Wandering Gypsy Girl Broccoli Cheese Soup

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Ingredients

1 leek sliced

1/4 sweet yellow onion sliced

1 small potato sliced

1-2 heads fresh or frozen broccoli (florets separated from the larger stock-discard large stock or hold aside for making vegetable stock later)

chicken or vegetable stock (enough to cover veggies)

1 stick butter

2-3 tbl flour

cheddar cheese shredded - to taste (at least 2-3 handfuls)

milk or cream 

S&P to taste

 Rinse leeks to remove grit (slice at about 1/2 way up the dark green stem). Remove broccoli florets if using fresh broccoli and slice onion and peeled potato.

 Add 3-4 pads butter to pot and saute broccoli, leeks, onions, and potato until onions are translucent. Season with S&P here.

 Add enough stock to cover the veggies.

 Cover with lid and simmer until broccoli, potatoes and leeks are soft.

 Transfer all but 2-3 tbls of liquid to the blender and pulse until smooth.

 Add flour to stock remaining in the pot and make a rue. Add milk in slowly creating a base for a cheese sauce.

 Add desire amount of cheese (I like a lot!).

 Add veggie puree back into pot with cheese sauce - combine and bring back up to temp.

Serve warm with crusty bread.

Cumin Tomato Rice

Basmati Rice

Butter

Tomato diced

Cumin seeds

Cumin powder

Turmeric (just a pinch for color)

S&P to taste

Follow the instructions on the package for the basmati rice. Add cumin seeds, and some cumin powder to the water and butter while the rice is cooking. After the rice is cooked through taste and add extra cumin powder S&P to taste. Dice up tomato (either one large or a handful of cherry tomato's) and add to rice.

-Enjoy

Word of the day? Tabbouleh!

Even saying it gets me excited to try it!

1 C chicken broth/vegetable stock
1 C Bulgur
2 C diced tomatoes
1/2 cucumber peeled and chopped
1/4 Fresh lemon juice
1/4 C fresh parsley
2 T EVOO
2 green onions finely chopped
1 T lemon zest
1 clove of Garlic, pressed
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp allspice

Bring broth to a boil, add Bulgur.  let stand until bulgur is tender and broth is gone. 15 min-ish
toss in remaining ingredients and chill in fridge 2 hours.

Mimi's Corn Chowder

4 Tb Butter
6 chopped onion

Melt and cook till onions are clear

Add 2 1/2 C water
3/4 C celery
2 tsp salt
1 pinch of pepper
2 C cubed, potatoes

Cook until potatoes are softened

Add all but 1 C of 1/2 & 1/2 1 Quart carton
defrost 1 pkg of frozen corn

Mix left over  1 C 1/2& 1/2 with 3 Tb flour.
Whisk in to soup and simmer 30 min.

My New Favorite Secret Ingredient...

I have been in a food rut. We seem to make the same 10 dishes over and over again and I admit that I have kind of come to dread dinnertime, because nothing really sounds exciting. Then a miracle happened. I went to the grocery store. ALONE. As in I didn't let any of my 4 children join me.
I was amazed at the produce section. I am always in such a rush that I hurry in and grab my staples; lettuce, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and onions. Then I zip through to the next aisle, because I don't want to be stuck in the store in case my kids decide to start misbehaving. I never really stopped to look at all the variety of stuff in there. Food shopping had become a chore to be rushed through. (But I digress...)
The point is that when I was able to go alone I decided that I would try one new thing that I had never tried before. There in the produce aisle I found it. It was beautiful and completely foreign to me. EGGPLANT. So I  bought it, having no idea how to cook it or what it tasted like. After a little bit of research I found out that it can be pureed and added to sauces. It is AMAZING! It is so easy to do that I have been secretly sneaking eggplant into common every day meals, and my kids are none the wiser. It makes spaghetti sauces richer and soups are thicker, and heartier.
I decided to share my secret with you... Here's my eggplant technique- sneak it in a few dishes and see how you like it.
PS Don't tell my kids- they still don't know what they're eating! :)

 1. Cut your eggplant in 1/2, drizzle with olive oil and lightly salt and pepper them.

 2.Place your eggplant flesh side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 25- 35 minutes. Flesh may be darkened a little, and that's okay.

 3. This is what it looks like when you pull it out of the oven.

 4. Carefully lift you eggplant half  and scrape the contents out of the "shell" into a bowl. It should scrape right out without any difficulty.

 5. It will look like this. The little tiny seeds are completely edible and get pureed so don't worry about them.

 6. Use a hand mixer to puree eggplant.

7. When you are done, it will have the consistency and color of pureed bananas.

8. Your eggplant is now ready to sneak into your favorite sauce or soup.

Other than baking times, the whole process from start to finish takes me about 5 minutes to complete.







FOR YOUR INFO:
Eggplant is supposed to be really good for you and is a low calorie food! Go to
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=22
for more information about the health benefits of eggplant.

Campbell's Roasted Tomato & Barley Soup

As from the Campbell's website:

 

Prep: 15 minutes

Cook: 40 minutes

Roast: 25 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

1 can (about 28 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained, reserving juice

2 large onions, diced (about 2 cups)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups Swanson® Chicken Broth  (Regular, Natural Goodness^TM or Certified Organic)

2 stalks celery, diced (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Recipe Tips:

Serving Suggestion: Serve with multi-grain flatbread crackers and Cheddar cheese. For dessert serve peach and blueberry crumble.

 

Directions:

Heat the oven to 425°F.  Place the tomatoes, onions and garlic into a large roasting pan.  Drizzle the oil over the vegetables and toss to coat.  Roast for 25 minutes.

Place the vegetables into a 3-quart saucepan.  Stir in the reserved tomato juice, broth, celery and barley and heat to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low.  Cover and cook for 35 minutes or until the barley is tender.  Stir in the parsley.

 

Last night's dinner: Broccoli Potato Soup in bread bowls

This Soup has been a family favorite for years. I've never tried it in a bread bowl before though and it was SO GOOD!

The odd thing? For dessert, the kids wanted grapefruit with sugar sprinkled on top. I was going to make cookies... But I'll take it!