Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup

I made this the same day I made the 24-layer cake and the St Patrick's day punch.  I wanted a crock pot recipe for that day, because I knew the afternoon was going to be a flurry of activity.  So I threw this together in the morning, and we ate it while we were getting things ready to host home fellowship at our house.  I do not love having it here.  But sometimes I have to.  And it's better to see our friends and have me be uncomfortable for a few hours than it is to cancel and not see them at all (this is what I repeat to myself in the days and hours leading up to the event hahahahaha).  Seriously though when I grow up I want to be one of those people that loves having a house full of people.  That is just not me.  I like having people over, but one family at a time.  I prefer controlled chaos rather than outright crazy screaming chaos.  But that's just me.  Anyway it went MUCH better than our Christmas party did, where I wanted to hide in the bathroom.  So that's progress....

A few months ago my dear friend (who said she WANTS to be named in my blog) AUNDRA gave me a recipe for Stuffed Pepper Soup, but made on the stovetop.  We did like that one and it was very good.  So when I saw this recipe in Simple & Delicious I knew we would like it.  Plus, crock pot.  When I've made stuffed peppers in the past, people don't really want the peppers, I've found...they just eat the filling.  And that is a lot of work to just have to throw them away.  So this recipe is a great way to get the experience of a stuffed pepper without the heartache.

One mistake I made here is that this recipe calls for one of those pouches of Uncle Ben's ready to serve rice.  But I buy big bags of rice from Sam's Club, so why do I want to buy 2 extra cups of rice for this recipe?  I didn't.  So I made the rice while I was browning the hamburger, then put it in the crockpot.  It kept right on soaking up water, even though it was already cooked.  So the result was more like a stew than a soup.  But it still tasted good.  Looks funny though.  You'll see.

Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 med onion, chopped
2 med green peppers, chopped
1 pkg (8.8 oz) ready-to-serve brown rice
3 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
2 cans (15 oz each) tomato sauce
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 carton (32 oz) beef broth

In a large skillet, cook and crumble beef with the onion over medium heat until no longer pink, 5-7 minutes.  Drain.  Transfer to crock pot.  Stir in remaining ingredients.

Cook covered, on low, until flavors are blended, 5-6 hours.

Freeze cooled soup in freezer containers.  To use, partially thaw in fridge overnight.  Heat through in saucepan, adding a little broth or water if necessary.

Haha see what I mean?  It tasted really good though.  And my friend who was over even took a picture of the recipe so she could make it herself.  I warned her about the rice.

This was a great recipe, and I owe it all to Aundra.  Oh, and it's naturally gluten free and dairy free too (just double check the label on the broth you buy...Swanson is GF). Everybody loves that.  Even Aundra.

Mulligatawny Soup

This soup.  I have never made a recipe like this before.  The picture was a bit off-putting, due to the color.  But looking at the ingredients list, I thought, well, I like all those things.  So probably I'll like them together.  I bet.  It's from the cookbook that we got as a Christmas gift from a friend, the one without any allergens

so that was another reason I wanted to try it.  This was my first time cooking with coconut oil (I have made one dessert with it before but that's all), so I wasn't sure how it would behave, and it was a little weird (you'll see) but it all turned out fine.  Also, according to the cookbook author, this was the soup that Seinfeld really wanted and that the Soup Nazi wouldn't give him.  I can believe it.  This really came out so so good, and I was shocked.  I wish their was Smell-a-blogging because then you could smell how amazing this was.  My picture isn't as pretty as theirs and doesn't really do it justice, either, but here it is:

Mulligatawny Soup
2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup coconut oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp GF flour
1 yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, thinly sliced
4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 lg pear, diced
2 cups chopped cooked turkey or chicken
¼ cup curry powder
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 ½ cups long grain white rice
8 cups chicken or turkey broth
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk/cream, plus more for serving
kosher salt
fresh parsley & pomegranate seeds for serving, (Optional)

In a large heavy pot, heat the olive oil and coconut oil over medium heat.  Add the tomato paste and flour and stir until smooth.  Cook for 2 minutes. (this looked too lumpy to me, but I proceeded)

Stir the onion into the mixture, then add the carrots and celery and cook for 3-4 minutes.  Add the pear and cook for 2-3 minutes more. (again, the tomato paste seemed too clumpy, like it never incorporated...but I kept going)

Add the turkey/chicken, curry powder, and thyme, and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes.  (it kind of incorporated at this point...so that was good)

Add the rice and broth and stir well. 

Bring to a light boil, then cover the pot.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Stir in the coconut cream/milk. 

Season with salt and serve hot, with an extra dollop of coconut cream, parsley, and pomegranate seeds if desired (I didn't haha...).

Ok so I didn't use the pomegranate seeds, because they seemed an expensive addition when I knew the kids (and possibly the husband) wouldn't eat them.  So I left them out.  It does make the soup look a bit monochromatic without it, so I can see why they'd want to add them in.  Also a note about unsweetened coconut cream: I couldn't find it.  I went to 2 different stores, and at the second one, I decided to buy unsweetened coconut milk and try to make it work.  Then I got home and googled, and guess what?  They are used interchangeably.  Helpful information.  So there is a thing called "cream of coconut" which you do not want because that is a dessert thing and super sweet.  But I bought the right thing after all.

Ok so you should try this soup.  It sounds like a lot of curry powder.  And, it is.  But it's not too much when you're eating the soup.  It's so so so good.  I'm sure you could tweak it if you don't want to spend money on coconut oil and coconut milk. But if you are dairy free, it's worth it.  It's creamy like a chowder, without the dairy. 

We had this with sliced toasted buttered GF bread that I had bought that morning from my favorite GF bakery lady.  Our friend who gave us the cookbook ate this with us, and he recommended we try it with flatbread next time, because the other times he's had a meal like this, it's always served with flatbread.  There is a flatbread recipe in this cookbook too :), so that's what I'll do next time.

Meatloaf Stew

Have you guys ever had Dinty Moore beef stew when you're camping?  I hate camping, but I do love to open 2 big cans of Dinty Moore and dump them into our cast iron pot and cook it over an open fire.  Sometimes I add that "just-add-water" biscuit mix and put it over the top and it's one pot full of yummy beef stew and biscuits.  Dinty Moore is gluten free.  Obviously the biscuits aren't.  This past summer I just pulled my portion out before I added the biscuit batter on top.  It's one of the few good things about camping.  It looks gross though.  Sometimes I buy a can and bring it to work if we have no leftovers I can bring for my lunch.  I call it "dog food" because that's what it looks like.  When I was growing up, we used to give our dogs canned dog food and it kinda looks like that (DM smells better though)...it loses some of it's charm when you warm it up in a hospital cafeteria microwave versus over a camp fire.  So the whole time I made this recipe, I was thinking, this does not look good.  But it smelled good right along.  And tasted pretty good too.  I took lots of pictures of this one so you can see what I mean.  This is from the GF Hiebert's Amish cookbook.

Meatloaf Stew
¼ cup water
6 potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
6 carrots, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
salt and pepper
1 egg
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tsp bouillon powder
1/3 cup finely chopped onion (or 1/2 tsp onion powder)
¼ tsp thyme
¼ cup water
1/3 cup GF bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 ½ lbs ground beef (or mixture of ground beef & ground turkey)

Pour first 1/4 cup of water into crock pot.  Add potatoes and carrots; sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Spread over potatoes and carrots.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.

Then I chunked it up with a serving spoon to get the finished product:

Doesn't that look awful?? And nobody wanted to eat it...we had 5 kids here, and all of them were like...um, I'm not hungry.  But I gave everyone just a small portion, and 3 of them went back for more.  It did taste very good, and it smelled great in the kitchen all day.  I'm keeping the recipe, because it tasted good.  I meant to have this with biscuits but I ran out of time.  Next time I will....

Greek Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup

Here's a short story to start the post...the medical diagnosis I have has no medical treatment, really, and they recommend diet modification for symptom control...and they say to eliminate the Big 8...shellfish, gluten, dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, eggs and....I forget the last one but you get the idea, and also you can see that I am not all the way compliant with that list...maybe fish is actually 2 of the things.  When I got the diagnosis, I was like, well, I already don't like shellfish, so there's 1...and I was already mostly dairy-free by then, so that's 2.  I decided to give up gluten and see what happened and how my symptoms reacted.  I had really good luck with doing that.  I'm mostly soy-free, too, except in a couple prepared foods I use (the GF pretzels I like have soy in them).  I have peanut butter like every day (right off the spoon) so I'm glad I didn't really have to give that up (yet).  My husband's friend is our (very close) neighbor, and he gave us this cookbook for Christmas called Pure Delicious and guess what?? It has none of the Big 8 allergens in any of the almost 200 recipes! That's crazy and I #1 can't believe there could be a whole cookbook with good recipes with those restrictions and #2 that I would mark SO many recipes from it to try!  I was skeptical in reading the cover, but there are good chapters at the beginning setting it up, and then all these awesome recipes.  You'll see as we go along.  After being GF for over 2 years, I have been able to modify almost any recipe I see and like the looks of, but this book will eliminate that step for me, even if some of the prep times are longer.  Incidentally, this is the first GF cookbook that doesn't say you have to use their GF flour blend for the baked goods...I thought that was weird ha.

Okay so this is the first recipe we've had from this book.  It seemed like a good introduction, since it's basically chicken & rice soup with a twist.  We had this with GF Bisquick biscuits, which I tend to make pretty often because they come together so well and everybody eats them.

Greek Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup
 ¼ cup olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
3 lg carrots, thinly sliced
2 lg bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
8 cups chicken broth
1 cup long-grain white rice
zest of 2 lemons
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from the 2 zested lemons)
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced
kosher salt

In a large heavy pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute until soft and tender, 5-7 minutes.  Add the celery and carrots and cook 2-3 minutes more.

Add chicken breasts and broth.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Transfer chicken breasts to a plate and let sit until just cool enough to handle.  Shred the chicken meat, discarding bones and skin, add the meat to the pot along with the rice.  Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and parsley and stir well.  Season with salt and serve hot.

Note: if the soup gets too thick (the rice absorbs the liquid), add some water and more salt as needed. (that's her note, not mine)

I was running out of time, since it's a church night, so while the chicken was cooking, I made the rice in my rice cooker, so once the chicken was done and shredded, I just added the rice and other ingredients and we could eat it right then.  It cut down on the prep time.  Which I always think is good.  I also already had boneless skinless chicken breasts, so that's what I used instead of buying the chicken it said to use.

This smelled so good.  The youngest didn't eat it, but he wasn't feeling well so we can't go by that.  He probably wouldn't have liked it anyway though because that's how he rolls.  Everyone else liked it.  There's enough left for us to have for leftovers for work.  Easy, yummy, and a good introduction to the recipes in this book :) 

Cider Stew

No picture today :(  sorry.  Sometimes I get on a roll with plating and eating, or we're just in a big rush, and I forget to take a picture until there are like 2 bites in my bowl, and that's just not very appetizing and not a good way to present haha.  This beef stew recipe was very very good.  I've made a lot over the years...even one time beef stew tried to kill me.  But that's a story for another day.  What I liked about this recipe is that apple cider is used to deglaze the pan after you brown the beef.  I thought that would give the broth a good flavor, and it does.  Also, I'd never seen a recipe that called for vinegar in the simmering liquid.  This one does, and I think it's what made the beef so tender.  Because it's definitely not the cut of beef I'm using, which is just regular old stew beef from the grocery store.  So that made it a good enough recipe to share, even if I forgot to take a picture.  Next time I make it I will, and I'll add it :)  This is from the GF cookbook I got at the Amish Country Store in Unity.

Cider Stew
2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1" cubes
3 tbsp flour (I used a GF flour blend)
2 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp thyme
3 tbsp oil
2 cups apple cider (may need more)
½ cup water (may need more)
1-2 tbsp cider vinegar
3 med potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 med carrots, peeled and sliced
2 med onions, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced

Combine flour, salt, pepper, and thyme in gallon-size ziploc bag.  Add meat and shake to coat.

In Dutch oven, brown meat in oil.  Drain off fat (mine had nothing to drain).  Stir in apple cider, water, and vinegar (may need to add more cider and/or water in equal parts to cover meat).  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 1/4 hrs or until tender.  Skim any brown foam off the top that you can (mine had a lot, maybe because there was no fat to drain when it said to...I just used a big cereal spoon to skim the top and put it into a glass dish).

Stir in vegetables.  At this point you may need to add more water or broth to cover all the vegetables.  Cover and simmer for 45-60 minutes or until done (there was more foam by this time so I skimmed some more, just mostly so it would look better haha, not because I think it's bad...but maybe it is foamy fat and you want it gone...I don't really know the science behind that).

I always add more veggies than a recipe says to, because that makes the soup go farther, and plus my kids always go for the carrots and potatoes over the meat, so I always put more in there.  I think that's why I had to add more liquid.  There wasn't even enough to cover the veggies once I added them, so I added broth.  I could have added more cider, I suppose, but I didn't want to flavor to be too apple-y.  The broth was a little thin, though, in the finished product, but I'm not sure I would change that.  It was good for dunking bread (GF of course) in while we were eating.

This recipe was really good, and now that I see what the vinegar did to the meat, I think I will try that trick in other recipes going forward.  It really made it so tender, and the stew over all was so good. 

Hearty Tuscan Soup

Have you been to a Pampered Chef show lately?  I went to one in the fall.  Through the years I have accumulated many many PC products.  Several of them I don't know what I would do without (that sounds lame and cheesy but it's true).  One thing I always do when I place an order is order the "Season's Best" cookbook.  It used to be $1.00.  Now it's $2.00.  So, slightly more risky since you don't know if there's anything there that you'll make.  But I took a gamble.  There are two recipes there that I'm going to try.  This one (which is also the recipe that was at the show I went to) and then a dessert one that I'll try later.  These cookbooks are, I realize, mostly just glorified advertisements, to make you think you need this product or this spice blend to complete this recipe.  But you really don't.  So I will tell you their recipe and I'll put my modifications along with it.

Hearty Tuscan Soup
2 cans (15 oz each) pinto beans (they say reduced sodium but I just used regular)
1 tbsp olive oil
8 oz Italian turkey sausage (2-3 links), casings removed
1 onion, diced
1 med sweet potato, peeled and cubed (I prefer white...so I got one large baking potato)
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
1 can (14.5 oz) fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tbsp Rosemary Herb Seasoning mix (my stuffing recipe from PC calls for this too and I googled substitutes way back when so I know you can sub 2 tsp dried rosemary, 1/2 tsp lemon peel, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder for 1 tbsp of this seasoning mix, so that's what I did)
½ tsp black pepper
1 pkg (5 oz) fresh baby spinach leaves, washed and dried (I do NOT like spinach so I left this out)
16 melba toast rounds (or GF bagel chips)
3 tbsp shredded Italian cheese blend (or 3 tbsp shredded mozzarella and 1 tbsp shredded parmesan, mixed...that's what I did instead of buy a whole bag of cheese for the sake of 3 tbsp) 

Drain and rinse one can of beans; set aside.  Drain and rinse second can of beans and place into food processor.  Process until almost smooth.  Set aside. (I have a manual food processor from Tupperware (gasp!) that I could have used, but I also have one you plug in, so that's the one I used.  I think you could just mash them like crazy too, but they need to be very well mashed because this is what thickens the soup)

Heat oil in dutch oven over medium heat 3-5 minutes.  Add sausage and cook 4-6 minutes or until no longer pink, breaking into crumbles.

Add onion, potato, and garlic to dutch oven; cook and stir 5-6 minutes or until onion is softened. 

Stir all beans, chicken broth, tomatoes, seasonings, and pepper into dutch oven.  Cover; bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Preheat broiler.  Remove dutch oven from heat; add spinach.  Cover and let stand 2-3 minutes or until spinach is wilted. Top soup with melba rounds; sprinkle with cheese. 

Place dutch oven 2-4 inches from heating element and broil 2 minutes or until croutons and cheese are lightly browned. 

Ladle soup and croutons into bowls.

At the show I couldn't taste the soup, because of gluten, so this is the first time I tried it.  This is what I used instead of melba toast (and who the heck is/was melba anyway??)

And I used way more than 16.  And I ate a few while I was was waiting for Steve to get home too.  Very very good. 

Nathan did not like this soup but everybody else really liked it.  There was enough for 3 servings for leftovers.  Of course the bagel chips kind of got soggy in the leftover portions, but that would have happened with melba toast too.  That is my only complaint about this recipe.  It was very very good and I'm sure we'll have it again.

South-of-the-Border Chicken Soup

If I want to make chicken soup in July, I just will (see an earlier post for the method behind my madness).  When I made Slow Cooker Chicken Soft Tacos, I saved the broth to use later, and this is the recipe I saved it to use in.  It sounded like it would be perfect.  From $5 Dinner Mom.

South-of-the-Border Chicken Soup
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 pound chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp garlic powder
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups hot water
1/4 cup lime juice
1 cup frozen corn kernels, or 1 (15 oz) can corn, drained
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup brown rice (I have fallen for this before and waited what seemed like hours for dinner to be done...I used white rice)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 avocado, seeded and diced (omitted, and interestingly, one of the few things my husband doesn't like)
Sour cream for serving (omitted because I don't like it)

In a Dutch oven, warm the oil over medium high heat.  Add the chicken, onion, and garlic powder and saute for 7-9 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

Stir in the broth, hot water, and lime juice.  Add the corn, beans, and rice.  Season with salt & pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 45-50 minutes or until rice is tender. 

Everybody liked this!  We had it with tortilla chips on the side.  This wasn't spicy at all, and if not for the black beans I think it would have been just like regular chicken soup.  But the lime juice did add something to it, and the peppery broth from last week helped, too.  I'll keep this one, since it can be a rare thing to find something that everybody eats without complaining...Leftovers are going to Grampie, so it does make plenty...I think he won't notice that it's south-of-the-border-ish, just that it's chicken and rice soup.

Beef Stew Biscuit Bake

I can be ridiculous, and sometimes be a slave to myself, my schedule, and my meal plan.  This recipe is just one example of that.  When I am working through a cookbook, I like to make everything in there that I'm going to make, not save certain things for different seasons, because I either want to put the cookbook back in my cupboard (for the really good ones that I want to keep and potentially pass to Emma someday) or put it in the Goodwill bag (for the ones that had a few good recipes but not enough to keep the whole book).  I write little notes in the margins (like my mom does) so years later Emma will have little notes from me about the recipes.  At any given time I have 1 or 2 cookbooks that I'm going through, as well as the latest Simple & Delicious magazine.  I have over half of a shelf of cookbooks that I haven't started working through yet.  So I feel sometimes like the pressure is on to get through a book so I can start on the next one. 

Every two weeks I plan my meals.  If I have a meal planned for a certain day, there have to be huge circumstances to get me to change the order around, because I usually plan based on when I've bought the fresh meat and veggies (to be used soon after the shopping trip) vs. the canned veggies and frozen meat (to be used closer to the end of the two weeks).  Examples of when I would change a meal plan--1. Earthquake (which has never happened but I anticipate that would throw a wrench in the gears).  2. Unexpected friends coming over, requiring a reworking, but the fellowship is worth it.  3. Husband wants to take me for a date, which I will do, but first have to agonize over the meal planning calendar to make sure I still use up my fresh ingredients.  Aren't you glad for this glimpse into my head?? 

At the end of last week, we had a heat wave.  It was something like 90 degrees with 95% humidity.  Unfortunately for me, I had planned Beef Stew Biscuit Bake during my meal planning several days prior, without consulting a weather forecast.  I do have a (somewhat flimsy) theory that when it's 100 degrees out, it doesn't matter if your oven is on or not, your kitchen will be hot.  But who wants to prepare and then eat beef stew on a hot day?  Apparently we do.  So on Saturday, after a hot afternoon at a park for a friend's birthday party, we came home and I made this.  The kids had two friends over, who looked askance at me when I said "beef stew" in reply to the kids' question "what's for dinner?"  But after I explained that I did not want to throw the meat away, or freeze it, I wanted to use it up, they appeared to understand.  This recipe is from $5 Dinner Mom.

Beef Stew Biscuit Bake
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 lb beef stew meat (I used 1 1/2 lbs because I have found her recipes to be lacking in the meat dept)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small onion, diced
4 carrots, peeled and chopped (I used a big handful of matchstick carrots)
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
Salt & pepper to taste
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Biscuit Topping:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
4 tbsp butter, melted
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large ovenproof pot or Dutch oven, warm the oil over medium-high heat, then brown the stew meat.  Stir in the garlic, onion, carrots, tomatoes, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper.  Reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 8-10 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and garlic powder.  Then whisk in the melted butter and milk.

When the batter is mixed, sprinkle the shredded cheese over the bubbling stew and then pour the biscuit batter over the top (mine kind of plopped out in the center and then was hard to spread...next time I will plop big spoonfuls over it so it will be spread out more).  Transfer the pot or Dutch oven to preheated oven and bake for 20-24 minutes, until the biscuit crust has baked through and begun to turn golden on top.

Using heavy duty oven mitts, carefully remove the pot from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.

Everyone liked this!  Even though it was beef stew on a hot summer day.  Our two visitors both remarked on how good it was and cleaned their plates.  My kids of course picked out their favorite parts, but overall they liked it.  Steve and I did, too.  Even though I doubled the meat, there was still plenty of "stew" to it (not too thick, I mean).  This one's a keeper, although next time I will not purposefully plan this during a heat wave.

Taco Twist Soup

Weird weather for January in Maine, wouldn't you say?  We had soup yesterday.  Steve has a little cold so it was a good meal for that.  We love taco type things, and I like good hot soup.  Steve is not a huge fan of soup, but this was a Mexican one, and I served it with tortilla chips on the side, so this was a hit.  Also it's a vegetarian soup, so it gets points for that, too.  This is from Simple & Delicious.

Taco Twist Soup
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp olive oil
3 cups vegetable or beef broth
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 1/2 cups picante sauce (I used my favorite, Pace mmmmm)
1 cup uncooked spiral pasta
1 small green pepper, chopped
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (we used shredded Mexican)
3 tbsp sour cream (omitted by me)

Saute onion and garlic in large saucepan (or soup pot) until tender.  Add all remaining ingredients except cheese and sour cream.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally.  Ladle into bowls and top with cheese and sour cream.  (we had ours with tortilla chips for dipping and scooping, too)

This was well liked.  When we were almost done, I asked the kids if they had noticed that it was a vegetarian meal.  They were surprised.  The broth was very yummy and tasted awesome with the tortilla chips.  This soup came together quick and easy.  We will definitely have it again.

Potato and Leek Soup

First post of the new year!  Starting it off with a soup that has a whole pound of bacon in it...what's not to love?  This soup has a leek in it.  The only other recipe I have used a leek in is this yummy potato salad (that has no disgusting mayo) that is essentially potatoes, leeks, and Italian dressing, but it looks way more complicated when it's in the bowl.  But I know that leeks are related to onions, but they kind of look like celery, and you cut them like celery.  And you only use the white part.  Oh and for some reason, once you cut off the root and the green leaves, you cut it in half and rinse it under cool water to remove the sand (??) particles.  Maybe the leeks stopped at the beach on their way to the grocery store, I don't know.  So this soup is a crock pot recipe, and it's from Simple & Delicious.  We had this with a dinner roll recipe that I will post separately.

Potato and Leek Soup
4 cups chicken broth
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 cups chopped cabbage (I did not include this)
2 medium carrots, chopped (I used 10 baby carrots and sliced them thinly) 
1 medium leek (they were all one size at Hannaford)(white portion only), chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (I didn't have any fresh, I just used a few tsp of dried)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup sour cream
1 lb bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Combine first 11 ingredients in a 4 or 5 quart slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until vegetables are tender.

Before serving, combine sour cream with 1 cup of soup; return all to the slow cooker.  Remove the bay leaf and stir in the bacon. 

I thought this was quite good.  And it smelled great.  But I could tell Steve didn't like it that much.  He of course did eat it, but when I asked what he thought he said "I like your other potato soup, too.  The one with the cheese in it."  So there you go, not a big fan, and this from the man that likes almost everything.  He does prefer stews to soup, so it was probably just his personal preference.  So I guess it's not one we'll have again, but it was good and easy. 

So, if you left the bacon out at the end, this would be a vegetarian meal.  I love bacon too much to try/do that.  But because of that I did put it in the "meatless" category, too.

All-Day Meatball Stew

We had this on Friday, and we had some of the leftovers for lunch today, which is Sunday.  There is still enough for two more servings.  So it makes a lot.  It's from Simple & Delicious.

All-Day Meatball Stew
2 pkg (12 oz each) frozen fully cooked Italian meatballs (I used a 2 lb bag)
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 lb fresh baby carrots
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
1 jar (4 1/2 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained (omitted)
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce
1 can (10 1/2 oz) condensed beef broth, undiluted
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup beef broth
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup cold water

Place meatballs, potatoes, carrots, onions, and mushrooms in a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.  Combine the tomato sauce, broths, water, garlic powder, and pepper in a large bowl; pour over top.  Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours or until vegetables are tender.  Combine flour and water until smooth; gradually stir into stew.  Cover and cook on high 30 minutes longer or until sauce is thickened.

I never thickened it.  The sauce seemed fine, and today when we had the leftovers it had thickened up some more, so I'm glad I didn't.  Also, I had mine in the crock pot for 8 hours on low, but some of the potatoes and carrots were still a bit crunchy.  I couldn't let it cook any longer though because I had to work on Friday night.  But today it was perfect.  Because this has prepackaged meatballs, there was a thin layer of fat once the soup was cooked that I wish I could have removed somehow.  I tried to strain it off.  Once it cools and the fat hardens it's obviously much easier to dispose of, but when the soup was hot that was kind of an "ewww" factor.  Nobody noticed that but me, though.  Everyone really liked this soup.  It was expensive to make, because meatballs by themselves are ridiculously priced, and then you have to buy tomato sauce and the condensed beef broth and the potatoes, too.  So it's not a soup I'll make often, but I'm definitely saving the recipe.  Next time I will cut the baby carrots in half, and cut the potato chunks smaller, too.  Yummmmm.

White Lightning Texas Chili

Nathan really likes chicken.  And this is good soup/chili type weather.  This recipe is from the Southern Living Christmas cookbook my mother-in-law sent me for my birthday.  I left out the jalapeno so that everybody would eat it (myself included).  And I knew it would make a lot so I could freeze half for later.  This is always a gamble, because if we don't like it, we still have to eat it later.  But it's usually fine.

White Lightning Texas Chili
1 lb dried navy beans
4 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth, divided (I used 8 cups stock)
1 lg onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground cloves
5 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 (4 oz) cans chopped green chilies, undrained
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (omitted)
shredded cheese (we used shredded Mexican)
salsa, sour cream, and sliced green onions for garnish

Sort and wash beans; place in a large Dutch oven.  Cover with water 2 inches above beans.  Let soak 8 hours (I forgot to do this the night before.  You can also cover them with water, bring it to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes, then simmer for 2-4 hours [I did 3], then drain and proceed with recipe...this is according to my Taste of Home cookbook).  Drain beans and return to pan.  Add 3 cans (or 6 cups) of chicken broth, onion, garlic, and spices.  Bring to a boil.  Cover; reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender.  Add remaining can (or 2 cups) of chicken broth, chicken, chilies, water, salt, and jalapeno pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Cover; reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Serve with cheese, salsa, sour cream, and green onions.  Yield: 11 cups.

We had this with tortilla chips, too.  It was pretty good for scooping.  Nathan liked the beans, because they were the same size and texture as in his favorite "brown beans," which are Bush's canned beans.  He doesn't really like kidney beans or black beans.  All told, this took 6 or 7 hours, which was fine because I made it on purpose on a day that I knew we would be home all day.  You could probably adapt it for the crockpot, too, but I'm no food scientist so I don't really know exactly how.  Probably Jill does  =o) So this was a good recipe.  Enough left in the freezer for another meal, which we will all enjoy eating.

Corn Chowder (Dairy & Gluten Free)

My sister-in-law has been a vegetarian for like 20 years.  Occasionally she emails recipes to me that she thinks my picky children will like, especially now that I am trying to cook more meatless meals, for health and cost reasons.  This corn chowder is dairy-free, and she says the grated potatoes in it make the broth thicken instead of the traditional ways you thicken chowder (a milk/flour mixture).  This recipe does have creamed corn, but I just googled it (so I am 100% certain) and it said that depending on the brand, if it specifies corn starch vs modified food starch, it is gluten free.  Mine did (I bought Libby's).  I also found a recipe for homemade creamed corn, but I did not print it.  But if you are so inclined, you can make your own, apparently.  We are definitely not gluten free or dairy free here at our house but it's fun to try new things, and you never know when your gluten-free neighbor or a family from church will need a meal...to undo the gluten-free-ness of the meal tonight, we had this with freshly baked whole wheat bread & butter.

Corn Chowder (Dairy & Gluten Free)
1 tbsp oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
2 peeled carrots, diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 1/2 cups broth (I used homemade vegetable stock)
2 peeled grated potatoes (I don't have a fancy mandoline slicer from PC so I just used a cheese grater...it still worked)
2 cans creamed corn (she didn't specify size so I bought regular sized cans)
1 bell pepper, finely chopped (I used red pepper)

Saute onion, celery, and carrots in oil until soft.  Add broth and boil.  Transfer to slow cooker.  Stir in potato, salt, and pepper.  Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.  Add corn and bell pepper and cover and cook for 30 more minutes on high.

On the way home from karate I prepped the children for this vegetarian meal.  I said it was from Auntie Dawn who is very good at cooking without meat, etc.  This led to a long discussion of the various reasons people choose to be vegetarians (economic, ethical, or health concerns...or I have a friend who has none of those reasons, she just doesn't like meat and thinks it's gross...also a viable opinion).  The very first thing Nathan said when he sat down at the table was "where's the chicken?"  I said, "remember, I told you there was no meat in this soup?"  He protested, "but Mom, that is my favorite part of soup!"  He did eat a few bites but was not impressed.  Sam suggested a helpful hint of adding ham next time.  So they totally missed the point.  I thought it was good, and it paired nicely with the bread (I like dipping bread in my soup...I think I wouldn't do it if the President was over for dinner or something, but I do like to do it)(also I wouldn't make soup if the President was coming for dinner).  The texture was definitely different than a traditional chowder.  Steve didn't believe me when I said it was chowder.  It doesn't have that creamy color to it.  But I think it would be a good stand-in if you couldn't have traditional chowder for whatever reason.  So I'm feeling pretty good about this healthy (except for possibly the sodium content) meal, even if my carnivore family was less than impressed. 

Chilly Night Beef Stew

You can't just say "beef stew," apparently.  We did have this on a fall night, but it wasn't that chilly.  But that's okay because I do what I want.  I like when recipes give you another recipe right after to try with the leftovers, because with beef stew there are always leftovers, and it's fun to try something new.  So this one had the stew, and then a second one using stew leftovers which is kind of like scalloped potatoes, which I will post separately.  This is from Simple & Delicious.  It's written to go into the crock pot, but I didn't get myself in gear enough to get it in there in time on Monday morning, so at about 2ish I started it and it simmered on the stove all afternoon. That would have been good for a chilly night, too.

Chilly Night Beef Stew
6 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp pepper, divided
2 lbs beef stew meat
1/4 cup olive oil
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 medium carrots, sliced
2 medium onions, diced
4 celery ribs, sliced
2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) beef broth (I used 4 cups homemade stock)
2 cans (11 1/2 oz each) V8 juice (I had plain tomato juice leftover from something else so I used that)
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp paprika
6 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup cold water

Combine flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper in large ziploc bag.  Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat.  Brown beef in oil in batches in a large skillet.

Transfer meat and drippings to a 6-qt slow cooker.  Add potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery.  Combine broth, juice, worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, basil, paprika, and remaining salt and pepper; pour over top.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until meat and veggies are tender.  Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into stew.  Cover and cook 30 minutes longer or until thickened.  Discard bay leaves and serve.

To make on the stovetop:  Brown meat in smallish sized stockpot (I started in a Dutch oven and had to switch over because it wasn't big enough), then add all other ingredients through cornstarch.  Cover and simmer until your husband gets home, and then eat it (making it this way, I didn't add the cornstarch to thicken it, it was thick enough already).

This came out yummy.  I am going to have to compare it to my other beef stew recipe(s) to see if it will replace it or not.  I liked the spices and I liked the tomato juice in this one.

"Black Gold" Black Bean Soup

This was our meatless recipe for the week.  I don't do it faithfully, but do try to have one meatless meal per week (for cheapness and for healthness).  We have a few things that I make often, like Corn & Black Bean Quesadillas.  And lots of times we have breakfast for supper and have scrambled eggs and some kind of muffin or other bread.  And then once last month we had blueberry pie and ice cream.  That was fun.  I have tried a lot of meatless recipes, but so far I only have 6 in my keeper book.  Those are recipes that we really liked and will make again (not counting breads).  So I need to boost my repertoire.  My vegetarian sister in law has been passing me a lot of recipes, which I always give her credit for when I try.  So far her banana bread has been awesome, and it's in the keeper book along with her black bean burgers.  She also gave me a recipe for dairy-free corn chowder, so stay tuned for that when it gets a bit more fallish.  This soup came from Back of the Box Cooking.  I'm not sure why it's called "Black Gold."  Sam and I figured it could be a Texas recipe (since "black gold" was a nickname for oil when they found it in Texas); or that it was such a tasty soup it tasted as good as gold (ummm, how does gold taste?).  The recipe offers no insight into the name, so you can make your own conclusions there.  The featured items in the recipe are Hain (never heard of them) chicken broth and canned corn, and Garden of Eatin' blue tortilla chips.  Which I did not purchase.

"Black Gold" Black Bean Soup
 2 (14.5 oz cans) chicken broth (I used 4 cups of homemade vegetable stock)
5 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot (I bought matchstick carrots so no prep work)
12 cup chopped red or green pepper (I used red)
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained (I used 1 1/2 cups frozen)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Fresh cilantro for garnish
Tortilla chips for serving

In a blender, puree 1 can (or 2 cups) of chicken broth with 3 cups of beans.  Set aside.  In a large saucepan (I used a dutch oven), heat oil.  Add onions and carrots and saute for 3 minutes.  Add red pepper and garlic and saute additional 1 minute.  Add coriander and cumin and cook another 30 seconds.  Add remaining broth, pureed beans, remaining black beans, corn, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Garnish with cilantro and serve with tortilla chips.

Sam and Steve decided they wanted to put shredded Mexican cheese on theirs.  The little ones and I did not.  Nathan laboriously picked only the corn and carrots out of this soup, and he wanted his with Ritz crackers instead of tortilla chips.  Emma ate it but didn't really like it.  Steve and Sam both liked it.  I thought it was good, not great.  Not good enough to keep, anyway.  Also, Emma was rating on a 5 star scale, where the soup got 3 stars, and the tortilla chips got 4.5 stars.  Then Nathan wanted to rate his meal too.  He told me that the lower the number of stars, the more he liked it, and "remember, more stars is worse I like it."  So he gave the Ritz crackers 1 star, which means he REALLY liked them.  He gave the soup 50 stars (bad).  And he gave the one tortilla chip he tried 100 stars.  So bad.

Cream of Potato and Cheddar Soup

I have a lot of catching up to do! Sometimes I am so busy I can't type these in a timely manner. But here we go, in catch up mode. Also when I get a backlog like this, sometimes I am not as funny, because it becomes about getting all the recipes up, not about being funny. So sorry about that in advance...

It does seem like I have made several variations of potato soup in the last few weeks. I don't even crazy love it, but the recipes make it sound good and easy. This was a crock pot recipe, and I put it in the crock pot on Wednesday because I had an appointment in the afternoon and I wanted to have dinner all ready when I got home. This version of potato soup is from the April/May 2012 Simple & Delicious.

Cream of Potato and Cheddar Soup
8 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large red onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) chicken broth (I used 4 cups of homemade veggie broth)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup half and half
Optional toppings: salad croutons (yes), crumbled cooked bacon (yes), additional shredded cheese (yes)

Combine first seven ingredients in a 4 or 5 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours or until potatoes are tender.

Stir in cheese and cream. Cover and cook 30 minutes longer or until cheese is melted (mine only took like 5 minutes). Garnish each serving with toppings of your choice.

Sounds benign enough, right? Well, two out of three children reduced to tears during dinner over it. I gave Nathan a bite with just potato and broth, and he started crying, "Where's the meat???" I explained that this soup doesn't have any meat. He was not impressed. Emma didn't like it either, and also cried, although I can't remember any specific complaints. The rest of us ate it and liked it okay. I have a lot of this left over that I, obviously, cannot give to the children. Guess it will be soup, soup, and soup for Steve's lunch leftovers...

Hearty Bacon Potato Chowder

When my mother in law (an avid New Recipe Night reader) was here this past summer she gave me this cookbook, Land O Lakes Treasury of Country Recipes. It is a nice thick cookbook with lots of recipes, and I have marked a few yummy ones to try. Last night I made two out of it, this soup and also some biscuits which I will post separately. Yes, I realize yesterday it was like 82 degrees and definitely not soup weather, but I do my meal planning 1 or 2 weeks in advance, and this is what was on the menu, which has very little wiggle room. Ha ha.

Hearty Bacon Potato Chowder
8 slices bacon, cut into 1" pieces
2 cups cubed red potatoes
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cup milk (I just couldn't put sour cream in my soup. I subbed half and half for the milk and left out the sour cream. I think it was fine.)
1 10 3/4 oz can cream of chicken soup
8 oz can corn, drained (I used 1 cup frozen)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme

In 3 qt saucepan cook bacon over medium heat for 5 minutes; add potatoes and onions (it doesn't say to drain the bacon fat first, but of course I did...I left some of it in there but not a lot). Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender (15-20 minutes). Add remaining ingredients. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until heated through (10-12 minutes).

This came out really good, even if it was a summer-ish day. Nathan had something else, because he doesn't like bacon or potatoes (crazy kid) and I didn't want to waste a bowl of it on him for the sake of the corn, which is all he would eat out of it. The rest of us really liked it. It was quite creamy, making me wonder if I should have just used milk, leaving out the sour cream anyway. But no complaints on that, just something I noticed. Like, the broth wasn't really chowder-y like you would expect, it was thicker than that. But overall a very yummy soup.

Hearty Ground Turkey and Vegetable Soup

A soup like this you cannot have all the time, because the amount of sodium would likely be lethal. However, this soup was SO easy. Looking at the recipe, I knew I could throw it together quickly, even on a so-called zombie night (after I've slept something like 10 hours out of 56...). So yesterday I made this one. Besides the sodium content I don't think it's too bad. It reminds me of a childhood staple of mine which we call goulash, but other people call chop suey. Macaroni, hamburger, and a can of tomato soup. Yum. Now that I'm a grown up I add chopped onion and worcestershire sauce. And I use whole wheat pasta. It's so yummy. We have it every couple of months, and the kids love it too. This soup is the last recipe I have marked from the Everything Soup cookbook. Now that I'm done with it, I'm putting it in the Goodwill bag. I can't even remember where it came from, so hopefully nobody's feelings will be hurt. I put all the good recipes in my keeper book, so it's kind of like it's going to live forever. Or something.

Hearty Ground Turkey and Vegetable Soup
1 lb ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 16 oz can green beans, drained
1 16 oz can diced potatoes, drained
1 16 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 can tomato soup
Salt (are you kidding me??) and pepper to taste

Brown the turkey in Dutch oven until cooked through (it doesn't tell you to drain the fat here, but I did). Add the onion and green pepper (I added these when the turkey was about half way done, because I like the onions to get a little bit brown). Mix in the green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, and tomato soup. Heat until warmed through, about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This was so yummy, and so easy. Definitely keeping this one. I even think my sister is going to make it (with modifications--hamburger instead of turkey, and leave out the tomatoes). I won't make it often, but I will make it sometimes. Comfort food.

Hearty Smoked Sausage Stew

We love smoked sausage. So of course I wanted to try this stew...from the Everything Soup cookbook.

Hearty Smoked Sausage Stew
1 pound dried red kidney beans
6 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 pound smoked sausage, sliced (this comes in 14.5 oz pkg now so I used 2...also I had a coupon for 2)
1 cup barley
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp thyme
Salt & pepper

Rinse the beans and soak them overnight in a bowl with enough cold water to cover. Drain and rinse again. In crockpot, combine all ingredients except salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Discard bay leaves. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Okay so this wasn't that good. Pretty disappointing after you smell it all day. It just tasted bland. The sausage lost a lot of the flavor, and despite that, the broth wasn't very flavorful either. The barley made the broth kind of glue-y, I thought. Steve ate his but he is easy to please. Melissa said it was "good." The kids didn't really like it either. So definitely not keeping this recipe. On to my next one...

Tuscany Bread and Cheese Soup

This is meatless. And it's something totally new that I've never made before. And it sounded really good. Alas, not everyone thought so...from the Everything Soup cookbook.

Tuscany Bread and Cheese Soup
1 large sourdough baguette
4 cloves garlic, divided (I used more)
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
Salt (I used sea salt)
1 large spanish onion (I do not know what makes an onion "spanish." They had no onions labeled as such at either Walmart or Hannaford. I saw Autumn at Hannaford whilst looking for a Spanish onion and she didn't know what it was either. I just ended up using a regular onion)
2 stalks celery
2 leeks (the leeks at Hannaford were BIG so I only used one and I still think a whole one might have been pushing too much)
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes, drained & diced (again I ask, why not just buy them diced?)
2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 pinch of cayenne pepper (a teeny tiny pinch if you are me)
6 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp basil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (we used shredded parmesan)

Preheat oven to 300. Cut the bread into 1/2-inch slices. Crush 1 clove of the garlic (I used 2 cloves here) and rub bread slices with it (if you think that sounds hard, you're right), then cut the bread into 1-inch cubes. In a bowl, toss the bread cubes with 1 tbsp of the oil and a generous sprinkling of [sea] salt. Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes, then set aside.

Meanwhile, coarsely chop remaining garlic (I used 3 cloves here for a total of 5 cloves), onion, celery, and leek.

In a soup pot, heat remaining oil. Add the onion, celery, leek, and garlic. Cook on low for 4 minutes. Stir in the thyme, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Add the broth, tomatoes, and basil; bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in bread cubes. Let sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.

Okay. Best croutons ever. I am not kidding when I tell you that I ate half of them before the soup was done. I'm not even embarrassed to admit it. They were that good. Also, I did not mix all the (remaining) bread cubes in with the soup in the pot. I added them to the individual bowls, because otherwise the leftover soup would have been unusable. There are enough croutons left for one serving. There should have been more but oh well.

The kids hated this. Steve and I thought it was fabulous. There was nothing the kiddos could really pick out that they liked, like meat or beans, which is what they usually do with soup. Emma wouldn't even touch it and was reduced to tears. Nathan had his with saltine crackers because I knew he wouldn't want the bread crumbs, and occasionally he would dip a corner of one cracker into the broth and eat it. Sam ate about half of his, like a champ, and then said, "No Mom, it's good, I'm just full." But he only says that if he doesn't really like it, because if it's something he likes, he just eats it and doesn't pay attention to if he's full or not. So I guess I will not be making this soup again, but I did already write down the crouton part of it because they were, seriously, SO fabulous. But I will have to be careful because I could eat the whole batch of them without even thinking about it.