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Showing posts with label No MSG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label No MSG. Show all posts
Cheese--I'm gonna learn how to make it myself
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Labels:
Food,
No MSG,
Supermom Says
I took the plunge! Now that I know about the baddy-cat ingredients added to pre-shredded cheese, PLUS the fact that I now regularly find Horizons organic milk marked down to $2.59 a gallon at Kroger, I decided to go ahead and buy some stuff so I can learn how to make my own cheese. I got stuff to make mozzarella and ricotta, as well as hard cheeses like colby jack and cheddar. I will be sure to let you know how it goes! (I bought my cheese-making goodies here, in case you want to check it out.)
Ever optimistic,
Supermom
Ever optimistic,
Supermom
No-MSG Victory of the Day
Monday, April 14, 2008
Labels:
Food,
No MSG,
Supermom Says
Learning about all of the covert ways that MSG and it's baddy cat cousin Glutamate make it's way into our food has sure been a bummer. One of the biggest disappointments was my discovery that my feel-good "No MSG added" chicken broth powder still had the junk in it. Rats! What's a girl to do??
I can be somewhat challenging to find a chicken broth substitute that doesn't have MSG or glutamates in it. At Walmart all I found had problem ingredients in it. But at Kroger I hit the jackpot with Imagine brand Organic Free Range Chicken Broth. I bought the low sodium version (which still has a lot, but it's better than the regular). You'll have to check the ingredients at your own store, because a lot of products are manufactured at more than one place, so they might not be 100% the same everywhere. (Feel free to leave a comment and let us know)
I wanted to make my healthier version of The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti Casserole, but to do that I would have to make my healthy version of canned cream soups. So....I had to get creative.
The recipe I used to use features the "no msg added" chicken broth powder. I wanted to experiment with the organic broth instead. So...here's what I came up with:
Melt one and a half sticks of real butter on medium-low heat.
Once melted, add 3/4 cup whole wheat flour. Stir with whisk until well blended, and let it cook a bit until it gets bubbly.
Then I added two cups of the organic chicken broth, plus four cups of Horizons whole milk that had been pre-heated.
After that I just stirred with the whisk for about 20 minutes while reading a magazine and chatting with my daughter.
It came out great!
From there I made my version of the casserole. Here's what I did:
Supermom's Healthier Chicken Spaghetti
3 cups cooked chicken--cubed or shredded (I always cook my chicken ahead of time in the crock pot. Just buy a big bunch of chicken breasts on sale and throw 'em all in the crock on low in the morning, all done by evening. Refrigerate or freeze.)
2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I learned that there are glutamates in the pre-shredded cheese, so once I use up the supply I have on hand, I am either going to start buying bricks of cheese and shredding them with my food processor, or learning to make my own. Haven't crossed that bridge yet.)
half a sweet onion--chopped (throw it in the food processor with the chicken. Easy!)
about a pound of whole wheat spaghetti--cooked (break it up into smallish pieces to make stirring and serving a little easier) (even if you normally hate whole wheat pasta, try it! you won't even notice the taste in this casserole)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
Salt & Pepper to taste
Some more cheese to sprinkle on the top (if you like cheese overkill)
And maybe 2 cups of the canned cream soup alternative.
Optional: Feel like a better mom by adding in some frozen corn and/or peas and/or broccoli.
Directions:
This is super easy. Just mix up everything except for the cheese that goes on top. Start with all of the dry ingredients, then add the cream soup stuff and stir it all together (I use a really big bowl so that I can stir with wild, reckless abandon) until it seems like you've got enough to make a nice, creamy casserole.
Stick it all in a no-stick sprayed 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle that extra cheese on top. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Or, if you just made all of the ingredients and they are already hot, it only takes about 20 minutes to heat it through. Then it's time to eat. :) Yum!
I often make extra spaghetti during some other meal and then use the leftovers to make this casserole.
Now I have one and a half quart jars of the cream soup alternative in the fridge, so that will make other meals very easy for the next week or two.
Enjoy! (I'm going to eat now....)
I can be somewhat challenging to find a chicken broth substitute that doesn't have MSG or glutamates in it. At Walmart all I found had problem ingredients in it. But at Kroger I hit the jackpot with Imagine brand Organic Free Range Chicken Broth. I bought the low sodium version (which still has a lot, but it's better than the regular). You'll have to check the ingredients at your own store, because a lot of products are manufactured at more than one place, so they might not be 100% the same everywhere. (Feel free to leave a comment and let us know)
I wanted to make my healthier version of The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti Casserole, but to do that I would have to make my healthy version of canned cream soups. So....I had to get creative.
The recipe I used to use features the "no msg added" chicken broth powder. I wanted to experiment with the organic broth instead. So...here's what I came up with:
Melt one and a half sticks of real butter on medium-low heat.
Once melted, add 3/4 cup whole wheat flour. Stir with whisk until well blended, and let it cook a bit until it gets bubbly.
Then I added two cups of the organic chicken broth, plus four cups of Horizons whole milk that had been pre-heated.
After that I just stirred with the whisk for about 20 minutes while reading a magazine and chatting with my daughter.
It came out great!
From there I made my version of the casserole. Here's what I did:
Supermom's Healthier Chicken Spaghetti
3 cups cooked chicken--cubed or shredded (I always cook my chicken ahead of time in the crock pot. Just buy a big bunch of chicken breasts on sale and throw 'em all in the crock on low in the morning, all done by evening. Refrigerate or freeze.)
2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I learned that there are glutamates in the pre-shredded cheese, so once I use up the supply I have on hand, I am either going to start buying bricks of cheese and shredding them with my food processor, or learning to make my own. Haven't crossed that bridge yet.)
half a sweet onion--chopped (throw it in the food processor with the chicken. Easy!)
about a pound of whole wheat spaghetti--cooked (break it up into smallish pieces to make stirring and serving a little easier) (even if you normally hate whole wheat pasta, try it! you won't even notice the taste in this casserole)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
Salt & Pepper to taste
Some more cheese to sprinkle on the top (if you like cheese overkill)
And maybe 2 cups of the canned cream soup alternative.
Optional: Feel like a better mom by adding in some frozen corn and/or peas and/or broccoli.
Directions:
This is super easy. Just mix up everything except for the cheese that goes on top. Start with all of the dry ingredients, then add the cream soup stuff and stir it all together (I use a really big bowl so that I can stir with wild, reckless abandon) until it seems like you've got enough to make a nice, creamy casserole.
Stick it all in a no-stick sprayed 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle that extra cheese on top. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Or, if you just made all of the ingredients and they are already hot, it only takes about 20 minutes to heat it through. Then it's time to eat. :) Yum!
I often make extra spaghetti during some other meal and then use the leftovers to make this casserole.
Now I have one and a half quart jars of the cream soup alternative in the fridge, so that will make other meals very easy for the next week or two.
Enjoy! (I'm going to eat now....)
Freaking Out About MSG, Part 2
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Labels:
Food,
No MSG,
Supermom Says
Actually, it wasn't all that easy getting out the door to the store. I had no meal plan made. And I didn't have all 5 dozen code names for the dread MSG memorized. So as the kids were making their way out to the Burb, I was at the computer typing out an alphabetized list of what NOT to buy. I could have scanned the page from the book, but the lists in the book aren't alphabetized, which makes it pretty slow going when you're trying to look for something quickly.
So, got that typed, printed it out, and got in the car. The kids asked about the list, so I broke the news to them. We probably weren't going to be buying all of the usual stuff today. Instead, we'll be reading labels. Lots and lots of labels. And trying to get stuff that doesn't have any MSG (or cousins) in it.
(I thought you might like to have a copy, so here's your What Not to Buy if You Want to Avoid MSG list. Either right click and then save target as, or regular click to open, and then just save it as you would for any other Word document. :) )
At the grocery store they were really good sports about the whole thing. We went to our first normally purchased item. "Let's look at this one! I bet we won't be able to get any of that." one kiddo said. Yep. Sure enough. Baddy cat ingredients were all over that stuff. gah.
On we went through the store, making our choices as carefully as we could.
Since I wasn't prepared to go completely cold turkey on this venture, I did still get some things that weren't ideal. Mainly I wanted to get a feel for what we definitely couldn't get if we wanted to completely avoid glutamates, and what was left. :)
I had to have several pep talks with myself. "Baby steps!" "You don't have to be 100% perfect 100% of the time!" "Do what you can, when you can!" It's VERY hard to feel relaxed about eating when you're concerned that MSG is killing off brain cells in your family members. You know? but I did my best.
Mid-way through the shopping trip my kids were looking in the cart saying, "NO WAY can we possibly live off of this amount of food, Mom! It isn't possible." I assured them that we would not go hungry, and that we would just get what we could figure out for now,and if we have to come back to buy more food in a few days or a week, we will. They realized that I've never failed to keep 'em fed, so they were pretty calm about it. :)
By the end of the walk through the store they were actually really, really excited our experiment. They love it when I bake, and I haven't done a whole lot of that lately. I used to bake with my children probably every single day, and that had definitely fallen off the schedule as other things have gotten busier.
We had some good finds at the store as well. Things we were able to buy as usual included:
whole wheat pastas
Kashi cereals (Heart to Heart, and Autumn Wheat)
unsweetened applesauce
I bought extra baking supplies since I plan to try my hand at making homemade crackers and other bread items. We also bought more produce than usual since we at least do know what to do with that. :)
Since I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in this topic, I'm going to try to keep blogging about it here when I have stuff to share. I plan to share recipes with you that worked well for us, plus anything else that comes up that's blog-worthy. :)
I am thinking about offering the MSG Myth book here in the store. Let me know if you're interested.
So, got that typed, printed it out, and got in the car. The kids asked about the list, so I broke the news to them. We probably weren't going to be buying all of the usual stuff today. Instead, we'll be reading labels. Lots and lots of labels. And trying to get stuff that doesn't have any MSG (or cousins) in it.
(I thought you might like to have a copy, so here's your What Not to Buy if You Want to Avoid MSG list. Either right click and then save target as, or regular click to open, and then just save it as you would for any other Word document. :) )
At the grocery store they were really good sports about the whole thing. We went to our first normally purchased item. "Let's look at this one! I bet we won't be able to get any of that." one kiddo said. Yep. Sure enough. Baddy cat ingredients were all over that stuff. gah.
On we went through the store, making our choices as carefully as we could.
Since I wasn't prepared to go completely cold turkey on this venture, I did still get some things that weren't ideal. Mainly I wanted to get a feel for what we definitely couldn't get if we wanted to completely avoid glutamates, and what was left. :)
I had to have several pep talks with myself. "Baby steps!" "You don't have to be 100% perfect 100% of the time!" "Do what you can, when you can!" It's VERY hard to feel relaxed about eating when you're concerned that MSG is killing off brain cells in your family members. You know? but I did my best.
Mid-way through the shopping trip my kids were looking in the cart saying, "NO WAY can we possibly live off of this amount of food, Mom! It isn't possible." I assured them that we would not go hungry, and that we would just get what we could figure out for now,and if we have to come back to buy more food in a few days or a week, we will. They realized that I've never failed to keep 'em fed, so they were pretty calm about it. :)
By the end of the walk through the store they were actually really, really excited our experiment. They love it when I bake, and I haven't done a whole lot of that lately. I used to bake with my children probably every single day, and that had definitely fallen off the schedule as other things have gotten busier.
We had some good finds at the store as well. Things we were able to buy as usual included:
whole wheat pastas
Kashi cereals (Heart to Heart, and Autumn Wheat)
unsweetened applesauce
I bought extra baking supplies since I plan to try my hand at making homemade crackers and other bread items. We also bought more produce than usual since we at least do know what to do with that. :)
Since I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in this topic, I'm going to try to keep blogging about it here when I have stuff to share. I plan to share recipes with you that worked well for us, plus anything else that comes up that's blog-worthy. :)
I am thinking about offering the MSG Myth book here in the store. Let me know if you're interested.
Freaking Out About MSG
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Labels:
Food,
No MSG,
Supermom Says
I have had a hard time following my own advice this week.
In one of my books and in my online classes I tell people about The MSG Myth web site. I have done some reading there in the past, but recently a blog post somewhere else got my interest up about trying to cut MSG and other glutamates out of our diet.
I order the book from the site and received it the other day. Oh. Boy. This book is about an inch thick, and starts by explaining to you what's so bad about MSG (and, boy is it bad!), then tells you a whole bunch of ingredient names that basically equal MSG. And by the time you get through a quarter of the book you start having that feeling like, "What on earth are we going to be able to eat?!?!" (And also, of course, the freaking out when you feel an urgent need to change your eating habits, but it feels very, very hard.)
Thankfully, (THANKFULLY!) probably half the book is recipes. And, they aren't weird recipes. Nothing scary looking. Nothing I can't pronounce. Basically, the recipes gave me hope because I could see that the biggest part of avoiding MSG and other glutamates is simple baking and cooking from scratch. Kind of a no-brainer, I guess. But it encouraged me that I could find a way to do better in this area.
Of course, it was grocery shopping time again. I was right in the middle of reading the book and didn't want to buy anything until I had some sort of plan. (Perfection Paralysis, of course!) We managed to squeak by on what we had on hand for a few more days until I couldn't put off shopping any longer. So, even though I had no plan, off to the store I went.
(come back tomorrow for part two in the MSG saga! :) )
In one of my books and in my online classes I tell people about The MSG Myth web site. I have done some reading there in the past, but recently a blog post somewhere else got my interest up about trying to cut MSG and other glutamates out of our diet.
I order the book from the site and received it the other day. Oh. Boy. This book is about an inch thick, and starts by explaining to you what's so bad about MSG (and, boy is it bad!), then tells you a whole bunch of ingredient names that basically equal MSG. And by the time you get through a quarter of the book you start having that feeling like, "What on earth are we going to be able to eat?!?!" (And also, of course, the freaking out when you feel an urgent need to change your eating habits, but it feels very, very hard.)
Thankfully, (THANKFULLY!) probably half the book is recipes. And, they aren't weird recipes. Nothing scary looking. Nothing I can't pronounce. Basically, the recipes gave me hope because I could see that the biggest part of avoiding MSG and other glutamates is simple baking and cooking from scratch. Kind of a no-brainer, I guess. But it encouraged me that I could find a way to do better in this area.
Of course, it was grocery shopping time again. I was right in the middle of reading the book and didn't want to buy anything until I had some sort of plan. (Perfection Paralysis, of course!) We managed to squeak by on what we had on hand for a few more days until I couldn't put off shopping any longer. So, even though I had no plan, off to the store I went.
(come back tomorrow for part two in the MSG saga! :) )
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