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Do you love soup? I do! 

​I hope you enjoy this fantastic soup recipe from Erin at Eat Real, Stay Sane!

If you need to modify for daily-free, replace the milk with coconut milk and leave out the cheese. It will still be broth-y and delicious. You can also replace the cilantro with flat-leaf parsley if preferred. 

This past Super Bowl we wanted to have a healthier get-together without sacrificing taste. We had chicken wings with a honey ginger glaze, salad, soup, all-natural ice cream and brownies (for Mom’s birthday), and Muddy Buddies.

So Muddy Buddies are not on the healthy list, BUT I did use homemade chocolate, healthy peanut butter, and organic powdered sugar. One thing that we do a lot in our house is rejigger junk food recipes to contain healthier ingredients. We just need to find a healthy alternative to Rice Chex. Um, probably not happening though.

The soup however, was a different story. It’s a cheesy chicken soup with Mexican-style flavors. It’s perfect for a winter day and definitely hearty enough to eat alone for dinner. AND it was perfect Super Bowl food because it was thick enough that we could scoop it up with our organic tortilla chips from Costco. Nacho city!

We love these kinds of recipes. Crazy delicious, with a little kick, and yet doesn’t taste healthy! Adding the rice to it changes the whole game and that’s how it turns from a nice side soup into a one-bowl dinner extravaganza.

It’s one of those holdover recipes from our pre-healthified eating days and yet a few tweaks make this a healthy staple in our non-processed household.

And just a note on the amaranth: it’s actually a type of grain, but it’s completely gluten-free. It’s got sort of a nutty flavor, so you can’t use it in recipes like cookies or brownies. For dinner-type meals where a slight flavor injection is welcome, it works great. For example, we use it in our onion ring recipe.

Anyway, this recipe is probably our new favorite and we plan on making it about 37 times in the next month.

​Enjoy!

​​Directions:
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1. Melt the coconut oil and butter in large stock pot.
2. Add bell pepper, poblano pepper, onion, chili powder, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper. Cook the mixture for 5-6 minutes until the veggies begin to soften.
3. Add the minced garlic and stir constantly for 1 minute.
4. Whisk in 3 Tablespoons of amaranth and cook for 2 minutes, stirring contantly.
5. Add broth and milk, whisking until smooth.
6. Add rice and let it simmer (not boil!) for 35 minutes, or until the rice is done. For this step, we kept the heat low and checked every few minutes and stirred.
7. Combine cheese with 3 Tablespoons amaranth in a bag. Then add cheese to the soup, stirring until completely melted.
8. Add chicken, tomato, and cilantro to pot and allow it to heat through, about 3-5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Eat Well & Thrive!
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One caveat to this recipe: you all know I am very strict with sugar. There is quite a bit of sugar in this recipe. Natural or not, sugar is sugar. It’s ok to use less than the recipe calls for. I know I prefer a less sweet cake. Remember, this is a special occasion treat!

​Cassava Chocolate Cake – by Erin Smith

Before I’d gotten on the real food bandwagon, someone at work brought a store-bought, gluten-free cake.

Most coworkers kept their distance, making snide remarks like “If I’m gonna eat the calories….”

I was among the brave who tried it, and I wish I hadn’t. Terrible, disgusting, flavorless. Contrary to popular belief, chocolate DOES NOT cover all else.

In other words, I know what a bad chocolate cake tastes like, and this ain’t it.

In order to achieve “gluten-free” status, I used cassava flour (it’s all the rage amongst the real foodies). It’s a starchy root, kind of like a potato. Just don’t imagine that it tastes like you’re adding potato flakes, because that would be gross.

Cassava flour has a slight earthy taste to it, but in a good way. It is extremely nutritious, containing good sources of potassium, vitamin C, fiber, and even some protein, iron, and magnesium.

The beautiful part is that you can trade it out in a 1:1 ratio with flour, and still keep a similar consistency. I’d say it’s slightly denser than normal cake, but it just makes it a little fudgier… so no complaints here.

A couple weeks ago, it was our Little Man’s 2nd birthday, which is crazy and insane. He’s not much of a dessert eater – he signs “grapes” or “strawberries” pretty much at every meal. He needed a little encouragement to dig into his chocolate cassava flour cake, but once he did, that stuff got ate.
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Along with the cassava flour, you’ll see that I’ve used sucanat, organic sugar, and other healthier ingredients. I wouldn’t call this a weight loss meal, but it sure beats processed, GMO ingredients that provide no nutritional benefit or even block other nutrients from entering your system.

In other words, it’s a dessert you can be confident your family will like, and you can sit back, arms crossed, smiling at your achievement. You can check out our date cake and brownie recipe too if those sound tasty to you.

Enjoy your cake!

For Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line bottom of 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper and butter.
2. Cream Sucanat, sugar, softened butter.
3. Add cacao, warm water, and vanilla.
4. Mix in eggs one at a time until combined. Do not over-mix or your cake will come out flat.
5. In separate bowl, sift together cacao, flour, soda, and salt. 
6. Slowly add flour mixture to wet mixture and mix until combined.
7. Pour half of the mixture into cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until edges look crisp and knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
8. Immediately after taking pan out of oven, run a knife around the edge of the pan. After about 10 minutes, remove from pan and let cool on a cooling rack.
9. Repeat baking process for second layer.

For Frosting:

1. Combine powdered sugar, butter, cacao, and vanilla.
2. Add small amounts of milk until desired consistency is reached, usually very fluffy and not runny or your cake will slide all over. You probably won’t need the entire 2/3 Cup just FYI!
3. After cake layers are cool, frost the top of one layer, add the top layer and frost the top then the sides. Store covered so the cake doesn’t dry out.

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