Cheesy Potato Soup

Ingredients:
6T butter
1 1/2 C chopped onions
1 1/2 C chopped celery
1-2 t salt or to taste
1/2 t white pepper
1T Wildtree California Garlic Pepper Blend
4 C prepared Wildtree Chicken broth
7-8 potatoes peeled & diced
6 oz sharp cheddar
4 T all-purpose flour
2 1/3 C milk
crumbled bacon or chopped parsley for garnish

Directions: Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Saute the onions and celery in the butter for 5 to 10 minutes or until tender.

Stir in prepared Wildtree Chicken broth, salt, pepper & California Garlic Pepper Blend and then simmer until potatoes are tender. Add the cheese and stir until melted.

In a separate small bowl, combine the flour and the milk and stir until flour is mostly dissolved. Pour this into the soup slowly, stirring constantly, until soup has thickened, about 5 minutes. Garnish with crumbled bacon or parsley.

This takes less than 30 minutes to make and is the ultimate comfort food! Enjoy:-)

Venison Stir-Fry

Always a challenge to find different ways to cook the deer that my husband brings home from time to time. Here's a great recipe that I guarantee have even the most discerning eater thinking it's beef they're devouring!

Venison Stir Fry

• 1 lb venison tenderloin cut into small pieces & soaked in teriyaki or soy sauce for 1 hour
• Wildtree Grapeseed Oil
• 3 cups veggies (such as broccoli, green/red/yellow peppers, carrots, onions, mushroom, squash)
• 2 servings prepared brown rice
• 1 egg
• 1/3C Wildtree Kickin' Asian Stir-Fry Sauce

Saute prepared venison in 1 T of grapeseed oil (I like Roasted Garlic) till cooked through. Drain and set aside. Prepare rice according to package directions.

Wipe out skillet (I use a wok-style pan). Add 1T grapeseed oil and scramble an egg. Add veggies and stir-fry to desired tenderness. Add prepared brown rice, venison, and 1/3 C Kickin' Asian Stir-Fry Sauce along with 1T more grapeseed oil. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes more, then serve. Makes 2-3 servings. Great for lunch the next day as well!

Bon Apetit!
Stacy

Cooking with Grapeseed Oil

Before last March I had never heard of cooking with grapeseed oil. I'd had a grapeseed oil massage at a spa in Killarney, Ireland though and it was amazing! What I knew about grapeseed oil was that it was antioxidant-rich and very moisturizing. That's about it.

Here's what I know about grapeseed oil now: It's lower in saturated fat than olive oil (8% vs. 14%) and is the highest cooking oil in poly unsaturated fat (76% vs olive oil's mere 9%). It's the best oil I've found for sauteing...it's flashpoint is 425 degrees so it doesn't burn as easily as say, olive oil or butter. You can bake with it and use about a third less oil that canola or vegetable because it expands when it is heated. (So if I'm making brownies and it calls for 2/3C vegetable oil, I can get by with 1/2C of grapeseed oil.) GSO is easily digestible and a good source of Vitamin E. Best of all, grapeseed oil makes everything taste better! REALLY!! Salad dressings sing...alleluia, alleluia! LOL It has a much lighter flavor that olive oil and it really does taste great in salad dressings.

Grapeseed oil is made from grape seeds after wine production, so it's good environmentally as well. It's ideal for frying, though I've never deep-fried with it--we just don't deep fry any longer. But I use it all the time for sauteing meats and veggies. I like to toss veggies (sweet potatoes, red potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, green beans, squash, etc.) with a few tablespoons of GSO, salt & pepper, sometimes a little red onion and then spread them out in a shallow baking dish & roast at 425 for 20-30 minutes. Delicious!! Also great to brush on meats before grilling--it locks in the juices as well as adding great flavor.

Wildtree offers the highest quality grapeseed oil on the market today. Our GSO is expeller pressed rather than solvent extracted and we test to be sure that no pesticides or chemicals are found in our seeds. We also offer many infused grapeseed oils, such as roasted garlic, basil pesto, butter (tastes just like the butter flavoring used in theaters and actually makes great popcorn!), jalapeno (love it with quesadillas!), hickory smoke (no nitrates here) and zesty lemon (great with veggies and fish or chicken). These infused oils allow you to flavor your food without adding sodium.

Grapeseed oil is the only oil I use now and I feel very fortunate to have come across it. If you'd like more information on grapeseed oil, recipes or to purchase some from me, visit my Wildtree website.

My first Blog

I've wanted to do this for a long time...and here it is!! A little about me...I love food, good food. I love cooking and baking. I adore all breads in general and muffins in particular. Not the best for me, so I don't make them often. Ah, but when I do...

Last night I had a jewelry party and after much deliberation on what to serve, I settled on a whole wheat flatbread pizza with basil pesto (using grapeseed oil instead of olive), sauteed mushrooms and halved organic cherry tomatoes with crumbled feta & shaved parmesan cheeses. Everyone loved it, and it was very good if I do say so myself. I also made chocolate mousse served over an oreo cookie crust with dark chocolate shavings on top. Yum! Veggies with dill dip rounded out the menu.

Things I don't like about our culture: low-fat everything, huge serving sizes & sugar substitutes. My motto is eat the real thing in moderation. I like desserts (like the chocolate mousse) that are low-sugar. I think that in America we over-sweeten things in general. I have also found that when foods are low in fat, they often have even less healthful things in them that our bodies don't recognize. Our bodies were designed to process fat, not so much the 'other.' I like to read labels and if I don't recognize the ingredients, then I feel that my body probably won't either.

I try to stay away from processed foods, preferring to make my own. Wildtree has made that much easier for me and has saved me much time in the kitchen. I love to keep fresh fruits & veggies handy for snacks, as well as string cheese & yogurt (with no HFCS).

My hopes for this blog is to share information with readers, as well as recipes & links. Love to hear back from readers. I'm always looking for new recipes & healthful eating tips.

Blessings,
Stacy