Baked Potato Soup

It's been so cold in Utah lately. And snowy. If I'm not out skiing or snowboarding, my next favorite way to spend a snowy day is cuddled up on the couch with a warm blanket and have a hot bowl of soup for dinner. I used to think that my Roasted Carrot Bacon Soup was my new favorite soup, but this Baked Potato Soup is even better. It's like a warm hug in a bowl. 

There aren't a whole lot of ingredients and it doesn't take all that long to make. And it's even better the next day. Next time I'm definitely going to have to make a double batch.

Baked Potato Soup

3 lbs Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 slices of bacon
1 onion, diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
4 cups chicken broth
1 can coconut milk

1. Cook bacon in a dutch oven sized pot over medium heat. Remove bacon when crispy and keep the grease in the pot.
2. Add the onion, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. Cook until the onion is tender.
3. Add the potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are very tender. (About 15-20 min).
4. Mash the potatoes in the pot until your desired smoothness. I left some chunks and it added a nice texture.
5. Stir in the coconut milk and crumbled bacon.

We're Home! Creamy Broccoli Soup

Tommy's tonsils and adenoids are gone! His surgery went very well, and after a night in the hospital for observation since he's not even two years old yet, we're finally back home. The first day he was feeling pretty good. He even roamed the halls a bit and played in the peds playroom. But last night and today he's been a lot more miserable. He has a pretty sad little cry and cough and he just seems to be a lot more uncomfortable. Poor little guy. But we're all happy to be home. Now he's had dinner and a bath and he's pretty happy for the moment!

Tommy hasn't been all that interested in drinking today, but he's eating food like a champ. Lots of jello, oatmeal and applesauce. He hasn't had much fat or salt, so for dinner I made Creamy Broccoli Soup and Corn-Free Cornbread. By far this is Tommy's favorite way to eat broccoli.

Creamy Broccoli Soup

1 Tbsp canola oil
1 large onion, diced
4 carrots, peeled and diced
3 ribs celery, diced
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp minced garlic
3 chicken broth
2 cups water
2 heads broccoli, chopped
1 can full fat coconut milk

1. Heat the oil in a dutch oven sized pot over medium low heat. Add the onion through garlic. Saute until the onions are translucent.
2. Add the broccoli and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until the broccoli is soft (about 15 min).
3. Add the coconut milk and puree the soup with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender.
4. Heat the soup over medium low until warm.

Sausage Making and Sausage, Kale and Bean Soup

Today I helped one of our friends make sausage. He had already ground the pork and spices together, and I helped him with the stuffing process. He made a delicious Italian sausage and the best part was we knew every ingredient in it and there was nothing Tommy was allergic to. He gave us some sausage to take home and that inspired our dinner tonight. The sausage making process is labor intensive, but doesn't seem too difficult. I'm excited to start making our own sausage too. 

I met with a dietitian yesterday to talk about Tommy's diet. I make a conscious effort to provide a balanced diet for him, but with all of his food allergies I was worried that there was some sort of hole in his nutrition. She gave me some resources including a handout on how many servings of each food group kids need in a day. And reassured me that Tommy's diet looked great and well balanced. She did say that if she had to pick one super food, it would be beans. She recommended cooking any veggie Tommy can eat with the beans as an easy all in one meal. 

So, tonight we had Sausage, Kale and Bean Soup. Ben and I loved it. Tommy wasn't as thrilled. He's not a big fan of tomatoes or kale. But it was a good exercise in fine motor skills as he meticulously picked out things from his bowl. And Lily seemed to like the soup a lot as she ate it off the floor.

In other news, who decided it would be a good idea to give a toddler chocolate pudding? Oh right, that was me...

Sausage, Kale and Bean Soup

3 links Italian sausage
4 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
1 can chicken broth
2 cups water

1. Remove sausage from casings. Brown in a non-stick dutch oven pot over medium heat.
2. Remove sausage from pot and leave the grease in the pot. Add the carrots, onion, celery, salt and pepper. Cook veggies over medium heat for several minutes until the onions are translucent. 
3. Add the tomatoes, beans, broth and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the carrots are softened. 
4. Add the kale and sausage. Cook until the kale wilts.

Roasted Bacon Carrot Soup

If heaven was a soup, it'd be this one. OMG it's so delicious. I know I say that about a lot of things I cook. But this one really is a standout. It's a hearty mix of pureed roasted veggies, coconut milk and lots of bacon. It doesn't get much better than this. As Ben said, "We need to have this soup often." And it's paleo and free of the Top 8 Allergens too!

I served the soup with the Corn Free Cornbread. We've been making that bread a LOT lately and we're still not sick of it. Tommy wolfed down his lunch. I think it's safe to say he approves!

Roasted Bacon Carrot Soup

12 oz bacon
~12 carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp black pepper, divided
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dried basil
14 oz can full fat coconut milk
14.5 oz can chicken stock
4 cups water

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Place bacon on two rimmed baking dishes. Bake for 12-17 minutes until crispy.
3. Remove bacon but reserve the bacon grease.
4. Increase oven temperature to 425°F.
5. Toss the chopped carrots, onion, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and garlic powder with the grease on one of the pans. Toss the cauliflower, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, paprika and basil with the grease on the other pan.
6. Bake the veggies for 30-40 minutes or until soft and browned. Stir once during baking.
7. Puree the veggies in batches with the chicken stock.
8. Heat the puree, coconut milk and water in a dutch oven pot until warmed.
9. Finely crumble the cooked bacon and stir in before serving.

Chicken Taco Soup

Thursday was a beautiful and chilly day. It was a perfect day for a crock pot soup. Last week's family crock pot recipe was provided by our cousin. It's for Chicken Taco Soup. I made a few adjustments based on what we had in the house and Tommy's allergies. Here's our version below. I served this with our Corn Free Cornbread. Tommy loved it the first day but wasn't so crazy about the leftovers. We thought it was great.

Chicken Taco Soup

12 pieces frozen chicken tenderloins
2 - 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
16 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
15 oz can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 - 4 oz cans diced green chiles
12 oz gluten free sorghum beer
1 cup diced onion (1/2 of a large onion)
1/2 Tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano

1. Combine all ingredients in a crock pot.
2. Cook on low 6-8 hrs or high 3-4 hrs.
3. Shred chicken an hour or so before serving. 

You'll Eat These Hot Dogs One Way or Another! (Lentil Soup)

Tommy's allergic to beef, so I was excited when I found nitrate free turkey hot dogs. We grilled some last week and they actually taste pretty good. But Tommy wouldn't even eat them. I haven't tried making gluten free hot dog buns yet, so I just chopped his up and served it with some roasted sweet potatoes. He meticulously picked out all of the hot dogs pieces and threw them on the floor. 

We had a BBQ  this weekend, and I thought we'd try the turkey hot dogs again and see if Tommy liked them better this time. He wound up having pulled pork for dinner instead, so we were left with a bunch of leftover grilled turkey dogs. Since they were something Tommy can eat, even if he doesn't like them, I was determined to use them. 

I looked around our pantry and fridge and determined there was enough stuff to make a lentil soup. OMG, it is soooooo good. It's Tommy first time having lentils, but so far it seems to be going ok. He has redness on his cheeks after he eats the soup, but it's temporary and isn't actual hives. So we'll continue the trial for now. Tommy may not be willing to eat straight hot dogs, but he LOVES this soup. I served it with the Corn Free Cornbread and Tommy asked for seconds! Success!

Lentil Soup

4 turkey hot dogs, diced
4 carrots, peeled and diced
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1 cup lentils, rinsed
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
2 cups Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

1. Combine all ingredients except for the Creamy Cauliflower Sauce in a crock pot.
2. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
3. Add the Creamy Cauliflower Sauce and cook on low for an additional 30 minutes.

It's Finally Fall! (Roasted Squash Soup)

Summertime is nice and all, but I don't tolerate heat well. If I get too hot I get crabby and feel ill. It's not a pretty sight. 

I LOVE fall. I love the crisp cool days and not having to worry about driving in the snow. And there is pumpkin spice everywhere! It was a chilly day, but it's supposed to warm up this weekend so I really didn't want to fire up the furnace and then need the AC two days later. So as I hung out in my house in a sweatshirt today, I decided it was the perfect day for making soup. 

This soup Roasted Squash Soup is so tasty and filling. It's like eating liquid pumpkin pie. Even Tommy loved it and asked for seconds. I served it with homemade Rosemary Bagel Chips. And Wasatch Pumpkin Ale. Yum. 

There is snow on the mountaintops and warm soup in my belly. That's a pretty great fall evening in my book. 

Stay tuned....Tomorrow I'll share the secret to my Pumpkin Spice Latte hack. 

Roasted Squash Soup

2 medium acorn squash
2 cups onion, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp canola oil
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 cup lite coconut milk

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Pour oil on a baking sheet and spread, leaving most in the middle.
3. Toss the onions with the oil in the middle of the baking sheet.
4. Cut squash in half and scrap out seeds. Place squash on baking sheet.
5. Bake for 45 minutes until the squash and onion are tender.
6. Let squash sit for a few minutes to cool. Scoop out pulp and discard skins. 
7. In a dutch oven, add the stock, water, salt, pepper, cinnamon, allspice, onions and squash pulp. 
8. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Puree the soup in a blender or use a stick blender. Return to pan and stir in coconut milk. 

Rosemary Bagel Chips

4 smallish plain bagels or 2 large ones
1 Tbsp canola or olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dry rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Slice bagels into thin slices.
3. Combine all ingredients on a baking sheet and then spread the bagel slices out flat.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the bagel slices turn brown. Let sit before serving.

Leftover Madness Part 1 (Lamb and Gnocchi Soup)

I did a lot of cooking this week. And we have a ton of leftover roasted turkey from dinner at a friend's house. Our fridge is so full of leftovers that there's barely room for beer. It's a great problem to have, but I can only eat the same meal so many times in a row before I'm sick of it. 

So now it's time to clean the fridge and re-purpose our leftovers. Part 1 of our Leftover Madness is turning the remaining Lamb and Vegetable Roast into Lamb and Gnocchi Soup. This soup is pretty straight forward, and since it was made from leftovers that cooked in the crock pot all day, the flavors are a lot more developed than you would get from a quick soup. I used the leftover sweet potatoes to make the gnocchi and used the leftover liquid from the crock pot and veggies to make the soup.

For a while, Tommy was eating these gnocchi twice a day everyday. I've tried them with a lot of different combinations of flours and starches, and my favorite are millet flour and potato starch. You just mix all the ingredients together, roll into little logs, slice and boil for a couple minutes until they float. They're easy to make in a large batch and the uncooked gnocchi freeze well. You just pop the frozen gnocchi into boiling water and they just take a few minutes longer to cook. 

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes or pumpkin
1 cup millet flour
1 cup potato starch
1 Tbsp flaxmeal or whole psyllium husks
3 Tbsp hot water

1. Fill a medium sauce pot with water and bring to a boil. 
2. Combine flaxmeal or psyllium husks and hot water in a small bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes to gel.
3. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
4. Knead the dough by hand until it can be rolled into a log. If it's too sticky, add more flour or starch. If it's too dry, add water or stock 1 tablespoon at a time.
5. Roll into 1/2 inch diameter logs. Cut into 1 inch pieces.
6. Boil gnocchi in batches for several minutes until they float. Drain and set aside. Serve with sauce or use in soup. 

Lamb and Gnocchi Soup

1 recipe Sweet Potato Gnocchi
1 cup shredded cooked lamb or cooked Italian sausage
Leftover cooking liquid from Lamb Roast
Water
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
Leftover veggies from Lamb Roast

1. Measure leftover lamb cooking liquid. Add enough water to make it 4 cups. 
2. Add all ingredients except for gnocchi to a dutch oven sized pot.
3. Bring to a gentle boil.
4. Add gnocchi and simmer for 15 minutes.

Note: If you don't have leftovers, use 2 cups beef broth and 2 cups water instead of the leftover cooking liquid and add 2 tsp Italian seasoning. If you don't have any leftover roast, use 2 links of Italian sausage cooked in the pot before step 2.