Hearty White Bean Soup

Last week Ron and I went to Lake Barkley State Park in Kentucky.  We had lunch at their lodge, and everything was delicious.  One of the soups was a white bean soup.  Yesterday I tried to recreate it - with excellent results.

Hearty White Bean Soup

3 medium carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt/pepper to taste
fresh herbs (basic, parsley rosemary), chopped finely
3-4 quarts chicken stock
1 lb. dried beans (I like navy beans, but any white bean can be used.  You can also substitute canned beans)
optional: leftover ham (cubed)

Follow package directions to rinse and soak beans overnight.

In large soup pan, heat EVOO.  Add the carrots, celery and onion.  Saute until onions are translucent.  Add the chicken stock, salt/pepper, herbs, beans and ham (if desired).  Bring to a simmer and cook until the beans are tender, approximately one hour.

If the soup is too thick, you can add more chicken stock.  This recipe makes a lot.  We eat some of it at the time.  Then I put the rest in 1-quart containers and freeze for quick meals later.

I served this with a grilled cheese sandwich - and it was delicious!

Quick and Easy Chicken and Dumplings

Yesterday, RT and I flew to Georgia to visit my mother for awhile. Out of our seven siblings (of which I’m the median one) - five were there. My sister-in-law, Vicki, made a HUGE pot of chicken and dumplings. I love chicken and dumplings. It’s the ultimate comfort food, and it’s really good for you. Here’s an easy recipe for homemade chicken and dumplings.

You’ll need:

1 can refrigerated biscuit dough (If you really like dumplings, you can use 2 cans. It just depends on how much you’re making. There’s no hard and fast rule here. Vicki made such a huge pot of chicken and dumplings, she probably used five or more cans!)

chicken (a package or two of boneless chicken or a whole chicken. I usually make sure there's some dark meat in the mix because it adds so much more flavor)

chicken stock (one or two cans of chicken broth)

salt, pepper, poultry seasoning

1 onion

2 carrots

2 stalks celery

1 cup plain flour

Place the chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Add the chopped onion, grated carrot and finely chopped celery to the water. (If you happen to have bell peppers - green, yellow, or red - you can chop some of that finely to add color and flavor). Season to taste with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Simmer until the chicken is well cooked. Remove the chicken from the pot and let the chicken cool. Leave the vegetables in the pot with the liquid. Once the chicken is cool, remove the meat from the bone and cut or tear into bite size pieces. Set the chicken aside.

Place the flour in a small bowl. Open the can of biscuits and cut/break each biscuit into about 8 pieces. Put the pieces into the flour and coat well. The flour is what thickens the liquid. So use it generously.

Bring the reserved liquid to a boil. Add additional chicken stock, if desired. It depends on how much chicken and dumplings you are making. Sometimes I add a drop or two of yellow food coloring to make it “prettier.”

Once it is at a rolling boil, drop the biscuit pieces into the liquid one at a time. Stir gently to keep them from sticking to the bottom. Make sure each biscuit piece is well coated with flour before dropping it into the liquid. After it has simmered for awhile, add the chicken back to the liquid, and it’s ready to serve. Prepare a salad or vegetable, and you’ve got a perfect meal.

Zero Points Soup

I adapted this recipe from one shared at a WW meeting. One serving of this soup (1 cup) has ZERO Weight Watchers points! It is nutritious, delicious and VERY simple to make.

5-ounce package of fresh baby spinach, chopped
10-ounce pkg. grated (matchstick) carrots
2 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes
2 quarts vegetable broth
1 large onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Red pepper flakes (1/4 tsp – 2 tsp depending on how spicy you like it)

Dump all the ingredients in a large soup pot, bring to a boil and simmer until the vegetables are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper and enjoy. This makes a very large pot of soup. A great vegetarian dish.

Home-Made Chicken Soup

It cold and rainy here in middle Tennessee. I'm recovering from some type of respiratory ailment, and RT is only a couple weeks away from his battle with a more aggressive respiratory bug. Last weekend I made chili. This weekend is made for a big pot of chicken soup. Following my new resolution, I will photograph as I go. However, as I was chopping the onions, peppers and celery, I figured I might as well make meatloaf at the same time - since I'd bought several packages of lean ground beef yesterday for that specific purpose. Chopping the vegetables is the most labor-intensive part of cooking these dishes. By the time I'm finished, I'll have at least five meals in the freezer for later on, in addition to tonight's soup and tomorrow's mealoaf. The recipe for the meatloaf will follow this post.

Homemade Chicken Soup


Cabbie's Homemade Chicken Soup

1 pkg chicken breasts (boneless, skinless, approx. 1 lb.)
1 pkg. chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, approx. 1 lb.)
salt, pepper, poultlry seasoning - to taste
1 large onion, finely diced
1/2 cup finely diced bell peppers (any comibination of red, yellow, green)
2 stalks celery, finely diced
3 carrots, grated or diced
3 tablespoons diced parsley
3 tablespoons corn starch
a few drops of yellow food coloring

Put two quarts of water in a large stock pot and set on high heat. Add the diced onion, bell peppers, celery, carrots and parsley. Add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning, to taste (approx. 1 Tablespoon each).

Add the chicken. Bring to a boil and simmer until chicken is cooked through.

Add chicken to the pot of boiling veggies

Remove the chicken with tongs and place on a plate to cool. Once the chicken is cool, chop it finely and add it back into the pot.

In a small bowl mix the corn starch with 1/2 cup water. Stir until dissolved and add to the soup mixture. Add the yellow food coloring and stir well. Simmer for about 30 minutes.


Simmer for 30 minutes and ENJOY!

If the soup is too thick, you can add chicken stock. You can include other vegetables, as desired - corn, beans, peas, tomatoes. You can also add some noodles or rice.

Carol's Easy Home-Made Chili

I made this Sunday evening, and we’re still eating leftovers. It’s great! This is my own recipe, but it’s pretty standard. It takes only about 15 minutes to get the dish going with the majority of those fifteen minutes being spent on dicing the onion and pappers. Otherwise, there’s very little work involved, and RT swears it’s the best chili he’s ever tasted. He’s pre-diabetic, too, and his blood sugar doesn’t elevate at all after eating this. It’s a great Weight Watchers meal, too.





Carol’s Easy Homemade Chili
1 pound lean ground beef
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1/2 cup diced bell pepper (any combination of green, yellow, red)
4 can diced tomatoes
3 cans navy beans (or kidney beans - I just prefer the milder navy beans)
salt and pepper to taste
2 T chili powder (more or less, to taste)

Place the olive oil into a large saucepan, add the ground beef and brown it. Add the diced onions and peppers. Cook until onions and peppers are cooked through. Drain the beans and rinse. (You don’t HAVE to drain the beans but I think the chili is better if you do.) Dump the diced tomatoes and beans into the pot and bring to a boil. Add salt, pepper and chili powder. You can add a little water at a time to get the right consistency. Simmer for about and hour, and it’s ready to eat. Leftovers can be refrigerated or frozen for later. I generally put some in small containers to take to work for easy lunches.

By the way, these measurements are not written in stone. I’ve used more or less of each ingredient, and it still works out well. So don’t worry about getting exact amounts. If you really like tomato-y chily, add an extra can of tomatoes. If you don’t like tomatoes, then add tomatoe sauce instead of diced tomatoes. You can use chopped chicken instead of ground beef. You can use black beans, kidney beans - any beans that you particularly enjoy.

Chicken Cheese Corn Chowder

This is a delicious cold weather soup. It's comfort food at its finest. My younger sister, Debi, gave me the recipe. It's quick and easy - and delicious!

CHICKEN CHEESE CORN CHOWDER

1 cup chopped oniion
1 Tablespoon butter
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (chopped into chunks)
3 cups milk
8 ounces Velveeta
8 ounces of Colby/Jack or cheddar cheese
4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups diced potatoes
1 17-ounce can of creamed corn
salt/pepper to taste
Mrs. Dash seasoning to taste

In a large soup pot, cook the oniions in the butter until transparent. Add the chicken broth, chicken, potatoes, salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash seasoning. Simmer until the meat is thoroughly cooked. Add the corn, milk and cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and mixed in well.

Cabbie's Cabbage Soup

This is simmering on the stove as I write this. It smells divine! This is a great diet soup since there is virtually no fat in it (depending on how lean the ground beef is). You can leave out the ground beef if you want a vegetarian soup which would make the soup fat-free. However, I personally like the flavoring and extra oomph that the beef adds. This makes a large pot of soup - enough for freezing some for later. Or better yet, put some in a quart jar and take it to a neighbor or friend. I like to put leftovers in small individual serving plastic containers, and take it to work to heat in the microwave for a quick and delicious lunch.

Cabbie's Cabbage Soup

1 lb. lean ground beef
2 large onions, diced
1 small head cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, shredded
1 green bell pepper, diced (or use a mixture of green, red and yellow bell peppers)
5 stalks celery, diced
3 large cans of diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
enough water to cover (2 - 4 cups)

Brown the ground beef in a large pot. Add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Let it simmer until all the veggies are tender. Serve with crackers or cornbread and a salad.

Home-Made Chili

One day last fall I wasn't feeling well, and so I took the day off work. Maybe it was the time of year or maybe it was because I was looking out the window and seeing all the autumn colors in the leaves, but I wanted some chili. It took less than fifteen minutes to put it together. Then I let it simmer on the stove. The chili smelled so good simmering on the stove that I didn’t wait for lunch. I went ahead and had a bowl of it around ten o’clock that morning. It was absolutely wonderful! The navy beans (instead of kidney beans) make it easy on the digestive system. What a great recipe - even if I do say so myself! So here is how I made it:

Home-made Chili

1 lb. ground beef

2 medium onions, diced

bell peppers (green, red, yellow), diced - about 1 cup altogether

3 stalks celery - including leaves, diced finely

2 tablespoons olive oil (needed only if the ground beef is very lean)

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce (or 1 small can tomato paste)

2 cans navy beans (or whatever kind of beans you like in chili. I just prefer the mildness of the navy beans)

chili powder (to taste - probably a couple tablespoons)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the ground beef, onions, peppers and celery. Saute until the ground beef is browned and the veggies are tender. Add the diced tomatoes (juice and all), tomato sauce/paste, the navy beans, chili powder, salt and pepper. Add enough water to cover everything - make it a good consistency for chili. Stir well and simmer for a couple hours. It’ll be ready after about thirty minutes, but it tastes much better if the flavors simmer together for a long time. And it’ll be even better the second day.

Serve with crackers or corn bread. RT likes to sprinkle diced onions, a dollop of sour cream and some shredded cheese on top before serving.

Chili Soup

This is the chili that I grew up on. My mother (Ruthlace) made it often. It was a great meal for a large (or small) family. The potatoes make it more like soup than chili. I like the fact that it’s lighter and milder than typical chili. Here’s the recipe.

Chili Soup

2 lbs lean ground beef

1 large can diced tomatoes (if you like tomatoes, you can add more)

4 medium potatoes, diced fine

2 large onions, diced fine

4 tablespoons chili powder

2 or 3 cans beans (great Northern, navy, pinto, pork & beans - whichever you prefer)

salt/pepper to taste

Brown ground beef in large stock pot. Add the onions, tomatoes and potatoes. Simmer for about an hour. Add the beans. Simmer a few minutes longer. Serve with crackers or corn bread.

Chicken Noodle Soup

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Put four or five boneless chicken tenderloins in a saucepan. Cover with water, add a chopped onion and some grated carrots. Season with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Bring to a boil. When chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan and cool. Once it is cool, dice the chicken and add it back to the pot. Add a handful of egg noodles and cook until the noodles are done. You can add a little yellow food coloring to make it look nicer, you can also add some chicken stock if you need more volume, and you can add a little flour or corn starch to thicken it. Yum! Simple and quick.

Tantalizing Taco Soup

I’ve been on a recipe kick recently. I just made a pot of taco soup to take to church tomorrow. A group from another church will be there, and so we’re having a pot luck dinner for them (and us) after the church service.

This a recipe I got from one of my nieces about five years ago. I’ve made it many times since then - for family and for company. It is delicious, and it’s ridiculously easy. Here it is:

TANTALIZING TACO SOUP
1-pound ground beef
1 chopped onion
2 cans diced tomatoes (not crushed)
1 can corn
1 can tomato soup
Up to 2 tomato soup cans of water (as desired)
1 can kidney beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 package taco seasoning (hot or mild, depending on your taste)Brown the ground beef and onion together. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer. Serve with toppings like corn chips, sour cream, salsa, grated cheese. You can also substitute salsa for one can of diced tomatoes.

Don’t get too hung up on exact quantities of everything. Tonight I “kinda” doubled it - I doubled some ingredients and added just a little extra of others, depending on what I had on hand - and it still tasted wonderful. It’s nice to serve with little bowls of grated cheese, salsa, sour cream and corn chips beside it. That way everyone can “doctor it” the way they like it.

Quick and Easy Chicken and Dumplings

Yesterday, RT and I flew to Georgia to visit my mother for awhile. Out of our seven siblings (of which I’m the median one) - five were there. My sister-in-law, Vicki, made a HUGE pot of chicken and dumplings. I love chicken and dumplings. It’s the ultimate comfort food, and it’s really good for you. Here’s an easy recipe for homemade chicken and dumplings.

You’ll need:

1 can refrigerated biscuit dough (If you really like dumplings, you can use 2 cans. It just depends on how much you’re making. There’s no hard and fast rule here. Vicki made such a huge pot of chicken and dumplings, she probably used five or more cans!)

chicken (a package or two of boneless chicken or a whole chicken. I usually make sure there's some dark meat in the mix because it adds so much more flavor)

chicken stock (one or two cans of chicken broth)

salt, pepper, poultry seasoning

1 onion

2 carrots

2 stalks celery

1 cup plain flour

Place the chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Add the chopped onion, grated carrot and finely chopped celery to the water. (If you happen to have bell peppers - green, yellow, or red - you can chop some of that finely to add color and flavor). Season to taste with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Simmer until the chicken is well cooked. Remove the chicken from the pot and let the chicken cool. Leave the vegetables in the pot with the liquid. Once the chicken is cool, remove the meat from the bone and cut or tear into bite size pieces. Set the chicken aside.

Place the flour in a small bowl. Open the can of biscuits and cut/break each biscuit into about 8 pieces. Put the pieces into the flour and coat well. The flour is what thickens the liquid. So use it generously.

Bring the reserved liquid to a boil. Add additional chicken stock, if desired. It depends on how much chicken and dumplings you are making. Sometimes I add a drop or two of yellow food coloring to make it “prettier.”

Once it is at a rolling boil, drop the biscuit pieces into the liquid one at a time. Stir gently to keep them from sticking to the bottom. Make sure each biscuit piece is well coated with flour before dropping it into the liquid. After it has simmered for awhile, add the chicken back to the liquid, and it’s ready to serve. Prepare a salad or vegetable, and you’ve got a perfect meal.

Chicken Rice Soup (guaranteed to make you feel better)

I made chicken rice soup last night, and it was really good. I didn’t follow a particular recipe. I just added what I had on hand that sounded good. This is virtually fat-free and is just oozing with good health. Here’s what I did:

Chicken-Rice Soup

1 boneless/skinless chicken breast

2 boneless/skinless chicken thighs (I like using some dark meat because it is more flavorful than the white meat and seems to make for tastier soups and stews)

1 can chicken broth

grated carrots (about a cup)

1 large onion, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1/4 cup each of diced green, yellow and red peppers

parsley (to taste - probably a couple tablespoons)

poultry seasoning (to taste - about a teaspoon)

salt and pepper (to taste)

1/4 cup brown rice, uncooked

In a large pot, cover the chicken with water and cook over medium/high heat. As the chicken is starting to cook, slice/dice/shred the vegetables and add to the pot.

Add all the other ingredients, except the rice.

Once the chicken is well cooked, remove it from the pot. Once it has cooled, either shred or chop it. Then return the chicken to the pot. Bring the chicken and vegetables to a strong boil.

Add the rice, turn the heat to low, cover the pot and cook until the rice is tender. Serve with crackers or cornbread.

You can also add a can of diced tomatoes to the soup for a little flavor. I love tomatoes, and so that’s what I did yesterday, and the soup is REALLY good. However, it would have been just as good without them - just good in a different way.

If you like soup with a thicker broth, you can add a teaspoon or two of EITHER corn starch of all-purpose flour to thicken it. Some people add a couple tablespoons of instant potato flakes to thicken a soup. It’s good whether or not you thicken the broth.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

I made this for RT’s company party last week. It is delicious, and it makes a lot. This is for 5-6 servings.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

First prepare the chicken:

1 1/2 to 2 lbs. chicken (I used boneless chicken breasts and thighs)

1 rib celery, chopped

1 small onion, quartered

2 bay leaves

Combine the chicken, celery, onion and bay leaves. Cover with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken from broth, cool, debone (if needed) and chop. Set the chicken aside. Discard the bay leaves. Save the broth, onion and celery.

Now it’s time to make the gumbo:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 cups diced onion

1 cup chopped celery

6 cups chicken broth

1 pound sliced okra

1/2 pound turkey link sausage, cut into 1/2 inch slices

Hot cooked rice

In a large pan, combine the oil and flour and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the roux is a dark brown. This will take about 15-20 minutes. Stir in the diced onion and chopped celery. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add 6 cups of the reserved broth (including the onion and celery that was cooked earlier with the chicken), the chopped chicken, okra and sausage. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for an hour or longer. Serve over the cooked rice.

This is REALLY delicious gumbo, and by using chicken and turkey sausage, it’s on the healthy side, too.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

There’s a Panera Bread restaurant near us, and RT and I love their Broccoli Cheddar soup. I did an internet search to find the recipe. The problem was that there were different recipes that all claimed to be THE Panera Bread recipe. There were some common ingredients, though, and so I could figure out the basics of the recipe. Most of the recipes recommended putting all the ingredients in a blender at the end. However, I like little chunks of veggies in my soup. Nothing substantial or large, but enough to give the soup a little texture. So I left out the blending step. Instead, I diced all the veggies finely and then sauteed them together before adding them to the soup.

When RT and I had his office Christmas party here last week, we decided to have soup and sandwiches as the mainstays of the dinner. I took a leap of faith and decided to make two soups I’d never made before: Chicken and sausage gumbo, along with the broccoli cheddar soup. I’ll save the gumbo for a later post (it was wonderful!), and I’ll present the broccoli cheddar soup here. The soup turned out great - and it looked really pretty, too. After I made the soup and the gumbo, I put each into a crock pot, turned the crock pot on warm, and then set out bowls and spoons and let my guests serve themselves. It was a great way to handle a dinner party.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

1 T. butter

1/2 medium onion, diced finely

1/2 pound fresh broccoli, chopped well

1 cup carrots, shredded

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 cups half-and-half

2 cups chicken stock

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

salt and pepper, to taste

8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese

Saute onion in 1 Tablespoon butter. After about five minutes, add the shredded carrots and chopped broccoli and saute briefly. Put lid on pan (so veggies will continue to cook) and set aside. Combine the 1/4 cup melted butter and 1/4 cup flour in a large saucepan using a whisk. Cook on medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly. Slowly add the half-and-half, stirring constantly, until thick. Add the chicken stock, whisking all the time. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add the onion/carrot/broccoli mixture, and cook over low heat until the vegetables are tender - about 20-30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add the grated cheese and nutmeg. Stir until blended. Enjoy.