Oh, boy. This is a topic that can really cause some problems. I have asked people the following question, "Do you cook?" and most of them will say, "Yes." Yeah, right. What they really mean is they know how to warm up something that somebody else already cooked and packaged for them. When I ask them specific questions that a person that cooks would know, most of the time, they do not know the answer. Some of the questions I have asked are:

• How long one should boil an egg if they were to make egg salad for a sandwich?
• What temperature should meat be cooked to assure that bacteria will be killed?
• Do you know how to make macaroni and cheese if it doesn't come out of a box?
• Can you make chicken soup if it doesn't come out of a Campbell's can or have Ramen noodles in it?

This is not about what people don't know, but about if they knew certain things, their health and their families health would be better. First, let's agree that health can be affected by what we eat. It can be affected both negatively and positively. Negatively by eating too much sugar, fats and additives such as excitotoxins and man-made sugars. Positively by eating unprocessed foods that you body can use to sustain good health. Next, let's suppose we don't have to take any special courses in food nutrition to achieve a healthy diet. Finally, I need you to believe that cooking your own meals is not difficult and, in fact, it is fun.

The number one reason each of us need to learn to prepare our food is so we can eliminate all the preservatives, flavor enhancers, binding chemicals, sugars, fake sugars, dyes and etc., found in the processed food you are eating today. We are going go take a simple but satisfying meal, chicken soup, and first look at the ingredients in the soup available to us by food producers and then we'll look at the preparation of a homemade - and I mean a "homemade" - chicken soup.

Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup up close and personal

Let's take a look at Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup for a starter. The ingredients are taken from their own website:

INGREDIENTS

CHICKEN STOCK, COOKED ENRICHED EGG NOODLES WITH ADDED CALCIUM (WHEAT FLOUR, CALCIUM CARBONATE*, EGGS, EGG WHITES, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, COOKED CHICKEN MEAT, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF: SALT, VEGETABLE OIL, POTATO STARCH, CHICKEN FAT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, DEHYDRATED COOKED CHICKEN, ONION POWDER, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, YEAST EXTRACT, SPICE EXTRACT, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATES, CHICKEN FLAVOR (CONTAINS CHICKEN STOCK, CHICKEN POWDER, CHICKEN FAT), DEHYDRATED GARLIC, BETA CAROTENE. *IN EXCESS OF STANDARD

What a witches brew of excitotoxins, chemicals, and things none of us would even think of eating if they were offered to us on a plate. I'm going to list each item separately and explain what it is, what it is used for, and what it does to us when we eat it. If you are not interested in the technical part of this essay, feel free to skip it and go to the more interesting part, the how to make your own soup from scratch part. That was an attempt at a little humor. Come on, give me a little smile.

First Item

The very first item in the ingredient is "chicken stock". We make chicken stock by boiling a chicken. Sadly, chicken stock from a food processor can include a lot of other things added to it and still simply be called "chicken stock", giving you the impression it is simply a broth. It's not. A list of the ingredients in Campbell's chicken stock is

INGREDIENTS

CHICKEN STOCK, SALT, DEXTROSE, YEAST EXTRACT, FLAVORING, CHICKEN FLAVOR, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FAT, CHICKEN BROTH POWDER, SOY LECITHIN.

Notice, the yeast extract, flavoring, chicken flavor, chicken broth powder and the autolyzed yeast extract listed. Each one of these items are an excitotoxin.

Second Item

Cooked enriched egg noodles The ingredient list for the noodles is a common list for manufactured noodles. Calcium carbonate is used as a filler, Folic Acid and thiamine mononitrate are part of the vitamin B complex and the rest of the chemical sounding ingredients are simply to fortify the noodle. Actually healthy and safe.

Third and Fourth Items

Water and cooked chicken meat. Probably as it is written and OK.

Now the items in the less than 2% list

Salt, vegetable oil, potato starch and chicken fat are OK items.

Things That Should Cause Us Concern

Monosodium Glutamate, MSG, is the mother of all the other excitotoxins that are causing us problems. It all started with MSG and is getting worse. Also, from the list, add yeast extract, spice extract, soy protein isolate (means hydrolyzed soy protein) chicken flavor (the chicken stock has already been covered and the chicken powder is a bullion type powder laden with excitotoxins in a concentrated form).

You get all of this in one small 10.75 oz can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.

It's no wonder that people are getting fatter and suffering with headaches. Can you imagine the damage you are doing to a loved one if you serve this concoction to them when they have the flu or a cold thinking that chicken soup is the cure all when we suffer with these maladies?

OK, now let us make our own chicken soup from scratch. We are going to make enough stock for many bowls of soup, so the initial preparation needs to be done only once in a while and the rest of the time, it is a simple warming up.

You are going to need a decent sized pot. I use a stock pot which can be bought just about anywhere, including a grocery store, that will hold a 3-4 lb chicken with room to spare. You can go to the internet and find all sorts of recipes and follow them if you care to, but I am going to tell you how I do it.

After washing the chicken inside and out, I put it into the pot and cover it with water liberally. I quarter a couple of onions and add pepper. I use a lot of pepper, but you can add as you wish. By the way, pepper is a very well kept secret by chefs as a super spice. A lot of people think it makes things hot, but what it really does is add sparkle to things you use it on. I boil the chicken for a couple of hours, skimming some of the guck that comes to the surface. When the chicken is cooked enough so it is falling off the bone, you have just made your first chicken stock and forever ever can quit using excitotoxin laden store bought stuff.

Sass and I have a couple of ice trays we have measured. We fill them with stock and freeze them. Seven cubes in our tray make a cup so when we make a soup in the future, we simply pull out seven cubes per cup we need and add them to our soup pot. Easy-sneezy. Now remove all the meat from the chicken carcass and bones, putting them in freezer bags by portion size. About a handful for each two bowls of soup.

Now to make our soup

The amount of ingredients are determined by the amount of soup you are making. Normally, for every cup of stock you should add a cup of water, so let that be your guide. Of course the less diluted it is, the more concentrated the soup is, of course.Now boil some egg noodles, or the noodles you find in the Ramen noodle packet (discarding the flavor packet as it is poison) or some other favorite noodle of yours. Add the stock and the noodles as well as some of the chicken meat you got from the chicken, steep until it starts a slow boil and your soup is done. Spicing you may use is pepper, celery salt, tarragon and others. It is fun to experiment, so have fun. Also, some people like to cut up some celery or carrots, etc. to add to the brew.

The important thing is that it was easy and excitotoxin free. Little time was expended, even while the chicken was boiling. It's not like you have to stand there with a ladle in your hand cooking it. Just check it once in a while to make sure it is boiling at a comfortable level. Tearing the chicken apart can take up to 30 minutes, but only once and there are many easy bowls of soup afterwards that comes for that effort. Ok, it's not as easy as opening a can and dumping it into a pot and serving it 5 minutes later. But a little time invested will increase your health as well as your families health a hundred fold.

Salad

Take a half a head of lettuce and chop it up. Add a couple of raw tomatoes you have diced into larger pieces. Peel a cucumber, slice and dice it. Dice about a hand full of onion. Put all of this in a larger salad bowl. Add a couple of good scoops of mayonnaise and some pepper, mix it thoroughly and you have just created an excitotoxin free salad that is scrumptious.

Pork Steak

Is there anything easier than frying a couple of pork steak or pork chops? If peeling potatoes is too time consuming, buy the small red skins potatoes, scrub them with a brush, and boil them with the skin on. Add some frozen vegetables and you have created a meal fit for a king in 30 minutes or less.

Another way is to take a casserole dish, layer uncooked rice, pork steak/chop, uncooked rice, pork steak/chop, and more rice. Bake for 45 minutes and you have a great meal. You can add a vegetable and bread/butter to round it out.

Smoothie

Do you have a blender? Add orange slices, quartered, some strawberries, quartered, and a banana cut into one inch slices with a cup or less of milk. Turn on for 20 seconds and you have just created a great smoothie that is flavorful, sweet, with no additives and easy.

It's Your Turn

Now I want you to try it. Make a meal that is made from fresh vegetables, fresh meat, fresh fruit. Time yourself and come to our forum and let us know how it went and how clever you felt. Please share with us at MisFiT City Forum's topic called "Easy excitotoxin free meals we can make".

Keep up the good fight!!