Week #21 - Chicken Noodle Soup and Corn Casserole

This was supposed to be Turkey Noodle Soup, but I could not find turkey meat for soup without buying a whole turkey. I made this for my family's Thanksgiving lunch but I used chicken instead. I used this recipe from myrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray 
• 1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices carrot 
• 3/4 cup chopped onion 
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) slices celery 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
• 6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth 
• 2 cups (3 ounces) uncooked egg noodles
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups shredded turkey (about 8 ounces)
• Coarsely ground black pepper (optional) 

Preparation

• Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add carrot, onion, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is lightly browned. Add celery, salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; sauté 3 minutes. Add broth and next 3 ingredients (through bay leaf); bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add shredded turkey; cook 3 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Sprinkle with coarsely ground black pepper, if desired.

It turned out really good, and everyone was impressed by my cooking.

Rating: 4.5/5


I also made corn casserole. I originally got the recipe from my friend, but I lost it, so I looked up another one online. I found this one on cooks.com.

  1 can whole kernel yellow corn, undrained

1 can cream style yellow corn
1 (8 oz.) carton sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 stick butter, melted

Mix all together and pour into large, lightly oiled casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes.

 

It's on the plate in the back.

At first I thought it turned out not sweet enough, but once I had some more it was really good.

Week #20 - Olive Garden Style Zuppa Toscana Soup

I was thinking of how much I love soup, salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden so I decided to try making Zuppa Toscana soup. I found this recipe on Food.com.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Italian sausage (I like mild sausage)
• 2 large russet baking potatoes, sliced in half, and then in 1/4 inch slices
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup bacon bit (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups kale or 2 cups swiss chard, chopped
• 2 (8 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 quart water
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

 

Directions:

1. Chop or slice uncooked sausage into small pieces.
2. Brown sausage in your soup pot.
3. Add chicken broth and water to pot and stir.
4. Place onions, potatoes, and garlic in pot.
5. Cook on medium heat until potatoes are done.
6. Add sausage and bacon.
7. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
9. Turn to low heat.
10. Add kale and cream.
11. Heat through and serve.

 

This soup was almost exactly like Olive Garden's! I omitted the bacon and I sauted the onions with the sausage first, but otherwise I followed the recipe. This soup was so good! I will definitely make it again, especially if I get my hands on some Olive Garden salad dressing.

Rating: 5/5

Week #18 - Ham and Bean Soup

My husband told me I needed more beans in my soup. So I found this recipe at BigOven.

Ingredients [ View Metric ]

	3/4 poundFully cooked ham; cubed
	1 mediumOnion
	2 clovesGarlic
	2 tablespoonsButter
	2 16-oz cansGreat Northern Beans; rinsed and; drained
	3 cupsChicken broth
	2 cupsWater
	1 cupPotatoes; peeled, diced
	3/4 cupCarrots; diced
	3/4 cupCelery
	1/4 teaspoonPepper
	1/2 cupFrozen peas
	2 tablespoonsFresh parsley; minced

How to Prepare Best Ham and Bean Soup

In a 3 quart saucepan, saute ham, onion and garlic in butter until onion is tender.
Add the next seven ingredients; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Add peas and cook for 5 minutes. Add parsley and serve.

This soup was really good. I omitted the peas, but everything else was the same. It was really easy to make, and my husband approved.

Rating: 4/5

Week #17 - Jason's Deli Style Chicken Pot Pie Soup

My husband and I went to Jason's Deli this weekend. While he claimed that it was overpriced and not very good, I thoroughly enjoy their chicken pot pie soup. I found a recipe on CopyKat.com and decided to try it.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup – Made from scratch
Adapted from this recipe on RecipeZaar.com

Ingredients

◦2 cups cooked chicken, cubed )
◦Small onion, chopped
◦1 cup carrots, chopped
◦2 cups potatoes, cubed
◦1 can green peas, drained
◦1 can corn, drained
◦6 tbsp. butter or margarine
◦1/2 to 1 cup flour (see note below)
◦2 tbsp. chicken bouillon, ground up
◦2 cups chicken broth
◦4 cups of milk
◦1/2 tsp. pepper
◦1/4 tsp. garlic salt
◦Puff pastry dough ( I use Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations)
The Process

1. Put potatoes in a pot with 1 cup of chicken broth and enough water to cover them. At the same time, put your carrots in a pot with enough water to cover them. Cover and cook both vegetables until fork tender, about 15-20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, saute onions in a few teaspoons of oil until soft and translucent, about 5-8 minutes.

3. In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add in bouillon, pepper, garlic, broth and flour (see note below). Stir until smooth.

4. Gradually add milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until it boils, simmer for a minute, stirring constantly.


Note: I like this soup to be thick, more like actual chicken pot pie. You may want it to be soupier, though. My recommendation is to start with 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of broth and bring to boil with milk (don’t skimp on the milk) like instructed. If you think it’s too soupy add more flour about 1/4 cup at a time until it thickens. If you add more flour, add another tablespoon of the ground up bouillon, too, or else it’ll taste too flour-y. If it’s too thick for your liking, add in chicken broth, about 1/4 cup at a time until it gets to the right consistency.

5. Add chicken and then each vegetable one at time and stir carefully between each addition.

6. Roll out your pastry dough about 1/4 inch thick and cut into 3×3 inch squares. Bake in 375 degree oven for 7-10 minutes, until puffy and slightly browned on top. Serve on top of soup.

I did not use a puff pastry topping just because I already had some bread at home and just had that with it instead. I prepared the carrots and potatoes in the same pot since they both required the same amount of time, and it worked fine. I ended up using about 1/2 cup of flour, and it still tasted a bit to flour-y, even though I added extra bouillon. I wanted it to be thick like real pot pie, and it was. It had the texture and taste of pot pie, but it was definitely not as good at Jason's. The broth part of it just didn't taste as good. But if I wasn't comparing, it was good enough.

Rating: 3/5

Pumpkin Bread

Today is a day for cooking and baking! I am on fall break so I made swamp soup today, and I also had a craving for pumpkin bread. I found this recipe at Allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 

Yummy! Perfect for a cold, rainy day!

Week #16 - Swamp Soup

I saw this recipe on BudgetBytes.com, a low cost cooking blog. BudgetBytes blogger Beth (say that 3 times fast!) raved about it so much that I decided I had to try it. She billed it as tomato soup and grilled cheese all in one. Sounded good to me!

INGREDIENTS		COST
2 Tbsp	olive oil	$0.22
3 stalks	celery	$0.46
4 med	carrots	$0.31
1 med	onion	$0.38
3 cloves	garlic	$0.21
1 Tbsp	dried basil	$0.15
1 Tbsp	dried oregano	$0.15
1 (28 oz) can	tomato sauce	$1.42
45 oz.	diced tomatoes	$2.01
1.5 tsp	chicken or vegetable bouillon	$0.13
1.5 cups	water	$0.00
1 (10 oz.) pkg	frozen spinach	$0.96
6 oz.	swiss cheese	$1.53
TOTAL		$7.93

STEP 1: Clean and chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook in a large pot with olive oil over medium heat until the vegetables have softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in the basil and oregano and cook for one more minute.

STEP 2: Pour in the cans of diced tomatoes (do not drain) and tomato sauce. For the diced tomatoes you can either use 3 (15 oz.) cans or 1 (28 oz.) can plus 1 (15 oz.) can. The latter will probably be less expensive.

STEP 3: Add 1.5 cups chicken broth or 1.5 cups water plus 1.5 tsp chicken bouillon. To make this a vegetarian dish, simply substitute the chicken broth or bouillon with a vegetable variety. Add the brick of frozen spinach. Allow the mixture to heat through, stirring occasionally to break up the spinach as it melts (about 10 minutes).

STEP 4: Once the soup is completely heated through, dice the swiss cheese. Reduce the heat to low or turn the heat off completely. Drop in the swiss cheese and stir it in. The cheese will melt and become gooey but remain in clumps. If the heat is left on high, the cheese will melt too much and dissolve in. Alternatively, you can add the cheese to each bowl of soup after serving.

This soup was great! I followed the recipe pretty much exactly. The only thing that wasn't good about it was my fault because I didn't cook the vegetables long enough and the carrots were still kind of crunchy. The globs of cheese were really good. I will definitely make this soup again.

Rating 4.5/5

Week #15 - Beef Stew

I decided to make beef stew last week for something hearty. This recipe by Paula Deen was the first one that came up, so I decided to try it.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds stew beef
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• Dash ground allspice or ground cloves
• 3 large carrots, sliced
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions

Brown meat in hot oil. Add water, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves, onion, salt, sugar, pepper, paprika, and allspice. Cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours. Remove bay leaves and garlic clove. Add carrots and celery. Cover and cook 30 to 40 minutes longer. To thicken gravy, remove 2 cups hot liquid. Using a separate bowl, combine 1/4 cup water and cornstarch until smooth. Mix with a little hot liquid and return mixture to pot. Stir and cook until bubbly. 

I didn't let the stew simmer for as long as they said to because I am impatient. It came out pretty good, but I should have added potatoes like some of the reviews suggested. I would make it again with that changed. I served the stew with some Italian bread and it made a good meal.

Rating 3.5/5