Italian Wedding Soup

 The first snow of the winter official makes it "Soup Season" for me.

One of my favorites is Italian Wedding Soup.  While it is a labor of love, it is worth it!

Ingredients:

4 Chicken Thighs

(Seasoning for Chicken: Garlic Salt/ Pepper/ Italian Seasoning)

Whole Celery Stalks

Whole Carrots

1 Large Onion

4 Boxes of Chicken Stock

Head of Kale or Endive

2 eggs

Anci De Peppe

Meatballs

1/2 lb of Ground Beef

1/2 lb of Ground Pork

1 egg

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan Cheese

1/4 cup of Milk

1/2 cup of italian bread crumbs

1/2 tsp of salt, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil and pepper

Preheat oven to 350*

Mix seasoning together for chicken thighs

Spray chicken thighs with cooking spray/olive oil

Sprinkle seasoning liberally on the chicken thighs

Place in the oven, flip over after 10 minutes, and repeat steps of cooking spray and seasoning.  Continue to flip chicken thighs every 10 minutes for up to 45 minutes until chicken skin is crispy.

Meanwhile, while chicken is cooking start the soup

Dice up large onion

Pull apart celery, and just dice up the leafy insides and the tops, keep the carrots and celery whole

Place everything into large stock pot, including a tablespoon of italian seasoning

Let simmer, and once chicken has baked for 45 minutes, place into stock pot

Add some of the "juice" from the chicken as well

I typically allow the broth to marry for a solid 3-4 hours before starting the meatballs.

Meatballs:

  Make sure you make the meatballs small, remember they need to be bite sized for the soup

Bake at 375* for 20 minutes.  Let sit for at least 10 minutes before removing them from your cookie sheet.

While waiting on your meatballs to cool, remove the chicken thighs, carrots and celery from the stock.  If you would like, you can shred the chicken and add it back to the soup.

Add the meatballs once everything has been removed

Chop the endive or kale and add it to the warm soup and let it wilt.

Whisk 2 eggs

From a foot above the stock pot, pour in the eggs and stir your soup.

Continue to allow the soup to simmer for several hours to have all the flavors marry.

Pasta

Follow the instructions for the Anci De Peppe

I do not add the Anci De Peppe to the soup, I keep it separate so it doesn't absorb the broth of the soup.  I keep it separate and add it when I make each bowl of soup.

While it truly is a labor of love like i mentioned before, it is worth it!

What is your favorite soup?  I'm always looking for new ones for "Soup Season"

Enjoy friends!

Make me a Meal Monday - White Bean Chicken Chili

One of my favorite winter meals is White Bean Chicken Chili. It is SUPER easy and something you can freeze very easily as well. Here are all the ingredients that you will need

2 chicken breasts (I use chicken tenders that I cut off of the breasts before freezing
1 large jar of Northern Beans
1 can of chicken broth
1 large yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 small can of green chilies
1 tsp of EVOO
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tsp cumin
S&P to taste



Start by cooking the onion and garlic in a tsp of olive oil
Once onion is partially see through - add the diced chicken
Cook until no longer pink
Add the rest of your ingredients - chicken broth, beans, green chilies, and spices
Let cook for an additional 15 minutes and then serve warm
I always top my chili with hot pepper jack cheese and tortilla strips
No pressure to make this delicious soup - but it did win the Chili Cookoff 3 years in a row when I was at college (and back then I could barely boil a pot of water - so if that doesn't tell you how easy it is - I don't know what will).

Happy cooking!

Make me a Meal Monday - Chili

So there are certain recipes that I have always liked my mom's recipe better than anyone else's (chicken salad, potato salad, meatloaf) and CHILI! I am very picky about my chili, I don't like it sweet, I like it with a little bit of heat, but I like a hearty chili. So I called my mom and asked her for her recipe (and of course she doesn't have an exact recipe) but what she had made last time was the following. She also told me it would make enough for 3 meals (well not thinking, I assumed that meant 3 servings, not 3 meals serving 2 people a piece - whoops!) So I thought I would double the recipe and take it over to Jason and Katie in addition to the "Congrats you had a baby pasta". Well you will soon see how much chili this recipe made (I will put in perenthese how much I used for this batch - however the quanty to the left will be what you will want if you would like to make a normal batch that will make 3 meals!)

1 (3) onion(s)
1/2 (1) green pepper
2-3 (3-6) spicy peppers (mixture of japelenos and habeneros)
1 lb (3lbs) ground turkey (93/7)
2 cans (4 cans) tomatoe puree (the big cans)
2 cans (4 cans)petite diced tomoatos (normal sized cans - however I used 2 large cans)
1 can (2 cans) Chili Beans (Bush or Brooks and you can pick mild or spicy depending on how spicy you want it
1 can (2 cans of each) black beans, northern beans, kidney beans
Salt and Pepper
Cumin
Chili Powder

Chop up all the onions, and peppers (I deceeded 2 out of the 3 jalapenos and 2 out of 3 habeneros)



Place in the pot and let them start to saute (or as the Food Network would tell you "let them sweat"

Put in the ground turkey (you can always use ground beef - but turkey is so much healthier)

Add salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder. Remember you can always add more afterwards.... I put in about 4-5 dashes of cumin and chili powder, and then 1/2 tsp of S&P

Add in all of the tomato puree and petite diced tomatoes.... and allow this to simmer.


It was a this point when I realized I was in trouble on two different categories... The first, I am completely out of room to add beans, and the second - HOLY HOTNESS! I about dumped out the entire pot of chili and decided to throw my hands up in the air and forgo the entire thought about chili, but I had already opened up all of these beans so I figured I would move forth with the recipe.

So I was VERY thankful that I had received another large pot from JM's parents for christmas, and I was able to transfer some of the soup to another pot after it had simmered for a little while.


Dump in the chili beans with the sauce, take the remaining beans and rinse, and then add to the rest of your soup.

Allow your soup to simmer for a little while on low heat, at this point, I would recommend once again trying your chili, and you can always add more seasoning if necessary. I will admit, the spicy factor was completely toned down after I added the beans - and on a scale of 1-10, I would say it became a 4 (but before the beans it was totally a 13!)


On a side note, I found out a little culinary trick the other day - If you put a raw potato in whatever is too spicy, and take it out right before it completely cooks, it will take out some of the heat! Which is very good to know for the future when I think that I can take on 3 habeneros in one big batch of chili! ha

I was able to make enough to give a big container to Jason and Katie (which I'm pretty sure Jason enjoyed!), I had Chris and Laurie over, and we still have a big container left to freeze. Overall, I think it was a pretty successful pot(s) of chili!

Make Me a Meal Monday - Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

I love my crock pot... however this is the only dish that I have ever made in it. But I'm here to tell you that its the best meal that I have ever had from a crockpot!

Here are all the ingredients that you will need (including 2 cloves of garlic - i forgot to place them out when I took the picture - sorry!)


I know the picture shows a ton of ingredients and the recipe calls for a lot - however they are mostly inexpensive items - and as you can tell I bought mainly store brand items - AND the best part- is that there is barely any prep time - just throwing it all in the pot!

FOR THE SOUP
1 lb of shredded chicken (and if you know me well enough - you know I don't do shredded meat - so I dice my chicken tenders up into cubes)
1 (15oz) can whole peeled tomatoes mashed
1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
1 medium onion chopped
1 (4 oz) can chopped green chile peppers
2 gloves of garlic minced
2 cups of water (also not pictured!)
1 (14.5 oz) can of chicken broth
1 teaspoon of cumin (and i love CUMIN so my hand gets a little heavy with this measurement
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 (10 oz) package of frozen corn
1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro (i always use fresh, but I'm sure you could use dried)

Place whole peeled tomatoes in bottom of crock pot and mash - I use a potato masher - it seems to work well for the tomatoes

I just dump all the rest of the canned items into the pot



I chop up my fresh cilantro (YUMM my favorite scent in the whole wide world!)


I chop up an onion (sorry - no picture - I'm pretty sure you have chopped an onion up in your day!)

and then I chop up my chicken tenders and place them into the pot as well. I buy chicken at bulk and then bring it home, clean it, and separate chicken breasts and chicken tenders, and then freeze them. I use the tenders for soups and save the breasts for grilled chicken.




and dump the rest of the ingredients into the crock pot


Cover and Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4.

TOPPING BAR FOR THE SOUP
Sour Cream
Cheddar Cheese
Limes
Avocado
Tortilla Strips (the actual recipe calls for you to make the strips - but I cheat and buy these Yummy, pre made, less hassle ones from the store!)



Because I don't want you to go for almost 48 hours without a post - I'm going to post this early today, and if I think about it, I'll take a picture of the soup with all the toppings..

There are a few reasons as to why this is one of my favorite meals #1 its easy to make, #2 its fairly healthy, #3 its mexican, and I love any mexican food!, and #4 you come home from a long day at work and your dinner is already fixed and your entire place smells amazing! whats not to love about this dish!