Zoddles and Meatballs

Zoodles! That's right I said zoodles. Zoodles are "noodles" made out of Zucchini. Now, these are an alternative to noodles. They taste nothing like actual noodles, but they are a fresh alternative to carb laden noodles.  As a food snob, processed dry noodles that come in a cardboard boxes, just don't cut it for me.

So, grab yourself a fresh Zucchini or two and peel it. Next, I sliced mine into kinda fettuccine sized strips.

Next, toss these into boiling water until tender.  Tender, not mushy okay.  Mine took about 4 minutes.  Now zoodles are great and all, but  they taste alot better with fresh tomato sauce and meatballs.  So, you wil want to get on that next.

Real Vegetable Soup

I have recently picked up about 15 vegetable soup cans at everywhere from Kroger to Whole foods.  I have even tasted 2 that did not have any funky ingredients but they all tasted well “canned”. The ones I have tried are totally devoid of flavor and veggies are a mushy bunch of ick!  So, in food snob fashion I have perfected my own fresh vegetable soup.

Abby's Fresh Soup
Lots of fresh veggies
16 ounces of organic Chicken Broth
2- 8 ounce cans of stewed tomatoes (Read the labels, lot have added sugar! Yes, canned tomatoes with sugar!!!)


Okay, so start with the veggies.  Any veggies you want.... as long as they look fresh.  For this batch I went with Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green peppers, celery and a few green beans I had on hands.  Also, get some fresh garlic to cook with the veggies.

Next step is to heat up the pot.  In true food snob fashion I will only use my Le Crueset cast iron pot.  I guess you could use some other Made in China piece of junk pot, but I LOVE my Made in France cast iron pots.  You will see more them on this blogs.
Now, heat up a generous amount of Olive oil and get it nice and hot.  Now, toss in your veggies.  Give your veggies a nice sear but do not over cook or you will have mushy soup, blah.  Now, add the broth and stewed tomatoes.  The tomatoes must be stewed one, but please read the labels. Most of the conventional ones have sugar added.  I have found the Muer Glen and the Whold foods brand to not add sugar.  So, the food snob here is telling you go organic.  Now, cook the soup on low for about 10 minutes.  Do not boil, you will get those mushy veggies again.

Serve, I like to serve mine with a touch of parmigiana cheese.  And the real stuff, not the stuff from the green shaker can.... Although, I think my kids would snort that stuff I left to their own devices!

What is Hidden in that Valley? Real Ranch for us

Welcome to my new blog.  A place to share a little bit about my new life-style.  If you are looking for budget baking tips this is not the place.  After reading Fat Chance  by Dr. Robert Lustig I have decided to cut all processed foods from my diet.  Of course, getting my 4 year-old triplets and hubby to follow this difficult.  So, I do what I can.  I try to by the best, freshest, most alive food I can find.  I make ALOT of things from scratch.  Making stuff from the scratch with high quality ingredients just makes things taste better and for me the food is more satisfying.  Yes, if can be time consuming and costly.... but if I am going to spend time and money for me this is were it should be.   Since starting to embrace my inner food snob i feel more satisfied, full and well I have lost 10 lbs. I'm not perfect, my kids do eat McDonalds (once in awhile).  But, when we eat at home, I try my best for REAL food.  FOOD QUALITY MATTERS.

So, for my first post I would like to post a recipe we make all the time here. I love fresh veggies.  The kids love ranch.  Bottled ranch is gross.  Seriously, put my ranch up against that bottles crap any day.

Have you looked to see what is hidden in your ranch dressing?

Here what they are hiding in the Valley-

Vegetable oil, egg yolk, sugar, salt, buttermilk, spices, garlic, onion, vinegar, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, modified food starch, MSG, artificial flavors, disodium phosphate, sorbic acid, calcium disodium EDTA, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.

Well, at least it was sugar instead of HFCS.  But, why do we need sugar in ranch dressing? MSG and Artifical flavors,??

 Gosh, I love recipes with only 4 ingredients.

• 2 scallions, trimmed
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 cup olive oil  mayonnaise (you can used "Processed" , we like to make our own mayo)
• 1/3 cup Organic buttermilk

Chop the scallions and garlic as fine as possible.  I like to use my immersion blender, but it is not neccessary Then whisk together with the buttermilk and and mayo. That is it folks.

4 Ingredients Vs. 18. I have no idea why the Hidden Valley Ranch needs artificial flavors. The flavors on the real ranch aremuch better. Also, since this is missing all those lovely preservatives it is only good for about a week after you make it. But, if you are like us, no way there will be a drop left. 7 days after making this