Bean, Kale, and Chorizo Soup

I was supposed to go out of town last weekend. My plan called for hubby to take care of Sunday night dinner. When plans changed at the last minute, I decided to throw something together rather than order that pizza. I'd picked up some Spanish Chorizo earlier in the week simply because it's something that my regular grocery store doesn't carry. I didn't really have any specific plans for it so I thought I'd experiment. I sliced it up and browned it in a little olive oil. I threw it in a soup pot with some chicken stock and the remnants of the vegetable crisper: kale, carrots, half an onion. I tossed in some chunks of potato and a can of white beans. Salt, pepper and dash of red pepper flakes simmered until the veggies were soft and dinner was served. It was so good hubby and I fought over the leftovers for lunch the next day. I will definitely be making this again soon.


Chorizo, Kale and White Bean Soup

1 can Navy beans
8 cups chicken broth
1 handful baby carrots, sliced thin
1/2 large onion
1 large potato, diced
1/2 bunch of kale, washed and roughly chopped
1/2 pound chorizo, cut into discs
1 tablespoon or so of vinegar
red pepper flakes
salt
Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Brown chorizo in a small skillet.

Add chorizo and all aother ingredients except kale to stock pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Simmer until vegetables are soft. Add kale. When kale is done, soup is ready.

Buffalo Chicken Chili

 

It's another cold, wintry day here in the Midwest. With one exception. The sun is actually shining! Despite having one home sick from school and a to-do list about a mile long, the glorious sunshine motivated me to make something a little more special for lunch today. Originally intended to use up some leftover ingredients I had on hand, this soup turned out to be a delightful surprise. The Buffalo Sauce added the perfect amount of zing and the veggies and beans make you feel virtuous when you have that second bowl!

Buffalo Chicken Chili

1-2 cups already cooked chicken, diced

1medium onion, diced

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1 can petite diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups chicken broth

2 teaspoons chili powder

salt
1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce, to taste


Add onions and celery to pan and saute until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients except buffalo wing sauce. Simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in buffalo wing sauce. Top with a dollop of Ranch dressing if desired.

Loaded Hashbrowns

Sometimes nothing satisfies like a big pile of hash brown potatoes, smothered in melted cheddar cheese and topped with bacon and green onions with a dollop of sour cream. No recipe. Not healthy. Just delicious!

Country Bob's Beefy Skewers

Awhile back, Country Bob's sent me a free sample of their Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce to try. We'd had it in the past and I knew dh really liked it. Somehow it just didn't seem to go with anything I'd planned to cook that week and the bottle got put in the cabinet and I'm ashamed to say that I forgot I had it.

Fast forward to a busy school night where I'm frantically scrounging for something to put on the table before it's time for the kids to be in bed. As I'm rummaging through the pantry, the bottle of Country Bob's miraculously reappears. Aha! Just what I needed to take our dinner to a whole new level.

For a quick meal, I marinated cubes of steak in a 1:1 mixture of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce and Orange Marmalade and let it hang out in the fridge while I prepared the rest of the meal, helped with homework and signed planners. When we were ready to fix dinner, I alternated chunks of the beef, red bell pepper, red onion and nectarines on wooden skewers. The Beefy Skewers were delicious and even ds ate the steak off of his. (Still not too fond of the veggies but we've got to start somewhere!) The Country Bob's added a nice bit of zing in contrast to the sweetness of the fruit. And the grilled nectarines were delicious.

The people over at Country Bob's want you to have a chance to try their product as well. Check out the Country Bob's web page where you will find lots of great recipes as well as a place to request your own free sample of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce.

Country Bob's Beefy Skewers

1/2 cup Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce
1/2 cup orange marmalade
Steak, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
Red Bell Pepper, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
Red Onion, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
Nectarine, cut into wedges

Mix Country Bob's Sauce with orange marmalade in a large zipper bag. Add the chunks of steak and store in refrigerator for a couple of hours or all night.

Thread skewers with peppers, onions, nectarines and beef cubes. Grill approximately 5 minutes per side. Serve.

Zucchini Pasta

To celebrate school starting, the girls and I spent the day at the swimming pool in a nearby state park. The weather was beautiful. The water wasn't too cold. And the pool wasn't very crowded. The girls were able to go down the water slide as many times as they wanted and my niece finally got comfortable putting her face under water! A great day for everyone.

Great until I got home with a car load of tired and hungry kids with no idea what to fix for dinner. Around here pasta is usually a good idea so I started the water boiling and looked around for something to add to it. I had plenty of zucchini from the garden and a package of baby bellas from the store. Unfortunately, when I opened them, they were a tad bit past their prime. (Blech!) Since the zucchini seemed a little lonely I threw in a can of sliced mushrooms and what little bit of red onion I had left. I topped the pasta with a creamy sauce made from the remnants of a couple of packages of cream cheese that have been floating around in the fridge for too long. (Why is it that my kids can't finish one box before they open the new one? Can someone explain that? ::sigh::) I thinned the cream cheese with a little milk and stirred in a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Quick. Easy. Delicious. Just the way I like it!


Zucchini Pasta

1 box Mini Farfalle
olive oil
1-2 zucchini, 1/4 inch dice
1/2 red onion, 1/4 inch dice
1 small can sliced mushrooms
1 block cream cheese
1/4-1/2 cup milk, as needed to thin the sauce
freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Parsley, for garnish

Prepare pasta as directed on the box.

To a large skillet, add olive oil. When heated, add the red onion, mushrooms and zucchini cubes. Saute until softened, several minutes. Add cream cheese and milk and stir until cheese is melted and the sauce thickens. Add pasta and Parmesan and toss until pasta is coated with sauce. Garnish with parsley if desired.

My Favorite Zuppa!

I'm one of those cooks who rarely measures ingredients, hates following a recipe and has a hard time making a dish come out the same way twice. I feel compelled to tweak a recipe every time I make it. Often the dish evolves into something that doesn't bear much resemblance to the original. This recipe is one our family favorites. It started out as my attempt to duplicate the Zuppa Toscana from the Olive Garden. The menu describes the soup as "spicy sausage, russet potatoes and cavolo greens in a creamy broth." Originally I was trying to re-create the soup. As time went by, however, I found that by using a hotter, spicier sausage the soup tasted better and I could get by using less sausage. (I'm mainly a vegetarian but this soup *needs* the flavor that the sausage gives it.) I also found that I like *lots* of greens rather than the few lonely pieces that you find in the restaurant bowl. As well as lots of potatoes. :-) It was very disappointing to eventually return to Olive Garden and find that I liked my new version of Zuppa much, *much* more than theirs. LOL!

I've been making this soup, with this general recipe for several years now so when I saw the Tried, Tested and True Blogging Event over at Equal Opportunity Kitchen I knew this was the recipe I'd submit for my first blogging event. This recipe goes together very quickly. I start the stock simmering and then add the potatoes as I slice. One thing I like about my recipe is that I don't peel the potatoes first. Adds some texture as well as nutrition. For weeks when I know we are going to be extra busy, I'll buy a bag of pre-washed and chopped Kale from the grocery store to make the prep even easier. Another handy thing is that you can allow the soup to simmer as long as you need to. It only enhances the flavor. I can never wait that long though! In order to cut down on the fat in this soup, I add just a bit of cream at the end of cooking. Just enough to give the soup a creamier appearance, not to turn it white. And, of course, freshly grated Parm is a necessity. That stuff from the green can is not the same. Add a salad and some nice artisan bread and you have a delicious meal and you don't even have to leave a tip! ;-)


Teresa's Toscana Soup

4 cups chicken stock or broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or more, depending on your tastes)
1 medium russet potato, scrubbed
2-3 cups Kale, chopped
1/2 pound spicy Italian Sausage
1 tablespoon heavy cream (more or less)

Place stock in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add salt and pepper flakes, adjusting for your tastes. More pepper flakes if you prefer a spicier dish, fewer if you don't.

Cut the un-peeled potato in half, then into 1/4 inch slices and then cut those slices in half and add them to the soup.

Add the kale.

Brown the sausage. Drain and add the sausage to the soup.

Let the soup simmer until the potatoes are soft. Stir occasionally.

Add cream, stir and remove from heat.

Serve immediately topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Teresa's Fried Rice

Why is it so easy to slack off? No running all week. ::sigh:: I ran in a 10K race last weekend, and while I wish my time would have been better, I was pretty pleased with the results. I finished only a couple of seconds behind my friend and running partner and was only about 20 seconds off of my time from the same race last year. If I can start doing a better job of getting out the door on a more regular basis, I'm cautiously optimistic that I can start off TNT training in January as strong as I was last year and hopefully have a phenomenal spring race season. :-)

While I haven't been running (or blogging) this week, I have been cooking. Katie was sick this week and requested her favorite comfort food, Mom's Fried Rice. It's a simple concoction of scrambled eggs, rice and peas. Katie prefers I stop right there. Dh and I like to add mushrooms and whatever veggies are left in the crisper. It's one of my quick go-to meals, especially if I have some already cooked rice in the fridge or freezer. I used to only use white rice for this but now I prefer it with brown. It makes it a tad bit healthier and even the kids don't complain!


Teresa's Fried Rice

6 cups rice -- cooked
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
3 large eggs
3 green onions -- sliced
3 teaspoons oyster sauce
3 teaspoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil

Scramble eggs in a small skillet. Remove and set aside.

Heat oil in wok. I generally use olive oil but any kind will do. Add already-cooked rice and stir-fry for a moment until heated through. Add oyster sauce and soy sauce and stir until evenly distributed. Move rice to the sides and add mushrooms and vegetables. Stir-fry until cooked through. Stir veggie mixture into the rice. Add eggs and toss.

The great thing about this recipe is you can use whatever you have. Just add in any veggies or meats chopped into bite-sized pieces: chicken, pork, even bacon.