Posts tagged “Soup”

Magic-Making, Cookie-Baking, and Small Business-Loving: It’s my Holiday Recipes 2024 list!

Posted on December 26, 2024

As I promised on my social media feeds, here are some of the successful recipes I tried this holiday season. I hope all of you had or are having a restorative, peaceful and joy-filled Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and end-of-year season. First up: Love and Lemons Broccoli Cheddar Soup (with homemade croutons)Notes: If your kids are like mine and detest cooked carrots (Raw is fine, but cooked? Blasphemy!), you may want to blend your soup in the blender like I did to hide the fact that there are, indeed, cooked carrots in this soup. And guess what? It was a hit with the 13-year-old cooked carrot hater. That’s a big win., Next up: Alexandra’s Kitchen’s No-Knead Buttermilk Pull-Apart RollsNotes: I am a total fan…

Categories: Recipes, Uncategorized

Freestyle Soup and a Little Love

Posted on October 27, 2024

I am getting so good at soups. There. I said it. I am a soup machine these days. And, I’m doing them all on my own without recipes. Don’t mind me, I’m just over here layering and building flavors with things I have on hand. I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF. I’m calling this soup, “Roasted Heirloom Tomato and Garlicky Beef Rice Soup.” So creative, I know. There is only one way to tell you how I did it and it is called FREESTYLE. Throw in a little of this, a little of that, and close that recipe book. Build those flavors, people. Let’s freestyle together, shall we? I had 6 or 7 Jones Valley Teaching Farm green tomatoes that ripened on my kitchen…

Categories: Community, Jones Valley Teaching Farm, Recipes

Tagged: Beef, DInner, Fall recipes, Food, Inspiration, Love, Ms Edna Lewis Sour Milk Cornbread, Nourishment, Recipe, recipes, Rice, Soup, Tomato

Southern Soup Will It Snow Cozy Comfort Recipes Day

Posted on January 14, 2024

It’s Sunday and you know what that means…meal preppity prep prep day. I have no idea why I just called it that. Let’s quickly move on, shall we?

Okay first things first: I totally messed up my back last year. It’s a long (kind-of) story. Seems I was on the road to messing up my back due to the aging process and some disc stuff, then I had an injury (yes, I fell down a flight of stairs at an Airbnb), and then ignoring all of that and proceeding to exercise 4 times a week without knowing what my core was. Whatevs. When you know better, you do better and thank goodness last year (and continuing on this year) two incredible women (Emily with Thrive Physical Therapy and Wellness and Linay with Steel City Pilates) came into my life like fairy dust and have helped me reconnect with and understand my body. What does this have to do with meal prep on Sundays? Well, I found that I’d do all of this wonderful body work during the week and then undo all of it on Sundays because I’d stand for 4 hours without paying any attention to my core and now I’m doing better. Okay, okay…TODAY I’m doing better (because Linay helped me see all of this last week). So for all you folks out there battling the aging discs, aching joints, and everything in between – be careful on your meal prep days because the damage can sneak up on you fast.

Second thing: There’s talk of snow, ice, freezing drizzle, freezing rain, sleet, or the potential to just be cold. That’s how winter weather goes in Alabama. I’ve already warned the kids and they are like, “Sure, Sure…we’ll see about all that.” Blargh. I refuse to lose the “it might snow” hope that was instilled in my little Southern baby heart many (many, many) years ago. Yes, I realize that I’m only setting myself up for disappointment, but I am Southern. I WILL ALWAYS HOPE FOR SNOW.

Today’s meal prep is going to be all about soups! I mean, why not? IT MIGHT SNOW FOR GOODNESS SAKES.

First up is the Minimalist Baker’s Creamy Tuscan White Bean & Kale (I used Spinach) Soup with her homemade croutons. I followed the recipe (mostly) and am really pleased with the outcome. A few things to note: if you use a larger can of diced tomatoes because you didn’t have anything smaller, just add more coconut milk at the end. Also, you should ALWAYS make the homemade croutons. For anything. Not just this soup. I mean, why don’t I do this more often? I could eat the entire tray. But, I won’t. I mean, I think I won’t.

Second, is Crack Chicken Soup by The Recipe Critic. I guess it is called crack soup because it starts with bacon, includes a ranch dressing pack, and ends with cheese? I don’t know why we have to associate those delicious things with crack, but I’ll go along. I needed another soup to balance out the vegetarian soup featured before this one. Okay and fine…I figured if I used all of those ingredients my kids would indulge me. I decided to do it in the Instant Pot while the other soup cooked on the stove. This soup is good. Very good. You should try it.

Last recipe today is Alison Roman’s Pumpkin Maple Muffins. I was scrolling my way through Instagram and stumbled upon Jennifer Garner making these. God, I love Jennifer Garner. Don’t you? Here’s the video should you need proof of how great she is. Also, I want those leg warmer thingies she’s wearing. Okay, back to the recipe. I made this as written UNTIL I noticed that my canned pumpkin expired in 2021. Whoopsie-daisy. How does that even happen? Maybe that’s indicative of how much I use pumpkin in my life. So, I put all of the wet ingredients together (even down to the browned butter part, which was supposed to go in after I added the dry ingredients) and waited patiently for my Shipt grocery order to arrive with the canned pumpkin. Then I just added the pumpkin, mixed in the dry ingredients, and guess what? All worked out splendidly. In Jenn’s video (see how I just pretended we were BFF?), she ended up having to make a bunch of small muffins with the leftover batter. I just waited until the first batch was done and made 5 additional big muffins. These are delicious and I’ve already had two today. No shame. The end.

That’s it for today because I’m trying to be thoughtful with this back of mine. Hope you are having a great weekend. Now, I’ll just go and obsessively watch the weather. Bye!

Categories: Instant Pot, meal prep, Recipes, Uncategorized

Tagged: Alabama, Alison Roman, Cooking, cozy, Food, Jennifer Garner, Minimalist Baker, Recipe, recipes, self care, snow, Soup, Southern, Steel City Pilates, The Recipe Critic, Thrive Physical Therapy and Wellness, Vegetarian

3-Day Weekend filled with Carnitas, Pressure Cooker Lentil Soup with Sausage, and Pancakes (Of course)

Posted on January 20, 2020

Ah. Another three-day weekend. Another realization that if we had 3-day weekends once a month, we’d all be better for it. I’ve been thinking a lot about time and energy and where we spend it throughout our jam-packed weeks. There’s something to this 3-day weekend thing. As we approach the presidential election, I’m focusing on ANY candidate that declares our country is ready to explore 3-day weekends once a month from here on out. For everyone! Universal 3-day weekends. No matter what.

Obviously, it’s not just ANY 3-day weekend. Today, we honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which is a big deal in our household. When we were deciding to name our kiddo, Martin Everitt, Dr. Martin Luther King was a huge inspiration for us. It just so happened “Martin” was also an important name on my Mom’s side of the family (in fact, my middle name is Martin). Last week, Martin Everitt informed us that he announced to his entire 2nd grade class that he was named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so I’m thankful today that my kid knows the importance of his name and all that it stands for.

With everyone home today, I have the space to do what clears my head the most: Cook.

On the menu: Homesick Texan’s Houston-Style Carnitas, Pressure Cooker Lentil Soup with Sausage, and One-Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes. Let’s do this.

First up, Homesick Texan’s Houston-Style Carnitas with full recipe linked here. These are my favorite carnitas on the planet. I’ve tried them in the Instant Pot and they were great, but there’s something about the way this cooks down on the stove that I like the best. You start off with a 3-lb Boston Butt with PLENTY of fat. In this recipe, FAT is the key. I try to cut the meat in 2-inch cubes while strategically keeping as much fat on each cube. Then you add to a pot (I highly suggest something like a Le Creuset or heavy-bottomed pan). Pour 1 cup of orange juice, 3 cups of water, and 2 tsp of salt over the meat. Bring to a boil and then turn to simmer and cook for at least two hours. After the two hours are up, crank up the heat and let the water and juice evaporate. So here’s where it gets weird (at least for me). It takes a good 45 minutes for it to boil down. You are going to think, “Is this right? This is kind of gross. Is it ready? Am I doing this right?” Just be patient. I promise it ends up perfect. You want to get it to a place where it’s starting to stick to the bottom, then you scrape up all that crust and do it OVER and OVER again. Until it looks like this:

When it’s ready, you honestly do not need anything else on it. I could eat it straight out of the pot. But if you want to dress it up, you can add carnitas to a flour tortilla, squeeze some lime, add some sour cream or avocado, and ENJOY. I promise you will never need another carnitas recipe after you do this one.

Next Up: Pressure Cooker Lentil Soup with Sausage
Okay, normally I prep as I go but in this case, I decided to prep EVERYTHING ahead of time. Remember that 3-day weekend thing I mentioned earlier? Extra time helps in the recipe department. Anyway, here’s everything prepped and ready to go:

Waaaaaay back last week (when we didn’t have three days to plan and live our lives), I forgot to harvest the kale and collards from Jones Valley Teaching Farm that I wanted to use in this recipe. HOWEVER, I remembered the half-used bag of Brussels sprouts just sitting in my fridge. Waaaaaaaay back last week, I had plans to come home and shave them, toss them with toasted walnuts, pecorino, and a pancetta vinaigrette. Did that happen? Nope. There they were all week just staring at me. As I was prepping this morning and feeling guilty about the Brussels sprouts, I decided to get rid of the guilt and just slice them very thin and pretend they are the kale and collards I forgot to harvest.

Bye Bye Bye Guilt.

Here is the final product with the Brussels sprouts, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese (also meant for that fancy Brussels sprouts dish I never got to).

Last recipe: Alexandra’s Kitchen’s One-Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes.

Listen, I am not ashamed to say this: My kids love those Eggo mini pancake thingies. I love them too because in 30 seconds flat the kids are happy. But, when you have a 3-day weekend (I sense a theme happening here, don’t you?), you can make them from scratch. Will the kids prefer the mini-Eggo ones? Yes, they will. Do you let that bother you? No. Not at all. You stand WITH CONFIDENCE that they will one day understand and appreciate HOMEMADE pancakes. One day. They will. This is what I tell myself at least.

I’ve cooked many pancakes in my life. I’m not even a big fan of pancakes, but when I was pregnant with both children, I made pancakes every weekend. I tried different recipes each weekend. Did I get gestational diabetes both times? That would be a big, fat YES, but why focus on that unfortunate part of the story?

When I tell you I’ve had every kind of pancake imaginable, it’s kind of true: Cornmeal pancakes, Egg-Whites-Whipped-In pancakes, Buttermilk pancakes, Cake-Flour pancakes, Cinnamon pancakes. All. Of. The. Pancakes. But these pancakes? The ones you’ll see below? I think they are my favorite. For real. Are they floating in butter? Yes. Does that matter? Of course not. Just eat two instead of five.

And now, for the process shots:

So there you have it. To summarize:
3-Day weekends (especially if honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.) = The Best.
Homesick Texan’s Houston-Style Carnitas = The Best.
Improvising + Removing Guilt (plus getting a really delicious soup in the end) = The Best.
One-Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes = The Best.

Have a great rest of your week,
A

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: 3-Day Weekends, Alexandra's Kitchen, Carnitas, Dr. Martin Luther King, family, food revival, Gestational Diabetes, Homesick Texan, Instant Pot, Jones Valley Teaching Farm, Life, NYTimes, One Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes, pancakes, Pressure Cooker Lentil Soup with Sausage, recipes, Soup

Winter Dinner

Posted on January 5, 2020

Time. That’s the key, y’all. I miss planning and cooking complicated and semi-fancy dinners. I miss trying out new recipes not knowing if they’ll turn out. I miss trying new recipes and being completely surprised how great they turn out. I miss my tried and true recipes. Let’s face it, I miss Ina Garten.

Reality is setting in. I know that next week when school and work start back up, we’ll be back in the routine where cooking won’t look the same when you have days off, but I’m finishing the break STRONG.

Truth is, I haven’t seen my friends this year. I’m not sure how in the world that happens, but it does and I’m sure you can relate. Last night, I had two of my dearest friends and my Mama over for dinner and I decided to throw down. Here’s the menu:

Appetizer:
Smitten Kitchen’s White Bean Soup with Crispy Kale
https://smittenkitchen.com/2019/10/white-bean-soup-with-crispy-kale/
I started on this recipe earlier in the day so that all I had to do was warm it up when it was time for dinner. It’s rather straightforward and simple, but tastes incredibly complex and delicious. We added crispy kale and pancetta and a little bit of a sour cream as toppings. Truthfully, it was great on its own. The photo below is of my leftovers: White bean soup with crispy kale AND the walnut/parmesan/olive oil mixture I used on the cabbage (see below).

Main Course:
Barefoot Contessa’s Chicken Piccata
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-piccata-recipe-1952866
There are a few recipes that you know will be good no matter what and they tend to have one common denominator: Ina Garten. I love love love her Chicken Piccata and Chicken Parmesan recipes (both are similar). I decided to do the Piccata recipe. The trick is making sure you get the chicken breasts pounded (yes, pounded) flat. The other trick (and something I’ve learned from Ina) is to mix olive oil with butter when pan frying. The lemon reduction sauce on top (as well as the cooked lemon slices) added the perfect brightness.

Sides:
Smitten Kitchen’s Roasted Cabbage with Walnuts and Parmesan
https://smittenkitchen.com/2019/11/roasted-cabbage-with-walnuts-and-parmesan/
When I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen’s website, I got excited. Sure, I could have done a salad of some sort, but I liked the idea of highlighting cabbage. First things first: Savoy cabbage is hard to find. I asked my colleagues atJones Valley Teaching Farm if any of our sites had it before trying grocery stores. Nada. Called every grocery store and they didn’t have it either. My heart was SET on this recipe, so I decided to grab a huge head of Napa Cabbage determined to make it work. I cut the cabbage horizontally in thick rounds and guess what? It worked. The only thing I’d add next time is a little sweetness (maybe balsamic?) to dress it up. Also, because it was Napa cabbage, it kind of fell apart on the plate, which was totally fine because it ended up coming together as a warm salad.

Alexandra’s Kitchen’s Roasted Acorn Squash with Maple Butter
https://alexandracooks.com/2014/10/03/roasted-acorn-squash-with-maple-butter-new-york/
So by now you can see that we have lemons featured in the chicken dish and lemons in the cabbage dish. I really needed a sweet side to round us out. I found this recipe on Alexandra’s Kitchen’s website. Pause. Do y’all follow her on Instagram? You should. Her stories and how-to videos are equal to 15 minutes of meditation. Okay back to the dish. I’ve never cooked acorn squash and was a little nervous. This couldn’t have been easier and during the meal it got the most comments. It was much easier than cooking a butternut or spaghetti squash. Embrace the acorn squash, y’all. It’s absolutely worth it.

Alexandra’s Kitchen’s No Knead Buttermilk Pull Apart Rolls
https://alexandracooks.com/2019/11/24/no-knead-buttermilk-pull-apart-rolls-overnight-or-not/
Shoooooo-wee! I was capital S-C-A-R-E-D to do these rolls. I don’t do bread. I don’t do rolls. Never have. I honestly never thought I had the patience. There were a few bumps in the road, but overall it turned out great. First bump was the yeast. I didn’t get instant yeast — I got active yeast (ugh), so I got behind in my timeline, borrowed some instant yeast from my Mom, and then just scrapped the part where the rolls were supposed to sit overnight in the fridge. See? This is the patience part that comes into play. The good news is that it all worked out in the end. I encourage you to watch her videos first before trying it out. Will you fold over the dough and perfectly separate them and round them out like she does? Nope. Not at all. Will it still work? Yep. The husband and kiddos are eating them this morning and can’t stop talking about them, so go for it. Go forth in your buttered roll confidence — you GOT this.

One other thing I wanted to share, was a book that was mentioned twice in two of these recipes. The husband checked it out from the library for me and I can’t wait to start reading it.

As the holiday break comes to an end, I’m completely aware that I may not post again until next break. It looks like the last time I posted was around the same time last year. I hope that’s not the case, but jussssssst in case, I’m sending love and light to all of you in this New Year.

Categories: Jones Valley Teaching Farm, Recipes, Uncategorized

Tagged: Acorn Squash, Alexandra Cooks, Alexandra's Kitchen, Barefoot Contessa, Cabbage, Chicken Piccata, Ina Garten, Joshua McFadden, New Year, No Knead, Rolls, Six Seasons, Smitten Kitchen, Soup, Winter

Menu Planning Survival Kit: Instant Pot + Skinnytaste

Posted on January 20, 2019

When I used to plan meals for the week, I’d be on my feet in the kitchen for at least 5 or 6 hours. Since I converted to the Instant Pot, my Sunday routine has been cut down from SIX to TWO hours. I know a lot of you may have not had luck with the Instant Pot or perhaps don’t believe the hype and that is totally okay, but I’m 100% converted. Like, Instant Pot Believer over here. Let’s jump in and see what I managed to cook in less than 2 hours this morning.

First up: Red Lentil Soup with Spinach. Publix was out of red lentils, so I just got brown and everyone survived. This was super easy and a great way to use up my Jones Valley Teaching Farm carrots. I even had enough to freeze.

While the soup was cooking, I started on this Cheesy Rotisserie Chicken Enchilada Skillet. I had left over rotisserie chicken from last week, which was perfect to use in this recipe. I used canned everything (black beans, chicken stock, and enchilada sauce). You can do you and make it from scratch if you’d like. I made it on the stove and then stuck it in the oven to finish it off.

While the Cheesy Rotisserie Chicken Enchilada Skillet was baking, I quickly cooked some ground sirloin with taco seasoning. I plan to give this to the kiddos this week because God forbid they have to eat something like chicken enchiladas or lentils.

I rounded out the morning with some meal prep for me: Boiled Eggs and Low-Fat Ranch Dressing. As you can see from all of the links above, Skinnytaste is my go-to for recipes. Look at these eggs.

Skinnytaste’s recipes are easy to follow, always delicious, can be counted via calorie-counter or Weight Watchers, and she has a treasure trove of Instant Pot recipes. She’s like the perfect guide if you are starting new this year and trying to be accountable calorie-wise and she’s especially helpful if you happened to get an Instant Pot over the holidays. Win. Win.

Wishing all of you a great start to your week.

Categories: Family, Instant Pot, Jones Valley Teaching Farm, Prioritizing Me, Recipes, Skinnytaste, Uncategorized

Tagged: boiled eggs, carrots, chicken enchilada bake, lentils, low-fat ranch, Meal Planning, meal prep, Soup

Baked Potato Soup (I promise this post is low-fat)

Posted on January 17, 2015

I’m going to pretend that my pregnant self did NOT just inhale a plate of hot wings. Instead, I’m going to post THIS tasty and low-fat Baked Potato Soup recipe. It’s a win-win for all of us: I get to remain in denial and you get to make a low-fat recipe. See how that works? I’ve talked about Skinnytaste before, so it should be no surprise that Gina is at it again. She has taught me some really valuable tricks, but my favorite one (I think) is substituting cauliflower in recipes when I can. Cauliflower can provide great texture and will absorb most any flavor. So rather than loading your potato soup with TONS of evil white starchy potatoes, you can cut it in…

Categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Comfort, family, Pregancy, recipes, Skinnytaste, Soup, Weight Watchers

Let’s just call this entry “The First Trimester”

Posted on January 4, 2015

There is a reason why I haven’t posted much in the last couple of weeks. In fact, I’m sure the title of this entry already gave my secret away. If you’ve wondered why I fell face first off of the Weight Watchers wagon and abandoned all talk about points or if you found me curled up in my office with my 3-year-old’s juice box or if you happened to see me dousing my wrists with lemon and peppermint essential oils or posting random photos of casseroles, grits, and anything that has to do with a white potato — then you probably already guessed that I might be pregnant. YOU, my friend, would be correct! Just got the news yesterday that I’m officially 13 weeks and we…

Categories: Family, Recipes, Southern

Heidi Swanson’s Chickpea Stew With Saffron, Yogurt, and Garlic

Posted on November 17, 2013

Um, that was delicious. I just finished a bowl of Heidi Swanson’s Chickpea Stew with Saffron, Yogurt, and Garlic. I found it on Food52.com, but you can also find it in Heidi’s cookbook, Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen. I didn’t stray from the original recipe too much, but I do have a few notes: * It didn’t thicken up quite as much as I thought it would (she references it should be as thick as heavy cream). I followed the directions closely, so I’m not sure what went wrong. Let’s just call it a “soup” instead of a “stew” if yours ends up like mine! * I didn’t have any vegetable broth, so I used chicken broth instead.…

Categories: Recipes

Tagged: 101 Cookbooks, Food52, Heidi Swanson, Soup, Vegetarian-ish

You Should Make This New Year Noodle Soup. Like, now. (October is kind-of like the New Year, right?)

Posted on October 5, 2013

My search for the perfect soup started a couple of weeks ago when I noticed I had some celery and onions I needed to put to use. You know, the celery that’s half frozen in the vegetable bin that you are desperate to use before it goes bad? Yep, that was me a week ago. When I’m looking for soups, I frequent a couple of “go-to” resources, one of which is always 101Cookbooks. I love Heidi Swanson’s take on vegetarian cuisine. I also really love her *favorites* list so be sure to check those out when you can. In fact, she just posted her most recent list yesterday. Ah, it is DESTINY. Anyway- back to the soup. As I searched, I found this recipe:…

Categories: Family, Recipes

Tagged: 101 Cookbooks, Inspiration, Soup, Vegetarian