Chicken Lentil Soup

Fall is here and soups comfort my soul! I had a friend who asked for a soup that used lentils. I love lentils, and I love lentil soup...some though find lentils an acquired taste. I admit if you don't season things good when using lentils they can be quite bland.

This soup is chuck full of stuff! It's hearty, healthy and perfect for a chilly day. I felt mine had a good flavor, a good consistency. However my basil kind of spilled into the soup so I had a little too much basil. I'll put the correct amount though- hopefully you don't have the same problem! Also, this soup is so easily turned vegan/vegetarian...just leave out the chicken. What other soups do you like? Do you prefer really hearty soups with lots of textures, or do you prefer a really smooth soup texture?

Chicken Lentil Soup

6 cups vegetable broth

4 small potatoes, cubed

1 1/4 C lentils

1 cup cooked quinoa

2 T basil

1 T garlic, minced

 salt and pepper to taste

dash of red pepper flakes

1 1/2 cup cubed cooked chicken

Add broth to a large pot. Add cubed potatoes with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 5 minutes covered. Add lentils, quinoa, basil, and garlic. Simmer for 10 minutes until potatoes are tender. 

This is optional- I put half of the soup into the blender and blended it. Then poured it back into the pot. You don't have to do that if you don't like that consistency. 

Add cubed chicken and cover and simmer together for another 5 minutes!

Remove from heat and serve! Enjoy

Hearty Fall Crock Pot Vegetable Soup

Crisp fall air just screams for soup that warms your whole body. It is beautiful during this season, the leaves all up and down my street are so colorful...the only problem is...the bugs are trying to come inside for the winter! Seriously they are everywhere!

 

But one thing I look forward to is soup, soup and more soup...maybe a few bread bowls thrown in there. In the past most of my soups contained a lot of cream and cheese. If I'm going for creamy soup I try to stick to a cashew cream sauce base instead of cream cheese!

Soup is so diverse also since you can use almost anything you have on hand and usually turn up with a great tasting creation! That's what happened with this hearty vegetable soup. It was delicious and I used vegetables I just had in my fridge. It was so simple and may entire family devoured it. I made some homemade garlic biscuits to go with it and it was a very filling meal. I made this soup in the crock pot but you could easily do this on the stove top if you wanted to! Enjoy--this is sure to warm you up and make your stomach's very happy!

 

Fall Vegetable Soup

 

3 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 large carrots chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 head cauliflower

1 c fresh or frozen peas

1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

2 c vegetable or chicken broth (low sodium)

2 c water

1 T Italian seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

 

Heat small amount of olive oil  to a skillet add chopped onion. Saute for about 7 minutes over med-high heat, add garlic. Saute together another 2 min. Reduce heat to medium and add all remaining vegetables. Cook for about 5-10 minutes until the potatoes begin to get somewhat soft and onions are translucent (this sauteing is what really pops the flavor). Meanwhile add tomatoes, broth and water to a crock pot. Add seasonings to skillet over the vegetables. Add vegetables to the crock pot. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours! You can mash the potatoes against the side of the crock pot once cooked to thicken it up! Enjoy

 

 

 

 

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Crock Pot Vegetarian Chili

Fall is in the air! I love chili during the cooler months- we especially love chili on Halloween with some cornbread to dip into it! There always seem to be parties and get together and chili is the eatable guest of honor! I love the spicy flavors all meshed into one awesome bite! That is why I love the crock pot for soups...it just seems to blend it so well together.

This vegetarian chili cannot be beat with how easy it is. Seriously this is a "drop" soup....all you do is drop everything into the crock pot and walk away! Easy Peasy!

My kids always devour this bad boy! It is filling and if your looking for a meat chili you can easily add ground turkey to this, but it is so satisfying even without meat! We love it! Chili and cornbread here we come! Welcome the Fall season and make this easy dinner tonight!

Vegetarian Chili

1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)

2 c vegetable stock

1 packet low sodium taco seasoning

1 can black beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can pinto beans

1/2 green bell pepper, minced

1/2 onion, minced

1 T cumin

1/4 c nutritional yeast (optional)

Rinse all the beans together and drain liquid. Take 1/3 of the beans and mash them in a separate bowl. Add mashed beans and remaining ingredients to the crock pot. Do a quick stir to mix in the seasonings. Cook on high for 3-4 hours! Delicious, and easy! Enjoy 

Quinoa Corn Chowder!

Well so far so good in the crock-pot challenge...okay so it's only day two. I have a feeling by the end of this I'm going to be reeeeeaaaalllly sick of cleaning my crock-pot out! Already though I am just loving the ease of dinner, I forget how nice it is when dinner time rolls around and I realize I'm sitting down waiting just like everyone else instead of being all over the place in the kitchen!

I love soup, stew, even stewp! They are flavorful and so easy to prepare and with the crock pot it's even better! You just throw it all in and let it cook! When I was searching around trying to find new recipes for the crock pot I stumbled upon an idea for corn chowder with quiona. here and decided it had to be on the list! I made it my own and I loved it and my kids did too. Derek liked it but he enjoys anything with jalapenos in it~  this is one of those that would be great to freeze the leftovers since it makes a ton of chowder! Awesome- two meals in one whack!

The best things I'm noticing about using the crock-pot

~ creativity in the kitchen

~ Easy clean up and easy prep

~ more time to spend with my sweet kids!

That last one is by far the best! Sometimes around dinner time my kids get a little whiny! Does anyone else know the feeling? By the time I've gotten them in their chairs with their plates in front of them I'm feeling a little stressed out! These last two nights, however, have been great. We've gone on extra walks, I've sat down and played barbies and Legos! It's been great. 

Well onto this delicious heartwarming soup!

 

Quinoa Corn Chowder

1 1/2 C uncooked quinoa

4 C water

1 can low sodium vegetable broth

4-5 potatoes chopped

1 red bell pepper

1 C frozen corn

3-4 canned jalapenos with 3-4 T of juice

1/2 onion, minced

1 T cumin

1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Soak Quinoa in water for about 5 minutes, while you chop the vegetables. Add remaining ingredients to crock-pot and let it cook on high for 3-4 hours. Enjoy

White Hot White Chili

I haven't forgotten about Alphabet Days! It is coming to a close and it is "W" day and we made it spiiiiicy!
I have never been a huge fan of insanely spicy foods; I can never quite understand how it's enjoyable to eat food while you're tongue is burning slowly out of your mouth! Derek on the other hand can't get enough of the "tough guy" spice. He told me he thought this chili had an intense kick to it! So that means I could only eat half of it before I was done. It was really tasty, but tooooo spicy for me!

This chili is a perfect shake up to typical every day chili, a creamy base with tons of white beans floating around. Yes please. If you want to add a major wake up call to your tastes tonight this if for you! I made mine in my crock-pot, but it can easily be made in a sauce pan.

White Hot White Chili

2 cans of white beans

2 C frozen corn

1 onion

1-2 green or yellow chili's, chopped

2 C water

2 C milk ( any milk will do. A good one to try is canned coconut milk)

2 T cornmeal

1-2 T cornstarch

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

1 T cumin

Add beans, onion, chili's, corn and 1 cup of water to the crock-pot or sauce pan.

 Combine milk, one cup of water, cornmeal and garlic to blender. Blend for 60 seconds. Add corn starch to the blended milk and stir to help thicken it. Add salt and cumin and pour over the top of beans and vegetables.

 In crock pot cook on low for 4-5 hours in the sauce pan let simmer together over med-low for 30-60 minutes Enjoy

*you can also use cashews in place of the cornstarch, just add them to the blender to thicken.

Healthy Garden Vegetable Soup

Rain is a blessing! As I've gotten older, I've really started to enjoy overcast and rainy days....if we have rainy days for a long period of time, I do start to glare out the window and mutter rain complaints under my breath! Every once in awhile I'm completely happy with a nice rainy day though!

I feel I've been neglecting my recipe inventing, searching and just general cooking! I've been so wrapped up with family and our eBook that dinner hasn't always been my first thought. So as the afternoon drew to a close today and I realized I'm going to have whiny, hungry kids in a few minutes I started to panic! Okay, not really panic, but I started to pace the kitchen trying to find something to pull together-quick!

One thing we don't want to do when there is no dinner planned is????? Go out! Right, it's not nice to the wallet or waist! So....I looked out the window, looked at my fridge, looked out the window again and decided on...soup, comforting, steamy, rainy day bliss, soup.

Derek told me a few days ago we needed to add more beans into our meals, he's right. With meat on the back burner at our house we need the protein from nuts and beans, so I added beans to this delicious soup, you however can leave them out if you'd like...it's not a totally crucial ingredient.

All I did for this soup is raid my fridge and pull out any vegetable I wanted to throw into this! It blended together so nicely, it coupled some whole grain toast with ease and my kids turned into dippin' fools! Come on now, that's one of the best parts of soup is dipping the roll into right!

My daughter was adorable tonight, she dipped, then sipped...after about doing this three times she looked at me and said "Mom, I just love this so much!" Seriously guys, pure vegetable soup! What more could  I ask for! Shake this up to your heart's content....you really can't go wrong

Garden Vegetable Soup

2 C low-sodium vegetable broth

3 C water

2 C chopped carrots

2 C cubed potatoes

1 chopped broccoli crown

1/2 onion

1 C frozen corn

1 zucchini

2 cloves garlic

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 C white beans, rinsed and drained (optional) 

1 T Mrs. Dash Seasoning

1/2 T Italian seasoning

1/2 T paprika

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine water, broth, onion and garlic, heat over medium heat while you chop the remaining vegetables. Add vegetables, beans and seasonings to pot. Cover and heat over med-low until potatoes are very tender. Scoop half of soup and put it in the blender, blend until puree texture, return puree to the rest of the soup. Serve with warm rolls and salad! 

*this soup will freeze well, so if you have a lot of left overs or want to use it as a freezer meal go for it!

Rainy Day Corn Chowder

It's the end of the week... almost, one more day of waking up at the crack of dawn to go to work, then the weekend, which is full of cleaning, baby showers, and hopefully a date night in there...I'm not dropping hints or anything to the hubs :) When Thursday night rolls around sometimes I wish it could just be my Friday night, bottom line is I'm tired, here I am avoiding my dishes, and mopping my floor, thankfully bathrooms were cleaned last night! I really want to relax with one of my new cashew thumb print cookies and watch a movie or escape into a book! Sounds awesome! P.S. my abs are still hurting from the ab challenge, hence another reason why I want to sit and do nothing :) Well I plan too, but not before I share this creamy little sunshine with you all.

To wrap up "C" day of our Alphabet days I chose to make creamy Corn Chowder, I call it a rainy day chowder because I think it's perfect for those stormy days! I found the recipe here, and only made a few tweaks to it. I think it turned out really great. My kids gobbled it up, seriously I think this is one of the first soups that my little man hasn't flung all over the kitchen! I added some cauliflower to this soup to add another "C" and also to add more chunk, it went really great with all the other ingredients.

Rainy Day Corn Chowder

4 c frozen corn

2 c chopped cauliflower

1 strip of bacon (optional)

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

3 T flour

3 c vegetable broth

4 medium potatoes

1 bay leaf

1 c milk *

1/2 c half and half *

2 T parsley

1 pinch of sugar

1/4 tsp nutmeg

In pot cook bacon until crispy, add onion into the oils and cook until translucent. Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant. Add flour and broth and whisk continually until it is mixed well together. Stir in half and half, potatoes, 3/4 amount of corn, sugar, nutmeg cauliflower bay leaf, and milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer ten minutes until potatoes and cauliflower are tender. Remove half of soup and put it into blender. Blend until desired consistency is reached then return it to the pot. Add remaining amount of corn and heat until corn is hot. Sprinkle with parsley and a little cheese if you want!!! Enjoy

*I used Almond milk, it's not as thick as 2% milk so I added more half and half, if you use cow's milk you probably could keep the half and half at 1/2 a cup, if you want it creamier and you are using a non-dairy milk maybe increase 1/2 and 1/2 to 1 cup and reduce milk to 1/2 a cup! 

*Vegan options, use a cashew cream sauce instead of half and half, and no cow's milk or bacon

*Gluten free options, just be sure and use a gluten free flour!

Creamy Chicken & Wild rice Soup

Well the kids are sick! Blah....but out pops mom who has a need to nurture! What's the classic I'm sick soup...chicken noodle right! Well we're on a pasta overload I feel like lately in this house so I decided to use rice in this comforting soup, it turned out really great, a perfect sick soup in my opinion, full of veggies and nutrients and low fat! Most creamy rice soups that I've made in the past are full of canned soup, or cream cheese, well that would kind of defeat my purpose here, so I used a cashew sauce to thicken it up and make it creamy and it worked like a dream! If you love broccoli flavor like I do then I would for sure leave the broccoli in, but if you don't you might want to omit that veggie, it did give off it's flavor pretty strong. This has a vegetarian/vegan option by just taking out the chicken, and it is gluten free as long as you use cornstarch in the cashew sauce...so this is one for everyone!

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

2 c cooked diced chicken-seasoned to taste

2 c wild rice cooked

2 celery stalks chopped

1 c chopped carrots

1 c frozen corn

2 c broccoli (optional, I think mushrooms might fit in nice in it's place)

1 can vegetable broth

Cream Sauce

2 cloves garlic

3/4 c raw cashews

1 tsp onion powder

2 T nutritional yeast (optional)

1 T cornstarch/flour

3/4 c non-dairy milk

1 tsp Italian Seasoning

1 c extra water (put this in after blending)

Cook rice until tender. Cook and season chicken until cooked through. Add all soup ingredients into pot cover and simmer on med heat. Meanwhile, add all cream sauce ingredients except extra cup of water to blender and blend on high for 1-2 minutes until mixed and smooth. Add cream sauce to pot and extra cup of water. Cook over medium for 10- 15 minutes. Enjoy

Easy Turkey Taco Soup

Taco soup is a yummy comfort food. This version is super easy and a little bit cleaner than typical taco soup. You can leave the refried beans out of this recipe if you'd like they just make it a thicker soup and also keep out the turkey if your going for vegetarian.

Easy Turkey Taco Soup

1 lb lean ground turkey

1 can kidney beans

1 can black beans

1 can red beans/or pinto

1 can fat free refried beans (optional)

1 can low sodium vegetable broth

1/2 packet taco seasoning (or the whole packet if you like more taco taste)

1 1/2 c frozen corn

1/2 T cumin

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

Heat pan and add ground turkey and cumin. Heat until browned. Drain any grease from turkey. Combine all other ingredients into crock pot or soup pot be sure to drain and rinse beans before adding. Add seasoned ground turkey to soup. If in the crockpot cook on high for about 4 hours, if on the stove top let simmer for 30 min. Serve with tortilla chips, optional toppings, avacado and diced tomatoes. 

Red Lentil Chowder

This is comfort soup at it's best! I only really discovered the use of lentils a few months ago. I love them! They can be used in mexican food, soups, salads...it's great. I really felt like making some yummy, thick soup on these chilly spring days...so I gathered some things here and there to whip up this chowder. This doesn't have to be blended together you can pulse the soup together so it's a little chunkier, or you don't even need to blend it at all and leave it more full lentils and vegetables! I felt like making a thick mess of soup and naming it chowder...and that's just what I ended up with :) perfect for dipping some yummy bread or rolls into! So curl up and enjoy some yummy, healthy, comfort in this lentilly goodness!

Red Lentil Chowder

2 c red lentils

1 c shredded carrots, or chopped carrots

5 small potatoes cubed

1 c frozen corn

2 tomatoes diced, or 1 can diced tomatoes

2 c vegetable broth

3 c water

1 T pepper

1/2 T onion powder

1/2 T garlic powder

2 bay leaves

1/2 T Italian seasoning

Combine broth, water,lentils, vegetables and bay leaves in large pot. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add remaining spices. Cook over medium heat until lentils and potatoes are tender. At this point decide if you want to blend it or not :)

* If you decide to blend the soup at this point put it three cups at a time into blender and pulse, if you want it blended but chunkier, ease up and only pulse it a few times until the entire soup has been pulsed. Put back into pot and make sure it is still warm. 

* If you don't blend the soup simmer for 10 more minutes until desired tenderness and thickness is achieved. Serve with rolls and salad! 

Creamy Veggie Soup & Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

I wanted to find a recipe that I could make that would just stuff us with wonderful veggies and great ingredients without even realizing. I love soup so much so I thought I'd give this one a try. I also wanted to try out using cashews as a creamer, I have to tell you after making this soup I have become hooked on cashew cream sauces! This is an adaption from wholefoodmommies.com cream of broccoli soup.

This is so simple, you just soften all your veggies and let them simmer

Then get to work making your cashew cream sauce to thicken it all up

After you add the cream sauce, slowly move the mixture to the blender and start blending it all together

After you have it all blended smoothly, place it back on the stove to make sure it's all heated well, and then there you go a wonderfully, tasty, healthy dinner everyone will love. The great thing about this recipe is you can add any type of veggie you want depending on your own taste! It looks like a lot of work, but it was so EASY!  I made it so much faster than I thought. I started at like 4:20 because I thought It would be at least an hour, I was done at like 4:50, early dinner :)

Creamy Veggie Soup

3 potatoes

2 celery stalks

4 c broccoli florets

1/2 green bell pepper

3/4 small bag of mixed veggies

1/2 onion

3 cloves garlic

2 c water

cashew cream sauce

1/2 T dried basil

1/4 tsp pepper

Place potatoes, celery, broccoli, onion, pepper, veggies and water in pot. Bring to simmer, cover and cook on med for 10 min or until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile make cream sauce. Mix cream sauce with vegetables (don't forget to add the extra water from the cream sauce) Add basil and pepper. Transfer 3 cups at a time to blender. Blend until smooth. Add entire contents back to pot and heat slightly. 

Cashew Cream Sauce

1 c cashew nuts

2 c water

1 tsp salt

2 tsp onion powder

1-2 T vegetable broth

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 T corn starch

1 1/2 c water ( to be added after blended)

Blend all ingredients together until smooth, approx 2 min.

Garlic Cheddar Biscuits (adapted from "What's for Dinner")

2 c whole grain flour (I used spelt)

2 tsp coconut sugar

1 T baking powder

2 cloves garlic minced 

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 cup grated cheese

3/4 cup soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)

1/3 cup butter, melted (I used Earth Balance vegan spread, whipped)

In a mixing bowl combine dry ingredients and garlic. Add butter and mix on low until crumbly. In a separate bowl, beat egg and milk. Stir into dry ingredients until moistened. Stir in cheese. Drop by spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.