Another Super Soup

Sunday's have turned into Soup Sundays in our house and I'm loving it. I love nothing better than cuddling up to a warm yummy soup on the weekend and soup for lunch always make my work days a little brighter.

So here I am with another delicious soup to share. The first time I made this one was New Year's Eve about 5 years ago for 8 of my nearest & dearest friends. Unfortunately I didn't read how much the recipe yielded before I made it and I ended up making a vat of soup and served it in little bowls. There was enough to make 40 servings! Needless to say, I got teased quite a bit and to this day I still have not lived that night down!

The original recipe is from the In Style Parties book, one of my go to entertaining books. J transformed it a bit and I think it came out amazingly so I'll include her modifications. Note...I've also cut the recipe in half so it will yield about 20 4 oz cups. Didn't want you guys to have the same issue I did :)

Sweet Potato Soup Shots
(Makes 20 4 oz. cups)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 3/4 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3/4 lb. baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
32 oz. chicken broth
5 c water
1 T light brown sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
3/4 c heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
toasted baguette slices and minced fresh parsley for garnish

• Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium heat.
• Add onion and garlicl cook 3-4 min.
• Add all potatoes, broth, water, brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Bring to a noil, reduce heat and simmer 25-30 min., or until tender.
• Let cool slightly, then, working in batches, puree soup in a blended.
• Return to heat.
• Stir in cream; heat through.
• Add salt and pepper; garnish with crostini and parsley.

Happy cooking!

Soup's On!

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend. Once again, we had a weekend chock full of cooking. I'm loving this whole healthy living thing we have going on. It's allowing us to try a bunch of new delicious recipes. And we're finding that we don't even crave dinners out, which is strange for us. We usually dine out at least 5 days a week so this is certainly a switch.

Here are a couple of new recipes we tried out this weekend. They're both delicious and good for you so I figured I'd pass them onto you.

Of course I had to try out another soup. If you've been following me for a while, you kinda know the deal...:)

White Bean Soup
2 T olive oil
1/4 cup chopped pancetta
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 cans (each 15 oz.) cannellini beans, drained
5 cups chicken broth
3/4 tsp. finely chopped fresh thyme
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• In 3 1/2-qt. Dutch oven over medium heat, warm olive oil.
• Cook pancetta 5 minutes.

• Add onion, carrot and celery; cook 8 minutes.

• Add garlic; cook 1 minute.

• Add beans, broth and thyme; simmer over low heat 10 minutes.

• Remove from heat to cool.

• Puree in batches until smooth.
• Return to Dutch oven and stir in cheese, salt and black pepper.

And this next recipe...and no it's not a soup....was one that J discovered on over at Gina's WW Recipes. She's been searching for new recipes and she stumbled upon Gina's site. You must check it out...its a feast for the eyes! The photos are so scrumptious looking! And the great thing is that they're good for you too so we couldn't help but give one a shot. All I can say is DEEElicious! We will definitely be checking out some more.

Baked Zucchini Sticks
3 medium zucchini sliced into 3" x 1/2" sticks
1 large egg white
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 tbsp grated Pecorino Romano cheese
cooking spray
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt
fresh pepper

Marinara Sauce (1 cup)
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
1 small bay leaf
1 tsp oregano
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
salt and fresh pepper to taste

• Preheat oven to 425°.
• In a medium pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until golden, being careful not to burn. Add crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, basil and bay leaf. Stir and reduce heat to low. Cover and let simmer about 20 minutes.
• breadcrumbs, garlic powder and cheese and shake well. In a small bowl, beat egg whites and season with salt and pepper. In a ziplock bag, placeSpray cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
• Dip zucchini sticks into eggs then into bread crumb and cheese mixture, a few at a time and shake to coat. Place the breaded zucchini in a single layer and spray more cooking spray on top. Bake at 425° for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with 1/2 cup marinara sauce for dipping
  

This whole cooking thing is great. Only problem is that we live in NYC so that = tiny kitchen. So these days, I'm really wishing for a kitchen like this...

or this....


A girl can dream, right?

Images: Kitchens via dress, design & decor

Happy Friday!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! We have a lot of cooking on tap again this weekend. We're staying on the healthy train :)

Oh and speaking of cooking, here's the Tuscan Tomato Soup Recipe that I promised you.

Tuscan Tomato Soup
Serves 6-8
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 lb (1.5 kg) ripe tomatoes, peeled & seeded, then diced
4 c (32 fl oz) chicken or vegetable stock or prepared broth
3 T tomato paste
1/8 t red-pepper flakes
3 T heavy cream
1/2 c finely chopped basil leaves, plus 6-8 whole leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper

• In a large soup pot over medium meat, warm the oil.
• Add the onion and saute, stirring frequently, until softened, 5-7 minutes.
• Add the garlic and cook until softened but not browned, about 30 seconds.
• Add the tomatoes, stock, tomato paste and red pepper flakes.
• Raise the heat to high, and bring to a boil.
• Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until the tomatoes are softened, about 30 minutes.
• Remove from heat.
• In a blender or food preocessor, puree the soup in batches, leaving a little bit of texture if desired, and return the soup to the pot.
• Alternatively, process with a handheld blender in the pot until the desired consistency is reached.
• Return the soup to the saucepan over medium heat, stir in cream, chopped basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Cook until heated through, about 3 minutes.
• To serve, place in a warmed bowl and sprinkle with Parmesean cheese.
• Garnish with a basil leaf and serve immediately.

Peeling & Seeding Tomatoes
For this soup, select fully sun-ripened tomatoes that are slightly soft to the touch.

• To peel and seed them, fill a saucepan three-fourths full of water and bring to a boil. Using a sharp knife, score an X in the blossom end of each tomato.
• In batches, without crowding, immerse the tomatoes in the boiling water and leave for 15-30 seconds, or until the skins just begin to wrinkle.
• Remove from the pan with a slitted spoon, let cool slightly, then peel away the skins.
• Cut in half cross-wise and squeeze gently to dislodge the seeds.

Happy cooking and have a great one!

Image: found here

Fresh Start!

Happy Monday, Happy New Year, Happy New Beginnings! I'm sooo excited to start over. I don't know why I allowed myself to get so out of control since the wedding. Maybe because I was so disciplined for so long those months before the big day. At the time of the wedding my clothes were actually starting to fall off me and when I would show J and say I needed to get new ones she told me "awh don't worry honey, you're good to put on at least 5 lbs after the wedding and then everything will fit again." Well fast forward almost 4 months and I'd say I was good for another 20 or so. I mean, I'm not exactly positive. I won't allow myself to get on the scale because I have major scale issues. What's a number anyway? It should be all about how I feel. And honestly my major goal this year is to BE HEALTHY. Not necessarily loose weight. Even though I do need to and I'm sure that will be taken care of with the healthy living motto.

So after a weekend of last minute debauchery (I always have to do this before I make a brand new start. I'm not exactly sure why because at that point I usually don't even enjoy the food I'm eating), I prepared all day yesterday to put a healthy meal plan together.


For breakfast I decided to go back to an old staple of ours from the South Beach Diet cookbook, Veggie-Mini Quiches These are so good that even when we're not on diets we make them. The great thing about them is that they're so easy to make and you can switch out the veggies and make all different combos.

3/4 cup liquid egg substitute or 3 large eggs or 3 /4 cup egg whites
1 package frozen chopped spinach (10 oz.) or one large bunch fresh spinach 3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheese
1/4 cup diced red or green peppers or mixture of both
1/4 cup diced onions

• Heat oven to 35oF
• Spray the muffin tin cups with the cooking spray. Be sure not to omit this step, or the quiches will stick badly to the baking cups.
• Thaw and drain spinach - I wring it out well in my hand, which eliminates a lot of the "spinachy" taste for those who hate boiled spinach. If using fresh spinach, steam it in the microwave, press out all juice, then chop.
• Mix the spinach, eggs or egg substitute, cheese, peppers, onions, hot pepper sauce, salt in a bowl.
• Fill the muffin tin cups with the mixture.
• Bake at 350F or 20 minutes. You will know they are done when a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Remove from cups to serve.

For lunch, I decided to make 3 soups this week. I'm a soup fanatic and I knew this would help me kick things off right. One of my most favorite cookbooks is the Williams Sonoma Soup book. The recipes are really easy to follow and I always love the way they turn out. I made two of the following soups from that book and the last soup, Potato Leek, I got from Chow.

Broccoli-Leek Soup


Serves 4

2 Tbs. olive oil
2 leeks, including tender green portions, rinsed well and finely chopped
1 1/2 lb. broccoli, trimmed, florets and stalks cut into 1-inch pieces
4 cups chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, warm the olive oil.
• Add the leeks and sauté until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the broccoli and sauté, stirring frequently, until slightly softened, about 2 minutes more.
• Add the stock and bring to a simmer.
• Cover partially and cook until the vegetables are tender when pierced with a sharp knife, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Remove from the heat.
• In a blender or food processor, puree the soup in batches until smooth and return the soup to the pan. Alternatively, process with a stick blender in the pan until smooth.
• Reheat the soup gently over medium heat.
• Season with salt and white pepper.

Tuscan Tomato Soup

I modified this recipe from the recipe in the Williams-Sonoma Cookbook. If you guys are interested in the recipe, just let me know and I'll write it up :)

Potato-Leek Soup


2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 stick)
2 cups finely chopped leeks (pale green and white parts only)
4 cups peeled, medium-dice russet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (from 4 medium thyme sprigs)
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
3 cups water
1/3 cup heavy cream

• Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
• When the foaming subsides, add leeks, season with freshly ground black pepper, and cook until leeks are softened, about 5 minutes.
• Add potatoes, salt, and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Increase heat to high, add vegetable broth and water and bring just to a boil.
• Reduce heat to low and simmer until potatoes are fork tender, about 10 minutes.
• Blend soup in a blender in 2 batches until smooth.
• Return soup to the saucepan over medium heat, stir in cream, season with additional pepper as needed, and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes.

Dinners are a bit up in the air this week because we're busy 2 nights with hockey games. We're just planning on making smart choices while we're out.
So how about you guys? Did you do any planning for the week? I'm looking for some new recipes to try out to keep me motivated.
Images: 1&2 found here