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Zesty Vegetable-Vegetable Soup

This truly is the BEST vegetable soup that I have ever made! 

        It all began with me being cooped up at home with workman who have been putting in new attic stairs.  I’m here to tell you that this has not been a quick job.  We are into day two and, probably the 8th hour of this project, and the end still does not look it’s coming very soon. Such is life. The men have been very pleasant, so it’s been okay being “stranded”.  I actually enjoy days where I am “forced” to stay home.   I LOVE my home and I LOVE being here, but being a part-time employee, wife and domestic engineer, requires frequent errand running and such, so I have to be away from my sweet abode more than I’d like.

Anyway...

Today has been an overcast, cold and gloomy Friday winter's day.  All the more reason to stay put.
The conditions were just PERFECT for soup making!  So, armed with a head of cabbage and a large variety of vegetables, I sat down and consulted Pinterest.  The soup recipe that sounded the best and came closest to matching the ingredient supply that I had on hand, was a vegetable cabbage soup.  

~BUT~

I have this bad habit of jumping into making a recipe before checking to make sure that I have everything that is needed.  This usually requires a bit of “tweaking”.  Sometimes I have had to "pull a rabbit out of a hat” and use my most creative culinary skills.  A few of these, which my husband calls “experiments”, have turned out to be delicious!

This recipe was one of those times, but I will spare you the details of where my “shortages” were and just give you my newest and most favorite vegetable soup recipe, which I call...

Zesty Vegetable-Vegetable Soup

3 onions, chopped

5 or 6 cloves of garlic, chopped 

1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes,with juice

1 cup green beans 
4 cups chicken broth
1 medium  head cabbage, chopped
1 can tomato paste
7 cups water
1/2 red, yellow and orange bell pepper,chopped  
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 stalk of kale, chopped
1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
6 1/2 tablespoons Streit’s soup base
(onion flavored)        
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning


Put all the ingredients in a very large pot. Heat to boil, then reduce to medium heat and cook until vegetables are tender. Simmer for 45 minutes and keep on low for another 30 minutes or so.


I can’t stop eating this stuff!  It is very low in calories and pretty healthy too.  Yum.

~It’s a keeper~

A great afternoon "pick-me-up"

I have seen several coffee-protein smoothies on Pinterest lately, but none of them sounded that great to me. I decided to create my own. It turned out to be quite tasty, so I thought I would share it.



Coffee-Protein Smoothie:

8 oz. cold brewed coffee

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. pumpkin puree 

1 scoop vanilla-flavored protein powder

1 tsp. golden flax seed, ground

1/2 cup almond milk (unsweetened-original

)stevia to taste (I used 2 packets)

2 cubes of ice (may wish to use more, if you want it colder)

Add all ingredients to smoothie machine or blender. Process.

Enjoy!

Tuna Salad with a Twist: 

This dish does not look very pretty, but it is delicious!  Tuna never tasted so "not like" tuna. It has an Italian flair with a little "wang".

1/2 red onion, peeled and sliced very thinly
1 can of cannellini or northern beans, rinsed well and drained
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice 
salt and pepper to taste 
1 tablespoon dried oregano 
2 (6 ounce) cans of tuna (packed in water), drained 
1/4 teaspoon of garlic salt
4 cups of fresh spinach (may use less) 


* Place onion in a colander and rinse under cold water. Drain well, pat dry with paper towels and set aside.

 * In a medium bowl, toss rinsed and drained beans with olive oil and lemon juice.  Add salt, pepper and garlic salt (to taste). Fold in oregano, onion and drained tuna. 

 * Serve desired amount of tuna salad on a bed of fresh spinach
  

This is my new and favorite way to eat tuna!

Tasty Fall Treats~

I got inspired to make these little jewels after seeing a colorful picture of them on Pinterest. But for the life of me, I cannot find the site that featured them.  It seems that I "repinned" just about every sweet that was "pinned" on this popular virtual pin board site, but not the one for the donut suckers, as I am calling them.

The treats seemed easy enough to make even without instructions, especially since it appeared that I already had most of the items to complete them, minus the little chocolate dounts and colored candy sprinkles. 

***********

For some reason I had a bag of these little round sticks that are made specifically for candy making.  They probably came from one of my art buddies who never got around to creating any confectionaries. If they ever saw this project, I can assure you, they would never have gotten rid of them.

Cellophane bags are something that I keep in constant supply.  I have several sizes on hand to use for gift-giving.  They always seem to "fancy" up whatever you put in them.  The small-sized bag was just right for my "donut suckers".

My ribbon population is ridiculous!  I have every color, width and texture known to man stashed in boxes and bins all over my studio.  I chose orange because, paired with the brown chocolate icing on the donut, I felt it had a fall feel to it.

To assemble:

Before starting, pour some candy sprinkles on a small plate.

Gently push a sucker stick through one side of your chocolate covered donut (I used the small cake variety). Twist the stick while pushing it slowly through the donut. You will want your stick to pierce into the other half of the donut.  This will provide for more stability.

Warning:The donuts are a bit fragile and will break if you are not gentle during this step.

Now for the crazy part.  Take your hair dryer (on low setting) and heat the surface of your donut for a few seconds; just until icing looks shiny.  Immediately take your donut and gently press it into the pile of candy sprinkles. Wait a minute or two and repeat on the other side of your donut.  

When my donuts were all finished, I put them into individual cellophane bags and tied a satin bow around them.  They look so festive!

These little sweet treats made a perfect little "happy" to give to out at my staff meeting this morning.  

July 6, 2012
mouth-watering fresh summer salsa

ingredients:
5 large garden fresh tomatoes
1/2 medium red onion
1 jalapeno pepper
2 limes
1 can of Rotel
1/2 Tbsp. salt
1 bunch of cilantro

directions:

chop tomatoes and onion to desired size and put in a large bowl

add diced jalapenos, juice of two limes, Rotel and salt

dice desired amount of cilantro.  I like my salsa with a ton of cilantro!

add to bowl

stir all ingredients together well.  chill.

~Serve salsa with your favorite chips~

The tomatoes are wonderful right now, so visit your local farmer's market and stir up some mouth-watering salsa.  Your family will be glad you did.

We are blessed to have our tomatoes fresh from our garden-there is just nothing like a tomato that you grew yourself!