Slow Cooker Monday, this week in FAIL

Cream of Leek and Potato soup

I wanted to make something that could be made for meatless Monday or could be made Vegan.

I decided to make Julia Child’s recipe.

I made a few small changes. Instead of water I used homemade veggie stock, I used little potatoes instead of large russets and I did not peel them & I used half & half instead of heavy cream and sour cream.

• I cooked the soup in my slow cooker on High for 5 hours
• I used my immersion blender to make the soup creamy
• The soup was perfectly creamy without the milk products added to it. *Stop here for Vegan*
  
• I added the half & half to the soup and allowed it to cook on low for 1 more hour.

The soup was not entirely successful. Two of us liked it, two of us hated it so much that we only ate salad for dinner.

Hopefully Allie has a more than 50% successful post for us today.

Please join Allie and me by linking up your new or previously posted slow cooker adventures!

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• Last Chance Winter Soup (blendedgoodness.wordpress.com)
• Southwestern Red Bean Vegetable Soup (challengeu2cook.wordpress.com)

This week in FAIL….fishy edition

This has been my view since Thursday....mostly

I had one heck of a week last week. 3 visits to the doctor’s office, an x-ray, an MRI and a shot.

One doctor’s office visit was for my daughter, who stayed home most of the week with a sinus infection.The other 2 doctor’s office visits, the x-ray, the MRI and the shot were mine.

My knee has bothered me for about a year and a half. I had x-rays taken when it started hurting. The doctor said….bone spur in my knee. We began cortisone injections. I got very little relief from the shots. About 3 months ago the pain got worse. I did my best to ignore the pain, because I did not want to have surgery on my knee. However, the pain got so bad that it was affecting everything. I was sleeping more, grumpy and almost weepy at times.

Stupid? Yes.

I decided to make an appointment with an Orthopedic doctor. I had x-rays taken, yes I have a bone spur, but that is not the issue. I have OsteoArthritis in my left knee. After the x-ray I was scheduled for an MRI, to check for a Meniscus Tear. 45 minutes in an MRI gives you time to think or day-dream. I day-dreamed about new kitchen gadgets and new dishes….I’m a foodie through and through.

After the MRI.

I had to wait until Thursday for my results. Thankfully, there is no tear. Since there is no Meniscus tear, no surgery is needed at this time. I was given a shot. Synvisc-One. Right now, my knee hurts more than it did before the shot, which is so frustrating but it is feeling a little better each day.

I would really just like to be pain free. Is that too much to ask?!?!?!?!?

What does that have to do with a FAIL?

While at the doctor’s office this week, I watched a lot of Accent Health (by CNN) TV. On Accent Health I saw a recipe for Cioppino, which sounded interesting. I needed to make a few changes, because my people do not eat scallops and only 2 of us eat shrimp.

I used flounder and tilapia. I omitted the wine, because of the kids and used veggie stock instead.. The soup smelled lovely.

cooking away

Unfortunately, we did not love it. Three of us did not even like it.

Served with bread

It was too fishy or something. The fish overpowered the entire soup, and not in a good way.

We are calling this a FAIL.

Because of my knee, I may not post much this week.

Have you had any FAILS lately?

Slow Cookin’ Monday

One of the fun things about cooking is experimenting.

The more comfortable you get in your kitchen, and with your kitchen tools, the more likely you are to get really creative.

I’m fairly comfortable with my slow cooker.  So, I mess about sometimes.

My, what large gnocchi you have.

On December 1st I cooked another turkey.  We’re “tentatively” calling it December Firsties. *it’s similar to Thanksgiving, but on December 1st* 

So, I’ve got left-over turkey (again).

I started out thinking White bean Turkey Chili.  I ended up with something more like a goulash.

Soup-ish stew-ey goulash....also known as kitchen sink soup-ey stew-ish something.....

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of pre-soaked Navy beans
• 6 cups of turkey stock
• 2 cups of shredded turkey meat
• 1 can of green chillies
• 2 TBSP garlic
• 1 cup of diced onion
• 2 cups of shredded carrots
• 2 TBSP cumin
• 2 TBSP dried (or freshly chopped) oregano
• 3 tsp black pepper
• 1 pinch of red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp of tarragon
• 1 can (or package of frozen) corn
• 1 package of potato gnocchi

What to do:

• Place the pre-soaked beans into your slow cooker.
• Add the turkey stock
• Add the remaining ingredients (except the carrots, corn and gnocchi)
• Cook on high for 4 hours.
• Add the carrots and corn, cook for 2 more hours
• reduce the heat to the low setting and add the gnocchi, cook on low for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Serve with corn bread, biscuits, or crusty bread.

Make sure to pop on over to Allie’s Blog and check out her slow cooker meal.

If you’ve got a recipe to share, please link up with us!  Follow the link below to add your post to our slow cooker link-up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all my wonderful friends have a great Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for every one of you.

Thank you for being you!

I’m off celebrating the holiday with my family.

If you’ve made a turkey, don’t forget to make turkey stock with it after you remove all the meat from the bird.

Place the bird and any left over raw veggies into a stock pot or your slow cooker and cover it with water.

In the stock pot, simmer for 2-3 hours or in the slow cooker, let it simmer over night on low.

Discard the bones and veggies, separate the stock into 2-4 cup servings and freeze for future soups and sauces.

I will be using some of my stock to make turkey and lentil soup on Friday.

XOXO. Have a wonderful day! I’ll be gone Friday. It’s a family day.

I’ll be back on Monday.

Turkey and Gnocchi Soup

One of the great things about Thanksgiving, besides the family time is left-overs….turkey to be specific.

What do you do with all that left-over turkey once you’ve eaten a few of the pre-requisite turkey and stuffing sandwiches?

I love using the left-over turkey to create new twists on recipes.

Olive Garden has this amazing soup. Chicken & Gnocchi soup. It’s so tasty.

I’ve copy-catted, or is it copy-katted?, it.

It’s not exact, but it is very similar. You can make this with chicken or turkey.

Here’s what you’ll need to make this creamy, dreamy soup.

• 2 cups turkey or chicken, cooked and diced

I used turkey cutlets in the soup since I’ve not cooked my turkey yet.

• 4 cups turkey or chicken stock or broth
• 2 cups cream
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 cup carrots, finely shredded
• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 2 cups fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon freshly chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon of tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon of rosemary
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1 pound (package) of potato gnocchi
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese – for garnish.

What to do:

• I used frozen meat, so I first cooked the meat in the broth, once it was done cooking I removed it from the broth. I cooled it, then diced it.
  I sautéed the veggies in a separate pan and then added them to the Stock/soup base.

• Sauté the onion, celery, garlic, carrots in the olive oil until they begin to soften.
• Add the turkey/chicken, broth, and & spices.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add the gnocchi into the boiling broth.
• Turn down the heat and let simmer for about 8-10 minutes.
• For thicker soup add 2-3 TBSP of corn starch or masa flour to a bit of the broth and stir it into the soup.
• Add the cream and spinach.
• Slowly allow the mixture to come to a boil and then turn it off.

I serve this soup with crusty bread and a salad.

What are your go-to left over meals?

Meatless Monday….3 bean soup.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!   We’ve had a wonderful weekend here in central Texas.    The Texas State Fair opened on Friday, we’re planning to visit the fair tomorrow (Tuesday).  My children have Monday and Tuesday off this week, for the fair and a teacher in-service (6 weeks grade entering day).

On Sunday (yesterday) I decided to make 3 bean soup for Monday dinner.    I’ve got a repair man coming to fix my drippy ice maker today, so it’s won’t be a good day for cooking.

I’ve said it before, but it bares repeating…. I am not great at meal planning.  I usually have some sort of loose plan in my mind of meals to make, but I rarely plan more than 1 or 2 days in advance.  Horrible?  Yes.

Sunday morning  I decided to make bean soup, but I had not soaked my beans overnight.  OOPS!  I decided to throw caution to the wind and make soup without pre-soaking my beans.  Crazy right?

Fo Shizzle….that’s how I roll.

Monday’s meatless soup can become a meaty soup on Tuesday night, since I am going to be tired after my day at the fair.  Hopefully I will not gorge myself on fried Kool-aid, fried bubblegum and fried beer. 

This soup is wonderfully flavorful and so worth the extended time it took to cook it.  11:00 am to 4:00 pm cooking time.

*you could make this soup in the slow cooker, place everything into the slow cooker and cook on high for 6-8 hours, low for 8-10(+) hours*

Ingredient list:

• 4 cups of dried (mixed) beans.  I used a mixture of Organic Navy Beans, Organic Great Northern Beans and Organic Cranberry beans.
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 green and 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 6 cups of veggie stock
• 2 cups of water (plus more if needed) I ended up with 4 cups of water in my soup.
• 2 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons of garlic salt
• 1 package of sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon of parsley

What to do….

Place 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a cast iron pot.  Saute the onion, garlic, and peppers until soft.

Add beans, spices, stock, tomatoes and water to the pot.

Bring the mixture to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer low and slow (stirring every so often) for about 4 hours.

If you need to, add more water or stock to the pot.  I ended up adding about 2 cups of water during the cooking time.

*You could totally cook this a lot quicker if you pre-soaked the beans*

 

 

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I’m making a whole wheat cornbread to enjoy with the soup. 

Are you meatless this Monday?  What are you making?

Red Tortilla Soup with Chicken

I love soups…love them…gobble them up. Soups freeze well, they taste better on day two or day three, I love soup. If it’s a Tex-Mex soup….even better.

Tex-Mex is one of my true food loves. Maybe it’s because I’m from Texas, maybe it’s just because Tex-Mex is Awesomesauce.

If you’re in the northern part of the United States, you may not have ever had true Tex-Mex. I’ve been to Pittsburgh, and although Pittsburgh has a fabulous sandwich with cole-slaw and fries in it (Bravo!) the Tex-Mex or Mexican food isn’t wonderful. (Think pasta sauce on an enchilada…) Meh.

Anyhoo…

We went to Taco Cabana over the weekend. If you’re unfamiliar with Taco Cabana…I’m sorry. Taco Cabana is an awesome Tex-Mex food chain (better than Taco Bell or Taco Bueno, but not as good as a “True” sit down restaurant).

Their cheese enchiladas come wrapped in these beautiful, red corn tortillas. I begged and pleaded my way into the purchase of 2 dozen uncooked red tortillas, for my tortilla soup. The cashier thought I was crazy, kept telling me they’d be uncooked…hard… “Didn’t I want fresh steamed ones?” Nope… I want the non-steamed red ones please! I convinced him.

Happy Dance!

I’ve never seen red corn tortillas anywhere else, although when I searched online Walmart claims to sell them. I have never seen them at Walmart though.

They are not necessary to make tortilla soup, but they sure are beautiful.

An adapted Pioneer Woman recipe via her post on Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients

• Cooked chicken diced or shredded (about 2-3 cups) *omit for Vegetarian soup*
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 2 teaspoons Garlic Salt
• 1 cup Diced Onion
• 1/2 cup Diced Green Bell Pepper
• 1/2 cup Diced Red Bell Pepper
• 1/2 cup Diced Yellow Pepper
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 can of yellow corn or fresh corn (1 & 1/2 cups)
• 1-2 cups of white or brown rice (uncooked)
• 1 can (10 Oz. Can) Rotel Tomatoes And Green Chilies (or 1 can of diced tomatoes and 1 can of green chilies)
• 4 cups Chicken Stock or Veggie Stock for Vegetarian soup
• 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• 4 cups Water
• 4 cups Black or Pinto Beans (frozen, canned or freshly cooked)
• 3 Tablespoons Cornmeal Or Masa*
• 5-8 whole Corn Tortillas, sliced into strips

Heat olive oil in a pot over medium high heat. Add onions, peppers, and minced garlic. Stir and begin cooking, then add the spices. Stir to combine, then add the chicken and stir.

Add the Rotel (tomatoes and green chilies), chicken stock, rice, corn, tomato paste, water, and beans to the soup pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered.

*Mix cornmeal with a small amount of water, it will make a paste. Add the corn meal paste into the soup, then simmer for an additional 30 minutes. This will thicken the soup.

Turn off heat and allow the soup to rest for 20 minutes before serving.

Five minutes before serving, gently stir in tortilla strips.

I fried half of the strips to make a crunchy topping.

Place the soup in mugs or bowls and serve with

• cheese
• crisp tortilla strips
• avocado
• salsa
• hot sauce
• sour cream

or anything you like to top your soup with.

Enjoy!

Freezer cooking on a small scale…

When I say freezer cooking…you say? Eek! No way! You’re a crazy lady! Okay, maybe not, but I’m sure you’re not giddy. Freezer cooking to some sounds like a whole day, 30 meal affair. It does not have to be…..

Don’t be scared, it’s not so bad. Freezer cooking does not have to take up your whole Saturday.

Fresh is best, but life happens……

If you know me, you know that I’m a stock up kind of girl. Ive got food for more than a month….if need be. My cupboards are full to overflowing, my pantries are stocked and my freezers are pretty full. Mostly due to thrifty coupon shopping, canning, and freezer cooking.

Need a dinner or two because you’re sick or recovering from surgery? I’m your girl. Dinner party on short notice, no biggie. I’m your girl.

Recession, depression, food shortage situation, Zombie apocalypse (as long as I’m not on the menu) I’m your girl.

Piggy flu...starts with you! No licking pigs!

I have tween/teens to take care of, and we really like to eat. The teen REALLY likes to eat, it’s shocking, but that’s for another post.

Traditional full month freezer cooking won’t work for me. I don’t have the space, and the idea of spending an entire day cooking makes my eye twitch.

I do like the idea of having a few items pre-cooked and ready to toss into dishes or into the microwave. So, I’d like to introduce you to a mini freezer cooking day.

I try to keep a few pounds of pre-cooked and frozen meat in my freezer. With it I can make a quick dinner on a busy night.

Easy Spaghetti night. Place a pot of hot salted water (for the pasta) on the stove and begin to boil it. Put a pot with pasta sauce on the stove at a medium heat, cover with lid. Take 1 lb. of pre-cooked frozen ground turkey or beef out of the freezer. Microwave on the defrost setting for about 3 min. (just long enough to make the frozen meat easy to break apart). Add pasta to boiling water. Place pre-cooked meat into the pasta sauce, sir and replace the lid, stir every few min. Once the pasta is done (mine usually takes about 8-9 min to cook), drain rinse and return to the hot-pot. At this point your meaty spaghetti sauce should be hot and bubbly. I pour the sauce over the noodles and mix it in. This meal takes me about 15(ish) min. to prepare.

Easy Crock Pot Chili.Take 1 or 2 pounds of frozen pre-cooked meat out of the freezer. Defrost long enough to be able to break the meat apart (3-4 min for me). Place meat into slow cooker. Add chili seasoning (what ever brand you prefer, or make your own *3 teaspoons chili powder, 1 teaspoon of paprika, some garlic salt and 2 teaspoon cumin should do the trick*, add canned tomatoes (undrained), frozen, dried or fresh diced onions (1 cup, less or more if you prefer) add canned Red or Pinto beans (if you want), add 1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce and 1 8 oz. can of water (or follow your chili seasoning package’s instructions.) Set on low for 8 hours and you’ll come home to hot, yummy chili.

Set aside a few hours during your week and make a few different items that you can freeze for later use. It’s a great comfort to know that if you’re sick or running late, you don’t have to rely on a take out meal. If you have a few pre-cooked frozen items on hand you can eat (healthy) homemade quick fix meals you won’t be crying over on the treadmill the next day. Goodbye Big Mac, hello homemade turkey chili.

Ground Beef, Ground Turkey both freeze well to make a quick and easy chili night, taco night or spaghetti night. Muffins freeze well, place them in single serve freezer bags and just remove them the night before you want to eat them, easy quick breakfast. I have a great Banana bread recipe and Pumpkin bread recipe on my blog. Both would work to make muffins or breads.

Making chicken stock or veggie stock? Make more than you need and freeze the rest in 2 cup or 4 cup portions.

Making beans? Make two or three times the amount that you need and freeze the rest.

Make cream of mushroom soup and freeze it for later use.

Ready? Set? Cook and Freeze!

Meatless Monday: An altered soup recipe, for my love.

We had a lazy weekend.  I am recovering from a sinus infection and ear infection, so I am feeling a bit cruddy.  When I feel cruddy I usually want soup.  Soup or cake.  Cake….no soup.  It’s more filling and won’t cause a sugar high.

I know, it’s summer…and I am posting soup recipes?  The reason, is simple……my soup eating knows no season.  It does not care that it is over 100 deg F outside.  My taste-buds are Honey Badger like.  They just don’t care.

One of my favorite cream soup recipes came to me from my Step Mother.  In fact, in a cook book that she made for my step-sisters and me the soup is called “Jamie’s Favorite Broccoli Soup”.  Broccoli…Spinach…Wha?

Allow me to explain.  Cream of Broccoli soup is my favorite soup,  I love most broccoli soups….BUT my husband has not been able to eat broccoli for a few years now.  He seems to have developed a sensitivity to broccoli.

I love my husband way more than I love broccoli

so I have stopped (most) of my broccoli cooking.  Every once in a while I make something with broccoli in it, for myself, for lunch, usually when he’s not here.

So, I have adapted this soup recipe (in a few ways) and I am making it with frozen chopped spinach instead of chopped broccoli.  I’ve changed my soup for my love.  Here is my updated “for love” recipe.

If you wanted to make it with broccoli, just use broccoli instead of spinach.

Yes, the crust fell off my Quiche...quite shocking!

Cream of Spinach Soup

• 1 package of chopped frozen spinach (or fresh spinach chopped) Or broccoli~ cooked
• 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup (condensed) or homemade cream of mushroom soup (frozen)
• 1 1/3 cup of 2% milk
• 4 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 cups of veggie stock or 1 1/2 cups of veggie stock and 1/2 cup of white wine
• 1 teaspoon of tarragon
• 1 teaspoon of parsley
• 1 tablespoon of dried shallots

Cook and drain spinach or broccoli. Add mushroom soup, milk, butter, veggie stock and seasoning.

        

Cook over a medium heat until the soup begins to gently boil.  Stirring occasionally.   If you have opted to add wine, add the wine and allow to cook for 7-10 min more, uncovered to allow the alcohol in the wine to evaporate.

I am serving my soup with cheese Quiche.

I am also posting two of my wedding photos.  My bloggy friend over at So, I married a Mennonite is having a wedding picture link up, in celebration of her anniversary.  Since I changed this recipe out of love for my dear husband, I figured it was a great post to place these pictures on!

We had a beautiful, simple, daytime wedding.  It was a mostly stress free day, and the result was everything I ever wanted.

This. Wonderful. Man.

For the rest of my life.

What are you eating for dinner tonight?

Cream of Mushroom soup~~Slow Cooker Style

So, I bought mushrooms when I was at the farmer’s market on Monday.  I was all caught up in the excitement of buying produce and I forgot 1 important thing.  I remembered that 1 very important thing once I got home.

What was that thing?

Um, I’m the only one in my house who eats mushrooms unless they are in soup form & part of a casserole. OOPS!

Major fail. I can’t eat that many mushrooms alone. It’s time to make some cream of mushroom soup.

I searched the interwebs. I did not like what I found. I was not impressed, but it might have been my lack of good search word skills and not the recipes at fault.

I decided to use Stephanie O’Dea‘s recipe as a jumping off point and jumped right into the deep end and started making my soup.

I used my very large (5 or 6 qt) slow cooker.

What you need….

• About 6-8 cups of washed mushrooms (I used the button mushrooms)
• 3 cups of cool water
• 2 cups of homemade veggie stock, but you could use store-bought also…or more water.
• 3 TBSP of Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 chopped leek
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 TBSP chopped garlic
• 2 TBSP tarragon
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp lemon peel
• To make the cream 1 pint of heavy whipping cream (You could use milk, or soy milk or cream cheese instead) I wanted something rich and creamy.

What to do….

Wash the mushrooms, cut them into fourths. Add all ingredients (except for whipping cream) into the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.

If I had an immersion blender I would have used it to blend up the cooked mushrooms. I don’t have one, so I used my blender.

After I blended the mushrooms up, I added the whipping cream and blended it a little longer.

Cool completely and  place in freezable storage containers or freezer bags.

I placed 2 cups of soup in each container and that will work nicely for any casseroles needing cream of mushroom soup in them.

The soup tastes rich and is yummy!

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