Tomato-Basil Parmesan Soup - Review

This soup was AMAZINGLY good. And vegetarian. Mwa ha ha. I realized that as my husband was asking what was in it - hoping it had some kind of meat in it. When I told him what was in it he said, "So, it's basically like a drink?" I told him to sit down and eat his dinner. And he loved it. And then sneakily fixed himself an egg roll afterward. And a peanut butter sandwich. We're working on the vegetarian night here still, apparently. :)

from 365daysofcrockpot.com

This was not too bad to make, except at the end it calls for making a roux. That is basically mixing a fat with flour to make something to thicken your dish up. For this recipe, you melt 1/2 cup butter, then pour in 1/2 cup flour, and whisk for 5-7 minutes. When you are done, you have an unimpressive runny mixture. Ta da! BUT, when you add in the hot soup, crazy things happen. I have actually never seen something react that quickly, so be prepared. When you dump in the first cup of soup, it will IMMEDIATELY thicken up. It's crazy. Get that all stirred together, then add the other three cups at once, and stir. It will amazingly enough still be thick. Then you dump that all back into the crock pot and stir, then add the remaining ingredients. Not too hard.

This soup smelled SO good when it was cooking, and it had a really good flavor. My kids were a little "eh" about it - the 7-year old ate a serving of it and was done. The 4-year old decided that it looked unappetizing and he didn't want to eat it. We have a family rule (that we learned from a much wiser family) that you have to eat as many bites of a dinner as you are old, so he had to eat four bites of it. He actually liked it, but it was admitting defeat at that point, and he wasn't quite willing to do that.

I would probably eat this daily if it was an option. I almost had some after breakfast today. And I don't typically eat "dinner-y" things early in the day. I thought it was THAT good.

Family Rating: ***1/2
My Rating: *****
Cost: $ (all veggies!)
Difficulty: Moderate - due to the veggie chopping and the roux making. Not quite "dump it all in the crockpot and forget about it", but it wasn't too bad to make either.

Sunday Beef Stew - Review

This is another recipe from Our Best Bites - a stew. It had a lot of similar characteristics to our "normal" stew here, but had a few differences as well.

from ourbestbites.com

It has quite a bit of celery, which was nice since we got THREE HEADS OF CELERY with our Bountiful Basket this week (my kids usually turn their nose up to celery unless it is disguised in something - no ants on a log here....), and I appreciated that it seemed to have a lot of stuff cut up in it, like a good stew should.

The concerns I had were that it turned out a little thinner than I usually like my stew (it was more like a "stoup" - a soup-y stew). Also, it wasn't very salty. The recipe actually does not call for salt at all. I know there is beef bullion and tomato soup, both of which have "salt content", but it wasn't enough for us. All of us kept having to add salt to get it to where we liked it. I know salt is essential to good flavor, but I can't remember the last time when I added salt to something. Usually I am taking it out of things (like the frittatas). So the next time we make it, I'd add some salt. Not much (a teaspoon?), but something to get it a little closer to helping to bring out the good flavors of the stew.

My husband graciously took a picture of his leftovers since I had forgotten to take one of the original - thanks J. :)

Overall, though, it was tasty. I would definitely try this one again. The boys all gobbled it up, and that always makes me a happy mom. :)

Family Rating: ****
My Rating: ***1/2
Cost: $$
Difficulty: Easy - just chopping veggies and chucking stuff in a crockpot.

Battle of Cream of Chicken Soup - Reviews

I was making a dish tonight that needed Cream of Chicken soup. I have started to make my Cream of Chicken soup lately instead of using canned because then I know everything that is in it, and it is actually cheaper (and generally tastes better) than using the canned mystery soup. Now, if someone were to give me canned soup, I would happily eat it, but I don't mind making it either.

I had run across another recipe that had used more flour in it, and thought that I would try to find it online. I couldn't find anything like what I'd seen before, so I tried this one that I actually found in several different places and it had gotten great reviews everywhere. I must have messed something up, because I thought it was not so good at all. I've looked over the recipe over and over again, and I can't see what I omitted, so maybe whatever people are making with the soup lends well to that recipe. It tasted like flour to me, and really, the flour to liquid ratio seemed really high. As soon as I dumped the flour/milk mixture into everything that had heated up on the stove, it pretty much instantly coagulated and I had a hard time getting all of the lumps out. Probably my error since so many people love it, but I wouldn't try it again. My rating is 1 star here. This recipe makes the equivalent of 2 cans, in case you try it.

This is the recipe that I typically use. I like it because it has a good flavor, but it doesn't thicken up as much as I would love for it to thicken up. It really works well as a general soup substitute, though, since there really isn't anything seasoning it other than the chicken stock (which I use chicken bullion and water instead). I would probably give this one a 4 star rating, but maybe try and put some more flour in it. My cream of chicken soup did not turn out as thick as is pictured below, but again, it is still tasty. This recipe makes the equivalent of 1 can.

from bunsinmyoven.com

One that looks like a good "meet in the middle" recipe is here. It has more flour than my typical recipe so hopefully it should be thicker, but has more liquid than the one that I tried today so hopefully it shouldn't be too thick. I also like that it doesn't have a bunch of seasonings in it already - I had to throw out the sauce for the dinner tonight because the seasonings from the soup didn't go with the curry needed for the recipe. This recipe makes the equivalent of 4 cans, and apparently the cream of chicken soup is freezable, so some people have made it and used what they needed, then put the rest in the freezer. Hmm.

Hearty Vegetable Quinoa Chili - Review

Again, on the quest for good vegetarian meals, I found this recipe on Picky Palate. It looks nothing like it tastes, and that is a good thing. At least for my family. It looks like a vegetable soup, but it really has a taco/chili taste and smell to it, courtesy of the cumin and chili powder. Chili is a good word for it. I kept calling it a "stew", and then was wondering why it smelled like southwestern fare. BECAUSE IT IS A CHILI, KAT!

from pickypalate.com

Quinoa is a little tricky to find. It is a South American member of the grass family (thank you, Wikipedia), and each grain kind of looks like one of those beanbag chair pellets, but with a little more hint of brown. I found it at our local Sprouts. I have also heard they sell packages at Costco, but we don't have one here in good ol' West Texas, so I couldn't tell you for sure. If you check your local "whole foods" store, they should have it. That's where I go to find things that I think only strange, healthy people would eat. Generally, I can find them there. Also, I think you could substitute rice and still have a good flavor. By the way, when you cook Quinoa, it almost looks like it sprouts. Don't be alarmed - I think that's normal. It's a little different, but apparently Quinoa is full of protein, calcium and other good stuff.

We actually had one of my son's friends from school over while I was making it, and more than once he said, "That smells great! What is it?"

One trick. I didn't cook the Quinoa separately. I am lazy. I threw it straight into the pot when the "cooked" Quinoa was supposed to go in. I had read one reviewer who said they did this, and I decided it was a good idea. Especially given all of the chopping required.

I will have to admit that I was a VERY happy person cutting up all of the veggies. They filled up a decent-sized glass cooking bowl. I typically don't like cutting up veggies, but for some reason these were actually enjoyable to do. Lots of pretty colors. And I was happy because I had bought a bunch of veggies a couple of weeks previously and forgotten about them, and I had wondered how in the world I could use them all up quickly. Problem solved.

I was a little nervous about how it would be received by the kids because it has SQUASH (7-year old is not a fan) and TOMATOES (4-year old is not a fan), but all THREE of my children ate it happily. Ha HA! I think it is because it smells so deceptively good. You just want to eat it. Even with little strange sprout-y quinoa floating in it.

Family Rating: ***** (YES! My picky almost 2-year old ATE IT!)
My Rating: *****
Cost: $$ (probably nearer to $5 than to $10 - just depends if you can get your quinoa and veggies on a deal)
Difficulty: Moderate, due to the veggie chopping. No tricky techniques.

Split Pea Soup with Ham - Review

Today we tried Our Best Bites "Split Pea Soup with Ham". My kids have been wanted to have pea soup since they saw "Rescuers Down Under" a couple of years back. So, we're trying it.

from ourbestbites.com

Modifications:
1) couldn't find smoked paprika = used normal paprika w/ pinch of chili powder
2) didn't have malt vinegar (and didn't see a huge need to buy some for 1 tsp.) = used apple cider vinegar
3) reduced garlic from 4 or 5 cloves down to 3 cloves-ish....my husband is very garlic sensitive and I thought even the 3 cloves might be pushing it.

Review:

My husband LOVED the soup. One of my sons ate it and didn't ask for seconds (which he typically does), the other son didn't eat much of it. I thought it was okay. It seemed to be lacking in flavor, and the texture was a little strange to me since it is based on dissolved peas. And yet, I still had two bowls of it. I am eating some more now for lunch, but added some garlic powder to it and it is much better. I would try making this again in awhile, but stick to the garlic amount in the recipe and try to find some smoked paprika.

Family Rating: ***
My Rating: ***1/2 (with potential)
Cost: $$ (again, probably closer to the $5 end of things, just depending on what you have on hand, and the price you get your ham)
Difficulty: Easy. You literally throw things in a crockpot and wait. Only a couple of things to cut up.