Comforting Vegetable Soup

Sometimes, even when I'm not sick, I crave homemade vegetable soup. I often make this for lunch time for me and LB and we both devour bowls of it. Plus we always have leftovers to freeze or eat later in the week.
I always vary the ingredients depending on what I have. There are a few staples that I always have in the soup: Potatoes, A can of tomatoes, carrots and frozen veggies like peas, lima beans and spinach. So feel free to make your own favorite version of veggie soup. Believe me, you will never eat canned veggie soup again. It is so gross and there's no reason you should subject yourself to that! Just thinking of it makes me shudder! This soup is too easy not to make. RR would call it a "chop 'n drop" soup but really all you have to chop is the carrots, potatoes and zucchini, everything else you just throw in!

First start off with boiling the ingredients that will take the longest. You can boil in water or chicken stock. I didn't have chicken stock on hand but used a cube of chicken bouillon to add some extra flavor.  Today I started with potatoes, carrots and lima beans. Not long after the boiling started I added in the whole wheat noodles that would take 7 minutes. As the noodles and such were cooking I slowly started adding more ingredients.
(I should say, this time I made the soup I used every vegetable in my house. I was craving some serious veggies!)
So I added the tomatoes, beans, frozen spinach, first then the zucchini and peas at the last minute. I also added a sprinkle of dried basil and dried oregano.

Big pot full of healthy deliciousness

My bowl

LB's bowl - she ate it all and asked for more beans this time :) 

Whatever I have in my Pantry - Bean Soup

This past week I've been fighting a terrible "cold" that finally took me into the doctor (for those that know me, I hardly ever go to the doctor - for myself at least.) I started antibiotics yesterday and thankfully started feeling better within a few hours - hallelujah! I celebrated by making a big pot of soup. There is nothing more comforting to me than a big pot of homemade soup, that and rice. I can eat a big bowl of rice with soy sauce and feel like I've been wrapped in a big blanket - it's a weird comfort food but it's mine! 
So, I started looking around for something that combined both soup and rice one day and happened upon this gem, a Black Bean and Wild Rice Soup. It was delicious and smoky and filling. Since falling in love with that recipe I have made many different versions. I usually tweak it to what I have available. Here is one version of it but believe me, I've made this plenty of times and change almost everything about it and it's still wonderful.

Red Kidney Bean and Rice Soup:
- 1 can tomatoes (I use petite diced because that's what I like. The original recipe does not call for tomatoes so if you don't like them, leave them out - it's still great!)
- 1 can rinsed red kidney beans (or any bean!)
- 3/4 cup rice (I like more rice in my soups but if you don't, leave it at 1/2cup. I've used wild rice mostly but was low on that last night so I used a combination of wild and jasmine rice.)
- Chicken stock (again, can be made with beef or vegetable stock!)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- Chopped carrots
- Half chopped onion
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1.5 tsp chili powder
- dash of cayenne
- S&P to taste

Add onion, carrots, garlic in soup pot with about 1T canola oil, saute.

Add spices and rice, stir until well coated. Add tomatoes, stock, and beans. Cover and simmer about 15-20 minutes or until rice is tender. Serve immediately.

Lily's bowl. She loves rice and beans! Avocado is a great compliment to this soup too :) 

Welcome and Jump Right In

I'm not sure yet how to go about this site and would love any feedback anyone would like to give! Would you like full recipes? Links to recipes? Lots of pictures? Step by step pictures?
The reason I wanted to make this besides the fact that I love cooking, is that I also love trying new recipes. But, I also like trying recipes my friends have taken a whirl at. Or a recipe that has plenty of reviews and suggestions. So I thought, I'd try recipes, tweak them if needed, take pictures, enjoy the end products and pass along.
Lately I've been on a new recipe kick with help from pinterest! Some you'll find back on my other blog  but all the news ones will go here.
To start off with, I have a few recipes that I've tried out this past week or two:
1. Broccoli Cheddar Soup

 This soup was decadent and delicious. It was also pretty easy to make and tasted like it came from a bakery! I wouldn't change a thing about it except perhaps try it with some garlic and perhaps diced red bell pepper for a change. Make sure you have some crusty bread on hand! It's a must!

2. Balsamic Glazed Slow Cooker Pork
I made a few changes to this recipe because I did not have any ground sage. I used dried thyme leaves and it did not seem to make a difference. I also, shamelessly, added another clove of garlic 'cause that's just how I roll.
I cooked on low for 8 hours and drizzled the glaze over top. It was amazing awesome - redundant? Nah, not for something this insanely good. It is now in our recipe rotation and something I plan to make for guests next time. Dennis already had plans to make leftover sandwiches before we even finished dinner!
Oh, and LB really liked it! She took one bite and said, "mmm i love it!" Kid approved!
Next time I might add a tiny pinch of red pepper flakes to the glaze to give it a nice kick. I'm not a huge fan of sweet things that should be savory...but it was still awesome.

And lastly,
3. Zucchini Oven Chips

 This pictures needs an explanation. I have no wire rack for any of my pans. I don't even have a cooling rack. Yes, I know, tragic! And I always mean to get one but it's never a priority until I really need it. So I attempted to make my own for this experiment. I think I heard Rachael Ray doing this back in the day before she became famous and got a super weird-scratchy-annoying voice. (sorry RR, it's true. Still love ya!) Results: It worked better than just sitting them flat. Parts of the underside got browned but some were still "raw." Conclusion?: Buy a freaking wire rack. And cooling rack.

Coated with deliciousness

Mmm Browned cheese

I made these as a snack the other day and ended up eating them ALL.
I would add a dash of cayenne pepper. They seemed to lacking that little bit of "oomph" and I would serve it with something to dip. Though they were good on their own (hello, I ate them all!) I just think they could've been taken to the next level with a fun dip. I recently made "comeback sauce" I have not used it yet but will let you know how that goes (and include a link and pictures when I have time!)