Thank you SO much to all who entered the giveaway! If you didn’t win the giveaway, you can always purchase your copy here. This is an affiliate link, and I think this book is well worth the money!
Congrats to Kristi K for winning her own copy! Kristi has been emailed and sent her book. Enjoy, Kristi!
I don’t know about y’all, but I love gumbo. Love it. For real. For this recipe, I did not make a roux, but you could easily use glucomannan as a thickener to keep this on plan. I used to like to add white rice to mine, and you can certainly add brown rice if you like, but I’m using Chana Dal beans for added protein and carbs. They are easy on your blood sugar!
Easy Chicken Gumbo
4 chicken breasts, cleaned (as in, cut off all that grody blubber aka fat)
2 quarts of chicken broth
1 16oz bag of frozen gumbo veggie mix
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbs creole seasoning (I like Zatarain’s)
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup of Chana Dal beans, or more or less depending on how many you’re serving
1/2 – 1tsp glucomannan, if desired
Soak Chana Dal beans for at least an hour in enough water to cover by an inch. Drain. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add chicken and cook an additional 15 minutes. Remove chicken, and cut into chunks (or you could chunk the chicken while it’s raw, but touching raw chicken makes me itch). Return to pot with veggies and seasonings. Cook until veggies are tender. Serve it up in a pretty bowl!
OR, if you want to cook the beans by themselves, like I did, follow the directions below. The hubby doesn’t care for beans or lentils.
Soak Chana Dal beans in enough water to cover for at least an hour. Drain, rinse, add enough water to cover again. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes, turn off the heat, and set aside for now.
Poach chicken breast in chicken broth with salt & pepper, creole seasoning, and onion powder. Remove and cut into chunks (again, or you could chunk the chicken while it’s raw, but touching raw chicken makes me itch). With a ladle, remove enough broth to cover Chana Dal beans again. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, at least 30 minutes. Check for doneness, and cook longer if needed, although it shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes if you soaked them first. They cook better this way. Put chicken back into pot, and add veggies, and more broth or water if needed. Cook until veggies are nice and tender, about 15-20 minutes. If using glucomannan to thicken, remove about 1/2 cup of broth into a bowl or large cup. Slowly sprinkle in the gluccomannan and use a stick blender or whisk by hand. I like a stick blender because I find glucomannan lumps are hard to break up otherwise. When all the glucomannan is whisked in, add the broth back into the pot and whisk gently, and cook another 5 minutes to thicken. Glucomannan’s thickening properties are intensified when it’s cooked, so try 1/2 tsp to start.
To Serve if beans are cooked separate:Spoon out 1/2–1 cup of Chana Dal beans into your bowl, and top with the gumbo soup. This is an E (Energizing) meal, so it’s higher in carbs and low in fat, so don’t go pouring in butter or something. Most of the carbs in this meal come from the Chana Dal beans. 1/4 cup dry beans contains 21g net carbs, and the veggie carbs are cancelled out. You could leave the Chana Dal beans out and make this a Fuel Pull, meaning it’s low fat AND low carb. You could also make this with shrimp if you wanted, but I’m allergic. *sob*
These are the cooked Chana Dal beans.
Yummy gumbo all dished up!
This post is linked over at Stacy Makes Cents for Trim Healthy Tuesdays. Hop over and check out more great recipes to help you on your Trim Healthy Mama journey!
Well, this was my shopping week, so I’m gonna take a cue from my friend Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents and shop before I meal plan. I usually meal plan before I shop, so this is totally new to me. I’ve been trying out Plan to Eat for the last month. It’s a totally different meal planner than anything I’ve ever used.
If you’d like to friend me there, my username is CFamilyof6. Now, go plan your meals!
Disclaimer: the graphic above is my affiliate link, which helps support my family, and we appreciate it very much! 3>
I’ll admit, I never really thought too much about preparedness or major food storage. Of course, I’ve watched that show Doomsday Preppers, and kind of thought all those people were big bottles of crazy sauce. Who has time and money for all that mess? With trying to run a household with 4 kids that I teach, and a husband who works crazy long hours, I sure don’t. At least, I didn’t think I did. I was given the opportunity to review The Untrained Housewife’s Guide to Getting Prepared: Surviving Emergencies Without Stress. I was both excited and skeptical. How hard was this going to be to implement? How much time is involved? Authors Robin Egerton and Angela England give you LOTS of great information on how to get started prepping.Once you read this book, you’ll see just how easy it is to start prepping for something as “simple” as a 3 day power outage, and even longer (let’s hope that never happens, but you never know!). There are even quite a few great canning recipes inside, which of course you know is my favorite part! I am giving away my review copy, which is in PDF form, so you can read this on your computer or transfer it to your Kindle, which is what I did. Enter using the Rafflecopter below, and GOOD LUCK!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I don’t know about you, but I love cookbooks. Absolutely love them. I can sit down and read a cookbook just like I would read a regular fiction book. I especially love antique/vintage cookbooks. I used to have a nice collection of cookbooks, but we had a major mouse problem several years ago, and I had to throw most of them out.
Since, Lord willing, we’ll be moving into a bigger place within the next year, I’ve decided to start rebuilding my cookbook collection, focusing on vintage cookbooks. I’m hoping to have a nice shelf put up to house my “new” cookbooks. I’ve found a few good deals on Amazon. I just added this sweetie to my collection yesterday. I can’t wait to get it, even though I don’t have a shelf for it. The picture above is another cookbook I’d like to add to my collection. Isn’t she a beaut?!
I have a challenge for you, should you choose to accept it. Link me up to your favorite vintage cookbook! I’m not talking about new cookbooks with retro recipes, but actual old, vintage cookbooks published 25-30 or more years ago. The older the better! (I realize 25-30 isn’t terrible old, but you catch my drift)
Ready, set, GO!
I love having this muffin for breakfast. It’s so yummy and sweet! You could also have it for dessert if you wanted (and can make yourself wait that long!) It’s also quick and easy to make, which I love since I have 4 kids and little free time. Trim Healthy Mama doesn’t have to be complicated!
Coconut Pumpkin Muffin in a Mug
2 tbs coconut flour
1 tbs almond meal or flour
2 tbs canned pumpkin (NOT pie mix)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp coconut oil
1 egg
1 tsp Truvia or a few shakes of stevia
1 tbs water
pinch of Real Salt
Preheat oven to 400F. In an oven safe coffee cup, whisk the egg. Add all ingredients and mix thoroughly with fork. If you’d like to make this more of an autumn-like treat, add a few shakes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Bake for 10-15 minutes, then check for doneness. I’ve found with coconut flour, you need a little extra baking time for this recipe. You could also microwave this for a minute or two, but we don’t own (nor plan to ever again that I foresee) a nuker. The almond meal gives the muffin a slight crunch, but if you don’t care for that, you could run the meal through a coffee grinder to try and make it finer. If you’d like a denser muffin, leave out the baking powder. For an Autumn treat, add some pumpkin pie spice to taste!
I took a bite before I remembered to take a picture. I seem to have that problem lately. Sorry! 🙂
This post is linked up over at Stacy Makes Cents for Trim Healthy Tuesdays!
