Currently Browsing: soup
Feb 20, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Feb 20, 2011 in dieting, Dinner Idea, lunch, soup, vegetables | 5 comments
It’s been a dreary, rainy weekend here in Chicago-land, so what better thing to do than make a big pot of soup. This is also a great way to use up veggies you didn’t use during the week. Also, my daughter Claire has been sick the last few days, with a fever and sore throat, so even better to make soup to help her feel better.
I looked in my fridge to see what I had on hand:
3 red peppers
2 tomatoes
1/2 white onion
3 carrots
2 parsnip
6 cloves of garlic
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
few pinches of crushed red pepper flakes
I decided to roast the veggies. I just washed them and placed them whole in a 9×13 baking dish. You can also leave the paper on the garlic too. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sea salt and pepper.
Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees, turning the veggies half way through.
This is what it looked like after roasting:
After roasting, remove the paper from the garlic, the garlic will be super soft. Remove the stems and seeds from the red pepper, cut the tomatoes into 4 wedges, and cut the onion in half. You can also cut the carrots and parsnips into smaller pieces.
Place all the veggies in a big pot. Add 6 cups of water, 6 tsp. of powdered chicken stock. The only spices I added was a little oregano, a little basil and a few pinches of red pepper flakes.
Bring the pot to a boil and then simmer for about an hour. Puree with an immersion stick blender, or transfer to a food processor or blender. *If you use the blender, remove the top and place a towel on top so the heat escapes, otherwise, it will explode all over the place (I’ve done that before and it is not fun!)
So with the big pot of soup, I bought a nice loaf of artisan Italian bread, and everyone could make their own sandwich.
My sandwich was 2 slices bread, 2 slices turkey bacon, 1 slice of muenster cheese, 1 oz. smoked turkey with a slather of chipolte mustard. AMAZINGLY good to go with the soup!
New blogs to share:
Nibble me this – bbq master!
My Bueno Cookbook – 3 generations of women making great food
Triangle Good Eats, best eats in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
So, what did you make this weekend?
I also am making a pesto asiago cheese bread from the 2001 cooking light cookbook! The dough is rising as we speak and I’ll post the recipe in a few days.
Feb 15, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Feb 15, 2011 in breakfast, diabetic, dieting, general ideas, product review, Side dish, soup, stir fry | 13 comments
This is another first for me. I’ve never tried pearl barley before, but ended up picking some up from the store over the weekend. You don’t have to buy this brand, any grocery store sells this near the rice, dried beans, lentils. And the best part is? It’s super cheap!
It does take a long time to cook. 45 minutes, so you need to either make a batch ahead of time, or plan accordingly if you are going to make this. I wasn’t sure what the texture would be like, but once it was cooked and I tasted it, I LOVED it! It’s kind of chewy, but soft at the same time.
Since it was the first time making it, I just added a diced green onion, carrots, red pepper and a little stir fry sauce as a snack.
For a one cup cooked serving, it’s only 193 calories. It has 12% of your iron for the day as well as 24% of the fiber you need. It’s low in fat, and is known to help lower cholesterol, maintain blood sugar levels, so its helpful for diabetics, as well as it helps keep you fuller longer.
You can use it in stir fries, in soups, stews, casseroles, etc…
I plan to make like a breakfast dish with it tomorrow, with a little cheese and chopped up egg + veggies!
Have you had pearl barley before? What do you make with it?
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Also, I wanted to tell you about Mom’s Best Naturals Cereals. I was sent 2 of their cereals, as well as a box of Kashi and Kellogg’s to compare the taste and see if I saw a difference(as part of their Mom’s Best Natural’s Better Breakfast Challenge). I actually don’t buy cereal that often because of the price factor. I’m not willing to fork over $5.00 + for a box of sugary cereal that my kids will devour in two seconds. However, one thing about Mom’s Best Naturals is that its 20-50% less than other brands. (I like that!)
Mom’s Best Naturals uses high quality ingredients, without preservatives, artificial colorings and high fructose corn syrup. Mom’s Best also is devoted to the environment, looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing waste and reducing water usage.
If you leave a comment, Mom’s Best will be giving a lucky reader a prize.
To find a store near you that sells this: CLICK HERE
Jan 31, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 31, 2011 in chicken, Dinner Idea, lunch, soup, vegetables | 5 comments
Before going to the grocery store this weekend, I thought I would make a batch of soup for my lunches this week. I just put in whatever veggies I had leftover from the week so I wouldn’t have to throw them out. My daughter Claire, who is 9, was helping me chop veggies. She asked if I got this out of a cookbook and I told her I was just using up what was in the fridge. She asked me what should we call it, and I said “What about Claire soup?” Her face lit up and she said, “Can you put that on your blog!” Of course I had to say YES!
I had ground chicken, parsnips, carrots, quinoa, green pepper and I just started throwing stuff in the pot.
Ingredients
1 lb. ground chicken (I used Purdue brand)
1 can spaghetti sauce (the 26 oz. can)
3 parsnips, cut into circles
3 carrots, cut into circles
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 green pepper, diced fine
6 cups water (with 6 tsp. powdered chicken stock) (or you can use canned chicken broth
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1-2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
In a big pot, add the chicken and break up and cook until no longer pink. Next add the veggies, spaghetti sauce, water and spices.
Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer and cook for about 25-30 minutes until the veggies are soft.
Add the quinoa and cook another 15 minutes on low.
The good thing, is Claire and my son Paul both had 2 servings over the weekend, and I ended up having some for lunch today, the bad thing is I may only get a few lunches out of it this week! Oh well, I’m glad they liked it! 
The quinoa kind of absorbs a lot of liquid once you put it in the fridge. When I heated it up, I added another 2 cups of Chicken broth to thin it out some more.
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My sister turned me on to a great grocery store tip: Cheese ends!
If you ever go to your local deli and they have a variety of cheese ends that they can’t sell, they’ll package them all up for a great price.
Check out what I got for $3.00:
I’m not even sure all the cheese in there. I know there was muenster, swiss, mozzarella, american, etc…
Using my food processor, I shredded it all up. My food processor manual said its good if you freeze the cheese for a little bit, so it’s easier to process. I froze it for about 30 minutes. I ended up with 3 pint size bags of shredded cheese!
It’s perfect for adding to eggs, put in a salad, make quick nachos, grilled cheese, whatever you want. Thanks Biz, that’s a great tip!
Have a great Monday!!! Tune in tomorrow for my week 4 weigh in results!
Jan 28, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 28, 2011 in lunch, soup, vegetables | 10 comments
The first time I made this soup was May of 2009! I sometimes forget to go back to recipes I’ve made that are worth making again. This is one of those recipes.
I printed out a recipe from Spark People for what I thought was tortellini soup, but it turned out to be a recipe for a side dish that was just called “tortellini with vegetables.” Since I still had soup on my brain, I read the recipe a few times, thinking they missed an ingredient. “Where’s the broth?” Then I read the instructions and found out it wasn’t soup!
BUT, I wanted to make it soup, so this is my version:
Ingredients:
1 medium red pepper, sliced
1 medium green pepper, sliced
1 orange pepper, sliced
4 cloves of garlic
1 cup snow peas, sugar snap peas, or green beans (I used pea pods)
2 tsp. olive oil
1 banana pepper, sliced (optional)
1 medium onion, chopped
5 or 6 fresh basil leaves (didn’t have that!)
salt and pepper to taste
2 quarts of chicken broth
2 chicken breasts, boneless, cubed and cooked
1 package frozen cheese tortellini
In a big blender, I chopped up the veggies and added some of the chicken broth and pureed all the veggies.
I do not like chunks of veggies
In a big stock pot, I added the oil, the pureed veggies, and the rest of the chicken broth. Heat on low, stirring for about 10 minutes. Then in a separate skillet I cooked 2 chicken breasts, which I cut into small pieces until they were almost cooked through and added that to the pot. Then I added the frozen cheese tortellini (1 bag) and put the heat on high until it came to a boil, then reduced the heat and cooked for about 6-8 minutes until the tortellini was cooked. If you are using the fresh basil, after the soup is done, add the basil to the soup and stir it in.
It turned out so great!
It was a little spicy, but the flavors of all the peppers was wonderful. For my bowl, I picked out 1 serving of tortellini (which was 12 tortellini for only 290 calories!) and I took about 1 1/2 cups of broth and picked out the pea pods and a little chicken. So I am thinking its about 340 calories or so for a nice big bowl. If you wanted to have it less calories, then you could reduce the amount of tortellini.
Have a great Friday, any good weekend plans??
Jan 10, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Jan 10, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, Dinner Idea, Snacks, soup | 12 comments
So, my first week of getting back on track and I did way better than I thought I would. I used www.myfitnesspal.com to track all my foods and exercise in. So are you ready?
-5.6 pounds!
What did I do?
Planned my foods in advance
typed in everything I ate to know how many calories I consumed
walked home from work instead of getting a ride/taking the bus
Did a few workouts on demand
limited alcohol
Cut out late night eating during the week.
No seconds at dinner
So, I am pretty excited about that!
This is going to be a short post, I have to make my breakfast and lunch for work, but I did make a few great things:
I made my Baked potato soup:
My favorite soup!
And I made some Salsa
And yesterday my Mom invited me to a club she belongs to for a nice luncheon and singing program. Thanks Mom, it was a lot of fun!
My plate (except my Mom stole my french toast! )
This is where the lunch was
And, I didn’t have dessert OR seconds at the buffet, I chose smaller portions! Wahoo!!
Have a great Monday!
