Minestrone Soup

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe! Funny, too, since we've actually tried a handful of new ones recently--I just haven't been in situations where it was easy to take pictures! Anyway...

We had plans to go out to dinner on Friday night, but when Nora and I were feeling as crappy as we did that day, we decided that we'd rather go on a night when I could fully enjoy myself. I really just wanted to stay in and have some good homemade soup.

I didn't want to go with our usual chicken noodle soup, so I went back to my saved recipes and found this easy recipe for minestrone soup from Katie at Good Things Catered. To my surprise, I discovered this weekend that Katie's blog is no longer up (does anybody know, did she get another book deal?) but I still want to give credit where credit is due!

This minestrone is chock-full of vegetables, which I love. I use low-sodium everything, so it's healthier than canned, store-bought, or restaurant soup, and it's still really flavorful. It's very easy to throw together, too--the most time-consuming thing is chopping all of the vegetables, which can easily be done in advance for a quick weeknight meal. We'll be making this often throughout the winter, I'm sure!

I skipped the napa cabbage because it's expensive at our grocery store (especially since the recipe only calls for 1/4 head) and I don't know that it would add much. But in case you feel so inclined, I've left it in the list of ingredients below. Aside from that, we used dried spices instead of fresh (and used less of them as a result), but season according to your taste.

Minestrone Soup
(Source: Good Things Catered)

Ingredients:
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 4 carrots, sliced
- 4 celery stalks, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/4 head Napa cabbage, chopped
- 2 small zucchini, diced
- 1 cup chopped green beans
- 2 tablespoons parsley, minced
- 1 tablespoon oregano , minced
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme, minced
- 28 oz. diced tomatoes
- 48 oz. low sodium chicken broth
- 1 (14 oz.) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (14 oz.) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup dry pasta, cooked
- Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In large stock pot or dutch oven over medium heat, add olive oil and bring up to almost smoking.

2. Add onion, carrots, celery and salt and stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally until softened, about 5 minutes.

3. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about 60 seconds.

4. Add cabbage, zucchini, green beans, parsley, oregano, thyme, tomatoes with juice and chicken broth. Stir to combine well, turn heat to a low simmer and cover and cook for 30 minutes.

5. Add beans, cooked pasta and simmer for 5 more minutes.

6. Salt and pepper to taste, let cool slightly and serve.

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Baked Potato Soup

I love, love, love potato soup. I've never found a recipe that I've loved to make at home, so I've reserved potato soup for cafes and restaurants. I only get it every once in a while, though, because I usually feel guilty about eating it since it's so creamy, cheesy, and bacon-y.

When I saw this recipe on Annie's Eats and saw that it's made with milk (instead of cream), I wanted to give it a try. I thought we were done with soup season, but today was cool enough to fit in one last soup recipe.

This is delicious. Wonderfully creamy and flavorful. Now I'll be looking forward to making this once fall rolls around again!

The only problem was that I made a slight mistake with the potatoes. I think I overblended the potatoes in the food processor so it made the consistency of them kind of gummy, and therefore the soup was kind of gummy. Still, even that couldn't ruin this soup. Next time, I'd skip the food processor completely and just throw the potatoes into the milk (when it's time) and use the immersion blender to combine everything together and make it creamy. Also, we forgot to take a package of bacon out of the freezer in advance, so we decided not to bother and just used some bacon bits. Next time... real (turkey) bacon! :)

Baked Potato Soup
(Source: Annie's Eats)

Ingredients:
- 4-5 russet potatoes
- 4 tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, divided
- 6 cups 2% milk (we used skim and it didn't matter one bit!)
- 2 tsp. salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup light sour cream

For topping:
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped green onions
Bacon pieces

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prick the potatoes with the tines of a fork. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit until cool enough to handle. Scoop the insides of the potatoes into food processor, discarding the peels. Pulse until the pieces are broken into small chunks. (As I mentioned above, if you have an immersion blender, I would skip the food processor.)

2. In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, melt the butter. Add 1/4 cup of flour to the pot and whisk into the butter. Cook, whisking constantly, until golden brown, about 2 minutes.

3. Whisk in the milk and the rest of the flour. Cook until thick and bubbling, about 6-8 minutes.

4. Mix in the potato chunks. (Here is where I would use the immersion blender.)

5. Whisk in the salt, pepper, and cheddar cheese and stir until the cheese is melted. Remove from the heat, stir in the green onions and sour cream.

6. Serve immediately. Garnish with sour cream, cheddar cheese, green onions and bacon as desired.

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Chicken and Basil Dumplings

I've attempted chicken and dumplings before, and it wasn't exactly pretty. I couldn't figure out the whole dumpling situation--they seemed to be doughy, no matter how long I cooked them. Come to find out later, dumplings sometimes take WAYYY longer to cook than I ever imagined. Hmph. I was discouraged by the experience and hadn't tried it since, instead choosing to leave it to the professionals (like, say... my mom).

But when I saw this recipe pop up in my Google Reader, I was inspired to give it a try, simply because it is a crockpot dumpling recipe. Fix it and forget it? Those are my kind of dumplings, for sure.

Because it cooks for so long, the chicken is fall-apart tender, and I loved the combination of vegetables. The basil seasoning, in both the soup and the dumplings, is a wonderful addition and makes this recipe slightly different than your typical chicken and dumplings. The dumplings themselves are full of flavor, what with the basil, garlic powder, and butter. Melissa wasn't kidding--this dish is delicious!

You definitely have to allow yourself enough time, since it involves at least 8 hours of total cook time. Also, you need to plan ahead so that you are home to be able to make the dumplings two hours before you want to eat. Even though it involves a few different steps, it is a really easy recipe and it's perfect when you want a great meal with very little effort.

Chicken and Basil Dumplings
(Source: Delicious Meliscious)

Soup Ingredients:
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 cup carrots, diced
- 1 cup celery, diced
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 8-10 cups of chicken broth
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts (you can put them in frozen to start)
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- salt and pepper to taste

Soup Directions:
Put all ingredients above into slow cooker and cook on low heat for 6 hours.

Dumpling Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups of flour
- 1/2 tsp. dried basil
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tbsp. butter, softened
- 1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten

To Prepare Dumpling Dough:
Combine the flour with basil, garlic powder, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. But in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine buttermilk and egg, stirring with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring until just combined.

Remaining Ingredients:
1/4 cup of cornstarch
1/4 cup of chicken broth (you can dip some out of the crockpot to mix)
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

To Finish Soup:
Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and shred with 2 forks. Add the chicken back into the slow cooker. Combine the cornstarch with the chicken broth and mix thoroughly to make a slurry. Add slurry to the soup.

Dumpling Directions:
Drop dumpling dough, 1-2 tsp. per dumpling, into the chicken soup. Cover and continue to cook on low for another hour and a half to two hours. Add the chopped parsley to the soup and serve.

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Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

Are you counting? This is new recipe #3 of the weekend. Like I told you, I've been feeling adventurous. :)

After a Saturday night of pizza, beer, wine, and pumpkin pie snickerdoodle bars, we knew we were going to be in the mood for something a bit healthier. Considering I spend most of Sundays in my sweats, there is something to be said about making comfort food on Sundays, too.

As someone who is a bit tired of the same old chicken noodle soup, I was happy to come across this recipe during my planning earlier this week. Take all of my favorite chicken noodle soup ingredients, and then add Asian flavors? I'm sold. As a bonus, this is incredibly easy and fast to cook up. Perfect for a weeknight lazy Sunday.

The end result was a wonderfully flavorful version of chicken noodle soup. It also had a little kick to it (thanks to the red pepper flakes), which I loved.

(Check it out. You can see my reflection in my spoon!)
I made some adjustments to the recipe based on comments in the reviews. Essentially, I just added more veggies. My version of the recipe is below. For some of the ingredients (peas, carrots, cilantro, and red pepper flakes), the amounts listed below are estimates. I didn't actually measure them, but just threw these ingredients in until I thought it looked like the appropriate amount. For the red pepper flakes, you'll want to be careful--if you add too much, it'll obviously be very spicy!

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
(Source: Adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp. bottled grated ginger
- 3 tbsp. bottled lemongrass (or grated lemongrass in a tube)
- 2 cups water
- 2 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
- 3/4 cup frozen peas
- 3/4 cup matchstick carrots
- 1 lb. chicken breast tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 4-5 oz. uncooked angel hair/thin spaghetti pasta (we used whole wheat)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or 1 tbsp. dried)
- 1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
- 1/2 tsp. salt (I omitted)
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 red chile pepper, finely chopped (or red pepper flakes, to taste--I used about 1-2 tsp.)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, and lemongrass; sauté 3 minutes.

2. Add water and broth; add peas and carrots; bring everything to a boil. Add chicken and pasta; cook 5 minutes or until chicken is done.

3. Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients. Let stand 5 minutes.

Note: Of course, you can use fresh lemongrass if you can find it. They didn't have it at my supermarket, but they had the grated version in a tube in the produce section. Ultimately, I ended up finding a jar of it in the Asian foods section, so I picked that up instead.

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Tortilla Soup with Black Beans

I have had this recipe bookmarked since last January. I honestly have no idea how I made it through the last three winter months without making this, but it's a damn shame.

The weather for this weekend was forecasted to be pretty cool, so I thought--what better soup to kick off soup/stew/chowder season? Plus, it's super easy, so it was perfect to make on a Friday night after work. The whole thing literally came together in 10 minutes. Can't beat that.

This soup is fabulous. I love it. In fact, I love it so much that we polished off the leftovers for dinner during the football game tonight. And I'm already planning on making it again this week so that I can bring it for lunches at work. Do yourselves a favor--make this soup!
Tortilla Soup with Black Beans
(Source: On My Mind, Adapted from Everyday Food Magazine)

Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder (or more to taste)
- 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice
- 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) tomato sauce (I used low sodium)
- 2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn kernels (I used a 15 oz. can of corn, also low sodium)
- 1 cup water (I accidentally omitted this with no ill effects)
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 1 cup crushed tortilla chips, plus more for serving (optional)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, plus lime wedges for serving
- Mexican cheese, for sprinkling on top
- Dried or fresh cilantro, also for topping

Directions:
1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium. Cook garlic and chili powder until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes (with juice), tomato sauce, beans, broth, corn, and 1 cup water; season with salt and pepper.

2. Bring soup to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Add tortilla chips; cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in lime juice, and season with salt and pepper. Serve soup with lime wedges and, if desired, more chips. Sprinkle with cheese and cilantro.

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Chicken Corn Chowder

We had another really beautiful day today. As a result, it felt a little bit wrong to make a chowder, but since it's what we had planned, we went with it. And boy am I glad we did.

This corn chowder is simply delicious. While eating, Michael and I kept saying to each other, "This is really good!" And I am looking forward to leftovers, I'll tell you that. My only regret with this recipe is that I didn't find it sooner! I need to find a way to fit it into our recipe rotation another couple of times before the weather really starts to warm up.

When I was doing our meal planning early last week, I came across this recipe on Cooking Light's website, and even though I had never made (or even had) corn chowder before, I figured we couldn't go wrong with the ingredients.

As always, I read a lot of the reviews, and took some suggestions from them to help make the recipe even better than the original.

At first, I thought this chowder was going to be pretty thin, but after several minutes on the stove, it thickened up quite nicely. This is such a simple meal, too--perfect for a weeknight.

Chicken Corn Chowder
(Source: Adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 6 green onions
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 12-16 oz. chopped (or shredded) cooked chicken breast
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 (15 oz.) cans whole kernel corn (we use the "no salt added" variety)
- 1 (14 oz.) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
- 4 small white potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 1/2 cups fat-free milk
- 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Melt butter in a Dutch oven (or stockpot) over medium-high heat.

2. Remove green tops from green onions. Chop green onion tops; set aside. Thinly slice white portion of each onion. Add sliced onions to pan; sauté 2 minutes.

3. Add flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly with a whisk.

4. Stir in chicken, salt, pepper, 1 package of corn, and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

5. While mixture simmers, combine the remaining corn and milk in a blender. Add a handful or two of the diced potatoes. (I combined everything in a smaller pot, then used my imersion blender--much easier cleanup!) Process until smooth.

6. Add remaining diced potatoes and milk mixture to pan; simmer 15 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

7. Ladle 2 cups chowder into each of 4 soup bowls; sprinkle evenly with green onion tops. Top each serving with 2 tablespoons cheese.

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Chicken Noodle Soup

After the feast that was yesterday's Thanksgiving dinner (and dessert), we wanted to make something simple and "light" for dinner tonight. We have another day of eating scheduled for tomorrow (technically our Thanksgiving celebration with Michael's family), so we needed to take it easy.

Chicken noodle soup was the perfect solution. Another very simple recipe, and it's tasty, too. We always make a big pot so that we have leftovers to bring for lunches at work, and to have for dinner again.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
- 16-20 cups water
- 12-15 chicken bouillon cubes
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut into tenders
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1/2 - 3/4 lb. small pasta (we used Barilla's Ditalini)
- 1 lb. frozen mixed vegetables
- Extra vegetables, if desired (we added additional carrots and peas)

Directions:
1. Start off with 16 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Add 12 bouillon cubes and dissolve. Add diced onion, and raw chicken breasts. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

2. Remove chicken breast pieces from pot. Allow to cool. Shred chicken.

3. In pot, add frozen mixed veggies and any additional vegetables. Return shredded chicken to pot. Bring broth back to a boil.

4. Add pasta. Cook according to time on package. At this point, judge how much broth you have. If some of it has cooked off, or you don't have enough broth for your pasta/chicken/veggies, add up to 4 additional cups of water and up to 3 additional bouillon cubes.

5. Once pasta is cooked, reduce heat to low. Simmer until ready to eat. Serve hot with toast or sandwiches.

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Corn, Bacon and Potato Chowder

To go along with the delicious paninis we made with the focaccia bread, I made corn, bacon and potato chowder. This is a recipe I found when I was on Weight Watchers a few years ago.

This was our first soup of the fall season--I can't wait to have others. The weather has definitely cooled over the past couple of weeks, which makes cooking and baking that much more enjoyable.

Corn, Bacon and Potato Chowder
(Adapted from Weight Watchers)

Ingredients:
2.5 - 3 lb.s Yukon Gold potatoes
2 stalks small celery, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 lb. frozen corn, slightly thawed
1 sweet red pepper(s), diced
4 strips turkey bacon, cooked and diced
3 cups fat-free skim milk
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

Directions:
1. Peel and chop potatoes. Place into large saucepan, and fill with water until it just covers the potatoes. Place over high heat until the water boils. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook for about 15 minutes, or until fork tender. Drain and mash the potatoes.

2. Meanwhile, coat a pot with cooking spray. Add celery, onion, corn and red pepper; sauté over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

3. Stir bacon and milk into pot; stir in mashed potato and mix well. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper; stir to combine. Cover and simmer 10 minutes (do not allow to boil--milk will curdle!). Stir frequently.

4. Serve with additional salt and pepper to taste.

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