A Giant Sweet Potato!

Yesterday was the first day of our outdoor farmers' market in my little town!  It is just a couple blocks from my house, and it was delightful to see all the sidewalk traffic headed that direction on a chilly but sunny Saturday morning.  

After shopping, my daughter brought me a giant sweet potato and a bunch of crisp green onions.  I couldn't wait to use them.

I'll tell you about my bacon, onion chicken recipe, then I'll tell you what I did with the potato that would easily have fed four people.

Creamy Bacon and Onion Chicken

While this recipe might look or sound a little elegant, it is so easy.  You can use any kind of chicken.  Skinless boneless breasts would be great, but this time I used chicken pieces.  I had a  bag of thighs and legs, so that's what I used.  Frugal!

I cook for one and I don't want too many left overs, so I used four pieces of meat.  Rinse it, but make sure you dry it too.  Paper towels work well for that.

I seasoned the chicken with a dried mushroom blend and with two blends from Pampered Chef - Triple Onion and Dijon Mustard.  Don't hesitate to be liberal in using the seasoning.  You want that flavor.

I chopped 4 strips of bacon and gently browned it in a heavy skillet.  Remove the bacon and set it aside.  In the remaining bacon grease brown the chicken pieces on all sides.  Add a few tops from green onions.  When the chicken is browned, add 2 cups of chicken broth.  Put a lid on the skillet and let the chicken simmer until it is done.  Remove the lid and let the broth reduce a little.  Add 1 1/2 cups of cream or half and half.  Stir the sauce to blend it and when it is thick enough, you are done!  I love green onions, so I added 4 in the last couple minutes of cooking.  That softened the onions, but they still had a nice crisp bite to them.  Sprinkle the bacon crumbles over the finished dish.

I served part of the sweet potato with this delicious dinner.  I baked the potato in the microwave.  It was so big, it took ten minutes.  I simply added salt and pepper and butter to the portion I used for dinner.   Yes, I have plenty to serve with the left over chicken!

What did I do with the rest of that sweet potato?

Sweet Potato Swiss Fritatta  

This recipe makes two small sized fritattas.  These dishes are Pioneer Woman 5.5 inch pie plates.  If you want to use muffin pans for these, you'd probably get three fritattas.  If you want to make lots of these, all you need to do is multiply the recipe.

Ingredients 

1 1/2 to 2 cups of  slightly mashed baked sweet potato

2 teaspoons of Pampered Chef Three Onion seasoning

2 teaspoons of Pampered Chef Bell Pepper & Herb seasoning

Gently mix these ingredients.  You don't want pureed sweet potato.  You want chunky bites!  Place equal portions in the baking dishes.

2 whole eggs

1/2 cup of half and half

1/2 cup of shredded swiss cheese

Whisk these ingredients together and pour equal portions over the potato mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Mine went in the air fryer oven, so they just took 10 minutes.  Serve them with additional cheese sprinkled on top.  Add chopped chives or green onions.

I froze my second fritatta in foil.  The best way to reheat it is in the air fryer.  Just open the top of the foil and bake it for a few minutes.  Even starting in the frozen state, it won't take long.  You can also reheat it in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes.

 

Baked Salmon with Rosemary, Lemon & Strawberries

A couple months ago, I purchased a slab of fresh salmon with the skin still on.  I love it so I bought a half fish. I knew I’d have plenty left.  I love that, too.

I prepared the entire slab, then cut it into portions.  I enjoyed it freshly prepared but what I did with the leftovers was remarkable.

I prepared the fresh slab by brushing it with rosemary olive oil.  I laid lemon slices and fresh rosemary over it and baked it in the air fryer oven.  I didn’t put it in a pan, just laiid it on the baking screen in the air fryer skin side down.  I wanted the skin to get crispy.  The weight of your salmon determines the length of time you need to bake it.  My slab weighed 2.5 pounds and was pretty thick on the big end.  I baked it for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Copying a recipe my daughter had recently used, I made a strawberry relish to serve with it.  I chopped fresh strawberries and drizzled them with balsamic glaze.  This combination was scrumptious. 

Beautiful Salmon

I plan to share my recipes for my left over salmon, but I originally served it with caulifloweer and cheese sauce.  I used the left over cauliflower in a neat way, too.  I’ll share that.

Cauliflower Toast

I’ve seen lots of recipes for Cauliflower Toast.  Always thought they sounded good, but I love cauliflower so much, that I really enjoy eating it left over and never thought about repurposing it.  I’m so glad I did, this time.   I wanted to use a new spice blend from Pampered Chef, Honey Sriracha.  I had about 1 ½ cups of mashed cauliflower.  I didn’t mash it too much because I wanted some actual bites still in it.  I added 4 ounces of room temperature cream cheese to the cauliflower and about a tablespoon of finely chopped sweet onion and the same amount of finely chopped bell pepper.   I stirred in 2 teaspoons of the honey siracha blend.

To prepare the toasts, I sliced the end of a loaf of French bread into small rounds.  I brushed one side of them with honey and put them in the air fryer.  It took about 4 minutes on 370 degrees to toast them nicely.

I gently piled the cauliflower mixture on each piece of toast, sprinkled a little cheddar cheese on each piece and put them back in the air fryer oven.  In less than 8 minutes they were toasty brown and delicious.  I had them for lunch one day, but they would make great appetizers.  They’d be scrumptious served with tomato soup or a fresh green salad.

Salmon Patties

What to do with all that left over salmon?   I used half of the slab of cooked salmon to make 2 more meals.  That was probably about a pound of fish.   Flake the fish and mix the following ingredients with it.

½ cup combined of finely chopped onion, bell pepper and celery.
½ teaspoon of salt
A couple grinds of peppercorns
The zest of a lemon
¼ cup of unseasoned breadcrumbs

Blend until smooth 1 Tablespoon of lemon infused olive oil with an egg  and a squirt of Dijon mustard.  Now mix the above ingredients with the wet ingredients.  You should be able to form patties with your hands.

Gently fry the patties in a couple Tablespoons of oil  Shouldn’t take but 4 minutes on each side for them to brown nicely. 

This recipe makes 4 patties. Serve them with tartar sauce, lemon and fresh dill.  These are also delicious.

Salmon Burger

I couldn’t eat all the patties, so I froze the leftovers individually and look what I had the next time I wanted salmon.  This pretty salmon burger was simply reheated in the air fryer for a couple minutes.  Let them thaw in the fridge overnight.   I served mine with sweet potato fries.  So good.

So here we started with a pricey piece of salmon, but it made 6 meals for me.  As it turned out it wasn’t so pricey.  Frugal doesn't always mean cheap.  It also means getting as much as possible from something!

Roasted Chicken ... and then what

 When I  found myself in a totally empty nest, I also found that cooking for one was a huge change for me.  I had to teach myself how to plan ahead for using the extra portions of family sized entrees like pot roast or a whole chicken.  I’ve managed, but it has taken a decade!  If you don’t plan, you end up with a freezer filled with leftovers that are never used.  It was the Covid pandemic that forced me to focus more on being frugal.  Empty supermarket shelves and difficulty in obtaining products I loved made me save what I had left.  Always a frugal home keeper, this wasn’t a huge change for me.  It was a focused change, however.

I cook a whole chicken at least once a month.  Sometimes, I split or spatchcock the bird and cook it on the grill.  Other times I roast it in the oven, pressure cook it in the instant pot or slow cook it in the crockpot.  I love it for the first meal, and I’ve grown to love all the extra things I do with the cooked chicken meat.  In fact, I’ve learned to depend on having my little packages of meat in the freezer.

I’ve posted this recipe for Chicken Demidoff previously.  You can find it right here. https://dlmsliceofpie.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-russian-house-of-demidov-was-noble.html

It is what I do with leftover roast chicken that I’m showing you today.  You can use any roast chicken recipe you’d like.  My blog is full of various versions, and you can always Google!

Chicken Salad Your Way

When Miss Phoebe visits, we have lots of fun watching movies and snacking.  I always try to have homemade snacks to add to the typical chips and popcorn.  Chicken salad (sandwich spread) is one of my favorites and it can be changed with so many flavors. 

To 3 cups of chopped chicken, add 1/3 cup of mayonnaise, 2 Tablespoons of mustard, ¼ cup of relish.  This time I used sweet mustard and green tomato relish.  As you make this, add more mayonnaise or juice from the relish to get the consistency you want.  Salt and pepper to taste.  It really is this simple and this time we had our chicken salad on crackers.  Sometimes I add grated cheese or chopped boiled eggs … finely chopped celery and sweet onion.   It is all about the flavor you desire.  Don’t hesitate to experiment a little bit.

Chicken and Stuffed Pasta Shells

When I separate a roasted chicken to store for later, I always pull some pieces off whole.  Maybe I’ll save  the legs or thighs or a nice chunk of breast meat.  For this recipe, I had saved one side of the breast and packaged it as a whole piece.  I always thaw the meat overnight in the refrigerator.

First, let me tell you one of my most frugal recipes!  I never drink an entire  gallon of milk before it gets close to expiring.  I use the end of the portion to make ricotta or what some call farmer’s cheese.  My grandmother made this when I was a kid and hung a bag over her sink to let it drain.  I later learned how to do it from an Italian grandmother who had a quicker method.  Heat 1 quart of whole milk just to the boiling point.  Don’t let it boil.  Remove it from the burner and add ¼ cup of lemon juice or white vinegar.  Let the milk set until it separates.  The curd will float.  Then you need to pour it through a fine sieve until the moisture is all gone.  This will take a couple hours.  You don’t need a cheesecloth bag and you don’t need to drain it overnight.  This will give you about a cup and a half of cheese.

To make the shells, boil them … drain them and let them cool under cold running water.  This recipe will make about a dozen.  To the cheese, add ¼ cup of dried parmesan, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a Tablespoon of chopped parsley and a couple grinds of nutmeg.  Combine an egg with all that, and you have a perfect filling for the shells.  You’ve saved the cost of ricotta!  Here's another recipe for this cheese https://dlmsliceofpie.blogspot.com/2020/06/oak-leaf-kale.html

Use what you have in the pantry for this recipe.  If you have a jar of pasta sauce, use it.  If not, use a can of stewed tomatoes.  That’s what I did this time, and I actually prefer that because there is already lots of flavor in the roasted chicken and I enjoy the simple celery and onion in the stewed tomatoes. 

Pour some of the sauce (or juice from the can of tomatoes) in the bottom of a baking dish. That will keep the shells from sticking.  Add the stuffed shells and place the portion of chicken in the dish beside the shells.  Cover all of it with the stewed tomatoes and remaining sauce (or more pasta sauce) and bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  You can add mozzarella cheese to the top.  For these, I tucked a mozzarella pearl into each shell … because I had some that needed to be used.

Be frugal and enjoy a very special entrée.

Chicken Pot Pie

I love chicken pot pie. This recipe uses leftover chicken meat and a can or small bag of mixed vegetables, some homemade broth and pie crust. I had fun making this because I used one of my heart shaped pie plates! It was my Valentine’s dinner!

When I roast a chicken, I also save a couple portions of the broth from the bottom of the roasting pan.  I just let it cool, skim off the fat and store it in freezer bags.

For this recipe, I used 2 cups of broth.  I didn’t thaw it.  I just dropped in in a sauce pan over low heat and brought it to a simmer.  If you don’t think it will have enough flavor, add a teaspoon of chicken bouillon.  To thicken the broth, stir a Tablespoon of corn starch into a cup of cold water and add it to the broth.  Whisk it until it thickens.  Over a low heat, add a can of mixed vegetables.  Include the juice for more flavor.  Add one or two cups of chopped chicken meat, a dash of salt, pepper and ½ teaspoon of poultry seasoning or rubbed sage.  You probably have all those ingredients in your pantry. 

Pour the filling into your pie plate.  Top it with a pie crust and bake it at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.  We also love this topped with biscuits.

Quick Tostadas

This is a perfect late night snack and so easy.  I used mini corn tortillas for these.  I always have grated cheese, salsa and fresh vegetables in the fridge.  This time I had beautiful artisan tomatoes that had great summertime flavor in a wintertime month! You can top your tostadas with shredded lettuce, sour cream, olives or any of the things you love in tacos.

I made these in the air fryer oven and it took about 20 minutes from beginning to end. 

Place the tacos on an air fryer baking sheet.  Top with chopped chicken.  Sprinkle with taco seasoning.  Bake this for ten minutes at 350 degrees in the air fryer.  Remove and top with shredded cheese, chopped tomato and chunky salsa.   That’s it. All done, and so much fun.

You’ve probably used all your chicken meat if you’ve made these recipes.  If not, there are hundreds of things you can do.  Make your favorite tuna casserole, replacing the tuna with chicken.  Add chopped chicken to a green salad.  If you have strawberries, toss those in.  Pecans make it better.  Add chicken to your favorite pasta sauce … red or white.  Use the meat and some of that frozen broth to start chicken noodle soup.  The possibilities are endless.  Have fun and save money!

Ham and Navy Beans and More!!

 

I hate beans.  Not really.  I hate the popular New Year’s dish of Ham and Navy Beans.  None the less, I have cooked them almost every year for the last forty years just to maintain the tradition.  My husband was a big fan, so I cooked them frequently during the winter months.  Since Joe’s death, I have not held with tradition and tried other beans on New Year’s Day.  I don’t like them, either!

This year, because I have a plan for an annual project about frugal and fun cooking ways, I decided to begin 2023 with Joe’s favorite Ham and Navy Beans.  My real objective was to remake the leftovers into something I might like more than the original dish, and something that stretched money.  For this new project of mine, ‘fun’ had to be included.  Wait until you see my creations.

Let’s start with Ham and Beans.  When I was a little girl, my mother would coax me to each cornbread with butter and syrup.  Cornbread was always served with beans in my childhood home.  I continued that tradition in my own home.  Joe loved cornbread, too so it was a frequent item in our menus.  I continued to eat it my favorite way, and I raised a daughter who does the same.

 

Just look at my little cornbread waffles.  You’ve seen tiny waffles in previous blog posts.  I bought this waffle maker a few months ago so Phoebe and I could have fun making appetizer size fried chicken and waffles.  I love this unique appliance and will continue to use it to add fun to my menus in 2023. 

This is a frugal meal, and it begins with dried navy beans.  I soak mine overnight in water.  I always remove any discolored beans.  This is an Instant Pot recipe but can be prepared in any pressure cooker.  Another frugal part of this meal is to have saved the ham bone from a Christmas ham dinner.  If you don’t have a bone, you can use a chunk of leftover ham or a small package of ham bits or a small, packaged ham steak.  I always plan ahead and make sure I have ham in the freezer!

Soak 2 pounds of navy beans in cold water overnight.  The next day, pick out any discolored beans.  Place the ham bone, beans, a bay leaf and a ½ cup of chopped onion, celery and bell pepper with 6 cups of water in the Instant Pot.  Put the lid on, turning the vent to seal.  Cook on medium pressure for 40 minutes.  Let the pressure cooker reduce pressure naturally.  You’ll have flavorful creamy beans.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

We enjoy serving our beans topped with pepper relish and on this day we used a tangy sweet red pepper relish.  Sometimes we serve green tomato relish, chopped onions and hot sauce.

On the side, the mini cornbread waffles made the meal extra good and lots of fun!

Think ‘frugal’ and freeze leftover ham and beans in small portions to add to other recipes later on.

 A Perfect Saturday Lunch

Tuscan Style White Bean Soup

A short week later, I used a bag of frozen leftover ham and beans to make soup for a Saturday lunch.  Almost everything in the soup was left over, so it was practically a no cost meal. 

All the ingredients are combined in a crock pot and cooked on high for 2 hours.

½ cup of chopped onion and bell pepper (I had them left from a salad preparation)

1 cup of cooked carrots (right out of a can or left from a previous meal)

1 can of stewed tomatoes plus any leftover fresh tomatoes you might have

4 cups of canned chicken broth or half broth and half water

1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning

A pinch of minced garlic (or garlic powder or roasted garlic)

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 – 3 cups of leftover ham and beans

At the end of cooking, add a handful of fresh kale … or arugula, spinach, radicchio or leaf lettuce. Stir it in until it wilts.

 

A Sunday Night Snack.

White Bean and Eggplant Dip

When I say I hate beans, I especially hate Garbanzo beans so Humus is certainly not a favorite of mine. I do like humus made with sweet potatoes, tahini and all the right spices. I also like Baba Ghanoush, the delicious dip made with roasted eggplants. I decided to create a combined white bean roasted eggplant dip to serve with fresh vegetables and pita bread. It takes less than 30 minutes to make this.

Cut 3 Asian eggplants in half lengthwise and place them on a roasting pan. Drizzle them with olive oil. Use your favorite infused oil. I like lemon, garlic and rosemary. Roast at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven (or use your air fryer to make it go faster) and let them cool.

 
In the meantime, puree about 2 cups of leftover ham and beans in a food processer. Scoop out the eggplant and add to the food processer. Season with a heaping Tablespoon of Za’atar. If you don’t have this spice blend, make your own by combine garlic power, cumin, dried oregano and dried thyme. As you blend everything together, drop in 2 Tablespoons of tahini and drizzle in olive oil in an amount needed to make a creamy dip.

White Bean and Tomato Casserole

A Warm Weeknight Dinner

After a month of creating new menu items with my frugal leftover ham and beans, I can honestly say that I finally found something that I really liked! This casserole is all about leftovers, too, but it certainly has attitude of its own!  It’s creamy in texture with the crunch of toasted croutons.  It is tangy and herby in flavor.

Use about 2 cups of leftover ham and beans.  Put them in a big bowl.  Add 2 teaspoons of capers and several torn fresh basil leaves.  If you don’t have fresh basil, just add a teaspoon of dried basil.  Add a crushed garlic clove.

Stir in a cup of shredded Italian cheese (your choice).  Gently stir in a cup of halved cherry tomatoes (or more if you want to use them up).  Lastly, add 2 cups of toasted bread cubes.  I made mine from leftover dinner rolls. 

Blend all this together and pour it into a greased casserole dish.  Drizzle olive oil over the top.  This casserole is intended to be dry, but if you are worried that yours is too dry, add water, broth or tomato juice in small portions until you reach the consistency you want.

This casserole with chunks of ham was a main course for me. Add a salad or serve it alongside grilled meat. It would be nice with baked fish filets, too.

Here you’ve had a hearty meal of Ham and Navy Beans and three additional menu items made with the leftovers. How frugal is that? Oh, don’t forget that you probably had leftover cornbread mini waffles on that first day. They make a great snack with a little peanut butter and honey. I ate them for breakfast one morning. I’m pretty pleased with this first installment of my 2023 Food Frugal Fun columns.

Stay tuned in. I’ll write a column a month hoping to help all of us continue to have fun with our cooking and meal planning, while being frugal with our time and money. Enjoy!

Pork Marsala

If you think Chicken Marsala is only a restaurant meal, think again!  It is so easy to make at home, once you try it, you’ll never hesitate to make it for a weeknight meal.  You could probably put it in the thirty-minute meal category if you do a little prep the night before!  What busy household wouldn’t love that?

I made this Marsala with pork and cut my medallions from a pork tenderloin.  Those usually come in a package of two, so I cook one and freeze one.  I’ll show how to use that second loin on another day!  Use a sharp knife to cut the medallions.  I cut them at ¾ an inch thick. 

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

Pork medallions

about a half cup of chopped onion, red and green peppers

8 ounces of sliced mushrooms – you choose your favorite kind

Salt, pepper, Italian spices, flour for dredging the meat

Fresh thyme

3 Tablespoons of butter and an equal portion of olive oil

½ cup of Marsala wine

1 cup of chicken stock

This is easy to fix.  Slowly melt the butter and the olive oil in a big skillet.  Dredge the pork pieces in the flour mixed with salt, pepper and Italian spices.  Use a good Tablespoon of the spices.  Gently fry the meat in the butter/oil, turning the pieces after about 3 minutes.  When you turn the meat, add the onions, peppers and sliced mushrooms.  At this time, sprinkle fresh thyme leaves on the meat. As soon as the vegetables begin to get soft, add the wine and the chicken stock.  Let everything simmer for about 5 minutes.   It’s done!

You’ll notice that I have asparagus spears served alongside my meat.  I actually cooked those on the edge of the skillet, while everything else was simmering.  I served my Marsala with spinach/artichoke noodles.  So good.

 

Pretty Banana Brownies

If you are looking for a nice, sweet snack to take to the office or to a potluck, this is the quick recipe for you!  It is a 4 ingredient muffin, or brownie.  Call it what you like.  It fits both categories.  You start with an 18 ounce brownie mix.  Make sure you use a big mix … the kind that fills a 13 x 9 inch pan.  You are baking, however, in a cupcake tin. 

Ingredients:

1 18 ounce brownie mix

3 bananas

1/3 cup canola oil

3 eggs

Crush the bananas and mix the oil and eggs with them.  Gently fold in the brownie mix.  I like to add about a half cup of chunks of walnuts.

Fill muffin cups half to 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.  Test them with a pick, but you want the center to be a little sticky.  Don’t overbake them and remember that the time required depends on how full the cups are.

Let the brownies cool.  You can leave the brownies in the paper cups and add the icing and chopped nuts to the top.  When I want to serve them in a prettier way, I remove them and place them upside down on a platter.  Then I drizzle the icing over them and sprinkle on chopped nuts.  The icing is simply powdered sugar, a dash of vanilla extract and a little milk or cream.  Thick is better!

There are lots of ways to make this recipe your own.  If you want the banana flavor to be prominent, add banana extract to  the icing.  Coffee extract changes it even more and you can top it with chocolate coated coffee bean.  Pecans instead of walnuts … are perfect.  Butter pecan flavoring in the icing tops that off.  The inclusion of bananas makes the brownies more moist than ever.

These are delicious and fit the bill for this time of year when we need great taste, a great look, but have just a little time.  Enjoy!

 

Fritters and Patties!

My daughter makes incredibly delicious pork fritters, the German way!  She pounds the pork tenderloin meat into a nearly plate sized piece of meat, double dredges it in four, egg and breadcrumbs …  and flavors it with her own blend of spices.  I don’t go to that much trouble, but what I have recently learned from her is that the meat is much more delicious if you spread it with prepared horseradish and grainy mustard before you dip it the first time.  For me, the first dip is in an egg wash.  Then I dredge it in seasoned breadcrumbs.  I season plain breadcrumbs with dried parsley flakes, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper. I use thin slice pork tenderloin, often sold as boneless breakfast chops.  I pan fry my fritters in a little bit of canola oil.

On this day, it is what I did in the remaining oil that was more delicious than the pork fritters.  Earlier in the week, I had baked a couple medium sized sweet potatoes.  I had one for dinner and stuck the second one in the fridge.  I needed to use it.  I made sweet potato patties!  Or is it a sweet potato fritter?  The difference is simple.  Fritters are made with shredded raw potatoes.  Patties are made with cooked mashed potatoes.  In this case, a mashed sweet potato.

These are really too simple, but the must have ingredient is Pampered Chef’s three onion rub.  I use it as a seasoning blend on and in many things, but I don’t think this recipe would be the same without it.

Peel and mash a medium sized baked sweet potato.  Add one egg, a half teaspoon of salt and one Tablespoon of the three onion blend.  Mix it well.  Use a cookie scoop and drop balls of the mixture into the seasoned breadcrumbs.  (Important to note that these don’t have Italian seasoning in them.  Simple garlic, onion and parsley.)  Bread them all the way around and drop the balls into the pan for frying ... right in the oil left from frying the pork. Gently flatten the balls and turn them after a minute or two to brown the other side.  No additional seasoning is needed.

I served my pork fritters on buns with sweet mustard.  I added strips of a big white radish to my plate with the sweet potato patties.  This made a nice supper but would be equally delicious as breakfast or brunch with a poached egg!   Enjoy!

 

Mexican Meatball Soup

I’ve recently noticed several recipes online and on cooking shows for Mexican Meatballs. Years ago, I made them from a recipe in a New Mexico Cooperative Extension cook booklet that my brother gave me.  He raised his family in New Mexico. That recipe included raisins and said the meatballs were frequently served at wedding feasts. The recipes I was finding now did not include raisins, but the next time I make them, I’m adding them.  I think they give a deeper flavor.

My granddaughter loves chili, and she was staying with me the weekend before Halloween.  We always have a chili feast on Halloween, so knowing that … I needed to make us a soup that I was sure she would eat but was not too close to chili.  So, I reworked one of her favorites, chicken tortilla soup, and made it with beef stock and ground beef Mexican Meatballs.

This soup recipe is so simple and includes lots of canned ingredients.  It is quick to put together.  While it begins to simmer, you can make the meatballs and air fry them.  When they are done, just toss them into the simmering soup and in less than an hour, you have a delicious bowl of goodness.

Mexican Meatball Soup

1 cup of chopped onion, green and red peppers
1 quart of beef stock
2 15-ounce cans of mixed chili beans
1 15-ounce can fire roasted corn with peppers
½ cup uncooked rice
1 15-ounce can of red enchilada sauce
1 15- ounce can of fire roasted tomatoes
2 Tablespoons of tomato paste
1 can of tomatoes with chilis
1 small can of chili peppers

Season with a ½ teaspoon of  garlic paste, 1 teaspoon of chopped cilantro and ½ teaspoon of Mexican oregano.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

In a drizzle of olive oil, sauté the chopped onion and peppers until they are soft.  I keep a bag of frozen chopped onions and peppers and that makes this even easier to make.  Add everything else on the ingredient list.  Don’t drain the vegetables.  Stir it to combine, bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer.

While the soup simmers, make the Mexican Meatballs.  This, too, is a shortcut recipe.

Mexican Meatballs

1 pound ground beef
1 package of taco seasoning mix
1 can of green chilis
1 Tablespoon dried minced onion
1 egg and ½ cup of dried breadcrumbs
¼ cup of chopped fresh cilantro

Mix all the meatball ingredients together.  Use a small cookie scoop and portion out the meatballs.  With wet hands, roll the meatballs until they are firm.  Cook the meatballs in your air fryer.  I cooked them at 370 degrees for about 8 minutes.  Watch them because every air fryer seems to be different, and you don’t want to burn them.

When they are done, gently drop them into the soup pot and let it simmer for another 30 minutes.  You are done!  Delicious soup that is great topped with shredded cheese, corn chips or salt crackers.  It is a wonderful meal served with warm cornbread.

Potato & Crab Chowder

I’m doing a good job making my little batches of soup. I’m learning that when you cut recipes down, you don’t have to use absolutely all the original ingredients.  This recipe is an amended version of Potato Seafood Chowder.  “Seafood” became just crabmeat. The original version had shrimp, oysters, crabmeat and scallops in it.  The original version also calls for seafood stock or a bottle of clam juice.  I substituted those flavors by adding a teaspoon of Ranch Dressing mix.  Different flavors, but I didn’t miss the seafood stock.  There are so many spice blends available now.  When I started cooking 45 years ago, we had to stock all kinds of dry herbs to make our own blends.  Cooking from scratch has become much easier and that’s a good thing.  Young families don’t have time to cook like at home moms of the 1960s did.  Use whatever makes your job easier.

I’ve been thinking a lot about a fall vacation my husband and I took years ago.  We had scheduled an October vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC months in advance.  Then Hurricane Ophelia started her way up the east coast.  We hesitated.  We cancelled.  We changed our minds when the hurricane just swirled off the cost, and we rescheduled.  Off we went and as soon as we reached Myrtle Beach we loaded up on fresh seafood and groceries.  We figured we would be ‘stranded’ in our corner suite for a few days.  That is exactly what happened.  We cooked, ate, and enjoyed watching the storm from our 6^th floor ... floor to ceiling windows.

This chowder is a simple reminder of that exciting vacation.  I enjoyed my chowder with a couple slices of orange infused beer bread.  I love the Pampered Chef beer bread mix.  I made it using orange LaCroix,  and a Tablespoon of orange infused olive oil.  I added 1/3 cup of Feta cheese chunks. I baked in three small bread pans so I could easily store portions. The truth is, I love it too much so I have to hide a portion for later.   So delicious and so easy.

Potato Crab Chowder

1 big Idaho potato, peeled and chopped

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 ½ cups water

a sprinkle of onion powder

1 teaspoon Ranch Dressing Mix

½ teaspoon celery flakes

½ teaspoon parsley flakes

1 cup of frozen corn kernels

1 small can of crabmeat

1 ½ cups Half and Half

Thicken with instant mashed potato flakes

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a crock pot and cook on high until the potatoes are done.  Add the corn and 30 minutes later add the crabmeat and Half and Half.  Stir in instant mashed potatoes a Tablespoon at a time until the chowder reaches the desired thickness.  Add a generous sprinkle of black pepper and a little salt before serving.

 

 

 

 

Gnocchi Soup

I’ve decided to try some new soup recipes as I teach myself to convert recipes to small batches.  As I’ve written before, I love soup … once.  I don’t want leftovers and I don’t want to fill the freezer with little containers that never get used!  I’m looking for a nice Saturday supper and a weekday lunch that I can take to my office and heat in the microwave. Nothing more.

I’m happy to use my 1.5 quart crockpot to make Saturday soups.  It is the perfect size and forces me to make a little batch.  I almost always have small portions of cooked chicken in my freezer.  Those are little packages that I tolerate! 

Gnocchi Soup

To make this soup, add the following ingredients together in the crock pot and cook on high for 2 hours:

4 cups of chicken broth

1 cup of these vegetables all combined – chopped onion, celery, red pepper, broccoli and carrot

½ cup chopped cooked chicken

¼ teaspoon of dried thyme

A dash of dry mustard, a dash of pepper and a dash of salt

After this has cooked for 2 hours, add about 4 ounces of miniature potato gnocchi and cook on low for another 30 minutes.  The gnocchi is precooked, so you are really just heating it through. It will thicken the soup a little.

Stir in a Tablespoon of butter and serve.

 

Soup has always been a part of fall and winter weekend life for me.  My mother always had a pot of vegetable soup and sometimes a second pot of chili ready for lunch on Saturdays.  This was after the family had a big early breakfast and left the house for any of a variety of projects.  My brothers and my dad knew that a big warm bowl was waiting for them at lunchtime.  Dinner, or supper as we called it, was usually on the lighter side, but always included a delicious piece of pie or cake.  Mother baked on Saturdays for her big Sunday dinner.  We always had something to sample on Saturday evening.

I carried on this tradition when I was making my own household.  Soups or chili seemed to be the foundation for college football weekends, local festival parades and antique shopping jaunts.  We always returned home to that warm bowl!

Today, one of my brothers can duplicate our mother’s vegetable soup.  He cans his own tomatoes and for years has raised a nice vegetable garden.  My chili is as good as Mama’s, but it is really made from my husband’s recipe! What remains the same is that whenever we make either, they warm our souls as we sit together around the table.

German Creamy Brussels Sprout Soup

I enjoy a bowl of soup on a cool weekend, but it has taken me ten years to get to the point of making small batches for my empty nest.  I’ve converted this recipe over the years and have simplified it so it is easily cooked and easily cut in half, so I don’t have leftovers for a week.  Speaking of leftovers, though, you can make this soup using leftover vegetables prepared for another meal.  Just reduce the cooking time by an hour.  You can also use chicken or vegetable broth instead of beef broth.

I first had this soup in a German restaurant in Chicago.  I studied the ingredients and came home and made it.  I don’t know how “German” it really is, but I enjoy calling it that.  It is delicious served with warm rye bread, but this time I just made a box of cheddar biscuits to have with it.

 

Creamy German Brussels Sprout Soup

2 cups brussels sprouts halved

2 cups cubed potatoes

2 cups carrots, sliced or cubed

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp marjoram

4 cups beef stock

2 cups half and half

Salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg

½ cup chopped fresh parsley

This crock pot soup is so easy.  Add the vegetables, beef stock, onion power and marjoram to the crock pot.  Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.  Add the half and half and cook another hour.  Add the salt and pepper to taste, and finish with a pinch of ground nutmeg.  Stir in the fresh parsley.

If the soup isn’t thick enough, add mashed potato flakes  by the spoonful until it reaches the thickness you desire.