Tomato Basil Soup

Tomato Basil Soup

I guess it was about that time of year again – the time to get sick. Ask anyone in my family – I am not a good sick person. I whine, I beg for sympathy, I act like I am at deaths door. One thing I did NOT want to do in my weakened state was cook. Good thing for me my husband makes the best tomato basil soup and grilled cheese ever. I kid you not. I used to be a member of the Church of Le Madeline and I thought their soup was worthy of robbing a bank. No. If my husband had made this soup for me earlier in our relationship this whole marriage thing would have happened  a lot sooner. I can already feel my strength coming back….

Ingredients:

1 can whole peeled tomatoes
2-3T tomato paste
2 stalks of celery chopped
2 medium carrots chopped
1 whole yellow onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 cup basil leaves chopped
4 cups chicken/veggie stock
2T balsamic vinegar
4T heavy cream

Alls you needs

In a big stock pot (this stuff is going to splat while cooking and we blend in the pot so use a high wall pot like one you use to cook pasta) heat the pot on high and saute the onions until they start to pick up color. Add the garlic, carrots and celery and let that saute until it starts to soften. Add the tomato paste and cook until the tomato paste starts to really pick up color and smells yummy. Add the canned tomatoes, basil and chicken stock and bring it up to a boil.

Soon.....soon

Reduce the heat so that it keeps a steady simmer. Let that go for about 45 minutes. Using an immersion blender or using your food processor or blender, puree until it is very smooth.

wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Our soup is very hearty and thick but if you want it thinner add some more stock.

Once everything is the consistency you want, stir in the vinegar and cream (feel free to add more or less of either but this is the combination we love). Then BOOM you’re done! I would put the soup in serving bowls and cook your grilled cheese while those cool down to less than the temperature of the surface of the sun.

TA-DA

I threw the receipt out (woops) but what is a big ticket item in here? NOTHING. This total batch makes about 6-8 servings depending on your bowl size. Well my Nyquil is kicking in…..until next time!

Avocado Soup with Shrimp and Corn

Fear not dedicated readers! We went on hiatus due to vacation and are still in denial that we are back. The inspiration for tonight’s dinner came from a fabulous dinner I had with my in-laws a few months ago in Wimberly. This soup had my licking the bowl it was so tasty! Lets also not forget its roughly 1000 degrees outside so anything cold is welcome in this head sweater’s house. I also was in need of something out of the ordinary because after a fun vacation – its back to watching our budget and no fun date nights in the near future. So I did a DIY date night – besides I got to wear pajamas on date night and it doesn’t get any better than that! I also created this recipe with various friends in mind – some with toddlers and some with babies on the way – this recipe is great because you can do it in stages and the last stage is super quick so you can take a break for someone needing mommy or if your pregnant swollen feet need a break. I only have to deal with a needy cocker spaniel obnoxiously squeeking every toy in the house to get me to play with her….

 

Ingredience:

Soup –
3 cups of low sodium chicken stock (helps if you have your frozen portions in the freezer already!)
2 avocados – peeled & pitted
2T fresh cilantro
2T fresh lime juice
salt & pepper as needed

Lime Cream-
3/4c reduced fat sour cream
1T chopped fresh cilantro
1t grated lime zest
1/2t ground pepper

Shrimp Mixture –
1 lb. medium shrimp peeled and deveined (I bought what was on sale)
cumin
salt & pepper
adobo seasoning
chipotle seasoning
2 ears of fresh corn – kernels cut off
1/4c finely chopped red onion
2-3 garlic cloves minced
1T lime juice

In a blender, combine all of the “soup” ingredients and blend until smooth. I love the texture of this soup because it is so velvety and smooth! Cover and chill in the refrigerator.

Green Goodness

You’re 1/3 of the way there!

To make the cream, combine all of the ingredients (see how difficult this recipe is?) and cover and chill until you are ready to eat!

For the shrimp:
Mix the shrimp with the adobo, chipotle and cumin to taste (do more than you think you will need – trust me).

Part 3

Add olive oil to a hot pan and sear the shrimp on one side until the pink starts coming through to the other side of the shrimp.

Shrimp a-cookin

Add the garlic, onion and corn and mix well. Sprinkle with the lime juice and saute only until the veggies are just barely done – tender crisp.

almost there!

Plate the soup first (1/2 -3/4 of a cup per person) and add a dollop of the cream and the shrimp mixture on top. Presto! Date night dinner!

Date night magic!

The nutrition of this recipe is fantastic! A 1/2c serving has only 184 calories, 10.5g of fat and 12g of protein! Sweet! As far as the budget goes we did great there too! Total grocery bill was $17.82 and we got 3 servings out of this batch which means each serving cost $5.94. This might seem slightly high but think about how much a fancy date night costs AND the fact that you don’t have to shave your legs – a win win there!

Chicken Soup

So it finally happened – I got sick. I thought I had dodged the illness bullet but Wednesday night it hit me. I got through work barely on Thursday but finally gave in.  Hopefully one of these days I can inherit some good Jewish matzo ball soup recipes from my in-laws  but for now I had to wing it. I was really feeling crummy so I wanted something easy and yet heathful. HEB was having a sale on chicken thighs so I said why not. Plus I got to use my homemade chicken stock!

Ingredients:

1 pkg of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3-4 carrots peeled and sliced
1 small carton of button mushrooms
1 medium onion sliced very thin
1-2 garlic cloves minced
4-5 c chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2-3 c cooked pasta (I used ditalini but cavatelli or stars or other shapes work too)

In a large stock pot, heat up 2T of olive oil and saute the onion until the onion starts to soften – NOT brown.

No browning here

Once the onions are ready add the chicken stock, carrots, garlic and mushrooms and bring to a simmer. While the stock is heating up, take the chicken out of the package and using kitchen sheers cut as much of the fat off of the chicken thighs as possible. The thighs I bought were very very fatty so it took me the entire time the stock was heating to cut off as much fat as I could.

Add the chicken to the stock along with the bay leaves and cover and let it simmer for 30 minutes. While the chicken is cooking – cook the pasta according to the package and drain. After the 30 minutes are up use tongs and pull the chicken onto a cutting board and cut it into bite sized pieces. Discard the bay leaves before serving. Put the chicken back and pour in the pasta and stir and serve!

mmmm

It was exactly what I needed. Cost wise it was easy – $10 exactly and the entire pot I made had5 servings so $2 each.  Calorie wise I did great too! Each serving has 347 calories, 7.8g of fat and 34g of protein – I feel better already.

Mushroom barley soup

Today the “arctic blast” hit Texas and it is FREEEEZING! So of course we turned to some home style soup. I had not had mushroom barley soup before so I took a stab at it. This is great for people who don’t know many techniques or have much time. Here is what you will need:

1 yellow onion finely chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic minced

2 carrots cut into pieces

2 celery stalks cut into small pieces

1 box of mushrooms sliced

2 boxes of low sodium vegetable stock

1 cup of barley

2 bay leaves

fresh thyme

To start, you can cook the barley the night before. Boil 4 cups of water and add 1 cup of barley covered at a low/medium simmer for 35-40 minutes until the barley is soft. I like the barley to be aldente so 35 minutes was enough for me. Drain the barley and set aside.

In a pot, heat up some olive oil and saute the onion and garlic until the onion just starts to become translucent. Add the carrot and celery and stir until the carrots start to soften – about 3-5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook until they start to soften. Add the veggie stock and bring it back to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Add in the barley and cook for another 5 minutes and serve!

I promise to take better photos next time....

Serving size was 1 1/2 cups in our Le Creuset soup bowls = 5 total servings for this entire recipe – great for freezing leftovers!