside to escarole is that it often is full of dirt. I fill my sink with water and shake all the dirt loose – at least 2 or 3 times. Then I lay it out on the counter to inspect it one last time for dirt.
Then, I chop it into coarse pieces.
I add the chopped carrots, celery and escarole to my pot. Sometimes I go overboard with the amount of vegetables I put in!
It looks more like a salad than soup! But everything shrinks down after simmering. An hour is more than enough time. It’s during this cooking that I taste and see what I need to add: usually more parsley, more black pepper and just a pinch of Kosher salt.
Finally, right before dinner time, I add my winning ingredient: Matzoh Balls. I became a fan when my husband and I lived in Newton, Massachusetts. Just outside Boston, Newton has a large Jewish community and some great restaurants. I first started loving Jewish Penicillin at Johnny’s Luncheonette. My own chicken soup has included Matzoh Balls ever since. I make then from a Manischewitz mix – so easy. Unfortunately we have not yet scored them at NuVal (although we will!) so I can’t give you the nutritional low-down. They are a great finishing touch, though. One thing to keep in mind is that the Matzoh Balls add a salty taste to the soup, so that pinch of Kosher salt that I mentioned in my last paragraph really is just a pinch! Also, roll the mix into very small balls. They really expand. OK, so it’s a little more work, but Dinner #2 – Done!
My soup could feed an army. There’s always some to send home with my Mom and Dad, some to bring for lunch and some to freeze. It’s a great way to stretch a $7 chicken!
Groundhog Day GiveAway
Congratulations to Commenter #35, Ashley of Food, Fotos and Fun. You’ve won the hot cereal round-up – just what you need to get through the last 6 weeks of winter!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Soup
Tags: chicken soup, roast chicken
Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 06:57 AM
Can you believe that Christmas Eve is only 3 weeks from today? Aaaahhh! I talk to a lot of moms and it seems that most are at a breaking point right now. Not only is there the incredible holiday to-do list, but it’s teacher conference time, winter sports are starting, and don’t even get me started about Christmas Pageant rehearsals. Before I became a mom, I always thought to myself, “What’s the big deal? It’s a little Parent-Teacher conference or a basketball practice?!” Well, now I know that it’s enough to turn our little household into a tailspin.
It’s during these busy times that I have to remember my strategies for holiday sanity. Last night, I went to Dream Dinners and picked up my already-made-for-me dinners. The staff at Dream Dinners assembles them for customers at no extra charge during December. Isn’t that the best Christmas gift? So from now until December 26th, it’s all Dream Dinners or Soup or Crockpot Meals. Last night, we had a long-time family favorite: Venus Soup.
Now, you may think that this soup is named after one of the 8 planets. Nope. It actually gets it name from the famous Venus de Milo restaurant in Seekonk, Massachusetts. The Venus de Milo is a big wedding factory kind of a place. Think Adam Sandler and The Wedding Singer. The legend in my family is that my grandmother stole the recipe from the Venus de Milo. My grandmother is a very honest woman, so I doubt that she really “stole” it, but you never know. What I do know is that women in my family have relied on this recipe for years, probably because it is so easy and economical to make and you can get a couple of meals out of it.
Grandma’s original recipe calls for ground beef (NuVal score of 26 for 80% lean) but I use ground turkey (NuVal score of 33).
1 onion, chopped
1 package (1 1/4 lbs) ground turkey
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can Veg-All
2 cans stewed tomatoes
4 cans water
3 or 4 beef bouillon cubes (or use beef broth)
¾ box ditalini cooked to package directions
In a large soup pot, brown onion and ground turkey over medium-high heat. Break up the ground turkey as finely as you can. Once the turkey is browned, strain the fat. Add kidney beans, Veg-All, stewed tomatoes, water and bouillon cubes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer about 1 hour. You can simmer it for hours if you’d like. Serve with cooked ditalini. Note: Do not cook the soup with the ditalini in it or you will end up with mush.
As I learn more about NuVal, I continue to trade up my ingredients for better NuVal scores.
For example, I used Del Monte No Salt Added Stewed Tomatoes which have a NuVal score of 47. Del Monte’s regular stewed tomatoes only score a 34. On my next trip to Price Chopper, I need to grab some cans of the Price Chopper No Salt Added Stewed Tomatoes. They get a 73!
Since I was shopping at my local Stop & Shop, where they do not have NuVal scores on shelf, I had to rely on my ever-failing memory for scores when choosing my ingredients. The Progresso regular kidney beans looked like a good choice with a score of 49. Actually, I would have done better with:
- Goya Kidney Beans: 64
- Full Circle Dark Red Organic Kidney Beans: 82
- Food Club Light Red Kidney Beans: 93
The Veg-All only scores a 43 but it is the one ingredient I can’t change. Veg-All is a unique canned mixed vegetable that has pieces of potato in it. Believe me, I’ve tried switching to higher scoring canned mixed vegetables here and it just doesn’t work for me.
The Barilla Ditalini gets an admirable pasta score of a 61. Too bad they don’t make a Barilla Plus version of that small tubular cut! You could use Barilla Plus Elbows for an amazing NuVal score of 91.
As for the bouillon that I used, we have not yet scored it. NuVal is scoring all products: the good, the bad, and the ugly and this takes time.
Venus Soup, however, does not take time. It is my go-to recipe every December because it takes me all of 10 minutes to prepare and you can simmer it for 1 hour or even all day in a slow cooker. It’s sanity preservation – in a soup pot!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Soup
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 10:38 AM
After my blogpost about My Top Ten Favorite Foods, I thought it would be fun to blog about my kids’ Top Ten Foods. I wanted their list to really come from them, so I pulled out my flipchart from Staples that we sometimes use to draw big pictures, put it in the living room, and had a brainstorming session with my 6-year-old and 4-year-old. They thought that this was pretty cool. I took a picture to prove to my readers that this really is THEIR list. Notice the wrinkled paper and the kindergarten and pre-school penmanship. We were too tired to bring the easel up from the basement and we propped the flipchart up on the couch, so you can see that the the handwriting is quite slanted.
So, I asked my kids questions like, “If you could eat a food every day, what would it be?” I was surprised to see that their list was so healthy! I truly expected Cheetos, Kit Kats and cotton candy ice cream to make the list since they beg for these items at our Pool Club’s snack bar. Maybe they chose real foods because we were in our own house? Like most grown-ups, they tend to eat well at home and not so well when we are at a restaurant, vending machine, convenience store, etc. We took turns (of course!) with this list, so my six-year-old son chose the odd numbered items and my four-year-old daughter, the even.
1. Carrots
How excited was I that this healthy veggie which scores a 99 on the NuVal scale was the first thing out of my son’s mouth! I buy the smallest baby carrots I can find for the kids because they are not choking hazards. Sometimes, during the school year, I splurge on the small baby carrots that are pre-packaged.
2. Spaghetti
This was when I knew that my daughter was taking this exercise very seriously. Spaghetti is definitely her favorite food and she loves to eat it just like the dogs do in Lady and the Tramp. Now that I know the NuVal scores, we eat Barilla Plus Pasta Spaghetti Multi-Grain at home because it scores a 91. I had tried whole grain pastas years ago and did not like them, but this one tastes just like regular spaghetti. It’s a great alternative when you realize that Prince Spaghetti gets a 49.
3. Apple Slices
These get a 96 and they make a great accompaniment to a sandwich. When you can get your kids to eat something that gets a 96, why would you ever give them chips?
4. Pancakes
Now my daughter must have been thinking that by putting something on this list, we could get is back in our household because we stopped buying Aunt Jemima Frozen Mini Pancakes when I found out that they score a 6! This same child loves Quaker Old Fashioned Oatmeal which scores a 57, so I make it in large quantities and reheat leftovers for a quick hot breakfast.
5. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
My son begged for this cereal last week because Ice Age 3 Return of the Dinosaurs was on the box. We were shopping in Roche Brothers at the time and they do not have NuVal yet (although I wish they would get it), so I wasn’t exactly sure of the score, but I was in no mood for a melt-down in the cereal aisle, so I relented. I got home and looked it up and found out that it gets a 27, which is not bad when you consider that the median score for cereal is a 25. The key would be to get my son to switch to Cinnamon Toast Crunch with 75% reduced sugar because it scores a 40. That is even better than Cheerios (one of the best scoring Children’s cereals at a 34). The question is: Does the 75% reduced sugar have Ice Age 3 on the box? I hope so.
6. Ice Cream Sandwiches
My daughter, who does not like chocolate (crazy!), loves Hood Ice Cream Sandwiches. They score a 2. She also loves plain vanilla ice cream. As I discussed in my I Scream post, Breyer’s Extra Creamy Vanilla ice cream scores a 45. I will work on migrating her over to that choice. “Sorry, honey. The store was all sold out of ice cream sandwiches.” That will only work when I get to go grocery shopping alone – which is like a vacation!
7. Pineapple
Another award-winning pick from my son. Fresh pineapple gets a 99. The canned versions only score a 25. So, while it is more expensive and a huge pain to cut up, I buy the fresh. I admit there are weeks that it sits on the counter and the leaves get all dried out and it starts to grow a little mold on the bottom and then I feel guilty that I blew $4 on a fresh pineapple. But actually that is usually when it tastes the best, so it works in our busy house.
8. Orange Juice
This surprisingly healthy shout-out came from my daughter, Miss Spaghetti-Pancakes-and-Ice Cream. As I mentioned in Keeping Kids Hydrated – Guiltfree, Tropicana 50 Pulp-Free with Calcium scores a fabulous 81. That is amazing when you compare it to Minute Maid Orange Juice Pulp-Free which scores a 30. Before I knew about Trop 50, we were buying our juice from our milk man because I’m on this glass bottle kick right now. Sorry Milk Man! As I mentioned in My Top Ten Favorite Foods, be sure to buy the one with added calcium and Vitamin D, because the other one scores much lower.
9. Plums
My son must have thought there was a prize at the end of this because his last choice scored a 99 also. My colleague and friend is a dad of 2 and he has a “fruit before anything else at breakfast” rule in his house. I liked that, so I started giving the kids cut up plums or peaches with little tiny seafood forks that came with my everyday flatware (what else are you going to do with those?) at breakfast time. It’s a great way to squeeze in another fruit. I put the plums in paper bags until they get nice and ripe.
10. Soup
And on the hottest day of the year, my daughter chooses soup! She has always been a big fan of this hot and salty favorite. We love to sing the old Tom Jones favorite, “She’s a Lady” when she drinks the remaining broth right out of the bowl. She’s such a class act, my four-year-old. Unfortunately, I don’t have any scores on soup as of yet because NuVal is scoring that this fall. It will be interesting to see how they do. It was also interesting to read this morning that Campbell’s will be removing 25% of sodium from soups. Maybe they heard about NuVal?
Try this with your kids and see what they choose. I’d love to see your lists in the comments!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples, Barilla Plus, Breyer's Ice Cream, Carrots, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Ice Cream Sandwiches, Orange Juice, Pancakes, Pineapple, Plums, Quaker Oats, Soup, Spaghetti, Top Ten (Kids), Trop 50
