Broccoli Cheese Soup - Fast!

I love good soup. It makes me happy. Sometimes, Campbell's hits the spot, partly because it is nostalgic, and partly because it is brainlessly easy! Sometimes, however, I really want a good soup. Soup with lots of fresh ingredients, that has been simmered and stirred into yumminess. But I want it fast. How do I accomplish that? By cooking giant batches of soup and freezing them. Then I can have great soup super fast. I do French Onion Soup, which I freeze in individual containers because I'm the only one who likes it. I do Chicken Tortilla soup which is wonderful. I found a great recipe for Chicken and Wild Rice soup, too. But this week I tried a recipe that I have been wanting to try for weeks. The recipe is from the book Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer by Susie Martinez, Vanda Howell an Bonnie Garcia. As you can see from the picture above, I shamelessly photocopied the recipe out of the library copy. However, there are a lot of great recipes and it might be worth finally buying it (the French Onion soup recipe and Chicken and Wild Rice recipe are from this cookbook also).

The recipe I tried this week is for Broccoli Cheese Soup. I love broccoli cheese soup and I order it whenever I get the chance. Quiznos has a pretty good version that I order sometimes. This recipe is very similar and everyone in my family ate it!! Even Tali, my vegetarian! I made a single batch on Monday and made a triple batch for the freezer on Friday. So I have three nights of Broccoli Cheese soup for dinner, waiting in my freezer - YUM!


Broccoli Cheese Soup

Combine in a large pot and bring to a boil:

1 cup carrot, finely chopped
1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh broccoli, cut in small pieces
1 3/4 cups chicken broth

Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Combine in a bowl:

2 cups milk
1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt

Add the milk mixture to the vegetable mixture and cook until thick and bubbly.

Add to the pot:

4 oz. Velveeta cheese
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c. shredded provolone cheese

Stir until cheese is melted, but don't boil. Freeze in large gallon bag. On serving day, heat until warm but don't boil.

• NOTES: Ok, I never make a recipe as listed and as I was typing this I realized I changed this one a lot!
• When I was making it, I didn't think I wanted the veggies to be chunky so I pureed the vegetables after they were cooked and added them back to the broth. We liked it better smooth.
• I left out the green pepper, no one here will eat it.
• I added additional broccoli, this is, after all, Broccoli Cheese soup, I thought there should be at least as much broccoli as carrots.
• I upped the amount of chicken broth, only because I was worried about there being enough for my family. I upped the amount of flour to compensate.
• I left out the provolone cheese because it was expensive and I couldn't bring myself to spend $7.00 on cheese!
• So, my final version wasn't actually very much like the original, was it?? Oh well, it was good anyway!

Jill

Breakfast Burritos

When I was in college I lived in an apartment with five other girls. We had the required number of fights over boys, chores, loud music, and whose dishes were left in the sink. We also shared a lot of good times too. Most often it was our neighbors complaining about the loud music that all six of us were dancing to. Usually it was five of us cheering up the one who was dumped by the boy. And sometimes we knew whose dishes they were because one roommate had made some delicious meal for all of us. I made a lot of friends in college, very few that I keep in touch with. The recipes I learned, however, are still with me.

The recipe for Breakfast Burritos if from my roommate Threesa (yes, that is actually how you spell it, Mormon mothers often get very inventive with their baby names!). Threesa was from Utah, I think, and she had some great recipes. I still love her Chocolate Mayonaise cake recipe and we eat Breakfast Burritos all the time. I think she had some much more impressive name for them, but we simply call them Breakfast Burritos, although we never eat them for breakfast.

In addition to being something almost everyone likes, Breakfast Burritos are very cheap and easy to make. There is no real "recipe" it is more of a concept that you adapt as needed. I'm sure lots of people make some version of this.

First you take some bacon, ham, sausage, or whatever you have. Fry it in a pan with some onion if you have/want it. When they are almost done, add several chopped potatoes. You could add leftover baked potatoes that have been chopped up and they would cook lots faster. I never think ahead enough to do this so I just add chopped raw potatoes. Because they are raw I add a few tablespoons of water and cover the pan to allow the potatoes to steam. Then cook the potatoes until they are tender and crispy on the outside. Now scoot all the potatoes to one side and add to the pan a couple of beaten eggs (for my family of 6 I usually add 4-5 eggs). Scramble the eggs until they are just barely done then mix them with the potatoes. On top of the mix lay enough tortillas for everyone to have one, then cover the pan with the lid. You are just heating up the tortillas so they will be soft and yummy. At the table, give everyone a tortilla and spoon some potato/egg mixture down the middle, add ketchup, if desired, and roll up and eat.

You could, of course, add cheese to the mixture. You could add salsa instead of ketchup. You could vary the type of meat. You could use whole wheat tortillas. You could make this lots of different ways but however you do it, it is cheap, fast and good!

Jill

A Slow Burn over my Slow Cooker

About 3 years ago, I purchased (or was given as a gift - I don't remember which) a Rival Smart-Pot 5 quart Crock-Pot. I was so excited! My old slow cooker was a cheap-ish one I was given as a wedding gift some 13 years earlier. I had used that trusty slow cooker to death. Tons of giant batches of spaghetti sauce, baked beans, chicken and sauce stuff, and lots of other stuff had been slowly cooked to tender goodness in there, but it was falling apart and needed to be replaced.

This new Crock-Pot was so shiny! So clean! So huge! So substantial! It was much more heavy duty than my last one and I was excited to use it. The first few batches of stuff were over cooked and I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. These recipes had always worked in the other one, what had I done wrong? I thought that maybe it was a size issue; the other slow-cooker had been a 4 quart and this one was a 5 quart, meaning that it didn't fill up as much, maybe that caused it to get too hot? The next thing I tried was a huge batch of spaghetti sauce - on low. It was boiling withing an hour - what the heck? I remember talking to my sister about the problem and she said she thought she had heard that slow-cookers were now being made to cook at a higher temperature due to food safety concerns. That made some sense, after all, cooking something all day on "low" could, theoretically, cause bacteria to grow.

So I just put up with it. I cooked things for three hours instead of the recommended 6, I alternated between the "low" setting and the "warm" setting, I propped the lid open for part of the cooking time. Nothing seemed to help and it was ticking me off. Yesterday was the proverbial straw (and I was the proverbial camel - picture that!), I started my Crockery Beanery recipe from the Saving Dinner cookbook, on "low," at approximately 11:15 am, then I left to go have lunch with my sister. When I got home at 1:40 pm my recipe was burned on the bottom!! Just two hours and twenty minutes later!! I thought, this cannot be right. So, I did what any computer savvy 21st century woman would do - I put "Rival crock-pot too hot" in Google and hit return. One of the first results was a link to the Amazon listing for this crock-pot, there were 95 comments/ratings for this crock-pot and 93 of them said versions of this, "Don't buy this product! This crock-pot cooks way too hot! It burned my food! I'm taking it back! I hate it! Don't waste your money!" (Go read the reviews if you don't believe me)

My first reaction was joy - I'm not crazy! I have been cooking these recipes right and it is the cookers fault not mine! The next thought was sadness. Why have I been putting up with this for three years? Why didn't I do some research and figure it out a long time ago? I have a tendency to do this in my life, I just settle for something even though there might be something way better out there. Sometimes it is an object (like my crock-pot) but sometimes it is a situation (putting up with someone rude when I could have asked them nicely to stop and it would have changed everything).

Needless to say, I'll be buying a new crock-pot soon. But I'm going to go read the reviews on Amazon before I bring home anything!!

Jill

Links to Stuff I've Found

I spend an amazing amount of time surfing the web and reading interesting articles. Actually, I spend way too much time surfing the web! I've decided that I'm going to share some of those interesting articles with all of you, my adoring fans! (Hi, Jen!)

Remember Magic Shell? That stuff we used to pour over ice cream and it formed a hard shell over the ice cream? Well, it turns out, you can make it yourself. Brownie Points shows us how. It actually looks pretty easy and I think I'll have to try it. My kids would think it was great.

We are trying to do more vegetarian meals at our house. My 14 yo daughter, Tali, went "veggie" on us about a year ago. At first I made two meals, one regular and one vegetarian. Lately I've been just making more Tali-friendly meals. I'm always looking for good vegetarian recipes that are quick and easy. The Kitchn recently answered a question about resources for people going vegetarian, make sure and read the comments section as there are lots of good links there.

I tried a new recipe from Cheap Healthy Good, my new favorite blog! I tried the White Bean and Kale Soup with Turkey Sausage and man was it ever good. Ok, it wasn't veggie and Tali wouldn't eat it but everyone else ate it (even my six year old who is very picky about "green things" in his food). The kale was surprisingly good. Tali will eat chicken and we recently found a great chicken italian sausage at New Seasons so if I made it with that I think she would eat it. It was cheap, healthy, and good, can't ask for anything more!

Next week I'll post more links, and maybe even some that don't involve food!

Jill

Book Review: Saving Dinner

My husband laughs at me for the way I read cookbooks. Ok, actually, my husband laughs at me for lots of things, but he really thinks I'm crazy for how I read cookbooks. You see, I check cookbooks out of the library and read them like novels. I always have a cookbook going next to my bed and I pick it up and read a chapter or so before I go to bed. Right now I'm reading, and loving, the book Saving Dinner, The Menus, Recipes, and Shopping Lists to Bring Your Family Back to the Table by Leanne Ely.

For those of you familiar with Flylady, the organizational website/email group, Leanne Ely is the woman who does all the food related content for Flylady. She also happens to be a certified nutritionist, cookbook author, cooking class instructor, food editor for ePregnancy magazine,and radio show host. The woman is busy, which must be why she wrote a book about quick, healthy meals that you whole family will actually eat.
.
This book is the result of, and compilation of, Ely's Menu-Mailer program, a program where you sign up, pay a small monthly fee and receive a menu of meals, complete with shopping list, each week. As a result, the cookbook is set up in weekly format. At the beginning of each "week" in the book, you are given a list of the meals that week along with a shopping list. You could, of course, follow each weekly plan and use the shopping lists, or you could (as I did) pick and choose meals from different weeks and make up your own list.

Each weekly menu contains a crockpot meal, a fish meal, and a meal featuring beans.
Since I am trying to incorporate more beans into my families diet, because they are cheap, healthy and can be vegetarian (for my daughter Talia), I picked a bunch of the bean recipes to try. I have been very impressed . I tried the Polenta Casserole and my whole family actually ate it. I called it Tamale Casserole, because my children are convinced that polenta is the worst food item in the world, but since it wasn't actually called "polenta" they ate it and liked it.

One recipe I would definately recommend is the Garlic Lime Chicken. It was moist, flavorful and very yummy! I'm trying several more recipes this week and have already recommended this book to several people. I might actually have to go and buy it!

Jill

Baking Banana Bread with Boy

I looked at the fruit basket the other day and noticed that the bananas all had come down with a serious case of "banana pox." You know that disease, right? When the bananas are all covered with brown spots! I knew it was time to make banana bread, and I'd have enough to make a double batch.

I got my banana bread recipe from my mother, who got it from her grandmother. My mom was not much of a baker (although she was an excellent cook) but one thing that she did bake was banana bread. I remember toasting slices up and slathering them with butter, oh so good! I've been making banana bread my whole married life and it is especially fun now that I can involve my kids in the experience. My son Kaden loves to help me cook and bake.

He loves to measure, stir, and pour things. He especially likes eating the end result! That is fine with me, I love to bake for an appreciative audience!

Banana Bread

makes one loaf

Stir together in a bowl:

2 c. sifted flour (I use 1 c. white flour, 1 c. whole wheat flour)
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. sugar

Combine in a separate bowl:

1/2 c. finely chopped walnuts (optional)
1 egg well beaten
1 c. mashed bananas
1/3 c. melted shortening (that is what the recipe says, I use melted butter/margarine)
1/4 c. milk

Fold the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Stir until mixed but don't over stir it. Pour into a greased 5x9 loaf pan and bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Notes:

I use unsweetened applesauce for part of the marg/butter.

I have used the soy flour/water substitute for the egg in this recipe with good results.

I rarely put the nuts in because most of my children do not like nuts in things. They will eat nuts plain but they don't want them in anything. Go figure.

Jill

Perfect Pancakes, The Easy Way!

My family loves pancakes. They could eat them once a week for breakfast or dinner. I love pancakes, too. Actually, I don't really like to eat pancakes all that much but I really like them anyway and I'll tell you why. To me, pancakes for dinner is cheating. It isn't a "real" dinner and it is so easy that when I make pancakes I feel like I'm taking the night off. But I'm taking the night off without anyone in my family whining! In fact, they cheer! "Yeah! Pancakes!"

The secret to really good pancakes was given to me by my sister and I bless her name every time I make them. You see, you start with Bisquick (or any other mix) and add a few things and viola, it tastes like you made them from scratch! This last batch I did was even easier (and cheaper) I had some Aunt Jemima Just Add Water Pancake Mix and some Krusteaz Just Add Water Whole Wheat and Honey Mix. I had gotten the Aunt Jemima for about 25 cents a box during the last Albertson's freaky $10 off 10 items sale. The Krusteaz is pretty cheap too. I put equal amounts of each mix in a bowl (The "large" recipe called for 3 c. mix and I put 1 1/2 c. Aunt Jemima and 1 1/2 c. Krusteaz). I use half of each for the whole wheat in the Krusteaz. My family doesn't love the 100% whole wheat by itself but I feel better if they are eating at least half whole wheat. To the mix I added about a tablespoon of baking powder and a tablespoon or two of sugar. I mixed that up really well. Then you measure out the amount of water/milk that is required (the Bisquick calls for milk, the "just add water" mixes, surprisingly, just call for water! go figure.) To the measured liquid you add egg, if called for, and a tablespoon of lemon juice.

The baking powder and the lemon juice chemically react with each other to provide a really powerful rising action. The lemon juice gives it just a hint of tartness and the sugar balances that out nicely. These always turn out terrific and everyone raves about them. Should I tell them it is just a mix? Nah, let 'em think I'm awesome.

The last time I did them, I did them the night before Jana's birthday. She leaves really, really early in the morning and I didn't want to get up that early but I still wanted her to have a good breakfast. So I made a batch of pancakes the night before. They reheat in the microwave perfectly and everyone loved having pancakes for breakfast. I loved not having to make pancakes for breakfast!!


Jill