Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Last Sunday, I went into work for 7.5 hours. On my way home, I was thinking about what I had at home and what I could make for my meals for the week. My mom had mentioned having soup earlier in the day, which made me think about tomato soup. I went through the pantry inventory stored in my mind, and decided I wanted tomato basil soup. I had everything at home that I would need, excluding the fresh basil, which I had to go to two stores to find. Ridiculous! Anyways, here's what I did, and honey, it tastes good.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes, no salt added

1 15-oz can of crushed tomatoes, no salt added

1 12-oz can of tomato sauce

1 8-oz can of tomato paste

4 cups chicken broth

1 1/5 tsp ghee

1 cup finely diced onion

1 cup finely diced carrots

1 clove garlic, smashed and minced

~5 leaves fresh basil

1 tsp oregano

1 pinch sea salt

fresh-ground black pepper

1/2 cup coconut milk

Place all of your ingredients, excluding the coconut milk, into a crock pot. Stir, then cover. Set on low for 8 hours. After cooking, use an immersion blender to break down the ingredients into smaller pieces (if desired). Stir in the coconut milk and serve with a chiffonade of basil. Enjoy!

I just happened to have 5 different types of canned tomato products at home. You could use one of the jumbo cans of crushed tomatoes and use that in place of the 2 15-oz cans of diced/crushed tomatoes. Also, if you like your tomato soups to have a little chunk to them, stick with diced tomatoes instead of crushed tomatoes or the tomato sauce. It's what you make of it, so have fun.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

I think this may be one of the dishes that I was most excited about making. It's been on my list of foods to Paleo-ify for over a year, but I just never got around to it. I think I was a bit intimidated of attempting an Indian dish, which I've never ever tried before. And there's a large number of ingredients, but it's all pretty easy to throw together, especially when you do a slow-cooker version. Win! It tastes delicious. And if you're like me and don't eat a ton of meat at each meal, this concoction can last you for a while. I made this last Thursday. So far, I've had it for breakfast on Friday, breakfast and dinner on Saturday, breakfast and dinner on Sunday, and breakfast, lunch, and dinner today. And I've still got enough left for another 4-5 meals. That's a total of 12-13 meals, that I got out of one crock pot. Double win!

Anyways, I hope you LOVE this as much as I do! And did I mention that this is Whole 30 and 21DSD-friendly? Well, now I have...

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

3 lb chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces

1/2 yellow onion, finely diced

1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbls grated ginger

2 small jalapeños, stemmed, sliced in half, and seeded

1 - 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, salt-free

1 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, whole

3 Tbls tomato paste

2 Tbls coconut oil

2 Tbls lemon juice

2 Tbls Garam Masala

1 Tbls cumin

1/2 Tbls paprika

2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper (for extra spice, add an extra 1-2 tsp)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 can coconut milk (shake well before opening)

cilantro, chopped for serving

1. Mix all of the ingredients, excluding the chicken in a large bowl.

2. Pour half of the tomato mixture and half of the can of coconut milk into the slow-cooker. Add the chicken, then cover with the remaining ingredients.

3. Set on low for 8 hours.

4. Remove bay leaves and jalapeño.

5. Serve by itself or over cauliflower rice.

Whole 30 - Day 15

Well folks, I'm done with two weeks of Whole 30. It's not so bad. This is the third time that I've done a super strict version of Paleo. I did a Whole 30 last fall at Thanksgiving time, then I did a 21DSD mid-May of this year. I haven't been struggling too much with any temptations. As I've mentioned before, the only times when I find myself wavering is when I'm unprepared for hunger pangs. And when people eat chocolate chips cookies in front of me. I've managed to tamp down on these desires out of willpower and the realization that in the past week, I've only had a couple instances of a stomachache or a headache. Before going Paleo, I had become so accustomed to having low-grade headaches on a continual basis that I was able to ignore them altogether for the most part. After starting Paleo, the frequency of these headaches decreased significantly; however, during this summer, I started experiencing more headaches again - not every day, but roughly every other day. In evidence of the benefits of Whole 30, I noticed yesterday that I hadn't suffered through a headache in four days, and with that realization I recounted the past week and realized that I've only had a couple stomachaches in the last week. It lines up with what I had read in both Robb Wolf's book and in the Hartwig's book, that it takes two weeks of the absence of the harmful foods for your gut to heal. I definitely recommend giving it a try.

Even though it was Labor Day (hope you enjoyed the holiday, by the way), I was up at 5:40 a.m. to drive to the river for a morning row with one of my double's partners for an upcoming regatta. We decided to meet at 6:30 a.m. to practice rowing together in a double. You know, it might be a good idea to practice with someone before you compete with them... just maybe. We rowed for about an hour before returning to the boathouse. She went home, whereas I stayed for the 7:30 a.m. club row, meaning I was on the water for about two and a half hours this morning. I ran an errand on the way home from crew, showered, and immediately started cooking. Suffice it to say that I'm worn out now.

The first thing I started cooking was Korean Beef Short-Ribs, based on the recipe from Michelle of Nom Nom Paleo. I saw this post last week and decided I wanted to give it a try. Check out the recipe on her site... Here's some of my pics.

I got 2 lb of short ribs:

After broiling for 5 minutes on both sides.

All of the seasonings. Everything except for the chicken broth got blended together to make...

...the sauce

After putting the broiled ribs into the crock pot, the sauce gets poured evenly on top, before the chicken broth gets added at the bottom of the pot.

After cooking for 9 hours, the meat was literally falling off of the bone; when I used tongs to pick up the meat, the bone just stayed in the crock pot.

If I remember, I'll try to stop myself from scarfing down all of the short ribs before I take a photo of them tomorrow.

And that's a wrap. Y'all enjoy your evening now, ya hear?

Update: here are the photos that I promised...

Pulled Pork

Pulled Pork

5-6 lb pork butt roast - bone-in
1 yellow onion, sliced
3 Tbls chili powder
1 Tbls parsley
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix the spices together in a large bowl (large enough to hold your pork roast).

Use your hands to rub the dry spices onto the pork roast.

Put one layer of onion slices at the bottom of the crock pot. Then put in the roast and cover with more onion.

Set the slow cooker on high for 4 hours, then change setting to low and cook for 4 hours.

Remove from crock-pot and transfer to a bowl/plate to let cool for a bit. Then grab a couple forks and start shredding.

21DSD Day 7 - Paleo Chili

Slow Cooker Paleo Chili
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
24 oz. can of diced tomatoes

2 cups beef broth

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeno

1 small yellow onion

2 Tbls parsley, chopped

1 Tbls cumin

1 Tbls chili powder

1 1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1. Toss everything together into the crock pot. Set for low - 8 hours. And you're done. (Don't you just love it when there's only one step? At least after you chop everything.)

Chemo - Part 9 - Day 8

This morning I woke up at 5 am to get ready to drive back to Texas. I took the dogs outside and continued to pack up my car. At around 5:45 am, my parent walked into the hallway and was not looking so good, so we made the decision for me to stay in Atlanta for an extra day. I brought my suitcase back into the house, headed up to my old bedroom, and climbed back into bed. I didn't go back to sleep though. Maybe because of the lack of sleep, we haven't done too much today. I've been trying to catch up on work emails from the past week. Unfortunately my mailbox is so full that I can't even send emails. No good.

On the bright side, today was better than the previous two days. Things get worse as the day goes on though. Maybe it's just because of getting tired throughout the day, despite a few naps/lie-downs. We did go for a short walk today (just part of the way down our street), so that's really good! And we've been pushing fluids today (I even managed to gulp down over 5 L of water), which is almost always recommended by doctors for well, almost everything.

I was out of the house for a little while this evening. I met up with my friend Darby for gluten-free pizza at Mellow Mushroom (Yes, this is the place I rave about every once and a while!). Then, I swung by LF's house to return the dress that she let me borrow for Steeplechase on Saturday. In the two hours that I was gone, we hit a fever of 101.5 F and were applying ice packs and cold washcloths to cool down. When I last checked about 5 minutes ago, the temperature was down to 98.7 F.

The plan is to return to Texas in the morning. So let's hope all goes well tonight. And to finish off, here's part of the results from my day of cooking and cleaning on Sunday...

Chicken Broth
2 chicken carcasses (from 5-lb chickens)
1 onion, cut into eighths, and layers peeled apart
5 carrots, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into ~ 2" pieces
4 stalks celery, scrubbed and cut into ~2" pieces
10 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, peeled, but whole
sprinkle with black pepper
water



1. If you have a whole roasted chicken, pull the meat from the bone and save for a different recipe. It's fine if some meat remains on the bones. Place the bones in your slow-cooker.

2. Toss in the chopped veggies and seasonings.

3. Fill water up to the brim of the slow cooker. Cover and set on low for 8 hours. Stir occasionally.

4. Use a large strainer to remove the bones, veggies, and herbs. Then pour through a cheese cloth to remove all of the little remaining bits.

5. Cool in the fridge before attempting to freeze.

Chicken broth is good for constipation, dehydration, fatigue, nausea, sore mouth, and difficulty swallowing. It's easy for your body to digest and is generally rich in minerals since it's made from bones. For that reason, it also provides iron.

Chemo - Part 2 - Day 1

Today was our first day of chemo. We all went to the oncologist for this first one so that we would know what the procedure is for when I'm not in town. Each patient gets a reclining chair in a "room" with curtains as walls between each patient. There is a small TV with 15 channels and a DVD player for you to use, but my family each brought something to do. A book, the newspaper, and my iPad for typing up this blog post. Oh, and for your first day of chemo, they give you a folder of information for you to review if you wish. My dad is currently highlighting the important parts of one of the booklets. Did I mention that we came prepared with highlighters? Yeah, that's how we roll...

Today's cladribine drip took two hours, but the overall visit lasted four hours. We were told to expect each visit to take roughly that long. We started off with Zofran, "The Mercedes of Anti-Nausea Medications," which is taken orally, so requires some time to kick in. After that, we chatted with the nurse for a little bit. She gave us a brief summary of what to expect and what to watch out for: shortness of breath, red blotches, itching, lower back pain, and sore throat. If we notice any of these, we're supposed to let her know immediately. (So far, so good.) The nurse then inserted the IV, which is to be kept in for the next three days. Who knew that an IV connection could remain for that long? She connected a bag of saline "to keep things flowing" and then connected the cladribine bag via a pump which maintains a steady flow of the chemo drug.

Because we were here during lunch hour, we each brought something to snack on. Altogether we brought water, yogurt, almonds, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, Toasted Oatmeal Squares cereal, a Diet Coke, Sweet Potato Scrambled Eggs, carrots, celery, and pistachios. I ate the eggs.

Here's what I put into my Sweet Potato Scrambled Eggs (mainly a mix of leftovers):

2 eggs

1/4 cup baked sweet potato, mashed

1 handful of celery, chopped

6 cherry tomatoes, quartered

a pinch each of oregano, basil, salt, and pepper

Start with the celery in the pan, adding the tomatoes once the celery has softened a bit. Add the sweet potato, whisked eggs, and seasoning, cooking until the eggs are done.

This morning, before heading off to the doctor, I whipped up some Stuffed Peppers to cook in the slow-cooker while we were at the doctor.

Stuffed Pepper with Rice

4 bell peppers, thoroughly scrubbed

1 1/4 lb ground beef

1/3 cup + 1 Tbls olive oil

2 Tbls lime juice

3 chipotle peppers

2 tsp adobo sauce (the sauce that canned chipotle peppers come in)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup chopped green bell peppers

2 cups cauliflower, roughly 1.5" diameter bunches

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the olive oil, lime juice, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, cumin, oregano, paprika, pepper, salt, and green peppers. Mix in the ground beef and set aside.

2. While the beef is marinating, prep the bell peppers (you can use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and remove the white flesh on the inside of the pepper.

3. Put your cauliflower into a food processor and pulse 6 times, or until the cauliflower has been reduced to rice-sized pieces.

4. Heat ~1 Tbls of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Transfer the ground beef mixture to the skillet and brown the beef. Once the beef has finished cooking, remove from heat and stir in the cauliflower.

5. Spoon the ground beef and cauliflower into the bell peppers, leaving 1/4" of space from the top. Brush the outsides of the peppers with a little bit of olive oil.

6. Place the peppers into the slow-cooker, cover, and place on the lowest setting. Cook for 2 hours.

Before

After

This really only needs to cook on low for a couple hours, but let it go for as long as you're away. I'd suggest cooking this one weekend while you're at home doing chores, or running a few errands.

Another note about this dish. It can be pretty spicy depending on how many chipotle peppers you add, so this would be best at the beginning of chemo before any potential stomach/intestinal issues pop up. Spiciness doesn't always agree with people.

Chemo - Part 1 - Prep

One of my family members was recently diagnosed with Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL). HCL is a rare form of leukemia where the B lymphocytes accumulate in the bone marrow. Because of this accumulation, the production of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets are hindered. What does this mean? As a result of the poor production of blood cells, your immune response suffers, as well as the oxygen flow throughout your body, so you're more likely to have shortness of breath and you're more likely to pick up infections. In summary, cancer sucks.

The diagnosis left us all feeling a bit on the helpless side; there's really not much you can do besides figure out a plan to knock the cancer out of your system and be supportive. I'm still not entirely sure what "being supportive" means. If you find out, let me know. My method of being supportive was 1) trying to be a good listener, 2) researching HCL, 3) finding HCL forums to read about others' experiences, and 4) reading cancer cookbooks to figure out what the best foods are to eat during chemo. I swear the librarian gave me a shocked and pitying look when I picked up five large "What to Eat When You Have Cancer Cookbooks." But hey, what's a girl to do, but take advantage of my local library? Anyways, I've been spending a lot of my spare time flipping through these cookbooks for the last couple weeks, trying to get some ideas for when chemo started. One thing to remember is to THOROUGHLY clean all fresh fruit and vegetables to remove any chemicals or germs left on the skin.

Of course I wanted to be with my family for this first round of chemo, so I made the ~12 hours drive from Texas back to Atlanta, arriving in Atlanta on Friday evening. My dog Riley welcomed me back with a beer, which of course I didn't drink...

As the family's last meal at a restaurant for the next couple weeks (avoiding crowded places while your immune system is down is a good idea), we went to Longhorn Steakhouse, where all of us ended up getting the same thing: Bourbon Bacon-wrapped Sirloin. (Apparently we have similar tastes, though we each got a different level of doneness: me with medium, and my parents with medium-well, and well done).

Saturday morning, we started our preparations. For my family of allergy sufferers (and closet Obsessive-Compulsives), that meant that we spent the next two days cleaning. I think my family's house has been scrubbed to within an inch of its life. We vacuumed and washed all of the rugs and rug backings, swept, mopped, and polished the hardwood floors, dusted the china cabinet, dusted all of the decorative Scandinavian figurines we have displayed around the house, shook out doilies, dusted the vases and teapots my parents have above our cabinets, cleaned the blinds, moved the TV stand to vacuum the rug underneath (which hasn't seen the light of day in a while), washed the curtains, cleaned the inside AND outside of the windows, Swiffered the floors under the beds, and basically dusted ALL surfaces. I've always been a bit OCD about my apartment being clean, but this brought the cleaning to a whole new level.

My break from cleaning on Saturday was a trip to the grocery store. I planned out a few meals to make based on the foods that my parents currently had at home and picked up the remaining ingredients I needed as well as a few other meats to cook. I've already made a batch of bone broth, with some beef bones that the kind gentleman at Whole Foods sawed up right before me. After chilling in the fridge post-slow cooker, I removed the fat, but this batch stayed broth-like instead of going gelatinous like my last bone broth.

It's basically the same as before, but I'll post the ingredients again:

3 lbs beef bone (pasture-raised if possible)

1 onion, roughly chopped

4 carrots, thoroughly scrubbed, peeled, and roughly chopped

4 stalks celery, thoroughly scrubbed, peeled, and roughly chopped

2 bay leaves

2 Tbls apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

Everything gets combined in a slow-cooker. Set on low for 10 hours. Wake up in the morning and strain the resulting broth with a strainer first and then cheesecloth. If you don't have cheesecloth, I highly recommend investing in some for the purposes of making broth.

Bone broth is supposed to be good to have during chemo if you suffer from anemia, constipation, dehydration, fatigue, nausea, sore mouth, and difficulty swallowing due to the treatment. It also serves as a good base for other soups.

Slow-Cooker Bone Broth

I was browsing through a cookbook this past weekend and came across a recipe for bone broth, which stated that it's a good option for cancer patients going through chemo. This is not that recipe, however it got me thinking about making bone broth. It's on my list of foods to try. So I figured, why not? Here goes...

Slow-Cooker Bone Broth

3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 white onion, roughly chopped
8 cloves garlic, smashed
4 lb beef bones (grass-fed)
2 bay leaves
sea salt
2 Tbls apple cider vinegar
water

Toss your chopped veggies and garlic into your crock pot.

Layer the beef bones on top.

Add in the bay leaves, and a few shakes/twists of sea salt. Drizzle the vinegar over the bones, then add water until all of the ingredients are covered. Set your crock pot on low for 10 hours.

After cooking, strain the broth, and dispose of the solids.

Pour your broth into a large container and place in the fridge. After letting it cool overnight/throughout the day, remove the solid layer of fat that forms. From here you can freeze the broth, it'll stay good for a few months, or eat within the next week or so.

As a FYI, the remaining broth under the fat should be gelatinous. It's basically beef jello. The gelatinous bits of meat really freak me out, reference my post here for how well I handled ripping chicken meat off of the bones... it was all because of the jelly-looking bits.