Healthier Cheeseburger Chowder

 

 

     I am trying very hard to eat foods that taste as much like things I "used to cook" and yet have less fat and calories. I think most things can be changed a little bit and still have textures and flavors that taste good. People say that after eating mostly "clean" foods, they no longer want things that aren't healthy. Well, I'm not sure I agree with that. Chocolate still tastes great to me and I have some almost daily. After almost 3 months of healthy eating, greasy things don't sound very good to me anymore (but they never really did). I still would be blissfully happy putting heavy layers of butter and cheese on most everything. I lightened the cheese load in this soup quite a bit and I wasn't sure if we would like it this way, but it was actually quite good for a healthy option.

 

     I bought my first bottle of canola oil to make this recipe. I don't use a lot of oil other than olive oil, but I have noticed that many recipes now call for canola oil instead of vegetable oil.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

8 oz. extra lean ground beef

2 tsp. canola oil

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped carrots

1 large potato peeled and chopped

pepper to taste

1/2 tsp. paprika

cayenne pepper (small amount-optional)

2 cans 99% fat free chicken broth

1/4 cup reduced-fat evaporated milk

1 T. flour (I used whole wheat)

3/4 cup shredded reduced fat (not fat free) cheddar cheese

 

     Brown the beef in a small stock pan. Drain, remove from pan and set aside. Add canola oil to same pan and sauté celery, carrots and potato until almost tender. Sprinkle with pepper, paprika and cayenne. Add chicken broth and simmer until veggies are nice and tender. Using a potato masher (or a fork) slightly mash the cooked veggies to thicken the broth a bit, but still leaving large chunks. Mix milk with the flour and stir it into the soup, stirring until blended. Add back in the beef and the cheese and stir until melted.

 

This recipe makes 4 servings @ 249 calories per serving.





    

 

Enjoy!

 

I am joining Michael @ Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday

 

Healthy Tomato Basil Soup (159 calories)

 

     I continue to look for recipes that I can adapt into healthy versions and this Tomato Basil soup was a success. I want to warn you ahead of time that I actually made mine in the crockpot and it worked just fine (4 hours on low heat) but it was really, really ugly before it went into the blender. There is a picture below, just so you know that you didn't ruin it! This would be easy to make quickly without the crockpot, I simply wanted to see what happened when it slow cooked.

 

Serving size is 1 1/4 cups for only 159 calories

per serving when entered into my calorie calculator.

 

 

In your pan or crockpot add:

 

1 T. olive oil

1 T. dried basil (or fresh basil if you have it)

pinch of garlic powder (to taste)

4 cans Fire Roasted Tomatoes (do not drain)

8 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese

2 cups skim milk

salt and pepper to taste

 

Heat through until cheese melts and place in small batches into the blender (the soup will explode when hot if you put very much in the blender-hold the lid on). Pulse until creamy.



 

Tomatoes and oil in crockpot

 

 

All ingredients in crockpot

 

 

Gross and ugly looking soup as I am dipping it into the blender

 

 

Creamy and delicious after blending.

 

     I got a new laptop today and I'm trying to get things switched over and getting a feel for the new keyboard. I also have to learn the tricks of Windows 8 so who knows how many errors you will see in the next few days!

 

I am joining Michael @ Rattlebridge Farm

for Foodie Friday

Clean Out the Refrigerator Soup

     We all have those days where we want something homemade and we don't want to have to go to the store or put much effort into the process. Well my suggestion, make soup! I did exactly that a few days ago. You can exchange any ingredient in this soup with something similar and it will work. The key is to allow it to simmer for a while so that all the flavors can really come together.

     I started by browning a pound of lean ground beef with some chopped celery. You could use ground chicken or turkey, leftover roast or simply go meatless if you want. Make sure to drain any grease off the meat before adding the remaining ingredients. I had a couple cans each of diced tomatoes and white beans (any beans will work just rinse the beans before adding to soup). My tomatoes had basil and garlic added. You can use any that you like, just add some Italian seasoning or a pinch garlic powder and some oregano if you use this plain tomatoes. Add the beans and tomatoes to the meat mixture. Add enough water to cover the meat/vegetable mix and simmer for as long as you have time for. I let mine simmer about two hours.

     About 15 minutes before serving, I added some fresh spinach (I used an entire bag) and about a cup of pasta. Any greens and any kind of pasta will work. If you don't have pasta, rice would be fine.  

     Season with salt and pepper to taste. I topped ours with a little parmesan cheese. It tasted a little like a cross between minestrone and vegetable soup. The bonus was the house smelled wonderful! Enjoy!

Simple, Delicious and Good For You!

     I love soup. I think I could be happy having soup every day, even in the summer. My favorites tend to be cream soups, but we know those aren't the best for us. So, I'm always looking for recipes that are both healthy and taste good. I recently read a recipe that sounded delicious and of course I had to change it a bit for our tastes. I think you will like this one.

Hearty Chicken Soup with Beans

Ingredients

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

8 oz. dried pinto beans

8 oz. dried great northern beans (you can either soak both of the dried bean varieties for 2 hours and drain, or do as I did and in a large pan, cover them with water and bring to a boil, then drain them)

2 T. olive oil

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped (I like to add some of the leaves)

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

pinch of garlic powder

32 oz. chicken broth (low sodium)

2 cups of water

Put the chicken in the crockpot.

You can see that mine was still frozen.

Coarsely chop the celery and carrots and add to the chicken

Add the rinsed and soaked (or slightly boiled and drained) beans to the mix.

Add oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, bay leaves, broth and water.

I set my crockpot to 4 hours on high temperature,

you can adjust yours accordingly.

Before serving remove the bay leaves and shred the chicken.

     My husband had seconds...that always means that it is a success. We just had crackers with ours, but cornbread or a crusty French bread would be delicious.

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Quick & Easy Chicken Soup

     I have been reading Joanne Fluke novels for several years. They are light, fun mysteries that are food related. The recipes are always included in the books and I was anxious to try this very simple chicken soup recipe from the latest book, Devil's Food Cake Murder. 

     I made my own chicken broth with two large chicken breasts boiled in water with salt, pepper and a couple of bay leaves. You could certainly buy the broth and use a rotissere chicken for the meat. This made a thick, creamy soup that we both really enjoyed. The second day, it thickened and needed a bit of water/broth to "turn it back into soup".

Ingredient

8 cups chicken broth (you may want a little more to thin down the soup)

3 cups cubed cooked chicken

6 1/2 cups uncooked egg noodles

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

black pepper

Boil broth and add noodles, cook until tender. Add two cans of soup to the broth. Stir in the chicken and sour cream (I added a little extra broth to thin the soup a little). Sprinkle with pepper if desired. Enjoy!

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Got Soup? You Are Going To Want To Try This One!

     I love it when I try a new recipe and it tastes as good as it looks, or better! This creamy potato soup is one of those recipes. I saw a recipe in the current issue of Southern Living Magazine and decided to adapt it a bit to fit what I had in the house. It was very good!

Queso Potato Chowder

Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers, chopped

1/4 cup butter

1 can chopped green chiles, drained

1 32 oz. bag frozen hash browns

1/4 tsp. cumin

28 oz. chicken broth

1/3 cup flour

1 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)

1 cup half and half

1 cup (or a little more) shredded monterey jack cheese

1 cup (or a little more) shredded cheddar cheese

Garnish-extra shredded cheddar, crushed tortilla chips

     In a large pan, saute the peppers in the butter until tender. Add the frozen potatoes and cumin and stir until the potato chunks are broken up and the potatoes start to brown a little bit. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

      

     Whisk the flour with the milk and cream, pour into potato/broth mixture and stir until thickened over medium heat (about 3 minutes). Reduce heat to very low. Add the cheese and stir until melted. Stir in the green chiles. Serve sprinkled with addtional shredded cheese and tortilla chips. So, it isn't lo-cal, but it is certainly delicious! Enjoy!

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I am joining Michael @ Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday.

Please take time to visit her today!

Corn Chowder "Light"

     I live in the heart of sweetcorn country. There are festivals, roadside stands and corn in various forms on the menus of area restaurants this time of year. One night last week I had a cup of the best corn chowder at our local "fancy place". I knew that it was loaded with butter and cream, but it was so good. I decided to try to duplicate the creamy, rich flavor without all the calories and I got good results. If calories aren't an issue for you, you can use cream instead of milk, add more bacon or stir in some shredded cheese at the end.

     I started with 6 ears of fresh sweetcorn, raw. I sliced it off the cob. In a small stockpot, I added the corn to 4 T. of real butter, 2 stalks of chopped celery and 1 cup of chopped carrots. Bring the mixture to a high heat while stirring to melt the butter, reduce the heat to low, cover and let the mixture soften.

     In a separate saucepan, place some diced potatoes. I used 5 smaller new potatoes from the local farner's market. Fresh potatoes have a creamier texture than those that have been in the store for weeks. To the potatoes add 1 bay leaf, 1/4 tsp. of black pepper, a pinch of thyme and 1 can of chicken broth. Simmer the potatoes until tender and remove the bay leaf.

     While the potatoes are cooking, sprinkle the tender corn mixture with 1/2 cup flour, stir and set off the heat.

     When the potatoes are tender, put the corn mixture back on medium high heat until you can hear it cooking. Stir in the potato and broth mixture and the soup will thicken very quickly. Add 3 cups of milk stirring constantly and reduce heat. I used 2 percent milk. We only buy skim milk, so 2 percent to us is like cream and was certainly "creamy" enough to make the soup delicious. Sprinkly with a bit of crumbled cooked bacon before serving. I would have liked more bacon mixed into the soup...but, I was trying to keep it "light"! Add salt and pepper to taste.

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Mom's Chicken Soup...Keep Those Spring Colds Away!

     One of the first recipes I posted when I started this blog was good old chicken soup. Considering that no one was actually reading my blog back then, I've decided to post it again. It is perfect for this time of year as the temperatures change 20 or 30 degrees from day to day and many of us end up with colds and allergies. I believe in the healing powers of homemade chicken soup! 

     The first thing to know about cooking with chicken is to be very careful with sanitation. Rinse the chicken in cold water before cooking it. Wash your hands and all surfaces that come in contact with raw chicken with hot, soapy water and/or a product made for kitchen clean-up.

     For this soup you can use whatever form of chicken you want. You can buy a whole chicken and cut it into pieces (I don’t think it is worth the effort), frozen bags of boneless breasts, or assorted fresh chicken pieces from the meat case. I like to use a whole chicken already cut in pieces. The skin gives the broth more flavor than the boneless, skinless bagged pieces. I generally cook the gizzard, liver, heart and back in a small pan of water and give it to my dog. Some people actually eat those parts. We don’t.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, cut in pieces. Do not use liver, gizzard, or heart for soup.

1 cup chopped carrots (baby carrots or whole carrots peeled)

1 cup chopped celery

2 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

2 bay leaves

15 cups water (I have a big pot)

7 oz. dry egg noodles (I try to buy the most homemade looking I can find)

     Rinse the chicken and place in large pot. If you are cooking for one or two people, and don’t have a large pot, just use one or two pieces of chicken and cover it with water. You will need to cut down the other ingredients as well, including the salt. You really can’t mess this up. Cover the chicken with the 15 cups of water, add the carrots, celery, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and let cook for about 2 hours until the chicken is very tender. Remove the chicken from the pot to cool. Remove the bay leaves.

     At this point in the process, I remove 5 cups of the broth and put it in a freezer container. Let it cool, and freeze it. You will be very glad to have it on a different night. Bring the remaining broth back to a boil, and stir in the noodles. Reduce to simmer and cover. The package should give you the amount of time for your particular noodles to cook (mine took 20 minutes). While the noodles are cooking, remove the chicken from the bones and skin. Cut or shred into bite size pieces. Measure 2 cups of chicken and add to the cooked noodles and broth. Add salt and pepper as needed. The remaining chicken can be placed in freezer bags and frozen, or you may refrigerate it for sandwiches the next day.

     At a later date you can thaw the frozen broth, add the frozen chicken and simply place in a pan and bring to a simmer. Add a handful of rice, pasta or noodles and you have a second meal.

     *Mom hint-Bay leaves are not poisonous but they do have sharp edges and can be a choking hazard. Make sure you always remove them before serving the food.