Creamy Soup

Most everyone loves a creamy soup. But usually when it's creamy, that translates to extra calories. I set out to make a creamy soup with the "cream". The reason it's called Creamy Soup is that you can do Creamy Potato Soup, Creamy Mushroom Soup, Creamy Broccoli Soup, or all of the above. I prefer recipes where I can add my own ingredients.

Creamy Soup = 2 cups chicken (or other) broth + 2 cups milk (I prefer Vitamin D milk)

Now that you have the base for the soup, you can jazz it up!!

Creamy Potato Mushroom Soup
Ingredients:
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth (or broth of your choice)
1 onion chopped
2 slices of bacon
3 potatoes (diced)
3 shittake mushrooms chopped (or mushrooms of your choice)
1/2 tsp pepper
some broccoli (optional)

Directions: 
Grab a medium sized pot. Cook two slices of bacon (I used lean Turkey Bacon). Remove from heat. Cut the cooked bacon into small pieces and throw it back into the pot. With the bacon drippings, add the chopped onions to sautee to soften. Add chicken broth and milk.

Add all the vegetables you desire. In my case, it was potatoes, mushrooms, and broccoli (since I had leftovers). Add some pepper. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes. You can whip up this soup in less than half an hour.

Creamy soup without the cream...err...fat. The bacon made the soup so much more fragrant.

Enjoy!!

The Versatility of Chopped Vegetables

Namely, onions.

Red, yellow, white onions add amazing fragrance and flavor to dishes. Usually, I go with red or yellow. Then I dice the onions. Heat (Medium Heat) up about a tablespoon (or two) of oil (olive or grapeseed) in a pan. Throw the diced onions in and stir with a wooden spoon. I read that you are supposed to cook with a wooden spoon and serve with a metal one. The reason you cook with the wooden spoon is to protect your pots and pans from scratches. It takes about five minutes.

After you have translucent diced onions, you can add garlic. Do not add garlic too early or else it will burn.

That should make many of your dishes more flavorful.  ONIONS and GARLIC.  Mmm...the house will smell wonderful!!

What I like to do is add other veggies too. In this photo, diced italian squash and mushrooms are in the onion-garlic mix. (Add bell peppers for more color and vitamin C. In this case, I already diced enough and decided to save the bell pepper for a dish the next day.)

I was making my pasta sauce chunkier.  All I do after is pour the pasta sauce of my choice.

Sure, the label claims that it is "Chunky" but I make mine much chunkier. I feel that it isn't worth making my own red pasta sauce since the cost of the ingredients and amount of time and effort would be much more than grabbing it at the store since I usually buy mine for $1 in bulk when it is on sale. Make sure when you buy sauces from jars that there are no artificial flavors. *Didn't take a photo of the chunky pasta sauce.* I was too hungry.

With the diced sauteed vegetables, not only could you make it part of your pasta sauce.. You can also add the mixture to an omelette, casserole, crepe, enchilada, mapo tofu, etc. The possibilities are endless.

ONIONS and GARLIC are your friends!!

TIP: Making your own minced garlic.
After you peel the garlic (or just buy peeled garlic), place it in a mini blender. Pulse a little to create minced garlic. Keep it refrigerated in a glass jar.  Whenever you need it, it is in the jar instead of having to do all the work every time you cook. ;)

p.s. Happy Pi (3.14) Day!!!

Quinoa!! Try it tonight!

In the last post, I made a quinoa meatloaf.  I have a love affair with quinoa, my favorite grain!!  This protein rich grain is my substitute when I want to switch up my brown rice.  It's hearty with a fluffy texture similar to that of couscous.  The simplest way to make quinoa is to use a rice cooker (You may also cook on the stove top).

Simple Quinoa (Healthier at half the sodium; most recipes call for 2 cups of broth)
Prep Time: 2 min        Cook Time: 20 min
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa (1/2 cup of dry quinoa yields 2 cups cooked quinoa)
1 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1 cup water
*Note: Quinoa can also be cooked with 2 cups of water but I like to cut sodium.

Directions:
Put all ingredients into the rice cooker.  Press start.  Then you have time to prep the rest of your meal.

When cooking brown rice, quinoa, or barley/bean grains, the ratio of water to grain is 2:1.  *Places like Whole Foods don't do justice for grains like brown rice.  If your only experience with brown rice is from Whole Foods (prepared foods section), you need to try it again when it is cooked correctly.  They don't add enough liquid which causes it to be dry.  I have written comments to them but I don't know if they took my advice.*  For example, if you wanted to make 2 cups of quinoa, you would need 4 cups of liquid.  The reason I mix water and chicken broth is because I am like to limit the sodium intake of my food.  Halt the salt is very important.  *Typically a can of chicken broth contains 40% of your daily value of sodium!!*

If you want to make your quinoa more interesting, you can chop 1/2 a cup of onions and 1/4 cup of pine nuts.  In a medium saucepan, heat some olive oil. add chopped onions(I used red onions) and carmelize by stirring (about 5 minutes).  Add the pine nuts to toast them.  After the pine nuts are slightly toasted, put the cooked quinoa in the pan.  Stir to mix.

Enjoy!!!  =)