Veggie Minestrone

Before you blow it off as a vegetarian meal, try it, and see if you even notice the lack of meat. I created this soup and it was so good and so filling and so full of vegetables, Eric didn't notice until I mentioned later that I had fit in 2 vegetarian meals that week.

We try not to buy too many prepared foods, if I can find a way to substitute with fresh produce, I will. So when I was craving minestrone and all the recipes called for canned tomatoes and canned vegetables, I decided to invent my own recipe.

For this recipe, you'll need a blender. We have a blendtec, which is strong enough to puree even hard foods like raw beets or carrots (when paired with liquidy foods like tomatoes), but if you don't have a strong blender, you can modify it to only use veggies you can handle.

I don't believe in hiding veggies completely. If I can add a pureed fruit or veggie into something like pancakes or soup without the kids noticing, great, but I think if you hide it from them every time, they'll still grow up thinking they don't like it. So, I pureed a ton of veggies for this, which made a nice thick soup, but I also diced veggies. My kids gobbled this soup up, even Jeb and Journey, who aren't the biggest fans of veggies right now.

In your blender, puree until smooth:
2 large tomatoes
1 small zucchini
1 stalk celery
small bunch of chard (or spinach or kale or other green)
1 small beet
3 cloves garlic (I think I did 5, I love garlic!)

You can substitute any of these veggies, except the tomatoes. Green peppers would be a good addition.

Pour the veggie puree and
6 cups of broth into a pot. While it starts to boil, chop up:
1 large carrot
1 small zucchini
1 stalk celery
2 medium tomatoes
1 bunch kale (or spinach or chard)

When the soup is boiling, add in the chopped veggies and
2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp Italian seasoning
pinch of salt
1 cup small pasta. I used ditalini.
You could also add a can of cannelini beans, or other small bean, for more protein.

When the pasta is cooked and the veggies are tender, serve this delicious soup with a crusty bread and shredded parmesan cheese on top. Yum!

Pinterest Dinner Week, Day 6

I made this on a warm, sunny afternoon and it had a nice, refreshing taste to it, especially with fresh lime squeezed on top right before eating.

I didn't include the chicken, instead I made this one of the 1-2 vegetarian meals I cook each week to save money. It was really good, and easy to throw together. The kids weren't too excited about it, but Eric and I liked it a lot. The leftovers are good cold, or reheated. I'll make this again! I followed the recipe, except I forgot the rice-wine vinegar, and we topped our Pad Thai with chopped peanuts, cilantro, and sesame seeds, and a squeeze of lime. 

I got this recipe from Pinterest, but it is originally from JenniferCooks.com. She has a whole section of 'ethnic' recipes, which you don't see on a lot of food blogs, so if you like food from around the world, you should check out her site!

Easy Chicken Pad Thai from JenniferCooks.com

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 3 to 4), cut into 1-inch cubes
5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon Asian fish sauce
1 cup water
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons rice-wine vinegar
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3/4 pound linguine
3 tablespoons cooking oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2/3 cup salted peanuts, chopped fine
2 cups bean sprouts
1/2 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves

1.  In a medium glass or stainless-steel bowl, combine the fish sauce with the water, 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lime juice, the vinegar, sugar, salt, and cayenne.
2.  In a pot of boiling, salted water, cook the linguine until done, about 12 minutes. Drain.
3.  Meanwhile, in a wok or large frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderately high heat. Put the remaining oil in the pan, add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.
4.  Add the pasta and the fish-sauce mixture. Cook, stirring, until nearly all the liquid is absorbed, about 3 minutes. Stir in the chicken and 1/3 cup peanuts. Remove from the heat. Stir in the remaining 1/2 tablespoon lime juice, the bean sprouts, and half the cilantro. Top with the remaining peanuts and cilantro.

Pinterest Dinner Week, Day 5

Journey's birthday weekend threw us off of our Pinterest meals for dinner, but don't worry, we're still doing it!

The other day I made Tuscan Garlic Chicken from a blog called Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It is supposed to be a copycat Olive Garden recipe. I followed the recipe as close as possible, the only substitutions were green and yellow bell pepper in place of red, and evaporated milk instead of heavy cream, which is a tip I learned awhile back. You get the thickness and creaminess with the evaporated milk, but it is canned so you don't have to worry about expiration dates like you would with heavy cream. I think I also shredded some carrots in there, I've been doing that a lot lately.

The whole dish was good, but specifically the chicken was delicious! I would follow this recipe for the chicken for other dishes, it was tender and juicy and had a great flavor. The sauce was good, but, as I suspected for an Olive Garden copycat recipe, pretty heavy with all the cream, milk, and parmesan cheese. We were stuffed after just one plateful. Eric and I liked it a lot, and the kids did too, after I showed them that there was parmesan cheese (they call it shake cheese) in the sauce.

Overall, I would make it again, although next time I think I'll try to cram more veggies into the sauce. I'm thinking zucchini, tomatoes, and more spinach and bell peppers would be good.

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic (about 4-5 cloves)
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips or chopped
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
6 ounces fresh spinach
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup lowfat milk
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound fettuccine

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a shallow pie plate or similar dish, combine the flour, salt, pepper, basil and oregano. Dip each chicken piece in the flour mixture until both sides are well coated.

In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat until the oil is hot and shimmering. Carefully place the chicken breasts in the pan, cooking them for 2-3 minutes on each side, until they are golden and browned but not cooked all the way through (they’ll finish up in the oven). Don’t scoot the chicken around once you lay it in the hot oil! Let the oil work it’s magic to sear the crust on the chicken. If you get all antsy and try flipping too early and/or moving the chicken around the pan, the breading is lightly to fall off. Gently remove the chicken to a foil-lined, lightly greased baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside and tent with foil until ready to use.

While the chicken is cooking, heat a large pot of water to a boil and add the noodles, cooking until al dente. Also, wipe out the skillet with a couple paper towels and return it to medium heat, adding the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and bell pepper, sauteing for 2-3 minutes.

Stir in one tablespoon flour and stir constantly while cooking for another minute. Add the chicken broth to the skillet and bring the mixture to a low simmer, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 3-4 minutes. In a small liquid measure, whisk together the cornstarch and cream. Add the spinach, milk and cream mixture to the skillet. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is wilted and sauce is slightly thickened, about 2-4 minutes. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

When the pasta has finished cooking, drain and return it to the pot. Toss the pasta with half of the cheese sauce. Place some of the coated pasta on each plate. Top with a breaded chicken breast and spoon some of the sauce over the top of the chicken and pasta. Serve immediately.

Recipe Source: adapted from More of America’s Most Wanted Recipes

Pinterest Dinner Week, Day 4

Another keeper! I made extra rice for yesterday's stir fry because it's something easy to use for the kids' lunches. The kids have 2 favorite leftover rice recipes:

Italian-ish rice
Leftover rice
Buttter
Frozen mixed veggies
Italian seasoning
Parmesan cheese

Mix the first 4 ingredients together, microwave until hot, and serve with parmesan cheese

Curry rice
Leftover rice
Butter
Frozen mixed veggies
Curry powder
Raisins
Pineapple (optional, but the kids really enjoy it if we have it!)

Mix first 4 ingredients, microwave until hot, stir in raisins and pineapple and serve

But today while browsing my pinterest board I came across a recipe for fried rice. It's supposed to be a copycat recipe for Benihana's fried rice. I've never been to Benihana, but I love fried rice, so I gave it a try, and it was soooo good!

I actually followed the recipe this time, except I put in way more veggies than it calls for, and added a stalk of celery, finely diced. The recipe is posted on the blog Running In Stilettos, who says they (I'm assuming it's a she) got it from food.com.


Ingredients: (Serves 2)
2 ounces cooked chicken (I skipped the meat today)
8 ounces steamed rice (I don't know how much that is, but I used about 3 cups of cooked rice)
2 eggs 
2 tablespoons onion, chopped (I used half a large onion)
2 tablespoons carrot, chopped (I used 2 carrots)
2 tablespoons green onion, chopped 
2 tablespoons green peas (I used half a bag of frozen peas)
1 teaspoon sesame seed 
3 tablespoons butter 
1 teaspoon oil (use for cooking veggies)
2 teaspoons soy sauce (or more to taste)
6 pinches pepper 
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
Sesame seeds
Salt to taste


Directions:
- Scramble eggs and chop after cooking. 
- Saute chopped onion, green onion, seasoning and carrots in the oil until done and mix with chopped scrambled egg and chicken. 
- Break off chunks of steamed rice and mix with vegetable, egg and chicken. 
- Add sesame seed, minced garlic, ginger, salt and pepper, stirring well. 
- Add butter and soy sauce into the mixture, stirring well until done.


It was YUMMY! It has been a long time since I've had Chinese restaurant fried rice, but I think this had similar flavors, and was less greasy, which is a plus. It was full of veggies, but diced so small that it didn't overwhelm the look of the dish. We all gobbled it up! Next time if I make this meatless, I'll add more eggs to bump up the protein, but overall, this was easy, delicious, and a keeper!

Pinterest Dinner Week, Day 3

I've learned some things about my 'What's for dinner?' pinterest board-I don't have as much pinned as I thought! A lot of things I have pinned call for extras that we don't usually buy like cream cheese or cream-of-something soups. Since I came up for this idea after we had done our shopping for the week, I'm making do with what we have, and avoiding the urge to pin new things!

Last night's dinner was delicious! Rather than pinning the specific recipe, I pinned this website, 100 days of real food as one to come back and check out. The family pledged to eat only whole foods for 100 days. Basically anything fresh from nature, nothing from a box. They made their own crackers, tortillas, etc. It sounds like a great challenge where everyone benefits! It is all documented, and they have made other pledges since then, such as 100 days of real food on a food stamp budget, and they are very thorough, check it out!

I read through the website for awhile and decided on  Farmers' Market Stir Fry. We don't have a farmers' market right now, but every Thursday, we get a box of produce from Door to Door Organics, so I figured that would be close enough! We ran into the store the night before to buy more milk for the kids (they go through it so fast!) and our grocery store has carts with plastic race cars attached to the front, which Jebriel LOVES, so we usually wander up and down the aisles while he makes vrooming and beeping noises. We walked past the meat and they had a shelf of meat marked for quick sale. There was a 2-pack of steaks marked down from $9 to $4, so we grabbed it, one steak for Eric (who likes an occasional late night steak, and one to be used for a family dinner. Of course this is an adapted version, since I'm just not a stick-to-the-recipe person.

I made the teriyaki sauce this morning:
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup water
some grated fresh ginger, or powdered
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 tbsp honey

and marinated the steak in it all day, then thinly sliced it, keeping the marinade, right before it was time to cook it.

Then before dinner I got some rice going, and started chopping veggies. The recipe calls for 3 cups of veggies, any kind you have. We used:
grated radish and baby turnip
carrots
red and yellow bell pepper
snap peas
celery

Heat 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a big pan, toss the veggies and meat in, then pour the sauce over it, and stir it around until it's done.

While it cooks (this is something that in my cooking haste I misread, it was meant as a side dish, but it turned out really yummy!) I made a fruit relish with:
1/3 cup diced mango
1/3 cup diced pineapple
1 green onion, thinly sliced (I use kitchen scissors)

To serve, I put rice on the plate, topped it with the beef and veggie stir fry, spooned some extra sauce over it, and then a spoonful of the fruit relish on top. Everyone devoured it! Definitely a keeper recipe, and can easily be modified with different meats (or no meat) and different veggies. The teriyaki sauce paired with the fruit salsa really made the dish, sweet and salty and garlicky, yum!

Pinterest Dinner Week, Day 2

Last night's Pinterest-inspired new recipe was Crock pot Greek Chicken and Quinoa, adapted From This blog, which has a list of convenient, healthy crock pot recipes. My original plan was to try the recipes as they were originally written, but I don't think I've ever done that, I'm always tweaking things or substituting things.

Greek Chicken

4 chicken breasts
1 Red Onion, diced (I used a yellow onion)
3 Cups Vegetable Broth
1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
1 cup Quinoa
Juice of 1 Lemon (1/4 cup)
1 Tbs. Oregano
1 Tbs. Basil

1/4 cup kalamata olives

Place all ingredients except chicken in crock pot and stir well. Add in chicken . Cook on low for 6+ hours, until chicken is cooked.

Pull chicken out and put on a plate, then serve it on top of the quinoa mixture. You can top it with more kalamata olives, thinly sliced cucumbers, and/or feta cheese!


I thought it was pretty good, I think it definitely needs the thinly sliced cucumbers and feta cheese for a little more texture and flavor, and the extra kalamata olives tasted better with it than the ones cooked in the dish. Eric and I liked it, if you like Greek food you'll like it too. The kids didn't love it, however, so it won't become a regular.

Pinterest Dinner Week, Day 1

Have you heard of Pinterest? It's a virtual pinboard where you can search by picture, 'pin' that picture to your page, and then when you click on the picture, it takes to to the website where you can learn how to make the recipe, craft, or photography scene. It is totally addicting, but it has made a lot of not-so-crafty people a little craftier. I call it the best of the web. You can google 'best recipe' or 'cute craft' and you'll probably find a good idea, but on Pinterest you can find all the best recipes and cutest crafts, and people are actually making them successfully!

Sometimes I feel like I pin more things than I actually make, so I'll set out to try something new. This week I decided to have Pinterest dinner week, where every dinner I make is something I've 'pinned'. I didn't think of it until I already had Monday's dinner in the crock pot, so we started yesterday.

To be frugal, we try to have at least 1 vegetarian dinner every week. If I can do 2, even better! We supplement the protein with beans, eggs, or Barilla Plus pasta, which is made with bean flours to give each serving 10 grams of protein, and it doesn't taste any different than other pastas.

Yesterday I made crock pot macaroni and cheese adapted from momswithcrockpots.com. You'll have to click the link to see a picture, ours got eaten too fast!

The following recipe varies slightly from the recipe on the website.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces small pasta-elbows, shells, etc
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 cups (16 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese or a Cheddar blend
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. Cook the macaroni following package directions. Drain well.
2. Generously butter the sides and bottom of the crock pot (I actually forgot to do this step and it turned out fine)
3. Combine the macaroni with the remaining ingredients in the slow cooker and blend well. Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours, stirring a few times.
4. If desired, spoon the cooked macaroni and cheese mixture into a baking dish, sprinkle with a little more cheese, and put under the broiler for a minute or 2, to get the cheese brown and bubbly. I didn't do this step, we ate it right out of the crock pot and it was delicious!

This is definitely a keeper recipe, super easy and yummy! Makes me want to check out the other crock pot recipes on momswithcrockpots.com, but I'll have to do that after pinterest dinner week!

I had plans of steaming fresh veggies and making a salad to serve on the side, but the weather was so nice yesterday that we ended up playing outside for over an hour, until Eric came home from work, so I microwaved a bag of frozen veggies instead. Priorities, you know ;)

Right now there's a Greek chicken and quinoa recipe in the crock pot that is smelling pretty good, hopefully I'll have another keeper recipe to share tomorrow!

The Best Oven Roasted Potatoes

These were super easy to make, and they tasted like steak fries you would get at a restaurant! I served them with grilled chicken and a big salad, and my dad is planning on using the leftovers I gave him to eat with his eggs for breakfast. Yum!

Best Oven Roasted Potatoes

1/8 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic OR 1 tsp garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 tsp chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine oil, garlic, parsley, chili powder, pepper, and salt.
Stir in potatoes until evenly coated. Place potatoes in a single layer in an oven safe
dish. I used a casserole dish, a baking sheet would work fine too.
Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.

I found the original recipe here but adapted it by reading the comments for the recipe, which usually helps. The original recipe would have been too herby for me I think.

I didn't take a picture of it, but it looked really yummy, an impressive dish for company. The yummy dishes never end up with pictures taken because they disappear so fast ;)