Rustic Cabbage Soup

I got a head of cabbage in my Bountiful Basket the other day and thought I'd try to make some soup. I seem to end up having soup for lunch quite often when the weather turns cooler (wouldn't you know it - it's 85 degrees right now!). Anyway. I came across this recipe and thought I'd share

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
a big pinch of salt
1/2 pound potatoes, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cups stock (see head notes)
1 1/2 cups white beans, precooked or canned (drained & rinsed well)
1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons

more good-quality extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Warm the olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender and starting to brown a bit, about 5 minutes - it's o.k. to uncover to stir a couple times. Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Add the stock and the beans and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and cook for a couple more minutes, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Now adjust the seasoning - getting the seasoning right is important or your soup will taste flat and uninteresting. Taste and add more salt if needed, the amount of salt you will need to add will depend on how salty your stock is (varying widely between brands, homemade, etc)...

Serve drizzled with a bit of olive oil and a generous dusting of cheese.

WALKIN' TACOS

1 lb. - ground beef or turkey
1 - 1/4 oz. pkg. taco seasoning mix
4 - 2 1/2 oz pkgs. corn chips or doritos
2 c.- lettuce shredded
1 c.- tomato chopped
1 c.- shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 c.- salsa
1/2 c.- sour cream

Cook ground meat in skillet over medium heat until browned--drain off fat. Add taco seasoning and prepare to package directions. Gently crush chips in the UNOPENED bag. Cut each bag open along one side edge. Spoon equal amount of meat mixture and remaining ingredients into each bag. Serve in the bag with a fork.
Best of all--no dishes to wash!!
FROM: Gooseberry Patch cookbook FB site.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cubes butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1pkg. chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups baby oatmeal (you know... the kind you feed babies)*

Cream butter and sugar, add other ingredients in order. Combine dry ingredients and add gradually.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. The trick is to take them out of the oven before they look done.
Makes about 4 dozen.

*You may also blend regular oats in the blender, but it's not as good.

...back by popular demand...

Oatmeal Cookie Granola

8 cups oats
1/2 cup ground golden flax seed
1 cup sugar (or sucanut if you want it healthier)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
8 TBS butter (or coconut oil if you want healthier stuff)
2/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp butter flavor (if you use coconut oil rather than butter)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine oats, flax, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Melt butter, honey and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Mix well once all is melted and pour over the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly and coat well. Place on two large, greased cookie sheets and bake for 20 min or so, stirring once. When finished, let it cool and then add rasins or other dry fruit if you'd like. Place into an airtight container.

Can be used as cereal, parfaits, trail mix, topping for yogurt or ice cream etc...


Bekah - please post the Chocolate Chip cookie recipe!!
Dad - please post your Diabetic Chocolate Chip cookie recipe!!

EASY Chicken Curry

1/4 cup butter

1 small onion chopped

2 carrots julienned

1 stalk celery, sliced

sprinkle with 1/3 cup flour

*Mix well saute for 2 more minutes

stir in: 3 cups chicken broth

cook until thicken, stir occasionally

mix in small bowl:

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 cup evaporated milk

2Tbsp mayonnaise

stir contents of bowl into skillet

Add:

3 cups cooked chicken

Heat to serving temperature, stirring occasionally. Serve immediately. Feeds 6

**To be honest I didn't follow this recipe a whole lot. I just did the "sauce part". I threw carrots and celery into a skillet and started to saute them until I knew this is what I wanted to make. Anyway. Just put whatever type of veggies in a pan, saute them, add the sauce and chicken, and eat with rice. WAY EASY, fast and REALLY GOOD! oh, we added cashews and baby corn when we added the chicken that was delicious too. **

Blondies

1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For you Food Network fans, this is supposedly a Bobby Flay recipe. :)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8″ baking dish. (Line with foil, wax or parchment paper if desired. Grease the lining too.)

Melt the butter in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat; add both sugars and whisk until combined and sugar is melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Next, in a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Slowly drizzle in the butter and sugar while whisking constantly. Then add the flour and whisk until just incorporated.

*Now, at this point you could fold in your favorite add-ins: chocolate chips, milk chocolate chunks, nuts, etc.

*To make Nutella Swirl Blondies: Pour the batter into the prepared dish, then drop spoonfuls of Nutella over the surface. Swirl the batter in the pan making “S” shapes with a butter knife.

*Other optional add-ins and drop-ins? You could swirl in peanut butter or caramel. Or you could make a batch of cookie dough and press chunks of cookie dough down into the batter. The options are limitless! :)

Bake for 24-27 minutes...

We made the Nutella version. Heaven on earth!!!!

Stuffed Meatloaf

Katie went to Good Things Utah at the beginning of March. I decided to watch since my kiddos were sick and I was not able to attend with her...sorry again Katie, maybe we can go another time. Anyway, they did a cooking segment on Meatloaf. Here's the recipe and we liked it.


Favorite Meatloaf Recipe
Cream Cheese
Spinach
mushrooms


Make your favorite meatloaf recipe, it can be done with beef, ground turkey or ground chicken

Spread it onto a cookie sheet (LINED WITH TIN FOIL) like you would do a sheet cake or a big batch of brownies. Though for just a little family you may not get it to spread that big. make it about 1/2 inch thick and you should be good.

Spread softened cream cheese directly onto the meatloaf mixture, top with mushrooms and spinach.

Roll, using the tin foil as a guide, in to a spiral or a pinwheel, make sure your tinfoil is not rolled into it and reposition it on top of the loaf making sure the meat is covered. Bake 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Slice into pinwheel and eat.

* you can actually stuff it with whatever you want. On the show they did carmalized onions instead of mushrooms, but I don't eat onions like that so...mushrooms it was. ENJOY!