Soup warms the heart and body

“To feel safe and warm on a cold wet night, all you really need is soup.”-Laurie Colwin

I feel like I start all my posts by saying how much I love something.  Well, here is the truth.  I do.  Especially food.  Now, I love a good soup.  I love soup at restaurants, but well, not so much at home.  Normally they take forever, with lots of chopping and simmering and I just don't have time for that.  So when I find a good soup recipe that doesn't take too long, it's like I've found Heaven.  I am slowly building my soup recipe index.  And most of them so far are quick soups.  Because when you want soup, when do you ever want to slave over a stove for hours.  You don't.

Pinterest led me to this week's soup (we try and do soup once a week, but sometimes that doesn't work...I get tired of soup).  Well actually it lead me to the website where I found the soup.  But that's ok.  Pinterest can still get some of the credit.  The soup is from Tasty Kitchen and is Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup from Krysten Schwartz (http://mrsschwartzkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/11/tomato-tortellini-soup.html).  She says she found in on pinterest so I'm not sure where the original came from but really, everything gets changed a little along the way.

Ingredients:

• 2 whole Large Cloves Of Garlic Minced
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 cans 10 3/4 Oz Cans Of Condensed Tomato Soup
• ½ cups Sun Dried Tomatoes, Chopped Or Two Tablespoons Of Sun Dried Tomato Paste (I used the tomatoes but think the paste would make the soup thicker, though Hubbs liked having the actual tomatoes)
• 1½ cup Milk (we used skim and it was still creamy)
• 2 cups Half-and-half
• 2 cups Chicken Stock
• 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ½ teaspoons Pepper
• 2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
• 1 whole 9 Oz Package Of Cheese Filled Tortellini (We also used a 16 oz package, mainly because I was lazy and didn't feel like saving any).
• ½ cups Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

• Saute garlic with the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat until golden brown.
• When the garlic is done, add tomato soup, tomatoes, milk, half-and-half, chicken stock and spices. Bring to a simmer.
• Once simmering, drop tortellini into the soup.  Cook according to the package.  Well, ours were frozen, which is fine, but the package said to cook in boiling water for 2 - 3 minutes.  That wasn't enough since the soup was simmering, so just watch it and maybe test one to see if it is done.
• After noodles are cooked, ladle soup into bowls and top with parmesan cheese and serve with crusty bread.

I wish I had remembered to take a picture.  Next time I make it I will.  But this recipe was super easy and great on a cold night.  We made it on Halloween (always good to have soup, stew, or chili on Halloween) and we had leftovers until the weekend.  Delicious!

Chicken, chicken, and more chicken

We love the smell of roast chicken.  Or really any meat roasting.  Or cooking.  Or grilling.  We aren't picky.  We love meat.  You couldn't pay me to be a vegetarian.  No way, no how.  And we also love our crock pot.  It's simple, easy, makes the whole house smell good, and makes tons of food.

So I set out to find a recipe that would cook a whole chicken.  Because well, it tastes good and it gives you tons of leftovers.  I scoured the interwebs until I found this beauty:

Whole Chicken Crock Pot Recipe from Food.com.  And let me tell you, it was amazing.

Ingredients:

• 1 chopped onion (the recipe called for 1 cup and it's optional, but we just chopped up an onion.  Not even sure if it was more or less than a cup, but it worked)
• 4 t salt
• 2 t paprika (I only had smoked, so that's what I used)
• 1 t cayenne pepper
• 1 t onion powder
• 1 t thyme
• 1 t white pepper (I didn't have any, so I just used black)
• 1/2 t garlic powder (I always add a little extra since we love garlic in this family)
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 1 large roasting chicken (with pop-up timer, if possible) - Now, ours wasn't very large and it didn't have a pop-up timer.  But that's ok.  You work with what you can.

Directions (not straight from the recipe - this is what we did):

• Chop onion and place in bottom of crock pot.
• Place all spices in a small bowl.
• Remove giblets and whatever else is gross inside the chicken.  Wash and dry chicken.
• Place chicken in crock pot.  Rub spices all over chicken.  Flip and rub more spices on chicken.  Flip back over.  We had some remaining spices so I put some inside the chicken.
• Insert meat thermometer into chicken, be sure to get a deep part.  Set temp for 175 (you can use what temp you want, but this gave the chicken some time to rest and continue cooking without overcooking).
• Set crock pot timer (if you want).
• Once chicken is done, remove from crock pot and enjoy!

We served with poultry gravy (thickened with the onions and juices from the crock pot), green beans, and parsley potatoes.  The leftovers were shredded and then used in Chicken Pot Pie.

Let's pop that meal planning cherry....

I know I've been delinquent.  I had been doing so well, posting every day, providing you with amazing tips and musings.  (I think pretty highly of myself huh?  Don't worry, I know there are like two readers of this blog....so my head hasn't grown tooo large.) 

I also wanted to take a little time to make sure I liked my new meal planner and that we could actually stick the to the meals I planned.  Granted we have done well in previous months of using a plan, but I wanted to really give you some feedback. 

So, first I spent some time rummaging through books, blogs, pinterest, etc., to find the recipes that I wanted to use.  I like to throw in some new recipes with some old ones to try some new things. 

Then I had to figure out what order I wanted to have the meals in.  I started with a week left in October, so my "month" is a little skewed but that's ok for us.  I put all my meals in order.  When I put them in order, I make sure to add variety (not all chicken all week, not all grilled food, and so on).  I also (and this helps save money) use leftovers from the previous night(s) to make future meals.  (I'll explain later when I show my full meal plan.)  I also always through in a full leftover night.  This gives us a swing night, but also helps clean out the fridge if necessary before the next week.  I typically don't plan for anything on Fridays, mainly because we use that night as date night or, if needed, another swing night.

Ok, so I have my order.  I have my Monthly Meal Planner printable and then I get out my shopping list.  I used to make each list for each week and then attach coupons and have the lists ready to go each week and just add the new items from that week, including whatever fresh things we need.  BUT this time, I decided we would get as much as we could up front.  I'll explain later what we got but first, to the list. 

I love pens.  (No, don't stop reading, I swear this ties in.)  And I love to use color coding for organization purposes.  So that is exactly what I did.  For all of my first week recipes, I wrote the recipe in brown on my meal planner then wrote the ingredients I needed in brown on my shopping list.  Then I moved on to the next week; I used green.  I wrote all the ingredients in green (even if I knew I wanted to get it in the big shopping trip).  I continued each week with blue and then orange.  So I'm left with my meal planner (nicely color coded) and my list (also color coded). 

This is around the time I take a break, get a snack, walk around a bit.  It may not seem like it, but all of the above actually takes a good amount of time.  But I promise it is all worth it in the end. 

Ok, so now that I am properly rested and well fed, I resume the madness.  Now that I have a shopping list (don't think I'm crazy), I make another shopping list.  This is the list that I will actually take to the store this week.  (Well, two weeks ago, actually - but you get the idea.)  Here is where I write down all the things I'm actually getting (and try and put them into categories so we aren't running all over the store).  So, all the meats, all the cans, produce (just for that week), etc.  I don't color code this list because, well it's not useful and it would take too long.

As I'm making this list, I make sure to check in my pantry, fridge, freezers to ensure that I'm not duplicating items or that I in fact do need something.  This helps if you make your first list some place not at home.  Then I always check with Hubbs and see if he has anything he wants to add.  We are trying really hard to not buy things that aren't on the list because those items tend to be expensive, and well not needed.  Unless it is truly an item we forgot we needed.

Ok, so now I have my meal planner, my first list, my new list, and then I look at coupons!  Yes, another step.  I know you thought you were done.  But, coupons come in handy and actually do help you save money (if you do it right).  We didn't have any coupons for the items we bought.  It happens, you can't win every week.

Then we plan our shopping trip.  We typically do shopping on Friday night (also why I don't plan a meal then) because the stores are less crowded.  The only downside is that sometimes they haven't fully restocked things yet.  But we are adaptable.  However, we are not always great at planning and decided we wanted to go to Costco and Wegman's the Friday before Sandy was supposed to hit.  Luckily, since we both get off work earlier than other people, it wasn't too crazy. 

First, off to Costco.  Here we purchase all the meats we can.  This was also a restocking trip so the price may have seemed higher, but we haven't bought meat in two weeks and we probably won't for at least another two weeks.  We try and remember how much the club packs are at Wegman's since sometimes, Costco isn't the better price.  But we got our whole chickens, short ribs, chicken breasts, and frozen burger patties (don't judge, really great for a quick meal).  We also got our milk.  We bought 4 gallons since we tend to go through milk pretty fast and are lucky enough to have an extra fridge.  I can't really remember what else we bought, but that's ok.

Then we headed to Wegman's.  My baby was hungry, ok I won't lie, I was hungry, and you should never go shopping when hungry, so we ate at Eggspectations before going into Wegman's.  We really like Wegman's.  Not only is it super close to our home and the food is always really fresh, but we find that for most items, it's cheaper than other places.  And saving money is always a good thing.  So, we get everything that we weren't able to get at Costco.  I send Hubbs off with his own little hand basket and I take the cart and get going.  This always helps when it is crowded to let us finish quicker.

He gets done much faster since I give him easier items.  As in ones that he can just grab, as opposed to picking out fruit/veggies.  And then we are done.  We get home and start the long process of putting things away.  Here I have to consult my planner again because I don't want to freeze something that I'm going to need that week.  Makes sense, right?

Once everything is away, I build my meal planner binder.  I know I probably should have done this sooner, but well I didn't have time.  So in my binder, I place my meal planner, then each recipe for each meal (those that are required), in the order they will be used.  All of these items are in sheet protectors.  I find that it is easier to clean those than reprint or clean paper.  I have also placed my first list (the color coded one) on the inside of the cover.  This way, next week, I can check the green items and see what I need to purchase WITHOUT looking at the recipes again.  See, color coding works.

I have also placed extra printouts of the meal planner.  I like to hand write things.  But if you would prefer to be able to type into the meal planner, just leave a comment asking for one and I 'll send you the word file.

Now, you may think that all this work isn't worth it.  But let me tell you, not only has Hubbs pulled out the binder to see what we are having later in the week or what he needs to cook, but there is no "what do you want?"  "I don't care, what do you want?"  moments.  When we get home from work there is no stress.  I check the recipe to see how long it takes and then relax.  I would have wine, but well, maybe in 7 weeks.

And personally, coming home after a long day and a long commute, not having to stress about dinner is a wonderful feeling.  So now, I will show you the actual meal plan.  Some days you will notice are missing.  Hubbs is going out of town one day during one week and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to cook for myself, so that week was kind of iffy.  Also, one of the weeks includes Turkey Day (my favorite holiday of all holidays and will get it's very own special post) so that week was also up in the air since we have some traditions that I wasn't sure we would be doing this year.  But here it is (check out the recipe section for the actual recipes) (side note, this is what was planned - there may be some changes but I can talk about them later]:

Week 1:
Sunday (10/28):  Whole Chicken in a crock pot, green beans, parsley potatoes, and gravy.
Monday (10/29):  Mini pizzas on English muffins
Tuesday (10/30):  Chicken pot pie (made from chicken, green beans, and potatoes from Sunday)
Wednesday (10/31):  Creamy tomato tortellini soup, salad, bread
Thursday (11/01):  Leftovers
Friday (11/02):
Saturday (11/03):  BBQ Short Ribs in the crock pot, mashed sweet potatoes, peas

Week 2:
Sunday (11/04):  BBQ Shepard's Pie (made with beef from short ribs, mashed sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots)
Monday (11/05):  Burgers (frozen patties), salad, string cheese bites
Tuesday (11/06):  Man-pleasing chicken, roasted potatoes, honey glazed carrots
Wednesday (11/07):  Breakfast grilled cheese and home fries
Thursday (11/08):  Leftovers
Friday (11/09):
Saturday (11/10): Out of town

Week 3:
Sunday (11/11):  Meatloaf, green beans, potatoes, gravy - will change since I have since found out we will still be out of town
Monday (11/12): 
Tuesday (11/13):  Lasagna, salad, bread
Wednesday (11/14):  Pancakes, bacon, eggs
Thursday (11/15):  Leftovers
Friday (11/16):
Saturday (11/17): 

Week 4:
Sunday (11/18): Sweet and sour chicken, sauteed broccoli rabe and bok choy, rice
Monday (11/19):  Spaghetti and turkey meat sauce, bread, salad
Tuesday (11/20):
Wednesday (11/21):
Thursday (11/22):  Turkey Day!
Friday (11/23):
Saturday (11/24):

As said above some of those will change based on when Hubbs is out of town, when we are out of town, when friends are in town.  But that's the good thing about the plan, you can change it when necessary and with minimal scaring.