Month: January 2022

As I wrote in my last post, I’m really working on sticking to my Keto diet, and so far, so good. With the wintry weather we’ve been experiencing the past few weeks, I wanted to find a new Keto recipe to prepare for some friends coming over for lunch.

I didn’t have to look any further than Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan, which I also mentioned recently. So, I have to say this right from the beginning that this is probably one of the best soups I’ve ever made, and my friends raved about it. One even took some home. Slow Cooker Loaded Cauliflower Soup was amazingly easy to prepare with just nine ingredients (not including salt and pepper). Although Suzanne suggests using precooked bacon or bacon crumbles as a shortcut, I used regular (hickory smoked) bacon slices and that smokiness added a great depth of flavor you don’t get from precooked. That being said, I did try another shortcut, and that was using frozen cauliflower florets, which I thawed overnight. I thought they worked great! I would like to mention that one of my friends said he usually doesn’t like cauliflower much, but if I hadn’t told him what was in the soup, he would have guessed potato cheese soup instead. Of course, a serving of Potato Cheese Soup (from a recipe on the All Recipes website) is loaded with 37.1 carbs, while Suzanne’s tasty Cauliflower recipe has 6 net carbs, or about 84% less carbs per serving. Since my Nutritionist from Johns Hopkins wants me to try for about 30 carbs per meal on my modified Keto diet, I was able to have two servings of this very filling soup, with plenty of room for a sugar-free low carb desert. I really hope you’ll give this cauliflower soup recipe a try before the weather warms up.

Slow Cooker Cauliflower Soup (cook time 4 or 8 hours, yielding 10 one cup servings)

10 slices bacon
2 large or 3 small heads cauliflower (I used two 16 oz. bags of frozen cauliflower florets, thawed overnight)
4 cups chicken broth (I used no salt variety)
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped (about 1 1/3 cups)
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, plus extra for garnish (I used extra sharp)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Salt and Pepper
Snipped green chives or sliced green onions for garnish (I used green onions)

1  Fry bacon in large skillet over medium heat until cooked.  Remove from pan and chop.  Set aside in refrigerator.
2  Core heads of cauliflower and cut the cauliflower into florets.  Place florets in a food processor and chop into small to medium sized pieces.  Do not rice it!  If using frozen, put frozen pieces into food processor and chop as noted above.  
3  In a large slow cooker (Suzanne used 5 1/2 quart slow cooker), combine chicken broth, onion, garlic, butter and cauliflower.  Stir, cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.  (I cooked mine on low for 8 hours)
4  Once cauliflower is tender, switch the slow cooker to "keep warm" setting and use whisk to stir and mash the cauliflower into a smooth consistency.  (I used my immersion blender which gave the soup a wonderful consistency).
5  Add about three quarters of the chopped bacon, the cheese and the cream.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Stir well until the cheese is melted.
6  Serve hot and garnished with additional cheese, the remaining bacon and chives/green onions, if desired.  

When I first started cooking soups many years ago, my mom taught me to always prepare soup the day before you intend to serve it, which allows all the flavors to blend together. When making this recipe, I followed my mother’s wise advice, and I’m sure it made this delicious and hearty soup all the better! Enjoy!

Can you believe we are already three weeks into the New Year? If you made any resolutions, how have you done? Hopefully, you’ve followed through with them, or at least made an attempt. History shows, however, that by the end of January, most of us have given up on the majority, if not all, of the resolutions we intended to achieve.

One of my big resolutions was to work on my health: body, mind and spirit. For the body component, I intend to go back to a diet which has worked well for me in the past, and that’s the Keto Diet., This diet is basically a low carb/high healthy fat diet, and has been around for the last hundred years or so. As a Type II diabetic, I’ve seen my blood sugar levels normalize within three or four days when I’m on this diet, and I am grateful for my body’s quick response.

Just before the pandemic began, I met with a nutritionist based out of the Johns Hopkins Diabetes Center, where I see a specialist every six months. After ten years of dealing with this disease, I wanted to be sure I was working with true experts who have devoted their medical careers to helping people like me thrive despite having this chronic illness. I am very blessed to have such a place nearby. After I shared my diabetes history with him, the nutritionist suggested a modified Keto diet, one where I would keep my intake of carbohydrates to less than 100 per day, or about 30-35 per meal.

I quickly found that I could do that, and as my blood sugars levels came way down, so did my weight. Thanks to the travel limitations placed on us during the pandemic, my usual work trips stopped, which meant that I wasn’t traveling like I normally do. I was able to totally control all the food I was eating, and I was feeling better as each week passed by.

In the past couple of years, I’ve found three books on the Keto Diet especially helpful: Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan, Keto For Life by Mark Sisson, and Keto for Dummies by Rami and Vicky Abrams. Of the three, I especially appreciated Suzanne Ryan’s easy to understand “All About Keto” chapter, which spelled out the rationale for this diet, along with the benefits and also struggles which come from integrating it into your daily life. Mark Sisson’s book emphasizes how the Keto diet can help you live a long and healthy life by targeting “four pillars,” which are: Metabolic Flexibility, Movement and Physical Exercise, Mental Flexibility and Rest and Recovery. His “21 Day Biological Clock Reset” provides daily challenges from each of the four pillars. The Keto Diet for Dummies is just what you would expect from this “… for Dummies” series of self-help books. In addition to providing an easy to understand rationale for the Keto Diet and a step by step plan, it’s chock full of recipes, has a section on healthy fasting and one on the importance of developing an ongoing fitness routine.

I know and realize that the Keto Diet may not be for everyone, but it certainly has been effective with my goal of improving my physical health. I hope you’ll check out one of the books I’ve mentioned and consider giving this diet a try. Of course, there are literally hundreds of books on this this topic, but I found these three especially helpful. NOTE: As with any decision which impacts your health, please consult with your medical care provider before making any changes.

Over the next week or so, I’ll be posting about my 2022 personal goals in the areas of mind and spirit. St. Ignatius of Loyola took a cura personalis (care for the whole person: spirit, body, mind) approach to living and helping others, which I really appreciate and try to live out in my daily living. It fits so nicely with St. Paul’s hopeful message in First Thessalonians, “May the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blameless…” (5:23).

Because of our impending winter weather, I woke up yesterday thinking about soup. Within that same dreamlike state, I remembered a blog I used to visit frequently, looking for healthy recipes, including many for soup. 101 Cookbooks is a California-based food blog written by Heidi Swanson, and the focus of the blog is on healthy recipes for everyday living.

With that catchy name, I easily remembered it, and with my morning coffee, I visited the blog to literally “see what’s cooking.” Looking under “winter” I found an old favorite of mine, a hearty Tuscan soup I first tried and fell in love with more than twenty years ago.

I was in Florence in October of 2000, making a Jubilee pilgrimage with my mom and sister, and we stopped here for a few days before moving on to Cortona, Assisi and finally Rome. On our full day, it was cold and rainy, and after some sightseeing, we went to the Piazza della Signoria for lunch. Unfortunately, I didn’t write down the name of the restaurant, but it was on the Piazza directly across from the Loggia dei Lanzi. Although the weather was messy, we were comfortable sitting outside under a heated tent. When I saw Ribollita on the menu, I knew I was going to order it, not only because it would be a perfect match for the weather, but also because it had been on my list of Tuscan foods to try.

Ribollita has been a part of Tuscan cooking forever, and the name literally means “reboiled.” It begins the day before as a minestrone, and then the next day some bread (also day old) and maybe some additional left-over veggies are added. The whole mixture is heated up and served with a generous dose of olive oil poured on top. Pure deliciousness in a bowl, and on that day in Florence, it was a revelation to me about what food is supposed to taste like. Simple and humble ingredients, prepared with love, can be more pleasing than the most expensive meal you could have.

I could go on and on, but I think I’ll stop now and give you the 101 Cookbooks recipe for Ribollita. The photo was taken yesterday, just before I ate the whole bowl. I hope you’ll give it a try sometime soon.

RIBOLLITA (serves 8-10)
Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 celery stalks, chopped
3 medium cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 lb  Tuscan Kale, stems trimmed off and leaves well chopped (note:  my store didn't have Tuscan Kale so I used regular kale which worked/tasted fine
4 cups cooked white beans ( I used store brand Cannellini)
1/2 lb crustless loaf of bread (I used  a French baguette and included the crust)
1 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
Zest of one lemon (don't leave this out!)
Lots of well-chopped oily black olives ( my store's choices were limited due to Covid, so I settled for sliced Greek Kalamata Olives from a jar, and they tasted great)

Instructions
In your largest thick-bottomed pot over medium heart combine the olive oil, celery, garlic, carrot and red onion.  Cook for 10-15 minutes sweating the vegetables, but avoiding any browning.  Stir in crushed tomatoes and red pepper flakes, and simmer for another 10 minutes or so, long enough for the tomatoes to thicken up a bit.  Stir in the kale, three cups of the beans and 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the kale is tender, about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, mash the remaining beans with a generous splash of water- until smooth.  Tear the bread into bite-size chunks.  Stir both the beans and bread into the soup.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the bread breaks down and the soup thickens, 20 minutes or so.  Stir in the salt, taste and add more if needed.  Stir in the lemon zest.

Serve immediately, or cool and refrigerate overnight.  When you do serve the soup, finish it off with a drizzle of olive oil and some chopped olives.

Enjoy!