Thai chicken vegetable soup is delicious! A couple of weeks ago I saw this Thai Ginger broth on the clearance rack at Publix. I found a wonderful recipe on the back for Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup! So I am sharing it with you right off the back of the box because I wouldn’t want you to miss out! It is very simple and quick to make. The broth is a bit spicier than I anticipated but suited our family very well. To accompany our soup we made rice. Using our homemade bone broth for the liquid in the rice adds a lot of flavors. I had a bit of onion and zucchini left from other cooking so I sauteed them in a bit of olive oil and then added the bone broth and the rice and covered it until it was done. Some of us ate ours over the rice and some ate the rice separately. Either way, it was all good.
Swanson’s Thai Chicken Vegetable Soup
1 Tablespoon cooking oil
1 medium carrot, cut into 2-inch matchstick-thin strips
1 medium red pepper cut into 2-inch matchstick-thin strips
Heat the oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add carrot and pepper and cook 5 minutes until slightly tender. Stir in mushrooms. Add broth to the saucepan and heat to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in chicken, cook 5 minutes until it is hot. Stir in coconut milk and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling. Stir in lime juice and cilantro.
Thank you, Swanson’s for making a great broth meal starter!
I enjoy looking in my fridge or for that matter other people’s too! I have a friend who likes me to cook with her. So when I am at her house we look in her fridge and pantry and create something from what we find. We have a lot of fun in the kitchen pounding chicken breasts and cutting up veggies. I have been creating meals using whatever was on hand since childhood. It helped that I grew up on a mini farm and we had a lot of choices. Although sometimes too many cucumbers 🙂 We didn’t run to the store all the time either. I love to cook and sometimes I get in my head a certain thing I want to cook. It may not make sense at the time if I have a fridge full of food and meals which have been planned. I try to practice self-control. This year we have been blessed to meet Farmer John! He is new to farming and has tried several things. We take some of whatever he has. As the season is nearing an end I was looking at what we had purchased from Farmer John and decided to create some meals using those things.
I did not write down a recipe but I will share what I did do. I did NOT measure anything.
First I will share the ingredients I had. Mini eggplants, zucchini, onions, green peppers, fresh basil, store-bought pasta sauce, ground beef, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, rice, etc.
Preheat the oven 350°. I cooked the ground beef with onions, green peppers, and mushrooms and drained it after it was done. I placed pasta sauce in the bottom of two pans. Then to one pan I added a layers of slice baby eggplants, zuchini, meat mixture, sauce and cheese. On the top I spread sauce and mozarella and sprinkled the top with paremsan. I baked it in the oven for a while and then took it out and covered it with foil. I cooked it for about an hour total. I wish I had covered it from the beginning and taken the foil off for the last 15 minutes. I also wish I had added more sweet basil. It turned out YUMMY!!
For the second pan. I cut the tops off of the green peppers I had and cleaned them out. I placed them in the bottom of the second pan. I added some cooked rice to the leftover meat mixture and stuffed the peppers with the mixture. I then covered them with sauce and sprinkled with parmesan. I baked it in the oven at 350° for almost an hour. Remove the foil. (See I learned something !) Sprinkle more parmesan on top! Enjoy!
About 3 years ago my husband was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. This began a close examination of the foods we eat. My non-cooking husband started making homemade mayo, ketchup, pickles, saur-kraut, bone broth and now he has begun fermenting foods. He has made several batches of saur-kraut, fermented tomatoes, peppers, saur-kraut, and cucumbers. I grew up with pickle and saur-kraut making but fermenting is a new thing for me.
So what is the difference between pickling and fermenting. My understanding is that pickling is preserving by acidity. Fermenting is a specific process of preserving but uses lactic acid (Lacto-fermentation). In her booklet, Cultured Beverages, Ann Green of Bread Stock and Barrel, says, “Fermentation began with creation – bacteria and/or yeast and vegetables, fruits, dairy or animals were all that was necessary. Man has had the joy and thrill of discovering and cultivating various combinations of these elements to produce such things as wine, cheese, chocolate, bread, pickles, and even …kombucha.”
What happens in the process of fermentation? Again quoting from Ann Green. “In every case, lactobacillus bacteria and sometimes various strains of yeast eat the sugar and starches found in the medium and replace the sugar and starch with lactic acid. In the process, many vitamins and minerals are increased, the food, juice or milk is made more digestible and sugar and starch are either eliminated or reduced. Antioxidant and anticancer substances may also be produced or enhanced. The bacteria are also very happy to eat the sugar and starch and reproduce to create what we call a “probiotic” beverage or food.”
There are a lot of resources available online for free about fermenting foods. Check it out! Let me know if you ferment foods and what you have found helpful.
***You can find out more about Ann Green at www.breadstockandbarrel.com or on Facebook – Bread, Stock, and Barrel
Easy Communion Bread? Yes, it is easy. Today, I will share recipes I have collected over the years. It all started with Campaigns Northwest 1979 and a special sister, Madge. I was blessed to be a part of Campaigns Northwest. Little did I know that this would be a life-changing experience for me! I worked in West Seattle, Washington for 3 weeks.
After our mission was over I stayed an extra day to spend time with a couple of the ladies from the church. One was Madge Boubonik (I am sure the spelling is butchered). I remember this day very well. I was so excited. Madge and I walked around her sunny yard with flowers growing and some rhubarb too! We talked and visited but I was there for a purpose.
Madge made the communion bread for the church and she had agreed to teach me how to make it! I was very excited to spend the day with her. She treated this with great respect and thoughtfulness. She used olive oil because she felt that was most likely what was used in making unleaved bread. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with her and that was almost 40 years ago. I never saw her after this day but she lives on in my memory and I hope to walk in heaven with her one day.
Aberdeen Washington
In 2011 we moved from Spanaway to Aberdeen, Washington to work with the Aberdeen Church of Christ. We hosted a VBS day which was about the Tabernacle. We had loaves of unleavened bread leftover from that day. One of the ladies asked if we could use that for communion and so we did. Our son James started making it for the church after that. He was 11 years old. He enjoyed making the bread and helping to fix communion each Sunday.
Today I am sharing three recipes * that have been used in various places I have worshipped (from homes to buildings to church camps). The first one is the one our family has used for many years. I am not sure it is the original one I received from Madge, if not it is very similar.
Our Family Communion Bread
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup olive oil
1 cup of water
pinch of salt
Mix the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients and knead a little until it easily forms a ball to roll out. I roll mine out into about 6-inch circles. This recipe makes about 16 small loaves! You may want to half the recipe. Bake at 350° for 10 – 15 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom. I usually do mine by smell 🙂
Our family recipe
Delano Bay Christian Camp Communion Bread
1-quart whipping cream
¾ lb. of butter
5 cups flour
Mix ingredients and divide into 4 sections and roll them about 1 inch thick each. Poke holes in batter with a fork, and bake at 325° until no longer doughy. This makes a big batch of communion bread. Enough for 100 campers at least.
Susan’s Unleaved Bread
1 cup all-purpose flour ( use ½ whole wheat)
1 Tablespoon sugar (brown or honey)
¼ teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup of warm water
Mix dry ingredients. Cut in 2 Tablespoons olive oil and ¼ cup warm water, Knead. Roll into a circle. Next, you prick with a fork and fry in a nonstick pan until both sides are light brown.
Communion bread
*A Fourth ADDED (3/15/2020) Lee’s Communion Bread
Here is a fourth recipe I received from my friend Lee. With her notes.
1 cup of unleavened flour (all-purpose)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tablespoons cold water
Preheat oven to 400°. Be sure to wash and dry your hands first. This is holy bread. Use clean utensils and a mixing bowl to mix the ingredients. Gently knead the dough and roll out flat to about 1/16 inch thickness. Using a biscuit cutter or other round object cut out circles of bread. Lay on an ungreased cookie sheet and score with a fork or rolling piercing tool. This represents the body of Christ. Bake for about 20 minutes. They should not be sticky or brown. Let them cool completely. Store in an airtight container and they can be kept in the freezer.
Please send me your communion bread recipes and I will update this collection as time allows.
