Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup

Don't faint, but I did take a picture of this one. I made myself wait to consume it until I had a picture, just for you. This soup is creamy and hearty delicious and full of immune-boosting garlic - perfect for the "cold" season!

Take 3 whole heads of garlic and chop the top third off of each one. Wrap each head of garlic in aluminum foil and put in a 350 oven for 50-60 minutes. Remove and let cool, then squeeze all the pulp out of each garlic into a bowl. Mash with a fork and set aside.

As for the soup itself, start with cooking some bacon in the bottom of a large pot. I used 4 slices of center-cut bacon, which is comparatively lean. Once the bacon is cooked, remove and add to the hot bacon grease 4 carrots and 2 ribs of celery, finely diced. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add 2 cloves of minced garlic and oh, probably about 3 pounds of red potatoes, diced into small pieces. Cover with chicken broth and water, until the potatoes are barely covered with liquid. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Once the veggies are tender, take about 2 cups of the mixture and add to the roasted garlic; mash with potato masher and return to pot. Stir it all together, and crumble the reserved bacon into the soup. Serve right away or let it sit on low, stirring occasionally, until ready to serve.


Enjoy!

Chicken Butternut Stew

I don't have a picture of this one, sorry. I guess we gobbled it up too fast! But it's super easy and very tasty, and I really think you should try it!

I started with some bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, covered them in water, and poached them for about 30 minutes on each side, shredding the meat after they were cooked and cooled, and reserving the broth for the stew. Of course, you could use any cooked, shredded chicken that is easiest for you, and store-bought chicken broth if that floats your boat! This way is simply more economical for our family (and a bit tastier, too!)

Chop an onion and saute in olive oil. Add 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed, and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes. Add some minced garlic to cook for about a minute, then cover with chicken broth and one can of diced tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, and any Italian herbs you have on hand, and let it cook until the squash is tender (at least 20 minutes - but with the freedom to leave it on the stove much longer if that fits your schedule better.) Stir in one cup of quinoa and cook for an additional 30 minutes, until the stew thickens and the quinoa is tender.

Oh how I wish i could show you a picture! But I hope you enjoy anyway!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Why is this soup so stinking good? I have no idea. But it is. It earned a "10" from everyone in my house, both for supper and for lunch the next day.

I started with a package of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts that I got on sale for $0.99/lb. It had 2 large split chicken breasts in it, which I put in a pot, just barely covered with salted water, and simmered on the stove for about 45 minutes on each side. BOOM - homemade chicken broth.

In a large pot, saute one large sweet onion (none other than Vidalia, of course), and one red bell pepper, both chopped into small pieces. When they are tender, add 1 bag of frozen corn kernels, 1 can pinto beans (drained and rinsed), one small can of green chiles, one large can of crushed tomatoes, and the liquid that the cooked chicken is sitting in. Put the chicken itself aside until it's cool enough to handle, then pull the skin off and shred the meat. Add the meat, along with some chili powder and cumin, back to the soup, and let simmer until ready to eat. This was more of a stew texture, which we really like, but you could add more water or broth to thin it out if you prefer a more soupy soup.

As for the tortilla part of the chicken tortilla soup, we didn't actually get that far. The original idea was to serve with crushed tortillas on the top, but the chips didn't make our grocery budget this week, so we ate it with saltines that we already had.

We didn't really miss the tortillas.


Enjoy!

Portugese Style Stew

With the onset of fall, stews and soups, filled with rich, deep colors and flavors, are calling my name. Here is something that my mother in law originally introduced me to, though she makes hers with collards rather than kale, and this version has a few additions.

In a skillet, brown one chopped onion and one pound of sliced sausage. I used smoked turkey sausage because that's what was on sale, but a spicier sausage would be even better. Add the browned sausage and onions to a crock pot, along with one can diced tomatoes, one can drained chickpeas, lots of chopped red-skinned potatoes, and a whole bunch of kale, stemmed and torn. Yes, it will look like the crock pot is going to leak kale, but trust me, it will wilt down considerably. Bring it all together with four cups of homemade or store-bought chicken broth, season with salt and pepper, and set on low for 8 hours.

Later that day...


Mmmm. Enjoy!

Vegetable Soup Remix

Let me set the scene for you.

We have a garden. It is...small. But it is ours, and we love it. We get tons of tomatoes from our garden. But our squash plants are not very productive (yet...I'm an eternal optimist). So sitting on my kitchen counter I had 1 little butternut squash and 1 lonely yellow squash.

Yesterday I went to church with the normal suspects in my purse, and thanks to my sweet friend Lauren, I came home with a purse full of okra and these cute little orange peppers.

Okra? I've never cooked okra in my life. And now my purse was full of it.

Add all that to the half-bag of baby carrots that really needed to be eaten, sitting in my fridge, and the bundle of kale that I got on sale at the market, and what do you get?

Vegetable Soup Remix.

And I'll be honest, it was awesome. And just what this little baby inside of me was craving.

I heated some olive oil in a pot and added the veggies as I chopped. Sliced carrots, then chopped butternut and yellow squash, sliced okra, chopped peppers, minced garlic. Then I double-checked in my freezer and lo and behold, there was a bag of frozen green beans only about a third of the way full. Let's throw those in too. Top that with some course ground salt and pepper, chili powder, can of diced tomatoes, and frozen homemade chicken stock; chop or tear kale into pieces and add to the pot; throw in a can of drained chickpeas; bring to a boil, and simmer while you go running with the Coach and the Little...and you come home to a glorious feast of randomness that makes you want seconds.

And thirds.


Enjoy!

Chicken Brunswick Stew

I'm BACK!!!!

It has been entirely too long since I have put recipes up consistently...but there is a reason...a very good one...a very tiny one who is growing inside of me as we speak! Yes, we are having another Little in about 6 months! And the first trimester has not been my friend! But thankfully I am coming out of it...food tastes good again...and that means I'm back in the kitchen!!!

Needless to say, I have no idea where this blog is going in the next few months. Wherever the cravings take me, I suppose. And tonight it is...Brunswick stew!

Start with a lot of cooked, shredded chicken. You could boil a whole chicken, or as I did, several split chicken breasts (which go on sale every few weeks down to 98 cents per pound...maybe even lower in other places!) However you go about it, cook and finely shred your chicken, and in a large pot add to the chicken...

1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can creamed corn
1 cup frozen baby lima beans
1 cup frozen green peas
1 cup bbq sauce
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon hot sauce
Salt, pepper, and celery salt to taste

Add enough chicken broth (you can use the water that the chicken cooked in as well) to make the stew as thick or thin as you want it. I probably added a little less than 2 cups. Simmer for at least 30 minutes, or as long as you want (Just don't forget to stir every once in a while!)

So good. It was Little's first Brunswick stew experience, and she ate two bowls.


Enjoy!

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Well, the stomach bug hit our house last weekend...so needless to say, there was not much cooking going on around here for a few days. But after two full days of eating nothing, I decided it was time to turn the stove on again...and what better for recovering tummies than chicken soup?

Now, there are several ways to go about making chicken soup, some of which take hours. But since I usually stockpile my cooked, shredded chicken and homemade chicken stock, this recipe was a breeze.

Start with 4 to 6 carrots and 2 or 3 ribs of celery, chopped into bite-size pieces.


Cover them with about 6 cups of chicken stock and cook until tender.

Add roughly 2 cups shredded chicken and enough water to give you the amount of soup you need to feed your brood (I added probably 3 or 4 cups of water). Bring to a boil; taste the broth to see if you need to add salt and pepper. Then pour in whole wheat egg noodles (I used 1/2 of a 12oz bag) and continue cooking until the noodles are tender.


Easy as pie. But tastes like chicken.


Enjoy!

Chickpea and Rice Stew

Adapted from www.eatingwell.com

This stew is so delicious and filling, even without meat. It was one of my favorite meals of the week.

Start by thinly slicing two onions. Slowly brown them over medium-low to medium heat for 20 minutes. Add about two teaspoons each of ground cumin and coriander. Then add 1 cup of orange juice, 2 cups of chicken broth, 2/3 cup brown basmati rice, 2 cans chickpeas (drained and rinsed), and about 3 cups of peeled and diced sweet potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste; bring the stew to a boil and then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 45 minutes - 1 hour. Add more liquid if you want a thinner consistency.

Simple and oh-so-good. Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Chili

I went to the grocery store the other day and found ground chicken breast for 2.98 a pack. That's the best price I've seen on white meat ground chicken, so I grabbed four of them before I left. When my price rang up at the register, I thought, "My, that's a little more than I expected to spend!" I should really have more faith in my internal calculator because when I got home I looked at my receipt and sure enough, they had charged me 5.00 for each pack! Note: ALWAYS check your prices as they ring up or check your receipt before you leave the store. So I made the trek back the next day to get my 8.00 back.

All that to say, I have a lot of ground chicken in my fridge now. So I either need to use it or freeze it. Tonight I decided to make buffalo chicken chili.

First I browned the chicken in a soup pot. Then I finely chopped and sauteed one onion and two carrots along with the meat. (Coach looked at me really funny when I asked him to get two carrots out of the fridge and peel them for the chili. I've never put carrots in chili before. But I had an instinct to put them in this, and I'm glad I did. So is Coach.)


After the veggies were tender, I added three tablespoons of tomato paste and stirred it around for a minute. Then I put in one can of original Rotel tomatoes, two cans of light red kidney beans, and probably around 2 to 3 cups of beef broth (depending on how thick or thin you want it). That's also kind of weird, I know...adding beef broth to a chicken dish. But what can I say? I thought it would be better than chicken broth. And it was. Finally, add two teaspoons of cumin, a palmful of chili powder, salt to taste, and, to make the buffalo in the chicken chili, hot sauce. How much? I don't know. I shook the bottle ten times over the pot. So, whatever equals 10 shakes, or thereabout.

Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for at least an hour.


Enjoy!

Vegetable Super Soup

Why so super?
1. It's super easy.
2. It's the only thing I want when I'm sick. Which I am today. So I ate vegetable soup.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. Finely chop 1 onion and drop it in to saute while you chop the other veggies...
4 carrots
2-3 zucchini
1 red bell pepper
4 cloves garlic

Drop all the veggies in as you chop them. Add to the pot...
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 32oz box chicken broth
Salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Let it simmer for an hour or two. Fifteen minutes before serving, drop about 3/4 cup of orzo (little rice-shaped pasta) into the pot. You may need to add a little water at this point. I found whole wheat orzo at Food Lion, but I've never seen it anywhere else. That sentence may have been out of order. Oh well.

Soup is so good.


Enjoy!

Chicken and White Bean Chili

Do you like chili? I looooooove chili. I love it on cold nights and during college football games and on evenings in with the Coach. This is a different twist on the classic.

To thicken the chili, I start by melting 1 Tablespoon of butter over medium heat. To the melted butter add 2 tablespoons of flour; stir it around for about a minute and then slowly pour in 1 box (or 2 cans) of chicken broth.

The "pour it in slowly" part is really hard for me. I know that the more slowly I pour it in, the thicker it will be. And I start off well. I pour a teeny bit, stir it around, and experience the delight of actually seeing it thicken right before my eyes. I pour a little more in...and then realize that at this rate I will still be pouring it in when it's time to eat. So then I just dump it. Oh well.

Next add the main ingredients...
2 cans of white beans (I used 1 can northern beans and 1 can cannelini beans)
2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped or shredded
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
1 cup of salsa (I used a mixture of medium and mild. Because that's what was in the fridge. Next time I think I will use all medium.)
1 cup of shredded cheese (I used mozzarella. Again, because that's what was in the fridge. But I bet cheddar would be really good.)
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon chili powder

And let it simmer for 20 or 30 minutes. Or in my case, a couple of hours, because this is one I can make during Little Bit's nap. Scoop it into a bowl, add some crushed tortilla chips on top...


And then eat it. Eat it all. Enjoy!

Sausage and Lentil Stew

Adapted from Taste of Home, Best Light Recipes

Since there is about half an inch of snow covering at least 38% of the yard outside my window, I think that we are officially snowed in. And of course, on nights when you are snowed in, you must eat stew.

In the bottom (as if you could do this in any other part, like the top or the sides) of a large saucepan, saute...

1 onion, chopped into small pieces
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Turkey sausage, previously cooked and sliced into little lovable chunks
**Tonight I used 3 links of Italian turkey sausage. I boiled them for about 7 minutes, then sliced them and browned them in the bottom of the pot. In previous versions I have also used fully cooked turkey kielbasa, which seems to hold up just a little better to cooking.

When the veggies are tender enough for you and the sausage is brown enough for you, add to the pot...

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
3 cups water
1 cup dry lentils (Did you know that lentils are known as the powerhouse of legumes? I wish I was known as the powerhouse of legumes.)
3 small red potatoes, unpeeled and diced
Spices to your liking...I used close to a tsp of cumin, a few shakes of chili powder, a pinch of red pepper flake, and a bit of salt. Remember to be very accurate on these measurements.

Bring to a boil; cover and simmer for as long as you like. I left mine on for over three hours. Because I like my stew very simmered. I also like to cook supper during Little Bit's nap, which usually takes place around 1:00 in the afternoon, leaving a good long while for the stew to simmer.

The result? A hot bowl of love. I mean, lentil stew.


Mmmmm. Enjoy.