Creamy Potato Soup Recipe

This is a recipe that is more a suggestion than a list of directions.

It's finally Fall! And it rained nearly all day yesterday. Those two things mean soup to me!

So, I got out my recipe binder to find my potato soup recipe. I then remembered than it made way more than my family could eat and didn't include any veggie other than potato. I cut it in half and made a few adjustments, and didn't measure much of anything. That's kind of the nice thing about soup, it's pretty flexible!

Potato Soup

I melted butter (~1/2Tbs) in my soup pan, whisked in flour (~1/2Tbs) then stirred in about 3 cups of chicken broth. Bring that to a boil. Then I added potato chunks (~1 1/2 cups) (and so much easier than dealing with fresh) , a handful each of carrot dices, FD corn, FD Peas, FD Onions, & FD Cheddar Cheese and some bacon crumbles, simmer on low for about 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Stir in milk (~1 cup, more or less depending on how thing you want things). Simmer another 5 minutes and you're done.

Served with left over cornbread and it made a great Fall dinner!

Low Carb Shepard's Pie Recipe

 At least I thought it was a low-carb Shepard's Pie.

So, I mentioned that I needed a mashed potato substitute and this is why. I made this 2-person dinner for a few reasons. I wanted to try out the Sloppy Joe TVP I got and I wanted an excuse to finally try to make the creamy cauliflower I told you all about. Here's what I came up with. You could easily double or even triple it to feed the whole gang.

Low-Carb Shepard's Pie

1/2 c. Sloppy Joe TVP (or other meat/tvp choice)

1 Tb. FD Onion

1/3 c. water

1/4 c. Tomato Powder, prepared (recipe coming soon)

1 c. FD Green Beans, rehydrated

1 c. FD Cauliflower, creamed (recipe here)

1/2 c. FD Cheddar Cheese, rehydrated

In small casserole dish, pour water onto Sloppy Joe TVP & FD onions. Then layer prepared tomato powder, FD green beans, creamy cauliflower & cheese on top.

Bake 350 for 20-25 mins.

The Sloppy Joe TVP made it pretty flavorful. 

I am a sissy for any spicey-ness, but this was still ok for me. I think next time I will make it with ground beef or chicken instead and see how that tastes.

So, I said low-carb. After I put it together I looked up the nutritional values and came up with 68 grams of carbs (38 grams of sugar) for the whole dish. So, half that and it still doesn't sound totally low carb unless you consider that it's a one dish meal. 

The thing that threw me was the tomato powder. I know tomatoes have basically no carb load, but tomato powder apparently has 30g per 1/4 cup! That seems like a lot, but I have checked multiple sources and they all pretty much agree. So, that's what I'm going with. Guess I still have a lot more to learn about carbs!

Low-carb or not, this is not your traditional boring Shepard Pie. This is super flavorful and quite easy!

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Creamy Freeze-dried Cauliflower Recipe

Lately, I've been trying to eat healthier. 

Mainly cutting out bad carbs. "Whole" and "grain" are both generally good, but when you say "white", it's generally not good for you. Except for, that is, cauliflower, which is white!

So, I thought I would give mashed / creamy cauliflower a try as a substitute for mashed potatoes.

It turned out great!

I was to the bottom of my can of freeze-dried Cauliflower, so I already had some powder and small pieces to work with. I just wanted to make a small batch so this is what I did. You could easily adjust this to make more servings. Sure, I could have made this with fresh cauliflower, if I hadn't had to throw it out because I didn't use it soon enough and it went bad sitting in the fridge! What a waste! 

So, again, THRIVE to the rescue!

Creamy Cauliflower

1 c. FD Cauliflower crumbs/pieces

1/2 c. water

1/2 t. butter powder

salt & pepper to taste

Combine ingredients into small sauce pan. 

Simmer till cauliflower is rehydrated and tender.

Smash or blend to desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Stay tuned to see why I needed a mashed potato substitute! :)

Homemade Cheeze-it Cracker Recipe Review

While I was looking into which Mac & Cheese recipe to make, my oldest saw this video and insisted we try it out.

So, this afternoon we made some cheese crisps, or homemade cheese-it crackers.

The recipe is really quite simple.

Mix flour, cheese blend, salt, baking soda with oil and enough water to get it all stuck together, roll it out and cut it up. Bake and enjoy!

Don't they look pretty good?

Cheddar Cheese Crisps

1 1/4 c. Flour

1/2 c. THRIVE Cheese Blend

1/8 t. Baking Soda

1/4 t. Salt

2 T. Veg. Oil

1/2 c. water

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Sift together dry ingredients. 

Add oil and stir. 

Add the water 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together.

Roll dough out on a well floured surface until ~1/8" thick.

Transfer to greased baking sheet and cut into small squares with pizza cutter or knife. Spread them out, prick the tops and sprinkle with salt. 

Bake for 10 - 15 mins or until golden brown.

This recipe gets a thumbs up!

Cinnamon Roll Recipe Review

Cinnamon Rolls

I have been wanting to make my own cinnamon rolls for a long time. It's just so easy to buy them already made, but as usual, I read the ingredients and "nutrition" facts and wonder why I let my family eat them. They just taste so good! So, I wanted to make some myself that tasted good but didn't make me feel so guilty for eating!

So, I got out my new THRIVE cookbook and saw the recipe for cinnamon rolls that included fruit. Sounded like a winner to me. My daughter and I got our aprons on and got to work making Sunday dinner, er, Cinnamon Rolls! :)

Well, my yeast was old, so they didn't rise quite as much as they should have, and I think I didn't add enough flour because the dough was still pretty sticky... but we forged ahead. We used raspberries, and though my "rolls" looked more like giant cookies, they tasted great!

I tried so hard to stick to the recipe, but as usual ended up cutting down the butter and sugar that you layer on and they still tasted great! 

I give this one a thumbs up!

Recipe Review - Sort of

I thought I would start out with an easy recipe. 

Blueberry muffins with streusel topping.

Easy enough. 

Except that I just polished off my open can of blueberries and vowed not to open any more cans of fruit until we had finished the oranges, and pineapple, and peaches, and you get the idea. 

So, my daughter agreed that strawberry muffins sounded just as good. My changes made below in bold.

I thought they tasted great. I reduced the sugar some, and think I could have reduced it even more! I know these are healthier than package mixes and this recipe could be easily adjusted to make all different kinds of muffins! All in all, I give it a thumbs up, even if I didn't exactly follow the directions! :)

Muffin Ingredients

• 3 c thrive freeze dried blueberries strawberries
  
• 1/2 c butter powder
• 1 1/4 c thrive white sugar
• 2 Tablespoons thrive whole eggs, prepared powder
  
• 2 c thrive white flour 50/50 with whole wheat flour
• 2 t thrive baking powder
• 1⁄2 t thrive iodized salt
• 1⁄2 c thrive powdered milk, reconstituted powder
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 c water (approx.)

Streusel Ingredients

• 1/4 c butter powder
• 1/2 1/3 c thrive white sugar
• 1/2 c Oatmeal
  
• 1/3 1/4 c thrive white flour  whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c water (approx.)

Instructions

* Place the FRUIT in a bowl and pour hot tap water over them to barely cover. Leave to sit for 10 minutes or until reconstituted, stirring occasionally, and then drain the water.
* While FRUIT are rehydrating, add butter POWDER , MILK POWDER, EGG POWDER and white sugar to a mixing bowl. ADD 1/2 C. WATER AND VANILLA. Cream together until smooth.
* Combine 2 c flour, baking powder, and salt, then stir into creamed mixture. ADD REMAINING WATER TILL GOOD MUFFIN CONSISTENCY. Fold in drained FRUIT.
* Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. In a small bowl, combine sugar, OATMEAL, BUTTER POWDER and flour. ADD ENOUGH WATER TO MOISTEN until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins.
* Bake muffins at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Serve muffins warm.

Yields 18 muffins

THRIVE Cookbook

I see lots of blogger do posts by theme for each day of the week. I just recently got a copy of the new THRIVE cookbook. I'm planning to try out lots of the recipes and thought I would share them with you! 

So, should we say...

Make it Monday?

Tell you on Tuesday?

Wednesday's Wonder dish?

Try it Thursday?

None of the above? :)

Regardless of a cheesy blog theme... this book is full out lots of great things. If you've hesitate to try any THRIVE food cause you don't think you'll know how to use them, you're in luck! 

Along with wonderful THRIVE recipes, you'll also find:

•  Creative tips on how to use THRIVE
• A helpful THRIVE and fresh equivalents chart
• Kitchen tips from television network star, Kelsey Nixon
• A detailed index categorized by THRIVE foods

And I LOVE that it's spiral bound inside, so it lays flat while you're busy cooking away!

 Still at the introductory price of $14.95.