Mmmmmm Salad Dressing to....

Salad, it's what for dinner, but you have to have dressing!

The other night I reached for my favorite bottled salad dressing to see how much sugar was in it, 4 grams of Sugar!  Maybe to you that does not sound like much but to a diabetic that means a lot. That means for every serving, 2 Tablespoons a serving of dressing, there is 1 teaspoon of sugar.  On top of that, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar will put the immune system to sleep for up to 4 hours.  So just that one serving of sugar would put your immune system to sleep for 8 hours. YIKES! Think, if we consume up to 10 teaspoons of sugar a day or more that equates to seeing the Doctor a lot over the course of a year(1). How many grams of sugar in a single coke can?

It becomes a rude awakening when you begin reading nutrition labels and start jotting down how much sugar is in a serving of food.  Try it for a day and you will be amazed to see how much sugar you are consuming without realizing it. 

But I digress...I decided that I needed to start making my own salad dressings instead, so I could control the amount of sugar I was ingesting. I have come up with several that I really like, but this dressing takes the cake, so to speak.  I call it... 

"Boy That's Damn Good Dressing"! Gluten-Free

Equipment:

Good Seasonings Shaker Bottle 

Markings indicate fill lines

Ingredients:

2 Tbs    Fresh Pesto

            Extra Virgin Olive Oil (The good stuff)

            White Wine Vinegar

            Balsamic Vinegar

1 scant Tbs Mrs Dash Garlic and Herb Seasoning
1 scant Tbs Greek Seasoning See recipe below
1/8 tsp Pink Sea Salt or regular sea salt. 

            Filtered Water

            Pepper

Homemade Gluten-Free Greek Seasoning

2 tsp Himalayan Pink Salt

1 tsp basil

2 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp thyme

1 ½ tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dill

1 tsp marjoram

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried parsley flakes

1 tsp rosemary

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

Grind in food grinder and store in tight closing container. Makes about 3/4 Cup.

Instructions:

In a clean Good Seasonings Shaker bottle pour in enough white wine vinegar to come half way up to the add vinegar line.

White Wine Vinegar

Pour enough Balsamic Vinegar to reach the top of the Vinegar line.

Balsamic Vinegar

Add filtered water to the top of the water line.  

Water

Mrs Dash, Greek Seasoning, Sea Salt and Pepper

Add about a Tablespoon each of the Mrs Dash Garlic and Herb Seasoning and Homemade Greek Seasoning. Add about an eighth of a teaspoon of the pink sea salt (found at your local health food store) add pepper, this depends on how much you like pepper.  I put a pinch in. 

Shake Well

Add Extra Virgin Olive Oil up to the oil line.

Shake again

Add 2 heaping Tbs. of fresh Pesto (purchased from your local market that makes it fresh)

Shake and let set for 20 minutes for flavors to meld.

The finished product, no additives, fillers,
 stabilizers or  preservatives.

Make it your own, add more of something or delete something.

The next time I might add just a touch of  juice from the Pepperoncini bottle. Wow! that would give it a nice kick! Or I might add some finely crumbled Fete Cheese YUM! The sky is the limit.

When you make this, leave a comment in the comment box below and let me know what you changed up.

Peace, Love and Happy Eating...

(1) Paul Chek, Holistic Life Coach http://chekinstitute.com/blog/
14 Day Sugar Detox by Paleovalley, Page 36  "Sugar Shuts down
Your Immune System"

  

Stuffed Chicken Breast...Veggie Style

Grain Free Stuffed Chicken Breast

If you hear the phrase Stuffed Chicken Breast what comes to mind is a bread stuffing of some sort.  I have discovered that bread (wheat, corn, etc.) is not good for me.  Apparently it causes inflammation in my body and I will gain 4 lbs overnight when eating it. YUCK!!! Therefore, I've had to come up with alternatives using non-wheat product like almond flour, coconut flour or Amaranth seed, ground up. My system seems to do rather well on these alternatives.

But I digress.  Back to the Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Last week I went to Sprouts Market, a local grocery store carrying organic grass fed beef, chicken, lamb and other various meats and came away with a package of 4 chicken breasts, honestly the largest chicken breasts I have ever seen. I froze two of them the other two I turned into Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Oh my, but they were good! One breast was large enough to feed both my hubby and me.  We had the other stuffed breast a couple of nights later and it was just as good.  

Equipment: 

Sharp Knife
Genius Vegetable Chopper (Not a must but mighty nice if you don't like chopping all those veggies)
Cutting Board
Wax paper
Meat Mallet
Cast Iron Skillet 12"
Medium size Bowl
Paper Towels
Tongs
Spatula
4 Toothpicks or Cotton Twine


Ingredients:

1/4  medium onion, diced
3     cloves garlic, crushed and minced
4     mushrooms washed, diced
1/4  cup Celery, thinly sliced (Optional)
1/2  large red bell pepper, diced
3     cups fresh spinach
1/2  cup chicken stock (If you can find it, Organic 
       Imagine Free Range Chicken Broth)
2     large chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thick
2     tsp. Greek Seasoning When I first developed this recipe I used                       Cadavers Greek Seasoning. It contains cornstarch.  I now make my own Greek                         Seasoning included in the above link which is Gluten-Free. 

1/2  tsp. Adobo Seasoning
       Pepper
       Coconut Spray or Olive Oil in a pump sprayer
1    Tbsp. Coconut Oil or Olive Oil 

Step One: 

Turn oven on to 350 degrees.

After all your vegetables have been chopped by hand on a cutting board or a vegetable chopper,

My go to kitchen gadget, a Genius Veggie Chopper

in a non-stick skillet over medium heat, lightly sprayed with Coconut or Olive Oil, saute the first 5 ingredients. Once onions become translucent add spinach and chicken broth, sprinkle with Adobo Seasoning

Seasonings that were used

Wilt the spinach, all the while stirring occasionally, reduce the chicken broth to almost next to nothing.  Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool. Wipe out skillet with paper towels for Step 2

My favorite Chicken Broth

Step Two:

Pound chicken breast between two sheets of wax paper with the flat side of a meat mallet until 1/2 inch thick (once pounded out my breast was approximately
6" wide by 8" long.) Size may vary due to size of breast.

Sprinkle Greek Seasoning (approx. 1 tsp. per breast) over chicken breast.

Divide vegetable stuffing in half and spread over each breast. Sprinkle a pinch (your judgement)of pepper over each breast.

Start at bottom and roll up

Start at the narrow end of the chicken and start rolling toward the other end secure with toothpicks or cotton twine (I used toothpicks, just be sure to remove all of the toothpicks before serving). 

In a hot cast iron skillet melt Coconut oil.  Carefully place chicken breast in the hot oil. Lightly brown on both sides about 10 minutes each side reducing heat to medium. It takes tongs and a spatula to turn the chicken breasts, as you don't want to loose the filling. 

Into the skillet it goes

One turned, one added

Ready for the oven

Place cast iron skillet in oven and continue to bake for another 20 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let set for 5 minutes. 

Plate and serve with your favorite vegetable and a salad.

Finished and plated

Peace, Love and Happy Eating...