Nurses, soup, gift basket and slaw!

Steve is doing great in his recovery.  Therapy has started and he has the most wonderful nurse named Grace that cares for him 24 hours a day.  She never leaves his side.  Hopefully by next week, life will be getting back to normal.
 

She doesn't like the camera.  Can you tell? 

Last week was Kati's birthday.  She turned 18!  One of my best friends sent her this really cool gluten free gift basket.  I thought this was the greatest thing to send!  It had some products in it that we have not tried yet.  Today, she took some of it in her lunch in her new bento box I got her.

I finally made chicken buffalo soup tonight.  I thought I better post a picture of it.  This is a soup fit for a man with it's cheesy base and hot sauce.   It comes together very quickly too.  I did not have a deli chicken so I used some chicken tenders.  The recipe doesn't call for it but I had to float some fresh parsley in it.  Try it, it's really good!

I also made some slaw to go with it.  I love slaw.  Not the commercial, pre-made deli slaw or the kind restaurants serve.  Yuk.  I love home made slaw.  There are so many ways to make it.  It's endless.
I love red cabbage.  Ever since I bought some several weeks ago for the fajitas, I have been craving red cabbage.  Maybe it's the dreary weather.  I need to eat bright colorful things when it's gloomy out. 

I think this is my favorite recipe for slaw.  It happened quite by accident tonight.  I had a small red cabbage in the fridge and I was wanting to make a salad to go with the soup.  So I came up with this.  I did not measure anything since I was just experimenting but this is one of those recipes you don't have to be exact on.
I have written the recipe with exactly what I put in it.  

I used an individual serving cup of mandarin oranges.  I'm sure you've seen them in the grocery in a 4 pack.  I only had one.  We ate the others!  It wasn't enough so I added some fresh orange.  I cut the peel off in order to get  all the bitter white part off.  If you are making this recipe you could use 2 oranges instead or 2 individual cups of manderine oranges.  Or, make it just like I did!  

Also, make sure you have fresh cilantro for this.  It just wouldn't be the same with dried.
I know I keep pushing fresh herbs on everyone, but really they are so much better than dried.  Every week I always try to buy both parsley and cilantro.  I clean them and put them in a ziplock bag with a paper towel.  They will last all week.  They are cheap too! 

Orange Walnut Slaw 

One half small red cabbage, chopped 

1 individual serving cup of mandarine oranges, chopped 

1 fresh orange, with peel cup off and chopped 

1 large fist full of walnuts, chopped fairly fine  (approximatly 1/2 cup) 

2 tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro 

1 drizzle of Trader Joes' Orange Muscat Champagne vinegar 

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!
Hopefully, I will have menu's up for next week and maybe even a new recipe over the weekend.  So check back!