Cabbage, White Bean, and Potato Soup

Cabbage, White Bean, and Potato Soup

Somehow my two kids just ate six bananas. I don't even understand how it's possible for two boys to eat six bananas in ten minutes. When I went to the grocery store today I bought myself a bunch of fruit for smoothies. Apparently that was not a great idea. I bought two big banana bunches and my kids have already eaten an entire bunch. Now I get to go back to the store tomorrow to buy more. They also ate the entire can of smoked almonds I bought myself for snacks. My husband and I joke that we need to get our own cupboard and put a lock on it, I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad idea. I dread the thought of having two teenage boys, I think I throw in the towel already.

With it being the middle of winter I have been making a lot of soups and stews. I love having a hot meal when the weather is cold outside. Last week I tried a new recipe for Cabbage, White Bean, and Potato Soup from the January 2014 issue of Southern Living magazine.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 10 cups. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First, I used small red potatoes cut into fourths instead of fingerling potatoes. Fingerling potatoes were overpriced at my local grocery store and would have cost 2 1/2 times as much as the red potatoes I bought. For the chicken broth, I used homemade. I have discussed many times about the benefits of homemade stock, it's cheaper, tastes better, and you can control the amount of sodium. I chose not to add Parmesan cheese as a topping for my serving, but my husband and two boys did.

If you are serving this soup for dinner it needs a sandwich served with it in order to be filling. Alone it doesn't have enough protein or fat to be filling for most adults. It would be great with grilled cheese or a grilled (or not) turkey sandwich. The flavors are great and with a sandwich it would be a quick evening meal.

For the recipe go to Cabbage, White Bean, and Potato Soup.

Beer Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage

Beer Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage

I have had a full weekend of eating. Most weekends I try to cook and eat everything from scratch. However, this weekend was the first part of spring break for my oldest so everything was a little wacky. While I eat healthy 99 percent of the time this weekend was full of coffee and chocolate. I absolutely love dark chocolate and allow myself a treat at least once a month in order to keep my sanity. Since I was sick with strep for over two weeks my body wants everything that I normally don't eat so I have been allowing myself a little food self pampering. This week I will be back to my normal cooking and eating schedule. Last week when I was on antibiotics and slowly feeling more like myself I made a number of high protein pork dishes. My family loves pork and to me it is a great comfort food. One of the recipes I tried was for Beer Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage from the March 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 5 hours (including marinating time) and makes 4 servings. I did make a few changes. First since I can't have regular beer I used gluten free beer. I also use a soy sauce which does not have wheat. For the marinating I allowed the pork to sit in the sauce for 5 hours. I ran out of butter right before making this recipe so instead of using butter I substituted canola oil. The recipe has the cabbage cook for 20 minutes, but my husband prefers his cabbage very soft so I let it cook for another 5 minutes. I did have to add a slight bit more water in order that the cabbage did not burn.

The pork in this recipe was very tender. My two boys ate almost an entire tenderloin by themselves, which is a good sign that they loved the recipe. The only thing that I would change is to double the sauce in order that there is enough to pour over the pork on the plate. I also love cabbage and would have liked more than the recipe made so I would double the amount of cabbage. Overall a simple recipe with lots of flavor and one that I would make again.

For the recipe go to Beer Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage.

Recipe for Spiced Chicken with Creamy Horseradish and Cabbage Slaw

I live in a family that loves meat. My husband and two boys would be horrible vegetarians. They will put up with vegetables being in a dish or a meal or two during the week having no meat. However, anything more than that and I begin to hear complaints. When my husband is left to take care of my two boys they seem to eat a lot of bacon with chicken or pork as a side. Needless to say meat seems to always be center stage in my house. Sine meat is such an integral part of my family's diet I try to make sure we eat a large variety of protein sources and I switch up my menu plans so no one gets bored. Yesterday I tried a new recipe for Spiced Chicken with Creamy Horseradish Cabbage Slaw from the July 2012 issue of Woman's Day magazine.

This recipe has 8 ingredients in the chicken and 9 ingredients in the slaw. It takes 1 hour 15 minutes of total time for the chicken, 20 minutes of which is active and 30 minutes of total time for the slaw, 15 minutes of which is active. Both recipes make 12 servings. The only change that I made to the chicken was to take the skin off of the thighs and I used honey instead of the brown sugar called for in the recipe. For the slaw I left out the carrot that was used in the original recipe. Instead of the granulated sugar I used agave syrup. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The slaw used in this recipe is delicious. My husband and two sons loved it and they are picky about slaw. The chicken was okay. It needed more flavor that it had from the rub. I would suggest adding 1 tsp of garlic powder and 1/8-1/4 of cayenne pepper to increase the flavor and add a little bit of kick. I think with the changes to the rub the chicken could be a lot better. The slaw would be delicious with a blue cheese burger or anything with blue cheese. The flavors would blend very well together.

For the recipes go to Spiced Chicken and Creamy Horseradish and Cabbage Slaw.

Slow Cooker Pulled Beef Sandwiches with Cabbage-Cilantro Slaw

My husband loves BBQ. I have had to listen to endless hours of conversation revolving around why his charcoal grill is better than gas. The sad thing is that my father had similar conversations growing-up, so apparently I am surrounded by men with BBQ obsessions. I don't mean obsession as a joke, my husband reads books, watches cooking shows and searches the Internet for new BBQ recipes and ideas. While I love BBQ, I don't have the patience to wait all day for BBQ on the charcoal grill. I love the taste, but would rather have something that takes less effort and still has great flavor. One method that I have found for BBQ pulled sandwiches is the crock-pot. The crock-pot is quick and easy and is great for making large cuts of meat. Today I tried a new recipe for Pulled Beef Sandwiches with Cabbage Slaw from the June 2012 issue of Woman's Day magazine.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 8 hours 15 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I made a number of modifications to this recipe. First the magazine recipe is actually for pulled pork. However, when I arrived home from the grocery store and started unloading my items I noticed that I had bought beef shoulder. Rather than going back to the store and spending more money I decided to substitute the beef for the pork in the recipe. I did brown the beef in the skillet before adding to the slow-cooker. I always brown meat before adding to the crock-pot it helps to seal in the juices and makes for more tender meat. Since I am trying to limit granulated sugar, I substituted molasses for the brown sugar called for in the recipe. Finally, since I eat gluten free I did not eat my serving on a potato roll, but instead ate the BBQ pulled beef as is with the coleslaw as a side. Make sure to adequately salt the coleslaw it will need it.

I was surprised by how well the beef turned out in this recipe. Pulled beef oftentimes turns out dry and tough, especially when made in the crock-pot. This pulled beef came out tender and using molasses in the BBQ sauce lent a nice flavor. I wasn't a big fan of the sour cream in the coleslaw, I would have preferred using olive oil mayonnaise. However, the cilantro in the coleslaw was delicious.

For the recipe go to Pulled Pork Sandwiches.

Food Network Corned Beef and Cabbage

As anyone that has read this blog for a while knows I love my crockpot. Every couple of weeks I pull out my crockpot and have at least one meal a week I don't have to worry about during dinner prep. I love my crockpot so much that I utilize it even during holidays. This year my oldest was very excited about Saint Patrick's Day. For weeks before the date he wanted to discuss what food I was preparing. To make things easier I decided to prepare the corned beef and cabbage in my crockpot. I had tried this method previous years with great success. I finally settled on a recipe from the Food Network for Corned Beef and Cabbage, which looked simple and flavorful.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 9 hours on low in the crockpot and makes 4 servings. All the ingredients were easy to find at my local grocery store. As suggested by the reviews I chose to not use the celery. The celery seemed out of place in a corned beef recipe so I omitted it. For the ale/stout I used Guinness, it seemed the natural fit. I cooked the corned beef for 9 1/2 hours in the crockpot and the cabbage about 45 minutes. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My oldest son loved this recipe and ate multiple servings. Other people on the Food Network site have complained about the vegetables lacking flavor, but I thought they tasted like a combination of the Guinness and the corned beef spices. I liked that the cabbage in this recipe was cooked, but not mushy like many  corned beef and cabbage recipes are. The leftovers made for great reuben sandwiches the next day. Overall, a great and easy way to make corned beef and cabbage.

For the recipe go to Corned Beef and Cabbage.

Taste of Home Crunchy Asian Coleslaw

When I first started cooking as much as I could from scratch, I would make a great main dish and buy a bagged salad as a side dish. I do love bagged salad, but you can only have it so many times a week before it becomes redundant. So approximately 6 months ago I started making a conscious effort to make one side dish and one main meal for dinner every night. Some weeks it takes a lot of creative thinking to figure out dishes to go together, but I was lucky that the August/September issue of Taste of Home magazine had a delicious recipe for Thai Shrimp Curry and a side dish recipe for Crunchy Asian Coleslaw. I have already posted my review of the Thai Shrimp Curry, here is my post for the Crunchy Asian Coleslaw.

This recipe has 10 ingredients and takes minutes to prepare. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and already had everything except the vegetables in my pantry cupboard. Since the original recipe is for 2 servings, I doubled it to feed my family of four. Instead, of using reduced-sodium soy sauce, I used the regular bottle I already had in my fridge. The taste did not turn out overly salty, so the substitution was fine. I don't know if I had used the reduced sodium soy sauce if I would have needed to add additional salt. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

I was impressed with how well this coleslaw turned out and paired with the Thai Shrimp. The doubled recipe made enough for my family of four and leftovers for the next day. I appreciated how easy the prep work was and how simple the ingredients were. A great simple, coleslaw recipe that would go well with a number of spicy dishes.

For the recipe go to Crunchy Asian Coleslaw. (registration required)

All You Pork Lo Mein

After my husband and I finished graduate school, we had very little money to spend on entertainment. When I say very little money, I mean very little money. We had gotten married our second year of grad school and then traveled to Europe for me to finish my master's thesis. Due to both of these things, plus schools expenses we had very little extra money. So I learned to make as many recipes as I could, so we didn't miss eating out at restaurants. Two kids later, my frugal ways haven't changed, we still rarely eat out at restaurants, maybe once or twice every two or three months. Luckily I have become quite efficient at making most dishes. My two boys have fallen in love with noodle dishes, so I was I was excited when the September issue of All You magazine had a recipe for Pork Lo Mein.

This recipe has 14 ingredients and take approximately 15 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cooking time. I was pleased that I was able to find soba noodles and didn't have to make any modifications to the noodles. I did make a modification to the pork. Instead of using bone-less pork chops, I used pork tenderloin that I already had in my freezer. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

I made this recipe when my in-laws were over for dinner and it was a big hit with everyone. My two boys loved the noodles and I liked that it was easy to put together and made enough for a crowd. I would suggest eating the dish the day it's made, it didn't re-heat very well the next day. Overall, a great family friendly recipe that makes enough to feed a crowd.

Bon Appetit Classic Coleslaw Dressing

Growing up, I never put coleslaw on any foods. I had never had the coleslaw homemade, only from the deli counter at the grocery store. It was always runny and unappetizing and I never cared for it. When I moved to West Virginia I was taken aback by the fact that everyone in this area put coleslaw on their hot dogs. I was very skeptical at first and was reluctant to try it for some time. Then I met my husband, who is obsessed with hot dogs and came around to trying it. I must say that homemade coleslaw is in no way the same as the runny store bought variety from back home in Seattle. My boys are now growing up in a household that always has coleslaw when I serve hot dogs or BBQ, and I'm okay with that. I have been bad recently about relying on the store bought varieties that are available locally, which are so much better than the stuff back in Seattle! When I saw a recipe for Classic Coleslaw Dressing in the July issue of Bon Appetit magazine I figured it was about time I started making more coleslaw from scratch.

This recipe has 9 ingredients for the dressing (and then cabbage of course).  The dressing takes only minutes to prepare and the ingredients were all easily found at my local grocery store. I used homemade dill pickles and brine, which I had made a couple of months back. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written. I only used straight cabbage for the slaw, I didn't add carrots or any other vegetables.

A couple of years back I lost the Julienne slicer that I used to use to shred cabbage, Since that time I have been doing my shredding by hand. which leads to slightly larger shreds. I have the attachment for my food processor, but I have yet to use it, maybe I'll learn this winter. Due to shredding with a knife, my coleslaw had extra sauce, which I don't think would have been there if the cabbage pieces were uniform. The size of the pieces in no way detracted from the taste, just something to note if you are shredding by hand. This recipe went well with the Pulled Chicken Sandwiches and I had enough leftovers to use again on re-heated Lexington Pulled Pork. A great simple and straightforward coleslaw recipe.

For the recipe go to Bon Appetit Classic Coleslaw Dressing.