Using sound judgment to be more self-reliant.
I regularly whip together some version of homemade cream of vegetable soup, but when I put together this creamy broccoli cheese soup with a hint of bacon, my husband and the boys said it was one of the best I’ve ever made. What’s the “surprise” ingredient? I raided the pantry for some dehydrated summer squash to use as an extra thickening agent. Eureka moment! It’s a great use for an abundant veggie, and adds a little more vegetable punch to the recipe, which is never a bad thing.
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When kale is abundant and cooler fall temps set in, I love to make up a batch of Toscana soup like Olive Garden (Zuppa Toscana :-)). It’s a hearty soup featuring sausage, bacon, potatoes, cream and kale. I like to pair it up with freshly baked crusty French bread – so good! The biggest difference between homemade Toscana soup and the commercial version is that the homemade version is much more substantial. I like to cut my ingredients into bite sized pieces instead of pea sized bits. I received this recipe from a friend years ago. (Thanks, Gregg.)…
We were exposed to a bug last week via friends who didn’t know that they were contagious at the time, so I’ve been bumping up our vitamin C, D, spice and probiotic consumption. To get a natural dose of zinc, which has also been proven effective at boosting your immune system, I made up a batch of oyster stew.
When I was a little girl, we usually had oyster stew only once a year, on Christmas Eve. Here in the Midwest, fresh oysters have just started showing up for the holiday season. I used canned today, because that’s what I had in the house, but fresh are great if you can get them. This recipe uses bone broth made from chicken to take advantage of chicken’s natural decongestant properties….
Olive Garden Style Chicken and Gnocchi Soup is something my boys enjoy on the rare occasions we eat out. It didn’t seem overly complicated, so I went hunting on the internet and came up with two recipes. Neither seemed quite right to me, so I combined the two and tweaked it a little, and this is the result. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. It’s great for using up leftover chicken and mashed potatoes, too. I’ve also added a gluten free gnocchi recipe, so the recipe can be made with or without gluten….
