*Homemade Stock. And a vamped up chop suey*

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Tuesday was my first appointment with the Acupuncturist. She told me to shy away from milk and its byproducts. (le sigh). I truly have a love of cheese, but I guess it will have to be a weekend affair from now on.
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Another thing the Doctor told me was to make sure I get my protein. The real deal, such as liver and stock. Ok. On my way home from the Doc's I picked up a couple turkey legs at the butchers (I was gonna buy some chicken but turkey looked a lot richer, so I just had to get it).
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The first thing I did at my arrival was to turn on the oven. While the legs roasted along with some garlic, baby potatoes and an onion, I prepared a side salad and chopped up more garlic and onions.
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Yum! That was good. And it was actually something I had been craving for a couple days.
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The other leg was chopped up and went straight into a pot with a couple liters of water, enough garlic and onions. A tad of salt and I let it simmer away for a few hours.
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After cooling, I removed the fat from the top and separated some for freezing. The rest of the stock, along with some of the turkey meat, went into a hearty vegetable soup, with plenty of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, carrots and thyme, and obviously, some alphabet pasta and pepper. It was quite providential, as my organism thought it would be fun to come down with the flu on the very same night.
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Thanks to that soup, I'm much better already. Not to mention that it was one of the best damn soup I have ever had (sorry Mom, but it's true). I have converted to homemade stock, for good.
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Returning from the dentist this morning (it's been a busy week), and mourning the tragus piercing I had had to remove, I was telling myself how I needed to keep on with the healthy eating. Vitamins and proteins and all that. And I still have a bit of that flu, so my resistance is definitely low.
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I'm working on that. One cup of ginger and lime tea at a time, I swear I'm working on improving my health. Ever added pineapple peel to your boiling water? Try it, it makes for an incredible tea.
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Now, back to lunch. Spinach! I bought a huge bunch of spinach at the farmers market yesterday, and for good measure, how about an egg?! Today a simple spinach omelet was not doing it for me (as much as I like omelets).
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I could make "chop suey" rice, which would be nice and easy, but plain white rice sounded boring. I wanted brown rice... but I was hungry, and it takes ages to cook.
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Recently I have rediscovered the pressure cooker. Mainly because it's the biggest and thickest pot in the house, I've been using it for boiling, frying and such... Yeah, I made the stock in it, lid open. It holds the heat beautifully.
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It also cooked the brown rice perfectly in only 15 minutes. The rice was not a bit dry, and was chewy but not overdone. Perfect! So I separated some for freezing (quite my thing these days) and kept a cup for the Chop Suey.
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Vamped Up Brown Rice Chop Suey

1 cup cooked brown rice
1 egg
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
1/2 purple onion diced
1/2 large carrot diced
3 tablespoons Chinese pickled turnip
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cups washed shredded spinach
a dash of sesame seeds

In a heated pan sprinkle the sesame oil. Stir-fry the egg and add the onions and the carrot. Let brown, and add the turnips.
Throw in the soy sauce and cover for a few moments. Add the rice and stir, and finally the spinach.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

I had it with a side of Watercress and Horseradish in Soy Sauce. It was spicy and comforting, and very satisfying.
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In other words, just what the Doctor ordered.
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*spicy comfort*

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I have been sick all week, sore throat and cough, so I can't really taste or smell much. As I can't taste the food, well... I've simply lost my appetite. And as I would rather spend as much time as possible in bed, I don't feel like cooking either.
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But I still get hungry, nonetheless. So after work last night, with very little desire to cook and on an empty stomach (hardly ate all day), I wandered into the kitchen. There were some tortillas in the fridge. Some frozen black beans in the icebox. So all I had to do was to pop the beans into the microwave to defrost and make some fresh salsa.
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Easy Fresh Tomato Salsa - serves two

two ripe tomatoes - chopped
one white onion - chopped
one purple onion - chopped
6 small pickled peppers or 1 jalapeno pepper - chopped
1 small garlic cloved - minced
juice from two lemons or limes
fresh or dried cilantro or parsley
olive oil
salt to taste
jalapeno tabasco sauce, to taste.

mix all ingredients together, cover and let sit for a couple hours in the fridge. Goes well with tortillas and refried beans and can be used as a vinaigrette.

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As both me and the Mister don't like cilantro, I used parsley instead. Actually this is more like Pico de Gallo than a simple Tomato Salsa. All you have to do is substitute the lime juice for apple or red wine vinegar and add a little more pepper.
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After the refried beans and the salsa were ready, I heated up the tortillas in a frying pan without oil and melted a little gouda on them, since Nacho cheese is hard to find around here.

Refried Beans

Cooked black beans with sauce
6 cloves garlic - minced
2 jalapeno peppers - chopped
bacon or sausage or other meat - chopped
half a can of beer - I will try some time with the dark variety
olive oil
other spices to taste

Sauté the garlic, meat and peppers till golden. Add the beans, and mash well. Add the beer and let simmer for a while in low heat. Serve when thick.
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Served the beans and the salsa in the tortillas. The Mister said the beans were better after they cooled because the texture was thicker, but he approved of the mexican-style quick supper I threw together. And so did I.
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After returning from the dentist and the farmers market this morning (where I got the loveliest pearl tomatoes) I decided to try out the new gadget me and the Mister picked up at our latest trip to the supermarket... A mini-cappuccino mixer. I like my coffee strong, with 0% fat milk and sweetener. And cold. Specially if its in my tumble-proof hello kitty cup. So this morning I had my coffee like this.
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Aren't these little fellows cute?
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Oh well, off to work. Spent all my time posting about food and didn't eat any. So I'll get something into my stomach when I get back.
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