A Snip of Taste

When you take the time to cook for your family, you want your efforts to be rewarded with a fresh, tasty, and healthy meal.  An easy way to brighten up any dish is to snip an herb or two into the skillet.

Herbs added to your meal add up to more than a great-smelling kitchen and great-tasting food:  Great nutrition also bursts from every leaf.  Common herbs such as basil, oregano, and thyme contain a bunch of vitamins (such as A, C, E, K, and B-Complex), minerals (such as potassium, manganese, and iron), antioxidants, essential oils, and fiber.  And they add practically no calories.

We grow basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, mint, and lemon balm in big pots on our back deck. Besides providing a cool, aromatic playground for our cats, they are just an arm’s reach from our kitchen door.  Snip! Snip! Toss a few basil and oregano leaves into the salad.  Snip!  Snip!  Rub rosemary and thyme onto a roast.  Snip! Snip!  Brew refreshing mint into iced tea.  Snip! Snip! Steam leaves of lemon balm with your cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts & kale).  And, a home-cooked stew containing herbs blends easily for feeding through a g-tube, and is much tastier than a can of formula.

“So what?” you scoff, “you can’t taste anything when you have a g-tube.”  Oh, really?  After feeding Kyra with a g-tube for twelve years, I am convinced that she indeed tastes her meals.  I renewed this belief recently when another daughter, who went to the emergency room for an extremely painful medical event, told me that she could “taste” the saline and pain medicine dripping through the IV and into her arm.  (Yuck!) If you can taste fluids being pumped into you as you struggle to hang onto consciousness, I’m betting that you can taste lovingly prepared g-tube meals, too.  So tell me, what do you want your family, including that precious g-tube tummy, to taste?

Here’s a “2-speed” recipe that calls for my favorite herbs.  (“2-speed” recipes can be tossed into your slow cooker in the morning so everyone’s taste buds water when they walk in your door for dinner, or stir-fried in a hurry for a hungry crowd.)

2-Speed Herbed Chicken

Chop all ingredients into bite-sized pieces. Then toss into your slow-cooker or skillet, whichever speed works for you today! Don’t worry if you don’t have all the veggies listed below: Use whatever you have in your garden or your fridge. (You DO have fresh veggies in your home, right?) 

·         About 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts and/or thighs.

·         4 tomatoes (or a can of diced tomatoes).

·         1 zucchini or summer squash (if it’s small enough, don’t bother to peel it.  The skin will cook up tender enough to eat & to blend).

·         1 onion.

·         1 avocado (an avocado should be slightly soft when you buy it).

·         1 bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow if at all possible).

·         1/2 package mushrooms (about 1 cup or so).

·         1 - 2 Tablespoons basil.

·         1 - 2 teaspoons oregano.

·         ½ - 1 teaspoon thyme.

·         Salt & pepper to taste.

·         Chicken broth to “soup” it up, if you like.

Serve topped with mozzarella or parmesan cheese, or a dollop of plain yogurt or humus, with raw broccoli and cauliflower florets on the side (steam them a bit before blending for a g-tube meal).  Yummy for everybody’s tummy!