Baked Potato Soup

This is another one of my Mom's recipes, so good :)

BAKED POTATO SOUP

4 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed
12 slices of bacon (drained & crumbled), or 8oz of small cubed ham
4 green onions, chopped, or 2 tsp of dried chives
1/3 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup all purpose flour
7 cups milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
6oz shredded cheddar cheese
6oz Velveeta, cubed
1 cup sour cream

In a stock pot or dutch oven, melt the margarine over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in milk, whisking constantly until thickened. Stir in potatoes and onions. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Mix in bacon, cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.

in the cupboard chicken & veggie soup

Tonight I had zero motivation to make dinner. But my Dad was feeling really crappy yesterday so I needed to cook him something. I was thinking along the lines of soup, my husband wanted baked mac & cheese (as the meal, nothing else). When I'm sick I don't really want a bunch of mac & cheese. So soup it is. While standing in front of my stash of canned goods in the storage room in the basement I saw the alphabet pasta I'd bought at Meijer awhile ago. On the back of the box was a basic recipe for alphabet soup.



I tweaked it to what I had on hand.

Chicken & Veggie Alphabet Soup

8oz Meijer Alphabets (or other similar small pasta)
~1 lb cooked chicken breast, diced into bite sized pieces (Costco has frozen grilled chicken strips i like to buy & freeze for soups & casseroles)
46oz bottle reduced sodium V8
14oz can chicken broth
3-4 cups water
2 chicken bouillons
1 tsp basil leaves
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 tsp garlic pepper
1 tsp minced onion
1 tsp celery flakes

Threw everything but the pasta in the pot and brought to a boil and am now doing the simmer for 30 min bit. Then will do the cook pasta for about 10 minutes and may throw some parm cheese on, jury is still out there :)

So far it smells good :)

Hamburger Soup

Realized I hadn't shared Mom's Hamburger Soup recipe when I went to link it to my previous post. It's a super basic soup, can have elements changed to suit your tastes or what you have on hand. For example, tonight I didn't have shredded carrots so I just put a 32oz bag of frozen mixed veggies (corn, peas, carrots, green beans) in instead of the 2cups carrots and 16oz of peas & corn. In fact I usually cook it that way ;) and increase the barley by at least 1/4 cup and add a little more water and add garlic pepper.

caution: huge batch of soup, need a large pot.

HAMBURGER SOUP

2lb ground turkey or sirloin, browned/drained
2 Tbsp dried minced onion
1 46oz bottle low sodium V-8 juice
4 cans cream of celery soup
2 cups water
1/4 tsp marjoram
2 cups grated carrots
8oz frozen corn
8oz frozen peas
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup of uncooked barley

Combine all ingredients in large soup pot, bring to a boil. Simmer 2 hours. More barley may be added to make it thicker. Can also be cooked in a (very large) crock pot all day.

Mmmm Minestrone

Hungry girl promises its good, we'll see, I love the Olive Garden's minestrone. Probably not too authentic, but I'm 0% Italian so you can fool me. I'm using chicken broth and ditalini pasta since it's what I have, and northern beans since I couldn't find canellini and throwing in some corn & celery. I'm living dangerously. Going to have some foccacia and salad with it :) should be pretty tasty, and Dad won't care that its meatless and my veggie-adverse husband will be out of town. Should be something good and healthy to freeze for my grandparents too. Haven't been freezing latley since they don't handle spicy well.

Here's the recipe, for those of you who don't get the HG e-mails.

Hungry Girl's Mmm-mmm Minestrone

PER SERVING (1 generous cup): 105 calories, 0.5g fat, 512mg sodium, 19.5g carbs, 4.5g fiber, 4g sugars, 5g protein -- POINTS® value 1*

Need a big pot of soup PACKED with veggies (not calories!), but don't want to spend forever chopping? This recipe is a DELICIOUS shortcut to Soupville!

Ingredients:
Two 14-oz. cans (3 1/2 cups) fat-free vegetable broth

Two 14.5-oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained

One 15-oz. can cannellini (white kidney) beans, drained and rinsed
One 10-oz. package frozen spinach, mostly thawed

1 cup frozen cut green beans

1 cup frozen peas and carrots
1 cup uncooked whole-wheat-blend rotini or penne pasta
1 tbsp. dried minced onion 

2 tsp. chopped garlic

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 bay leaf

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large pot on the stove. Add 1 cup water and stir it up. Cover and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and allow soup to simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve!

MAKES 10 SERVINGS

two new recipes I'll be trying this week

This will be Wednesday's dinner, Chicken & Wild Rice soup. I have some roasted chicken frozen I need to use up and it sounded good. :)

This one is one of the infamous weightwatchers-friendly crockpot recipes from the big file that circulates the internet. I'm making this tomorrow while I'm at my all day quilting class. Good way to use up leftover ham I had frozen too.

Corn, Ham and Potato Scallop

6 cups peeled baking potatoes -- cut in 1" cubes
1 1/2 cups cubed cooked ham
1 15.25oz. can Green Giant Whole Kernel Sweet Corn -- drained
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 teaspoons instant minced onion
1 10 3/4oz.can condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

In 3 1/2 to 4-quart Crock-Pot slow cooker, combine potatoes, ham, corn, bell pepper and onion; mix well. In small bowl, combine soup, milk and flour; beat with wire whisk until smooth. Pour soup mixture over potato mixture; stir gently to mix. Cover; cook on low setting for 7-9 hours or until potatoes are tender.

Info: Potatoes cook more quickly when cut into small pieces; cubed potatoes will cook faster than quartered potatoes. The 1-inch chunks of potato in our recipe work well as they do not get too soft during the long cooking time. Also, leftover cooked roast beef or turkey can be used in place of the ham.

6(1 1/2-cup)servings. Per serving: Cal 320; Total fat 7g; (sat 4g); Choles 30mg; Sod 1010mg; Total Carbs 49g; Fiber 5g; Sugars 6g; Pro 14g. POINTS: 6

another good fall soup

This will be sometime this week as well, another Mom recipe & one of Chris' favorites. I am trying to make up a bunch of soups to freeze for my Dad's next trip out to see my Grandparents. Plus its fall, so I can finally make them again :) soups aren't too summer-friendly.

KANSAS CITY STEAK SOUP

1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup butter
64 oz beef broth
frozen peas
1/2 cup matchstick carrots
frozen corn
1/2 cup diced celery
1-1/2 teaspoons ground pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
barley
1-1/2 lbs. beef stew meat
3 medium potatoes, diced

Treat soup pan with non-stick spray. Brown meat until cooked through; drain off fat and put aside. Sauté vegetables and garlic until limp; whisk in flour to form roux. Slowly add beef broth and cook, whisking until thickened. Add the remaining ingredients except for frozen veggies. Simmer until barley is cooked, approximately 1 hour. Add frozen veggies. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes or until they are heated through. Serve with crusty bread and salad.

French Onion Soup

This will be Thursday or Friday's dinner once Chris is home, with a salad and some crusty bread :) another of Mom's recipes, this one is a favorite. Have never had it in a recipe as good as this is, restaurants seem to make it too salty, this is just right. You'll need soup bowls that are oven-proof (under a broiler) I have these, Mom had something similar.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

1 large onion (yellow or white), sliced thinly
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp sugar
dash salt
dash pepper
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp basil
1 quart beef consommé
1 cup dry red wine
1 Tbsp cognac
large cut croutons
Grated mozzarella cheese
grated Parmesan cheese

Over medium high heat, sauté onion slices in butter until limp. Add flour, salt, pepper, garlic, and sugar. Continue cooking until onions are golden brown. Add consommé, thyme, parsley, basil, and wine. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for at least 45 minutes. Add cognac.

Place croutons in oven-proof bowls. Sprinkle cheeses over croutons. Ladle soup into oven safe bowls. Add more cheese as desired. Place under low broiler (or in 500F oven) until cheese melts and soup bubbles. Carefully remove from oven and enjoy.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I don't have a recipe exactly for this one, I change it to suit my moods. I made that roasted chicken last week then Kathleen and I promptly got sick and the leftovers were frozen until I felt like standing to cook. Today I decided to make some chicken noodle soup. Here are the basics, your mileage may vary.

Chicken Noodle Soup

2 cartons Swansons chicken broth (2 - 32oz cartons)
2-4 cups water or you can add more broth, I usually water it down a bit to make it not so thick after I get all the stuff in it because I over veggie it.
veggies of choice. I used half a big frozen bag of my standard peas/corn/carrots/green beans mix.
If I have it I throw in celery, I didn't today so I threw in about 1/4 tsp celery seed
2 cups shredded or cut up leftover chicken
1-2 cups egg noodles (or I have used kluski noodles) I don't measure I just put a few handfuls in
ground black pepper

Today I also threw in some poultry seasoning, chives, minced onion and parsley. I throw everything but the noodles into a pot and bring to a boil until the veggies are cooked. Boil the noodles for 10 minutes in the soup and its done.

The Swanson box is not too far off from what I do, but they of course don't want you to water down their broth. :) and they only use carrots & celery

Broccoli Cheese Soup

I loved this soup but of course my husband didn't because it had the dreaded broccoli in it. He will eat broccoli smothered in cheese but apparently it was "too much broccoli" in this soup. Oh well, I will wait until he goes out of town and make it for Dad and I again. Mwahaha.

This recipe is on allrecipes so I'll just direct you over there.... Broccoli Cheese Soup you can feel free to use my suggestions below or make it as is ;)

I added "matchstick" carrots and frozen corn to the broccoli when cooking in the broth. Then added ham cubes when I added the milk/garlic powder. I also didn't have enough velveeta last time I made it so I only used about 1/2 pound of that and 1 1/2 c of shredded cheddar. The people that bitch about the onion probably don't know about the small (slightly larger than a golfball) cooking onions. If you use like a yellow onion you'd have way too much. I also didn't think the garlic powder was too much, but I like garlic and had the other veggies/ham/cheese flavors in there.