Sausage and Tortellini Soup

During the winter months there's not much better to me for dinner than a warm bowl of soup with a slice of freshly baked bread.   Soups are fairly easy to make, they're relatively inexpensive, and almost always delicious.

We visited my sister in law and her family right after New Year's, and she made an amazing sausage and tortellini soup.  I knew we needed to add this to our menu, so I tried to copy it the other night.  This soup is hearty, and yet there are lots of veggies in it that also make it pretty healthy.  For an extra kick, you can use hot sausage instead of the mild version that I chose, or add a few crushed red pepper flakes.  We like a heartier soup, but you could certainly add more liquid to this to stretch it out a bit more.

Sausage and Tortellini Soup

1 pound mild Italian sausage links, casings removed
1 onion, diced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
5 cups beef broth
1 {15 oz} can diced tomatoes, drained
1  {6 oz} can tomato paste
1 1/2 cans of water {use empty tomato paste can}
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup diced carrots
1 green pepper, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
16 oz. bag of frozen cheese filled tortellini
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a large pot brown sausage, crumbling it with the backside of a spoon until cooked through {no longer pink}.  Remove sausage from pot and drain on a paper towel lined plate.  Cook onion and garlic in same pot, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add broth, tomato paste, water, seasoning, and carrots.  Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat, add sausage back to the pot, and cook on low heat for 30 minutes.

Add peppers, zucchini, and tortellini, and cook for 10 more minutes, or until tortellini are tender.  Serve with freshly grated Parmesan.

The Best Pot Roast

I love a good roast.  It is hands-down my favorite meal to eat when we visit my in-laws.  Mom always serves it up with squash casserole, mashed potatoes {or sometimes rice}, cauliflower with cheese sauce, and often a chocolate pie for dessert.  During our first year of marriage, we lived just down the street from my in-laws, and we would frequently have Sunday dinner after church at their house.  We definitely made it a point to go if previously stated menu was on the agenda.

I have never been able to make a good roast.  It either ends up too dry or just tasteless.  One of my cooking goals this year was to learn how to make a delicious roast.  Goal accomplished.   Last week I found and tried the perfect pot roast recipe and it.was.delicious.

I've been given permission to make this one again, so that tells me it's truly a winner!  Next time I might try the red wine instead of the beef broth, though--we'll see what a difference that makes in the taste.

Why did I like this recipe so much?  Searing the onion and the carrots before cooking gave both a sweet flavor that I don't normally taste in a roast.  We also had a few carrots from our garden, so it was fun to put those to work in one of our meals.

The meat was perfectly done without having to do anything to it.  Once it was in the pot in the oven, I left it alone and just took it out in time to eat it.  It was tender, juicy, and fell right off of the fork.

Instead of having to make gravy after the meat was done, we just used the juices in the pan for our potatoes, and it was perfect.  This saved time, and I'm not the world's best gravy maker, so it also saved me some frustration.

If you're looking for an easy pot roast recipe, this is the one!  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Perfect Pot Roast

1 whole Chuck Roast (4-5 pounds)
2 Tablespoons oil
2 whole onions
6 whole carrots {I don't think I quite used 6, just whatever was in the fridge}
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup beef broth {or red wine}
3 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Salt and pepper the roast on both sides.  Heat oil in a large oven-proof skillet or Dutch oven.  Cut onions in half.  Place onions in hot oil until browned on both sides.   Set onions aside.

Place carrots in the hot pan and cook until nicely browned, but not cooked thoroughly.  Remove carrots.

Add some more oil, if needed, to the pan, and sear the meat on all sides.  Remove roast to a plate.

With the burner still on high, pour in 1 cup of beef broth and whisk vigorously to remove all brown bits from the bottom of the pan.

Place the roast back into the pan, along with the carrots, onion, remaining broth and thyme {you can also throw in some rosemary}.

Put the lid on the pan and cook at 275F for 3 hours {for a 3 pound roast} or 4 hours for a 4-5 pound roast.

source:  Pioneer Woman

Easy Roasted Veggie and Sausage Casserole

This casserole is one of the easiest meals to make and it smells and tastes so yummy!  I had pinned it over a year ago, and even mentioned it in this blog post, but didn't actually make it until a few weeks ago.  My sister and her husband were in town and I wanted a hearty meal that would make enough for us to eat the next day, too.  This worked!

So, go grab some vegetables, a cutting board, and a roasting pan and get cookin'!

Easy Roasted Veggie and Sausage Casserole

8 sausages {I used some sweet and some mild Italian}
2 pounds potatoes
1 pound carrots
1 bell pepper, red or green
2 large onions
4 garlic cloves
4 T oil
3 teaspoons Italian herbs {any combo of oregano, sage, rosemary, or a pre-mixed Italian seasoning blend}
1 cup chicken broth
8 T balsamic vinegar

Peel the potatoes and cut each into 4 big chunks.  Peel carrots and chop into medium-sized chunks.  Chop pepper into strips.  Slice onions into large chunks.  Place veggies in a large roasting pan.  {If you want to make this REALLY easy, use a disposable roasting pan!}

In a small bowl, combine garlic, oil, Italian seasonings, and chicken broth.  Pour over vegetables and toss.  Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.  Cover the pan with foil and bake at 450F for 45 minutes.

While the veggies are roasting, brown the sausages in a large frying pan.  They don't need to be cooked all the way through.  After the veggies have roasted for 45 minutes, check to see if they are fork tender.  If not, place them back in the oven for a few more minutes.  When they are tender, add the sausages to the pan, pour balsamic vinegar over it all, and put back into the oven, uncovered for 15 minutes.  Pull it out, flip over the sausage, and place it back in the oven for an additional 15 minutes.

Serve it hot, with some corn casserole, like I did, or just on its own.  Perfect dish for a Sunday dinner, or an easy weeknight meal.

source:  slightly adapted from KayoticKitchen

Cajun Meatloaf

I recently purchased a cookbook from our women's group at church and it has not disappointed.  One of the recipes inspired me to create this version of meatloaf and it is delicious.

There's something about meatloaf that brings back wonderful childhood memories, but I can never make meatloaf like my mom's.  Perhaps it's due to the fact that no measuring is involved.


This meatloaf has some of the traditional ingredients my mom uses, but with a bit of a Cajun twist.

Just think of a gumbo:  sauteed veggies, tomato, Cajun seasoning, but it all comes together as a meatloaf instead.

I did discover that meatloaf is not photogenic.  Maybe it has something to do with my beginner level photography skills, but the photographs of the final product do not do the taste justice.

If you're looking for a new twist to your mom's meatloaf, this is the recipe for you.  Serve it up with some mashed potatoes and veggies, or even some macaroni and cheese and you'll be feeling the comforts of home within minutes.

Cajun Meatloaf

2 T butter
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons blackened cajun seasoning {mine was purchased at Fresh Market, but I'm sure any brand would do}
1/2 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup ketchup
1 pound ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup rolled oats

Glaze Topping:
1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 350F.  Place butter in a medium sized skillet and melt over medium heat.  Add onion and pepper and saute until tender.  Add all the seasonings and cook for about 5 minutes.  Stir in the milk and ketchup; cook for about 2 minutes.  Remove the bay leaf.  Let cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, mix cooked sauce mixture, ground beef, egg and oats.  Stir to combine.  Form into a loaf and place in a greased baking dish.  Bake for one hour.

In a small bowl combine ketchup, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce to form a glaze topping.  Spread on top of baked meatloaf.  Place under the broiler for about 5 minutes, until bubbly.


source: adapted from A Taste of Redeemer cookbook

Roasted Chicken with Mushrooms and Apricot Couscous

This recipe is one of those ones that you can whip up in several minutes and it tastes so good you wouldn't even know that it took barely any thought.  {These are the kinds of meals I need to be cooking right now at 38 weeks pregnant!}  I was a bit skeptical because of the cumin and cinnamon combination, but this entire meal was delicious!  I might suggest tossing the chicken with some of the cinnamon/cumin as well as the mushrooms, for some added flavor.  The next time I make this I'm going to try that as the chicken needed a little something more.  My only regret is that I didn't make the amount of mushrooms that it calls for; Bradley and I both were longing for more.

Roasted Chicken with Mushrooms and Apricot Couscous


1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, halved
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and freshly ground pepper
4 skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts {2-2 1/2 pounds}
1 cup whole-wheat or regular couscous
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots

Preheat oven to 400F.  Toss the mushrooms, 2 tablespoons olive oil, the garlic, cumin, cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste on a rimmed baking sheet.

Rub the chicken with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Arrange the chicken skin-side up among the mushrooms.  Roast until the chicken skin is crisp and golden and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 165F; 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the couscous with the chopped apricots as the package directs.  Season with salt and pepper.  Transfer the chicken to plates.  Serve with mushrooms and couscous.

source:  slightly adapted from Food Network Magazine, March 2012

Chicken Parmigiana

This dish is absolutely wonderful, and it would make a fantastic Valentine's Day dinner for you and your sweetie, or for your kids.  If you're celebrating alone, that's okay too!  {I had my own days of those times, mostly babysitting for other people to go out to dinner}.  The great thing about this is that you can make lots of the sauce, and freeze it, and only make as many chicken breasts as you need for that meal.  When you want another meal of it, just thaw the sauce, and whip up some more chicken.  Easy!

And, I will give a disclaimer here that I used a bottle of Ragu sauce for this {gasp!}.  I know, the 'Scratch Lady', as someone has termed me, using a bottled sauce??  Well, we recently joined Costco, and the first time I made a big purchase I didn't see crushed tomatoes anywhere, which is what I normally use to make spaghetti sauce.  So, I opted for the 3-pack of Ragu.  I add my own seasonings when I make it, so it doesn't go straight from the jar to the table, but none of us like it as well as the homemade kind.  On my second trip to Costco I discovered a very large can of crushed tomatoes for only $3!  That would make at least 3 batches of the sauce I normally make, so now that my Ragu is all gone, I'll be buying a large can of those tomatoes :)

This recipe comes from Pioneer Woman, but I changed it a bit, so my version is below.   If you want the step-by-step pictures, she has some great ones, which is why I didn't take any.  Ha!

Chicken Parmigiana


1/2 cup oil
2 tablespoons margarine {or butter}
4 chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
4 minced garlic cloves
3/4 cup cream sherry
1 jar Ragu pasta sauce (48 oz)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Mix flour, salt and pepper in a wide-mouthed dish.  Coat each side of the chicken breasts in this mixture.  Heat oil and butter in large skillet.  Add chicken, and cook on both sides, until golden and crispy, about 2-3 minutes per side.  Remove chicken from skillet.

Using same skillet, add onion and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.  Add cream sherry, stir and cook until sherry cooks down to about half.  Pour in pasta sauce, stirring to combine and then add sugar.  Cook for about 30 minutes.  Toward the end of the cooking time, add parsley.

Place each chicken breast in the sauce and top generously with the cheese.  Turn heat to low, cover, and cook until the cheese is melted and chicken is heated through.  Serve over your favorite cooked pasta noodles {I used angel hair pasta}.

source:  slightly adapted from Pioneer Woman

Creamy Potato Soup

Several potato soup recipes have come across my path in the past few months, and they each contained cream cheese.  Not something I would have ever thought to put into soup, but I figured I would give it a try.  So, yesterday I made up my own version.  I love that this soup doesn't require any milk!  Milk is so expensive, and I've tried to cut back on it in our family over the past few weeks, but I still feel like we go through it super fast.  A lot of creamy soups call for milk, but this one turned out great without it and I'm thrilled!

Another thing I like about this soup is that I didn't peel the potatoes.  And, no, they weren't red potatoes.  All they needed was a good scrubbing, and they were good to go in the pot!  Did you know that most of the nutrients in a potato are found between the skin and the actual potato?  The very part we normally discard!  So, not only are you getting a yummy bowl of soup with this recipe, you're also benefiting from the natural nutrients of a potato.

Serve this with a warm, buttered slice of homemade bread and your tummy will be happy.

Creamy Potato Soup


3 tablespoons margarine, or butter
1/2 cup diced onion
3 tablespoons flour
6 cups chicken broth
2.5 lbs. white potatoes, scrubbed and chopped {use less if you want more cream than chunk to your soup}
4 oz. cream cheese, cut into cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
shredded cheddar cheese, optional
cooked diced bacon, optional

In a large pot, melt butter.  Add diced onions and cook over medium-high heat until onion is tender, about 5 minutes.  Stir in flour until smooth.  Add chicken broth and stir for about 10 minutes.  The soup won't thicken a ton, but it will thicken slightly.  Carefully dump in the potatoes and cook until potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes, on medium-low heat.  Add marjoram, and salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in the cream cheese and continue stirring until heated through.  Garnish bowls of soup with shredded cheese and bacon.  {Chives would also be delicious}

Linking to:

Broccoli Cheese Soup

One of my favorite things about eating during the winter is soup.  You can never have enough soup recipes and it really is simple to be creative making soup to be whatever you want!  Starting with a few basic ingredients {water, vegetables, meat}, and throwing in your own ideas, a simple meal is made that is warm and delicious.  I just came up with this formula:

SOUP = ART IN A POT

What do you think?  Corny?  Oh well, I thought it was pretty creative :)

Anyway, onto my soup recipe...

This is one of our favorites {at least my husband and my}.  It's also great with cauliflower instead of broccoli. You could add more cheese, puree it in a blender, like Pioneer Woman does, or just make it the way I suggest here.  Either way it's yummy.  We ate it with some cornbread and sliced strawberries on the side.  Delicious.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Printable Version

Take a head of broccoli or 3 cups broccoli florets, either fresh or frozen is fine {if frozen cook according to package directions} and cook it until almost done.  I prefer fresh, and am loving what I can get at COSTCO:

My favorite method for cooking broccoli is steaming it, for two reasons: the taste is better and it doesn't make the house smell as bad.  Just put a little water in the bottom of your steamer pot, bring it to a boil, then place the broccoli in the basket over the water, cover, and cook for about 6 minutes.

You want it to still hold its bright green color and it will cook slightly once added to the soup, so don't overcook.   Allow to cool for a few minutes and then chop into small pieces.

Using the same pot, melt some butter, then add some onion and cook until tender.

Next, dump in some flour and stir it until it's well combined.

I made my own chicken broth using this boullion, but you could certainly use canned, boxed, or the real homemade kind.

One teaspoon of granules + one cup of boiling water = 1 cup chicken broth.  This is what the granules look like.   I started boiling my water for the broth before cooking the broccoli and it was ready by the time I needed it for this part of the recipe.

Slowly add the broth to the pot and stir it well.

Heat this mixture, stirring occasionally, until it thickens up pretty well.

Dump in the milk and heat it until the mixture is just barely boiling.

Add the broccoli; I did it by hand a bit at a time so as not to cause soup to plop all over my stove top.

Then, add some cheese.  I prefer to have freshly grated cheese {did you know that pre-shredded cheese sometimes contains extra ingredients that are not cheese? When my husband read an article about this to me, I switched to buying chunks of cheese and just shredding it myself.  Plus, it tastes better this way}, but when I'm pregnant I get carpel tunnel in my wrists, and grating cheese is one of the most difficult things for me to do!  So, I used 1/2 pre-grated and 1/2 freshly grated for this recipe.

If you look carefully, you can even see the difference.  The freshly grated is on the right hand side--looks better!

Add the cheese and stir until melted.

Add salt and pepper to taste.  And, of course, taste it.

It's wonderful.  And, still tastes fantastic heated up the next day.  {It also freezes well.  My mom made a batch for us last winter and froze it and it was great.  Maybe just freeze for 2 months, though}.

source: my mom

Sage and Sour Cream Pork Chops

The other night I told Bradley we were having pork chops for dinner, and wanted some input on how to make them.  After a few moments, he said, "Oh, my mom used to make these sage, cream pork chops.  Could you make those?"  So, I gave my mother-in-law a call and made this yummy recipe.  It's perfect served over rice or egg noodles, whichever you prefer or happen to have on hand.  A wonderful comfort food.

Sage and Sour Cream Pork Chops
Printable Version

3 boneless pork chops
3/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
3/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 cup beef broth
1/2 - 3/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon flour

In a small bowl, combine sage, salt and pepper.  Rub into both sides of each pork chop.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet.  Place pork chops in skillet and cook on each side, just until slightly browned.  Remove excess oil from pan.

Return pork chops to pan, along with onion and broth.  Cover and cook on low heat for 30 minutes, or until pork chops are cooked through.

 Combine flour and sour cream, and add to mixture in pan, stirring to combine.

Simmer, do not cook on a higher heat than this, for 10 minutes to heat the cream.  If you cook it on a higher heat setting, the sour cream will separate from the broth and not produce the appropriate sauce.

Serve pork chops with sauce, over rice or egg noodles.

source: my mother-in-law

Chicken and Barley Soup

I thought I would begin my 2012 posts with a healthy recipe for you to enjoy this winter.  We love barley at our house, but until the other day I only had one way of cooking it {Beef and Barley Stew}.  Now, I've added another barley soup to my recipe index, and it was a hit!  This recipe comes from my sister's mother-in-law, and it did not disappoint.  It comes together quickly and if you serve it with some Cheddar Bay Biscuits, you'll have a fantastic meal!

Chicken and Barley Soup


1 1/2 cups chicken broth {or a 14.5 oz can of broth}
3 cups water
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 jar of salsa
1 cup barley
3 cups cooked chicken
small bag of frozen corn kernels, optional
14.5 oz can of black beans, optional

In a large pot, heat broth, water, tomatoes, salsa and barley to boiling.  Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.  When the barley is almost tender, add chicken, frozen corn and beans {if desired}.  Cook for 10 minutes more, until barley is completely tender.  Serve warm.  {I ate one bowl garnished with sour cream and it tasted yummy like that}.