Soup Marathon Day 5!

So today will be the last day in the soup marathon. Will I still create soups? Heavens yes! Today for lunch I was craving curry. Now if you don't like curry, this soup is not for you! If you love curry like me...oh this soup is for you! So here is my Curried Acorn Squash Chowder!

Looks amazing don't it? :)

Ingredients:
1 large acorn squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tbsp EVOO
1 yellow onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
5 cloves of garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp ground curry powder
1 tsp ground chili powder
1 dried Thai chili pod (leave whole)
1-13.5 oz can of light coconut milk
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Red pepper flakes (depending on desired heat level)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Place the 1 inch cubes of acorn squash on a cookie sheet and drizzle with the olive oil and add salt, pepper, and some red pepper flakes (depending on desired heat level). Roast in oven until squash is softened and edges are starting to brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile in a pot sauté onion, garlic, celery, and butter until veggies are softened and onions are transparent. When squash is done, add to onion mixture in the pot and add the dried Thai chili pepper, curry powder, chili powder, salt and pepper. Mix well and cook for about a minute. Add coconut milk and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for 8-10 minutes on medium low. Remove Thai chili pepper. Adjust salt and red pepper flake to desired taste.

Garnish with scallion, Thai basil, and cilantro! Enjoy!

Soup Marathon Day #4

Todays Soup: Phở!

For those who are saying to themselves, "What in the world is Pho?" Well let me give you a quick run down! Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually served with beef (phở bò) or chicken (phở gà). The soup includes noodles made from rice and is often served with Vietnamese basil, mint leaves, lime, and bean sprouts that are added to the soup by the person who is dining. Got it? Ok, here is how I made mine:

Ingredients:
1 jalapeno, stem removed and cut in half
1 onion, quartered
1 inch piece of peeled sliced into a few pieces
8 cloves of garlic, crushed
8 cups vegetable stock
4 cups water
1 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
¼ tsp ground star anise
1 tsp soy sauce
1 package of extra firm tofu, diced into bite sized pieces.
1 large package of clear rice Asian noodles

Instructions:
Simmer jalapeno, onion, ginger, and garlic until softened. Then add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a steady simmer (about med-high) and simmer for 25 minutes. Remove and discard all the veggies in the broth. Add tofu and noodles and cook until noodles are done and tofu is cooked through.
Now if you have never had Pho, here is what you do: You not only have the soup, but you have the garnished and flavor enhancements on the side that you add in before you eat.

Typical pho sides are:
Scallions
Bean Sprouts
Thai Basil (not sweet basil, they are totally different!) We found some at Market of Choice off Willamette in Eugene (for you locals)
Cilantro
Lime wedges (for the fresh juice)
Sliced Jalapenos
Asian Chili paste, or shiracha

Mint
Enjoy! :)

Soup Marathon Day #3!

What is a soup marathon without beef stew? If you recall, my goal for this week was all my soups to be vegetarian. So how can I get a stew to taste like beef, but have none in it? By playing! So I used my imagination and combined red wine, worceshire sauce, and rosemary for the beef flavor and mushrooms for the beef feel! Here is what came of it: Non Beef Burgandy Stew!

Ingredients
1 Dozen small potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
5 large carrots, sliced
4 large celery stalks, sliced
2-8oz. Packages of baby bella mushrooms, quartered
1 large yellow onion, finely diced
3 chopped cloves of garlic
1 sprig of rosemary, removed from woody stem and chopped
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP freshly ground black pepper
2 TBSP chopped, flat leaf parsley
1/3 cup flour and 2 TBSP flour divided
2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup dry, red wine
2 hot cups water
1 cup tomato paste
1 cup milk
Salt to taste

Instructions:
Combine all the vegetables and herbs in a large crock pot, minus the mushrooms. Toss the quartered mushrooms with the 1/3 cup of flour before adding to the pot. Mixture will look like this:


Combine the tomato paste and the 2 cups hot water and whisk until chunks are gone. Add tomato paste mixture, wine, and stock to the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. After the 4 hours of cooking time, whisk together the remaining 2 TBSP of flour and the 1 cup of milk. Add to stew and cook on low for another hour. Salt to taste and serve. (Don’t add salt until cooking process is over. Slow cooking with salt can make the dish too salty in the end.)

So we discovered that this stew tastes amazing, but it is so rich! We don't really eat rich food often, so this was a bit much for us. If you love rich food, this is the stew for you. Also, if you want to meat it up, replace the mushrooms with stew meat and use beef stock. If you don't like cooking with wine, replace wine with either vegetable or beef stock. The wine gives the stew it's color and "ping" though.

Make it. Critique it.

Soup Marathon Day #2

So I had this wild idea: Why not make a soup that tastes like jalapeno poppers! Then the brainstorming began and thoughts about how to make it not 10,000 calories. Well, I thought what about making it potato based? So thats the direction I started to take. So this is what I cam up with: Jalapeno Potato Soup. It was amazingly good and nasal-clearing spicy!

So here is the process!

Ingredients:

10    jalapenos, roasted then puréed

8-10 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

2 cups of hot water, divided (from boiled potatoes)

8oz package of Cream cheese

2 cups shredded cheddar

½ cups vegetable stock

1 cup milk (I used 1%)

1 tsp kosher salt

Fresh ground pepper

Instructions:

Roast whole jalapeños in an oven preheated to 425 until they are softened and the skin is charred a bit.

Meanwhile peel and boil potatoes until fork tender. To evenly cook potatoes, cut them equal size and cover them with cold water. This allows them to remain the same temperature the entire cooking time. When they are done, remove the potatoes from water with slotted spoon, you want to save the water. Add potatoes to food processor and puree, adding hot water from pot to keep loose, about 1 and ½ cups.

 During this stage add the kosher salt, white pepper, and garlic cloves and puree until no chunks remain. Mixture will look like this:

 

Add potato mixture back to soup pot, keeping it warm. Next, remove jalapenos from oven and cut stem off. I left the seeds, but if you want it less spicy, cut open and remove seeds and ribs. Add peppers to food processor and puree with the remaining ½ cup of hot water. Until no chunks remain.

Will look like this:

Add jalapeno mixture to potatoes and stir in remaining ingredients. Cook until cream cheese and cheddar have melted. Top with croutons!

Try it.

Make it.

Critique it!

Soup Marathon Day 1!

The Fall season is upon us! I love the rain, the cold not so much! The first thing that I crave when it rains is coffee...LOTS of coffee! The second thing I crave is soup! Some brainstorming has been happening between my husband and me about a dream/adventure in the future. In the process of this discussion I decided to try out some soup recipes to make that dream more possible (can't really go into detail about the dream yet hehe). I decided to try a soup everyday this week, ones that I will create each day, from scratch. They may turn out, they may not. Either way I will share the journey here! They will also each be vegetarian!

So tonight I went with a Lemon Thyme Rice soup.



Here is the process:
Ingredients:
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3-4 chopped carrots
4-5 Stalks of celery with leafy parts (see note below)
zest of 1 lemon
1 TBSP fresh thyme
1 TBSP lemon herb seasoning
1 cup of uncooked, brown basmati rice
1- 14.5 can of vegetable stock
3 cans (the empty vegetable stock can) hot water
2 TBSP chopped flat leaf parsley
juice of 1 lemon
Parmesan cheese (for topping)

Instructions:
In a large pot heat the EVOO. Add chopped vegetables and thyme and cook until softened. Add lemon herb seasoning and rice and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Looks like this:

Add in vegetable stock and water and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. When at a boil, cover and reduce heat to medium-high and cook until rice is cooked. Before serving, add parsley and lemon juice and top with Parmesan cheese!
If you notice, salt wasn't added to this soup. Lemon touches the same part of your tongue as salt, so it is perfect without it!

Here is your note:
Don't be afraid of the leafy and center parts of celery! They have the most flavor! I used the stalks in the celery heart for this recipe!

Game Day Grubbin!

First off, let me say GO DUCKS!!! What a beating they layed down today!

Nothing beats food and football with my family! I have lived the last 14 years in Southern California, 900 miles away from my family and my hometown! Only a handful of times have I been able to watch an Oregon Duck game with them in those 14 years. Now that I have moved back to Eugene, I can watch them all with my family. So with a full house today, I made them some yummy food. On todays menu we had 3-cheese stuffed Anahiem peppers and grilled BBQ Chicken Pizzas on whole wheat crust!

Lets begin with the stuffed Anahiems! These were so amazing! If you recall my previous post, I shared about the peppers I picked from a garden my husband found of craigs list. Today half of them were stuffed and eaten up in less than 20 minutes! Here is how you make them!

Ingredients
15 medium/large Anahiem peppers
1 cup of cream cheese
1 12oz package of Queso Fresco
1-1/2 cup of grated Montery Jack Cheese (divided in half)

Directions
Begin by cutting a section out of the top of each pepper. Remove the ribs and seeds. We all found that we missed the heat from the ribs and seed, so if you like it spicy, leave them! Next time I will! Your peppers will look like this:

Next prepare the filling. In a food processor or by hand, combine all the remaining ingredients, minus 3/4 cup of the Montery Jack cheese. Stuff each pepper with the mixture.

When all the peppers are stuffed, place them on a baking sheet and top with the remaining Montery Jack cheese.

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes and then broil for another 3 or until tops are browned!

Along with the peppers, we also had BBQ chicken pizzas cooked on the grill! For these I made the Food Processor pizza dough recipe I normally use, (You can find it here) but switched it up with whole wheat flour instead of white. It held up so nicely on the grill. Our toppings included BBQ chicken, tomatoes, spinach, cilantro, and cheese. They were amazing!

These pizzas got great reviews from my family, which mean the world to me! It was a pretty amazing day, Ducks won, great food, and my amazing family!

Farming on CraigsList!

I don't know if you are aware of this, but one of the best ways to find good, local produce is on CraigsList! My husband looks on the Farm/Garden section on CraigsList everyday and often he finds great deals. This morning he found a posting offering amazing deals on tomatoes and peppers! We drove over, took less than 10 minutes, and picked all of this for a little over $10!

Yes, I said a little over $10! Giant Anaheims were 8 for $1 and giant green peppers were 3 for $1. Notice some of those peppers are "Big Jims" which I have never seen in a store! Here is a "Big Jim"

I also picked up some tomatoes at $.70 a pound! Even heirlooms at $.70!!!!!
So I have planned for these treasures to make queso fresco/jack cheese stuffed Anahiems and black bean and rice stuffed green peppers! I will also chop and freeze the remaining greens and can the remaining Anahiems! Those recipies will come later! Thank you to Mrs. Etta Ingles for planting an amazing garden! If you live in the area, hit her up!

From Farm to Table

A few weeks ago my husband, my mom, my kid, and my niece took a trip to Detering Orchards in Harrisburg, Oregon. We picked green beans, zucchini, and peas.

They have an amazing selection of in season produce at amazing prices! That day I got about 5 pounds of green beans, two large bags of white, orange, and purple carrots, and nearly 10 pounds of zuchinni, and two giant heads of lettuce for $13! So with all fresh ingredients I made this delicious side dish of spicy carrots, peas, and zuchinni!

There are so many amazing farms here in Lane County! Summer has been amazing, although many crops are late this season! I am so excited for all that Fall crops will bring! Go visit a farm near you! Click here to find one: http://smallfarms.wsu.edu/farms/locate_search.asp

Spicy Carrot and Pea Mix:

1 cup of fresh peas

2 medium zuchinnis

4-5 large carrots (look for a variety of colors)

1-2 tbsp of spicy sweet chili sauce

1 tbsp EVOO

Salt and Pepper

Toss all the veggies together in the EVOO and saute until tender over medium-high heat. When veggies begin to soften, add the chilli sauce. And cook until desired firmness. Adjust the chili sauce to fit your heat prefrences. We like it hot! :)

Outside-In Buffalo Chicken Breast



Ingredients:
Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Flour
Eggs
Panko Bread Crumbs
Red Hot brand buffalo wing sauce
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Blue Cheese Crumbles

I did not supply measurements on this recipe, because it all depends on how many servings you are making. Just eyeball it!

First of all take your chicken breasts and put them in a large Ziploc bag or between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound them flat. Lay them out flat when done and sprinkle about 1-2 TBSP of the blue cheese crumbles and then roll it up. Secure with a toothpick.
Now set up a little breading station. Bread chicken in this order: flour, egg, and then bread crumbs. Place in a skillet of HOT EVOO seam side down and brown lightly. Transfer browned chicken to a baking sheet and coat in the Red Hot Buffalo Sauce. Bake chicken in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Eat alongside some slices celery.

For us the blue cheese inside was enough, but a little dollop of homemade blue cheese on top was yummy too.

Blue Cheese Dressing
Blue cheese crumbles
Fat free sour cream
Salt and pepper
Celery seed

Combine in food processor or blender until desired consistency and taste!

Lentil, Bean, and Meatball Soup

I love, love, love fall!!! Today it was finally cool here in Southern California!! Perfect day for a nice bowl of hot soup! Here is my latest creation:

Bean and Meatball Soup

Soup:
3 cups Dried Bean and Lentil mix (found in the bulk section of most health food stores)
4 cups Vegetable Stock
Celery Hearts
Roma Tomatoes
White Onion
Fresh Garlic
Cumin
Coriander
Pinch white pepper
2 Bay Leaves
Fresh chopped parsley
Salt and fresh cracked black Pepper
Water (enough to make 1 inch fluid above everything)

Soak beans for a couple hours and then drain. Add all the ingredients together and bring to a boil. Reduce to a slow simmer.

Meatballs:
Lean ground beef (I use 7% fat)
¼ red onion finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garlic powder
Fresh cilantro and mint leaves (as much as you like)
1 egg

Combine all the ingredients well and form into ¾-1 inch meatballs. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and add to soup pot when beans are beginning to get soft, but still have bite. Continue simmering soup on low until beans are done. Salt to taste and remove bay leaves.

Chicken Parmesan with Roasted Tomato and Garlic Sauce

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs (Japanese breadcrumbs)
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese.
½ cup flour
2 eggs
2 pints grape tomatoes
8-9 cloves of peeled garlic
Salt and pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
Fresh parsley
¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 450.
Place grape tomatoes and peeled garlic cloves on a baking sheet. Drizzle 1 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and add salt and pepper on them and smear it all around. Place in the oven until all the tomatoes look like flat tires (about 20 min)

While tomatoes and garlic are roasting, slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally to make 4 thin pieces of chicken. Season the chicken with a dash of salt and pepper. Combine the grated parmesan cheese and the Panko bread crumbs. To coat the chicken do it in this order: coat in flour, coat in egg, and then coat in Panko bread crumbs. Add the ¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil to a hot skillet and wait until oil is hot. Add the coated chicken and brown on both sides. Remove from pan and put on baking sheet. Top the chicken with a bit of shredded parmesan cheese and place in oven as you remove the tomatoes. Bake until cheese is melted. As chicken is baking mash up the tomatoes and garlic with a potato masher or fork and add oregano and basil. When chicken is done, spoon tomato mixture on top of chicken and top with fresh parsley. Enjoy! Makes 4 servings!

Calories 498.6, Total Fat 21.3 g, Saturated Fat 5.1 g, Polyunsaturated Fat 2.1 g, Monounsaturated Fat 12.3 g, Cholesterol 180.5 mg, Sodium 453.1 mg, Carbohydrate 36.5, Dietary Fiber 2.7 g, Sugars 0.6 g, Protein 39.0 g

Cranberry-Raisin-Walnut Energy Bars

I found a recipe for some Fig and Walnut Energy bars. First of all I don't like figs. I do, however LOVE dried cranberries so I used them instead. The recipe also called for bran flakes. Well, the granola bars that I love the most have raisins in them so I used Raisin Bran. Here is the recipe! It is sooooo easy!

Ingredients:
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup raisin bran cereal
• 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup walnut pieces
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 large eggs

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with wax paper.
Place the oats, cereal, flour, walnuts, cranberries, dry milk, cinnamon and ginger in a food processor; coarsely chop.

Add the honey and eggs; pulse until well combined.

Transfer the mixture to the pan; spread evenly with your fingers. Bake until lightly browned around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then cut into 16 bars. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or wrap individually and freeze for up to 3 months.

Per bar: Calories 149; Fat 6 g (Saturated 1 g); Cholesterol 27 mg; Sodium 31 mg; Carbohydrate 22 g; Fiber 4 g; Protein 5 g

Vegetable Marinara

Veggie Marinara
Have you ever looked at the ingredients on a can of "spaghetti" sauce? What is all that stuff. Part of my journey of weightloss also includes eating the right stuff. No corn syrup, no preservatives, no processed goods as much as I can. Well here is my version of a yummy marinra sauce, packed with veggies that when blended up, can get some kids (or husbands) to eat veggies that they won't normally eat! :)
So for this recipe you will need a large crock pot and the following ingredients:
1 large zucchini
2 peeled carrots
1 large onion
5 cloves of garlic
7-8 tomatoes (depending on the size)
1 green pepper
Fresh basil leaves
Oregano
Salt and Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cups Vegetable Stock
Chop up all the veggies into about ½ inch cubes. Finely chop the garlic cloves. Cut out the stem parts of the tomatoes. Add all the veggies and the basil, oregano, salt and pepper into a Crockpot and then drizzle with Olive Oil.
Put tomatoes on the top of the veggie mixture and then pour in the vegetable stock. Cover and cook on Low heat for about 5 hours.

When the veggies are all soft, strain them and place into food processor. Puree until desired consistency while streaming in just a bit of olive oil.

(Add some shredded rotisserie chicken and you have a nice chicken soup at this point!)

Now with my prepared sauce I browned up some lean ground beef and combined. Mixed with some whole wheat linguini and some fresh basil and here you go!

Now I hate wasting anything! After you strain all the veggies you are left with all this yummy, wonderful broth.

I put it in a frezzer storage bag and freeze it until I need it for a soup or liquid to cook some brown rice in!

Along with leftover marinara, this will freeze BEAUTIFULLY! Let everything cool before you store it in the freezer.

Beans and Potato Soup!

I know it is almost summer, but I can eat soups year round!!!
This is my Beans and Potato Soup

What you need:
2 large red potatoes (or any color you like)
2 green onions (white and green parts)
Pint of grape tomatoes (sliced in half)
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
Handful of fresh parsley finely chopped
16oz can of Garbanzo Beans (drained)
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp Paprika
Pinch of white pepper
Salt and Pepper

What you do:
Chop up potatoes and put in medium saucepan. Fill up with COLD water until the water is just above the potatoes. When they begin to boil add in all the rest of the ingredients (except for the garbanzo beans) and let simmer until potatoes are falling apart! Add Garbanzo beans until they are heated through. Top with some Parmesan cheese and Voila!

Makes about 2-3 servings

Now if you don't like garbanzo beans or if you just wanna switch this up, replace the Garbanzo beans with black beans and replace the parsley with cilantro and top with tortilla chips and Mexican blend cheese. You can also replace the garbanzo beans with pinto or chili beans, add some chili powder, and top with Cheddar cheese!

For 3 sevings, each serving contains: Calories 257; Fat 2g; Sodium 487g; Carbs 51g; Fiber 9; Sugar 3; Protein 10g

Green Grilled Chicken!

So because I have a new obsession with my grill, I have been brainstorming some different ideas for recipies. Last night I attempted something I have never done...cutting up a whole chicken. I have seen how to do it on FoodNetwork and such, but have never tried it in my own kitchen. So tonight I took this:

...and split it up! If you have never done this, you first start out by cutting out the back bone (sorry if you're squeemish)

Then you can flatten it and split it right down the middle!

Now on to the good part!!!! I created a little pesto type filling and rub to flavor up this bird! Here is what you do:

In a food processor combine the following:

Bunch of Flat leaf parsley
Bunch of Cilantro
5-6 mint leaves
Grill Seasoning (like McCormiks)
Ground Coriander
Thyme
Lemon zest of 1 lemon
Lemon juice of 1 lemon
½ white onion

As you puree it, slowly stream in some Extra Virgin Olive Oil until it is a pesto-like consistency.

Here is what it will look like when it is ready:

Now this yummy mixture is going under the skin. When you cook chicken on the grill with the skin on it holds all the juices in. If you don't like skin on your chicken (like me) just remove it after it is cooked.

Here is where you stuff the greens:

Now after it is stuffed, rub some on the outside of the bird and then sprinkle with the paprika! Here is the before:

And here is the DELICIOUS after!!!!!!

Try it and enjoy!!!!!!!!!