Time for a Little Salty Language

I’m not going to lie. I love salt. I mean I REALLY love salt. In fact, I have been known a time or two to put just plain salt under my tongue to help me when I’m nauseous. I can’t pretend I didn’t like it.

The thing is, you need salt, but we get way too much sodium these days because we are a nation of convenience food. Salt is a preservative, so to make something shelf stable from now until oh say October of 2016, they will need to process it and load it up with preservatives. In this case, salt is the least of your worries, but just because there are a ton of chemicals in something that are worse than salt, doesn’t mean the salt is less bad. If you read this blog at all, you probably know by now, that my goal is to get people to stop eating things that are prepackaged, and actually eat real food. I’m sure when you go shopping, you look at the labels to see how many calories are in something, or how much fat. Do you check the sodium? Do you read the ingredients that are actually IN the food? If you are looking to see what the calories are, I’m assuming it’s because you don’t want it to make you fat right? Because being fat is unhealthy? If you will take the time to check that, why not check out the rest of the label? You’ve already got the box turned around, just look a couple lines down. Here’s another shopping tip…. If there is no label, and it doesn’t have a shelf life of 6 months or more…. You’re on the right track. Then you can control how much salt you are eating, and how salty your food will taste. Stephanie will have more on all the ins and outs of sodium here.

Salt is used to enhance the favors of food. It will unlock some of the favors basically. I’ve read somewhere that lemon juice and horseradish will do this too, but I can’t find where, so don’t quote me on that. The bottom line is this, you need salt, but you don’t need as much as you’re most likely getting. Pay attention to what you eat. I use kosher salt because it’s cleaner, and less processed, but there are a ton of types of salt out there.

Now I can hear you all out there telling me that you don’t have time to cook. You’re BUSY! Yeah I get it, and I also say, you’re wrong. With a little thought, and a sharp knife, you can make real food. I could make an Olympic sport out of sitting on my butt, and even I think this is just as easy.

Everyone feeds their kiddos those frozen, chunked and formed chicken nuggets, right?
Why not make them yourself?
Take several chicken breasts and slice them up.

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I hate looking at raw chicken, isn’t it gross looking?
Anyway, do a lot, bc it will keep in the fridge or freezer and you can eat on it all week. Drizzle this with a little olive oil and the juice of an orange and just a little salt. Mix them all together and let them hang out while you get a dipping sauce going.
Sweat a diced onion, four diced cloves of garlic, and the juice of one lime.

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Then take about five tomatoes that you’ve peeled and seeded (by boiling for a couple mins and then dunking in an ice bath to make things easy)

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Add the tomatoes and let them cook down while you grill the chicken. Yes I know there is no breading on this chicken, but 1) if you’re feeding kids, they care less about the breading, and more about the dippability and 2) you’re not filling up on all that fried breading that needs all the salt for flavoring.
Grill up your chicken strips.

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When the chicken is done, pull it off the grill and blend up your sauce with another pinch or two of salt until its smooth. So in about 20 mins, you have roughly 2lbs grilled chicken strips, and four cups of the sauce. They both freeze well, and you can pull the leftovers out for a quick meal any time.

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I know I said I wouldn’t put pics of my son on here, but just to show how well this goes over……

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That’s a cute finger there….

Now, I’m going to tell you how to take this

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And make your own fries and chips. Fast.
Just as a comparison, I made some frozen in a bag fries at the same time, and you know what? They finished at the same time. It is NO FASTER to use bagged potatoes.

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Cut up your potatoes into fry shape.
Then arrange on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil,

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Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 mins turning once. These cook faster bc they are not frozen. They’re not even cold.
Let them rest on a paper towel, and sprinkle with salt. -see, you can use salt, but you control how much goes into your food.
Then they are ready to eat.

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Now how about some potato chips?
By the way, you want to cut your potato faster? Square it off. that will save time peeling also.
I have one of these fancy slicer things,

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And if I were going to do several potatoes or whatever I’m slicing, it’s great. Mostly it collects dust because I can slice a potato and wash my knife in less time than it takes to wash the mandolin.
In fact, I timed myself to do this:

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And then get them on here with a little olive oil, and in the oven:

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And then get a drink of water, and start cleaning up, only to discover that I had forgotten I was timing myself.
It took me this long

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Still think you don’t have time to make fresh food?
Do the same here. 400 degrees for about 10 mins and then let rest on a paper towel while you sprinkle with salt and lime zest.

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You know all that chicken you’ve got in the fridge?

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Dice up about 1/3 cup and mix with 1/3c Greek yogurt, 1/4c cooked quinoa, 1/4c sliced grapes, juice of 1/3 a lime & 1 tsp chopped fresh dill, and you have a great lunch, plus no one knows it’s leftovers!

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Just about every morning I make my husband a breakfast sandwich. I didn’t want him going to a fast food place for a crappy breakfast, so I started this. Yes, there is some processed food in it, and it is NOT gluten free, but it could be made gluten free.
I take a bagel thin and toast it, lay on a slice of Swiss cheese, heat up a slice of Canadian bacon, and fry an egg.
Again this is *****NOT GLUTEN FREE****

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This has a total of 200 calories, 6.5 grams of fat, and 398 mg of sodium versus a certain McMuffin that has 300 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 780 mg of sodium. And it takes me no more time than it would take to sit in a drive through.

Now head on over to see what Stephanie has to say about sodium.

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3 Responses to Time for a Little Salty Language

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