WTF!? Friday: Name That Soup

Know what makes you feel better after a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day? Soup, that's what. Even when it's soup that you kind of invented, sort of, out of ingredients you found in your pantry (plus a couple of fresh items, just to be different). Here is what we had for dinner last night:


"Mystery Soup"

• 1 cup dry white cannellini beans (or 15 ounce can)
• 1 pound chicken or turket sweet Italian sausage
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
  
• 6 ounce bag of baby spinach, washed and patted dry
  
• 1 can Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
• 32 ounces chicken stock (or equivalent made from water & bouillon cubes)
• 1 cup tomato juice (or water) -- only if needed
  
• 1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni

1. In a saucepan, combine beans with 4 cups warm water. Boil for five minutes, then cover and set aside for at least 1 hour. (If using canned beans, you can skip this step.) Drain, rinse, and return to saucepan. Set aside.
2. Slice sausage into "coins" about 1/2" thick (or simply remove from casing). Preheat oil a large stockpot. Add sausage and cook for for 5-7 minutes or until mostly cooked through.
3. Add spinach to stockpot and cook until wilted, about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes and chicken stock to stockpot. Heat to boiling. Add beans. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes or until beans are mostly softened. (If using canned beans, you can skip this step -- just add beans and proceed directly to Step 5.)
   
5. Add macaroni and cook, stirring occasionally, for an additional 15-20 minutes or until noodles are completely cooked. If necessary, add additional tomato juice so there is enough liquid to cover noodles completely plus about 1/2" of additional liquid.
6. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving with grated Parmesan cheese and crusty bread.
   

If you know what you're doing and you feel inspired, you can add other stuff to this, or make this with mini shells or ditalini instead of elbows. Hot Italian sausage can work, too, if you like that stuff (we find it not toddler-friendly). Not sure what to call this concoction -- it's sort of Italian wedding soup, sort of minestrone, sort of goulash, all thrown into a stockpot -- but it's good. Hope you like it!

 PS -- Tried to take pictures of this. Was not successful. Doesn't look as good as it tastes.

Green Eggs and Ham

I just ate one of the best meals I've had since I started my diet -- no joke. It was totally easy, made from leftovers and staples, and I swear to God, it's good. Seriously, don't laugh. (We're "foraging" for dinner tonight but you could totally have this for any meal, any day of the week.) Here is what I used to make it:


Green Eggs and Ham

• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons skim milk
• 3 ounces (⅓ package) Stouffer's creamed spinach
• 2 tablespoons Hormel Real bacon bits
• fresh ground pepper and/or garlic powder, to taste

In a cup, beat together eggs and milk. Add creamed spinach, bacon bits, pepper, and garlic. Beat until well mixed, about two minutes. Lightly coat a skillet with butter-flavor cooking spray. Cook egg mixture over medium-high heat until desired level of doneness. Lather, rinse, repeat, enjoy!

(Recipe can be multiplied. According to my calculations, this recipe as prepared about is worth 9 Weight Watchers points; using 1 whole egg + 3 egg whites and reducing the bacon bits to 1 tablespoon would cut that back to 7 points. I had this for dinner with two pieces of toast at 1 point each and it was, honestly, pretty damned close to a perfect dinner.)

Red Hot Chili Peppers

This was going to be a post with the "good" version of yesterday's picture in it, but instead I am going to give you a "toddler-approved" recipe for chili that will help you clean out your cupboards and possibly make you or someone you love turn into some sort of demon. An adorable demon, but a demon nonetheless.

Disclaimer: this is "gringa" chili, and it's also very weak. Even I think it's wimpy, and I hate food that is very spicy. But this was done intentionally, so that we could share this with Cupcake. As she gets older we will gradually increase the heat and spices. In the meantime, you can call this a "chili bean stew" or something like that if it makes you feel better. Or if you are from Texas. Anyway -- there are a lot of ingredients in this, but getting everything together is really the hardest part.


CUPCAKE'S CHILI

• 1½ cups dried red kidney beans (or canned equivalent)
  
• 1 cup dried pinto beans (or canned equivalent)
  
• ½ cup dried pink beans (or canned equivalent)
  
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium sweet onion (Vidalia or similar), chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minded (or equivalent)
• 1 pound lean ground beef or turkey
• chili powder, to taste (about ½ teaspoon)
• oregano, to taste (about 1 tablespoon)
• cinnamon, to taste (about ½ teaspoon) -- optional
• 1 can (10½ ounces) Ro*Tel Mexican diced tomatoes, undrained
  
• 1 can (14½ ounces) diced tomatoes with mild green chiles
• low sodium V-8 or tomato juice, as needed (approx. 4 cups)
• low sodium chicken broth or water, as needed (approx. 4 cups)
• 1 small can (8 ounces) no salt added whole kernel corn (or frozen equivalent), drained
  

If using dried beans, sort and rinse beans. Place in a large stockpot and cover with 8 cups of hot water. Add 2 teaspoons salt. Cover and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then turn burner off. Let beans sit, covered, for at least an hour or until mostly softened. Drain, rinse, and set aside. (If using canned beans, just drain, rinse, and set aside. In either case, you should have approximately 6 cups of beans or so.)

When beans are prepared, combine bell pepper, onion, garlic, and ground beef in a large stockpot. Add a small amount of olive oil, if desired, for browning. Add about half of the chili powder, oregano, and cinnamon. Set the rest of the seasonings aside for taste adjustment later. Cook over high heat until meat is browned and vegetables are soft.

Add both cans of tomatoes and juice and heat to boiling. Cook 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add beans and stir well to combine. Heat to boiling. Add 2 cups of V-8 or tomato juice and 2 cups of broth or water. Make sure that beans are completely covered with liquid. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally and checking liquid levels. Add V-8 and broth (½ cup each at a time) as necessary.

Check doneness of beans and consistency of "broth." Adjust seasonings if necessary. If beans require additional cooking, add additional liquid as needed. If beans are done enough, then reduce heat to medium low and continue cooking until desired consistency. Total simmer time should not be more than 2-2½ hours. Just before serving, add corn. Stir to heat through, and serve with shredded cheddar cheese and dollops of sour cream, if desired.

Enjoy!

Savory Sunday: Lazy-Ass Lasagna

Not sure what you all do on Sundays, but here at the Casa de Locos, Sundays are all about two things: the 1:00 game, and the 4:30 game. Occasionally we watch the 8:15 game, and once in a while we'll watch MNF, but mostly, between 1:00 and 8:00, we watch football until our heads explode and The Amazing Race comes on.

Sitting around yelling at the television can get exhausting, so we need to do a little gnoshing on the way, and much as I love them, Triscuits only provide so much nutritional value. So we need to eat a real meal. And the real meals we eat on Sundays are usually my favorite of the week, because after all this time, I have learned how to make some excellent nommables that require only a minimum of work. Because TiVo is nice, but watching the game live? Even better.

This week we are having Lazy-Ass Lasagna, because we were in the mood for Italian-ish food and it's super easy, plus we already had a good portion of the necessary ingredients in the cupboard or fridge (which also makes this a BOSSY's Poverty Party Serving Suggestion). The general recipe follows, but before I start, a few reminders: (1) I am not Italian, and I doubt any self-respecting real-live Italian person would actually serve this to company, and (2) I think of recipes as "suggestions," so your actual mileage may vary.


LAZY-ASS LASAGNA

1 lb. box mafalda pasta (or any other shaped pasta), uncooked
15 oz. container ricotta cheese
At least 2 cups mozzarella or pizza-blend cheese
Italian, pizza, or pasta seasonings, to taste
26 oz. jar of your favorite pasta sauce (or equivalent homemade)
1/2 lb. Italian sausage, casings removed (or other ground meat)

• Preheat oven to 450°F.
• Very lightly coat a 13"x9" baking dish with cooking spray, olive oil, or butter/margarine.
• Pour uncooked pasta into baking dish and spread out to cover pan.
• In a bowl, combine ricotta, 1/2 cup mozzarella, seasonings, and 1/2 cup of pasta sauce.
  
• Spread ricotta mixture evenly over uncooked pasta.
• Crumble sausage evenly over ricotta and pasta.
• Pour remaining pasta sauce over meat, ricotta and pasta.
• Add approximately 2 cups of water (enough to cover bottom pasta layer completely - the cheeses and meat do not need to be covered).
• Cover with remaining mozzarella cheese.
• Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 450°F for 1 hour or until pasta is cooked completely.
• Enjoy!