Tuscan Soup

This is DEEEEEELICIOUS!! Our friends made it for us once and ever since Mark's been on my back to get the recipe. Yes, you read that right, MARK wanted the recipe and that man never likes soup.  Then I made it while mom and Jim were here and they wanted the recipe. The other great thing: it's SUPER easy and pretty fast.

Ingredients:
-1lb spicy (hot) sausage
-3/4 c chopped onion
-1 slice bacon (or 2 tbsp bacon bits) (optional - I don't use it)
-1/2 tsp minced garlic
-1 quart water
-2 tbsp chicken bullion
-4-5 medium russet potatoes
-2 c (or more) chopped Kale (it looks like a lot, but it shrinks down tons. Next time I will use more.
-1 cup half and half (or heavy cream)

Directions:

-Chop everything ahead of time. Peel and chop potatoes into bite size pieces, dice onion and garlic, and chop kale. You can leave the kale in fairly large pieces, like you're preparing a salad.
-Heat a bit of EVOO in a large stock pot and saute onion and bacon until onion becomes translucent.   --Add garlic and saute for another minute or so.
-Add chopped potatoes, water, and bullion and simmer about 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender.
-While it's simmering, brown sausage.
-When potatoes are tender add sausage, kale, and cream and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread or rolls. The left overs are great too!

Sweet Potato, Lentils & Rice Soup

Yeah, yeah no picture. Sorry guys. Go to this website and look at his, they are better than I could do anyway: http://www.versesfrommykitchen.com/2012/03/life-and-rainy-day-soup.html


Sweet Potato, Lentils & Rice Soup
Ingredients:

• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1″ cubes
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thick slices
• 1 small onion, peeled and diced
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup red lentils
• 1/4 cup rice
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 4 tbsp. grated Parmesan, garnish

Prep:

1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the onions with the cinnamon and cumin for five minutes, or until softened.
2. Add the stock, sweet potatoes, carrots and lentils and cover and simmer until the sweet potato is tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Stir in the coconut milk and rice and increase the heat to a medium-high, cover and cook until the rice is cooked through, about 25 minutes.
4. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle Parmesan over top. Serves 4-6.

This is how it is posted on his blog and exactly how I prepared it. It smelled so sweet while it was cooking that I thought it might taste kind of weird but it was really good. The sweet potatoes just melted in your mouth which was perfect because Kyle is so sick right now that he can't swallow whole food. I am not sure if it is vegan appropriate--there is coconut milk in it--does that count as milk? Not sure. Anyway, it was pretty good and healthy to boot (well, I think it is...) Not sure if Mark would like it or not, but I bet Tyler would.

Pasta Fagioli

Pasta Fagioli (Pasta and Beans)
From Skinny Taste

(I made this last night and it was yummy! Tyler ate it and Mark said it was good for a soup. It is very versatile - you can add basically whatever veggies you want. I served it with warmed up hard rolls - double yum!)


Ingredients: 

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• ( I added about 1/3 zucchini, chopped)
• 1 15 oz can cannellini beans
• 15 oz can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
• 1 large bay leaf
• 1 tbsp basil
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 (14 oz each) cans fat free chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarians)
• 2 cups water (1 cup of water is used to blend the beans if you choose to do so , the other is for the broth.  I only used 1/4 cup of water for the broth)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1-1/2 cups (6 oz) dry Ditalini pasta or other small pasta
• grated parmesan or Romano cheese (optional) (Or unparmesan)

Directions:

In a deep pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.

Blend the can of beans with one cup water in electric blender until almost smooth. (You don't have to do this. I did because she said it was a way to hide the beans from little kids.  I thought that was a great idea, because Tyler won't eat whole beans, but he ate this soup without even noticing he was eating beans...hahaha I win!) 

Add blended beans to pan then add the can of tomato sauce, celery, carrots, chicken broth, basil, bay leaf, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Add 1 cup water (or however much you want) and bring to slow boil. Let simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally (I did about 5 min more). Add pasta and cook uncovered until pasta is al dente, according to pasta directions.

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili

No pictures yet.  This will have to do for now.  This was super yummy as Cake, Ky, and Moner can attest!  Even Mark liked it!!!    

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium sweet yellow pepper, chopped (I used a yellow bell pepper)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chicken broth (Let me say something about the chicken broth. I have made this with regular sodium canned broth and the super low sodium, organic, box broth. If you do use the super low sodium, organic, box broth the taste suffers. It stinks, but that's a fact of life. Salt = better taste. So I would say go normal broth or up the spices or maybe a cup of each.  I think next time I will try the low sodium, canned broth as it has less salt than regular but more than boxed.  We'll see how that goes.) 
2 cans (15-ounce each) black beans, rinsed and drained
2 1/2 cups cubed cooked turkey (I used 1 1/4 lbs ground turkey)
1 can (15-ounce) solid-pack pumpkin
1 can (14-1/2 ounce) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:
In a large 12-inch skillet, brown the ground turkey (if using already cooked turkey, proceed to adding the vegetables). Transfer the meat to a 5-quart slow cooker. Add oil to the skillet. Add the onion and yellow pepper to the skillet and saute until barely tender, 1-2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook one minute longer. Transfer the mixture to the slow cooker. Stir in the remaining ingredients to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.