Stuffed Cabbage Soup

Well life kind of got away from me yesterday, so this is a day late, but here it is!

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

1 medium Yellow Onion

1 tbl Olive Oil

1 tsp Salt

1 tbl Minced Garlic

1 small Butternut Squash (peeled and cubed)

1 lb Ground Beef

2 tbl Italian Seasoning

3 cups Cabbage/kale

1 can Tomato Sauce (28 oz)

2 cups Chicken Broth

1 cup Rice (Brown)

Heat the olive oil in the pot and add onion and salt. Allow to saute for a few minutes. Add the garlic and butternut squash, the squash is optional, but its a great way to get the kids to eat more veggies. It was Lulu’s favorite part of the soup, she thought they were potatoes. If you don’t have squash add some carrots instead.

Sqoosh all the veggies over and brown the meat on the other side of the pot.

You could also substitute the beef for turkey.

While the meat is browning add salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. When the meat has cooked through add the cabbage, I used cabbage and kale.

Allow the cabbage to wilt only slightly before adding the tomato sauce and chicken broth.

This is our favorite kind of tomato sauce, if you are going to use canned. A lot of canned sauces taste overly sweet and you have cook them even longer to reduce that sweet flavor.

If you are using instant rice go ahead and let it cook in the sauce, if you aren’t I recommend cooking the rice according to the package before adding it to the soup. Hard rice is sad rice.

And there you have it, Stuffed Cabbage Soup. I like to add a bay leaf while it simmers.

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Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

I love all things pumpkin. Sunday after church we tried to go to Robinettes the local apple haus, our plan was to get apples for applesauce and a pumpkin pie for family dinner later that night. We got to Robinettes as they were opening and the line was already out through the parking lot…so we ate our picnic on one of their tables outside and went home to make our own pumpkin treat.

and so I introduce you to Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

1/3 cup Butter

1 cup Sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw)

1 cup Pumpkin Puree

2 Eggs

2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 cups Flour (I used whole wheat)

1/4 cup Milk

8 oz Cream Cheese

1/2 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. We used some muffin liners because we had some Halloween ones on hand.

I had some extra helpers in the kitchen…

Mix butter, 1 cup sugar, and pumpkin

Add in eggs, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. Mix these items, then add half the flour, then the milk, then the remaining half of the flour. I use my 1/4 cup measuring cup with handle to scoop into the muffin trays, it keeps them consistently the same size and doesn’t over fill the tin.

Here are my new measuring cups from World Market, and Brandon measuring the sugar, only $12!

For the cream cheese fililng mix cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and the vanilla. I put a tablespoon of the filling on each muffin and baked, but next time I am going to layer the filling. So a little batter, then a little filling, then a little more batter. Let me know which way you try.

Bake for 25 mins or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Cuddle your babies while you wait for the muffins to bake.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Indian Butter Chicken

There is butter in Butter Chicken, but not much so don’t be alarmed.

Slow Cooker Indian Butter Chicken

3 tbl Butter

1 Medium Yellow Onion

1 tbl Minced Garlic

1 1/2 tsp Minced Ginger (or ground)

1 tsp Garam Masala (which is a blend of spices I didn’t have so I blended 1/4 tsp of each: black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. Go heavy on the pepper)

1/4 tsp Cayenne (I went light on spice for my kiddos, feel free to add more)

1 tsp Salt

1 lb Chicken (I used organic chicken tenderloins via http://www.doorganicsgr.com)

1 can (14.5 oz) Fire Roasted Tomatoes

1 can (15oz) Tomato Sauce

1/3 cup Whole Milk (you can use cream if you prefer)

1 cup Peas (frozen works great)

Place butter, chopped onion, garlic, ginger, ‘garam masala’, cayenne, salt and chicken in crockpot.

Go outside with a handsome little man and play.

(If you are leaving the house and won’t be back until its time to eat just add everything into the Crock Pot except the cream and peas, add those just before serving and should only need a few minutes to cook).

When you come back from you’re play date the slower cooker should look like this:

Add tomatoes and tomato sauce. When you are ready to serve add milk and peas, and allow to cook for a few minutes.

I cooked some rice while the peas and milk simmered and served with store bought Naan.

Family Reviews:

Brandon “We should eat this every night.”

Addy “It’s good, I like the bread.”

Lulu “I only like the bread.”

Wyatt (ate 2 bowls)

Happy Friday! Have an amazing weekend!

Last Day of the Giveaway!

Your neck is feeling chilly isn’t it?

Today is the last day to enter the Fall Scarf giveaway! You could be rocking this gorgeous Stella & Dot scarf just in time for fall. All you have to do is:

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You have until tonight at 11:59pm EST (US residents only).

Best of luck!!

My first GIVEAWAY!

Up for grabs is this Stella & Dot scarf. They are huge! and they come in a little bag so you can travel with them or I like to keep one in my purse this time of year. So cute, and so cozy. Retails for $59

I mean come on, how happy does she look about her scarf 🙂

Rules:

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Enter by Thursday October 16th 2014 11:59pm

Winner will be announced Friday October 17th 2014

Good Luck!

Butternut Squash Bisque

I had some butternut squashes from our organic grocery delivery service, shout out to http://www.doorganicsgr.com, so I decided to make some butternut squash bisque to accompany the meatloaf my husband was making. After church on Sundays you would be hard pressed to get our family to leave the house. It’s our day to relax, and when we relax we generally are cooking.

Butternut Squash Bisque

2 butternut squashes

1 medium yellow onion

1 medium apple

3 carrots

2 tbls butter

1 clove garlic minced

1/2 tsp cayenne

salt & pepper

 vegetable broth

1 tsp nutmeg

whole milk (cream or 1/2 & 1/2 will work also)

Cut squash in half, drizzle some olive oil and season with salt & pepper, then roast at 425 for 45-60 minutes. While they roast chop the onion, apple and carrots.

or have your handsome assistant chop them for you.

Melt butter in a pot and add chopped items, garlic, and cayenne. Leave over medium heat covered, and stir often.

Once the squash have cooled a bit, spoon out the squash from their peel and add to your pot with the apple and veggies.

Add 2 cups vegetable broth or enough to cover the squash. Then I grate some fresh nutmeg into the soup.

Aren’t hazelnuts pretty?

I use an emulsion blender to combine my soup, you could use your food processor or regular blender as well.

Now is also a good time to see if you need a little more salt & pepper. When you are ready to serve the soup add the milk and mix it through.

Here is the final product! We brought the bisque, meatloaf, and potatoes to our neighbors for Sunday football. I used the soup as a gravy on my 14 month old’s serving of meatloaf and he ate TWO bowls!!

Chicken Sweet Potato Soup with Rice

Nothing like a little inspiration from your butter before you start cooking.

Chicken Sweet Potato Soup with Rice

2 Tbl Butter

1 medium Onion (I used a yellow)

4 medium Carrots

2 small Sweet Potatoes

2 Tbl minced Garlic

2 tsp Italian Seasoning

1 tsp Thyme

1 lb Chicken (I used tenderloins)

1 1/2 cups Brown Rice

1/2 cup White Wine (I had a Riesling open, just use what you have)

2 1/2 – 3 cups Chicken Broth

1 Bay Leaf

Saute onions, butter, salt & pepper until onions become translucent. Add garlic and saute until fragrant.

Chop carrots and sweet potatoes and add to onions.

Push the veggies to one side of the pot and brown chicken on the other, I cubed the chicken up before browning it. Once chicken has cooked, I deglaze the pan with the white wine. Which is just a fancy way of saying, scrape the brown chicken and veggie bits off the bottom of the pan because they add a lot of flavor and you want that in the broth. Allow the wine to cook a bit before adding rice and chicken broth, maybe 2 minutes. I add enough broth to cover the rice, and once the rice cooks you may want to add a little more. Add a bay leaf while the rice simmers, depending on what type of rice you use this could be ready to eat in about 10 minutes, but with most things in life…the longer it cooks the better it tastes.

Enjoy and please share how your soup turns out! What did you garnish your soup with?