Favorite Healthy Pantry & Frig Must Haves

Being a married lady, I have found the importance of keeping certain items in the frig or in the pantry.  Here are my household's favorite ingredients to "always" have available.


1. Peanut Butter- I never thought I would be such a peanut butter lover as I am now. Hubby did it to me.  His peanut butter must be Peter Pan. I like any kind, but I try to eat more natural or organic peanut butters, but that doesn't happen all the time.
2. Apples- I feel deprived if I don't have an apple a day. We literally buy a bag of apples from Sam's once a week.
3. Oranges- We now buy these oranges from Sam's that are very sweet. Love them!
4. Milk- I don't like drinking milk, but hubby must have it.  I usually try to keep Almond milk on hand.
5. Red Onions- I don't know what salads were like before red onions, and I love my black bean and corn salad w/ red onions.
6. Black Beans- I make the Black Bean and Corn Salad probably every other week, if not every week.
7. Nuts- Almonds, pecans, peanuts, cashews...love nuts!
8. Eggs- For 2 people, we sure do crack 18 eggs quickly.
9. Bottled Water- I think we should get away from buying bottled water.  My mom always scares me that water bought in a plastic bottle is nothing safe. Yikes!
10. Sardines- You're probably thinking, yucky!! I thought that too before I read how beneficial sardines are to the body.  Hubby loves the sardines in mustard or Louisiana Hot Sauce.  I've only tasted the ones in water.  I remove the inside spine(bones) and mix the sardines as I would tuna salad. This is a great grab and go lunch when we don't have time to make something.


These are our semi-healthy must haves!

Crock Pot Curry Chicken

Earlier last week, I made Curry Chicken for dinner via the wonderful Crock Pot. I had a random can of cocunut milk in the fridge and wondered what I could do with it.  I've been wanting to use the crock pot lately to have a week's worth of meals, so I thought of the Indian seasonings that I have and said to myself, "What about Curry Chicken?" I looked up a few recipes and put something together.
Ingredients
3 boneless chicken breasts (mine were thawed)
1/2 of an onion
1 bell pepper (I used a red bell pepper)
2 celery stalks
1 can of coconut milk
1 can of spaghetti sauce (it should have been a can of tomato paste, but I didn't have any)
2 tsp of cumin
2 tsp of turmeric
1 tsp of pepper
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
Creole seasoning (or salt & pepper) to season chicken
2 sweet potatoes (cubbed)
2 cups of carrots
1/2 cup of chicken broth
1 1/2 cups of brown rice
1 tsp of cornstarch
cilantro for garnish
Directions
1. Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes. Season lightly with Creole seasoning or salt & pepper. Sit aside.
2. In a food processor or blender, place onion, bell pepper, celery stalks, coconut milk, spaghetti sauce/tomato paste, cumin, turmeric, pepper, and salt.  Puree together.
3. Place cubbed chicken in the bottom of crock pot. Place sweet potatoes and carrotts on top and pour chicken broth over the 3 ingredients.
4. Pour curry sauce over chicken and vegetables. Stir lightly to make sure the sauce travels to the bottom of the crock pot.
5. Turn crock pot on low and cook for 6-8 hours. (I'm usually gone to work for about 10 hours so my dish usually cooks on low for about 10 hours.)
6. When you return home, mix cornstarch in mixture 1 hour before serving.
7. Cook a pot of brown rice to serve with curry chicken.
8. Serve curry chicken over rice and garnish with cilantro if desired.  Enjoy!

Taste of Food: Chicken & Shrimp Fried Rice

Asian food is one of my favorite cuisines. Growing up, my mom would create stir fry dinners and add some of my dad's smoked meat to it. Delish. But, I also grew to love the quick Asian buffet dinners that you could purchase from the mall food court. Out of the options, fried rice was certainly a favorite.

I had never thought about making fried rice until hubby mentioned it one day. As a bachelor, he used to make this dish, or he would  run by Panda Express and get a "healthy" meal. Not really sure how healthy it was, but at least it was a change from his dependable Wendy's #7 combo.

I did an overview of our frig to see what we had in stock to make fried rice.  Here is what I came up with:

Chicken & Shrimp Fried Rice

Serving Size: 4

1 chicken breast (or 2- depends on how much you desire)
1 cup of cooked medium shrimp
1 cup of brown rice
2 celery stalks (chopped)
2 carrots (peeled and chopped)
1/2 onion (chopped)
1 Tbsp minced garlic (I buy the minced garlic in the jars. Sooo hard for me to peel and chop garlic!)
4 eggs
Soy Sauce
Sweet Chili Sauce
Olive oil for sauteeing meat and scrambling eggs

Instructions

1. In a medium size boiler, begin cooking brown rice according to package instructions. When rice is done, transfer to a glass bowl and refrigerate if time permits. (Refrigerating the rice helps to prevent it from being too sticky.)

2. In a separate boiler, boil chopped carrots and celery until tender.

3. Cut up chicken breast into bite size pieces. Season with seasoning salt and spices.

4. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a large skillet. Saute chicken pieces. Add shrimp to skillet with sauted chicken.

5. In a skillet, saute onion and garlic, and then, scramble eggs with onion/garlic.

6. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in wok. Add brown rice, carrots and celery, chicken and shrimp, and egg/onion/garlic mixture. Combine and fry. Finally, add soy sauce and sweet chili sauce. (I add just enough of both to coat the mixture.)

Enjoy this entree with green beans, broccoli, or a salad.

Southern Belle Taste from Bama

Born and raised in the Black Belt of Sweet Alabama, I would like to consider myself a true Southern Belle.  You know, one that knows about sundresses and sweet tea, cows and homemade buttermilk, shelling peas and shucking corn, and suntans with no beach in sight. While my hometown was a tiny place to grow up, nothing can replace the experience I had and the appreciation I have grown to cherish being taught and learning true Southern hospitality.  Now, as an adult and a married lady, I still reside in the South, just a couple of states over in the great state of Texas.

Since being married, I have grown to love the quest to lead a healthy lifestyle. While we would love to have our own gardens, we just don't right now.  So, we make our shopping adventures interesting. Now, everything I cook is definitely not labeled healthy, and I'm positive that I am not your "I only eat healthy foods and no sweets" belle. Life is about enjoying it, not deprivation, and for me enjoying life includes enjoying the taste of food. I've learned that the key aspect of leading a healthy lifestyle is moderation and exercise.  So here at Southern Belle Taste, you will get a taste of a variety of dishes that I will attempt to make whether it may be southern, Mexican, asian, healthy, or my favorite sweets. Also, you will learn some tricks I've discovered to keep me feeling healthy. My taste is to enjoy food and aim to be healthy all in-one. So, here's to cooking, eating, and burning calories so I can repeat this cycle. Find your taste today!