Dairy free tomato soup! YUMMY!

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Yesterday I made a tomato soup. I read different recipes and came up with my own. The final product was delicious. A definite thumbs up!

Ingredients:

10 vine ripe tomatoes cut in quarters

5-7 garlic cloves

EVOO

1-1.5 tsp cumin

1tsp coriander

salt

pepper

basil

oregano

1 Cup chicken or vegetable stalk

cayenne pepper (optional for a little kick)

goat cheese (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450

Dice tomatoes into quarters and put them in a baking dish. Cover the tomatoes with EVOO and add plenty of salt, pepper, oregano, and basil. I would say add enough salt not TOO much, but do not be afraid to add the pepper, oregano, and basil.

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In the dish place 5-7 garlic cloves. They will get nice and soft as they cook in the oven and will add great flavor to your soup.

Place the tomatoes and garlic in the oven for 35 minutes. As they cook you will notice juices emerging from the tomatoes and a wonderful smell will fill in the air! Mix the tomatoes twice. Once after 15 minutes and again after 25 minutes.

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After the tomatoes are cooked, carefully take the dish out of the oven as the tomatoes will now be sitting in a lot of tomatoes juices.

Heat a large pot (one that you would make a soup in) and add EVOO or vegetable oil, crushed garlic, cumin, coriander, and a little cayenne pepper if you want a kick.  I would add about 1/2 tsp-1tsp of each, less for the cayenne. Feel free to add more of the seasonings and make sure there is enough oil so that the seasonings do not get stuck to the bottom of the pot. Do not let the garlic burn. Put the fire on medium to low heat. You want it to sizzle for about 3-5 minutes. Keep mixing.

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Add the tomatoes and all of their juices to the pot of seasonings and mix for a minute.

Add 1 cup of chicken or vegetable stock. Mix everything and simmer on low for about 3 minutes.

Take the tomato mixture off the heat and let it sit and cool down. After about 10 minutes  blend everything. You can puree if you have an immersion blender. Or you can pour it in your blender like I did! Works great.

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I made the soup with a grill cheese sandwich on the side. YUM. For my camera man I added a tsp of crumbled goat cheese, in his bowl, to give it a little more creaminess. Camera man said he LIKED the tomato soup!!!! This could be one of the very few dishes he has given positive feed back on. WOW.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Cooking a whole chicken. Excuse me if you "don't eat no meat!"

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Today is the first time I bought and am going to bake a whole chicken; skin, bones and all.  I asked my facebook fans for advice and some chimed in with amazing recipes and tips:

• " I like stuffing mine with lemon and thyme and roasting with root veggies around it."
• "Use plenty of fresh herbs and put lemons on the bottom of the pan. Also, I cook mine at a higher temperature to get it crispy. 400 degrees for an hour."
• Simple recipe where they do not use butter:  Her advice "watch out for your smoke detector b/c of the high temp... Also get twine and truss it! (this video is helpful)"
• Herb Roasted Chicken Recipe
• "Boil it and make chicken noodle soup. Its easy, just labor intensive. "
• " I like to have a thin layer of water on the bottom of the pan too - keeps it moist  and baste, baste, baste!"
• "Stuff it with lemon. Put sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a little bit of olive oil on top."
• "I was scared the first time I cooked a whole chicken too but it's super easy. I use Ina Garten's recipe. Also I don't eat the skin (and I'm guessing you don't either) so I cook it breast side down and it stays super moist!"
• Roast Chicken Magic, their secret is Citrus!

I have decided to cook my chicken tomorrow because I will not get home until 7:30 tonight and my chicken will not be ready until 8:30pm, which is kinda late for me.  Because I have the chicken today, but am not going to cook until tomorrow, I am thinking about brining the chicken in order to make it super moist. Have you ever tried this? Does it work?

I am looking forward to my adventure today when I brine, and tomorrow when I cook. I have no problem (usually) eating a nice cleaned chicken breast, but when it comes to touching the raw chicken it kinda grosses me out... anyone else?!  EW I am flinching just thinking about it. I have to over come my fear of raw chicken and cook it. I am going to cook it like a CHAMP!

One of my favorite movie scenes from My Big Fat Greek Wedding! Skip to 4:15 for the "eat no meat" reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3N5V9ml2VU

Cabbage, kale, white bean, carrot, celery and brown basmati rice soup!

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I love making soups. Soups are usually easy to make and are a nice low calorie option to keep you warm during the cold winter months!

This soup does not look great, but it tastes great. I put this soup together myself, so no recipe followed. You can tweak the measurements if you feel necessary. This recipe makes a lot of soup. So cut in half if you wish to make a smaller batch! As I was writing this blog I realized that I need to do a better job at recording my measurements for people who like to cook with measured amounts of seasonings and such, which hmm is probably most people. Sorry I'll do a better job next time!

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Ingredients:

• half head of white cabbage (fist time I used it in a soup and I love it!)
• 3 carrot sticks
• 3 stalks of celery
• 1/2 onion (I left this out, but you can add!)
• Kale- 5 leafs? I am not really sure but that sounds about right.  You can use more or less.
• White beans (I used raw white kidney beans and then cooked them myself, you can grab a can if you wish)

• 1cup of basmati rice (you can use regular brown rice, or you can totally leave this out)
• 6 cups chicken or veggy broth (for soup) I know so MUCH. you can add half water half stalk.
• garlic, minced about 2 tbs
•  salt to taste (don't be afraid to add it. Mine did not have enough)
•  pepper to taste
• EVOO- 2tbs, add more if needed
• dried thyme to taste. I added a lot. It was so good. Don't be afraid
• Cumin (if you wish)

Directions:

• First I dealt with the raw beans.  I brought 1 cup of white kidney beans to a boil took it off the heat and let it sit for an hour as I was prepping the soup.  This allows the beans to soften a bit.
• dice the carrots, celery, and onion
• Slice the cabbage in little strips, you do not need to make the strips small but try to not have them too thick.
• In a pot add some EVOO and mix in some garlic, let is sizzle a little then add in diced onions, cabbage, carrots and celery. Mix for about 4-5 minutes on medium heat. You will slowly see all of your veggies shrink. Mostly the cabbage.

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• Add in your 6 cups of broth,white beans and kale. Mix and then let it sit uncovered until it comes to a boil.

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• Lower heat to "Low" and let it cook for (SHOOT I didnt time it but this is an estimate) about 45minutes-1hour. Mix every 20 minutes. You should test and just feel it out. When veggies seem cooked, you are done! Take off heat and enjoy.
• **As your soup is cooking, make your brown rice. Then mix into soup at the very end. This is optional. I did it and find the soup more filling.

Turkey Meatloaf Recipe Via Sarah Dussault Via Jamie Eason

Most people work a 9-5pm job, or something in that range. My job hours are "I work when most people don't". My day starts at 6am and then my last class usually ends around 730pm. This makes dinner challenging. As much as I would love to make hot meals for me and my fiance, timing is everything. So if I get home at 8pm preparing dinner and cooking it would put dinner on the table at 9pm best. http://youtu.be/SZ1pR5AzF9I

Anytime I find a recipe that allows me to prep before and cook later, I LOVE. I was searching through Sarah Dussualt's blog and found this clean turkey meatloaf recipe. This recipe allows me to prep everything before, have it all ready in the fridge and then  just pop it in the oven when I get home. It is easy and delicious. If you find that timing is an issue when cooking, check this recipe out out and try it!

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I was at Trader Joe's yesterday and was looking at spices for my turkey meatloaf and found this! I know it is marketed as a taco  mix, but who cares! I love that it has so many spices in one packet. Normally I do not add a lot of salt to anything and sometimes I totally avoid it.  So, at first I was hesitant to buy this mix because salt was the #1 ingredient.  I called my friend, who is on her way to getting her Masters of Science in Nutrition Communications, and asked her what she thought of this mix considering the sodium level is at 260mg.  She said that 260mg for pre packaged spices is great, and is still considered moderately low. Just make sure to pay attention to the serving size. In this package you will also find paprika, garlic, red pepper, cayenne pepper, sugar (less than 1g), oregano, black pepper and chili pepper.

The taco mix spices worked great in my turkey meatloaf! I only put one table spoon for 2 lbs of turkey and then I followed the rest of the spices that are in the video above, minus the salt! OH, I also added a HUGE squirt of ketchup to the turkey loaf and mixed it in before cooking.

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ENJOY!

baked cod with tomatos and olives (scroll down for recipe)

lauren-91731

1. Drink water
2. Pull your shoulders back and your stomach in and up when you WALK (and then walk some more)
3. Strength train

4. Do my YouTube Videos  (Teen Vogue recently named me one of the Five Fab Fitness Gurus to follow on YouTube!)

5. Take class with me LIVE through my online studio 
6.  Eat small meals throughout the day
7. STRETCH: take 15 extra minute in the morning to stretch and get your blood flowing
8. LAUGH
9. Eat clean.Try to limit processed or packaged food
10. Set goals and reach them. BECAUSE YOU CAN!

In the comments section below, please list one thing you do to stay healthy, strong and fit.

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Ingredients:

Cod or any white fish

ripe vine tomatoes

minced garlic

Kalamata black olives

EVOO

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Wash fish place in some type of oven save dish

Rub fish with EVOO, garlic, salt and pepper (and any other seasoning you desire)

Cube tomatoes place in dish

Cut Kalamta olives, place in dish

Put dish in oven for 20 minutes (more or less depending on thickness of fish)

ENJOY!