Orange Lentil - Flax Seed Rolls (gluten-free)


Measure 2c orange lentils into a big glass bowl. Cover them with fresh cold water to cover them, plus a couple additional inches. Let them soak and absorb 3-5 hours. Drain and rinse several times. Pulse them in a food processor until they're broken down. Put them back in the bowl, then add the following:


1c ground flax seeds
2T EVOO
1/2t salt
1/2c water
3T everything bagel seasoning

Mix all of this with a heavy wooden spoon or silicone spatula. Put the baking soda on the top and be sure to drizzle the vinegar directly on it.

1-1/2t baking soda
1T apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350° When the dough's all moistened and fizzing, work quickly to stir everything together. Take a big spoonful of the dough, roll it into a ball and place on a non-stick cookie sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned. Cool on the countertop a half hour or longer before transferring the rolls to a cooling rack. Let them cool another hour or so before slicing. This made 18 rolls. . .Lin

Beef Soup-Stew

I wasn't going to blog this, so there are no ingredient pictures. It turned out pretty well though, and I may want to make it again. . .with new tweaks of course. . .so I'm doing this after the fact, on the last bowl.

2# well trimmed, seasoned Montreal Griller beef steaks

Mine were frozen, so I thawed them late in the evening, trimmed off the fat then cut them in small pieces. I marinated them in equal amounts -about 2/3c each- of single source EVOO and a good, aged Balsamic vinegar. Season with garlic salt, and a pepper based garlic and herb seasoning. Make sure the marinade covers all surfaces of the meat. Cover the bowl or pot, and refrigerate overnight.

This morning I started by sautéing the seasoned meat in the marinade, along with a couple big garlic cloves - smashed and chopped, stirring occasionally until it  all sizzles and snaps. Measure out 1-2 quarts of fresh cold water and add a little just before the meat browns completely, to keep it from sticking to the pot. Repeat this sautéing and deglazing a couple times. When this process is done right, it'll bring the flavors out of the meat so further seasoning is usually minimal. Next add the following rough cut vegetables in the order they're listed.

3 very big carrots
8-12oz. skinny frozen beans
Cover and let these two cook a bit before adding the rest:

3 big Yukon gold potatoes
3-4 additional garlic cloves
1/4 - 1/2 bell pepper
1-1/2c diced cabbage
1 med. onion 
4 bay leaves
1 28oz. can petite diced tomatoes
Beef Better Than Bouillon 

Once the vegetables have been added, bring everything to a low simmer, cover and cook 30-40 minutes, until the carrots and beans are the way you like them. This made about 6 quarts.  .  .Lin

Spicy-Healthy Vegetable Soup (gluten & dairy free)

Recently it was Chicken Bone Broth Day for me 😁

Chilled out on my deck overnight, fat scraped off the top, it was begging to be made into something healthy. Made with only skin, bones, bay leaves, 1/3c white vinegar and water, so it would be dog safe for my Oliver as well. This morning I got a call from someone close to me, who is sicker than sick! Alrighty-Then! Healthy soup it is. Sorry Oliver...next time 😉 

The chicken was used in a previous soup, and a 3-meat pasta creation a couple days ago. I didn't have any other meat thawed, so other than the chicken bone broth, this ended up vegetable only. Lighter for someone really sick, so it's actually better this way.

I started by sautéing  chopped carrot and celery in several tablespoons of avocado oil. Then added the rest shown, sliced or chopped, after about 7 minutes. About 1/3 of a medium head of green cabbage, 1/3 of a red pepper, 5 smashed-minced garlic cloves, 1/2 a big purple shallot. Sauté all the vegetables over low-medium heat in the covered pot, stirring often, for another 10 minutes. Measure  3c fresh cold water and add a little of this if needed to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pot. Take the stems off 12oz. fresh baby spinach. Gather this up into a clump and slice very thin. Add this to the pot for the final 5 minutes of simmering. 

Sprinkle the vegetables with seasonings, to taste. I used about 1t ground turmeric, a good shake of ground cayenne pepper, 1-2t of a salt and pepper based garlic and herb seasoning.

Stir, then pour in the rest of the water and 3T± reduced sodium Chicken Better Than Bouillon soup base. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook another 5 minutes or so. 

Heat the big pot, containing 2-3 quarts of bone broth, to a low boil. Stir in 5oz. thin rice noodles and simmer a few minutes. Add the pot of vegetables to the noodles and broth, stir gently to combine, simmer another minute or two and serve. Mmmm, this made about 6 quarts total, for me, and lots to share. . .

Stay Healthy Everyone! . .Lin

Beefy-Beany Crunchy Vegetable Chili


In a 6 quart, heavy-bottom pot, lightly brown cubed top round steak, in a couple tablespoons of EVOO. While this is happening, chop or slice the vegetables shown and add them to the pot.

Add about a quart of water, 2-3T low sodium beef Better Than Bouillon and 3 bay leaves and 28oz. petite diced tomatoes and juice. Simmer on low heat for a half hour.

Add the chili beans and 'gravy' from each can. Drain and rinse black beans and add those now as well. I used 2 cans of black beans.

Simmer everything another half hour. Serve with crusty bread or corn muffins.

This will keep well, refrigerated, for about a week and I find it tastes best on day 2 or 3, after chilling and reheating. . .Lin

Olive, Oat- Muffin-Bites - Gluten-Free


1c quick rolled oats
1c corn flour
2T raw sugar
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
1t ground cumin
1t smoky chili powder
2T ground chia-flax seeds
1-2T Everything Bagel Seasoning

⅔c chopped pecans or walnuts

⅔c sour cream
⅔c warm water
1 can of corn-drained
⅓c EVOO
1T white vinegar
8 finely chopped jumbo garlic-jalapeno olives

In a medium glass bowl, whisk to combine all the dry ingredients.  Add the next group, stir then scoop batter by spoonfuls into paper-lined muffin tins.  Bake at 375° for 20-30 minutes.  These are good with chili. . .Lin

Quick Whole Grain Bread

3c all purpose, unbleached flour
1/2c whole wheat flour
1/2c corn flour
2T ground flax seed
2t each: sugar, yeast, salt

Whisk these together. Pour in 2c warm water. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine the dry ingredients with the water. Cover and put in a warm place, away from drafts, for 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Butter two glass 1-qt. mixing bowls, or one large glass bowl for round loaves, or use glass loaf pans. Transfer the 'dough,' which will be more like a doughy batter, to the baking pan(s). Put these in a warm place another half hour or hour until the loaf/loaves rise again. Drizzle the top with EVOO and sprinkle on some Everything Bagel Seasoning before baking at 375° 30-45 minutes, or until nicely browned on all sides. Cool several hours before removing from the baking bowls, or loaf pans, and slicing. This has a nice texture, similar to sourdough bread, without the tangy flavor. . .Lin

Tuna-Egg Salad - A Healthy Refresh

I'm always so happy when I think of an even healthier way to create foods that I love! I was craving this today so I started assembling ingredients. I realized I bought the wrong mayonnaise. Instead of one made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, I had bought regular mayo. . .Hmmm. As I added the tuna packed in EVOO, an idea struck. What would this taste like with no mayonnaise -and- more olive oil in its place? 🤔 . . . Well, let's find out!

4 large Pasture Raised 'medium-hard' boiled eggs
1 big stalk of celery
6 green onions
4-5 small dill pickles
1/3 orange bell pepper
1 can EVOO packed tuna
single source EVOO
salt & pepper
Chop everything, break up the tuna, adding it -plus the oil- to a medium glass bowl. Mix together well, using enough olive oil to hold everything together, plus little more. Season, mix well once more, then serve. . .Lin

Lit'l Smokies, Corn, Beans and Crunchy Vegetables

I'm recovering from a big abdominal surgery and using up the ingredients I have here,  before attempting grocery shopping - which I'm very excited to do again! All Foodies love to grocery shop! 


Today I have a couple pots of soup in the 'fridge, but when I saw a pack of Hillshire Farms Little Smokies in the lunchmeat-cheese drawer in my 'fridge, I immediately knew I needed to have them for lunch.

Chop the vegetables. Sauté the celery in a 2-1/2 quart pot, in 2-3T good quality, single source EVOO. Cook and stir this a few minutes before adding the bell pepper, onion and Yukon Gold potatoes. Stir everything to coat with the oil, reduce the heat, cover and let simmer 5 minutes. 


Increase the heat and add the chopped Lit'l Smokies and some water or chicken broth if needed. Stir-fry everything a while, make sure nothing is sticking to the pan, reduce heat, cover and let simmer 5 minutes.

Drain and rinse the corn and beans. Add them to the pot, stir then let simmer another 5 minutes to heat everything through. Serve as is or with a crispy green salad and/or corn muffins. This was quick and SO good. Makes about 4-6 servings. . .Lin

Gluten Free, Seedy Lentil Protein 'Bread'

Well this continues to surprise me. The European recipe I used as a guide, used orange split lentils, which I thought I had, but mine were yellow mung bean lentils. I soldiered on, determined to try this interesting recipe. You'll need to use a kitchen scale that gives results in ounces and grams for this one since weights don't translate well to measurements with dry ingredients.

60g lentils - Grind these to flour consistency in your blender, food processor, or coffee type grinder, then combine with the following in a medium glass bowl:
6oz. warm-hot water - The recipe said 'a glass' of warm water, this amount worked for me, but you might need a little more. Let this soak a while, stirring occasionally until it cools a bit, then whisk in:
1T EVOO
2 eggs


~ Mix all this well, then add the following:

1t baking soda that's been stirred together in a small cup, with 1T apple cider vinegar
40g of ground flax and chia seeds (I didn't have my favorite mix this time so only used flax. Make sure they're ground though, not whole.
Mix all this together again, then let it soak for 10-15 minutes.


~ In a small, non-stick frying pan, dry toast until lightly browned and releasing their nutty scent:

30g EACH - sprouted pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, or 60g total of either. I only had the pumpkin seeds, so I chopped those up a bit before dry toasting. Mix the toasted seeds well with the ingredients in the bowl. Transfer the batter to a well buttered loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds, or a light shake of Everything Bagel Seasoning. Bake at 350° until risen and lightly browned on the surfaces, about 1 hour. Cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing.

I had some of this ↑ for breakfast with a boiled egg, a little chicken salad and a sliced McIntosh apple. Then again for lunch with some mixed nut butter combined with jalapeño jelly. The finished 'bread' is mildly savory. It's a recipe I'll make again, which is rare for me, and also a huge surprise. When I first tried it, I almost chopped it up and put it out for the birds and bunnies! So glad I didn't, I can already tell, this is something I'm going to actually crave!! Next time, I'll use the orange split lentils and probably make a couple other changes. (of course I will) . . . Lin

Sweet-Savory-Crunchy Chicken Salad

Lately, I haven't been cooking as much as usual, nor posting the results. This one turned out really great but I didn't weigh or measure every ingredient, so this is more of an idea than an exact recipe, but hey, it's chicken salad! I've rarely met one I didn't like! Give this combination a try.


8oz. roasted chicken meat
1 can (drained) diced water chestnuts 
4-6 green onions
2 ribs of celery
3 small dill pickles
5-6 lg. garlic olives
a BIG handful of craisins
a BIG handful of walnuts
mayonnaise - to hold it together


Chop or slice the ingredients and mix everything together in a medium glass bowl. For a Chicken Waldorf variation, omit the olives, pickles and craisins, and substitute a couple of your favorite apples, peeled and diced. . .Lin

Roasted Tomato - Vegetable Soup

Sometimes I get an idea for a recipe and it meets or exceeds my expectations. This was one o.f those times ☺️ It's not an exact recipe though, more just a photo illustration.

I had to slow-roast everything since I could not figure out how to get the oven temperature higher or lower than 350° on this fancy oven where I'm currently staying, here in Arizona.


I lost track of the time it took to get everything roasted properly, but as usually the carrots are the last to soften, so they were my guide. At that temperature, I'd guess the process took around an hour and a half, give or take a bit.

First scrub everything, then cut it all into big or medium chunks. Toss it all together in a big soup pot with a generous amount of good quality -single source- EVOO, a bit of garlic salt, lots of black pepper and whatever seasoning or herb blend you choose. 

Pour that onto a big sheet pan and roast until the carrots cooperate. Cool all this slightly, peel the tomatoes if you can, then put everything into a blender jar.

Pulse until rough-chunky or all the way to baby-food-smooth, whatever your preference for this particular soup happens to be today. Mine here isn't chunky but also not smooth, somewhere -just right- in the middle.

Pour this into that same big pot again. Rinse the pan and blender jar and add this water to the pot. Heat it to a simmer, taste and make any corrections in texture, viscosity and seasonings. More of everything? More water? Chicken soup base? Want it dairy free -?- then serve it now. 


If you want it a bit softer, and appreciate dairy, add heavy cream or a big spoonful of sour cream, just a little at a time until you get it right. Stir gently to combine everything and heat it back to a simmer before serving.

I had this with a piece of Cloud Bread and a fresh green side salad. . .Mmmm. Remember. . .it's always soup season. . .Even here in Arizona with the outside temperature at 91° . . 🥰 . . Lin

Chicken, Lettuce and Tomato Skillet

Start by sautéing the following:

8 oz. fresh sliced mushrooms
1/3 green bell pepper - chopped
1/2 lg. onion - chopped
2T butter
garlic salt and pepper

I stood in front of the open 'fridge a while before this recipe came together for me. I'm starting to feel a bit better, I can tell, because my cooking impulse never went away. I guess I'd have to be way sicker for that to happen.

As this starts to cook, over med-low heat, cover with a screen or lid for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile peel and chop the tomato and dice up 1 petite Romaine (or fresh spinach), then add that to the pan, stir, adding a little water if needed. Cover again for another 5-10 minutes. 

Cut up the chicken and measure out 2c frozen peas. Uncover, stir in the chicken and peas. Increase the temperature until any liquid sizzles, then shut off the heat, Cover and let stand another 10 minutes before serving. . .Lin

Chicken-Rice Vegetable Soup


I'm on an extend stay currently in Arizona. But with foodies, this doesn't mean our desire to create in the kitchen disappears. Grocery shopping and cooking in a new place can be so fun, especially if you're privileged enough to find an ethnic, or really good Farm Market. . .Cook Where You've Landed, a bit like Bloom Where You're Planted. Have fun with it. Today, I'm making this soup for someone who has a really bad virus, and that would be me!


2-3T single source EVOO
3-4 stalks of celery
3 big carrots

1/2 lg. onion
1 lg. clove garlic
1/3 lg. red pepper

2-3 quarts of fresh cold water
1/3 lg. head of green cabbage

2-3T Better Than Bouillon, chicken

1/2c white rice
6-10oz roasted chicken meat

Drizzle the EVOO into a 4-5 quart heavy pan, heat the oil, then add the sliced or chopped carrots and celery, stir them around a bit, add seasonings now if you'd like. Cover and listen close for a couple minutes. This should bring out a bit of water out so they won't scorch. Next add the aromatics. chopped onion, red pepper and finely chopped garlic. Stir around the pan until the cooking water evaporates. Then add a little of the measured water as needed and again, cover and cook, once it simmers, over low heat for a few minutes.

Add about 2/3 of the remaining water, cubed cabbage and the BTB chicken stock base. Stir, simmer another 5 minutes, then add the rice, cook 15 minutes, stir in the chopped chicken meat, stir, remove from the heat, cover and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Happy Creating! It's Always Soup Season . . . Lin

Chicken Salad


6-8oz. roasted chicken
2c chopped celery
1/2 lg. onion chopped
sweet-spicy pickle relish
mayonnaise 

Chop up the chicken, add celery and onion and a couple tablespoons of pickle relish and enough mayonnaise to hold everything together. This would be great wrapped in a Romaine leaf, on a tortilla or with cloud bread, right out of the oven 🙂 . . .Lin

Cheese Cloud Bread


4 large pasture-raised eggs
4oz. cream cheese
salt, pepper, pasta seasoning, garlic powder
1-1/3c grated Dubliner cheese

Preheat your oven to 300° Separate the eggs: egg whites in one bowl and yolks in a bigger bowl.

Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.



Add the cream cheese and seasonings to the egg yolks and beat until smooth

Fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture. Drop enough to make 3" circles on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet. 

Bake 25 minutes, or until the tops turn golden and firm up. Makes 12-15 bread rounds. . .Lin

German Potato Salad Soup

I thawed a package of 6 Quail and also 1 Pheasant to roast over the weekend for a family get together after church this past Sunday. Rather than a fussy sit-down roast poultry dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, etc. I decided to keep it casual. I made an interesting version of something similar to German Potato Salad and a cucumber, tomato, onion salad to go with the roasted meat. After lunch, I took off all the meat, packaged that, and made a pot of bone broth with the bones and skin.

I'll probably make a stroganoff sort of thing with the leftover meat, either all 18oz. of it, or half and use a chicken salad recipe for the rest, so stay tuned for those.

Meanwhile, I still had leftover hot potato salad to turn into something else. Today I decided to make soup, using mashed up potato salad as the focal ingredient. This potato salad has onion, celery, dill pickles, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, a bit of sugar, salt, pepper, and crumbled bacon. Mashing it somehow seemed the logical thing to do.



Slice-chop the scrubbed vegetables shown: carrots, celery, green pepper and garlic. Sauté these a few minutes in 2-3T butter. Add a couple ladles of bone broth, cover and simmer with seasonings and bay leaves for about 15 minutes until they're all tender. Remove the bay leaves, then mash everything in the pot to a rough-mash stage with a potato masher.


Add the mashed potato salad, stir to combine. Ladle in more bone broth to make it just barely 'soupy.' Simmer this on low for 5-10 minutes. Check the flavor, then stir in a can of coconut milk if you'd like, or just stick with bone broth, using enough to make the consistency right for a rustic soup. Serve with a little shredded cheese on top. . .Lin


I had a bowl of this, made with coconut milk, without cheese on top, and I have to say, it's for sure one of the most interesting soups I've ever eaten! 

A one of a kind recipe, and since there's 3 quarts of it, I'll be working on this pot for a while. It's surprisingly good!

Curried Pollock Chowder

3 big carrots
5-6 stalks of celery
1 medium onion
2T coconut oil 

Lowry's garlic salt
salt free pepper seasoning

Start by sautéing the lightly seasoned sliced-chopped celery, carrot and onion, in the coconut oil. Cover and reduce the heat to low for 10 minutes. Stir a couple times to prevent sticking.



Take the strings off the pea pods, slice those, chop the potatoes and add them to the pot with 4 lg. smashed, chopped garlic cloves (not shown). 


Add 16oz. cold fresh water, the 15oz. jar of curry sauce, a couple spoonfuls of Lobster Better Than Bouillon and 3 big bay leaves. Cover and simmer again for 15 minutes.

9-12oz. pollock filets

Cut the fish into bite size pieces and stir into the pot. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in an additional 16oz. cold water, 1-1/2c craisins or other dried fruit and the coconut milk. Bring back to a quick simmer and serve with oyster crackers or crispy garlic bread. Or, if you'd like, make a recipe of jasmine rice in a separate pot. Stir it into the curry just before serving, or use it as a base to ladle the curry on top. . .Lin

Pesto Pasta


I didn't need all the cooked pasta for my soup, so I chopped up some walnuts, and made a quick pesto to stir into it. I also added some shaved Dubliner cheese, which is a sharp, dry Irish cheese that seems like a fusion of Parmesan and cheddar. Mmmm! It was so good!

I'll remember this next time I make angel hair pasta and make extra for another bowl of this! If you're not a fan of basil, this brand also makes a really great tomato pesto! Both are sold at Aldi Grocery Stores. . .Lin

Lemon Chicken Noodle Soup

Cook 8oz. angel hair pasta about half way. Drain and rinse well in icy water. Rinse again every half hour, until you can add it to the soup, so it doesn't stick together.

4 stalks celery - 3 carrots - 3/4 lg. onion
14oz. chicken breast meat
5 big cloves of garlic - 1/3 head of green cabbage

Sauté the celery, carrots and onion in good quality extra virgin olive oil. When it starts snapping, add the chicken and be ready with a little water to keep it from sticking to the pot. Cook and stir for 10-15 minutes.

Add the minced garlic, cubed cabbage and continue cooking this way another couple minutes until the garlic scent reaches you.

Add 2 quarts of fresh cold water
3 bay leaves, soup base and seasonings you like

Stir, then simmer - covered another 15 minutes then add:

zest and juice of 1 lemon
2c small frozen peas



Cover and simmer until the carrots and celery and cooked the way you like. Add the pasta and bring everything back to a simmer. 

Cover and remove from the heat for a little while, to blend the flavors and be sure the pasta is done just right.

This is a good basic soup for summer, eating light or recovering from a virus. . .Lin

A 'Green' Purple Cleanse

It's funny how one thing leads to another. . .
A Facebook friend is having a colonoscopy this morning. This got me thinking how great I've felt after each of mine. Great! Due to the cleansing action of that nasty 'prep' process. 

Then one of my favorite Facebook pages, Food Matters, posted a healthy green cleanse to do at the first signs of a virus. These two things, coupled with the fact that on our semi-annual trip to the cities this past Saturday, my daughter steered me down the Asian candy aisle telling me all about her favorites. I protested, "I don't need to get started on THIS stuff. . ." Too late, I already saw some interesting-pretty-shiny packaging that sucked me in. . .


So, obviously, with my personality -leaning toward addictive- I have WAY over-indulged since then. And, since I believe it's never too late for a do-over. . .that can lead to better choices -VOILA- here we are!

Unlike others, I don't make these things in a juicer. I had one once and hated the idea of all that great, fibrous pulp going to waste. You can compost it, or like me, use it in muffins, but one can only eat so many muffins, ya know!?! So, if you have a juicer, go for it. If not, use your blender!

I loosely followed the ingredients for the juice the mom and her son made on the Food Matters video, omitting one or two and adding several of my own.

1-1/2c frozen blueberries
1 big clove raw garlic
1 big fresh cucumber
3 stalks celery
a couple Swiss chard leaves (no stems)
fresh ginger or some lightly 'candied' ginger
1 lime: zest + fruit with the white pithy part removed
12-16oz. cold, fresh water

Juice -or- blend everything well. This was really good! If you're going more for nutrition than cleansing, you could add a little organic local honey and a banana, but I loved it just the way it is. No added sweetness needed. 

This makes 24-30oz. Enough for 2 big servings.
If you plan to down all of this yourself though -disclaimer- I'd stay home alone for a while afterwards. No long car rides, church, business meetings. Just you, alone, close to the bathroom. Because, as someone recently, so delicately phrased it, "it's never just gas" 😉 It can be surprisingly effective. . .quickly. . .Lin

Shawarma Chicken, Vegetables and Pasta

I found a double pack - 2 1# packages - of sliced chicken in an Indian Shawarma sauce at Costco recently.  The ingredients are actually very healthy, and it's almost gluten free. Wheat flour was the last ingredient, so for those of us trying to back away from that, it's a good choice. 


It sounded so good, although I hadn't a clue how to make actual Chicken Shawarma, and decided not to find out. I just went with vegetables I had here. The sauce was surprisingly mild. I served it to my Granddaughter and her two little guys yesterday and everyone ate it! I was going to serve it over rice, but instead, decided on angel hair pasta, since it's my #1 Granddaughter's favorite.


2 sm.-med. dark green zucchini
1 med. light green variegated zucchini
equal amounts of butter + EVOO about 5T total
black pepper

Sauté the zucchini over medium heat while chopping or slicing:

1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 orange or yellow bell pepper
1/2 big Vidalia or purple onion
2 big garlic cloves

1# sliced chicken in Shawarma sauce
1 28oz. can of good quality diced tomatoes

Add these vegetables to the pan when the zucchini starts to turn translucent. Remove the chicken from the pack, add any sauce left in the pack to the pot. 

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and add these, and the diced tomatoes, when the vegetables are still crisp-tender. Check the seasonings and make any corrections or additions. 

At the end, cool this a bit then add a 13.5oz. can coconut milk or coconut cream, and 1c honey roasted peanuts.

Serve over cooked, chilled and reheated pasta or rice. Much healthier since this creates a base that's considered resistant starch. . .Lin