Chicken Wild Rice Soup with Portebella Mushrooms

Soup has become a thing at my house. Every Sunday I make atleast 2 large pots of soup and put them in the refrigerator so that I have fresh healthy lunches during the week or if I have a late night getting home from yoga or grocery shopping its nice to have something to warm up and eat without a lot of effort. Its amazing how fast an evening can disappear!

Chicken Wild Rice Soup with Portebella Mushrooms

3 cups celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped
2 cups portabella mushrooms, cubed
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dry wine
1/4 cup flour
2 cups cooked wild rice
6 cups chicken stock
3 cups diced cooked chicken
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt, to taste
cracked black pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium high heat. Add celery, onion, and carrots and saute for 10 minutes until onions are translucent, stirring in the mushrooms with 5 minutes cooking time remaining. Add garlic and stir into the other vegetables. Stir in white wine. If you don't want to add wine to your soup, simply replace with additional chicken stock. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and cook for 3 minutes. Then stir in wild rice and chicken stock. Cover pot and simmer over medium low heat until vegetables are tender. Then stir in chicken, milk and cream and season with salt and pepper to taste, continuing to simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve with fresh baked bread and Enjoy!!

Minestrone

Mmmm.....Soup good enough to warm your soul when the fall winds start whipping. This soup has everything good going on. Its hearty, healthy, filling and plain scrumptious! Make a big pot today and enjoy!

Minestrone
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 onions, chopped
2 cups chopped celery
5 carrots, sliced
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
4 cups tomato sauce
1 cup canned kidney beans, drained
2 cups fresh green beans, sliced into 1" chunks
2 cups baby spinach, rinsed
3 zucchinis, quartered and sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup fun shaped pasta, cooked
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Heat a large stock pot over medium low heat. Add oil and saute garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add onion and continue to saute for an additional 3 minutes. Add celery, carrots and cook for another 2 minutes. Total saute time is about 8 minutes. Vegetables should still be somewhat crisp.
Add chicken broth, water and tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Then add kidney beans, green beans, spinach leaves, zucchini, oregano, basil and salt and pepper. Simmer for atleast 40 minutes until veggies are tender and all the nummy flavors have fused together.
Stir in cooked pasta.
Serve soup topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese and your favorite bread.

Borscht

Fall has settled into the air...the days have been cool and rainy. The air is crisp and feels great at 6 am while I'm out on an early morning run. Yesterday there was even scattered light patches of frost on the grass. You know what that means? I spent the entire day dicing vegetables for my favorite soups and kneaded bread dough the rest of the day for some homemade soup and bread. My house smelt devine all day today. Simmering vegetables and fresh baked bread is enough to make me float around my house all day wearing a smile. Not even the mountain of laundry is a match for the good mood that fresh soup and bread puts me in.

Borscht

8 cups beef broth*
1 pound slice of meaty bone-in beef (I used a serlion steak)
1 large onion, peeled, roughly chopped
4 large beets, peeled, diced into 1/2" cubes
4 carrots, peeled, chopped
2 large russet potato, peeled, diced into 1/2" cubes
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage
3/4 cup chopped fresh dill
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

*Use gluten-free broth if you are cooking gluten-free

In your stock pot, add 4 cups beef broth and bring to a boil. Season steak with salt and pepper. Add onion and steak to the beef broth. Cover pot and boil until steak is tender, 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.

When meat is cooked and tender, transfer to your cutting board and dice into desired size...bite size works best. Spoon any fat from broth that has floated to top and return meat to broth.

Add remaining 4 cups of broth, beets, carrots and potatoes. Bring to a boil,then reduce heat, cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender...about 30 minutes.

When vegetables are tender, add shredded cabbage and 1/2 cup of the dill. Continue to simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in vinegar.

Ladle soup into bowls and serve with a scoop of sour cream and additional dill.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Potato Soup

It is really amazing how quickly this Potato Soup comes together. It really is perfect for a weeknight meal when you need some wholesome comfort food. Usually when its been a particularly hectic week where I haven't been able to get into the kitchen long enough to make what I would qualify as a "real" meal, I always make a big batch of soup.

You can make it super creamy by using heavy cream or half and half in the recipe, or depending on your current diet, use skim milk like me. This recipe is very forgiving when it comes to the type of dairy you decide to use. I've had no problems at all with it thickening adequately with skim milk.

Cheesy Potato Soup

4-5 medium potatoes
1 stick butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, minced
1/2 c flour
2 quarts milk
2 tbsp dried parsley flakes
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup grated cheddar/monteray jack cheese
bacon, crumbled for topping
cheese for topping

Peel and cube potatoes. Cover with water and boil until tender. Make a rue by melting the stick of butter in a large soup pot. Add minced onion and garlic and saute until tender and translucent. Add flour and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes. Using a whisk, stir in the milk. Continue to stir every few minutes until mix begins to thicken. When potatoes are tender, drain and add to soup base. Stir in seasonings and cheese. Heat until soup is bubbly and thick.

Serve with crumbled bacon and cheese on top.

White Chili

I absolutely love anything that can be made in large quantities and frozen for a later date, at which I am so exhausted that I can't bear to look in my kitchen's direction. This chili is it! The recipe is from The Pioneer Woman and boy is it good! And it makes a ton...enough for a heaping bowl for the family at dinner time and then freeze the rest for later. I can't say my husband loves this approach as much as I do, because of course he'd much rather have fresh made food everyday, but he's not the one standing in the kitchen either.
A while back I found these plastic canning "jars" made by Ball. I think they are more for like freezer jams, but they hold 8 ounces each (a just right serving size) with a plastic lid that screws on and they work perfect for freezing soups and hot dishes. My freezer is full with them. I'm all about making it easy!

Speaking of making it easy...I made my chili with leftover turkey from Easter. I love cooking turkeys too...I can get about 4 meals out of them!

White Chili

• 1 whole Fryer Chicken, Cut Up (or 3 Cups Cooked Chicken)
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 4 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 2 whole Cans Green Chilies, Chopped
• 1 pound Dried Great Northern Beans, Rinsed
• 8 cups Chicken Broth
• 1 whole Jalapeno, Sliced
• 1-½ Tablespoon Ground Cumin
• ½ teaspoons Paprika
• ½ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
• Salt To Taste
• White Pepper, To Taste
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Masa (corn Flour) OR Cornmeal
• Grated Monterey Jack, To Taste
• Sour Cream For Garnish
• Cilantro For Garnish
• Guacamole (optional)
• Pico De Gallo (optional)
• Corn Tortillas (warmed)

Preparation Instructions

Cover chicken and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until done. Remove meat from bones. Set aside.

In a dutch oven over medium-high heat, saute onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Add chopped green chilies, then rinsed beans. Pour chicken broth into the pan. Add sliced jalapenos. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Place lid on pot and reduce heat to low.

Cook for 2 hours or until beans are done. Halfway through the cooking process, add 3 cups of cooked chicken.

When beans are tender, mix milk with masa (or cornmeal) and pour into the chili. Cook for an additional ten minutes to thicken. Check seasoning and adjust, adding cayenne pepper and paprika if desired.

Add some Monterey Jack cheese to the pot and stir to melt.

Serve chili in a bowl. Garnish with cilantro, sour cream, extra cheese—even pico de gallo and guacamole, if you have some on hand. Roll up warm corn tortillas and serve on the side of the bowl.

Hamburger Soup

Saturday was one of those awful early Spring days where the prior week had been gorgeous outside and the kids were running around all week outdoors and playing with all the toys that had been locked up in the garage all winter long...and then in the blink of an eye Saturday was cold and rainy and we were all locked up inside again. The kids sat at the window, asking to go out and ride their bikes and all I could think of was curling up in a blanket and hiding until the sun came out again. That's the thing about kids though, they are immune to the temperature outside. Whether it is 100 degrees or -10 degrees, they don't care! All they care about is being able to exert all that energy they build up in their sleep.
So at lunch time I pulled myself from the comfort of my blanket to make some comfort in a bowl! Hamburger soup I think is basically spaghetti in a bowl. With spaghetti being my favorite food...I sneak into our weekly menu any way I can.

Hamburger Soup

1 tbls olive oil
1 whole medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 whole carrots, thinly sliced
1 pound ground beef
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbls dried basil
1 tbls dried parsley
1 tbls dried oregano
2 quarts canned tomatoes
1 tbls beef bouillon
2-4 cups water, depending on how thin you'd like it
2 cups small noodles

heat oil in large stock pot. Add onion, garlic, celery and carrots. Sauté for a few minutes until veggies are tender-crisp and then add the ground beef. Begin to brown beef and then add salt, pepper, basil, parsley, and oregano. Cook until beef is brown and then add stewed tomatoes, beef broth and water.
Bring to boil and let cook for 5-10 minutes over medium heat. Skim grease from top and let cook another 5 minutes.
Add noodles.
Let cook until noodles are tender. Serve with warm bread.