EXTREME MAKEOVER: Recipe Edition
I can’t believe they’re bringing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition back to TV. It’s satisfying to see a family’s crumbling, sad home transformed, in a matter of days, into all that they had hoped and needed.
That brings me to my great cookbook project as I enter the new year.
Let me introduce you to my cookbook. It is a pretty, three-ring binder with flowers on it. Inside, my recipes have been typed and each one placed in a plastic sleeve. (I make no apologies for going old school with a printer.) The recipes are organized by meats: poultry, beef, fish, and pork, but I also have a soup category. This recipe book has come in many chronicles. Chronicle one was early marriage, when I knew little about cooking. Chronicle two was mid marriage, when I finally knew how to cook but had not considered nutritional content. Now, I am in chronicle three, where I know how to cook and care very much about the nutritional value of the recipes.
For the last couple of years, I have been intentionally learning about nutrition. I’ve learned the value of whole foods (like eating a carrot that came out of a garden–a novel idea.) I’ve learned about the minerals we need to consume and what foods contain those minerals. I’ve become aware of how bad highly processed foods are for our bodies. I’ve learned about blood sugar and carbs and sugars in foods. And I’ve also learned why organic foods matter. Learning about nutrition has been hard, because there is so much conflicting information and so much extreme thinking out there, but I feel great, so I think I must be learning and moving in the right direction.
That brings me to my cookbook makeover. You know, sometimes you look at your closet and know you need to get rid of some clothes, because they look awful on you or don’t fit right and you never wear them, but you can’t get rid of them because you love them and just know that someday you’re going to put on that dress and it’s going to look as good on you as it looks on the hanger. I’ve heard the advice that you should put those never-wear-them clothes in a box, and if you haven’t reached for them in a year, take the box to the thrift store.
Well, I’m doing that with my recipes. There are some recipes in my cookbook that call for highly-processed foods, but I do so love these recipes and am loath to get rid of them. I have all of this new information about nutrition in my brain, though, and learning has given me a new awareness of the quality of food that I’m feeding my family. Some of my old recipes just need to go.
So, I’m re-typing all of my recipes very slowly and thinking about the ingredients in them. Some recipes I have tweaked, to replace canned soups and store-bought packets with whole-food ingredients and spices from my own cupboard. (For Thanksgiving, I made my own cream of mushroom soup from scratch for the green bean casserole.) Some recipes I just look at with a sigh and say, “Bud, I think you are gonna have to go.” For those recipes, I have a small, three-ring binder where I’m placing them, the way you would put those never-wear clothes in a box. I’m going to tuck those recipes away for the next year and see if I can live without them. I find myself apologizing to them, as they go in this binder: “Sorry, nothing personal.”
It occurred to me that a woman’s cookbook is a nutritional legacy, and when I am dead and gone, what nutritional legacy will I have left for my family? Will my people be healthy or sickly because of my recipe collection?
This is fun! I’m not talking about some drudgery of food guilt. I’m talking about an extreme makeover, with purposeful design–knocking out walls to create open floor plans and slinging fresh paint and installing all new kitchen cupboards and a beautiful island. New windows. New landscaping. Subway tile and floating shelves and shiplap.
Creative renovation for a cookbook.
MOVE THAT BUS!
There’s a lot of love in this project. Do I love my husband and his mom and aunt and my kids and my grandkids enough to spend time making over the cookbook that feeds them? Yes, there is so much love, and this project is worth the elbow grease. I’m on the hunt for recipes that are yummy but healthy. This is a prayerful work for me, too. Lord, help me make good food for my family. Guide me to the truth about nutrition and to good recipes.
I’ve been working in this direction for a couple of years, so really this is a project I’m finishing, not just starting. You don’t just overhaul something this big overnight.
To you I would say, make this a year where you slowly start adding nutritious new recipes to your recipe collection. Add, add, add. Collect delicious (they must taste good!!) and nutritious recipes before you worry about re-examining the old ones. That’s happy work. Then maybe down the road, you can put some of those old ones in a small, three-ring binder and see if you can part with them after a year. It’s a work of love.
And if you have a yummy, nutritious recipe you think I can’t live without, please email it to me. I would be grateful.
P.S. I made homemade, healthy soup tonight and ended up throwing it in the garbage, because I messed it up. Just thought it was hilarious that I’m writing this glorious post about my cookbook and then had a total kitchen fail. So, ya know, let’s keep it real.
I definitely need to work on this! Now what to do with all those leftover Christmas cookies 🙂
When we do have to buy pre-made items, we’ve been choosing this brand which is much more on the healthy side of things.
https://www.primalkitchen.com/
I’ve never heard of primal kitchen. Thanks, bro!
Christy, I’m on the same road as you. Over 5 years ago I had to go gluten free, diary free & egg free. Let me tell you, those were my 3 main food groups! What else was left to eat? Meat? Vegis? The 1st year was rough (mostly because I was grieving & moping & missing), but then it got better. I had to rehaul my entire menu. Because I felt SO much better, my daughter came on board a year later, and my husband joined the GF part soon after. We’re all feeling better. I’d love to share some recipies with you, for things like that homemade cream of mushroom soup! Y(es, I had to do that too!) What menu categories are you running slim on? 🙂 CHEERS to doing such a great thing for you & your family!!! (P.S. For those of us who don’t really like to cook…maybe you could do a similar book like “Keeping House” as that totally transformed my mindset about taking care of our home. God bless you!!!!)
Oh wow. That is so hard to make such a massive diet change all at once. Ugh. I’m glad to hear you feel better on the other side of it! I would love it if you would just send me one of your favorite entree recipes. (I can get easily overwhelmed, so I’d rather tackle one than a whole bunch.) Thank you!
I never made enchiladas…seemed like a lot of work. But I found this recipe and it tasted fabulous! And my family loves it too, so double bonus!
This is modified to be gluten free & dairy free, so feel free to adjust to what you need/prefer. 🙂
Nancy’s Green Enchiladas Chicken Soup
yield: 6-8 SERVINGS
Ingredients
• 2 cups diced or shredded Costco rotisserie chicken
• Onion – caramelized
• 1 (28 oz) can green enchilada sauce
• 24 oz chicken broth
• 1 can coconut milk (or your favorite DF “milk”)
• 1 can white cannellini beans or black beans, drained
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 cup DF Monterey jack cheese (or DF cheese of your choice)
• 4 oz DF cream cheese, cubed at room temperature
• 4 oz green salsa (salsa verde)
• salt and pepper to taste, cumin, SW Seasoning, cilantro, salsa, lime juice
• Optional: add diced zucchini
Stovetop Instructions:
1. In a large stockpot, sauté onion. Then add broth & enchilada sauce, beans, corn & spices. Simmer until flavors are blended & hot.
2. Add coconut milk, jack cheese, cream cheese, and green salsa verde to the pot. Stir and heat soup until it is warm and the cheese is melted. Season with salt and pepper if needed. When it’s all hot & blended well, then add diced chicken & bring up to simmering temp.
3. Serve with a dollop of salsa and sour cream & tortilla chips & cilantro. Enjoy!
Modified from: https://seekinggoodeats.com/green-enchiladas-chicken-soup-keto-slow-cooker-mexican-soup/
Updated: Feb. 2023
Thank you!!
And thanks for the encouragement about writing a book!
Christy, I am in full support of this and love it so much! We’re blessed to live in an age where there is so much of awareness right now around foods and health and the transparency is getting better. It is actually a very fun time to be in the kitchen. Also, I really appreciate your perspective on this because I have a lot of women in my life who are “older than me” and are tired of cooking – been doing it for years. Therefore, they do not feel a renewed sense of creativity because cooking can be a very thankless job and sometimes boring because we have to do it several times a day. Your position challenges that and will not only bless you, but your kids as well.
That’s such an encouraging word. Thanks, Chels!!! I hope to always see cooking as an act of love and not drudgery.
I love this so much, Christy!!! ❤️
It’s also my plan to really focus on healthier eating and care of my body and soul ~ and my loved ones as well. Thanks for the fun and lovely encouragement!
The LORD bless you and yours in 2025!!
💖
Well, may the Lord bless you as you care for the body he gave you! And my your pursuit of healthy living overflow onto your family and friends.
I may be naive, but don’t all fruits and vegetables come from a garden, field, tree, somewhere? I’ve seen lots about this topic recently and it has piqued my curiosity some. I do not enjoy cooking at all ~ ugh!! I do it because it’s necessary, so sometimes quick and easy is the way to go. There are time restraints and budget considerations. Any helpful tips for these?
Also, beside high amounts of salt, when did canned soup become a bad thing?
I’m asking all this respectfully ~ Thanks!! 🙂
Great questions!! And by the way, I take in a lot of information but question everything with a critical mind. There’s SOOOOO much health information out there to weed through.
I just had a conversation about time constraints with my daughter-in-law who works full time. I only work two days a week. It’s definitely way harder to cook whole foods from scratch if you work full time. I get that. I think one way to solve that is to stop making recipes and just start making simple meals, like throwing a couple of chicken breasts in an air fryer and tossing some Brussels sprouts or asparagus or sweet potato pieces in olive oil, salt, and pepper and roasting them. I personally enjoy cooking and trying new recipes, but you can make really good food without recipes.
As for highly processed foods, I challenge you to start picking up canned food or box mixes and just reading the ingredients list out loud. Ask yourself, “Does this all sound like food that came out of a garden or off of a tree?” Try reading the book “In Defense of Food.” I highly recommend that book as a starting place for thinking critically about the American diet.
As for budget, I stay away from the ridiculously expensive natural food stores but do buy organic foods from the grocery store and Costco. Good health costs something, and you can either pay for it on the health building side of things or on the sickness side of things. We definitely have to be wise with our money, so it’s a personal decision when to lean toward frugal purchases and when to invest in better food products. Really, it comes down to value. Nutritious food costs more money. That’s just a fact.
I absolutely love this. Before I even got to the part in your post where you talked about legacy, I couldn’t help but thinking that what you are doing is leaving a legacy of tangible love. I also love that you are making room to shift from good to move towards better and best. Nothing you were doing before was bad, but there is a better way. Permission to shift and move forward. Amen! Growth takes time and effort.
We have been slowly moving the way of the buffalo with you. Here is one of my favorites that my husband brought home from the firestation and I think we’ve been eating it once a week. You can adjust the heat. So delicious! https://mealprepmanual.com/firecracker-beef-brussels/
This recipe looks amazing and totally something we would enjoy. I can’t wait to try it. Thank you!!