Tag: cabbage

Looking Back at Our Veggie Challenges

September 12, 2024 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Chris recently posted about how eating more vegetables helps her maintain her weight and included some information about roasting zucchini. For some reason that made me think about some of our earlier posts about vegetables so I decided it was time for looking back at our veggie challenges.

If you enter Veggie Challenge in the search field, a lot of entries come up. Scrolling through the search results, I realized we have a lot of great ideas on how to get more vegetables onto our plates.

I found a recipe for a kohlrabi slaw that I made in 2019. Five years ago so I guess that’s why I forgot all about this dish but it sounds good. I need to make it again. It’s basically kohlrabi and apples chopped into matchstick sized pieces with a vinegar and oil dressing.

As I continued looking back at our veggie challenges, I found a post about making a watercress salad. The salad looks great and I remembered that a doctor recommended that I eat more watercress because I think it helped with digestive enzyme issues.

Chris and I are big fans of cabbage apparently because we’ve both posted plenty about it. Cabbage is a versatile vegetable so if you’re looking for ideas on using it, do a search on our website.

Besides maintaining weight, vegetables are good for getting fiber into our diets and provide a wide range of vitamins and minerals. For example, that watercress I mentioned includes calcium as well as plenty of other vitamins.

It was kind of fun looking back at our veggie challenges. This year (2024) we did a Eat the Rainbow challenge. Several of us struggled with getting all of the colors (curses, you blue/purple veggies!) I haven’t discussed it with Chris yet but perhaps we’ll repeat the Veggie Challenge in 2025. I’m sure we can all come up with even more creative ideas on getting in our vegetables.

Cabbage, Potato, and Sausage Soup in the Instant Pot

October 8, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

It’s fall once again and my heart turns to soups, including my recipe for a Cabbage, Potato, and Sausage Soup and I’m using the Instant Pot for this.

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make this just as easily on the stove. I wanted to see how the cabbage and potato would work in the Instant Pot and it turned out great.

In all of the recipes in Becoming Elli, you can count on there being a lot of recipes that include cabbage. I’m not sure why that is. I posted my basic cabbage soup recipe a while ago.

Ingredients

1/2 Tbsp. avocado oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
About 1 lb of baby red potatoes, cut in half or quarters depending on the size
1/2 of large onion, diced
1 or 2 cloves of minced garlic
About 1/2 head of cabbage, chopped into small pieces
1 package of turkey kielbasa (13 Oz), sliced
2 cups of baby spinach
4 cups of chicken broth
2 cups of water
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, optional

Instructions

Turn the Instant Pot on to Sauté. Add the oil and let it heat.

Add the carrots, celery, and onion to the pot and stir frequently for about 5 or 6 minutes.

Stir in the sliced kielbasa and sauté for a few more minutes.

Add the minced garlic and sauté for a minute or two longer.

Turn sauté off.

Add broth, cabbage, and potatoes to the Instant Pot.

Stir in salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.

Set your Instant Pot to Soup, make sure the steam vent is set to pressurized and cook for about 30 minutes.

I usually let the steam release naturally but that’s not necessary if you’re in a hurry. When you’re ready, remove the lid.

Add the spinach and stir until it’s wilted.

Notes:

I used turkey kielbasa because that’s what I had on hand. I think chicken sausage would be great in this, as would traditional pork kielbasa. Really, any sausage will do. Use a vegan sausage if you are avoiding meat. I think you’ll want something in the sausage family for this soup. Otherwise, it’s just not cabbage, potato, and sausage soup.

You can add other vegetables to this. I think green beans would be a good addition.

I added the spinach at the end because it adds a lovely bright green color to the soup but you wouldn’t need to. If you want to add kale or a different green, remember that most cook longer than spinach so you would probably want to add the greens into the pot to cook with the other vegetables.

I used baby red potatoes but you can use any potato you want. Also, I always leave the skin on when I add potatoes to soup but that’s optional. I think even sweet potatoes would be good though it would change the flavor a bit.

Cooking Cabbage in the Instant Pot

June 14, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

Cooking cabbage in the Instant Pot is so quick and easy. This recipe is perfect for nights when you need some vegetables quickly. One of the things I like about the Instant Pot is that you can cook things quickly and easily. You load it up and turn it on and only deal with it again when the Instant Pot turns off.

I just have to share this recipe even though it’s another cabbage recipe. We provide a lot of ways to cook cabbage here at the Becoming Elli website. We’ve posted recipes for cabbage soup, keto cabbage, spicy cabbage in the crockpot, and others. Just go to the website and do a search on cabbage. You’ll see what I mean.

You only need three items for this recipe: cabbage, broth, and butter. That’s it. I used chicken bone both but you could use vegetable broth or even water. Beef broth might work too but I’ve never used it.

You can also add some salt and pepper to this dish if you like.

I used Kerrygold butter but regular butter will work well too. I just love my Kerrygold.

Cooking Cabbage in the Instant Pot

Ingredients

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth or water

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 head of cabbage, roughly chopped

Directions

Put broth and butter in the bottom of the Instant Pot.

Place cabbage into the pot.

Put the lid on the pot.

Pressure cook for 6 minutes. You can let the pressure release naturally for a few minutes and then manually release the pressure.

Notes

You can add carrots or potatoes to this. If you add potatoes, increase the cooking time to 9 minutes. The size of the potato will affect the cooking time.

I think you’ll enjoy this recipe. If you try it, let me know what you think. You can email me at jill@becomingelli.com or just leave a message below or on our Facebook page.

Cabbage Soup is Lunch of Choice

March 5, 2020 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

I am having cabbage soup for lunch today. I made a large batch of soup a few weeks ago and put some containers of it in the freezer to save for later. Today is a cold, snowy day here in Ohio and I’m working from home. I was daydreaming about what I was going to eat for lunch and decided to get a container of soup out of the freezer.

Customizing the Soup

The best thing about this soup is that I can add to it. When I made this soup originally, I added some cooked chicken and beans to the soup.

Today I decided to use up the chopped butternut squash that was in my refrigerator so I chopped it into smaller pieces, coated it with some avocado oil, and roasted it. I intend to add the butternut squash to my soup. I also have spinach in the refrigerator. It doesn’t take long to cook spinach so I’ll heat up the soup, add the squash, and add a handful of the spinach. That makes a great bowl of soup. If I wanted to add protein, some beans or shredded chicken might be a nice addition.

I make the big pot of soup without adding much in the way to seasoning. I’ll add some salt and pepper maybe. When I’m doctoring up the soup for a meal, I can add more seasoning to the smaller bowl. Some ideas on that might be some Italian seasonings or just some oregano with the salt and pepper. Sometimes I add some cayenne pepper to spice it up a bit. I think you could add some taco seasoning to the soup as well. Whatever strikes your fancy will work.

I’ll have some Mary’s Gone Crackers and goat cheese as a side dish. If you read this blog often, you know that I love those crackers.

I just noticed that we have many recipes for cabbage on the Becoming Elli website and recipes for soup but we don’t have a recipe for cabbage soup. The closest thing is Chris’ recipe for vegetable soup. So, let me give you my recipe.

You’ll want to know that you can swap vegetables in or out of this soup. Use what you have on hand.

Recipe for Basic Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

1 Tbs oil (I use avocado oil)

1 onion, diced

3 carrots, sliced

2 celery stalks, chopped

1½ cups green beans, chopped into 1 inch pieces

1 can diced tomatoes

½ head of cabbage, chopped into small pieces

8 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

Directions

In a large Dutch oven or soup pot, heat the oil and then saute the onion in it until the onion begins to soften.

Add the carrots, celery, green beans, tomatoes, and cabbage.

Pour in the chicken broth.

Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until cabbage is tender.

Notes

When you’re ready to eat the soup, add whatever ingredients you want.

Suggestions could be pasta or noodles, cooked chicken, chopped sausage, canned beans, greens, cooked potato. Use what you have on hand.

If you add white beans, kale, and some Italian spices, top your bowl of soup with some Parmesan cheese.

If you add chicken and cumin, top the soup with tortilla strips or some cheddar cheese.

Consider your soup to be the base for whatever you want.

Three Ways to Get Motivation in Winter

February 3, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

The first weekend in February in Ohio is about halfway through the winter. This is the time of year have to I look for ways to find more motivation to stay with my intentions of being fit, strong and healthy throughout the winter.

I guess I blame the weather.

Winter in Northeast Ohio usually means grey, overcast skies that blend into white and grey half melted snow. Most of the winter, my instincts are to get cozy on the couch with a good book/movie, a warm blanket and eat something with high calories, lots of rich food. When I fight that “instinct” and get out in the fresh air, get some exercise and engage some endorphins, I always feel tons better.

If there are warm air and sunny, blue skies, I just feel like getting up and moving. Motivation is not a problem, but I know I can’t wait for blue skies to take care of myself! For most of the winter, I look for ways to psych myself out and get myself motivated.

Here are three ways I am motivating myself this winter to exercise and eat healthy:

1) Exercise Buddy – If I try to go it alone, it’s easy to skip a workout. Finding a partner to work out with gives me accountability. Even if my friend isn’t working out with me, we send emails and texts back and forth for work out motivation. Having a friend in person, either at the gym or going for a walk really helps. Setting an appointment with a personal trainer definitely helps. My gym has a buddy program that started a couple of weeks ago and I am getting to know someone new at my gym while making a point to show up. The last few weeks have really upped my exercise totals for the week and I attribute this to having a buddy.

2) Food Challenge – I’m finding ways to eat more food that is nutrient dense (not calorie dense.) Luckily, I’m in the early stages of a weekly vegetable challenges. Maybe you are too? If not, it’s not to late to join in the fun! The Becoming Elli community veggie challenge is to find one new vegetable a week — or at least prepare a vegetable in a new way — and it challenges me to look more closely at the produce. I had several eggplants in my hands this past week, but didn’t buy one. Here is my “new” way of cooking cabbage with turmeric and thyme.

Turmeric, Thyme, Salt and Pepper. Cabbage cut into slices. Underneath: Mushrooms slices. baby Carrots, coarse chopped Celery, sliced Green Peppers. Cup of water. Pork roast – outside seared before going into the crockpot.

I forgot to take a photo of the final product. Basically it was a mushy stew kind of meal and not especially photogenic, if you know what I mean.

3) Helping others – My personality type is more motivated to help someone else, than to help myself by exercising. I don’t know why. Getting involved in the MS bike ride each summer has really helped to get and keep me in shape. Now I have found another way to contribute called “Charity Miles” which is an app you can download. It tracks your mileage for walking, running or biking (you need your phone with you when you do the activity.) Various corporate donors have pledged to contribute money to the charity of my choice (in this case the MS Society) based on the number of miles I complete. I’m not exactly sure how much they donate for each mile because Charity Miles divides the money between all the charities at the end of every term. I think the corporations are counting on people sharing the images via social media. But my motivation is to help others and I find that doing this helps me to do more miles than I would have otherwise. So its a win/win/win.

How do you motivate yourself? Do you have ways that you struggle with winter workouts? What tricks to you use when you don’t feel like eating right?

Cooking with Cruciferous Crunch Collection

February 26, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 4 Comments

I picked up this bag of Cruciferous Crunch at Trader Joe’s this week. It’s made up of shredded and chopped kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green cabbage, and red cabbage. Trader Joe’s did all of the work of shredding the vegetables. Other stores are probably now carrying a similar product but if you have to, you could always make your own crunch collection. This was an impulse buy and it worked out well for me.

I basically decided to make some kind of salad or slaw with this. I think you could add to these ingredients or change them without problem. If I had some dried cranberries or dried cherries in the house, I would have added them to the salad too. Slivered almonds or pignon nuts would have worked in place of the chopped cashews. I think you could also swap out the almond butter with tahini. I think peanut butter might be a bit too strong a flavor but if you try it, let me know.

Ingredients

1 bag of Trader Joe’s Cruciferous Crunch Collection or several cups of chopped kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green cabbage and red cabbage

Dressing:

1/4 cup of almond butter
Juice of 2 limes
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder

Garnish:

chopped cashews (optional)
dried cranberries (optional)

Directions:

Mix the ingredients for the salad dressing in a small jar and mix well. Make sure the almond butter is well blended with the other ingredients.

Empty the bag of vegetables into a large bowl and then pour the dressing over. Stir the salad well.

Serve immediately or cover and put in the refrigerator. It tastes better if allowed to sit for a while. I’ve kept this up to three days and it’s been fine. It might have lasted longer but it was eaten before I could determine its end date.

When you serve the salad, add some chopped cashews and/or dried cranberries on top. The nuts will go soggy if mixed into the salad early, so wait and add them immediately before eating.

Yummy Sauteed Keto Cabbage

January 15, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Here’s a recipe I’ve read variations of on different Keto sites. I can’t believe I’m going to say this about a cabbage dish, but I LOVE this recipe. It’s so easy and cabbage is so inexpensive, and it keeps for a long time. This is a great change from making coleslaw or that infamous diet cabbage soup.

I’ll write a post about Keto diets later, but a quick definition of Keto is a diet consisting of high fat, moderate protein, and low carbs.

If you’re hesitant about eating fat, you’ll have to modify how you make this dish. I think you could make this with olive oil but I’ve never tried it. I’ve written this up using butter but I’ve seen similar recipes that recommend bacon grease or coconut oil.

This dish is great to accompany chicken or a sausage like bratwurst or kielbasa. I often eat leftovers as a kind of breakfast has by reheating it and topping it with a fried egg.

Ingredients

Cabbage: A quarter of a good size cabbage makes a generous serving for one or two people.

3 to 4 TBS of Butter

Directions for making Sauteed Keto Cabbage

Slice the cabbage in half and remove the core. Cut as much cabbage as you want to cook into small pieces.
Melt the butter in a heavy skillet.
Add the cabbage and cook at medium heat until the cabbage becomes golden brown and very tender, about 20 minutes or so.
Serve.

If you’re trying keto, you may want to try out this Sauteed Keto Cabbage recipe. What’s your favorite way to prepare cabbage?