A New Year Reminder

It's the time of year when everyone makes promises to do something to improve themself or their life. This year, I am merely giving myself a reminder instead of making a promise. Let's face it: every time I make a promise to not eat something or to omit something from my diet (for my own good) I eventually end up compensating for what I am missing (or what I've deprived myself of) by overeating something else. Anyone else out there with me?
So I have fallen back on my mother's famous words: "Everything in moderation." I have taken that to "everything is OK in moderation!"
I am not a fan of fad diets, or diets of any kind for that matter. My only diet is the one with those previous words, "everything in moderation" and keeping food as natural as possible. (Except for when I give into that Chik-fil-A craving! I'm not perfect!)
Endeavor to live better this year by allowing yourself to have a little bit of everything in moderation. Get back to food basics and, in turn, a healthier you! Endeavor to live better this year by eating better. Eat and live more naturally. Here are some of my "back to basics" food tips for the New Year. I am constantly working on all of these myself. I'd love to know if you're a fan of any of these, or if you have a strong opinion about any of it, too!

• Stop looking at certain foods as being bad. Butter, cream, eggs, cheese, nuts and beef are just some of the foods that get a bad rap in our society due to high fat and cholesterol content. Unless you have serious cholesterol and/or allergy issues (and then you should be followed by a Dr.) these foods taken in moderation are good for you. And they are filling... naturally filling! This is a very good thing!
• Use real butter instead of vegetable oil spreads. It tastes so much better! When was the last time you poured some liquid vegetable or canola oil with added preservatives and other stuff on your toast? I didn't think so...
• Frequent your local vegetable stand or Farmer's market.
• Find a local farm (or as local as you can get farm) that raises their own grassfed cattle for beef. You won't believe the difference in the smell and the taste of the beef!
• Buy only free-range organic chicken. Again, you won't believe the difference in texture, taste, everything!
• If you're not convinced by the organic, free-range, and grassfed arguments in food then do your own reading and research on it. I find reading about food to be very interesting. I started reading up on these topics about 5 years ago and I can only get more passionate about it. I learn something new about what we eat all the time.
• Find out what the Slow Food Movement is all about.
• Get passionate about what "foods" your children are putting into their bodies.
• Make it a point to eat around the dinner table and try a new food on occasion.
• Enjoy good wine with your meal. Try different wines and find out what you like!
• Watch "Food, Inc." and form your own opinion on food policy in our country.

Food in it's natural state, or as close to its natural state as it can get, has the power to heal, nourish, entertain and bring us together! So make 2011 your year for a new attitude in food! Everything is ok in moderation!

Caldo de Pollo

Chicken soup is about as basic as it gets when it comes to homemade cooking. In Spanish it's called "Caldo de Pollo" and my mom's recipe includes potatoes and fresh cilantro added at the end to really take this classic soup to the next level. This is the soup I crave and remember everytime I'm sick or I'm caring for my sick ones. The cilantro gives it extra heartiness that most chicken soups are lacking.
I took an extra step in preparing this soup and cut up a whole chicken by myself! I had to get over the sliminess of it all, but once my inner butcher came out it was a pretty gratifying experience. By the the end of it, I had the breasts, thighs, legs, and wings on the cutting board all ready to be seasoned and browned for the soup. The only way this could have been better would have been if I'd caught it and killed it myself.  Okay, I'm still several steps away from that. Maybe one day when I'm living on my own self-sustained farm in Tuscany. For now, I feel good about supporting the local, smaller farms that sell their free-range, organically-raised chickens. The skin and the bones from the chicken are an absolute must in order to get the full flavor for the Caldo de Pollo. You can get skinless chicken pieces, though, if you like. Chicken breasts will do, but they won't give your soup as much flavor as the rest of the chicken with the bones still in.

1 whole chicken
1 chopped onion
3 chopped celery stalks
3 or more chopped carrots
2 potatoes
1 or 2 minced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c. white wine
about 4 c. water
1/2 box of angel hair pasta or other noodles of choice
fresh cilantro

In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil and brown the chicken pieces in a single layer at the bottom of the stockpot, skin side down first. Salt the chicken as it is browning. Add the onions, carrots and celery along with the wine. Add a little more salt. Add the water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low/medium-low and let simmer for about 20 minutes before adding the chopped potatoes. Simmer on low for about an hour.  This will cook the chicken slowly and make it fall right off the bone. At this point, if you have left the skin on the chicken you will want to skim the grease off the top of the soup and you will also want to strain the soup.  I removed the skin from the chicken pieces and deboned them as well at this point. (You can skip all of this if you have used boneless chicken breasts, of course.) Once you have skimmed and strained the broth you may add your choice of noodles to the soup. I used simple angel hair pasta broken into quarters. I like the angel hair because it cooks quickly. At this point the soup is done. Add the fresh cilantro to the soup. I absolutely LOVE cilantro and so I simply wash it and add several branches of it without chopping.You may add it chopped or whole. Either way it will infuse it's fantastic flavor into the soup. Enjoy!