Sunday Night Dinners - Carrot Soup

Given my lack of Sunday Night Dinner posts (haven't done one since February 4th), it should come as no surprise that I haven't been doing much cooking. I had been living on a lot of Amy's Organic Gluten microwave meals. They are tasty and good when you are short on time, but certainly not a replacement for home cooked food!

Now that I am back to working more reasonable hours, I am getting back in the habit of cooking every Sunday. This week I have a savory soup recipe to share with you. I know it's not really "soup season" since it's warming up, but I am the kind of person who eats soup year round. It is such a comfort meal for me - and it's usually very healthy and low in calories. Which is a good thing with swimsuit season upon us!

I had this soup when I was at my brother's for Easter. It's so seasonally appropriate! The best part is that the recipe requires very few ingredients and is a one-pot wonder!

Start things off right by preparing your mis en place (a diced shallot, 1.5 lbs of choppped carrots)

Saute the shallot in a dash of olive oil until it is translucent

Add 1 teaspoon of curry powder (or more if you like it with a bit more of a kick like me)

Add 6 cups of Chicken Broth (Progresso brand is Gluten Free! Hooray!)

Bring to a rapid boil

Reduce heat, cover, and simmer over medium-low to medium heat until the carrots are very tender. This took close to an hour on my stove.

Then puree the soup. I do not own a blender (perhaps Santa will bring one next Christmas?) so I used my hand mixer, which worked like a charm!

And voila!! You can add 2 T. of fresh OJ to the blended soup but I skipped this step since I didn't have any oranges on hand (and didn't know about this ingredient when I went grocery shopping earlier this week).

Like most of my recipes, this yields quite a bit. I portioned it out into 1 1/2 cup servings.

You could definitely tailor the seasoning of this soup to your tastes. When I make it next, I wil probably add some celery when I saute the shallot. I bet it would taste great with ginger (if you like ginger, I actually don't!!).

Do you pack a lunch? If so, what do you bring with you? I eat a lot of baked potatoes, salads, and soups - all very healthy and relatively inexpensive. All my old stand bys, like wraps and sandwiches, are off limits since I can't have gluten, so I am always looking for new ideas!

Sunday Night Dinner: Hearty Lentil Soup

I've been living gluten free now for nearly one year. It's definitely been challenging, to say the least, but has been a wonderful lifestyle change for me. I owe you guys a post on why and how I went gluten free as many of you have asked! I'll try to get to that this month.

One thing that has made going gluten free much easier is all the resources available on the internet. Thanks to bloggers like Karina, the master mind behind Gluten-Free Goddess, I have lots of gluten free recipes to try out. And honestly, these recipes are so good, they are worth checking out even if you don't have to live gluten free!

Unfortunately, there isn't a gluten free cookbook available - yet. I am sure there will be in the future, but for now I have relied on websites like Karina's.

My creative sister-in-law knew that I really missed having a cookbook to rely upon, so she took matters into her own hands and put together a collection of gluten free recipes!!


This is seriously one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received! I know it took her a lot of time to put together - especially since she wrote out all of the recipes by hand! I nearly cried when I opened it on Christmas Eve!

Last weekend, I tried one of the recipes - Hearty Lentil Soup!



You can see the ingredients above, here is how it all came together!

First, you combine all of the ingredients, except the last 3, in a big sauce pan or dutch oven.


Bring that mixture to a boil,


and let it simmer for 60-90 minutes (until the rice and lentils are tender).

Then you add the tomato paste, frozen corn, and peas and let it simmer for an additional 20-30 minutes (until the peas & corn are tender).



And voila! A hearty, delicious, healthy soup.


I'm all about these one-pot wonders. I know it's not a fancy meal, but it's delicious and I love that I have to do very few dishes when it's all said and done!

Wasn't that a cool gift from my SIL? What the most thoughtful gift you have ever received?

Sunday Night Dinners: Hearty Potato Soup

Happy Monday, everyone! This week is going to be a whirlwind. I have 6 hours of meetings today... Yeesh. Then I am going to work a closing shift in one of my company's stores on Wednesday so I can gain some perspective on what it's like to work in the store! Then Friday we have an off-site team building event and then I am heading to Grand Forks, ND for an annual get together with a bunch of college friends! I am so glad I had a low key weekend as this week is going to wear me down!

Even though we've been experiencing a bit of a warm spell here in the Midwest, I was still in the mood for soup last week. Soup is one of my favorite things to eat. I share that in common with my late Grandpa Rudy. I think we also shared a love for saltine crackers - something I can no longer eat since they are of course not gluten free. Alas, soup is still a wonderful meal, even though I can't flood the soup with crackers any longer!

I went the slow cooker route this week so I don't have any pictures of the process for you! Here is the recipe, which is my dear mom's!

6 potatoes, peeled & cut into bite-size pieces (I used Yukon Gold)
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, pared & sliced (I used 2)
1 celery stalk, sliced
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1 T. dry parsley flakes (optional, but I included them)
5 c. water
1 T. salt
pepper to taste
1/3 c. butter
1 can skim evaporated milk

Put all ingredients, except evap. milk, into crock pot. Cover & cook on low 10-12 hours or on high 3-4 hours. Stir in evap. milk during the last hour. If desired, mashed spuds some before serving.

* To make this GF, I used 3 cups of GF chicken broth & 2 cups of water instead of the bouillon cubes/5 cups of water combo.

** If you are meat eater, you could definitely add some bacon or ham to this - I'm not a huge fan of bacon or ham so I opted to leave that out.

It turned out great! Here is the finished product!

Oh, it was delicious! When I make it again, I will probably add a few more stalks of celery and more carrots! Can't get enough of my veggies!

Here is the obligatory photo of the leftovers, which I enjoyed all of last week!


Do you like soup? Are you the kind of person who puts in tons of soup, like I used to? What is your favorite kind of soup?

Sunday Night Dinners: Thai Chicken in Coconut-Peanut Sauce

December was a bit of a wash for me in terms of cooking! I got back on track last week and intend to get back into the habit of cooking a big meal each Sunday.

On Sunday I made Thai Chicken in Coconut-Peanut Sauce. This recipe is on my aunt Barb's recipe website. As I've said before, my aunt is an amazing cook - I am so glad she started this recipe website! She has tried all the recipes she posts, so it's nice to know someone else has tried it, enjoyed it, and made alterations when need be! Check it out! I made her Spiced Pecans for Christmas and they were a huge hit with everyone!


Back to the recipe at hand - here are the pictures I took of the process!

As usual, here is my mis en place. A mis en place is especially important when you are stir frying! Everything happens so fast, so it is very important to have all the ingredients chopped & ready to go!

You start by stir frying the shallots, garlic, serrano chiles, ginger, coriander until golden brown (~2-3 minutes)

Stir in the coconut and bring to a boil.

Stir in the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, and black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer until thick and richly flavored (~5 minutes).

Add in the chopped cilantro and cook for 1 minute.

Set sauce aside.

Stir fry the chicken, red pepper, and onion.

Add the peanut sauce and unsalted peanut. Mix and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.

*************

I ate mine over some jasmine rice. It was delicious! I think next time I'll add another chili, add more lime juice, and use creamy peanut butter instead of chunky. The sauce seemed a little thick, so I think using creamy would have helped a bit. Regardless, it was a delicious dish - and it makes quite a bit! The leftovers were great last week!

Do you have a go to recipe that is great as leftovers? If so, send it my way! I am trying to be better about trying new recipes each month!

Sunday Night Dinners: Pork Adobo Chili

If you like the spicy, smokey flavor of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, you are going to love this recipe!! I actually have never cooked with pork before and I am really not sure why - it's not any more difficult than cooking with chicken. If you don't care for pork, I am sure you could sub chicken in this recipe.

Here is the recipe in photos!

Brown the pork in 1.5 tsp. of heated olive oil.


Remove pork and set aside. Add 1.5 tsp of olive oil and cook the onion, bell peppers, and garlic. Stir occasionally and cook until softened (about 5-7 min).


Stir in the tomatoes, chipotle, chili powder, cumin, and salt; bring to a boil.



Add kidney beans and pork.


Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until the pork is tender (about 10-15 minutes).

I served mine over a 1/2 cup of brown rice and it was delicious!!


And like all of the recipes I've shared with you, this recipe yields A LOT!!


I've been enjoying the leftovers all week and they might be even better the 2nd time around.

Here are the ingredients:

1 T. of Olive Oil
1 lb. boneless pork loin, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 14.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
2 t. chopped canned chipotle en adobo
2 t. chili powder
2 t. ground cumin
3/4 t. salt
1 15.5 oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

What have you been cooking lately?

Sunday Night Dinners: Beef Stew

Good morning & Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! I am nursing a bit of a cold so was in the mood for some comfort food. So what did I make? Beef stew! Soups & stews are a total comfort food - and so far the recipes have all been gluten free without making any modifications!

My aunt Barb made the recipe last week and blogged about it so I just had to give it a try. Click here for the recipe - here is the recipe in photos!

I took the recommendation of the author of the recipe and bought 3 lbs of boneless beef chuck and cut it up myself. This is a major accomplishment for me because I am extremely squeamish when it comes to touching raw meat, for some reason. But like the recipe said, if you cut it up yourself, you know what you're getting!

So after cutting it up, I browned it in some olive oil in my trust dutch oven (which is becoming my new favorite thing in my kitchen!). You have to brown the meat in two batches so as not to over-crowd the meat (which once again reminded me of the scene in Julie & Julia where Julie Powell exclaims - 'don't crowd the mushrooms'! Can't wait for that movie to come out on DVD).


You then set the meat aside and brown the onions. I made one modification to the recipe and added celery because I love celery in soups & stews!


After browning the onions until they are nice and soft, you add the flour (I used a GF mix and it worked well!)


That cooks for a couple of minutes and then you add the beef broth, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and the stew meat.


After it comes to a boil, you cover the dutch oven with foil, cover it, and put it in the oven.


It then bakes for an hour at 325 degrees and you then add the carrots & potatoes.


Let it cook for another hour and - voila! Dinner is ready!


Similar to last week's recipe, this yields A LOT. So I now have my meals planned out for the week!


I can't wait to heat this up for supper tonight. It will be a great improvement over the boring baked potatoes I was kind of living on lately. Baked potatoes are great, but I'm not really doing the food pyramid justice by eating them every night. Which is why I've been making more dishes with meat lately.

I love recipes that make great leftovers - do you have any 'go to recipes' that are great as leftovers that you would recommend?

Sunday Night Dinners: Vegetable Beef Soup

Even though the weather was much downright summer-like here this weekend, I still had a hankering for soup. I love soup - it is probably one of my favorite meals! Especially if it is home-made! So on Sunday I made Vegetable Beef Soup!

Like all recipes, this one started with a trip to a grocery store... and a phone call to my mom. The recipe called for Parsnips. I had no idea what they were - and the grocery store did a terrible job of clearly marking their produce! So I had to call my mom and ask her what the heck they were. And of course, she knew exactly how to describe them - "a white vegetable that looks like a carrot" - thanks, Mom. What would I do without you!

In case you are like me and don't know what parsnips are, here's a photo!


I started by chopping up the parsnips and my other vegetables. As I've said before, I'm a big fan of the 'mise en place' - it makes for a less stressful cooking process!


After all the slicing and dicing, I browned the round steak,


After setting aside the browned steak, I added the carrots, celery, parsnips, onion, and thyme to the Dutch oven and cooked them until they were slightly softened (about 5 min).


Then I added back the beef as well as the beef broth, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.


After bringing that to a boil, I let it simmer for about 10 minutes and then stirred in the Spinach.


I let the soup simmer for an additional 10 minutes and then added the cooked brown rice (made in my rice cooker which is seriously one of the best cooking gadgets I've ever received!)


And voila!


Here's my 1 1/3 cup serving - it was DELICIOUS!!


And the best part? I have meals for the rest of the week!


I highly recommend this recipe. It was delicious and I am sure it will be even better the 2nd time around!

Here's the recipe!

1 T. olive oil
3/4 lb top round steak, trimmed & cut into 1/2" pieces
4 carrots, thinly sliced
4 celery stalks, sliced
3 parsnips, diced
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 t. dried thyme
5 c. reduced-sodium beef broth
14 1/2 oz can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper
2 c. lightly packed baby spinach
1 1/2 c. hot cooked brown rice

Sunday Night Dinners: Chicken with Mushrooms and White Wine

Happy Wednesday! I have another recipe to share with you. This one was a HIT. Probably one of the best pasta dishes I have ever made. I rarely eat pasta anymore - the gluten free stuff just isn't the same as regular pasta. I was hoping to make quinoa pasta, but couldn't find any! I went to 3 different grocery stores and struck out at all 3, so I went with a rice/potato starch pasta. Which was decent. It's good when it's covered in sauce - not something I'd eat solo, though.

First off, you should probably don a cute apron. I love aprons! My friend Heidi collects them - if I had more room in my kitchen, I would totally collect them, too, but I have limited myself to only 2 aprons. This William Sonoma one is my favorite!


Since I am always cooking alone, I am a big fan of the 'mise en place' approach to cooking - which translates to "putting in place". I have learned that having everything chopped ahead of time reduces the chance of me having a panic attack while cooking!


Now, for the recipe. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, about 7 minutes.


Transfer to a plate.

Add another teaspoon of oil and the mushrooms to the skillet.


Cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are browned, about 5 minutes. When I was browning the mushrooms, I couldn't help but think of that scene from Julie and Julia where Julie Powell exclaims - 'don't crowd the mushrooms!'

Stir in the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and herbes de Provence. Cook until the onion is softened, about 3 minutes.



Sprinkle with the flour. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute longer.

Add the broth and wine and bring to a boil.

Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the skillet.


Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with the parsley, if using. Serve with the pasta.

I paired my pasta with a tossed salad.


Like I said, it was delicious! The recipe yields 4 generous portions. Please note - I NEVER eat that huge of a portion but I figured I would easily burn it off on Sunday morning with my 10 mile run!

I had leftovers when I got home from my run on Sunday and it was just as good the second time around. I will definitely be making this one again.

I'm slowly, but surely gaining confidence in the kitchen. I'm hoping to really jump up the learning curve after a little informal cooking class with my aunt and mom later this month. They are both amazing cooks, so I intend to learn as much as I can from them!

Here are the ingredients to the recipe:

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
salt & pepper to taste
2 t. olive oil
4 oz. mushrooms, halved
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. herbes de Provence
1 T. all-purpose flour (I used a GF blend of flours)
1 c. chicken broth
3/4 c. dry white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
2 T. chopped fresh parsley
4 cups hot cooked pasta

Serving = 1 chicken breast, 2/3 c. sauce, 1 c. pasta