Succotash Soup

This is a tasty, healthy soup but it does require some planning ahead.  If you are using fresh veggies, then I would prep them earlier in the day or the day before.  I used freeze-dried foods and just had to re-hydrate them during some of the cooking time.  I found this in a really cool cookbook called Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely.  You should check it out.  Lot's of good stuff, besides recipes.  I like the way the book is organized by season, so that you are eating foods that are available and better for you during certain times of the year.

Ingredients:
1 10-oz. bag frozen lima beans
1 cup water
2 14.5-oz. cans of chicken broth*
1 T. vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1 cup chopped onion*
3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper*
1/2 cup chopped celery*
3/4 cup chopped green onions*
2 1/2 t. dried whole thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash cayenne pepper
1 14.5-oz. can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped (or already diced)
1 11-oz. can whole kernel corn*

1. Place lima beans in a large Dutch oven. Cover with water to 2 inches above the beans.  Bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour.

2.  Drain beans; add 1 cup water and broth.  Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 40 minutes or until beans are tender.

3.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion; saute 2 minutes.  Add bell pepper and celery; saute 2 minutes.  Add green onions; saute 1 minute.

4.  Add onion mixture, thyme, and remaining ingredients to bean mixture and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.


*This is where I substituted freeze-dried veggies or other items from my Home Store.

Serves 10.  Freezes well.  Leanne suggests serving with a big green salad and whole grain rolls. Sounds like a good plan to me!

Source:  Saving Dinner, Leanne Ely, p. 133.  

Fluffy Yogurt Frosting

This is a recipe that my mom used to make. It is just whipped cream with yogurt folded in. It is a light alternative to heavy frosting recipes. However, it is a pretty soft consistency and is best suited for sheet cakes or 9x13 baked cakes. You can change the flavor of the frosting by using different yogurt flavors and I like to garnish the cake with fresh fruit that corresponds with the yogurt I use.

Ingredients:
1 pint of heavy whipping cream (2 Cups)
1/4-1/2 C. powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
1 or 2 containers (6-12oz.) of yogurt (flavor of your choice)

In a stand mixer of with a hand mixer, whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.
Fold in the yogurt.
Spread on your cake and garnish with fresh fruit. (refrigerate the leftovers-including the frosted cake)

Tres Leches Cake

Has anyone out there noticed that I post a lot of recipes for Hispanic foods?  We lived in El Paso, Texas for 6 1/2 years--right there on the US/Mexico border. Oh my yum!  Last night we had the sister missionaries over for dinner.  One of them had completed her mission and was heading back home to Arizona this week. She wanted her last dinner appointment in her mission to be at our house and she wanted a fiesta!  So cool that both missionaries are Hispanic.  They know how much we love Mexican food so I was happy to oblige. Chile Rellenos, Spanish Rice, Frijoles Charros and Tres Leches Cake.  The rellenos were homemade, but I bought my favorite rice and someday I will learn to make the beans, but for now canned is great.

For those who have never had Tres Leches (3 milks), this cake is meant to be soggy.  If yours turns out dry, you didn't make it right.  Just sayin'.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided (or not.  I forgot to divide, so my cake was a little sweeter.  Who cares?)

1 1/2 t. vanilla extract, divided

5 eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. cream of tartar

1 cup whole milk (I had 2% and it was fine)

1 12-oz can evaporated  milk

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 T. rum (we don't drink so I used 2 T. rum flavoring--I Googled this)

Fresh fruit for garnish--I recommend mango, blueberries, strawberries, kiwi combined.

I cut them up a little bigger than a dice.  Leave the blueberries whole.

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease and flour a 13 x 9 baking dish.  I like using glass for this, so I adjusted the oven temp to 325.

2.  Combine butter and 1 cup sugar in a large bowl.  Beat with a mixer at medium speed until fluffy.  Add 1 t. vanilla.  Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well.

3.  Combine four, baking powder and cream of tartar.  Add to slowly to butter mixture and beat well. Spread batter in pan.  Bake 25-30 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Set aside to cool.

4.  Stir together milk, evaporated milk and condensed milk.  Pour 3 cups over cake*.  Reserve remaining milk mixture to serve with cake.  Refrigerate cake.

5.  Combine heavy cream, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, remaining 1/2 t. of vanilla and rum or rum flavoring. Beat until thick and spread over cake.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

6.  Pour leftover milk mixture onto dessert plates.  Slice chilled cake into squares and place on plates. Garnish with fresh fruit, if desired.  Serves 16.

Source:  I clipped this from a magazine, so I am guessing Better Homes & Gardens.

*no need to poke holes in the cake before you pour your milk mixture over it.  The cake does absorb the liquid very easily.

Almond Butter Quinoa Brownies

I am not saying that I have jumped on the quinoa bandwagon, but I got a free "Eating Well" magazine in the mail this past week and was just flipping through it and left it open on the kitchen island.  Next thing you know I have a request to make these lovelies.  Okay, I was game.  These are actually pretty good.  And I had all of the ingredients on-hand, including a hand-crank grinder that I haven't used in forever*.  Pretty handy little tool, really.  Mental note to use this more often.  

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (I used salted because that is what I had.  Paula Deen says that's okay.)

3/4 cup smooth or crunchy natural almond butter

2 large eggs

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 t. vanilla extract

3/4 cup quinoa flour (I used my hand-crank grinder to make this)

1 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil allowing it to slightly overhang on opposite ends so you have "handles" to lift the blondies out of the pan.  Coat the foil with cooking spray. Seriously. These things are a little sticky when you cut them and pull them off of the foil.

2.  Beat butter and almond butter in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until creamy.  Beat in eggs, brown sugar and vanilla.  Whisk quinoa flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.

3.  Mix the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

4.  Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake about 25 minutes--until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs on it.  DO NOT OVER BAKE.

5.  Remove from oven and let cool about 45 minutes in the pan.  Lift the blondies out of the pan with the foil  and transfer to a cutting board.  Let cool completely and cut into bars.

6.  Makes 24 blondies.

7.  These should keep up to 5 days in the fridge, in an air-tight container.

*Check out this cool grinder...

SOURCE:  Eating Well Magazine.

Chicken Satay and Thai Peanut Sauce

For this post, you get two recipes in one! The chicken satay recipe came from here. And the most amazing Thai Peanut Sauce recipe came from here.

Thai Chicken Satay:

2 normal to large sized chicken breasts

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 wooden skewers

Directions:

1. Soak the skewers in water while prepping your chicken and sauce. This will help keep the skewers from burning when you place them on the grill. 

2. Cut the chicken into thin slices. 

3. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl, add the chicken and massage. The chicken does not need to marinate in the sauce for very long, in fact only a few minutes. Place the chicken on skewers and drop them on the grill at medium heat. Flip the skewer just before you start to see grill marks on the chicken. This makes for the perfect “doneness” without drying it out. 

This marinade also goes great with shrimp! 

For the Thai Peanut Sauce:

One 13.5-ounce can of full-fat, unsweetened coconut milk

2 ounces (approximately ¼ cup) of Thai red or Massaman curry paste

¾ cup unsweetened (natural) creamy peanut butter (Do not use regular peanut butter or anything with added emulsifiers. I get mine fresh ground in the bulk section at Winco.)

½ tablespoon salt

¾ cup sugar

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar (Do not use white wine, red wine, balsamic, or anything else — not even rice vinegar)

½ cup water

Instructions:

Put everything into a medium heavy-bottomed pot and bring to a very gentle boil over medium heat, whisking constantly.

Let the mixture simmer for 3-5 minutes over low heat; be careful not to let the mixture scorch at the bottom of the pot.

Take the pot off the heat, let the sauce cool down to room temperature (or slightly warmer), and serve the sauce with satay or fried tofu.

Notes

This peanut sauce keeps in a glass container in the refrigerator for weeks. Refrigerated sauce will thicken up considerably. All you have to do is thin it out with a little bit of water to desired consistency, reheat, and serve. The sauce also freezes beautifully.

 

Lasagna Soup

Have I told you how much I absolutely love Thrive?  I mean, seriously.  It's amazing.  I have saved so much time in the kitchen just by using Thrive foods--they are ready to use right out of the packaging--no more chopping onions, no more greasy meat prep, etc.  And the taste is unmatched!  Not to mention the nutrition bonus of eating freeze dried foods of the highest quality.  You are really missing out if you haven't tried Thrive for yourself.

I love "throw and go" cooking with Thrive foods.  The other day I made some spaghetti sauce using that method; and for me, that means just tossing in what I like and adding enough water along the way to rehydrate the foods to perfection.  This is all without any measuring!!!  Love it.  And my spaghetti meat sauce, which I began making AFTER I started the pasta, was done before the pasta was!

But sometimes I do like to try recipes and measure.  Lasagna Soup intrigued me when I saw it and, lemme tell you, it did NOT disappoint my taste buds.  Several in the family went back up for seconds of this tasty dish.  This one is definitely going to be made many times in our house!  And, bonus, you can also vacuum seal this (layered in the order listed) in a quart mason jar and keep it on the shelf for emergency quick meals (although going directly into the pot was fast to begin with).  Just dump and go.  (Email me at gimmethrive@gmail.com for more info on jar meals!)

Ingredients:

¼ cup Thrive Tomato Powder
1 tsp Thrive Chef's Choice Seasoning
 ¼ cup Thrive Tomato Sauce 
3 TBSP Thrive Mixed Bell Peppers
 1 TBSP Thrive Chicken Bouillon
¼ cup Thrive Freeze Dried Onions
 1 tsp  Garlic powder
¾ cup Thrive Freeze Dried Sausage Crumbles 
¼ tsp Crushed Red Pepper
2 cups Thrive Farfalle (Bowtie) Noodles

1. Dump all the ingredients into a pot or Dutch oven.  Stir in 8 cups of water.
2.  Bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down to medium.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the noodles are al dente.

Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and serve with salad and breadsticks!  Easy peasy!

For more information on how you can save time and money while eating nutritious, convenient food from Thrive, 

email me at gimmethrive@gmail.com.  

You can also visit my website to learn more.