Vegetable Soup

This soup is perfect for a cold winter day. It freezes well once cooked and also makes a perfect crock pot meal. 

Vegetable Soup

-1/2 to 1 lb stew meat (beef, deer, lamb, whatever you have laying around...we seem to eat a lot of venison over here)
-2 cans beef broth
-1 can tomato sauce
-1 can diced tomatoes
-1 C frozen peas
-1 C frozen corn
-1 C chopped carrots
-2-3 diced potatoes
-1 C frozen or canned green beans 
-1 medium onion, diced
-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-3 stalks of celery, diced
-salt and pepper to taste

-in a large pot, brown the meat over medium high heat with about a tbsp of oil
-after the meat is cooked, add the rest of ingredients and simmer over medium heat until the vegetables are cooked through.

Chicken Soup with Rice

The kids love to go to story time at the Library and a while ago, the Librarian read a book called Chicken Soup with Rice. The kids have of course been asking for chicken soup with rice ever since. I finally made it and they gobbled it right up!

Chicken Soup with Rice

-1 large chicken breast
-1 C onions, diced
-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-1 C celery, diced
-2 C carrots, diced
-1 tsp dried parsley
-3 C chicken broth
-1 C rice
-salt and pepper to taste

-in a soup pot place the rice in the chicken broth and bring to a boil
-dice the chicken breast and in a separate frying pan, brown the chicken with the onions, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper.
-dump everything into the soup pot with the rice and add the celery and carrots.
-simmer over medium heat until the rice and vegetables are cooked through. Add more water or chicken broth if you'd like more liquid in your soup. 

Italian Potato Soup

AKA Zuppa Toscana
This soup is like the kind you'd get from the Olive Garden, but in my personal opinion, it's WAY better. We prefer chunky soup in our house, meaning more of the good stuff, (like bacon!) less of the liquid.
So here is a random story that kind of ties into this soup: growing up, and especially after reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, I wasn't a huge fan of sausage. I thought it was gross. Fast forward a bunch of years and I got engaged to a "meat conoscere" who had just bought half a pig right before we got married and made about 25 lbs of sausage himself. I told him that he would be eating all that meat himself, because I hated sausage. ...until I tried it. It was delicious! For the first time in my life I was loving pork (except for bacon, I had always been a fan of bacon!) Life was great...until the meat was gone. Back to the store bought stuff? No thank you. Well, since my husband is into animal production he has toured quite a few processing plants, and so we found a brand of meat that we could not only trust, but it tastes the closest to homemade sausage. So if you are wondering what is a good brand of sausage to buy, (at least in the North West part of the country) I highly recommend Falls Brand.

Italian Potato Soup, or Zuppa Toscana. or Wow this soup is delicious!

-1 lb Plain Sausage + 1 Tbsp italian seasoning + 1 tsp garlic powder + 1 tsp onion powder
-1 lb Bacon
-2 Medium onions, diced
-1 1/2 Tbsp finely minced garlic
-32 oz chicken broth
-1 Tbsp italian seasoning
-6 to 8 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced
-1 to 1 1/2 C cream
-1 bunch of kale, washed and chopped
-salt and pepper, to taste

-mix together the sausage with the seasonings and brown in a saucepan. (you could always just use Italian Sausage, but this method is preferred by my taste testers, aka the husband and kids)
-Cook the bacon in a skillet until crispy, roughly chop into pieces when it has cooled sufficiently. (Last time I made this soup I used Hickory Smoked bacon and it was fantastic, but then again, I do LOVE smoky flavors)
-After the sausage has browned drain of the extra fat and pat the sausage with a paper towel to soak up extra grease, do the same with the bacon. 
-in a large soup pot, saute your onions, garlic and italian seasoning.
-Add your chicken broth and the meat.
-Over medium heat, add your potatoes and cream and simmer until the potatoes have softened a bit.
-add the chopped kale and continue to simmer until the kale is softened and the potatoes are cooked through
-add salt and pepper to your personal taste.
-This soup tastes delicious with fresh baked bread sticks and if you have some fresh Parmesan around, it tastes amazing sprinkled on top.

Quick and Easy Tomato Soup

Yesterday was hot and I didn't especially feel like cooking because my husband is out of town. That and cooking just for kids can be a real pain, especially picky eaters. So about half an hour after our regular dinner time, I finally decided to throw together some grilled cheese sandwiches. I like to eat my grilled cheese with tomato soup, but since I don't have any canned soup I had to make my own. The following recipe is what I came up with. Nothing fancy, but it's easy, fast and my kids actually ate it...well first they complained about how yucky it was...until they tasted it, then it didn't take too long to disappear.
You can definitely enhance the soup by using fresh chopped, garlic, and basil, but for a decent meal in under 10 minutes, the dried spices worked just fine.

Simple Cream of Tomato Soup

-1 can of diced Tomatoes
-1/4 C cream or milk
-1 tsp garlic powder (or minced garlic)
-2 tsp onion powder (or diced onions)
-basil to taste
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 bay leaf (to be removed before serving)

-Mix everything together and bring to a boil. Simmer on low heat until you are ready to serve.
-If you don't like chunky tomato soup, you can blend your ingredients before heating, or use tomato sauce instead of the diced tomatoes.

Taco Soup

I didn't really know what Taco Soup was, since I'd only had it maybe 2 times ever in my life. One day I decided to give it a try and make some and this is what I came up with.

Taco Soup

-1 lb ground beef             
-1 onion, diced
-1 pkg taco seasoning      
-2 cloves garlic, minced              
-2 C beef broth
-1 can tomato sauce        
-1 can diced tomatoes
-1 green pepper, diced
-1 red pepper, diced
-2 C frozen corn
-1 can pinto beans           
-1 can kidney beans
-chili powder, to taste
-cumin, to taste
-cilantro, to taste (fresh or dried)
-salt & pepper, to taste    

-Brown the beef. Add the taco seasoning.
-combing everything else into a soup pot
-Add the spices to your personal taste. (usually 1/8- 1/4 tsp)
-Simmer over medium-low heat until the vegetables are tender.
-Serve with tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream

Cream of Mushroom Soup

I'm not a huge fan of Mushroom soup in general, but this stuff is waaay better than the canned stuff.

Homemade Mushroom Soup

-1 C Chopped Celery
-1 C Chopped Onions
-1 tsp minced Garlic
-12oz Mushrooms Chopped (or more or less depending on what you prefer)
-1 C Chicken Broth 
-1/2 to 1 C Cream
-1/2 to 1 C milk
-Salt and Pepper to taste
-Poultry Seasoning to taste (or about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp)

-Saute the celery, onions, garlic and mushrooms in the bottom of your pot until they have softened up a bit.
-Add the chicken broth, cream milk and seasonings and simmer over medium-low for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetable have reached your desired softness.   

TIP: If you make a lot or have a ton of leftovers, freeze the soup and use it in place of canned soup in another recipe.